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  “Then you’d better start praying because Luke said if you don’t split them up by summer, then the boys and I get to persuade you to try a bit harder,” Nick said with a wicked looking smile.

  Claud moved forward, looking as though he might try to step between the two of them. Using all the charm she could muster, she batted her long eyelashes at Claud and gave him a grateful look.

  “Go easy on her, Nick,” Claud said.

  Thunder boomed overhead as Nick stepped in close to Bridget. She struggled to ignore the fact that his breath reeked of cigarettes as she tried to look annoyed.

  “You will do as he asks,” Nick growled as he leaned in and pointed a finger in her face.

  Lightning flashed overhead, making his dark eyes look like pools of reflective ink. The threat in their depths said what his words didn’t. Those eyes were filled with the promise of a world of hurt.

  Bridget’s bottom lip quivered and her vision began to blur with tears. Noticing this, Nick smiled before he spun away. He took off at a brisk pace and the others followed. The last bit of strength Bridget had drained away and she collapsed to her knees. Rain drops started to fall, finding their way down through the boughs of the spruce trees. They hit her arms and face, and they were cold, but she hardly cared. She was numb with fear and a horrible helplessness. The chill of a spring rain was a wonderful respite compared to what Nick would do to her if she failed Luke.

  “A Society is only as strong as its weakest member.

  Strength of character is more often than not

  more beneficial than strength of body.”

  ~from Life In A Society.

  Chapter 18

  Running helped to refocus Aiden’s energy, and if he pushed himself fast enough he could almost stop thinking of the way Eren’s body felt against his. Whatever it was they had done had left him buzzing like he’d downed two quadruple espressos. It had felt amazing, kind of like they’d been breathing fire down each other’s throats, only without it hurting. No, not kind of, exactly like that. Every touch, smell, and taste had been heightened during the strange exchange. Zolin’s book said nothing about this.

  He wanted to go anywhere except for his foster family’s home but he didn’t really have a choice, that’s where his things were. His feet ate up the sidewalk way too fast and he was at the doorstep before he had calmed down. Focusing hard to hear beyond his own thundering heart, he listened until he was sure the house was empty before entering. Not wanting to give them any excuse to send Bridget to bother him later, he unloaded the dishwasher and took out the garbage and recycling before dashing up to the attic.

  Undressing as he crossed the room, he went straight for the closet-sized bathroom and squeezed into the tiny shower. He turned the water as cold as he could stand it and sighed in relief as it soothed the last of the fire raging in him. Finally, his head cleared and he could think again. Wanting Eren was something he had grown used to, and just like his heartbeat and blood flow, he was learning to control it. Taking a health class taught by a Tibetan monk had its advantages. However, what they’d done today had blown that control to hell.

  If he hadn’t ran and jumped off that roof when he did, it would have taken a lot more than Sylvia to tear him away from Eren. Even though he was pretty sure Eren felt the same way that scared him. The last thing he wanted was for Eren to give herself to him because of some weird Rector thing. He wanted it to be because she was ready and was making a conscious choice, not because instinct drove her to it.

  Regardless of how uncomfortable it would be, he had to go talk to Alin and find out about the strange exchange of power. The more he knew about it the better his chances of learning to control it would be. He had homework but it could wait, this couldn’t. Aiden tried desperately to remember what time it was but realized he had no idea. He wasn’t about to go back and check Zolin’s place. This was not something he wanted to get stuck discussing with him. Perhaps if he just went and sat on Alin and Sylvia’s doorstep…

  Wrapping a towel around his waist, he stepped out of the bathroom and froze as a familiar, unwelcome energy assaulted his senses. Sprawled across his bed wearing only tiny bits of satin connected by lace, was Bridget. She had a figure that was pleasing enough, but Aiden couldn’t see through his distaste for the girl to appreciate it. All he saw when he looked at her was an obstacle that was trying to get between him and the girl he loved. Well, that and used goods.

  “Get out,” he said.

  Clutching the towel around his waist closed with one hand, he bent and grabbed his jeans off the floor.

