The Blood and Light Series (Six Books Boxed Set) Read online

  “Thank you, Kai... I…” I started to say to him but he stopped me.

  “Eat and open,” he said as he pointed his fork at me.

  I sat down at the table and took a bite of the scrambled eggs piled on my plate. They had so much salt in them I almost gagged, but I chewed and smiled at him, grabbing the emergency OJ washing it down.

  “Mmm… good,” I said while I nodded.

  I looked down at the gift and started to open it.

  Kai cleared his throat and said, “I hope you like it.”

  I reached into the box and started pulling out a chain, it went on forever. The end spun in front of my face. I realized it was a two-sided watch. I placed it in my hand, turning it over one side to the other. I noticed it was embossed with the sun on one side and the moon on the other. I sat there just staring at it for a moment.

  “Well?” he said in mid chew.

  I looked up at Kai and realized I was tearing up a little.

  “You don't like it do you?” he said as he shoved another bite of those awful eggs in his mouth.

  “NO... No Kai, I love it, it's beautiful, it really is,” I said.

  He stopped shoveling food into his mouth and smiled, letting some egg fall out it. I had to laugh.

  “Awesome! I didn't know... well Sophie helped me pick it out. She said, ‘Hey what does Rue like?’ and I was like, ‘well she likes clocks... books, ya know?’ And anyway we found it downtown. Just, when I saw it I was like, ‘Yea…that looks like you’...” he took a breath. I grinned as I looked at it.

  “Kai… it's perfect… I would have picked it myself,” I said.

  Kai got up taking his empty plate with him. He turned around at the sink and said,

  “Well I'm taking off for a little while.”

  I put the necklace back into the box.

  “Where?” I said as I bit my lip and wiped a tear from my cheek.

  “I'm gonna hang out with Sophie,” he said. I opened my mouth and started to say, “Tell her I'm sorry about...”

  “No need, I already told her this morning,” he said as he shrugged his shoulders.

  “She was here?” I asked him.

  “No. She called… I asked her if she wanted to hang out so...”

  Just then we both heard a car horn.

  “She's here,” he said as he headed for the door.

  I looked at him. “You’re kidding… she's picking you up?”

  “No, Johnathan brought her over. Wanted to see you or something,” he said.

  “We are taking my car,” he added as he grinned.

  I looked at him, “What?”

  Kai looked back at me, “Me… Sophie… You… Johnathan…” he said as he pointed like a caveman.

  “Oh shit… What the hell?” I muttered.

  Kai started laughing, “Better brush your teeth, stinky.”

  “Oh shit… Kai! Tell him I'll be back in a minute... shit!” I yelled. Kai watched me go into panic mode.

  “K?” he said, as he started to laugh.

  I jumped up, ran up the stairs and planned to clean up in two minutes flat. Kai stepped out onto the porch. Sophie jumped out of the car and ran up one step.

  “Hey,” she said to him as she grinned.

  “Hey, Sophie.” Kai answered.

  Johnathan had followed her close behind. Kai looked at him for a moment.

  “Hey, Johnathan,” Kai said as he straightened up.

  “Hello, Kai... Is Rue ready to go?” Johnathan asked as he looked at the front door.

  Kai turned towards the house and turned back to him.

  “Ummm… yea she'll be out in a minute I guess,” he said.

  They all stood there for a moment, in an uncomfortable silence.

  “So,” Kai said as he crossed his arms.

  Kai held his ground just staring Johnathan down.

  “Hangin’ out with Rue huh?” Kai said to him.

  Sophie looked at both of them and said, “Hey Kai... I'll be in the car.”

  Kai looked at her. She walked over to the car, got in and sat there watching them. Johnathan half smiled and cleared his throat.

  “Yea, listen, Kai I just wanted a chance to talk to her after that stuff last night.”

  “Uh-huh,” Kai said.

  “Well… and… I just thought maybe Rue and I could just talk some, ya know?” Johnathan said as he ran his hand through his hair.

  “Yep… gotcha,” Kai said. Johnathan looked up at him.

