Rule (Roam Series, Book Five) (2 page)

“Maybe I just like to dance.”

“Maybe I’m sick of playing your games.”

When I heard his zipper pull, I sobered.

In a fraction of a second, I arched my back and planted my hands behind my head, flat. The kick I delivered to his chest that sent him to his ass in the middle of the paved parking lot. Before he could blink, I retrieved the knife from my boot, straddling him and aiming the blade at his neck.

“You really think I’m going to lose my virginity on the hood of a car?”

His
wide hazel eyes met mine as he shook his head carefully. I jumped to my feet, and he scooted back, rising. The fierce rage in his gaze did little to impress me.

“
Walk the fuck home, Eva.”

I laughed
, straightening my skirt. “I didn’t hurt you. Just your pride. Your hand on your zipper after my ‘no’ was your one free pass. Try that again, and I won’t be so kind.”

He moved to the front seat of his Camaro, nearly running me over as he peeled out of the parking lot.

The street lights flickered when I passed beneath them, sizzling and popping.

Calm down.

I’ve got him by the balls
, and he’ll be blowing up my phone before I get home.

The lights finally stilled, and I sigh
ed, waving my hand over my head and opting for Lynyrd Skynyrd’s
Free Bird.
My house was less than three miles away from
Booters
, and I didn’t mind the time to calm down and sober up. For immortals, the effects of alcohol lasted for about as long as my dad’s favorite Iron Butterfly song. I had to drink twice as much three times as fast as everyone else to get buzzed, even with my petite, 5’3” frame.

Liam
. Liam Riley, his handsome face even more Irish than his name, once had the ability to turn me into brainless twat. When I met him, I was a thirteen-year-old freshman who’d skipped eighth grade, and he was a junior… and I completely lost all focus on anything that didn’t involve Liam. My notebooks were covered in my girly scrawl, proclaiming Eva loves Liam, Eva + Liam 4Ever, Mrs. Eva Riley, and all of the other variations of my married name. He was the quarterback of our football team, and me the head cheerleader, and I eye-fucked him from the sidelines of every game while dancing in my too-tight-too-short uniform.

When he dumped me for some college
skank after he graduated, I shorted five power lines near my house. His excuse? I didn’t have enough
experience
.

The fact that I
wasn’t
a whore was his whole reason for breaking up with me.

My ability to manipulate frequency, electricity, and
sound amazed- and scared- the piss out of him. When he begged me to come back to him on my graduation day, I had already spent my senior year plotting his death- and rebuilding my self-respect. I decided to take him back with one purpose- to break his heart like he broke mine.

I
touched him and teased him, putting my mouth all over his body, letting him put
his
mouth all over
my
body, taking him to the edge again and again- only to tell him no, no I can’t go there, not yet, no,
I’m not ready.

Smirking to myself,
I pulled my hand in a generous circle above my head, opting for some Dusty Springfield.

By the time I got home, it was
twenty minutes after midnight- and twenty minutes past my curfew. The lights in the window of the house made me sigh inwardly, fishing for my phone from the back pocket of my skirt.

He pic
ked up after three long rings. “Aw, it’s my sister, the magical slut.”

“Christopher! Come on, please
turn the alarm off and unlock the back door.”

“Where’s your leprechaun?
He only wants you for your lucky charms, you know.”

Don’t threaten him, he is your only hope at this point. Breathe. Breathe.
“Liam isn’t here.”

“Dad’s sitting in the living room. There’s seriously smoke pouring out of his ears.”

“Listen. If you sneak me in, I’ll give you twenty dollars.”

“Thirty.”

“Extortionist.”

“Make it thirty-five, ‘cause now I have to waste my time Googling the word ‘extortionist.’”

“Chris.” I took a deep, settling breath. “There will come a time when you will need a favor from me. Think carefully about your decision right now.”

I could hear his video game in the background through my phone. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, Eva, I don’t break curfew. I follow
Mom and Dad’s rules.”

“I’ll talk
Dad into getting you a car.”

“I’m
fourteen.”

“Next
year
,” I stressed, my eyes flickering to the light in my brother’s upstairs bedroom.

After a jostling sound, I heard Chris’s voice distantly
…

And then my father’s.

“Eva.”

Oh, damn. Here we go.

“T
he longer you
stand
in the driveway trying to convince your brother to help you, the longer you’re grounded. And don’t think I didn’t notice that you walked home.”

I exhaled through my clenched teeth, recognizing the controlled anger in my father’s voice. “Okay, Dad. I’m coming in.”

“See you downstairs.”

Glowering, I
shuffled my feet toward the house and mentally began to piece my case together.
Technical problems in the movie theater caused a delay, so the movie ended later…

By two hours?

I cringed down at my outfit; I’d left the house in a Mary Sue sundress that was now discarded in a ball in the back seat of Liam’s Camaro.

Don’t lie. He hates when you lie.
I tugged at the band that I’d wrapped in my hair during my walk home, letting the wild, red curls surround my face.

I sighed, rethinking my angle.

Dad, I started thinking,
really
thinking, about the prophecy and the gravity of the choice I’ll face in only four years. I became so distraught, I needed Liam’s comfort.

