Bound, An Arelia LaRue Novel #1 YA Paranormal Romance (23 page)

“
You’ve been holding out on
me.” I grabbed the chocolates out of her hand and tore open the
box. I didn’t care even if they were from Lucus. Chocolate is
chocolate, and in situations like this, it doesn’t matter where it
comes from. Sabrina and I plopped ourselves down on the bed and
rehashed the details of our lost time while inhaling down the
chocolates. I had my sister back.

Chapter 18

Mud fight

After Sabrina and I had finished
devouring the box of chocolates, she claimed that she had a
headache and couldn’t help with dinner. So I went downstairs alone
and prepared myself to say goodbye to the guests. Over the past few
weeks, I had actually grown attached to them, especially Ben who I
thought of as a chubby little brother.

“
Arelia, where did you go?”
Ben came running up to me, his face was smeared with chocolate ice
cream. “My mask is almost dry!”

“
Awesome, you have to show
it to me later.” I gave him a tight hug.

“
What was that for?” He
asked when I finally released him.

“
Nothing, I just want to let
you know how special you are.” I figured that if his parents didn’t
tell him enough someone ought to.

“
You’re acting weird today.”
He gave me a skeptical glance. “I’m gonna have some more ice cream.
Would you like some?”

“
No thanks Ben, I need to go
help with dinner. You shouldn’t be stuffing yourself with ice cream
right now anyways.”

He stuck out his tongue as he walked
away obviously displeased with my opinion on his ice cream
consumption.

The kitchen smelled heavenly as usual.
The food was probably the thing I was going to miss most about
Darkwood. It was going to be pretty hard going back to Hamburger
Helper and Spam, but the honeymoon couldn’t last forever. “Hey
Pierre what’s for dinner?” I asked the plump chef.

“
Grilled shrimp with black
bean cakes and coriander sauce to start. The main dish is
chorizo-stuffed rabbit roulade and panéed leg, toasted angel hair,
escarole, with sherry garlic sauce.” He recited the menu without
taking his eyes off of the stove. “The guests need to be seated in
exactly twenty minutes.”

“
Sounds yummy,” I could feel
drool slipping down the corner of my mouth. “I’ll go get the
guests.” I found the guests sipping pre-dinner cocktails on the
porch. Surprisingly, the rain had stopped an hour ago, and the sun
had come out in full force.

“
Arelia!” Mrs. Scott rushed
up to me almost out of breath. “This can’t be legal, can it?” She
asked as she held up a glass of New Orleans fizz.

“
It’s completely legal, and
you should be enjoying it, you’re on vacation,” I reminded
her.

“
It’s absolutely sinful!”
She took another sip of the creamy cocktail.

As I was talking to Mrs. Scott, I saw
him. My eyes rested on his broad shoulders, unwilling to make eye
contact. Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe. Even though, I was outside
and there was plenty of fresh air, I simply could not let out
another breath. The chatter of the guests disappeared and in that
second it felt as if the only two people on the planet were Lucus
and I. I could feel his eyes on me, begging me to look into them. I
couldn’t do that, I couldn’t allow myself to be hurt any more than
I was. I didn’t want his clarifications, or excuses. He had only
been nice to me for his own purposes. I needed to get out of there.
When I finally managed to exhale, I excused myself and advised the
guests that dinner would be ready in twenty minutes.

I ran into the kitchen and let myself
into the tiny garden. For some reason, the smell of chrysanthemums
always calmed me down. I bent over and smelled them. They reminded
me of grand-mere Bea who always kept a flower pot full of them at
home. They smelled friendly and soothing yet bizarrely melancholy.
There was a bitter-sweetness about them that was consoling. I had
simmered down a bit when I felt his eyes on my back. Of course, he
had followed me.

“
Arelia,” he spoke first. I
refused to turn around or answer. I felt like a fool. I had created
this thing between us in my head. It had been magical and
wonderful, but now it had all fallen apart. I saw Lucus for what he
really was.