  “Listen, I don't want you to think I'm here trying to get into your sister’s… you know… pants or something.” He said as he raised his eyebrows.

  Kai stepped towards him and leaned in.

  “Yea... Well I will tell you… ” He leaned in close to his ear. “You even try that shit with her and I'll kick your ass.”

  Johnathan stepped back so did Kai and that’s when I walked right into the hornet’s nest.

  “Hey, Johnathan!”

  “Hello Rue.” Johnathan said still looking at Kai.

  We all just stood there for a moment and I decided to kick my brother off of the porch.

  “Hey, looks like Sophie's ready to go Kai,” I said as I pointed towards her.

  She honked the horn once, thank god, just to speed things up.

  Kai looked at me, then Johnathan.

  “Yeah, looks that way… Okay, well Rue, give me a call later, okay?” Kai asked me.

  I looked at him, half embarrassed.

  “Yea sure, go have fun,” I replied back.

  I glanced past Kai and gave a quick smile and wave to Sophie.

  Kai stood there for a second, and I raised my eyebrows at him. I waved my arm in the direction of his car.

  “Okay, ummm… cool. I'll see you later,” Kai said as he glanced at me.

  Kai gave one last ‘fuck you’ look at Johnathan and ran to the car.

  I looked down at my hands and started messing with my fingers.

  “Habit?” he asked me.

  I looked up at Johnathan, and he had a huge smile on his face.

  “What, Kai being a jerk?” I said with a sigh.

  “Well no, I'm assuming that's not a habit for him, just something he's good at. You and your obsession with your hands.” he said as he stared down at them.

  “Oh... yea… well I just.” I put my hands down. “I always do it. I don't even realize it sometimes. Guess it is just habit.”

  “I think it's cute.” Johnathan said as he leaned in and smiled.

  “Oh… Okay… yea I guess that signs of neurotic behavior could fall under the ‘cute’ category.”

  Johnathan just smiled and reached for my hand. I pulled back.

  “I'm sorry, I, well I noticed the bruise on your wrist,” he said to me.

  I looked at it, rubbing it with my other hand.

  “Oh this…? Really this is nothing, no worries, I have a lot of bruises,” I said nonchalantly.

  Johnathan's face filled with anger.

  “From what?” he said forcefully.

  I realized I had led him to an awful conclusion and started damage control.

  “Noooo… Oh god no... I sleepwalk all the time, ya know, bumping into stuff… been doing it forever,” I said as I looked at him.

  Johnathan relaxed.

  “Oh… okay. Sorry, I just thought… well, I don't know what I thought, but it wasn't good. Sorry,” he said, as he sighed.

  I really liked the fact that he cared, maybe a little too much. Again I looked at him… vibration.

  Maybe I just liked him too much. Maybe the weird vision I had last night was just a mix of being thoroughly pissed off at his mother and exhaustion. Maybe. Who knows, but I am not going to tell him… no way. There I was, the center of his attention, and I had no intention of screwing that up. None.

  “So… I thought maybe we could just hang out,” Johnathan said to me calmly.

  “Oh... okay. Yea, that would be cool.” I said.

  He looked at me, me at him and then we walked t
o his car. Nice… a sports car, Black. Obviously a gift from his parents, I knew he had never worked a job. We got in and he backed out of my driveway, classical music playing on his radio. We drove for about ten minutes without saying a word. I just watched out the window as things passed me by, then he pulled into Red Woods Park. I didn't really think about a conversation starting until he shut off the car.

  “Good place to hide a body,” I said out loud, before I realized it.

  “What?” he said as he turned to look at me.

  I said it before I even thought about it. Suddenly I panicked, thinking he would think I was some kind of freak.

  He just started laughing though, got out and came around to my side of the car to open my door. Oh good, I thought, he has a sense of humor. Good, very good, because I say what I think and not the other way around.

  He leaned in, a little too close to my face again, and said, “Come on… trust me I won't hide your body here, too many witnesses.”

