The 13th: Destiny Awaits (13 page)

“Well, yeah. Don't you? I mean, you like me, too, right?”

Now it was her turn to blush.

“You do, right?” He tugged on the strand of her hair. “Just a little bit?”

He liked her. Something akin to happiness awoke deep inside her soul, warming her from inside out. “Maybe -- just a little bit.”

Were they now dating for real or weren't they? Kate gazed at Ethan, who was demonstrating a move with a staff that she was supposed to memorize and repeat. Yesterday Sandra had loudly cut short their little heart-to-heart, and then when he had driven her home, she was so embarrassed that she escaped from the car before they had a chance to talk more thoroughly. Now, the day after his confession -- if it could even be called that -- it seemed like it had never happened.

“Pay attention.” Ethan set the staff against his side.

She stifled a yawn as her eyes slid over the pictures of jujitsu masters hanging on the white walls of the dojo. “Why don't we practise meditation instead?”

“Because you'll just fall asleep. Look, you’re already yawning.”

“It's too early for me.” She should have rejected him when he appeared at her doorstep at seven in the morning, but he had made too much racket with the doorbell and phone ringing for her to be able to ignore him. And he had brought breakfast.

“The dojo is occupied in the afternoon and you have something later, don’t you?”

Today was Saturday, but she didn't have the courage to drive to the sanatorium, let alone climb up the stairs and push open the door of her mother's room.

What waited for her behind that door? She tried not to think about it, but it haunted her anyway.  As she lay in bed at night she could hear the echo of her mother’s voice so clearly:
Monster! Get away from me!

“What's wrong?” A hand descended on Kate's shoulder, making her flinch.

Holding a stick in her hand, she clumsily hugged herself and glanced up at him. “When are you going to teach me the next spell?”

“You are three dates short.”

“Didn’t you say we should make the dates real?”

“What does ‘real’ have to do with it?” He tilted his head, and his fingers sneaked across the curve of her shoulder and up her neck while a naughty smile curled his lips.

“What are you doing?” She stepped backwards.

“What do you think I am doing?” He gently tugged her closer, his gaze burning into her.

“Being a jerk, what else?” She couldn't take her eyes off him.

“A jerk?” He towered over her, that smile, that half-grin that could so annoy her still playing on his lips as he bent over her.

“Yes, a jerk.” Her free arm wanted to wrap around his neck on its own, but she stubbornly fisted her hand and held it against her side. She shouldn't allow him to sweep her off her feet as he did, but despite her efforts, his touch tightened her chest with what felt like joy, a feeling she had almost forgotten. And somehow she felt the need to run or to dance or to raise her arms high and laugh. Maybe she’d finally snapped and was really going crazy.

He embraced her shoulders, the staff he held bumping against her back, and his mouth brushed against hers.

The sound of coughing made them jump apart.

“This is a dojo, not a dance club,” said an older man dressed in white pyjamas like they were --
gi
, Ethan called it -- with a black belt around his waist. He crossed his arms while he scowled at them from the edge of the padded surface.

“I'm sorry, Sensei.” Ethan stepped away from Kate. “It won't happen again.”

“It better not. This is space for training, not flirting.”

“Yes, Sensei.”

“Good.” Sensei then walked away, but not before he told Ethan to come by his office after the lesson.

“What do you think he wants?” Kate asked him.

“Who knows?” Ethan shrugged his shoulders, then focused on her. “Now, where were we?”

She felt warmth creeping into her cheeks.

A half-smile stretched his mouth. “I didn't mean
that
.” He raised his eyebrow as he smirked at her before resuming their practise.

“You really are a moron,” Kate murmured under her breath.

“What did you say?” The curve of his mouth grew.

“Nothing.” Kate curled her upper lip in a smile dripping with insincerity, thinking for a moment about rebellion, but when he started to show her the moves, she obediently followed his instructions because that was easier. After they finished and she changed clothes, she waited for him on the bench against the wall facing the mats. She could see Ethan crossing the hallway as he went from the office into the changing room. He emerged from it minutes later with a frown marring his face.

“What's up?” Kate stood up and joined him as he passed her on his way out.

“He requested I take on two new students.” He opened the door and waited until she went past him to close it.

“But this is good news. You do want more students, don't you?” She pushed her hands into her pockets and observed the empty street and greyness of the morning sky. It was supposed to rain today.

“There's a catch.” He hooked his arm through hers and they crossed the road on their way to the parking space.

“What?”

“Can you guess who the students are?”

She scrutinised his face, the deep crease in his forehead and sharp lines around his mouth. “Who?”

“The daughter of Sensei's dear friend and her blonde girlfriend.”

“Not Sandra?”

Ethan released her and unlocked the car. “I'm afraid so.”

Would it be bad if she laughed? “So when are you going to start your lessons with Sandra?”

“You mean ‘when are we going to have lessons together with her’?” He slid behind the wheel.

“Oh, no.” She shook her head as she joined him in the car. “You are on your own in this.”

“You can't leave me.” He turned toward her, his baby blue eyes wide. “You can't.”

She shook her head again, then fastened her seat belt. “No.”

“Kate, come on.”

“No.”

“You can't leave me with her, please.” Ethan used his pleading expression on her, his fingers wrapped around her hand. “Please.” He fluttered his eyelashes at her.

She felt sorry for him -- well, not really. “No.”

“Don't be like that, please,” Ethan whined.

Kate sighed and rubbed her temple. “You know how she is with me.”

“You should stand up to her.”

“And make matters worse? No, thank you.” It was far easier to be impassive.

“I'll protect you.”

