Spellbound (Spellbringers Book 1) (31 page)

I typed another message to Bryce,
trying to replay Jerica’s version of events. After hitting the send
button, I realized Abe had most likely sent the same type of email
to his son. Oh, well. I was a little surprised I hadn’t heard from
Jace yet, but he was probably too concerned with Rachel to think
about calling me.

Bryce and I sent several more emails
back and forth in fairly rapid succession, each of us speculating
about the attack and the rumor that a Demon was lurking around
southern Georgia. Not exactly a regular occurrence in this neck of
the woods. I finally insisted that Bryce go to sleep. It was
extremely late where he was and he had examinations to contend with
in the morning. I received one final message from Bryce before he
went to sleep.

Dear Alisa,

Every time I hear about
some horrible event back home, I can’t breathe out of fear of
losing you. The most recent incident has only reinforced what I’ve
known for a long time. I love you and I can’t stand for us to be
apart for months at a time. Since you and Rachel seem to attract
trouble, I have definitely decided not to continue my training in
the fall. My mom may have ordered additional Warriors to cover the
area, but I think I’d prefer to protect you myself. I hope you’re
not disappointed by my decision to abandon my calling as a Warrior
only to take up residence in a small town, attending a small
college. I miss you, Alisa. More than you could ever
know.

Love,

Bryce

I realized after reading
his email that Bryce had some deep-seated insecurities—yet another
thing we had in common. He feared I would not love him as much
without the glamorous sounding title of
Warrior
. I worried he would become
bored with a silly high school girl and seek a sophisticated woman
for companionship. I suspected we were perfect for each other. We
were both completely unbalanced.

***

I expected to receive a call from Jace
the following morning filling me in on the crazy events from the
night before. As morning turned into afternoon, I decided to go
ahead and call him. He sounded completely exhausted when he
answered the phone. I could tell he didn’t want to talk to me.
Something beyond last night’s attack was weighing on him, and for
some reason, he didn’t want to tell me what it was. Jace continued
to act evasive and uncommunicative, and eventually succeeded in
getting me off the phone.

My attempt to contact Rachel was
completely fruitless. She didn’t answer my phone call and never
returned my text messages. I tried to convince myself she was still
upset from the night before and would respond when she felt better,
but in my heart, I knew something was wrong. Just thinking about
Jace and Rachel filled me with anxiety. I decided to stay home that
day. No trips to the Alexander house for me. I would stay by my
beloved computer and focus my attention on the guy who appreciated
every word I typed.

Bryce had a rough day of final exams.
Even though he’d decided to leave for good, he still put forth the
effort to finish in good standing and to gain his Protector
ranking. I tried to talk him into waiting until fall to make a
final decision. Not because I was trying to get rid of him (as he
feared), but because I didn’t want him to burn any
bridges.

I decided not to tell him about my
concerns regarding Rachel and Jace. Bryce had quite enough to worry
about, so I tried to send him upbeat, happy emails, at least until
his examinations were over. Each time I remembered I would be able
to see him in less than a week, shivers of anticipation wracked my
body. I found myself reverting back to my old ways, fantasizing
about our reunion and rehearsing in my mind every word I wanted to
say to him.

I didn’t want to head down into the
dark abyss of the fantasy world of years past, so I came up with a
cool strategy to occupy my mind in between emails from Bryce. I
carried my I-pod everywhere, earbuds plugged into my ears, volume
turned up, singing along to each song at the top of my voice. It
was obnoxious, and my parents were probably ready to kill me, but
it worked. Each time I lapsed into a daydream, I forced myself to
concentrate on each and every lyric I bellowed. I congratulated
myself on my creative and effective solution.

After three days of Rachel ignoring my
phone calls and Jace rushing me off the phone, I decided I’d had
enough. I borrowed my dad’s deathtrap of a truck and headed over to
the Alexander home without even calling first. Jerica answered the
door by pulling me into a fierce hug.

