BlackMoon Beginnings (27 page)

I hear the sounds of metal clanking against
metal around us. The boys are all training with swords. Tom joins
us after a while and helps train us with weaponry. Neither one of
us can seem to get the hang of it. It doesn’t come as naturally to
us as it does for the guys. My arms are starting to cramp up.
That’s one of the reasons why I hate training with the swords. My
strength is improving, but I’m still not used to holding a large
metal weapon in my hands.

When my arm starts to feel like jello, Claire
walks outside. “Maybe it’s time for a break. You guys have been out
here for a while. I cut up some watermelon.” She winks at me,
before turning around and going back into the house.

I hand my sword to Tom and follow Claire.

There is a giant bowl of watermelon in the
middle of the island. Grabbing a few pieces, I move out the way,
knowing that the guys will probably devour it before anyone else
gets any. Emma and I stand off to the side, slowly eating our
pieces. When I finish, I wash my hands and walk back to the island
to chat with everyone else. Emma soon joins me, bumping shoulders
with David.

I’m starting to get a headache, from wearing
my hair so tight in the ponytail. Pulling my hair out of it, I
shake my head and run my fingers through my almost waist-length
hair, trying to tame it. Handing the ponytail to Emma, I realize
that I’m being watched.

“What?”

“It’s like a freaking shampoo commercial. How
the heck do you do it?” Emma asks.

“Do what?”

“I’m a completely straight girl and I’m
attracted to you right now. I don’t want to know what these guys
are thinking.”

“Well, I could tell you what they’re
thinking.” I myself want to know. I don’t understand what she is
getting at.

“Please don’t,” says Colton, shaking his
head.

“I second that,” agrees Liam. Logan just
nods.

“Okay…I don’t really know what just happened
here, but I’m going to go change.”

In the room, I lock the door and change out
of the athletic clothing and am standing in a pair of jean shorts
and a bra, looking for a shirt.

“Hmm,” someone clears their throat behind me.
Jumping around, I find Larkin staring at me.

“Can’t you knock or something?” I demand. It
is rude to just show up like that without giving any notice.

“I could, but that’s no fun.” His smile
widens and I watch as his eyes slowly travel down my body. “Would
you like to finish getting dressed?”

“What?” I look down and gasp. I’m still not
wearing a shirt. I’m standing in front of Larkin in nothing but a
black lacy bra. Quickly, I try to cover my chest. I notice that
Larkin’s eyes linger on the long scar under my ribs. “Oh my gosh.”
I turn around and grab the first t-shirt I find, which is just a
plain black form fitting shirt. Throwing it on, I turn around and
grab Larkin’s arm, pulling him downstairs.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Assuming you probably wouldn’t just show up
unless you had something important to say, I’m taking you
downstairs, so you can just tell everyone at once.”

Entering the kitchen, I announce, “Look who
just popped into my room while I was changing.”

“What?” Colton stands up and glares at
Larkin.

“Oh, sit down pretty boy. She was
almost
fully dressed.” He smirks at me. With my arms
crossed, I motion for him to continue. “I have important news.”
When he has our attention, he continues, “Ryanne, Dravin’s coming
for you again. He doesn’t know where you are exactly, but he’ll
find out soon enough. I’ve tried to…”

“What? It’s
too
early. The leaves
haven’t started changing yet,” I interrupt what he is saying. I’ve
had this vision before, but it was different. What changed?

“What are you talking about?” Larkin asks
me.

“I had a vision that you were telling me that
exact thing. Is he also going to try to rig the house to blow
up?”

“Well….yeah. He’s going to try.”

“When?”

“I’d give it about a week. Maybe a little
more. Soon though.”

Colton and Liam curse, Logan and David both
just shake their heads, and Emma reaches out and grabs my arm.
Dravin is coming for me. I always knew he was, but I thought I
could just live happily until the day actually came. I thought I
would know when he was searching for me—when he was close. I feel
more prepared this time, but still it scares me that he is trying
so hard to get me. I can hear the wind outside start to pick up,
but I can’t control it. When I think about Dravin, my thoughts
drift towards Adam. Adam is working for him and both want to harm
me.

