Nightmarish Sacrifice (Cardew) (11 page)

             
Cardew laughed with contentment, glad as my evasion had prolonged the talk; we were walking through the park and it was gradually getting darker, but I was used to fearing nothing, and the only exception that had appeared lately, was walking beside me with hopefully friendly intentions.

             
“But if I tell you the truth this time, you will think that I’m seducing you,” he played concerned and I had to admit that exactly this naive shade of it didn’t suit him too much, however great an actor he was.

             
It was my turn to play surprised. “But aren’t you seducing me in fact?” I gasped with pretty realistic disappointment. “Be careful, I may get offended if you aren’t!”

             
“I wouldn’t enjoy it if you stopped talking to me,” the boy smiled and I could clearly read the longing in his eyes, but wouldn’t yield just because I was gratified; Cardew’s smile widened and he wasn’t shy enough to cover up the sparkle in his voice, “Alright, as you so much want to know what I am attracted to, I’ll say it more indirectly – don’t you have a mirror, lovely?”

             
“But you don’t even know me!” I protested jokingly; even though I had supposed that his answer would be something similar, his gaze was already making me blush and I felt as though I was beginning to lose the tournament.

             
“You wish I didn’t,” Cardew smirked complacently. “But in fact it’s you who doesn’t know me.”

             
It didn’t take me longer than a second to realize how right he was...

             
“Okay then,” I went on cheerfully not to break the talk. “As you think you know me so well, tell me what kind of boys I like?”

             
“Ah, no! –” he burst into silent chuckling and shook his head. “Then you’d think that I’m showing off –”

             
“Not that it’s not typical of you anyway,” I gave him a slightly ironical smile and a fast wink. “And I find it not so bad –”

             
“You can be so charmingly irritating, don’t you know it?” Cardew returned a wink to me and grinned. “And I find it amazing –”

             
His next step brought him in front of me and he blocked my way, so I had to stop if I didn’t want to crash against his chest; although I did manage to slow down in time and no collision occurred, his hypnotizing eyes petrified me and I couldn’t react in the first moment when I perceived his hands around my waist.

             
“I wonder –” he began quietly, his tone itself disarmingly tempting as his breath was tenderly caressing my lips, his face so close to mine that it would take me more effort not to kiss him than to do it. “I wonder if you’re the same when you are kissing and –”

             
The ‘Danger!’ signal was burning brightly inside me, but I suppressed the initial instinct to listen to it and try to run away. Answering to his fiery stare in the most furious way possible, as if I loathed him for dominating over me but had decided to put an end to his wondering, I lightly approached him, shooting him more murderous glances of a defeated enemy.

             
With a satisfied victorious smile, Cardew wrapped me in the transparently silvery haze of his admiring gaze and pulled me a bit closer to him, his hand gliding down my back while his stare was fondling my featured, then he half-closed his eyes, and his chin descended, lips departed at almost no distance from mine...

             
Having reassured myself that he had relaxed and wasn’t suspecting a thing, I – with a single lightning-speed attack – broke free from his loose hug, and when he came to his senses a second later, I was smiling angelically to him from two metres or so away, playing innocent and too occupied with exploring the rose bouquet in the thickening darkness.

             
I wasn’t sure what Cardew would do when he realized that he had got caught in my trap, but – rather entertained by my feint – which I had been too tempted to sabotage myself – he just laughed it away and kept on walking beside me as if nothing unusual had happened.

             
“One point for you,” he admitted with a generous smile. “You would have never managed to do it if you weren’t so distractingly beautiful –”

             
“Then you wouldn’t have been so willing to kiss me either,” I was quick to remark. “You didn’t really think it would be that easy, did you?”

             
“No, but it was worth the try,” Cardew chuckled, and then added in an attempt to render me guilty, “I thought that you liked me –”

             
“Oh, a manipulator?” I exclaimed with amused mock-sympathy, and laughed aloud, and he didn’t resist to chuckling either. “That makes me like you even more, just that it doesn’t change the circumstances.”

             
“You want to be the one who defines the rules, don’t you?” the boy teased and I shrugged innocently, noticing that he was finding this striving of mine rather attractive.

             
“I just want to check if I can. I’d love to try to tame you –” I giggled at the mischievous smile playing on his lips; joking with him and making him guess the hidden meanings behind my hints was giving me true pleasure. “And I would simply adore it if you turn out untamable –”

             
Cardew’s brow rose in a challenge and I narrowed my eyes to indicate that I wasn’t giving up either.

