Aven's Dream (40 page)

At the moment, the last thing I wanted to do was study for Trig. What I
wanted
to do was attack Will. Picking up my backpack, Will began walking upstairs, and as I followed him, I wished that things would just go back to normal—or at least normal for us. This strange distance between us since Saturday was beginning to make me nuts. He was the same, but different. Affectionate, but reserved. Close, yet he felt very far away.

Will set down my bag and sat at my desk. Seconds later, music began to drift from my computer, and I suddenly had to wonder if I owned any music that wasn’t incredibly depressing. Throwing my Trig book on the bed with a sigh, I sat down and crossed my legs, ready to take out my frustration on my least favorite subject.

Within fifteen minutes, I had snapped two pencils and was ready to throw my Trig book across the room. I looked up and saw Will watching me, his expression a combination of amusement and something else. Regret maybe?

“What? You try being mathematically deficient,” I growled.

Like Will could be deficient in any way. Shaking my head, I got up and walked over to my desk, enjoying a rare height advantage over Will. He looked up at me, his eyes glittering with warning—like he knew exactly what I was about to do. Pulling my sweater over my head, I climbed into his lap, straddling his legs. Then I did nothing. I just watched him. Slowly, I leaned forward and kissed the edge of his jaw. His muscles tensed, and I moved to his ear.

“See?” I said, trying to keep my breathing in check. “Careful.”

Clutching the front of his shirt for balance, I shifted back to see his face. Will’s eyes were closed, like he was concentrating very hard. But he wasn’t stopping me. With my free hand, I reached up and traced his perfectly shaped lips, then his brows, his eyelids, the curve of his jaw. Then I kissed him, just barely touching my lips to his. Something about the barely-there contact caused a spike of pleasure to course through me. When I sighed, suddenly Will’s hand gripped the back of my neck, his lips brushing across mine again and sending sparks through me.

I felt a rush of air, and the next thing I knew, my back was being pressed into my bed. Will was hovering over me, his eyes slate-gray and desperate. Reaching up to touch his cheek, I tried to push my energy outward. I wanted to give him energy and also ease his ever-present pain, which I could feel leaking into the edges of my mind. He groaned, and then his lips were on mine again, coaxing my mouth to open beneath his.

“Aven,” he breathed raggedly. “I love you. I want you.”

“
So
this
is what careful looks like
,” a voice said across the room.

My entire body froze, and before I could blink, Will was across the room. Sitting up, I looked over at him before seeing James sitting at my desk. By the time I looked back to where Will had been, he was gone. Jumping up from the bed, I stalked across the room to where James was sitting. Lifting my hand, I swung out, but he caught my wrist a half second before I could slap him across his smirking face. As I stared down at him, anger burned a path through me before it registered in my brain that his eyes, too, were slate-gray. I laughed bitterly.

“So, you’re the monk, then? Holier than the rest because you don’t suck energy from poor, unsuspecting souls?”

“
Holier
? No. Smarter? Yes. I’ve learned my lessons. I can get all the energy I need by filtering out the excess in a crowded movie theatre or a packed bar full of drunken fools. I do not, however, draw from individuals—and particularly not an empath. Too much temptation.”

I looked down at my wrist, which he was still holding loosely in one hand.

“So you’re immune, then? Infallible even?” I asked.

“I never said that. I said
smarter
, which means I don’t need to be infallible.”

Putting my other hand on the armrest of my chair, I bent down until we were eye to eye. He smelled the same as Will—tempting. But it was different at the same time. Like the difference between the smell of chocolate cake and chocolate-chip cookies.

Smiling, I leaned forward until our lips were a millimeter apart. Then I thought of Will, the feel of his lips, his touch. Closing my eyes, I pushed the energy outward, and James hissed. His grip on my wrist tightened, and fear flared in my chest. Suddenly his lips were on mine, and I knew that my attempt to prove a point had gone too far. Breaking free, I opened my eyes, feeling my legs begin to shake with the effort of standing. His eyes were suddenly a startling emerald green again. Pulling away, I took a step back, frightened by the expression I saw in his eyes.

“Get out,” I said evenly. “And don’t even
try
to pretend you’re so superior.”

Going over to the dresser, I grabbed a change of clothes, struggling to keep my hands from shaking. By the time I turned around, James was gone. Opening the door to my room, I hurried down the hall to the bathroom, where I turned on the water. Beneath the spray, I scrubbed my skin and tried to keep my mind off of what had just happened.

By the time I stepped out of the shower and dried off, I heard the front door swing open. Hurrying to get dressed, I grabbed my dirty clothes from the floor of the bathroom and went to throw them in my laundry basket before going downstairs to meet my dad. When I walked into the kitchen, he was at the counter talking to a young woman sitting at the kitchen table. She turned toward me—and I knew.

Grace
.

“Hi, sweetie,” my dad said. “I’d like you to meet Grace Fenton. Grace, this is my daughter, Aven.”

The young woman stood up. With shoulder-length ebony hair and violet-colored eyes, she looked like a classic Hollywood version of Cleopatra. She even wore the same over-the-top eye makeup.

“Hello, Aven. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Dr. Pitt introduced us today,” my dad said. “Grace just started her master’s in women’s studies, and she might do some crossover work in our department.”

I stood frozen, unable to breathe, speak, or move. Then my dad frowned.

“Do you smell that?” he asked, frowning. “It smells like—it smells like a gas leak.”

