Sweet Temptation (4 page)

I lift my hands and laugh in the face of her adorable show of sassiness. Perhaps I'm having a bit too much fun with this whole thing, but I can't help myself. It's just so ridiculous. I'm determined to out her by any means. Intimidation hasn't worked, so it's time to turn on the charm.

“I'm terribly sorry, Anna. I've forgotten my manners. I thought you were . . . someone else.”

I stick out my hand. “I'm Kaidan Rowe.”

She pulls a hand away from her side and takes mine. Hers is soft and cool and seems right at home in mine, which is an idiotic thing to think. This little Neph is having bizarre effects on me. I stare into her eyes wondering how she can hide her deceit so well.

I'm about to pull my hand away when hers suddenly warms . . . and she full-out blushes. Un-fucking-believable. How did she get herself to do that? I've never seen a Neph blush in my life. Her aura is going mad again, lust winning out as the dominant color. And just to be sure she isn't simply an expert at mind games, I open my sense of smell and let it surround her.

Oh damn. Definitely giving off pheromones.

She smells divine. Like a fresh pear. And some dainty flower I can't put a name to. That's gonna bug me.

Right. I chuckle at the craziness of it all and slowly take my hand back. I'm about to tuck my sense of smell away when I get an idea. One more test to see if I can get her to admit to being Neph. I search down the street, bypassing foul city
scents until I find what I'm looking for.

“Ah, smells good. There's nothing like American hot dogs. I think I'll have one later.”

She looks at me like I'm crazy and says, “I don't smell anything.”

“Really? Lean toward the door some. Breathe a bit . . .
deeper
.”

I can tell she knows what I mean. Her face tightens in concentration and her little nose slightly flares until I know she's smelled it. One mile away. I wait for her to try to deny it, but she only shakes her head and blinks at me.
Yeah, that's right. . . . I can do what you can do, so let's cut the shite, shall we?

“Hmm. I suppose I was mistaken then,” I say with a healthy dose of sarcasm.

This has gone on long enough. I need to get some answers, out of the public eye.

One of the abandoned models takes this inopportune moment to approach, stepping between us. I whisper what she wants to hear—that I'll be over in a moment to take them home, and then we'll have all night. She walks away satisfied, while I feel anything but. I can't get out of work to chase this Neph girl, especially if I'm under some sort of surveillance. But I will find her. Her human “friends” are over there giving their information to our road manager. I'll find out where they live, what school they attend, what parties are happening in their area. . . . I have resources, and people give out a plethora of information on their social media accounts.

“Maybe I'll see you around, Anna. I'll be sure to give your boyfriend Jay's songs a listen.”

As I turn to walk away, I hear her say, “He's not my—” but I don't stop to listen. My beautiful dates are waiting none too patiently.

I listen from across the room as the bloke Jay goes back to her, inquiring about me. I almost spit my bourbon through my nose when he says, “Man, y'all looked like you were gonna rip each other's clothes off!” and she hits him. Instead I make eye contact with Anna one last time and wink at her. Damned if she doesn't blush again before turning quickly to leave.

She deserves an Oscar, that girl.

I try to give the models my full attention, but all I can think about is Anna. I listen to her conversation as they drive away. She's just about to ring someone named Patti when they exit my range of hearing.

“Freesia!” I say aloud when the name of the flower finally comes to me. She'd smelled of pears and freesia.

The models give one another funny looks and giggle.

I shake my head. “Sorry. Don't mind me.”

They laugh now and I grin, feeling like an idiot—an unfamiliar feeling for me.

Intrigue like I've never experienced floods me, and I don't like it. Everything about her screamed of innocence, but that's impossible. Her sudden appearance in my life will drive me to distraction, something I cannot afford. Still, I know I will replay our meeting for days—the images—her all-natural appearance, her open expressions and colors, and her seemingly authentic friendship with a human boy.

Either this Neph has some twisted, ingenious plan to
entrap me, or she truly doesn't know what she is. If that's the case, it means serious danger for her. Not that I should care. Not that I
do
care. I'm intrigued is all—enough to know that I won't rest until I find out more about this mysterious Anna.

“Burning mud in my eyes,

Blinding me from the truth.”

—“Long Way Down” by Robert DeLong

I
'll admit, I've been stalking the hell out of the bloke called Jay. I cannot find a trace of Anna online, other than a list of choir award recipients from two years ago. But Jay has accounts on damn near every social media site available.

Today he posted:
Raise your hand if I'll see you shaking your stuff at Gene's party tonight!

That started a quick strand of comments—
I'm so going! . . . Gonna be tight. . . . I've heard his lake house is awesome! . . . Everyone's invited! . . . Anyone know the address?

Bingo. Someone posts the address and I lock it into my mobile.

That night, with my bandmate Raj at my side, we roll up
to the house on Lake Allatoona with nearly every other high schooler in the Atlanta area. Raj immediately heads down the stairs toward the smell of marijuana. I search the party with my hearing and find Jay—he's loud and surrounded by laughing girls—but there's no sign of Anna.

As I walk into the kitchen and glance out the window, I see why. She's outside talking with a bloke.

