Forgotten (23 page)

He immediately dimmed
himself. He stood in silence and then made a faint gesture that
looked liked he’d just bowed before me. When I didn’t utter a word
he walked out of the room. He moved soundlessly as he raced up the
stairs to my room. Knowing John would have my head if he caught
Jace and me in my room together, I stayed put. After what seemed
like forever, I actually sat down in my chair and worked on
my
Lit.
assignment
that Bree dropped off. It was frivolous, but it kept my mind off of
what Jace was doing alone in my bedroom.

“
My apologies, Gwyneth, but
you wear the Fates’ scent, old blood and lilies. Your closet reeks
of your sisters,” Jace said, walking up from behind me.

I ignored him and continued to work on
my homework. He’d invaded my privacy, so I’d be damned if I was
going to make his search any easier.

“
Your skin smells like the
ocean,” Jace said angrily, standing directly behind my chair. He
didn’t touch me, but his heat jumped onto me. It burned my skin,
but I refused to give him the satisfaction of backing down. “How
long have you been playing me? Did I not prove long ago you could
trust me? Why can’t you tell me your plans? Why are you pretending
you don’t remember what once was…what we once were?”

Facing him, I crossed my arms. I said
nothing as I glared at his beautiful figure. If whiteness could
hold definition, his athletic body was immaculately shaped. He knew
he was eye-catching, which bothered me enough as it was, but that
he was intelligent and self-assured made him an unstoppable force
against women everywhere. I got the impression that if he wanted a
girl, he wasn’t going to stop until he claimed her, and he wanted
me.

“
I don’t remember you,
Jace!” I’d admitted it in my dreams; I could do it in reality. “You
talk in riddles and expect me to take you at your word? News flash
– if you lay another hand on me, I’ll die before I let you heal
me.”

“
Are you guys doing all
right in here?” John said, coming into the dining room.

“
Jace was just telling me
how he had to leave early,” I said, not bothering to hide my
resentment.

“
Yes, it’s getting late,”
Jace’s voice trailed off. “Besides, I promised Analee I’d meet up
with her later tonight.”

Rage.Exploded.In.My.Heart.
I gritted my teeth and breathed through my nose. Jace rubbed his
arms, like he was suddenly chilled. I didn’t care. If he thought I
was just going to be another one of his conquests he could wear his
butt as a hat. I wasn’t going to waste any more time on him,
especially if he was going to see Analee – whoever
she
was.

After escorting him to the door, I
slammed it in his face. But not before I got the last word in.
“Don’t talk to me again unless you have something to tell me about
my family, and good luck with that, because the case went cold
after the agent died.”

C
HAPTER
N
INE

“
Who’s Analee?” Bree
demanded after I told her, for the millionth time, the edited
version of supper with Jace last week.

“
Don’t know, don’t care,” I
said. I propped my feet up on the seat across from us at the coffee
shop. I tried not to crave his touch or charming voice or seductive
mannerisms – I failed, miserably. He skipped class every day that
week. There was a fifty-fifty chance he wouldn’t return at all.
Which, again, wouldn’t be so bad, but he had my only copies of my
family’s police reports. I doubted I’d be able to convince Ida to
give me another copy…especially since she probably didn’t know that
I’d stolen
her
copies.

“
I’m going to go hit
something,” I said, and left for the gym.

KnockOuts’s door chimed as I walked
into the sweat-glazed building. Making my way to the front desk, I
perked my ears for Charlie’s usual toss. The faint shadow of gloves
caught my gaze, and I easily kicked one to the side. The other
grazed my side. I was changed and punching the heavy bag within
fifteen minutes.

“
Hey there, half pint,”
Hector said, holding the weighted bag while I released my
frustrations. Jace could do whatever he pleased; he didn’t owe me
any explanation, so why was I so irritated that
he
hadn’t called or stopped by or
left any form of message.

“
On edge?” Hector asked
after my side-kick grazed his head.

“
Nope.”

