Amethyst Tears (YA Paranormal Romance) (Luminescence Trilogy) (2 page)

Distracted by Lunar’s antics and my mixed-up thoug
hts, I was being careless. In my absent mindedness, my finger slipped right as I brought the blade down. With a curse, I stuck my bleeding finger in my mouth trying to alleviate
the sting. I know it wasn’t the most sanitary action, but that was the least of concerns on my building mountain of problems.

Luckily
, it was just a nick, and I ran the wound under the faucet. Throwing on a Band-Aid, I finished dinner just as my Aunt Clara walked in.

“Hey how are you feeling?” she asked, pushing the hair from my face. I think she needed to make sure I hadn’t broken out in a fever.

“I’m fine,” I insisted, shaking off her hand.

Lunar meowed at her feet. She bent down and
picked up the little black fur ball, saving me from any more scrutiny. “And who is this little guy?” she asked in a baby voice. Lunar just looked at her with his sad blue eyes.

“That
…is trouble. I named him Lunar.”

“Well Lunar
, you are too cute.” She rubbed his belly, and he closed his eyes in appreciation.

“Are you really okay with this?” I asked. I didn’t want to burden her with any
more stress or responsibility.

She nodded her head. “Yes, I thought it was a great idea
.” Her expression turned serious as she eyed me. “He cares for you.”

I swallowed. Guilt, there it was, swarming into my belly. “I know,” I added quietl
y keeping my eyes on the floor.

“Hm
m, something smells good.” She set Lunar on his feet, and he padded under the table batting at a loose tie from one of the chair cushions.

Dishing up dinner, we sat down at the table. It wasn’t long before she picked up on my distractedness. I was unusually quiet and kept pushing my rice around my plate in aimless patterns.
So much for trying to keep my cool.

Setting her fo
od aside, she asked, “Brianna what’s going on? You have been pretending to eat for the last five minutes.”

I stopped spinning circles with my rice and intentional
ly shoveled a fork full in my mouth. She lifted a brow completely unimpressed by my grand gesture.

Sighing, I tried to find a reasonable explanation for my spacey-ness.
“I’m just tired.” What a lame excuse, but it was all I had. I forced myself to swallow. “I’ve got so much catching up to do at school tomorrow. I probably should get to bed early.”

That she agreed on and it got me out of the limelight.
“You go on up to bed, I’ll take care of the dishes.”

I nodded and scooped up a yawning Lunar. Looks like we both had exhausting days.
Safely behind closed doors, I dropped the façade at being okay. Nothing could compare to the anxiety I was feeling. Tomorrow was my first day back since my dream incident with Morgana. The loony witch had tried to flatten Gavin with a spell and I ended up throwing myself in its path, taking the full force of her wrath. It knocked unconscious and battered my body pretty good. Lily, Gavin’s mom, had given me a potion that had healed most of the aches.

Seeing him a
t school tomorrow, I knew I would have to be an exceptional actress to pull off the kind of act I would need. I knew he would be able to pick up on my scattered emotions. To make matters worse, his sister, who was also my friend, could read auras. I didn’t even think there was a way to fake those.

Now with my impending return to school and the newest development with
Lukas, I was shit up a creek. There was no way this situation had a positive ending, no matter how I looked at it. Either way I knew I was going to lose someone.

I was royally screwed.

Chapter 2

GAVIN WAS WAITING FOR ME in the school parking lot. My eyes ran over the length of him, devouring his dark yummy form. My dark witch. Dressed in his usual black jeans and gray shirt, one of his unlaced boots was crossed over the other as he leaned on his car – eyeing me from top-to-bottom. It sent a parade of fireflies in my belly. I couldn’t help them. Just the sight of him made my heart flip-flop and sigh.

We weren’t technical
ly
dating but it was pretty darn close. I could feel it. We were at the pivotal edge and with the right push we would tumble into dating status. As much as we were seen together at school, I could only assume everyone thought we were dating. And that was just fine by me. In fact, I preferred it.

I wasn’t entirely sure why we were
n’t dating, and it was an issue I’d been thinking lately to rectify, meaning I was going to ask what the heck was going on between us. Well, I was until yesterday, prior to Lukas being
real
. Now, I wasn’t sure of anything, except that Gavin still made my heart race and my breath catch.

He smirked at my
approach, and I couldn’t help but smile back. I took the hand he offered. Even with the mixture of fireflies and anxiety, when I was with him, he was the only one I wanted to be with. Lukas seemed like a tiny blurb in my life with Gavin’s fingers caressing my pulse.

The flitting thought of Lukas brought all
those doubts and nerves bubbling to the forefront of my mind. I was instantly glad Sophie wasn’t around to see my aura fly all over the place.

“How was Lunar last night?” he asked, his dark and sinful voice filling me with warmth
, making the fireflies dance.

Lunar was like the devil on speed
. “He was very bad, kept me up half the night knotting my hair.”

He laughed and the sound was bliss. “What a lucky kitty.” He was playing with our fingers as we began to walk toward school.

I rolled my eyes.

“You look better,” he said
, letting his eyes roam over me in a way that had me flushing uncomfortably.

I looked down at my feet. “I
am better.” If you discredit the crazy insane predicament I was in.

“
Good cause we need to talk after school.”

I gulped.
Oh no
, I thought. He knows.

He lowered his voice
, and his soft breath tickled my ear as we walked into school, surrounded by students. “About what happened in your dream with Morgana.”

