Good vs. Evil High (20 page)

“Lucky break, huh?” Sassy asked.

I tried to tell myself to look over at her,
but a whimper came out instead.

“Kristine?” Harmony asked, putting her arm
around me.

Leaning over, I sobbed into her shoulder. I
was trembling, I realized. It was my mother’s death all over again,
having to watch him fall and die. I loved Luke, and I wasn’t strong
enough to go on without him. In only a few days, seven of the
happiest days I’d had in years, he’d become my life force. I
couldn’t shake the anguish I’d just suffered.

It took me several minutes to pull myself
together enough to look back at the screen. Even after that, I
stayed close to Harmony with her arm around me as I watched,
terrified something would go wrong.

But I saw that Luke could take care of
himself. Four North Haveners had already been overthrown and Roman
had taken out three Cinders. I watched Luke shoot out from behind a
snowdrift right in front of someone and hit them so they flipped
over. That player was out. Then he came flying up behind another
North Havener and pulled him right off his snowmobile with one
hand. That only left two on our team, Roman and the girl Snow
Rider, Kelley Bridge.

Roman knocked a Cinder out cold with a
different rock. Kelley managed to knock a Cinder off his snowmobile
with a stick. Then a Cinder rode past her and pulled her off by her
ponytail, which had come out of her helmet, dragging her a few
yards before he let go.

“This is brutal,” I said, sitting up for the
first time.

“Yep,” Sassy said. “It’s kind of a Cinder
sport. They started it, and it’s their favorite part of the
competitions, but there’s always enough guys from our school who
get into it to keep a team going. Kelley’s the first girl to
join.”

The three remaining Cinders did their best to
dethrone Roman, but he somehow took down two.

“Only one remaining competitor from each
school,” Connie said. The screen split and showed each one. “North
Haven’s Roman Armstrong and Southland Cinder’s Knight. Who will
come out victorious? It looks like we’ll soon find out.”

The Snow Riders approached each other from
different ends of an expanse of snowy field. The screen slowly
zoomed in, keeping them each at the edge the entire time. It
reminded me of two jousters as they got closer and closer. Neither
had anything but themselves to fight with.

I could see Roman getting ready to kick Luke.
I hoped Luke saw it, too.

The sides of each snowmobile must have
scraped against the other as Luke shoved Roman’s leg out of the way
with his foot and leaned way over to grab him around the neck,
lifting him right off his seat. Roman’s snowmobile and body flew
out from under him as Luke threw him down in the snow on his
back.

A sound almost as loud as the earlier
explosion beat against my ears as the Cinders stood up and roared
like thunder.

Luke had won the Snow Riders’
competition.

Chapter
Twenty-Five

~ Eternal Bond ~

I was pretty nervous as I began walking down
the hallway leading to the competitors’ room. Nervous about what
Roman’s reaction would be. Nervous about whether or not Luke would
even be there when it was all over after he’d been acting so
odd.

Thomas and James, both North Haven Snow
Riders, walked out of the boys’ room when I was nearly there. “Hey,
Kristine,” Thomas said. “Roman’s almost done in there. He’ll be
happy to see you after such a harsh game.”

“It’s not safe for you to be out here alone,”
James said, stopping right beside me. “Someone wired Knight’s ride
to go up like that. Probably the same guy who put Rose in the
hospital. We should stay with her until Roman comes out,
Thomas.”

“Someone tried to kill Luke?” The whole
attacker thing suddenly became a whole lot scarier.

The door to the boys’ competitors room opened
and Roman walked out, looking pretty miserable. It all changed when
he saw me. “Hey, Kristine!”

“See ya, Roman,” James said, walking away
with Thomas.

“Luke’s bike was fixed to blow up?” I asked
Roman, unable to think of much else.

“I don’t want to talk about him tonight. I
wanna hear what it is you needed to tell me.” Moving closer, he let
his hands glide over my sides as he walked me back against a wall.
“I have a feeling I know what it is.” He smiled and tried to kiss
me, forcing me to slide against the wall in order to get away.

“I wanted to tell you somewhere we won’t be
interrupted. Will you come with me?”

