Burdened (A Burdened Novel) (39 page)

“My hand burned then turned black
, and the ugly vines grew up to my shoulder, the side of my neck, and my ear. I watched it grow in the mirror. The pain it brought shot through my head and my eyes. Oh my gosh, are my eyes black?”

“No,
they are the same beautiful, light-colored brown they’ve always been.” He’s still calm. “Continue with the dream.” He rubs his thumb over the back of my hands, calming me down.

“I watched my eyes turn black
, and your dad started talking to me, saying something like he is going to get me, even from the inside out, and he was going to destroy us both. He showed me himself—in the mirror.” I point to the mirror on the wall. “And started yelling my name.” I look back at my black hand. “It was the worst.”

Nathan pulls me to him and lift
s my hand, so we can both see it. Raising it to his mouth, he lets out an extremely slow breath through his kiss. It’s freezing cold, and I start to shiver.

Moments later
, he removes it, and we stare as the black fades away slowly, very slowly. The vines don’t fade completely, but they become faint. I run to the mirror. My ear isn’t as dark either, but I still notice it.

“You notice it
, because you are aware that it’s there. Although, no one else will be able to.”

“What is it?”

“You’re gaining abilities, I’m assuming, and one of them may be to burn things with your touch. Or, maybe you can eject fire or heat. It’s not really clear, but we can ask my mom the next time you come over.” He stands behind me in the mirror.

He kisses my vined ear. “So is this something you can do?”

“No, I don’t possess fire. However, I
can
turn someone into ash. Maybe your ability came from that. Again, Tracey, this isn’t my specialty—abilities and understanding them. I just possess them and know how to use mine. I also know some of the ones that my siblings and parents have, but that’s the most of it. For most, their abilities show on their skin, like yours.”

I’m calme
r. I really don’t care what it is; I just don’t want it to show. “Okay, so when can I expect for it to not show all the time?”

“Once you learn how to control it
, you will be fine. And, considering I’ve been hearing myself say that too often, I think it’s time we start trying to control things.”

We walk back to the couch. “Why did you make me wait so long before you showed me?”

“I was waiting for your parents to fall asleep, so they couldn’t hear us talk.” He sits me across him. “Your speed has picked up. I don’t know if you noticed it.”

“I did see that
. I thought I just needed you bad.”

“Maybe.” He looks at me. “Can I kiss you?”

“You don’t have to ask.” I lean into him and he kisses the worry away that lay upon his eyebrows. His hand rubs up my neck and pushes through my hair. My body shivers, never feeling his touch there before. I deepen the kiss, knowing I need to pull away. He matches it, and I let out a quiet moan.

He pulls away
, giving me the ‘not cool’ look with low eyes. I laugh.

“You scared me. I felt something happening to you.” He looks
me over.

“Yea
h, you came early. What happened today?”

“You don’t want to know.” He looks away from me to the TV.

“Nathan.”

“What did I tell you was going to happen?” I pull his face
, by his chin, to look at me. He rolls his eyes. “Tracey, everything happened that I told you would, with the exception of the extended conversation with my father. I cut it short because he pissed me off.”

“I’m not asking because I want to remind you of it
; although, I know that it will. I’m asking because I want you to talk to me and let me know what’s going on with you. What happened to you? I would really prefer for you to give me all the details, but I know you won’t. And I’m not going to stop asking, so get used to it.” I kiss the side of his mouth and turn his face back to the TV.

He looks b
ack at me, with a face that asks if I really just did that. I laugh, laying my head against his shoulder. “I love what you to do me, Tracey.”

“And what’s that?”

“You make me happy. I haven’t been happy for a long time.” He rubs my shoulder.

A few minutes pass. “So how am I going to control this stuff?”

“We’ll work on that later.”

“Oh, I forgot to mention
…we are supposedly hanging out with Glen and Scott on Saturday.”

“How did that happen?”

“My dad was standing with Glen and me when she asked me to call you. After I had zoned out while talking to you, I had to throw the attention off of me.”

“Um
, hum.” He scoots forward—to position himself more comfortably.

I listen as he lets out a slow breath
. I look up at him, and his eyes are closed. “Are you tired?”

“Yes
,” he says, with closed eyes.

“Well
, leave so we can go to sleep.”

“You’re tired?”

“Not really.” That dream freaked me out.

“You comfortable, sitting here?” It’s a two
-part question.

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“Well, I’ll sit here with you until you’re ready to lie down.” His eyes are still closed.

“But you
—”

“Tracey,
shh.” He wraps one of his arms all the way around me and puts the other behind his head.

I turn back to the TV
, smiling from him. I watch the movie ‘Fright Night.’ That ends and X-Men comes on. It’s now going on eleven and my dad will have his alarm set to check in on us. I sit up, looking at Nathan.

He’s looking back at me through
the slits of his eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s almost eleven.”

He stretches. “Okay.”

I move from across him
, standing up. He stands and stretches—his body getting taller than what it already is, shoulders broader than what they really are. I can tell he’s tired because of the lowness of his eyelids. He looks at me staring at him.

“You had a busy day
, huh?” I ask, still staring.

“Yea
h, I was up early and didn’t stop until I came over here.”

“Did I take you from something?”

