Bound, An Arelia LaRue Novel #1 YA Paranormal Romance (8 page)

“
That’s Ben,” the guest I
was helping. “He got lost,” I reminded her.

“
You went off and found
him.” She continued to ignore me and looked at Lucus like he had
just single-handily saved the Earth from an alien
invasion.

“
Actually, Arelia is the one
who got the poor boy out of trouble,” Lucus corrected.

“
Well, put him down, so we
can dance.” Sabrina grazed Lucus’s arm, as she twirled her hair
with her other hand. “Arelia what happened to your gown and your
hair?” She finally noticed that I was wearing only a tuxedo jacket
and my hair was matted and covered in mud.

“
Long story,” I
sighed.

“
Well you have to tell me
all about it after the dance.” She turned her focus back on
Lucus.

“
Arelia, what in God’s name
happened to you?” Ms. Mae rushed towards us.

“
Ben, he got lost, and I
helped bring him back.” I really didn’t feel like getting into the
details at the moment.

“
Where are the boy’s
parents?” Ms. Mae asked clearly horrified.

“
Probably still slamming
down Hurricanes in the ballroom,” I predicted while wrapping
Lucus’s jacket around me even tighter. Despite the fact that it was
warm inside, the swamp air had seeped into my bones and had given
me what seemed like a permanent chill.

“
I don’t mind taking him up
to his room.” Lucus eyed Ben’s neck making sure that the mark had
really disappeared.

“
Thank you dear,” Ms. Mae
looked utterly relieved at Lucus’s offer. “Arelia you go right on
up there too and get all of that mud out of your hair. Take the
rest of the night off just keep an eye on Ben,” she
instructed.

“
Can I have the rest of the
night off too?” Blurted Sabrina in a hurry to follow Lucus
upstairs. Her foot was already on one step, tapping
impatiently.

“
Sorry dear, you need to be
down here with the guests.” Ms. Mae dashed any hopes Sabrina had of
sneaking upstairs.

“
Lucus, will you be back?”
Pouted Sabrina.

“
I’ll be down shortly,”
promised Lucus.

“
Don’t take too long.”
Sabrina was already starting to boss him around.

As we got to the top of the stairs, I
followed Lucus to the Dumpty’s room. When we got there, Lucus
placed Ben, who was still sound asleep, on his bed and took off his
shoes. “I wonder if he’ll remember anything in the morning,” I
said.

“
Of course he will, what kid
would forget an adventure like that?” Lucus replied as he turned to
face me. As he made eye contact, I felt myself starting to
unwillingly blush. It wasn’t so much that his eyes were spectacular
in terms of color. It was their defined almond shape and what was
behind their gaze that made me nervous. It was as if they could see
all of my secrets and had a few of their own. They were old and
young while being wise and mischievous.

“
I’ll make sure that your
jacket gets cleaned and back to you as soon as possible.” I started
to back out of the room, as he came closer. Maybe the reason I was
nervous was due to the fact that I still didn’t know if he was a
serial murderer or not.

“
Please, don’t worry about
it. I’m tremendously grateful that you helped out a Darkwood guest.
Losing a jacket is a small price to pay.” He took the jacket from
my hand.

“
Sure, it’s a small price
when you probably have a million of them,” I said under my
breath.

“
What’s that?”

“
Nothing,” I rushed to cover
up what I had just said, but I knew he had heard even though he
pretended he hadn’t. “I’m going to get this mud out of my hair.” I
attempted to run my fingers through my hair. If this were a shampoo
commercial, it would have been a perfect before shot.

“
I should head back
downstairs, I guess,” Lucus fiddled with the buttons on his
jacket.

“
Yeah, Sabrina doesn’t like
to be kept waiting,” I warned him.

“
Who says I’m going
downstairs because of her?” He questioned in an all so innocent
tone.

“
Well aren’t you?” I
harmlessly asked.

“
Would that make you
envious?” He teased, apparently in no hurry to leave.