“Hey.”

I look in the direction of the husky, sexy voice and see the speaker next to me. She's got a drink in one hand, her other elbow leaning back against the counter. She's a rocker girl with a streak of pink in her hair and plump, hot-pink lips. She's wearing all black, in fishnets and boots.

She looks fun.

“Hey, yourself,” I say. I glance out the window again. Anna and the kid appear to be stargazing or something. Her aura is blasting a nervous gray with orange bursts of excitement. So strange.

Rocker girl doesn't smile. Her aura is fuzzy, so she's either been drinking a good bit or smoking downstairs, but she doesn't wobble or show any signs of being impaired except for her heavy-lidded eyes draped in silvery-gray liner.

“Never seen you before,” she says. “I'd remember.” She reaches up a hand with chunky rings and flicks the hair above my eye. “I like your hair.”

I look at her neon-pink streak, a stark contrast to the black locks around it. “I like yours more.”

She keeps a straight face, too cool to smile, but her eyes momentarily glint. She reaches up again, and this time runs
her fingers along the side of my hair before scratching behind my ear. I want to wag my tail for her, but I'm too distracted. I glance out the window again and she drops her hand.

“That chick is weird,” Rocker Girl says. She's looking out at Anna now, too, and she sips her drink.

“How so?” I ask.

She shrugs. “I mean, she's nice, I guess. Just kind of . . . freaky. She stares a lot. Doesn't talk much.”

Interesting.

“You're in school together?”

“Yeah, for, like,
ever
. Anyway—”

Raj bursts through the crowd. “Yo, Kai. Got us some goods.” He holds up his hand with some pills and bumps Rocker Girl's arm.

“Hey, watch it!” she says, holding up her drink and wet hand.

“Sorry . . .” He looks her over. “Damn, you're hot.”

Without looking away from her, Raj thrusts a pill my way, probably X, and I slip it into my pocket.

“What's your name?” Raj asks her.

“Mandie.”

“Cute name. I'm Raj. Bass for Lascivious.”

She appears unimpressed, but I can see the swirl of orangeish-red attraction and excitement in her aura. “That's a band, right? Yeah, I've heard of you guys.” Rocker Girl takes in his black fauxhawk and the myriad of piercings on Raj's face and ears. She bites her black thumbnail between her teeth, as if considering him. Again, her eyes are alight, but she won't crack a smile. Raj looks at me with his eyebrows raised, asking
permission. I nod and turn back to the window.

Anna and the bloke are gone.

“Shite,” I mutter. I lean forward to see more of the back deck, but other people are spilling outside now, and I don't see her anymore. I leave Raj and Rocker Girl, and Raj's laughter follows me as I push through the crowd. I stop and lean back against the entrance of the main hall when I catch sight of Anna's long, honeyed hair heading down the basement stairs. I won't lose her again. I bubble my hearing around her and I spot the guy she was with, standing at the kitchen island.

Several things happen in the next few minutes that I cannot make heads or tails of. Anna seems genuinely freaked out by the drug use downstairs and she hurries back up. The kid she's with slips a powdered ecstasy tablet into her drink. When he gives it to her, she downs it as he watches in smug enthusiasm. She
has
to know the drink was drugged. Any Neph would have been listening to their date and gathered that much. But she allows him to think she's clueless.

When she and her mates walk my way, heading toward the dance room, I think about hiding, but part of me hopes she sees me. Her friend catches me staring, but I pay her no mind. Anna's eyes are glazed and her colors have faded to a thin, blotchy mist of confusion. I resist the urge to grab her by the arm and pull her from the party.

She's only working
, I tell myself. I've been blitzed out of my mind countless times while working. So why doesn't this feel okay?

I glance into the dancing room, where the music is blaring. It's dark enough in there to need my night vision—my pupils expand and I take in the sight of Anna dancing. She's willowy
and graceful, and most definitely high. I can't stop watching her.

They walk past me again on their way back, and once again Anna does not look my way. Clearly the Neph girl is ignoring me. Her focus is unnerving.

The kitchen is too bright for me to remain hidden, so I stand around the corner and listen.

When Jay finds Anna, he is
not
pleased to find she's not sober.

“Are you drunk?! What the hell, Anna?”

“Jay . . . Please don't be mad at me!”

He's been trying to score with a different girl all night, so I don't think this is romantic anger he's feeling—it's a friendship thing. I don't get it.

And then her date comes back, his aura a mix of purple pride and red lust. Everyone laughs at everything he says, and looks at him like he's a demigod. Mr. Popular, no doubt. I want to take him outside and dunk his head into the lake a few seconds too long.

I watch as he takes Anna by the hand and leads her down the hall, past the dance room, up the stairs. I stand at the bottom of the stairs using my extended hearing to drown out the high volume of music and voices surrounding me. The bloke takes Anna into a room and closes them in. It sounds as if they're climbing onto the bed.

My heart is beating faster than normal, and there's a sour feeling when I swallow. I don't feel right. This
night
doesn't feel right.

