Phoenix: The Rising (13 page)

“You-you-you BITCH!” Charsey stammered as she wiped the water from her eyes. The sneer on her face turned to a wicked smile. “You asked for it, blondie!” Then she jumped.

The air exploded with water as Charsey landed, drenching the guys and sending an instant tsunami over Julie, who was still treading water less than a foot from the epicenter of Charsey’s entrance. Blinded by the onslaught, Julie turned and paddled towards the side where she could hear Eli’s laughter. But, she wasn’t fast enough. A hand wrapped around her wrist and yanked her below the surface. She turned and opened her eyes. Light streaming from the sides and bottom of the pool illuminated the victorious grin on Charsey’s face. Her strawberry-blonde hair fanned out around her head, creating a perfect halo of Medusa-like tendrils as she held her under. Running out of air, Julie began to panic and tugged her wrist out of Charsey’s hand. At that moment, she felt an arm circle her waist and pull her towards the surface.
Eli!
Even in the water, she could feel the electric shock from his palm welding into the skin of her stomach. Julie sputtered and rubbed her eyes as Eli pulled her into shallow water. She looked across the pool. Kas hadn’t moved from his spot. He just stood there, waist deep in water, with a curious smile on his face. A few seconds later, Charsey surfaced in front of him.

“That wasn’t very nice, Charsey.” He raised an eyebrow. “I think you owe Julie an apology.” Charsey gave him a quick kiss, then turned and dove into the water again. She emerged right in front of Julie, barely making a ripple as her head broke the surface.

“Sorry, Julie. I was just teasing.” She smiled and blinked.

Julie grabbed Eli’s hand as she leaned towards Charsey. Her breath hitched in her throat as she stared, not believing what she saw. One of Charsey’s eyes had turned from its normal brilliant blue to green. Eli’s hand tightened on hers. He saw it too. Contacts. Charsey wore blue contacts.

“Ummm ... Charsey,” Julie stammered, “I think you lost a contact.”

Charsey’s hand shot to her face as Kas waded over to them. “Oh, crap.” She laughed.

“What’s going on?”

Charsey whirled around to face Kas. “Ah, nothing. I just lost a contact.” She took her hand off her eye. “See?”

Julie watched as Kas’s brow crinkled. A smile fleeted across his face. “Wow! You have green eyes.” He laughed as he shook his head. “You better be careful, I heard there are giants out there killing kids with red hair and green eyes.” He looked at Julie and winked. “At least according to Thumper and Tiny there are.”

“That’s nothing to joke about, Kas.” Julie surprised herself with her response. She couldn’t believe she was standing up to him.

Kas looked at her and smiled. “I was just kidding, Jules. I mean, yeah, it’s too bad those kids died, but it had nothing to do with a legend. Their hair and eye color was just a coincidence. Everybody knows that.”

Eli released the death grip he had on Julie’s hand. “Of course it’s just a story. But the fact is that until the police find who killed them, anybody with red hair and green eyes in the area needs to be careful.”

Charsey took a step towards Kas and poked him in the chest. “I don’t care about any of that. All I know is that you better not tell a single soul that I don’t really have blue eyes. I’ve kept this a well-hidden secret since I moved here two years ago, and if it comes out my baby blues are fake, it might tarnish my spotless reputation.” She turned and winked at Julie with her newly revealed green iris.

Kas pulled her towards him. “And, will you make it worth my while? I mean, I could be saving your life by keeping my mouth shut. Maybe I need something to keep my mouth busy.”

Charsey cocked her head to the side and planted her hands on her hips. Julie had a sick feeling she knew what was coming next.

“Hmmm ... I think you may be right.” Charsey grabbed Kas’s hand and led him to the steps in the shallow end. She turned to Julie and Eli. “Mind if I show Kas your pool house, Jules? We need to ... talk. Privately.”

Julie looked at Eli. She could taste the bile rolling up her throat. “I don’t think Renatta would be too happy about that.”

“Your step-mom?” Kas laughed as he and Charsey stepped out of the pool. “Hell, according to my cousin, that’s her favorite place to ... talk.”

