Ink Magic (Ink Sorceress Chronicles) (5 page)

She might have been referring to any one of the shirtless guys currently kicking a football around the field; they were all pretty well armed as far as muscles went. Some of them even had personalities too, but Carrie was less concerned about that. She pushed her sunglasses down her nose for a clearer view.

“
Hi, ladies.” Nick, Carrie’s friend from the party, helped himself to a seat beside me.

“
Oh. Hi, Nick,” Carrie said, sounding a little too surprised by his presence.

Carrie started to grill Nick about the boys on the field. I phased out when I caught sight of Daniel arriving.

His friends milled about at the far end of the field, playing Frisbee and talking while he went straight over to a pretty girl. I couldn’t help wishing it were me he rushed to meet. Nick tried to draw me into the conversation, until Daniel looked in my direction and I completely lost train of thought. I raised my arm to wave. For a moment it looked like he’d return the gesture, but he just stared past me and turned to face the girl. A very pretty girl, I noticed the more I looked at her.

I decided he mustn’t have seen me so waved more vigorously until I felt sure his eyes flicked in my direction and when he didn’t react I waved more. Eventually I had to stop waving or risk dislocating my shoulder.

“
Who’s that?” Nick asked conversationally.

“
No one,” I said, practically boring holes into Daniel with my eyes.

“
Okay.”

I felt Nick watching me for a while.

“
Is that why you’re staring at him?”

“
I’m not.” By some miracle I managed to look at Nick instead, which wasn’t such a bad view up close, what with the big brown eyes and sun-kissed skin.

“
That’s good because it looks like he has a girl friend.”

My eyes shot back to Daniel like heat-seeking missiles. He had his arm draped around the dark-haired girl’s shoulders. I couldn’t tell if it was a friendly gesture, but it got to me just the same. Not usually intimidated by the ballerina-slim proportions of skinny girls, she made me feel positively bovine.

“
They could just be friends.” I didn’t like how desperately I wanted that to be true.

“
I don’t think so, look.” Nick pointed in their direction.

Daniel drew the girl into a close hug; she buried her face in his chest while he gently stroked her hair.

“
Very friendly,” Nick said.

Daniel kissed her on top of her head before tilting her face up by the chin so he could stare in her eyes.

“
They look like boyfriend and girlfriend to me.” Carrie finally decided to pull herself away from the guys on the field to contribute to the conversation.

I couldn’t deny it any more. “Yeah, they do look cozy.” Understatement of the year. Daniel held her face in his hands and kissed her on the forehead.

“
Are you upset about that?” Carrie asked.

How did she guess? Maybe the steam coming out of my ears gave it away. I don’t know why I cared so much. I only met Daniel a few nights ago, but when he defended me to his guardian, I knew something important had passed between us. Maybe it was because I’d finally met a guy who could understand my powers. I didn’t have to hide the truth around him. His stunning blue eyes and panther-like body didn’t hurt either.

“
No at all.” I waited for lightening to strike me down for such a blatant lie.

“
Good,” Nick said. “I’d prefer it if you didn’t have feelings for someone while going on a date with me.”

“
A date?” I said vaguely, watching Daniel pull the girl into a hug again. If they kept this up they’d have to be surgically removed.

Nick flashed that big smile at me and I’d forgotten how bright it could be.

I sensed Daniel looking at me, our eyes meeting briefly. Even from a distance I could tell he was angry, his whole body language exuded menace. He started to walk in our direction but the girl restrained him, hanging off his arm. She managed to get him to stop but he continued to stare angrily.

Nick moved closer to me on the stand until out thighs touched and he leaned into me. I didn’t reciprocate, but I didn’t move away either. I couldn’t help glancing Daniel’s way to see how he felt about it. He looked like he was about to explode and, for some reason, that filled me with satisfaction.

“
I’d appreciate it if you looked at me while accepting my invitation to dinner.”

“
Dinner?” Now Nick had my attention.

“
Yes, that’s where you take a knife and fork and put food in your mouth. It’s quite enjoyable. You should try it.”

His wide, cheeky grin blinded me and I couldn’t help smiling back. He leaned in to whisper something in my ear and his breath tickled my neck, making me giggle. I flicked my gaze back to Daniel and nearly fell off the seat after discovering he was gone. I turned away from Nick to search for him.

“
Hey,” Nick said. “I’m over here.”

I heard a trace of sadness in his voice and felt guilty for causing it. Nick was good for my ego, but it wasn’t fair to lead him along, not if he had feelings for me.

I looked at him and though his smiled remained in place his eyes seemed a little sad.

“
Look, Nick you’re a nice guy….”

He stopped me. “Hey, it’s only dinner. Not marriage. Let’s just go and have some fun. All right? No big deal.” His intense gaze told me there was more to it. “Spend one evening with me and if you find you don’t enjoy the company, I’ll take you home.”

I didn’t think an evening with Nick would be a hardship, but I didn’t want to break his heart.

“
I promise not to be too romantic,” he said. “I’ll even let you open your own door and pull out your own chair.”

There was something funny about a guy promising not to be too much of a gentleman. “Okay, and I’ll pay for my own dinner.”

He frowned as if the idea was a travesty and I couldn’t help laughing.

“
It’s a deal, and I won’t make you share your desert with me or anything romantic like that.”

“
Of course. I want a desert to myself.” Being able to eat a lot is one of the plusses of being tall as an Amazon.

“
Okay, how about I pick you up at seven?”

If I really wanted to keep the thing platonic I would have insisted on driving myself there. But, that would be environmentally negligent. Riding in his Beamer wouldn’t be a hardship.

“
Um.” I know, not very inspired.

