Cursed Hearts (A Crossroads Novel) (7 page)

Rome
opened his door, gesturing for her to get behind the wheel. “I just need you to
steer. We’ll do the rest.” She looked apprehensive and he laughed quietly at
that, wrapping her fingers around the wheel as she took a seat. “It’s easy. If
the car starts going to the left, turn to the right. And if it starts rolling
backwards, hit the brake.”

“Which
one’s the brake?”

He smiled at her, turning the key to auxiliary before
kneeling down to point at the pedal. “Don’t be afraid to stomp on it,” he
grinned. He leaned across her lap, throwing the car into neutral
. It eked back a few inches,
scaring her into slamming on the brakes.

“I
don’t think I can do this.”

“You
already are. You’ll be fine.” He circled around to the back of the car, placing
his hands on the bumper beside Dallas.

“Alright,
let go of the brake,” he shouted.

“…Are
you sure?”

“Yes.” The glowing red taillights flickered before finally
going
black. “Why
did we start at the bottom of the hill?” Rome complained, taking one slow step
after another.

“Remind
me again why I’m even helping you?” Dallas grumbled.

“I
think it has something to do with Lisa Baker.”

“Don’t
mention that name to me.”

“Okay,
I have to know… what’s the story there?”

Aria leaned out the window, calling back to answer Rome’s
question. “Lisa Baker is the
girl I caught Dallas with in his mother’s swimming pool.”

“Don’t,”
Dallas pleaded.

His
discomfort only encouraged her to continue.

“They
were naked, and in… let’s say a compromising position. Dallas’s mom was away
for the weekend and he decided to invite this girl he barely knew over to stay
at their house. It was during those two days that Lisa determined that she was going
to move in with him, and that they were going to get married. I had to help him
get rid of her before his mom came back.”

She
paused, smiling at the fearful, nostalgic look swimming across Dallas’s face.
“Honestly, I’m not sure what has you more scared,” she said. “The thought that
I’ll tell your mom, or the possibility that I might tell Lisa you didn’t really
run off and join the military.”

“We
agreed to never talk about that again.”

Rome’s
arms were going weak as he shook with quiet laughter. “The military?” he choked
out. “So tell me, did you pop the question, or did she?” Dallas was glaring at
him with enough fire to melt a glacier.

That
only made Rome start laughing harder.

“Lisa Baker is proof that the devil exists. If she wasn’t
off her
meds,
it was because no one had realized yet that she
needed them in the first
place,”
he
said stonily. “To call her unbalanced would be an insult to crazy people.”

“I
wonder what that says about you, since you were stupid enough to date her,”
Aria said.

“It
says that I have eyes. Lisa’s smokin’ hot.”

“Should
I tell her you said that?”

“Shut
up and pretend to drive.”

Ariahna
sat back in Rome’s seat, looking around his car as they
continued to push it up the hill. She was checking periodically that
they
weren’t veering off the road as
she snooped around. She glanced back
through the big open window of the
hatchback before peeking timidly into his glove box. It was filled with random
papers, a pair of sunglasses, and some cologne that smelt like him. She pulled
out a napkin with a phone number written on it, gazing down at the cherry pink
lip stain in the corner.

Give
me a call on your day off. –Autumn

Her
hand curled into a fist, crumpling up the phone number and dropping it on the
floor. She nudged it underneath his seat with her heel.

“…Do
you guys need me to do anything?” she asked guiltily.

“No,”
Rome shouted. “Not yet. Just sit there and look pretty.”

She
smiled at his playful banter.

“I
want you to stay away from her,” Dallas said.

“I
don’t think I can do that,” Rome whispered back.

“I
didn’t say I was giving you a choice.”

“Alright,
either you’re into her, or you’re trying to protect her. So which is it?” he
asked.

“Did
you not hear me call her my sister?”

“You
didn’t answer my question.”

“It’s not me you should be worried about.
Her dad is an elitist jackass
with a gun and a badge, and the scary part is, he doesn’t need either of those
to get to you. Did she tell you he works with SI?”

