A Quarrel Called: Stewards Of The Plane Book 1 (18 page)

46. SAM

Work sucked. It was stock day and both Tyler and Colton were
out of town, so it was really up to me and the new guy to get things put up in
the store. I was exhausted. And I hadn’t heard from Lily in days, and that was
beginning to bug me.

At first I was playing it cool because I didn’t want to be
that
guy, but then I was thinking maybe
she liked to be the one in control. But now, I wished I had just called her
already and been done with it, except that after G.’s dream, I wondered if
talking to her at all was a good idea. Whenever her name came up in
conversation it seemed to really piss Melody off, which was not so funny-
haha
as it was funny-awkward. Now I didn’t know how the
hell to act around either of them.
Women
!

I loaded cartons of soup and vegetables onto the dolly,
grabbed the scan gun, and shoved out into the main part of the store. It was
the midafternoon lull, which would be over in about forty minutes when the
first batch of work traffic hit the highway. Since it was midweek, it wasn’t so
bad, but the weekend
approacheth
, and so did every
Tom, Dick and Joe who wanted to barbecue burgers and dogs.

I ripped open the box of corn and started putting it up,
fronting the older cans and shoving the newest ones in the back. A shadow
loomed over my shoulder and I turned to look, expecting it to be Deola. It
so
wasn’t Deola.

“Hey, stock boy. Clean up my aisle?”

I looked Lily up and down, since that was clearly what she
wanted me to do, and grinned. She looked good. Distressed jeans, tank top, a
purple streak in her hair; for Lily, it was almost tame.

“Give me a minute to get my
mop
and my bucket,” I said, shoving a few more cans on the shelf. I was trying very
hard to be nonchalant, but the fact was, my heartbeat had picked up and I had
to clear my throat to keep my voice clear.
“Pretty far from
downtown.”

“I had to see what you did with yourself when you weren’t
spinning. This is pretty much how I pictured you.”

“How’d you know where I worked?” I glanced up at her again
as I ripped open a box of green beans.

“You were wearing your work shirt when I met you in Trader’s
Village, remember?”

Oh yeah. I grinned. “So
you checking
up on me or what?”

She crossed her arms over her chest, which made her cleavage
perk up.
Very distracting.

“Maybe.
Maybe I wanted to see what
you spent your money on. Maybe I wanted you to do another gig.” She paused and
then leaned down close to my ear. “Maybe I wanted to see what you’re doing
after.”

My groin tightened.
“After what?”

She stood straight again and shrugged.
“Just
after.”

Girls are freaking maddening.
Great.
“What’s this other gig?”

“That’s my boy.
Business first.
Just like before, same venue.
Going to
need you to come up with a new finale though.
We don’t repeat.” She dug
in her back pocket and pulled out a USB stick. “See if you can do something
with this.”

I took the stick from her, a little shiver racing down my
arm when my fingers brushed against hers. “When’s the gig?”

“Saturday.”
She grinned, red lips
parted wide. “Show me what you can do. And maybe I’ll see you after.”

#

It was killing me the rest of the day to not know what song
was on the USB stick. I had lots of guesses. She knew my style so I was hoping
she had picked something familiar, but knowing her, probably not. Lily was
anything but predictable.

Shift finally over, I tossed my apron on the hook and jogged
out the door. The sun was lower in the sky, but not low enough for it to have
cooled off significantly. The hottest part of the day in Texas was the late
afternoon. I heard footsteps jog up behind me.

“Hey,” said Melody.

“Hey,” I said, surprised, not sure I welcomed her company
just now while I was fantasizing about Lily. The memory of her dressed in black
stretch pants and pasties floated before my eyes, and I could feel my groin
tighten again. There was an unspoken promise thrown out in the air today during
our conversation. I wasn’t too dense to pick up on that.

“Hey, are you even listening to me?”

“What, no, sorry.
I was thinking
about Saturday. I have another gig and I haven’t prepared at all.”

“Oh. Well, that’s great. Is it another one of
…
Lily’s?”

Melody had a peculiar expression on her face that she erased
quickly with a smile.
“Because that would be great, right?
Another thousand bucks?”

“Yeah.
I mean, yeah it is, and yeah
I will finally be able to buy a car.”

“Cool.”

Silence hung between us for another long moment. We were
walking past Smitty’s, already halfway home, before she said anything else.

“Are you into her?”

“Who, Lily?”

“Yeah.”

