A Man of Honor (A Young Adult Paranormal Romance) (The Honor Trilogy) (7 page)

Fifteen minutes later, back in my apartment, my
family
, for lack of a better word, is making themselves at home. Hunter’s eating my leftover pizza, Eli’s downing one of my cans of soda, and even Tom is flicking channels from my leather recliner. The only one looking uneasy is Ethan. And somehow this softens my heart toward him. I
hate
myself for it.

When I see Ethan looking at me, I direct him, with my eyes only, to follow me to the kitchen. I’m still not ready to talk to anyone. Since all the blood bags and needles are on the table, Ethan doesn’t need an explanation. He sits and holds out his arm. I sit across from him and bring the needle to his vein. So I don’t have to look at him, I watch his blood ooze through the tube. Slow and thick. My stomach tenses, hating the fact that
his
blood is what will save Honor’s life.
His
blood will allow the elixir to pass for the real thing.

When I’ve got the pint from him, I pull out the needle, press a cotton ball to the inside of his elbow, and signal that we’re done. The rest I can do by myself. Tom and the boys are clearly confused when I stand at the open front door.

“I guess we’re done?” Tom asks.

I nod.

After they leave, I grab a cola and begin combining their still warm blood with the base I made earlier. My stomach isn’t as strong as I suspected, because cutting open the bags of blood and pouring them into the pot is making me nauseous. I carry the pot back to the stove and figure the ingredients will combine better if I cook them – the thought making me dry heave. Turning the flame on low and standing an arm’s length away, I stir the blood. And gag. As it warms over the fire, my eyes tear, the stench is so bad. Honor. I’m doing this for Honor. She is the only reason I’m playing with my half-brothers’ blood. The only reason I’m brewing up an elixir-like pot of dark red, foul-smelling human blood.

I run to the toilet and vomit. Heaving over the bowl, my thoughts are still on Honor. They have to be. The Gaffer’s men are dangerous. I’ve no idea what they’ll do, but if they aren’t given the elixir soon, I don’t think it’ll be me they’ll go after. Honor will be their target. I cannot let that happen.

Since it seems my stomach has nothing left to come up, I wash up, brush my teeth, and get back to my brew. I turn off the stove and leave the apartment, needing fresh air.

The next step is to funnel the blood into the containers. Surprisingly, Ethan didn’t really wash the jugs like I’d thought. When he said he’d rinsed them, it looks like he merely ran a little water through them. A thick coating of fog and dust still remain on the outside, keeping the vintage look I’ll need to pass this off.

Hopefully the Gaffer is not as scientifically gifted as Honor’s great-grandfather. Lord, help us if he figures this out.

She’s here.
In the cafeteria. I don’t know how I missed her in the halls this morning, but when I walk into the cafeteria for lunch, she’s sitting at her table. She couldn’t even give herself time off to recuperate?

My stomach flips a little when I approach her. “Honor?”

She turns around. “Oh. Hi.” Her eyes drop down, avoiding mine.

“What are you doing here?” I straddle the seat beside her. “Aren’t you supposed to be resting?”

Honor turns back to the table and fiddles with her food. “I guess,” she mumbles.

My hand instinctively goes to her thigh. “Honor. Your heart is weak. You should be home in bed.”

This stirs a chuckle from her, causing her to finally look at me. “I’m seventeen, Storm, not some old bed-ridden lady.”

The corners of my mouth tug, even though I’m serious about her resting. My heart swells at the sight of her, but I keep from smiling. Moving my hand to her forearm, I tell her, “I know you’re young,
princess, but your heart is not. It has to have aged quite a bit after saving your mother and me. And then Shelby and the girl in the bathroom and whoever else you’ve been trying to help.”

A tiny grunt escapes her throat. “Stop. I’m fine.” She turns her head and looks away, but doesn’t pull her arm from my light grasp.

“I just worry about you,” I whisper, averting her eyes as well. There’s a makeshift Band-Aid on the inside of her elbow. I see a bruise forming around it. “What’s this?”

