The affects Sean's kiss had on me had lingered in my being long after I had woken, but the potency faded. While I took a long hot shower, all I could think about was Sean and the things that he had said to me. I was well aware of the ways between a man and a woman, so his demands and the fact that he expected me to listen to him, came to no surprise to me. But it didn't change the fact that I was inexorable. I would not make a very good girlfriend for him. I was stubborn and strong-willed and most of all, I did not like to follow anyone's rules. I liked to break them. When I broke the rules, it was the only time I ever really felt like I had control over my life.
As I dried off, the image in the mirror stole my attention. I paused to stare at the green and blue eyes that were gazing back at me. I could not change who I was. Not even for someone as bodacious as the high priest of The Sons of Hallows. I was more than rebellious, more than recklessly courageous and bold. I was more than those things and what ever else he said I was. He would end up hating me, and I would be sad because I liked Sean. I liked him a lot.
I gave my reflection one last look before I rushed from the bathroom and into my bedroom. What did one wear when attending a ceremony performed by a bunch of male witches? I had no idea. And I had about an hour to figure it out. As I started pulling things from boxes, I started to feel a little nervous. A coven of male witches? This was intimidating. And would I be the only girl there? I could pretend to be sick and stay home. I wasn't much of a social body. Actually, I was exactly the opposite. I was an introvert. I hated the attention I got in a crowd of people.
The contents of the boxes in my room did not include black witch-like dresses, or anything remotely resembling such a thing. Flannel shirts and ripped up blue jeans were what I had to choose from. Of course, I knew this before I even began my mission to find something to wear, but I was so distracted by my nervousness that it didn't even occur to me until I had given up the search.
I dressed in a sleeveless flannel shirt and my nicest blue jeans, which had holes in both knees and were frayed around the edges. Then I paused to look down at my bare toes. I liked my toes bare. And I didn't think naked toes would offend the members of Sean's coven. And if they did then they would just have to keep their eyes off my feet. I hated putting anything between me and the earth. Unless it was a V-Twin engine stuffed inside a triple-chromed frame of one forty-one Harley Davidson Knucklehead. The one sitting outside in the metal shed, to be exact.
It was close to seven-thirty, by the time I left my room and went out onto the porch to wait for Sean. It was warm outside. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. I could smell the honeysuckle in the field that had been baking in the sun all day. I closed my eyes, took a big sniff, and suddenly realized that Bane did not come to me in my dreams last night. And then it bothered me that I was just now realizing this. Now that I was thinking about it, I also realized that I didn't wake up in agony for having left my heart behind in the dream world. This made me feel awful. How could I do this to Bane?
Did dating Sean mean I was cheating on Bane? Did dreaming about Bane mean I was cheating on Sean?
Oh, man! This was worse than awful. And what made it even more awful was the fact that even though Bane was not real I still felt like I was cheating on him.
Something was seriously wrong inside my head.
And it was all Barron's fault!
"Good morning, Luna," Dammon's voice caused my thoughts to scatter away like leaves in a breeze.
"It's past seven in the evening," I informed him. "It's not morning anymore."
Dammon was leaning over his deck rail with two coffee cups in his hands. "It is for you. So I thought you might need this," he said, raising one of the cups upward, offering it to me.
"Oh, yeah!" I giggled excitedly. I couldn't help it. And it wasn't the coffee, really, that excited me. I rushed down the steps and crossed the little stretch of grass that separated us. Dammon handed me the cup. I sipped. Noisily. Only to realize I wasn't being very lady-like. I wasn't sure what lady-like meant, honestly. My life, up until this point, had consisted solely of the use of survival-like skills to get me by, being tough enough to live yet one more day. There was no place in my world for a lady or her ways. Heck, a lady would not have survived my world.
"Late night, hugh?" Dammon said. Concern was chiseled deeply into his expression. "It's hard not to notice things like that when you live so close like this." He shrugged his shoulders as if it was no big deal, but I knew differently. "I knew it would be impossible for you to stay away from him."