Julie’s faced flamed with embarrassment as she realized the pool boy had to be Kas’s cousin. She should have known! They were built exactly alike. The constant tingle from Eli’s hand suddenly turned into a full-fledged shock, as if she just grabbed onto a frayed electrical cord. She could feel the muscles spasm in her arm as Eli suddenly pushed her away. He pulled himself out of the side of the pool as Julie stood holding her throbbing left arm to her side.

“I think you just better leave.” Eli confronted Kas as Charsey ran for the pool house.

Kas glanced over to Julie and back to Eli, who stood before him. From Julie’s point of view, the moonlight seemed to be reflecting off Eli. It looked almost as if he was glowing.

“Now,” Eli said with finality.

Charsey suddenly appeared wrapped in a towel, carrying her dress, shoes, and purse.

“I’m ready. Let’s go, Kas.” She grabbed his arm as she walked by. “We can go to my house.” A second tug on his arm got Kas moving.

“Your house. Yeah. That’ll do.”

Charsey looked back at Julie and gave a small wave. “Bye, Julie. Thanks.”

Julie stood with her arm dangling limp and useless at her side. The pain was so intense she was on the verge of throwing up. Now she knew what it was like to be electrocuted. She swallowed and raised her good right hand up.

“Bye. See you Monday.”

As Charsey and Kas disappeared around the side of the house, Julie let out a muffled growl and grabbed her injured arm.

“Crap, Sullivan, what did you do to me? My arm feels like it’s gonna fall off!”

Eli looked down at Julie and his eyes widened. “Oh God, Julie! I am so sorry!” He lowered himself into the pool and began walking towards her. She backed away from him into deeper water.

“Just keep away! You’ve done enough damage.” She backed up one step as he moved closer, but it was one step too many for Julie. Her head suddenly disappeared under the water as her foot slid down the slope of the deep end. She tried to use her one good arm to pull herself back to the surface, but it was useless. As she continued to slide into the deep end, she opened her eyes. Eli hovered in front of her. He smiled as he grabbed her around the waist and lifted her to the surface. She coughed and flung her one good arm around his neck, then locked her legs around his hips, closed her eyes, and waited for the impending shock. It didn’t come. Instead, the soft, delicious tingle she felt while they were dancing had returned. She could feel it coursing through her whole body as he walked her around in the warm water. She sighed and let her body relax into him.

“Does your arm still hurt?” Eli asked softly.

Julie wiggled the fingers of her left hand. “My hand’s better, but my upper arm is killing me.”

Eli cleared his throat. “I can help, if you’ll let me.”

Julie looked up into Eli’s face. His eyes were flashing with flames of color, mesmerizing her. “Sh-sure.”

Eli lifted her aching arm and lowered his head. To her amazement, he began kissing her, slowly and methodically, spiraling from the elbow to her shoulder. Her heart began to race. Every now and then, she felt his tongue trace the line of her arm, and each time it touched, a delicious warmth shot through, relaxing the spasming muscle but making her heart race even more. By the time he reached her shoulder, the pain was gone. But, she didn’t want him to stop. He raised his head and brushed his lips across her ear.

“I have to kiss you, Julie.”

She laced the fingers of her freshly healed arm in his hair and pulled him towards her. “No. I have to kiss you.” And she did.

She may have been the one to initiate it, but Eli soon took over the controls, and the colors began to fly behind Julie’s closed eyelids. As he moved his lips to her neck, she opened her eyes to the moon. This time she didn’t pass out. She watched as the colors she thought were only present behind her closed lids danced in the night sky, flying and swirling among the stars. Eli kissed his way back up her neck and found her lips once again. This time, when he pulled away, Julie was completely conscious. She nestled into his neck, exhausted, but utterly satisfied by the experience. As she closed her eyes, two words came to her mind.

“Besa Soobedda,” she whispered.

Eli pulled her close, pressing his lips to her temple.

“Will you tell me what it means, Eli?”

Eli hesitated. Julie felt a tear—his tear—slip down her cheek.

