Sin of Fury (35 page)

She shot him a cautious
look before crossing her arms over her chest. “I can make brownies
whenever I want?”

The man froze, but only
for a millisecond. Still, it was enough for her to notice. He
turned his back away from her, head down low, and nodded. “Whenever
you want...make sure you share, though. I have a sweet
tooth.”

Jamie gave a short nod.
“Good. What kind of cereal do you got?”

“
Lucky Charms, mostly.
There’s some others in there, but I prefer them to other kinds.”
Same for her.

The kitchen was themed
deco. Stainless steel refrigerator, microwave, freezer, and oven.
It was the perfect place for a cook, with pots and pans hanging
from over the stove that was set up in the corner. Opposite the
pantry, there was a door with a large window, spreading from the
bottom of the floor to the top of the ceiling. When she looked at
it, fleetingly, she got shivers on the back of her neck.

“
There is only one rule
that you need to follow right now,” he said from behind her, having
moved back to the door they had come from.

“
What is that?” she asked,
moving away from the pantry.

“
You aren’t allowed to
leave this house after nine o’clock. It’s safe for you during the
day, but at night... I won’t have you leaving without my
presence.”

She wasn’t going to argue
with that.

He led her from the
kitchen, showing her parts of the house and then some. For a while,
she stayed silent and simply observed him. Once or twice, she would
catch him studying her, taking in her white pleated skirt that
reached her knees and her soft pink jacket, to her long black hair
that was pulled back in a ponytail.

Finally, he led her to her
room. Leaving her to get acquainted to the dark space, Jamie took
in her surroundings with a painful gaze. It was in no way like her
old room had been. Instead of her light pink walls, she now had a
black and teal floral pattern on her walls. While it was pretty, it
wasn’t what she was used to.

The bed was pushed against
the wall, a soft looking comforter laid out cleanly on the full
size mattress. Same as the walls, it had a teal floral pattern. Her
other bed had been so much larger.... Jamie sat on it, testing it.
Her other bed had also been a lot more softer.

She didn’t notice the man
standing in the doorway until he set down the suitcase just inside
of her room. He nodded his head at her, saying a quiet “Good night”
before turning to leave. Jamie frowned, realizing she had forgotten
something.

“
Hey!” she said, standing
up.

He turned and looked at
her with dull eyes. “Yes?”

“
I need a name for you,
remember?” She tried hard to make herself sound confident, when in
fact, her knees were shaking. Why was this so important to her? Why
did it feel like this was going to change her life for forever?
Jamie fought down the bile rising in her throat and met him head
on.

He didn’t give a fight.
Instead, he calmly looked at her and said, “Zyn.”

The door closed softly in
her face.

Chapter 16

Jamie woke up the next
morning with the smell of eggs and bacon wafting into her room. Her
window, the only one in the room, was propped open and the soft
chirp of birds made her smile.

It dropped the second she
realized that she wasn’t in her own room. Birds wouldn’t have been
chirping, and food wouldn’t have smelled as good as it did right
now. She hadn’t been allowed to eat in her room, and the kitchens
were a floor below on her, on the opposite side of the
house.

She sat up slowly,
throwing the covers off of her body. Her joints were stiff from how
cold it had gotten last night, and she could remember waking up
several times to grab the covers and pull them over her shivering
body. She scrubbed a weary hand over her face and closed her
eyes.

There was a knock on the
door and then it creaked it’s way opened, revealing Zyn, the guy
she was now going to live with till she could either find a way to
run away, or when she turned legal.

He was standing there in
dark jeans, a huge black hoodie, and his hair, as dark and as thick
as her own, sticking up in random places. Another bird chirped into
the awkward silence.

“
I see that you’re awake,”
he said with a forced casualness, wiping his hands on his
jean-covered legs.

Jamie stared at him and
then said, “Did you open my window?”

He looked awkward for a
second, then nodded. “It gets pretty stuffy in the mornings, after
all the cold. I figured you wouldn’t be used to it, so I came in
here and opened it for you. Plus, I always get a peaceful feeling
when I can wake up to what’s outside...”

Zyn trailed off at her
dubious look, then turned for the door again. “Eggs, bacon,
sausage, orange juice, and a plate of brownies are on the counter
if you’re interested. I didn’t eat any, so there’s a
lot.”

“
What if I’m not hungry?”
she asked, noticing how much of a brat she sounded like.

His shoulders tensed for a
second, and then he shrugged. His voice was emotionless when he
said, “Then dump it.”

And then he left, closing
the door behind him. She noticed that there was no other sounds
coming from the other side of the door. Either he hadn’t moved and
was listening to her like a creep, or he was the quietest man on
earth.

She chose to think the
latter and got to her feet, not at all surprised when the floors
creaked in unison with her back. She shoved her hands into her hair
and looked around for the pony tail that she had left in last
night. It was on her pillow, and while she pulled her hair back,
she went to her suitcase and pulled it open.

Her heart dropped. Figures
that her mother wouldn’t pack anything valuable for her. All she
had were jeans, sweatpants, and a pair of sandals and tennis shoes
with a couple of shirts that looked like they had come from
walmart. She searched for her favorite pair of jeans and almost
cried when she found them. Under the jeans, folded neatly, was a
piece of paper on top of a dark purple hoodie.

She froze.

Her mind warred on if she
should pick it up or not, but then she decided against it. It was
probably a note from her father, or something her mother had put in
there to make her life even worse than it was already getting. She
slammed the suitcase closed stood up, feeling like complete shit
and as she was living another person’s life.

