Salvaged Soul (The Ignited Series Book 3) (5 page)

“I told you I wanted to make out tonight,” I said lightly, hoping to persuade him to continue.

He groaned. “I’m thinking about a hell of a lot more than that right now.” With his eyes closed, he missed the look on my face, but my silence must have clued him in to my shock. His eyes squeezed tighter, and he shook his head like he couldn’t believe what he had admitted to. “What am I saying?” He finally looked at me, his eyes wide. “That’s not me. That’s my twenty-two-year-old body talking.”

“I happen to like your twenty-two-year-old body,” I returned with a playful smile. I had to smile to cover the renewed anxiety his admission induced.

Granted, I had been thinking about more than just making out too, but hearing him admit that his thoughts were going there kind of brought back the uncertainty I had felt before. But he would never know it.

Because despite being nervous, I knew that Nathan was
the one
. And when the moment came, I would gladly and willingly take the next step with him. I figured it was only natural to be nervous when considering something so momentous. Being nervous wasn’t going to stop me. Not when I knew that I wanted to be with Nathan.

Eventually. Because even though I knew what I wanted, I wasn’t so sure that
now
was the ideal time. It took him saying what he said for me to realize it, but I knew now that he had been right about one thing earlier—I wasn’t ready. Not yet. But close to it.

Nathan stared at me for a few long, heavy seconds, as if debating his next move. Or considering my ability to handle his next move. Though I felt a small pang of disappointment, a bigger part of me was relieved when he finally looked away. His deep breath signaled that the decision he had made hadn’t been an easy one. As his chest heaved against mine, his grip on me loosened, though only fractionally since he still had to hold me up in the water.

Though a palpable uncertainty still lingered, one thing was certain. Our swim was over. With the aid of the surf, Nathan moved us closer to the shore. He let me go once I could touch the sandy bottom, but his arms remained around my waist, and he dropped his head to give me an insanely slow, sweet kiss. A kiss that signaled an end to not only the swim, but also to whatever might have happened in the water had we stayed there.

As we redressed and prepared to return to the dock, and the island, I held on to the sweetness of that last kiss. Because it was the type of kiss that reminded me of how lucky I was to have the love of someone like Nathan, and I knew that when the time was right for us to take the next step in our relationship, I would be the luckiest girl in the world to get to experience it with him.

We were met by a dark and quiet island, the path from the dock to the dorms empty, aside from us. We were out much later than I had thought we would be, and I worried that Nathan would get in trouble for having me off the island as long as he had. Of course, he reassured me that he would be fine.

“I hope so,” I sighed as we stopped outside the door to the girls’ dorm.

He turned to face me. “It doesn’t matter. Tonight was worth anything Jared could throw at me,” he said, and when I started to fuss, he quickly added, “but that’s not going to happen, because Jared won’t care.”

As Nathan kissed me goodnight, I forgot all about the potential consequences of our late night. And I realized that I didn’t want our evening to come to an end.

He regarded me warily as my eyes lit with a brilliant idea. “It’s already so late,” I said, “why don’t you just spend the rest of the night with me?”

His eyebrows hooked with bewilderment in a way that almost made me laugh.

“Before coming here,” I continued, “we were together all the time. We’ve shared a bed more times than I can count. I miss it, and even if it’s just for one night, I want to do it again.”

By the time I finished building my case, his grin had morphed into a frown. “I know, Kris. I miss that too.”

“So . . . what do you say?”

He eyed the building, then shook his head. “There’s one big problem.” He nodded his head toward the entrance, and I followed his gaze to the glass doors. “Kim.”

Ah, yes, my formidable body guard, who I could now see sitting on a chair just inside, reading a magazine—obviously waiting for me. She wouldn’t expect Nathan to come along, and I doubted she would let him in my room at this hour.

I reluctantly accepted that extending our date wasn’t going to happen.

“Yeah, okay,” I sulked, then cheered when I remembered that morning was only a few hours away. “Breakfast tomorrow?”

“Absolutely.”