Tom and Claire run into the room, “What’s
wrong? The weather’s changing,” says Claire.

Taking a deep breath, I try to control my
emotions. I walk over to Larkin. “It’s fine. We’ve been training.
We knew that this would happen. It’s just a little sooner than I
originally thought. Thanks for telling us. Please don’t get caught.
I don’t want you to get hurt because you are helping us.”

“Don’t worry about me. Just try to keep
safe.” With that, he blinks out of the room. I return to the spot,
I was standing in before. Closing my eyes, I concentrate on calming
down. I feel someone start rubbing my back.

“Don’t worry. We’ll do everything to make
sure Dravin doesn’t get you. We’ll keep you safe,” says Colton.

“Colton, it’s not herself that she’s worried
about.” Liam says, “She’s worried about all of us.”

I lift my head and look at him, “Can you read
minds too?”

“No, I just know you.”

“Ok, so what are we going to do?” Logan
demands.

All eyes look at Claire. “We stay here.
There’s not a whole lot we can do at this moment. You guys can
continue training. My intuition is telling me that we need to
remain here.”

“That’s all we’re going to do? Stay here and
let Dravin come to us?” Colton yells at Claire. I’d never seen him
talk back to his aunt before.

I reach out and grab his arm, bringing his
attention to me and away from Claire. “It’s the best thing to do
right now. You knew that he was coming.”

“Yes, but I thought that we would come up
with a plan to get away safely. Not just stay here, waiting. Do you
want to get captured again?” I can feel the anger radiating off of
him. He’s not yelling anymore, but his tone is still harsh.

“No, but we can’t keep running. He’s going to
catch up to us sooner or later.”

He hits the table behind me, scaring me. I
lean back as he takes a step closer to me. I can see the anger in
his gorgeous green eyes melt away to something else. No one has
ever looked at me like that. Looking down at me, his voice lowers
and is laced with concern. “I can’t watch him take you again, Ry. I
just can’t.” His voice is barely louder than a whisper. I know he
is pleading with me, begging me to understand, but I’ve accepted
that the war is going to come after me. No matter how fast I run
away, it will always find me.

He is standing so close to me that I can
smell his cologne. He has me caged between his body and the table
behind me and his breath is hitting my face. I draw my gaze from
his eyes down to his mouth. I know that this really isn’t the time
for that, but I can’t help it. I realize now how important this guy
is to me. Why did I refuse him twice before? He truly cares about
me; otherwise, he wouldn’t be so angry. I lift my eyes back up to
his and see him watching me. It feels like time stops. I don’t
think about anything else, but how close he is standing to me. His
body heat is radiating off of him and hitting me. I try to control
my breathing, while the butterflies in my stomach flutter out of
control. I want him to lean down and kiss me.

Someone behind me sneezes, bringing my
attention back to my surroundings, but I don’t remove my eyes from
Colton. He looks over my head at the room around us and slowly
exhales. He leans closer to me as he uses his arms to push away
from the table. Stepping away, he runs his hand through his hair.
Without looking back at me, he shakes his head and walks out of the
room. I follow him with my eyes, until he is out of sight.

“He’ll come around,” Claire comes over to me
and gives me a hug.

Emma runs over and pulls me away from Claire
and out of the room. “Oh. My. Gosh. I know that look on your face!”
I start blushing and try looking everywhere but at her.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I
mumble, hoping that she will drop the conversation, and start
walking away.

Running after me, she says, “You’re totally
in love with Colton!” In the quiet hallway, she might as well have
screamed that.

“Shhh! You don’t have to tell the whole
world.”

She squeaks and starts jumping, “This is so
exciting!”

“No it’s not. You can’t say anything. I’ve
kept your secret about David. You have to keep mine. Please, Emma.
Don’t say anything. Let me figure out what is going on first.”

As she stares at me, I can see the gears
turning in her head. She really wants to meddle, but respects my
wishes. I have done what she asked me, so now she has to do what I
ask of her.

