Sapphire: A Paranormal Romance (5 page)

“What the hell am
I going to do on Monday?” he said as he put Sapphire back down on her feet.  He
noticed, just barely, that she shivered as he did so.  “Come Monday, I am a
dead man.”

“No,” Sapphire
said, “I think your days of being pushed around are over, Jimmy.  You are a
new
man.”

“I’m a new man
because of you,” he said, taking her hand in his.  Her fingers were like ice,
and he shivered in response.  “I saw him touch you, and it was just like
something took me over.  I couldn’t do something like that again right now if I
tried.”

Sapphire shook her
head and then tilted it back, as if studying the sky for a moment, and then
looked at him again.  Her skin seemed paler than ever.  Her eyes were somehow
greener.

“No,” she said. 
“No, it was always inside you.  You were always capable of doing that.  You
just needed something to boost you a bit.  Now that you’ve found those reserves
of strength, you can find them again.”

He laughed and
they swung their arms, their fingers intertwined.  They neared the car and
George stopped leaning on the car door and started to get in.

“You will not
believe what just happened,” Jimmy said.

It took a few
moments to relay the story.  George drove, his mouth hanging open.  When Jimmy
finished, he broke into a laugh.  He laughed so hard that Jimmy was worried for
a moment that he was going to drive the car right off the road.

“You are such a
dead man come Monday,” he said, “but let’s just enjoy scoring one for our side
for the weekend, shall we?”

Jimmy laughed and
nodded.  He heard the musical tones of Sapphire’s laugh, as well, but it was
slightly different from the laughter she had exuded while at the dance.  Jimmy
felt her shiver again next to him.

“Are you cold?”
Jimmy asked.

Sapphire nodded. 
Her eyes were still bright, but there was something else behind them.  It was
as if she were suddenly worried about something.

“Here,” Jimmy
said, and removed his jacket.  He helped her put it around her shoulders.  Then
she moved in closer to him and he put his arm around her.  Her skin was
freezing.

“Thanks,” she
said.

They drove for a
bit more, and then George rounded a corner and began heading down the twisting
and turning road where they had originally picked up Sapphire.

“So Sapphire,”
George said,” where shall I drop you off?”

“You can drop me
off by the bridge where you picked me up,” she said.  “I want to walk the rest
of the way home.”

Jimmy frowned.  He
looked to his left and saw a puzzled expression on George’s face. 

“We can take you
to your front door,” Jimmy said.  “It’s not safe to just be walking on these
roads at night, Sapphire.”

She reached out a
hand and touched Jimmy’s cheek.  “Don’t worry, Jimmy.  I’m not far from the
bridge.  Just do me this last favor, please?”

Jimmy nodded.  He
felt an odd sinking feeling in his stomach.  Something was wrong, and suddenly
he shivered next to Sapphire.  It was as if the heat was being drawn out of the
car.

“OK,” Jimmy said.

He turned and
faced the front window.  The road rolled up into the headlights and seemed to
disappear beneath the car.  George was not driving nearly as fast as he had
been when they had driven to the dance.  Jimmy looked to the left and saw a
tense expression on George’s face.

They arrived at
the bridge all too quickly.  George pulled over, on the opposite side of the
road from where they had picked up the beautiful girl that sat next to Jimmy. 
The headlights washed over the railing of the bridge, but they did not do much
to push away the encroaching darkness.  It was as if the darkness had fingers
and it was reaching out towards them.

Sapphire opened
the door and stepped out.  Jimmy paused for a moment, and then looked at George
before sliding out the door after her.  She stood just outside the open door,
Jimmy’s jacket draped across her shoulders, as if she were waiting for him.

“I don’t know how
to do this,” Jimmy said once he was standing there in front of her.

She stepped closer
to him.  He could see her skin in amazing detail despite the shadows.  He was
shaking, but he didn’t feel cold.

“Thank you for a
wonderful night, Jimmy,” she said.

“Can I see you
again?” Jimmy blurted.  “I have to see you again.”

Sapphire’s face
seemed to darken and she looked down.  Then she looked back up, her smile
faltering, unsteady on her face.  Her eyes still sparkled, but there was
something different about her.  Jimmy felt a sudden overpowering feeling of
sadness wash over him.  It was all he could do to keep from weeping.

“Yes,” she said. 
“Meet me here, tomorrow night.  Come around sunset.”

Jimmy smiled. 
Sapphire smiled back.

“I’ll be here,”
Jimmy said.  “If I have to fight off the entire football team, I’ll be here.”

Sapphire giggled. 
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.  Thank you for a wonderful night, Jimmy.”

She closed her
eyes and her face moved closer to Jimmy.  Jimmy was taken aback for a moment,
and then he leaned in.  Their lips met.

Jimmy had seen
kisses presented with fireworks on television and in movies and cartoons. 
However, he had never believed that such a thing was actually possible.  That
all changed the night he kissed Sapphire.  At first her lips felt cold against
his, and her tongue felt like ice in his mouth.  Then there was a sudden
feeling of electricity, and an overwhelming feeling of warmth that passed from
Jimmy into Sapphire and then it was returned to him.  She pressed closer to
him, her arms wrapping around his waist.  He wrapped his arms around her; she
felt solid and alive beneath his fingers.  He felt time spin out and he could
swear he could feel the motion of the Earth beneath him.  For a moment, he had
the irrational fear that the planet would just fling them off, hurling them
into the endless void of space.  They felt connected, yet disconnected from
nature and everything around them. They were lost, together, in that moment,
and nothing existed save for Sapphire and her body beneath his hands and the
smell of her hair, which still smelled like whatever shampoo she had used that
morning. 

