Something Witchy (Mystics & Mayhem) (19 page)

“Stalk much?” I asked without looking at him.

“Stalking implies intent to harm,” he replied, holding out the donut again.  “I like to think of it as gathering information.”

I just shook my head at the donut, too creeped out to comment, and turned back to the uninteresting view and the coffee filling the void where food should have been in my stomach.  With a deep sigh, Nathan walked over to stand next to me and propped himself up on the window ledge, facing me rather than the view, with his arms crossed over his chest.

“You don’t eat anything red.”  He said it so casually that I arched an eyebrow at him.  Yeah, because it’s normal to know
everything
about someone you don’t know.  Uh-huh.
Right.
  “You don’t eat pizza unless they make it without the sauce.  You won’t touch spaghetti.  You won’t even eat strawberries.   I removed the sprinkles because I thought you would appreciate the gesture.”

“And the coffee?” I asked, shaking my cup at him for emphasis.

“You order the same thing every morning from the Coffee Bean on the way to school,” he said, shrugging.  “I charmed the little old lady who runs the place into giving me the exact recipe she uses.  She thought it was sweet that your boyfriend wanted to make you coffee.”

“You told Mrs. Stella you were my
boyfriend
?” I squeaked, my eyes going round.  “And she
believed
you?”

“Oh, I can be very convincing when I want to be,” he explained with a sexy little smirk.  “Truth be told, she looked thrilled.  Said it was a shame that a pretty girl like you was always alone.”

I knew he was telling the truth because Mrs. Stella had said that to me more times than I could count.  Every time I broke down and went on a date, the girls at the coffee shop took bets on whether or not the guy would make it to the second round.  Mrs. Stella had made a fortune betting against them. 

“What about the other stuff?” I demanded, thinking it was time for me to change the subject back to his stalkerish tendencies.  “How did you know what kind of shampoo I use and what color my toothbrush is and what kind of make-up I wear?”

“I do my homework when something interests me,” he said, his eyes going all warm and soft.  “And
you
definitely interest me.”

“Just how long
have
you been stalking me?”  I demanded, refusing to call it anything else, frowning at him.  Interesting to him, indeed.  He’d already told me how interesting I was to him.  I didn’t need a recap.  “There’s no way you learned all that in one day.”

“I’ve been in Moonlight for almost a month,” he said, looking away from my shocked expression.  “I went there looking for someone.  I never meant to stay, but every time I tried to leave I couldn’t.”

“Yeah, but why stalk
me
?” I asked, not understanding. 

“I couldn’t help myself,” he said, an impish grin erasing the haunted expression that had started to creep over his handsome features.  “Now, if you don’t have any other questions—”

“I do, actually,” I interrupted.  I had about five zillion questions, in fact, but there was one in particular that was driving me crazy.  Blushing, I muttered, “How did you know my bra size, Nathan?” 

“Okay, I admit I cheated on that one,” he said, standing and grinning down at me.  “I checked the label in the one you wore to bed.”

I gulped even as my cheeks caught fire.  He had checked the label in my… Oh, hell.

“You have
very
soft skin, did you know that?” he murmured with a look that said he was remembering how soft it was
very
well.  “I could have spent the entire night running my fingers up and down your spine just to feel it.  It’s like warm silk, your skin.”

Holy shit!
I thought as a wave of something hot and tingly and muscle weakening swept through me at those words coupled with the look he was giving me.  I literally had to lean against the windowsill to keep my legs from going out and dumping me in the floor. 

I had to give it to him.  He might be a player, but he was
good
.

“Do you molest girls in their sleep often?”  I wanted to snap at him, but apparently my body had other ideas.  My voice came out all husky and soft and my entire face went up in flames…along with the rest of me.   

“No, I don’t usually have to resort to that.  But you’re a bit of a hard case, aren’t you?” The glint of amusement in his eyes told me he’d gotten the reaction he’d been looking for.  “Now, eat your donut and let’s get out of here before I decide to try my luck while you’re awake.”

Yeah, like I was really going to be able to eat with those stupid mutant butterflies turning cartwheels in my stomach.  Leaving the donut right where it was, I walked over to the bed and started cramming my new temporary wardrobe back into the bags.  I heard Nathan sigh again, but he didn’t press the issue.  Within five minutes, we were walking down the stairs to the lobby. 

We were pushing through the big double doors when I got the strangest feeling someone was watching me.  I stopped and looked around me, trying to figure out where it was coming from, but there was no one in the parking lot but me and Nathan. 

“What’s wrong?” Nathan asked, frowning when he saw my tense expression. 

“Nothing,” I said, shaking my head even as I continued to search for what was making me feel so anxious.  “Let’s just get out of here.  I don’t feel so good all of a sudden.”

I had barely taken a step toward Nathan’s car when I felt a wave of vertigo and the world started to swirl around me.  I felt myself tilting and knew I was going to fall, but there was nothing there to catch me. 

Just before I fell over, I felt my back pressed against something hard and scratchy.  When my eyes flew open, I found that the hotel parking lot had disappeared.  Instead, I was standing on a stage, a floodlight shining right in my face, and my hands were tied to something behind me.  I pulled at them, desperate to get free, but the ropes had no give whatsoever. 

Get out!  Get out now!
my internal danger alarm screamed.  I knew I was in deep shit, but no matter how hard I pulled at the ropes binding me, I couldn’t get them to come loose. 

I felt that sensation of being watched again, and my eyes darted around, taking in the dull shine of the stage I was rooted to in the brilliant glare of the spotlight.  Jerking my head left and right, I saw nobody and nothing in the shadows.  Looking up toward the scaffolding overhead, I caught my first sight of what I was tied to.  It was some kind of prop, a tree in full fall color.  But whoever was watching me was nowhere to be seen.

