Descended by Blood (4 page)

“No,” I laughed, “we said we’d do it, and we’re already here. I’m more nervous about being able to keep up than I am about the cold.”

“Well, you and I can always go slow together,” she said, wrapping her arm around mine as we passed through the gate onto the track.

David pulled Kaitlynn into a hug. “You made it.”

“Good morning,” Jaren said, stretching his quads. He wore a white Redrock County High sweater and track pants, but he still looked way good.

“Good morning to you, too,” I said, mimicking his stretch. I looked around, and it seemed that there were a lot more people for me to make a fool of myself in front of than I saw from the car. “Do you come running often?” I asked, nerves getting the better of me.

“Yeah, four times a week, most weeks during the off season.”

“Hmmm,” I said, wishing I would have taken Kaitlynn up on her offer to sit with a blanket on the bleachers.

I followed Jaren through a few more stretches.

“You ready?” he asked.

“Sure,” I said, putting on my game face. Kaitlynn and David strolled up beside us. Some of the lacrosse players were already circling the track.

“Let’s go,” David said, and we all took off.

We started out at a pace that I didn’t feel would be too hard to keep up for a while, but then Jaren and David sped up after the second lap.

I kept up with them and was surprised when my legs obeyed me to move faster.

After a mile, Kaitlynn trailed behind, and I looked back at her. “No. Go ahead,” she said, waving me on.

I picked up my speed and easily caught up with Jaren and David. We circled the lap a few more times and their breathing became labored. That was when I noticed that mine wasn’t. I felt fine. In fact, I could keep going for a long time still.

“Wanna race?” I asked David because I knew he couldn’t resist.

He smiled in the affirmative, and all three of us took off.

I straightened my fingers and pushed off with the balls of my feet. We reached the straightaway, and I pushed myself harder, passing David in seconds. Then I passed Jaren. I pushed myself as hard as I could, going faster than I ever thought my untrained body would go. I slowed down to take the turn and let the guys catch up with me.

I turned around and laughed at them. “You just got your butts handed to you by a girl.” I had been worried about looking bad in front of them, and here I was showing them up.

“Wow,” David said. “You’re fast.”

Jaren grinned at me. I’d say he looked proud. “Yeah, you should try out for track. We’d never lose with you on the team.”

I beamed. “My mom had never let me try out for any sports or clubs before, but maybe we’ve been here long enough that she might.”

“It doesn’t hurt to ask,” Jaren said, encouraging me.

“You’re right. I should at least ask her.” I was thrilled that not only was I good enough at something to be on a team but that I might actually be able to convince my mom to let me try out.

We caught up with Kaitlynn to do a few cool-down laps. When we finished our stretches, we walked to the building to get changed and ready for class.

David opened the door for us, and we walked in.

Tiffany stood with a group of her friends in the foyer. She wore her brown leather jacket and slacks that slimmed her thighs. She looked great, and I was glad to find that Jaren didn’t pay any attention to her.

She normally didn’t pay much attention to him, either, but when she caught Jaren in her sight, she turned around and glared at him. She’d noticed Jaren and me holding hands. Suddenly, her lip rose and her eyes twinkled with interest in what she saw. It reminded me of the way a hyena would look upon an injured gazelle.

I picked up my pace, pulling Jaren with me as I scurried past her.

* * *

I walked toward sixth block, excited to see Jaren. We both had study hall this block, but we sat on the couch in the corner of the room and flirted instead of doing any studying.

I met him outside of the study hall doors. “Hey,” I said.

“Hey. Are we hanging out today?” he asked, looking over at our sofa. We’d claimed the couch early on in the semester. “Or did you want me to leave you alone?”

I smiled, figuring he only asked because he was prompting me to say that I wanted to hang out with him. I gave in. “No. We’re definitely hanging.”

He laughed, offering me his cute dimple in the process.

We walked over to our couch and plopped down.

Jaren grabbed my hand and traced the lines on the inside of my palm. “So, my birthday’s next Thursday. And I’m planning to take you somewhere special.”

“What? It’s your birthday. I should be taking you out for the big one-eight.”

