A Girl Between (24 page)

“Beauty Queen!  You’re gonna have to stop it or I will put
you in the basement!!!” I declared.

She finally stopped her hissing and howling.  She walked
stiffly to the corner of the room and found her spot.  Then, she sat and STARED
at us.

“I’m sorry, Ian.  I’ve never seen Beauty Queen like that.  I
don’t know what’s gotten into her.”

“It’s OK.  Forget about it.  For some reason, cats have
never liked me,” he stated matter-of-factly.

So, I presume you know something about this.” I gestured
toward my feet. “What have you already heard?”

He proceeded to tell me what he had found out from someone
who was at the Robotics meet.  Rumors had spread through town like wildfire.  I
filled in some details and corrected some misperceptions.  People knew that the
rats got electrocuted but it was explained away as a freak accident from a
simple lightning strike. They didn’t know that I had USED the lightning
strike.  I had no plans for letting Ian in on that little fact.

“So, is everything OK?  Rat bites sound terrible,” he said,
concern in his eyes.

“Yeah, I’ll be OK. I just had to go through the rounds of
tetanus shots and antibiotics,” I answered pitifully.  I had no problem being
the object of Ian’s sympathy if he was going to lavish extra attention on me.

“I’m so glad to hear it.  I worry about you,” he whispered. 
He leaned in and lightly kissed my forehead and my closed eyes.  Then, he moved
down and kissed me all around my mouth, light, tingly kisses.  I just sat there
and passively soaked it all in.  The joy and pleasure of it made me weightless,
like a tiny floating ball of silky fluff floating aimlessly round and round.  I
could hardly breathe.

I felt a mental tug to come back down to earth, but I
immediately pushed it aside. This was not the time to interrupt my paradise.  I
knew I was only fooling myself, though.  Once my mind latches onto something to
worry about, it never lets up until it gets resolved.   It didn’t matter what I
was doing.  It would jump in and ruin my fun and my pleasure.

A little picture seeped into the corner of my mind,
eventually spilling out into the rest of my head and taking it over.  It was
the dream of Ian without his shirt on, with his back showing.  The image zeroed
in on his lower back with the tattoo of the X mark over the cross.  I could
still feel his sweet kisses on my lips and my eyes.  I tried to block the
disturbing picture, but it didn’t work.  It crawled back in, only bigger and
more ominous this time.  It was a sign that I could not ignore.

I was still lying down, feeling Ian’s delicious caresses of
my face with his lips. “Ian,” I asked, “do you have any tattoos?”

He instantly stopped. “Tattoos?” he asked.

“Yes, tattoos,” I responded.

Ian sat back and regarded at me.  “Why do you want to know
something like that?”

Perhaps I should back off, but I knew I couldn’t.  I had to
figure out what was up with him.  If I didn’t find out, my imagination would
turn it into a big ugly wart on the end of his nose.  I lifted my chin up,
looked him in the eye and declared, “Because I just have to know.”

He sat there for a minute, avoiding my eyes.  This wasn’t
the reaction I was hoping for.  He finally looked at me and said with a tight
smile, “Yes, I have a tattoo.”

So he’s gonna make me ask.  “Can I see it?”

“Somehow I knew you would say that”, he said with a gloomy
sigh.  He still sat there for a minute, putting it off.  He finally stood up
and pulled his shirt over his head. 

Oh, my, God!  That took me by surprise.  How was I going to
stop staring at his perfect abs?  Where else do I look?  I forced myself to
casually glance away.  I suddenly discovered that I was greatly interested in
Grandma’s cracked vase on the coffee table.  He finally saved me by speaking.
“Well, do you want to see it?”

“See what?” I asked.

“The tattoo!” he replied, viewing me as if I was crazy.  He
had no idea that his beautifully formed construction muscles made me
momentarily lose my mind.  He turned around so that I could get a clear view. 
There it was in the center of his back, just above his jeans, a tattoo of a
small cross with an X over it.

“What is that, Ian?  What does it mean?”  I asked quietly.

“It’s supposed to be a charm for witches,” he stated flatly.

“Why would you have that symbol embedded in your skin?”  I
asked while trying to stay calm.

“I had it done a couple of years ago.  Tonya got it for me
for my birthday,” he explained in a tired voice.

“Tonya!  It was Tonya’s idea?”  I asked, starting to feel
the panic creep in.

“Yes,” Ian stated, looking away.

“I’ve seen that symbol on one other boy, that creepy, nasty
Tattoo Boy at school.  He is an evil soul.  I know it.”  I couldn’t accept that
this was happening, that Ian may be one of them.

Ian shrugged in response.

“Are you a witch, Ian?” I finally asked.

