Enlightened A Light Tamer Novel (The Light Tamer) (11 page)

I’m athletic, but I’m not limber.  Well, I wasn’t limber, not until now. 
I wonder what else I can do. 

“TWO MINUTES!” Mom yells from the other side of the house.

I send a quick text to Caleb asking if he can come over in an hour or so.

8:15 p.m.

Like clockwork, the doorbell rings.  Caleb is the most punctual person I’ve ever known. 
Growing up, m
y dad
had
a ritual he
did every time he left the house.
His
OCD
was
always an issue with my mom.  We were late to almost everything, especially things that made him nervous.  If his art was up at a gallery and he was
doing
a
show, that
was the worst.  He’d triple check everything, every lock, every light, the oven and his keys.  We traveled mostly by
subway
, which does run on time. 

“It’s for me!” I yell out. 

As I open the door, I get waft of his
cologne,
it’s spicy with a hint of musk.  I always think
crisp
when I smell it.
  “Hey gorgeous, are you ready to play?”

I love the way his eyebrow goes up when he grins at me
.  “You stole my line.  I’m ready to play,
bu
t
are
you
ready to
lose
?”

“Oh no you didn’t.  Com
e on
Miss
Toughguy
, let’s rumble,” he says.
 

I lean in and give him a quick kiss on the lips.  He lets out a small groan. “Can we
go to the park
, the Frisbee park
?
”

“We can go anywhere you want.  What’s your
curfew
?” 
He holds the car door open for me.

I wait to answer until he gets in the car.  “Mom said I have to be home at ten.
We don’t have to stop and get sodas; I brought us
drinks in my backpack.
”

“You know the kids around here don’t call it a backpack.  It’s a
bookbag
.  Your purse is a pocketbook.  You’re in the South little lady,” Caleb teases me. 

I sit back
,
and
he cranks up his Beastie Boys
License to Ill
CD.  Oddly enough, my dad always played the CD too, so I know all the words.  Our favorite song to sing together is
Brass Monkey
.  I’ve no idea what that is, but it’s funny.

The park is desolate of people.  A few squirrels are mid
-
climb on a tree, tails twitching, waiting to move, probably thinking they are blended in with the tree.  I always wonder if their brain works the way they move,
arbitrarily. 

We take the
giant
blue checkered blanket
,
his portable
dvd
player
,
and
go
set up to watch a movie
.
  The first
time we did this, it was so romantic
...
well
, semi-romantic
.  We watched
a scary movie, it scared the crap out of me
. 
The trees were casting shadows all around us, my imagination got the best of me and scared me to death.
 
Now, i
t’s our secret place to be together.  The weather has been too ho
t for parents to bring their kids out to play
so we
are
usually the only ones
here
. 

“This is going to sound crazy, I need you to trust me though.  Do I have your word?”  I ask.

“I trust you, so yes, you have my word.”

“I want you to attack me, with everything in you.”

“When you say, attack
me…do
you mean in a boyfriend makes out with his hot girlfriend?  Or do you mean, you’re a
bad
guy and I’m taking you down?”

“
You think I’m hot?”  I grin from ear to ear
.  I love it when he says I’m hot. 
Eeep
,
my inner voice squeals.

He puts his hand on my waist and pulls me in until we’re chest to chest.  “Blazing." 
His cinnamon gum breath
,
teases my nose.

I rub my hands on his biceps, loving the way they’re defined.  “Take me down,
”
I whisper seductively.

His eyebrow arches at my boldness.

“
Not like
that
lover-
boy…like
this,” I say as I whip my leg around, knocking him to the ground. 

“
You’ve been holding out on me.
”
  He springs up to standing.  H
e
takes
my arm and pulls it up behind me.  His chin on my shoulder as he stands behind me.  “Like this?”  He whispers in my ear.

I s
mile to myself before saying, “E
xactly like this.” 

“You want to play dirty, do you, we’ll
see how that works out for you.  I am a black-belt afterall,
” Caleb says.

“Who me?  Never,” I
say between breaths
.  He tries to do some type of sweep with his leg and knock me off my feet.  It
doesn’t work.

We go back and forth
bantering and play fight.
 
He loses his concentration as I press my body closer to him, and I knock us both to the ground.  He is on his back
,
and
I’m sitting on his abdomen, I lean forward and kiss him.  He puts his arms around my back and flips me over onto my back.

“You’ve been holding out on me
Miss
Lucente
.”  Caleb says.

“No, I’d never do that
,” I
flirt back
.  “If you’ll let me get up, I’ll tell you about it.”

“You’re not going to try and go all ninja on me again
,
are you
?  You know I’m a black belt.”

“I cross my heart.”

