Protected (Book 1 in the Ariya Adams trilogy) (10 page)

“Whew. Good. Now back
to the main event! Go James!” she yelled, starting to clap her hands, and cheering. She was incorrigible.

I looked back to the ice to see if I could find James. He was still warming up
, but he skated perfectly. Was everything he did perfect? He moved around on the ice like he wasn’t even touching it. He had a smile on his face the whole time, and watching him truly gave me butterflies. I was in trouble. All of the tough girl stuff was gone for a moment. I could pretend or try to pretend, but inside I had never, ever felt this way about a man before. I don’t care what I knew or didn’t know about him. I felt like I had been hit on the head, and even though none of it made sense, I was crazy about him. I needed and wanted to know more about him. I just liked it when he was around. He looked up and we made eye contact, making the smile on my face even wider.

“You’re screwed.” I glanced at Caroline
, who was smiling in an annoyingly large and outrageous way.

“Oh
, be quiet,” I grumbled.

The game started and it was so much fun to be back
and watching the sport we’d grown to love over the years here. The boys were definitely pumped up and Riley scored in the first four minutes. They looked good this year. It remained 1 to 0 the rest of the period until James scored right before it ended. They all huddled up, high-fiving and hugging. 2 – 0 going into the second period wasn’t too shabby.

The second
period was much like the first with two more scores coming from Riley. James assisted on both of them and I began to see what Riley was talking about. They were extremely good on the ice together. At the end of the second, it was 4-0.

“I’m gonna run to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”

I got up to head out to the concourse. The restrooms were off to the side from where the students sat, a bit out of the way, so I headed towards the doors.

I was finishing up, washing my hands, when I thought I saw a shadow cross the mirror. I glanced up
, but didn’t see anything strange.
The lights must still be warming up
, I thought to myself as I glanced up at them flickering. They had been switched off for the entire summer, after all.

I grabbed the door handle to leave when someone’s arm shot out, slamming the door shut in front of me. Before I could even turn around
, I was shoved up against the wall with a strong, rather large hand grasping my throat. I almost couldn’t breathe. I opened my eyes to see I was staring straight into the face of Devon.

I clawed at his hand around my throat, trying to gasp in what little air was able to get through my windpipe.

“Not so protected now, are we?” Devon growled.

His eyes were glowing like they
had been the night of Ashley’s party, when I’d caught them behind her building. His voice was harsh and his arm muscles were bulging. I thought to myself that there was no way it was possible for him to be holding me up like this.

“Listen carefully, Ariya. You are going to do exactly what I say or you are going to regret it.”

He lowered me and released his hand from my throat, then shoved both of my shoulders hard against the wall again. It knocked the wind out of me as I felt my head hit the solid concrete wall behind me hard. He was strong, painfully strong.

My vision started blurring from the impact.
  It felt almost unbearable to have that kind of strength pushing into my shoulders. I tried catching my breath, gasping as much as possible to regain some of the air that had been pushed out of my lungs so roughly.

“What are you doing?”

My voice was raspy and my throat was almost numb from the pain of having been strangled. The throbbing in my head was getting worse. How hard had I hit it? Sharp pain was causing even my eyes to hurt.

“Shut up and listen to me. I’m tired of waiting for you.”

There was something seriously wrong with this guy. He leaned into me, sniffing my hair, and I thought I was going to gag. How had I ever thought he was attractive?

“You’re so beautiful.”

He brought his lips close to mine. I wanted to back away, but he had me pinned against the wall. Pulling on lessons learned in my self-defense class, I made a sudden movement to try to bring my leg to hit him in the balls. He was too fast, though, and he grabbed my leg.

“Shame on you, Ariya.”

I started to scream, but he brought his hand up to cover my mouth.

“Now, now.
I’m not going to really hurt you. At least, not yet.”

He punched me in the gut swiftly, pushing all the breath I had managed to get back a moment ago out of me
again. My mouth was open, trying desperately to gulp in air. My legs wanted to bend, but Devon shoved my shoulders back again, keeping me from falling.

“You are going to ditch Caroline, Nick, and especially James. You are going to come with me
alone
. Do you...”

He was cut off from the rest of his threat
when the restroom door flew open. It was Caroline. I tried to call her name to tell her to leave, but had no voice to do so. Instead of being able to warn her and have her safe, I was trapped. She was going to be hurt if I didn’t speak. I went to say her name, but could only cough.

