Echo Into Darkness: Book 2 in The Echo Saga (Teen Paranormal Romance) (22 page)

Instinctively, my hand went to close my open blouse. I'd promised myself that I'd keep him at a distance to keep my heart from getting crushed; but now Jaxon was asking to get closer and somehow that felt right, too.

"I've never done this before," I said.

His eyebrows jerked. "You've never had sex?"

I shook my head tentatively.

"Wow." He pinned me with a gaze that made me squirm. "You're sure you’re ready?" He said this like he was expected to ask but didn’t really want to wait for the answer.

"I don't know. I think we should take this slow." I put my hand on his chest and kept it there as his mouth landed on mine.

His phone rang again.

"Maybe you should answer that." I was relieved for the interruption. My head was cloudy and my stomach fluttery. I definitely wasn't ready to get intimate with Jaxon. My life was a whirlwind of danger and while being close to him helped soothe my anxiety, anything beyond that was more than I could process.

Jaxon grabbed his phone and got to his feet. "Stop calling me," he said into the phone. He disappeared into his bedroom, but I could still hear his side of the conversation. "Not now, I’m busy. I already told you. I don't know yet. I'll call you when I do. I don't know. Don't bother me."

He came back without the phone. The energy coming off him was laser sharp and starved.

"What was that about? Is something wrong?" I asked.

"A friend of my brother's. He won't bother us again."

He kissed me with such force that all the passion fell away. His touch felt more like a grappling match—no tenderness and all power play—like he was trying to determine who was the fiercest at making out.

I peeled my lips away. "Take it easy," I said.

"Sorry."

I'd had about enough and was about to tell him so, but then he lifted my hair and kissed my neck at the base of my hairline. I melted. I drifted. I was whisked a hundred and sixty years in the future with the guy of my dreams. There was only one other person who had ever kissed me there.

"
Connor
," I whispered.

Jaxon's teeth clamped down on my neck.

"Ow!"

"The name is Jaxon."

He didn’t give me a chance to apologize, but strung his fingers into my hair. His fist was so tight my roots ached.

"Jaxon, you're hurting me."

"You're not his anymore," he said.

My eyes got big. Is that what this was about? Getting me into bed because I was once Connor's girlfriend?

"I'm not anybody's. I'm not property. I want to stop. Now." Everything was wrong-wrong-wrong. The place, the guy, the way this was happening. When I closed my eyes, all I could see was Connor.

Jaxon reached for the zipper on my jeans.

"Everything will be fine. You'll like it. You'll see." His hand clung to my hair like a leash.

"I don't want to do this. Let go of my hair," I barked.

He needed both hands to untangle his fingers. Loose strands clung to the sweat on his palms. "
You
said you wanted this. Where did you think this was going?" He stole a glance at the clock over the dead television.

"No, I
said
I didn't know." I stood up and buttoned my blouse. "I want to go home."

Sweat beaded on his forehead. His breath steamed against my cheek. He was struggling to come up with the right words to keep me there.

"Please don't go. I'll back off, okay? I'm the only one who understands what you've been through. No one else cares about you like I do."

I was no expert on guys, but this sounded fake. His hands found my shoulders, then ran down the backs of my arms, past my elbows to my wrists, where his fingers encircled me like handcuffs. "You do like me, don't you?"

"Right now, I just need a friend. Can't we…what are you doing?"

He pushed me backward, forcing me to shuffle in step with him until the backs of my legs bumped against the couch. I fell to a seated position. He pushed me onto the cushions and lay on top of me.

"Jaxon, get off me."

He took both my wrists in one hand and held them over my head, pinning me against the cushions. He nestled his free hand onto the waistband of my jeans and tried to unzip them again.

"Stop it!" I tried to roll away, but he was heavy.

"Hold still." His voice rasped and his eyes had gone murky. He'd turned into someone I did not recognize. He was focused on getting sex whether I agreed to it or not.

"Please don't." Tears welled in the corners of my eyes. Why was he doing this? He was supposed to be my friend.

Someone pounded on the door. Jaxon jumped up to answer it, then thought better of it.

"I'm out of here," I said, and Jaxon slapped his hand over my mouth.

Another knock shook the door. I tried to yell and call him names, but my voice was muffled under his hand. I braced my arms and tried to shove him away. His weight and strength were leveraged against me. His hands reached for my jeans.

I'd given him a chance to back off. I'd asked and pleaded. Now, he left me no option. I stuffed my palm into his ribs and shot a pulse of white-hot electricity into him.

Jaxon flew off the couch and skidded across floor. "Ow! What do you think you're doing?" The smell of burning skin wafted into the air. He gaped at the quarter-sized char mark on his chest. "That was not a smart move."

I plastered my eyes directly on his. "I don't want to do this. I don't love you. I don't even like you anymore."

"I don't care." He took a stride toward me, but I raised my hand and he stopped cold.

"Really, Jaxon? Are you that slow a learner?" I found my jacket. "I'm going home."

A fist railed against the door. "Let us in, Jaxon," drawled a guy from the other side.

Jaxon watched me for a moment. Something sickly sweet rose off him.

"Fine. You want to go home? Go right ahead." He gestured toward the exit.

As I reached for the doorknob, I felt it: dagger-sharp, grotesque energy seeping into the apartment. I backed away.

"Something the matter?" he asked. "Here, let me help." He swung the door open.

Two Mutila soldiers stood in the hallway.

Chapter 26

Roth and the boy with the burned face filled the doorway, blocking my escape.

"Jaxon?" I peeped. I stepped behind him for protection.

"I said I wasn't finished with her," he said to Roth.

What did he mean,
finished
?