“True, but it’s going to be better this way. Trust me.”

“Jaren, come up here, please?” Coach Riley called Jaren to his desk. “I need you to run something to the office for me. Seeing as you’re not working, anyway.” Coach Riley looked at me on the couch.

“Hey, I’m not the culprit.” I feigned innocence.

Jaren looked over at me as well. “Can she come, too?”

“I don’t see why not,” Coach Riley said, shaking his head and then writing us a hall pass.

Jaren took the pass and the papers intended for the office, and we left.

“Thanks for getting me out of class,” I said.

“Well, you are my study hall sidekick.”

I grinned, and he held my hand as we walked.

We didn’t say much else as we made our way to the office. I was just glad to be with him.

Jaren opened the door to the office when we approached it. “Hello,” Jaren said to the office secretary when we reached the desk. “These papers are for Principal Williams.”

“I’ll make sure he gets them. May I see your hall pass, please?”

Jaren handed it to her, and she nodded, giving it back.

He held the door open for me as we walked out.

“What is she, the hall pass police? You did give her the papers from Coach Riley.”

“Yeah, she can be sort of strict about that.”

“What would she do if you didn’t have one?” I asked.

“I dunno. Probably call in a Code Red or something.”

I laughed. “What’s that?”

“I dunno. It just sounded like a serious last step.” He chuckled.

“Hey, can we stop by the photography studio for a sec?” Jaren asked, turning down the hall. “I need to get something real fast. I was gonna get it after class, but since we’re here…”

I didn’t mind, so we walked farther away from the office and also farther away from study hall.

Shortly before we reached the studio doors, Mr. Kingston appeared in the reflection of the windows, coming toward us.

“Crap. Mr. Kingston’s going to kill us,” I said. I had him for Spanish and he was super strict and mean.

Jaren pulled me by my hand as he rushed to the studio doors. Once there, he creaked the door open and we hurried inside. He held the door as it shut, making it close as quietly as possible.

“Quick. This way.” Jaren led me to another room.

He opened the door, and red light from the darkroom leaked out. I ran in, and he shut the door behind us.

I laughed.

“Shh,” Jaren said. “Mr. Kingston really might kill us if he finds us.”

I laughed harder, but this time I hid my face in my arm. It took me a few seconds, but once my eyes adjusted to the dark and the red light, I noticed pictures hanging from a string.

I released Jaren’s hand and walked over to them to get a closer look. The few that hung before me looked familiar. Probably because I was in all of them.

“Um, yeah,” Jaren said, “those are mine.”

I remembered that day. It was before Jaren and I had our first date. Kaitlynn and I were laughing in front of the school. The way Jaren captured me in the picture gave me a beauty that I had never before seen within myself.

“Wow. You’re really good,” I said. “How long have you been doing this?”

“I only started with this class.”

I knew photography was one of his electives, but I never knew he could do this with it. “Well, you’re really talented.” I turned back to him and smiled. He had his eye on me for a while, too, then.

He stepped forward and stood beside me, looking at the photos. “I think it’s more the person in the image than it is anything I did with it.” He turned to me. I looked at him, but he grabbed me by my waist and turned my body to face him.

My pulse raced and breathing became hard to do. I looked into his eyes and knew that this would be our moment.

I wrapped my arms around Jaren’s neck, and he pulled me closer to him and touched his lips to mine. My heart skipped at the contact and then increased twofold.

His lips meshed delicately smooth but firm and sure against mine. He lifted his hand up to cup my face and slowly started to open his mouth. I opened mine, following his pace. His tongue slid into my mouth and brushed my tongue with the tip of his.

Jaren tasted sweet, like faded strawberry Red Vines and bliss. His warm breath tickled my cheek. His hand caressed my jaw, then glided through my hair before cradling the back of my head.

I shivered. I had been kissed before, but never like this.

Jaren’s movements were sensual, yet playful, commanding, yet yielding. His arms were strong and reassuring around me. His fresh linen scent felt like home, which drove my intensity up another notch.