“That’s a beautiful heart.” 
He says and
holds out his hand to help me up.
 

I take
two Dixie-cups
out of my bag
and
fill them with lemonade.  Caleb turns on two battery powered lanterns and lean
s back on one arm. 

“Did the ninja-faerie stop by after school and pump you up with ninja skills?”  His eyes bore through me, giving me
goosebumps
all over.

“Sooooo, a
fter school, I fell asleep
on the couch
.
I had a crazy dream about Mrs. Ward.  She told me about
Nyx being spotted and how we have to be careful.
  She said her usual stuff about not having any control of the Underworld escapees.
  The only help she
offered
is giving me the knowledge that I can physically take her on. 
She did her
hocus
pocus thing and gave
me the ability to fight.
”

“
Did she say
we
have to fight her literally?” He flicks a beetle off the blanket before my brain registers it’s a bug.  “We’ll go to her tomorrow and have her send us to that school she told us about.
I can’t risk you getting hurt Jess.”

The concern in his voice causes m
y
heart to
skip a beat
.
  “I’m not running.  I don’t want anyone else to get hurt because of me. 
If we left the only family we have
,
and run off to another school, we’ll be wondering when it will happen until we’re crazy.  Literally crazy.  I don’t think we can
tru
ly
hide from something like this anyway.  Erebus found us without a problem.  How do we know he won’t be by her side and fight us
too?
 
No
, we have to be smart and absorb the lessons from school and practice.”

Caleb leans forward
and
says,
“I’ll love you until my last breath.”  H
e
inches closer and my heart
starts
to beat so loud in my ears, it’s like a
symphony of drums
. 
Resting
his hand on the curve of my
waist;
I put my arm around him.  The anticipation of his kiss is killing me.

After seventy seven beats of my heart, his lips touch mine.  His tongue is soft and silky as our mouths explore each other. 
He pulls away and in the glow of the lamp I can’t distinguish the brown of his eyes, from his pupils
. 

“You don’t need to be scared Jess, we’ll figure this all out.”

“I know, but it’s hard when three mont
hs ago, my life was semi-normal.  Yes, I miss having my dad around, but it isn’t as hard as I thought it would be.
I can tell my mom is happier since we’ve moved to North Carolina.  S
he’s made friends
,
and she’s not down my throat ever
y
five minutes
like she was in New York
.
  At first,
I didn’t want to live in a boring town,” I laugh at the thought.  “I’ve learned to be careful
about
what I wish for.   New Bern is anything but boring.”

“I’m glad you’re here and
sooooo
n…
Jersey
will be here to.”

“What?  You’re dad is going to
get the ticket
?  I can’t wait to tell her.  Awesome!” I kiss him so fast
that our
teeth
smack
together.  It
doesn’t
divert us from carrying on with our kiss.  I lean back, “I almost forgot to tell you something.  I was in my mom’s closet today
,
and
I found a
n old
box
I’ve never seen before
. 
It
’s
big
enough to hold a book. 
I tried to open it,
but it’s locked
.
 
She came home so I didn’t get a
proper
chance to pick it.”

“I thought your mom didn’t know anything about us.”

I shrug my shoulders.  “Caleb, at this point, I don’t know who knows what.  I’m not trying to be ugly
,
but how would my mom
not
know. 
How can two people that
love
each other have such a
n
enormous
secret between them?
Maybe my dad was lying.  Ugh, I’m so confused
. 
You and your dad,
figured out what you are, in a fairly short amount of time.
  My mom was around it for fifteen years.”

Caleb tucks a piece of hair behind my ear.  “Those are valid points.  Maybe your mom does know more. 
The next time you see the box take a picture and text it to me
.  I’ll see if I can
find some
information on how to pick the lock.”

“You’re
good
.  I didn’t even think to do that.  I’m thinking I’ll keep you,” I snuggle closer to him.

“As much as I’d like
to stay here, it’s dark
,
and
you have to be home soon.  We have enough time to go to Sonic for ice-cream.”

“Good to see you’ve made it home safe and sound,” Grandma says as I walk in five minutes late.

“I’m sorry, we stopped to get some ice-cream,
and
they took forever.”  I lean over and hand her one of her favorite treats of all time.

“A mocha-java drink?  I’m easily bribable,” she says smiling at me.  Grandma looks ten or more years younger than she is.  Living in the south, we call everyone Miss or Mister plus their first name.  Grandma insists that I call her Miss Gayle, as she’s in denial that she can be old enough to fit the title of grandma.  We’ve always had a unique bond, either from me coming to North Carolina every summer or because we’re a lot alike. “Let’s go in my room, your mom conked out on the couch.  She has been working so much, she is missing out on living.”