Confined (A Tethered Novel, Book 3) (3 page)

“I can’t believe my mom would do something like that. I
mean, I believe you. It’s just I can’t believe she’d do
that
,” Callie
said, her words muddled together and infused with shock. “She knows how close
we’ve grown since you first came here. She knows what you being here means for
us all. I just don’t get it. I understand how she might have been trying to
keep your birth mother’s dying wish or something, but still…to use
Hoodoo
against you?”

The guilt I’d felt before was nothing in comparison to what
I felt now. I’d changed Callie’s viewpoint of her mother; she’d never look at her
the same after this.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. Absently, I traced my index finger
along the condensation that had built up along the outside of my glass.

“No, don’t be,” she said. I lifted my eyes to meet hers.
They were dark and intense from her emotions. “I’m sorry my mother would do
such a thing to you.”

Her hand came up to cover her mouth, and for a split second,
I questioned whether she was about to cry or fly off the handle. Callie had
always been a fairly calm and quiet person, but I had learned early on in life
that it was the quiet ones you had to worry about. They were generally the most
unpredictable when upset or angry. My adopted father was a testament to that
rule.

“I just can’t believe this,” she whispered against her
fingertips. “Does Kace know?”

“No.” I shook my head.

“Good, can we just keep this between us for the time being,
please?”

“Sure,” I agreed. It was the least I could do.

“I want to have a little time to talk with my mom about this
first, before everyone else finds out,” she said, her fingers still pressed
against her lips.

Binks sauntered into the room and jumped up on the table
directly in front of Callie. He meowed lazily and brushed against her forearm.

“Looks like you’ve made a new best friend. I’m jealous. My
cat likes you more than me.” I chuckled as I attempted to joke and lighten the
mood a little.

Callie reached out with both hands and scratched the sides
of Binks’s face gently. A small smile tugged at the corners of her lips. “Aww,
he’s such a cutie.”

My cell phone went off from somewhere deep inside my beach
bag. I jumped up to grab the bag and began rummaging through its contents to
answer it. I finally found it on what had to be the sixth ring. It was my mom.

“Hey, Mom,” I answered.

“Hi, honey, how are you?” she asked.

“I’m good. Callie and I have been enjoying our Saturday
hanging out at the beach,” I said, glancing over my shoulder at Callie. I
mouthed that I’d be just a minute, and then exited through the back door for
some privacy. I figured we both might need it at the moment.

“Good, I’m glad you two are hanging out. I really liked her.
She’s such a sweet girl.”

“That she is,” I said. “So, how are things at home?”

We talked for roughly twenty minutes, in which she probably
said I love you fifteen times, and then we hung up. The panic that used to
always be present in her voice every time she called was now completely gone. I
noticed that it had disappeared after her visit a few weeks ago. Something had
clicked during that visit; it was like she no longer saw me as a little
six-year-old, asking her to play tea party, and instead, she finally viewed me
as what I was, an adult capable of making my own decisions.

When I walked back into the kitchen, Callie was still
sitting at the corner table with a blank look on her face. Binks was no longer
in front of her, and her sweet tea was gone. I walked back to my chair,
noticing how lost in thought she appeared to be, and my stomach sank to my
toes.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

She shifted her eyes to me and nodded. “Yeah, I’m all right.
I just can’t believe my mother has been paying the Van Rooyens to put spells on
my new best friend.”

“I’m sorry.” I didn’t know why I said the words. They didn’t
help rectify the situation. I guess it was simply because I couldn’t think of
anything else to say.

“Don’t be. It's not your fault,” she insisted. “It’s just
that…what the hell was she
thinking
?”

Callie’s cheeks tinted to a pink color. It was the first
time I’d ever witnessed her cheeks that color and it not be because she was
blushing over something she felt embarrassed by. No, this time, her cheeks were
pink because she was pissed.

“I think I should go,” she said, standing. “I really need to
talk with her.”

My stomach rolled as I wondered if Susan would have words
with me afterward for telling her daughter what she’d done. I hoped not, but I
couldn’t take back the words I’d spoken to Callie. What was said was said. Deep
down, I felt like I’d done the right thing. Callie deserved to know.

“All right, call me later?” I asked.

She nodded and grabbed her beach bag and wet bathing suit
off the counter before heading out the door, her face tight and her jaw
clenched.

The heavy emotions from telling her lingered around me long
after she’d left. I attempted to pick up the novel I’d been reading, but had to
reread the first paragraph three times before I finally understood what it was
saying. My head just wasn’t in it.

Instead, I walked through the house, picking up and
rearranging things as I went. I’d never understood growing up why my mom always
cleaned the house when she was stressed—until now. Keeping your hands busy when
your mind was seemed to be common sense.

