Living Violet (16 page)

Read Living Violet Online

Authors: Jaime Reed

Tags: #Young Adult, #Fantasy, #Romance

BOOK: Living Violet
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“Thanks for doing this, Dougie.” I rested my head on his shoulder.
Dougie smiled and looked down at me. “I wouldn't think Caleb would have trouble with women. He don't look all that, and he's kinda goofy.”
“Trust me, he has to beat them off with a stick, literally.”
Dougie stared out to the field, watching Caleb duck behind a tree. “Well, I'll do my best to show him the way of the samurai.”
“Thank you, sensei. Between you, me, and Nadine, we'll whip him into shape. Who knows, with our help, he could probably take down Chuck Norris.”
 
We got back to Caleb's house around eight, both sweaty and exhausted. We didn't bother with idle road chatter, but simply enjoyed the companionable silence. All the while, tension taunted us from the backseat, buzzing naughty suggestions in our ears.
Parking nose to nose with my car, Caleb turned off the engine and looked at me. “I had a, um, interesting day today. Quite instructive.”
“I try. You need to call Nadine so you can be led to your next course of action.”
He rested his head against the steering wheel. “You women are trying to kill me.”
“Better you than us.” I kissed his cheek. “I'll see you later.”
Escorting me to my car, he asked, “You wanna come in for a bit?”
“No.”
“Any particular reason?”
Leaning against my car door, I regarded him carefully. “Can I ask you something?”
His posture straightened and braced himself for impact. “Shoot.”
“That pull you have on women, do you think it could be slowly affecting me?”
His eyes dimmed in a shade of mischief. “Come here,” he ordered.
I closed the distance between us in seconds.
His hands clasped behind his back when he bent down and whispered, “Kiss me.”
I leaned back, startled. “Oh, hell no.”
“Kiss me,” he demanded.
“I said no, Caleb.” I pulled away from him despite my impulse to stay. “Your little pet needs a muzzle.”
An easy smile brightened his face. “Then the pull doesn't affect you.”
I blinked. “Really?”
“Any other woman would've come to me
without
me asking, and would've kissed me without question.”
My shoulders slumped, not sure whether I should be happy or sad about my immunity.
“There's nothing wrong with you. I love that you're not helpless around me. You're with me because you want to be. I love that.”
“Love, huh?” I grinned.
The color drained from his face. “Um ... I mean, I ...”
“
Yes?
” I prompted with a lengthy drawl.
His eyes met the ground, his hands kept busy inside his pockets. “Look, I'm not good at expressing my feelings, and I'm not sappy. I feel strongly toward you, but the feeling's new to me. Maybe someday I can convey it in words. I—I don't know what I'm saying.”
“You can't say the
L
word. I get it. I have issues with it too. It's like cuss words: you say it enough times, it loses its power.”
“Yeah.”
“Well, find another way to express yourself.”
“Okay.” He went back to his car then dug in the ashtray. Finding what he needed, he returned and handed me a quarter. “Here. You can start a pool. Every time I wanna tell you how I feel, I'll add another coin to your collection.”
“What's with you and quarters?”
“It's substantial and you can watch it grow.”
Giggling, I took the quarter and tucked it in my sports bra. “Fine, we'll make a little love bank for you.”
“What about me?” he asked.
“What do you want?”
“Right now, all I wanna do is kiss you. I've never wanted anything so bad. It's that simple and just as difficult.” He bit his bottom lip. I'd never seen him look like that at anything that didn't include frosting.
“I know. How long do you think it'll take for Capone to get to know me?”
Closing his eyes, he pushed out a breath. “I don't know. It's too soon to tell, and I'm not risking anything around you.”
“Good to know.” With another wink, I went to my car but stopped short at the man in front of me.
Haden stood tall and proud, wearing more rumpled clothes and Caleb's grin. Judging from Caleb's rigid stance, this visit didn't bode well for anyone involved.
Eyeing the two of us in humor, Haden rubbed his hands together, ready to dig into his meal. “Well, look at you, little bro! Don't you look well. Got some color in your cheeks. A change in your diet perhaps?”
Caleb pulled me behind him to safety. “I told you not to come here.”
“Ah-ah! You said not to enter your place of business. This is your house. And I wouldn't bother to impose on your precious time if it wasn't important.” Haden stopped and studied Caleb's face. “Good to see you have a social life, but I'm concerned about your eating habits. Have you learned nothing from Dad?”
“Back off, Haden!” Caleb warned.
“She needs to know what she's getting into. You're not exactly the poster child for exemplary living. Does she know about your special regimen, or did you want to wait until her heart stops before telling her?”
