Lunacy (9 page)

I balled both of my hands into fists and raised them
as much as I could, which wasn’t much considering he was still
holding my wrists hostage. I brought them down hard, right onto the
area of those abs of steel that his diaphragm was hiding behind. He
tensed before I struck, so I was glad it was the heels of my hands
or I might have dislocated knuckles. It was as effective as trying
to break through a wall of cinder blocks with my forehead. Granted,
I have a pretty hard head, but it still wouldn’t work. Using his
grip on my arms, he pulled me forward so suddenly that I lost my
balance, having to catch myself on my elbows. It drew a gasp from
me and I was pressed almost fully against the length of his body
and bare torso.

It could have been nice, but I looked up and his eyes
caught mine. The color had bled from them and they were that weird
amber color again. They were almost hazel, but with a touch more
gold, just like they had been in my dream. I froze and he noticed
it, his expression cooling but the color change still present. He
let me go and I skittered backwards, stopping on my knees at the
end of the bed.

“What’s wrong, Kacea?” he asked, his nearly glowing
eyes blinking curiously at me.

I shook my head rapidly, not able to find my voice
for a second. “Your eyes, Jynxx. Go look at your eyes.”

He cocked his head to the side questioningly before
getting to his feet and walking over to the large mirror atop my
dresser. As he gazed at his reflection, I watched the yellow fade
away as if someone had injected ink into his eye sockets. Silence
filled the room, crushing with its weight.

After a few moments, his voice came out reedy and
afraid. “You did see that, right?”

I swallowed loudly. “That depends… What did you see?”
I asked, half afraid of hearing him confirm what couldn’t have been
a hallucination. There were no half-asleep or “trick of the light”
excuses. Not this time. It was morning with the sunlight streaming
into the room, and we were both wide awake.

“I saw… My eyes were…” he trailed off, still staring
at his reflection like he was waiting for his eyes to duplicate the
unnatural complete change of hues.

“Yeah. I saw it, too.” I agreed, my heart pounding
beneath my ribs like a caged bird. “Should we go to the hospital?”
My question instantly made his shoulders tense and I felt the
atmosphere grow heavy with his anxiety.

“No,” he said finally. “No hospitals. Whatever the
hell that was, the last thing I want is some white room full of
people hooking me up to machines and cutting me open to see what
makes me tick. Hell, I don’t even know what this shit means, but I
know that I feel fine. Aside from being freaked the fuck out, I
don’t feel sick. So, no. No hospital.” His words were all spoken
very quickly with little to no breath in between them. He must have
been more upset than he was letting on. And he was spazzing
hardcore on the outside, so he must have been on the verge of a
heart attack, internally.

Jynxx turned and looked at me solidly for a moment,
his gaze heavy while he leaned back against my dresser, slouching
deliciously so the muscles in his stomach bunched in a manner most
enticing. He looked positively appetizing, and I was walking
towards him, looking through my eyes like I was watching a movie
and I wasn’t even in control of my body anymore. Jynxx went very
still as I stalked toward him. I felt like I was prowling, the
movement of my hips and arms predatory.

I stopped so close to him that our bodies could have
pressed flush against each other with a deep breath. My skin
thrummed from the nearness and I had a very strong urge to touch
him. The moment I thought it, my hands were moving to caress him of
their own accord. I forced my hands away from temptation, trembling
with the effort, and placed them on either side of Jynxx’s hips,
gripping tightly to the edge of the dresser. The contact with
something solid and not made of flesh was helping me to regain my
focus. What in the hell was wrong with me, all of a sudden?

I looked up at Jynxx and his eyes were wide with
fear, a spooked horse about to bolt. I was about to ask him what
was wrong, but he shook his head and leaned slightly to the side so
I could see myself in the mirror. My heart skipped a beat and I
blinked rapidly, hoping to chase away the fact that my normally
greenish eyes were now the glowing white-blue of a mountaintop at
noon in the dead of winter.

As if that alone wasn’t weird enough, Jynxx leaned in
and heavily inhaled, reminding me of a bloodhound trying to catch a
scent. “You smell like the forest after a snowstorm, Kacea. Green,
wet, frosty…”

The black melted from his eyes again and we stood
there silently, the light from our eyes reflecting on each other’s
faces. In that moment, I was no longer afraid. And neither was he.
Through our collective calm, I managed to find my way back to the
realm of reason.

