B00AO57VOY EBOK (13 page)

“Kim,” I gasped, staring up
at Nathan with so much terror on my face that he winced.  “Nathan!  He has
Kim!”

“No, he doesn’t,” he said
quickly, grabbing me around the waist again when I turned to run out the door. 
“Em!  Baby, listen to me!”

But I didn’t want to listen. 
I had already lost one friend to that demonic freak’s clutches.  He had taken
all he was going to take from me.  I would die before I let him take Kim.

“Em!  Look at me!”

I felt my head turning
toward the compulsion in his voice like a knee-jerk reaction I couldn’t control
even as the mark on my neck started to throb.  By the time our eyes met, I was
ready to kill him. 

He had promised me he would
never do that to me again!  He wanted my trust, and every time he turned around
he gave me another reason not to give it to him.  Seeing the look of
near-loathing on my face, he let go of me like I’d caught fire—something I
hoped
never
happened again.  I stepped away from him with my body so
stiff I probably looked just like the puppet he had just turned me into.

“I’m sorry.  I couldn’t
think of any other way to get you to listen,” he said softly, a shadow of
regret already coloring his eyes a deeper shade of hazel.    Dropping his eyes
back to the cameo in his hand, he pulled a folded piece of paper from under the
clasp on the back and held it out to me.  “He left you a note.”

  I snatched the note out of
his hand, nearly tearing it in half in the process, and put several feet of
space between us.  I continued to glare at him as I unfolded the little scrap
of paper, then glanced down at it quickly.  By the time I finished reading the
message the monster had left for me, I felt like I was about a second away from
the kind of nuclear detonation that would have made
Grams
look like a
rookie in comparison.

See how easy it is for me
to get to your friends? I will leave the choice to you, my love.  Come to me or
I’ll take everyone you care about from you, starting with Kim Robbins.  This is
your last warning, Ember.  Next time, I won’t leave you a piece of jewelry. 

Next time, I’ll bring you
her head.

I was quiet on the ride to
school the next morning, trying to decide what I was going to tell Kim.  I
didn’t want my best friend to be scared of me, but for her own safety, I was
going to have to tell her the truth.  Being around me was becoming more and
more dangerous and Kim had no way to protect herself.  If I told her the whole
story and she ran away screaming, I wouldn’t even be able to blame her.

“Do you want some coffee?”
Nathan asked hesitantly when I still hadn’t spoken as we were passing The
Coffee Bean. 

I shrugged, letting him know
I still wasn’t speaking to him.  I hadn’t said a single word to him since he’d
decided to compel me the night before.  Sighing sadly, he pulled up in front of
the little coffee shop and cut the engine.  Promising he would only be a
second, he hopped out of the car and ran inside.

Figuring he would be way
more than a second—judging by the line I could see through the window, most of
the senior class was in line waiting for their morning caffeine infusion—I let
my eyes roam up and down the sidewalk.  When my eyes fell on a familiar
sun-streaked dark head at one of the Coffee Bean’s little outdoor bistro
tables, I actually smiled.  Getting out of the car, I closed the door softly
behind me and tiptoed over to where Tyler was sitting hunched over something
spread out on the table in front of him.

Tyler nearly jumped out of
his chair when I walked up behind him whispered good morning in his ear.  As
soon as he saw me, though, his face lit up with a brilliant smile.  There was a
sketch pad lying in front of him and I peered over his shoulder to check out
what he was drawing, but he snapped it closed before I could see it.

“Good morning, yourself,” he
said brightly as I walked around the table and took the chair across from him. 
“I’m glad to see you’re okay.  I’ve been worried about you.  You didn’t answer
my text last night.”

“Yeah, I was taking care of
a few things,” I told him, sighing and leaning back in my chair.  Trust me, the
last thing I’d been thinking about the night before was my phone.  “You worry a
lot about someone you barely know.”