“I know what he is, and what
you
are. So stop picking on him,” I cut in.
Haden smiled in a light and infuriating manner. “And you're still breathing. Impressive. Not many women can say the same.”
“Caleb isn't a killer.” Well, he sort of was by association, but that didn't count. Or did it?
Haden regarded me with hooded eyes, a look too reminiscent of a hungry wolf for my peace of mind. “Samara, I've got news for you—we're all killers. Evil lives in all of us, but ours scream louder than most. We consume everything in our paths until there is nothing left.”
“You speaking from personal experience?” I asked. “How many people have you killed?”
Haden smiled. “I'm not the one you need to worry about, thigh-high.” He cut his eyes to his brother.
Caleb mirrored the look with clenched teeth. “What do you want? And why are you still in town?”
“Don't get too happy. I'm leaving tonight, but I have information that you might be interested in before I go.”
“What information?” I asked.
“Whatever it is, I'm not interested,” Caleb added.
“You might think differently when you hear what I have to say. Honestly, you really think I would stay here longer than I needed to?”
Caleb froze. “Fifteen minutes, that's all I'm giving you.”
“I'll take what I can get.”
Returning to me, Caleb said, “I have to go.”
“What's going on? You're scaring me.”
“Smart girl,” Haden quipped.
“Shut it, Haden!” Caleb barked. His brother threw his hands in the air and strolled up the walkway to Caleb's front door.
Once we were alone, Caleb turned to me. “He's family no matter how much I want to back over him with my car. He wouldn't be here if he didn't need my help with something. I gotta at least hear him out.” Caleb didn't look too thrilled about the idea. Under that facade of apathy lay a glint of worry and uncertainty.
I tilted my head to his front door. “Haden mentioned something about your father. Is that why he's here?”
“I don't know. Maybe.” He shrugged. “But I refuse to get pulled back into that chaos.”
“Is your dad all right? Is he hurt?”
“Yes, very hurt. Beyond repair. It's not good for him to be around people.”
“Well, he's still grieving.”
“It's not that.” Caleb looked over his shoulder before saying, “His spirit is restless. It misses the energy it used to get when Mom was near Dad. It feels the loss as well.”
I nodded. “Um, this is gonna sound really bad, and please don't take this the wrong way, but did your dad do something to your mother?”
His body jerked. “What?”
“I was just wondering if he ...”
Caleb backed away; his expression displayed a mixture of shock and betrayal.
“You think my dad killed my mom?”
“No. I mean, I don't know. Look, Caleb, I'm just trying to figure all this out.”
“My dad loved my mom, all right? I can't believe you would say that!”
Eyeing him with caution, I shook my head. “I didn't mean it that way.”
“My mom died of cancer. She was already dying; she didn't need any outside help.” That freaky glow returned to his eyes and I knew I had to tread lightly.
“Okay, if that's what you say, then I believe you. I'm not trying to offend you, and I don't wanna have to walk on eggshells around you either.” I turned and opened my door, but a strong hand slammed it shut.
“Wait. Sam, it's not that.” His breath bounced against my ear, cascading a sweet draft of warmth down the column of my neck. “You just hit a soft spot for me, that's all. Mom's death hit my family hard, and, well, you just voiced a suspicion I've had myself.”
“Really?” I leaned into him, enjoying the feel of his body against me; dead to any other sense but touch. “Is that why you avoid him?”
He brooded over the answer before saying, “We don't deal with loss well. It's complicated, Sam, and I really want to keep you away from it. Hell,
I
want to keep away from it.”
“All right, just don't do anything crazy, okay?”
“Too late for that.” He dragged a hand over my cheek, his eyes half-mast, rejoicing in the smallest of touches. “My brother has a point, you know.”
“What? That all the women in your life die?”
“No. We consume everything in our paths, but what he didn't say is that we can just as easily become consumed.” His stare settled on my lips and stayed longer than it should have. A purple nimbus blossomed before my eyes, a visible beam of aggression not brought on by anger, but by something far too primal, too vulgar to name.
“Caleb!” From the front stoop, Haden's voice cracked through the air like a gunshot. It cautioned us in that familiar parental tone, an interference with perfect timing.
Caleb pushed back and increased the distance between us while his hooded gaze targeted me as helpless prey.
“Good night, Sam.” It wasn't a valediction, but a warning that needed no repeating.
Wordlessly, I climbed into my car and set out, fighting to regain my control as well.
 