“No, never. Whatever you have going on is more important than anything I was doing. But I was about done anyway. I left the cleanup to Scott.” He looks in the direction of the stairs. “I have to go. You going to show me out?”

“Yea
h.” My dad must be around.

We walk to my front door
. Nathan pulls me into a hug. “Tell your dad I’m sorry again for barging in like I did. That’s not like me.”

“I
will.” I look to him for a kiss. He shakes his head slightly and kisses my forehead. Yep, my dad is definitely around. Damn Dad.

I open the door for him. “I’ll see you later
, Tracey.”

“Bye.” I don’t like the feeling I get watching him walk away. I remind myself he’s coming right back as I watch him get in his truck. I close the door
, watching him pull off. “I know you’re there, Dad.”

I turn around and watch him descend the remaining stairs. “It’s not eleven yet.”

“Just about.”

“I just knew you all would be late.”

“Nope.” I walk over to him. “Not late.”

“I see
. You all seem nice.”

“What do you mean?”

“You two wear feelings for each other on your shoulders. I’m not sure how I feel about that.”

“Well
, how
do
you feel?”

“You’re growing up
, but you’re still young.”

“Humph, that’
s understanding.” I hug his middle. “But I cannot help how I feel; although, I can say we’ll take it a minute at a time.” Lie!

“Well
, that’s all I can ask. You’re old enough to make wise decisions, and pretty soon you’ll be off on your own—at school—and I’ll expect for you to be responsible and cautious. And I do
not
want you to have any children until you are thirty.”

“Dad!”
He did not just say that. “I’m not planning on having any kids right now anyway. But thirty?”

He shrugs and hugs me back. “I love you
, ladybug. And Nathan seems like a nice guy. I will still have a talk with him, but he seems put together well.”

“He is, but I’m really tired and I’m going to head to bed.” I head up the stairs. “See you in the morning.”

“Me too.” He heads up the stairs behind me, and we both go our separate ways to our bedrooms.

I walk in my room
, and Nathan’s sitting on my chaise, with his face in his phone. I walk over to him and he spreads out one arm, welcoming me to lie against him, not taking his eyes from his phone.

“What’s going on?”

He lets out a harsh breath. “Taylor tried to kill my father for trying to kill Justin. And now everybody is texting and calling me. I told them I was with you, but they act like it was a change of subject and then started asking me about you.” His phone vibrates. “I’m trying to find Taylor, but she is not answering me, and Justin isn’t going to answer if Taylor tells him not to.”

“Do you need to go?”

“Probably, but I’m not going to.”

“We can go check on it together.”

He finally looks at me. “Not happening.”

“Why not
? I’m really tired of you doing things without me. And I want to make sure Taylor is okay too. We’ll leave and come back before morning.”

“Or
, we’ll sit here and wait until morning and then I’ll go and see what happened.”

“Nathan
,” I wine.

“Tracey.” He mocks my tone.

“Nathan, this overprotective thing is really putting a danker in our relationship.”

“And what does that mean?”

“You cannot keep me locked away. It’s better to be by your side than on my own.”

He put
s his phone down and pushes his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know.”

“You
’ll teach me, I’ll learn, and we’ll concur. All.”

“Where do you get this stuff?” He looks at me through
low eyes. Very sexy.

“I don’t know
, but—” I turn to straddle him. “I do know that you owe me a kiss goodnight.”

He wraps both
of his arms around me tightly. “Is that right?”

I raise an eyebrow
. “As a matter of fact.”

He grips my chin lightly pulling my face to his. “Humph
,” he sounds, turning his mouth into a line, while shrugging his shoulders. “You might be onto something.” I lean down, kissing him. He doesn’t kiss me back. “You happy now?”

“Un-
hun.” I shake my head.

He sits up on the chaise
, taking me with him. “You know, I’ve been thinking.”

“About what?”

“Me, you, my truck.” I remember the night we relived my dream and how I ruined it, not being able to control my damn hormones. “With the ice broken, thanks to you, you wouldn’t
need
to control those
hormones
.”

“Is that right?”

“As a matter of fact,”

“Touché
.”

He kisses me deep
, and I forget about everything but us in his truck. I grab the back of the chaise as he rubs his fingers through the back of my hair. I love the way that feels. His hands there sends tremors through me.

I can’t help myself, craving for more. I push against him until I feel hard
ness. He scoots down, making my efforts easier. Feeling
it
also sends shivers over me, enticing me. I lower against it and his hand grabs my waist, moving in a grind against it.

He stops kissing my mouth
, moving to my neck. It feels amazing. I don’t know what type of magical buds lie on his tongue or what form of skin is placed upon his lips, but I am so grateful for it.

I rub my hand over his neck and up into his hair
. It’s so soft. He kisses under my neck, moving to the other side. His other hand moves to grab my breast, as he kisses me slowly, making his way up to the space behind my ear. My body tingles as he hits that intense spot on my body. Both of his hands move to grab my thighs.

I lose it
, letting a moan escape. He pulls back quickly, his eyes that hypnotizing ocean-blue. I let out a soft breath, upset that he stopped. His grip loosens and I lean in, placing a soft kiss against his lips.

“Sorry
.”

“You’re starting something.”

“So finish it.” I move to kiss his neck.