Honor looks at her arm and shrugs. “Oh, Mr. Moore had us testing blood-types today.”

“From your elbow? That’s illegal. He’s not a nurse or something. What the…” I stop myself from swearing, though it’s hard. “He can’t do that, Honor. He did this to everyone?”

“Well, no. We all pricked our own fingers, but he wasn’t getting a reading on mine. He said we probably needed to take it from another spot.”

“So he pricked your arm?”

“Well, no, not exactly,” she says, pulling her arm away now. When I look up, I see why. Ethan is walking toward the table. He just nods, and so do I.

Turning my attention back toward Honor, I ask, “Not exactly…meaning what?”

“He used one of those needle things with the vial thingy.”

My chest starts to burn. My temper is rising. “Vial thingy, Honor? You’re smarter than that. A teacher is not
allowed
to do that.”

“What’s going on, Hon?” Ethan asks.

She shakes her head. “Nothing. Just…we took blood-type samples in chemistry today.”

Ethan looks to me for explanation.

“Moore took Honor’s with a needle and vial, not just a finger prick like everyone else got.”

“What!?” Ethan’s floored.

“He couldn’t get a reading on mine,” Honor explains. “He said he probably needed to get a little more.”

“A little more?” I say again, extremely angered this time. “Honor
, come on. Did you bump your head in that bathroom, because it certainly seems like you must have.”

“Hey. That was uncalled for,” Ethan scowls.

Honor sits up straight. “Oh thank God,” she says to Tamlin, who sits next to Ethan, across from us. “Tell them we were just doing blood types in chem – nothing sinister.” Honor forces a giggle.

“Did Moore take a vial of blood
from you, Tam?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “No. I did find that odd though. Why would he need three vials just to get her blood type?”

“Three!?” Ethan and I both gasp. We look at each other, suspicion as evident in his eyes as it is in mine.

The lunch trays bounce when I slam my hands on the table and stand, racing out the door to find Moore.

“Who the hell
are
you?”

My question is met with wide eyes and a dropped jaw, but quickly he presses his lips tight, narrows his gaze, and stands from his desk.

“Mr. Sutherland. Now what?” Moore composes himself and crosses his arms in front of his chest.

Restraining from decking him before he explains, I stand rigid about a foot from him.
“I want to know who you are and why you need three vials of Honor’s blood.”

He loosens his stance and sits back in his chair, picking up a pen and turning from me. “Mr. Sutherland, we’re done. Please leave.”

His hand starts moving along his paper, but it’s shaking as he writes. I’ve hit a nerve.

Moving to stand in front of him, I place my hands, palms flat, on his desk, lowering myself to look him in the eye.

“Who
are
you? And what do you need with Honor’s blood? What do you know? What do you want?”

He places his pen down and meets me eye to eye.
“Mr. Sutherland, do yourself a favor and get your own girlfriend. Honor belongs to your brother…no?”

This distracts me momentarily. I shake it off. “What does that have to do with my question?”

“Jealousy. Resentment. It’ll eat away at you. Make you do things you wouldn’t normally do.” He peers deep into my eyes. “Leave it alone now, Storm. Before it’s too late.” He picks up his pen and goes back to his work. “We’re done,” he says, keeping his focus on his work.

Pounding my fist on his desk, I attempt intimidation. He merely raises his eyes at me, not his head. “What are you talking about?” I ask, suddenly mentally exhausted.

“Brothers, Storm. I’m talking about brothers. Back away from your brother’s girl before it turns you into a monster who only wants revenge.”

I shake my head. “You’re crazy, you know that? You think I’m worried about Ethan? If you haven’t noticed, we’re pretty much indifferent toward each other.” I lie.

“We’re done, Mr. Sutherland.”

Pushing his desk right into him gets his attention. He stands. “That’s enough. Leave or I’ll call the principal and get you suspended.”