I blew at a curl hanging over my eye.
No way he’ll buy it. Sounds more like Mom.

He waited for me at the door, hugging me first before launching his tirade. The false hope from his comforting arms always distracted my lies, allowing him to detract the truth from me and dole out a swift punishment before I had time to protest.

“Were you
drinking?
”

“No… well, a little, but…,”

“Did he drop you off?”

“Not really…,”

“What are you
wearing?
”

The lecture lasted less than ten minutes, and in the end, I was grounded for two weeks in
addition to having to pay the thirty-five dollars to my brother for trying to bribe him.

Dad and his creative punishments.

“I’m almost eigh
teen
.”

“Exactly. You’re smarter and more mature than this. You know why you have a curfew. Adhere to it, and you won’t be grounded. Simple.”

“Again?” My mother’s voice sounded from the stairs, and I cringed, looking down at my hands. “Eva, come
on
.” She glanced at the clock before crossing her arms over her chest.

“What in the hell are you both so worried about? I am a ninth-degree black belt in Taekwondo, I can outshoot Dad with the AK
and
the Glock-…,”

“Maybe the
Glock, but not the AK-…,”

“West,” my mother admonished him, giving him a
you’re-losing-the-point
scowl.

“…and I am qualified to
teach
Kendo! I’m like a freaking
assassin
!”

“We know you can defend yourself. But, lately, your grades are dropping, and
that kid is too old for you-…,”

“Too old for me? It’s not like he’s my six hundred year old
teacher!
”

My father
’s face turned to stone, and I immediately regretted my words.

“
You let him touch you, Eva?”

I rose to my feet, irritated at my flaring nostrils as fury charged through my veins. I glared at my mother as the lights began to flicker in ceiling.
“You told him! You promised you wouldn’t tell him!”

“Eva, we know that you care about Liam,
but he’s almost twenty, and-…,” my mother reached for me, but I backed away.

“I can’t believe
you told him,
” I glared at my betraying mother, and then looked to my father’s disappointed blue gaze. “Dad, my love life is
not your business.
”

I knew when West Perry was pushed to his limits (because I pushed him there pretty often) but I’d never seen him
this
pissed before. “Who my teenage daughter
is sleeping with
is my business.”

“I’m not
sleeping with him!
” I threw my hands in the air, stomping toward the stairs. “You know what? If you can’t trust me, that’s your problem, not mine.”

“You know the decision that you have to make.
You have less than four years, Eva. Please, just don’t commit yourself to either world before deciding.” My mother’s voice lowered. She was obviously trying to keep Chris from hearing.

“I have already decided. I will invite Grandfather, the king, and all the other crazy people to come live here, if they want… or burn.”

My mom rolled her eyes. “How very gracious of you.”

“I am not responsible for your actions!”

“Roam. Eva,” my father stood and moved between us, holding his hands up. “Enough. Let’s go outside.”

“No thanks!” I bolted up the stairs, carefully gathering enough res
pect not to slam my door (again).

The balcony off my room faced the ocean, and I grabbed my favorite throw blanket before dropping dejectedly to the cushioned chair.

Though Christopher thought dad was only forty-four years old, I knew he was over six
hundred
years old. He’d traded his immortality to save my mother’s life, and I had been the one to cast Logan immortal, like Violet, when I was only four years old.

Children and magic
should not mix.
I stretched my long, manicured fingers out, trying to recall the dreams of Grandfather Asher’s lessons in magic. The dreams ended shortly after I turned five, only to be replaced by nightmares that had me waking with scratches, open wounds, and bite marks that bloodied my sheets. I would heal within minutes, but one recurring dream, where I was underwater, still made me shudder to think about.

Immortality, in my mind, was a curse. I’d lay awake in my bed at night, imagining my parents shriveling up and dying, and my brother Chris
topher becoming an old man, while I remained, left behind, tagging along with my sister and brother-in-law for my entire existence.

Call Aunt Morgan.
I knew she was sick of hearing about my endless struggle with my parents, but she’d always sympathize with me.
It’s the middle of the night, and she’s definitely trying to sleep.
My twin cousins, Margaret and Jane, were almost four years old, keeping Jason and Morgan on their toes with their creative antics.

My sister Violet, on the other hand, would tell me to quit being a spoiled brat and listen to
Dad. Since neither Liam nor any of my friends knew about the prophecy, my potential rant would make no sense to them.

I
called Violet. She answered on the first ring.

“Grounded again?”

Instantly irritated with her mocking tone, I thought fast. “I’m actually calling to speak to your husband.”

“Whatever.
Which is why you called my phone, and not his. But… here you go.”

I heard her speak in the distance before Logan picked up. “Hey, Red.”
I heard Violet complaining in the background.

“Does she know that it’s after midnight, and I have a
six-month-old baby who
never sleeps?
”

I ignored her.
“Logan, my parents are crazy.”

“Go on.”

I sensed the reproach in his voice, and immediately softened, embarrassed. “I mean, they’re not
crazy
… I understand why they do what they do. But… I just want to live a normal life. I just want to grow up, and get older, and
live my life
, you know? A beginning, a middle, and an end. I don’t regret making you immortal, you know that Logan, I just wish I could just… be…
normal
.”