“SI?”
Rome muttered, squinting over at him.

“Special Investigations,” he clarified. “It’s a criminal
division put together by The Witches Collective. He works as a detective here
in town
, but
that’s really just a front.
His real job,”
he whispered, “is investigating magical crimes and keeping them out of the media.”

“Sounds
like a busy guy,” Rome replied carelessly.

“Not
too busy to put you in the ground if he found out you were chasing after his
daughter. Richard doesn’t mess around. He’ll put you through hell if you get
close to her. He’s got her whole future mapped out, and trust me when I say you
are not a part of his master plan.”

“If
I was in your shoes, and the roles were reversed, I’d be doing the exact same
thing you are. I respect the fact that you care about her, and I know I look
like the kind of guy you’d want to protect her from—and maybe in some ways I
am—but… I just want to get to know her.
Besides,
what about what she wants? Doesn’t that matter?”

Dallas
frowned thoughtfully at the spoiler as they pushed the car over the crest of
the hill. Almost there, he thought. This night, and this awful conversation,
was almost over.

“You
know, you still haven’t answered my question,” Rome said. “Do you like her?”

Dallas
smiled, looking over at him with warm eyes.

“…It
would be impossible not to.”

Chapter 6

The
cafeteria was bustling with students. Smiling, laughing faces filled the tables
and lined the walls near every cuisine station. Everyone was catching up and
reconnecting with friends. Most everyone, anyways.

Ariahna shifted her folded blazer over her arms, looking
around for a place to sit as she walked timidly through the large, noisy room.
By the reactions she was
receiving, people either still saw her as invisible, or, and this was a new
one, diseased.
Available seats were filled
quickly by coats, books, and legs. She could feel her face flushing with
embarrassment and her heart beating anxiously in her chest.
If she
didn’t find a seat soon, she was just going to turn around and run from the
room.

“Hey, new girl!” someone called from a table over. Aria
turned slightly, looking at the person who had shouted with a frown. It had
sounded
like they’d been trying to get her attention. The owner of the voice was an
older girl with perfect straight hair and full, red lips.
She was that pretty and popular
type. She remembered her from yesterday, in the auditorium. She’d been teasing
Christian and badmouthing Rome. Was she really talking to her,
though?
She
wasn’t a new student, and she definitely wasn’t the type of person Scarlet
Bellaway would be seen addressing. She pointed to herself uncertainly, glancing
around in confusion.

“Yeah, you – the redhead with the baffled look on her
face,”
Scarlet said,
her voice smoky and filled with sarcasm. “Take a
seat. You can sit with me.”

Aria
slipped into a chair beside her, clutching her jacket like she was afraid she’d
have to use it as a weapon. Was this some kind of trick?

“I’m
not new,” she said quietly.

“What?”

“I
said I’m not new. I was enrolled here last year.”

Scarlet
waved a hand at her.

“You weren’t even worthy of recognition last year. You
might
as well be a
transfer student or a new arrival.”

Aria didn’t know how to take that statement. She stared
at her for a short moment before realizing she was being rude. “Ariahna,” she
said,
extending a
hand in introduction. Scarlet took it with a mischievous smile, not bothering
to offer her own name.

“I
know who you are,” she said.

“You
do?”

“Of
course; you come from a very well-known family. Honestly, I don’t know how you
ended up as such an outcast with an old and powerful name like VayRenn to carry
you along.”

“Oh, right,” she mumbled, dropping her gaze.
“I suppose it helps that most
people don’t know my last name… or my first.”

“Well,
lucky me, I’ve got the rest of them beat then. I know both. And I know
something else they don’t know.”

“What’s
that?”

“That
you and I are going to become very, very good friends.”

***

Rome
wandered down the stairs for breakfast. He was drifting through a sea of
people, caught up in the sensation of them washing around him in a cool haze.
The school was buzzing with energy, and if it
weren’t for
yesterday’s craziness, he might have been just as excited as
the rest of them. It didn’t help that he’d been up most of the night, either.
He shuffled towards the cafeteria, his eyes moving away from the tile beneath
his boots at the familiar sound of Christian’s voice.

