Falling (16 page)

I was furious with myself that out of everything that had happened, that was what was bothering me the most. “You know, the other girls you somehow tricked into chains. Or just one other, I don’t really know, I only saw the blonde one.”

A very faint blush crept up from under his collar. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about, but I didn’t trick you. We made an agreement.”

“Oh come on!” I snapped. “I saw her, at the market, before you snatched her away. She had bracelets and chains—just like these!” I shoved them under his nose.

A laugh that could crumble mountains boomed around the kennel and to my intense anger and embarrassment Jordan’s uncle came back around the corner from where he had been eavesdropping.

“You think you’re the only human pet?” he asked, his chest still heaving with laughter.

“Uncle, stay out of this,” Jordan said coldly.

“Oh no, let him have his say,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. It didn’t make me feel any less intimidated.

“You’re a pet, an amusement, as much to him as this pretty dog is,” David said, leaning further in with each word.

I could feel my face getting redder but my eyes weren’t watering up. Yet.

“That isn’t true, she’s not a pet and there aren’t any others,” Jordan said.

His uncle shrugged.”You hid her from me so well, maybe there are, maybe there aren’t.”

“Bixby, look at me,” Jordan pleaded.”There isn’t anyone else; I don’t know who it was you saw.”

I turned to look at him, taking in his pleading eyes and pale face. Despite my anger, I believed him and so my temper turned towards his uncle.

“Maybe she was yours,” I accused. “You seem to hate us humans so much; maybe you keep one around for torture.”

His face twisted in a sneer. “You humans are fragile, powerless, temporary. I have no use for one.”

“She had to come from somewhere,” I suggested, shrugging my shoulders. “And my world is in your backyard, as Jordan puts it. Who else would she belong to? Maybe you have a secret soft spot for us humans.”

“Our world is bigger than you know,” he said. “You think you know so much about us because you read some book? You think you know anything about me?” His sneer melted into a cold grin. “Well, I know something you don’t know. But you should ask Jordan, maybe he’ll tell you.”

“Uncle,” Jordan breathed.

“What?” I asked, suddenly unsure of myself. “Ask him what?”

“Uncle, don’t,” Jordan seethed.

I looked from David to Jordan, each red faced and glaring and knew I wasn’t going to like what was said.

David turned back to me, his cold little grin in place again. “Ask him where your brother was.”

My nervous fidgeting stilled. “I know where he was. He was wandering around lost.”

“Not in this world. But don’t worry, Jordan was keeping him safe.”

“Ye-es,” I said uncertainly. “He found him, he brought him back to me, safe. That was the agreement.”

David barked out a laugh. “Well, how convenient! The girl Jordan’s been pining after suddenly needs a superhuman favor? Who better to grant it than one who can meld worlds and twist reality? And the only thing he wanted in return was to make you a prisoner.”

My whole body felt numb but I was able to turn toward Jordan. “What is he saying?” I whispered.

“Nothing!” he said vehemently, getting to his feet. “It’s nothing; we’ve already talked about it—”

“Did you have something to do with my brother being missing?” I asked, my lips numb and cold.

“Get out!” Jordan suddenly raged at his uncle.

David put a hand on Jordan’s shoulder, which he roughly pushed aside. “It’s for the best this way.”

“It isn’t! I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you but stop trying to ruin what I have!” he yelled.

“It won’t end well,” his uncle said quietly. “It never does with them.”

“Get out,” Jordan replied just as quietly.

David gave me a strangely apologetic look then left the room. We were both silent and still for a long moment, listening to his footsteps echo up the long hallway.

Finally, not turning towards Jordan, I asked, “What the hell is going on?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him run both hands through his hair and over his face. “I’m not sure.”

“Wrong, try again,” I said, fighting back tears. “What the hell was all that supposed to mean, about how convenient it was I needed a superhuman favor? What are you not telling me?”

Jordan tried to reach for my hand and I jerked away from him.

He sighed and folded his arms over his chest. “I—I took advantage of the situation, to get closer to you.” He hung his head. “It was wrong, I should have just helped you.”

“You could have just brought Lincoln home?” I asked

“I could have,” he said guiltily.

“Why didn’t you?”

“I didn’t know what you would think—after. How you would feel. Of course I knew you would be happy to have your brother safe, but what would you think of me?”

My anger surged again. “So you knew where he was? For how long? How long before you had me agree to all this?” I asked, pacing back from him.

“I contacted you as soon as I realized it was him,” he promised. “He was safe, every moment.”

I made a circle around the tiny kennel. “Why weren’t you just honest with me?”

“If I just gave him back—which I should have, I know that now—I wouldn’t have been able to meet you.” His dark eyes were downcast and his shoulders were slumped.

“You could have just introduced yourself; you could have told me you helped my brother. I would have been grateful,” I said uncertainly.

“You wouldn’t have believed me,” he argued quietly. “You wouldn’t have known I was real. Please believe me, I would have never let any harm come to your brother. I just wanted you to know I was real and that I cared about you.” He finally looked up, his eyes shining. “I’m sorry.”

I nodded slowly but put my hand up when he stepped closer to me.

“And the other girl?” The question was out of my mouth before I could think and the embarrassment was immediate.

Jordan gave me a hopeful smile. “I don’t know, I swear. I’m not interested in anyone else; I haven’t been for a very long time. You believe that, don’t you?”

I nodded again, not sure of what to say to that. My mind didn’t want to believe what my ears were hearing.

He frowned unhappily. “My cousin has humans. I’m sure she must have been his, I’ll have to ask my uncle when he’s in a better mood.”

A whimper from the dog drew both of our attention. He knelt back down in the straw to soothe her and I slid down against the wall where I stood.

“Your uncle really is a jerk,” I said after a while.