His bottom lip was full, and it did wonderful things to me when he gently bit mine, then released it, letting it glide against his bottom lip.

We fell into a practiced and comfortable pace for what felt like ten minutes, but seemed to float away timeless. Jaren pulled back and propped his forehead against mine. He breathed heavily, releasing intoxicating whiffs of sweetness around me.

I lifted my face to look into his eyes. Endearing, violet eyes stared back at me with the blue of his irises and the red from the overhead light.

“I have been waiting for a while to do that,” Jaren said, smiling.

I bet I’ve waited even longer
.

He released me and reached for one of the pictures. “Here, you can have this one.” He handed it to me.

I grinned as I looked down at the picture, taking in all of its details. That was when I noticed a lone figure not too far from where I had been standing. And he was wearing a trench coat.

I leaned over the long sink and looked closer at all the other photos.

“What is it?” Jaren asked.

The man was in all of them. “See this guy here?” I pointed to the man in the picture I held.

“Yeah,” Jaren said, leaning down to look at the picture.

“He’s following me.”

“How do you know? These were all taken the same day.”

“I know. I’ve seen him before. When he sent a mountain lion to attack me.”

“What?” Jaren asked.

I told him the details of my last encounter with the man.

“You need to tell somebody about this,” Jaren said.

I thought the same thing. But who would I tell? Once my mom heard about this she would make us move. Whenever things got too hot, she always made us move. Even if it was something as small as the same car circling our street more than what would be considered
normal
. She was a freak like that. Paranoid. I’d lose everything. Kaitlynn. Jaren. My school. My life.

I had to diminish the fear Jaren felt for me. I couldn’t have him telling anyone about this. Maybe I was being careless, but I finally had a life, and I would take my chances with this stranger to keep it.

“He hasn’t really done anything, though. I mean, no one but you will believe me that he sicced a wild cat on me. And he’s only in the background here,” I said, pointing to the picture. “He could have been just walking by.”

Jaren stared at me, concern etched in his creased forehead.

“I mean it. I overreacted. I get that from my mom,” I said and leaned in to kiss him again. I wanted to remember this moment as our first kiss and not when I realized this man was following me. I’d have to deal with the man later.

* * *

My alarm clock glowed 2:32 a.m. in green, blocky letters. Jaren and I had been talking on the phone for the past four hours. I talked in a hushed tone to keep my voice hidden from my mom, who was in the room across the hall.

“What about past boyfriends?” Jaren asked. “Is there anyone that I have to worry about swooping in and stealing you away from me?”

I laughed quietly. “No. I never really had a chance to get to know anybody. There was a guy in Dallas who I liked, but as soon as he showed any interest in me, my mom made me move here.”

“That’s gotta be rough on you. Moving all the time.”

“It’s never been easy. But for some reason, this last time was the hardest,” I said. “Maybe because I’m old enough that I need to start making lasting friendships, or maybe I’m sick of never having a place to call home. I don’t have a specific place to say, ‘this is where I grew up.’”

“I can’t even imagine. David and I have been best friends since second grade. He was there for me when my mom cheated on my dad and they got divorced. My dad changed after that. He used to be so involved. He really cared about me. But after they split, he shunned me, like I was the one who had the affair and not my mom. I’m still not sure if it’s because I look so much like her or because I’m her son, but he’s never treated me the same since. And then my mom ended up going off somewhere with her new boy toy and couldn’t care less what was left of her family, or the son she helped create.”

“Oh, man. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, it sucks, but I can’t change him,” he said. The other end of the line got quiet for a second. “So, what’s your sad story?”

“My dad found out about my mom’s pregnancy and took off. She says it was for the best because I shouldn’t be a part of what his life was like, anyway, but I would still like to know who he was and why he didn’t want me. You know what it’s like not to have a father around. Well, yours is there, but not really. But there are times when I think I probably would have avoided a lot of the moves or had a different perspective on things if I would’ve had a father around. My mom has tried, but she can only do so much.”

“Your mom has done an excellent job with you, though. You turned out great, but I know what you mean about wishing for something else. You know that quote, ‘It is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all’?” Jaren asked.