The weekend was boring like hell, except for the times Blake kept me busy with text messages.
On Monday I found him in the gym. We obviously kissed a long time and he told me just how much he’d missed me. It always made my stomach flipped and warmed my gut.
I hated when the school bell rang.
The classes dragged till lunch time.
I could feel Chloë’s eyes on me sitting at their usual table surrounded by cheerleaders and Jocks.
Blake was nowhere to be seen, either, and I took out my lunch and started eating with Wuthering Heights in my hand, reading.
The words didn’t form pictures in my mind as Blake took up all the space. Where the hell was he?
I put the book down, as it was useless to read. The chair scraped next to me and my lips curved into a smile as the warmth in my core returned.
His scent clouded my thoughts. Everything about him was hypnotic.
He leaned over in his chair, resting his arms on his thighs. “Come with me.”
“Where?”
A grin formed on his lips.
“Blake, the school is going to phone my dad and then we are going to be in huge poop.”
“Oh, will you stop worrying so much? Let’s go.”
He got up, and like a magnet, I followed. I put my half-eaten sandwich back in the lunch box and chucked it in my bag.
We met the blond guy from yesterday at the school’s entrance.
“Thanks, Jace,” Blake said as I followed them to the parking lot.
“Where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise,” Blake answered.
“I have to be back—”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Jace laughed as we reached his jeep, and Blake opened the back for me. I scooted into the seat and he closed the door as he jumped in the front.
How the hell is this boy going to graduate while skipping so many classes?
Jace started the jeep and music blared from the radio as I stared out the window. My heart bounced in my chest, like a bird trapped inside a cage.
I could already hear my father’s tone, disappointment dripping from his words.
Blake and Jace spoke as my worries grew about Dad finding out that I’d been skipping school because of a boy.
The car stopped inside a driveway. It must be Blake’s house. It was beautiful.
“Thanks, Bud. See you later.”
“You want me to pick you up before school comes out?”
“No, I’ll take her back before her father finds out.”
Jace turned around in his seat as I grabbed my bag and put the strap over my shoulder. “Enjoy, Elena.”
Enjoy what? Sex was the only thing that scrambled my thoughts and my body reacted in heat waves again.
I scooted out of the seat when Blake had opened the door and exited the car. Jace reversed out of the driveway and drove back to school.
I took a deep breath and blew it out hard.
“Will you relax? You are going to be fine.” Blake grinned.
“I’d like to hear what you are going to spin when the principal phones my dad, Blake.”
“Well, if he does, the problem is solved.”
“That is what you think. My dad is going to have a hernia.”
“It can only last that long.”
I rolled my eyes as I followed him up the stairs.
He opened the door and yelled, “Dad.”
“Crap, your dad is here.”
Blake chuckled. This wasn’t funny.
“Office.” A male’s voice came from the room at the corner of the kitchen. Wooden cupboards with stainless steel appliances and a shiny black-handle kettle on the stove whistled. Blake walked over to turn off the gas.
“Yeah, I’m going to need you to come out.” Blake put his bag down on the marble kitchen counter.
A lounge with lamps on end tables, with a coffee mug still on the table, found my eyes. A huge TV mounted to the wall with a DVD player in the middle of a surround system and speakers welcomed me.
The wheels of a chair on wooden floors, and the footsteps were soft. “So how did it?” His dad stopped in mid-sentence as his hazel brown eyes landed on me. He had a slight scar on one of his eyebrows and looked an awful lot like his son. He seemed way too young to be a father. His raven hair carried a few silver strands, but not a lot. He kept staring at me, which made my gaze flickered to Blake.
“I want to introduce you to Elena Watkins.”
Oh, crap.
His dad closed his eyes and shook his head as a small smile curved at the corner of his lips. He opened his eyes and stared at Blake.
“Oh, come on. We both know I don’t need this school.”
“She might, Blake.” He walked toward me, reached out his hand. There was a slight tremble, and I wondered if he had a mild Parkinson.
I grabbed his warm hand.
“Nice to meet you, Elena. My name is Robert, and I’m Blake’s father.”
“You already know my name,” I mumbled, and Blake chuckled.
“I told you, you are stuck with me.”
His dad grinned and let go of my hand. “Can I get you guys something to eat?”
“Nope,” Blake said as he opened the top of the cupboard in the kitchen and took out a party size crisp pack and a coke from the fridge. He poured two glasses before putting the coke back in the fridge.
With the packet of crisp under his arm and the cokes in his hand, I followed him up a fancy staircase.
His father spoke to him in another language, which he chuckled and said something back.
He speaks a different language?
I walked in first to his room as he waited by the door. It was quite neat for a boy.
His bed was enormous, with dark and gray bedding. Framed pictures of the friends at a party he already attended with a class schedule hang from a cork board.
