Alix (The Coven's Grove Chronicles #1) (7 page)

“You wouldn’t have,” Troy said, saving Alix from complete humiliation as Sam continued to smirk. “No one was injured...Well, not permanently at least.” He smiled at Alix through the rearview mirror before continuing. “As I was leaving town, I came across some people that needed help—their kid actually. The boy had been caught up in part of the rioting, and had some severe trauma to his leg and shoulder. I did what I could before the mob showed up. There were maybe two dozen of them armed with whatever they could find, and angry enough to unleash violence on whoever got in their way. I helped the family make a run for it to an apartment complex. The place was pretty rundown, but there weren’t a whole lot of options at the time.” Troy paused, and took a drink from his bottled water.

Alix suddenly realized how dry her throat was. “Could I get a sip of that?”

Without a word, he handed the bottle back to her.

Her eyes lingered on the muscles of his shoulder and neck, as she took the water. “Thanks,” she croaked. His black shirt fit tightly to his body, making it impossible not to imagine what lay underneath. Of course she didn’t have to imagine, she’d seen him without his shirt first hand, which didn’t help in the slightest. Tearing her gaze from the man, Alix took a sip from the bottle, and ended up guzzling the whole thing.

“You hungry?” Troy asked. “You’ve been out for awhile.”

“I don’t know about her,” Sam said. “But I’m freakin’ starving.”

Troy laughed. It was a welcome sound, warm, and infectious. “Okay. We need to look for a place to stop for a while anyway. Sound like a plan?”

“Yep,” Sam replied, as Alix nodded.

They went on in silence for a few miles until Alix’s curiosity got the better of her. “So what happened? How did getting chased by a mob make you come looking for me?”

“The long and short of it: I got shoved out of a four story window.” Troy eyed Alix through the rearview mirror. “I shouldn’t have survived that fall, but I didn’t even break a bone. And this thing you put on me,”—he pointed to his chest—“It started burning and glowing like on the night we met. Scared the shit out of me.”

Alix felt the blood drain from her cheeks.
I’m so busted
.

“What did you do to me, Alix?” Troy asked.

Sam twisted in her seat to look Alix in the eyes. “Yeah, and how are you still breathing after getting shot in the chest?”

Alix sighed in defeat. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

Sam scoffed. “Seriously?! After last night. C’mon Alix, give me a break. I’m not that blonde!”

“All right!” Alix replied, with a bit of irritation. “It’s just hard to explain.”

“Use small words then,” Sam persisted.

Alix pursed her lips, but continued. “I’ve got this gift or something. It started when I was like sixteen. I can take thoughts and images from my mind, and bring them into the real world.”

The only response to her revelation was the sound of the engine chugging away, as the Volkswagen chewed up miles. Not a word from either of them. Sam’s expression was a combination of shock, disbelief, and confusion. Troy kept his eyes on the road, and flexed his jaw in contemplation.

“Well?!” Alix blurted in a panic, afraid they might throw her from the car at any moment.

“Holy-no-shit!” Sam gawked. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me that years ago?”

Alix gave her friend a flat look. “Really? Like
that
would’ve gone over well.”

“I would have understood.” Sam scrunched up her nose, and crossed her eyes playfully. “Eventually.”

Alix rolled her eyes.

“So the tattoo you put on my chest…It was a thought that came out of your head?” Troy asked. There was tension in his voice.

“Sort of,” Alix said. “I inked part of it.”

Troy glanced in the mirror. “And that’s how you survived being shot. You have the same thing?”

Alix bit her lip. Troy’s tattoo was the part she didn’t understand. She didn’t really understand any of it, but the symbol on Troy’s chest had her at a complete loss. “It’s similar, but there are some differences.” Alix pulled her sleeves up. “I put two matching tats on my arms the year before Hank found me. They were...I don’t know, ‘wards’ against harm. Mainly just protection from the elements in case I had to sleep outside in the cold.”

Sam’s eyes widened. “Hey, what happened to this one?” She grabbed hold of Alix’s right arm. The one no longer decorated with a tattoo.

“Whenever the power is used of one of my ‘imprints’, the image disappears.”

“Whoa, that’s so cool!” Sam drawled, still looking at Alix’s arm.

“Mine didn’t disappear,” Troy said. He avoided looking into the mirror, as his ginger brows came down in an expression of concern.

“Yeah, I’m not sure what that’s about,” Alix replied hesitantly. “I’ve never had one
not
disappear before.”

Troy gripped the steering wheel so hard that his knuckles turned white, but he didn’t say anything more.

Even Sam noticed the tension, and was on the verge of saying something, but Alix made a cutting motion across her neck, signaling for her friend to stop. With a frown, Sam settled back into her seat, and closed her eyes.

For the next couple of hours the car was void of conversation, just as the landscape was absent of pit stops.

Alix laid back down. She tried to sort out what had happened to her the past few weeks, and why those guys and that creature would be after her. Nothing readily came to mind, until she glanced at the tattoo on her left hand.
I knew this power was going to be trouble,
she thought.
I wonder if Mom knew something?
Her mother had been acting a bit skittish a few weeks before she was murdered. Alix hadn’t thought anything of it at the time, her mother always got edgy before they moved. She just figured her mom had had enough of the place, and was ready to move on. Maybe they moved around so much because of Alix, because of what she would eventually become. Maybe someone had been after them the whole time.
Now you’re being paranoid
. She pushed thoughts of her mother away, which left room for memories of her friends to flood in.

