Cursed Hearts (A Crossroads Novel) (32 page)

“Blue? No, wait. Red… Blue?”

“Blue is a close second, but my favorite color is
green.” Rome was smiling as he said it, gazing at her striking green eyes.

Ariahna looked away shyly.

“What time is the party tonight?” she asked.

“I think it starts around midnight. It’s on a
strip of beach on the other side of the woods. Do you know how to get there? I
was thinking we’d go together anyways instead of meeting. I can wait for you
outside your room?”

“The student lounge would be better.”

“Okay, I’ll see you then,” he said. Rome tucked
the small flower behind her ear and kissed her on the hand before turning to
part ways.
He spun back to face her at the
last moment
, calling out, “Oh, and Ariahna?”

“Hmm?”

“Being exactly who you are, that’s what makes you
beautiful.”

Chapter 28

The
problem with Rome’s room was there was nothing to break. Kaleb paced anxiously
in front of the beautiful open window like a large,
caged cat. The grounds below were littered with laughing, socializing
students
– but no Rome. He was nowhere in sight. And now Kaleb was
really wishing he would have given Rome more of his blood. He was regretting
not binding them without his permission. In his mind, he didn’t need it. Rome
was meant to be his, he could feel it in his bones, and he wasn’t going to let
something as foolish as Rome’s fear get in the way of that. He just couldn’t
see it right now, he thought. The lock on the door clicked, and Kaleb rushed
across the room before Rome could even get two steps inside. He pulled him
towards him, slamming the door closed with a palm flat against the wood. “Quite
a show you put on,” Kaleb commented brusquely. “How was the after party? Did
your groupie show you a good time?”

“Jesus,”
Rome said. “What the hell is your problem?”

“My problem? My problem is that you seem intent on
leaving
me one way
or another. Yesterday you were talking about taking off, and today you’re
hanging out with the girl who’s supposed to kill you. My problem is that you’re
an idiot,” Kaleb bit out, shoving him across the room.

Rome
stumbled back into his chair, nearly toppling over. Kaleb was already advancing
on him. “I’m not leaving,” he said. “But if you try and throw me around one
more time, you’re not going to like it.”

“You’d
be wrong about that,” he whispered, pinning him against the edge of the desk.
“You don’t know what I’d like.” He looked down at Rome’s torso with a smirk.
“…You look good in my jacket.”

Rome watched timidly as Kaleb smoothed his hands down the
leather, thumbs running along
the jagged edges of the zipper. It was making his heart stammer and his hands
tremble. Rome had to grip the edge of the desk just to feel like he wasn’t
going to lose his footing. There was something stirring inside of them both –
something dangerous, longing to be set free. The way Kaleb was staring at his
lips left Rome mesmerized.

“Kaleb,”
he said warningly. Strong fingers closed around his hips, lifting him onto the
desk. Rome’s hands shot up, grasping at Kaleb’s shirt for support. “Don’t,” he
breathed, even as he found himself licking his lips.

“Do
you find me attractive?” Kaleb asked, slipping between Rome’s legs. He rocked
forward impulsively, pulling him back against his hips. The motion was so fluid
it left Rome gasping.

“I—” Rome stammered. “I’m not answering that,” he decided
quietly.

Kaleb smirked. “Your heart’s racing again,” he whispered.
“
Is that fear, or
anticipation?” His hand curled tightly around the back of Rome’s neck, fingers
slipping into his soft hair as he held his gaze. Rome had to know what was
coming, and he was doing nothing to stop it. Not even as he pressed a firm hand
to the top of his thigh, sliding it seductively up his leg. They were so close
he could feel the warmth of Rome’s skin radiating between their bodies. Before
Kaleb could stop himself, he was crashing his lips over Rome’s, kissing him
fiercely. Rome let out a startled moan and the soft, broken sound was filling
him with heat. For once, he finally felt in control around him, and he wasn’t
going to let that feeling slip away. He wanted to protect him, he wanted to own
him, and he did
not
want to share. He nudged his tongue insistently into
Rome’s mouth, claiming him with vigor as his fingers clawed over his stomach.

