Starbound (2 page)

Sitting at my desk another moment, I thought legs like hers should have been outlawed from high school. She had long, sun-kissed legs that were toned in just the right places. All her cheerleading practice had paid off, but I was more of a butt kind of guy anyway, and I could tell you that Kat had a magnificent ass. She wasn’t extraordinarily tall or short. Her hair was a long, angelic white with these soft waves that framed her heart-shaped face. And what a face, but it was her smile that made my heart seize. And the two dimples that appeared with it were the icing on the cake. Exotic was the first word that came to mind.

But where she was concerned, I had a hands-off policy.

That didn’t stop me from being aware of her twenty-four seven, or appreciating what she offered. When Kat walked into a room, everything inside me became charged, electric. She had that kind of power over my treacherous body.

I hated the way she made me feel without even trying…and I loved it at the same time.

I was so screwed in the head.

It was unfair that the one person I wanted was the only person I could never have. Fate was a bitch.

The longest three months of my life felt like yesterday and had changed everything. It was the first time Kat and I had spent a summer apart. She had gone to her Grandma’s beach house in Rhode Island, and I hadn’t seen her at all. On our first day back at school, I had gotten a shock that rocked my system, especially for a pre-adolescent boy. Suddenly, I found myself attracted to her on a whole new level. My body had a mind of its own. When I saw her that dreaded Monday morning, all I could think was
Oh shit
.
That’s Kat
?

She was the only girl to give me a boner in the school halls. Talk about awkward and uncomfortable. I had some pretty wild fantasies about her that year—fantasies were safe. Kat was drop dead hot.

My jaw had hit the ground.

Sweet Jesus
. The beach had done her body good.

I’d been standing at the bottom steps of the school entrance as she passed me by. The scent of her shampoo teased the air around her, and she gave me a heart-stopping grin. I watched as she flipped her long curls, giggling with Claudia Adams and Harper Thompson at her side—her two new besties.

Before she entered the double doors, she had glanced over her shoulder at me and ours eyes clashed. She flashed her dimples and her light iridescent blue eyes twinkled. Whether Kat had known it or not, that was the day our friendship had drastically changed.

Good God. I had been pretty sure Kat had just flirted with me. I had swallowed hard and slumped against the stair railings, feeling the ground slip out from under me.

It was no surprise that was the year Kat had shot up in her social status. She joined the cheerleading squad and was always surrounded by a flock of horny boys. What no one knew was I had spent that entire year fighting the urge to plant my fist in their faces. I’d wanted to scream at her groupies that she was mine. In my head, not one of those guys had the right to touch her, talk to her, or look at her like a piece of pecan pie.

Because Katia had been destined to be mine.

I’d wanted nothing more than to march up to them and slam their heads into the concrete block walls. And that was for just looking at her. Imagine how I’d felt when one of them touched her. I literally lost my shit the first time I saw her kiss another guy. Let’s just say that the dent on the locker door was still there, and my poor knuckle had bled like a bitch.

It had done nothing to dull the ache in my chest.

Now, it was our senior year and nothing had really changed, except that I learned some self-control. I didn’t want to smash Matt’s face every time I passed him in the halls. I called that progress.

And I became an asshole. It was the only defense I had against her and the crazy-intense feelings she stirred inside me. It was far better for her to hate me than to have her love me. I didn’t think I could have restrained myself if she loved me. Hell, even if she liked me a little, it would have been too hard.

Getting out of my seat, I trailed behind the group, catching one last glimpse of Kat before she disappeared into the crowd. The rest of the day was a breeze after that. Thankfully we only shared two classes this year, which in my book was two too many. First period and then English, I figured we should be able to survive our last year without killing each other—literally.

When the final bell of freedom rang, I sighed in sweet relief and trucked it home. I walked through the front door, and Dad took one look at me with sympathy filling his hazel eyes. “That bad, huh?” he asked, leaning on the fridge.

I sunk into the couch, mixed with rage, sadness, loneliness, and longing so profound it ate at my flesh like a zombie. “You have no idea.”

