The P.J. Stone Gates Trilogy (#1-3) (12 page)

Unable to stop myself, the words just spilled from my lips. “And I should care because?” I slapped my hand over my mouth in shock. What the hell was wrong with me? I had a tendency to be a smart ass, and was always quick on the draw, but now I was being just plain stupid.

He looked down at me with his spooky green eyes that seemed to glitter with amusement. “Yes, I definitely like you.” He paused to tilt his head much like my dog would do. “You may call me Khol.” When I didn’t respond, he spoke again. “I have come a very long way to see you. I mean you no harm.”

“Then why did you scare the crap out of me and then just stand there while I was lying on the ground passed out?”

“I did not mean to scare you. I am out of practice with this form of communication, and it proved to be too much for you. In time, you will grow accustomed.”

“What are you talking about?” I looked at him incredulously. “What form of communication?”

“You are currently in a state similar to a dream. Right now, your consort is trying to resuscitate you. I did not mean to scare him, either. He is very worried.”

Did he just say
consort
? Seriously? “Why are you here?” I could have asked a thousand other questions, but I figured it was best to skip to the most important one first.

His lips turned up at the corners in a smile. “I had a desire to meet you. Your power has been a constant draw to me the past few weeks, and I could no longer resist.”

“My power?” Umm . . . what power? Last time I checked, I was running on empty.

“Yes. Your power. You are just beginning to come into your gifts. You will be a very powerful Seer, the likes of which haven’t been seen for a millennia. That kind of power draws many kinds—some who will wish to steal or control it, some who will wish to destroy it, and some who will wish to protect it and you.”

My mind was reeling. “Which are you?” I squeaked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

“I fall into the category of wishing to protect it . . . and you.” His gaze swept over me with heat. “Yes, I do not wish to see harm come to you.” His eyes flared brighter, causing me to shrink back from him even more.

“What are you?” I whispered.

“I am a friend. I hold magic that is very, very old, and which I do not wish to reveal still exists. I have placed a binding on you to prevent you from discussing me with anyone. One day I may lift it.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Or perhaps not.” His face grew very serious. “I know of what you have seen in your visions, because I have chosen to link myself to you. I, too, saw them. Trouble looms in the future, the kind of which this world has yet to see. Although we have not been able to ascertain how to eliminate the problem yet, for now, take comfort in knowing that you are not alone.” I was speechless. And I so didn’t like the fact that he was claiming to be linked to me. The only guy I wanted linked to me in any way was Bryn.

He strode forward and offered me his hand. I took it numbly, figuring he’d already said he wasn’t going to hurt me, and I wasn’t really standing in the woods with him anyways. When he had a hold of my hand, he jerked me to him, bending down to run his face up the side of my neck, inhaling. “Mmm mmm . . . delicious. You smell of power and innocence, a very rare combination.” He brought his face up so we were inches apart, his spooky green eyes illuminating his face. “I have been sleeping a very long time, and your allure is almost too great for me to resist. I could so easily take what I want from you—make you mine. And yet—” He stepped away from me, and I sunk back to the ground, my knees weak with fear. “Your heart belongs to another. I will respect that—for now.” He disappeared right before my eyes as my vision went dark again.

My life was consistently getting more and more complicated. And to think I used to complain that my life was boring. No more boring here, that’s for sure. For starters, who the hell was that Khol guy? Or maybe a more apt question would be
what
was he? Him just showing up and delivering me a portent of doom had my anxiety levels creeping up towards a full blown panic attack. According to him, both my premonitions/visions were real, and they pointed to bad things coming very soon on the horizon. If only I could get someone to believe me. Add in Bryn and my secret relationship, and me trying to pretend to date other guys . . . Well, like I said, no more boring here.

“She’ll be fine,” my mom talked in a hushed whisper, “the doctor checked her over again and said it’s just low blood sugar . . . or rather, he couldn’t come up with a better explanation. But he’s sure there’s nothing seriously wrong with her. She just needs to take better care of herself. I’ll make sure to tell her you were worried, but you can go on home now.”

