Runes #03 - Grimnirs (31 page)

“Nothing.” I planted a kiss on his lips. “See you inside.”

He stepped out of the car as I walked away. When I looked back, he was staring after me with a frown. I entered the building and saw a familiar tall figure, a computer bag on his shoulder.

“Dad! What are you doing here?”

“I thought I’d watch you practice. It’s been months since I did that.”

Months? How about years? My parents never attended high school swim practice. Mom had put him up to this. “Okay. See you inside.”

“Who was that young man?”

My feet faltered. “What?”

“The young man with you in the car.”

Had he seen us kiss? “He’s, uh, a friend. I have to go, Dad.” I hurried to the swim desk, showed them my student ID, and disappeared inside the changing room. Explaining Echo to Dad would only complicate things. My parents were big on meeting any guy I dated.

When I appeared on the deck, Dad was already seated. I kept glancing at the bleachers nervously. He waved a few times. When Echo appeared, Dad noticed him right away. In that duster, he was hard to miss.

Halfway through practice, they were seated next to each other. Talking. About what? I tried to catch their attention several times with little results. Finally, Echo looked at me and winked.

He was too bold.

The practice passed in a blur. I showered quickly and raced outside, expecting to find Echo waiting for me. Instead, Dad stood by my car. Alone. I wasn’t sure whether that was good or bad.

“You seemed distracted,” he said.

I made a face. “I was the only one with a parent on the bleachers.”

He grinned. “Don’t worry. After a few days you won’t even notice I’m there.”

“What? You mean you plan on coming—”

“I’m joking, muffin. I have to go now. I promised your mother I’d pick up a few things from the store. See you at home.”

“Okay. I have to stop by Jenny’s for my hair.”

“What’s wrong with your hair? It’s perfect the way it is.”

Considering his long gray hair was always messy or in a ponytail, he wouldn’t know anything about perfect hair. “I need a trim.” I threw my bag in the back seat of my car. “Oh, Dad?”

He turned.

“Did I see you talk to Echo?”

Dad frowned. “Who?”

“The guy I gave a ride. I thought I, uh, saw you two talking during practice.”

His eyes narrowed as he shook his head. “You gave some guy a ride? Is he someone special? Someone I should meet? I would remember if I talked to him.”

Oh no, Echo had put a whammy on him. “No, never mind. Must have been a trick of the light.”

He frowned, his eyes filled with concern. “You are not seeing things again, are you?”

“No.” I shook my head. “Not anymore.”

His frown intensified. Somehow I had expected him to be relieved. “If you do, come and talk to me. I never want to send you to PMI again. It was wrong of us to do it the first time. Sometimes things happen that we can’t explain.”

If only he knew. I hugged him tight. “Love you, Dad.”

17.
 
An Amazing Guy

Mom was waiting for me when I walked through the doors. She studied my hair and smiled. “Oh, I was worried you’d do something drastic with your hair.”

I chuckled. “No. I needed to take care of the split ends. That’s all. Is Dad home?”

“Not yet. He stopped by Raine’s to see Tristan. So who was this boy you gave a ride?”

I rolled my eyes. “He’s just a friend, Mom. Do you need help in the kitchen or—”

“No. Dinner is ready. We are having pot roast. This boy—”

“Is just a friend,” I added again. There was no way I’d discuss Echo with her. Where would I begin? Uh, he’s centuries old or he’s a reaper? “Can I eat upstairs? Please. I have homework and Dad is not here.”

She chuckled. “Okay. Go ahead. I hope we get to meet this young man some time.”

“Sure, Mom.” More like “never, Mom”. I got a bowl, served myself, and headed upstairs.

Echo wasn’t in my bedroom. Disappointed, I sat at my desk and got online while I ate. Maliina had spoiled vlogging for me, but my videos were still up.

I removed the book with the messages from the souls and typed the link the Cancer Soul had given me. After five minutes of watching, I couldn’t stand it. It was a dying girl’s private message to her parents, sad and heartbreaking. Somehow, I had to get the message to them.

I did what Raine had done and checked the obituaries to locate the families. Most of them had died in the last year. A few the last two years. I finished dinner and started on my homework.

The sound of a car pulling up outside my house drew my attention. Dad was finally home. The conversation we’d had earlier flashed through my head, and I smiled. If I ever decided to tell my family the truth about my ability to see souls, I’d start with Dad. I peeked through the window, but it wasn’t our truck I saw beside my car. It was Drew’s SUV.

What was he doing at my house this late? My watch said it was almost nine. I stepped away from the window and hurried downstairs. Mom’s voice mixed with a familiar deep voice reached me before I got downstairs. That wasn’t Drew’s voice. It was Blaine’s. Now I was really confused.

“Oh, there you are,” Mom said when she saw me. “You didn’t tell me Blaine was back in town.”