“Hey
Jacobs, what was it like, growing up with that clown for a father?” he smirked.
He pressed his fingers against the smaller boy’s chest, backing him up against
the wall.

“You open the cereal box in the morning and a dove flies
out!”
Adam laughed,
waving his hands theatrically in the air.

“Did
he tie you up, toss you in the bath and see how long it took for you to
escape?” Christian taunted.

“I
bet he put him in sparkly dresses and tried to saw him in half.”

“Maybe
that’s why he’s so short?”

“Get
lost,” Rome demanded, frowning harshly at the two of them. First they were
harassing girls, and now they were bullying young kids?

“Do
I look like I take orders from you?” Christian said. “If I recall, you’re the
one who’s the waiter, not me.”

Rome’s
jaw clenched tight. It was true; he worked at a restaurant in town. He wasn’t a
waiter though, he was a busboy. He’d cleaned up after guys like Christian
before, often getting blamed when they purposefully trashed a table or broke
dinnerware. It made them think they were superior, just because he had to work
for a living.

“Come
on,” Rome said, reaching between the two of them to grab the kid by the
shoulder. He practically shoved him into the cafeteria. “Let me guess, you’re
Jerry’s son?”

“Don’t
you mean ‘The Great Geraldo’?” He sighed, rubbing a hand over his chest.
“Trevor,” he introduced, extending a hand to him.

Rome
took it somewhat reluctantly.

“So
what was that all about back there?” Trevor asked.

Rome took a frustrated breath, his eyes flicking over to
the scrawny boy. He had thick, unruly hair that was combed down over his
forehead, and a round, average
looking face. How could he just tell this kid was going to be more trouble than
he was worth?

“Nothing,”
he replied, walking on ahead of him.

“Sweet,” Trevor said. “Only my second day and I’ve
already
made an
awesome, tough new friend. I can’t wait to tell my mom.”

Rome
glanced back at him, nearly tripping over a chair. How had he known he’d been
about to tell him to beat it? It’s like this kid was
trying
to make him
feel guilty.

“You
know, uh, I’m not real great company.”

“But
we’re in the same program,” Trevor said. “Maybe you can teach me a few things?
You’re like a senior, right?”

“…No.”

Trevor
tipped his head, staring at him curiously. “No?”

Rome
sighed. “I’m a junior, or I should be, but I got held back. Only, this is kind
of my first year here, so instead of being in with the sophomore’s…”

“That’s
even better! We’re going to be in the same classes!”

“Yippee,”
Rome mumbled, pulling up a seat. Trevor scooted a chair over, sitting so close
he was almost in his lap. “Look, you seem nice and all, but I really didn’t—”
Rome turned his head, slowly. Aria was standing right behind him. “Um, hey?”
I
wasn’t about to make a kid cry
, he thought.

“Hey,” she repeated, looking back at Scarlet. She was
staring at her in disbelief. She still didn’t think very highly of Rome. Or
maybe she just didn’t like being ditched for him. “Can I sit with you?” she
asked, tearing her eyes away.

“Sure,”
Trevor said.

Rome
scoffed, shaking his head. “Yes.”

Ariahna
sat down, glancing at the boy beside Rome curiously. “You’re Jerry and Jenny’s
son, right?”

“The
one and only.”

“So
why doesn’t your name start with a J?” Rome smirked.

“Trevor’s
my middle name,” he admitted sheepishly. “I was named after my father, who was
named after my grandfather.”

“Wait,”
Rome grinned. “So you’re…” He thought about it for a minute. “Jerry Jacobs
Jr.?” He started laughing, and Ariahna reached over and slapped him on the arm.
He just smiled at her.

“Technically,”
Trevor corrected, “my father is Jerry Jacobs Jr. That makes me Jerry Jacobs
III.”

“That
sounds like the name of a butler,” he said.

“I
know. My father fashions himself a comedian.”

“Well,
you could be stuck with worse.”