Nathan kissed me goodnight one more time before he ushered me into the building. Despite the disappointment that I would be going up to my room alone, I bounced as if walking on clouds. The date had been wonderful, Nathan had been wonderful, the swim . . .

Oh, God, the swim. I would
never
forget that.

Kim stood as I approached. Without so much as a
‘how was it?’
, she escorted me to my room. I wished I could talk to her. If anything, to have someone to talk to about the things that I couldn’t talk to Alec or Nathan about. There was Gran, of course, but the last time I asked her something she lectured Nathan about sex.

Times like now, I missed Callie the most. I wished that I could pick up a phone and call her. We would undoubtedly be up half the night talking about my evening with Nathan. Callie would dissect it moment by moment, and give me tips for our next date. Because that was what Callie did.

But she wasn’t here.

That left Kim. And I just wasn’t sure about her yet. So far, my weak attempts at getting to know her had failed. Actually, I gave up trying about a week into our arrangement. Maybe I should try again, now that she has had time to see that I wasn’t all that bad.

By the time we reached my room, I decided to give Kim another shot. But not tonight. I was in too good of a mood to risk another failure.

I gave her a friendly smile as I shut the door behind me, leaving her at her post in the hallway. She didn’t smile back. But she didn’t scowl either. Her scowls had diminished. That had to be a good sign, right?

I quickly gathered up a pair of dry undies and a t-shirt, and went to the bathroom to dress for bed. I brushed my teeth at lightning speed and removed the makeup from my face. Finally in more comfortable, and dry, clothes, I was ready to crash for the night.

If only Nathan were here . . .

I had never been one to believe in the power of wishes, which was weird because I was supposed to be capable of yielding magic, and possibly capable of making a few wishes come true. The truth was—I wasn’t good at it. And, well, I had never actually seen a wish come true.

Not until I walked out of the bathroom . . . and Nathan appeared in my room like magic.

Technically, I had nothing to do with it. Technically, I caught him as he stepped through the open balcony door. He had come from outside, though I had no idea how that was possible unless he had scaled the side of the building like Spiderman.

Either way, he was here in my room, looking all kinds of fine.

And once again I was in my underwear.

His eyes lifted to the ceiling with a slight shake of his head. “This was a bad idea,” he muttered.

I glanced down to take inventory. At least I had picked boy shorts, and not something skimpy. And I had on a shirt. “This is more than I had on earlier.”

“It was dark earlier.”

Keeping my eyes fixed on him, I walked backwards a few steps and flicked the switch to the overhead light. We were left with the soft glow from the bedside lamp. “Better?”

“Not really.” He was at least looking at me now, but the rigidness of his posture and his hands fisted at his sides hinted at his internal struggle.

I figured a change in subject might settle him down. “How did you get in here anyway?”

“Climbed from balcony to balcony,” he answered. My mouth dropped open, and he added, “I used to do it all the time when I was living here before. Actually, we all did it. I’m sure everyone still does. It’s about the only way to get around the dorm rules.”

“Oh, well, good to know there are ways around them.” For future use, I thought, but didn’t say it out loud. He looked ready to flee any second, and I didn’t want to scare him off. “So now that you’re here, I assume that you’re staying?”

Please, please, please . . .

His eyes lowered, and I felt the heat of his gaze as it washed over me. His throat jumped. “I don’t know,” he hedged, then glanced down at himself. “My clothes are wet. . .”

I held up a finger to silence him, and moved to my closet. I withdrew a pair of mesh shorts from the top shelf, and tossed them across the room to him.

He looked at them peculiarly. “Are these mine?”

“Yeah,” I admitted. “They got mixed in with my stuff.”

He had no more excuses for not staying now. Other than not wanting to, and we both knew that he wanted to.

He nodded, almost as if surrendering. Or telling himself he could do this. He pointed a finger in the direction of the bathroom. “I’ll be right back.”

I let the breath I had been holding out the moment the door shut behind him.

He’s here. He’s staying.