Dad loved football and watched everything, from local high school games to NFL, so of course Mom knew who Blaine was. “I only just found out.”

“Well, come inside, Blaine,” Mom said, stepping back.

“If you don’t mind, Mrs. Jemison, I’d like to talk to Cora privately. I know it’s late, so I won’t keep her for long. We’ll just be outside.”

“But it’s cold and—”

“It’s okay, Mom. I’ll use this.” I grabbed her heavy coat from the coat rack by the door and shrugged it on. She still wore a worried expression when I squeezed past her.

Blaine was dressed for the weather in an expensive coat and boots. His father was an investment banker, and they’d lived in one of the mansions on the east side of town, where Kayville’s elite resided. In fact, his former home wasn’t far from Eirik’s.

Now I couldn’t help wondering just how old his parents were, how long they’d been investors, how often they moved so people wouldn’t notice they didn’t age. Then there was Blaine. Was he only eighteen?

There was a bench on the porch, but Blaine kept walking, so I followed him. When he moved past the SUV and started toward the orchard, I frowned. A soul moved from tree to tree a few feet away. Since Andris and Torin etched runes on my house, they kept their distance.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“Away from your mother. She’s peering at us.”

I glanced back, and Mom let the curtain fall back. When I turned to face Blaine, the soul was closer. “Go away.”

She paused, blinked, and walked away.

“You still see souls?” Blaine asked.

“Yeah. How did you know?”

He grinned. “I felt it. You do know that with the right runes, you can block them.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I can etch them on you if you’d like.” He pulled an artavus from the inner pocket of his coat.

I stared at the blade and thought of all the possibilities. No more souls. My life would go back to normal. No more seeing runes. No more seeing Echo when he was invisible. No, normal was overrated.

I shook my head. “No, thanks.”

He frowned. “Are you sure? Most Immortals choose to go that route.”

“I’m not most Immortals.” Heck, I wasn’t even an Immortal. Besides, my runes were special, inerasable, and irreversible if Raine was right. “So what’s going on?”

“Stop screwing with Drew’s head.”

I blinked. “What?”

“Do you know he ditched Leigh for you?”

“I haven’t encouraged him,” I protested.

“Yes, you have. I’ve seen you, Cora. And ignoring him at school is beyond cruel. Don’t screw with him like that. Too many of our people treat Mortals like play things. They are the ones who get hurt. Decide who you want. Drew or Echo, but you can’t have both. Echo is a whack job. If he knows you are two-timing him, he’ll hurt Drew. While that might seem cool or romantic, killing a Mortal has consequences.”

I rolled my eyes. “Echo would not kill him.”

“He would have snapped my neck if I wasn’t Immortal.”

“Okay, I hear you, but you are wrong about me and Drew. I flirted with him—”

“You’ve done more and you know it.”

Maliina must have really messed with his head. What else had she done? Slept with him? “Blaine, I don’t want to fight with you over this. Do you want me to officially tell Drew there’s nothing between us? Set him straight?”

“Yeah, do that. I’m staying at his place, and I’d appreciate a night of uninterrupted sleep, if you know what I mean.”

What did Drew do? Play loud music in the middle of the night and scream my name? Keep Blaine awake at night with stories about me?

“Echo is in your room?” Blaine said, and I turned, my eyes meeting Echo’s.

I waved and started for the house. Blaine fell in step with me.

“Don’t forget to break things with Drew,” he reminded me. Blaine Chapman was actually a sweet guy.

“How long are you staying with his family?”

“Until graduation.” He stopped by the SUV and glanced at my house then back at me. “I don’t know how you do it, but... be careful.”

I waved and hurried to the house. Inside, Mom was finishing in the kitchen, but I knew she’d been peering at us. “Goodnight, Mom.”

“So you and Blaine are—”

“Friends. Night, Mom.” I ran upstairs. I entered my room and locked the door, but it was all for nothing. Echo was gone.

Disappointed and a little angry, I glared at the mirror and got ready for bed. He’d better not have thought I was with Blaine and gotten mad. I was brushing my teeth when I felt his presence. Then he appeared in the mirror. He must have showered because his hair was wet and he only wore a towel around his waist. The chain with the heavy pendant I’d seen him wear the first day we met was back around his neck.

I studied him through the mirror. He stared back with heavy-lidded eyes. I loved that look on him. It said he wanted me. I turned and smiled. His eyes ate me up.

I was wearing a two-piece, silk lingerie camisole.

My heart slammed against my chest as he drew closer. “Take it off.”

“No. I just put it on and I like it.”

“You don’t need to wear it for me. You are naturally beautiful.” He lifted my chin and brushed his lips across mine. “Take it off for me.”

He was in a strange mood. I stepped back, pulled at the string holding the two sides together, and the silk camisole came open. I let it fall to the floor.

