A moment later, as he pulls away from the curb, I’m assuming the ride to school will be awkward with my sister in the back. It’s confirmed when she asks, “So what’s the deal with you and my sister?”
He laughs shortly and rubs the back of his neck like something is there, tickling, tapping.
“Tamra.” Clutching the dashboard, I turn and glare at her. “There is no deal.”
She snorts. “Well, we wouldn’t be sitting here if that was the case now, would we?”
I open my mouth to demand she end the interrogation when Will’s voice stops me.
“I like your sister. A lot.”
I look at him dumbly.
He looks at me, lowers his voice to say, “I like you.”
I know that, I guess, but heat still crawls over my face. I swing forward in my seat, cross my arms over my chest and stare straight ahead. Can’t stop shivering. Can’t speak. My throat hurts too much.
“Jacinda,” he says.
“I think you’ve shocked her,” Tamra offers, then sighs. “Look, if you like her, you have to make it legit. I don’t want everyone at school whispering about her like she’s some toy you get your kicks with in a stairwell.”
Now I really can’t speak. My blood burns. I already have one mother doing her best to control my life. I don’t need my sister stepping in as mother number two.
“I know,” he says. “That’s what I’m trying to do now—if she’ll let me.”
I feel his gaze on the side of my face. Anxious. Waiting. I look at him. A breath shudders from me at the intensity in his eyes.
He’s serious. But then he would have to be. If he’s willing to break free of his selfimposed solitude for me, especially when he suspects there’s more to me than I’m telling him…he means what he’s saying.
His thumbs beat a staccato rhythm on the steering wheel as he drives. “I want to be with you, Jacinda.” He shakes his head. “I’m done fighting it.”
“Jeez,” Tamra mutters.
And I know what she means. It seems too much. The declaration extreme. Fast. After all, we’re only sixteen….
I start, jerk a little.
I think he’s sixteen. I don’t even know. I don’t know anything about him other than his secret. That sort of eclipses everything else. But he has to be more. More than the secret.
More than a hunter. More than a boy who doesn’t want to be a force of destruction. More than the boy who saved my life. The boy I’ve built a fantasy around. I don’t know the real him. Xander mentioned Will being sick, and I don’t even know what happened to him.
But then I don’t feel bad about that for long. Because he doesn’t know the real me either.
And yet he still wants to be with me. Maybe it’s perfect because I want to be with him, too. And not just because I need to get close to him and use him for information.
Although there is that. Something I would like to forget but can’t let myself. Forgetting is resigning myself to a life here. Forever. As a ghost. A small voice whispers through me, a tempting thought…. Not if you have Will.
As soon as Will parks, Tamra leaves us. I watch her walk quickly through the parking lot.
She waves to several people. Drops into step with a girl whose name I don’t know. They start chattering like they’ve known each other all their lives.
Will and I sit in silence. From our spot, far in the back of the parking lot, we watch other cars fly past us for better spots near the doors.
I can think of only one reason he parked so far in the back. So no one can see us together.
Laughter rises, bitter in the back of my throat. I swallow it down. Guess he isn’t as ready to face the world with me at his side as he thinks. I hug my books close to my chest, feet bouncing lightly on the floorboard.
“I guess we better go in,” he says.
I nod. He turns off the ignition. “So what’s your first period?”
“Why?”
He gives me a funny look. “Jacinda,” he breathes my name, almost laughs. “Haven’t you heard a word I said? Did you think I was kidding?”
Maybe. Yes. It’s funny how doubt can make you ignore what’s as plain as day in front of you.
“I’m walking you to class,” he announces, like it’s so obvious.
This is what I want, I remind myself. To let myself get close to him, to explore this thing…this connection between us. To be close to him and become his confidante. Learn all I can about other prides. Just some subtle questions should do the trick. Then, when I have my answers, I can make my move. Break and run.
I wither inside a little at the thought of leaving him forever behind. Staring down, I admire Will’s broad hand gripping the steering wheel, I wonder whether it’s possible to love a guy’s hands. To feel such deep longing just looking at them? So strong and tanned, the veins faint ridges in the backs.
“Are you okay with this?”
I pull my gaze back to his face. For a moment I think he’s asking about my plans. Am I okay using him? A bad taste coats my mouth. Shaking my head, I blink, try to think. If it was just about what I got from being with him, then I guess I would be okay. But it’s not.
It’s not just that he keeps the core of me alive. Well, a large part of it is about that, but it’s more. It’s that he took one look at me in draki form and saw me as beautiful, as something—someone—worth saving. That will forever be there, branded deep, forever imprinted.
That’s what draws me to him and always will.
The leather squeaks beneath him as he shifts in his seat. “The way I feel about you, Jacinda…I know you feel it, too.”
He stares at me so starkly, so hungrily that I can only nod. Agree. Of course, I feel it. “I do,” I admit.
But I don’t understand him. Don’t get why he should feel this way about me. Why should he want me so much? What do I offer him? Why did he save me that day in the mountains? And why does he pursue me now? When no girl spiked his interest before?
“Good,” he says. “Then how about a date?”
“A date?” I repeat, like I’ve never heard the word.
“Yeah. A real date. Something official. You. Me. Tonight. We’re long overdue.” His smile deepens, revealing the deep grooves on the sides of his cheeks. “Dinner. Movie.
Popcorn.”
“Yes.” The word slips past.