Cursed (Book 1, The Watchers; Young Adult Paranormal Romance) (26 page)

“You seem very
thoughtful.”

I nearly spilled
the cup of soda in my hands.  I looked across the table and saw Malcolm sitting
there watching me in the shadows with a thoughtful look of his own.  He was
dressed quite differently than the last time we’d met.  He wore a dark blue
shirt and dark slacks.  The shirt was open at the chest.  Apparently he liked
to show that bit of flesh off.  I couldn’t say I blamed him.  It
was
quite impressive.  He wore his long dark hair loose instead of in the ponytail
he’d worn the night before.  It had a natural wave to it and fell halfway down
his chest and back.  The way he sat there with the fingers of one hand at his
temples, slouched in the chair added to the look of a brooding romance cover
model I’d thought he had the night before.

“What are you
doing here?” I asked placing my cup of soda on the table before it dropped from
my trembling hand.

“I had an
uncontrollable urge to see you again,” he said, not making an excuse, simply
stating a fact.  “I hope you don’t mind.”

“I guess that
depends,” I said, finding my courage.  I was tired of being afraid of things. 
“Are you here to finish the job?”

He chuckled. 
“No.  Like I said last night, I have no intentions of harming you.  You’re far
too unique to destroy.”

“Then why are you
here?”

“I just felt like
being with you.  You make me feel …content.  It’s a feeling I haven’t had in a
long time.  I’m finding it rather addicting.”

“Should I be
worried about that?”

He shrugged his
shoulders in a casual manner like we were two friends just having a
discussion.  “I assume Brand’s told you about me by now.”

“Yes, he told me
what you are and what you do.”

He leaned forward
in his chair.  “Does that bother you?”

“Well yeah,” I
said as if it should be obvious.  “You’re a murderer.”

“Oh, that sounds
so harsh, Lilly.  It’s not any worse than eating that hamburger in front of
you.  Didn’t an animal have to give its life to feed you?  How are you any
different from me?”

“You can’t compare
a cow to a person.”

“Why not?  Don’t
they think?  Have children?”

“There’s a
difference.  People have souls.  Cows don’t.”

A sly smile
crossed his face.  “What if you and I made a deal?”

“What kind of
deal?” I asked suspiciously.

“If you let me see
you any time I want, I promise not to eat any more humans.”

“Why would you do
that?”

He shrugged as if
it were no big deal.  “You have a problem with the way I am.  I’d be willing to
try it your way for a while.  It would certainly be something new for me and
after all this time here, I’m ready for something different.  So what do you
say?  Is your time worth saving a few lives?”

I was completely
speechless.  Was he serious?  He would honestly stop killing people if I were
his what? His friend?

“How would I know
that you were true to your word?”

“You couldn’t
simply trust me?” 

I knew he was
teasing me.

“Not really.  If
you want to be my friend you’ll have to prove yourself.”

He smiled.  “Is
that what you think I want?  A friend?”

“Isn’t that what
we’re talking about here?”

“You’ll know if I
cheat by the color of my skin,” he said ignoring my last question.  “It looks
more like your skin after I feed.  Pinker.”

“I’m not sure
Brand or Will are going to like you dropping in whenever you want.  They don’t
seem to trust you very much.”

“I’m not really
concerned about what they think of me.  They’re the least of my worries.”

“You don’t seem
like someone who would worry about much.”

“I don’t.”

I heard a group of
girls talking and laughing as they passed by on the sidewalk on the other side
of the rose garden.

“You’ll have to
excuse me, Lilly.  If I’m going to keep this bargain of ours, I need to stay as
far away from temptation as I can.”  He smiled at me and vanished.

I sat back in my
seat and wondered what I had just gotten myself into.

Chapter 14

When I got home, I
walked in on Tara and Simon making out on the futon.

“Don’t mind me,” I
said, shielding my eyes and quickly making my way to my room.  “Room mate
passing by.”

I could hear Tara laugh.  It was a good sound.  I’d put her through so much lately I was glad to see she
was able to find some happiness in the chaos that had become my life.

