Overworld Chronicles Books 1-2: Sweet Blood of Mine & Dark Light of Mine (16 page)

She laughed. "Yeah."

Seeing her smile filled me with desire. I wanted to kiss her. I didn't even care if the entire lunch room saw it. I would stand on the table and declare my undying devotion to her. But the bell rang and the moment passed.

That afternoon, Elyssa and I kept our mouths shut and worked hard. Ms. Foreman let us go at five. Even the Devil wanted her Friday evening free, I figured.

I ordered pizza on the way home. Ash and Nyte were already waiting at the house when I arrived, and the pizza showed up a few minutes later. My dad was snoring like a chainsaw in his bedroom. I wanted to wake him and grill him about the strange phone call that morning but now was not the time. My friends looked at the mess of beer bottles Dad had littered around the house. Rather than ask the obvious questions, however, they grabbed the garbage can and scooped the mess into the bag. Elyssa showed up and pitched in. I was really worried she'd freak out thanks to my alcoholic father, but apparently her crazy family life had prepared her not to bat an eyelash.

The sour odor of beer saturated the den but I'd take that odor over high school grease traps any day. Afterward, I grabbed weapon-making supplies and we sat around eating pizza and making swords. It was the most fun I'd had in ages.

Ash held up a sword he'd made. It flopped like a wet noodle.

"That thing needs Viagra," Elyssa said with a laugh.

I disassembled his weapon and showed him how to use PVC pipe to make it stiff. We had to use a certain amount of foam to meet regulations or the Dungeon Masters wouldn't let us use them. Elyssa built two small swords, one for each hand. She twirled them around like she knew what she was doing. We watched in amazement.

"I wanted to be a majorette," she told us with an embarrassed shrug.

Ash and Nyte made the typical medium-sized broadswords—at least I think that's what they were going for. They were so lumpy and covered in duct tape that a kindergartener might have made them.

"This is going to be a blast," Nyte said, his eyes alight. "I've never done this before."

"Well, let me give you guys some quick pointers before tossing you into the thick of things," I said.

I took them outside and gave them the skinny on how squad logistics worked, and how to keep an eye on each other's backs. Then I showed them the basics of swordplay. While I was no expert on fencing or swordplay, I was still much better than most of the people in K&C thanks to the fencing lessons I'd taken. Not that it really translated all that well to foam swords.

After Ash and Nyte said their goodbyes, I leaned against Elyssa's car and pulled her against me for a kiss.

"You're not a bad leader," she said with a hint of admiration in her voice.

"Holy crap. Did I just hear another compliment escape from those lovely lips of yours?"

She gave me a passionate kiss that left me panting then nodded. "You're a different person than the one I met. You've grown more confident." She chuckled wryly. "Maybe too confident at times."

"True," I said with a grimace. "Now, can I have another one of those magnificent kisses?"

I pulled her lips back to mine. Her scent was intoxicating. The touch of her body against mine was like being kissed by the sun. I ran a hand up her neck, clenched her hair at the nape, and gave it a gentle tug. She moaned. I groaned. Her teeth nipped my neck and I shuddered with pleasure. Fire rushed from my stomach and flooded my veins. My lust slammed against its cage like a wild beast. My control faltered.

I jerked away and took a few steps back. It took everything I had to keep myself contained. Thinking of baseball just wasn't cutting it.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I don't want to take things too fast," I said. "I'm just so attracted to you that I'm afraid I'll do something I might regret."

"You're a romantic, aren't you?" She tsked. "Silly boy."

"Actually, yeah, I am. I want my first time to be special." I braced for her response, scared that she might laugh.

She nuzzled my cheek with her nose. "Well maybe I'm okay with it."

I felt relief, but then another scary thought entered my mind. Before I could resist the urge, I blurted out the question. "Are you a virgin?"

She laughed. "One-hundred percent grade-A certified virgin," she said flashing a smile and flourishing her arms.

I almost leapt with joy. My heart lightened until I thought I might float away.
This girl must be The One.
"Do you want your first time to be special?"

She pressed herself against me and gave me a kiss that left me breathless. "How special do you want it to be, my knight in shining armor?"