He sucked in a breath.

I’d worn it with a matching thong. I started to remove it, but Echo said, “No. Leave those on.”

“Okay.” I stepped back. “Take the towel off. For me.”

He flashed a wicked grin then whipped it off.

His magnificence never failed to amaze me.

Chuckling, he lifted me up. I wrapped my legs around him, leaned down, and kissed him. He kissed me back. There was something different about his kiss.

“I want you to love me, doll-face,” he whispered.

I wasn’t sure whether he meant make love to him or just love him. “Then let me in.”

“You
are
in. You have me. All of me. In ways I never imagined. You are all I think about. All I’ve ever wanted. I want you to want me.” He marched out of the bathroom, runes appearing on his skin. The mirror responded, and we crossed into his bedroom. He sat on the bed with me on his lap. “I want you to love me.”

I cupped his face, kissed his temple, cheek, and lips. “I do.”

“Show me.” He ran his hands up and down my legs, eyelids lowered as he studied me.

I wasn’t sure what was going on, but he wanted something from me tonight. Maybe he needed me to show him that I wanted him. Him and no one else. As if there was ever a doubt about what he meant to me. But maybe he needed reassurance or something.

I kissed him, and he let me take the lead. My kisses were soft, timid at first. Then I got bolder, remembering everything I’d learned from him. I discovered something about myself—I was a quick learner and there was nothing I wouldn’t do to show this man what he meant to me.

As runes covered his body and sensation after sensation swelled through me, something weird started to happen. It was as though I could
feel
what he felt. Every kiss and caress, every stroke flowed into me, increasing the magnitude of the sensations. From his shocked expression, he was feeling it too.

“Hel’s Mist,” Echo ground out.

Looking into each other’s eyes, our souls blended and became one. There was no other way to describe it. This confirmed it. He was my soul mate. He and I completed each other.

 
“
Cora-mio,
” he whispered, wrapped his arms around me, and held me tight as though to absorb me into him. I grabbed onto his shoulder and curled around him. Never wanting to let go.

***

It seemed like forever before the world came into focus. Echo nibbled my shoulder. I smiled, turned his face to mine, and whispered, “Did you feel that?”

“Yes.” He grinned, looking boyish. “I’ve never felt anything like it before. Everything you felt flowed into me. Want to do it again?”

I laughed. “With me on top again? Yes.”

He chuckled. “Anything for you, babe. You have me.”

I stroked his face. “Do I really?”

He rolled onto his back, taking me with him. His hands slid down my back. “Do you what?”

“Have you? All of you?”

He chuckled. “My soul is too dark and my heart is too damaged for you. They’re no good for anyone, let alone you. You deserve better. But my body is yours. To do with as you please.” He kissed me long and hard. “I’m happy you don’t mind that it’s scarred.”

“You have a beautiful soul and a generous heart. As for your body, you’re perfect.” I slipped my hands between his body and the bed and caressed the scars. I stared into his unusual eyes. “These scars help shape who you are, Echo.”

He buried his face in my hair and shuddered.

“Tell me the story behind the scars.”

He ran his knuckles up and down my back as though memorizing the curve of my back. “You know the story.”

“I know that your people, the Druids, were hunted by Roman soldiers. Your group went into hiding in the forest, but the soldiers caught up with you, and your sisters were killed. Then Valkyries came and recruited you.”

 
His hand stopped caressing my back. “You were listening.”

I smiled. Didn’t he know anything he’d ever told me about him was etched in my brain? “Of course I was. So when did you get the scars? From the soldiers?”

Silence followed, and I was sure he wouldn’t say anything. But then he started to talk, and my heart felt like it was being crushed.

“I had gone to a village to steal some food when the soldiers caught me. They decided to use me to draw out my people. Every day, they tied me to a post and humiliated me. Flogged me. The villagers used whatever they could find. Sticks. Rocks. Hot water. They figured if I cried out for help, my people would come out of the forest and attempt a rescue.”

Tears filled my eyes, and I squeezed him tight, wanting to absorb his pain. “The bastards.”

“I didn’t. Not once, did I make a sound. It infuriated them. The more I resisted, the more they came up with new ways to torture me. I’d pass out only to be revived the next day for even more.”

Tears raced down my face and fell on his chest. At that very moment, I knew I would love Echo forever. I wanted a chance to love him for hundreds and thousands of years.

“What I didn’t know was my people were watching and plotting a rescue. They waited until the villagers came with their usual rounds of rotten vegetables, sticks, and stones, mingled with them, and attempted a rescue. But the soldiers were waiting for them. What followed was a massacre.” A shudder rocked his body. “It was horrible. Only a few of us made it out alive. My sisters didn’t. My mother died in my arms. And my uncle, the mastermind, somehow managed to get me to safety. A few months later I met a Valkyrie, my maker.”