“Yeah, and that would help me how?”

“Could you just be there with me then, please?”

“I don't want to.”

“Please, Kate.”

“And you can't make me, not even with those pleading eyes of yours.” She set her jaw. She wouldn’t submit to him. She wouldn’t. “Now, are you taking me home or do I have to walk?”

“I'll pay you double.”

“Do I really have to walk?” Kate’s fingers brushed against the door handle.

“Please, Kate.” The squeeze of his fingers around hers tightened. “I'll do anything. Anything!”

Anything? Her gaze studied his face. “One spell for each lesson.”

He released his hold on her and shifted backwards.

“You said ‘anything.’”

He scratched the back of his neck. “One spell for four lessons.”

She unbuckled the seat belt.

“Three, then.”

She opened the door.

“Fine,” he spat out. “One for two but that's as far as I go.”

But since their four-dates-for-one-spell deal still applied, she would probably have to be there for a maximum of eight to twelve lessons with Sandra. She could survive that many, or so she hoped. She closed the car door.

“Blackmailer,” he grunted.

“Look who's talking.”

“I have always bribed you, I never blackmailed you.” He started the car.

She leaned back in the seat and secured the seat belt. “I would say that’s a matter of perspective.”

#

Kate lifted her arms, rose on her toes and bent her body left, then right, making imprints in the blue floor pad with her feet, imitating the move Ethan had showed her a moment before.

“Again,” Ethan, who had his back to her, said to the two girls that stood at the far end of the padded surface.

They grimaced, but they squatted down and rolled regardless.

This had been their third lesson with additional students. Sandra and Julie rolled across the padded surface and learned how to fall, with Sandra using every opportunity to drape herself around Ethan. Like she did now, after they finished with rolls. She wrapped herself around Ethan's shoulders and held onto him tightly, not bothered by Ethan's subtle attempts to shake her off.

It would have been funny if not for -- what was that sharp stabbing pain in the left side of her chest? It was quite annoying.

When Ethan finally got rid of the human vine, he joined her and hissed, “You could at least do something.”

“Like what?” From the floor, Kate picked up the staff, planning to repeat some of the forms Ethan had taught her before. If Ethan wanted to get Sandra off his back, he should be more strict and unpleasant to her. Right now he was way too nice to her, considering he said he disliked her attention.

“At least look jealous.”

Jealous? Could that pain be -- No. No. She couldn't be jealous of Sandra, especially not since she knew how troublesome Ethan found Sandra's attention. Or so he said. “If you teach me a spell today, I might.”

“Just for looking jealous? You'll have to do better than that.”

This was bound to get her in trouble with Sandra, but if she could get the name of a spell out of it... “But darling,” Kate said loudly as she put her hand on his shoulder. “You don't have to explain anything to me, not when I know how much you love me.” She glanced at the girls, giving them a wide smile, then whispered to Ethan, “How does that sound?”

He gave her a thumbs-up.

“Worth a spell?”

“If you add a date to it, it might.”

A date, huh? “Fine, but only if we practise meditation next lesson.” But would that date be real or fake? And what was the difference anyway? So far they had only gone out on one date after his proposal that the dates become real, and it wasn’t any different from the fake ones. At the end he hadn’t even given her a goodbye kiss. Not that she wanted one. The most they’d done was hold hands, but they had been doing that before.

“Okay.” Ethan's fingers grazed her cheek. “Why are you blushing?”

“Am I?” She pressed the back of her hand against her face. “It's nothing.”

Sandra shoved against the side of Kate's body as she passed her. “Ethan. I don't know how to do the throw. Should I press my left hand against my body when I curl up, or my right?”

He leaned over Kate and whispered, “I better go before I forget that this isn't a club.”

What was that supposed to mean -- Oh. Kate's face heated even farther.

“Ethan!” Sandra released a high-pitched sound.

“I heard you the first time.” Ethan straightened. “It doesn't matter which hand; it's a tuck and roll. Tuck and roll. Let me show you again.” He grabbed the fabric of Sandra's shirt and dragged her to the middle of the training area, where he showed her how to fall down, with his chin tucked and his body half-curled so that the fall continued into a roll as he hit the ground.

As their lesson progressed, Ethan looked more and more irritated, and after the lesson, on their way to Kate's house, he confessed, “This is getting tiring.”

“Yes, I can imagine.” Kate’s eyes followed the movements of the wipers that pushed the raindrops to the edge of the windshield, where they glided down. After five minutes on the road it had started to rain quite heavily. The forecast said that it was going to rain the whole week. She didn't mind the bad weather that much -- actually she liked it. She enjoyed watching the drops sliding over glass, making tiny waterfalls, and she liked the sound of rain against a window; it always sounded to her like nature's lullaby.

“I told her quite clearly that I'm not interested, I was almost rude, but she...” Ethan shook his head. “How can a person be so pushy? Doesn't she get that she's only making herself more unwanted?”

He called his feeble attempts at distancing Sandra quite rude? She would have told him what she really thought of them, but then he might think that she really was jealous. “There are people out there who believe that they are entitled to everything they desire. She seems to be one of them.”

“It's annoying.”

“You know what's even more annoying?” Kate didn't wait for him to answer. “They usually get what they want.” That's how it had been with Sandra until now, and even now... Ethan was much too nice to her.

“What about you, Kate? Do you ever get what you wish for?”

“Not usually.” But she might; she would know that as soon as she tried the spells on her mother's room.

“And what do you wish for?” He stopped the car at a red light.

“For you to teach me those spells.” So that she could free her mother of her insanity.