Jordan sighed. “He’s not. You’re right, he doesn’t like humans, human women in particular, but I think he’s more sad about something than angry.”

“He seemed pretty angry to me,” I muttered.

“I don’t know the whole story,” he continued, as if he hadn’t heard me. “And I know he wouldn’t like it if I asked.”

“So because he’s so sad about something that happened to him and his girlfriend he’s trying to break us up? Mature. And how old is he, a few thousand years?”

Jordan grinned. “Are you my ‘girlfriend’?” he asked.

I blushed. “I didn’t mean it like that that, although it does sound better than math tutor. Or slave.”

“Never that,” Jordan said. “Or a tutor. No offense, but you’ve been a terrible tutor.”

“Hey,” I laughed, “you try explaining combustion engines!”

“I can’t, that’s why I asked you.”

He smiled at me and I couldn’t help but smile back. “Are we okay?” he asked.

I nodded. I wanted everything to be okay, almost needed it to be. Questions still wormed around in the back of my head, but when hadn’t they in the time I had known him?

Suddenly he lunged forward and wrapped his hands in my hair, pulling me in for another kiss. It was sweet and warm and I awkwardly tried to put my feelings into it. I could feel his lips curve up into a smile. “Yesterday really was your first kiss?” he asked, his lips still pressed against mine.

I shoved my hands up between our faces, covering mine. “You can tell that?”

He laughed, pulling my hands down. “Don’t be embarrassed. I’m sorry; I shouldn’t have been so forward.”

I couldn’t look at him, just nodded. The dog whimpered again and I almost thanked her out loud for the distraction.

My cheeks were red and I couldn’t hide my tiny smile. I fidgeted with my hair to try to cover it but I could tell from Jordan’s grin I wasn’t doing a very good job, but he kindly paid all of his attention to the dog, giving me a moment to myself. The fire in my cheeks finally burned itself out.

“Better?” he asked.

I nodded sheepishly, looking at the floor.

“And we’re okay?”

“Yeah,” I said, a little sad again.”I have to be okay with someone.”

Jordan looked up from scratching behind the dogs ears. “What do you mean?”

I folded my legs under me and leaned back against the wall. “Lincoln and I got in a huge fight. And we never fight. About anything.”

“What happened?” Jordan asked.

I groaned and rubbed my hands over my face. “Nothing horrible, really. I mean, it wasn’t supposed to be, he was trying to be nice.”

“Okay,” Jordan said slowly.

Suddenly I didn’t want to explain the situation, realizing how hypocritical I was going to sound. I was mad I thought he had another girlfriend when I went on an actual date with another guy?

“It’s not a big deal,” I prefaced.

He cocked his head to the side but didn’t say anything.

I sighed and then started. “The last couple weeks have been pretty rough and Grandma hasn’t been feeling well and Linc has been so ... needy, I guess—which I don’t mind! Anyway, I lost my temper at school and got in trouble and so then of course I got in trouble with my dad. And honestly, a lot of it has been Linc’s crappy friends. Anyway, so ironically, to be nice, he decided to include me in all their big plans for a dance at our school and it was pretty much a disaster.”

Jordan’s eyebrows drew down together. He was not dissuaded with my rambling explanation. “How so?”

I tried to still my fidgeting hands. “Well, he set me up with a date who was a total asshole, made me spend most of the evening with him and
his
date, who everyday goes out of her way to let me know how much she doesn’t like me and then proceeded to tell me the reason his friends don’t like me is because I’m a stuck-up bitch. When this whole time, literally the last four years, I’ve just been trying to fill my mom’s shoes and take care of everyone and so didn’t have time to work on being one of the popular kids. It ended with me running away in tears, which I’m sure all of his jerk friends are laughing about right now.”

Jordan’s hands had stilled on his dogs fur and his face was pale. “You went to a dance ... on a date ... with another man?”

“Hah! I would hardly call him a man. And it was totally against my will.”

His eyes were very cold when he looked up at me. “Like this is against your will?”

His iciness pierced my chest. “No, not like that, I just meant Lincoln wouldn’t take no for an answer. And I had seen that girl that morning, so I figured ...”

“So you figured it was all right to be with someone else?”

“What? No! It wasn’t like that; I just ate dinner, with my brother and his date, and danced one dance before running out of there.”

His face didn’t relax at all. “I would have thought it was clear going on dates and dancing with other men was not acceptable.”

I started to bristle. “Usually two people agreeing to be committed to each other is what makes things like that clear.”

“You are
bound
to me,” he said savagely and I felt myself wishing I wasn’t already leaning against the wall so I could back away further from him.

“Excuse me? You don’t get to just lay some claim to me—”

“I didn’t, you agreed to it—”

“No, you said no funny business—”

“Enough!” he roared. “I gave you your brother back and you agreed to be bound to me.”

“What do you mean, ‘gave him back’? I thought you went and found him for me?” My anger was building again. “You do me a ‘favor’ and that makes me your slave? That isn’t what I agreed to. This,” I raised my arms and shook my bracelets, “isn’t what I agreed to.”

“You belong with me and nobody else,” he hissed.

“I didn’t want to be with anybody else, until now! You’re acting like a maniac.”

His anger made him seem larger, sharper. “How else should I act? The time that I can’t be with you, you admit to gallivanting with other men.”

“I told you it wasn’t my idea
and
it’s not like I had fun. Plus I told you about it.” I took a deep breath and stood up. He opened his mouth but I held my hand up to give myself a moment to think. I was so sick of being pushed around by people. Finally I said as evenly as I could, “I’m grateful you helped me with Lincoln and I really do like you a lot. But I don’t belong to you and you can’t treat me like I do. I have no idea how a human/djinn/dreamworld thing is supposed to work and I don’t think you do either. But it has to work better than this.”