Muse - Fighting Fate #1 (19 page)

I clung to him, breathed in his calming scent, concentrating with everything I had on the slow rise and fall of his chest. I tried to match my breaths with his, focusing on only those things. His breathing, his smell, and the feel of his arms around me.

Sweet, reviving air streamed into me, and I gulped it down greedily, taking in as much as I could. My head swam with it, making the world around me tilt, but I wasn’t afraid of falling. I knew Jace would never let me.

With my face still pressed into his chest, the sounds of the crowd continued to terrorize me, ripping me violently between past and present. I tried to concentrate on things that would help me distinguish between the two, to help me feel safe. It was the murmurs of my name and Jace’s that finally brought me back to reality. I still couldn’t move, couldn’t face the volumes of people I knew were still flocking around me, but I knew I’d be okay as long as I stayed in Jace’s arms.

My heart lurched when
someone suddenly started pulling on my arm, trying to drag me away from him, and a half whimper, half scream escaped me. I clung tighter to Jace, panicked, silently begging him to not let them take me. Jace growled.

“Mia, it’s only me,” I heard Aiden say
. I relaxed a little at hearing his voice, but I couldn’t let go of my lifeline.

I shook my head in a rush and gripped Jace even tighter again,
silently pleading with Aiden to leave me in my safe haven. Thankfully, Jace tightened his arms in response, sending relief through me in waves.

“I’m here, Mia. It’s okay,” Aiden said. “Jace and I are both here. We won’t let anyone hurt you.”

I could feel Aiden’s hand pressed against my back, and the waves of relief came stronger. I nodded a little in response, but kept my face pressed into Jace’s chest.

My body shook uncontrollably, and my knees went weak. I let myself sag even more against Jace, no longer able to fully support my own weight.

The sounds of the crowd were growing less and less, but my body was still humming with fear. I just couldn’t let go yet. Jace’s hand came to the back of my head, holding me against his chest, and I immediately felt safer.

“Hey guys, Mr
. Daniels is waiting for you,” I heard a low voice say.

“Well,
he can fucking wait!” Aiden growled. “I need to make sure my sister’s okay before I go anywhere.”

No one spoke for a few seconds, then the owner of the voice said, “Okay, I’ll go let him know...”

Then, “Is she okay?”

I knew that voice belonged to Kaeli. I exhaled slowly at the sound of her voice. My shoulders relaxed a little.

“I don’t know,” Aiden said wearily. “Are you staying? Jace and I are going to have to go out there soon, and I don’t want to leave her alone.”

As they talked, Jace slowly brushed his hand over my hair before burying it underneath my curls and cupping the back of my neck. He kissed the top of my head, and I felt my shoulders relax a little more.

“I’ll take her home and stay with her. She’ll be fine,” Kaeli said.

I liked that idea. It meant getting away from the crowd. But, unfortunately, it also meant leaving Jace, and I wanted to stay right there, in his arms. I took a deep breath, knowing I was holding them up. I needed to let them go.

I moved my hands so they were resting on Jace's hips, and adjusted my face so it was just my forehead resting on his chest. I took another deep breath. Baby steps.

I licked my lips. They tasted salty.
Shit. I’d been crying? Taking a deeper breath, I tried to move back a little, but only managed to get as far as lifting my face to Jace's.

Jace’s embrace loosened and he carefully reached up to brush a tear away with his thumb. "Are you okay?" he asked, concern thick in his voice.

I nodded.

"Ah...guys? Mr
. Daniels is kinda getting mad..." the low voice said again.

Without taking his eyes off me, Jace said, "I'm not going."

Aiden didn't say anything, but I could feel his surprise.

"Man, it’s not like they can do it without you," the voice said.

"I don't care. I'm not leaving Mia."

"Jace..." Aiden
said. "We have to do this. Trust me, Mia’s okay. She’s a tough little machine.”

I
still hadn't taken my eyes off Jace's. It was obvious he was about to dig his heels in.

“It’s only one song,” Aiden continued. “Ten minutes tops. Mia could probably wait for us.”

I could hear the pleading tone in Aiden’s voice. For some reason this performance was important. I needed to show him I was okay so he would go.

I licked my
lips again and swallowed against the dryness. "I'll be okay," I said, my voice lacking the conviction I needed it to have. I tried to strengthen it. "I’ll go wait in the car with Kaeli."

Jace studie
d me. I could tell he didn’t believe I was okay for a second.

"Really, Jace
. I just want to sit down. Kaeli will be with me. You go."

I forced my
self to step away from him, closer to Kaeli, and took her hand. Bewildered, I noticed her holding my books. The ones I obviously dropped when the crowd surged. Before I could say anything else, Kaeli squeezed my hand and gave it a gentle tug to encourage me to move. Giving my brother and my boyfriend a reassuring smile, I turned and walked away.