“I don’t know what’s happening, but we need to get
out of the house. This keeps happening when it’s just the two of
us, so logic dictates that we should be safe if we’re around other
people.” He nodded. “So… I should probably take you home, then.” He
crossed his arms over that broad chest and it drew my gaze, but
still he didn’t move. Rather than making any of the lewd comments
coursing through my brain, I mirrored his pose and said, “Well?
What are you waiting for?”

A smirk curved the corners of those full lips and he
countered, “Short of picking you up and moving you, I’m kinda
trapped here, Kaysh. And with how badly we’re reacting to each
other, I don’t think me touching you is the best course of
action.”

I had the grace to be embarrassed at the voice of
reason, and the light from my eyes suddenly wasn’t showing on
Jynxx’s face anymore. Interesting. I stepped back and the amber
color seemed stuck in his eyes, but he was otherwise relaxed. “I’ll
go get dressed and we’ll take off, okay?”

He gave me a soft smile that should have been
terrifying with those predator’s eyes, and his voice was just as
gentle. “Sure thing, Kitten.”

I headed into my walk-in closet and pulled the chain
to turn on the light. It was more than big enough in there to
change, and I’d put a full length mirror against one wall for just
this purpose. I didn’t really have anyone to impress, so I grabbed
a simple burgundy baby doll tee and threw on a pair of clean jeans,
pulled my hair back in a low ponytail and called it good. I emerged
from the closet, feeling just a little sad that Jynxx had put all
that pretty muscle away.

“I preferred the outfit you had on a few minutes
ago,” I said aloud with a teasing grin, feeling more confident than
before. Now that we weren’t totally invading each other’s personal
space, it seemed like the air in the room was lighter, easier to
breathe.

Jynxx laughed, his eyes still yellow. "You were the
one who put the kibosh to that one, remember? Kick your own ass for
me being dressed right now, not mine."

“Yeah, yeah.” I waved it off, still a little edgy
about the fact that his eyes hadn’t returned to normal.

We headed downstairs and I locked up as we left,
piling into the car and beginning the long vehicular trek to the
house Jynxx shared with his younger brother and band mates.

Chapter 10

We drove for a few minutes in comfortable quiet aside
from the stereo, enjoying the warmth of the car that cut out the
early fall chill with Jynxx sitting in the passenger seat.

“I would have made you a proper breakfast if we
hadn’t had to take off so quickly. Now I’ll have to make you lunch
once we get back to my place, instead.”

I glanced at him from the corner of my eye, focused
on the road ahead of us. “Don’t tell me you can cook,” I said,
starting to think he had to be a serial killer or something. The
kid was too good to be true.

He laughed and slouched comfortably in his seat.
“Alright. I won’t tell you, then.”

“So… You’re hot, can cook, and have a brain and sense
of humor, on top of being a kickass guitarist.” He shrugged. “Why
are you single, again?”

“I guess you could say I’m selective.”

“Selective?” I scoffed, turning slightly to look at
him. “You must be the pickiest mofo going! You’ve got to have girls
throwing themselves at you, left and right!”

“I’m more antisocial than you might think.”

I had an odd itch on the back of my neck, then; not
an itch to be scratched, but a nervous itch. I felt like there was
someone watching us, like we were being followed. I must have let
some sign of my anxiety show on my face because Jynxx turned the
stereo down a little. “What’s the matter?” he asked, turning
slightly from his lazy slouch low in the seat.

I shook my head, eyes to the road and not wanting to
tell him any details about the nightmare I'd had. “I had some
pretty fucked dreams last night. Guess they're still making me
twitchy is all.” I glanced in the rearview and both side mirrors,
seeing no evidence of pursuit, but unable to shake the feeling of
apprehension that was the tickle of a dagger's tip between my
shoulders.

“It’s gotta be more than that, Kaysh.” He sat up
straighter in his seat and looked over his shoulder, also checking
around us in the mirrors. “Do you think there’s someone following
us?”

