10

Aria

“Are you okay?” Cash asks me the second he enters my room. I am sitting on the bed sipping a mug of hot chocolate that my brother brought me. Maddy is downstairs making me breakfast and the girls are on their way to school.

“I'm okay.” I smile weakly at him. I am still exhausted from the ordeal but I am also embarrassed to have everyone fussing over me as if I am an invalid.

Cash walks over to me and, to my surprise, pulls me into a hug. “Maddy told me you collapsed and were unconcious for hours. He said some weird things have happened to you and that you might need my help figuring them out?” He pulls back and offers me a mock bow. “I'm at your service for whatever you may need.”

His playfulness makes me giggle. All too soon the atmosphere shifts to serious as I tell him about the trance I entered whenever I touched places that Eyra had touched. He nods, looking me over.

“It sounds as if you have the ability commonly called Death Sense.” Cash says.

“What is that?” Maddy asks from the doorway, joining the two of us in the room and sitting on the other side of me, causing me to scoot closer to Cash.

“Pretty much exactly as it sounds. She has the ability to sense death in a person. Literature states it as the ability to sense the coming of death or the actual act of dying. Some cases have even been recorded that the person was able to sense a person's death after the fact, maybe even sensing their location. There have been reports of some even seeing the face of the killer.” He looks at me, taking my hand in his. “Although, in all my research on the subject, I have never actually read about someone reliving the victims death. Especially when it is someone they didn't even know. Most of the research on Death Sense is reported to only be felt for loved ones and relatives. People with deep regards or a strong connection to the person with the ability.”

“So, it kind of sounds like this ability but just a little extra?” I ask him, looking between him and my brother. “What does that mean?” A thought occurs to me and I freak out. “Does this mean I am going to do this whenever anyone dies?” My breath comes in quick gusts as I the feel panic rising. “I can't handle that! It is horrible! I experience their pain, their emotions. I am trapped in their body, helpless, as we die. My ribs are sore from where he kicked her. My head aches as if I actully sustained a hit.” I begin to hyperventilate as tears fill my eyes. “I- I'm scared of this!”

I am pulled into a pair of strong arms as I fight back the terror choking me. I bury into his strong chest seeking comfort. It's only when I feel my brother's hand stroking my back that I realize I leaned into Cash for comfort. Comfort that is he willingly offering as he holds me tightly to him stroking my hair.

“Listen, before you make yourself sick, just calm down. Right now, it has only been one time. It may never happen again or there may be something causing it that we can avoid. Maybe you are a certain type of pretanatural creature with this ability and when we get more answers we might be able to, I don't know, turn off the ability?” Maddy says, trying to make me feel better.

“Your brother is right. Let me do more research on the subject. I will check our extensive records on creatures and their abilities, as well as delving into human folklore from all countries. Surely I can find something that will shine some light on the situation for us. Give us a sense of what we are up against.” Cash tells me, pushing me away from his chest just enough to look down at me. “I will not stop until I find the answers we seek.”

“What do we do until then?” I ask, worried. I want to do whatever I can do avoid this happening again.

“Well, first, I'm going to go call the school and have them send your work with the girls for the next few days. I think you should stay home and recover from the ordeal.” Maddy says.

“I agree. I also don't think she should be left alone. That way if she feels the call of a death, someone is here to go with her or to help her. She shouldn't have to face this all alone.” Cash says, talking over my head.

“Right, good point. I have a few classes that I can do the work from home but a have three daily classes that have to attend to every day. So for at least three to four hours a day I will be gone from home. Plus, my research job that is six hours a week and then the mandatory study group that is for an hour every Tuesday evening.” He thinks for a minute. “I guess I could ask Grandma Aggie to come stay with us for a while and keep an eye on you.” Maddy answers, almost as if he were talking aloud to himself.

“I'm not sure that will work. No offense to Aggie, she's a tough lady and all, but if Aria enters and trance again and heads off on food through the woods again it might be impossible for Aggie to keep up with her. In fact, you could be putting them both in danger.”

“You're right. I need someone young and strong, who can protct Aria if need be or even hold her back, if it comes to it. Someone I trust completely. So, you can move in tonight, Cash. We have two rooms that you can choose from.” Maddy says, as if everything is settled. He just hired Cash to be my babystitter while I sat here, being excluded from the conversation.

“Wait a sec-”

“Actually, that would be perfect. I could do my research here. Any questions that I have I can just ask, rather than having to track her down. That would save time. Besides, I would be on hand and could observe her behavior in person should this occur again. I actually only have one class that's in person this semester and it's just an elective. I can drop it and pick it back up later if the Professor doesn't want to work with me on attending from home.”

“Perfect. It's settled. Go get your stuff. We won't even have to bother Grandma Aggie.” Maddy says. They both stand up, as if everything is settled. Maddy leans down and kisses the top of my head. “Get some sleep, kid. I will bring you some lunch later.”

“You never even brought my breakfast!” I say but he doesn't seem to hear me as he leaves the room.