“Tell
me you’re mine,” he breathed, pulling away just long enough to utter the words
and then kissing him again hard enough to bruise.

Rome
felt like he was falling. Pleasure jolted through his body at Kaleb’s words, at
his lips against his. They were softer than he’d imagined. It
was that feeling you get when you’re plummeting in
an elevator, the
sensation
that
you’re losing yourself. It was beyond amazing. He couldn’t even think. All he
could do was kiss him back, working his jaw and his tongue
against his
with a frantic, wild need. There
were hands moving underneath fabric and over skin, and soft, breathy moans
filled the air. They were rocking their hips
together
in a steady, pleasurable motion, and Rome couldn’t deny
that nothing had
ever felt this exhilarating. Kaleb’s lips found his neck, and he shuddered.

“Bite
me.”

Kaleb
pulled back, staring into Rome’s eyes as his own danced with mischief and
desire. “Do you want to taste me instead?” he asked, scraping Rome’s nails over
his neck and down to the edge of his shirt.

He
wanted him to draw blood.

Rome
was nearly salivating at the thought. His lips were quivering and the dull ache
in his gums had him inching forward. The door to his room
squeaked open abruptly, sobering him out of
whatever was about to
happen. Rome had never felt so disappointed and
relieved all at once.

Trevor
was yammering on as he walked in with a stack of books piled up to his
eyebrows. He hadn’t seen them yet, and Rome wanted nothing more than to keep it
that way.
Move
, he mouthed, pressing his palms insistently
against Kaleb’s chest. It only seemed to excite
him more. Clearly Kaleb
didn’t get that whatever this had been, was now
over.

“Get
out,” Kaleb breathed aggravatedly.

Trevor
didn’t hear him over the excited sound of his own voice.

“So
I got everything you asked for from my dad’s private collection. He’s got:
The
Artisan: Man or Myth
,
The Artisan’s Craft
,
The Way of the Artisan
,
the simply titled book,
Cursed
, and my personal favorite,
The Artisan
is an Alien
.”

By
the time Trevor set the books down on Rome’s desk, Rome and Kaleb were standing
next to each other near the window as if nothing had happened.

“You
okay? I didn’t interrupt, did I? You told me just to walk in.”

“What? No. We were just hanging out,” he said, punching
Kaleb on
the
arm. “How many times do I have to tell people there’s nothing going
on?”
Kaleb turned
his head slowly to glare at him before tromping towards the door.

“Where
are you going?” Rome asked.

“Away,”
Kaleb said flatly.

“Here,
take your jacket, before I forget.”

“Keep
it.”

Kaleb
closed the door behind him and Rome sighed inaudibly.

What
the hell?
he
thought.
Why did I let that happen?

When
it came to Kaleb, Rome felt like he was drowning, like he was always fighting
to stay above the surface. Yet at the same time, all he wanted was to be pulled
under. Because it was only in those brief, fleeting moments that he actually
felt like he could breathe.

“When
you said collection, I was thinking something more… old. You know, dusty and
weathered.”
Like that journal
, he thought. All these books were new,
glossy paperbacks that read like fiction. Still, the two of them cracked them
open and combed over the pages for what seemed like hours. There were books
scattered all over his room before they were done – on the bed, the desk and
the floor. Rome fell back on his mattress in defeat, resting one of the books
over his face.

“This
is getting us nowhere,” he mumbled.

“Have you searched the internet?” Trevor asked, his eyes
catching on the sleek new laptop
on Rome’s desk.

“No,”
he said. “I need to give that thing back to the Dean. He left it for me after
the incident in the auditorium. I just don’t feel right keeping something like
that.”

“That’s
actually a common thing. The Dean is well known for his involvement in the lives
of Vardel’s scholarship
students. I think
it’s because he was one,” he shrugged. “You should just
keep it.
Besides, there’s an entire directory of websites if you log into the school
database, and you can find even more resources if you access some of the
teacher’s files. They have way more material to work with. Everything is one
big secret though. I’m genuinely surprised they’re
still
teaching us magic at all.”

