Chaos (Kardia Chronicles) (Entangled Teen) (29 page)

He shook his head but moved in closer, and I was feeling brave and stupid, so I let him. Then I turned to the side, hitching my hip hard into his, and he stumbled a little to the side.

“Make some room.” And I started to Wobble, twitching my hips and turning to the side. “Come on. Wobble with me.”

He sent me a wicked grin. “Is this even the right song?”

I shook my head and laughed. “Nope. But I don’t care.”

His eyes were glued to my chest and suddenly, he didn’t seem to care, either. He stepped closer and mimicked my moves. The DJ must have caught sight of me, because when the song ended half a minute later, the Wobble came on. Rafe and I were already in the swing of it and then, it was
on
. I got my arms into it, raising the roof, snapping my fingers, shaking my ass, dropping it low.

For a second, I forgot about everything, even Mac, and just acted a fool. A few of the couples around us slowed to watch us, and then it became a party as they joined in.

When I looked up, Mac was in front of me, his gray eyes blazing silver, and I felt victorious. I was ready for a fight…more than ready, but it never came. Then he was dancing, too. I didn’t know where Ella went, but I didn’t care. Rafe faded to black, and I took this silly, wild, crazy mood I was in and poured it all at Mac. We shimmied, and shifted, and swayed. My face hurt from smiling, and every time we got close enough to touch, I sent a tiny blast of energy into him, which he returned, lips twitching. His hair was a mess now, and his gaze was pure fire, first taking in my glossed lips, then trailing over my silky top down to my barely there skirt. I couldn’t resist giving him my back and grinding close enough to brush his front, which resulted in a muttered “Jesus Christ” that made my heart sing.

The song faded out, and I wanted to cry. It was over. My one perfect moment at the Swirl was over already. But apparently the DJ wanted to make the most of all the dancers on the floor and kept the flow going, spinning “Teach Me How to Dougie” next. It was a dance Libby and I had perfected in the mirror the summer before last. And so we danced. Mac and me, and the Snow King (not Mac) and Queen (Summer), and freaks, and the jocks, and Rafe, and even Mr. Foster. Sort of.

It. Was. Awesome. For one song, nobody was the weirdo or the outcast or the semi. For one perfect song, we were on even ground. Kids having a blast just dancing our butts off.

I didn’t want it to stop. I felt so alive, so free and happy, but when I whipped it around so I faced Mac again, there was Ella, face drawn tight in annoyance.

“I missed it,” she yelled, as the end of the song faded out and a slow song took its place. “Everyone was having fun, and I was waiting in line for the stupid bathroom.”

Mac stepped back and smiled at her apologetically. “Sorry.” He held out his hand. “Come on, we’ll dance this one.”

Her face lit up and the look she gave me was cat with a mouthful of canary. She ran fingers quickly through his hair, making it all neat again, before taking his hand. The last of the happiness puffed out of me and I stepped back, giving them both a flappy wave.

“See you guys later!”

The exclamation point was all up in that sentence. I sounded like the fucking Ducks mascot. I’d given myself five exclamation points lifetime max, and I only had two left to spare now. Damn Ella.

Rafe came up behind me with a cup of punch. “You look thirsty.”

I took it from him and drank it before wiping my hand across my mouth. “Let’s dance.”

I didn’t give a shit anymore. Something had broken loose inside of me, and the thought of standing there in the corner watching Mac dance with Ella made me want to scream. He had to know he was hurting me, didn’t he? Time to see if I could hurt him back.

Rafe and I moved to the outskirts of the dance floor, and it didn’t take much encouragement to get him to pull me close. His hands were busy, sliding over my waist, cupping my hips. I barely felt it. All I could feel was Mac’s eyes on me and the strange, trippy sensation that was taking hold of me.

“How’d you like the punch?” Rafe asked, gripping my hip tighter to grind into me.

I had a clear view of Mac a few feet away, and his jaw clenched. His eyes met mine, and I couldn’t say for sure on the hurt, but there was a copious amount of fury. Excellent.

“The punch?” I asked, barely paying attention. “It was fine, why?”

Rafe patted my ass and chuckled. “I added a little something special.” He grinded on me again, and this time I pulled away.

“What do you mean?” It took a second to focus on his face, and then it hit me. This was what buzzed felt like. It wasn’t just the dancing or the adrenaline that had me feeling so loose and wild. He’d spiked my drink.

