Caged View (11 page)

He leaned back on the wall as they remained
planted in front of me.

“You should give them an autograph,” I
offered, pulling out a pen and an old receipt.

He sighed, took the pen, and signed his name
on the receipt and their Captain Habitat shirts.

We stood there for several more minutes as
they asked him questions from what his favorite color was to how
many pounds he could lift when he worked out.

Once they left, he glared at me. Aggravation
creased on his face.

I shrugged. “This is the life of a
hero.”

“So cool.” Wallace grinned, scratching his
arm. “Do hot women always come up to you like that?”

I smirked. “Yeah, does that happen a
lot?”

“No.” Zulu avoided my eyes.

“I wish I could have hot girls come up to
me,” Wallace whined. “No one hot ever comes around me.”

“Thanks a lot, Wallace,” I mumbled.

Zulu smirked at me and got off the wall. “Do
you both want popcorn and drinks? I’m paying.”

I shook my head and pointed to my satchel.
“No. I brought sandwiches from Cinnamon’s Meat Shack.”

“And it’s probably enough for all of us.”
Wallace peeked in my satchel as I opened it. “You pack food like
you’re feeding a big Shifter.”

My mouth dropped open as I counted the
sandwiches. There must have been six in there. The perfect amount
for MeShack and I to sneak into the movie theater. I guess old
habits are hard to change.

“They smell good. I can’t wait to eat one.”
Zulu pulled out a stack of bills. “Wallace, why don’t you grab us
some sodas and anything else you want? Those Captain Habitat cups
look cool.”

“Sure. You’re the greatest.” Wallace
attempted to high-five Zulu, missed, and laughed as he left.

Once Wallace was five feet away, Zulu’s lips
brushed my ear. “I meant what I said. You do look lovely
tonight.”

“What happened to giving me time to myself?”
I edged away from him.

“I wanted to see you.” He tucked some of my
dreadlocks behind my ear and let his finger linger a few seconds on
my skin.

I shivered and shifted to the other
side.

A mom walked by, pushing a stroller with
twins and holding a toddler. She glanced at Zulu and blushed.

“Another fan,” I announced.

He edged closer to me. “Why are you spending
so much time with Wallace lately? He told me you both hang out
every night now.”

“I’m opening my mind, starting new
beginnings.” I shrugged my shoulders.

He nodded and focused on two guys Teacuping
near the theater’s arcade. It was a new dance that used spells to
keep the body elevated several inches above the ground while the
dancer spun around. Currently, the pimple-faced kid was upside down
and spinning. His green sneakers blurred together.

“Well.” Zulu clapped along with everyone
else in the theater lobby as the dancing kid finished spinning. “I
would just hate for something to happen to Wallace during your
pursuit of new beginnings.”

“Is that some sort of threat?” I snapped my
head to his.

He centered his attention to me. “I wanted
to maim Wallace when he told me he spent time with you, but I doubt
that’ll get me any points.”

“It won’t.”

“You see how good I’m being for you? I
haven’t ripped out any hearts or anything.” He got in front of me
and put his hands on the wall above my head.

“That’s good.” I ducked under him, noticing
a lot of people looking our way. Zulu got right back in front of
me. This time, he blocked me with both arms so that if I wanted to
escape, I would have to do a duck walk.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I’m spending time with my lady.” He nipped
at my chin.

Heat swirled inside of me.

Fuck me.

I sighed. “Zulu, absolutely nothing is going
to happen between us.”

I would have loved it to, but Zulu is too
much like MeShack.

“Lanore, what color cup you want?” Wallace
asked, interrupting Zulu and my exchange and holding up one purple
and one white cup. Wallace didn’t even appear uncomfortable about
Zulu’s and my position.

Wallace is definitely not interested in
me.

“I didn’t know what you would like, Lanore,”
Wallace admitted.

“She wants the purple cup,” Zulu said
without looking that way. “Get the purple one with him wearing
those stupid cowboy boots, and then get her a large popcorn with
the hot pepper butter sauce.”

How does he know that?

My mouth dropped open. I almost beamed at
Zulu, ready to ask for his autograph myself.

“So, purple with boots and hot popcorn?”
Wallace asked.

“Yes.” I nodded. “But…”

I gazed at Zulu’s huge arms and inhaled his
sandalwood scent.

If I don’t get out of here now, I’ll end up
making out with Zulu before the movie’s opening credits begin.

Wallace stood there staring at me.

“I’m actually feeling really sick.” I held
my stomach with my hand and moved Zulu’s arm out of the way. “I’m
going to go home. You both have fun though.”

I rushed away before Wallace could say
anything else. Not that it mattered; he’d been drooling over Zulu
anyway.

Cool air hit me as I got to the door and
quickly walked out, hoping the next tram would be here shortly.

A hand grabbed my waist. I halted and turned
to see Zulu in front of me.

“No. I’ll leave. You really want to see this
movie.” He dragged his hand away from my waist. “Don’t go. Like I
said, I just wanted to see you. I’m satisfied for now.”

I bit my lip as the wind blew through my
locks. “But Zulu, do you understand that I don’t want to date
you?”

“We’ll talk about it later.” His eyes
shifted dark blue and gold to black, and he put his hands in his
jeans pockets. “Go back and enjoy the movie. Quinn and Wallace both
told me that you’d been talking about the damn movie all
month.”

I sighed.

“I’ll see you later.” He leaned down and
pressed those full lips against mine and took them away after
several delicious seconds. “I may have gone overboard tonight,
showing up here like I did.”

He stepped around me and maneuvered through
the crowd still lingering outside.

I can’t let him leave like that.

“Zulu!” I raced up to his side and stopped
him. “I can explain my weird behavior.”

