Divine Mortals (35 page)

“I’m still strong enough to hit you back.” I joked, James held up his hands in a mocking surrender.

Will sat next to me, Sally on his other side.

“So how’s it going with you?” Will asked dully, his usual smile missing.

“I’m pretty good actually, you?”

“Not bad.” he murmured, looking back towards James. That was strange, Will was usually so forward and teasing, today he seemed distant. Not that I was completely disappointed, if Sal had been right, if he did have a thing for me perhaps he was over it now. I decided to ignore his mood, I had never really understood him anyway, and continued chatting to the girls.

“So you see,” Sally was saying, dominating the conversation as usual, “I don’t know whether to have a Luau or go to Denver for my eighteenth.”

“When is it?” I asked,

“Oh not for a few months, but I want it to be good.”

“Hmm… have a Luau,” I laughed, “I’ve never been to one.”

Laura looked a little shocked at this confession and Sally rolled her eyes.

“Why does
that
not surprise me? Okay Luau it is, and it’s gonna be great!”

“When’s your eighteenth Ava?” Laura asked, taking another sip of her coffee.

“Two weeks.” I mumbled, I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it.

“Two weeks!” Sally squealed, “Wow what are we going to do?”

“I don’t really want to do anything.”

“Oh. Come. On,” Sally exclaimed, “It’s your eighteenth!”

“Really, I don’t want to do anything.” I said quietly, my first birthday as an orphan, no matter what age I was turning, was not something I had planned on celebrating. James shot Sally a meaningful glance, obviously he understood my reluctance. I smiled to myself, so Sally and James were already at the stage of being able to converse full sentences in a look. I knew I shouldn’t be surprised, the more I learnt about them the more it sounded like they had basically grown up together. Dating was just the next logical step for them.

We ordered and ate to general chatter about what was happening, strangely Will didn’t say another word to me throughout the meal and I was starting to feel a little uncomfortable. I didn’t want his undying attention but polite conversation would have been preferable to this.

“So why didn’t you go on the big North South whatsit?” Will asked James, I almost jumped at the sound of his voice, he had been so quiet. Although he did bring up a good point though, what was James still doing in town.

“The muster, yeah I was gutted, I’m missing out on some good money sitting here with you plebs instead of being out there. My horse went lame two days before it so I couldn’t go.”

“Couldn’t you take a motorbike or something?” I asked, Sally, Laura and James burst into fits of laughter, apparently not.

“God I’m stuffed.” Sally declared stretching, “I really shouldn’t have had the burger as well.”

“Wanna go for a swim?” I asked, directing it towards the girls, I didn’t want Will there in his current mood.

“Sure,” Laura was eager, and Sally and James were as well, if James was coming I had to ask him now.

“Will?”

“Nah I’ll pass.” he muttered, not meeting my gaze, his distant look even more pronounced now.

I let go of the breath I had been holding. This afternoon was looking fun again.

I felt a hand on my shoulder as I was climbing into Nans old red hatch, I jumped spinning quickly.

Will stood behind me, his eyes glowing bright green, his head cocked slightly to the left as he looked at me.

“You should break up with him you know.”

“Excuse me?”

“
He’s
not good for you.”

I shook his hand from my shoulder, more than a little disconcerted at this outburst after he had done nothing buy ignore me for the past few hours.

“That’s none of your damn business Will.”

Who the hell did he think he was?

A slight smile touched his lips as he watched me.

“Fine.” he spoke tightly, his teeth clenched, “It’s your funeral.”

He spun on his heels, walking quickly away, I felt a ball of ice take up residence in my stomach at his last words.

So this
was
about Robert, Will was jealous?

His words stuck with me, playing over and over in my head like a broken record.

It’s your funeral.

I tried to shake the feeling of dread, my hand shook from our encounter as I turned the key and kicked the wee hatch into life.

“Damn you Will.” I muttered under my breath, speeding off to meet my far less temperamental friends.

