Gods and Mortals: Fourteen Free Urban Fantasy & Paranormal Novels Featuring Thor, Loki, Greek Gods, Native American Spirits, Vampires, Werewolves, & More (188 page)

F
or the longest
time we just stood there in the grass, me in my bare feet, and Claire in a pair of designer sandals. She stared out at the desert landscape, or pretended to stare at least. Most likely she was avoiding looking at me until she calmed down. I didn’t have to pretend to stare at anything. I was freely staring at her. Denim shorts left most of her long, sinuous legs bare, but the soft curves of her shoulders were barely visible under the cascade of her hair. Every inch of her skin called to me. Even the defiant way she stood made me want to reach out and pull her into my arms. I doubted she would appreciate that, though, so I kept my hands to myself. Plus, I had no idea what having that much of her body in contact with mine would do to me.

When she finally faced me, every hint of her embarrassment had disappeared. Folding her arms tightly against her chest, she looked at me in a way that seemed to dare me to ask her what all of that with Jonny had been about. Since I didn’t want to be on the receiving end of one of her slaps, I left it alone for now. After a few seconds, Claire nodded her approval and let her beautiful smile slip back onto her lips.

“Where are your shoes?” she asked.

I couldn’t help but laugh. That was really all she had to say to me? “There, over by the bank,” I said. “Let me get them and I’ll walk you home.”

Walking with me to get my shoes and backpack, Claire didn’t say anything. She just waited patiently while I tugged my tennis shoes back on and slung my bag over my shoulder.

“Ready?” I asked.

“Sure.”

We were about a mile out of town, with Claire’s house being on the opposite side of San Juan. The distance didn’t bother me any, especially walking it with Claire, but I worried that she might get tired or bored along the way. I wanted to say something to her. Nothing came to mind, though. Except for the one time we ended up in the same homeroom class, this was the longest amount of time we had ever spent together. Basketball and football games she came to didn’t count, because I knew she wasn’t there for me.

“So, are you going to the bonfire tonight?” Claire asked.

I stared at her incredulously. After what happened with Jonny, was she seriously still considering going? “Uh, I doubt it,” I said, “are you?”

“Not anymore.” Silence fell between us again.

I was dying to know what had led to Claire jumping out of Jonny’s car. Claire never missed a bonfire or movie night. She was usually one of the ones organizing these get-togethers. And tonight was the annual end of the school year bonfire. Everybody went. What could Jonny have possibly done that would make Claire mad enough to miss it?

“Thanks,” Claire said suddenly.

“Huh?” I wondered if I had missed something she’d said.

“For, uh, getting rid of Jonny. I should have said thanks earlier.”

She was back to pretending to be extremely interested in the piñon trees crowding around the road. “No problem,” I said. I knew I probably shouldn’t, but I made myself ask her again. “How did you know I would be at the river?”

“What do you mean?” Claire asked. The overly innocent tone of her voice made me smile. It wasn’t often I saw her on this side of an awkward conversation.

“So, Jonny just happened to be driving by the pullout to the river when he decided to piss you off? I thought you guys were heading to the bluffs, in the opposite direction.” My teasing brought a smile to Claire’s face. She knew she was caught.

Slipping her hands into her back pockets, Claire looked up at me, her guilt and amusement mixing in her eyes. “Okay, so maybe I tricked Jonny into driving to the river, but I had to get away from him and I knew he wouldn’t let me leave without a fight.”

“But what made you think of me?” I asked. I should have just been glad of the fact that the one girl I wanted most had dropped into my lap unexpectedly. Doing what I should wasn’t always easy. I should have been home hauling bales of hay into the barn. I wanted to know her reason before I counted myself too lucky. If she said it was because I could knock Jonny out for her, well, that wasn’t the answer I wanted.

Claire seemed surprised by the question. She took a few moments to answer, but when she did, it was my turn to be surprised. “Because I knew Jonny would back down if you told him to.”