  “Oh, Aiden, don’t be that way. Eren doesn’t have to know,” Bridget purred.

  She started to uncross her legs and Aiden looked swiftly away. Turning his back to her, he slipped his jeans on beneath his towel. The mattress squeaked as she crawled across it. When he turned back around she was so close he almost ran into her. Licking her dark red lips, she reached out to touch his chest. He grabbed her wrist and shoved her back. She stumbled and fell onto the bed.

  “Don’t touch me. Get out of here and don’t ever come back in. I will not tell you again.”

  Bridget crossed her arms beneath her barely concealed breasts. This lifted and pushed them together in an alluring way, forcing Aiden to stare straight into her eyes to avoid distraction.

  “I can do things to you that your little Mayan girlfriend wouldn’t even dream of doing. I don’t even mind if you want to be rough,” she said as she crawled across the bed toward him.

  With her in that position there was no way to avoid seeing things he didn’t want to see. He turned his head away, fighting the urge to slap her. He was afraid that if he did, he might not have the control to hold his strength back and would end up really hurting her. It wasn’t like he could break her neck, it was almost impossible to break a channeler’s bones. He didn’t want to hit her because he didn’t want to be like his adopted father.

  Ignoring her, Aiden zipped his jeans up and tossed the towel aside.

  “I’m just looking out for your best interest, Aiden. You can’t have a future with her, she isn’t Irish. You can with me,” Bridget said.

  She beamed up at him as he walked to the bed. The smile wilted as he grabbed her by the arms, hauled her to her feet, and carried her to the stairs. Not really caring how she landed, he tossed her out. The moment her feet touched the carpeted floor of the hallway below, he yanked the stairs up and threw the bolt that held them in place. His conscience was clear; she’d be fine, though there was a small part of him that wished she wouldn’t be.

  Not bothering with shoes, he threw on a shirt, tossed his backpack over his shoulder, and leaped out the open window. He was running the moment his feet hit the grass. His power tried to rise in response to his anger but he held it back with practiced ease. When he leaped the backyard fence and landed on the sidewalk on the other side, green energy was building around his fists. Okay, so he held it back for the most part.

  Channeling all his anger and frustration into running helped but the lingering scent of Bridget’s overpowering perfume didn’t. No matter how hard she tried, the only energy he wanted to expend on her wasn’t sexual, it was angry. The way his body responded to the sight of her made that crystal clear. He’d had all he could take of that girl’s games. Let the McGrath’s say whatever they wanted, he wasn’t going back to that house tonight.

  “To have children a pair of channelers must

  be bonded. This is both a curse and a

  blessing to our kind.”

  ~from Life In A Society.

  Chapter 19

  After a long night of talking to Aiden on the phone, Eren had a hard time rousing herself from bed the next morning. Due to the amount of sunlight bathing her bed, she guessed it was past nine. Late for a Monday, but Aunt Sylvia was keeping her out of school today so it was alright. She hadn’t said what it was about, just girl stuff, but Eren wasn’t complaining. Normally she was up with the sun jogging, but considering she hadn’t
hung up the phone until 1:30am she decided to let her routine slide a bit today.

  They talked in great detail about the Rector’s exchange of power. Aiden told her he had talked to Alin about it and ended up staying the night there. Something else seemed to be bothering him, but he insisted it was nothing. Her instincts told her it was more than just this new complication in their relationship, but she let it go since he got tense when she asked. She knew that if it was important he’d tell her at some point.

  By the time she dragged herself out of bed the sun had disappeared and rain was streaming down the huge round window. So it was going to be one of those days then. Great. Oh well, she loved the sound of the rain on the roof. It motivated her to take a very long, very hot shower.

  When she finally made her way downstairs, she heard Aunt Sylvia’s voice coming from the kitchen.

  “Do you really think she’s ready for that?” Zolin asked, sounding not only doubtful but very reluctant.

  Eren’s steps slowed and she crept along, carefully placing her feet where she knew the floor didn’t creek.