“
Want to talk about
it?”

“
Nope.”

“
Okay, you want to
duel?”

“
Nope.”

“
I’ll let you be to sweat
it out then,” he said, walking away.

“
Jace hasn’t called,” I
said, stopping Hector in his tracks. I didn’t stop beating the bag.
My anger fueled me. “He said he’d help me with some stuff and
hasn’t bothered to let me know how it is going. He’s skipped school
without mentioning that he might take off for a few
days.”

“
So? Why do you
care?”

“
Because he has my
reports,” I said and then immediately wished I wouldn’t have
mentioned anything.

“
What reports?”

“
Just some reports for
Lit,” I lied. The only person who knew I had the police records,
was Jace, since I’d commandeered Ida’s copies. Even though I’d told
Hector everything else in my life, I never mentioned those
files.

“
Liar.”

“
Whatever, don’t believe me
then.”

He walked away. “Little advice, Winnie
- Don’t complain about a guy not calling you right now.”

“
What’s that supposed to
mean?”

“
Means you’re not always a
peach to be around,” he called out. “Oh, and I looked into your
security system. It checks out– you’re welcome by the
way.”

Losing myself in a punching haze, I
swung my fists against the punching bag until my arms ached. My
breath was rapid. Sweat saturated my clothing, but I didn’t stop. I
couldn’t lose myself in my world. No vision came. I couldn’t relax.
And worse, I felt out of place. Even though I never felt in sync
with everyone else, but now I felt utterly lost and
alone.

I walked home without showering. In
fact, I forgot my bag along with Stella. I’d get them in the
morning. I didn’t know what made me more upset – that I actually
walked faster without Stella now, or that I couldn’t think of
anything other than Jace’s deep voice.

A cold breeze chilled me. I
focused my mind on something, anything, so I didn’t notice the wind
on my face. I didn’t want to encourage another vision. I couldn’t
handle one right now;
it didn’t
help.

Its starved body was
bruised and beaten as it crawled out of the dried ground. Every
vein, blood vessel, and artery pulsating deep purple, showed on its
hairless head. Its translucent skin was pulled tight, especially
over the joints. It smelled clean and crisp like the sea even
though the few shreds of clothing covering it were stained. The
sewn marks kept him from whispering of the unspeakable past. Empty
hollowed holes were where the eyes should have been.

It walked to me. Instead
of running, I opened my arms to embrace it. Its ghostly skin was
razor sharp, but never cut me. It brought my hand to its mouthless
face. When my smallest finger brushed against its coarse lips, I
felt at home again. The walking corpse wiped a fleeting tear from
my eye. In my mind, I heard it speak in a mysterious language. Even
though I didn’t understand it, a sense of immense sorrow washed
over me when it released my hand and turned its back to me. I
trembled as I watched it sink into the dirt.

It’d been stolen from me,
by the fallen angel.

In my vision, my legs gave out, and my
hands hit the hot dirt under my feet, but in reality, my knees
slammed into the side walk. A cold wind whipped around me, chilling
me to the bone. Tears ran from my eyes while I beat the sidewalk
with my fists.

“
Why me?” I cried out to
the night. I never asked for visions. Never once did I ever want to
see the future, and now unfeasible images plagued me. Exhaustion
overcame me. I threw myself onto my back and pressed my palms into
my eyes. I begged the torturing images to never flicker in my mind
again.

Max greeted me when I got home, but
quickly decided against being anywhere near me. I fell over a trash
bag trudging up the stairs. Martha warned me that she was
fall-cleaning when she heard the racket, but I didn’t have time to
listen to her; I was on the brink of tears. I slammed my bedroom
door, fell onto my bed, and buried my face in my pillow and
screamed. Tears soaked into the feathers.

