Airel - Aaron Patterson [43]
I could imagine Michael playing football. He had the body for it. I glanced at him, deciding that yes, he was…of sturdy stock…and I sound like my grandma now. He was a beautiful man and with this thought I realized that I did think of him as a man, not just a boy.
He was powerful. He had eyes that could look right into my soul, but under it all there was something dark. I’ve heard of those underground rivers that go for miles. The water down there must be cold, black. That’s the feeling I got, but it was fleeting, hard to put my finger on. He was dangerous. That was it. Maybe that was why, in that moment, I knew I was falling for him.
Michael felt my gaze and met it without a smile. All of a sudden my little car started to feel hot inside and I wanted to roll down my window. There wasn’t even a hint of humor in his face, which was not the way he looked most of the time. He always had a joke or a funny comment to make everyone laugh, but as he looked deep into my eyes, I saw something that made me gasp. It was a deep and clinging desire. It scared me more than I could have imagined. So…this is what it’s like.
I felt as if I was an ocean—unpredictable, wild, stormy—and I could feel, intensely, that his single wish in life was to be given the privilege of drowning in all that I was. But it was more than simple desire. No, I could tell. He loved me. In it was something more powerful than all the stars crashing to earth.
I tried to look away but couldn’t. He held me captive, and I could not—knew I would never—resist. Just as fast as it had emerged, the burst of passion in his eyes passed, sinking under lapping waves of self-defense. A smile pulled at the corner of his mouth, and the mask—the one we all wear—was back in place.
“I wanted to ask you something.” Michael grinned and looked down at his hands, abruptly shy. “I was wondering if you would like to go to dinner with me sometime. You know, not anything fancy. Just hang out, get to know each other. I think you are…well, you’re very interesting.”
I couldn’t help but smile. He was asking me out and he was shy. Or playing shy, whichever, I didn’t care. I was the last person he should be shy around.
But I caught myself saying these words: “I would love to.” My heart pounded and my entire body buzzed with excitement. It occurred to me that I just might throw up all over this amazing guy sitting in my car.
“Great, great…” He said, smiled awkwardly, opened the car door, and was gone. He and James headed into the school.
I looked around, sank back into my seat, and fought back a tear. I was that girl. The one everyone wished they could be. I didn’t know why and I was afraid to ask, but I couldn’t help it. I balled up my fist, curled my arm, and gloated, “Yes!”
Chapter XXIII
1250 B.C. Arabia
Kreios flew high in the evening sky, just under the low-hanging clouds that were forming on the western mountains; a fortress of jagged black rock peaks.
He did not have time to stop until he found the Shadower. Pulling his shoulders back, he poured all of his energy into the increase of speed, breaking the sound barrier and leaving a powerful sonic boom in his wake.
Kreios touched down with a crack of static electricity on the doorstep of his old friend Yamanu, who sat on the front porch of his shack. He was in a wooden rocking chair, smoking a pipe, and probably, Kreios thought, dreaming of the old days in another world. Kreios walked up the three creaky steps, took a seat next to his friend, and sat down without a word.
Kreios took out his own pipe, filled it, and it lit without the assistance of fire. He drew on it slowly, allowing time to savor the sweet, relaxing smoke. It tasted like serenity. It was wholly unlike anything mankind had ever known. He let the smoke roll out of his mouth like a waterfall and curl up on his chest, drifting slowly down, draping him in a cloak. He leaned back to gaze at the