  “Trust me, Dad, she’s ready,” Aunt Sylvia said.

  “But she’s so young. This shouldn’t be necessary for another eighty years or so. I just thought we’d have more time,” Zolin’s words ended in a sigh.

  “She’ll be seventeen this summer. Losing both her parents forced her to grow up fast. This is the right thing to do. It will make sure she has the time to finish growing up,” Sylvia said.

  “You’re right,” Zolin agreed, but he didn’t sound happy about it.

  Acting as casual as she could, Eren strolled into the kitchen and went straight for the coffee pot. “Good morning,” she said.

  Once she had her coffee, she threw together a small bowl of cereal and sat down at the bar. Grandfather looked like he wanted to say something but instead got up and started to clean. Considering the kitchen was already spotless it wasn’t hard to figure out something was wrong. Eren started to wonder exactly what it was Aunt Sylvia was taking her to do.

  The moment she emptied her bowl and set it down, her grandfather picked it up. Aunt Sylvia grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet.

  “Better hurry or we’ll be late,” she said as she whisked her from the room.

  Eren cast a longing glance back at her half empty coffee cup but didn’t resist. The hallway went by in a blur and they were practically skipping out to the street a second later. She hardly got the Jeep door closed before Aunt Sylvia put it in drive.

  “Okay Aunt Sylvia, what was that all about?” Eren asked.

  “That was your grandfather not wanting you to grow up.”

  For a while they traveled in silence, which was highly unusual for Aunt Sylvia. If she wasn’t ready to give up more than what Eren had already heard, Eren didn’t really know what to say. Apparently they weren’t going out of town because Aunt Sylvia turned north onto the street that served as the line between Tibetan and Irish territory. Almost a mile down the road, she turned right into the Tibetan part of town. After a few more turns she pulled into a parking spot in front of a two-story building that looked like it had been plucked from the Himalayas a few hundred years ago. The trim on the high peaked roof glimmered as if it were real gold instead of paint. It wouldn’t surprise Eren if it was.

  “Don’t be mad at me,” Aunt Sylvia pleaded.

  Suspicion tingled its way up Eren’s neck. “Why would I be mad at you? What is this place?”

  There was no sign for a business but it didn’t look like a residence either. The architecture of Tibetan homes was similar to this but not quite as ostentatious and for the most part, not as large. That meant it had to be a business of some kind.

  “A Tibetan bath house, among other things. It’s kind of like a spa,” Aunt Sylvia said before opening the door and stepping out.

  Her quick exit from the vehicle didn’t give Eren a chance to ask any more questions and she was pretty sure that wasn’t by accident. It didn’t sound sinister. But if that were so, why did Aunt Sylvia sound so nervous? She had said ‘among other things.’

  Well, she wasn’t going to get an answer sitting alone in the Jeep.

  Taking a deep breath, she jumped out and followed her aunt to the bright red double doors. They opened into a waiting room filled with comfortable looking couches. There was no reception counter and the room was empty. Before Eren could ask anything of Aunt Sylvia, a woman emerged from the hallway on the other side of the room.

  “Eren? Right this way. The doctor is almost ready for you,” the woman said with a warm smile.

  Eren’s jaw dropped. “Spa, huh?”

  “Among other things. Even channelers need checkups and yours is overdue,” Sylvia said.

  The next half hour trumped all the embarrassing moments in Eren’s life. Those moments seemed to be seriously adding up lately. That a doctor could be so casual while inspecting those parts of her anatomy absolutely floored her. It helped that it was a woman, but not enough to stop her from glaring at her aunt the entire time.

  Finally, it was over and the doctor left so she could get dressed, which really seemed pointless considering that she had just looked at every part of Eren. When she came back she handed Eren a small, flat package and gave her strict instructions to take one pill every day. She was adamant about her not missing a pill, ever.