Caroline was standing in the doorway and I thought I could see Nick behind her as well. She ran through the door and rushed at Devon.

“Let her go, you wretched animal!”

She slammed into him harder than I would have
ever thought possible. Devon roughly let go of me when Caroline ran into him. I crumpled, down onto the floor. I looked up to try to warn Caroline and to tell her that Devon was really strong. Nothing would come out of my mouth, though no matter how hard I tried.

My mouth throbb
ed. My whole back began to ache from being slammed, twice into the cement wall. My stomach felt like its insides were moved around in places they shouldn’t be. How was Caroline keeping Devon back against the wall so easily? Was this actually happening?

Devon started grinning wide
ly and opened his mouth. He lunged at Caroline like he was going to bite her. I saw a whirl of dark color, which turned out to be Nick. I could finally see more clearly since things had stopped blurring for a minute.

Nick had moved Devon from the wall and was now holding him back away from Caroline. He had pulled Devon away from Caroline so quickly that none of it seemed real. It was like watching parts of a movie in fast forward. It looked strangely familiar, these blurs of color. I tried to focus on Caroline’s face to see if she was okay
, but my vision was going in and out. From what I could see, she looked like she wasn’t fazed or scared at all. Was she smiling? Impossible. I brought my hands to my head to see if I could regain some balance.

“That’s enough.” Nick was growling in Devon’s ear.

I couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing. It felt like my mind was not able to correctly process what was happening.

“You’ve got your royal here to save her if she dies. Why not see if the rumors are true?”

Devon must have said something horrible in that sentence to Nick because Nick reached down and there was a loud snap and a crunching sound. Devon screamed. My vision was so hazy at this point that I couldn’t see anything of what was really happening. My eyes were heavy and my body slumped again. It sounded like Nick had broken something of Devon’s. What else could that noise have been?

Devon was done screaming and I could hear him say, “You’re going to be so sorry.”

I couldn’t take it anymore. My throat was still hurting and my body was shaking. I was nauseous and dizzy. I didn’t even care that I was on a filthy bathroom floor. My body, my brain, nothing seemed to be working right. I fell forward onto the floor and straight into a black hole.

I was drifting. Things were fuzzy
. It was almost as if there was a black light pulsing somewhere, creating the flickering shadows I was seeing. I hurt. My back felt bruised. I could hear voices every so often. They were pieces of sentences that barely made sense.

“How…”

“She needs blood … heal her … make her forget ... protect her.”

I tried to get the voices to come closer. What were they talking about? Who needs blood? Me? When
I tried to focus to speak more and ask my questions, pain came. A shadow approached.

Darkness
enveloped me again.

I stretched my arms out wide. It was the first time that week, as far as I could remember, that I hadn’t jerked awake.

The clock on my nigh
tstand was flashing 9 am. 9 am? I did a double take and was surprised. I couldn’t remember the last time I had slept in that late. Self-defense class was not an option, seeing how it had started half an hour ago.
Crap!
I threw on some comfy clothes and headed out to the living room. I stopped suddenly, seeing Nick sitting there.

“Hey
, Nick! When did you get here?” Nick glanced up from the book he was reading.

“Uh, late last night.
Did you have a good time at the game?”

“Yes, I love that hockey started up again. James and Riley scored in the first period and then Riley again in the second…” I trailed off for a minute. “Eh, I don’t really remember much of the final period
, but we won! It’s always exciting to win the first game. Have you heard anything about the transfer?”

My mind was going a mile a minute. I felt so alive, so rested. It had been over two weeks since I truly felt rested and I can’t remember ever having felt this great before.

“Yes, I did, actually. I heard Friday morning. I’m in. I just have to wrap up a couple more things and then I’m here for good.”

“That’s great
, Nick. Really quick, huh? I didn’t know transferring was that easy. Caroline is probably so excited.” He grinned back at me.

Caroline came out of her room in her robe. “You seem happy.”

“I feel better than I have since we came back. I’m refreshed. Oh, I didn’t have the falling dream, the boys won, which means a night of celebrating tonight, and yeah, I think all of those are perfectly good reasons to be in a good mood this morning. It’s going to be a great weekend!” I was excited, clearly.

“Good.” Caroline smiled at me. She leaned over and whispered to Nick.

“Well, I’m leaving you two to a girls day while I go get to know your friends better.”

“What? You don’t have to leave!
You just got here.” I frowned.