Tears welled in her eyes as thoughts of Hank and the others set fire to her guilt. They didn’t deserve what had happened to them. They didn’t deserve to be subjected to Alix’s curse, but they had been, and now they were gone. She rolled onto her side, and quietly cried herself to sleep.

The sound of the car door closing woke Alix from her dreamless slumber. A gush of cold air invaded the cozy den she had created in the back seat, and brought goose pimples. How long she had been asleep was a mystery though it seemed to span the blink of an eye. A yawn of some magnitude escaped, as she stretched the stiffness out of her muscles.

“Hey sleepyhead,” Sam said, looking over the front seat. “You gonna join us in the land of the living for a while?”

“I could do that, yeah,” Alix replied. She sat up, thankfully with no dizziness this time, and looked around.

Troy was walking into the lobby of a one-story motel. The buildings close by had a small town feel, warm, and safe. The sun was just dipping into the horizon, giving the clouds and sky a sense of etherealness, that added to the overall homelike atmosphere.

Alix frowned. “Where are we?”

Sam slouched in the passenger seat. “Lexington.”

“That doesn’t tell me anything,” Alix replied. “Where’s Lexington?”

“Virginia.”

Alix’s jaw dropped. “What?!”

“Well it’s not like we have to be at work or anything.”

“Are you kidding me?!” Alix grabbed hold of the headrest in front of her. “What the hell Sam? Everything I have—we have—is in New York—”

“I know, geez. Chill for a sec,” Sam interrupted. She cut her gaze to the motel entrance. “You weren’t awake when we were driving around last night. It was like a scene from the ‘Fast and the Furious.’ Those dudes were on us wherever we went. The highway was our last option.”

“Yeah, but
Virginia
?”

Sam looked at her, annoyed. “You don’t know what it was like. You didn’t see what was happening. It’s like they had a homing beacon or something.”

Alix took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “So how is coming to Virginia going to help with that?”

“Well, Troy made them wreck before we got outta the city. So that bought us some time at least.” Sam half-smiled. “Right?”

“Yeah, I suppose.” Alix rubbed her temples. That may have bought them some time, but what they were going to use it for she had no idea. “Did you guys eat?”

“No, not unless you count my stomach eating my spine.”

Alix chuckled, “I think we just found our first priority.”

Troy stepped out of the lobby with a set of room keys in his hand. His breath trailed behind him in streams of white, puffy steam, as he walked over to the car. The door squealed when he opened it. A blast of cold entered their tiny sanctuary, as he hurriedly got in, and pulled the door closed with another loud screech.

Alix didn’t remember her car being so noisy the last time she had done her errands. “I guess it’s time for some grease on those hinges huh?”

Troy and Sam glanced at each other awkwardly for a moment, but said nothing. Troy held up the keys. “Room 147.”

“Sounds good to me,” Sam replied a little too quickly.

Alix raised her brows at the pair, but was too stressed and hungry to comment on their sudden squirreliness. “Let’s get something to eat.”

“That sounds even better,” Troy said, as he put the car into gear.

They did the drive through at a fast food, Mexican restaurant. Family-sized order of tacos and burritos. Alix would be the first to admit that cheap take out lacked in many ways, taste and style to name a few, but after not eating for almost twenty-four hours. Those were the best damned tacos and burritos she’d ever had.

The sun had finally gone down by the time they got back to the motel. It wasn’t a high class place for certain, but it was clean on the outside at least. Troy pulled the car around back. The headlights shined on the dull, black numbers, 147.

“This is us,” Troy said, as he cut the engine. He and Sam shared another odd look before getting out of the car. Troy went directly to the door, and went inside.

Sam pulled the seat forward so Alix could get out. “So, we’re good friends right?”

Alix scooted to the passenger side of the car with a burrito in one hand, and a drink in the other. She stopped at hearing Sam’s ridiculous question. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Sam nibbled on her lower lip. “Well, I’m not sure how to say this...” She paused in indecision.

“What the hell Sam?” Alix was starting to get concerned. Then a thought came to her that sent a wave of hurt, and no small bit of jealousy through her heart. What if Sam and Troy had...

“Ah crap, just get out of the car.” Sam backed away.

Suddenly, Alix didn’t feel like getting out of the car. She didn’t feel very hungry any more either. In fact, she didn’t feel much of anything, as her emotions went numb.
Man, I just can’t catch a break,
she thought.

“Hey, you okay?” Sam asked, after Alix hadn’t moved.

Alix looked up at her friend. She was cute, even after all of the bad shit they had just been through. Alix could see how something might have happened between her and Troy. It was more than just good looks though. Sam was funny, and fun to be around too. That’s why she and Alix were such good friends. That’s part of what made this so painful. Alix shook her head. “Yeah, I don’t know.”

Sam looked down at the pavement to avoid eye contact. After a moment she took a deep breath and said, “I just want to say I’m sorry, we couldn’t avoid it. It really was a matter of life or death.”

Alix frowned. “Okay, that’s kind of lame. ‘Life or death,’ really?”

“But it was!” Sam looked up at Alix. “You don’t understand. You were—”

“Unconscious, yeah I got that part,” Alix interrupted. A bit of feeling came rushing back through the depressive haze. Unfortunately, that emotion was anger. Alix really didn’t want to be so upset. Hell she barely even knew Troy. But whatever had passed between them that night at the tattoo parlor had changed her, and she wanted the chance to find out if it could be something real. She crawled out of the car, and stepped up to Sam. “You knew how I felt about him, dammit! How could you?!”