The P.J. Stone Gates Trilogy (#1-3) (78 page)

Before I had a chance to react to the bomb of Morag being my birth mother’s sister, and therefore my aunt … the familiar feeling of being shifted through space washed over me and I lost focus.

Loud music assaulted my ears and a weird sensation of déjà vu washed over me. “Where are we?” I asked Morag as I took in the somehow familiar party scene. Why did it feel like I’d been here before?

“Like I said this might hurt a little, or a lot.” Morag laughed. “But how am I supposed to know, it’s never been done to me before. I’m always the one doing it to someone else.” She then reached up and pushed her palm against my forehead. “You won’t remember the you that you are now, when you are the you that you would have been if your birth mother, and my sister hadn’t placed Bryn in your path. But don’t fear, when I retrieve you then all will become clear.”

“What? Wait—” Alarm barely had a chance to register in me before a bright white light washed over me … and yep … a lot of pain.

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” I hissed at Jenna as I played with the hem on my much too long, unflattering dress. I tried rolling it up but then it looked uneven and cheap. But when I shifted the entire dress up on my body then I had too little cleavage showing . . . either way I had
way
too little skin showing. Little black dress my ass . . . how about
big frumpy
black dress.

“Oh hush. Sometimes it’s good to leave a little bit to the imagination. Besides you need to give some of us with short little stumpy legs a chance at getting noticed.” She motioned briefly to her legs. “And it’s too late now; we’re almost there.”

I gulped as Ryan’s house came into view, framed in the window of Jenna’s bright yellow Volkswagen Bug. She pulled up and parked at the curb turning to me with a serious face. “So . . . what do you think of the new hair color? Too much?”

She had gone from a dark purple color to a shade of red that matched most fire trucks. It would definitely turn heads; I just wasn’t sure in the way that she wanted. I tried to remain tactful though. “If attention is what you crave, then you definitely chose the right color.”

She frowned. “You don’t like it, do you?”

“It’s not that I don’t like it—it’s just—well I liked the purple better.” And that was very true. I liked the purple a whole lot better.

“But now we both get to be red heads.” Her peach glossed lips turned up in a smile. She really didn’t care that much that I didn’t like her new shade of hair, besides it’d probably change by next week. It was a wonder all of her hair hadn’t fallen out yet.

“Yeah, but only my shade of red can be found in nature,” I said dryly. Why anyone would purposely dye their hair red was beyond me. My natural color was a bright strawberry blonde, to which I had managed to darken to a nice auburn shade through the use of frequent Rainbow Henna applications. I was still stuck as a redhead, but at least I liked its current darker hue. As we exited her car and headed up Ryan’s walkway, I began fidgeting with my borrowed dress again. I felt like I was wearing someone’s grandma’s dress, and I suddenly wanted to go home very badly. “I don’t think I should be wearing this in public,” I grumbled more to myself than Jenna.

She turned a very annoyed face towards me. “Okay. I’m done. You look super hot, so stop complaining. I don’t wanna hear another word about it.” She reached up and turned the knob on Ryan’s front door. We were greeted by loud music and even louder voices. Jenna smiled up at me, took my arm and pulled me over the threshold. We’d barely made it two steps before she spotted Evan. “It looks like I have a date with destiny,” she said, dropping my arm and heading towards Evan with a huge grin on her face. When he saw her approach he let his eyes travel over her from head to toe, a grin of his own spreading across his face. Guess he liked what he saw and was going to take her up on her offer from earlier. I turned away abruptly, not wanting to see anymore. I had already been there and done that with Evan, and I had a little twinge of guilt for not letting Jenna know.

I decided to track down some beer to drown my problems, so I headed to the kitchen, all the way fidgeting with my dress. I grimaced to myself as I passed a group of guys I didn’t know and they eyed my dress speculatively. I smiled and flipped my hair in an effort to draw attention away from my fashion faux pas.

Once in the kitchen I beelined it straight for the keg and filled up a fresh plastic cup. I took a sip and crinkled my nose with disdain. “Natty Lite? Ugh. At least get a decent light beer, if there is such a thing.” I grumbled to myself. I managed to chug down the rest of the cup somehow. I had decided that I would make up for in volume what was lacking in quality with my beer option. As soon as I was finished I began pumping the keg for a refill.

As I polished off beer number two in less than five minutes I giggled to myself.
Oops … lookout, lightweight coming through
. I filled up a third cup of beer and then decided to head back into the other room to where I’d seen the group of boys on my way in. One of them would surely be up for some fun. I giggled again.

I found myself sitting on one of the couches, obviously I was buzzed, and I looked around in hopes of—oh—but wait it looked like what I was jonesing for might be seeking me out.