Then, just as
suddenly, it was over.  She pulled back and blinked at him.  She opened her
mouth to speak, but was unable to find her voice, and she closed her mouth,
opened it again, and then closed it again.  Then she laughed.

“Good night,” she
said.

Jimmy nodded and
then waved.  He hoped that by doing so he looked cool.  Inside, however, he
felt like he was about to pass out.  He staggered back to the car, grabbing
hold of the door to support his own weight when he reached it.

He turned and
watched her walk away, down the road, toward the bridge and then turned right,
heading past it to the small embankment that would take her down to the river. 
Jimmy had a momentary pause, a single doubt about where she was headed, and
then the remembrance of the feeling of her mouth against his filled his brain
again.  Sapphire turned back, just once, when she neared the embankment, and
then she disappeared down into the darkness toward the river below.  Jimmy got
into the car.

“How ya doin’
there, Valentino?” George said once Jimmy settled in.

“Shut up, George,”
Jimmy said. 

George snorted in
a way that, on any other night, Jimmy would have found annoying.  Instead,
George shifted into drive and headed back out onto the road.  Jimmy’s eyes
lingered at the spot where Sapphire had disappeared, and he turned his head and
continued to stare even as the car drove past.

“So,” George said,
“do you think that was the weirdest girl you’ve ever met or what?”

Jimmy laughed. 
“Why would you say that?”

George laughed
derisively.  “Why?  Did you just ask me why?  Well, let me run this down for
you.  First, we meet her on the side of the road, having never seen her before
in all of the years we have lived here.  Then, she doesn’t tell us where she’s
from and is evasive about her past for most of the night.  Somehow, she falls
for you, and then convinces you to dance all night, even skipping dinner,
something I have never seen you do. Ever!  Then she tells us to drop her off,
in the middle of the night, on the same side of the road where we found her
earlier in the evening.  Then, to top it all off, she disappears down the
embankment, which is completely uninhabited.  Did I miss anything?”

Jimmy sighed.  He
found he was having trouble erasing the smile from his face.  “Just that she
smelled like shampoo and soap and she was a great kisser.  Oh, and she wants to
see me again tomorrow night.”

George let out
another snorting laugh.  “Great.  Just be sure you have long arms so you can
reach around to pull the knife out of your back.”

Jimmy laughed. He
would normally have been mad at George, but he was feeling too good right now. 
He was still remembering the taste of her lips and the feeling of her hips
beneath his hands. 

George grumbled to
himself, but kept quiet the rest of the way home.  Jimmy barely noticed.  It
wasn’t until he was almost home that he discovered he had left his jacket with
Sapphire.

“Damn,” he
whispered.

“Just realized you
forgot to get your jacket back, didn’t you?” George said as he pulled onto the
road leading to Jimmy’s home. 

Jimmy nodded. 
“Guess I really have to make sure I meet up with her tomorrow.”

George sighed and
pulled into the driveway. 

“Good night,
George,” Jimmy said as he opened the car door.  “Thanks for driving.”

“Yeah,” George
said.  “It was interesting, to say the least.  See you tomorrow.”

Jimmy waved
absently.  He wondered if he would be able to get to sleep tonight.  In the
end, he decided he didn’t really care.  All that mattered was tomorrow, and
seeing her again.

Jimmy
awoke the next morning with a pounding headache.  He felt like he
had been drinking all night.  His mouth had that telltale cottony feeling. 
When he stood up, his entire world seemed to spin, and he sat back down on the
bed.  He held his head in his hands for a moment and then groaned.

“Time to get up,
Jimmy!” his mother said, pounding on his bedroom door.  These days she seemed
to prefer the knocking over the barging she used to do.  Jimmy guessed that she
probably thought she might enter the room to find him doing something she did
not want to see him doing.  He was a teenager now, after all.

“Right,” Jimmy
said and groaned.

His next coherent
thought helped snap him out of the doldrums. Sapphire.  He remembered the
feeling that kiss.  He remembered the feeling of her body in his arms.  Most of
all, he remembered dancing with her.  He had never loved dancing as much as he
did last night.

Jimmy realized he
was supposed to meet her again.  Tonight.  His heart raced and pounded harder. 
When that happened, his head pounded worse.

He shuffled his
way down the hallway and into the bathroom.  He stared at his reflection
dumbly.  His face looked the same, but he felt that, maybe, something was
different.  He remembered stabbing the football star in the hand.  His stomach
tied in knots.  He was going to have to pay for that at some point down the
road.  Still, he thought about Sapphire’s smile and he smiled, feeling like
maybe he could fight them off.  He would likely end up bruised and battered,
and might end up in the hospital, but they would know they had been in a fight.

He washed his
face, brushed his teeth, and decided to take a hot shower.  He also gulped down
four aspirin.  By the time he was headed down to breakfast, the headache was
starting to fade and his step had a slight bounce to it.

“Well?” his mother
asked when he sat down at the kitchen table in front of his bowl of cereal and
milk.

“Well, what?”
Jimmy asked from around a spoonful of cornflakes and milk.  He was grinning. 
He knew what she meant, but he was going to make her work for it.

“Don’t make me
smack your head into your bowl,” she said.  “How did the dance go?”

Jimmy ate another
spoonful of cereal, just to make her wait for a bit.  Then, he decided he had
tortured her enough.  He told her everything.  He told her about heading out
onto the road with George.  He told her about the mysterious girl on the road
and that her name was Sapphire.  He told her about the trip to the school and
the amazing night spent dancing.  The only thing he left out was the fight with
the football jocks at the end and the kissing.  There were some things a kid
did not tell his mother, and making out with a strange girl he had danced the
night away with was one of those things.

“Who is this
girl?” his mother asked when he was done.  By this time, she had sat down at
the table with him.  When she asked there was a tone of extreme concern in her
voice that Jimmy found odd.