Evanescent (20 page)

He nods in my direction as Grayson
disappears for a moment and heads over.

“So who did this to you, man?” Coop slaps me
gently on the back as he examines the stitches running up the side
of my face.

“Logan and Gage Oliver.” Their names roll
off my tongue, rough and hostile, like drilling a jackhammer.

“You sure they’re not from Rycroft?” Coop
ticks his head back. His jaw redefines itself as if he’s good and
pissed on my behalf.

I know Coop well enough to realize what he’s
up to. He’s memorizing their names, running it through the super
computer that functions as his memory bank to see if he recognizes
them. We used to be friends Coop and me. Good ones.

I shake my head at the thought of losing
what we had over my incessant jealousy. Coop would do anything to
help me out, anyone out, for that matter—he’s just that nice.

“Coop”—I step in and take a breath—“you’re
one of us. You’re like a brother. I don’t want there to be
weirdness between us anymore. I miss tossing the ball on the field
and hanging out after you ran a perfect game. I really appreciate
your concern with my new face, but the guys who did this,” I pause
and press out a dry smile, “they’re from a couple years in the
future. It’s some bullshit I got mixed up in, and they’re just
doing what they think is right. I’ll get ‘em back though.” I’ll be
damned if I let those two ass-wipes get away with ever laying a
hand on me.

“Get a hold of a supervising spirit, and
lets get out there.” Coop crosses his arms like he’s ready and
rearing to go.

“It’s not that easy. We need a willing
Celestra.” I leave out the part about my supervising spirit being
an ass who doesn’t believe in doing me any favors.

Coop doesn’t say anything.

Laken emerges from the kitchen with Carter
in tow. They head straight over to Jen who is noticeably without
either of her spit-swapping partners.

Cooper runs his eyes over Laken. He’s
drinking her down, lusting after her without the ability to control
it in my presence. He blinks away and swallows hard.

It’s becoming clear he’s less interested in
Grayson than I thought.

“So I hear Laken knew that girl.” He nods.
“Weird how that all went down.”

I stare at Coop a really long time. Maybe
now is the time to call bullshit, but I decide against it.

“It’s sad. I hope they find her family
soon.” I pan the room for Blaine. “So you and Grayson, huh?” I
knock into his shoulder with mine, and it elicits a riot of pain in
my abdomen.

“Can you blame me?” Coop swallows a laugh,
and I’m not sure if he’s kidding or not.

“You know, we should hang out more,” I say,
tossing the bone out there. “We should take the girls to dinner.
Laken is still new. I know Kres has been giving her a hard time, so
Grayson’s probably not too far behind. I’d like to see them get
along.”

Coop loses his friendly demeanor, and for a
moment I wonder if a second ass kicking is in the works for me. He
manufactures a dry smile that lets me know he’s not enthused with
the bonding session I just proposed.

“Yeah, let’s do that. I think it’ll be fun.”
He continues to openly glare at me. “I’d better go find Grayson.
I’d hate for someone else to try and step into my shoes. Someone
might end up looking like you if they tried. Is that what you did,
Wes?” He lets out a playful laugh. “You try to steal someone’s
girl?”

Skyla comes to mind. She’s beautiful but
doesn’t hold a candle to Laken. For a second I envision Laken tied
up and stretched out while
Gage
has his way with her neck,
and my blood begins to boil. I shake the thought loose.

“Maybe I did.” I give a quick wink as he
takes off. I did something a whole hell of a lot worse than trying
to steal someone’s girl—I hurt her.

Laken doesn’t hesitate to bring me upstairs
once our lips begin to overheat. The party rages on, and I’ve kept
an eye on Flanders all night. As far as I can tell, he seems
genuinely into Grayson—the way he holds her hand, her waist like
they were a couple.

I noticed Laken stealing a few glances in
their direction herself. I’m sure it hurt her ego a little to see
he wasn’t pining for her anymore. It’s got to feel good knowing two
different guys want your affection, so maybe that’s all it was to
her. I’d hate to think maybe she was really into him. Kres pines
for me, and I’m not remotely “into” her anymore. After I turned her
down cold the night she showed up in my bed, I knew Laken put an
end to that relationship for good. An image of Kres burns through
my mind, naked—complete with a shiny red bow.

Laken looks right at me, her mouth falls
open with surprise.

“What?”

She makes a face. “We’d better find a way to
lock the door.” She picks up her backpack and leans it over the
crack.

“How about this?” I say, wedging her chair
under the doorknob. “What was that look for?” I tease.

“I’m just”—she shakes her head—“I’m too far
gone.” She covers my lips with hers.

“Just a second,” I say, walking her backward
over to the bed. “Anything here that might clue us in on who the
hell Pearl was?” Everything looks the same. Girls’ dorms are always
pretty neat, so maybe the trash could afford a clue or two.

Laken pulls me closer as if she knew where I
was going with this.

“Who cares? It’s so depressing I can’t even
think straight.” Her eyes tear up. “I’m sure they’ll find
something, or her Mom will call the authorities. Right?”

“Right.”

A bedroom blinks through her mind, and I
wince trying to place it. It held an off campus appeal, but Laken
doesn’t get out much.

Shit
. Laken untucks my shirt and
slips her iced fingers over my flesh.

I trace the outline of her lips with my
tongue and pull back in time to see her blush. Laken puts to shame
any of the iconic beauties ever immortalized through art in ages
past or present.

