Cursed (20 page)

He stood there by my door and held his hands
out. He smirked at me one second and in another he was across the
room, it’s not a big room but I didn’t even see him take a breath
let alone a step.

He knelt at my bed again and smiled, “I am not
like you.” His voice was a whisper.

I didn’t know what to say, he had lied to me
about so many things I didn’t understand why he had to go to such
extreme places to make up stories when the plain truth was there
somewhere. He was a con man, I was cool with it.

"Aimee I don't know how to be with you but I
can't seem to be without you."

He was toying with me, I was tired of going back
and forth between him and Shane and I was tired of his act, maybe
we can be together and maybe not.

The disappointment and severity of the feelings
I was having were too much to take. I felt angry hatred filling me
no doubt from the physical reaction I had to him every time I saw
him. I lashed out at him hitting whatever I could make contact
with. I hated him, I had such ardent feelings for him I didn’t even
recognize what they were. I was able to go from love and adoration
to despicable hatred in between the beats of my heart. As I clawed
out at him in my fit of rage I felt the wet hot tears pouring down
my cheeks. He pulled me into him to muffle the screams and picked
me up. I tried to fight him but suddenly his face had grown stone
hardened and stern looking. He looked at my open window and before
I could properly talk him out of a murder suicide he jumped.

I saw the ground coming and then it wasn’t, I
wasn’t falling anymore. My grip on him was hurting my hands and I
felt like I would throw up any second. We moved so quickly I
couldn’t see anything, the motion was too much for me to bear. I
closed my eyes screaming into his laughing chest. I couldn’t
believe he would laugh at this moment.

I felt a hard bump and then I felt myself being
lowered and the soft sand, as I was laid on it. Lastly as the fear
and terror started to subside I heard the ocean. I looked around me
and I was at the hidden beach. It was an hour’s drive and a
forty-minute hike through the roughest terrain but it was a sandy
beach and on the north west coast we did anything we could to find
one.

The night air was cold against my panties and
tank top. The cold sand sat firmly beneath me but I still had to
touch it to be certain I was really there.

I looked at Aleks who stood with his arms
crossed watching me silently.

He stepped one small step closer, before I could
even decide if it was what I wanted to do or not I jumped up and
started to run from him. My bare toes hit the sand and dug in as I
scream, “Someone help me. Please someone help me. Its Aimee James
please help me.”

Aleks was in front of me somehow like he was
toying with me. Defeated I dropped to my knees and started to
cry.

He walked to me slowly with his hands out as if
he were approaching a crazed person with a gun.

I wished for a second I had a gun but I wasn’t
entirely sure who I would shoot, him or me.

He dropped to his knees in the sand, his hand
reached out to my face and lifted my chin slowly, “Aimee I told you
this once before I could never hurt you. I am here for you.”

I cried harder, “I’m dying? You’re here to take
me to heaven aren’t you?”

I shivered in my under wear as he pulled his
huge blue sweater off and put it over my head, I pulled away from
his grasp but I was dressed in it before I could really argue. The
warmth of the sweater was relaxing.

He put his arms around me and pulled me into his
bare chest, “Aimee you’re not dying. I’m here because you’re not
coping. You and your family, in a way called to me when your mom
died in the accident.”

I sobbed, I couldn’t control myself, I knew what
he was saying but it contradicted with everything I knew in life to
be true, well except for the fact we weren’t coping, that part was
true.

“I lied to you about being a social worker
because I couldn’t tell you what I was but you should never have
seen me. Your mom’s death has triggered a series of events that
never should have happened. It wasn’t her time. Just like the night
you choked and I saved you it wasn’t your time. I was called to
stay with your family making you feel safe and ensuring nothing
happened that had been caused by her death.” He held me tightly not
giving me an inch of space to struggle or flee while he told me a
fairytale.

“I got to you too late Aimee that night. I
panicked and got to you right away but you saw me because you were
a spirit. That changes the whole thing. Once you see an immortal it
gets easier and Shane’s bloody yard was not going to make it easy
on me either. That shamans blessing makes it impossible for my kind
to cloak properly. I was at the party but when you saw me watching
you I left to stay with your dad. I felt you cross into the other
world and got there as fast as I could.”

