Enlightened A Light Tamer Novel (The Light Tamer) (7 page)

“Irresistible, like chocolate and peanut-butter,” Amber whispers to me in her vampire voice.  “Follow
me you
little Light Tamer, with your irresistible pheromones.”

“What in the hell is wrong with you
Miss
Edwards,” the teacher shouts, making me jump.  “Can you keep your comments to yourself until class is over?”  Amber
moves her head
up and down and straightens up in her seat.
  “If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m not an easy teacher.  I will bust your balls if needed.”  No one makes a sound even though the teacher just said balls.  “I don’t care if
you’re
rich, or pretty, or the
mayor’s
daughter.  I don’t care who you think you are.  I care about your safety. 
Shakespeare wrote about people just like you. 
If I don’t teach you about your
species
, than I have failed.  I. AM. NOT. A. FAILURE.”  His annunciation of each word
makes
spittle
fling from his mouth. 

One girl at the front of the class
slammed her pen down on her desk as she jumped up with her backpack.  “I’m going to see
Miss
Ward about you.  How
dare
you talk like that to the class!”

“Sit your ass down, you little
primadonna
.  Your principal doesn’t give two flips if I say BALLS to you. 
She wants you to be safe, for what reason?
  I don’t know.  I don’t care.  Well, I do care a little.  I don’t care if you come from a little house, with a little veil of goody
-
goody, and I don’t care what you think.  I’m trying to get you to the point that you understand  how to protect yourself.
”
  We all turned to face the front of the room, giving the girl the chance
be humiliated solely
.

I’d be on the verge of tears if someone yelled at me in front of everyone. I wonder who she is. 
I wonder if that girl
fret
s
about her
big
boobs too?
  It’s
probably
a
lousy
idea to go up to her and ask her how she feels about her boobs.
 

“…and that is how you were protected as a child.” 
Mr
Wolfshadow
said.  “Moving forward, who can tell me what
filii
nocte
means?” 
No one raises their hand.
  “You’re killing me here. 
Obviously none of you
ha
s
taken Latin.
  It means, Children of Night,
it’s
also the real name for the
Dark Ones
.  The term
Dark Ones
came into play in the
mid 1800’s
.  There is
a
record
of a soldier in the Civil War writing letters about the
Dark Ones
.  He was a medic and talked about one of the young soldiers turning dark.  How is that for a little history?
  Rarely is the Latin name used.
”  He looks down at his watch, thankfully the day is almost over.
 
“
Okay, the bell is about to ring.  I want everyone to write a thousand word essay about your experiences as a
Light Tamer.
 
It’s
due next Tuesday.”

Before anyone has a chance to moan about the assignment, the bell rings.

“Check on my baby before you leave.  Make sure he doesn’t miss me too much.”  Amber says as we walk out of class.

“Baby?” Caleb and I say in unison.

“My
jeep…my
baby…my
love…”

I
shake my head and reach
over for Caleb’s hand.  “Gotcha, have fun in detention. 
I’ll see you later
,
right?
  I’m sure your
Baby
is
fine
, I’ll text you though.”

“Later?  Oh yeah, I’ll be there.”

It was
delightful
to drive out of the parking lot of school.  I hadn’t realized how tense I was all day, not until I sat on the hot leather seat and it felt
fantastic
.  I told Caleb about Jasmine and how she flipped out on me earlier.  He told me about how
Miss
Raine
seemed frazzled by the time she had him in class.  We laughed about Amber’s public display of
affection and we practically drove off the road when we talked about Thorne’s reaction.

We stopped for an ice-cream on our way to the library, by the length of the
line;
we weren’t original in our idea. 
Can you hear me?

Nope.
  I
nudged
his arm for teasing me.
 
Did I tell you how cute you look in your uniform?

You did, but you can again.

Our ability to hear one another’s thoughts is something that took getting used to at first.  Originally he could hear mine, and I couldn’
t hear him until we kissed
,
and only when we kissed.  We’ve been working on blocking our thoughts from each other. 
It’s not
that we have secrets, but sometimes our thoughts should be private.  At least
that’s
how I feel about it. 
We bonded a few summers ago when I almost drowned at Emerald Isle.  Caleb jumped in to pull me out of the ocean
,
and
when he did
;
his hands started to glow.  What he didn’t know then
,
was he and I were
Light Tamers
and
he healed me
,
and
we bonded.  H
e was a little scrawny boy and was
a bit obsessed with me.  He was always trying to touch me
,
and
I was always trying to keep my distance. 
No one knew what happened
,
but Caleb figured it out after his mom died of cancer. 
Two months ago, my mom and I moved to North Carolina to live with my grandma Gayle.  New Bern isn’t what you’d call the most exciting town to live in if you’re under
fifty…or
so I thought.  I’d never had so many crazy things to happen to me in the Bronx, as a matter of fact
,
nothing ever happened.  True, unless you
count
my dad’s OCD and his problem with alcohol. 
I’d always thought that if I loved him enough, he would
change…he
didn’t.  I learned the truth about his alcoholism once we moved here.

