Pure (11 page)

Generally, they were the palest shade of cool gray, but when they shifted, becoming an intense silver, I knew he was on the verge of doing something—something he probably shouldn’t, but something I really wanted him to do. Like right now they’d heated to a bright quicksilver.

“It’s going to be good.” Aiden’s gaze dropped to my lips. “I promise.”

“Okay,” I whispered.

“Wear something warm tomorrow, but no workout clothes.”

“No workout clothes?” I echoed dumbly.

“Meet me here at nine.” He carefully placed the strap of my bag over my shoulder. His fingers lingered long enough to making breathing difficult. My skin still tingled from the brief, wonderful contact long after he’d left the room.

After grabbing some food from the dining hall, Olivia and I walked back to our dorm. Neither of us had made it to the cafeteria in time to eat there. Apparently she and Caleb had had another fight.

“I don’t know what else to do.” She clutched a can of soda in her hand so tightly I thought she’d crush it at any second. “One minute he’s hot and the next he’s cold.”

I didn’t know how much Caleb had told Olivia about what’d happened to him in Gatlinburg, so I was fairly limited on what I could tell her. “I know he really likes you.” I decided that was the best tactic. “During the summer he totally obsessed over you.”

A light breeze played with her tight curls, tossing them across her face. “I know he likes me, but he’s just been so… I don’t know, off lately. All he cares about is what Seth is doing. Gods, it’s like he loves him.”

I focused on how the horizon and the sky blended seamlessly together, trying not to laugh. “Unfortunately, I think Caleb looks up to Seth.”

Olivia stopped walking. “I don’t get why everyone is so infatuated with Seth.”

“I’m not.”

“Then we’re the only halfs in the world that don’t think he’s awesome.” She suddenly screeched, startling several seagulls. “I just don’t understand! Seth’s arrogant, rude, and he thinks he’s better than everyone else!”

I stared at her, quickly ascertaining I wasn’t really good at girl-talk. I had no idea how we’d jumped from Caleb to Seth. “Is Caleb with him now?”

A bit of the anger faded from her face. Olivia sighed, shaking her head. “No. We were hanging out in the rec room before dinner, and I asked him if he thought about where he would take a Sentinel post. You know, not a serious question, but a really important one.”

Nodding, I shifted my soda to my other hand, trying and failing to get my hair out of my face.

“I mean, I know we say it’s nothing serious between us, but I think it is.” She started walking again. “Anyway, we’re graduating in the spring, and they give us options. I was hoping Caleb and I could pick the same place or get posted close together so we could still see each other.”

“Okay… so what happened?”

“He told me he hadn’t thought about it, and I was like, ‘What the hell?’ If I was important to him, then he would have thought about it. Right? So I told him that.” The skin on her cheeks darkened. “And do you know what he said? ‘What’s the point of picking a place? In the end, the Council will determine where we go.’ Well, duh—thanks for the newsbreak, asshat. That’s not the point. The point is we can hope that we end up together, right?”

“Olivia, I don’t think it has anything to do with you. Right now…” I shifted, suddenly feeling warm even though it was an overcast, chilly day. “He told you about…”

Unable to ignore the swamping heat flooding me, I stopped and drew in a shallow breath. My entire body tensed painfully.

“Alex?” Olivia stepped closer. “Are you okay? You look really flushed.”

No. Oh. No.
This could not be happening during the day and in front of Olivia. This was so unfair. On top of everything else, I was losing my—

Delighted giggling drifted out of the courtyard. Then a very male and very pleased chuckle followed. There were more sounds, sounds indicating that either someone was in a lot of pain or having a lot of fun.

“Are you kidding me?” Olivia shoved her food into my limp hands. “For the love of the gods, there are empty classrooms and beds for this kind of stuff.”

Before I could stop her, she pushed open the gate to the courtyard. I guess if she wasn’t getting laid than no one else could? “Olivia—”

“Hey!” she yelled, storming forward. “Hey! You little pervs, go get a room!”

