From Deities (13 page)

Shoving everything into my backpack again, I had decided to head back home when I spotted Mia. Damn, she was pretty. I could see the heads of both guys and girls turning as she walked by. She wore a tight mini skirt, a form fitting lavender sweater, and killer black high boots.

Mia gave me the most unwelcome look ever. Her brows lifted at the same time she rolled her eyes. I don’t know what I did for her to dislike me that much. When she looked away, I swung my backpack over my shoulder and pushed in the chair. I jerked, startled to see Mia standing in front of me, blocking my way.

“Hi,” she snapped. Her greeting was not friendly.

“What?” I asked in the same bitter tone.

“Have you seen Ian?”

“No.” I debated whether to tell her I was looking for him, too. “Don’t you have his number?”

“Of course, I do.”

Her arrogant tone and that stupid ‘I should have known better’ expression was the last straw for me. It added to the anger she had already incited. Oh God. I had to remain calm. I could feel the energy growing and I didn’t know if I could control it. All I could do was hope she would walk away, or at least stop giving me dirty looks and sizing me up. Unfortunately, it was too late. I had no idea where this confrontational side came from. Normally I would have just walked away, but not today.

I leaned into her, closing the space between us, and bore my eyes into her. “Then why don’t you call him? You think that would be a good plan instead of giving me your evil, ‘wish I could kill you’ looks? Huh? How about that?”

By now, people in the library were staring at us. Was my voice that loud and threatening? Oh crap! What had I done? Already feeling the heat brewing in the palms of my hands, I curled my fingers in. Mia’s eyes fell to my hands, her jaws dropped, and her eyes were wide and alert. I did not dare look at my hands; if I did, I would be confirming what she saw.

Dropping my eyes to the floor, as if I could hide what was happening, I stepped to the side to swerve around her, but she blocked me again. I peered up to see her arms crossed with an amused smirk on her face. “No. Wonder.” Her words were slow at coming, but I knew so much was meant by those two words.

I stuck my hands inside my pants pockets. “Excuse me?” I pierced my eyes to hers so she would understand the sincerity of what I was about to say. “I’d like for you to not get in my way. Got it?” If anything, my tone should have given her clear indication not to mess with me again, but she didn’t listen.

Mia leaned into me, her lips brushed against my ear. “I saw what you did Sky…lar. I’ll be watching you.” Her words rolled off her tongue, dripping with venom. Then she backed away, giving me a clear path.

I should have kept my mouth shut then everything would have been fine, but for some reason, I couldn’t let her have the last word. There was this hate-filled energy that came from within me, and I had no control over it. I couldn’t even fight it. What was wrong with me? I was not that type of a person.

Glaring at her, I offered a slow, mischievous smile. “It’s no wonder Ian can’t stand the sight of you.”

Her face cringed in disgust and her muscles tightened. Not only did her eyes fill with anger, I could have sworn her eyes sparkled like lightning, turning silver colored, then back to amber. Fascinated from what I’d just seen, I couldn’t move…I wondered if it was real or my imagination.

I didn’t have to wait long to snap out of it; the light above me started to flicker, faster by the second. Then with a ripple, the other lights started to do the same. Suddenly, a light popped, then the rest followed. Sparks started to fly from above. Within seconds, the whole ceiling was blowing up like fireworks. Everyone scrambled to get out, dodging the dangerous sparks. I heard the cries of those who were struck by them. Luckily, it didn’t start a fire.

I didn’t run like everyone else; I didn’t even budge. My eyes were set on Mia, letting her know that I was not afraid of her. This was not my doing. Even with this intense energy building inside of me, I knew it wasn’t me. Mia had done this. It confirmed she was one of us. What worried me most was that she would purposely do this, in front of humans. She didn’t care that she was hurting them. In fact, she wore a satisfied smirk. I wanted to slap it off her face.

“Don’t stand in my way,” I said with conviction, and left.

I angrily stormed into
my place. Emily was not home, which was a good thing. One word from her, asking for my permission to have another party, and I would have snapped at her. She had been asking me a lot lately. The second time she held a party, I went to stay with Mason. It wasn’t a big deal, but she’d asked me via text. With a heavy sigh, I replied to let her know that I was okay with it, since I was planning on going to Mason’s place anyway.

As thoughts of Ian and Mia circulated through my mind, I angrily stormed up the stairs to my room. Though Ian seemed highly annoyed by Mia at the last encounter, they knew each other. Seeing Mia show off her powers clearly indicated she was a descendant of the gods. What about Ian?