I couldn’t think of anyone else but
Jace. It was like he’d followed me everywhere, he was constantly on
my mind, but I couldn’t see him, feel his presence, or even fight
with him. I’d rather argue with him instead of getting the cold
shoulder. Even after the vision where my soul was frayed, I’d
wished he was with me. The once physical burden that once
overwhelmed me when Jace was near, now presented when he was away.
He was an obsession – my hang-up; even though I’d come to terms
with it, admitting it to another person, especially him, wasn’t
about to happen. Besides, Jace was still in love with Deino – he
just thought I was her. Even if I dare say that I’d be interested
in being more than just a fake girlfriend to him, but I’d never be
able to compete with the ghost of some long-lost lover.

“
Police reports indicate
the man who broke into your parents’ house entered through a
bedroom window on the main floor, but left via the front
door.”

My cries fell silent instantly at the
sound of Jace’s voice. I hadn’t heard him enter my room. I didn’t
move, didn’t breath. My tears dried. Instead of replying, I let the
close proximity of his presence absorb into my skin. My soul
warmed. It comforted me, which irritated me. How had he made me
crave his presence? I raised my head and pretended that he hadn’t
heard me sobbing.

“
Your point?” I said,
trying to sound strong.

Jace leaned against the windowsill. My
sight had improved to the point that I could see his hair with my
eyes open. It fell around his ears and blew gently in the evening
breeze from the open window However, when I tried to focus on the
detail of his face, my sight still blurred. His chest rose and fell
slowly before he answered my question. It was like he’d been trying
to figure me out, piece my reactions and comments together to make
sense of what he believed.

“
One report said the window
was broken in the far right room, while another states it was the
most southern room of the house,” Jace said and then sighed
heavily. “There had to be more than one person who slaughtered your
family.”

“
The most southern room was
the far right room,” I said, and buried my head back into the
pillow. He found another dead end. “I walked through the house a
few years ago.”

“
How did you gain
permission to walk through the house?”

“
I broke into it.” The
pillow muffled my B&E confession.

“
You’re more aggressive
than I remember,” he said softly and ran his hands through his
hair. I wished I could see what he looked like – for real. I wished
I could see life like I did in my visions. I wanted to look into
his eyes and see if I could uncover the truth in them..

“
Stop comparing me to this
D-chick. I’m not her,” I said, looking at his white silhouette. “My
name is Gwyneth, not Deino.”

He walked closer to the bed, carefully
avoiding the creaky floorboards. I strained my ears, but I couldn’t
hear a single footstep. I didn’t move as I watched him come closer
to me. I couldn’t take my eyes off him. He was breathtaking in my
sight; I couldn’t imagine how I’d react if could actually see his
every detail.

“
Will you admit it now?”
Jace asked, sitting on the bed.

“
I’m not admitting any
–”

He interrupted by forcing out a deep
breath. I followed suit, like we were connected metaphysically.
“I’m not used to this side of you, but I must admit, it appeals to
me.”

He pressed his finger over my lips to
keep me from arguing. I bit my tongue. My lips parted when he
withdrew his hand and wiped an escaped tear with his thumb. His
very touch was like a drug. The tortured hours of not being near
him, returned the moment his fingers trailed away. A deep moan
slipped by his throat. “Why do you lie to yourself, Gwyneth? Even
if I couldn’t feel your heart race when I come close, it’s not
difficult to see that you’re completely infatuated with me. Your
ravenousness tempts me to simply steal your kiss. I can feel your
anxiety ease when you hear my voice. Your need becomes mine… and
you’re in dire need.”

I pretended that I wasn’t leaning
closer to him and that it was the way the bed was angled due to the
weight of his body. He brought my trembling hand up to his
mouth.

“
You excelled at denial,
both then and now,” he said, and kissed my pinky finger.

I memorized the way his
lips felt as he kissed up the side of my arm. It was reckless to
feel such an absolute need simply to caress another person. I
couldn’t push away from him, not now. He’d hooked me. Since I
couldn’t slow down my emotional rollercoaster, I meddled with his.
I needed to be in control or I’d never stop him from crawling into
the bed with me, and I was
so
not going to make an appearance on
TeenPregs.