He offered me a Coke. “It’s for the best, Seth.”

So I’d heard before. I was getting tired of hearing it, the same song and dance. Popping the top on the can, I took one long swig. My parents meant well and when you came from a family of magick, you learned to respect what knowledge they gave.

Dad sat down next to me and stretched his long legs under the coffee table. We had the same height and build, but I had gotten my coloring from my mom. There was not a touch of grey in his chocolate hair. “You know that this is the only way to keep her safe.”

Yada. Yada. Yada. The warnings were etch-o-sketched into my brain, but that didn’t mean it didn’t suck serious monkey ass. “I know, Dad. You don’t have to worry. Nothing will happen.” But, for the first time, I didn’t believe those words.

There had been something different in her silvery-blue eyes today. The usual scorn had been replaced with interest. I hadn’t seen that glint of intrigue and possibility since sixth grade, right before I had smashed it to smithereens. Let’s just say that back then, delicacy hadn’t been one of my superpowers, and I might have been too harsh, but I hadn’t known how to handle Kat. Or the feelings she enticed.

I wasn’t sure I could handle them now.

“Harsh” really wasn’t a strong enough word. I had broken her heart and stomped on it, crushing it with cruel words. I had been an insensitive jerk, though I think she’d had a few more colorful words for me that day. And who could have blamed her.

If she suddenly decided to flip the tables, how long would I really be able to stay away? How long would I be able to deny what my heart and soul demanded?

One year. One more year.

It wasn’t just resisting Kat. It was giving up the girl who had been destined to be mine. Normally you don’t mess with fate, being a nixie, you know better than to muddle with the greater powers, but she wasn’t just fated as mine. She was my starbound. And that was harder to ignore for nixies than the next hit for a meth addict. It was impossible. Especially when finding your one true mate was so rare among us. The fact that I had known she was mine since birth was a freaking miracle.

But she was one miracle I could never have.

To make matters worse, her parents hadn’t taken the same approach mine had when it came to the curse. For as long as I could remember, I had heard the warnings, was told to stay far away, but Kat’s family kept her in the dark. She knew our families didn’t get along, but she didn’t know the truth.

Why we could never be together.

Chapter 2

Katia

It was my senior year.

Which meant late nights, more parties than I could stand, and in general, a whole lot of goofing off before having to make life decisions about my future.

Claudia and Harper excelled at all of the above. Claudia, our cheerleading squad captain, had skin that looked California tan all year, a Marilyn Monroe beauty mark, and ovaries the size of coconuts. She was not afraid to do or say whatever was on her mind, which quiet often was inappropriate and probably offensive to most.

I don’t know why we were friends.

Harper was a blonde bombshell, smart and funny too. A triple threat, she had Hollywood written all over her. Harper wanted to see her name in lights, but that would never happen in small-town Vermillion.

Neither of my closest friends were anything like me—a nixie—nor did they know what I was. I liked to think of myself as more of Glenda the good nixie versus the other alternative. There were definitely both sides of the coin—black magick and white magick. I had never met anyone who practiced the latter. Never wanted to either.

Magick always had a way of balancing the scales, and I didn’t want to test those boundaries. And honestly, I wasn’t all that great at being a nixie. I kind of sucked at it. Unreal, I know. As far as skills went, mine were virtually useless.

If any of my friends thought I was something other than normal, they never said. I think the people of our small town were used to the strange. Vermillion had always been home to nixiecraft, and there was plenty of goddess blood in our school, including the jerkwad Seth.

At one time we all used to hang out and do magick. The five of us had been a full circle, but that was eons ago. Now we avoided each other like the bubonic plague and had gone our separate ways, or maybe it was just me that had left. Not that I stalked him or anything, but I was pretty sure Seth and the others were still friends, including the hoodrat Elena. She always had her hands on him.

Not that I cared or kept tabs...

Who was I kidding?