Just as I was about to
walk out the door, I looked down the other end of the hall and saw Melissa watching me with a calculating stare.

Chapter 32

Jace

I waited until the doors closed behind her before I let out a long assed fucking breath. The same fucking breath I felt like I’d been holding onto since I first saw her trapped against the lockers.

I swear I’d never felt so fucking helpless in all my life. Seeing her like that made something inside me break, and I couldn’t stand it. I wanted to fucking smash something.

“Still want to ask her out?” Aiden said quietly beside me. His tone was scornful.

I looked up and met his hard gaze with a defiant one of my own. “More than
you’ll ever know.”

With that, I turned and strode out to the green to get this shit over with. The sooner we could pump out this god forsaken song, the sooner I could be with Mia.
If it wasn’t for the dumb assed fucking reporter from Music Scene, I wouldn’t even be fucking going.

Dean and Matt were both already on the makeshift stage that’d been set up on the green, talking to Mr. Daniels who looked like he was about to pop a vein in his temple. The crowd was fully amped, spurred on by the cheerleaders and football team who were keeping them hyped with team cheeriness. Retch.

As Aiden and I climbed on stage, the screaming from the crowd went up another decibel or two, causing Mr. Daniels to glare at us before stepping off the stage and stalking away. Fuck him.

Dean took one look at Aiden and me and pressed his lips together in a calculating snarl. “I know we agreed on ‘Tonight’, but by the looks on your faces, I’m thinking we need somethin
g a bit heavier. Wanna try ‘To the End’ instead?”

Fuck yeah. With the mood I was in, I could
let it all the fuck out and leave everyone bleeding on the ground. “Sounds like a fucking good idea.”

We took our places and adjusted our mics. Dean walked up to his mic and smirked at the screaming crowd. “Good afternoon Westside High! We’re here to add our support to the most awesome fucking football team on the west coast! Even though we can’t be there for the game, we hope you fucking smash them!”

The crowd roared deafeningly.

“Who
here’s heard our song, ‘To the End’?” he yelled to the crowd.

They answered by screaming and jumping up and down.

“Well, I wanna hear you sing it along with us. Come on!”

Matt counted us in and hit it hard, a smirk plastered across his face. To the End was his favorite of our songs. It had a serious fast tempo and he got to show off with some pretty fucking wicked
beats.

My contribution was usually pretty straight forward, but
I had a solo part in the middle, and when it came, I ripped it the fuck up.

Hammering it out, the crowd screamed the lyrics with us, and it sounded fucking awesome. That was another great thing about the song. It was easy for the crowd to join in. Hearing so many people singing along, knowing the words, made us feel like
we were giants. We were fucking invincible.

The second the song came to an end, the crowd screamed out for more. They were fucking crazy for it. Dean yelled out our thanks, wishing the stupid football team good luck again, and encouraged everyone to come down to the GV after the game to hear us play some more.

That was another reason he was the front man. He was fucking good at that kind of shit.

I took off my guitar and handed it to Ryan, who’d agreed to be a kind of roadie with
Cain when we played gigs. I wanted to just leave it to them and go find Mia, but I knew I had to help get the shit loaded into the van so they could get it over to the GV.

I decided to go help Matt dismantle his kit, seeing as that would be the real time killer. We were just loading the last of the gear in the van when Aiden turned to glare at me. “Just fucking go.”

I raised an eyebrow at him. I thought I’d been holding it together quite well. Guess I was wrong. Shrugging, I turned and headed straight for the parking lot.

Mia was sitting on the trunk
of her car with Kaeli when I walked up. Her expression was guarded, and she looked more than a little unsure of herself. My heart instantly went into some weird panicked state. Kaeli jumped off when she saw me coming and left us alone.

I stopped right in front of her, placing my hands
on the trunk, either side of her ass.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

I blinked. The fuck? “I can’t believe you’re asking
me
that. I felt like a fucking low life shit for leaving you like that.” I stood up straighter and ran my hands through my hair. Unbelievably, I still had some angst left in my system even though I just played like I’d been possessed by the fucking devil.

Mia reached out and softly cupped my face in her hands while parting her legs a little to allow me to step closer. Needing to touch her, I ran my hands up the outsides of her thighs until they rested on her hips.

“I’m fine, Jace,” she said softly. Then her lips curled up a fraction, into a wicked little grin. “I can show you exactly how fine I am after your gig tonight if you want…”

I’d happily ditch the gig to go with her right now if she fucking wanted.
It’d been too long. I needed to be inside her. I knew it was the only way I was going to rid myself of this guilty feeling.

