Orion (17 page)

“Calum.”

“Why would I hurt him?  How?”  That shocked me.

“When he finds out what you are, what do you think he
’s gonna do?”

“I
’m not a traitor, Lee!”

I was heartbroken at hearing it spoken.  I suddenly wished I
’d had the forethought to just screw the whole Hunter school and go get my brother.  But then, I came to this “Hunter school” with no earthly knowledge of where he might be held captive.  “I’ve seen the way he looks at you.  I know.”  A heavy pause was in the air.  “And I know about…” he pointed down.  To my stomach.

“HOW?”  Oh, God.  Someone else knew.

“That day in the woods.  When you fell on the rocks and I helped you get up.  Your shirt was up, but I saw it.  I saw it, Anastacia.  And Calum, he’s my roommate.  He doesn’t think I know.  But well, roommates just know.  And I knew that day I saw him, I’d never have you.”

I was faced with an emotion I
’d never had.  Dyer was gone before I even got to say goodbye.  And he
really
did like me.

“What did you hear that day, at home?”

“Quinn told your dad that a Hunter was among the court.  He was there for me not knowing it was his wife, my mother, who sent me in to confirm things.  It’s not like I was waving an
I’m a Hunter
flag around on a flagpole for all to see.  And...and your father thought Quinn was innocent of any wrongdoing.”

I knew it.  Quinn is on both sides of the fence.  I put a few things together.  “And that
’s how you’re here.  But why
here
, and how is Quinn involved?”

“He is my uncle.  I
’m an abomination to him.  His sister mated with a Valkyrie and I was the result.  I’m here, at this school, because of my mom, to be more Hunter like.”

“I
’m sorry to learn all this.  And sad we couldn’t feel comfortable to share all this before.”

“No one knows, but you.”  This was a promise he was asking me keep. I asked him if he intended to tell.

“Anastacia!  You think I’d rat you out!”

This, I didn
’t predict.

“I loved you, jeez.”

What did he just say?  No, he didn’t.

Undaunted, he continued, “but it isn
’t enough.  We were too young and I was removed.”

Oh!

“Calum has no idea you were brought straight to him.  The prophecy is real, Anastacia.  REAL!  You are
that
girl.”

Very real!

Huh!  I looked beyond the shelves for an eavesdropper, but nothing.  It wasn’t Lee who just said that.  His lips didn’t move.  Did I hear his thoughts?  My inner voice must be husky at times or I am hearing things.

I am beset by the ironies of my life. Everything and anything related to this mission keeps leading back to me.  “How can it all be true?”

“Well, is or isn’t, Dr. Green, Dr. Quinn, your father, the Hunter council, they all believe it.”

“My father?”

“Yes, he knows.  And about Calum.  Everything is falling into place.  He only hopes, I assume, that you will chose to come back to his throne, with your Hunter, and rule.  At least, that’s my theory.  My uncle became allies with your dad that day.  There were all these secret allied faction sections hidden in an underground railroad kind of system that fears the outcome of this prophecy and you and Szar are somehow at the center of it.  They pushed you onto Calum.”

“This is all just a joke, right?”  My teeth pinned my lower lip down.

“No!  It’s very real.  And the day you showed up here, I knew exactly what would happen, and it has. They wanted you allianced with Calum which tells me they know about your marks.”  He eyed my stomach.  “I may not have been your chosen one to have shown it, but I can read.  And I heard the same stories around your court."

"Wrong!  I
didn't
hear those same stories. They were kept from me until I called Kassie the other day."

"Kassie.  How is she?"

I pulled out the two items from my pouch ignoring the needless small talk.   I despised being the last to know something.  "And why were these taken?” He seemed to know so many answers, maybe he could shed more light.  Anger was boiling over the top of the kettle and pouring out all over his shoes and mine.  He never told me anything, just strung me along.

“Szar
’s?” 

I nodded.  My knife was in his hand now rubbing his thumb across the carvings.  What I didn't get vibing from him, was danger.   He wasn't there to hurt me.

