Secret Worlds (283 page)

Yeah, I remembered that part. The burning had remained hours afterward and no amount of rubbing or ice would make it stop. As a child, my mother had kissed both chakra points with a smile. She’d told me we all had to endure this and this was one of life’s little lessons. It never prepared me for the hardest lesson I’d ever had to face.

I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. It started out as a small sting, like small pinpricks where Aunt Jo’s fingers touched me. The feeling spread and formed into heat. The burning began to swirl clockwise along my chakra points. I scrunched up my closed eyes and gritted my teeth.

My mother’s face came into view. Her blue eyes crinkled at the corners as her face lit up in a smile. She held her arms out to me.
Dance with me, Cassi.
An orange light flashed behind my eyelids as a pressure built up in in head. I saw my mother again. This time she rested her hand on with her hand on the handle or our front door with a pained frown. She’d been about to leave on another mission. I begged her to stay and to send someone else. Didn’t she have that power? She was the Pyrrha, after all. She’d ruffled my hair and told me that we all had our duty.

And look where your duty got you, Mom
.

A dark purple light flared, and I gasped. My whole head sizzled, and the pressure rose in my mind. It had to break. If it didn’t, I would burn into nothing. I wrenched away from Aunt Jo’s fingers and sat up. My momentum sent her toppling over on her side. She propped herself up on one elbow and glared at me. My nails dug in the rubber mat, leaving indents, as I panted with sweat dripping from my face.

“Now we’re gonna have to start all over,” Aunt Jo said.

“Today?” I croaked.

She shook her head. “Not enough time. Yer endurance is shit.”

“I don’t understand,” I said. “I shouldn’t have a problem with it.”

“Edurance isn’t just physical, Cassi girl.”

”What do you mean?”

She tapped her head. “Whatever’s blocking ya, is up here. Ya need to deal with it.”

“So, what? You’re looking for me to sit on a couch and talk about my traumatizing childhood?”

“If that’s what you need to do to stop being all but useless, yeah.”

I bit the side of my cheek and slid my gaze away from her.

She sighed, pushing up to a sitting position. “Look, I know what happened to yer mom was hard. Hell, it was pretty hard for all of us. She was the best in our family. Of our kind.”

I turned my head to hide the tears threatening to spill. “I doubt Aunt Dahlia feels that way. Once Mom was out of the way, she jumped to become the new Pyrrha.”

Aunt Jo sighed. “Ya gotta understand. This don’t stop. Dahlia was doin’ what she thought was right. She mourns yer mom in her own way.”

Two days after I’d lost my mother, Aunt Dahlia had moved her family into our house. I’d been forced into a smaller bedroom, while her twin daughters, Hadley and Lacey, had taken over mine. I understood the logic of all of now, but back then I’d felt a little like Cinderella. That, along with her cold bitch attitude, made sure that neither of us saw eye to eye.

I stood up. “We should get going.”

I lifted Aunt Jo back in her chair and pushed her out of the dojo. Her face remained pinched with disappointment during the ride back to her hotel. She wanted me to open up to her, but that wasn’t happening today. I’d already scraped at the old wounds enough. Dawn hadn’t broken the horizon, and already I wanted the day to be over. I pulled into the handicap parking space and helped her out. She gave me one last frown as she wheeled toward the sliding doors of the lobby.

“Same time tomorrow?” It would really rock if she had a meeting or something.

She glanced back with a raised eyebrow and pinched mouth.

“See you tomorrow then.” I hunched my shoulders and climbed back into my car.

I drove home humming one of those catchy tunes I didn’t know the name of and tried to push the last two hours from my mind. The whole day lay ahead of me with classes and friends.
And maybe chance meeting with Mercer.

I sighed. I hadn’t seen him since my fight with Serenity last weekend. Of course, I still hadn’t seen much of Serenity, either. I needed to talk to her, to apologize, but she’d kept a locked door between us since the argument. I would be patient. She couldn’t avoid me forever.

I parked my car in front of my apartment and hopped out. The first rays of the sun pierced the sky, turning it to a mix of orange and purple. A shower and a cup of coffee would help wash the remnants of the morning away.