Our bodies were so close I knew she could feel exactly what she'd done to me. "Are you saying you want to have sex?"

She raised an eyebrow. "I'm not saying anything. Why do you have to put things into words so much? Can't you just flow with the feelings and see what happens?"

That would be very dangerous,
I thought. My hyper-active sexual sense was hard enough to control around girls I didn't like, much less a girl I was falling in love with. And the spell it wove wasn't real. I had done so little experimentation with it that I really didn't know what the extent of my ability was. Most guys with my "problem" would gladly use it on women left and right without a second thought. Maybe guys like Nathan didn't have a conscience when it came to such things, but I wanted to know that the girl I was making love to was doing it because she was as in love with me as I was with her. It was disgustingly romantic.

"What happened to taking things slow?"

"I know what I said, but…" She smiled and looked down. "This isn't easy for me to say, Justin, but being around you makes me want to stop talking and thinking. What if today was our last day alive?"

I touched her chin and brought her gaze up to mine. "You're right," I said. "I talk too much."

"Yes you do." She kissed me again and shivered. "Have you been working out?" She squeezed my arm.

"A little."

"You're losing weight too. I hope you're not on one of those crash diets."

"Nope. Just eating healthy."

She traced a finger along my chest and looked down. "So, about my family. Maybe you can meet the rest of them Sunday."

"By the rest of them, do you mean your dad?"

"And my two older brothers, Jack and Michael."

"I had no idea you even had brothers."

The corner of her mouth inched up in a lopsided smile. "I don't talk about family much. I sort of dig you, though, so maybe it's okay just this once."

"You
are
a hard ass. I guess you have to be with two brothers to contend with. How much older are they?"

"Jack has five years on me and Michael is seven years older."

"Are you close?"

"Oh yes," she said with a distant look to her eyes.

"So they're in college?"

"Jack is. Michael works for Dad."

"What kind of business?"

"The family business."

I shrunk away with a feigned expression of fear. "You're in the mob?"

She chuckled, but it almost seemed that she didn't find that to be far from the truth. "We're in the security business."

"Ah," I said, as if that explained everything. Maybe her dad had her work late for his company sometimes, although it was hard to picture Elyssa dressed as a rent-a-cop. That would explain the fatigue I often saw in her face.

"If you really think you're up to it, I have to warn you that my dad is a very serious person. He's a special kind of asshole, especially when it comes to boyfriends."

"What did he do to your other boyfriends?"

A wistful smile cast sadness into her eyes. "You're really the first guy I would call a boyfriend. The last guy I was going to go on a date with didn't last the five minutes it took for me to come downstairs to meet him."

"Are you kidding me? What did your dad do to him?"

"He mostly stared at him."

"Your dad sounds scary."

She nodded, face serious as a heart attack. "He is."

Chapter 15

I didn't sleep well that night. Maybe it had to do with nervousness about my new K&C squad. Maybe it had to do with Elyssa's dad. I dreamt of a man with military buzz-cut and glowing eyes. He stared at me until I ran screaming.

I woke up in a panic with my fist embedded in the bed's headboard. Nobody with glowing eyes was waiting, so I extricated my fist and got ready for the tournament.

Elyssa waited for me in the parking lot. I froze in my tracks and stared. She'd braided her long black hair into pigtails that hung to her shoulders. She wore knee-high platform boots. Fishnet stockings and a black skirt showed off her fair legs, long and muscular. She obviously worked out. She looked so amazingly hot I wanted to run away with her and forget everything else.

"You like?" she said, grinning at my stunned silence.

I nodded. "Me likey so much." I almost drooled.

Ash and Nyte showed up moments later. They wore variants of their Goth attire. We looked like the army of darkness rather than elves. I didn't care. They had also used white and black face paint as a sort of camouflage. Yes, it was definitely a departure from green-cloaked elves.

"Did Kiss join the army?" said a familiar voice.

I turned to find Harry smirking at our group. Mark and two other girls flanked him. I offered a cold look in return then turned back to my squad without a word. Elyssa cocked an eyebrow and gave me a lopsided smile. She took my arm and we walked to join the milling mass of the elven army.

