Forgotten (14 page)

I found my way to a full-sized
punching bag without much thought. Out of sheer habit, my legs
carried me where I needed to go. The worn leather grazed my
fingertips when I slipped on my gloves. I grinned. I rolled my neck
and loosened my arms and legs. Standing lightly on my toes, I
reeled around my bag. Jabs, uppercuts, and hooks, I dissipated the
tension in my shoulders. Sweat drizzled down my arms and legs.
Punch after kick after jab, I drowned in a boxing haze while my
brain did its own thing.

Reoccurring images of a
crystal clear blue sea penetrated my consciousness. If I
concentrated on the salty fragrance lingering in the wind, I could
hold the vision longer and analyze it. I mutilated the punching
bag, while losing myself in the sand shifting through my toes. A
gentle, warm breeze blew my cream-colored dress while the sun did
its best to incinerate me. Kicking into the punching bag, I could
almost feel the sun tan my skin. Flying in the deep blue sky, birds
sang melody after melody. Their songs reminded me of a language I
didn’t quite recognize.

Then I did. I recognized the song! I
slammed my fist into the leather. The melody that was entirely too
similar to the language Jace and Marco spoke. Drumming the bag with
my fists, my arms burned and shoulders ached. My future destined to
intertwine with nut jobs.

Great.

After my arms were too tired to lift,
I slammed my legs against the leather. I beat the leather until the
scent of burnt wood and ash lingered with the stale, sweat smells
of the gym. My unwanted company decided to join me.

“
Jace,” I said,
acknowledging his presence without turning around to face
him.

“Winnie.”

Even though his voice put me in a type
of jacked-up trance, my horrible nickname knocked sense into me. I
spun around.

“
Call me that again, I dare
you,” I warned.

His silhouette radiated white,
illuminating everything around him. His blaze grew like a fire,
encouraging my tears to flow. Unable to take him all in, I closed
my eyes. His hazy outline filled my vision. He threw his jacket
along the wall after shrugging it off. His thin shirt – hopefully
he wore a shirt – delineated his lean upper body. He had the kind
of a stomach that made me want to give up on working out altogether
and just start eating my way into a super-sized grave. Hanging onto
the punching bag next to me, he grabbed a chain connecting the bag
to the rafters. His jeans looked like they were sewn around his
wash-board abs.

“Winnie,” he whispered.

I charged. He dodged faster than
humanly possible and was behind me before my eyes could
follow.

He chuckled, “All bark and no bite,
dearest? I thought you were a fighter.”

Relying on my hearing, I focused on
the sound of his shoes squeaking over the gym’s rubber floor.
Estimating he was about five paces away, I spun around, charged
him, and aimed low. My fist grazed his side before he moved around
me again.

Laughing, he closed his fists around
my gloves that were currently drilling into his stomach as fast as
I could throw them.

“
Done fighting me yet?” he
asked.

I answered soundlessly by kneeing him
in the groin. He grunted – or suppressed a laugh – I wasn’t exactly
sure, since his voice distracted me. He dropped and then swung his
legs out under me, knocking me on my back. The air fled from my
lungs. By the time I was able to suck in a breath, Jace was lying a
couple feet from me. I groaned. He’d propped himself up with his
elbow and was seductively tracing the mat with his finger. I’d
never imagined how an unattainable boy model would look before, but
I’d gotten the inclination that Jace could pull it off
effortlessly. Perhaps in another life he’d been an underwear
model.

“You don’t want to start this again,
Gwyneth,” he advised. The scent of scorched wood rolling off his
skin guaranteed that I’d get burned but would love each second.
“There may come a day when you can hold your own, but today isn’t
it. Stop fighting me.”

My heart trembled erratically,
yearning for him never to stop speaking. Again the need to lick his
words off his lips as he spoke invaded my mind. “Why are you
stalking me?”

“Stalking sounds so ominous,” Jace
said. “I prefer to see it as me offering you protection… from a
distance and often from an unknown location.”