“What? Why would Jonny do anything I said just because I told him to? We aren’t even that good of friends,” I said. Especially not after today.

“But he did, didn’t he?” she asked.

My argument died in my throat. She was right, I guess.

“Everybody does what you tell them to. Maybe it’s because they know you could break them in half if you wanted to, but everybody knows you would never hurt a girl, and the girls act the same way. Even the teachers and coaches listen to you,” Claire said.

What was she talking about? I hated to sound conceded, but Jonny, and other guys like him, probably only ever listened to me because I was twice their size. And girls, girls always went after the top athletes. My coaches were great, but they realized that I knew the games as well as they did, so when I made a suggestion, they respected me enough to listen. Claire was making it sound like something more than what it really was.

“Claire, I…” What did I even say to that? I had no response, so I went back to my original question. “How did you know I was at the river? You keep avoiding answering me about that one.”

I was avoiding answering to what she had just said, of course, but I hoped she didn’t think to call me on it. The hint of pink in her cheeks made me think she was too distracted to notice. “I saw you heading this way when we left the school. And I know you like to hang out at river,” she said, “so I figured this was where you would be.” She ended with a shrug, like everyone should have known I would be hanging out at the river.

Maybe it wasn’t that hard for her to guess, but I chose to think that maybe she had been paying a little more attention to me than I thought. Fear of finding out I was wrong kept me from pushing any harder. “Well, I’m sorry you have to miss the bonfire tonight,” I said.

“Oh, I don’t have to miss it,” Claire said, “I’m choosing to miss it. Jonny being an idiot isn’t what’s stopping me from going to the bonfire. I could make myself deal with him if I really wanted to.”

“Then why aren’t you going? I thought you liked going to stuff like that?” I asked.

Claire looked at me, not shyly, exactly, but more like she was considering something, then looked ahead again. I watched her seriousness soften as she turned back to me with a smile. “Because I think I found something better to do,” she said. Her steps brought her a little closer to me and I dared smiling back at her as we reached the edge of town.

We walked through town without speaking. I was too afraid to say something that might make her change her mind. Always nice enough to me from a distance before today, I knew there was something keeping her away from me. Today she had been the one to seek me out, and the one to admit to wanting to be around me. Whether it was luck, or something else entirely, I didn’t want to lose this chance.

The big double doors of Claire’s massive house loomed before us more quickly than I expected. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do now. I had only offered to walk her home. Were the doors my cue to take off, now that she was safe again? We reached the top of the short flight of steps leading up to the door before I could figure it out.

Claire hesitated, and then asked, “Do you want to watch a movie or something?”

Well, there was my answer.

“Yeah, sure, that sounds great.” I started to follow her to their den, but I stopped after a few steps. “Could I use your phone, though? My parents were probably expecting me home a while ago.”

“Of course,” Claire said. Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she tossed it to me. I caught the pearly pink, rhinestone encrusted cell phone with one hand. Letting my mom know where I was only took a few brief seconds. Her happily telling me to stay as long as I wanted and not to worry about the hay took a lot longer than it should have. I think it worried her that I didn’t date as much as she thought I should. Even though I tried to hide it, my mom knew how I felt about Claire. I said goodbye and flipped the phone closed before she could embarrass me too much.

Claire was already settling into the couch, the previews of whatever movie she had chosen playing in the background. The huge den had three couches to choose from. The only one I was interested in was the suede loveseat holding Claire. Sitting so there was plenty of room left, she looked over at me. I didn’t keep her waiting.

Making sure not to touch her, I sat down next to Claire. My heart was pounding, but I forced myself to relax, or at least look like I was relaxed, as I leaned into the soft cushions. I handed her cell phone back to her with my thanks, and asked, “So what are we watching?”

“Well, it was a choice between romance or zombies,” she said. “I thought you might like the zombies better. Cole chose it, big surprise. My brother loves anything with gore and undead people in it. This one was supposed to be pretty funny, though.”