Well, shit. Of course I
was,
what
kind of guy wouldn’t be into a fox like that? A gay guy maybe, but even he
would be like…
Fabulous.
“Yeah.
She’s pretty cool. And she’s really into music, like me, so…”

“Cool. I mean, it’s great that you’ve met her.”

Damn, this was getting awkward fast. “Look Melody, you’re
still my best friend.
Right?”

She smiled.
“Right.
Since forever.”

We stopped walking and I turned to face her. I couldn’t tell
what was up with her, but she seemed like she really wanted to say something.
And then I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. It was Lily. “Just a sec,” I said
to Melody, turning slightly away from her to take the call.

“Hello?”

“Hey,” her voice was husky. “You know what I was just
thinking?”

“What’s that?” I asked, feeling my stomach drop out.

“You’re off work, right?”

“Yeah, just walking home now,” I turned to glance at Melody
but was smiling into the phone.

“So I guess this is
after
work.
Right?”

“Right,” I said, grinning like a fool now. I turned away again.
“I could meet you…”

“How about if I just come over?”

Hell, yes. “That sounds good…” I glanced back at Melody
again and saw that she was no longer there; she had walked back toward
Smitty’s. I shrugged, what the hell was I supposed to do? “I live…”

“I know where you live,” she said.

I heard the sound of a motor pull up behind me and when I
turned to look, was somehow unsurprised to see Lily, driving a little black
coupe, grinning at me over the steering wheel.

“Hey big boy, want a ride?”

Hell,
yes
.

47. G.

A sword of light.
That’s what I
saw, what I felt in my hand, but no one else had seen it – or at least, no one
had mentioned seeing it. Was it all in my imagination? Was I going crazy?

I tossed my book aside. Military history wasn’t enough to
tempt me today, and I decided what I really needed was some exercise. Not
because I had to work out any jitters – my overproducing store of energy had at
least temporarily been alleviated by the episode with the shadow parasites—but
because practicing my katas helped me turn my brain off. And right now, what I
really wanted was something to distract me from thoughts of light sabers and
harrowing battles against evil.

I started with
Transattru
then moved on to
Rukrachak
. The longer I
moved,
the smoother and more focused my movements became. My
arms felt strong and my thighs were tight. Chopping and pushing through
Tala Choi Chit
, I could feel a slight
resistance in the air around me. As I went on to
Pa
Baibiang
, the resistance enveloped me.
The air was heating up, a sweat was breaking out on my forehead, and I
was really having
to push through the fatigue that was
starting to drag my arms and legs down. What the hell? It was like I was doing
my katas under water. I closed my eyes and redoubled my focus, and to my surprise,
I saw a glow. I opened my eyes – nothing. Closed my eyes?
A
glow.
I continued moving through the last movement and the glow
intensified. I concentrated on it, and it separated into two glowing orbs that
could only be seen behind my eyelids. The orbs moved as my hands moved. No
freaking way.

“Man, it’s really hot in here,” said my dad, standing in the
doorway. Do you have the AC vent closed or something?”

I jumped a little, startled at the sound of his voice, and
then relaxed my posture and grinned at him over my shoulder. “Just practicing
my
Muy
Thai, that’s all.” The sweat dripped off my
nose and onto my lip, and I realized it really
was
hot. “But I’ll check the vent since you mentioned it.”

“Cool. I was just coming up to let you know that I got a check
in the mail – sold one of my articles. I thought we might go out for dinner for
a change?”

“That’s awesome, Dad. I don’t have to work tonight either.
Oh, but I was going to hang with Tara later.”

“Why don’t you ask her to come along? I can afford to buy
three dinners tonight.”

I grinned. “Awesome. I’ll give her a call. What time?”

“Make it seven. We’ll pick her up.”

My stomach rumbled. I looked down at my non-glowing hands.
Great, now I had even more weird shit on my mind that I didn’t want to think
about. Dinner would be a good distraction.

48. TARA

“Ask,” said the voice.

“What is a quarrel?”

“A disagreement.
A
crossbow bolt.
A joining of four stewards.”

Well, I knew I wasn’t looking for a disagreement or a
crossbow. “What is a steward?”

“A protector.”

“Of what?”

“Of the plane.”

Gah
! It was like swimming uphill.
I had a million questions, but there were no straightforward answers. Every
time I accessed the records and framed a question, it turned into a
riddle-decoding session. I sighed, frustrated and tired. If Melody’s
grandmother wasn’t going to give us any answers, then the only way we were
going to get anywhere was if I got the answers myself. “Define plane.”