“Care to tell me why you and Marco
broke into my home? I found the window opened,” I said, passively
informing him that I wasn’t a complete idiot and knew that people
watched me.

He said nothing, analyzing my question
like it had different meaning. Ever so slyly, he sniffed the air
around me. I wanted to tell him that it was called sweat, and it
might not be the most lovely body odor in the world, but tended to
happen in a gym. Before I commented, a thread of made-up curse
words echoed in my ears. He slammed his fist into the mat. I
trembled as the floor shook for several moments afterward. An
electrical charge prickled over my skin like an aftershock – like a
warning of sorts.

“Your location’s no longer a secret,”
Jace muttered. “Ashwick is no longer safe for you.”

“
How many of you are there,
and who is looking for me?”

“
Enough and bad guys,” he
replied stiffly. “What happened to your biological
parents?”

“That’s none of your damn
business.”

“
We need to leave town,” he
said more desperately.

“
Fat chance I’m going
anywhere with you! The Thompsons will have the police on your tail
before you get out me of the gym. If you follow me home again, I’ll
call them myself,” I jeered and pushed away to make a dramatic
exit.

“I’m not done with you just yet,” Jace
said, patting the mat.

The electrical trickle crawling over
my skin intensified into a surge. The sensation of my bones
gradually being split apart pulsated through my body with each
surge he caused. I toppled back down.

“
Stop doing
that!”

“Then give me the time I deserve, calm
down, and stop fighting me, so I can protect you!”

The ringing in my ears escalated,
drowning out everything except his voice. Everything around me went
utterly dark. Panicking that he’d actually stole my sight; I looked
where I’d last seen him. His blazing abyss was there, making me
nauseous. Flickers of shimmering colorless flares wiped across his
white skin. I gave my well-practiced “back-off glare” since my
voice box had decided to take five. My threatening scream came out
as a pathetic squeak. I felt (yes felt) him smirking at my pitiful
defiance. Jace chuckled softly, confirming his sick sense of humor.
Even when he laughed he still managed to sound imposing…or maybe
his commanding characteristics seemed so much more threatening
because he had basically tasered me without so much as lifting a
few fingers.

“
You’re making this
complicated when it isn’t necessary, Gwyneth,” Jace
insisted.

Just as quickly as he took away my
sight, the usual gray shadows of objects once again filled my
vision. The distant ringing plummeted, and once again I could hear
everything like normal. Jace weakened himself – Muted himself, just
like Marco had. He was no longer flickering, just shining bright –
nauseatingly bright. It only took me a moment to realize why he
returned my senses. Footsteps squished along the outer edge of the
gym’s rubber floor and quickly became louder.

“
Everything okay, over
here?” Charlie questioned and then hacked a loogie. His dark, burly
shadow, was a sight for my sore eyes – literally. They itched like
they were sun burnt after Jace returned my senses back. I tucked my
hands under my back so I couldn’t be tempted to cover
them.

“Just peachy,” I said, lying in my
personal sweat pool.

Charlie made a noise to suggest he
didn’t believe me. “Unless it’s supervised, guys and gals don’t
fight.”

Swallowing hard, I thought about lying
to get Jace off my back, but for some reason I doubted he’d back
off that easily. “Not fighting Charles, I’m just finishing up a set
of gut busters.”

“I haven’t seen you around before,”
Charlie said. The way the light hit the manager’s face, I could see
him picking left-over food out of his teeth. For the life of me, I
hoped he had a toothpick in hand. “And, I don’t remember you
handing me cash for a day pass.”

“He’s with me, Charles,” I
blurted out.
What was I doing?!

“With you?” Charlie
questioned.

Now I was stuck trying to think of a
decent story to cover my lie. I hesitated a moment too long before
Jace piped up. “I’m thinking about MMA fighting, so I’m just
checking out a few gyms. Since my girlfriend comes here, I figured
I’d check it out.”

Girlfriend?
Jace had a death wish.