“Jesus, Rafe, you could’ve asked,” I hissed, struggling against him. I didn’t have to struggle for long before a low voice broke in.

“I need to talk to you.”

Mac stood over my shoulder, and I turned to face him. He towered over me and for the first time I kicked myself for not wearing heels. Whenever he stood next to me, I felt like there was some kind of measuring going on, and I always came up lacking.

My alcohol-soaked brain ran off and a chuckle bubbled in my throat. Funny how, when we’d started training, it had been such a relief that he was so strong and I couldn’t affect him, but now that I was getting lost in him and
he
had the ability to hurt
me
, I was desperate for the same kind of power over him. It felt too uneven this way. He had the upper hand, and I was stuck with nada. Vulnerable. Like now.

He didn’t seem to like me laughing, and his mouth twisted into a tight line. “Now.” His tone made my blood go cold, but the fear only made me madder.

“I’m good, thanks,” I said, turning back to Rafe, but that didn’t go over well at all.

Mac reached out and took my wrist, pulling me toward the exit. I yanked hard the other way, but he didn’t let go.

Rafe had a weird smile on his face that, even to my altered mind, seemed out of place. He called after us, “Make sure you bring her back in one piece. I’m not done with her yet.”

Okay, so ew and not cool. I owed him a serious bitching-out when we got back.

Rather than fight Mac and cause a scene, I let him lead me the rest of the way out of the gym and into the empty hallway.

“What the fuck was that?” he growled, wheeling on me, his face a mask of fury.

“What? I was dancing.” I crossed my arms over my chest and met his gaze with a cold stare of my own. Why did he get to paw his girlfriend on the dance floor in front of me, but my dancing was a federal case? “What do you care, anyway?” I shot back, tossing my head back to glare up at him.

“You don’t know what he is.” He shook his head slowly, the warning clear in his eyes.

My brain hiccupped, and I had to replay the words in my mind before they registered. Not who. What. “Tell me you’re joking.” Another semi at Crestwood?

“He’s bad news, and if you ignore everything I’ve ever told you, please at least pay attention to this. Stay clear of him.” The anger was still there, but the concern underneath it all had me paying attention.

“How do you know?”

“When I went home, I asked around. They felt like I had gone too soft on you when I first got here, so they sent him in as a backup just in case I didn’t follow through. That’s all I know so far, but something doesn’t feel right. Until I’ve got this figured out, I need you to stay away from him.”

I considered his words and thought back to my interaction with Rafe. Rafe was a dick. Cocky, douchey, and he had spiked my drink, but surely he wasn’t flat-out evil. Maybe it was more that Mac felt about Rafe the way I felt about Ella? My power wriggled restlessly at the thought of her in his arms and I went from sharing Mac’s concern to majorly annoyed in three seconds flat.

“How come you’re allowed to hang out with whoever you want but have made it your mission to kill my social life and won’t allow me to make a new friend? I haven’t even done anything wrong.” I tried to stop the rest of the words from tumbling out, but they wouldn’t be stopped. Spiked punch FTW. “Maybe you’re just jealous. Ever think of that?”

The grin that twisted his lips was anything but happy, and I braced myself. It was about to get mean.

“Jealous? Of what, Magpie? That your life is twelve kinds of fucked and you have no clue how to fix it? That you’re a couple weeks away from having your powers stripped and your memory wiped?”

Ouch.

“Fine. If that’s how you feel, then maybe I won’t bother. You can just take all the time you used to spend with me and spend it all with stupid Ella, since you like her so much. Maybe you guys can talk about One Direction and how if only Miley Cyrus was president, the world would be a better place.”

I shoved him in the chest and went to leave but stopped when I realized I wasn’t quite done yet. I whirled back, ignoring the spinning room long enough to add, “And by the way? Your jacket is stupid. Your hair is stupid. Even your accent is stupid.”

Burned.

It didn’t matter how childish it was—the words were liberating, and I gave myself a mental high five. Until he grabbed my arm and dragged me to him, real close. Close enough to feel his breath on my face. It was warm and smelled like spearmint gum. I swallowed hard when I met his stormy gaze.

He was furious. Like balls-out, totally frigging pissed.

I’d finally gotten him to snap. Finally affected him as much as he’d affected me. The sadistic, drunk part of me crowed even as the smarter part of me cringed.

