The Stelter City Saga: Ultranatural (36 page)

“
Oh that’s a good idea.” She
noted before bending down to unstrap her own heels but Ammon had
beaten her to it. He was loosening the loops around her ankles
before she could even grab onto his shoulders for
balance.

“
Thanks,” she muttered when
he finally stood up with two various pairs of footwear in his
hands. For a moment all she could do was stare at him, and the way
the moon created a silvery halo in his brown locks and frosted the
tips of his lashes. The lighting and the crashing of the waves was
enough to send her in a trance, but the fact that Ammon was gazing
at her with that expression made her toes forget that damp sand
clung to her feet. Her supernatural senses caught sight of the half
millimeter step aimed in her direction and the hesitant reach for
her cheek. But Ammon stopped himself for he remembered that four
shoes dangled from his grasp.

“
Were your shoes expensive?”
he asked folding his brows, “’Cuz I’d rather let them be covered in
sand than not hold your hand at this instant.”

“
Then don’t worry about the
shoes.” Larissa suggested. “Drop them and hold me.”

Ammon didn’t have to be told twice. With a
simultaneous thunk, both pairs landed on the sand and his hand had
grasped onto Larissa’s, but that wasn’t the end of his movements.
With his fingers tangled in hers, Ammon lifted her hand until the
back of it brushed against his lips. Then he shut his eyes before
slowly kissing a trail up her arm, to her elbow, and around her
shoulder. With every kiss, time seemed to slow but this time
Larissa knew it wasn’t her making it stall. Ammon was working his
magic with his soft cool touch until finally his lips met the
halter of her dress.

“
Ammon?” Larissa sighed when
his breath touched her neck. “Ammon, wha…?”

“
Shh,” he whispered against
her skin. In the dark of blindness, Ammon guided her hand to his
lower back before brushing the auburn waves from her neck. As he
kissed up her throat, Larissa felt the trails of ice painted by his
touch. She was so enchanted by this sudden romance that she almost
forgot to breath. The feeling of his lips and tongue on her neck
was so incredible, her fingers involuntarily balled up against
Ammon’s shirt, accidentally untucking it from his belt. Silently
she begged him to continue.

As if he could read her mind, Ammon’s lips
continued to travel against her, working from her neck to her
cheek. Inch by inch, moment by moment Larissa’s heart raced faster
while Ammon’s kisses seemed to slow. He was murdering her with
anticipation. As she stood here too mesmerized to even move, all
Larissa was able to do was let the electricity flood her veins.
Their hips were touching, their chests pressed together, Ammon’s
fingers twirled slowly on the back of her gown as his breath sent
chills down her spine.

A light gasp escaped her lips and she raked
her fingers up his shirt, begging him to kiss her already. By now
Ammon had drawn an invisible line from her hand to the very corner
of her lip; to the point where if he were to travel a millimeter
over, he would be granting her wish. Hesitantly his lips inched her
way, but hovered just over her bottom lip so she could feel his hot
breath and taste the mint from the restaurant. Suddenly it was just
Larissa and Ammon, far from any care in the world. To Larissa, the
humid air was nonexistent because she could only feel Ammon pressed
against her body. His arm wrapped around her back keeping her
steady as his hand slid behind her neck and tilted her chin to face
him. But just before he closed the distance, Ammon uttered three
words Larissa had never heard in her life.

“
I love you.”

A tug deep in her stomach turned into sparks
that rushed to her cheeks and her mind went swimming in the
strangest haze as she tried to piece together the words freshly
spoken. Ammon’s rich voice seemed to echo in her ears making them
ring like bells. He had caught her so off guard that for a moment,
Larissa forgot where she was until his lips pressed against
hers.

Then her entire body was bubbling down to the
farthest point of her fingertips. Ammon’s lips pushed hers open and
with their closed eyes, Larissa could feel the very shape of them.
Lips she had kissed so many times, but never had they tasted this
good. She couldn’t wrap herself around him fast enough, she
couldn’t kiss back passionately enough; something new was taking
hold of her, and the only way to describe it in that moment was
that Larissa felt like she was flying.