“
Mixed martial arts, huh?”
Charlie said, giving my “boyfriend” the once over. “Scrawny kid
like you?”

“I hold my own,” Jace assured, pushing
off the mat.

Charlie’s shadow turned to Jace and
then to me, repeatedly for a few moments. Before walking away
Charlie snorted, “You could do better than this punk,
Winnie.”

Gritting my teeth, I maneuvered my
lips into a forced smile and tried to convey that everything was
all right. As soon as Charlie rounded the corner, I rolled over and
buried my face onto the mat. My cheeks flared hot. Counting to ten,
I pressed my palms on my eyes in a poor attempt to block out
everything. Sweat dripped from my brow. The salty fluid stung as it
seeped into my palms. The cuts I endured from sliding onto the
sidewalk had yet to fully heal. If that weren’t enough, my stomach
twisted into knots. Jace was still prodding me, seeing how much I
could handle.

I couldn’t figure out what
was more infuriating – that his mission in life was to pester me,
or that I beginning to not hate it. Overshadowed by the initial
disapproval, my infatuation with title of
his
girlfriend
filled me with unexplainable delight.

“
Girlfriend?” I
asked.

“
Poor choice of wording, I
agree,” Jace said, resuming his previous position as the glorified
model sprawled out on the mat. “But you weren’t coming up with
anything better.”

“
What are you doing
here?”

“
Keeping tabs on you,” Jace
said shamelessly.

Being that my expertise with the male
species was unfortunately unpracticed, I treaded carefully. The
Unknown Territory of Man-land was Bree’s specialty, not
mine.

“
What do I have to do, or
say, or whatever to make you not want to keep tabs on me?” I
asked.

“We’ll get to that, but this is
better.”

“
Better as in, I’m obeying
you?”

When a deep moan escaped Jace’s chest,
a clasp closed around my throat. The mat sank under the weight of
his body as he slid closer. The burning in my cheeks had returned,
and my heart beat like I was in mid-sprint.

“
To have someone like you
obey me,” he said and then took a breath like it was hard to
breathe. “It would be unexpected and appreciated. If you’d like me
to leave you alone, I’d like permission to try… something… to
ensure your safety.”

At this point, I’d do almost anything
to keep him from torturing me day in and day out. “You have a deal,
as long as it doesn’t kill me and you don’t try kidnapping me – or
instigate a plan out of any evil villains’ plot book.”

He sighed. “What I want to do may be…
unpleasant.”

More unpleasant than lying in a pool
of sweat wishing there was some kind of cream I could rub directly
on my burned eyes? “What do you want to do?”

“
Contrary to popular
belief, it doesn’t give me pleasure to see you suffering. You need
to be able to tolerate us and our abilities better than this. If
you’re in close proximity to many of us, we might kill you without
even trying to. We are running out of time, especially if there are
Hunters hiding in Ashwick, but your current state of tolerance is
unacceptable.”

I got the impression it was a bad idea
to let him do what he wanted simply because he said he wanted to
protect me, but this was my opportunity to get rid of him. I had to
take it.

“
I’ve got on my big girl
panties. I can handle whatever you throw at me,” I said.

He burst out laughing. “Your face is
smashed into the floor, Gwyneth. It is not really instilling much
confidence that you won’t pass out quickly.”

“
Just do it,” I insisted,
peeking at him.

“
You have to make
everything difficult, don’t you,” he said and an intense blaze
matured around him before I got the chance to question him about
the types of hunters who’d kill me by association. The fine lines,
definition of his body that only used to become visible when I
closed my eyes now created an entirely different picture in white
glory. Intense pressure hit my eyes. The back of my skull felt like
it was ripping apart. Flames skimmed his body, blanketing him in a
white abyss. His shoulders melted away from the white orb to those
of a young man’s I’d seen somewhere but couldn’t quite place.
Muscles grew from his once shapeless arms, chest, and torso. The
inferno growing over him blocked out much of the detail of his
face.