I almost couldn’t believe it. I nearly pinched myself to make sure I wasn’t already asleep and dreaming. Then the door opened—damn, that was fast—and he stood in front of me. I nearly stopped breathing entirely.

Holy six pack.
No, wait. That stomach flirted with eight pack territory. Oh, what have I gotten myself into?

“Second thoughts?”

The sound of Nathan’s voice pulled my eyes up . . . up over insanely hard pecs . . . to his eyes. “Not at all.”

“Good. Because I’m definitely not leaving now.” He took a step closer to me, a grin tipping the corners of his mouth up. “And I’m definitely not tired.”

I stepped into him, placing my hands on his ribcage. They were just as hard as they looked. “If we’re not going to sleep, whatever will we do?”

He answered me with a kiss.

Chapter 5

{Nathan}

I woke to an empty bed. I stared at the ceiling, listening to the shower running in the bathroom for several moments before I registered the sound of a knock at the door. Micah’s muffled voice coming from the other side shattered the hope I had for a great day and killed my happy buzz.

Spurred by the sudden burst of rage his presence induced, I jumped out of bed and swung the door open with authority, like I had every right to be there.

Micah’s mouth dropped, and he took in my attire—or lack thereof—with visible distaste. I crossed my arms, barely stifling a smile at his discomfort.

“What do you want, Micah?” I growled. A quick glance over his shoulder confirmed my suspicion that this was part of the morning routine. Kim had already left, leaving Kris to Micah’s and Richie’s supervision. I should have expected their presence this morning, but I forgot. I also didn’t care.

“Kris and I are supposed to go to breakfast together now,” he said, adopting his usual air of cockiness.

“Well, she’s going to breakfast with me this morning.” I attempted to shut the door in his face. He threw an arm out to stop me. We stared at each other, neither saying anything for several seconds.

Finally, barely loud enough for me to hear him, Micah muttered, “I can’t wait for you to screw this up.”

I laughed. Once, and not because I found his statement funny. “Not going to screw it up.” Again, I tried to shut the door. And again, he stopped me. Little did he realize the injury to his arm he risked in doing so. Next time, I wouldn’t hesitate to slam it shut on his forearm. Broken bones and blood didn’t faze me, and I wasn’t scared of Richie.

Micah smirked, like he knew something I didn’t.

I popped my jaw to keep from popping his. “I’m not going to screw anything up. Not with her,” I insisted.

His smirk morphed into a taunting grin, and I suspected he wanted for me to think he knew something. But he didn’t. He couldn’t. I hadn’t done anything.

“Being a prophet sure has its perks sometimes,” he mulled.

My heart clenched slightly, but I maintained a blank expression. “You want me to think you had a vision of something?”

“Oh, I know I did.”

Fortunately, I had mastered the ability to portray confidence even when it wavered. Like now. I refused to let this son of a bitch know the impact his words had on me.

He’s a prophet. He saw me screw up with Kris, enough to put that shit-eating grin on his face.

Nope. Not going to happen. I knew that. Even Micah knew that. He wanted to get under my skin. Nothing more. “And what is it that you
think
you saw, Micah?”

He looked down the hallway like he had somewhere better to be. “Maybe a smoking hot Brazilian,” he said casually. Then he turned and looked me squarely in the eyes. “You know anyone who matches that description?”

I laughed, for real this time. Because his suggestion that Lillian would ever come between Kris and me was that funny. And I suspected now that he was making it all up. Lillian getting in the way was an easy assumption for him to make. Almost too easy. He was bluffing. And I had almost been worried. If only for a second.

Micah chuckled humorlessly in return. “We’ll see who’s laughing when you break her heart, and I’m there to pick up the pieces.”

Before I could reply, the bathroom door opened behind me. Because I was glaring at Micah, I saw the way his eyes shifted downward in a way that they shouldn’t. A quick glance over my shoulder confirmed that Micah was getting a nice view of a scantily clad Kris. She squealed at the sight of him in the doorway, and I shifted to block his gaze as she scurried to grab something a little more concealing.

