Destiny Binds (17 page)

Promise.”

And he kept his promise, even after I decided it was a stupid one to make. When it got to the point I thought I might actually burst into flames he rolled over beside me, allowing me to finally catch my breath.

“You remember before? In the kitchen, when Angel asked me if I was in love with you?” His voice was lower, rougher than normal. The sound of it made parts of my body that I didnʼt realize were voice-activated come to life.

“Uh-huh,” was all I was capable of in way of response. Too much of my energy was needed to keep myself from pulling him back onto me.

“I realized that I never really answered that question.” He propped himself up on his elbow and looked down at me.

God, he was beautiful.

“Oh?” I wondered if I would ever be capable of intelligent speech again. It seemed that since my tongue had found more entertaining activities it wasnʼt going to do something so mundane as assist me with the whole talking thing.

“I thought you should know that the answer is yes. I love you, Scout.”

“You canʼt be in love with me,” I heard myself say, my rebellious mouth finally deciding to work.

His posture went from lounging to bracing without much in the way of movement. “I canʼt?”

“You barely know me,” I said. “Iʼm just the coyoteʼs sister youʼre supposed to stay away from. I get the whole ʻforbidden fruitʼ attraction, but thatʼs not love. If Toby hadnʼt told you to leave me alone, you wouldnʼt have given me a second glance. You would have realized what a loser I am a long time ago.”

It broke my heart to say everything I had been thinking out loud. I didnʼt want him to realize I was unworthy of his affection, but things were going too far. We were both going to end up hurt if it didnʼt end soon.

“You are not a loser.”

“Oh, I promise you, I am. I have a very long list of character references that will be happy to confirm that for you.”

“And Iʼm not just with you because youʼre ʻforbiddenʼ.” The back of his fingers grazed my jaw line. “I know exactly who you are, and I love you.”

“How?” I was desperate for him to convince me, for it to be true.

Alex raised himself into a sitting position in a move so quick and graceful that a normal human wouldnʼt have been able to achieve it. “Did you know that Iʼm a dream walker?” I too sat up, though much more slowly and awkwardly than he had. “I thought only females were Seers.” I also thought that we were talking about our relationship.

“Iʼm not a Seer. Sometimes a strong line of Seers can produce a male that has some extra talents. I canʼt do any of that cool brain talking stuff, but sometimes I can See things when Iʼm asleep.”

We were facing each other, my hand on his knee, his braceleting my ankle. “What sort of things?”

One side of his mouth tugged upwards and his eyes shone brightly. “I was eight years old the first time it happened. In the dream there was an apple tree full of little green apples. The air was heavy and sweet smelling, the summer sun suffocatingly hot.

“A couple of kids around my age were playing. I tried to talk to them, but they didnʼt hear or see me.

“On one of the high branches was this huge, perfect apple. It was at least twice the size of any of the others. One of the girls was determined to get it. She climbed up to the top and crawled slowly out to the edge. Her hand closed on it just as the branch snapped and threw her to the ground.

“I ran over, thinking that I could help. Her arm was laying at a funny angle, and she was trying hard not to scream. I told her that it was going to be okay, that one of the boys had already gone to get help, but it did no good. I wasnʼt really there.” Alexʼs thumb ran over my wrist, tracing the scars where the doctor had put pins in to hold the bones in place. “I forced my mom to help me look for you the next day. I knew that if I looked hard enough, I would find you, even though Mom kept saying there were no apple trees anywhere near our house.”

“You saw me break my arm?” It was impossible, yet he described it just as it happened.

Jase had bet me I couldnʼt pick the big apple at the top, and I was determined to prove that I could. Talley begged me to climb down, but I was stubborn. After I fell, Jase ran back home to get Dad while Charlie and Talley stayed with me. I broke both my radius and ulna and had to wear an itchy cast for months.

“Iʼve been dreaming of you for ten years,” he said. “I could never remember what anyone else looked like, or very many details about the location, but your face and voice have always been perfectly clear.”

“Thatʼs...”
crazy? sweet? creepy?
“impossible.” Alex smiled. “Shall I prove it?”