“Teacher’s
files?” Rome said, raising an eyebrow. “Isn’t that a little too… against the
law for you?”

“Nope,
I’ve hacked into the database for City Hall, and The Witches Collective, too.
But that was just to show them that their firewalls were a complete joke. I
thought they should know.”

“What
are you, some kind of computer genius?”

“My
intelligence doesn’t just begin and end with computers,” he smiled. “I’ve got
an IQ that’s ridiculous. I did skip a year, you know.”

“You
don’t usually act like it,” Rome laughed.

“I
really don’t need to give people any more reason to pick on me. And hey, I’m
still a thirteen year old boy. Cut me some slack.”

“Alright
boy genius, hack into the school or The Witches Collective then, and get me
something I can actually use.”

“Not
on that thing,” Trevor said. “I’ll do it on my computer. If I find anything,
I’ll let you know.”

“Sounds
good.” Rome helped him collect his books. “Hey, Trevor… thanks for helping me
with this. And for forgiving me.”

“Sure.
That’s what friends are for.”

Chapter 29

It
can be devastating, finding out someone wasn’t who you thought they were,
learning that you can’t always trust your judgment. Ariahna had been taught a
lot of hard lessons in life, but this was one of the hardest she’d had yet. She
wondered if five years from now, she’d look back and realize that Christian had
been her greatest mistake.

By
dinner, everyone knew that they’d slept together. It was a small
miracle that today was a Saturday and she didn’t
have to face all of the
rumors and the whispers in class. It was hard
enough walking down the hall and feeling the stares, hearing the catcalls and
the mean names flying past. They were calling her a slut, and a whore, and a
freak. Some of the boys were saying things so crude she was alarmed, and the
girls were being cruel and
nasty. She’d
never felt so completely ashamed, so disgusting. She was
tainted and
defiled, filthy, and none of them had any problem reminding her of it.

Aria
had been ignored a lot in school. She’d been ignored most of her life, in fact.
She was used to the anonymity. What she wasn’t used to was being noticed. Most
people had considered her so unimportant that she didn’t even warrant being
mocked. This was different. She didn’t know how to handle this.

The
courtyard was empty, quiet. Night was falling and there was a chill in the salty
coastal air. She could hear the energetic voices of her peers through the
cafeteria doors at her back. There was no place for her in there anymore, if
there ever had been. She was sitting at a stone table, facing the endless tree line
along the edge of the property. And for not the first time in
her life, she considered running – leaving
everything and everyone behind and just disappearing into the wilderness.

Would
she even be missed? Somehow she doubted it. She doubted even Rome would care.
He knew about her and Christian. Maybe he just
thought she was easy, like everyone else. Aria exhaled around her anxiety,
retrieving a metal chain from her pocket. It was Christian’s. She’d found it in
her bed. A small pendant hung from the simple necklace. It was some kind
of Celtic knot. It almost looked like a triquetra, but it was inverted. She ran
her
fingers gently over the metal, puzzling
over where she’d seen the symbol
before.

“It’s
always the quiet ones that are kinky,” Jesse said, slipping onto the bench
beside her. The grin on his face was pure sex.

“Maybe
if I’m lucky, I’ll get pregnant, and then everyone will have something amusing
to talk about for the next nine months,” Aria whispered. “Go away. I’m not
interested in your clever lines.”

Jesse
opened and closed his mouth wordlessly.

“I
was talking about myself,” he laughed. “I know some people. Do you want me to
have him roughed up a little for you?” Jesse was grinning again, but it was a
softer, more sympathetic expression. He was trying to make her laugh, putting
his dukes up and rolling them around in the air. “They’d all shut up if I
threatened to take back the alcohol I provided for the party. I’d do it though,
for you. Then we could revel in the looks on their faces. I’d imagine it would
go something like this,” he said, contorting his features in outrage. “Sorry, I
ramble. It’s perhaps why no one talks to me.”