He stared a long time showing no signs I’d struck a nerve. “Yours.  I knew that day in the gym, that you would make them wet their pants.  You’re the best I’ve ever seen.”

He looked up at my eyes now stirring something deep inside me.  But not like it desire, but guilt.  “I
’m sorry, Dyer.  I didn’t know.  Then.”

“I
’m long over it.”  He handed them back to me.  He swallowing and pocketing both hands.

I chanced showing the letter.  No one knew yet and he might be my best bet.  Besides, if he is a traitor, it will tell me so.  “And this.”

He held it.  “Calum’s!  From his mother, I believe. Heard Quinn one day on the rare occasion I was okay to associate with his presence.  Guessed he wanted it for something but I never told Calum he took it.  It was before I left the Hunter school the first time so it didn’t make sense then.  That was Quinn’s first year after my mother's death and he didn’t know I saw him.  They’d have known who told Calum it was missing.”  He paused.  “I’ve no idea what this means as a whole.”

Still a mystery to solve then.  Stand in line.  “So, where does this leave us?”  I asked.
             

His jaw twitched.  “You will go back, continue.  I will too.  We will keep our ears open.  I will help you, Ana…Stace,” he corrected himself using my recent name.

“And Calum?”

“For now, I will stay quiet.  Until we find your brother. Then, he has to know.  If the gods say it
’s meant to be, so it will.  You don't look at him the same way he does you. You don't see it, and it will hurt him when you let him go.  And I think you should stay clear of all the danger for a while longer.  Let me do the looking.”

That won
’t do.  That’s what I’m here for.  Perhaps he’s being caring, but something told me there was something else.  Feeling awkward, I looked at my watch.  “We’d better go separate.”   

I turned to go, but he grabbed my arm. I looked back down at it, not him.

“Does he…do you…really feel electricity?”

“Yes, Dyer…
Lee…we do.” 

And he let me go.  I didn
’t look up from the ground until I was sitting in the theater seat as I passed Lee in the aisle who didn’t flinch from the screen.

Zip...that was my mouth shutting up tight.

My heart died a little.  I’d always wondered what might have happened if my father had let him proclaim himself to me. In my innocence and youth, I'd imagined being married to someone I chose.  It was not meant to be.  His words, and now mine.

The next day, Sunday, formal breakfast was not a joyful noise.  Oh, I smiled in all the right places, but the looks Dyer,
Lee
, kept giving me at admitting his feelings, and secrets, and long bottled in knowledge, were disturbing.  I vowed to talk with him again, soon.  It still rubbed me wrong that he was straddling the fence on should I go or should I stay.  He seemed to battle the odds for me one minute and against me the next.  It made me wonder if he knew more.

It didn't add up concerning his parents and Quinn. Surely two sides of one family wouldn't force their son, or nephew, to do such dirty work as double crossing two factions against each other.  If so, he could feed information back and forth like a disease.  No one would be the wiser with his mom gone and his father missing since childhood. People simply just stopped questioning it.

The day passed.  Nighttime came.  I couldn’t focus. 

I looked at the clock, dressed, sneaked out the already open window and over to the guy
’s dorm.  Calum had told me he was the first floor, first room.  A privilege of a head master’s son.

I saw the window was open just slightly and wedged it open more.  I bounded into the room onto a bed. 

Thankfully, no one was in it.  And it appeared no one was in the room.   I still didn’t know what I was doing, but I had to be sure Lee kept my secrets.  I'd know by the way Calum acted.

I saw slovenly made beds, clothes everywhere, and
ahh
, the smell of cologne.  Curiosity killed the cat.  I headed over to the dresser for the answer to my distraction.

I eyed something
on the way.  My jacket.  I didn’t even remember leaving it that night at the picnic, but here it is.  Assuming this was Calum’s side, I found the cologne and read its cover label. 
Dark Spice
.  I raised it to see the contents. Beside it, a pack of opened gum, a razor blade, two dimes, and a nickel. 

I was turning to see the other side of the room when the door spun open and I darted behind the door.  The door stayed open a second before anyone stepped in.