A light wind blew through my hair
relieving me from the punishing heat that had overthrown the rain.
I felt his fingers on the nape of my neck. I didn’t want to feel
what I did. I didn’t want electricity to surge through my body, but
it did. I turned around to face him while taking several steps
back.

“
I don’t need your
explanations or your apologies. Thanks for having me here for the
summer even if it was just to use me. You can mail me a check for
the days I did work, I also have a Paypal account, or if it’s
easier for you an electronic transfer would work,” I
rambled.

“
Use you?” Lucus looked as
if I had just thrown dirt on his impeccable white shirt. That’s
exactly what I felt like doing. So I did. I grabbed some wet dirt
from the ground and bitterly threw it at him. It landed with a thud
against his chest, staining his white shirt. It was totally
uncalled for, but it felt so good. It made him less perfect and a
little less threatening.

At first, Lucus looked absolutely
horrified, and I was sure he was going to walk out of the garden.
However, to my surprise, he let out a deep laugh.

“
Go away!” I yelled as I
turned my back at him.

Before I knew it, he flung dirt right
back at me.

“
You jerk!” I turned around.
The dirt hit my shoulder streaking my ugly uniform.

“
If throwing mud at you is
going to make you listen to me, then that’s just what I’ll
do.”

“
I don’t want to talk you
to! I know everything. I know what you really are. You’ve been
lying to me.” I aggressively flung some more dirt at him, it hit
his right leg. “You pretended to be nice to me, to be interested in
me just so I would help you!” I hysterically cried. “You and Ms.
Mae invited me and Sabrina to work at Darkwood for your own
purposes. You repulse me.”

He came closer. “That’s not true
Arelia.”

“
No, don’t come any closer
or I’m going to keep throwing dirt at you.”

“
You can throw all the dirt
you want at me. My skin can turn dark as night, but I’m not leaving
here until you allow me a chance to explain,” he pleaded.
Nervously, he brushed aside the hair that had fallen over his eyes
before stepping closer.

My knees buckled as he came near, I
wanted more than anything to believe him. I wanted to believe that
he hadn’t been using me this whole time. He hadn’t pretended to be
nice to me so that I would free him from mad Marie’s
curse.

“
I didn’t invite you to
Darkwood. Your aunt Mae did because she wanted to see you. She
wanted to meet you again, and for you to discover your
powers.”

“
Sure how convenient, and
you just happened to be nice to me and stalk me for no reason. All
this time, you had no agenda of you own? What are you, some kind of
ghost?”

“
No. I’m not a ghost, I
never died. I am bound to this body and to Darkwood for eternity. I
can’t explain it, but sickness or death cannot touch me. At first,
I took pleasure in it, but as the years crept by and I saw those I
love age and die in front of my eyes, it became a prison. Only the
LaRue family stayed faithful to me all these years, keeping me in
contact with the outside world. I admit, when your aunt first told
me about you, all I could think of was if you would be able to free
me. I wanted to meet you for that purpose only. That’s why I agreed
to let guests into Darkwood this summer and approved that your aunt
Mae could offer you a job here. She knew you would only come if you
were offered a job. She’s been keeping an eye on you and your
grand-mere for years now.”

“
I knew it!” I
screamed.

“
But then I saw you,” he
continued speaking ignoring my little outburst. “I got to know you,
and you made me feel alive again. You pulled me out of my ghost
like existence. The misery I’ve been living with for over a hundred
and sixty years. Before I met you, this plantation had been my
penitentiary, and I had accepted that fate long ago knowing that I
somehow deserved it. I took pleasure in my torment giving up that I
would ever be a part of the outside world again. I waited for
death, but it never came. But then you as if by some miracle
appeared and the darkness evaporated. I wanted so badly for you to
get to know me too, for you to feel something for me.” His eyes
searched mine. They begged for me to understand.