The hair on the back of my neck stood up on end. Someone was watching me. Again. I scanned the parking lot with narrowed eyes. Had that creepy janitor found out where I lived?

The bushes in front of the dumpster shook with a violent rattling. I reached in my backseat and pulled out a metal baseball bat. Even though I excelled at hand to hand combat, it was always a good back up plan to have a weapon. After all, dogs were harder to fight with bare hands.

I crept to the bushes with the bat raised. The stench that surrounded the trash clogged up my nose. This went beyond the sickly sweet smell of rotten food. Death and decay permeated the air. I took a step back and gagged, pressing the back of my hand to my mouth. The bushes shuddered again, followed by a metal bang as something hit the trashcan. I crashed through the shrubbery with a warrior princess cry, only to find … nothing.

I scowled. What the hell?

A movement beyond the chain-link fence flashed in the corner of my eyes. Someone had disappeared behind the alley. The morning light shone down at something clumped among the bushes. I squatted down for a closer look.

Auburn hair lay caught in the branches along with a bit of rotten scalp.

“Why are you crouched in the bushes?”

I jumped up and spun around with my bat raised. Serenity stood a few feet away with a trash bag in one hand. She took a couple steps back with her arms and eyebrows raised. I lowered my bat and let out a long breath.

“Don’t scare me like that,” I said.

“Have you decided to start a one-woman neighborhood watch or something?” she asked.

“No, I thought I heard someone hiding.” I scanned the alley behind the fence again.

She walked to the dumpster and tossed the bag in, keeping her sanity-questioning gaze on me. “Right. Why would anyone be hiding in the bushes at dawn?”

“I—” I bit my lip. Would she even believe me? “I thought someone was watching me.”

She smirked. “You know the world doesn’t revolve around you.”

“This isn’t a joke,” I snapped. “First there was this creepy janitor at school. And someone was here.”

She frowned as she studied my face. “You think he found out where you live?”

I glanced down at the hair, its auburn strands gleaming in the morning light. “No, I don’t think it was him this time.”

She crossed her arms. “You have two people stalking you?”

Maybe telling her wasn’t such a good idea. I couldn’t really explain that whatever was after me was a badass evil spirit from myth. I stood up straight and shook my head with a forced laugh.

“Sounds dumb when you say it out loud,” I said. “I’m probably imagining things.”

She snorted and turned back to our apartment. I caught up with her after a few feet, sticking my hands in my pockets as we walked across the cracked asphalt to the stairs. I’d wanted a chance to make up with her, and here we were with no doors between us.

“So, how are things?” I reached for anything to restart the conversation. “How is the project coming?”

“It’ll be a lot better if James shows up today,” she said. “He’s ditched all weekend, and we were supposed to catch up.”

“I saw him yesterday,” I said. “He was acting weird.”

“You’re saying he wasn’t an ass?”

“It would take the end of the world or something for him not to be an ass to me.” I crossed my arms. “More like he was depressed and upset you were better than him.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m so tired of their whining. They need to get over it or get better. Whatever.”

I touched her arm as we reached our door. “Hey … I’m sorry for before. I am here for you, and I’m not taking anyone’s side over yours.”

She sighed and pushed a lock of her brown hair behind her ear. “I know that you don’t intend to. It’s just he has a habit of turning people to his side.”

I lower my head as heat rose to my cheeks. “Yeah … he’s just got that magnetic personality.”

“You have no idea.” She shook her head. “Look, I’m not going to tell you who to date, but I’ve seen what happens after he’s moved on. And trust me, he will move on.”

I bit my lip as my heart constricted. Serenity had always been my voice of reason, but this time she may have been too late. Either way, this would hurt. I leaned my forehead on her shoulder.

“Already?” she asked. “Oh babe, I’m sorry.”

I gave her a sad smile. “Not completely. It’ll probably hurt worse if I let things go on.”

She patted me on the back. “I’ll buy some ice cream, and we’ll spend tonight playing video games.”

“What about the project?”

She shrugged and opened the door. “Screw it. I’ve done most of the work. If it’s late, it’s late.”

I chuckled. “I’m sure your teammates will be panicking. All right, it’s a date.”

