Denial (Goblin's Kiss Series Book One) (4 page)

The girls stepped up their
fowardness. They pressed even closer in as I moved towards Jem. She
had the same piercing eyes that matched my own as she did years
ago. Her blue to my odd green. Girls have always dug it. Human
ones. My own kind counted me as the odd man out more so than even
the humans.

Jem
’
s hair was long and had shiny waves of golden brown even in
the florescent light. Not really a guy thing to notice, but I did.
She was cute and beautiful all in the same way. She bit her bottom
lip as if nervous, but tossed her hair back in confidence. She was
fun to watch.

During the
initial greeting, the Christina girl leaned against
Jem
’
s body and I suddenly went ape. She was too close to her. I
reined it in and held my fists to my clawing body. If it
wasn
’
t for the fact that she was of my own people, I would have to
wonder why I felt the urgent need to protect her. It
wasn
’
t healthy for dang sure.

It gave me the same disgusting
feeling it always did. Human girls were cold, clammy.

Jem
didn
’
t like the groupie girl doing what she did.
Interesting.

Groupie girl
pressed in more and I let it be to see what Jem
’
s next reaction would
be. I was fascinated to say the least but I hated it too. I had a
job to do.

When the girl ran her fingers up
and down my arm Jem visibly scrunched up her face and a soft
whimper left her lips. Was she in pain?

I stepped away
from both of them wanting this girl
’
s inhuman pain to disappear. I
didn
’
t want her to hurt. Yes, I did. No,
I didn
’
t
.

I bit back a
small smile, but she saw it. Not able to take my eyes off her, I
nodded to groupie girl and held out a hand to Jem unable to control
what I was doing. I swallowed back the bile that my throat caught
from wasting energy on the bubbly cackling chatter behind me now.
If they weren
’
t following due to the magic
within me before, they were now.

This girl, I got
nothing. It was like she cut it off. She didn
’
t give an ounce of
emotion over to me on purpose though I was trying like everything
to get it.

Groupie girl Christina barked a
comeback and then said my name, “...Ames here will find out how
taken you are all too soon.”

Taken? Did that
mean she was already claimed? By a filthy human? I shook my head
enough she didn
’
t catch it. I
didn
’
t care if she were claimed or not. It only made it harder if
she were attached to someone to have to embrace this new world she
would have no choice in turning to.

Christina laughed a little like a
guy on steroids and took her little fawning guy traps away from
us.

Ring!

Great! I was alone. With
her.

Afraid to look
like an idiot, I stopped staring and held my hand out then changed
my mind. But not before my finger skimmed across his fingertips
making me feel
complete
. There was that thought again. I don
’
t know where it surfaced
from. I warmed at his touch feeling pretty sure the temperature in
the air just went up by ten degrees. What was that about?
I
’
d
just met the boy. A boy who belonged in romance books, not high
school. He was too hot. His face and body spelled certain
D.A.N.G.E.R.

“Emma. Our class...is this way,” I
introduced myself and pointed to the direction needed sipping the
last of my tea with the other. I circled my hand in front of my
face to show that we were alone in the hall, hence the tardiness
and reminded him we were late.

Confusion skimmed my brain as I
fought with the battling feeling to draw closer to him and get away
from him. He was like a magnetic force that was drawing me and
repelling me at the same time. Ack!

As if in a cloud
of thought, he pulled up a lazy grin that made his eyes dance. His
hair stuck up in all directions. I had caught him pulling on it a
couple of times like it might be a habit of his. I
shouldn
’
t have even noticed all this facial movement but something
about the way his lips curled in and his eyes sparkled at me made
my stomach lurch with the drunken butterfly
effect.

“Sure thing
sweetness,” he beamed a laser smile even wider down at my five foot
nine self. He was a good head taller than me, the tall girl, and
moving close. Closer. Too close. Again, his hair caught my eye. His
dark almond shelled hair fell loosely to the side of his face
shielding half his eyebrow, but not his intense eyes from me. He
had the whole sexy mess of hair and in the eye affect down well.
The same grass green eyes from before that gave me the feeling that
I shouldn
’
t meet them too long. I should
’
ve looked away.

Blech!

I scoffed at his buttery words. He
better not think he can smooth talk me the way he probably did the
idiot squad. He chuckled under his breath at my nose turned snuff
from his sugarcoated sweet talk. I marched away leaving him
standing in the hall.

He had a longer stride so catching
up with me was apparently easy enough. He was beside me again and
arguing with me about smiling.

His laugh
grabbed my attention forcing me to observe his silent amusement. I
protested his reactions with staving off my usual feelings. In
times like these, other boys would gravel and chase me down just to
get a look at my eyes. I could easily cut off the emotions and seal
myself from them. Most of the time that would send them away. I cut
it off like a light switch and as I did so, the boy named Ames
jolted to a stop, midstep on one stair. I knew he
wasn
’
t moving and felt compelled to turn and check on him only
because I got the distinct feeling he reacted to my pulling away.
It was similar to the way I hid my abilities. He
didn
’
t seem to be hiding his hidden unnatural talents assuming
reading emotions was one of them. He couldn
’
t be normal. His rich laugh
rang out again at my reaction or lack thereof. I held my breath to
keep my mind closed.

