Braving the Elements (Darkness #2)(22)

Today, though, I didn’t feel like stressing about it. I wanted to relax. I wanted to forget about school. I actually wanted to hang out with Jared. I no longer had the same feelings for him, but he’d been a friend. He’d been someone to laugh with and hang out with. He’d been a big part of my life, and I still missed his presence.

I hoped he was happy. I hoped he found a good gal to go with his awesome job. He was smart, he would land on his feet if given half a chance. And Stefan had given him just such a chance. I owed Stefan a thanks for that.

Trying to find peace, I blanked my mind and just felt. Just let my magic run through me, gushing within me like blood.

A half-hour into my induced state of paralysis, I heard a distant door click, the magic in the walls swirling like ants confronted with a boot. The closing click sounded a minute later, leaving silence in its wake. Another thirty seconds and light bathed my solitude in a soft glow.

Stefan appeared from a corridor on the right, a faded black T-shirt hugging his deliciously defined body. His hair had grown, the tamed messy giving his chiseled face a rogue look—bad boy meets professional model with a trip through the computer for some airbrush. His expressive dark eyes studied my pose as he walked near, noting my slouch and lack of interest in how my limbs spilled over the leather cushions.

He settled on the couch opposite me, eyes still studying.

“Lights.” I nodded, not bothering to look around since my head weighed too much. “That makes seeing the details easier.”

“Were you afraid someone would find you if you had them on?”

“Hadn’t thought about it, actually.”

“Then why didn’t you turn them on?”

I would have shrugged but my shoulders seemed just as heavy as my head, and therefore, immovable. “Didn’t know they existed.”

“So you’ve been sitting in pitch black…why?” His eyes stayed trained on my face.

My eyes stayed trained on his body. Each bump and valley gave me a pang of longing and flare of arousal. It was then I realized another thing I had constantly missed. Him. Seeing his face, talking with him, even for just a moment, feeling his touch. My body constantly reached for his, noticing the absence when he wasn’t around. In the same room as him, I didn’t feel desperately alone anymore. I didn’t feel like something was missing. I wasn’t hopeless.

Lot of good it did me. His lady love reminded me of her claim on him nightly.

“I’ve just been watching the colors swirl around,” I said absently. “I wonder if they’d move if no one walked around within the house. But then there is always wind. I wonder if they would swirl in a vacuum? Neat experiment. We should try it.”

“What do you mean, swirls?”

“Ugh, you sound like Darla. The magic. In my limited vocabulary, it swirls.”

“And you can see this…here? In this room?”

I frowned. “Not as much when the lights are on, but in the pitch dark, yeah. It looks like the northern lights. Which are really cool by the way. I’d love to see them again. Maybe they look different with magic.”

Stefan’s gaze slid past me, his gaze scanning the walls.

“You can’t see that? Or maybe you never tried?” I asked to fill the potentially awkward gap.

He shook his head slowly in a noncommittal response, his gaze returning to me. “You’re blocking your link somewhat. You’ve been doing it often, lately. Why?”

This time I went through the trouble of shrugging. I didn’t want to admit that it felt weird flirting with Jessiah when Stefan could peep at my emotions. I had no idea where it might lead with Jessiah, or even if I wanted it to lead anywhere, but I wanted the freedom to make that decision away from prying eyes.

Black eyes stalked me like a lion on the prairie. He probably had some idea where my thoughts had traveled, and judging by the clenched jaw and forced-even breathing, it didn’t thrill him.

“Why are you in here?” he asked.

“I’m tired of people. I used to live alone. Now I have Charles around all the time. I barely get time to—“ I cut off before I could embarrass myself by saying something intimate, and instead said, “shower.”

His eyes caught fire, but he ignored it. “Charles came to find me. You panicked him. He thought you’d run off.”

“Sorry about that, but I can’t have him following me constantly. It gets overbearing.”

He brought his hands to his lap and intertwined his fingers. I got the distinct impression he wanted to go find a chain and secure me to something heavy. It didn’t take a genius to know I tested his patience.

“We’ll work something out. Please inform him in the future, however. Your ability is known now throughout the clan. Reaching the black power level is still largely a myth, but blowing up chairs, singeing off hair, shooting fire from your dagger, and other such things tend to raise eyebrows. You use red with so much power, it can’t stay contained. Even if you never got beyond red, that type of magic is… unusual. Jealous inspiring. Being a human, you are…”

“Not taken seriously? Hated? The butt of practical jokes?”

The corners of his mouth tweaked. “Anomaly fits better, I think. Interesting.”

He only thought that because he wasn’t in my classes. “Well, my saving grace is my inability. I’m struggling with everything but elements.”