“Long time, no see, kid. We’ve missed
you,” Abe announced, smiling from ear to ear. “I’ll go get Jace.
He’s been hiding in the basement.” Abe disappeared down the
steps.

“I’ve been worried about him,” Jerica
confided. “According to Jace, he and Rachel had an argument just
before the attack. She rushed out of our house and the attack
occurred immediately after, so Jace blames himself. Rachel has
barely spoken to Jace since. He won’t talk to us. Maybe he’ll talk
to you.”

Heavy footsteps sounded on the steps,
followed by a sullen-looking Jace. “Hey,” he mumbled as he slumped
into the room and onto the sofa in one seamless, lazy movement. His
eyes were brimming with exhaustion and despair.

“Hey, yourself,” I said, sitting down
next to him. “So, it’s been a crazy week, right?” I paused, waiting
for him to say something. The conversation was going nowhere and
someone needed to take charge. I wasn’t a take-charge kind of
person. I waited in vain for the friendship fairy to come and make
everything better, but as always, she failed to show. It was up to
me. I had to do everything, apparently.

“I’m not leaving here until you tell
me what’s wrong, so you’d better start talking.” I thought I was
off to a good start—firm, yet friendly. “Now, if I’ve done
something to offend you, tell me. If not, then stop treating me
like crap. What’s going on?”

“It’s too hard to explain. Rachel and
I…we almost broke up that night. She left the house because of
something I said. She was upset, and I just let her drive away. She
could have been killed. It was my fault.” Jace looked like he was
ready to cry, but I wouldn’t relent. He needed to get this out in
the open.

“What was your fault, Jace? The fight?
Okay, maybe. But the attack would have happened regardless. Your
argument didn’t cause her tire to blow. Stop blaming yourself.
That’s just stupid.” I hesitated for a second before asking, “What
were ya’ll fighting about that almost caused you to break
up?”

Jace couldn’t look me in the eye, so I
knew it was bad. “We started off fighting about something totally
stupid. Rachel was lecturing me about the way I treated my parents.
She said I should stop bugging them about getting me a car. She was
right, I mean, I have been acting like an ass. I called her preachy
and said she reminded me of an old woman. I told her she was just
like Bryce and maybe she should have hooked up with him instead of
me.”

Okay, that didn’t sound so
bad. Yell and scream for a few minutes
bad
, but definitely not break
up
bad
. I had a
sneaking suspicion Jace was holding back some critical
information—the missing piece of the puzzle.

“What else did you say?” I asked,
trying to sound threatening.

“Okay, so that’s the part I didn’t
want to tell you. I said something stupid that I totally didn’t
mean. I told her…I…should have, um, hooked up withyouinstead.” He
said this last part so fast, the words blended together and I had
to think for a minute before it dawned on me. Jace was an
idiot.

I tried to block out all
the thoughts swirling through my head at that moment and focus on
solutions.
What ifs
wouldn’t solve anything, but it was hard not to consider the
implications of what Jace admitted. Rachel had obviously considered
the deeper meanings of Jace’s statement, causing her not only to
stop speaking to Jace, but to me as well.

It was the first time my crush on Jace
had been openly acknowledged, and I blushed in remembrance of the
way I’d felt for him all those months ago. On the flip side of that
comment, however, was the possibility that at one time Jace might
have felt the same way about me. If only I’d known at the time, I
might have pushed a little harder, but none of that mattered now.
Rachel and Jace were together and they were perfect for each other.
They had an undeniable connection which went beyond ordinary
love.

I’d found happiness with Bryce. He was
everything I never knew I wanted until I had him. Or something like
that. I knew what I meant. Bryce and I had forged a more
traditional bond—a relationship based originally on loathing that
evolved into friendship and love. I didn’t regret for a moment that
things turned out the way they did.

No wonder Rachel chose to avoid Jace.
He’d hit a nerve and played on her insecurities.

