Tainted (34 page)

He pondered this.  “Team?  I’ve never seen you and me as a team.  But the we part is the important part to me.  WE…will be great no matter what,” he watched me, “and what was number two?”

Oh, forgot.  “I would have said yes to you no matter what because I already knew I loved you.  It was worth it to find out.  I would have made you ride up on your bike, throw me on the back, with a helmet of course, and ride me off into the sunset, stop somewhere, turn around slowly and kiss me.”

He chuckled, “I would have let you.”

And those thoughts lingered in the air as we moved back to each other and fell asleep right there tangled up together.  At least I did.  I knew he’d stay still and hold me if I fell asleep.  I didn’t want to go to my room alone.  And I didn’t want to be put in a position that would make him uncomfortable.  But I sure knew that tomorrow I would be mentioning some wedding plans.  It was time.

My life is war and peace and love and heartache all mixed into the bowl and packed into a jar labeled
Grace’s Believe It or Not
.  And still mixing!

Someone’s advice vibrated through my brainwaves. 
Let the past guide you...learn from it...but leave the past...in the past.

I had learned so much about the three men that seem to run my life in this world.  I felt like they each have some part to play and I can’t move on until I find out and acknowledge what those roles are.  I felt like Kin was lost in a whirlwind of misunderstanding within his own court.  As if he’s been misplaced.  He wanted me to be the answer to that puzzle, but I still don't think it is the right direction. 

Pike was stuck in limbo.  Waiting to leave behind the bereft place in life he feels he can’t escape.  He just wants to be needed.  Wanted.  Important.

And my Ian.  Well, he was finally finding his place.  I know that his soul was closer to feeling at ease.  I saw it in his face when we talked about the future.  He’s my breath of fresh air and I am his oxygen.  It’s like when you finally kiss a man you can’t live without the taste of, you find out that oxygen is just a tool you use to take breaks between living around and without each other throughout the parts of the day.  I can’t live without him.

The courts need peace.  I believe I
am going to find that but the details are not all there yet.  They were so set on the prophecies leading the way, I think they let them misguide them. Sometimes you just have to let things fall where they may.

AMES

I let the girls crowd around cuz’ well...I was a guy.  They were each telling me their names.

When I turned to the sound of one talking about another girl approaching, there she was.

If l could have prepared myself for what I would be confronted with, I’d have never believed it.  My body shook at seeing her, feeling her burning energy.  The last time I saw her she was seven, but up close and made into a woman now...

Almost dropping my notebook, I stopped for a brief second before continuing my stride in her direction.  The closer I came, the stronger it got.  At some point it became so strong that I planted my feet to the ground and waited for her to ascend upon me rather than get any closer.

She kept on.  Closer.  Two feet.  The tips of her shoes knocked mine.  Her hand clamped down on my arm.  Heat flooded me, grounding me to the floor.

The groupie cheerleader named Christina barked something at her I didn’t quite hear since my insides were barbequing and roasting to a good 100° above even the unusual scorching Tennessee heat.  The girl taunted her with her words finding it seriously easy to downgrade her self esteem in front of me.  Were these human girls even more evil than I?  I doubted it, but it was a close second.

Jem was toying with the girls as her emotions were doing a flip-flop motion with a combination of anger and and
desire
.

I don’t even know how I know how she was feeling it.  It’s a power I’ve never held.

She actually liked me.  I didn’t know how to compute this information.  She wasn’t repulsed by me and she didn’t siphon anything from my own emotions to help herself.  Processing this was beyond jacked up much more than the fact that I was even feeling her
emotions
in the first place.  All of this was just wrong.

After the initial shock that she didn’t use any of her own pain inducing powers on me, I decided to let go of my own and see how it fared.  She didn’t seem to be the queen of evil I’d expected of her.  She didn’t have an ounce of malice in her body at the moment.  But I did have an overwhelming urge to search her body for scars and other distinguishing differences that would make me know her better than any other man on this earth.

The girls stepped up their fowardness.  They pressed even closer in as I moved towards Jem.  She had the same piercing eyes that matched my own as she did years ago.  Her blue to my odd green.   Girls have always dug it.  Human ones.  My own kind counted me as the odd man out more so than even the humans.

Jem’s hair was long and had shiny waves of golden brown even in the florescent light.  Not really a guy thing to notice, but I did.  She was cute and beautiful all in the same way.  She bit her bottom lip as if nervous, but tossed her hair back in confidence.  She was fun to watch.

During the initial greeting, the Christina girl leaned against Jem’s body and I suddenly went ape.  She was too close to her.  I reined it in and held my fists to my clawing body.  If it wasn’t for the fact that she was of my own people, I would have to wonder why I felt the urgent need to protect her.  It wasn’t healthy for dang sure.

It gave me the same disgusting feeling it always did.  Human girls were cold, clammy. 

Jem didn’t like the groupie girl doing what she did.  Interesting.

Groupie girl pressed in more and I let it be to see what Jem’s next reaction would be.  I was fascinated to say the least but I hated it too.  I had a job to do. 

When the girl ran her fingers up and down my arm Jem visibly scrunched up her face and a soft whimper left her lips.  Was she in pain?

I stepped away from both of them wanting this girl’s inhuman pain to disappear.  I didn’t want her to hurt.  Yes, I did.  No,
I didn’t
.

I bit back a small smile, but she saw it.  Not able to take my eyes off her, I nodded to groupie girl and held out a hand to Jem unable to control what I was doing.  I swallowed back the bile that my throat caught from wasting energy on the bubbly cackling chatter behind me now.  If they weren’t following due to the magic within me before, they were now.

This girl, I got nothing.  It was like she cut it off. She didn’t give an ounce of emotion over to me on purpose though I was trying like everything to get it.

Groupie girl Christina barked a comeback and then said my name, “...Ames here will find out how taken you are all too soon.”

Taken?  Did that mean she was already claimed?  By a filthy human?   I shook my head enough she didn’t catch it.  I didn’t care if she were claimed or not.  It only made it harder if she were attached to someone to have to embrace this new world she would have no choice in turning to.

Christina laughed a little like a guy on steroids and took her little fawning guy traps away from us. 

Ring! 

Great!  I was alone.  With her.