I swung my door opened and drop my backpack against the wall. When I shifted my vision to my bed, I jolted in surprise. “What the hell?” I snapped angrily. “Who let you in?”

“Hello, Sky. I’m happy to see you, too. A little birdy told me you were looking for me.” Ian was sprawled across my bed. With his arms behind his head for support, he gave me a grin any other girl would find irresistible, but it wasn’t doing anything for me. If he thought he could charm his way into my bed, he was wrong. And this looked so bad. If Mason were to surprise me with a visit and find Ian here like this, I don’t know what he would do.

“Get off my bed.” I swatted him with my hand.

“Relax. What’s wrong with you?”

I gave him a cold stare. I couldn’t believe he would ask me that question. “What’s wrong with me? Are you serious?”

He put up his hands to surrender. “Okay…okay, I know. Your roommate let me in. I told her that I needed to talk to you. First of all, why were you looking for me?”

I leaned against my desk. “How did you even know that?”’

Ian sat up, looked down for a second, and popped his head back up. “I’m being serious now. No one told me, but I guessed you needed more questions answered about that morning you were taken to the hospital. I was going to call you, but I figured you didn’t need me. I’m sure your boyfriend took good care of you.”

“He did.” I pulled out my chair and sat. “So, what really happened?”

Ian sat on the edge of the bed, facing me. He told me the same thing he’d told me at the hospital, and I didn’t know if I believed him. Even though he looked like he was telling me the truth, I couldn’t tell for sure. I didn’t know him well enough to read his body gestures.

“I don’t know if you’re telling me the truth, but I have one question.” I was really hesitant to ask. I would be accusing him of something and I didn’t know how to ask it. But before I had the chance, he answered my question.

“No. I didn’t put anything in your punch. I would never do anything like that and frankly, I’m a little hurt that you would think I would be capable of being that low.”

His gaze into my eyes was stern and honest. It was hard not to believe him.

“It tasted like it did,” I said, challenging him.

“The punch was spiked. It was probably old by the time you drank it.”

“I’m sorry. It’s just that….” I changed the conversation. “How close are you with Mia?”

“Mia?” He stared at me in confusion.

How quickly guys forgot for their own convenience.

“The girl I met…no, you didn’t introduce me to her. She sort of walked in on our conversation at the library. The one you didn’t seem so happy to see.”

Ian raked his hair back and shifted his body a little on the bed. “Oh, that Mia. Why didn’t you say so? I know a lot of girls.”

I bet he did. “Well?”

Ian threw me a cocky smirk. “We dated before. That was a long time ago. She was too crazy for my taste.”

“I don’t like her.” I couldn’t believe I had blurted that out. I tried to fix what I had said, but it was too late.

“Are you jealous?”

“What? No. Get over yourself.”

Ian chuckled. “I don’t think I would like to be over myself, rather over someone else.” He raised his brows as if referring to me. When he saw the blank expression on my face and I hadn’t replied, he continued, letting out a soft, nervous laugh. “I was just joking.”

He was finding our conversation too amusing for my taste. I quickly diverted the attention since he’d made my cheeks warm from his stupid comment. “Is Mia always so…bitchy?” What I really wanted to figure out was if he was one of the descendants, without me coming off as crazy.

“To say the least. She can’t help it. She’s….” He paused. “Listen…try to stay away from her.” His eyes flickered, as if searching for just the right words to say. “She’s having a hard time dealing with our breakup, so she might take it out on you. Did she do something to you?” He seemed genuinely concerned.

I wanted to tell him—I was itching to get it out of me—but what could I say? “No. I ran into her. She gave me a dirty look.” Then a thought occurred. “Wait…she doesn’t think you and I are—”

“She sees you as a threat.” Ian stood up. As he took few steps toward me, his twinkling blue eyes were locked on mine. I don’t know why, but I couldn’t turn away. I was surprised to feel his hands lacing through my hair with each spoken word. “You’re beautiful…intelligent…and brave. What girl wouldn’t?”

Uncomfortable by his proximity, I craned my neck. His hands dropped. “I think you should go now,” I said, pretending what he’d just done never happened. But what did he know about me being brave?

Ian cleared his throat, possibly out of embarrassment. “Yeah, I should go. Want some punch?” He graced me with his wicked smirk.

I giggled lightly. That was all it took to break the awkwardness. If it wasn’t for the fact that I had a feeling he was hiding something from me, I would have brushed him off for good, especially after he pulled this stunt, appearing in my room without my permission. But my gut feeling told me not to. I had to play along.