Linking our arms together, she starts pulling
me towards the entertainment room. “Come on, let’s go watch a
romantic comedy and dwell on the fact that our lives are nothing
like that.”

Colton seems to be the one doing the avoiding
this time. The only time I see him is when we are training or if we
ever watch a movie. That seems to be our group thing. It reminds me
of Friends. Instead of Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Chandler, Joey and
Ross meeting in the Central Perk for coffee, we all meet in the
entertainment room for a movie. During these times, I sit with Liam
while Colton sits brooding on the couch, on the farthest end from
me.

While watching The Princess Bride, David
calls from his seat across from me, “Ryanne, I look nothing like
André the giant.”

“Oh my gosh. I totally forgot that I called
you that! How did you remember that? That feels like forever ago.”
During one of my first conversations with David, I called him André
the giant right before he showed me the library at their home.

Tapping on his head, he says, “I have an
excellent memory, oh little one.” I laugh and lean back against
Liam. He has become my comfort zone. He doesn’t talk much, but he
always seems to know what I am thinking and what I need to hear. I
feel my eyes drift towards Colton; just looking at him makes my
heart race. I don’t understand why he is ignoring me. I hope that
he comes to his senses soon. Liam squeezes my shoulder and I bring
my attention back to the movie.

I always loved this movie, so it isn’t hard
for me to become glued to the screen, unlike a lot of the movies we
usually watch. I laugh every time Wesley says “You warthog-faced
buffoon.” This time my laugh is accompanied by another’s. I
instantly tense, recognizing the voice standing in the doorway.

“Hey guys, did you miss me?” Natasha sweetly
coos. Walking in the room, she sits incredibly close to Colton. He
doesn’t look at her though; he keeps his attention on the screen.
It sickens me how good they look together. She keeps reaching over
and touching his arm, trying to get his attention. It gives me
great pleasure to see that he isn’t paying any attention to her,
but I’m still angry at her for what she did to our room. My magic
is bubbling to the surface, screaming at me to unleash it.

“I need to go...do…something.” No longer able
to stand being in the same room as her anymore, I get up and walk
out. Colton isn’t encouraging her, but he’s not telling her to stop
it either. Soon, I hear footsteps behind me and find Emma trying to
catch up with me.

“I couldn’t stay in there with her. I’m still
mad at her for what she did to our room. I keep imagining myself
hitting her.” We walk back to our room and change into our training
outfits. After a movie, we always go outside and train. The
sessions are becoming more vigorous lately considering that Dravin
could attack any day now. We have to be prepared for the worst.

“Training time already?” Claire asks while
stirring pasta in a boiling pan.

“We’re a little early. Natasha walked in,
while we were watching a movie. We still aren’t on friendly terms
with her at this moment,” Emma responds as she takes a seat at the
table.

“Ahh, I understand what that’s like.”

“Shoot. I forgot a hair tie again. I’m going
to go grab one.”

Once in my room, I walk over to the
nightstand beside my bed and grab one of the random ones that I
have lying around. I walk back to the entertainment room to see if
anyone is still in there, but he room is empty. I notice that
Colton’s door is open across the hall though. I can probably catch
him before he joins everyone else for training and find out what’s
been wrong lately. I need to know.

I stop in his doorway. The sight in front of
me threatens to bring tears to my eyes. I feel like my heart has
plummeted and crash landed in my stomach. Colton is standing in the
middle of his room, with his hands on Natasha’s hips, kissing
her.

I start to move away, trying not to make any
noises when an arm wraps around my waist. Liam pulls me towards him
and wraps me in a hug, while simultaneously walking down the
hallway. I come back to my senses when we reach the stairs and I am
able to walk down on my own. “I’m sorry you saw that.”

“Saw what?” asks Emma, standing up when she
sees me.

“Nothing.” I say. At the same time, Liam
replies, “Colton kissing Natasha.”

Emma gasped. “No! He wouldn’t. Not
after…”

“It’s fine guys. I knew that I wasn’t good
enough anyways…not compared to someone like her.”

“Ryanne, that’s—” Liam starts to reply when
Colton walks into the room, Natasha trailing behind him, smiling at
me.