Her toes felt as if they no longer touched
the ground. Gravity melted away in the heat of the moment. It was
like something she had never experienced before, but at the same
time, oddly familiar. A powerful force rocked the center of her
chest, the kind of power that accompanied her when time stopped on
her command. She was unstoppable. There was no reason to stop
kissing Ammon and no reason to stop letting her body be engulfed
with energy.

“
Ammon,” she moaned tossing
her head back for a breath.

The boy only gave a slight grunt in
acknowledgment before his lips slipped from hers and once more
pressed against her neck. The sensation sent Larissa’s hands
involuntarily raking up the back of his shirt. “Ammon,” she gasped
again, “I need to tell you something too.”

This time, her words transitioned his kissing
from fierce to conservative. He managed to land several more kisses
before coming to a stop and resting his forehead on her shoulder.
“Is it about,” he began hesitantly, “what I just told you?”

Once more his words caught her off guard.
When she had woken up this morning, the only thing in her schedule
had been to wait one more day before telling Ammon the truth about
her. After all, he had earned it that night on the fairs wheel. But
given the circumstances; how high she felt, and the moment, Larissa
couldn’t wait any longer. If possible, she pulled herself tighter
against him and resisted the addiction her lips had to his in order
to nestle her cheek against his chest.

“
No, it’s not that.” She
whispered, “Actually Ammon, I think it’s time I tell you my
secret…” her voice faltered and for a moment all she could think
about was the view. From where she stood beside him and the silvery
glow of the moon, there could have been nothing to ruin the moment…
until a pair of shoes came drifting in her view.

At first, the sight was so unexpected,
Larissa’s startled mind told her it was a bird flying in slow
motion, but upon closer examination, she realized that they were
her heels. Her black four inch heels drifted in midair beside her
as gracefully as a bubble in the midair. But the sight couldn’t
have been more misleading. With a startled shriek, Larissa pulled
away from Ammon’s embrace and stared down at what should have been
the solid sandy beach. It was there alright, seven feet of air
beneath their toes.

As Larissa’s shriek turned into a scream, the
puzzle pieces made sense. The feeling of flying, and being on a
powerful high was from her and not from Ammon’s kissing. But that
couldn’t be right. She already had a power; the power to freeze
time. How was it possible to have more than one?

Larissa wasn’t the only one
in shock. Ammon stared in bewilderment at the scene, clearly a
million times more clueless than Larissa. He was floating-
they
were floating as
their shoes orbited around like planets. Then his eyes met
Larissa’s and recognized the sheer terror in her face.

It was a look he recognized all too well. It
was the look of a criminal who was just discovered. That’s when the
pieces fit together for him. Her exceptional hearing, as
demonstrated in the restaurant. Larissa’s remarkable speed from
when they raced at the pier. Even the incredible strength she
showed at the crime scene in Tarrillian when only she was able to
remove the spikes from the walls.

“
You,” He glared. “You are
one of them!”

Larissa would have traded an eternity of
nightmares if only she could have Ammon’s tone scraped from her
ears. There was never so much poison and disgust targeted to her,
even when she lived with Madam Delilah. But the one thing that made
those words burn worse than a bullet was the fact that Ammon said
them.

At that realization, gravity took over and
the two plummeted to the ground. Somehow, Ammon seemed ready for
it, and caught himself as if he had practiced. Larissa on the other
hand slammed against the sand with shaky knees before falling to
her back. Tears stung the back of her eyes and her lungs felt as if
they had caved in on impact.

“
How could you do this to me
Larissa?” Ammon raged. That tone was too familiar. It was the voice
of the Ammon born after the death of his father. “How could
you
lie
to
me?”

“
Ammon please…” Larissa
choked as she strained to sit up on her elbows. “Please Ammon… I’m
begging you…”

“
To do what?!” he exclaimed.
His voice sounded like a lion as it roared down the empty shore.
“What could you possibly want from me?” He was pacing back and
forth now, kicking up sand as he stormed in front of her. Not once
did he think to help her up, or even look at her for that matter.
“Do you expect me to understand you? Do you expect me to listen?
The guy who killed my father was one of you!!”