Part of me didnʼt want him to. The whole thing was freaking me out a little. What all had he seen? What did it mean that he dreamt of me? I was terrified of the answer, but I had to know.

He nodded towards the picture by my door. “I remember that day. There was a vine hanging from a tree that the others were using to swing out over the lake and jump into the water. You didnʼt want to do it because youʼre scared of heights.”

“Falling from the top of an apple tree can do that to a girl,” I said.

“Somehow they managed to talk you into trying it. You were shaking like a leaf, but you did it anyway.” A grin nearly split his face in two. I covered my face in horror, knowing what was coming next. “You were so proud of yourself when you came up out of the water you didnʼt immediately realize that you had lost the top of your swimsuit.”

“Oh. My. God.” Mom had wrapped a towel around me before I knew what was happening.

Jase had laughed so hard I thought, or perhaps hoped, he would rupture something. He didnʼt stop until Charlie pantsed him to “even the score”. “I cannot believe you saw that.”

“Are you kidding? That was one of the best nights of my life!”

“So, youʼve been enjoying a gag reel of my most embarrassing moments in your sleep for ten years?”

“Not just the embarrassing ones. Iʼve seen you laugh and cry and grow into a beautiful, amazing person.” His eyes, full of sincerity, were locked onto mine. “By the time I was eleven I knew I was in love with you. I was always eager to go to sleep. The mornings that I woke up without having seen you were beyond disappointing. I memorized every detail of you, from the arch of your eyebrows to the way you tilt your head and stare off into space when youʼre really thinking hard. I didnʼt know your name or where you lived, but I knew you were real. I knew that you were my destiny.”

Since meeting Alex I had my fair share of surreal experiences, but this one was even more astonishing and overwhelming than the others put together. He loved me because I was his destiny. That seemed like an awful big expectation to meet.

“Did you move here to find me?” I couldnʼt imagine it - packing up and moving across the country to find someone you had only met in a dream.

“No, we moved...” He paused as if unsure of how to continue. “We were moving south, with no clear cut destination. Liamʼs Jeep broke down on the side of the Interstate. While we were waiting for it to be fixed we decided this was as good of a place as any to stay. National forests offer an ideal place for Shifters to run and hunt.

“I have no idea how I managed to not see you come into Beckʼs class. I wasnʼt paying attention to anything going on in that room until I heard your voice putting that bastard in his place.” Obviously, he remembered my exchange with our Calculus teacher a bit differently than I did. “I turned around and there you were. I thought I had found you so many times before, but this time there was no doubt. I had literally found the girl of my dreams.” I replayed the first day of school in my head, trying to see it from his point of view. “And she was rude and her brother picked a fight with you.”

“Well, it didnʼt exactly go how I had planned it. I acted like such a moron, just standing there, staring at you as if you were suddenly going to leap into my arms and kiss me. It never even occurred to me that to you I was a complete stranger

“Then, when I saw you with another Shifter in the cafeteria, I realized things were going to be a bit more complicated than I had anticipated. And, of course, your attitude towards me in the beginning was a bit disheartening.” He said it with a smile, as if it were no big deal, but I felt bad all the same.

“I guess I was bit of a disappointment, huh?”

“The situation was disappointing. It still is.” He pushed my hair behind my ear, and I leaned into his hand. “But youʼre not a disappointment. Youʼre even more amazing than I thought you would be.” His lips met mine once again. It felt as if a soft warm light spread from my mouth to the top of my head, tips of my fingers, and all the way down to my toes. When his tongue reached out to taste my lower lip, the light turned into a searing heat, melting all the bones from my body.

He pulled away from me slowly and I let my eyes drink in his flushed cheeks, swollen lips, and fiery gaze. “I love you,” he said again, causing my heart to swell to the point of bursting.

I was going to say it back. I should have, but as I opened my mouth, I caught sight of Charlieʼs face staring back at me from a picture frame sitting on my bedside table and the words got stuck in my throat.

That night I found Angel reclining in her bed against a mountain of frilly pink pillows. Elf rested on her lap until I came through the door. The sight of me sent him scurrying underneath a dresser at the far end of the room where he proceeded to hiss out a stream of vulgarities.

“Did Alex go home?”