“Well, if you’d quit
disappearing like Cinderella after the ball I could change that.”  

I had to give him that one. 
So far, we were having the only conversation we’d ever had face-to-face that
didn’t end in either him getting his ass kicked or me going all Super
Witch—then, our conversation wasn’t over yet so there was still time for the
shit to hit the proverbial fan.

Leaning his elbows on the
table, he tilted his head to study me, a worried look in his pretty golden eyes. 
“You look like you’ve had another rough night, beautiful.  You all right?”

I started to say I was fine,
but something stopped me.  I wasn’t all right and, for some weird reason, I
thought Tyler probably already knew that.  Even weirder, I didn’t feel the need
to lie to him to keep him from worrying about me.  I wasn’t up to recounting
another not-so-wonderful interlude with Bastian, either, though, so I decided
it was time to change the subject.

“What were you drawing?” I
asked instead. 

“Just a sketch,” he said,
dropping his eyes to the pad in front of him.  My eyebrows went up when I saw
he was blushing.  “It helps me think, but I’m not very good at it.”

“Can I see?” I asked,
smiling at his sheepish expression.  When he just sat there, the pink in his
cheeks getting a little brighter, I couldn’t help but tease him.  “Come on,
Ty.  They can’t be
that
bad.”

Rolling his eyes, he flipped
open the sketch pad and turned it around toward me.  I was surprised to see my
own face smiling up at me from the paper.  It was…amazing.  He had caught every
detail from my high cheekbones to my full lips to the curls that surrounded me
like a halo.  I stared at it for a few seconds and then gave him a shy glance
from beneath my lashes.  I didn’t want him to be embarrassed that he had been
caught sketching me from memory, so I went back to teasing him. 

Plastering a smile on my
face, I slid the pad back to him.  “Does my nose really look like that?”

“You have a cute nose,” he
told me, smiling.  It was obvious he was relieved that I wasn’t going to make a
big deal out of the sketch.  It was so clear on his handsome face that I nearly
laughed.  “It’s harder to do portraits from memory.  I could give you the
perfect nose you so obviously desire if you were interested in sitting for me
sometime.”

“Maybe,” I told him, being
intentionally vague.  Just the
thought
of what Nathan would have to say
about that proposition made me want to cringe.  “So, where did you learn to
draw like that?”

When Nathan walked out with
two cups of coffee in his hands ten minutes later, Tyler and I were laughing
and talking like old friends who’d known each other for years.  We were having
such a good time, in fact, that had I not caught movement next to his car I
wouldn’t even have seen Nathan.  I glanced over just in time to see him turn
his head and zero in on me. 

Our gazes locked for a full
second before he slowly turned his softly glowing eyes to the back of Tyler’s
head.  Seeing the way I was staring over his shoulder, Tyler turned around to
see what had caught my attention.  Given how furious Nathan looked, the last
thing I expected to hear was Tyler’s soft hoot of laughter.

“He looks less than
thrilled, doesn’t he?” he quipped, turning back to look at me with a
mischievous smile. 

That was the understatement
of the week.  Nathan looked livid as he stalked toward us.  He stopped next to
my chair and held out my coffee, totally ignoring the continued laughter behind
him. 

“We need to get going, baby,”
Nathan said shortly as I took the grande-sized Styrofoam cup from him.  Just to
irritate him, I took a sip of my coffee and smiled.  He narrowed his eyes at me
and my smile got bigger.  Holding out his hand to me, he practically growled,
“We’re already going to be late, Em.”

Deciding not to push my
luck, I ignored his hand and hauled my tired butt out of my chair all on my
own.  I saw Nathan’s shoulders stiffen when Tyler laughed again.  Grinning, I
told Tyler goodbye.  Without waiting for my less-than-happy chauffer, I walked
back to the car and was already buckled in and sipping my coffee again when I
realized Nathan hadn’t joined me. 