The afternoon turned out to be a success, our swim at the river followed up by Nan’s cakes and biscuits had been just what I needed and I was surprised at how quickly I had managed to make the day go. I still missed Robert but this afternoon had been great, and I had almost managed to forget Will completely.

Sally, Laura and James all left as it was getting dark, full of cake, and promising to catch up for lunch again soon.

I looked towards the mountains as I waved them off, huge dark black clouds chased each other across the sky, the hills in the distance were shrouded in fog. The thick scent of ozone flavoured the air, it was going to rain, and soon. I shivered, it was too cool to be standing outside in shorts at this time of night, I hurried back into the house locking the door behind me.

I decided to skip dinner, even though dinner would only require me to select something from the fridge and heat it. I was still too full from this afternoon. At least the other three had helped me make some sort of respectable dent in the insane amount of baking Nan had left for me.

I flicked on the telly just in time to see an advert for the Wizard of Oz, scheduled to start next, excellent, I hadn’t seen that in years. I ran to my room grabbed a blanket from my bed and headed back to the couch to settle in for a long night of television watching.

“F
ly my pretties, fly, fly,” I giggled to myself as the wicked witch appeared.

A huge crack of thunder made me jump, the rain following hammered so loudly on the roof that I had to turn the TV up.

Just as Dorothy was about to walk through the field of poppies there was a fizzing sound and the power went out.

I sat for a moment in darkness.

Brilliant.

But it was only silent for a few seconds before the lights flicked back on and I heard the hum of the fridge start again from the kitchen. I stood to turn the television back on, looking forward to the part where they all get make overs at the Emerald city, that was my favourite scene when I was a kid.

As I headed for the ancient set I noticed a shadow pass quickly in front of the window, I paused turning to look towards the kitchen windows, sure enough the shadow passed in front of those as well before disappearing down the porch in the direction of the back door.

Perhaps it was Shaun?

I made my way down the hallway, feeling the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

Pushing the back door open I gazed out into the storm. The wind was howling across the yard, driving the rain in sideways, I hadn’t seen rain like this in months, it was the sort that would soak you to the skin in a matter of seconds.

“Hello?”

Looking each way, I took in the length of the porch, it was too dark for the porch lights to penetrate very far into the crazy weather beyond. The thrum of rain hitting the roof was deafening, like a hive of millions of angry bees.

I couldn’t see anything, whatever had caused the shadow wasn’t sticking around to make itself known.

I shook off the feeling of terror, there was no need for me to be afraid of a storm, although I couldn’t help but wish that someone else was home tonight. I missed Robert like crazy, I would have given anything to have his warm arms around me tonight, even Nan and Pop watching game shows would be preferable to being alone right now.

It didn’t help to think of Robert, my heart began to ache and my fingers tingled with wanting him, I hadn’t realised just how long five days could be.

Shutting the door again, this time dead bolting it, I turned to walk back towards the kitchen when the lights buzzed, dimming slowly before going out completely.

“Dammit!” I cursed out loud, before following this up with a string of abuse at the storm, more to reassure myself with the sound of a voice than for any other reason.

I felt my way along the wood panelled walls. Nan kept matches in the drawer next to the large wood burner. I walked across the kitchen, around the small table in the centre, navigating by touch, there was barely any moonlight coming through the windows, the clouds from the storm blocking it out. Feeling my way along the length of the bench I came to the drawer where they were kept. Sliding it open I groped blindly inside, my hands making a sweeping search of the entire contents, finding all sorts of bits and pieces in the dark but definitely no matches.

I stopped, thoughtful for a moment.

“Looking for these?” The voice made my heart leap into my throat, I gasped out loud, taking an involuntary step backwards and banging my thigh painfully against the handle of the oven.

There was the sweeping sound of a match pulling across flint before a single flame lit the room. Above the match a set of glowing emerald eyes stared back at me, deep and fathomless even in the dark.

“Will?”

His mouth pulled back, curling into a menacing smile, and then the match burnt out with a hiss.

