Captivate Me (Book One: The Captivated Series) (4 page)

The rest of the day flew by, and Anna
and I found ourselves back in our room getting ready for the game.
We quickly dressed in our jeans and cute summery tops, fully
embracing what little warm weather we had left before fall and
bitter winter crept in. Also embracing our school spirit, I quickly
painted her cheek with our school emblem before I got a line going
out the door. Once everyone had found out I was a painter, last
Friday I’d painted fifteen faces before it was time to head out. I
had a feeling tonight would be a mad rush to see who could get to
my door first. Otherwise, they’d have to do it themselves and
settle for the typical war-paint style or half-burgundy-half-gold
faces. Memories of when Liz and I had painted our faces before
games at my old school crept in, threatening to ruin my mood, and I
fought it away. “So, what do you think of Ron?” I asked, hoping to
steer my mind away from ‘Liz the deserter.’

“He’s so funny!” she
gushed. “And
gorgeous.
”

Oh, wow… she’s got it
bad.
“Does someone have a crush already?”
I teased, but it was a rhetorical question – the answer was written
all over her beaming face.

“Levi’s good-looking too,” she
continued. “I hear he’s the most popular guy in school.”

My hand paused, and I met her eyes
with a curious grin. “And where did you hear that?”

“Some girls were talking about him in
class.”

“They were?” I couldn’t
explain why, but jealousy sparked in my heart. I guess I didn’t
like the idea of other girls pining over him. How stupid of me,
though… of
course
girls pined over him. It was Levi. Still, I hated
it.

Anna picked up on my defensive tone.
“They were just saying how cute you were together, is all,” she
explained. “And you are. You two look like you should be in a
magazine or something.”

I snorted inwardly. Me? In a magazine?
Maybe Levi, but not me. My chin was too pointy and my forehead
could have been used as a projection screen. And my pancake butt…
don’t even get me started. It could have been served up at the
nearest pancake house slathered in butter and syrup. I returned to
painting her cheek.

“I’ve always wondered though,” she
continued. “How do you know if something’s love or if it’s
lust?”

I painted the finishing touches and
plunked my brush in a glass of water. “When you find out, let me
know,” I teased.

“No, for real. How do you know if you
like someone because of the way they look or if it’s
more?”

Sighing, I worked the
kinks out of my neck. I really wasn’t in the mood for a deep
conversation on love, but perhaps now would be a good time to
explore this, considering I was planning on kissing Levi tonight.
But realistically, lust and love seemed too dangerously close to
tell sometimes. I
did
know the two could exist together; after all, love begins
with attraction, but I assumed lust could exist all on its own
without love tagging along. You could be attracted to someone you
didn’t end up loving if you were too different.

In short, I wasn’t even
sure I had a good answer. I hadn’t had much experience with boys.
I’d had a few boyfriends, but nothing serious, and the
relationships always ended before they really began; I was always
too afraid I’d slip up and use my gift. Plus, it was hard to
connect with someone in that way when you had to hide part of
yourself around them. But I didn’t have to do that with Levi – he
knew the real me and could very well be my first
true
boyfriend. The only
thing I had to draw on was what my mom had told me. “I think you
just
know
…” I
told her, although I immediately realized how unhelpful it
was.

“Did you know with Levi?” she
asked.

My heart wrenched a
little, and I hesitated. I
still
didn’t know with Levi. Did I lust for him? Who
wouldn’t? But was it love? That was the million dollar question.
“Sometimes I think you have to take the plunge to find out,” I
replied. I wondered if that was even sound advice, but it was the
belief I was clinging to now.

“So you love him then?” She
prodded.

I smiled at her fervency. “It’s too
soon to really know,” I replied. “I’ve only been here two weeks,
remember?”

“Oh, duh. Sorry.”

“But I’ll report back
soon.”

A knock on the door interrupted us,
and on my way there to answer it, a vision of Anna and Ronnie came
into my thoughts unbidden, and I wasn’t sure if I liked it. Anna
was so sweet and innocent, and Ronnie, well… he was
Ronnie.

* * *

With our painted faces and cheery
moods, we all made our way to the bleachers beside the soccer
fields. Ivy and Sarah had made their way to the concession stand to
grab us some hotdogs for dinner while Anna and I saved their seats
on the front row. The sunny blue sky had morphed to streaks of
tangerine and fiery pink. The dark of night wasn’t far
behind.

“Do we always play ourselves?” Anna
asked as she searched for the boys that hadn’t come out of the
locker room yet.

“Sometimes we’ll play one of the other
two gifted schools.”

Sarah chimed in as she settled on the
bleacher and handed us our meals. “We have our next game with
Rygaard on Wednesday.”

“And it’s kind of a big deal,” I
added. “Or so I hear. This will be my first one too.”

“Oh, it’s a
huge
deal,” Sarah
echoed. “And this one will be an away game. They’re about three
hours from here, so it’s a whole day event!”

Anna cocked her head. “So we won’t
have school?”

“Nope… they treat it like a holiday.”
As Sarah gushed on and on with Anna about the festivities, which
I’d already heard about a hundred times in the past two weeks, I
leaned against the bleacher behind me as I ate, and let my mind
wander. My eyes shifted to the massive, towering pines surrounding
the school, swallowing us inside this little slice of earth and
hiding us from the rest of civilization. The woods had enchanted me
since the first day I’d arrived. Like the school, they seemingly
held a touch of magic deep inside them. Just based on the trees’
sheer size, you could tell they had been around for years and
years, and it made me wonder what all they had seen. Their
mysterious beauty is why I’d started painting them; I wanted to
capture them in my work so I would have a piece of this place to
take with me when I graduated in ten short months.