“Do you want something?” he asked suddenly. Jesse was
an awkward
person on his best day, but
dealing with upset girls was not on his set list of skills. He plopped his
messenger bag down on the table, flipping it open and rummaging through it for
something to cheer her up. “Do you smoke?” he asked. He shook his head no. “I
don’t think you smoke.”

Aria was frowning so deeply it hurt. She was confused and
concerned by his behavior. She
watched Jesse fish a condom out of his bag and a shocked look washed over his
face before he tossed it over his shoulder.

“Not
that,” he said. “Bad bag.” He’d have to be more careful with his
thoughts. Aria scooted slowly towards the edge of
the bench, obviously
trying to sneak away, and Jesse looked up at her
pleadingly. “Wait, just give me a second. There’s gotta be something in here
you want.”

“Are
you okay?” she asked. “Do you need to go see the nurse?”

“Why?
Do my eyes look red?”

“Well,
a little. You’re just being… odd.”

“Huh,”
he said, scratching at his neck. “I smoked some new stuff – magic laced. I
think it might be amplifying my personality. Also,” he whispered, “I’m not
completely convinced that bush is not watching me.” A hand connected solidly with
the back of Jesse’s head and he bent forward, clutching his skull and glaring
at his attacker from underneath his arm. A tall boy with close-cropped hair
stood behind him. He had a narrow face, fine features, and a pinched, annoyed sort
of look around his eyes.

“What
the fuck was that for?” Jesse breathed angrily.

“People
know we’re related,” Logan said. “Cut that shit out.”

“Really,
people know that? It’s funny that everyone seems to know
we’re cousins and yet no one knows my freaking
name,” Jesse said. “I’m
‘that guy’, or ‘hey, you’. Or, or, not even a
person! Just ‘cigarettes’.”

“Speaking
of,” Logan said.

“Fuck,
you’re so predictable.”

“What
is
your name?” Aria mumbled. Jesse cast her a disbelieving look and she
glanced away in embarrassment. “We have one class together,” she said. “And
before today, no one knew my name, either. Not even you.” The sound of a blade being
flicked open startled her. Another boy came
walking
up behind them, fidgeting with a switchblade in one of his
hands. He had
dark skin and straight, dark hair that swept across his forehead. He seemed to
be of pacific island descent.

“She
doesn’t need to know your name to suck your dick,” he said.

“Only
if you want to hear her scream it while you fuck her,” Logan added. Jesse stood
up and shoved a pack of cigarettes into his chest,
smashing
them against his shirt.

“Get
the fuck out of here,” he said. “Take your cancer sticks and go kill yourself.
Oh, and Trent? Talk to her like that again, and everyone’s going to know what I
caught you doing in the boys’ locker room.” Jesse watched in amusement as Trent
flipped the blade of his knife back open. He shoved Logan out of the way,
walking up to him and pressing the tip of it to his own gut. “Do it,” he said. “I
fucking dare you.” Trent was staring back at him with furious, jet black eyes.
“Touch me and Johnny will put a bullet in your brain,” Jesse whispered. He
pressed an index finger to the middle of Trent’s forehead, shoving him back. Jesse
may have disliked his cousin, but he
hated
Trent.

“
Forget about this idiot
,” Logan said as
Aria rose to her feet in alarm. “Why don’t we go hang out back in my room? I’ll
give you a little free therapy. All you have to do is lie on your back and I’ll
help you forget all about Christian.”

The
doors to the cafeteria burst open and Dallas came storming out into the
courtyard like an angry tornado. Scarlet followed quickly at his
heels.
“Did someone decide to throw a party and
forget to invite me?” he said, throwing an unhappy smile onto his face. “Beat
it Logan, and take your dog with you, before I call our resident pain in the
ass in on this.”

“Dallas,”
Logan said affectionately. “You and I, we have a mutually beneficial
relationship. Don’t
fuck it up
by making me your enemy.” His tone had
turned razor sharp to match the hard glint in his eye.

Scarlet
stepped cautiously towards the group, grabbing Aria’s arm and pulling her
slowly away from the circle of hostility. Logan and Dallas were facing off,
staring each other down like they were waiting to see who was going to throw
the first punch.

