BRIDGER (24 page)

“I can be nice.”

His expression was suddenly full of emotion. His train of thought connected with mine about two seconds before he leaned in to kiss me.
 

This was even better than his kiss at Clifton Mill. He pulled me close, his breath fast. I sighed under his soft touch. His heart was beating against my chest and there was no way he wasn’t aware of mine. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I pulled myself closer to him.
 
He responded by putting one hand in my hair and gently undoing my ponytail, causing my hair to fall around my face.
 
“Ashlyn,” was all he had to say.
 
I leaned in, pushing up onto my toes to eagerly meet his lips halfway.

“Well, I would say get a room, but as you’re already in one, I’ll just say disgusting.”

Of course he would ruin this moment.
 
Liam pulled away, groaning at the entrance of his unwanted host brother.
 
Reese would find some way to crash the party. It was Murphy's Law, as Memaw would say.

“Reese, I’m pretty sure you weren’t invited into
our
room,” Liam said as civilly as he could.

“Huh.
 
I was under the impression that ‘our’ room was right down the road,” Reese said as he thrust his thumb over his shoulder in the opposite direction, smiling.
 
Striding across the room, he made himself right at home on Mary’s makeshift bed.
 
“Nice sheets, Ash.”

Liam groaned and walked to the door, but then stopped.
 
Turning around, he came back to kiss me on the forehead before walking to the door once more.
 
“Have fun with Reese, Ash. Let me know when he’s done harassing you and I’ll come back.”
 

The kiss was on my forehead instead of the glorious, Oscar-worthy make out session that had just been about to happen.
 
I wanted to string Reese up by his toes, but he was giving me the saddest eyes that got him off the hook for everything.
 
“Real nice, Reese.
 
Real nice.”

Hopping up off of Mary’s bed, he walked over and took my hand, still grinning triumphantly.
 
I pulled away from him.
 
He must enjoy rejection. “Hey, I was just saving you from mono or H1N1.
 
Those are really nasty deals. Someone’s gotta keep your best interests at heart.”

I walked to the stairs and began taking them two at a time until Reese groaned behind me. He’d followed behind. “Aw, come on Ash, don’t be like that.
 
We never fought before you left Jamie in Ireland and brought back your little Irish souvenir instead.”

“Shut up, Reese.
 
You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He wouldn’t let it go.
 
He knew just what buttons to push.
 
“I mean, who would trade their friend for an Irish dude who doesn’t even know how to shower half the time? You know cleanliness is next to godliness.
 
I shower daily, sometimes twice a day.”

That was enough. He had no right to talk about Jamie like he knew what happened, no right to talk about Liam like he knew him at all.
 
I whipped around and punched him in the chest, seeing red from his comments.
 
“Will you
shut up
?
 
You don’t even know what happened!
 
You weren’t there when Jamie was bludgeoning me with a crowbar, were you?
 
Or when I passed out from losing so much blood and Liam’s mom had to carry me home?
 
What about when I was lying in bed with three broken ribs?
 
Oh yeah, you weren’t there for that, either.
 
So why don’t you shut up about things you don’t understand?”
 

That was entirely too much information.
 
Information that would put Reese in even more danger than he was in by just being my friend.
 
My normal, human friend.
 
So much for having one of those.

Reese stood still, shocked from the conniption fit that had come from nowhere.
 
At least, that’s why I thought he was still. “Ash, your eyes are red.”

Crap.
 
Crap, crap, crap.
 
“I must have busted a blood vessel from freaking out at you.”

“No, not the whites of your eyes.
 
The
color
of your eyes,” he made sure he was seeing correctly by taking two more steps forward, peering down into my face with more focus than I’d ever seen him have off the football field.
 
“How’d you do that?”

I sighed.
 
“Even if I wanted to tell you, I couldn’t.”

He attempted to take my hand again.
 
This time I allowed it. Reese would be in serious trouble if Liam came back right now. “Yes you could.
 
You can tell me anything.”

“I can’t, Reese.
 
You don’t have any idea what’s going on, everything that happened in Ireland.”

“You said Jamie hurt you.”

“Yeah, she did.”
 
I pulled my pant leg up to reveal the four inch-long gashes that were healing into pink, puckered scars.
 

He gasped.
 
“Jamie did that to you?”

I nodded, lifting up the side of my shirt to show him the massive, still yellowing bruise that went across the width of my chest.
 
His eyes bugged.

Reese tried to make a joke of it.
 
I had to admire his attempt to not look appalled. “What the heck were you doing over there to make her so mad?
 
Did you take her clothes without asking?”

“Not exactly.”

At that moment, my phone started buzzing in my back pocket.
 