Turning to look for him, I
found him still standing by the table talking to Tyler.  Judging by the
thunderous look on his face, I didn’t think they were making a play date.  I
was already reaching for the door handle to go back and drag him to the car
when he snapped one last thing at Tyler and headed right for me.  Tyler turned
to watch him go and I couldn’t help but smile when I saw he was rolling his
eyes.  Catching me watching, he winked and blew me a kiss.

Nathan nearly tore the door
off when he threw it open and I could almost feel the anger rolling off him. 
Without so much as a word, he tore out of his spot and sped off with a loud
screech of his tires.

“Well, someone’s testy,
aren’t they?” I muttered.  In answer, he shot me a warning look and then turned
back to the road.  “Seriously, what’s
your
problem?  We were just
talking!  You’re acting like you just walked out to find me with my tongue
halfway down his throat or something.”

“I don’t like that guy,”
Nathan snarled, his eyes narrowing.  Really?  I never would have guessed.  “I
want you to stay away from him, Ember.  I don’t trust him.”

What?  Was he picking my
friends now?  I didn’t give two hoots in hell if he trusted Tyler or not. 
I
did.  I don’t know why, but I felt safe with Tyler.  Which, after the night
before, was more than I could say for Nathan.

“Let me make something clear
to you, Puppet Master,” I snapped, causing Nathan’s head to jerk in my
direction so fast that I’m surprised he didn’t break his neck.  “I don’t answer
to you.  You don’t give me orders.  And this last part is very important so you
might want to pay attention, you
will not
pick and choose my friends for
me.  I’m perfectly capable of thinking for myself when that ability isn’t taken
away from me.  So why don’t you let me do that, kay?”

“I said I was sorry, Em,” he
mumbled, sounding miserable.

“And as long as you don’t do
it again, I might forgive you one of these days,” I grumbled right back.

When Nathan pulled in and
somehow managed to get the best parking spot in the student lot, I remembered
that I had bigger problems to deal with than my sulking maybe-boyfriend.  When
Nathan opened my door for me and held out his hand, I knew I couldn’t put off
the inevitable any longer.  Squaring my shoulders, I let him pull me from the
car and prepared for the worst.  It was time to see just how strong my best
friend really was.

“Where are you going?” I
asked, stopping and arching an eyebrow when Nathan fell in step beside me.

“To class,” he said with a
shrug. 

“Uh, no you’re not!” I
snapped. 

“Yes, I am.  I enrolled
yesterday morning.  Even got all the equipment I need to pull off the charade
of a high school student.”  He patted the strap of the backpack I hadn’t even
noticed he’d slung over his shoulder and smiled when I glared at him.  “It was
the easiest way to guard you, Em.”

“Okay, let’s get one damn
thing straight—”  I began, but Nathan cut me off.

“We’re late,” he said,
dropping a kiss on my lips and grabbing my hand.  Towing me toward the doors,
he grinned at me over his shoulder.  Seeing my totally mutinous look, he
stopped and turned around to face me.  “Okay, Em, you’re right.  This isn’t
fair.  Therefore, I will give you a choice.”

“How very twenty-first
century of you,” I growled.

“Choice A, I go to classes
with you until we get this situation resolved,” he continued, ignoring the less
than loving look I was giving him. 

“What’s Choice B?” I asked,
pretty sure I
really
wasn’t going to like that one.

“You finish high school via
correspondence courses on the Internet.”  I gasped in horror and he actually
had the nerve to smile at me.  “Well, baby?  What’s it going to be?”

Yeah, like he really had to
ask. 

Jerking my hand from his, I
lifted my chin and marched past him with my shoulders so stiff they felt like
they were going to crack.  My temper, never the most stable, experienced a
whole new level of strain when we walked through the door and half the female
student body stopped what they were doing to gawk.  Deciding it would be
hazardous to someone’s health—and my disciplinary record—for me to look around,
I marched directly to my locker without turning my head once.