That meant whatever was watching me was doing so from behind the floodlight…and I couldn’t see them.  That didn’t stop me from trying, though.  Narrowing my eyes to slits, I peered directly into that light.

“Who’s out there?” I yelled, wincing at the tremor in my voice.

“Ember, Ember, Ember,” a smooth, familiar voice crooned in answer.  “You’ve been a very bad girl, Ember.”

“Jack?” I gasped as my muscles clenched in fear. 

“Ah, so you remember me?” he said, a petulant note in his voice. 

“What the hell is going on here?” I demanded, pulling harder at the ropes tying my hands to the post behind me as he stepped into the glaring light that had made me the star of my own waking nightmare.  His face was hidden, but that silhouette was unmistakable.  “Where is the real Jack?”

“Your friend is gone, sweetie,” he said, chuckling. 

“Then bring him back!” I cried out as a river of rage and sadness pooled in my chest. Because I knew, even before the demon version of my friend spoke, that he couldn’t. 

“No can do,” he said, actually laughing.  “You don’t come back from where old Jack’s gone.”

He walked closer and I started to make out his features.  Never in my life had I seen anyone look so inhumanly cold.  His broad shoulders filled my vision, and I swear I saw the outline of a pair of creepy, bat-looking wings against the light blinding me.  I blinked and they disappeared, but I knew I had seen them.

“He’s dead?” I gasped.  “Are you telling me my friend is
dead
?”

“For all intents and purposes, yes.”

I glared at him even as the tears in my eyes overflowed, remembering the Jack I had known and cared about.  The memory that really stuck out for me was the day we met.  We had only been nine.  Jack’s family had just moved to town, and he had gotten on the wrong side of the school bully.  Blake had run the asshole off while Kim and I picked Jack up and dusted him off.  I’d even wiped the blood off his lip with my sleeve.  We’d been friends ever since.

And now that guy I’d cared about was gone.

“Why?” I hissed despite the tears on my cheeks.  I could mourn for Jack later.  First, I had to save myself.  “Why are you doing this?  What the hell do you want from me?”

“I want you return to Moonlight, Ember,” he said, the chill in his voice causing me to shiver as he came to a stop a few feet in front of me.  “You will tell that bloodsucking parasite that you want nothing to do with him and you will come back to me.  You will give yourself to me, body and soul…”

“And if I don’t?” I interrupted, trying to sound brave when inside I was screaming for someone, anyone, to help me.

“Oh, I think you already know the answer to that,” Jack said.  “You should pay attention to your dreams, Ember.  They’re so…educational.”

I heard the scratch of the match only a second before the smell of burning sulfur reached my nostrils, sending me into a full-fledged panic that was so intense I couldn’t even think.  Then, with a flick of his wrist, Jack threw the match at my feet.  A ring of fire erupted around me and I pressed myself back as close to the prop I was tied to as I could get without actually becoming part of it in an effort to get away from those flames.  But it just kept creeping closer, and I couldn’t escape it.

I screamed as the leg of my jeans caught fire, the searing pain of the flames more unbearable than I had ever imagined they would be. 

It’s not real.
 Nathan’s voice in my mind kept me from going completely catatonic in terror.  I grasped at that voice, tried to make it real, but the fire continued to scorch my skin and I knew I was going to die. 
Come back to me, baby.  Don’t let him win.  Come on, Em.  Come back.

“This was just a warning, Ember,” Jack said at the same time, smiling at the flames creeping up my leg.  “You will obey me, submit to me, or this will be your fate.  I’ll be seeing you again soon, my love.”

And then, just like that, I was back in the parking lot with Nathan.  He was kneeling on the ground, holding me, and I was trembling convulsively in his arms.  My leg was burning like I had really caught fire, and I could smell the nauseating odor of burnt flesh where there should have been nothing but fresh, chilly morning air.

“Em?” Nathan whispered, looking worried, as my eyes sought and found his and he saw the all-out terror in them.  “Ember, are you all right?”

“Leg…burns…” I forced out, keeping my teeth clenched so I wouldn’t scream.  “H-he…burned m-me.”

 With an almost sick look, he leaned over and started to pull the leg of my jeans up.  The second the soft denim started to slide across my skin, I let out a shriek of agony that would have woken the dead.  And right there, where the fire had burned through my jeans in my sick little vision, was a terrible burn.  It literally looked like someone had held my leg over a roaring fire.  Nathan looked at it for a second, swallowing hard, then turned horrified eyes back to mine.

“I have to get you out of here,” he said, scooping me up quickly and turning toward the car.  “He’s here, Em.”

“H-how do you know?” I whimpered.

In answer, he stopped and nodded his head toward his car.  I felt my heart stutter to a stop and my breath freeze in my chest when I saw the message scrawled across the windshield.  The bright red letters looked like they were bleeding as the paint dripped down the glass.

Game on, bloodsucker.

Falling for the Fanged

Nathan drove like a bat out of hell for an hour, then pulled over at a small gas station in the middle of nowhere.  I’m sure the gas station attendant thought he was as crazy as I did when he went in and bought every single bottle of nail polish remover the dinky little place had on the shelf.

I realized what he was doing, though, when he proceeded to pour one bottle after another across the windshield.    I could see his lips moving when he grabbed the squeegee out of the windshield washer container and started scrubbing the paint off and figured he was probably grumbling about the fact that Jack had messed with his ‘pretty toy’. 

The car, not me.

When he went back inside the store instead of getting in the car, I took a deep, shaky breath and started rolling my pants up to check the damage to my leg again.  I shouldn’t have done that.  My stomach clenched up painfully, and I had to swallow hard against the wave of nausea that rolled through me as I stared at my ruined skin.  It looked like a rare steak, the outer edges red and blistered and the center of the burn oozing and black.