A rug broke the wooden floorboards. He had a freaking walk-in closet.
My eyes landed on an energy drink on top of his desk in front of the window with the mother of a beanbag in the corner.
He put the two cokes on the table. My heart bounced inside my chest, and Blake grinned at me.
“Why are you grinning like that?”
“Nothing, here.” He handed me the one coke, and I sipped as my eyes landed on a dark blue hoodie hanging from a hook behind his door.
“Sit,” he said.
“Yes, boss.” I took off my coat as it was warm in his room. He put his glass of coke on the night table and pulled off his coat, too. My eyes grew as his muscles pressed against the seams.
I plopped into the chair in front of his desk as hot flushes rolled off my body. My eyes skidded to the content of my glass.
This guy was seriously beautiful.
“So you speak another language?” I hoped my hormones were going to stay in tack. His dad was here, so I doubted the thought crossed his mind.
“Yeah, I do.”
“Which is?”
“An ancient dialect of Latin.”
My eyebrows curved. “Latin, humph.”
He smiled fiddling with his radio and soft music played from the speakers. He walked over to me.
My heart felt as if it would explode out of my chest. His fingers curled around the back of my head, lowering his face, and pressed his warm lips on mine.
My hormones climbed a few levels higher with the tingling sensation his lips transferred to me. What was that? Was all kisses like that? Was it normal? My curiosity disappeared as his tongue played with mine. It became easier, this kissing thing, and I have to admit. I loved it.
The warmth in my core built up as the kiss deepened.
When our lips broke, it felt way too soon. My eyes stayed closed, and Blake chuckled.
“Stop laughing at me.” I opened my eyes. “I don’t kiss all the guys I meet.”
“I’m not laughing at your expense, believe me.” He walked over to his bed and puffed out a few pillows and placed it behind his back, resting against it.
His one foot was on top of his bed, while the other one was touching the ground.
Why did he have to be so beautiful? “So your father doesn’t mind that you skip school?”
“Nope, I already did the work last year.”
“Last year?”
“Home school, but I wanted to graduate from a normal school. Have the authentic experience of graduating, wearing the toga and everything. Prom, too.”
“So you are redoing the last few months just to graduate and go to prom?”
“Yeah.”
“What is wrong with you?”
He laughed at the sarcastic tone in my voice. “I like school.”
“That is over educating yourself. I wish I was done.” I took a sip of my coke as my eyes flickered to the images on the cork-board to find out what made Blake tick.
“Why?”
“Because then maybe I can go to an Art school.” My tone dripped from sadness.
His gaze softened a bit as his eyebrows pulled together.
He moved a few inches away from the nightstand and tapped on the spot next to him.
I walked over, took off my shoes, and lay down next to him. Heat radiated from him and he smelled so freaking good. It made my head foggy.
He asked me about art school, and I told him about all the art teachers I’d met, and how they were all the same. When they see my art pieces, they wanted to pull strings. My dad almost fell for it once. He even spoke to the principal and the teacher about a scholarship to a prestigious art school in California. I thought he would budge, but we hit the road the next day. It was so sudden.
We spoke about plenty of things. Well, I did most of the talking and it was everything about my life and all the disappointments that I had to endure. I almost gave up art because every time we left, there wasn’t time to pack up my art.
We spoke about all the dreadful driving I had to endure on the trips. How paranoid my father was that we almost got into accidents, and nothing was even following us.
I hated how my life sounded.
“And you said your life is boring.”
I chuckled. “It is. I don’t have a life because of it.”
“I hear you. You will have it soon. I’m not going anywhere.” He closed the gap between us and kissed me again.
It was so dangerous to do this kissing thing on top of his bed. The way I was with him, I wouldn’t even know if he disposed of my clothes, to be honest. He could take advantage of me and I would be too out of it to say anything.
The kiss broke way too soon. I could kiss him forever.
My eyes opened, and I found him staring at me through half moon lids. His peacock blue eyes stared behind thick lashes. Why did I dream of him with red eyes?
He stroked my cheek with his thumb. It feels so good.
“Look, there is something I have to tell you.” All the playfulness disappeared from his tone.
“Crap, are you married?”
He chuckled. “No, not married, but it’s still kind of disturbing.”
“Disturbing?”
“I’m not from here.”
“No kidding.”
A chuckle escaped his lips. “No, I mean I’m not from this world, and neither are you.”
I got his meaning, as I never felt that I belonged either. “I know,” I said.
His eyebrows furrowed. “You know?”
“Well, I don’t know, but I get your meaning.”
He squinted. “Get my meaning?”
“Half of the time I feel I don’t belong either. It must be the reason we are so drawn to one another,” I babbled. As I am not Chloë. But I didn’t say that part out loud. “I mean we have the same bracelets.”