She grinned. “Dibs on the shower.”

“Ugh! Sneak.”

I kept my mock outrage up as she raced to the bathroom and shut the door. After several minutes, the water started. Now was my only chance before more people started coming out. I grabbed a Ziploc baggie and a pair of tongs and headed back downstairs.

The parking lot remained empty in the early morning as I strode to the bushes. Trying not to gag, I snatched the clump of hair from the bushes and sealed it in the bag. The tongs landed in the dumpster with a thunk. Serenity probably wouldn’t even notice they were missing. I flipped open my phone and dialed Aunt Jo’s number. It rang once and switched to voicemail.

“This is payback for ignoring your calls, isn’t it?” I said after the beep. “I think there’s a daimon following me. I found something … completely gross near my apartment. Call me.”

I raced up the stairs. Serenity was still in the shower. I dug around the kitchen until I found the mini cooler we’d bought for a road trip last summer. In went the bag of gross followed by most of the ice in our freezer. I stood with my hands on my hips and admired my work. This wasn’t going to last. Even though it was late September, the heat would melt that ice within a few hours.

What the hell was I going to do with this thing? I couldn’t leave it in the car, and the fridge and freezer was right out. I could just see Serenity opening it up. The running water stopped, and I stiffened. I grabbed the handle of the cooler and shut myself in my room.

I needed to get it to Aunt Jo. She would figure out what we were dealing with. Screw it. I would take it with me and slip over to her hotel during the break between my first and second class. I slipped a sundress with red and pink roses, ran a brush through my hair, and headed out the door with the cooler. Today was a no makeup day.

I tapped on the steering wheel as I waiting on the light near the university, glancing in the review mirror for the twentieth time. Was that a cop car? Little pricks traveled up my spine, and my heart raced. I pulled into the college’s lot and let out the long breath I had trapped in my chest. I grabbed my backpack and hurried onto the quad.

“Cassi.” Mercer’s voice traveled across the lawn.

I stopped, gripping my backpack and blinking in the bright morning light that blazed behind him. The first few buttons of his shirt were open, hinting at the hard lines of his pectorals, and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. He sprinted in my direction with a wide smile on his face. I licked my lips as my stomach fluttered.

“Hi.” Did that sound squeaky?

He grinned. “Hey. Long time no see.”

“Just the weekend,” I said. “Before was the retrospective.”

“Yeah.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “About that, I want to apologize. I don’t want to get in between you and Serenity.”

I snorted. “I think that’s the only thing there’s mutual agreement on.”

He cleared his throat. “So am I forgiven?”

I shook my head. “You’ve done nothing wrong to me. All that is between you and Serenity.”

“Then we’re good.” His smile returned. “Then, are you free this Saturday? There’s a concert being held at one of the parks nearby.”

“The one by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra?”

“Yeah, I thought it might be something we both enjoy. I’ll even bring dinner.”

I glanced away from his eyes before I became too lost in their depths. Serenity’s words echoed in my mind. As much as I wanted to, this was going nowhere. At the end of the year, I would return home with my aunt, and he would head back to California. By the end of the summer, he wouldn’t even remember the college girl he’d wooed, no matter how special he swore I was. I glanced at my car. Besides, I had bigger problems to concentrate on.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said softly.

H tilted his head. “Is this because of Serenity?”

“No,” I said. “Maybe. A little.”

He followed my gaze across the parking lot and back to me. “Is something wrong? You seem nervous.”

“Nothing.” I snapped my gaze back at him. “It’s just things aren’t going to work out between us.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “You decided this after one semi-date?”

“And a few other things.”

“You just said you weren’t angry.” He crossed his arms.

“I’m not, but this isn’t going anywhere. I don’t want to be another girl you leave behind.”

He stepped closer, his green eyes trapping me. “Have I ever hinted you would be?”

“I see how fast you go through women by the news alone.” I gave a small high pitched laugh. “Your reputation speaks for you.”

He stuck his hands in his pockets, and his jaw tightened. “Serenity.”

“She said something, but it’s nothing I couldn’t figure out. It’s better if we just keep this professional.” I turned away.

He grabbed my arm at the elbow. “Cassi …”