Once I got into my
room, I opened the sliding glass doors that lead out to the apartment pool.  I
grabbed my MP3 player and went to the pool to stretch out on one of the plastic
lounge chairs.  I hit play and listened to my playlist.  I stared up into the
starlit sky and wondered what it must be like to travel among them.  Would it
feel like it did in the dream I had at Brand’s house, freeing, totally
weightless? 

I closed my eyes
reliving as much of that dream as I could.  It had been so beautiful, almost
magical in its clarity.

I felt a warm hand
touch my shoulder.  When I opened my eyes, I saw Brand standing beside me.  Why
did he have to be so beautiful?  I felt my heart tighten in my chest like it
was in a vise.  I took my earplugs out trying to act as casual as I could.  The
last thing I wanted was for him to know how much his nearness still affected
me.

“I’ve been looking
for you since you left my house.  Where have you been?”

It was nice to see
the concern on his face for my well being, but I couldn’t erase the image of
Izzi standing naked in his doorway.

 “I was on campus
for a while and then I came back here.”

“Thanks for
bringing me my coat and tie back.”

“No problem.”

Brand sat down in
the chair next to me.  I wasn’t sure what to say.

“Malcolm came to
see me again,” I blurted out.

“What?”  Brand
stood up again quickly looking around us as if Malcolm had suddenly reappeared.

“He’s not here. 
He found me on campus earlier,” I reassured him.

He sat back down. 
“What did he want?”

“My company.”

“Is that all?” He
asked in a way that implied that wasn’t all Malcolm had come for.

“What is that
supposed to mean?”

What right did he
have to question who I spent my time with or why they might actually want to
spend time with me?  He’d pretty much given up the right to say anything about
who I associated with when he told me to get out of his life.

“You can’t trust
him, Lilly.”

“Well, sometimes
you can’t trust the people you thought you could either.  At least he’s honest
about what he is.  He’s not pretending to be anyone but himself.”

“What did he
want?” Brand asked deciding to ignore my none too subtle jibe.

“Like I said, he
wanted my company.”  I wasn’t sure if I wanted Brand to know the bargain I’d
made with Malcolm, but apparently he could see I wasn’t telling him the whole
truth.

“What did you do,
Lilly?”

“It’s really none
of your business, Brand.”  I stood up from the lounge chair.  “Don’t you have
someone else you’d rather be with right now?”

“Not really.”

“Well you don’t
have to worry about Malcolm.  He just wants a friend.”

Brand stood up. 
“What did you
do
, Lilly?”

 I wound the cord
of my earplugs around my MP3 player not meeting his eyes. 

“He made a bargain
with me.  If I let him see me anytime he wants, he’ll stop killing people.”

 “You
what
?” 
Brand walked up to me grabbing the top of my arms forcing me to look him in the
eyes.  “Have you lost your mind?  He’s dangerous, Lilly.  You can’t trust him
to keep his word.”

“You really need
to let go of me,” I said, surprising myself by how acidic my tone was.

Brand dropped his
hands to his side.

“He said I would
be able to tell that he wasn’t drinking blood anymore because if he did his
skin would turn the color of mine.  Was he lying about that?”

“No,” Brand still
had a troubled look on his face.  “That’s right.”

“Then you don’t
have anything to worry about.  If he lies to me, the deal’s off.”

“You’re too good
to be spending your time with trash like that.  Has he told you who ordered him
to kill you yet?  If he were your friend he would tell you that wouldn’t he?”

“I’ll remember to
ask him the next time I see him which will probably be soon.  He said being
around me was addicting.  I doubt he’ll wait that long to visit again.”

I admit it.  I
wanted to see if that would elicit any type of reaction from Brand.

“Lilly,” the pain
in Brand’s voice was real.  “Don’t do this.  He’s dangerous.”

“Not as dangerous
as some people I know.”

“I’m sorry that
I’ve hurt you but don’t think being with Malcolm is going to bring you any sort
of joy.  His kind is only concerned about what satisfies them.  Once he gets
tired of you he’ll destroy you.”

“Thanks,” I said
choking up.  “Thanks for thinking so highly of me.  Maybe he’ll be different
and not get tired of me as easily as you did.”  I turned my back to him and
started walking back to my apartment.