“Can’t I just stay a little longer? In case she wakes up. I just—”

“Awe, honey. You’re going to make a wonderful Guardian one day, but today isn’t that day. Now head on home, and I’ll tell her to give you a call later.”

But I didn’t want Bryn to leave. I wanted to be held in his comforting, warm arms. My eyes fluttered open with effort. “Bryn,” I whispered, feeling very tired. It probably wasn’t the best idea to beg for him to stay. It might give something away, but at the moment I didn’t care. I just wanted him to stay with me. “Mom, please let him stay.” She frowned at me. “Mom,” I whined. “He’s stayed with me like a million times before, why can’t he now?”

“Because, peanut, the two of you are too old for some of the things you used to do. It just wouldn’t be right.” I almost wanted to laugh. She’d probably have a coronary if she knew some of the things we’d been doing together. The bright side was that she obviously still thought Bryn and I were completely platonic best friends. “Besides, I don’t think whoever you end up in a serious relationship with is going to appreciate Bryn being so close to you all the time.”

“He’s going to be my Guardian,” I groused.

“Guardians don’t stay in the same room with their charges, sweetie. It just isn’t done. You don’t see mine constantly hanging around. Your father wouldn’t be very pleased if he did.” She reached over and ruffled Bryn’s hair. “Now head on home, and you two can hang out tomorrow.”

“But, Mom—” I protested as I watched Bryn slowly leave my room, his eyes lingering on me with worry.
Graduation day can’t come fast enough
. “Fine. Whatever.” I glared at my mom once Bryn had left. “You’re being absolutely ridiculous. What do you think is going to happen anyways?” Probably something along the lines of
exactly
what would happen.
Oh, the irony
.

“I just wouldn’t be a very good mother if I let my eighteen-year-old daughter have her eighteen-year-old male friend stay over in her room.” She had taken on the
“there’s no point in arguing with me”
tone that all mothers seemed to have in their bag of tricks. Even I knew when the battle was lost, so I decided to change the subject away from Bryn completely.

“Jeremy texted me earlier. He wants to go out again.”

“Really?” Hope danced in my mom’s eyes. Yep, my subject change was a success; I had my mom hook, line, and sinker. “So what did you say?” She sat back down on the edge of the bed and looked at me expectantly.

“Well, nothing yet. I kind of passed out and forgot about it until now.” Not to mention Bryn’s mini-meltdown in between those two things.

“You said he was nice, right? And he’s cute, so you should definitely say yes. Where’s your phone? You should text him right away.” She swiveled her head around, scanning all the surfaces in my room for my cell.

I really didn’t like how excited she was. I was determined to be with Bryn, but it was going to kill me to disappoint my parents so much. If only there were a way we could all be happy. I sighed. “It’s probably still in my purse.”

“Oh, of course.” My mom scurried over to pull my cell out of my bag in a blur of excited movements. She handed it to me and sat back down on my bed only to resume her expectant stare. When I didn’t move to immediately open my phone, she sighed impatiently, “Well, go ahead, peanut.”

I thought about how Bryn had reacted in the woods, and I scowled at my phone. Even though I didn’t like being told what to do, I most definitely could be motivated by guilt. If I said yes to a second date with Jeremy, no matter how hard Bryn tried to hide it, I knew it would hurt him. And that was something I wasn’t interested in doing. “I think I’m going to say no,” I mumbled.

“What? Why?”

“He was nice and all, like I said, but there didn’t really seem to be a spark with him, you know?” I raised my gaze to meet my mom’s, silently pleading that she would let the issue drop. But of course, I should have known better.

“Oh, is that all? You said he didn’t even kiss you yet. How can you know?”