He sighed before he finally said.  “Are you sure you want to
ask me that?”

I stared at him. “Yes, Ian.  I want to know.”

He turned down momentarily, with his head in his hand before
he finally looked up at me and responded, “Yes, I do believe that I am”.  At
that very moment, I started noticing something around his head and shoulders, a
red-violet fog, swirling around.  He’s finally allowing his aura to show.  I
see turmoil, confusion, trouble.  

“Are you a diabole?” I asked.

He just looked at me, sadness and regret in his eyes.

I put my head in my hands and started to weep.  After a few
minutes, Ian put his arm around my shoulders.  I looked up to see his sadness. 
“I’m sorry, Tessie,” he whispered.

An awful thought occurred to me.  Should I ask?  Do I really
want to know?  “Ian, why did you ask me out?”

He’s looking away from me, not answering.

I took his hand in mine and softly prompted him, “Ian, I
won’t get mad.  I have to know.”

“It was Tonya”, he confessed in a dry tone, still turned
away.

“Tonya?” I squeaked.  I didn’t expect that answer.

He sighed heavily before continuing, “It was after that
incident you had at school with her, you know, when you jumped into her fight
with Mercy.  She came to realize that you were a possible threat.  She asked me
to go out with you, to get to know you.”

“You mean she asked you to spy on me,” I claimed, my voice
rising.

“Correct,” Ian quietly affirmed.

“So, what did you learn about me, Ian?”  I demanded to know.

He finally turned and looked at me before answering. 
“Remember that day when you were riding around on your bike and I found you in
the field?  Tonya had told me that she saw you riding around.  We figured you
wouldn’t be too far from where she was so I drove around looking for you and
your bike.”

I interrupted, “So you were LOOKING for me that day?  You
weren’t driving around looking for your dog?”

“Yep, that’s right,” he added with a tight smile, “I
couldn’t believe what was happening in that field.  I heard those voices, too,
you know.”

“So, I wasn’t hearing them because I was a nut job,” I
commented dryly.

He frowned and shook his head, “No way.  When I heard those
voices, I realized that Tonya was right, that you were special.  I only heard
them speaking because you were there.  I would never have heard those voices on
my own.”

“Did you report that back to Tonya?”

Ian vehemently shook his head.  “No, I didn’t tell her
anything.  After I took you home that night, I made a decision to lay off.  I
couldn’t do what Tonya expected of me because there was something about you. 
You were so vulnerable.  There was no way I was going to take advantage of
that.  For some reason, I figured you’d be more like Tonya.  I couldn’t have
been further from the truth.”

“Why did you continue to see me?” I asked.

“Initially, I had planned on just staying away from you. 
After all, I didn’t want any trouble from Tonya and her gang of crazies.”  Ian
stared into my eyes before continuing, “But when I saw you at the bonfire, I
knew I wanted to see you again.  In fact, that was why I went there.  I just
wanted to see you.”

“Tonya was at that bonfire, too.  You were with her there,”
I asserted.

“No, I just bumped into Tonya and her pals there.  I took
off pretty quickly because I realized how much I hated her.  I didn’t want you
to see me hanging out with her.  I was also jealous.  I didn’t want to see you
having fun with any other guys.”  Ian lifted my chin up, drew in close and
whispered, “Tess, I just had to see you again.  It probably wasn’t a wise
decision but I’m drawn to something in you.  Other than you being beautiful and
unique and brave, I don’t know what the attraction is.”  Then Ian smiled at me,
gently pushing a strand of hair away from my eyes.

I sat there and looked in his eyes.  I only saw truth and
sincerity.  All I wanted to do was sink into his arms and breathe him in for
the next six hours.  Unfortunately, there was one more question nagging at me. 
I had to ask him before I lost my nerve.

I pulled back from him and asked in a whispery voice, “Do
you know about me, Ian?  Do you know who I am?”

Ian questioned sharply, “What did you say, Tess?”

Louder, “Do you know who I am?”

“Yes, I believe I do,” he stated calmly.

“What do you know?”

He sighed, “I know that you’re a good one, a witch.  I
figured that out when you recalled the voices of the condemned witches at the
hanging tree.  Only a witch could do that.”

“So YOU knew, and I didn’t,” I accused.

“Yeah, I’m aware of that.  I figured out pretty quickly that
you didn’t have a clue.  I guess I could have told you, but I really didn’t
want to.  I thought that our relationship would be better if you didn’t know,”
he said with his sad eyes.

I asked softly, “So, Ian, how did you find out that you were
a witch?”

Ian paused.  I could tell he didn’t want to answer.  “It
involved Tonya.”

“Of course,” I grumbled.