  I had to laugh, because I saw no one in sight.

  We started walking and made it over to a trail designed for hikers and he asked if it would be okay if we took the trail. I still don't know why I didn't just say, “Hey perv, I don't think so.” Instead I nodded and we started into the woods. Then we just… talked. About everything you could think of, school, parents, plans, etc. The conversation was so easy, it was just scary. We did have a lot in common, more than I would have imagined. He understood my humor, I understood his. Too easy I thought, too comfortable. We came to the side of the lake that this trail had wound down to. We decided to stop walking, at the same moment. The flat rocks on the bank of the river made easy chairs for us to sit on. He reached into his backpack, I hadn't even noticed he had with him, and he offered me a water. I had to laugh.

  “What?” he said.

  “Oh, I just realized that I'm the perfect candidate for the side of a milk carton!” I said.

  He started laughing too.

  “Yeah I guess you better avoid vans,” he said as he laughed.

  I choked on my water, almost shooting it through my nose.

  “Or maybe I'll just kill you with sarcasm,” he added. I smiled, he was so pretty.

  “So,” he looked at me, with his head tilted slightly sideways.

  “I guess I should get to the point of this abduction.”

  Oh shit, really. I had no way out. Now he wanted to talk for real. He set his water down, and ran his hand through his hair.

  “I need to know what happened last night,” he said to me.

  “I, well… I was really upset. I just felt light headed, you know, come to think of it, I didn't eat very much yesterday, may have helped,” I said. He grinned.

  “Really?” he said. I sighed and then smiled, a nice fake smile, uncomfortable.

  “Yea really...” I said.

  I just let that “lie” sit and fester, hoping he would just let it go.

  “Well, guess I have to be the one to say it,” he said.

  “Say what?” I said.

  “When I saw my Mother attacking you, I just couldn't help but get in between you two, I didn't even think about it, I just did it. Normally I just avoid her. She's pretty pissed at me right now anyway.”

  I couldn't help but think back, he had moved so fast…

  “Anyway, when I touched your hand I swear… well I know I felt something,” he said to me.

  I did the ‘oh really’ face.

  “Felt what?” I said, kinda like I wasn't even there last night.

  He stood up and started pacing back and forth.

  “Well, it's hard to explain,” he said, as he stared at the ground. I shrugged my shoulders.

  “Wanna try?” I said. He looked at me and held his hands out in front of him.

  “Okay... so it kinda felt like a vibration, in my whole body,” he said. He looked at me, waiting.

  “A what?” I said. He had started to breathe harder; I could see his chest moving up and down.

  “A vibration, only it felt really, well... amazing.” He looked to me, and I raised my eyebrows.

  I stood up too and started to put some distance in between us.

  “What do you mean by, amazing?” I asked him.

  “It was one of the most, I don't want to scare you,” he said quietly.

  “You’re not scaring me… I just need to understand what you felt,” I said.

  “Okay, it was like a kiss… first one... you know when your palms get sweaty and your body tenses up and you start to think about…” he was looking at the water and I rubbed my arms.

  “Okay, I get it,” I said to him, still backing up.

  I turned away from him, knowing that the blood was rushing into my face. Truth was, I had never kissed anyone, no boyfriends, never really had an interest, not until Johnathan.

  “See. Shit Rue, I didn't know if I should tell you, but ever since last night… no, ever since I met you in the library, I can't stop thinking about you. I've thought about you for a long time,” he said.

  I turned to him.

  “What?” I said. He took a breath.

  “I know this sounds like some line, but it's not I swear. I have to be around you, it drives me crazy.”

  I had to turn away from him again, weighing whether or not I should tell him what happened when he touched my hand. I turned back around and he had moved closer to me.

  “Listen Johnathan, when you grabbed my hand last night something happened to me too.” I hesitated looking at my hands. “When you touched me, it hurt.”

  “You mean it physically hurt you?” he asked.

  “Yes, it did.” I looked down at my wrist. He looked at the bruise and back up to my eyes.

  “Oh my god, Rue, I'm sorry! I did that to you?”