I let out a long sigh. It was hard for me to be upset at Dammon for meddling in my business like he seemed to be, when his concern was completely harmless. "You know, Dammon, it really is none of your business. I mean, I'm not trying to be mean or anything."
"No. I know. It's just that---" He paused to think about what he wanted to say. Then he moved away from the deck rail and disappeared. He returned, seconds later, directly in front of me. Now, face-to-face with this angelic man, I couldn't help but notice my attraction toward him. He was different. Dammon wasn't like other men. I could see this as we looked into each other's eyes. Dammon didn't only have softness in his eyes while gazing at me, he had softness in his heart as well. I could see it. It was there on his sleeve, where he wore his heart.
And best of all, Dammon felt safe.
"I am only worried about you. You have no idea what you are getting yourself into, Luna. And I just want to help you stay out of trouble."
Dammon's words resonated into the essence of my heart. "Don't worry, Dammon, I can take care of myself," I assured him.
"Oh, I have no doubt about that," he managed a smile, despite his heavy despair.
I set the coffee cup down on the floor of the deck and took both of Dammon's hands in mine. He seemed to focus on me. Our touch. The connection of our eyes. A second flashed by me, while lost in the sky of his eyes, where I was certain Dammon was the man of my dreams, where I felt certain I needed to be with him, and I was certain Dammon was a demon slayer.
Not Sean.
Not even Bane.
But Dammon, my angel.
But that second passed quickly, and I knew, Dammon was not my kind of guy. He was not beastly. There were no demons lurking in the corners of his eyes, no darkness within him. Dammon was not dangerous. On the contrary, Damon felt safe. And safe people didn't slay things.
"I appreciate your concern. Really, I do, but please, Dammon, don't waist your time worrying about me. I'm not worth that."
"You should not say that!" Dammon squeezed my hands in his and held them tightly. He held them as if he didn't ever want to let me go, like he didn't want me moving beyond the safety of his presence. "You are worth it. You are very special, Luna. You deserve to be treated well."
I laughed. I couldn't help it. In my world there was no such thing as being treated well. And after seventeen years of hearing how much I deserved to be punished, I wasn't going to be easily convinced that I deserved better. "You have no idea what I deserve, Dammon."
"Yes, I do. I am a people reader, remember?"
"That's right. I almost forgot."
"We laughed together. It was nice. It was like we were old friends sharing a few precious moments together. Even our hands held together felt natural. Everything about Dammon and I felt right.
Dammon and I were so caught up in our own little world that neither one of us noticed the silver Cadillac that had pulled up to the curb between our houses. Neither one of us noticed that Sean had gotten out of his car.
Until the door slammed shut, and the sound rudely ripped our attention away from one another.
It wasn't until I saw Sean that I remembered that he'd told me not to speak to Dammon.
Reluctantly, I slipped my hands out of Dammon's grip. I opened my mouth to say hello to Sean, but I didn't get the chance to say a word.
Sean grabbed me up by the elbow and jerked me away from Dammon so hard and so fast that I stumbled sideways. I would have fallen if it hadn't been for
the iron grip he had on my arm. He stabbed his finger in the air, barely touching Dammon's nose. "If I ever see you around my girl again, I will kill you. Slowly," he said, vehemently. Then, with a jerk of my arm, he turned me around and lead me quickly to his car. He threw the passenger's door open wide and shoved me inside, slamming the door shut. Panic fluttered through me, urging my body to open up the door and run like mad. But, as Sean rounded the front bumper, his cold, sapphire eyes pierced me through the windshield and pinned me to the back of the seat. There was magic in this look. Black magic. And there was power. I had no idea how it was possible, but Sean's eyes possessed the power to hold me against my will, to keep me from fleeing.
Sean got behind the wheel. The tires slid sideways when he spun the Cadillac around. As he sped down the road I sat as still as I could. Every muscle in my body was tight with tension. Somewhere inside of me I was hoping that my stillness would leak out of me, spill around him and calm the storm I could feel brewing within him.
I knew enough about dangerous men to know that I was in trouble.
I had no idea where Sean was taking me, but I hoped with all my might that he would calm himself down before we got there.
