The Stargazers (27 page)

The evening was moving swiftly toward twilight when Aster leaned her bike against the tree near the base of the burial mound. She saw Bryon’s car parked nearby and looked to see his silhouette at the top of the stairs. He raised his hand in a wave and her heart sw
elled in her chest, from both love and nerves
She took two steps at a time
most of the way up and fell into his arms, breathless and sweating
. “I’m so glad to see you,” she said, meaning every word but wanting to cry anyway.

“Same here. And look. I brought us a little surprise.”

Aster stepped back and looked down
. A
white sheet
was
spread out on the slate, on top of
which were two huge sandwiches
and a bottle of wine, along with a candle and a vase of pink fl
owers. The gesture was so sweet that
she teared
up immediately. “It’s perfect
.” She bent down to touch the flowers.

“Asters for Aster,” he said. “I got off a little early today so I could find them. They match your hair.”

She kissed him.
“I love them.”

They both sat down on the sheet. Aster brought out the loaf of bread Ruby had baked and sat it down next to the other food. 

“What’s that?” Bryon asked.

“Ruby baked some fresh strawberry bread this morning. Said it was a peace offering for being so tough on you in the beginning.”

He smiled and shook his head. “I don’t think I’ll ever understand that girl.”

Aster didn’t argue. The bread was still giving her a tinge of misgiving, but she was probably just feeling a bit bruised after everything that had happened over the last few days.

“Y
ou sounded a little upset over the phone today when you called. Everything okay?” He removed his sandwich from the wrapping and took a big bite.

Aster
, who had never felt less hungry in her life,
took a big breath
instead. If she was going to tell him
, now was the time.
“
I’m scared to death right now.
There is something about me you don’t know. Well, there’s a lot about me you don’t know.
” 
She poured herself a glass of from the chilling wine bottle, which was really just sparkling grape juice, and took a drink
to wet
her drying mouth. T
he bubbles stung her tongue.

“You don’t have any reason to be afraid, Aster. Trust me, you could tell me you had a kid or some incurable disease and I wouldn’t be scared away.”

“I don’t have a child
, though it’s funny you mention that, because that’s one reason I was sent here.”

“Sent here? Like, from another planet?” Bryon arched a humorous eyebrow.

“Still the same planet. But a different version of it, I guess.” She could feel the words backing up in her mouth like a log jam. Maybe telling him wasn’t the best way. Then her eyes spotted a bandage on his finger. “What happened to your hand?”

“J
ust a little cut. H
appens a lot on the job.
Man, this stuff just looks too good to ignore.
”  He unwrapped
Ruby’s
bread and tore off a chunk. The strong smell of strawberries wafted up Aster’s nose along with another scent she hadn’t noticed earlier. But she couldn’t quite place it. It was slightly off
, though
. Metallic or herbal. Perhaps it
was something on the wind.  “Wow
, this bread is amazing,” he said around a mouthful. 

“Can I see it?” she asked, gesturing toward his finger.

Bryon peeled off the bandage. “This isn’t gonna hurt, is it?” He took a drink of his soda and uttered a loud belch. His other hand flew to his mouth. “Whoa, that was unexpected. Sorry.”

“No worries.” She took his hand in hers and examined the cut while Bryon continued to eat pieces of the bread with his free han
d. It was just a superficial wound
, but it should be about the same. She passed her fingers over the cut and muttered the
same healing
incantations
she’d used on the fruit and vegetables
.

“That burns! Fuck! What are you doing?” He yanked his hand away and for a moment Aster saw a look in his eyes that was ferocious. Wild, even. Like he might reach out and bite off a chunk of her flesh. Then it disappeared in a blink, replaced by gaping astonishment.

“You
…you
healed me,” he whispered. “I’m…you… Are you a…?”

“I’m a witch. I come from a land called Ellemire, which is
a whole other world
. My family—”

“Wow, that’s really crazy, Aster. I mean, I expected a psycho ex boyfriend, but not Sabrina the Teenage Witch from a parallel dimension.” Bryon stuffed enough of the
bread in his mouth
to puff up his cheeks. His lips were stained red from the cooked strawberries
.

“You don’t believe me?” Her heart sank. She’d put it all out there and now it was too late to let it back in. But there was something else. Bryon was acting different.  Callous, verbally aggressive. He had also eaten almost the entire loaf of bread
in a matter of a couple minutes
.  “Are you okay, Bryon? Hey, maybe you should stop eating that br—”

“Don’t tell me what to do!”

T
he outburst, so unlike the boy
she knew, sent her reeling backward. A cold breeze blew in and extinguished the candle between them as i
f on cue, draping them in darkness lit only by a moon approaching half
. She could still see his eyes, though. Th
ey had a hungry look
that reminded her of a lion on th
e prowl. He leaned closer to her, one corner of his mouth coming up in a crooked and devious grin
.

“Bryon, what’s the matter with you?”
she asked.