I inhaled. He was right. He started to usher us out of the kitchen, and when I looked over at Grace, she smiled at me, making my soul wither. Had she caused the gas leak? Was the house about to explode? Just as we were about to reach the front door, someone knocked. I felt another crippling spike of fear, afraid that everything was going to come to an end right now. As my dad reached for the door, I tried to say something, but I couldn’t even speak. When the door swung open, I nearly collapsed. Gen was standing outside.

“Professor Casey?” Grace said. “I’m sure I’ll see you very soon. I hope you get that gas leak taken care of.”

Laughing, she turned and winked at Gen before walking toward a bright blue convertible across the street.

“Gen, it’s good to see you again,” my dad said cheerfully.

“Did Aven tell you we were going to have dinner tonight?” she asked him sweetly. “You’re more than welcome to join us.”

“Oh. Thank you, Gen, but you girls go ahead. I need to call the gas company and get this sorted out. You two have fun.”

I smiled and nodded as we started walking toward Gen’s car.

“Your father is safe,” she said quietly as we walked. “The gas leak is Edmond’s doing. The gas company won’t be able to fix it, and a representative will tell your father you need to be out of the house for the remainder of the week. I’m sure he won’t mind if you stay with me instead of at a hotel near the university. I’ll make sure he knows you’ll be a guest in my room.”

I shook my head as I stepped into her car.

“That isn’t going to work. There is no way my dad is going to let me stay in the same house as Will.”

“Then we’ll tell him you’re staying in the condo I’ve leased in town.”

I sighed. Being perfect and immortal probably enabled her to assume things would go her way most of the time. I didn’t have the same luxury.

“Are we really going to dinner?”

“You, Will, James, and I are.”

I resisted the urge to put my head between my legs and start hyperventilating.

“What about Edmond?” I asked weakly.

“Edmond will stay and keep an eye on your father.”

“Because they’re after my dad now. Right? I mean, that
was
Grace—as in James’s Grace—who showed up at my freaking house with my dad, wasn’t it? What happened to what Will said about Fidatov not being interested in my dad?”

I looked down at my hands, which were shaking with fear and anger.

“Aven,” Gen said patiently. “What you’re feeling right now is exactly what he’s trying to instill in you—fear, panic. He’s trying, by any means possible, to frighten you and force us to do something foolish.”

She drove toward my dad’s university and then pulled into a parking space. Getting out, I looked across the street as the gleaming red Tesla … next to a black Tesla. Will was leaning up against the red one—
mine
if I believed him—and James was standing in front of the other.

“Are they going to have a dance-off next?”  I mumbled.

Gen gave me a funny look.

“Never mind.”

“You’re both to blame,” Gen said to Will and James when we reached them. “If Fidatov can fracture us so easily, he
will
win. Make no mistake.”

Will came over and put his arm around me.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered into my ear as we started walking toward the restaurant.

I looked up at him. The truth was that I no longer knew who I should be angry with or afraid of. After my mom’s accident, I had learned the hard way that it was the ones you loved the most who had the greatest power to hurt you. Losing her had forever shattered a piece of me, and now I knew that was what happened when you loved someone with all your heart—if anything happened to that person, you lost a part of yourself.

As we walked into the restaurant, I looked around and realized we were the youngest patrons. Well,
I
was the youngest person in the restaurant. Gen, James, and Will were definitely the oldest. But everyone was loaded. I could practically see the dollar signs on people’s clothing, purses, and jewelry. The hostess came up and immediately led us to a private room big enough for a thirty-person private party. Gen sat down at the head of a long table, and Will pulled out my chair. When he sat down next to me, I looked over at James, who was across from me.

“I would suggest that both of you keep your petty issues with each other in check from now on,” Gen said plainly. “Now that we know Fidatov isn’t alone, the situation has changed. He wouldn’t go up against the four of us alone. That means if he can divide us, he will—because it will give him a better chance of success.
Two
of us must be with Aven at all times and at least one of us must watch her father.”

“I, for one, think that’s an excellent idea,” James said.

“Agreed,” Will said immediately. “And it sounds as though James has agreed to watch Aaron until Fidatov is contained. Very generous of you, considering your long lost true love is the one stalking Aven’s father.”

I looked over at James and touched Will’s hand under the table.

“Enough!
This
is what I’m talking about,” Gen said firmly. “
Edmond
will watch Aven’s father. He can be trusted not to have an emotional reaction to Grace’s presence. Will, James, and I shall all take turns staying with Aven.”

“You expect me to let
him
watch her?” Will said, laughing bitterly.

“Wait. Do I get a say in this?” I asked.

Gen ignored both of us.

“There will always be another one of us nearby, but whichever one of us stays within direct proximity to Aven will have an advantage by drawing from her energy. However, there also will be more temptation for that individual, so we need to divide our time in the hours she is outside of school.”

A man appeared and set down a glass of sparkling water and a bowl of pasta covered in herbs, butter, fresh tomato, and various kinds of seafood. I inhaled the smell of it. Wow. I looked up at the others and smiled.

“So, is
this
what an empath is like to you guys?” I joked. “A bowl of really awesome pasta?”

James inhaled.

“You, I would say, are more like
tarte tatin
, wouldn’t you agree, William?”

Will’s expression became murderous, and I squeezed his hand. When he didn’t respond to James, I exhaled.

“All right, then,” I said, clapping my hands together with mock cheerfulness. “As fun as this has been listening to you guys talk about shadowing my every move, it’s killing my appetite. Can we talk about something else?”

Gen stood up.

“Enjoy your dinner, Aven. I’m going to keep Edmond company at your father’s hotel. I’ll see you in school tomorrow.”

“Thank you,” I said, reaching out to grab her hand. “For everything. Really. You don’t even know me, and it means a lot.”