“It means,” he whispered, “the love between a man ... and his wife.”

Julie’s eyes shot open as the sickening feeling of dread, like butterfly wings tickling the back of her throat, washed over her. Now she understood Eli’s response to Liana’s words. It was the one thing that could never be, and they both knew it.

Sandals were not a good idea.  Of course, she hadn’t planned on spending more than a few hours in the dry, desert heat of Death Valley, and that time would be spent in the cool comfort of the white
Lincoln
that picked her up just outside of
Las Vegas
.  The driver, a balding, grandfatherly curmudgeon, complete with snap-on sunglasses and suspenders, seemed safe enough. Even said she reminded him of his youngest granddaughter.

The old man toodled along at a cool forty miles an hour, recounting stories of his youth as the girl sat silently staring out the window. Her mind was on other things. When he slid his hand across the seat and grabbed her inner thigh, she thought of that granddaughter and got a feeling of righteous satisfaction as she wrenched his thumb back, snapping it at the base. Of course, the car careened out of control as the screaming man clutched his hand to his chest.

“You little bitch!” the old man slammed on the brakes and the car skidded sideways on the shoulder of the road, raising a whirlwind of dust. “Get out!”

The girl already had the door open before the car stopped.

“My pleasure.” She grabbed her bag and turned to him before slamming the door. “You’re lucky it was just your thumb, old man. I could have broken your neck.” The man floored it, screaming profanities as a new cloud of dust and desert rocks pelted her.

She trotted clear of the cloud and looked down at her stinging legs. Small, red welts spotted the surface of her bronzed skin. Blood oozed. She reached down and touched a glistening spot, then brought it to her tongue. Disgusting, but she couldn’t help herself.

The girl looked around. Nothing but rocks and dirt. Off in the distance, tufts of pale green poked out behind some larger boulders. She trotted over to the closest one, and as she got closer, she knew she found what she’d been hoping for. The fat, green spikes of the Aloe plant would provide her with the healing juice she would need to take care of the pesky wounds. They would also provide her with needed moisture for her time in the desert. She plucked a leaf. Aloe oozed from the broken end. She carefully swabbed all the spots she could, then plucked a few spikes to take along. Just in case.

Two hours later, two hours without a single car in sight, she squatted behind a boulder a good hundred yards off the main road. The sun was just setting. That’s when the first scorpion scuttled across her exposed, burnt toes. She screamed and
shot
upright, expecting pee to run down her leg. But there wasn’t any. She was already feeling the effects of dehydration, and her body sucked up all the moisture it could, reabsorbing the excess water. This was not good. At least she had the cooling darkness of night on her side. It would get chilly, but not cold enough to kill her. She could spend one night out there. Alone. In the dark. Of course she didn’t plan on sleeping. Sleeping meant one thing. Nightmares. There was no way she was going to chance that. She’d had enough nightmares to last a lifetime. Instead, she climbed up on the boulder, retrieved one of the Aloe leaves, split it down the middle, then pulled the length of it across her bottom teeth, scraping out the inner contents. She rolled the slimy mess around in her mouth, savoring the wetness on her parched tongue. Then she waited. Five minutes. The other side would most certainly dry out if she let it set any longer, so she scraped it across her teeth, then swallowed. She knew there was moisture left in the leaves, so she chewed them, extracting every last drop of juice, then spit the tough outer shell on the ground. Rejuvenated by the treat, she hopped off the boulder and trotted back to the road. 

Her destination: Bishop,
California
.

Up until a week ago, Lucy Temeluch never even knew Bishop existed, and if her mother hadn’t slipped up during a crying jag after one too many shots of vodka and mentioned that she went to high school there, she may never have known. But, the moment Lucy pressed the issue and asked if she had any family there, her mother clammed up. In all of Lucy’s seventeen years, Adrianne Temeluch had not once mentioned any living relatives, so as far as she knew, she and her mother were it. She didn’t even know the identity of her father, and each time she asked her mother had the same cryptic answer, “It’s better if you don’t know.” Finally, she stopped asking.