“Zombie movies usually are pretty funny, even when they don’t mean to be,” I said.

“I know, right? We watched Night of the Living Dead in English and half the class laughed through it,” Claire said.

“What was the other half doing?”

“Sleeping.”

That was pretty much the same thing that had happened in my class last year. Claire was a year behind me in school, something I often forgot when I saw her since we were practically the same age. She had missed the school district deadline by two months. More than once I had wished she had been born in August, rather than October. Next year would be my senior year, but only Claire’s junior. The idea of leaving her behind for college made my heart ache. The previews finally ended and we both turned our attention to the TV. I was a lot more focused on the small amount of space between me and Claire than the movie.

Twenty minutes into the movie, though, we were both laughing hysterically. I was enjoying myself so much that the few times Claire leaned into me to say something or brushed my hand with hers that I barely even noticed the pain-filled shiver that ran through me.

As the number of zombies dwindled and the sappy romance between the main characters took over, Claire let her head fall onto my shoulder. Pain radiated through my side, but reflex brought my arm around her shoulder before I could stop myself. I worried immediately that I had been too quick to move, but Claire only leaned against me more heavily, doubling the intensity of my reaction. I found myself very glad to be sitting down at the moment.

Her body pressed so gently against mine made my hand start to tremble slightly from the pain. Balling my hand into a fist and tucking it away where she couldn’t see it, I refused to move away from her. The feel of her against me was worth any amount of pain.

I
wasn’t really
sure what I was doing. Uriah freaked me out for some reason. Well, not for some reason, I knew the reason. In not so subtle terms, I had actually told him today why I had never hung out with him before. He acted like the way people changed when he was around them was just because of his size, or something, but I didn’t believe that. The way people acted around him, it was almost like his mere presence had some kind of control over other people.

Being controlled was something I dealt with every day of my life. My dad had my entire life planned out for me, and was willing to do just about anything to make sure things happened exactly the way he wanted them too. What I wanted couldn’t have mattered less to him. I certainly didn’t need more of that from a boyfriend. Uriah flat out made me nervous.

But that wasn’t the only reason I usually kept away from him. When most girls talk about the man of their dreams, they were delving into the fantasy of who their perfect match would be. I never thought about the man of my dreams, only the man in my dreams. For as long as I could remember I had dreamed of his face. He was completely nameless in my dreams and his blonde hair and blue eyes did not belong on the reservation, but I waited for him to come to me in my dreams every night. My rational mind told me they were only dreams. My soul told me they were so much more than that. Since most people who know me would admit I was not always the most rational person, it should be no surprise to anyone that I chose to believe he was real. His image in my mind had kept me from getting serious with anyone, especially Uriah. Uriah was the one guy I was afraid could make me forget my dreams.

Why I was sitting next to him with his arm around me was hard to explain. Up until now, I had carefully avoided Uriah as much as possible. Mainly because of the weird vibe, but also because I thought he was just about the most gorgeous, sweet, amazing person I knew. If I found myself doing whatever he wanted, I wasn’t sure I would have the desire to stop. Lately, staying away was getting harder to do, though. Even without considering my dreams, something about the way people reacted to him told me that I should stay away from him. When I had to get away from Jonny today, he was the first person I thought of.

Spending time with Uriah was nothing like I thought it would be. The only difference I felt at being around him was excitement. I didn’t feel like I was doing anything I wouldn’t normally do, or acting strangely at all. His arm felt good around my shoulder and I wanted it to stay there. And that was purely my own desire. The delicious throbbing I felt all over my body made me sure of that.

Sooner than I would have liked, the credits started rolling. Uriah didn’t jump up to leave, or try to make out with me like a few other guys had done. I appreciated his self-control, even if I was a little disappointed he didn’t try to kiss me. Part of me wanted to see how long we could stay like this, but that would probably make Uriah uncomfortable after a while.

“Well, that was better than I thought it was going to be,” I said. “Did you like it?”