That night, I stared at the ceiling, flipping that damn quarter in the air. I didn't care what Caleb said; Capone was working his mojo on me. That was the only reasonable excuse to be still awake at three in the morning.
He seemed to morph before my eyes like some great revelation finally coming to light, a beast of innate sensuality rousing from its sleep. Then there was the way he would look at me, how he could disrobe and deflower me with his eyes yet still look innocent.
I refused to believe that the pull was voluntary. Everyone, including my mother, diagnosed me as a victim of
l'amore
, but my pride and my very sanity demanded a second opinion.
I wasn't falling for Caleb. I just had to tell my heart that.
18
F
or the next two weeks, Caleb became my pet project. I made him sign up for Master Lu's judo class for beginners, which started in August. In the meantime, I loaned him every Jet Li movie in my library and showed him some Tae Bo moves. Nadine insisted that Caleb needed to develop an internal dialogue with Capone, and she introduced him to Eastern meditation to aid his journey toward enlightenment. We even resorted to kidnapping him and organizing field trips to find a stimulating activity.
Unfortunately, children were not Caleb's thing, a fact we learned the hard way. I underestimated the number of single mothers who hung around playgrounds. Caleb wasn't lying when he said he was a fast runner.
Mia, Dougie, and I took Caleb surfing. Caleb almost drowned, but recovered in time to watch the sunset with me. We huddled under a blanket and witnessed the day's demise in Technicolor. I curled beside him, inhaling the ocean breeze and the smell of Tootsie Rolls on his breath.
Dougie's failed turf war with a jellyfish allowed Mia to play boo-boo nursemaid. Caleb and I endured two hours of baby talk and lip-smacking during the drive home. Caleb was kind enough to distract me with his fingers. I sat in the backseat with my legs on his lap. He massaged my calves, enthralled by the texture and earthly material from which they were made.
“You've got the softest skin,” he said with visible awe. “That's gonna be a serious problem.”
“It already is,” I replied, in light of the shiver that attacked my remaining limbs.
He wanted more, as did I, but we still had a ways to go. I wasn't a tease, and my demands seemed pretty reasonable: always be honest and try not to eat me. Though he respected my need for space, just the slightest contact granted a small reward for us both, a goal to work toward.
All my free time was spent rehabilitating Capone. Work simply faded in the background with the exception of those all too brief moments in Caleb's company. The harassment went both ways. While returning discarded magazines to the rack, I received Caleb's sneaky back-of-the-neck kiss and disappearing act, which kept my toes curled for the remainder of the day.
When I returned to the counter, I smiled at the sight of two quarters sitting on the coffee bar. Within the week, I accumulated ten dollars' worth of love coins in an old Mason jar under the register. The way things were going, I could pay off my car on my own.
During my break, I saw Alicia sitting on a bench in front of the store. I hadn't had time to really talk to her since the Fourth of July massacre, and her shifts didn't align with mine. Reaching the bench, I decided to rub a little salt on her wound. “What's up, Alicia?”
“Hey, Sam,” she called, swinging a Buncha Books bag between her legs.
“Whatcha doing out here?”
She looked around the parking lot. “I'm just waiting for my dad. He should be here in a minute.”
“You still in solitary confinement?” I asked.
Alicia rolled her eyes and exhaled noisily. “Dad was furious. My butt's still sore. I can't go outside, talk on the phone, or anything. I have to come to work just to get fresh air.”
“That's harsh, but it's an effective device to deter you from any repeat offenses.”
Her eyes lowered to her feet. “I never thanked you for helping me that night.”
“Don't worry about it.”
“I mean it. Thanks. I don't even wanna think about what could've happened. I never drank before, and I just wanted to try it.”
I nodded. “Personally, I don't like alcohol, especially beer. It tastes like rubber bands.”
