Becoming a Legend

Becoming a Legend

Copyright © 2013 by B. Kristin McMichael

All rights reserved.

June 5th, 2013

Lexia Press

P.O. Box
982 

Worthington
, OH 43085 

eBook ISBN-10: 0-9891218-2-8

eBook ISBN-13: 978-0-9891218-2-8

Cover design: Ravven, http://www.ravven.com

Editor: Kathie Middlemiss of Kat’s Eye Editing

This book is licensed for your personal use only. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means without written permission of the author. All names, characters, and places are fiction and any resemblance to real, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Summary: Arianna now has to decide her fate once and for all; does she really want to be the legend?

Books By This AUTHOR

To Stand Beside Her

The Blue Eyes Trilogy

The Legend of the Blue Eyes

Becoming a Legend

Winning the Legend
(Coming Fall 2013)

Learning my fate was the first task.

Becoming my fate was
a completely a different story.—Ari

ONE

Arianna Grace stepped on the br
ake much harder than she expected, and the occupants of the car all jolted against their seat belts. Arianna blushed as she put the car into park. She had officially been driving with her permit for three months now, but she still couldn’t step softly enough on the brake to keep everyone from jerking forward each time.

“
Sorry about that,” she said with a giggle.

Thomas Collins scowled in the back seat, being
shaken out of the book from which he was studying. Thomas’ one year stint as Arianna’s personal guard was coming to an end in less than two weeks, and he was anxious to get on with his life. Part of ‘getting on with life’ included getting his grades back up so that he could get into a good college.

“
Stop apologizing,” Andrew Lucan said, flipping his dark curls out of his face. Andrew was a constant puzzle to Arianna. His rocker image, with ripped jeans and a t-shirt, was at odds with his soft-spoken manner around Arianna. “Everyone is a bit choppy when just learning to drive.” Arianna nodded, not completely reassured. Legally, Andrew was old enough, at eighteen, to be teaching her how to drive, but he was really only a year older than Arianna.

“D
o you have a date for your birthday party at Gabriel’s yet?” Andrew asked as nonchalantly as he could, stretching his arms to the ceiling of the car and flexing his nicely-shaped arms. Arianna tried not to look. After the birthday party her uncle threw year ago, she already knew that there was some sort of physical attraction between her and Andrew. Since last year, she had tried her best to keep everything in the realm of friendship, because everyone she was surrounded by tended to view Andrew as the enemy.

“
No, are you asking?” Arianna teased, wondering if he knew how good he looked. Arianna tried to stifle her sigh. The physical attraction was still there. Now after a year of meeting up with him, always with a guard present and thankfully never alone, she actually considered Andrew her friend as well.

“
Only if you’d say yes,” he replied. Andrew looked across the movie theater parking lot that they were now sitting in. After concentrating for only a few seconds, Andrew looked back to Arianna, who refused to look in the same direction.

“
You didn’t tell him that you were out with me?” Andrew asked.

“
Um, no,” Arianna replied. Thomas’ head snapped up from the back seat.

“
Not again,” Thomas complained quietly to himself.

“
Ari, how is he ever going to trust me if you keep running around behind his back to see me?” Andrew scolded. Technically, there was no running involved, since they were driving, but Arianna didn’t think it was appropriate to add that.

“
He’s never going to trust you.” Arianna wanted to elaborate as to why but had promised Devin she wouldn’t. Devin and Andrew were exact opposites in every way possible. Everything about them was at odds, the bold Andrew to the clean-cut, all-American Devin. They were two sides to a war that Arianna hoped she could end by being the head of both sides.

Arianna quickly glanced over to Devin Alexander. He looked perfectly relaxed
, leaning against his car, staring down the road they drove in on. His sandy blond hair drifted perfectly over his sky blue eyes. To the outside world, he was just a teen waiting for someone, probably to meet up with at the theater. A cool, collected teen standing around on a brisk spring day in just a t-shirt and jeans—his normal attire. But Arianna knew otherwise. His arms crossed over his chest loosely, but his hands were slightly too tightly pressed against his biceps. His thoughtful, aloof look was actually masking his worried, and angry, thoughts. He seemed to be leaning against the car, but he was actually very tense, ready to spring across the parking lot in an instant.

