Wiccan, A Witchy Young Adult Paranormal Romance (11 page)

“
Mercy Holloway,” he said
when he reached me, a lopsided grin tugging at one corner of his
mouth. “Glad you could make it.” He turned and looked back over his
shoulder then looked back to me. “Is that your friend?” he asked,
tipping his head toward Billie.

“
Yep. That’s
Billie.”

“
Huh,” he said, his eyes
quickly scanning me from head to toe and back again. “You look
great.”

“
Thanks. I have to fix
myself up every once in a while just so I don’t forget
how.”

“
Oh, you haven’t forgotten.
Trust me.”

There was an appreciative gleam in his
sky blue eyes that made me want to grin like an idiot. I bit my lip
to keep them straight. I didn’t get compliments so often that I was
ever unaffected by them when one came my way.

“
So, this is TKE,” I
observed casually.

“
The one and only. Have you
been to the kitchen yet to get a drink?”

“
No. We were just making our
way around when Billie got…sidetracked.”

“
In that case, stay here and
I’ll bring you a beer.”

I just nodded and smiled. I wanted to
tell him not to bother, but I knew it wouldn’t do any good. I’d
forgotten my water and for some reason it was a huge party foul to
be seen without a drink in hand. It didn’t really matter what that
drink was, but if your hand was empty, partiers would aggravate you
to death until it wasn’t. I thought I’d just save us all some
trouble and carry a beer that I had no intention of
drinking.

I watched Jake disappear into the
kitchen and I looked around. Parties were excellent venues to
people-watch if that was your thing and, trust me, it was my
thing.

I’d always loved to observe people, in
all different kinds of settings. At the mall, in a restaurant, in
class, at the beach, at a party, at a funeral, wherever; it doesn’t
matter. As a rule, I think people are fascinating and I have a
tendency to watch them (and sometimes stare rudely) wherever I
go.

I busied myself interpreting the body
language of the group I was standing near. It was comprised of two
girls and four guys. One of the girls had her hands up the shirt of
a guy with shaggy brown hair. Obviously, their plans for the night
were very much in motion.

The other girl was apparently still
deciding between the two guys with dark hair. She laughed and
flirted with them, touching them frequently with a hand on the
chest or a fingertip on the arm. At one point, she grabbed each one
around the neck and pulled them down toward her, where their ears
were near her mouth.

As she whispered something to them, one
laid his hand on her lower back and the other reached around to
grab her butt. Her body language told me that she might not be
rejecting either of them tonight. I just shook my head. Yes, people
are fascinating, but many of them are very strange, too.

I looked down at my watch. It seemed
like Jake had been gone an awfully long time. I scanned the room.
Billie and Matt had made their way to a corner and were engaged in
deep conversation, but I didn’t see Jake anywhere. I thought surely
it shouldn’t take that long to get one beer from the
kitchen.

Turning to make my way to the kitchen,
I had to squeeze through several tight spots to get by. At one
point, I passed so close to a guy and a girl talking that I
couldn’t help but overhear a snippet of their
conversation.

“
Believe it or not, Lisa
made a great Tony Stark. I never would’ve thought as coming dressed
like a guy,” the girl said.

I tapped her on the shoulder and bent
closer to her so she could hear me. I didn’t want to blurt my
question out too loudly. “Excuse me, I couldn’t help but overhear
you talking about Lisa. Were you talking about Lisa Bauer’s
costume?” I took a chance that they’d think I knew what they were
talking about when I actually didn’t.

“
Yeah. It was great. Were
you there?” The expression on her face said she didn’t recognize me
and thought it highly unlikely that I was in attendance at that
party.

“
No, but I heard about some
of the costumes. I was just curious how many people came dressed in
red wigs.”

The girl tapped her lip with a bright
pink fingernail as she pondered. “Hmm,” she said as she began
ticking off names. “Haley, Ashley, Oksana, Jordan and I think maybe
a couple teachers came in disguise. That’s the only girls I can
think of that came in red wigs. Why?”

“
Oh, I was just curious. I
heard it was quite a party.”

“
It was,” she said, smiling
in that I’m-blowing-you-off-politely way.

“
Well, thanks. Enjoy the
party,” I said before I turned and continued on toward the
kitchen.

Maybe I’d made some real
headway in trying to identify the mysterious red head involved with
Lisa. I had four concrete names (first names anyway) and that had
to count for something. At least it was a start. This time I’d go
to Grayson with something he
didn’t
know. I was sure of it.

Pushing my way through the group of
people standing in the kitchen doorway, I walked by the keg and on
around to where the kitchen narrowed to a hallway that emptied out
into the living room. I didn’t see Jake anywhere, so I walked
through the small hallway.

About halfway down the hall, there was
a small bathroom to my right. The door was ajar and as I passed it,
movement caught my eye. As soon as I saw that there was someone in
there, I started to look away in embarrassment. But then I noticed
a familiar blue and white t-shirt.

Jake was in profile to me, his head
bent as he kissed a short girl with long dark hair. I couldn’t make
out who she was, but I knew without a doubt that it was Jake
swallowing her face.

A flood of several emotions rushed
through me all at once—shock, disappointment, embarrassment, and
finally, anger. I was a little aggravated at the girl who’d
hijacked Jake, but I was absolutely furious and disgusted with
him.

My usually nonexistent temper was
raging like a hurricane inside me. It had immediately blown away
all reason and logic. It didn’t matter that I had no claims on
Jake. It didn’t matter that he’d given me no reason to think that
he’d invited me to the party as anything more than just a friendly
gesture. It didn’t matter that I’d only known him a few days or
that his girlfriend had just been killed. I was livid!