I turned and ran, I ran as fast as I could, knocking a chair over in my dash past the table, its legs hitting my shins painfully, I didn’t stop. Hurtling towards the back door I pulled on the handle remembering then the dead bolt, my fingers grasped at it pulling it free, finally I flung the door open. A blast of cool air hit me but I didn’t pause, I could see the old pickup parked by the tool shed, a dark silhouette in the rain. I aimed for that leaping down the wet stairs, trying not to slip, the rain hit me like a shock, the drops freezing cold as they drove into my face and arms stinging like thousands of tiny needles.

I made it to the pickup, griping its bed as I wheeled around the back of it and came up alongside the driver’s door, I prayed the keys were in the ignition, they normally were.

Yanking the door open my heart almost stopped, Will sat in the drivers seat, staring back at me with those bottomless green eyes, an ironic smile plastered across his face.

“Going somewhere?” he asked innocently. I wasn’t sure what to do, I stumbled backward unable to take my eyes off of him.

“I’m sorry,” he continued, his own eyes still menacing, “That was a little cliché wasn’t it?”

I was soaked to the skin, my hair stuck to my cheeks and I could see my breath in the air.

“What are you doing here?” I yelled over the downpour, surprised at how calm I sounded.

Lightning flashed across the sky, illuminating the entire yard briefly in an eerie white glow, cliché indeed.

“Well I’ve come to see
you
of course, I hear your boyfriends safely away.”

“I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“Oh we both know
that’s
not true.” He stepped from the pickup seemingly unaware of the driving rain, his eyes glowing bright through the darkness.

I took a step backwards, hesitating, before turning on my heel and wheeling away from him, I didn’t know where I was going but I was getting away from him. I would go to Jed, he would be home.

And in a damn wheel chair
, my mind screamed.

A flash of colour flew past me and Will seemed to materialize out of nowhere before me, I skidded to a stop before I could run into him, almost sliding over, the track was quickly becoming as slippery as an ice skating rink.

“You’re normally far happier to see me,” he reflected, “Oh and Jed’s not home so don’t bother.”

My stomach seemed to drop out from under me, how did he…

“How did I know what you’re thinking?” he voiced my thoughts again, causing my breath to catch.

“I guess your
boyfriend
can’t do that can he.” He mused, seemingly unaware of the storm, “The elders are a selfish bunch, they don’t teach us til we are of age.”

Pushing a long dripping lock of hair from my face I was dimly aware of how cold I was becoming.

“I don’t have a boyfriend.” I growled between my teeth, knowing even as I said it that it was pointless, he would hear the truth in my thoughts.

“Yes I do hear it in your thoughts.”

“That’s very annoying you know,” I hissed, trying to keep calm, “What do you want Will?”

His lips curled in a smirk and I felt my heart turn to ice.

“I want
you
Ava. You’re to enticing to let slide, you’re the thorn in Roberts side,” he sighed theatrically, “So I’m going to use you to my advantage.”

I felt a shiver run the length of my spine, a shiver that had nothing to do with the rain, it was fear running its icy fingers down my back.

Before I could blink he moved, the motion so fast and so disconcertingly like Roberts that I didn’t have time to react. His hands clamped down hard around both of my wrists and he quickly strung my hands together so that I couldn’t move them. His hands were icy cold, chilled like my own by the rain, so different to the warmth of Roberts touch.

Will snorted as he heard my thoughts, rolling his eyes he finished tying my hands with a tight jerk, the rope biting hard into my wrists.

“You don’t have much to say,” He mused tipping his head slightly to the side as he regarded me quizzically, “Plenty going on in your head though.”

Oh piss off Will,
I snapped in my mind with as much emotion as I could muster.

“Tsk Tsk” he chided, “that’s not very nice now is it.” he was thoughtful a moment longer.

“I guess there’s no need for a gag, after all your wee ranch boy is much further away than his pitiful three mile limit.”

I don’t know why I didn’t stop myself, but stopping your thoughts, trying to think of nothing, to keep your mind blank is far harder then you could imagine, I thought of Robert hearing me on his way to Denver, I couldn’t be sure if that distance would work again or even if he was that close to home yet, but I tried.