  Eren stared in horror at the woman, but said nothing. The doctor grinned and clapped her hands together as she turned to lead her and Aunt Sylvia to the bathhouse. It was a large room occupied by a shallow pool of water so hot that the steam rolling off it made it hard to see. Though it looked like the pool could hold a hundred people in it, thankfully, there were only three other women on the opposite side of the room. Despite being mostly submerged it wasn’t hard to tell they were naked. Of course they were.

  Muttering in Mayan, Eren stripped down and climbed into the blissfully hot water. After what she’d just endured it hardly seemed to matter who saw her naked now. For just a moment she rested her head back against the blue tiled edge of the pool and let herself relax. She waited until Sylvia settled into the water next to her before she said anything.

  “Birth control?”

  “I’m sorry I had to spring it on you but I was afraid you wouldn’t come if I told you,” Sylvia said.

  She sounded genuinely sorry but Eren wasn’t ready to forgive her just yet. “Aunt Sylvia, why don’t you trust me?”

  Sylvia ran a wet hand through her hair and had to stop halfway through due to the tangles. She looked like she was stalling as she tried very hard to figure out what to say.

  “It isn’t hard to see that the feelings you and Aiden have for each other are genuine. It’s only natural for your relationship to progress and I just don’t want it to catch you off guard when it gets to that point,” she finally said.

  As much as Eren wanted to be mad, the truth of Sylvia’s words made it hard.

  “Thanks, Aunt Sylvia.”

  “What? Really?” Sylvia asked as she sat straight up, her brown eyes wide.

  “You’re right. Don’t freak out or anything, Aiden and I aren’t planning on taking the next step anytime soon. But we weren’t planning on the Rector exchange of power thing either. Who knows what other surprises will complicate things even more.”

  For a moment Sylvia stared at her with open mouthed disbelief. Then she shook her head and laughed. “I’m supposed to be the adult.”

  Eren smiled and breathed in the steam that rolled off the water. It had a subtle jasmine scent to it that was wonderfully soothing. After the past couple of days if felt great to relax. She knew her aunt’s words were only half joking. At sixteen she shouldn’t have to be so grown up, but without parents here to guide her, Eren figured she had to step it up a bit. Aunt Sylvia, Uncle Alin, and Grandfather Zolin worked so hard to give her every opportunity. She didn’t want to blow it.

  “Since you’re being so open minded, there’s something I wanted to talk to you about,” Sylvia
said.

  Forcing her eyes open, Eren steeled herself for something else unpleasant. She couldn’t possibly imagine anything that could trump the whole doctor visit and she was really hoping Aunt Sylvia hadn’t either.

  “I was hoping you might be willing to visit a few college campuses this summer. Of course, Aiden could go with you.”

  With those words the day went from one of the most uncomfortable in Eren’s life, to one of the most amazing. Squealing, she lurched over to embrace her aunt, splashing water everywhere. The three Tibetan women across the pool from them stared in open disapproval at the commotion but Eren didn’t care.

  “I’d love to! Aunt Sylvia you’re the best!”

  “Excellent. I have a bunch of pamphlets for you and Aiden to look through when we get home,” she said.

  Grabbing the edge of the pool, Eren looked at her aunt expectantly. “Well let’s go!”

  Sylvia shook her head and laughed, her black hair clinging to her cheeks. “Relax. Aiden won’t be over for a few more hours and we’ve got manicure and pedicure appointments after our soak,” she said.

  Eren smiled as she nodded and relaxed. “Awesome.”

  After a day of being pampered at the spa, it wasn’t hard for Eren to forgive her aunt for tricking her into going to the doctor. They even stopped down the street and got their hair cut. While Aunt Sylvia got her bob shortened, Eren went for a trim that brought her long black hair up to the middle of her back. It had been almost a year since she’d had it cut and considering how heavy it had been getting, it felt great to get it done.

  The mixture of spruce and vanilla that was Aiden’s scent, lingered in the hallway as Eren walked into her grandfather’s home. She skipped toward the stairs, pulling up short when Aunt Sylvia called after her. She turned around to see her step into the living room and grab a handful of large envelopes off the coffee table.