“Hey, pretty girl. How are you doing tonight?” A guy with longish sandy blonde hair and bright crystal blue eyes sat down next to me. He was one of the guys who had been eyeing me when I had gone in to get beer just a few minutes ago. He was kind of cute, and I could sense some power coming off of him. It was very faint though, and felt like tiny fingers running up and down my exposed skin, causing goose bumps to erupt all over me. I tilted my head to study him for a moment, like called to like, and I just knew.
Seer
—I mean he wasn’t—obviously—but I was picking up on the dormant power in his blood. Maybe he was exactly what I’d been looking for.

“Hey yourself.” I grinned at him feeling very relaxed. “What does it look like I’m doing?”

“It looks like you’re wasting that dress sitting all alone on the couch.” His eyes slid down over my body, but instead of feeling self-conscious like I did before, I felt empowered. I fought the urge to roll my eyes because obviously he needed his checked if he thought my dress was anything beyond frumpy.

“Well, what do you suggest?” I said with a giggle, choosing to ignore his lack of taste in women’s clothing.

“Come with me.” He grinned, pulling me up from the couch. Oh yeah, now things were starting to get good … at least I hoped. I smiled back at him and allowed him to lead me out the back door and farther off towards the edge of Ryan’s property where there was a small patch of woods. He pulled out a small flask from his pocket, took a swig and then offered it to me. “It’s Southern Comfort mixed with some lime.”

I took it from his hand and eyed it suspiciously, as if it would jump out and bite me. “Yeah, I don’t know, I’m already feeling kinda buzzed. I don’t wanna get sick, it could get in the way of
other things
.” I purred the last words suggestively.

He gave me an easy grin. “It’s just Southern Comfort, it’s not that strong, give it a go.”

Well, I guess I didn’t want the happy buzz I had going to wear off, so what would one little taste do to me? I brought the flask up to my nose for a quick sniff before taking a shot’s worth into my mouth. “Blak. That stuff is horrible.” I winced at the slight burn it left in its wake.

He took the flask from my hand and drank again, before screwing the top back on and replacing it in his pocket. I was still reeling from the horrible taste of the Southern Comfort when he pushed me up against a tree and shoved his tongue down my throat.

Now I was already feeling buzzed from the two beers I had chugged, add in the Southern Comfort, and toss in this guy throwing me up against a tree, and my whole world started to spin. “Hey,” My protest came out in a slur, as he started to slobber all over my neck. “Hey, wait a second! Stop!” I tried to push him off of me but he was a lot stronger than he looked. His hands were roaming all over my body, and when he reached down to hike up my dress, anger began to take over. “Stop,” I grated.

“Awe, come on baby, it’ll be good. Just relax.”

“No, it most certainly isn’t going to be good if you don’t slow the hell down!” The hands that were currently fumbling with the zipper on my dress stilled, but only for a moment.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be good baby.” The boy’s roaming hands slid up and skimmed over my panties and I sighed in resignation. Maybe he would be better than I thought he was going to be. A girl could dream, couldn’t she?

Throwing myself into the moment, and hoping for the best, I wrapped my long legs around his waist and ground myself against him. I needed relief, in fact lately, I always needed relief—I knew I was a hormonal teenager but sometimes I couldn’t help but feel that my needs were far more vast than some of my friends. But sex was sex … no one ever said feelings had to be involved. There was plenty of time to find that when I was older, if I was lucky.

I guess I must have spaced out a little, being buzzed more than I thought maybe, because I suddenly felt my current partner pushing into me. I of course was ready for him—I was always ready lately. And as he searched for his rhythm I again tried to just go with it. But before I could really begin to enjoy myself … it was all over.

“I told you it would be good, baby.” Mr. Two Pump Chump said with a smile as he righted himself and re-zipped his pants.

“For who?” I grumbled as I too attempted to right my clothes as well.

Either not hearing me, choosing to ignore me, or just not caring Mr. Two Pump Chump leaned over to give me a peck on the cheek. “Maybe we can do that again sometime? Can I maybe get your number?”

I guffawed. “Yeah, no, I don’t think so. That was a one-time ride for you. Not happening again.”

Before he had a chance to respond I strode off back to the party, still feeling a tad woozy. In the end it didn’t really matter. None of my partners ever seemed to make me crave a repeat visit, whether they satisfied me or not. I always felt like I was searching for something … something
more
.

“Time to come back now.” A female voice assaulted me from nowhere, and yet everywhere at the same time. Suddenly a bright white light ripped through my skull followed by blinding pain.

I came to awareness mid scream, but I wasn’t in pain anymore, at least not physically. Acute knowledge of what the night of Ryan’s party would have been like for me if I hadn’t known Bryn sped through my mind. That had been a pivotal time in my life, a night where all things had changed. I realized my love for Bryn and had my first premonition. “Are you telling me I would have been a slut without Bryn?” My face heated as an image of me having sex with some strange boy like it was no big deal passed before my mind’s eye. I never even asked him his name.

“A young female dragon just coming into her powers is a force to be reckoned with sexually.” Morag said with a knowing smile, to which I ignored in the interest of skeeve factor.