“
Yeah, whatever, thanks for
your help. Have a goodnight.” I ended the conversation abruptly and
walked into my room, shutting the door behind me. What a long
night, all I wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep. I had so
many questions, and I was determined to get answers first thing in
the morning from Ms. Mae. Not everyone could say they spoke to the
spirit of love, helped the spirit of the hills with his self-esteem
issues, healed a chubby ten year old with a snake bite and was
stalked by Lucus LaPlante all in the span of eight
hours.

Chapter 6

The Night Never Ends

“
Hey, hey, Arelia, are you
sleeping?”

“
What?” I rubbed my eyes and
then snapped them open remembering where I was. A figure hovered
over me, and it took a few seconds for my brain to register that it
was Sabrina still in her ball-gown. I realized that I had fallen
asleep in my towel after taking a quick bath. Immediately, my
attention was drawn to my hand. To my shock, there was nothing
there. No mark. No scar. No pain.

“
Sabrina, what time is
it?”

“
It’s two.”

“
Is the ball
over?”

“
Some of the guests are
still down there. I need to tell you something!” She sounded really
excited and more than a little drunk.

“
What is it?” I sat
up.

“
I’m in love, love, love!”
She gushed as she swirled around the room. Ever since, we had
gotten here, Sabrina had turned into Mary Poppins, and Scarlett
O’Hara’s sweet tea/Hurricane addicted love-child.

“
With Mr. Dumpty? He’s
married you know.”

“
Don’t be gross,” she
drunkenly laughed as she gave me a slight nudge on the shoulder.
I’m sure from her drunken perspective it was a mere tap, but it
hurt. “With Lucus. Lucus LaPlante. Lucus LaPlante. He looks exactly
like Thomas McDonell, doesn’t he? Or Johnny Depp when he was much
younger and a thousand times hotter. Sabrina LaPlante. Doesn’t
Sabrina LaPlante have such a nice ring to it? Mommy is going to be
so proud of me when I tell her. He is so hot and such a good
dancer. Our children will be so gorgeous. Of course, you’re going
to be their godmother.” For the next ten minutes, Sabrina proceeded
to map out her future.

“
He does look like Thomas
McDonell and Johnny Depp is still hot. I’m really happy for you,
but don’t you think you should actually get to know the guy?” I
asked.

“
Don’t be so silly Arelia,
it’s true love. In fact, I’m headed over to his room right now to
seal the deal. After tonight, he will be officially mine.” She
opened one of her Louis Vuitton suitcases and out popped a slew of
lingerie. “Hmm, La Perla, Bordelle, no I think Kiki De Montparnasse
will be just perfect.” She selected a black lace corset bra with a
matching thong. She ripped off her gown and got into the underwear
and slapped on a silk kimono.

I leapt out of bed and firmly grabbed
her wrist before she could open the door. “What the hell Sabrina,
it’s a bad idea, you don’t know him, and it’s late. What if
something happens?” I hissed.

“
You’re so lame sometimes.
Of course, something will happen,” she laughed
hysterically.

“
I don’t mean that, I mean
what if he’s not perfect as you think?”

“
He is. Don’t be jealous.
Let go of me.” She shook her wrist free. “Don’t worry,” she winked.
“Don’t wait up. Help yourself to a LaPerla night gown.”

“
Fine!” I was furious that
she slammed the door in my face. I picked out a comfortable, black,
silk nightgown and crawled into bed. Why should I worry if Sabrina
didn’t? How dare she accuse me of being jealous? The world didn’t
revolve around her like she thought it did and not everyone wanted
to be Sabrina Richards. Still, as I tried to fall asleep again, I
couldn’t. I could hear piano music along with the chatter of guests
and felt a warm breeze waft into the room. After half an hour or
tossing and turning, I decided to go check up on Ben since I heard
the Dumpty’s obnoxious laughter; I knew they were still
downstairs.

When I got to Ben’s room, he was
snoring softly. I touched his neck to see if the snake bite had
left any marks, it hadn’t.

“
You did such a wonderful
job,” whispered a familiar voice.