Harry and his gang trailed behind us. "I wonder who's going to be the cannon fodder today," he said.

"I think the girly boys will go first," Mark said.

Harry laughed. "If Justin doesn't get distracted by the prostitute they hired to join them."

Red exploded in my eyes. I raised my fist and whirled. Something dead-stopped my arm. Harry backed away and tripped over Mark's sword, landing heavily on his back. He looked like he'd about crapped himself. Elyssa's warm hand held firmly to my bicep, preventing my arm from completing the punch I really wanted to connect to Harry's stupid face.

"What did I tell you about being heroic?" she said in an angry voice.

I took deep breaths and calmed myself. How was I supposed to protect a girl who got ticked at me whenever I tried to protect her honor? This was going to take some serious getting used to.

"Yeah, that's right. Keep walking," Harry shouted as we left them behind.

"Are we allowed to kill teammates?" Nyte asked.

"There's no rule against it," I said. "But let's hit the enemy first and get to those assholes later."

We lined up with the rest of our allies. The Dungeon Masters, dressed in their long flowing robes and fake Methuselah beards stood atop a tall tower in the middle of the battlefield.

"Ten minutes until battle commences," one said in a well-practiced announcer's voice.

We produced our weapons for inspection by the brightly clad faerie referees.

One of them held up Elyssa's dual swords. He balanced them in his hands then twirled them. "Wow, these have great balance. They're just like Ninja Sai short swords."

She beamed. "Thanks. If the balance isn't right, what good are they?"

"Totally," he said, looking lost in her eyes, the poor nerd.

"Ahem," I said and handed him my long sword.

He glanced at it, hefted it, and handed it back without a word. I felt mildly offended. Elyssa chuckled.

"I guess all of us can't be foam sword masters," I said with a huff.

"I'm a perfectionist." She pecked me affectionately on the nose.

I lined up my squad and gave them last-minute pointers, then took them to the left flank. Nyte and Ash were flushed with excitement. Elyssa stared across the makeshift medieval village separating us from the Conanites, the enemy army. Pine trees lined the town perimeter and just beyond that were the yellow ropes that guarded the outer boundaries. To our right was the parking lot and bleachers for those who enjoyed watching nerds beat the crap out of each other.

I pointed to a walled-in fort in the middle of the battleground. "There's the goal," I said. "We make it there, and we're good as gold."

Elyssa pointed to a smaller hut that was lined by a thick hedge. "Why not there?"

"It doesn't have a wall."

"The hedge is thick enough to keep people from running through it and it's a smaller place to defend. We can't be flanked."

I gave her a curious glance. "I've been doing this a while. Any time my squad took and held that center fort, we survived."

She shrugged. "Okay, fearless leader."

A gong sounded and the battle started.

The armies rushed forward to battle with a roar. Nyte and Ash went down in the first skirmish. Elyssa whirled, struck, parried and took down enemy squads whenever they attacked. She made me look like a rank novice. After several small battles, she and I burst through the enemy's last line of defense.

Elyssa became a blur, her swords blocking, thrusting, slashing. The referees looked absolutely as confused as I was but they whistled away as she cut through the enemy like butter. I took out a couple of stragglers. The gong chimed. Elyssa had just finished off the enemy king. Harry and Mark gaped at her. I gaped at her. The faerie refs gaped at her. She looked at us and went red in the face. The rest of our army roared and rushed over to offer congratulations.

After the celebrations died down and seventy percent of the guys present had asked for Elyssa's hand in marriage, I managed to drag her away from the ululating mass.

"Where in the world did you learn to fight like that?" I asked. "You're amazing."

She looked anything but happy, however. In fact, she looked downright embarrassed. "Too many kung-fu movies, I guess."

"Yeah, because watching movies makes a person a ninja." I cocked my head like a curious dog. "You've taken martial arts, haven't you?"

"Yes," she said a trifle too quickly. "My dad made me take lessons and I guess it came in handy today."

I wasn't sure if that was the whole truth, but it felt truthful at least. Besides, I was too much in awe of her to think straight. I wanted her so badly right then that it was all I could do not to push her into one of the huts and ravish her. "I want you," I said.