Rome
wasn’t entirely sure that was true.

“That
reminds me, I still don’t know your name,” Trevor said.

“Rome.”
Trevor stared at him expectantly. “…Navarro?”

“No
way! I’ve never met anyone from one of the six families.”

“The
six what?”

“Oh,
are you going on the field trip today?”

“What
field trip?”

Aria
would have been uncomfortable at the mention of the families, if she hadn’t
been feeling like such an idiot. “Navarro,” she muttered. “I should have known
right when you introduced yourself.” Apparently she’d been a little distracted.
Ariahna had grown up learning about the six families – mainly because she was
from one of them.

“Known
what?” Rome asked. “What is going on?”

She
exhaled quietly, sitting up straight. “No, nothing,” she answered. “It’s just a
little piece of history. I suppose you wouldn’t know it, would you?” She looked
at him thoughtfully for a moment. “There are six very old magical families.
They aided in saving this world by banishing the undesirables to another world,
a new world. It was created to separate dangerous beings from the rest of
mankind. It’s really just a plane of
existence
parallel to our own. It’s known as Lumara, but many call it the new world
and refer to this as the old. Navarro was one of the six families.”

“Right,”
Trevor interjected. “It was Navarro, Graham, Hayes, Porter, Scott, and VayRenn.
Members from those six families came forward to fight the vampires and
werewolves using the Wands of the Artisan!” He raised his fist high into the
air, drawing a few concerned glances.

Rome
ducked his head, quickly jerking Trevor back into his seat. “You’re really into
fairytales, aren’t you?” he said, smiling down at the apple on her tray. Ariahna
actually looked offended.

“It’s
not a story,” she said.

“Maybe
it’s just the way he told it,” Rome mumbled, nodding at Trevor, “but it makes
it sound like something straight out of a Marvel comic book.” Trevor’s smile
got a little wider, if that were possible. “You have your dad’s flair for
theatrics, don’t you?” Trevor shrugged and Rome narrowed his eyes at the table
in thought. If all of that were really true, then that meant he was both a
werewolf, and the descendant of someone who’d worked to banish them. Something
was
seriously
wrong with his family.

“Wait,
isn’t your last name VayRenn?”

Trevor’s
head whipped around so fast he nearly pulled something. “What? Why didn’t you
say so? And why didn’t you know about any of this?” he added, turning back to look
at Rome.

“Beats
me. I didn’t even know magic existed until yesterday.”

“Well
now you
have
to go on the field trip. They’ll tell you all about this
stuff, and you’ll even get to see your family’s wand.”

“Wands
and witches,” Rome sighed. “This is all a little out there.” He found himself
staring at Ariahna. “…Are you going?”

“Yes.”
Truthfully, she hadn’t planned to go, but the implication that he might, if she
did, hadn’t slipped her attention.

“Aw,
cute,” Trevor teased.

“What?”
Rome intoned.

“You
like her.”

Rome
stared back at him blankly. “So,” he replied. “I’ve been told it would be
impossible not to. Besides, don’t you like her?”

“Yeah,
but not in the same way you do.”

“Remind
me why you’re sitting with us again?”

“Because,”
Trevor shrugged.

“Oh,
well, that explains it,” Rome said, rolling his eyes as the warning bell rang.
“Sit with me at lunch?” he asked, smiling at Aria and slinging his bag over his
shoulder. “We can pick out our electives together like you wanted?”

“Sure,”
she said. “That way we can talk about how your first day went, too. I’m
interested to hear what you think of the core classes. Oh, and if you didn’t
know, the field trip is right after lunch. Core classes end at noon, then
there’s an hour for lunch, and electives and clubs would generally follow. But
of course, since we have a week before electives start, that’s all just free
time for now.”

Rome
nodded in understanding, catching Trevor mocking the two of them as he walked
off. “Hey, you wouldn’t want to walk me to class, would you? I don’t know where
anything is.”
In truth, Rome had checked out
all the classes on his schedule before coming down to breakfast. But she didn’t
know that.