I grabbed the container of Lysol wipes from beneath the sink
in the kitchen, and felt a recognizable stirring of warmth slide through my veins.
Wetting my lips, I closed my eyes as I stood up, knowing who was nearby and
praying my body would listen to my mind while I was in his presence. A soft
knock sounded across the window of the back door. My heart danced a happy beat,
one my mind tried to remind me was wrong.

I started toward the door to find out what Theo wanted, and
was hit with a sudden sensation of pain in the back of my throat. I swallowed
hard as nausea began to overtake me.

Were these my emotions? Or were they ours combined? I couldn’t
be sure. A blurred line was forming. In Theo’s presence, I could no longer
distinguish which emotions belonged to whom.

I picked at my bottom lip as I opened the door wide. “Hey.”

Theo stood at the door, his face contorted in anguish. He
didn’t speak. He just continued to stare at me with those hauntingly glorious
caramel-colored eyes.

“I’d invite you in, but I don’t think you should be here,” I
said in a hushed tone.

His hands clenched into fists at his sides, and his dark
eyebrows drew together. “I don’t think I should be here either.”

“Then why are you?”

“I don’t know.” His face softened as he met my stare again.
“I’m finding it hard to stay away from you lately.”

I understood him completely. It was the worst type of
obsession, fixation, whatever you wanted to label it, that I had ever felt.

I didn’t respond to his words. Instead, I continued to stare
directly into the depths of his eyes. It was the longest and most serious
staring contest I’d ever been a part of, because I knew exactly where my eyes
would drift the second I blinked—his lips—and I couldn’t let that happen. If I
did, then I might not be able to control my hands—or my lips—and that would be
a serious problem.

As the silence splayed out between us, I became acutely
aware of my heartbeat and the warmth that flooded me once I’d opened the door
for him.

“I think I finally understood it all when I saw you at the
beach,” he said.

His tongue snaked out and licked his plump lips, causing my
eyes to leave his and follow the motion. Even though his tongue had been
nowhere near me, it still stroked against every nerve ending in my body as
though it had been sliding along my skin. Shifting on my feet, I tore my eyes
away from him to glance at the little patch of green grass that made up my
backyard behind him instead.

“And?” I prompted in a whisper. “Aren’t you going to explain
it to me?”

He leaned against the doorframe, which brought him closer to
me. I could feel the heat emanating off him and soaking into my pores. My body
shivered at the sensation of it, as though it were the drug of choice I had
been craving and now it was finally within reach.

“I’m sickened with myself when you’re not around, because
you’re all I’m constantly thinking about. It’s taken a lot of willpower to stay
away as long as I have, Addison.” He sighed heavily, and his hot breath slid
across my face. I understood then what he meant about willpower, because I had
to use every ounce of mine to keep from reaching out to him. “And then, when I
finally saw you earlier, I was fine. The burning need to be around you was
quiet. It’s trying to pull us together, drawing us closer to one another,
because that’s what it’s for. The tether is getting stronger for a reason;
something is coming. It has to be. Whatever the tether was put in place for is
about to happen.”

I shook my head and took a step back, uncomfortable with the
way my body wanted to behave due to his closeness.

“It doesn’t matter.” I paused, catching how breathy my voice
sounded, and cleared my throat. “Because I’ve decided to become initiated.”

My eyes dropped to my purple painted toenails, and I felt a
release lift off my shoulders at having finally told someone else my
intentions.

“What? No,” Theo insisted. His voice was loud. It echoed
through the tiny kitchen and made my heart bounce up to my throat. “You can’t
do that. You don’t need to. Not now, not when everything is finally coming to a
point on its own. You need to wait.”

His level of concern floored me. Was he really that
distressed about my becoming initiated? Or was it just the tether talking,
mingling with emotions he wouldn’t have in regards to me otherwise?

One thing was certain—I was over not being able to tell who
was being genuine with me and who wasn’t. This was another reason I added to
the list of pros to the initiation in my mind.

“Who knows how long that will take,” I said without looking
at him. “The initiation is in two nights, if you include tonight, and that’s
long enough to wait for this to be over with between us, Theo.”

He stepped closer to me, crowding me and making it harder
for me to keep my hands to myself. He let out another long breath, as though he
was frustrated with me beyond comprehension, but I knew he wasn’t. Sure, that
emotion was there, lingering in the distance, but it wasn’t his
main
emotion right now. Not even close.
Want
was. Theo wanted me just as
much—if not more—as I wanted him.

His breath eased over my skin again and my legs locked,
unable to move away like my mind begged them to. He took another small step
closer, and then froze. His solid, exposed chest was now within a whisper's
reach. He stayed that way, pressed against me, with his hands clenched at his
sides. Curiosity over what I would find swirling within the rich color of his
eyes made me lift mine to meet his. What I found was just as intense and
dangerously dark as every part of Theo himself. Their light caramel color had
deepened to a near coffee black as his pupils had overtaken them. If I weren't
able to feel his dominant emotion at the moment, I would have thought he was
pure evil and run the other way.