“
Make sure you wear something nice,” he said grinning. His comment, implying our dinner would take place in a fine restaurant, immediately negated any illusion that this was just a friendly meal. “So, what do you say?”

I was about to suggest a more relaxed setting when I notice a burning sensation in my arm. Not now! I willed my tattoo to remain dormant. In the middle of being asked out on the date did not constitute the best moment to start changing into random supernatural creatures.

I stifled a groan as the tattoo cut a line of fire through my flesh.

“
Are you alright?” He stared at me. “Listen if you don’t want to go just say.

I dropped to my knees and that’s when the bones in my arm snapped. “I’m fine. I just have a little cramp.” My right arm snapped, hanging off at a weird angle.

“
Okay,” he stared. “Are you double jointed?”

“
Yeah, something like that.” My legs snapped and I nearly collapsed. “I’m just going to walk it off for a bit.”

I took off running as the bones in my body continued to snap. I raced behind the groundskeeper’s sheds and dropped to the ground. Blood poured from my mouth.

A shadow appeared, blocking off the light. I expected it to be Nick, coming to see how I was, instead Leeza stood there grinning at me. Her face morphed in and out of human shape, going from wolf to human.

“
Hey, Lucy. What’s the matter? You have a stomachache?”

Yeah, the kind of stomachache caused by swallowing a hundred razor blades. “I’m fine.” I lied and spat out a wad of blood at her feet.

She stood there watching me with a satisfied grin and I envied her the ability to hold onto her human features. As for me I continued to transform into . . . I had no idea what, but the hairs sprouting on my chest hinted at something from the animal kingdom. Something from the hairy side of the animal kingdom.

“
Wow, I wonder what your boyfriend would think if he saw you like this? Maybe I should go and get him. What do you think?”

“
No!” Nick had no idea about my tattoo and I seriously doubted he’d want to go to dinner with a girl who sprouted hairs. “You did this on purpose to humiliate me. You changed near me so this would happen.” The truth dawned on me while I spoke.

“
Yeah, I may have. Just a little.”

Transforming herself in a werewolf in order to bring about my own transformation was a low blow. While Leeza prowled the school grounds the threat of this happening loomed. I imagined myself changing in the middle of class, or while I sat there next to Nick. As long as Leeza was around I’d never have the chance of an ordinary life. Leeza would expose me, everyone would know what a freak I am, worse, people would fear me, or try and capture me. I couldn’t keep it secret with her around, hell I couldn’t control my hairstyle while she was around. While other girls worried about fly away hair, I had to worry about growing a beard and tail to match.

Leeza would make my school year a misery, unless I did something to stop her.

While I couldn’t control my transformation, I did have a mean set of teeth to go with my hair problem. She turned to leave and I lunged at her, powerful canine legs propelling me forward so our collision knocked her off her feet. Wild animal urges took over and I didn’t fight them, snapping at her throat hungrily.

Interrupting my lunch had been a bad idea, right about now she looked as tasty as a hamburger. She thrashed about so much I found it difficult to find a juicy spot to sink my teeth into. “Keep still, hamburger.”

She bucked, almost throwing me off, and closed her teeth around the arm I tried to hold her down with. I ripped my arm out of her jaws, though her teeth were human, the pain only stoked the fires of my anger. She snapped wildly at me, she was also starting to transform, so I closed my jaws around her throat. Without sinking my teeth in, I applied pressure, effectively shutting of her air supply. Her wild thrashing subsided to weak stirring.

“
Lucy!” I recognized Daniel’s voice. Rough hands joined the voice at my back. “Stop it, you’re killing her!”

I hadn’t been trying to tickle her.

Daniel pulled me back so violently my shoulder cracked on impact with the garden shed. Leeza lay completely still and it didn’t look like she was breathing.

He looked at me in alarm. “I think you’ve killed her.”

“
Well, she attacked me first.”

“
You were defending yourself?”

Not exactly. “She made me turn into a werewolf in front of everyone.”

He backed away from me, at first I thought out of fear, but then I realized he didn’t fear me, the look on his face was filled with disgust.

“
Oh my god. I defended you to Margot. I told her you weren’t a monster.”

“
I’m not. I didn’t plan to kill her.”

“
She was defenseless. You had her pinned and you let her suffocate to death. You could have let go whenever you wanted.”

“
I wasn’t myself,” I said, holding out a hairy arm by way of illustration.

“
You could have stopped any time. I saw what happened. She turned her back on you.”

“
I was a wolf.”

“
You were human enough.”

And Leeza had tried to kill me once. Her group went around killing humans.

“
She’s a murderer.”

“
It doesn’t matter.” He ran his hands through his hair roughing it in a way that made him appear wild and dangerous. “Don’t you get it? It doesn’t matter what she does. If you attack her when she’s defenseless, you’re no better than she is.”

I wanted to argue, but then I remembered the feeling of anger that prompted me to attack. She posed no threat to me at the time and was about to leave when I chose to take her down. The animal in me wanted to feed, but the human had wanted to kill.

“
I thought you were different from the other Ink Sorcerers. I’m beginning to see I was wrong.”

“
Are you two quite finished with your little domestic or can I get past?”

“
She’s alive!” Daniel and I said in unison. I wasn’t a murderer.

Leeza struggled to her feet, moving too quickly after being suffocated and falling straight back down. Daniel tried to help her back up but she brushed him aside, clinging to the fence to pull herself along.

“
Let me take a look at you,” Daniel said.

Covered in bites, some of them mere grazes, a few of them deep and nasty, Leeza looked like she’d walked through glass.

“
Yeah, right, just so you can cop a feel. Not likely,” she said and bent over to cough up blood. I hoped the blood came from the bites she inflicted on me and not her own internal injuries.

She used the fence to walk herself past us and Daniel followed close behind, ready to catch her.