Andrew raised an eyebrow to question Arianna
, but chose to not vocalize his opinion. “You’ll be back next week for the Grace party?” Andrew asked, avoiding the subject of Devin.

“
Yep, as soon as I can get away from the Randolph estate and their planned birthday party.” Arianna turned the car off.

“
That will give you one more day to practice before your test?” Andrew already knew the test date, but was trying to stall her from leaving. He really did want to be her date for the Grace party, and wished she would finally take him seriously.

“
Yes, if you can help me practice just a bit more. I really want to get my license before I turn seventeen, but two days after will have to do,” Arianna complained. Everything that had happened in the last year had made it impossible for her to get any time to practice driving. She knew the theory of driving well enough from classes she had taken before she even turned sixteen, but experience was an area left untouched. She only saw her guardians Dean and Lilly a few days a week, and they were always busy with the diner they owned. The rest of the week, she was living at her rich late grandfather’s estate. There was no reason to drive anywhere with chauffeurs driving anything that had more than two wheels.

“
Yes, but you must promise me that next time you’ll tell Devin.” Andrew nodded across the empty parking lot to his rival. Andrew knew that Arianna would never forgive him if he hurt Devin, and running around behind her guard’s back would eventually lead to a confrontation which he was most likely to win.

“
Why? He doesn’t tell me where he’s going, why should I tell him?” Arianna was always stuck between Devin and Andrew. Both cared for her greatly, but neither really trusted the other.

“
Ari.” Andrew sighed. “I need you to behave. Devin will never trust me if you insist on sneaking around like this.” Andrew tried to reiterate his position in that she needed to tell Devin about her meetings with him. Andrew was a night human, baku to be exact, and Devin was not. Trust was hard to come by, being that a baku night human killed Devin’s family when he was a kid. Andrew knew this much, but was unaware of the extent of the hate Devin had for Andrew particularly.

“
And what do you need his trust for?” In the baku community, Andrew ranked just below Arianna and her uncle Gabriel. Andrew didn’t reply, so Arianna changed the subject. “The answer to your question about being my date is yes.” Andrew still didn’t reply, but she felt the happiness behind his scowl. “Then I’ll see you next week?” Arianna asked awkwardly, knowing exactly what he was feeling but pretending not to. On her previous birthday, Arianna became a night human, a very special night human. While night humans were classified into four distinct races, Arianna was a mixture of two and was the only one like that who existed. One of her many new powers included feeling what everyone around her felt.

“
Yes, same time, same place,” Andrew added. He reached across the seat before she could open the door and slightly touched her face. She was getting used to the surge of emotion she felt at the touch of skin in general, but his was always stronger than most.

Arianna wanted to break eye contact
, but in doing so, he would just send even more feelings her way. Arianna reached up and touched his hand. He smiled at the reactions that he read from her, knowing that his need of her was reciprocated. The pull of Andrew was like a magnet.

Arianna opened the door and stepped out of the vehicle. Closing the door
, she turned to begin her trek across the parking lot to the person waiting for her. Thomas followed Arianna, not waiting to get between them as they began to communicate with their eyes only. Even without the ability to read emotions like the baku night humans, Thomas knew that Devin was angry with Arianna and she was with him. Devin remained casually leaning against the car, now staring at Andrew as he drove away.

“
Next time, tell me before you change your plans,” Devin said, opening the back door of the car for Arianna.

“You’re
not my parent,” Arianna argued, not getting into the car. Arianna’s parents were dead for crossing the line between the races of night humans. One had been baku and other dearg-dul. Their union created Arianna, who was a mixture of both.

“
How am I supposed to keep you safe if you don’t listen to me?” Devin gripped the car door to keep from moving forward.

“
If you haven’t noticed by now, I can keep myself safe,” Arianna complained. Devin stood, holding the door open for her. Thomas waited behind, not moving until Arianna did. Arianna sighed as she got no response from Devin and slid into the seat.