Cash tugs my body up to the pillows as if you were no bigger than a toddler. He tucks the blanket around me before he kisses my cheek. “I shall see you later. Rest well.” Then he too leaves the room without so much as a backwards glance.

“But I just woke up from a twelve hour nap! I'm not tired!” I shout after them. I am only met with silence. Ugh, I huff, flopping back against my pillows. As I lay there staring at the ceiling my eyes begin to grow heavy. Before I know what's happening, I am slipping back into the blissfulness of sleep.

I woke up to the sun shining brightly, filling my room with it's warmth. A glance at my phone shows that it's after eight, which means my sisters have already left for school. Maddy and Cash are probably out for their morning runs around the block. The only time I am not hovered over is when they go for their twenty minute jog through the neighborhood. They only started doing that two days ago, after a week of me having no more 'episodes', as I have dubbed it.

I grab up an old t-shirt that belonged to my dad and a clean pair of underwear before I skip down the stairs to the bathroom. While the house is empty is a good time to shower since I can sing as loud as I want. I go in and turn the water on to hot, stripping off my clothes. I pull open the small door on the wall that hides the laundry shoot that leads to the laundry room downstairs. I push my dirty clothes through then shove the door closed.

Grabbing the last two towels from the cabinet, I lay my clothes with one of the towels on the sink. I put the other, smaller towel over the shower curtain rod to wrap around my hair once I wash it.. It feels wonderful when you finally step into the shower, letting the hot water rain down on me, relaxing my muscles. I reach out and click play on my phone and the sound of a rock song fills the room. I shampoo my hair as I sway along with the song, singing. “Skin to skin.. blood and bone... You're all by yourself.. but you're not alone...”

The sound of the door opening suddenly scares me and I knock off the bottles of soaps on the side of the tub. Yelping, I cover myself with the shower curtain. “Get out!”

“Geez, chill, babe.” I hear the door push closed.

“What are you doing in here?” I ask.

“Cleaning! Sucking up, mostly, but there is still a little cleaning happening.” Halona says. “Moira is downstairs sweeping, mopping, scrubbing the ceiling, cleaning the fireplace.. pretty much whatever Maddy wants us to do.”

“What do y'all want?” I ask. Then add, “And why aren't you at school?”

“Witch brew explosion. No school for the first two periods of the day while the turn a few students back. After they wrangle them up. People sure do go crazy when they are suddenly turned into chickens.” Halona shrugs as she cleans the toilet with the long handled brush.

“Really?!” I burst out, incredulous. I shampoo my hair again, then add some conditioner.

“No, not really.” She laughs. “I mean, a potion did go awry but no one turned into a chicken. That I know of. It just stunk to high heaven in there so they closed the school down while they have a few witches go blow the smell out.” She moves my clothes so she can scrub the sink with cleaner. “As for what we want, we are trying to talk Maddy into letting us go out tonight. You know how he gets manic about letting us go out on school nights. But a friend of ours has tickets to a concert in Richmond. We would be back by one in the morning.”

“You need to worry about laundry. We are out of towels.” I am answered by the slamming of the door as she leaves the room. Now that my hair is clean I wrap the towel around it before I wash my body. Lathering up my loofah with the rose scented body wash, I begin to scrub my arms as the aromatic bubbles cascade down my body. I feel positively decadent.

After a few more minutes the water starts rapidly cooling and I step out from behind the curtain. When I get to the sink I begin to curse aloud. “Halona!” I scream. Nothing.

Halona just threw my clothes back on the sink but she didn't turn the water off. The clothes I brought to put on are now dripping wet and I have already sent my dirty ones to the basement. Even my towel is soaking wet. “I'm going to kill her!” I mutter to myself. I walk over to the cabinet and yank it open, hoping that towels have just magically appeared. I look on every shelf behind anything and everything, but there is nothing for me to put on.

Shit. I'm going to have to wrap up in this itty bitty towel that is barely one size up from a tea towel and I'm going to have to make a break for my room. Wrapping it around me, I tug so that my breasts are mostly covered as well as most of my ass. I am showing a lot of hip and from a certain angle my whole body is on display.

I creak the door open a bit and listen. Nothing. Absolute silence. “Hello?” No answer, nor sounds of movement.

I turn back to get my stuff, ready to make a break for it, when I see my phone. Duh! I'll call Halona and make her bring me clothes, since this is her fault. I push the icon to call Halona and it rings.

“Yeah?”

“Bring me some clothes! You got mine soaking wet and now I am stuck naked in the bathroom. There aren't even towels!” I screech.

“Love to help you, babe, but I can't. Moira and I are on our way to downtown. Maddy is making us follow him to the gas station and he's going to fill her up, so that he doesn't have to worry about us running out of gas halfway home from Richmond.”

“Shit. So, no one is home? What about Cash?” I ask.

“Not my day to keep up with him..” Halona grumbles. Moira grabs the phone. “Cash mentioned needing to go out and grab some book on Irish folklore. He had a lead on something or nother to help you with this or that. I don't know.”