I started to shake my head and deny my suspicions
when he sat up suddenly and pointed to the road in front of us,
half shouting: “Look out!”

My eyes darted back to the road and I swore loudly,
stomping on the brakes and ducking in case the giant dog I was
about to hit came rolling up the hood and through the windshield. I
kept the wheel straight until the car finally came to a screeching
halt a few mere seconds later, although it seemed like the
squealing of rubber on asphalt went on for centuries. My Dad had
always said never to swerve to avoid hitting an animal. Your
situation could go from scary to deadly in a matter of seconds.

I looked up and around and saw no sign of it
anywhere. We hadn’t hit it, but I pulled over to the side of the
road and parked anyway, just to double-check and calm down enough
not to crash due to my shot nerves. I got out and let the door slam
behind me, the noise it made hardly registering. A quick inspection
showed me that my car was fine, aside from the rubber I’d lost off
my tires from about sixty feet back down the road. The skid marks
were going to grab people’s attention for a good long while.

Jynxx was out of the car only seconds behind me. “You
okay, Kaysh?” he asked, coming to stand beside me.

I answered him with, “Is it just me, or did I almost
just annihilate a dire wolf with my car?”

“A what?”

“Dire wolf, Jynxx. They’re supposed to be extinct.
Think like a gray wolf, but longer and heavier, with almost
Sabertooth Tiger teeth.” I shook my head, my eyes darting back and
forth as I scoured my memory for the information from a report I’d
written for biology a few years back. “But they have shorter legs.
Lower to the ground…”

Jynxx nodded. “That thing wasn’t short at all. It was
like, pony-sized.”

I agreed and sighed loudly, shaking my head again.
“What a friggin’ way to start the day…”

We got back into the car and managed to make it the
rest of the way to Jynxx’s place without incident.

It was a cute place. I was surprised at how huge the
house looked in the day light. The place Jynxx called home was dark
green with mahogany trim. A large bay window with sheer curtains
that nearly matched the siding took up a good portion of the front
of the place. I assumed it was part of the living room.

I parked my car by a few others that must have
belonged to Jynxx’s band mates, and we headed to the small front
porch. While Jynxx fished for his keys, I took a minute to
appreciate their very old front door. It was beautiful, an antique
with a large frosted glass oval window. Its color matched the trim
on the rest of the house perfectly.

Just as Jynxx was about to unlock the door, it opened
of its own accord. On the other side was a lanky boy who stood
slightly taller than me and looked eerily similar to my classmate.
Aside from his smaller build and platinum blond hair -natural, from
the shade of his eyebrows - they shared facial features and had the
same dark eyes. It had to be Jynxx’s…

“Jynxxie!” He slurred, half falling into a hug with
the taller boy.

The smell of booze on his breath as he leaned near me
made my eyes water and I covered my nose and mouth with my hand as
politely and discreetly as possible. Jynxx looked at me and rolled
his eyes towards his brother, mouthing the words ‘I’m sorry.’

“Jesus, Jimmy! Are you still drunk?” he asked his
younger brother aloud.

Jimmy shrugged and help up his hand, forefinger and
thumb about an inch apart. “Only a l-little,” he replied, his slur
making me laugh. It drew his attention to me in a way I wasn’t
expecting and he gave me a crooked smirk, all traces of drunkenness
sliding away to reveal a charm that was honestly hard to
resist.

His arm slid around my waist and he pulled me against
the solid heat of his body like I belonged there, or like I
belonged to him, at least. “And who might you be?” he asked, dark
eyes so like his brother’s looking down into mine.

“Kacea,” I said simply, trying my best not to
struggle.

“You are a vision,” he teased, looking over my
shoulder to Jynxx. “Clearly a much better catch than the ones he
usually brings home.”

Vision? Who the hell did this kid think he was?
Robert Redford?

My automatic outward response: denial. My nervous
laughter probably didn’t help matters any. “Oh, no! Jynxx and I
aren’t, you know, dating or anything.” As much as I wished for the
exact opposite to be true…

Two sets of funereal eyes snapped to me. Jynxx’s full
of warning, and Jimmy’s full of heat and darker things.