“Anyway, mid-term exams are right around the corner. My friends and I are having a group study. Want to come along?”

I was going to turn him down, but decided to check out his friends. Perhaps I could get more information out of him.

“Will Mia be there?”

“If she comes, I’ll kick her out…if you want me to.”

“You both hang out with the same crowd?”

Ian was already by the door. “Sometimes.” He turned the knob, then turned to me. “See you around, Sky. Don’t look for me during class. I won’t be there. I’ll text you with our meeting time, but if you need a private tutor, you know where to find me.”

That coy grin he left me with was hot, I had to admit, but I was not interested.

Having nothing to
eat at home, I headed out to the school cafeteria. The strange encounter I had with Mia, then with Ian, had screwed up my appetite. Although I was hungry, I didn’t know if I could eat. Constantly looking over my shoulder and sensing beings following me not only gave me the creeps, I was getting tired of it.

The smell of food overpowered me when I stepped into the dining hall. I had come after lunch hours so it wasn’t crowded. A group of guys entered behind me, giving me icy chills. I wondered if they were vultures, but knowing there were humans around, I thought I was safe…I hoped.

Ignoring them, I went to grab a tray. Not having much choice since lunch was almost over, the only thing left was spaghetti.

“Spaghetti with meat sauce,” I requested. “And a bottle of water, please.”

The girl looked at me with a stoic expression, longer than what would be normal. I began to wonder if I had something on my face. After I was served, I paid and looked for a place to sit.

I went to a corner table where I could see every inch of the room, and sat down to eat. My favorite part of the cafeteria was that the walls were glass instead of concrete. I could see the dark clouds and the sun peeping out, just to give warmth to the land. The sun shone where I sat, and for some reason, it gave me reassurance that everything was going to be all right. However, that feeling didn’t last very long.

As I ate my lunch, I glanced around. Group by group, people were leaving. Feeling sharp, spiky tingles crawling along my back worried me.

Thinking I was being paranoid, I took out my phone. Mason had texted me a minute ago.
I’m fine
, I texted, but I was hesitant to push the send button. As I was wavering on my decision, a warning bell kept ringing in my head. I observed more guys entering. They all had a similar build, and they all held the same serious expression. Their heads were twisting, their eyes searching, and they were determined to find whomever they were searching for.

I glanced down, trying not to make eye contact, but it was impossible when all I could hear were footsteps approaching faster. Sure enough, when I lifted my head, they were coming toward me. I sucked in my breath as panic struck me hard, realizing I had made a mistake by picking the corner of the room; now I only had one direction to run. But I couldn’t move; there were too many of them.

There was no doubt what they were when I saw lights flickering in the palms of their hands. What was I going to do now? The only thing that gave me hope was knowing Mason was on his way. It was a good thing I’d gone with my gut feeling and didn’t press the send button.

Already feeling the warmth inside me, my hands started to tingle. I could feel the heat…brewing, growing. The vultures were within reach, but they didn’t shoot. In fact, they halted as if they were frozen in place. Their hate-filled, killer eyes shifted, now focusing behind me. Whomever, or whatever was on the other side of the glass had made them stop, I was assuming.

I knew better than to look, but I was so curious that I couldn’t help myself. I quickly turned to see if I could spot anything paranormal, but there was no one. Of course, there was no one. What was I thinking? When I turned back to the vultures, they were gone. It had only been a split second, but that was all the time they needed to disappear.

With a heavy, relieved sigh, I sat down and observed the empty cafeteria. Even the workers were gone. Perhaps they went to the back room to clean up. Lunch hour was over, after all. Before I forgot, I sent Mason a message that I was fine. I was lying, though. My frenzied heart was finally slowing down, but it would take a while to become steady again.

There were many questions that ran through my mind. Why didn’t these vultures smell like the other ones? Who had sent them? Were they there to kill me or capture me? It happened in the middle of the day, in front of humans, though there weren’t many in the cafeteria, but the wall was glass. Either they were being careless, wanting to seize the opportunity when they saw me alone, or they didn’t care.

Sitting there, all I could do was stare at the half-eaten spaghetti as water pooled in my eyes. I didn’t want to cry, but I also didn’t realize how scared I was until it was over. When I saw a shadow looming over me, I snapped my head up in alert. My heart steadied quickly when I was rewarded with the smile I missed so much.

“Mason,” I cried. I got up so fast that my chair dropped to the floor. Wrapping every part of my body over his, I squeezed him tightly and let it all out.