“Yep. He told me to tell you goodnight. Again.” The two of them had shared a ridiculously long exchange of “goodnights” in fake British accents before I made Angel go to bed.

I went over and sat on the edge of her bed, praying I wouldnʼt break it. Everything in Angelʼs room is tiny, pink, and orderly. “You had fun today, didnʼt you?” She nodded her head, blond curls bouncing every which way. “Those brownies were so good. I think it was the candy bar that really did it. Next time Iʼm going to use a Snickers to see what that tastes like.”

I was living with a three foot tall Martha Stewart.

“And you like Alex, right?”

“Alex is my friend. Heʼs nice.”

I took a deep breath and lowered myself so that we were eye level. I had to make sure she understood. “If you want to be a good friend to Alex, youʼre going to have to promise to never, ever,
ever
tell anyone that he was here today.”

“Scout, I can keep a secret.”

“But this is a big secret. An important one.” One that probably shouldnʼt have been entrusted to a first grader, but it was a little late for that.

“Iʼve kept big, important secrets before.”

“Like what?” Knowing her it would be that her best friend, Kinsey Jessup, still watched
Dora
the Explorer
.

Angel gave a dramatic sigh and eye roll that she had to have picked up from Jase. “If I told you, they wouldnʼt be secrets anymore.”

How could I have gotten into a situation where so much depended upon my little sisterʼs ability to keep her mouth shut? I should have sent Alex home the moment I found him on my front porch.

“Angel listen...” I closed my eyes and ran through the color spectrum in my head, a trick I picked up during Talleyʼs New Age phase. “Alex means a lot to me,” I finally said. “If anyone found out that he was here or that...you know...”

“You kiss him?”

“Yeah, that. If anyone found out about that I might...we
might...never get to see him again.

He would have to move really far away.” Or worse.

She stretched out her arm and locked her little finger around mine to signify the most solemn vow a six year old could make. “I wonʼt tell anyone. Pinky-promise.” I didnʼt doubt her sincerity, but I did doubt her ability to follow through. Every time she opened her mouth during those next few days I kept expecting the truth to come tumbling out, but it never did. It was as if she had forgotten it had ever happened. Eventually I started to believe that she had.

Turns out, though, that my sister is just really good at keeping secrets. So good, in fact, that I had no idea what she was up to when she asked me to take her to Landing Park the following Thursday.

Lake County has more parks than people. You canʼt drive five miles down any given road without seeing one of those ugly brown Corps of Engineering signs proclaiming some random field a recreation area. Most of the spots had picnic tables housed in shiny pavilions, state-of-the-art playground equipment, and other sparkly things to attract all the summer tourists.

Landing Park was not one of those recreation areas. It boasted two swings, one of which had been broken since I was a kid, a rusted slide, and a wooden picnic table missing two planks.

No one, with the exception of drug dealers, ever went there.

“This place is a dump,” I told my sister as we walked up the gravel path. I had my hand on her shoulder, steering her along so that she didnʼt step on any jagged beer bottle shards interlaced with the rocks. “There is only one swing, and a slide that Iʼm not letting you get on without a tetanus shot.”

Ignoring me, as per usual, Angel skipped over to the lone swing and hopped on. I set up station at the crumbled picnic table, where I attempted to keep frostbite from forming on my fingers. Five minutes later, just as I was ready to declare Crappy Park Fun Day over, a car came winding down the drive.

Angel reached the faded red Toyota before Alex could even get his door open.

“What are you doing here?” I asked when I finally reached them.

Alex quit spinning Angel around in circles and sat her back on the ground. She giggled as she stumbled around like a drunkard. “Ummm....you told me to meet you here?”

“Like in a dream?”

“Like with a text message.”

We stared at each other in confusion for a long minute.

“Can I see your phone?” I finally asked.

Alexʼs inbox had messages from “Liam”, “Ash” (messages I didnʼt read, which makes me a saint), and “Boo”, who I had to assume was me. I clicked on the message with a 3:17 time stamp.

“Meet me @ Landeen Park in 1 hour.”

“You thought I would misspell ʻLandingʼ?” That bothered me more than the fact that I hadnʼt been the one to send the message.