“Go ‘head. I don’t care if I get suspended. Besides, I’ll just tell them you took three vials of one of your student’s blood.”

His face shows little sign of being affected by my threat. “That’s right. Of course you don’t care if you’re suspended. You’ve already done this high school scene.” He shakes his head. “So let me ask
you
. Why are
you
here, and what do
you
want with Honor…besides that sexy body of hers?” He smirks, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

“That’s right, Mr. Sutherland. We
both
have secrets, don’t we? If you don’t want the school finding out who and what you are, and what your precious Honor is…you’ll back away from me. You come to class, keep your mouth shut, you leave class. Got it?”

I feel my shoulders drop but hope he doesn’t notice. He knows. He knows we’re empaths. And that’s why he wants Honor’s blood. Who
is
he?

My eyes stay on his, and I want so much to shake information out of him. But I won’t. Who knows how serious he is about outing us
? Until I have something substantial to hold against him, I need to keep my mouth shut.

Dropping my gaze first, I turn and walk out. But I’m not done with him. I
will
find out who he is. And I
will
find out why he’s here.

The doorbell rings, and my hands are covered in blood. Pouring blood into a two-inch wide mouth, even with a funnel, is messy. The blood plops. It doesn’t pour. And since it’s thick, it doesn’t flow consistently, overfilling the funnel and spilling over my hands every time.

When the doorbell rings a second time, my soapy hands are under the hot water. Mentally, I wish the person to go away, but since my car is parked out front, they probably realize I’m home. I’m just about done scrubbing all the blood off when it rings again.

Damn it. “I’m coming,” I yell, not too pleasantly, silently hoping it’s not someone looking for the elixir.

“What!?” I say abruptly, opening the door and stilling. My chest tightens. My breath hitches.

“Hi, Storm.”

Standing outside my door, Honor’s smile is as bright as the sun shining behind her. “Hey. Uh. Yeah. What’s up?” Her presence at my home has me stumbling over my words.

“I just…” She averts her eyes again, looking as nervous as I am.

“Sorry, Honor. Come in.”

“Is my bike okay here?” She points to her boardwalk-style bike leaning against my house.

“Uh, yeah. It should be, but what are you doing riding a bike? Honor…I keep telling you…you need to rest.”

She smiles again, and my heart does another flip. “It’s only like a mile. No biggie.”

“Yeah. No biggie.” I sigh. “Come.” Holding the door for her to walk in, I close the door behind me – nervous as all hell that I have her alone in my apartment.

“Soda or water?” I ask, pointing to the couch for her to sit.

“Oh, water’s good. Thanks.”

When I go in for her water, I slip the jugs under the sink and quickly wipe the counter to get rid of the spilled blood.

Gulping the rest of my cola, I attempt to gather my composure – something I’m not used to losing.

“So,
princess,” I swallow, walking toward the sweet-smelling angel sitting on my couch. “What brings you here today?” Trying hard to hide my sudden uneasiness with being alone with Honor, I sit, throw my elbow onto the top of the couch, and turn my body to face her.

“I, uh,” she hesitates.

“Oh. I wanted to ask you,” I interrupt, kicking myself afterward. “Uh, no, never mind. I’m sorry. You first.”

“No. No, that’s okay. What?”

“About this afternoon. First, I’m sorry I took off like that, but Moore really pissed me off.”

“Yeah, why?” She crumples her face, obviously not seeing in Moore what I see. Which is odd. Honor’s an empath. She should be able to read him well.

“Honor. He’s…” I stop. My intent has always been to keep her from worrying. I can’t now tell her what I think I know about Moore. “Why…did you let him take your blood like that?”

She tilts her head and shrugs. “I don’t know. I didn’t see anything wrong with it.”

“Really?” I’m amazed. Honor is intelligent. She’s earnest and resolute. To take in Moore like the rest of the flighty girls in this town is so unlike her.

“Really. He’s a good guy. I don’t understand what you and Ethan have against him.”

“You don’t
feel
anything from him? What are his emotions, Honor? Do you sense something good about him? I’m curious.”