It registered somewhere deep
down that, below my irrational anger, I didn’t even really know why
I was so mad. I just was. I think it had less to do with him being
with another girl than
the way
he was going about it. Plus, he was supposed to be
getting me a drink. I felt like a fool.

Horrible thoughts started circling in
my head, thoughts of how I’d like to hurt them, to see them
screaming and crying in pain and misery. I still had enough control
of myself to stop those thoughts, knowing that ruminations such as
those were neither healthy nor normal.

Instead, I started thinking about how I
wished the girl would throw up all over Jake and how I hoped it
would ruin his awesome blue and white t-shirt.

My head started to throb and then, as I
watched, the girl twitched a little. Over the music and voices, I
could hear a gurgling sound and then suddenly Jake jerked his head
away from her. He bent at the waist, spitting and gagging onto the
bathroom floor and then the girl started vomiting all over his back
and side. Perversely, as I watched the disgusting scene, I hoped
that her puke went down his throat as well as the back of his
shorts.

When the stench of bile and
digested beer reached my nose, it acted as a sort of smelling salt.
It brought me back to the present, to
reality,
with an alarming
jab.

I was horror-stricken, as much over
what I was witnessing as the possibility that I’d played a role in
it. Had I done this, caused it? Was that even possible?

Before I could find my way to any
disturbing conclusions, I backed away from the powder room and
wiggled through the growing crowd to the living room and out the
front door.

I pulled in huge gulps of fresh air, my
heart and mind racing. What was happening to me?

I walked to a deserted corner of the
yard and paced in a tight circle for a few minutes, taking deep
breaths. Whether from all that vomiting or from my troubling
thoughts, I didn’t know which, but my stomach was swimming with
nausea.

At least no one got
hurt,
I thought encouragingly. I shook off
that other shrill voice that was screaming in my head
You may have just made someone sick—with your
mind!

Suddenly, I felt claustrophobic, even
though I was out in the open and the closest people were about
thirty or forty feet away. I bent over and put my hands on my
knees, saliva gushing into my mouth.

I closed my eyes and focused on how
much I wanted to go home, how I wished Billie would hurry up so we
could leave.

When my stomach had settled a little
and I didn’t feel so much like I was going to throw up, I
straightened and looked around. No one was paying me the least bit
of attention.

And then I saw someone racing down the
steps.

It was Billie.

“
Do we need to leave?” she
asked, a panicked expression on her face.

Stunned, I just looked at her, mouth
agape. “Why would you say that?”

“
I just got a terrible
feeling that you needed to leave, that something was
wrong.”

My vision zoomed in and out around me
and I squeezed my eyes shut. “Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod,” I chanted
quietly.

“
Are you
alright?”

I looked at Billie. She was so pretty
and so worried and she was the best friend I’d ever had. I didn’t
want to ruin her night, her reunion with Matt, because I was
freaking out. So I forced my lips up into a wobbly smile and
reassured her. “I’m fine. I think I just got too hot in there. I’m
ok. I’ll just stay out here for a while. Cool off.”

“
You can’t do
that!”

“
Why not? I’ll be fine. I
just need some fresh air.”

“
Why don’t we just
go?”

“
Because, I want you to stay
and have a good time. Really, I’m ok,” I said, nodding to drive the
point home. “Go back in and find Matt. I’ll be coming in after a
little while.”

“
I’m not leaving
you.”

“
Billie—”

“
Don’t ‘Billie’ me. You’re
my best friend. We’re going.”

“
No, we’re not.”

“
Yes, we are.”

“
I don’t want for you to
have to leave Matt.”

“
I can catch up with Matt
some other time,” she said, but I could see the regret and
uncertainty in her jewel green eyes.

“
Fine. Why don’t you go get
Matt and the two of you can drive me home, drop me off and then
come back.”

“
I don’t want to do that to
you, Mercy. You—”

“
That’s the only way I’m
leaving. It’s either that or we’re staying.”

Billie looked at me, exasperated, but I
could tell that she really wanted to stay with Matt. “Alright. Give
me five minutes and I’ll be right back, ok?”

“
Ok.”

Could this really be happening to me?
Was I somehow able to influence people with my thoughts? How? Why
now? Did it have something to do with my visions? Or, worse, did it
have something to do with my dreams?

I looked over at one of the small
groups of guys that still littered the lawn. Two of them were
smoking and one had just thrown his cigarette butt onto the ground.
I thought he looked like an easy enough target for a harmless
experiment.

With all my energy, I focused on him
and thought that he should really pick up his cigarette butt. Over
and over in my head I thought about it until finally the guy turned
to look at the still-smoking butt.

He watched it for several seconds
before he backed away from the group, walked to the butt, bent down
and picked it up. He stood holding it, looking a little confused.
I’m sure he was wondering what he was supposed to do with it now. I
saw a tiny frown crease his brow before he threw it down again and
went back to the group.

It was then that I admitted to myself
that, to some extent, I could influence other people’s thoughts
with my own.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Not long after she’d left, Billie
returned with Matt in tow. We all walked to her car and she drove
me home.

“
Are you sure about this?”
she asked. We’d arrived at my house and she pushed the gear shift
into park.

“
I’m positive. You guys go
have fun. I’m going to bed. It’s been a long week.”

I could see the indecision in Billie’s
eyes. She wanted so badly to be with Matt, but she felt an
obligation to me. I got out of the car, leaned down to her window
and smiled the biggest smile I could manage. “You two get out of
here. You haven’t seen each other in ages. Go catch up and just
call me tomorrow, k?”