“
I wanted to tell you so
many times, but I was scared that you would reject me. That you
would leave, and my world would once again be cloaked in
wretchedness. I should have been a man, but dread crippled me.
Dread that you would go, and I would never lay eyes on you again.
Horror at the fact that I would be unable to ever feel the way I do
when you’re in the room. You don’t have to free me, but don’t leave
Darkwood like this. Don’t leave angry. Please stay Arelia. I want
you to stay. I can’t stand the thought of never seeing you again,
never arguing with you, never being able to hear what you think or
how you feel. Never eating fried Oreos again, as repulsive as they
may be. But, worst of all, never feeling the sensation my body gets
when it makes contact with yours. Get to know me better. Stay. I
need you to stay. I want to learn every single detail about you.
Please give me a chance to do so. The image of you running around
out there, without ever giving me a second thought is too much to
handle. You must stay.”

His speech had taken the air right out
of my lungs. He was inches away from me. My heart pounded with
intensity as his hand touched me. It was warm and smooth as it
grazed my sweaty cheek and tucked a loose wave behind my ear. A
million thoughts buzzed in my head. Confusion, sheer joy, but the
most powerful of them all was fear. Fear that I would fall in love
with him and end up hurt. Fear that if I broke the curse, I would
never see him again or worse he would die. Fear that I would
venture further into a world that I had no control over. Fear that
I would lose Sabrina if I stayed. So I said the only thing that I
could. “I can’t stay.”

Chapter 19

I never want to be like them

Later that night, as Sabrina was
tormenting me with her snores, I sat on the window ledge in our
room. The moon hung high, and the stars shone bright, but none of
it mattered. I couldn’t stop thinking about how hurt Lucus had
looked when I told him I couldn’t stay, and that I didn’t want
anything to do with him or Darkwood. It was as if I had poured a
scorching cappuccino over his head while smearing hot peppers in
his eyes. I was leaving tomorrow. Sabrina had called her parent’s
driver, and he would be coming to get me at nine
o’clock.

“
You’re running away my
dear.” Erzulie appeared, hovering outside the window. She looked
stunning with a turquoise dress and kohl rimmed eyes.

“
I’m not running away. I’m
being smart. You were wrong Erzulie, I’m not strong enough. You
picked the wrong person to bless. Your powers would have been
better spent somewhere else.”

“
I was not wrong Arelia. You
are strong enough, you’re just scared. Do you intend to live the
rest of your life in fear?” Erzulie questioned.

“
It’s a lot better than what
I’m going through now,” I reasoned.

“
Do you really want to be
like them?” She asked.

“
Who?”

“
Think about it.” With those
ominous words, Erzulie made her exit.

It took me a few minutes to understand
who she was referring to. It was my parents. They were the two
people in the entire world that I had no intention of ever being
like. My father had left long before I had come along. My mother
disappeared the day after she gave birth to me. I could see a
pattern developing here. Maybe it was hereditary. Maybe I was just
meant to run when things got complicated or made me
uncomfortable.

But then I thought about Grand-mere Bea
who never ran. She had chosen to leave Darkwood because she didn’t
feel it was the right place for her, but not once had she abandoned
me. Even though, the life we lived wasn’t luxurious, it had love.
Grand-mere Bea had taught me never to run away from the ones you
loved. You stayed with them, fought for them, and loved them the
best you could. I wanted to be like her. I couldn’t pinpoint my
exact feelings for Lucus yet, but I did know they were like nothing
I’d ever felt before. If I was ever going to help him, I couldn’t
abandon him.

I knew what I needed to do. I knew that
I couldn’t leave yet. I hopped down from the ledge and searched the
room for one of Sabrina’s silk kimonos. I found a black one with
red butterflies on it and threw it over my underwear and bra. I
turned on the light and glanced in the mirror. I dabbed on some lip
gloss and ran my fingers through my hair. I took a deep breath and
convinced myself that I was strong enough to face whatever came my
way.