As she is now facing me, sitting in mirror position to me, she leans her elbow on her thigh and tucks her curled hand under her chin. “I don’t know. I guess I feel curiosity coming from him. I sense
something
, but I’m not sure what. No pain or anything like that. No sadness. Just. I don’t know. I trust him.”

I nod and gnaw at my inner cheek. “You trust him?” Shaking my head, I let out a “hmmm,” then utter, “I don’t get it, but…be careful,
princess. I
don’t
trust him. I know I don’t have my powers,” I use my fingers to make air quotes around the word power, “anymore, but I still have my intuition. Don’t get too close to him, ‘kay?”

“’
kay.” She smiles. “By the way, are you, like, going to a tanning salon or something? You’re, like, so tan. And your hair…it’s almost brown. You were, like, bleach blond. Did you dye it?”

“Nope, and nope. I think it’s ‘cause I’m not an empath anymore.”

“What?” She chuckles.

“Yeah. Feeling everyone else’s emotions is draining. Maybe it drains all your color too. Who knows? I mean, look at how pale you are. You’re almost ghost white.” I laugh, making sure she knows I’m just teasing her, despite the fact that she really is void of any color.

“Ha, ha,” she retorts, but laughs along with me.

“So, why’d you ride your bike all the way here? I’m sure it wasn’t just for a pleasant visit. Ethan wouldn’t allow that.”

“Well, Ethan doesn’t know.” She darts her eyes to the floor. “He went straight to his apartment after school.”

I raise my eyebrows, wondering conspicuously why she’s here. “Oh?”

The lower part of me stirs when her breath hitches and she turns to me with half-lidded eyes. I inhale – taking in the sight and smell of her. Quickly she shakes her head back to reality.

“Um.” With the tip of her tongue, she darts it over her bottom lip – an act I realize is unintentional on her part. “Some man gave this to me to give to you.” She holds out a small envelope with “Storm” written in block letters across the front.

“Some man?” I take the envelope from her. “Why didn’t he just give it to me?”

“That’s what I asked him. He said he needed the letter to come from me. That you’d understand.”

The blood must be draining from my face, because I’m suddenly lightheaded. With a trembling hand, I slide my thumb under the sealed flap. For a moment, staring at the open envelope is all I can do.

“Storm,” Honor nudges. “You’re white as a ghost. What is it?”

Still unable to pull the letter from the envelope, I keep my gaze on it while I whisper, “What did the man look like?”

“Older. But nice looking. He had like light greyish hair, but nice. Almost blond.
He was all dressed in a suit and, like, he had a driver and everything. I don’t know. He
was
kinda creepy too. I remember that. Not just ‘cause he was intimidating, but what I felt when he handed me the letter.” She shakes her head and crunches her face in disgust.

“What did you feel, Honor?” I ask, finally taking my eyes off the envelope and focusing on Honor.

“Odd. A mixture of fright and revenge.”

“They’re two completely different emotions.”

“I know. But…maybe I was confusing my emotions with his. I don’t know.”

Gulping down some courage, I close my eyes and pull the letter from the envelope. My hands are clammy and shaky. When I unfold the letter, small black block letters spread across the page. The words cause a shiver down my spine.

Ah. So you got my letter. Sweet girl, that Honor. I’m going to love having her all to myself soon – having her blood all to myself. I hear she’s quite powerful. Yes. I’ll be having some fun with that. Unless of course you have that elixir of mine. You know, the elixir that was stolen from me.

So you hand that over and precious Honor will be saved…maybe. I just may need them both. Hmm. Something to think about, don’t you think? One thing is for sure – I don’t get that elixir, you won’t see Honor anymore.

And obviously…I know where to find her.

Tootles,

G.

Gaffer. The man himself. Holy shit, what am I going to do? He’s seen Honor. He’s following her. She’ll never be safe. Handing over the elixir is not going to be enough. If I don’t think of something, Honor will never be safe.