“Because I don’t want to kiss him, that’s why. I also don’t need to kiss Jenna to know that there’s no spark between us. Should I just go around kissing everyone I see to find out who I have a spark with? Hell, why not go a step farther, why not—”

She scrunched her face up at me. “There’s no need to be crass, missy. I just think you should try kissing him before you dismiss him so easily.”

“I don’t want to,” I said.

“You’re going,” my mom said back, motherly determination etched into her face.

I narrowed my eyes at her. “No, I’m not. And you know you can’t make me.”

“No, but I can make you wish you did. You’re grounded until you set up a date with Jeremy.”

“You can’t do that!” I screamed at her rapidly retreating form.

But the closed door staring back at me said she could. I stood and shrieked my fury. I couldn’t believe my mom was trying to punish me into going out with Jeremy again. She’d never done anything so unfair before. Why was she behaving so crazy?

Anger fueled my next decision. I wasn’t just going to sit in my room and take that kind of abuse from my mother.
Oh hellz no.
I was going to sneak out to find the comfort in Bryn’s arms that she was trying to deny me. I opened my phone and texted him.

Meet me
—
now
.

I didn’t wait for his response before I popped the screen out of my window and scrambled out and down the drainpipe. I skulked across my front yard, trying to keep to the shadows created by the oncoming dusk. I heaved a huge sigh of relief as I made it into the cover of the woods across the street from my house. I only had to wait a few minutes before I saw Bryn jog into my line of sight. I rushed over to him, wrapping my arms around his waist. “She grounded me until I say yes to going out with Jeremy again.” I sobbed into his muscular chest.

“But I thought you were gonna go anyways.”

“No. Not after”—I struggled to catch my breath—“not after how you reacted. I couldn’t stand the thought of hurting you.”

His arms tightened around me. “I know why you have to go. You won’t hurt me. None of this is your fault.” He pulled away from me, cupping my face in his huge hands, dipping his head to kiss my tears away. His lips were soft yet firm against my skin, and I longed to lose myself under his sweet caresses.

“It’s just not fair.” My lower lip trembled as I stared up into Bryn’s beautiful blue eyes. “I don’t understand what’s wrong with being with you. So what if our kids are all Guardians; I can’t bring myself to care as long as I’m with you.” People often ask what the meaning of life is. What’s the point in all of this? As far as I can tell, life is pretty much pointless without love. If you have it, then you’re truly rich, and if you don’t, then nothing else really holds any value. What would my life mean if I married a Gatekeeper or Seer descendent for the sake of duty? It would mean nothing to me, even if it did to others. Bryn gave my life meaning; he made everything else worthwhile. He always had, and hopefully, he always would.

“Because you’re special, Peej—so special. You deserve to be with royalty, not a Guardian like me.” I opened my mouth to protest, and he silenced me with one of his long fingers. “But I’m not stupid, although I am plenty selfish. I want you all to myself. I’m not going to walk away from you so you can be with someone else, someone born into the right family. Somehow I got lucky, and you love me back. I’ll fight for you as long as you want me.”

“I’ll always want you,” I whispered.

“Then I’ll always be yours,” he said gruffly, his lips meeting mine in a brutal kiss, the taste of him helping to sooth my nerves. My hands slid into his silky black hair, and I moaned as I found my back pushed up against a tree. It seemed to be fast becoming me and Bryn’s thing. Or maybe it was because we didn’t have any other place to go.

“Take your hands off of my daughter.” My father’s deep voice boomed across the clearing, making me gasp with fear.
We were caught—oh God, we were caught.
Bryn and I separated quickly, but it was too late.

“Sir, I—” Bryn started, obviously flustered.

“Sir nothing.” My father’s voice seethed with anger, making me cringe. He stood across from us with his reading glasses still perched on his nose. He must have come after me in such a hurry that he hadn’t even bothered to remove them. I watched as his fists clenched and unclenched, and his face turned the shade of a boiled lobster. “How dare you take advantage of my family’s trust like this? And how dare you take advantage of the sacred trust being a future Guardian affords you?”