I had stopped crying and started to laugh
uncontrollably, I felt him pull me away and give me an alarmed
stare. It made me laugh harder, I couldn’t stop myself. My right
ribs hurt so much where my liver was but even the pain couldn’t
make the laugh stop. I fell over into the sand rolling as I
laughed. He started to smile and laugh at me, “You’ve lost it
haven’t you. This was the straw that broke the camels back and I’ve
pushed you over the edge to insanity.”

I didn’t know how to cope with anything he told
me and laughing was making me feel so much better.

Tears rolled down my face, as finally I was able
to get a hold of myself, “The stupid shaman story was true?”

Of all the things in his story he told me that
just seemed too ridiculous.

He nodded smirking at me, “Shamans are very
powerful Aimee. A being just as supernatural as a shaman caused
your mom’s death. Nothing in the world will ever be the same for
you. You’ve seen the other side which means you’re stuck now with
visions from the in-between.”

I shook my head, “No it hasn’t happened except
for seeing you.”

He laughed, “You could see past my cloak Aimee
that’s a bad sign.”

He shuffled forward on his knees to me getting
sand all over his jeans. I looked at him trying desperately to see
something other than the sexiest man I could even imagine crawling
on the sand toward me in jeans that hugged him nicely and no shirt.
His stomach flexed under his silky skin. I wanted to touch each ab
muscle, I wanted to run my hands down his stomach, possibly
dragging my fingernails a little. I blushed trying to remember the
man had weird powers. My brain argued that even past the creepy
things he was sexy. I sighed giving up and resigned myself to the
fact I was a dirty freak flag-waving pervert.

His smile reassured me even though my whole
world filled with questions I wasn’t sure I wanted the answers
to.

Aleks rubbed along my arms trying to warm me up
while looking down on me as we knelt on the sand. The moon of
course no doubt under his spell as well drifted out from the cloud
it had concealed itself behind and shone down on us making it
easier to see his face. He looked to be fighting something inside
of himself as he bent his face down to mine and kissed me. This
time it was a passionate kiss, rough and harsh. His teeth bit down
on my lower lip sucking it in his mouth before kissing me once
more. I felt like cat who had been stroked too much I was over
stimulated feeling the swell in my lips worsen as we found our arms
grabbing at one another, him pulling me up into him as his arms
slowly crept down my back to where his sweater ended and my legs
sat bare. My arms were around his back rubbing his hot smooth skin
trying desperately to keep my hands north of the equator.

He lifted me up into his arms wrapping my legs
around him with ease, his strength seemed unrealistic. I felt like
my sister out on the beach making out under the moon light with a
guy people suspected of a terrible crime. I pushed myself away
needing breath and separation, “I want to go home.”

He smiled breathlessly at me, “I need a minute
before I can get back.” He too must have been feeling the chemical
reactions our bodies were submitting to.

I put my foot down on the sand and stood on
shaky legs. My headache seemed to be coming back. I couldn’t
believe how long it was taking me to bounce back. He watched me
like a predator watches a fawn, his eyes moving up and down my bare
legs. I felt so safe with him against everything except myself. Out
here I wasn’t afraid of the date rapist, I wasn’t afraid of bears
or wolves or cougars but I was afraid of me losing control of
myself and doing something based entirely on my emotional bodies
choices and none on common sense or rational thought. This was not
a comfortable thing for me.

He stood up after a minute and held his arms
out, “Okay I’m ready.”

I frowned, “Can we walk?”

He stepped forward picking me up before I had a
chance to argue my opinion on the matter and were gone.

He looked hurt as he pulled us through the air
and everything sped past me in a sickening blur, “What’s the matter
you don’t trust me?”

I shook my head, “its not that, I just don’t
like not being in control.”