“Shawn
was walking this way,” Scarlet said helpfully.

“You
think I’m afraid of that little weasel?” Logan smiled.

“I
know someone you’re afraid of,” Jesse commented.

Logan
turned a sour glare to him.

“Just
piss off,” Jesse said. “Before you make an even bigger scene.”

“I
don’t take orders from you.”

“Oh,
see, that wasn’t an order,” Jesse smirked. “That was a courtesy.
You’re not stupid, Logan. Stop acting like it.
I’ve known you your whole
damn
life and there’s more than one canary in your
closet that I could make sing.”

“I
think you mean skeletons,” Aria said quietly.

Jesse
frowned at her in confusion, quirking an eyebrow.

“Singing
skeletons?” he said. “That’s just weird.”

“Whatever,”
Logan said. “Your bullshit has lost its entertainment value.” He snapped his
fingers at Trent before waving his hand for him to follow. The two of them
slipped back into the cafeteria and out of sight.

“Sorry
about him,” Jesse said. “He doesn’t like people.”

“Yeah,
well, people don’t like him either,” Dallas muttered.

“Now,
what was I doing,” Jesse said, frowning at the group. “Oh yeah! What do you
want?” he asked, pulling his bag open and sticking his head inside. “Let’s see,
what could I give you…?” he mumbled, throwing a few things on the table.
“Candy? Cellphone? CD’s? How about some of the stuff I just got in? Guaranteed,
you will not be sad anymore.”

Dallas
ripped Jesse up out of his bag before he fell in and got lost forever. Jesse
was holding a little baggie of pot in his hand. “Put that away,” Dallas said.
“She doesn’t need drugs, you idiot. In fact, if I ever catch you selling to her,
it’s not going to matter who your cousins are.”

“Selling?
No, this is a freebie.”

Scarlet
plucked a sucker up off the table.

“You
won’t miss this, right?” she smiled.

Jesse
shook his head no, grinning at her like a love-struck puppy.

“That’s
alright,” Aria said. “I don’t need anything.”

Dallas’s
face lit up. “That’s not true. She needs a phone.”

“No,
I don’t.”

“Yes
you do,” he said. “If for no other reason than so that I can get a hold of
you.”

“Yeah, I can do that. What do you want? I’ve got smart
phones,
dumb
phones, burner phones,” he said holding up a
handful of devices.

“I
don’t want one, and I can’t take something like that from you.”

“Sure
you can. Call it a, ‘I’m sorry my cousin harassed you’, gift.”

“There,
you see?” Dallas said happily, snatching a shiny new cell from Jesse’s fingers.
“Consider it a payoff for not reporting that asshole to the Dean.” He glanced
at Jesse who was nodding continually. He looked like a bobble head. “Whatever
the hell you’re on, get off of it. I expect you to be sober by tonight.”

“Whatever
you say, Chief.”

Dallas
bit his lip, smiling angrily. “Don’t call me that,” he said. Jesse saluted him
and Dallas decided to let the sarcasm slip. He programmed his number into
Aria’s phone, barely punching in the last digit before Scarlet swiped it out of
his fingers to do the same. He watched Jesse adding his own number to her cell
with a frown. “Why would she need to call you?”

Jesse
shrugged, smiling happily. “You never know,” he said.

“Don’t
ever call him,” Dallas said, looking at her seriously. “For anything. If you
need help or whatever, call me. Got it?”

“
Yeah, okay,” she sighed, looking down at the phone
in her hand. Hopefully her father wouldn’t realize she had it. She wasn’t sure
she could explain how or why she’d gotten it. He’d probably just confiscate it anyways,
she thought.

Jesse
and Dallas disappeared back into the cafeteria, and Aria muttered a goodbye to
Scarlet before wandering off across the courtyard. She didn’t have an honest
destination in mind. The Performing Arts building was
drawing her in though with an indescribably seductive pull, calling to
her
like a siren. She pushed open the exterior doors, tiptoeing into the
deserted hall as the echo of her own footsteps followed her.