He huffed. “Yeah, about that. We don’t.”
My gaze flickered back to him. I saw that the bracelets were identical. “What?”
“Get your bracelet, there is something I need to show you.”
I climbed off his bed and went over to my bag that stood next to the desk and opened the pocket. I took out the bracelet and went back to Blake.
He took his bracelet off as I sat on my knees on top of his bed.
He sat up straight and put his bracelet on my leg and grabbed mine, putting it above his.
“They are the same.”
His lips curved. “Whatever happens, you need to hear me out and know that I’m not going anywhere. Yes, the bracelets look the same, Elena, but it’s not two, it’s only one.”
My eyes flickered to both. What was he saying? He didn’t see my bracelet at all? He freaking touched it yesterday and now when he put it on my leg.
“There are two bracelets, Blake.”
“Now, there is, yes. I don’t know how this happened.”
“Probably because we bought it at the same place.”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t buy mine, I made it.”
My eyebrows furrowed as I stared at him. What was he saying?
He picked up his and turned it around. “Look,” he said and lifted a flap that I didn’t know could lift. Underneath were the initials B S L burned into the leather.
He picked up mine and flipped it around. He lifted the same flap and the same burned initials in the leather hid underneath.
I got his meaning. It was the same bracelet, but I didn’t understand… “How?”
“Magic.”
“Magic?” Was he nuts?
He’s lips curved upward at the corner. “I know what that sounds like. You need to listen and don’t freak out. I’m not from this world, Elena, and—”
My phone rang. “Fuck.” The cuss word slipped out.
“Don’t answer it.”
“It’s my dad.” My heart pounded, not just because of Herbert Watkins finding out that I was skipping school, but because I think he meant literally that he wasn’t from here.
I took out my phone, and Dad’s name flashed on the screen.
Crap! I brushed my fingers through my hair. Dad was going to kill me.
“Don’t answer!” Blake begged again as I hit the green button.
“Dad?”
“Where are you?”
“I’m okay.”
“Elena, it’s school. Can you imagine what I’m going through! Where the hell are you? You know better.”
“Do I?”
“Don’t start with this. Get your butt back to school, and you are grounded. We will talk later about this.”
He cut the call, and I put my phone back in my pocket. “I’m sorry. I have to get back to school.”
He nodded and got up from the bed. “I told you not to answer.”
“Yeah, he would’ve phoned the police and then the shit would’ve been ten times worse.” Tears pricked my eyes as I pulled on my coat. I couldn’t cry in front of Blake.
Dad was probably going to leave tonight. My heart pounded and my gut turned.
“Relax, okay. I’m not going anywhere.” Blake wore his coat too.
I huffed. You say that now.
We walked out of his room, and Blake called his father. They spoke in Latin again and it was so weird hearing the words slipping from his lips.
His dad nodded and took his keys from the holder hanging against the wall.
Blake wrapped his hand around mine as we followed his dad walking into the garage.
The slight smell of gas hung in the air and the cold from the concrete rising through the soles of my shoes as I walked to the black Range Rover, taking up half of the garage.
Blake opened the back door, and I jumped in. He closed it after I climbed in and rushed around the SUV and opened the front door and sat next to his father, who was behind the steering wheel.
My heart felt as if it was going to bounce out of my throat. What was Dad going to do?
Blake and his father kept talking in their native tongue. I thought priests were the only ones that used Latin to cast out evil spirits.
Dad packing tonight, taking my phone that I wouldn’t be able to inform Blake, jumped through my thoughts. The twirling in my gut and the pounding of my heart caused a lot of nausea.
I wiped a stray tear as Robert drove into the school’s parking lot.
“I’m so sorry about this,” I apologized to Blake’s father. The guy was so cool about all of this. I wished he could rub off on Dad.
“Don’t apologize. I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry about.” I smiled as Blake opened the door for me.
I got out, and he closed the door.
My gaze landed on my father’s pickup, but he wasn’t inside.
“I’m sure he is going to take my phone, so if I’m not at school tomorrow, know that he had another episode and left.”
“You are such a drama queen.” He gave me a lopsided smile, which made me want to kiss him.
“I’m not. You don’t know my father, Blake.”
“Well, I’m going to meet him.”
“Blake!”
He smiled. “Elena, I told you, you are not alone in this.”
He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the pickup. This guy was playing on death’s front porch.
Dad walked out of the school with the principal at his side. His jaw muscles pumped as he walked with huge strides toward us.
“Mr. Watkins may I—”
He grabbed Blake and pushed him against Jace’s jeep. Blake didn’t even flinch.
“I don’t know who the hell you are, but you stay away from my daughter. Get in the pickup, Elena.” He let go of Blake.