The three guys set their eyes on me. Two of them soldiers. Each of them far stronger than me. All the blood siphoned out of my muscles and panic froze me from head to toe.

Jaxon wasn't taking any chances. He twisted both my arms behind my back.

Roth's meaty face went dark. "We've been looking for this girl and you're wasting time trying to get her into bed?"

"I wasn't keeping her here because of
that
," Jaxon replied. His ears reddened. "It just happened."

"Uh-huh," Roth frowned.

"I wasn't about to bring her in until I knew about her skills. You know what happens if I hand over a recruit with sketchy ability." Jaxon stumbled over his words. "Tell him, Ivan."

The boy with the burn mark shook his head. He rolled his one good eye. The other one was milky. "Whatever. You've been stalling while we've been pounding the city looking for her.
He
wants to see her now. If she's everything you promised, she's your key into the Mutila. That's what you want, isn't it?"

My throat parched. "
Jaxon
?"

Jaxon gave an indifferent shrug. "This is where I belong. My foster father was with the Mutila, and I would have been too, if I hadn't been forced to leave the family. Philip took my life away when he made me live in West Region."

So this was why Jaxon had been looking for them, why he had agreed to get close to Keenan and Luma. And me. He'd faked liking me. Pretended to care about my well-being.

The heat of anger came roaring back and I mule-kicked Jaxon. My heel landed on his shin. His grip loosened enough for me to roll away. I charged into Ivan and knocked him into the hallway.

An enormous hand clamped down on my shoulder. Two fingers found the soft spot behind my jaw, below my ear. Needles of pain shot into my head. The hallway spun and my knees gave out.

"Grab her!" Ivan yelled. I collapsed into a pair of arms.

"She's fine. You're fine, aren't you? Back on your feet. That a girl," Roth drawled. I teetered. He looped an arm around my waist. "Don't make this difficult for yourself. Things could get nasty for you very fast."

The three of them formed a tight pod around me and we marched down the stairs. The entire way, Roth's fingers pressed behind my jaw.

On the ground floor, Ivan pushed through the exterior door. We barged into the night like a small army. Right outside, Jaxon's neighbor was coming up the stoop with her Rottweiler.

The rush of people spooked the Rottweiler and all hell broke loose. It snarled and lunged at Roth. We all jumped backward. Roth's hand fell away from my neck. I jammed my elbow into Jaxon's gut and ducked out of Ivan's reach. The Rottweiler charged, claws tearing at the cement, its muzzle spraying saliva on my bare arm. Another stride put me out of its reach. The dog lunged at whomever tried to follow.

"Call off your dog!" Roth shouted.

I ran like I'd never run in my life. I sprinted until my lungs froze from the cold, and then I ran some more. Jaxon's apartment was in the northwest district, ten minutes from my house. I put as many blocks between us as I could and stepped into a coffee shop. I called Kimber and, thank God, she answered her phone.

An hour later, I was sitting at our kitchen table with my head in my hands. There was only so much I could tell her, so I'd kept it simple: Jaxon had tried to force me to have sex with him. He didn't take
no
for an answer and I pushed him off and ran to the coffee shop.

Tito sat in my lap, licking away my tears. Kimber pressed against me like a mother bear, her arm firmly around my shoulders and her aura spitting nails. I think if she'd had any weapons in the house, she would have gone after Jaxon herself.

I shoved the tips of my fingers into my temples. How could I have trusted him? Every conversation we had came shrieking back. He had walked the razor-thin line between truth and lies. We had been on the same track, working side by side to find leads, but our reasons could not have been more different. When I grilled him about the faction waves coming off him, he actually commended me for being able to sense it. Made me think I was helping our search. I'd never dug deep enough to catch him in a lie.

"This is all my fault," I said.

Kimber thought I meant the assault. Heat burned her cheeks. "Don't you ever say that, do you hear me? When you told that boy to stop, he should have stopped."

I nodded. That much was true.

"Kimber?" I wiped moisture from my eyes. Her face was blurry. Everything was, right then.

"Yes?"

"Can I get out of Portland for a while? Like, go to Seattle and stay with friends? I don't want to run into him at school." I wished I could tell her the other reasons why I needed to leave town.

"For how long?"

"A couple of weeks? If you talk to the principal, maybe they can email my homework." That would give me time to figure out what to do next. I had to find a way to get out of the Mutila's reach. That might mean leaving the city for good, or moving even further away. I winced, knowing this meant leaving behind those I cared about the most.

She hugged me. "I'll see what the school policy is. You can stay home, though. You don't need to go all the way to Seattle. I'm going to insist that boy gets kicked out of school so you don't have to see him again."

I nodded. "Thanks," I said and set about planning my escape. I had to get out of Portland, whether she gave me permission or not.

*******

I spent Saturday night sleeping next to Kimber in her king-sized bed. The security system was armed. I held Tito close, knowing his doggie radar would wake us if anyone got past the alarm.

What little sleep I got was haunted by nightmares involving Connor. He hadn't come to me in my dreams in weeks, but when he had, the dreams had been peaceful and loving. That night, though, he was fighting off attackers. Like so many of my dreams, some parts felt surreal and others frighteningly realistic. The shadowy forces that he battled were featureless, faceless demons. When one of them struck Connor in the back, I felt the blow. I twitched and jerked myself awake. Unable to fall back to sleep, I listened to Tito's steady snore until the sun came up.

The next day, Kimber hovered, bringing snacks and lunch and pecks on the cheek. The attention was calming, but I knew it couldn't last forever. No amount of her mothering would chase away the suffocating threat waiting for me outside our front doors.

Kimber's social schedule was packed most days, even on Sunday, so when mid-afternoon came, I handed her the car keys.