She hid her tears and,
once she was done getting dressed, made her way to the kitchen.
True to his word, there was bacon and eggs, orange juice and
delicious-looking brownies on the counter. Jamie made a beeline for
the brownies and was just searching for a fork, a plate, and a cup
when the door opened.

Zyn stared at her, his
eyes taking on a look that she had never seen in any person before.
He swallowed and then opened a cupboard, revealing plates and
bowls. “The forks are in the drawer on your right,” he said
quietly, nodding his head in that direction.

She opened the drawer and
saw forks, spoons, knives, and other utensils. Jamie met his eyes
and tried to smile. “Thanks.”

The second her lip lifted,
his face closed up and she swore the flash of pain that she saw in
his eyes was because of her. Confused and almost guilty, she tried
to give him a real smile. “Are you going to eat at all?” She made
to grab another fork for him, but his voice stopped her.

“
I don’t eat. I made this
for you.”

Her face screwed up.
“Surely you eat. It looks as if you didn’t touch anything. Did you
have breakfast earlier?” She looked at the oven and saw that it was
only eight o’clock. Who the hell got up so early? she thought,
completely dumbfounded. He looked as if he hadn’t slept in days,
and now he doesn’t eat?

“
Sit down,” she said,
pointing at the table.

He looked at her,
affronted. “I...what?”

Jamie turned her back on
him and grabbed the pan of eggs and set it on the table. He backed
away from her like a beaten dog when she came near him, going to
the cupboard and grabbing two plates. “I said sit down. At the
table. You do know what a table is, right?” she asked, feeling
chagrin at what she was doing.

Zyn paused for a second,
then made his way to the table with unsure feet. It was obvious
that he didn’t want to, but she was grateful that he was at least
making an effort.

She set the plates on the
table, and then, remembering she didn’t know where the cups were,
asked, “Where are the cups?”

“
Two cupboards left from
the plates...”

Jamie could feel his eyes
on her, watching her. It wasn’t like a pedo look, like she had
thought at first. No, he was studying her, watching her movements
and how she did things. It was disconcerting, but she wasn’t going
to ask his reasons for the close study.

“
Thanks.” She set about
filling their plates with food, and then pouring them both a glass
of orange juice. She couldn’t help it when she put more brownies on
her plate than on his, though.

When he saw that, she was
graced with a deep chuckle that made her feel oddly...at home. She
ignored the tightness in her chest and sat down, picking up her
fork and then eating.

She realized, the fork
halfway to her mouth, that he hadn’t taken a bite. Instead, he sat
there with the fork in his hand, pushing the food around and
watching her. Jamie set her fork down and gave him a look. “I have
two questions for you...”

“
You can call me Zyn,” he
supplied, lip lifting slightly at her disgruntled look.

“
Alright. I have two
questions for you, Zyn.”

“
Ask away.”

“
One. Why are you not
eating? And two... well, I told myself I wasn’t going to ask, but
it’s starting to get to me. Why are you staring at me so
much?”

His face, just as it had
already several times before, became emotionless. Right when she
thought he was going to get up from the table and leave, he stabbed
an egg with the fork and brought it to his mouth. “I’m just not big
on eating. And for the other question...”

Zyn seemed to struggle
internally. His fingers, wrapped around the fork, tightened. Jamie
swallowed, trying to make light of the situation and taking a bite
of a brownie.

His voice was oddly
careful as he spoke. “I think, when the time comes, I’ll tell you
why.”

And that was the end of
it. They finished their meals in silence, and before she knew it,
he was cleaning up the kitchen and then exiting out of the door,
leaving it open behind him. She didn’t take it as a way of saying
“come out with me”, instead choosing to think that he just liked
his house to have natural air.

Jamie was convinced that
her mother would send for her, that her father didn’t mean his
hurtful words and would want her back. She waited a week...another
week...a month...three months...and still nothing.

By the third month,
though, she knew that she wouldn’t have gone. Zyn and her had
gotten much closer. They had a daily routine of going through the
forest, collecting things and watching the animals. Slowly, she
began to notice changes in herself. Her senses were more aware, her
eyes better in the dark than during the day.

She assumed it was because
of Zyn and the way he was, and that she was just reflecting him.
They held long talks, in which he would learn about her and her
life. He knew the name of every friend she had, the name of her
parents and the way her father had treated her, and he even knew
the name of her stuffed octopus, Sherman.

Still, as much as she knew
about him, she realized that she knew close to nothing about him.
Jamie still caught him watching her, had once found him in his room
with a frame and a piece of paper, just sitting there. Staring at
them.

That one time she had
barged in on him had been her last. The utter devastation on his
face had actually hurt her.

Jamie had had no clue that
anyone could hurt as much as he did.

And still, he took care of
her. He taught her how to be as silent as he was, showed her some
of the coolest things she had ever seen in her life, and had even
let her pet a real life bear. She could still remember how
terrifying it had been, but she had known Zyn would protect
her.

She knew he always would,
no matter what.

After the fourth month of
waiting for her family to get back to her, she realized that she
didn’t want them, nor need them anymore. She had Zyn. He had her.
They were their own family, and she didn’t think anyone could come
between them.

It was her fifth month
staying with him. They had just gotten back from their daily route
in the forest and she was worn out, tired, and happy. Zyn was
sitting on the couch across from her, legs crossed at the ankles,
hands folded on his lap. He was staring straight ahead, staring at
the wall.

“
What’s wrong?” she asked.
She was used to his silence, but it was different this
time.