“Plane is to existence as story is to building.”

What the heck does that even mean? My phone chirped, just
barely outside my awareness. I could dump myself out of the meditation and
answer it, but it might take me hours to get this deep again. It chirped again…
too late. I bobbed to wakefulness like a fisherman’s float and reached for my phone.
It was G. I grinned; someone certainly worth being interrupted for.

I texted him back. I would love to go to dinner. Seven was
fine. I glanced at the clock and realized it was already almost six and just
about had a heart attack. I still had to take a shower and wash my hair. This
time, I already knew what to wear.

49. SAM

Mom was gone again, which was probably a good thing since
Lily was over. We had barely made it through the front door before she shoved
me against the wall and pressed herself against me. Her kiss was hot and slick,
and that was all it took for me to have a raging hard-on.
Once
her hand reached down there to grab it, thoughts of my mom or cleaning the
kitchen or showering after work had pretty much left my head.

Now I turned to look at her naked form stretched across my
bed and realized that I had never seen anyone so beautiful before. Lily wasn’t
just hot, she was perfect. Her skin was pale, white like the lily of her name,
her limbs were lean, and her breasts were round and full. I had seen my fair
share of nudie pics and porn on the Internet, and she put all of those girls to
shame. She caught me admiring her and stretched, not unlike a satisfied cat. I
grinned.
“You hungry?”

“It depends on what you mean by hungry.” I could swear she
almost purred.

“Eggs and bacon, toast, juice.
You
know,
heart attack breakfast food.”

“Actually, I have to get going. My boss needs me to come in
tonight to take care of some paperwork. But,” she slid over to be closer to
where I perched on the edge of the bed, “maybe we could do breakfast after…
Saturday night – or should I say, Sunday morning?”

I felt just a tiny bit disappointed that she had to leave,
but the promise of more to come was enough to keep the smile squarely on my
face. “That could be arranged,” I said.
“Though I can’t
promise not to eat the bacon between now and then.”

“Maybe I’ll just have some sausage then,” she said, giving
me a wicked-naughty grin.

I couldn’t help it. I got another hard-on.

It’s probably just as well that she left right after that
because I realized that I still had the USB stick she had given me in my pocket
and a couple of sets to put together before Saturday night.

I plugged the memory stick into my rig and found a high
quality rip of “Riders on the Storm” by The Doors. Yeah, she knows my style. I
could definitely work with this.

50. MELODY

I knew I was being difficult, moody,
irritable
,
irritating, but I just couldn’t help myself. What was my deal? Sam was allowed
to like a girl, wasn’t he? He’d been after me for so long that it should have
been a relief that he had someone else to get excited about.
Someone
else to talk to on the phone.
Someone else… that was it, wasn’t it? I
was one of
those
girls.
One of those that wanted to have her cake and eat it, too.

Damn, I hated girls like that.
All
wishy-washy and no common sense.
I heaved a big sigh and threw myself
back on my bed.
Gawd
.

I laid there for a while trying not to dwell on the whole
Lily situation and thought about seeing if Tara was up for a little TV time. We
hadn’t done a sleepover in forever, and that suddenly sounded like a great
idea. Stupid movies, popcorn, chocolate, soda, gossip… I dialed her number,
suddenly feeling much better.

“Hey,” I said, already walking into the living room to
peruse the DVD selection. “
Wanna
come over and watch
stupid movies and eat junk food?”

“That would be fun, except I already promised to go to
dinner with G. and his dad tonight. We’re going out to that new Cajun place on
Main.” She sounded breathy and excited. “I’m going to wear that dress you gave
me last year. The one I always thought was too dressy.”

I remembered that dress. I had really liked it, but I didn’t
have the boobs to fill it out properly and it was all saggy on top. When Tara
put it on, it looked like a completely different dress. I mean, wow. “Hey, that
sounds great. Okay then, maybe over the weekend?”

There was a pause on the other end of the line and I could
hear the rustling of fabric. She was shimmying into the dress, I guessed.

“Okay. How about Saturday night? We could do the Spirit
Board thing again,” she added, like it was an afterthought. I knew it wasn’t.

“I… don’t know. I’m not trying to be a chicken, but I just
feel like – it’s a lot to take in. Before when it was just ‘Matthew’s Ghost’ I
could deal with it. But after the other night – Tara you weren’t there, you
didn’t see. It was awful. And then with them swarming over G. like a nest of
water moccasins, it was”—I shuddered—“just about the worst thing I could ever
imagine. I’m not anxious to go through that again.”