“Dad, please.”
“Can I explain—”
“I said, get in the pickup, we are leaving.” Dad ignored Blake.
“With all respect—” Blake tried again.
“Stop, you do not know what you are messing with, boy.” He looked at me. “Get in the pickup,” he said and looked back at Blake. “It’s for your own good.”
“Dad, please!”
“Elena, don’t,” Dad warned.
“Elena, stop, I got this,” Blake said.
“No, just go, okay. I’ll speak to you later.”
“Don’t do this.” Blake walked backward away from me. “Elena!”
“I’ll be okay, just go.”
He turned around and walked away as Dad frowned at him and then looked at me “What were you thinking?”
“Please, Dad. You don’t understand.” My voice broke as my heart sped up like crazy.
“I told you not to date, Elena. I told you not to do this. Why, why don’t you listen to me?”
“Because you are asking the impossible of me. I like him.”
“Oh, please. He walked away.” Dad pointed with his hand toward Blake.
“Because he has a weird sense of respect. I ask him and he does it.”
“What?” My father squinted, turning his back to the black range rover.
“I know how it sounds, and it’s weird, but…” My eyes caught Blake’s father walking up to my dad. “Oh, crap.”
Dad turned around. He sort of froze when he saw Blake’s dad.
“Elena, get in the pickup. I need to speak to your father,” Robert said.
I nodded and got into the truck.
I could still hear them speaking. None of the words made sense until I realized they spoke Latin. Dad didn’t speak another language.
What was this?
The conversation got heated and Dad replied, the thoughts in my head went crazy again. How the hell does he know Latin? When did he learn this?
A smack on the roof of the pick up made me jump. The words that left Robert’s mouth were hissy. He spoke the last word, and then he turned around and walked away.
I kept staring at Robert, walking to his Range Rover as the driver’s door opened and Dad slid into the seat.
My eyes flickered to Dad. He just sat there.
“You know him?”
“He is an old acquaintance.”
“An old acquaintance? What the hell is going on, Dad? How do you know Blake’s father?”
My father closed his eyes and sighed. “I’ll tell you everything later. I promise. But right now, we have to leave.”
“I’m not going anywhere!”
“Elena, please. It’s more complicated than you think.”
“No, enough! I’m not leaving.”
“Well, you have no choice.”
A hooter honked behind us, and I looked back through the back window. Robert and Blake waited for Dad.
He switched on the engine and pulled out of his spot and drove home.
In the rear-view mirror, the Range Rover kept behind us. They were following us. What the hell did any of this mean? I couldn’t make out one thought as they all spoke in my head at the same time. I shut down my thoughts, and the babble faded. “How do you know his dad?”
“From a long time ago. How long has this thing with him been going on?”
“Not long. It just started. I tried to get him to back off, but he kept returning, making it harder.”
Dad nodded.
“You know Blake?”
“Not well.” He pulled into the farm and stopped in front of the barn. Robert’s Range Rover pulled in next to us.
I climbed out as Blake kept sitting in the passenger seat.
Robert climbed out of his Range Rover and looked at me. “Stop ordering him away from you, Elena.”
“What?”
“Fix it. He can’t follow if you tell him to go.”
I frowned and then my eyes flickered to Blake, who was busy on his phone.
I walked around the Range Rover to the passenger side as Dad and Robert went into the house and opened his door.
“I thought you were going to stop doing that?”
“Doing what?” I asked.
He looked at me and his jaw muscles were pumping. My heart pounded fast as confusion blinded me.
“Telling me what to do?”
“People do it all the time, Blake. It doesn’t mean the other one has to follow through.”
“Well, I’m not like other people. Stop doing that!”
I nodded.
He climbed out. He was so weird.
“How does your dad know mine?”
“Long story. I promised that I’m not going anywhere, didn’t I?”
“What is going on?” I couldn’t take it anymore. What did any of this mean?
“I tried to tell you, and we are not happy that your dad refused to tell you the truth.”
“Wait, what?”
“Let’s go.”
The truth? About what?
He grabbed my hand and pulled me to the house. We walked up the few steps leading to the front door and a hefty conversation in Latin was busy taking place. Dad was standing behind the kitchen counter, opening a bottle of whiskey and pouring in more than a double on ice.
I didn’t understand a single word, but Blake’s dad wasn’t happy about something.
Then Dad slammed his palm on the table, making me jump. Blake’s hand squeezed mine. Robert listened. Dad kept waving air and when they discovered we were inside the house, they both stopped.
Dad addressed Blake, and he huffed. Blake spoke to Dad in Latin and he sounded so frustrated.
Dad retaliated with a few foreign words.
“Enough!” I yelled. “What the hell is going on!”