“Dad was pissed when he smelled it on me.” Alicia shuddered at the memory.
“I'm a veteran when it comes to punishment. From what I've learned, the harsher the punishment, the more you scared them. When I was seven, I wandered away from Mom in the mall, and she wouldn't stop crying, even during the spanking.”
Alicia shrugged. “I guess. You know what's so weird? All these people are talking to me now. Word got out that I was the last one to see Garrett alive, and they wanna hear my story.”
“Notoriety favors the dead. Use your fame wisely, Alicia.”
A smile teased her lips.
Looking down, I pointed to her bag. “So, what you got there?”
“It's the third
Specter
book. Since I'm on house arrest, I needed some decent reading material.”
I groaned. “I don't get the popularity with these books. It's unhealthy to obsess over it.”
“You won't even crack open the book, so you can't really criticize it.”
“Alicia, I could've helped edit the book, and my opinion would go ignored by you fangirls. I mean, what's the appeal? Did the author sprinkle crack between the pages?”
“It's an awesome read. It sucks you in, and the romance is so sad and stuff. Can you imagine being in love with a supernatural creature that you can't touch or kiss? The tension is always there, but neither of you can do anything about it.”
All humor died as the story line hit a little too close to home. I didn't dare entertain the possibility that a book could shed insight on how to date a Cambion. The curiosity was there, but not enough to drink the Kool-Aid. However, the look on Alicia's face was well worth the argument. That buoyant light returned to her eyes as she gushed over the male character. She opened her bag and handed me her book.
I skimmed down the page, singling out random passages. The girl in me giggled over the corny dialogue and profession of undying love. Caleb never said anything that sweet to me. For a minute, I actually thought the book wasn't that bad. If it could bring a smile to Alicia's face and get her to read voluntarily, then there had to be some merit to it.
That is, until John Adams's wife walked by with her bonnet and apron, and peeked over my shoulder. “Oh, I love that book. Nicolas Damien is so hot!”
“Isn't he?” Alicia's eyes swelled as if finding her missing soul mate.
“I saw online that they're turning
Specter
into a movie. Can you believe it? I'm so excited!” The woman bounced in her buckled shoes.
Alicia's mouth fell open. “No way!”
“Oh yeah! Here, I'll Google it.” The woman dug inside her petticoat and whipped out her BlackBerry.
And with that, my momentary insanity ended. It was one thing for kids to bug out, but adults had no excuse for their mania. Handing Alicia the book, I went back to work, leaving the two ghost chasers to compare notes.
At the main doors, I caught the feeling of someone watching me. The vibe had me looking over my shoulder toward the adjacent building. A man stood in front of a women's clothing store, ogling me in candid fascination. He all but licked his chops as he stared, his lips pulled into a smile that I knew from anywhere.
“Caleb?” I moved closer, trying to see his face clearly while weaving through foot traffic. The need to just touch him took top priority in my brain. Standing mere feet away, I just couldn't get close enough. Before I could reach him, he was gone, leaving no trail to follow.
Maybe he entered the department store without me noticing. But why would he stare me down only to run from me? Though miffed by his sudden flakiness, I didn't give it much thought.
At least, not until I saw Caleb ten seconds later, ringing up customers in the music department. Judging from the items shoved into the store bag, it was a lengthy transaction. I looked to the main doors, then to the music section, and did a double take. There was no way he could have passed me to get to his side of the store that quickly. I was sure the man who had been watching me was real, as was the unyielding need to go to him. The more I thought about it, the more that feeling drained from my memory.
Rubbing my temples, I prayed for quitting time and some much-needed sleep. I must have been seeing things, but considering the man in question, not a whole lot surprised me anymore.

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