Lee took two slow steps in and closed the door looking right at me.  He was the same height as I was so our eyes were level. 

“Care to explain?”

“How did you know?”

“Hey!  Hello!  I can smell you.  Every day!”  I noticed precisely at this moment that he was standing only in his boxers. 
Aaa!

“What?”  I was caught off guard by the comment first.  I closed my eyes admitting to seeing nothing.  He was so filled out now.

He saw my look, watched me carefully.  “Lavender.  You always have.”

How does he know so much about me and I know very little of him?  He must read my mind because…

“I know everything about you.”  He was sliding his jeans on now, but without a shirt showing up.

I sat down on Lee
’s bed after he moved some questionables off the side of it.  He apologized.  Was my brother this messy?  No, he has a maid.

“Repeating myself. Explain?” H
is eyes aimed towards the window, but he stood where he was.

“I just wanted to make sure you stayed quiet.  You know.”

He vibed anger at my comment.  “What are you afraid of?”

I forgot already, he is half freaking Valkyrie.  That was a major revelation I hadn
’t revisited in my brain yet.   “Half and half, I get it.  I sense your anger, you sensed my fear.”

He nodded. 

“You tell me?”  I shouldn’t have said that.

“
No.  Not my place.”

He
’d, no doubt, read my emotions since I’d arrived.  I felt sad for him knowing how he felt now.  “Do you sense only fear?”

“All or any, unfortunately.”  He didn
’t flinch.  “Are you here for me or him?” he motioned to the door.  “He’ll be back any moment.  Showers.  You should leave.”

Um, the thought of him fresh out of the shower.  I looked at Lee
’s hands still holding his shower bag. 

He tensed.

Gods!  He sensed everything. 
“I’m here to make sure of your intentions.  And two, to make sure Calum doesn’t.”

He was hurt.  “I told you I
’d help you.  I—

Just then, the door opened, and Calum was standing there, in boxers only, hair sticking up with a towel draped around his neck covering Orion.

I stood so quickly, I was dizzy taking in the scent of him and looking at everything I shouldn’t.

I sighed.  My trifecta of ultimate doom.  Bewildered as to why I was there, he let me look a second longer before asking, “You
’re in my room?”  He looked me over slowly. “Alone.” He swung his eyes to Lee.  "With him."

“I just wanted to see you,” I managed to not choke. 
                           

Lee was already standing.  He grabbed the doorknob and murmured to the door edge saying, “I
’ll leave you two alone.” He left.

“
Did I interrupt?”  Calum was puzzled.  Fear throbbing his every visible pore and the few I couldn't see.

“Just an argument over why I should leave.”

He calmed
still
in his boxers and dripping.  I swallowed trying not to look anywhere but his face again.  The air caught in my throat forcing me to choke on it. 

He realized my discomfort and reached across me to grab a pair of jeans on the back of a chair. His towel fell letting his marks show freely.  I know somehow that
the gesture is not a commonality for him and know that I’m being given a small gift in a way.  I smiled to myself. The two of us are like two ingredients in a burning stewpot that mix just perfectly together, but spend most of the time trying to survive the boiling heat underneath their feet.  How can we possibly survive the whole electricity thing or whatever else were doomed for if we can't even have a conversation without the sourness of something tainting it?

He slouched into his jeans.  I looked away, blushing profusely.  I didn
’t peek mostly, but wanted to see Orion again.  He caught me.
Or let me.

He left his top button and zipper open leaving Orion in full view.  “I
’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

Feel
ing a mixture of bravado and cowardice all in one, I yanked my t-shirt up and over to the side.  My yoga pants were low on the waist and did not need to be adjusted thank goodness.

He stared.  I stared.

He came closer and pulled me to him.  So much skin was exposed.  I was against him now.  Warm, still dripping from his hair, and smelling like—

“I can
’t.”  I backed away.  “It’s too much.”  He chuckled reading me wrong. I didn't want to be a fried lightbulb after touching that much of him.

AND
there were things a girl knew about men, but feeling them was completely different.   I couldn’t stand there in his room alone again with him like that.  Plus, it seemed more like an infatuation with the unknown, not like
love
or anything.

