My Heart be Damned (8 page)

Chapter Eight

Stalker

A loud buzz of voices echoed through my head as I tried to process what was happening. I was stretched out on something hard, something cold. My whole body ached. Someone’s hands pulled me up from wherever I was and clutched me to their chest. Someone else screamed not to touch me. Had I drawn in a crowd?

I didn’t want to open my eyes. Not yet. If I kept them shut for a little bit longer, then the pain might fade.

“
Amerie
.
Amerie
, are you okay?”

I
recognized
that voice. My eyes snapped open, and I stared up into the most brilliant pair of blue eyes. Marshall’s eyes. I struggled against his hold as he stormed through the street with me in his arms.

He was at the graveyard – I knew he was. Had he set this up?

“Put me down,” I ordered, ignoring the pain.

“I will, in a minute,” he said, tightening his hold. “And I’d stop struggling if I were you. You’re only going to make me hold on tighter, and that’s probably gonna hurt you a whole lot more.”

“I’m fine. Put me down. Now.”

“You just got hit by a car,
Amerie
. You’re not fine.” I’d heard his caring tone before when he spoke to his mother, and this wasn’t it. This was
patronizing
.

“If you’re so worried about me, why aren’t you calling an ambulance?”

“You’ll be fine soon enough. Why waste their time?”

He must have been guessing. There was no way he knew how fast I actually healed. Sighing, I let my head roll back so that I looked up at the skyscrapers, and bits of the night sky that managed to peek through. How did he manage to find me? It didn’t add up.

“Are you following me?” I asked.

“No.”

“Were you just at the graveyard?”

“Which graveyard?”

“
Montesore
.”

“Nope. Can’t say that I was.”

I didn’t believe him for a second. “Take me to a hospital instead of kidnapping me, please.”

Marshall chuckled. “You can’t seriously think you’re being kidnapped, or you’d be fighting me a lot harder. Personally, I think you like being in my arms.”

That was it. I slammed my shoulder against his chest, loosening his arms before shoving both my hands in his face. He grunted and softly dropped me to the ground. I made sure to land with my good leg, though my injured knee was already healing. Both Hunters and the Damned healed fast. Another perk.

“I’m fine,” I snapped. “And I’m going home. I don’t know how you keep appearing where I am, but it’s creepy. Stop it.”

“Coincidence?”

“
Stalkerism
. It’s not attractive, I can tell you that.”

“I’m not stalking you,” he said, his face was serious.

A car whizzed past us so fast it startled me. I turned to give it a dirty look, and when I looked back to Marshall, he was gone.

What the hell?

With a sigh, I limped toward the nearest bus stop, knowing I’d never be able to walk it back to my house until my knee had healed a bit more.

I was glad that it was Sunday, when I awoke the next morning. It meant no school and a whole day to try to recuperate. I inspected myself in the mirror. My knee was still sore, and my ribs were a little tender. I also had a sizeable, black eye, and a cut on my forehead. However, it did give me comfort to know they’d be gone come tomorrow.

I brushed my hair back into a ponytail and padded across the hall into our tiny bathroom. Whoever had lived here before had done horrible things to this room. The toilet seat was half hanging off, something Dad still hadn’t fixed. The walls were stained. The bath had so much lime scale; it had taken me weeks to scrub it off the tiles. Even now, after months of being here, the bathroom was still a mess. I grabbed a dirty towel off the floor and dumped it in the laundry basket - which was overflowing. Guess I needed to do some chores while I recuperated today.

I turned on the taps to the bath, brushed my teeth, and then shoved a load of dirty clothes into an empty wash basket before taking it down into the kitchen. Dad was slumped over the little circular kitchen table with a mug of coffee that was no longer steaming by his head.

I dropped the basket to the linoleum floor and the bang startling Dad out of his sleep. He jumped up, staring around until his eyes found me. If he noticed my bruises, he didn’t say anything.

“Good morning,” I bent down, wincing at the sharp pain in my ribs.

“Is it morning?” he asked, staring down at his watch. “Shit! I overslept. Oh no, I’m gonna be late for work.”

“You’re going in today?”

It was then I noticed he was dressed in a suit and he’d actually combed his hair. My legs almost gave way underneath me. Seeing him like this brought the rawest memory back of how things used to be. When I could rely on him. When he was the main
provider for our family. When he cared about us more than he cared about wallowing in self-pity.

“Cindy found me a new job,” he said, standing up. Cindy? Oh right, the girlfriend. “What you said, the other day, about you being the parent...”

“I’m sorry – that was rude,” I quickly said.

“No.” He shook his head. “You were right. I wasn’t the only one to lose your mother, and I’m punishing you kids for it.”

I kept my back to him, not wanting to believe his words. I’d heard this about a hundred times in the last year.