Then s
he smelled the herbs on his breath and something horrible clicked into place
.

Ruby, what have you done?

She had been so angry at them both, so heartbroken
.
And Aster, after years of growing up with Oleander’s manipulative behavior, had sensed something hollow in that sudden change of heart.
Yet, she’d fallen
for it
hook and line, hadn’
she?

Stupid!
Oh, Ruby what did that vile woman promise you?

She continued to back up as Bryon advanced on he
r. “Bryon?
S
weetie? You’re not well
right now.” She tried to keep her voice
calm in the hopes of overcoming
whate
ver force the potion had put on him, but her mounting horror
was making her words shake. “I’m going to leave now. When
you’re feeling better
, we can talk.”

“What po
tion? Did you try to poison me? Y
ou little
… little… cock tease.
”  His eyes narrowed.

“What? No!”
His crude words were more
frightening than the new rough grumble in his voice.

“You come around here, flouncing your
pink
hair and throwing
your
come-fuck-me eyes my way. I’ve noticed the way you’ve been
… been
teasing
me. Getting me all excited and then pushing me away when you’ve had enough. You think you’re better than me, don’t you?”

He was crawling closer, pushing her
farther away from the stairs, her only means of escape
.
She scrabbled closer to the fence, but he grabbed her legs and yanked her toward him. Her back scraped against the rough stone.

“Bryon, this isn’t you! Please listen to me. You’ve been
poisoned
.”

“Shut up, you
bitch
. You dirty little
slut
. You’re not leaving until I get wh
at’s mine.” He grabbed
h
er by the shoulders and leapt upon her. His weight suddenly felt immense
. Strings of drool dripped from his
leering
mouth and onto her face
, and the lids
of hi
s eyes were tinged with
red, as if he was sick with fever.

She bucked and writhed under him, trying to break free, but he was a
s unyielding as a boulder
. 
“
Let me go
!” she screamed, and a hard blow from his calloused worker’s hands coll
ided with the side of her face. Stars exploded in her vision.

“I’m gonna fuck me a witch.
I’m gonna fuck… me… a filthy little witch
.
” He thrust himself against her,
and she felt the hardness that was there.
Her mind became a blur of panic.

“Don’t do this, Bryon. Please! This isn’t you.
This isn’t you!
” She pressed her hands against his face in the hopes that she could heal whatever it was that had gone wrong in
his brain, but he bit her wrist
and punched her
.

His knuckles felt like ball bearings and
they
cut through the skin of her cheek. Warm blood trickled down into her ear.
At least he hit the other side,
she thought.

“You’re mine, you little
freak.” He bent down and began
kissing
and biting her neck as he ripped the clasp on
her shorts and yanked them down.
The
night
air and
the
stone
beneath her
chilled her flesh.

He began fumbling with his pants next.
The full weight of him
as he leaned on her
squeezed the air out of her lungs
.
There would be no more screaming.
She briefly considered letting him just take her so she might live, but she worried that he would do
more than just rape her. He
might snap her neck afterward.

Bryon threw
her shorts to the side and Aster heard
something
clatter onto the stone
and roll against her hip
. In his frenzied lus
t, Bryon
didn’t seem to notice, and for a moment, Aster wasn’t sure what it was either.

Then her mind threw up the image of the peacekeeper.
Sheriff
Kennedy, the ma
n who had once loved her mother and who might very well be her father,
and something clicked home.

She wrench
ed her hand loose and grabbed the cylindrical can of pepper spray
. “I’m so sorry,
Bryon,
” she whispered. P
ointing the sprayer toward Bryon’s face
(she hoped, anyway), she pressed
the
red
button on top.

The air
between them filled with searing
vapor.

Aster and Bryon
screamed as both of them took a full hit o
f the spray and they rolled away from each other. Aster’s eyes felt like they were going to melt right out of her head as she coughed and gagged. The mist
was far more powerful than she’d expected.
Not even in Oleander’s potion room had she experienced something so noxious.

She placed her hands against her eyes and sent some healing into them. An immediate cool filled her head. She opened her eyes and saw B
ryon
st
umbling toward the staircase
, pants around his ankles, blindly furious
.

“Goddamn you
sneaky
little bitch!
I’ll make you pay for that!
”
He leaned over and vomited a hot, gelatinous stream of partially digested bread and strawberries and then stumbled away from the pile of waste as if he was afraid of touching it. He was within only a couple steps of going over backward.

“Bryon
, stop moving
!
You’ll fall!
” Aster leapt up
to grab him before he went over the edge
, but her legs tangled in her underwear,
which were also around her ankles
and she crashed to the ground, scraping
her elbows on the slate.

Aster watched the rest happen in a sickening slow motion.

Bryon’s left heel went over empty space. He seemed to realize this, for he cried out and
scrambled to find purchase on the rail, but the rotting wood pulled away under his weight and he went toppling backward down the stairs.
She heard the crunch of him landing on the rough-hewn steps.