“You know what’s stupid, Maggie? This discussion. And you know what’s even stupider? You thinking that I want to do any of this. Hang around at your high school, taking lessons on things I learned when I was ten, going to dances with girls who think Snooki is a role model. I didn’t ask for any of it. I’m from a line of Protectors. A line that serves with honor, and here I am, beating my head against a wall trying to teach a hotheaded, spoiled child how to keep from killing anyone.” The breath sawed in and out of his lungs as his anger flamed high enough that I could feel it pouring off him. I tried to step back, but he countered, stepping forward.

Protector? Is that what his job was? To protect me? Funny, for weeks now, I’d felt like an open wound. “Listen, let’s take a minute and calm down—”

His laugh was short and harsh. “Now you want to calm down? You spend all night needling me until I have not an ounce of fucking calm left in me, and now you want me to calm down?”

I opened my mouth to confirm that, yes, it would be a good start, but all that came out was a loud hiccup.

His eyes went wide before they narrowed into icy slits. “You’ve been drinking,” he said flatly.

It wasn’t a question, and I didn’t deny it or even explain. He’d broken my heart into a thousand pieces tonight. Fuck him. I didn’t owe him anything.

He stepped in and I stepped back, but he was relentless, pushing me backward until I was pressed against a row of lockers. Then he bent low until we were nose to nose. “I wondered why you’d done it. Did you even notice everyone following you and your moves? Did you see all the guys in the room
watching
you?”

He
was
jealous. That shouldn’t have made me ecstatic, but it sort of did. “Rafe was watching me, but other than th—”

“No!” He punched the locker behind me, and I winced. “Not just Rafe. Fucking
everyone
. Because you were throwing off sparks of power like a bloody disco ball and those kids were all just a bunch of moths, wanting to be close to you.”

I shook my head, because it wasn’t computing. “Wait, what?”

“I told you not to drink, and you didn’t listen. Jesus, Maggie, someone could get hurt. I thought you had a shot,” he muttered.

That last sentence computed just fine and made my stomach pitch. He was giving up on me. “Mac…”

I touched his chest, and he grabbed my wrist, his gaze hot on mine. My heart leapt into my throat, and I barely heard his muttered, “Fuck it,” before he slanted his mouth over mine.

I didn’t hesitate for a second. The thought of him leaving me…giving up on me made me frantic. I jerked my arm away from his grasp and plastered myself against him. When that wasn’t close enough, I pressed harder. His mouth was molten hot and his lips devoured mine. It wasn’t neat, it wasn’t pretty, but it was everything. Giving. Taking. Crushing.

His hand slid lower to grip my butt, lifting me up until his hips thrust against mine. God, it felt good. The power inside me rose and burned like a rising sun in my belly. I tried to focus but couldn’t hold it in, hitting Mac with a blast. He didn’t stop, kneading my bottom in his big hands, pushing back with his own power that I sucked up like a flower. A memory teased at me, and I latched on.

The smell of cinnamon filled my senses. Mac was leaning in close to the slight girl standing in front of him. She was warm, her back pressed to his chest. He was supposed to be helping her, for fuck’s sake, not smelling her hair. She wasn’t meant for him. He wasn’t even supposed to befriend her, never mind this. Jesus, could she hear his heart beating? The urge to wrap his arms around her and squeeze her tighter against him…to slide his hands around the front of her hot body was so strong, he barely resisted. How many times had he lain awake thinking of her and that flash of flat, lickable stomach when she’d lifted her arms? Grinding, awful, amazing torture.

Not for you, Cormac. She’s not for you. An alarm blared and—

The memory was ripped away so fast, it felt like a slap, and Mac wasn’t far behind. One second he was there, his mouth smashed against mine, and the next he was two feet away from me, gasping for breath.

I slumped against the cool metal of the lockers, still reeling from his kiss…from his memory. Of me. Of us, the night we’d broken into the school.

“That shit you just pulled,” he whispered, his throat working as he swallowed hard. “That’s why you can’t be around people. That would’ve killed anyone but me.” He closed his eyes and even the grim set of his jaw didn’t prepare me for his next words. “And I don’t want any part of it. Or you. I don’t trust Rafe. I’ll contact the Council tomorrow and request they send another replacement for me to finish these last two weeks. Fly on home, Magpie. Before you hurt anyone else.”