Brand appeared in
front of me. “Don’t say that, Lilly.”

“Why?  It’s the
truth!  Why can’t you just leave me alone?  Go back to Izzi.  She seems to be
more than willing to satisfy your needs.”

I pushed past
Brand, walked into my room and slammed the sliding glass door shut.

I remembered
thinking earlier in the evening that I didn’t have any more tears left in me
but a well of them suddenly appeared in my eyes.  I curled up on my bed and
eventually found sleep.

My dreams that
night were completely out of character for me.  They were crystal clear like
they had been when I spent the night in Brand’s arms, but he wasn’t staring in
my dreams this time.  It was Malcolm.  Just like before it was as if I were seeing
things through Malcolm’s eyes and feeling his emotions.  They weren’t as
romantic as the dreams I had about Brand though.  These dreams were filled with
lust and were extremely raw in their passion.  The love making was rough,
animalistic in nature there wasn’t any love involved.  It was simply actions to
satisfy a base need.  I don’t remember talking in the dreams at all and each
scene seemed to take place in a different location:  under a waterfall in some
tropical paradise; in a gondola floating down a canal in what looked like Venice; at the top of the Eiffel tower in Paris.

When I woke up the
next morning, I immediately went to the bathroom to take a cold shower.  What
on earth had caused those dreams?  I mean yes, Malcolm was gorgeous but I hadn’t
felt any sexual urges toward him in our last two encounters.  Was my
subconscious trying to tell me something I didn’t know?

For me, the only
way I could do things like that were if I were in love with the person.  Even
so though, some of the things we did in the dream I didn’t even know were
possible.  Once my hormones got back to a decent level, I hopped out of the
shower and wrapped a towel around my body.

“I’m making
breakfast,” Tara called out to me from the kitchen as I made my way back to my
room.

“Ok, just let me
put some clothes on and I’ll help.”

When I stepped
into my room, I found Malcolm lying on my bed shirtless and barefoot with only
a pair of red silk pajama bottoms on.

His eyes travelled
slowly from my wet hair to my toes.  “Well,” he growled, “don’t you look
delectable?”

I quickly closed
the door to my room.

“What are you
doing here?” I whispered, worried that Tara would over hear us.

“Our deal,
remember?  Anytime, anyplace.”

The way Malcolm
was looking at me made me wonder if he had changed his mind about devouring me.

“I think we need
to amend those rules just a bit.”

“No, I don’t think
we do.  If we did, I might not be able to catch you in such unexpected attire.”

“Exactly.”

“What would be the
fun in that, Lilly?  Rules are such a pain to keep up with.”

“Well, if you want
to be my friend, I would appreciate it if you gave me a little privacy when
it’s called for.  Like now.”

“Oh, all right. 
But I’ll be back.”  He was gone before I could ask when exactly he planned to
come back.

I got dressed
quickly just in case he decided to come back soon.

By the time I went
to the kitchen, Tara already had our plates made and sitting on the table.

“Sorry I took so
long.  I really wanted to help you.”

“No thing, girl. 
Just sit down and eat.”

We were half way
through our breakfast when there was a knock at the door.

“I’ll get it,” Tara got up before I could offer to answer it.  When she opened the door, I heard her gasp
in surprise.

I turned around to
see who it was.  It was Malcolm.  Well, at least he’d put on a white button
down shirt, black slacks and loafers.  Though, the shirt was opened as seemed
to be his usual way to wear a shirt and he was holding a bouquet of white and
red roses.

“Hello,” Malcolm
said.  “Would this happen to be the residence of Lilly Nightingale?”

“Uh, yeah.  Who
are you?”

I got out of my
seat.  Poor Tara’s eyes looked like they were going to bulge out of their
sockets at the sight of Malcolm.

“Tara, this is
Malcolm.  Malcolm, I would like you to meet my
best
friend Tara.”  I hoped
my emphasis on best told him to pay special attention to where his teeth were
around her.

“Please to meet
you, Tara,” he said bowing slightly at the waist.

“When did you two
meet?”  Tara asked me.

“Malcolm walked me
part of the way home after the dance.  He made sure I got here safely.”  It was
mostly the truth.