He laughed not watching where he was going
making me nervous, “I think the only thing saving both of us from
making a huge mistake tonight is your control because I’ve lost all
of mine.” His eyes glistened dangerously as he bent down and kissed
me.

I panicked, “Watch where you’re going.” He also
found this amusing but I was scared beyond belief so I closed my
eyes uncertain how we would get back into my house. The next thing
I felt was the softness of my sheets. Wide eyed I frowned at him,
“I have sand on my butt, I don’t want it in my sheets.”

He shook his head and sat on the chair across
the room watching me. I was embarrassed to be seen changing by him
even though I knew he had already seen me showering, which
disturbed me still. I gave him a look as I walked to the bathroom
with new pajamas, “Be right back.”

I wasn’t right back, I stayed in the shower
trying to translate all of the details he told me into layman’s
terms as if I were telling my sister.

“He is an immortal who was trying to help us
cope with moms accident and he was trying to make sure a negative
outcome didn’t happen as a result of moms death which was not meant
to be. A supernatural force or being killed mom, as a result
everything in our lives is upside down. I accidentally died on his
watch and he managed to save me but now as a result I can see him
and dead people even though that is unfounded at this point, he is
attracted to me and I him even though he isn’t a human being.” I
nodded as I summed it out loud to get a good grasp on how things
were. I turned off the shower and knew what I had to do.

I dressed quickly and went down stairs ignoring
the pain in my head to see my dad so he wouldn’t worry, “Hey dad
I’m going back to bed. I just showered.”

He was reading a text of some sort and looked up
with his glasses on smiling, “Feeling better?”

I nodded lying, “Yeah I think I just needed some
sleep. I should be better by tomorrow I think.”

He smiled, “Okay kiddo. Night.”

My sister wasn’t home, big shocker I imagined
her at Blake’s house stopping him from doing homework and other
productive things while she convinced him to try whatever drugs she
thought were cool at the moment. I decided I could be mad later
about that, for now I needed to follow my plan. Besides who was I
judging her while I was secretly dating two boys, or at least
kissing them.

I climbed the stairs trying to make it all the
way to the top so my dad wouldn’t doubt my miraculous recovery but
in truth the stairs were death. My poor legs shook as I made it up
all the way. Being around Aleks seemed to be the only thing that
made me feel good. That worried me.

I opened my bedroom door smiling at him lying on
my bed reading a book on how to decipher Arabic.

He was in his jeans still half naked on my bed.
I frowned at his jeans imagining all kinds of salt and sand now on
my sheets adding to what I had already left there.

He smiled as I closed my door and locked it, “I
took the sheets and my pants outside and shook them, there isn’t
any sand.”

His crooked smile seemed to be stuck on his
face. His piercing blue eyes were driving me crazy.

I walked to him and put my hand out for him to
take but he took it and pulled me on top of him instead of
standing. He rubbed my back, “I haven’t seen these kind of pajamas
on a girl your age in a long time.”

I frowned raising one eyebrow, “Fleece?”

He laughed, “Yeah girls your age wear sexy
things.”

I couldn’t help but laugh back, “Well I had
panties and a tank top on but you wrecked them and honestly I just
can’t seem to shake feeling cold and itchy. These make me feel
nice.”

He agreed, “I love fleece, it makes me want to
rub you.” His strong hands rubbing up and down my spine did feel
very nice and I could have fallen asleep like this, my head didn’t
hurt while he was touching me and I felt so peaceful. I knew I had
to follow the plan though if I was ever going to get beyond the
immortal part. I rolled off of him to the side of my bed. This
didn’t seem to deter him from kissing my neck and rubbing the outer
thigh of my pj's. I pushed him away, “Go to the chair, we need to
talk.” He groaned, “We can talk here. I’ll behave.” He kissed my
cheek once, pausing, as he inhaled the fresh scent of my soap no
doubt. I turned my face and felt his lips brush mine softly and
sensually again like the first kiss. I fell into the kiss again
finding myself chasing him, trying to get him to pull into me and
smother me with his affections. I inhaled his scent feeling my skin
tingle and eyes roll back into my head.