He continued, “When Tonya first moved to town she went after
me because she knew I was a witch.  Tonya always knows those kinds of things
about people.  I had a feeling that there was something different about me, I
just didn’t know what.”

“What happened after that?”

“I didn’t like what I had learned about myself.” Ian shook
his head. “I didn’t want to be a witch.  I stopped seeing Tonya because I
didn’t want anything to do with her schemes.  Unfortunately, it was too late. 
Learning who I really was just opened the floodgates”.

“What do you mean?”

“My life hasn’t been the same since.  I started having all
these strange dreams of how I used to torment regular people and other
witches.  During the dreams, I seemed to get great pleasure out of hurting
others.”

“So, you’ve figured out what kind of witch you are?”

“I know I’m supposed to be a diabole, and that’s bad.  All I
know is that I’ve never done anything harmful to anyone during this lifetime. 
Doesn’t that count for anything?”

I sighed, “I don’t know, Ian.”

“So what do we do here, Ian?”

“It’s up to you, Tess.  I can’t help what I’ve been in the
past.  I also know that Tonya wants me to be on her side, but there’s no way. 
I don’t use any witch power, nor do I want to. ” Ian emphasized while shaking
his head.

“Ian, do you realize that I’m right in the middle of it
all?  Something BIG is going to happen and I know I’m part of it.  I don’t want
to be, but I have no choice.  That’s why Tonya, along with her gang have been
after me and as a result, people have died!  I’m scared out of my wits.  THIS,”
I gestured to my bandaged feet, “is part of it.  I’M SURE OF IT.  I just have
to figure out how.”

Ian looked at me like I was crazy.  “What do you mean,
something BIG is going to happen?  You actually think that the rats biting you
were part of the witch trouble?”

I glared at him, “Yeah, THAT along with the altercation in
front of your house, the catastrophe at the Tri-Town Fair, and Bully, uh, I
mean Jimmy, attacking me after the school bon fire.  Those are ALL related to
the terrible trouble that we know is coming.”

Ian sat there in disbelief.  “I guess I could see how some
of the catastrophe at the Tri-Town Fair was related to the witch trouble.  I
knew that Tonya was enraged after she saw us together.  I didn’t make the
connection at the time, but I see it now.  I don’t think she caused all of it,
though.  I heard they had major problems with their power source during the
evening, which wouldn’t necessarily have anything to do with Tonya.  She
doesn’t have that kind of power anyway!  I don’t know anything about the other
stuff you mentioned.  What happened at my house and with Jimmy at the bon
fire?”

I could feel myself losing it.  How could Ian be so dense? 
Doesn’t he have a brain in his head?  “Ian,” I cried, “your nasty brother
attacked me in front of your house with the help of Tonya and another one of
her cronies.  I barely got out of there.  Remember when James got singed by
lightning?  Well, that was done by ME!”  I emphatically poked at my chest while
glowering at him.  He looked at me like I had two heads.

“AND, remember the night of the bon fire?  Bully Boy, your
pal Jimmy, tried to stab me.  Fortunately, I had some assistance.  That’s why
Bully suffered that setback and he ended up in the hospital.  He got what he
asked for! ” I continued to stare at Ian indignantly while adding, “If you
remember, I had that little cut above my eye the next day.  Bully got the bad
end of that one.”  Thinking about that brought a little smile to my lips.

Ian was shaking his head, “I don’t know, Tess.  Jimmy
stabbing at you, and you fighting James with lightning in front of my house, it
all sounds crazy to me.”

My voice started to rise, “It sounds CRAZY to you?  Are you
saying that I’m crazy?”

Ian remarked with a controlled smile, “Tess, I’m simply
wondering if some of this is a little exaggerated.  And what’s this about
something BIG that’s going to happen.  What does that mean?”  

“I don’t know what’s going to happen!  What difference does
it make?  Something bad IS going to happen.  That’s all I know.” I glared at
him.

“Who’s been telling you this stuff?  Is it Will?” Ian
asked.  He didn’t look too happy.

“No, but seeing as you don’t believe me, I don’t think that
it’s any of your concern,” I stated bluntly.

“Tess,” Ian took my hand.  “I’m so sorry for all of this.  I
wish I could believe everything you’re telling me, but it’s just too much. 
I’ve lived for 18 years and until very recently I haven’t seen any witch
activity going on.  Why would all this witch stuff suddenly be happening out of
the blue?”

I stared at him.  “I wish I could tell you, Ian, but I
can’t.  All I know is, something’s going to happen and I’m concerned that we
won’t be on the same side.”

Ian leaned in, kissed me lightly on my forehead and spoke
softly in my ear.  “Tessie, I would never, ever go against you in any way.  I
would never be on ‘the other side’.  Ever.”