“I’m dying to sketch you.” I press a kiss
just under her ear, and she gives an involuntary moan. “Without
your clothes. Would you let me do that?”

Her body goes rigid. An image of Kresley
lying naked on my bed flashes through her mind, the red bow tied in
a proud sash across her midsection just as I had seen it.

I pull back and examine her without allowing
a single thought to sail through my brain.

“Sketching me in the nude? I don’t know
about that.” Laken shivers as though the idea scares her.

I sit down and untie my shoes.

How in the hell did she peg Kresley so
correctly right down to the fucking bow? I glance up just as she
straddles me from behind with a knee on either side of my waist.
She dips a kiss down over my shoulder, and all thoughts of Kresley
quickly dissipate. Maybe it was
my
thought. Maybe I was just
replaying the scene from the other night.

Skin on skin, that’s the only way Celestra
hear one another. Laken isn’t Celestra. There’s no way she heard
me, or saw what I was thinking. It’s probably just a coincidence. I
bet a big red bow is how all girls envision gifting themselves to
their boyfriends. But Laken wasn’t thinking of herself—she mirrored
my thoughts exactly.

I stiffen at the thought of Laken reading my
mind. There’s got to be a way I can test her to be sure.

“So…” I lie over her and interlock our
fingers, tight like the bear trap it is. “Other than the tragedy,
how was your night?”

“Excellent because I was with you. How’s
your lip? You look tragically
hot
by the way.” A sexy gurgle
trickles from her throat.

“Why thank you.” I take her in, still
stunned by the fact she bounced back an accurate image of Kres in
her birthday suit. “I don’t want to be anywhere else except right
here with you. You’re the most beautiful girl on the planet.” I
land a kiss over her nose.

Sometimes I wish she would say I love you
first. In a way, I think it would mean more.
I appraise her for
evidence of eavesdropping.

Laken, bites her lip and looks away for a
moment.

Nothing. My chest swells with relief.

“Love you,” I say, giving a chaste kiss
before examining her from this vantage point. “Halloween is coming
up. I’ve got something special planned for the two of us.” I flood
my mind with images of Laken and me engaging in some of the most
explicit sex acts I can think of and gauge her reaction.

“Holy shit, Parker.” She rumbles with
laughter. “You are such a dirty perv!”

My muscles tense up. My heart beats
erratic.

“Why’s that, Anderson?” I don’t say a word
about her mixing up my sir name again. I’m resigned to the fact she
can’t keep it straight.

“Halloween. You know”—she moves her hips
beneath mine—“that’s kind of strange, don’t you think? Not the most
romantic night in the world.” She begins to nuzzle my neck, and I
don’t object.

“What made you think I was talking about
sex?” I growl out a laugh. “I think it’s you who needs to get her
mind out of the gutter.”

“You’re a
guy
, Wes. It’s a known fact
you’ll spend your entire adult life wading through ‘the gutter.’ I
bet you envision naked girls wrapped in bows all day long. It’s
practically a vocation you’re called into. Your testosterone status
alone demands it.”

I roll off and lie next to her, my hands up
by the headboard safe away from her prying mind.

She did it again.

What the fuck just happened?

Long after midnight—instead of heading to
Henderson—I take a lonely walk over to the library, passing
Asterion in all his Minotaur glory as the fog shrouds him in
mystery.

I don’t like the idea of Laken having
secrets. I don’t have secrets. In fact, the surprise I have set for
Halloween has to do with eliminating that very thing. It’s going to
be Laken and me, bonding on an adventure she’ll never forget—the
Tenebrous Woods. She’s a Temple Treasure, so Edinger can’t deny
her. Not that I’d go crawling to him for permission. Besides, he
made it emphatically clear he doesn’t want to speak with her under
Count authority. He should have thought about that before lopping
off his head last month and holding it out to her like a bowling
ball. He’s such a stupid shit. He talked in circles about having
fun with her. He said he knew about her injury and couldn’t resist.
I didn’t appreciate the stunt, still don’t.

I pass Asterion nice and slow. His eyes
glint a silent blood red, and I don’t remember him looking this
evil in the light. There’s a fierceness about him. Asterion seems
pissed to hell about everything. It unnerves me to walk past him as
if he might animate and rip me to pieces for the heck of it.

The library is lit up in the distance with
its cathedral windows, glowing as if the place were on fire. It’s
an optical illusion created through the stained glass, and I can’t
help but wonder if the artist had that in mind when he designed
it—the fire, the burning tower. It makes Ephemeral look downright
demonic.

Laken was thinking of a room tonight when we
went upstairs. I’ve seen that room before—a guy’s room, but I can’t
quite place it.

I take the steps up to the library two by
two and use the master key to let myself in.

The reserve lighting is enough to guide me
toward the back, and I enter the “by invitation only” room before
locking myself inside.

Rows and rows of leather bound books on the
history of the Countenance—heck all five angelic factions, line the
shelves with their gleaming, gilded spines—books on the
Countenance, Deorsum, Levatio, Noster, and of course Celestra. They
shine in this low light like celestial bodies that belong in the
sky.

Celestra, A Lineage
. I pluck the book
off the shelf and thumb through it, searching for names, dates,
places that might offer a clue as to which Celestra might be aiding
Laken—or if, in fact, she is one herself.