  “Well you didn't do it on purpose I'm sure!” I said, trying to convince him.

  He walked toward me and I backed away, I could see the hurt in his eyes.

  “Well, when you touched me I felt a shock, it went up my arm and everything went white,” I said.

  “What do mean ‘a shock’?” Johnathan said as he stepped towards me again.

  “I guess… well, like electricity,” I said, as I stepped back. He stopped moving.

  “I don't even know what to say Rue,” he whispered.

  I walked towards him and he backed away from me.

  “Please Johnathan, I don't know what happened, I really don't. But I know you would never do anything on purpose, so please don't…”

  “I think we should go,” he said in a new tone.

  He grabbed his backpack and started walking. I had no choice but to follow. We only walked a few feet before I stopped.

  “I'm not leaving yet,” I said to him.

  He turned around, with a look of despair on his face.

  “Rue please…”

  “No, I'm not getting in the car, having you take me home, and then never talking to you again!” I said, getting upset at this turn of events. He stared at me.

  “I wouldn't do that to you... I can't,” he said, trying to sound optimistic.

  “I'm not moving,” I said to him, as I crossed my arms. He raised his eyebrows.

  “Awesome!” he said.

  He dropped his backpack and came walking up to me.

  “Well, how about I pull a freak move on you and just touch you, ‘shocking’ you or whatever and then I will carry you back to the car?” he said. I stood my ground.

  “You wouldn't,” I said all crappy.

  “You don't know me Rue Volley,” he said as he leaned in.

  “True I don't but I...”

  He grabbed me and pulled me close to him pressing his lips hard to mine. I fought at first, but then I just let it happen. He pulled his face away from mine and whispered, “Tell me to stop Rue, please.”

  I looked into his eyes and wrapped my arms around him pulling him as close to me as I could. He pressed his lips against mine and forced my mouth open with his tongue. We sank to the ground together,
he had his hand at the small of my back and I could feel his heart beating hard through the front of my shirt.

  “Please... don't stop,” I whispered in his ear.

  I rolled onto my back and he cupped my face in his hand, he kissed me hard again, and I felt him moan a little in my mouth.

  “Please Rue, I'm begging you. Tell me to stop now; I won’t, if you don't tell me to.”

  I reached up behind him and put my hand in his hair pulling him to my mouth. I kissed him softer this time and he moaned again. He took one hand and felt down my neck, he accidentally brushed against my breast. I gasped and said, “Stop.”

  A blue flame started to rise from my entire body. Johnathan gasped and held me closer. I could feel heat… flashes of white swirling in front of me. He kissed me harder, holding the back of my head, with his hand. Johnathan groaned again, his whole body shaking, blue flames whipping around both of us. I screamed out words in a language I didn't even know. We both dropped to the ground, neither of us realizing we we're levitating above the very spot we were just laying with each other.

  Johnathan rolled away from me, gasping for air.

  “Oh my God, Johnathan, are you okay?!”

  He laid there for a moment, motionless, and my heart was beating so hard, I thought I was going to pass out.

  “Johnathan?!”

  He started to move, pushed himself up and looked at me. His eyes were glowing red…

  “I want more,” he said.

  “What?”

  “More,” he whispered.

  That's when I started to run.

  I scrambled to my feet, stumbling over everything it seemed. The sun was starting to go down and I just knew if light left me I'd be screwed. I could hear Johnathan behind me yelling out my name.

  No fucking way was I slowing down. NO WAY. I kept chanting, “I'm not the milk carton girl” over and over again in my head. I was running so hard, that I barely noticed my phone going off in my pocket, I reached in, so shocked I forgot I had it. “Call Blocked”, was staring up at me and I didn't care, anyone on the line would be a godsend at this point. I hit the button and mouthed the word...

  “Hello,” completely out of breath.

  “Rue?”

  I stumbled and fell, with the phone in a death grip.

  “Mom?”

  Just then Johnathan was standing in front of me.

  “Mom, please... help me… Johnathan is...”