I let out a sigh of relie
f. “Right the whole dreamscape thingy.” This was a good and way overdue. Maybe it would answer some questions I had about Lukas. “One problem, I have to work tonight.”

He shrugged.
“No biggie, I’ll just come by when you get home tonight. Your aunt will never know.” He gave me that troublesome grin of his.

“Great,” I muttered
and pasted on a smile. I was horrible at lying and keeping secrets. The deception was already getting out of hand. Fast. And this was only the first day.

I was doomed.

Usually having Gavin in my room was exactly what I longed for. Now, being alone with him was taxing. And that much longer I had to keep up a pretense I sucked at.

The bell ran through the halls.

I swear he pouted. He wasn’t a fan of school. We were so ying and yang. “Guess that means we have to get to class. See you in chem,” he said squeezing my hand.

I nodded
, my hand still tingling from his touch. Since the afternoon we met, any contact we had always brought this incredible zing. It was supposed to be from our magic, because we were witches but with him, everything was always…more.

Austin
grinned at me when I took my seat and Mrs. Schwab immediately began to lecture, yet my mind was anywhere but on congruent verbs. It was worrying about getting through the rest of the day. After class Austin walked out with me.

“Hey babygirl. M
issed you.” He looked so cute in his Guess jeans and gel styled hair. Plus he smelled like a girl’s wet dream. Austin swung for the same team, and he took a ton of slack from other kids at Holly Ridge High, Rianne being the absolute worst. I might have had a slight altercation with her last year and sort of used magic, leaving some nasty cherry welts on her. In my defense, I didn’t know at the time I was a witch or that I was doing magic. So Rianne was still a bitch in my book.

“Believe it or not, I actually missed you too.
Anything happen?” I asked as we walked side-by-side down the hall, pretty much in our own little bubble.

We bumped shoulders.
“Nah, just the same crap every day. I do think I heard that Rianne was dropped from the top of the pyramid during practice yesterday. Would have paid to have seen that.”

“No kidding. Maybe it knocked so
me sense into her,” I added sarcastically. She was definitely not one of my favorite people. Lucky for me, the feeling was mutual.

“You sure
you’re
feeling better?” he asked, lines of concern ceasing his manicured brows.

Leave it to one of my best friends to see through my ruse. Neither Tori nor
Austin knew that I was a witch, or that they even existed. For now, I thought it best that it stayed hidden, even if it was killing me to keep something this huge from them. They were, after all, the only friends I had besides Sophie and Gavin…and I guess Lukas? I wasn’t yet sure where I stood with him. Looked like I was going to find out this weekend.

I nodded.
“Yeah. Just stressed.” That was an understatement, but at least the truth.

“You got this,” he encouraged, thinking I meant catching u
p in my classes. If he only knew. His confidence was bittersweet.

“Thanks
,” I mumbled. “Catch you at lunch,” I replied before we split off in different directions.

Our high school was like a giant octopus. All the halls ste
mmed off from a circular hub like tentacles. The approach of third period disintegrated any confidence I might have gained from the comforts of routine. My peace from knowledge was shorted lived.

Lost in my own my head and
my looming chem class, I never heard him sneak up behind me. His hands spanned my waist, and I jumped like a fool in front of half my class.

“You scared me!
” I shrieked, smacking him on the chest.

He laughed in
my ear behind me. “Wasn’t hard. You were a million miles away.” I wasn’t just a million miles away, I was in another galaxy. “What’s on your mind beautiful?”

I was always embarrassed when he gave me compliments, especially ones that weren’t true.
“Nothing,” I shrugged. “Just the usual.” And in his eyes the usually meant witchcraft and all the baggage that came with it. Or in my case, the strange and unexplainable happenings that only occurred to me. Any other witch my age doesn’t have to deal with half the crap I do.

Fabulous
.

His sapphire eye
s were sparkling like stars, and the corners of his lips smirked. Lips I was well familiar with. He was a good kind of distraction. And boy did I need to be distracted. My heart constricted as I thought about what I knew, what I had to tell him. With Gavin, I didn’t want there to be anything between us.

No lies.

No hiding.

No secrets.

I have had enough of being left in the dark. It was past time I knew what the hell was going on and took charge of my life. How else was I going to protect those I loved? And Gavin was at the very top of the list.

“I’ve just got a lot on my mind,” I added. Like how in blazes
I was going to get through this class. Every moment we were together, the guilt magnified. And that frightened me, maybe more than my wacked out dreams.

We took our seats at our table
, and he scooted his chair closer to me. Warm tingles skated across the nape of my neck. Our legs brushed under the table, and I felt the flash of energy. It made my insides sing.

“I can’t wait to see you tonight.” His words hinted that there would be way more than just talking going on.

Lord help me. My pulse jumped. All too well I could feel his lips on mine, the cool steel of his hoop on my burning mouth.

As if he could read my mind, his eyes darkened to midnight
, and I watched him twirl the ring at his lip. The class around me disappeared, and I leaned forward bringing our lips even closer. He was like the most addictive drug. The closer we were, the more I needed him.

All I could think was how incredible
his lips felt against mine. How much I wanted to sink into him. How much I wanted him to make me forget my problems.

He wiggled his brow at me
. “It’s probably best if you wait until after class to devour me.” Even his smirk was becoming irresistible.

His words were like a splash of cold water
and did the trick. I shook my head from the trance only to be infused by his dark and deadly scent; just being in his proximity caused me to lose my head. My emotions felt like they were being beat in a blender.

I gave
him a look of exasperation, putting some needed distance between us. His grin only widened.