Dare (22 page)

I
t didn’t matter what she did, or what she said. She was in my head. She filled my senses. I couldn’t sit this close to her and not want to feel her against my chest, feel her lips move against mine.

It wasn’t a conquest to me. Sure, I wanted to take her to my bed, but I was actually ok not sleeping with her. I wanted her near me, and it scared the hell out of me. Maybe I needed to back off.

I slid back on the couch, a cushion’s distance between us. “Are you up for a movie?” The remote control was within reach. I flipped on the TV.

I saw a confused look on her face. “A movie? Sure, as long as you don’t try to torture me with
Twilight
or
Fright Night
.”

I laughed. “Too close to home?”

She shoved me again. “
Indiana Jones
anyone?”

“Wait? Is that what you think I’m like?”

She smiled, tilting her head to the side. “If the fedora fits.” She covered a laugh with her hand. “I can totally see you swinging from a rope down the side of a cave on one of your trips.”

“And are you on this trip with me? Want to rappel down the side of a waterfall? Or we could hunt for gold in Egypt. What do you say?”

I would take her anywhere in the world she wanted to go. I thought I was kidding, but realized the truth had crept into our banter.

The laughter stopped. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. Seriously. I want to take you somewhere.”

“Out of Sullen’s Grove?” Her eyes were wild.

“That’s the plan.”

I had never traveled with anyone. Never even thought about it. Until now. Suddenly, it felt like life or death. I wanted to show her the sunsets over the desert and the sunrise from the ocean. There were snowdrifts on tops of mountain peaks, and fields of wild flowers. I could show her all of it.

“I-I can’t leave Sullen’s Grove.” The light dimmed. She lowered her eyes. “Thank you, though.”

“Hey, we’ll do it later. After graduation? After you figure out your summer plans. Ok?”

She nodded. “Sure.”

I placed the remote in her lap. “Lady’s choice. I’ll watch whatever you choose.”

She looked at me. “Any movie I want? You sure about that?”

“Yes.” I pushed myself off the couch. “While you look for something, I’m going to jump in the shower. Be back in ten minutes. I might have some popcorn in the cabinet.”

But I stared a little too long. Lingered in the energy. She somehow managed to wrap innocence and seduction together. I couldn’t stop myself. I leaned down, brushing my lips across hers. I don’t know what I expected, but her mouth met mine with hungry force. She wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling me back to the couch. It was as if she finally unleashed something she had been hiding from me. A carnal side that needed to be awakened.

I canvassed her body with my hands, remembering how she felt and needing to know more. I tugged on her shirt until it landed on the floor beside us. Her back arched as the kisses fired hotter. I kissed the stars behind her ear, kissed the soft skin on her throat, threading my fingers through hers and raising her hands over her head. Nothing compared to this. She was strong and soft. Sexy and delicate. The passion flowed through her, yet I felt as if I was in control.

“God, I want you,” I whispered as my mouth met her shoulder.

Her head rolled back, and I swear a purr came from her lips. I propped myself up to look at her. The green in her eyes was alive, swimming with emerald glitter, as she stared at me.

“Your eyes are so…” I tried to think of a word that would describe what they did to me. The English language has a lot of faults; it was letting me down again.

“Green?” She smiled.

I nodded. “Yeah. Green.”

“Thank you.” She pulled me towards her, her mouth moving wildly, her tongue expertly twining along mine.

I didn’t care anymore that I hadn’t taken a shower. My heart was beating faster. Her breath blew against my neck as I inhaled her, tasted the cinnamon on her lips. I wanted to get lost in her. Drunk from the way she touched me.

I could finally show her the way the feelings had been building inside me. How she was giving me days of light. Moments of happiness that made me a better man. Finding her had made me feel alive again. I could show her all of it.

Suddenly, it was as if my body was being split in half. I reached for my leg, the agony searing through my skin.

“Zac? What’s wrong?”

I fell to the floor. The pain had moved from my leg and was crawling up my spine, wrapping my nerves in fire.

“Zac!” Dare screamed and dropped to the floor next to me.

“Something’s wrong.” I didn’t know how much longer I’d be able to talk. I could feel the wave moving up my neck, surrounding the inside of my throat. It was stabbing me from the inside out.

“What’s happening?” She started to search my body, shoving my hands out of the way. Rolling me from one side to another.

“Call 9-1-1.” I tried to form the words, but I don’t know if she heard me.

“Don’t worry. I’ll fix this.” She ran her hands over my forehead. “Just hang in there. I know someone who can help. I promise you’ll be ok. Stay with me. Don’t go to sleep.”

Before I could ask, the room started to close in on me. She seemed farther away and her hands felt cold and icy. Her voice sounded fuzzy, and then everything went dark.

I tried to move my arm, but it was strapped to the bed. “What the—?” They were both tied down. I could only move my fingers.