Olivia disappeared around a thick rosebush. Rolling my eyes, I trailed behind her. Walking inside the courtyard was like being in a different world. The wild mixture of flowers and plants, all sweet and tangy, mixed with the bitterness of herbs and assaulted my senses. There was also something unique about the plants in here. Come summer or winter, the foliage never died. God mojo juice, I guessed.

Greek statues lined the walkway, serving as a reminder that the gods were always watching. Runes were etched into the pathway, as were various symbols that signified the gods. Whoever had done the drawings seriously could have benefited from art lessons. But the place was kind of like the Garden of Eden.

And someone was partaking in its forbidden fruit.

“You guys need to—
oh
.”

Olivia stopped so unexpectedly I nearly crashed into her. She stood beside the nightshade—the plant the oracle had compared to “kisses from those who walk among the gods” or something crazy like that. I don’t know why I noticed the purple hue of the petals first. Perhaps it was some kind of natural preservation instinct.

But then I saw Elena.

I’d never seen her quite so undressed before, however. Her skirt was hiked up, shirt gaping wide open, and… that was pretty much all I wanted to see. Then my gaze fell on her partner.

“Oh. My. Gods!” I shrieked, wishing my hands were empty so I could cover my eyes—or claw them out.

Golden eyes, full of amusement, met mine. “Is there something we can help you two with?” Seth asked, clearly unfazed by the intrusion.

I whirled around, squeezing my eyes shut. My face felt like a thousand shades of red.

“No. Nothing at all.” Olivia backed up. “Sorry to interrupt.”

“You sure? There’s always room for one—or two—more.”

“Seth!” Elena shrieked, not sounding entirely dismayed by the prospect.

I headed back up the path, Olivia snapping at my heel. Seth’s deep laughter followed us all the way out of the courtyard. We didn’t speak again until we stood in front of our dorm. Shock must have dampened the weird hot flash, because it was no longer there. For a multitude of reasons, I felt grateful.

“Well,” Olivia said a bit unsteadily.

“Yeah…”

Her lips pursed. “I hate Seth. I think he’s an ass, but he does have a really nice butt.”

“Yeah…”

Olivia’s eyes were wide. “You know what? I think I’m going to go see Caleb. Like right now.”

I snickered. “Yeah, you go do that.”

CHAPTER 7

NOT SURPRISINGLY, SETH KNOCKED ON MY BEDROOM WINDOW that night. Honestly, the curfew thing sucked—being confined to my room and not being able to really sleep usually left me with a mad case of boredom—so I kind of welcomed his little visits. Especially when he just wanted to watch a movie and I’d fall asleep.

But tonight was different.

I still hadn’t decided what to wear tomorrow, and that was a major deal. Aiden only ever saw me in boring gym clothes. I needed something cute—a little sexy—but I couldn’t look like I was trying too hard. My entire closet was on my bed. And of course, I’d just seen some of Seth’s—uh, more private parts. I kind of didn’t want to see his face tonight.

The knock came again, more urgent. Groaning, I went to the window and opened it. Thankfully he was fully dressed. “What?”

Seth loped over the windowsill, inviting himself in. “Nice jammies.”

“Shut up.” I grabbed a sweater off the bed and slipped it on, wishing I’d put on long PJ bottoms instead of shorts and a thin tank.

“You know, I don’t care about the tag marks. Makes you look dangerous in an extremely hot way.”

“It’s not the marks I’m covering up, and you know that.”

“Partly true and partly a lie. The scars embarrass you, because you’re incredibly vain for a chick who wants to be a Sentinel. And you’re uncomfortable being half-naked around me—”

“I’m not half-naked! And I’m not uncomfortable around you.
And
I’m not vain.”

“You’re a terrible liar.” He sat down on my bed.