Uriah seemed to take that as his cue to let me go. He took his arm back and sat up straight before answering. I held in a disappointed sigh. “Yeah, it was pretty funny,” he said. “It reminded me a lot of
Shaun of the Dead
. Have you ever seen that one?”

“Living with Cole? Of course I have. I couldn’t stop laughing when I watched it.” I knew that awkward moment where Uriah would be wondering whether he should stay or go was right around the corner, so I tried to get a jump on it. “Do you want to watch another one? The only other new one we have is a romantic comedy, but there’s always more zombie movies, thanks to Cole, if you want.”

Uriah laughed. “I think I’m all zombied out for today.”

“Romantic comedy it is, then,” I said. Usually Uriah’s expressions were very easy to read. Not right now, though. I wasn’t sure whether Uriah looked relieved that I had asked him to stay longer, or worried, but he didn’t make a run for it either way. I took that as a good sign. Reluctantly getting off the couch, I looked toward the kitchen. “How about some popcorn and sodas to go with this one?”

“Sounds good,” Uriah said as he stood up next to me. “Need any help?”

For a brief second, I considered telling him I was fine, I hated looking helpless, but I liked the idea of being away from him even less. Letting him put a bag of popcorn in the microwave was hardly going to make me look like a wimp. “Sure,” I said, “follow me.”

The honest pleasure in Uriah’s face made me smile. He seemed nothing like what a lot of my friends had told me. Dana and Beth both said he was outgoing and fun when they went out with him, confident, engaging. Dana said they spent most of their date talking and laughing. No girl that I knew of ever regretted going out with him. The only thing they ever regretted was that they never went out again. Uriah never dated a girl more than once, which left plenty of them wondering what on earth they had done wrong. I thought it was more like he was just trying them out, waiting for the right one to find him. Seeing Uriah so, almost shy, and quiet, around me was bizarre. It made me worry that I was doing something wrong.

Entering the kitchen, I went right to the pantry and pulled out a package of microwave popcorn. I stripped off the wrapper and tossed it to Uriah. He caught it effortlessly, of course. I had watched just about every home football, basketball, or baseball game he had ever played in. I could at least do that and feel safe. He was so much better at everything than everyone else it was ridiculous. If our tiny school wasn’t way below the college sports radar, he would have scouts knocking down his door every day.

“Would you throw that in the microwave,” I asked. “Just push the Popcorn button.” He nodded and I heard the almost too loud hum of the microwave behind me as I opened the fridge. “What do you like, Coke, root beer, Crush, Sprite?” I asked.

“Um, Coke is fine.”

I handed him the soda and set my own on the counter to find a bowl for the popcorn. The warning beep that there was only thirty seconds left on the timer sounded. “Oh, shoot. Uriah, would you…” I was closer than he was. “Never mind, I’ll get it,” I said.

But Uriah had already guessed I was talking about the popcorn and moved to get it right as I turned around. I bumped into him, putting my hand on his chest to keep from crashing into him too much. He shivered and shook his head as if he had to shake off my touch. I snatched my hand away quickly.

“Sorry,” I said as the final beep rang. I could smell the faint scent of burnt popcorn emanating from the microwave. It burned every time if we didn’t take it out early.

“No, it was my fault,” Uriah said. “I’ll get it for you.” He hesitated for a second before brushing his fingers across my cheek. I swear he shivered again, but if he did, it was so slight I almost didn’t see it. Smiling with a strange kind of pride, he turned away and went after the popcorn. I had no idea what that was about.

Trying to hide my mixed up feelings, I busied myself with finding a bowl. Uriah was nothing like I thought, but that certainly didn’t mean I had any clue what he was really like. I was more confused than ever about him. I was still searching the cupboards when I heard the front door open. Cole was setting up for the bonfire. Mom was shopping with a friend in Santa Fe. That only left my dad. Cursing under my breath, I hoped he would head right back out. Maybe he just forgot something. The click of his dress shoes on the kitchen tile made me cringe. His feet stopped moving and I forced myself to stand up and face him.