“Um, is that my sweater?”  I had to get my mind clear so I looked around the room bringing my eyes on something familiar.  My eyes closed for a fraction of a second.  I inhaled deeply, then exhaled and knew he was watching my clear display of poor self control. 

“You have no idea what you’re doing, standing in my room, exposed, and smelling as good as you do.”                           

I
’ve already heard about my scent. 
What’s with that? 
“No, but I know exactly what
you’re
doing.”  I proclaimed wanting some air.  Half naked men just didn’t fit into the ice princess theory of surviving this mission.  Even half naked men who had as much in common as this one did.

“Am I?” He came closer again.

“Stop!”  I put my hand up.  I closed my eyes not thinking about anything male.  “You need to—

And his mouth took over me a little too unkindly.  I had to break free, but I couldn
’t.  My brain was screaming while his lips were doing all the thinking. 
Break!

“Calum.  I
’ve got to stop,” my mouth smothered closed.

“Understand.  But you came in
my
room.”  He was kissing my neck now.  It was painful.

“
Then I’m leaving.”  And I inched towards the window using a little more strength than I should have allowed.  He was so distracted, he didn’t seem to notice.

He pulled my shirt back to him.  “Okay,
okay
!”  He chuckled again totally misinterpreting all of this.

I sat on Lee
’s bed thinking it was safer.

“Why are you over there?” he seemed threatened, still breathing hard and then pinched the bridge of his nose.

“I’m safe over here.  Cooling off place.”

“Oh!” was all he said.  He sat on his bed facing me with a mere two feet between us.  I like that I didn
’t have a roommate.

“So,” he somewhat snarled, “why are you here?”
he asked as if he didn’t feel he had the real reason.

“I told you.  I wanted to see you,” I shrugged up one shoulder.

“Sneaking into a guy’s dorm room isn’t the safest thing for a girl like you.  One could use it to an advantage.”

Okay!  He was every bit as worked up as I was  just for different reasons.   “I need to leave then.  And what do you mean a girl like me?”

Calum didn’t answer at first.  “Stace, you’re beautiful.  What do you expect?”

Ah, well.  Geez!  “Sorry.  I didn
’t mean to make it look like anything.  I was just stupid, I guess.”

Now, that worked.  His anger started coming out like wildfire.  “Not stupid to see me.  Stupid to come here.”

“Okay.  You were right.  But,” I stood to go, “why do you have my jacket?”

“It was on the box from our picnic.  I just keep forgetting to bring it to you.”  He picked it up and handed it to me.  I could have sworn he smelled it as he passed it.  Hmm!

I turned back, wanting the fun kind of kiss he usually gave, but decided I’d not have control.  I took a long glance at Orion. 

“Still amazing to think about, huh?”

“Yeah!  It really is.”  Calum walked towards me.

“Just us.  Can I?” His
hand was close enough I could feel the heat near my skin yelling and screaming to be touched, just not by him.

“Calum.  We shouldn
’t, not here.”  I looked at the bed.

“Just Orion.  That
’s all.  Promise.”  His eyes were honest. 

“Okay.”

Calum’s hand pressed against my stomach.  Mine on his.  Each tracing the pattern we had memorized.  It was the most amazing feeling even if it felt wrong.

Leave,
a disembodied voice called to me.  And it wasn't Calum's timbre.

The door opened.  We jumped back.  I pulled my shirt down and his shorts went up simultaneously. 

Lee looked incredulously at us and looked away as quickly.  “Monitor for lights out on the way. You have two minutes tops.”  And the door closed.

Like we
’d been caught being naughty, I fumbled with getting out the window.  It was past the boy likes girl stage.  I didn’t like Calum like that so much as I couldn’t get enough of the fact that someone else was like me and they weren’t scared of me.  I was back in my dorm window before he had time to close the window in a goodbye.

Safe under the covers, I reflected on the sordid events of the night.

Nothing much made sense, but yet everything was falling in place, one by freaking one.  Except, where was my brother?