I didn’t want Caroline missing out on time with Nick
, especially since he said he didn’t get here until late. This was her first serious boyfriend, and I didn’t want her thinking I needed her around every weekend.

“He bonded with James and Riley yesterday after the game
, so they are all watching old sports movies or something today. I know, he comes to visit me and hangs with them. Whatever, we can have a girls’ day. It’ll be fun.” She seemed to know what I was thinking and went into her reassuring-big-sister mode instantly, trying to make me feel better.

“
After the game? I thought he got here late.”

Caroline looked at Nick a moment and then back
at me. “Yeah, you were asleep and Riley and James swung by since they were still amped up from the win.” She looked more comfortable as she spoke.

“Huh, you should have woke
n me up! I can’t believe I passed out. All right, if you’re sure it’s what you want, then I’m in. A girls’ day will be perfect!” I shook off the concern I had felt for a moment. Nothing was going to ruin my mood today.

Perfect is exactly what it was. We went on a run, watched
Clueless
while doing our nails, and decided around 3 that it wasn’t too early to make some mimosas and start enjoying our evening. About halfway through our second drink, Nick called, letting us know people were going to head over to Riley’s soon, so we got dressed and went over within the hour as well.

I
still felt great. My high had not started wearing off at all. I felt powerful and strong. It was like I could do anything. We walked into Riley’s house and Caroline went directly to Nick. Riley walked over, gave me a hug, and asked what I wanted to drink. I made him keep bottles of wine hidden in his house for when Caroline and I wanted to have something a bit classier than the Natty Light that was usually served. He went to grab some for me upon my request. I noticed James standing behind the couch. Since I was feeling so high and mighty, I decided to approach him and strike up a conversation.

“Hey.” I nudged into him.
He looked surprised, but smiled.

“How are you?” h
e asked. He looked concerned for a moment, but it quickly vanished back into a smile.

“G
reat. Hey, good game last night! Sorry, I got a bit tired and we headed home at the end. You sure picked up hockey quickly, huh?”

I
t surprised me that my talkative nature from this morning hadn’t faded yet. Maybe that’s what came from not having rested for two weeks and suddenly getting the best sleep you’d ever had.

“I guess so. The other guys make me look good.” He turned to face me and I realized how close
we were standing to each other.

“Do you enjoy it?” I tried to take a step back
and began stammering. My powerful feelings had, momentarily, been brought to their knees in James’ presence.

“Hitting people and winning games? What’s not to enjoy?” He smiled.
It was another one of his real grins that he didn’t always use. My body tensed. I wanted to talk more. All I had to do was keep thinking of topics.

“So
, how have you liked being here in Mineral Point?”

“It’s very much how I imagined it would be. Small towns don’t change that much over time when they’re tucked away like Mineral Point
is. It’s nice to see that some things in the world can remain constant.”

He spoke like he was much older than a college student. It was charming. It reminde
d me of my favorite leading men, the way they would get lost in their thoughts when they were speaking to someone. Of course it did. I read way too much and watch too many old, romantic movies. He was looking at me intensely. His eyes were beautiful.
Earth to Ariya
, I reminded myself,
you’re staring.

“Well
, I’m glad you think it’s nice.” I was racking my brain, trying to think of another question to keep the conversation going, when he surprised me with one of his own.

“Do you know what you want to do after college?”

I tried to hide a smile at the fact that he was continuing our chat.

“Well, I’m g
etting a degree in Counseling. Hopefully, I can get a job as a guidance counselor for high school students. I know a lot of people change from what they major in college when it actually comes to jobs, but I think I’d actually like it. I like the idea of helping people, being there for people, listening if they need someone to assist them. It seems rewarding.”

He nodded. “I can see you doing something like that.”

Riley came back with my wine. “Here you go, my lady. So what did you think yesterday? You left kind of early, huh? Way to bail. Caroline, too. You guys never leave us.” James seemed to go stiff for a moment. He seemed to act strange at the most random moments. Maybe it was a tick.

“I was there
, weirdo. You guys were great.”

“Well
, you missed the ending. Is everything okay?” Riley pushed.

“Yes, I wasn’t feeling well. I don’t really remember. I
was tired. It was probably a fever. I’m fine you worry wart. I was just telling James he picked the game up fast,” I retorted.

“I told you earlier
, Ariya. We’re going to be the dynamic duo!”