Harder than usual, his eyes stared past me to Uriah. “I thought you were going to the bonfire tonight, Claire,” he said, still not looking at me.

“I was, but…” Should I tell him about Jonny? And why was he glaring at Uriah like that? “Um, I got in a fight with Jonny and didn’t feel like going anymore.”

He didn’t really seem to hear me. “Uriah, what are you doing here with my daughter?” my dad asked.

Okay, this was beyond weird. “Dad, what’s your problem? We’re watching a movie. Is there something wrong with that?” His eyes narrowed as if there was indeed something wrong with me watching a movie with Uriah. “Shouldn’t you be at work anyway?” I asked. “What are you doing home so early?”

“I thought everyone would be out. I came home to work in my study. There were too many distractions at the casino,” he said.

Of course, the one day my dad wants to work from home is the one day I actually want to hang out here. “Well, we’ll be all the way in the den. You won’t even know we’re here,” I said.

“I can go if it’s a problem,” Uriah said to my dad.

My dad was not going to ruin this for me. I said, “No, you’re fine, Uriah,” just as my dad said, “I think that would be best.” My eyes snapped to my dad’s with a threat he knew I could fulfill, but he was still glaring at Uriah. Uriah just nodded politely before turning to me.

“I’ve got chores to do anyway, but thanks for having me over, Claire,” Uriah said. He started for the front door, leaving me staring at my dad.

“What is wrong with you?” I hissed at my dad. “You wouldn’t have even been able to hear us in the den.”

“I would rather you didn’t hang out with Uriah Crowe,” my dad said.

“What?”

Dropping his keys and attaché on the table, my dad walked past me in his usual cold manner. “I don’t approve of him, and I better not see you together again.” Like that was the end of the discussion, he starting walking across the kitchen toward his study.

“Well,” I said sarcastically, making him turn back to look at me, “it’s a good thing I always do what you say, then, isn’t it?”

“Claire,” he warned, but I had already rushed away from him.

I threw open the front door and I spotted Uriah halfway down the driveway. “Uriah!”

He turned around quickly, but waited for me to approach him. I wanted to grab him and yank him back to the house, but I pulled up just short. “Sorry about my dad, he can be a real jerk sometimes,” I said.

Uriah hid a smile and nodded politely. My dad sponsored most of the teams Uriah played on, so he knew as well as anyone what my dad was like. Plenty of people respected my dad because he owned the biggest trading post in the area, as well as the casino outside of town, but I didn’t think you could pay any amount to actually get someone to like him.

“It’s okay,” Uriah said, “I have a truckload of hay to unload anyway. I had fun, though.”

It was probably the most laidback, kind-of-date I had ever been on, but it was definitely the best. “I did too,” I said.

As he started to turn away I had the strongest urge to sink my lips against his. I didn’t want him to leave, especially if this was the last time I would see him. That thought had nothing to do with my dad, but everything to do with Uriah’s track record. I didn’t want him being pushed out by my dad to be the last thing he remembered me for. I was considering how to stop him from leaving when he turned back.

He opened his mouth to say something, but frowned and closed it again. I waited with my breath held against fear of what he was going to say. Shaking his head once more, Uriah looked at me. “Can I see you again?” he asked.

Breathing out too quickly with relief, my answer got stuck in my throat. I swallowed, and said, “Of course, I would love that.”

“Great,” Uriah said. “My dad and I are cutting alfalfa this weekend, but maybe we can do something next week.”

“Sure, just give me a call.”

Half smiling and frowning at the same time as if he wasn’t sure about what he had just done, Uriah turned and walked away. It took some real effort to walk back to the house calmly. I had a million questions about Uriah, and a vague feeling that seeing him again wasn’t a good idea, but knowing I was the first girl he had ever gone on a second date with was so intoxicating it overpowered everything else. Even my dreams. I wanted to be with Uriah no matter what being around him eventually revealed.