The number calling wasn’t one programmed in already.

“Hello?”

Memaw was on the other line.
 
“Ashlyn, tell him.”

TWENTY

I looked over my shoulder as if Memaw would be standing there.
 
How did she know Reese was here?
 
There was no way she could know.
 
I checked the number on the phone once more, then pressed it against my face to speak.
 
“What are you talking about?”

“You need to tell him.
 
You need a friend who you can trust.”

Reese was sitting on the bed, confused by the looks of it.
 
I couldn’t blame him.
 
“Are you sure?”

“Completely.
 
Do you think I’d let you tell someone who wasn't safe?
 
I’ve got an eye on you.
 
Tell him.
 
He’ll be a good person to have around when you need to keep a grip on things.”

Reese really did help me stay sane, even though he drove me crazy half the time.
 
“I don’t understand why he’s allowed in on the secret and Liam isn’t."

“Ashlyn, Liam’s time will come.
 
I know it’s hard on you to have to keep secrets from him, but you need to understand. Tess wants to keep this under wraps for the time being.
 
She doesn’t think he’d understand the difference between you two and Changelings.
 
He’s still too emotionally charged from the loss of his brother.
 
They were only a year apart in age.
 
Reese, on the other hand, has no preconceived notions.
 
You can show him and he’ll accept it.
 
Quite easily, actually,” Memaw said.

“How do you know?”

She chuckled on the other end.
 
“My dear, I’ve been around a long time.
 
That boy is pure and good.
 
He’ll understand because you’re his best friend. He'll accept it because he loves you silly."

That brought me up short.
 
I looked up at Reese to find him looking back at me, smiling. Even while confused, he tried to wait patiently.
 
Well, sometimes. When he wanted to.

“Keep this phone on your person.
 
I’m paying for the bill; I want to know that you have it.”
 
With that, the line went dead.

I slid the phone back into the pocket of my jeans.
 
After the past few months, it was probably best to just listen to Memaw no matter what.

Glancing at Reese once more, I went to the door and locked it.
 
This was against all better judgment.
 
If Liam came back…the thought wasn’t a good one.
 
He’d think the worst.
 
I couldn’t allow him to even venture down that road.

“How do you feel about long stories?” I asked Reese, walking back to the bed to sit beside him.

“If it’s yours, I’m totally game,” he said, pulling me beside him to sit against the wall.
 
He was proving Memaw right.

“You need to be good with weird.”

“Totally good with it.
 
I hang with you, don’t I?” he said, joking.

If only he knew how weird I really was.

* * *

Two hours later, it turned out that Reese was incredibly good with weird. He chuckled as he leaned against the side of the bed, pillow behind his back. He began to recap our conversation, making sure he had all the finer details. His version was funnier to listen to than mine. He made me laugh as he gave me his rundown. “So you’re telling me that Memaw is like a thousand year old FBI agent for faeries?”

I shook my head. “In a nutshell, sure.”

“And you’ve got a crazy faerie locked up inside of you, along with some of whatever Memaw is?”

“Pretty much.”

“And this Ankou guy has a grudge against Memaw for some stuff that happened forever ago, so now he’s trying to take it out on you? He tried to take you out by sending Jamie, who’s a crazy water faerie incarnate? So now since that didn’t work, he’s gonna try to finish the job himself, right?”

“You know as much as I do.”

“What did I tell you before you left? We could seriously make your life into a movie and be millionaires. That’s some freaky, totally unbelievable stuff you just told me, but I’ll believe it since it’s you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Well thanks for making an exception.”

“No problem. I think it’s more believable since you’re claiming that Jamie was a nutter. Now at least she has an excuse.”

With the story out there and Liam not going to accidentally hear anything, the door was once more unlocked.
 
I didn’t want it to look bad, especially when we had been so close to being alone for the first time.
 
Hopefully we would get to reenact that scene again when I had humored Reese long enough.
 
My stomach balled up in excitement at the thought.

“You know the one thing I can’t believe, though?” Reese asked as he thumbed through my old video games, deciding which one to play on the miniscule TV sitting on my dresser.
 
I couldn’t figure out why he tried; the colors blurred every time he played.

This was bound to be good, considering none of what we’d gone over should have been believable.
 
I rolled my eyes.
 
“What is that?”

He looked at me antagonistically.
 
“That you can shift.
 
You know, into other people and back.
 
That’s pretty ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers,’ if you ask me.
 
I think you’re bluffing.”

I knew what he was doing, and it was annoying.
 
“That’s what Changelings do, you nerd. We’ve gone over this. They take someone’s appearance, thoughts and soul and mimic it perfectly.
 
That’s how they kidnap children.”