They high-fived.
Guys were funny to listen to when they were talking about sports. All the confidence and arrogance mixing together made quite a scene. I shook my head at them and Riley pasted a look on his face that screamed, “what?”

Someone called Riley
’s name and he excused himself.

“You guys are very close. He’s lucky to have
such a good friend,” James said.

“
Yeah. He’s my best friend besides Caroline. We’re just friends, though.” I rushed to include that last part. I thought it would be good to throw that in there to make things clear for James. He was smiling out of the corner of his mouth, so I thought it was safe to say he’d gotten the hint.

The evening went on like most of our weekend parties
did. I tried not to talk much after that to see if James would ask me more questions. He was quiet, but I thought my silence might come off as my not being overbearing on getting to know him. I’ve heard girls are supposed to hang back and be chased if they really want to snag their guy. I was not good at the mind games or the making-yourself-look-desirable thing that most of the girls who came to small schools were so good at. Most of them here were like Ashley, in the market for a husband. Why couldn’t people just say what they meant and mean what they said? That would make the most sense, right? This nonsense of giving people the run-around made it tough on a girl like me who just wanted a simple, straightforward man in her life.

We said our goodbyes a couple hours later and headed back to
our apartment. Caroline and Nick were snuggling in front of me on the walk home. I watched them, curiously.

They really did just
fit
together. They had such a comfortable routine around each other. It was quite amazing to watch, especially given how this sort of thing wasn’t really Caroline’s style. At least it seemed to be when it came to guys here. I was sure this thing between them was going somewhere.
Caroline is in the middle of her very own fairytale
, I thought to myself and smiled.

***

The weeks began passing more quickly after those first few. Compared to the first week of strangeness and excitement with transferring students and creepy new boyfriends, things were quiet and calm. My jerking had started again, but I was starting to suck it up and get used it.

The only thing that seemed
strange was that Ashley seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth. Devon did too, right along with her. No one saw much of her, and we all figured she had finally accomplished her goal of finding a husband. That was fine by me. It meant Devon wasn’t around to creep us out anymore. Maybe he left to crawl back into whatever hole he’d come from. It didn’t matter to me, wherever he was I hoped he would stay there. Besides that, things were good and life was going smoothly.

Before I knew it
, we were midway through October. We were halfway through our first semester already. I couldn’t believe that time was going by so fast. I imagine that’s how everyone feels when something is coming to an end.

The weekend before Halloween
, Caroline and I were preparing our apartment for the hockey after-party celebration. The boys were undefeated, and since it was becoming quite a habit to win, we had to keep rotating who hosted the celebratory parties to keep things interesting.

Caroline and I were up
, and we wanted to make it amazing. We loved the decorating part of parties and, except for picking out the right ground beef, we were pretty good at putting them together.

We were setting up cups on the counters and putting final touches on everything
when Caroline asked, “have you asked Riley who your partner is going to be for the Couples’ Costume Night?”

She looked up
, expectantly. My eyes widened. I had completely forgotten. Riley had started a couples costume party tradition our first year. People didn’t necessarily go with a significant other, but everyone was expected to have a partner. It was always best when the boys paired off and came completely ridiculously dressed. My favorite was when Riley and Johnny did Zack Morris and A.C. Slater from “Saved by the Bell.” It had been amazing.

“I forgot all about it! I’m sure there will be someone left over. I can’t believe it’s time for Halloween already. Do you know who is left without a partner?”

“Ja-a-a-mes,” Caroline said, in a singsong voice. I looked up and rolled my eyes, stealing her signature move.

“He’s not necessarily
the only one. Is Nick coming?”

“Yes, but he’s taken,”
she laughed. “We’re going to be Barbie and Ken. You’d better figure out your partner and costume, girl. You’re usually much more on top of this,” she joked.

“Barbie?
You? What is the world coming to? I can’t wait to see this!” I teased her.

Riley showed up with the keg before the rest of the team arrived. He poured himself a beer and cam
e over to sit next to me on the couch.

“Who can I partner with for Halloween
, Riley?” I asked.

“You don’t have one? I ass
umed you would be with James,” he said, and his eyes flickered with something strange. Was that jealousy? Impossible. Riley wasn't jealous of me with anyone.

“He didn’t ask me. I kind of forgot a
bout it,” I replied sheepishly.

“You want to be my partner? I can tell mine to
take a hike.” He smiled at me.

“No, I’m sure you already have it planned. I’ll figure it out.”

“Whatever you want, Ariya.” He downed the rest of his beer.