“
Am… Ammon…” between the
crying and her lack of breath, Larissa could hardly force out his
name. The salty tears collided with the sand dusted to her cheeks
leaving rivers of mud along her face. “Ammon please…”

Ammon stopped pacing and spun around to face
her and her pathetic attempt to speak. “Please what Larissa?” he
shouted, “What?!”

Larissa gaped at him. In the moonlight with
his brows folded, and his teeth gnarling like a dog, Ammon looked
like a vicious monster ready to strike. In that moment she was more
scared than she had ever been in a long time and her bottom lip
quivered as she tried to remember what she wanted to say.

Ammon could hardly take any more of her
stalling. In two long strides, he had planted himself above her,
and grabbed onto the halter of her dress, dragging her like a doll
to her feet. “What is it Larissa?!” he bellowed straight in her
face. “What could you possibly have to say?!”

With tears pouring down her face, and her
hand pathetically trying to peel Ammon’s away, all Larissa could do
was sob. She cried once more for a man she truly cared- no, she
cried for a man she loved. And seeing him as a complete stranger
couldn’t pain her any more than it did at that moment. Her words
gagged in the back of her sandpapery mouth, but saying them was
more important. “Please Ammon…” She forced. Her eyes locked onto
his and as desperately as she could, Larissa wished she was able to
convey the urgency of her message with her eyes. “Please don’t go
back to this.” She choked, “I can’t bear to see you like this again
because… because I love you too.”

Ammon had one second to register what she
said before she tore away from his grasp and disappeared.

Larissa had never tried to run the way she
knew a supernatural could. But she was hardly astonished that the
world seemed to be nothing but a blur. In that time, her only sense
of direction was forward. Palm trees seemed to avert from her path
as she sprinted, and her bare feet only detected the change from
sand to asphalt in millisecond intervals before she had found her
way hurrying up a mountain path.

Larissa knew she could have sprinted for
miles and never get far enough away from that situation, but
halfway up the mountain, her bare foot slammed down on a rock.
Physical pain shot up her leg as if her foot had just been skewered
by a flaming arrow. In the blur of the moment, Larissa wasn’t sure
what happened next. The whole side of her face collided with
something hard and splintery; she heard the crashing of leaves and
the heavy knock of impact before reflexively holding out her arms
to keep from sliding across the damp mountain dirt.

Both wrists snap back as she slammed into the
ground and the excruciating pain surged up her arms. But almost
immediately, she knew her bones were mending themselves back
together. Fire seemed to be spreading up to her knee, and as she
laid there in the dirt, her tongue recognized the different flavors
of salt from blood to tears. Though her body ached beyond anything
she had ever felt, Ammon’s raged face stung the back of her closed
eyes most.

Her sobbing echoed around the unfamiliar
place as she tried to hide her face from the world. Her wails
gagged on her own blood and spit and when she tried to breath,
moist mountain dirt clogged her lungs. She didn’t want to be alive
anymore; she didn’t know how much more she could take. Of all the
people in the world, why did she have to be the one thing Ammon
hated most? And how could she have lied to herself and made her
think that he wouldn’t mind?

And what had happened at the beach anyway?
Larissa knew she had the ability to stop time, but to levitate as
well? In all her knowledge of the Legend, not once had she heard
anything about a supernatural with multiple abilities. But for some
reason, that just made sense. As if in the back of her mind she
knew it all along. She wasn’t just invincible with her ability to
stop time; she was unstoppable and there was no telling when
another outburst like that one was going to occur.

Her tears hadn’t receded at all though the
taste of blood no longer painted her tongue and she had completely
forgotten about the pain within her body. Larissa’s sobs continued
to mask the tropical air until her exquisite hearing picked up on
something moving her way. Leaves rustled, and Larissa could
distinctly hear a set of footsteps marching purposefully toward
her.