“
Erzulie? You can’t keep
showing up anytime you want. Some kind of warning would be nice. A
little wind, lights flickering, isn’t that what spirits are
supposed to do anyways?” You see, the whole spirit talking to you
bit gets a little complicated sometimes. Some of them like to take
human form while others just love to get inside your head.
Apparently, Erzulie liked to switch it up a bit.

“
You showed no fear.”
Eruzulie obviously wasn’t interested in my suggestions.

“
I don’t know how I did it,
and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do it again,” I
moaned.

“
Of course, you will Arelia.
You just have to learn.”

“
And why would I want to
learn?” She was confident, wasn’t she?

“
Think of all the good you
can do, the people you could help.”

“
I thought about it, and I
think it’s more trouble than its worth.”

She laughed elegantly. “You’re so young
and scared of who you are. Trust me, you are meant to do great
things.”

“
You really believe that?” I
was curious.

“
I don’t get things wrong,”
she assured me. “Promise you will at least attempt to develop your
powers.”

“
How am I supposed to do
that?”

“
You’ve got one of the best
teachers in New Orleans right under this roof.”

“
Ms. Mae?” I wasn’t
surprised.

“
Yes, your aunt Mae. Trust
her.”

“
But.” I realized that she
had left, and I was alone again. “Sure,” I said to
myself.

“
Who are you talking to?” A
voice inquired.

“
No one,” I quickly replied.
I realized it was Ivan. “What are you doing here? Don’t you have
guests to serve?”

“
You’re not the only one who
can slack off,” he stated as he crossed his arms and slumped
against the doorway. The moonlight pouring through the lace
curtains bounced off his hair making it seem more sun-kissed than
it really was. His grey eyes looked almost unearthly as they peered
at me. For whatever reason, I couldn’t help but notice that Sabrina
was right about his chin, the cleft did make him more
appealing.

“
I’m not slacking off,” I
argued.

“
That’s what it looks like
you’re doing. Why are you in this fat kid’s room anyways? You have
some sort of crush on him or something?” Ivan strolled into the
room and made himself at home on the window ledge.

“
Gross, no. He’s ten. I was
just making sure that he’s okay, not that it’s any of your
business.” Why did I have to explain myself to him
anyways?

“
Yeah, that’s right you have
the hots for Lucus, don’t you?” He asked rather bluntly. You’re one
of those girls who likes that whole tall, dark, and tortured thing,
aren’t you?”

“
Look, I don’t know who you
are or why you insist on constantly being a jerk, but leave me
alone.”

“
Is that what you really
want?” He lit up a cigarette while taking off his tie. “Why can’t
we just be friends?” He pulled out a small bottle of vodka from his
pants. He had clearly stolen it from the kitchen. “Here, loosen up,
take a shot.” He held out the bottle and waved it in the
air.

“
No thanks.” I flung my
hands in front of my face, refusing his ever-so-kind
offer.

“
Oh, come on voodoo queen,
you think that one little drink will take your powers away?” Ivan
continued to insist. His eyes beamed as he waited to see my
reaction to being called a voodoo queen.

“
What did you call me?” How
the hell did he know?

“
I heard you talking mumbo
to some spirit before I walked in, so I figured that you must be a
voodoo queen.” He took another drag from his cigarette and another
shot of vodka.

“
I don’t know what you
heard, but whatever it was I’m not a voodoo queen.”

“
Sweet denial feels good,
doesn’t it?”

“
I don’t know why I’m even
wasting my time standing here talking to you.” All of a sudden I
realized that I was throwing away precious sleep time arguing with
some random guy who insisted on continually making me feel like
crap. I left Ivan and walked down the hall. As I approached my
room, I heard a loud thump come from down the hall, and then the
sound of someone dragging something, afterwards silence. It sounded
as if it had come from Lucus’s room. I sprinted down the hall and
pounded on his door. What the hell were they doing in there? I half
expected no one to open the door, and was a little surprised when
Lucus actually did answer. However, I wasn’t surprised at the fact
that he was shirtless again and clad only in black pajama
bottoms.