             
“If you so much insist on trying –” he drawled with a movement aimed to drag me closer. “I’m not so much against it –”

             
“Dreamer!” I repeated again with laughter and walked at a bit larger distance from him.

             
“Told you, lovely,” he gave me a wink without getting embarrassed. “Dreams do come true –”

             
And, this time judging by my own instincts, I couldn’t deny he was right.

             
“I live there,” Cardew pointed in one direction and I raised my head to follow his stare with mine: he was showing me one of the many houses in the nice neighbourhood starting just where the park was ending.

             
“You rented a whole house alone?” I knitted my brows with surprise. “Because I guess you live by yourself.”

             
“Completely alone,” he thrust his hands in his pockets and smiled carelessly. “And the house is mine, I bought it some months ago.”

             
“You must have been serious about studying here,” I supposed and he just shrugged.

             
“Actually it was the other way round,” his answer was passionless. “I got what I inherited and decided to move to another town – I liked it here, so I bought a house and stayed for a while.”

             
“Just like that?” I was a bit taken aback.

             
He smiled confidently. “So what? The decision was mine.”

             
I nodded; my question had made him feel proud of himself, and his voice was not so arrogant when he asked, “Will you come in for a bit?”

             
“No,” I smiled as cheekily as I could. “I still have no reasons to.”

             
“Oh, I can give you a thousand –” Cardew tried to lure me but I just laughed again.

             
“You can’t talk me into this! I’m not going anywhere with someone who so much reminds me of a supernatural creature!” I announced jokingly and bridled up. “A supernatural evil creature!” I added and folded my arms on my chest.

             
A defensive movement, he sensed that.

             
The unexpected pause that followed made me turn to face him, and all my blood froze in the veins.

             
The rage – that ultimate utter rage I had seen in his eyes when he had been in the role of the pagan deity – blazed up in his gray eyes with such overwhelming intensity that I held my breath not to drown in it. Yes, he did look berserk, the uncontrollable force that was so easily perceptible inside him was boiling furiously, as though my words had been the match that had inflamed the whole arson...

             
But his anger was only a flash – a fraction of the second and it was gone, and then he was laughing mildly.

             
“A supernatural creature? You’re so much into the play, lovely –”

             
And his laughter was so natural that, although I knew that he was pretending, it made me relax.

             
So I was not going to be his victim...

             
This night.

             
Cardew smiled at the shade of fright inside my eyes and led me back towards my hostel while starting some negligent talk I wasn’t paying much attention to. My nerves were tense, and I finally felt at ease again just when I found myself in my own locked room, alone and – relatively – safe.

             
However, I couldn’t calm myself down enough to even think about falling asleep, and I started walking nervously around the room while torturing my mind to give me answers I couldn’t have.

             
Why had my joke about Cardew being something not exactly human had made him react like that?

             
Had he looked so furious because he had lost control only for a moment? Or had he wanted me to see him like that, as a warning that I had been right?

             
Oh dear, what had I got into?!...

             
All stories about supernatural creatures are utterly attractive...

             
Until they become personal.

             
Appalled, I recalled reading such tales as a child and dreaming of meeting such unearthly beings making the life of humans so amazing – so different from everything tedious, and so exciting. There would be real unfeigned drama – an adventure, maybe even a heart-breaking tragedy – but it wouldn’t be monotonous and boring.

             
Drama... would my rivalry against Cardew stain this drama with my own blood?

             
‘You have to stay away from this boy!’ my rationality tried to order me.

             
Just that it was too late...

             
It was true that he was scaring me, and I was completely aware that the danger I had sensed into the air was real – I was even determined enough to be capable of avoiding him in future starting from the very next minute – I loved my life too much to let some kind of attraction to a boy – even to an exceptional once-in-a-lifetime boy like Cardew – make me risk losing it.

             
But it was too late to draw back from him...

             
He would never let me.

             
The runes had been right...

             
I was doomed.

                                          That night I didn’t fall asleep at all, but the only consequence of this was the lack of the usual brisk inexhaustible energy the following day – something I skilfully hid from Cardew. He was behaving normally again – confident, imperturbable, teasing – and it seemed that so was I, as nothing in his behaviour was hinting about more danger than the natural for him thrilling amount of it which I was already so addicted to.

             
However tense I was during the whole week and the following one, Cardew didn’t do anything too suspicious, and I involuntarily relaxed more and started thinking that all my fears connected to him had been more or less imaginary. After all, he was just an ordinary boy, I thought – an ordinary amazingly stunning boy – and his magnetism could feel invincibly overpowering but it was purely natural – and not some kind of unknown magic.