Anna let herself be drugged and taken to a room—perhaps that's how she works, pretending to be the innocent victim and
allowing dodgy gits to believe they're taking advantage of her. So why are my instincts screaming at me to go up there and intercept her?

I stand at the bottom of the stairs, leaning against the railing and pretending to look at my mobile. I feel girls looking my way, brushing purposely against me as they pass, but I ignore them and focus on the conversation in the upstairs bedroom.

“Everything feels so soft,” Anna is saying in a dreamlike voice.

“When I'm on E,” Creeper says, “I always think everyone should be naked. Just like Adam and Eve.”

A burst of laughter escapes me. Did he just use a biblical reference to get laid? That was the absolute worst line in history.

But Anna gives a breathy laugh and says, “Just completely natural and happy.” I roll my eyes. I've been high on ecstasy and I know how sensitive your skin feels, but she sounds like Snow White or something. I wish she'd stop humoring little Dopey.

I'm getting impatient.

“You know, Anna,” Creepy-Dopey says. His voice has taken on a false silky quality. “It wouldn't take much for you to be more, I don't know, popular or whatever. . . . I mean, you're pretty, but you could be, like,
hot
. You know?”

Damn. Burn. Is he serious?

She sounds inexplicably sweet, not offended, when she responds. “I'm sorry, Scott, but even if I had the money, I just don't care about those things. I want people to like me for who I am. Isn't that what you want, too?”

I'm halfway up the stairs before I realize it.

Things are not adding up. This plonker's words, plus what Rocker Girl said, and Anna's friendship with Jay—what Neph chooses the “Unpopular” role? Especially when they're as gorgeous as she is?

“Have you kissed many guys?” Creepy-Dopey is asking.

I'm at the top of the stairs now, heart slam-dancing against my ribs. I don't feel right.

“I've never kissed anyone,” Anna says. I nearly snort with laughter at the lie, as sincere as she may sound. There's no possible way she's never been kissed.

“Not even Jay?” he asks.

“No way. He's like my brother.”

I've found their door and I'm standing in front of it.

“How long will this last?” Anna whispers. “This feeling?”

“About four hours. Then it takes a couple of hours to come down.” She makes a sad sound at his answer, and he says, “Anna?”

“Huh?”

“I want to be your first kiss.”

I grit my teeth and grip the door handle.

“Okay,” she whispers.

First kiss or fiftieth, doesn't matter—this guy's not getting any satisfaction under my watch. I wrench the handle down and kick the door open. They bolt upright on the bed.

“What the—” Creepy begins, shielding his face from the hall light, but I'm only looking at Anna, feeling a strange sense of relief. She squints at me.

“Ah, there you are, luv. Let's go, then.” I motion her toward
me with the flick of two fingers.

She stares, mouth open.

“Can you walk, or will I have to carry you?” I ask.

The guy finally sprouts a tiny pair of balls. “What are you doing, man?”

“I need a chat with Anna.” I'm watching her. She sort of smiles, dazed, then slides off the bed to stand.

“I'll be back,” she says to him.

Like hell she will.

“I wouldn't count on it, actually.” I enter the room and take her by the hand. We leave the bloke sputtering and red-faced with anger. He shouts at me, and I give him one hard-ass glance to shut him up before I slam the door behind us.

I hold her hand and lead her down the hall, down the stairs, through the party, onto the back deck, and down the steps leading to the dock and the water.

I am confused.

I don't enjoy being confused.

I pull her faster down the dock, where we can be alone. But when we get to the edge of the dock, I'm at a loss. I sit, and she carefully sits next to me. I can feel her eyes browsing me, and I let her. I stare out at the moon's reflection on the water.

I've never met a Neph who doesn't act like one. She doesn't hide her colors. She is kind to people, even when they're deceptive to her, and there seems to be nothing in it for her. She appears to have a true friendship with a human, Jay. She says and does things that no Neph would dare say or do. And then there's the part about her having no money, which can't be true. Either she doesn't know what she is or she's got the most
twisted and ingenious working profile I've ever seen. To have two completely opposing possibilities is mind-bending.

A breeze blows across the water and Anna shivers.

“Who are you?” I ask, just as I did when we first met.

She pauses. “I don't know how you want me to answer that.” It's almost like she feels bad about this. Then very suddenly, she gasps violently and her hands curl around the edge of the dock.

“What is it?” I ask.

“I think . . . It feels like it's starting to wear off. But he said four hours!” She stands on shaking legs and begins to pace, hugging herself around the middle and hunching over.

It takes me a moment to realize she's talking about the drug. She's coming down from the high, but she seems almost panicked about it. I stand and block her exit down the dock so she can't run. I need her to focus on me. Perhaps she'll be more open while she's still high.

I grasp her chin and lift her eyes to mine. We'll start with Neph basics. We never get ill.

“Have you ever been sick?” I ask.

She holds herself tighter. “Sick . . . ?”

“The flu. Tonsillitis. Anything?”

Her eyes grow larger and for that second she stands a bit straighter as she stares at me. Then her body spasms and she bends at the waist, grabbing her knees. It seems as if she's in true pain, but if it's an act I will not play the fool.