Okay. I was lying. Vanity wasn’t the worst sin and yeah, Seth made me uncomfortable for a lot of reasons, but that wasn’t the point. “Why are you here?”

“I wanted to check on you.”

My brows furrowed. “Why?”

His glanced around the room, his gaze settling on the clothes scattered around. “Can’t find what to wear?”

“Uh… I was just going through my closet.”

“I can tell.”

I sighed, rubbing my forehead wearily. “What do you want? As you can see I’m kind of busy.”

A brow arched. “I know. What an exciting life you live, going through your closet on a Friday night and all.”

“Yeah, not all of us have the exciting life you do, Seth.”

His lips split into a satisfied grin. “I knew it.”

“Knew what?”

“You’re mad at me.”

I stared at him and lifted my arms, waiting for a better explanation.

“You’re upset over this afternoon.” He pushed aside several potential choices for tomorrow as he leaned back. “Were you jealous, Alex?”

My jaw almost hit the floor. It took me a moment to respond. “I’m confused to why you think I’d be jealous.”

Seth gave me a knowing look. “Perhaps you’re jealous of Elena?”

“What?” I picked up a cute sweater I’d bought before we’d gone into lockdown. “Me, jealous of Elena and her Tinkerbell hair—don’t think so.”

He stretched over and tugged the sweater out of my hand. “Oh. Catty, aren’t you?”

“Not at all. If I’d only known about your Peter Pan complex, I would’ve introduced you two sooner.” I reached for it, but he rolled it up into a ball and tossed the sweater across the room. “Ugh! You are so annoying!”

“Just admit you’re jealous. That’s the first step, and the second step is doing something about it.”

I glared at Seth. “I could care less what—or who—you do in your spare time.” Then something struck me. “Wait. You know what? This is messed up.”

“Do tell.”

“Everyone jumps me about how every single thing I do is a reflection upon you, but you’re
doing
people in the garden! How is that okay?”

“You make it sound so distasteful.” He smiled much like a cat. “Don’t knock it until you try it. Oh. Wait. You haven’t tried
anything
, have you, my little virgin Apollyon?”

I swung out at him as hard as I possibly could. Anticipating my reaction, Seth caught my hand. His eyes flashed dangerously as he tugged me forward. My own momentum caused me to stumble. I ended up falling forward.

Seth twisted onto his side and circled his arms around me. “Always hitting,” he said cheerfully. “I think we should work on your manners.”

The side of my face was smashed into a pile of shirts that had gone into the “maybe” pile. “Oh, come on. You’re wrinkling all my clothes, you jerk-face.”

“Your clothes are fine. I want to chat.”

I tried to elbow him, but his arms clamped down. “Really, you want to talk right now?”

He wriggled closer. “Yes.”

“And we have to be lying like this for what reason?”

“I don’t know. It makes me feel good. I know it makes you feel good. And I don’t mean the way I’m sure you think I mean.” He paused, and I could feel his chest rise and fall against my back. “Our bodies relax around each other.”

I scrunched up my face, not buying his reason at all. “Can we talk about something else?”

“Sure.” I could hear the smile in his voice. “Let’s talk about the fact you haven’t been sleeping.”

“What?” I managed to squirm enough to get one of my arms loose and flip onto my back. “I… I sleep fine.”

“You sleep for a few hours. Then you wake up. Nightmares, huh?”

I stared at him. “Why do you always have to be so creepy?”

His lips twitched. A flicker of amusement, then his expression returned to a customary smug mask. “Whenever you’re upset you suck me right in. Wakes me up every single night, and now I’m not getting any sleep unless I stay with you.”

I scooted over, but his arm caught me. “Well, sorry. I don’t know how to stop it. If I did, I wouldn’t interrupt your precious beauty sleep.”

Seth chuckled low in his throat. “I guess it’s because the connection between us is getting stronger since we’re spending more time together. With you being an emotional wreck these days, I spend half my time wanting a Valium.”