The tires squawked on the pavement as he turned the Cadillac out of the trailer park and onto the Highway. Sean took the turn into the car wash, just down the road from the trailer park. He pulled into the big, semi-sized stall and killed the engine. Without pause, he got out of the car. As he rounded the front bumper and headed for the passenger's side I knew for certain that something bad was about to happen.
Sean opened the door, reached inside, grabbed me by a thick lock of snow-white hair at the side of my head and then yanked me out of the car. I screeched, grabbing his hand at the side of my head with both of my hands, as I went sailing sideways. He rushed me along side him, as he crossed the parking space and went into the trees. Just a few yards into the woods he brought me to a painful, hair yanking stop. He whirled me around and then shoved me backward into the tree behind me so hard that it knocked the air from my lungs. Using my hair in his clenched fist, he pinned my head to the trunk of the tree. As I tried to suck air into my stunned lungs, Sean cocked his head just slightly to one side. He lowered his face down to mine. His nostrils flaring. His eyes like a madman.
"You disobeyed me, didn't you?" he said. His breath was warm and moist against my ear.
"Let go of me!" I shoved him in the chest with all my strength, trying to push him away from me, but Sean didn't budge. He was solid and sturdy. It was like a moth trying to move a mammoth. Impossible!
"You did not answer me." Using a fistful of my hair, Sean bashed the back of my head into the tree trunk. Pain shot through my head. It felt like a bunch of sharp, little nails had been hammered into my brain. A humming sound filled my ears. I closed my eyes tight, trying to remind myself that pain was just a perception, and that even though it hurt like hell, it really didn't have to. I could deal with this. I had certainly experienced more extreme amounts of pain than this before.
"I expect you to look at me when I speak to you," Sean growled. Then he knocked my head into the tree again. This time the sharp crack to my skull nearly made me pass out. Foggy stuff swirled before my eyes, and everything faded behind it.
Somehow I managed to open my eyes. My father had trained me well. I knew how to cope, how to keep my wits about me while under the influence of potent pain.
"Good girl. That's beautiful. Now I haven't heard your apology, Little One. Tell me you are sorry for your disobedience."
"Get off of me! Let me go! I am not apologizing for anything," I yelled at him. There was one thing my father failed miserably at trying to teach me, and that was obedience. I tried again to shove him away, but again, it was like the moth and the mammoth. This made me even more frustrated and angrier than I already was. "Leave me alone! I don't ever want to see you again!"
"That cannot happen. You see, we were made for one another, you and I. It is evident that it will take you some time to realize this for yourself. But after tonight, we will be bound. And after this little episode, I do believe that I may bind you to me forever. It will take you some time to learn your place with me. This is not it, Little One. Your belligerence is intolerable."
Using my hair, Sean yanked me away from the tree and threw me to the ground. I landed so hard that my face bounced off the ground. Everything that was fuzzy darkened. My vision failed me. I felt my body being turned until I was flat on my back. I felt a weight on my abdomen. My arms were pulled upward. The fuzzy stuff that was floating in my vision was beginning to fade away. The world began to unfold around me. Sean was sitting on top of me. He had gathered my wrists in one of his hands and was now crushing them into the dirt above my head.
"Listen to me, Little One," he said. The icy calm in his voice frightened me even more than his behavior toward me did. "And listen very closely. If I ever see you around that boy again, I will kill him, right here, where you are lying now. And then I will lie you down in bloody grass. I am a man of my word. Now, I expect obedience from you. I expect respect. And I will receive these things from you, no matter the cost."
"Get off of me!" I yelled at him. I started to squirm. I couldn't help it. I knew in the back of my mind that I'd be getting myself into more trouble. I knew I was utterly defenseless against him, that there was no escape, but I couldn't help it. It was my survival instincts kicking in.
I kicked my legs out, yanked at my arms and arched my back upward, trying to somehow hurt him so that I could set myself free.
"Get the hell off of me!" I screamed at him.
But then his fist came down. His knuckles drove into the side of my head.
And everything stopped.
****
Chapter Six
Sean