“I’m sorry, Mel. I’m not trying to push just to make you
uncomfortable – really, I’m not. It’s just that… I have this feeling in the
back of my mind that we’re running out of time. You know?”

Not really. “So will you come over Saturday then, even if we
don’t do the Spirit Board thing?”

“Yeah, I mean, sure! We’re BFFs, why wouldn’t I want to come
over?” She laughed into the phone and I was relieved, because it actually
sounded like she meant it.

“Great. Have fun breaking hearts tonight,” I said.

“Oh, I will.”

She hung up, I hung up, and then a few minutes later my
phone chirped with a picture of her in the dress. If G. was able to hold a
conversation without attention-span issues, I’d be amazed, because Tara looked
hawt
.

So it was just me, by myself, again. Gramps was already
lying down for an early bedtime, and Gram was out at her bridge club, likely
fleecing the other ladies like the card shark she was. I could try to call
Brittney or Shelby, but the last time I had tried to talk to either of them,
they either blew me off or else acted as if I were about to sprout a second
head. That left TV at home by
myself
, a movie at the
theater by myself, or… what about a fire in the chiminea, on the back patio,
and some stargazing?

The idea of spending some time outside appealed to me a lot.
I didn’t have to worry about sleeping—or rather not sleeping—in my room, as
somehow the open air and green grass and trees made me feel safer than the
house did. I wondered why that was – maybe because I was grounded when I was
outside?

I took my time gathering my supplies since it wasn’t quite
dark out yet. I grabbed a beach towel so large it could be mistaken for a
blanket, matches and an old newspaper to start the fire, a glass of sweet tea
with lemon, a plate of freshly made sugar cookies, and of course, my laptop,
just in case I wanted to look anything up on the Internet while I was sitting
out there.

I settled in to watch the play of colors from the sunset
over the tops of the trees and the clubhouse, and I felt good about my decision
to have some outside time. Finally the sun was down far enough that the colors
had faded to a range of orange-purple-black, and I decided to light the fire.

Texas in summer is hot, and Texas nights are no different.
But somehow, a fire at night, even on a hot one, was comforting. The kindling
was dry so the fire started with little effort – I almost didn’t need the
paper, and soon it was crackling along, throwing small sparks and dancing
shadows across the lawn. I made fists with my toes in the grass and took a sip
from my glass of tea. For the first time in days, I was able to pretend I was a
normal teenage girl again.

The bubbling in my feet felt good, and as the fire popped
and cracked, I reached over to grab a small stick of cedar and throw it into
the chiminea. The smell of burning cedar was one of my favorite campfire
smells, and tonight it smelled just as good as ever. I breathed the aroma in,
nice and deep, and sighed on the exhale. A few more times and I actually felt
a little drowsy, eyelids
heavy, and was pleased, since I
hadn’t gotten any quality sleep since the episode in my room.

And that’s when I heard his voice. It was a whisper at
first, tugging at the back of my mind, and I tried to ignore it.

“Leave me alone, Matthew. I’m sleepy.”

“Melody.”
He sounded far away.

I ignored him. I didn’t want to open my eyes and be back in
the real world. This dreamy twilight place was much more pleasant.

And then he was there, right in front of me, not just a
silhouette, but a solid, blood-stained figure. He looked like he was in pain.
One of his hands reached up to clutch his chest and he grimaced. There was an
inky black cloud forming between the fingertips on his chest; it was beginning
to swell and billow. In a moment, he would be lost to me.

“MELODY.”

I jerked awake, my heart thumping in my chest. “What?” I
looked around for the source of the voice, but there was no one there. No
Gramps, no Gram, no Matthew.

The fire in the chiminea was just about burned to ashes, and
the sky was completely dark now, except for the orange glow from streetlights
down the way.

Shit. What did it mean? I didn’t see any creatures from the
night before, and I didn’t feel that icky dread feeling. Instead I couldn’t get
the image of Matthew in pain out of my head, and I knew that whatever I was
going to do, it had to be done soon. Now I felt like Tara – like we were
running out of time.

I fished my phone out of my pocket and sent her a text
message.

If we’re going to do
this, let’s do it now.

Now?

Right
now.

Just a
minute
,
she
replied. A minute or two passed by and she sent another reply.
We’ll be right there. Tell Sam. We’ll need
him, too.

Why? I asked, not feeling like I wanted to interrupt Sam and
Lily in the middle of something.

I’ll tell you when I
get there.