“Oh, I’ll come with you all right.” He had
this stupid drunk look on his face as he came close enough to
whisper. “But I want to hear you say it first.” He began trying to
kiss my neck, making me seriously consider kneeing him in the
groin.

“Roman, please!” What in the world did he
think I was going to tell him?

“All right, I’ll be patient. Where did you
want to go?”

“Come on.” I began walking down the hallway
away from the stairs. Roman chased after me and decided to try and
hold me around my waist from behind as we walked, which was awkward
and annoying, but I forced myself to put up with it until the
bright hallway faded into torch-lit stone up ahead.

Using my hands to pry his away, I said,
“There’s a storage room we can go in. I don’t think the Cinders use
it anymore.” I saw the lonely door to the left of the changing
point and two burning torches hung on either side of it on the
wall. We each grabbed one and walked into something bigger than a
closet, closer to a regular bedroom in size, but empty of anything
other than a few dusty brooms and droopy cobwebs in every
corner.

“You were right,” Roman said, setting his
torch in a holder. “No one will find us in here.”

I barely had time to hang up my torch on the
other side of the room before he was all over me like a leach. His
hot minty breath came out in heavy puffs as he kissed my shoulder
and neck. “Say it,” he whispered. “I want to hear you say it.”

“Back off, Roman. I’m pretty sure you’ve got
the wrong idea about what I’m going to say.”

“Come on, sweetie, say it.” He pressed his
lips against mine as I pushed him away as hard as I could.

I had to grab his face and twist around in
his arms to break free. “Cut it out!”

“What’s wrong with you? No one’s around.”

“What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you?
And what the heck do you think I wanted to talk to you about?!”

“We’ve been together long enough now; aren’t
you going to say you love me?”

“No!” Was he serious? “I came here to break
up with you.”

He turned and stared at the wall to his left,
the luster of tears already staining his eyes. “You...this can’t be
happening.”

“I’m sorry, Roman. You’re a lot of fun and
everything. But I don’t want a boyfriend right now. You never even
asked me out; you just started saying I was your girlfriend.”

Still staring at the wall, he shook his head
and laughed. “You don’t want a boyfriend...” His eyes flashed blue
as he looked back at me. “Are you seriously telling me this isn’t
about Knight?”

“No...well, maybe. A little bit.”

He grabbed my wrists and snarled, “Do you
really think he wants you? He’s a Cinder. All they care about is
themselves. He’ll hurt you, Kristine, something I would never do.
For the rest of my life, I will love you and look out for you.
Knight won’t do that.”

“I didn’t say he would, and I don’t know if
he wants me or not, but he’s not like the other Cinders. He has a
good heart...And yeah, maybe I do want him. But even if I hadn’t
found him here, I still wouldn’t have wanted to be with you. I
never have. Why can’t we just be friends?”

Roman growled angrily as bitter tears spilled
out. It felt like a brick hit me as he let go and struck me in the
face without warning. He grabbed my arms hard enough to bring tears
to my eyes and a cry from my lips. “No. You’re not breaking up with
me. Not now, not ever. Do you understand?”

Suddenly, something came out of the shadows.
Then two giant hands wrapped themselves around Roman’s neck from
behind and began squeezing, forcing Roman to let go of me so he
could try and free his airway. He strained and kicked as I fell to
the floor, scooting away from them both. I watched in horror as
Roman’s body became limp, and then fell into a heap on the
floor.

The dark figure came and knelt beside me.
Luke’s face moved close to mine, his beautiful eyes staring at me
with concern. “He’ll come to eventually...I’ve always wanted to be
with you. A day hasn’t gone by that I haven’t wondered whatever
happened to you and wished for the old days we spent together to
come again...I couldn’t say anything because I’m a Cinder, and I
didn’t think you could ever feel the same way.”

“But, why...before...” I couldn’t put two
words together, because my brain was still trying to process the
fact that he felt the same way.

“It hurt when you kissed my arm back in the
gym. I wanted more so bad, and I had to walk away. It hurt even
more to know I would always have to walk away from that.”