Micah shot a murderous look in my direction, before looking back at Kris. “Are you having sex with him?” he demanded, thrusting a thumb in my direction.

Kris, now dressed in the baggy pair of sweats that had taken up residence in the corner of her room—probably for weeks—stepped up beside me. “First of all, that’s none of your damn business,” she said. “Second of all, what are you doing here?”

Micah turned all sorts of shades of red and purple as he stared at Kris, and I knew that he was desperately trying to read her mind, to search for the answer to the only question he cared about at the moment. I grinned when I realized that he had hit a wall Kris had thrown up.

Apparently, her training had paid off.

Kris crossed her arms, looking pleased with herself, and repeated, “Micah, what are you doing here?”

His head shook slightly, and he seemed to give up on picking her brain. For now. “Uh, breakfast,” he muttered miserably.

“As you’ve probably already been told, I’m going with Nathan this morning,” she said. “I’ll see you later.”

With that, she pushed the door shut. I didn’t know if he was in shock, or if he respected Kris’s wishes more than mine, but he stepped back, letting the door close.

With him finally out of sight, I retreated to the bed and plopped down onto my back with a sigh. Though I didn’t necessarily believe him, his words had stuck with me, and I knew that they were going to eat away at me.

. . . when you break her heart . . .

Never. I could never break her heart. I would rather die than do such a thing.

. . . and I’m there to pick up the pieces . . .

Ugh. I had done what I’d sworn to never do. I let Micah get to me.

The bed shifted as Kris sat beside me. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

I folded my arms behind my head so that I could look at her instead of the ceiling. “Nothing. Micah just gets under my skin.”

She didn’t buy it. “What did he say to you?” she pressed.

Kris shifted so that she leaned over me, with one of her arms bridged across my middle. Her eyes leveled on mine in a silent plea for the truth. 

I took a deep breath. I didn’t want to tell her what he said, but when she looked at me like that, I caved. “Micah said he can’t wait for me to screw this up, and that when I do he’ll be there to pick up the pieces.”

I left out the part about his claim that it was a vision, and Lillian’s involvement. Kris was already uneasy enough about her being on the island. No need to make that worse. Especially when I knew that he was full of shit.

She wrinkled her nose at the mention of Micah waiting in the wings for her. But that wasn’t the part I wanted her to concentrate on. I needed her to understand.

I took her chin in my hand, and held her gaze with unwavering earnestness to emphasize what I needed her to know. “I’m not going to screw this up,” I vowed. “I would never do anything to hurt you.”

“I know.”

She said it with such certainty that I had to kiss her. I pulled her to me, and I sealed my promise to her the best way I knew how. And there we stayed, breakfast forgotten, for the rest of the morning.

I had just enough time to grab a bagel and a coffee, and made it halfway to my morning class when I got word that it had been cancelled. Apparently, I was the last to know.

“Jared wants to see you,” the wannabe-supervisor runt told me before he ran off to his next task.

I suppressed a groan as I turned for the Command Center. I couldn’t have cared less about the class, but I dreaded finding out what Jared needed to talk to me about if it warranted cancelling it. Perhaps another spy got busted? Or Callie . . .

God, I hoped this had nothing to do with Callie.

Security gave me no trouble as I made my way through the building. A guard, whom I had never seen before, stiffened as I rounded the corner leading to Jared’s office. His gun raised fractionally before recognition registered in his eyes. He lowered his weapon with a nod as I passed.

This had nothing to do with Callie, I determined. I had a nagging suspicion that something had happened—or was about to happen. Jared’s usual personal guard, Rodney, stood outside Jared’s office, his eyes wide as he scanned the hallway.

“They’re in Meeting Room One. Down the hall,” he told me.

I slowed as I contemplated asking him what was going on, but instead I veered off in the direction he indicated, growing more confused with each step.

They?

Surely this had nothing to do with Kris. It was just a coincidence something was going down the day after I snuck her off the island and slept in her room, and the same morning I had a standoff with the Kala’s golden boy.