My dad confessed to me that he is a
Dark One
and I’m part of the original
Tamers
, making me irresistible to the Dark. 
To keep him from stealing my light, he would drink.  I love my dad, but I think he could have found another way.  He’s sober now that he left my mom
,
and he spends his time trying to track others like him
.
A little more than a week ago, my bond with Caleb was threatened by Erebus, the god of darkness.  He tricked Jasmine’s boyfriend Clark into catching me as I fell. 
Since we’re all under 18
,
our bond can be broken if another bound tamer touches
us
.
  I don’t understand how 18 is such a magical number
other than
it’s
when we’re considered an adult.  I’m not even 16 yet; my birthday is at the end of August.
  I have two years to keep anyone from breaking our bond.

Today only added to my confusion about what it all means to be a Tamer. 
We looked at books on mythology to learn more about Nyx.
  Amber showed up after detention and told us that Thorne never showed up.  It only fueled her attraction to him with the
bad
boy act. 

I told grandma about school before mom got home from work.  Mom spent six months applying for jobs in New York and only had two interviews.  We
were
here only
a week
,
before she
landed
a nursing job at a cancer doctor’s office. 
After dinner, I grabbed the dust buster and practiced making a protection circle as fast as possible. 
How often
I’ll
have a bottle of salt with me
,
is beyond me.  I do what the teacher wants.  I don’t ask questions because lately I’m afraid of the answer.

An instant message popped up on my laptop.
  It was from
SURFERGRLAMB
.

SURFERGRLAMB
:
“Whatcha doing?”

BRONXLUVRALWAYS:  “Pouring salt all over the floor”

SURFERGRLAMB
:  “Oh me too!  I think the teacher is mental.”

BRONXLUVRALWAYS:  “You think he’s mental?  What about
Mr
Wolfshadow
?  He’s nuts!”

SURFERGRLAMB
:  “I don’t think so, I think he’s intense.”

BRONXLUVRALWAYS:  “Are you running a fever?
  LOL!”

SURFERGRLAMB
:  “Ha, ha.  Do you want to ride with me tomorrow?”

BRONXLUVRALWAYS:  “Sure, I’ll let Caleb know.”

As I typed out my text, a friend request from
Yournightmare2010
popped up.

BRONXLUVRALWAYS:  “Who is this?”

YOURNIGHTMARE2010:  “Your nightmare.”

BRONXLUVRALWAYS:  “Okay nightmare, I’m hitting the ignore button.”

YOURNIGHTMARE2010:  “Thorne, from school.”

Thorn
e, as in unibomber Thorne?
  No way, how would he get my
screenname
?  It’s someone else trying to be funny.

BRONXLUVRALWAYS:  “Yeah, right.”

YOURNIGHTMARE2010:  “Seriously, it’s me.  I don’t know how to prove it.  Here, I’ll send you a picture of me.”

BRONXLUVRALWAYS:  “No, send me one of your backpack.  That will prove it’s you.”

I see the flashing message from Amber wanting to know where I’m at.  I send her one telling
her I
’ll BRB.

The picture Thorne sent was of his shoes and backpack. 

BRONXLURALWAYS: 
“
Okay, I’m
convinced.  You know I have a boyfriend right?”

YOURNIGHTMARE2010:  “That was pretty clear since you two are connected at the hip.  I wanted to know your friend Amber’s phone number or
screenname
Miss
Conceited.”

I blushed thirty shades of red for saying it and then him shooting me down.

BRONXLURALWAYS:  “OIC - I’ll give you her SN.  SURFERGRLAMB.  How did you get mine?”

YOURNIGHTMARE2010:  “I have my ways.  I’ll
ttyl
, I want to talk to her before she goes to bed.  Do you know if she’s online?  Can you send her a text and tell her to get online?”

Okaaaaay
.  Weird.  He’s so not living up to the
bad
boy image I have of him.  I send her a quick IM and tell her that he’ll be
friending
her
.

Mom and I
were
up early to go eat breakfast together since she will be working at the ER tonight.  Amber pulls into the driveway
at the same time we do.

“Good morning
Miss
Tabitha,” Amber shouts over the rumbling of her Je
ep.   Today the doors are off
t
he Jeep making me feel exposed.
“Where did you two come from?  You smell like syrup, did you have pancakes?”

“Guilty as charged.  I brought you a sausage
biscuit…two
actually,” I hold up the brown paper bag.

“Genius!
  You’re the best B, no matter what the other kids say.”

“What?”

She pulls out of the neighborhood like we were in a getaway car.
  I check my backpack to make sure
it’s
wedged under the back seat. 
“You’re so gullible; no one has said anything about you.
  That isn’t
total
ly
true.  I heard some girls talking about your hair, wondering if you have extensions. 
It’s
your hair right?
  If not, I look like a total ass.  Not
that
I’m not an ass, but you know what I mean…”