Mia glanced down at my mouth and slowly pulled me closer. Jesus. Was she seriously going
to kiss me? In the fucking parking lot?

I went with it, not knowing what to expect, but when her lips gently brushed against mine, I didn’t care
if the whole fucking school was watching.

Her lips parted for me, pleading
with me to taste her, so I slid inside, tangling my tongue with hers. I groaned. She tasted so fucking good. Sliding my hands lower, I gripped the sides of her ass and pulled her closer to me.

She
responded instinctively, wrapping her legs around me and burying her fingers in my hair. I deepened the kiss, hungrier for her than I’d ever been, and she clutched me harder to her, tasting me right back. Fuck, if she kept this up, I’d be taking her right there on the fucking trunk of the car.

The sound of laughing brought us both out of our cocoon, and we turned to see
our entire group of friends standing a few feet away. Aiden had his back to us and was running his hands through his hair while Dean and Matt laughed at his discomfort and Amber and the girls grinned at us like idiots.

I wrapped my arms around Mia, hoping she wasn’t worried about Aiden’s reaction
, but she linked her arms around my neck and held me close, so I figured she was okay.

She nuzzled into me and breathed against my neck. “Well, that was embarrassing.”

I chuckled and held her tighter. I hoped she wasn’t going to ask me to let her go because I didn’t think I could if I tried.

“Does Aiden look pissed?”
she whispered.

I looked over to where the others were fucking around, laughing. Aiden met my gaze and shook his head. From what I could see, he just looked like he felt awkward. “Uh…I think he’s okay.”

She groaned and pulled away from me slowly, turning her head to look for herself. Aiden met her gaze with narrowed eyes. Mine instinctively narrowed as well. If he thought he was going to start some shit with her, he had another thing coming, because like fuck I was going to let that happen.

I wasn’t sure what he saw on Mia’s face, but I thought I saw guilt flash in his eyes, then his gaze softened and
he smirked.

He sighed and started
forward, coming to lean on the car beside us and crossing his arms defensively. “You know this is fucking weird, right?”

Mia rolled her eyes. “You’d think it was weird no matter who I was with because you’ve never seen me with anyone before.”

Aiden thought about that then nodded. “Yeah, you’re probably right, but it’s weird seeing this one all soft over a girl too,” he said, pushing me lightly in the arm. “I should’ve fucking known. If anyone had what it took to hook Jace, it was you. You know you’re too good for him though, right?”

I groaned.
“Dude! I’m trying really hard not to draw attention to that fact. Shut the fuck up.”

Mia giggled, making me smile and hold her closer.

Aiden sighed. “We should probably get going.”

I nodded. Yeah, we still had a heap of shit to get done before our gig that night.
It helped having Ryan and Cain set most of our shit up, but we still needed to do the sound check and everything.

“I want to come watch you play tonight,” Mia said suddenly.

Fuck no. After seeing what happened to her not even an hour ago, there was no fucking way I was letting her go anywhere near our gig.

Aiden and I both scowled at her. “No fucking way,” Aiden said, saving me from having to get on her bad side.

She pulled away from me and sat up straight, her eyes narrowing into slits. “I don’t think it’s your decision to make, Aiden. I want to come.”

I needed to make her see reason. “Babe, you haven’t been to one of our gigs before. The crowd gets pretty intense – worse than the pep rally
…”

When her chin lifted with defiance, I knew she wasn’t ready to give up yet. “I’ll sit in the corner.”

Aiden growled. “Jesus, Mia. Do you honestly think either Jace or myself would be able to concentrate on what the fuck we’re supposed to be doing if we know you’re out amongst our crazy assed fans?”

The fight instantly went out of her and her shoulder sagged a little. “Isn’t there like a backstage area I could watch from or something?” Her voice was all sad and pleading. It made me want to agree to any fucking thing she wanted.

Aiden rubbed his hands over his face. It seemed he wasn’t immune to it either.

“Yeah, there’s a backstage area
. I guess that would be okay,” he said.

He looked at me. I guessed it was to see what I thought. The idea actually sounded good. I’d love to have her th
ere watching me play. I nodded.

“But I want you to have someone with you just in case,” he added forcefully.

Mia’s eyes twinkled. “Kaeli will come with me. Ooh! And Mom. Can Mom come too?”

Aiden smirked. “If she wants.”

Mia threw her arms around Aiden and squealed. I didn’t think I’d ever heard her squeal before. It was definitely different. “Let me go ask Kaeli.”

I moved back so she could jump down and watched her bounce over to where Kaeli was standing with the other girls.

Aiden groaned beside me. “What the fuck have you done to my little sister?”

I smiled, still watching Mia, and decided it was wise
st if I didn’t answer.