He reached behind his head to take off the
black ribbon with the gold flame dangling from it and put it around
my neck. “This belongs to you.”

“No, I can’t—”

“They said it took seven men to take you down
when you thought I was in that explosion. They said you don’t even
want to live without me.”

My eyes begin to water at the thought. “I
don’t.”

He smiled and leaned forward, his dangerous
thorns of black hair shining in the firelight. And then I felt
myself being slid back across the floor as Luke put a hand behind
my head and slammed us both against the wall, kissing me until I
couldn’t remember who I was. A searing heat burned though my entire
body and I felt the explosive fireworks I could never feel with
Roman. A long moan drew from deep inside me just before he let
go.

He rested his forehead against mine and tried
to catch his breath. “I love you, Kristine. I’ve loved you since
the day I saw you sitting in the back of that classroom seven years
ago."

A feeling of pure ecstasy came as I said, “I
love you, too, Luke.”

He leaned back and took my hand. I felt
something warm and wet. I held up his hand and saw blood all over
the back where it had hit the wall. “You’re bleeding.” I tried to
wipe it away, but it kept coming. I lifted his hand to my lips
instead, hoping he wouldn’t think I was strange as I kissed it and
let his blood smear across them.

His own lips parted slightly. He let out a
ragged breath and ran his other thumb over my mouth. He looked down
at his injured hand. “Kristine...do you love me enough to let my
blood flow through your veins?” He looked up at my chest. “Would
you let a part of me pump through your very heart?”

Even though the question was a little
twisted, it excited me somehow. It felt like something eternal that
would bind us together forever. No one would ever be able to sever
that bond. It even felt like everything in my life had been leading
up to this intimate moment.

So I held out my hand. He drew a knife from
under his boot and turned my hand over before he slit the center of
my palm, sending dark blood dripping down my arm. I sucked in a
breath with the sharp sting of it.

Luke held out his hand for me to lay mine on.
It had to be my choice.

I laid my freshly cut palm over his bleeding
knuckles and felt the blood running from his hand into mine and
from mine into his. I felt a closeness like I’d never felt with
anyone else before, as our blood poured into each other. For a few
minutes we only stared at each other, the soft dripping of thick
crimson falling from our hands to the floor.

And then he pulled my cut to his lips and let
my blood run over his chin as he kissed the inside of my hand.
“You’re mine now,” he said tenderly.

“I know.” It was the sort of thing I’d longed
to hear him say.

He leaned over to kiss me again. “Go to the
dance with me.”

“But—I thought you didn’t want your school to
know we’ve been seeing each other.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore. I don’t want this
to be a secret. I’ll protect you.”

“Okay.”

He reached behind my head and grabbed my hair
roughly, pulling it tight, as he kissed me the same way he had the
first time.

He stood up when he was through and held a
hand out to me. “I’ll take you to get that cut patched up. I don’t
want to leave it open like that.”

“What about you?” I asked, standing up.

“That’s nothing.” Luke opened the door.

“Wait.” I stopped to look over at Roman,
still lying half-dead on the floor. “We can’t just leave him
here.”

“Why not?”

“What if he went into a coma or something,
and no one ever found him?” I really wished Luke hadn’t taken
things so far.

“Who cares? It’s what he deserves for what he
did to you.”

I still felt the sting where Roman had hit
me, but he didn’t deserve to die over it. Leaving him there
wouldn’t be right. I gave Luke a pleading look, hoping he’d come
around.

He looked up and groaned. “Fine.” He grabbed
Roman’s arm and dragged him into the hallway carelessly, smashing
his shoulder into the doorframe on the way out. Then he spit on him
before putting an arm around me and leading me away.

Chapter
Twenty-Six

~ Mass Decision ~

Oh—my—gosh
, I woke up thinking the
next morning. Luke had kissed me! Like a hundred times! Each time
sweeter than the last. Of course, nothing would ever compare to the
first one.

Flipping my light on, I held up Luke’s medal
to look at. I turned the gold flame over.
Cinder Champion
was printed in two lines on the top and
Knight
had been
engraved in larger letters underneath. His first medal. And he’d
given it to me freely.