When my face
registered with his knowing what I
’d just done,
I
knew
.

“What are you?”
I asked shakily. I could
feel
his laughter. Fear. Anger. He
was sending me his feelings telepathically or something too. I
wanted to shake off the “magic cooties” and yell at him for
spreading them. It was too weird for weird and weird was something
I knew well. But I didn
’
t want to read some strange
guy
’
s feelings. Or did I?

His smile was his answer for
everything. He said...nothing.

“And the drum roll was left
hanging. I laid it out there. You know where to find me,” I said as
angry as I could muster and turned to go but he cleared his throat
making me stop to hear him out.

Still, he said nothing.

He swallowed the
hard lump I saw in his throat and shot up the same irksome smile
from before. A faç
ade.
“What sweetness? You looking for someone
specific?”

No freaking duh!

I ignored his taunts and turned
back to the upward curve of the path to class that I was late for.
If he was reading me now, it was from my backside.

I kept my
emotions in check and walked straight into class letting the door
slam in his face. I so did not care about Mr. Hotness and his
incessant need to torture me. If he was like me, he dang sure could
just say it. Yet, if he was something not so natural, I just told
him that I wasn
’
t either.
Great!

I moved to the
first available seat that was on the far side of the room that
happened to be a two-seater table by the window. I was so mad I
didn
’
t take time to care about what it would mean. Mrs. Cauldron
was my freshmen English 101 teacher so a
greeting wasn
’
t necessary and being late just
meant she
’
d mark me tardy. She was cool like that.

I scowled at the
window and didn
’
t bother to see if anyone else in
the room was someone I knew or what
the
Mr. Hotness Ames was doing at
the front of the room.

Sure enough, the collective sigh
went out and at the first comment about his presence I sent out a
wave of fear to dissolve their rudeness.

Everyone feared
me. I couldn
’
t stop the way they reacted to
me.

“Emma the bad girl. Already
sneaking off with the new guy,” the goth girl with no name shot
behind me just loud enough.

“Oh, Emma. You
naughty girl,” came a boy behind her whom was one of the many who
pursued me after I broke up with Rick. They didn
’
t really like
me.

Just stop it, I
thought. I wasn
’
t a bad girl.
I
’
d
never even done anything but kiss a boy. Now, since this last year
when I found myself locked in a room with my boyfriend twice during
school hours everyone thought the worst of me. I
wasn
’
t that kind of girl.

My anxiety and anger shot out like
waves. The windows shook enough for me to pop my head in the
direction the rattle came. The hinges were loosening.

I stretched my neck back to the
front of the room only to be angered more at the sight of the new
guy staring me down. His one eyebrow rose up to his hairline and
hid there, making me notice his hair was a little more mussed up
than before and super sexy looking. His eyes shifted from mine
suddenly to the seam where the windows creaked beside
me.

No way! He could
tell. He wasn
’
t anything human or normal like
the rest. He really was like me.

In the halls for
none to see, she put her soft looking hand out to me and grazed my
fingertips with her own for a brief half a second before recoiling
the unused energy and spoke something I didn
’
t hear. I was under
some friggin
’
spell. She pointed off somewhere but I was too
enthralled with the warm sweet scent that waved through the air
when her hand went up. Like some kind of summertime. She said
something about being late and moved the air once more with circles
around my face. I thought I was going to hit the ground with the
need that came my way. She was the sweetest rose on the vine and
her scent was driving me to all kinds of hurt.

What did she
just do to me? I gained what little composure I had left and
answered trying not to let her see how she affected me. I gave her
my best fake man smile that made girls giggle and cover their
pretty mouths with their fingers, but no go. She
didn
’
t budge.

Her eyes did
shift across my face as if analyzing my features, or memorizing
them I couldn
’
t tell. I
couldn
’
t tell anything with this girl. I simply watched her
watch me
.

She made some
kind of soft sound from her throat in protest to my standard give
me what I want lines that
usually
worked on her kind. No, the human version of her
kind, but definitely not her. I laughed at her uneasiness liking
that I made her uncomfortable. She disappeared from my view as her
tight little butt wiggled upward and through the next set of
doors.

It was a good twenty seconds
before my brain caught up with what just happened and I took three
steps at a time to catch up.

“
You smile much?” I went for
nothing talk as opposed for awkwardness. Everything about this was
awkward. Something new for me.

She spat all catlike and I swear
she even purred her words out, “For someone I care to smile
at.”

I
couldn
’
t stop the laugh. I
’
d never pursued a girl who
didn
’
t show me easy interest. Was I pursuing
her?

No one, and I mean no one, had
turned away from me in my lifetime much less put me down. Not if
they knew what was good for them. This girl was dynamite and I was
lighting the fuse.