“Oh. Okay. So, what’s the job?”

“I’m back in the accountancy business. At a lot less money, but it’s better than what I’m getting now. In a couple months, we should be able to move into a nicer place.”

“Shouldn’t you get going, then?” I indicated at the clock hanging on the wall.

He swore again. “You’re right. I’ll see you later. Usually, I won’t be working Sundays, but I’m getting trained today, so I’m more helpful tomorrow.”

He picked up the mug of coffee, sipped from it, and then set the mug back on the kitchen table when he
realized
it was cold. He looked awkward as he rushed from the room. A few moments later, the door slammed, and he was gone.

I switched on the washing machine and headed back upstairs to my bath. The hot water soothed my aching muscles and offered me enough alone time to think about last night.

Why had the Damned been out looking for me?

And who was Seal?

I stared down at the fading purple bruise on the left side of my rib cage. This should never have happened. I was out of shape, unprepared, weak. An easy target. Now, since I’d come into my powers, they could sense me, find me wherever I was. Maybe I hadn’t thought about quitting thoroughly.

There was no going back, though. My mentor was gone, and I wasn’t about to sign myself up for a new mentor, and a death warrant. No, I’d stick to the shadows, avoid graveyards, and keep pretending to be a normal girl.

I needed a distraction for the rest of my day, though, and remembering that Chuck and I were still fighting, I decided to take a trip to his house to clear the air. I dressed in jeans and a roll-neck and tried to cover my bruises with concealer – not that it did much good. Still limping slightly, I started the journey back to my old town where Chuck and Mercy still lived. The thousands of thoughts running through my mind made the journey seem like mere minutes compared to the hour it usually took. I moved on autopilot, and before I knew it, I was outside Chuck’s house.

Out of the three of us, Mercy had the biggest house. That was even before my dad lost all our money and made us move. Chuck’s house wasn’t much smaller. The house reminded me of the house on Fresh Prince of
Bel
Air; all white with pillars around the front. I knocked twice and almost instantly, the door swung open.

Mrs. Hill stood before me in all her angelic glory. Chuck’s parents were both heavily religious, which made Chuck determined not to be. As a way of rebelling, he often did as many unholy acts as he could get away with before his parents grounded him.

“
Amerie
! Come in, come in. I’ve just been making cookies for our evening church service.” She led me into their large kitchen. “Feel free to have one. And feel free to come to the service and bring Chuck with you.”

I could tell by her tone that she was saying it out of politeness. She didn’t actually expect us to turn up. Years of begging, bribery, preaching and even threats of going to Hell hadn’t worked. Chuck was not about to go to church.

“Thanks, Mrs. Hill.” I helped myself to three cookies. They were still warm. Delicious. “I’ll ask Chuck if he wants to go.”

She thanked me and stepped aside to allow me upstairs. Chuck’s room was always a mess. It seemed like every time I set foot in it, it got worse. Today was no different. Clothes, both clean, and not so clean lined the floor, and dirty cups and plates were stacked on every surface. Chuck, himself, sat in a huge chair, in front of a plasma TV, furiously tapping away at a PlayStation controller. He didn’t hit pause when he noticed me.

“What happened to your face?” he asked, trying too hard to sound like he didn’t care.

“
Erm
...I fell down the stairs.”

“Yeah, sure you did.”

I perched on the edge of his bed, hoping I wasn’t sitting on any underwear.

“Are we okay, Chuck? There’s been no love on my phone from you all weekend.”

“We’re cool.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“That’s your problem, then. I said we’re cool.”

With a sigh, I jumped up and marched in front of the TV, blocking his view.

“Look at me and tell me we’re cool. Look at me, and tell me that you’re not being defensive and stupid and ruining our friendship over nothing.”

He sighed and rubbed his stubbly chin. “Okay, I’m still a bit pissed. But it’s my issue to work out, not yours.”

“What did I do?” I asked. I’d meant to sound demanding, but it had come out timid.

“How can you scare off a group of thugs when I couldn’t?” Chuck stood up and shut off the PlayStation. “It’s embarrassing.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way.” I shoved another bit of cookie into my mouth and then, because I’m so smooth, began to choke on it.

Chuck thumped me hard on the back, and then laughed loudly at me. “Chew your food, animal.”

“Speaking from the guy who lives in a pig sty,” I said, rubbing my throat.

He smiled and threw himself down on the bed, his brown hair held with such strong gel it didn’t move an inch. “It’s the way I roll.”

I lay beside him. “So...what did you do this weekend?”

As Chuck launched into a long and detailed description of his weekend, I knew then that we’d be just fine. Chuck couldn’t hold grudges for long – it wasn’t in him. It was one, of the many things, that I loved about him.