For reasons unbeknownst to me, I did care, even when I tried to convince myself I didn’t. Being at the top of the social chain, I heard the rumors about Seth and the others. They didn’t exactly try to blend as I had, or hide that they were different. Of course, it didn’t help that some of them dressed like they were part of a cult. The freak Elena’s entire wardrobe was black, and she wore enough eyeliner to rival Kiss.

I had refined the art of blending. The most rebellious thing I’d ever done was add pink highlights to my hair. It hadn’t lasted long, but that didn’t mean I was a good girl. Far from it. Lately, my life was spiraling into nothing but trouble. Sure, I looked like the good girl next door who got away with murder, but looks were deceiving. There was a price for being popular.

And I was tired of keeping up the charade. I was tired of being something I wasn’t. I was tired of denying who I was.

In a way, I envied Seth and the others.

They hadn’t lost who they were. They had stayed true to their gifts. I was the one who was lost.

Not that Seth wasn’t trouble with a capital T.

He definitely looked dangerous, like someone you didn’t want to mess with unless you were looking for a good ass beating, but he also had this endearing protective streak. He had a way of making the people he cared about feel safe.

I used to be one of those people—part of his close circle.

Sighing, the last thing I wanted to dwell on was my past history with the dark and sexy Seth. It was Friday night. Tonight, I was going to have fun, let loose, and pretend all those doubts and uncertainties swimming inside me were gone.
I love when I lie to myself and mask my problems with booze.
My days of high school were numbered and college was looming in the distance.

New school.

New friends.

New set of problems.

I really didn’t think that partying was going to make this empty feeling inside me disappear.

Slipping into the standby little black dress, I checked out my butt in the floor-length mirror, twisting from side to side. I pursed my glossy lips. It would do. I ran my fingers through my curls and tried to banish Seth’s face from my head. Lately, he was consuming my thoughts—my dreams—my every waking moment.

I wondered if Seth would be at the party tonight. It was a stupid thought. I don’t know why it had even crossed my mind. Parties were never Seth’s scene. He’d rather munch on cockroaches than mingle with
my
crowd.

One last glimpse in the mirror to smooth a wrinkle from the dress and smack my glossy lips and I was ready to rock. I grabbed my wristlet off the dresser.

Downstairs, my little sister, Collins, was watching something on the Disney Channel. “Hey, Bug, whatcha watchin’?” I asked, leaning over the back of the couch.

Waves of cute curls cascaded over her shoulders as she lay belly down on the sofa, feet sticking up in the air. She popped a big, pink bubble before answering. “iCarly.” She glanced over her shoulder at me. “Where do you think you are going looking like that? Dad is going to have a conniption if he sees you.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m going out with Matt. And
Dad
is not going to see me. I’m leaving before he gets home.”

“Why don’t you go out with Seth? He is so much cooler than Matt,” she said, drawing out his name dramatically. I sometimes forgot that Collins and Seth’s younger sister, Mya, were friends.

The doorbell rang. I straightened up and ruffled my curls. “You’ll understand when you’re older.”

“When I’m older, I’m going to date Seth,” she stated matter-of-factly.

I frowned, the doorbell momentarily forgotten. Why did it bother me that my little sister had a crush on Seth? “He is too old for you, silly.”

She smiled. “He won’t be in a few years.”

The doorbell rang again. Ugh.

Collins’s eyes were once again glued to the TV, her legs swinging happily in the air. “You better get that before
Matt
decides to ditch you.”

“Aren’t you a funny bug?”

She stuck her tongue out at me.

Little sisters were great.

I opened the door and there stood Matt Lang in all his athletic glory—sandy hair, perfect without a strand out of place. His jeans looked new along with the Rugby shirt. Sometimes I think he spent more time getting ready than I did. “Hiya, babe,” he said in a lazy drawl, his hazel eyes twinkling. Someone was in a good mood.

He leaned in and gave me a peck on the lips. I smelled beer. Apparently someone had started the party early.

Collins made gagging noises in the background. “Get a room,” she yelled, just before I stepped outside and shut the door.