I looked around. The walls were dark, but I was definitely not in a house. They flickered from flames. It looked like a cave.

There were voices talking down the hall.

“I promise he won’t remember this.”

“You’re sure?” I recognized Dare’s voice.

“I’m an Eraser. If there is one thing I can do, it’s make him forget all of this.”

Dare was nearby talking to a girl. I didn’t know whom. And I didn’t know where in the hell I was. But she was here. She was all right.

“But, you won’t take all his memories, will you?” Dare sounded nervous. I assumed they were talking about me.

“No. If you want me to select just the ones from the healing, I can. It can be a little tricky, but I should be able to separate those out.”

“I don’t want him to lose his memories. But he can’t know a bunch of witches just saved his life.”

I froze. I started to remember. We had been on my couch when I passed out from the pain. Dare promised she knew someone who could help me, but I blacked out. There was a flash of a memory. In it, I saw Dare stroking my forehead, her hands cool against my skin.

I tugged on the restraints.

“He’s going to wake up soon. I’ll get started on it, and then we’ll finish when we get him back to his house.” I didn’t know who the girl was, but I wasn’t about to let her start anything. No one was erasing my memory.

“But it won’t hurt him?” Dare asked.

“No, he won’t feel a thing. He won’t even know. It’s my specialty. Please trust me.”

I assessed the binds holding me to the bed. There wasn’t enough space for me to create any type of leverage. My head sank on the pillow.

Dare walked in the room. “Hey, how are you feeling?”

“Where in the hell am I? Why am I tied up?”

She reached across my chest and flicked a lever, releasing my wrist. “It was the only way we could work on your leg. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to scare you.”

I looked down at my leg while she freed my ankle. There was a heavier strap keeping my feet from moving.

I pushed up until I was sitting. “What is going on? Where are we?”

“Your leg was infected. It started to spread all over your body. I brought you here where we could remove the source of the infection. The restraints were for your protection. I’m sorry we had to use them.”

“But it was healing. It wasn’t infected. It was feeling much better.”

She rested a hand on my wrist. “It wasn’t a regular infection, Zac. That jaguar that attacked you poisoned your leg.”

“Poisoned? That is crazy.”

My leg didn’t hurt anymore and there was only a faint scar where the gash had been. It had been better, but it wasn’t this far along in the healing process. How had it already become a scar?

“It does sound crazy, but it was going to kill you. I did what I had to do to save you.”

“Then why am I here and not in a hospital?” I looked around the stone walls. I didn’t know Sullen’s Grove even had caves.

“Because there isn’t a doctor who could fix this. We needed a healer. A very special healer.”

“In a cave?” Nothing made sense. There was a good chance I had hit my head on the coffee table when I fell off the couch.

“I brought them here to help you. I didn’t know what else to do.” She wouldn’t look at me. I tilted her chin upward.

“How long have I been here?”

“Two days.”

“I’ve lost two days?” I scratched the back of my neck.

It still felt like Tuesday night, as if we had just been on my couch wrapped up in each other. I couldn’t remember anything else.

“Work. Do they know?”

“Yes. I spoke to Lacey and told her you had come down with something. She seemed to believe me.”

I didn’t know what to think. “You called Lacey?” My mind was working sluggishly.

She nodded. “Everything is fine with your job. Don’t worry.”

“Dare, just tell me what’s going on.”

“I guess it doesn’t matter.”

“What doesn’t matter? Tell me something. Anything.” The lowlight flickered in her eyes. I wanted to see the green flecks, but it was too dark. I needed something familiar from her. Something that resembled the girl I had been falling for.

“I’m sorry about all of this.” Her fingers trailed over my chest, landing over my heart. It was as if she was trying to absorb the beat through her palm. “Your leg was poisoned because of me.”

“What?” I tried to think how she could have anything to do with that jaguar I had met in the woods.

“I have a—let’s call him a stalker. And right now, he’s trying to destroy my life. He hurt you, infected you with a cut so that you would die. He was trying to prove a point with me.” She spoke quietly. “And I realized when you started to feel the pain that it wasn’t from a human infection. It was magic tearing through you.”

“Magic?”

She nodded. “Yes, dark magic. It needed three days to make its way through your body before it would start to kill you.”

I covered her hand with mine, pressing it against my skin. I could feel my heart throb under her palm. “And how did you know it was magic?”

“Let’s just leave it at I’ve had my fair share of magical encounters living in this town. I knew what it was. You didn’t have much time.”

“All right. I’ll accept that for a second, but tell me how you removed it. I seem fine now.”

I could move every part of my body without searing pain. The scar was the only remnant of the jaguar attack. I actually felt energized.

“Witches.”

“Witches?”

“Yes. One of them is a healer. The other two were able to help in other ways. They have seen this type of injury before, so they knew how to help you. They stripped the magic from your body. You’re going to be fine.” She smiled lightly.