“So you’re not just crazy?” His blond
eyebrows rose as he grinned.

“Well, that’s the point. I am crazy.” I
raked my fingers through my hair and blew out a long breath. “I set
my ex-boyfriend and the two women he was cheating with on fire.
They were all in the hospital for several months.”

He didn’t say anything and just continued to
stare.

Feel like running away yet?

“So,” I said. “I’m not the sanest person you
could spend your time trying to be with.”

He flashed me a huge smile. “If someone
touched you now, they would be lucky to have only one month in the
hospital.”

Oh, my goodness.

“Okay. I don’t think you understand me.” I
held my hands out to my sides. “What I am trying to say is I’m
insanely jealous and act on it in violent ways that are frankly
detrimental—”

“You have a few more weeks.” He tapped his
watch. “And then I’m coming for you.”

Coming for me?

I shook my head. “Clearly you’re not getting
what I’m trying to say. I need to get my personal issues together
before I date anyone.”

“Isn’t that the point of two people uniting,
to lift each other up?” He leaned his head to the side. “I’m
already a better person around you.”

My mouth dropped open. I searched for
something to say.

He kissed me again, and this time I didn’t
want him to stop, but he did and then nipped at my chin. “I’m
really going to enjoy tasting you when you’re mine.”

My skin heated as if I’d been set on
fire.

“The clock is ticking.” He gave me a wicked
smile and left.

EXCERPT FROM
CHAMELEON
,

(A young adult paranormal romance novel set in the
Santeria habitat.)

Police tape surrounded my mom’s studio
apartment.

I stared at my mom’s feet as she hung,
lifeless, from the mango tree. She’d painted her toenails teal and
used a marker to draw smiley faces on each one.

It’s funny how people tend to notice the
craziest things in time of shock.

Each time the treacherous wind blew, the
mango tree’s branches swayed, and her dangling body twisted and
turned.

I stood among the crowd in disguise. Today,
I was an Earth Witch, with almond skin instead of my regular pale
complexion, thick, curly black hair in place of my white bushy
strands, and fuller breasts versus my nonexistent ones.

Normally, I had an X brand embedded in my
forehead that identified me as a Mixbreed. It was the forehead
brand I’d been born with, the one Human doctors tagged me with,
like they did all Supernaturals.

However, to fit my current Earth Witch
disguise, I’d covered the X brand with an illegal brand cap that
had an illusionary spell. When people now saw my forehead, they saw
an upright triangle with a line going through it.

“That’s the crazy lady who talked to
ghosts,” an Air Witch whispered to a tall man as she tucked her red
hair behind her ear.

“Too bad the ghosts never talked back.” The
man covered his mouth to quiet a chuckle. “They would have told her
to wash.”

Even in your death, they make fun of
you.

I forced myself to walk away from them
without yelling. My hands balled into tight little fists. My nails
dug in my skin.

“How long has she been up there?” a
Shapeshifter asked another.

I paused to hear the reply.

“Don’t know. They found her there this
morning.”

“Where’s her family?”

“Don’t know,” the guy replied. “I think
someone said she had a daughter or maybe a niece.”

I checked the guys out from my peripheral
view. Neither one looked familiar, but then, I’d run away from home
two years ago, when I was thirteen. They could have recently moved
in.

I edged away and bumped into the one person
that I didn’t think I would meet on this end of Oya District.

Wiz.

I’d kept my regular height for my disguise,
so he towered over me. His short, sandy-blond hair brushed against
the middle of his ears and blew in the wind, getting in the way of
his unique eyes. The left one was emerald green, the right one
sapphire blue. His eyes never truly focused on one thing. They
always gazed off into the distance.

Although he was only two years older, he
resembled more of a man than a teenager. His arms possessed the
sort of muscle that a lightweight boxer would have, taut and curved
but without all of the bulk. Jagged scars covered every knuckle on
his hands. Ancient runes were carved in his light brown skin above
the scars.

He would have had thousands of girls
screaming at his feet if it wasn’t for that hooded trench coat he
wore. It was formed from patches of Shapeshifter flesh. Every time
he fought and won, he’d cut a square patch of the loser’s skin and
add it to his coat.

Currently, it hung beyond his knees, and
Were-lion fur bordered the hood.

“Excuse me.” I averted my eyes and stepped
around him, wondering if I could trick him this time. For some
reason, he always knew it was me, regardless of what image I’d
formed into.

Wiz’s hand went up to block my way.

“Cameo, I have a job,” he said in a low
voice. “Let’s go to the playground over there to talk.”

I snapped my face up and glared at him. “How
did you know it was me?”

“Does it matter?” He flashed me a crooked
grin, displaying silver fangs. “Are you going to start hiding from
me?”

“Nope,” I muttered. “Not even if I wanted
to.”

I’d met Wiz the first month I ran away. It
was during one of Santeria’s notorious tropical rainstorms. The
downpour had beat down on me while I sat in a semi-flooded
dumpster, shivering. That night, I wore the image of a Hispanic
Shapeshifter boy.

Out of nowhere, Wiz had jumped into the
dumpster, pulled me out, and taken me to one of the many small
rooms he rented around Santeria. I was sure he was going to hurt
me, but I was too weak and sick to put up a fight.

But he never hurt me.

He’d kept me covered in a pile of fluffy
blankets the rest of the week and declared I had a fever.

And that was how he found out about my
power.

When I’m sick, it’s really hard to keep my
body in any disguised form. I’d passed out in his arms,
transforming from a little Hispanic boy to a pale teenage girl
right before his two-colored eyes.

We’d been in business together ever
since.

“Did you happen to be in this area, or were
you looking for me?” I headed to the playground in the apartment
complex and sat on a swing.