It's a Love Thing (21 page)

“
So be it.”

He sounded resigned, almost
disappointed. For one absolutely naïve moment I thought he was
giving up; leaving me alone. I was wrong. He moved so fast I didn’t
even see it happen. Suddenly he was just there, right in front of
me, inches from my face, pinning me to the wall. The pressure from
his hands made my shoulders ache. I tried to squirm away when he
removed one hand to run his creepy fingers across my cheek, but he
was too strong.

“
Too bad it has to be this
way, Mel. You and I could have had a lot of fun
together.”

Just the thought of it made me cringe.
I tried to shove him off of me but he snagged my hand in mid-air
and pinned it along with the other to the wall. As hard as I tried,
I couldn’t break his grasp. I was completely at his mercy and that
was terrifying. Screw acting tough, I screamed. I screamed at the
top of my lungs; not that there was anyone to hear me. Jason seemed
to find it amusing. He laughed, but then abruptly stopped, snapping
his hand up to grip my chin roughly.

“
Enough of this,” he
snarled. “Now, you are mine.”

His hand slid lower until it circled
my throat. He stayed like that for a moment, leaning in close to me
and inhaling, like he could smell my fear . . . and he liked it.
Then, he squeezed. I fought. I fought as hard as I could, twisting
my head and hands, trying to break free, but I might as well have
been fighting against a statue. He never faltered, only squeezed
tighter until oxygen became the thing dreams are made of. My lungs
screamed for air, burning like they were on fire. Fighting became
too difficult and I sunk back into the wall. Black spots formed in
my vision and my cloudy brain wondered if there were bugs in the
house. This was it. Jason was going to kill me and take my soul
wherever it was he took souls, and there wasn’t a thing I could do
about it. That last part made me the angriest, but all the rage in
the world wasn’t going to save me now.

Except . . . maybe Lucas’.

The roar that filled my ears was
inhuman. It shook the house and sounded like a lion had taken up
residence in my hallway. In a blur of body parts, Jason went pin
wheeling off me and I collapsed onto the floor, hard. I had no idea
what had happened, or what was still happening beside me. I didn’t
really care either, not at the moment. The only thing that mattered
right that second was air and the fact that it could once again
reach my lungs, bathing their fire in soothing coolness, quenching
their thirst. I gulped it greedily and squeezed my eyes shut until
I was certain I could handle opening them. When I did, I wished I
hadn’t.

Jason and Lucas were brawling on the
floor a few feet away. It looked like any other boy brawl that you
might see in the hallway, except for the fact that when they missed
each other their fists were doing some serious damage to the floors
and walls, slamming right through them like they were made of
paper. The whole upstairs landing looked like a bomb had gone off
in it. Lucas had managed to pin Jason to the floor and was
repeatedly pummeling him into submission.

“
If you ever go near Mel
again, I will destroy you! You ever touch her again, I will slice
you apart and send you back to hell in a hand basket,” he growled,
sounding out of breath but angry enough to follow through on his
threats.

Jason gave one last ditch effort to
break free before relenting.

“
Fine, you can have her . .
. for now. But they will never give up, not on her. She will be
ours one day and then I will laugh in your face.”

“
I wouldn’t recommend it,”
Lucas told him, shoving his knee further into Jason’s abdomen,
causing him to grunt in pain.

When Lucas released him, Jason zipped
from the house so quickly I barely saw him move. It just looked
like a flash of color hurtling down the stairs.

“
Are you alright?” Lucas
asked, crouching in front of me.

Gently he took my face in his hands
and tipped it upward until I was looking at him. He ran his hands
over my hair and jaw line, wiping tears I didn’t know I had from my
cheeks, before tipping it up even further to expose my raw
throat.

“
That son of a . . .” he
grumbled and his eyes flashed with anger so intense it almost
frightened me, but then he tilted his head and kissed my bruised
neck with infinite tenderness.

Despite my best efforts to maintain my
composure, my eyes slid shut and I leaned into him. His arms came
around me and he held me tight. When I had regained the ability to
think clearly I blurted out, “You saved me.”

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t my most
coherent line of thought. My voice sounded rough like it was
pushing up through shards of glass and it hurt just as badly. Lucas
noticed my wince and hushed me from saying anything
else.

“
I should have been closer.
I’m sorry. I just never thought he would go this far. Attacking a
human, stealing a soul is unheard of.”

He led me down to the kitchen, where
he made me a cup of tea and poured a generous helping of honey into
it.

“
This should help your
throat,” he explained, passing me the steaming mug.

It did help. Almost immediately I
could feel the hot liquid coating my raw throat and soothing it. I
guzzled the entire cup, oblivious to the scalding
temperature.

“
Lucas,” I croaked. My
voice still sounded terrible, but at least it didn’t hurt as much.
“You came back.”

“
Of course I came back. I
promised you I’d be here and… I had to see you one last
time.”

“
I know I shouldn’t have
called you, but when I heard him in the house I didn’t know what
else to do.”

“
No, I’m glad you called.
Are you kidding me? I’m glad I gave your cell back.”

“
Gave it back? I thought
you found it?”

“
Yeah,” he hedged, “it may
not have happened exactly like I said.”

“
You stole my
phone?”

Wasn’t there some sort of commandment
about not stealing, or did that only apply to us humans?

“
Sorry about that. I was
trying to keep you away from Jason.”

Like that made it all better. Okay,
maybe it made it a little better but still . . . sheesh.

“
I’m just glad you’re
alright,” he murmured as his knuckles brushed my cheek, and all
thoughts of cell phones went right out the window. “If he had . .
.”

Lucas swallowed hard and suddenly I
was seeing him through blurry vision.