“Let’s go,” I said. “We’re going to
Rachel’s so you two can make up.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he replied,
recoiling from my outstretched hand.

“When’s the last time you talked to
her?” I asked.

“I talk to her every day. On the
phone, though,” he admitted. “Her mind is blocked, so I can’t talk
to her that way anymore.”

This was serious. Clearly, there was
something going on with Rachel, something more upsetting than
Jace’s foolish comments.

“Don’t you want to talk to her? Don’t
you miss her?” I pushed. “Jace, you can’t just let your
relationship fall apart without even trying.” Every second he sat
on that sofa represented an additional moment I had to spend away
from my beloved computer. I had no time for Jace or his
self-pity.

“She’s coming over tomorrow night for
dinner. Dad’s friend has some information about her father. Rachel
asked me to leave her alone until then. One phone call a day is all
I get. I feel like I’m in jail.”

Well, this was news to me. I felt
excluded for about a second, but reminded myself that news about
Rachel’s father was none of my business. I couldn’t expect to be
included in everything, could I? Besides, my computer would be
lonely if I was away for too long.

“Jace, I’ll give you until tomorrow.
Maybe this information about her dad will ease her mind. If ya’ll
can’t work things out though, I’m going over there. She’s my friend
and it hurts to think she has the wrong impression about us. I’m
afraid if you leave it too long, you won’t be able to mend your
relationship. Tick, tock, Jace.” I hated to pressure him, but time
was critical. The longer they were apart, the less likely it would
be that they would resolve their differences.

“Okay,” Jace agreed. “Oh, and thanks,
Alisa. I’m glad you came by.”

I left Jace with a worried Jerica, and
drove back to the relative serenity of my home. I missed my
computer. It beckoned. After lying to my parents and telling them
I’d already eaten, I rushed upstairs to my room. I had become
strange and reclusive since school ended. I spent much of my time
alone in the dark, the eerie blue glow of the computer screen my
only companion.

But I wasn’t alone…not really. Bryce
was with me, if not in person, then in spirit. Our conversations
over the internet were my only link to reality these days, and I
often wondered if it would turn out that this was all a dream. I
feared I would wake up one day to discover it had all been a
product of my rich and vivid imagination. Or worse, that Bryce
would come home and say he’d changed his mind. That a silly,
sheltered, high school girl was not what he’d been looking for
after all. I pushed all of these negative thoughts out of my head
and focused on the email waiting for me.

Alisa,

I’m trying to count the
hours until I see you, but after the week I’ve had, I don’t have
enough brain power to count past ten. As much as I’m looking
forward to my flight home, I’m worried about you. Once I board the
plane, I won’t be able to contact you. Can you survive an entire
day without emailing me? It seems all you do nowadays is sit in
front of the computer. Not that I’m complaining.

Love,

Bryce

My smart-aleck response was as
follows:

Bryce,

Why do you assume that I
sit in front of the computer all day? My cats take turns handling
my correspondence so I may lay in the sun working on my tan. As for
being able to survive a day without hearing from you, I’ve done it
before as you well know. I plan to use our time apart to bake
chocolate chip cookies by the dozens. If you’re mean to me, I won’t
save any for you.

Love,

Alisa

Despite the attack on Rachel, her
falling out with Jace, and the fact that it would be beyond awkward
when I finally saw her again, this was the best summer ever. I was
completely in love. And that overshadowed everything.

Chapter
Twenty-Four

Rachel

The reason I’d been avoiding Jace had
nothing to do with my insecurities over his relationship with
Alisa. Yes, it was a blow to my ego to hear him openly acknowledge
that he’d once liked Alisa as more than a friend, even if it was
before Jace and I got together. My female vanity insisted that Jace
should have loved me and only me from the moment we first met. In
reality, of course, it was perfectly acceptable for Jace to have
had other love interests before we became an item. After all, I was
dating Robert when Jace and I first met. Everyone had a
past.