Micah
. That little shit. What had he done now?

When I pushed the doors open to the meeting room, and saw the collection of Kala already waiting in the room, I knew it had nothing to do with Micah. Or Kris.

The Skotadi were up to something. Lucky me to have been selected as a member of the team about to be sent out to intercept them. I had been in on a few of these meetings before. I knew what they looked like. Though I had never seen any of the head Kala leaders participate in a meeting before, let alone all three of them.

They sat at the front of the room, heads tipped together as they scanned the soldiers that had already arrived. Supervisor Jeffries, the hot shot mid-level in charge of the leadership department, sat next to them. Younger than them by at least a hundred years, he looked to be in his forties with grey tinted hair that matched his grey eyes. He carried a flair of self-righteousness, common among the up-and-coming supervisors, and squared his shoulders when he met my gaze.

Ignoring him, I took a seat next to a veteran Kala I recognized from my previous years on the island. As I looked around at the others, I noticed that they were all experienced older Kala. No newbies. No training. All business. Which meant whatever this was, it was big.

Two more entered after me. Jared and a brunette girl I might have recognized, but when her name didn’t immediately come to mind, I looked away, not wanting to stare. She took the last seat, next to me, as Jared moved to the front of the room.

“This looks like everybody,” he said to the leaders. To the rest of us, he said, “As you all have probably guessed, the eleven of you have been called up for a mission. I’ll be the mission leader. Before you leave, you will be given a packet which will contain your temporary IDs, passports, and profiles. We will be traveling in pairs or small groups so as not to alert the Skotadi, and we will be meeting at a predetermined rendezvous point. This is a top secret mission. You will not be told of the specifics until we meet at the next location . . .”

A wave of audible grumbles swept through the room. No one liked going into a mission not knowing what they were heading into. Myself included.

“We’ll be leaving the dock in three hours,” Jared continued, unfazed.

A thick manila envelope with my name scribbled across the top was tossed onto the table in front of me. I stared at it numbly while everyone else ripped into their own envelopes.

“A recommended packing list is in your packets. Take the next few hours to pack, say your goodbyes, and learn your new identities. Know them well before we hit the mainland. We’ll be splitting up there immediately,” Jared concluded.

He glanced at the Kala leaders, and Supervisor Jeffries stood to address us. “As you all know, every mission we handle is important in the war we are fighting against the forces of evil. Though you do not know the specifics yet, I want you all to know that this mission is of the utmost importance. I expect you all to give us your best.”

I snorted quietly. As if we had any other options.

Jared beamed me with a look as he cleared his throat. “See you all at the docks at noon.”

Chairs scraped across the floor in an ear-splitting chorus, accentuated by the grumble of voices around me. No one openly complained. Every person in this room was a seasoned Kala warrior. We knew better than to openly question orders, especially in front of our superiors.

I hesitated in my seat, staring at the envelope in my hands, reluctant to open it. My concern wasn’t over the mission itself, but over leaving the island. Worse than being separated from Kris was the deeply rooted fear I had of being in a position that rendered me helpless in the event that she needed me. Though she wouldn’t be left completely alone, I didn’t feel comfortable leaving her. Especially now. 

“What a load of shit, huh?”

My head swiveled toward the quiet voice beside me. I was met by smiling green eyes that looked at me like they knew me. I squinted, trying to place the brunette. I knew her. From somewhere.

Her hand thrust out in front of me. “Kira Johns, class seven-oh-three.”

Kira?
Her name sounded familiar.
Recent
familiar, like it hadn’t been years since I last heard it. No . . . wait. Kira was the name of the girl Kris had been in a tizzy about the other day. 

I took her hand to shake it and opened my mouth to introduce myself though, apparently, an introduction wasn’t necessary.

“Nathan Young,” she said for me. “Top five in our class, and if I remember correctly, I believe even
the
top fighter.”

Despite not being able to place her, she obviously knew me well. I shook her hand and withdrew quickly before the situation crept any further into awkward territory.