“
I missed you. I missed you
so much,” I cried, losing hold on my composure again. Near death
experiences will do that to a person.

“
I missed you, too. Every
day.”

“
Then why did you move out?
Why did you leave? Why didn’t you come back? Forget the
rules.”

“
Because I couldn’t.
Because it wasn’t safe . . . for you. Nothing has changed, Mel. We
are still not allowed to be together and if we were found out we
would be facing the wrath of the elders. Trust me it’s not
something you want to be on the receiving end of. Me they would go
easy on. They’d have to because I’m a soul solider and we’re rare,
which makes us valuable to them. They need me. But humans? You’re a
lot more common. If they were to make an example of you; exact
their revenge on
you
just to teach
me
a lesson I could never forgive myself. You’re the one that
this relationship would ultimately put in danger. Do you
understand?”

I nodded. He was trying to protect me,
just like always. But it just wasn’t fair.

“
It doesn’t matter anymore,
anyway. I’m leaving.”

Those two words hit me like a freight
train and sent me reeling. He had been gone for almost a week
already, but this sounded different. More final.

“
The elders found out about
my breach of contract. They know what I told you,” he clarified in
response to what I’m sure was an incredibly confused look on my
face.

“
What will happen to
you?”

“
I’m not sure yet. There’s
going to be a trial. After that I will learn my punishment, but you
can’t count on me to be here for you anymore. I doubt Jason will
bother you again, but there are others like him out there, Mel,” he
said, clasping my hand. “Just use your head and you’ll be
alright.”

He took a deep breath and
held it, staring at me closely like he was trying to memorize my
face, like he may never see it again. My heart squeezed like a
lemon being made into lemonade. My chest was filling with
heart
-ade and it was
drowning me from the inside out. I clutched his hand tighter as
though that would somehow keep him here with me.

“
Lucas . . .”

“
Never change, Mel. Never,”
he insisted. “You have the most beautiful soul I have ever seen.
Don’t let anyone change that. No matter what.”

I suddenly found myself incapable of
speech. Maybe it was because I already knew that it wouldn’t matter
what I said. Lucas was leaving, really leaving and I was never
going to see him again. Would I even know what had happened to him?
Because of me? Would I have to spend the rest of my life
wondering?

“
Lucas,” I tried again, but
a desperate sobbed escaped instead as he pulled me into his
lap.

He buried his face in my neck as my
tears soaked into the front of his shirt.

“
Don’t cry,” he pleaded.
“I’m so sorry. I never meant to hurt you.”

I tucked myself into him as tightly as
I could, memorizing the feel of his body, his hard chest, soft
hands, strong arms. I don’t know how long we sat there like that,
hours, minutes. Whatever it was, it wasn’t long enough, but when he
pulled back I knew it was time. He had to go. Standing, he pulled
me into his arms one last time and whispered into my
hair.

“
Find happiness, and know
that I will always love you.”

I tipped my head back to look at him
and his soft, delicious lips crashed onto mine.

“
Always,” he repeated,
sounding hoarse.

Then he slipped out of my desperate
grasp and withdrew from the house as quickly as Jason had, without
stopping, without ever looking back, he was just gone.

*****

Life without Lucas was . . . cruddy.
There were better, more accurate words, but I'd succeeded in
avoiding them for most of my life and I certainly wasn’t about to
start now. So, cruddy it was. Days came and went. A lot of reality
television was involved. Mom went to work, came home, burned some
stuff and went back to work again. I managed to convince her that I
had been out when the damage to the upstairs hall was done. The
police were called, a report filed, and repairs mostly covered by
the insurance. The damage to my neck was a bit trickier to hide. It
involved a lot of concealer and an array of summer
scarves.

Mostly things were normal, except for
the gaping hole in my chest. I felt like some kind of freaking
jigsaw puzzle with a piece left out. You could make out the picture
just fine without it, but it still wasn’t complete. If mom noticed
she kept it to herself. Uncharacteristic of her, but I appreciated
it. There was no way I could explain any of this to her; I barely
understood any of it myself.

July came and went and the summer was
quickly disintegrating. Back to school supplies were already lining
the wall of every store in town. I wondered what that would be
like. Would Jenna and Kyle be there? Would Jason? I hadn’t seen or
heard from him at all since Lucas sent him packing, but if we were
trapped in the same building all day everyday things could get . .
. awkward. Definitely wasn’t looking forward to that. Even if he
couldn’t take my soul to hell in the afterlife, it didn’t mean he
couldn’t make this life a living hell.

My apprehension grew as days continued
to tick off the calendar. I even broke down and asked mom to home
school me in one irrational moment of panic. Of course that just
got a confused and more-than-slightly-concerned look. I quickly
dropped the subject. It looked like I was going to have to face my
demons . . . literally. Fun, fun.

August was hot, as August tends to be.
Staying holed up in the house twenty-four-seven became more
difficult resulting from our lack of air conditioning. I found
myself pulling the loser role of the century and attending movies
alone just to bask in the cold air for a while.

The first day of school was right
around the corner. Seriously. Come Monday morning I would be
climbing onto that big yellow school bus—cool, I know—and heading
off to my own personal hellhole. I was in no way prepared. Okay,
yes, I did have my notebooks, folders, and number two pencils ready
to go, but mentally . . . no way. Definitely not ready.

What if I couldn’t avoid Jason? What
if he wore me down? Lucas said he wouldn’t bother me anymore, but I
wasn’t so convinced. Besides, what about the ‘others’ Lucas had
mentioned? How would I know one if I saw one? Who could I really
trust? The answer was simple . . . no one. This was shaping up to
be a very lonely year. Heck, it was shaping up to be a lonely life
without Lucas.