A silhouette appeared behind one of
the trunks, and I cocked my head. Was it a student? If it was, we
weren’t allowed to be in the woods. Not even near the wood line
without permission. I squinted to make out a face, but they were
too far away. All I could see was porcelain skin and a dark shirt.
Something about this person made my insides quiver, and I wasn’t
sure if it was out of fear or excitement. I swallowed hard and
swatted at the girls to get their attention. This definitely wasn’t
a student.

“What?” Sarah asked, reading the
confusion and disquiet on my face.

I pointed to the woods. “You see
that?”

She craned her neck to
peer around me. “See
what?
”

“That person in the woods?”

Shielding her eyes from the setting
sun, she stood and scanned the trees. “I don’t see anyone,
Kat.”

“Me neither,” Anna echoed.

I squinted harder to find the
mysterious person, but they were gone. My stomach dropped. Was I
going crazy?

“You been smoking something?” Sarah
teased.

I let out a long breath to shake off
my nerves and chuckled. “Maybe it was an animal or something,” I
replied, but I knew it wasn’t an animal. It was a person – whether
it was all in my head or not.

“Here they come!” a girl behind us
squealed, and our attention snapped to the soccer players as they
barreled onto the field, pumped up and ready to go. I slid one last
glance to the woods before refocusing on the game. Still no
silhouette or any other evidence that I wasn’t going nuts, but the
eerie feeling the person left with me was just as
tangible.

* * *

To our delight, the game
went on forever under the gleaming lights encasing the field. I had
almost forgotten about the strange visitor in the woods. Every now
and then I’d get a feeling we were being watched, but then someone
would make a good play, and I refocused. Now the game was
nail-bitingly close with ten seconds left. Burgundy – 6, Gold – 7.
Levi made his way down the field with the ball, and I found myself
holding my breath.
Come on!
If he could make this goal before time ran out,
they’d tie.

Overwhelmed by the moment, I
catapulted to my feet with clasped hands. I shouted his name over
everyone’s hoots and hollers.

Another squealing voice caught my
attention, and I peered down the aisle of bleachers at another girl
doing the same thing – clasped hands, starry eyes – as she watched
Levi. Her name escaped me, but I remembered her gift – also an
illusionist. She and Levi were in the same classes. The spark of
jealousy in my heart re-ignited. It was obvious she crushed on him,
but what girl in this school didn’t? I couldn’t go around being
jealous of everyone.

I peeled my eyes away from
her and locked them back on Levi right as he went in for the kill.
Ronnie waited at the goal in a protective stance with crazy eyes
and a wide smile, his face streaked in gold war paint.
Oh… this oughta be good.

With one second left, Levi
fired the ball at the goal, but Ronnie moved in with an
enthusiastic dive and blocked it. Disappointment washed over me,
and I fell to my seat with a plop.
Crap.

I couldn’t help but look
back over at squealer-girl, and she too looked as though someone
had just told her that her puppy had died. She pressed her hands
over her heart and watched Levi like she wanted to run out there
and console him. A rush of emotions flooded over me – envy and
bitterness, but for some reason, also shame. This girl would gladly
have him, and yet, here I was… not entirely sure
I
wanted him yet; I had
to rely on a future kiss and more time to figure that out for sure.
She would probably marry him today if he asked. I suddenly felt
selfish.

I zeroed in on her high cheekbones,
and her name came back to me. Hannah. Her name was
Hannah.

Laughter in the crowd interrupted my
pity party and I stood again to see what the commotion was about.
Ronnie had ripped off his shirt like the Incredible Hulk and was
doing backflips to celebrate the win. Sometimes I wondered if his
driveway went all the way to the curb.

And Levi, ever the good sport, watched
in high spirits and laughed with everyone else, even the teachers.
I couldn’t help but laugh as well, and Sarah’s hand slipped into
mine. “Let’s go!” she trilled and pulled me onto the field with
Anna and Ivy in our wake.

Before we made it there,
the crowd erupted again, and we paused, our eyes drawing to the
sky. An eagle had swooped in for the ball and was flying it over
the field in a show of victory. Sarah searched for Dawson’s spiky
brown hair amongst the sea of sweaty boys. He was nowhere to be
found. She crossed her arms with a dramatic roll of her eyes. If I
could read
her
mind, she’d probably be thinking, “Dammit… here we go again.”
Every time he shape-shifted, it would wipe him out for the rest of
the night. No more celebrating for her.

“
What’s going on?” Anna
yelled over the noise.

“That’s Dawson!” I yelled
back.

In awe, her expression lit up like
fireworks. “He’s a shape-shifter?!”

“Yep!”

Warm, strong arms wrapped
around me from behind. I beamed.
Levi.
I secretly wished Hannah was
watching, although I loathed myself for thinking that way. “Good
game,” I said, nestling into him.

He sweetly kissed my cheek. “Let’s
go,” he purred. “I want to walk you back to your room without
getting caught.”

CHAPTER THREE

___________________

Getting Out

The walk back to my room was
relatively quiet – mainly because we didn’t want to get caught, but
we both knew what was about to happen. The anticipation of our
first kiss sent bright hot tingles over my skin. We stopped beside
my door, and I pressed my back against the wall, shyly looking at
my feet.

He brushed the hair from my face and
tucked it behind my ear. Gently, he tipped my chin up to drink in
my face with his glowing eyes – so brilliant and piercing against
his tanned skin. “God…” he whispered, a light, hungry growl.
“You’re so beautiful.”

I flushed and dropped my
eyes.

“Why is it you always seem
so uncomfortable when I say that?” he asked, leaning closer, his
warmth and chiseled form teasing me. “You
are
, babe.” His lips now hovered
inches away from mine. My heart went wild with palpitations. This
was it.