“Okay, well-”

“Anyways, we're here so we'll see you in the morning! Bye!” Halona says before she ends the call. Okay, no one's home. I'll just make a break for my room.

I throw my wet clothes and towel over the curtain rod to dry first before I ease the door open once more. If no one's home then I don't have to worry so bad. I swing open the door and step into the hallway, a cold breeze swirling around my damp, almost naked body.

“God, it's cold!” I mutter, shivering, as I begin to clib the stairs.

“I imagine so.”

I freeze. Ever so slowly, I begin to turn to face the voice. “I, um, I thought you were gone.”

“Um, no. They whole point of me being here is so that you aren't left alone. I just ran out to the road to meet my brother. He brought me a book that I requested. I was just on my way to my room to begin looking through it.” Cash points past ,e. He raises an eyebrow and his lips curl into a grin. “Have a nice shower?”

“Well, I did. Until Halona came in to clean around me, soaking my clothes. Then there were no towels except for this little pillow case sized piece of fabric. So I called for help. Assumed no one was here. I called her actual phone. I was assured that the house was empty. So, I had no other option but to streak through the house to my room.” I explain to him normally, as if there is nothing unusual about me standing before him naked.

“Oh.” He says, still standing perfectly still. Like a true gentleman his eyes have never left my face, not even for a second.

“Well, um, it's cold so I'm going to go on up.” I point to my room, as if he didn't know what I meant by 'going up'. “I, um, I'm probably going to just be in my room all day. Dying of embarrassment and all that. You know, normal things.” I grin at him.

“I'm going to go in my room. Read about tall tales in the human world. Try to lower my blood pressure. Maybe get the image of you naked out of my mind. You know, difficult things.” He grins back. He gives me a wink and walks to his door. Before he enters though, he stops and turns back. “One more thing-” I see his eyes widen and he gulps.

I realize that he is at just the right angle to see everything I have to offer. I move my arms to try and cover yourself, turning to the other side, nearly falling down the stairs.

“Ah, nevermind.” He closes the door behind him and I slump against the wall. Oh. My. God.

Turning, I head up the stairs. I spend the rest of the morning in my room, laying in bed in nothing but a large t-shirt. I have no work to do because all the school work that my sisters brought me for the week is already done. I got bored and did all of it the first day so every day since I have spent my time staring into space, cleaning and cooking large meals. I have also spent a lot of time talking to Cash, who actually turned out to be pretty cool.

Throughout the week I have also texted Mason a bunch. I have been too embarrassed to see him in person, but we have had long conversations on the phone. He is suppose to come by this afternoon so that I can see him for a little while. Unfortunately, he can't stay long.

Around two in the afternoon I go downstairs and begin to prep the for the dinner meal. I haven't been in the kitchen long when Cash joins me, moving over to stand really close to me. “What are you making tonight?”

“Spinach stuffed chicken with mushroom wine sauce. Roasted carrots with maple dijon glaze and bacon, mashed delicata squash and a blue cheese and pear spring salad. Rosewater cheesecake with mixed berry and rose sauce on top.” I tell him.

“Wow.”

“What?” I look at him, scowling.

“You are absolutely amazing.” Cash tells me. He sniffs the air. “I have never tasted food as good as I have this last week that I have stayed here. You are remarkably talented.”

“Thank you.” I blush at the compliment. I grab a spoon and dip up a little taste of the berry sauce and offer it out to him. I blush even harder when he leans over and opens his mouth, letting me feed the bite to him. The intimacy of the moment sends a white hot flash of desire through me.

“Mmm..” He moans. “That is spectacular.”

His little sound of pleasure makes me weak in the knees. “I'm glad.” My voice comes out husky and I feel yourself quivering. Oh, if only I could get this raging attraction under control. My life would be so much easier. “It should be done by the time Maddy gets home, so we can have an early meal.”

“Oh, yes, that is what I was coming to tell you. Maddy called me earlier. His mandatory study group for Professor Murtry is apparently now an every night thing until after the mid-term this Friday. So, he won't be home until late.” Cash looks at me and smiles a wicked smile that knocks me off balance. “It's just us tonight.”

“Oh.” I turn away, cleaning up the mess on the counter. I don't need to start cooking for another couple of hours, so I move to walk around Cash but he stops me with a hand on my arm. “Aria..”

I look at him and my heart beats faster. He pulls me closer to him and looks down into my eyes. “What are we going to do?”

“About w-what?”

“Us. This. What are we going to do about this?”

“What do you want to do?” I ask him, as he pulls my body against his.

“Well, I'm not sure that you are ready to hear all that. But just know, we can fight this attraction between us, long and hard, but that only means one thing. The longer you let a fire burn out of control the hotter it gets.” With that he dips his head and presses his firm mouth to mine. His lips softly caress mine as his hands stroke my back, igniting small fires deep inside me.

His hands grip my waist and he lifts me as if I were as light as a feather. When he sits me on the counter, he moves to stand between my legs, his hands still holding tightly to my hips. His tongue pushes past the barrier of my lips, deepening the kiss until his mouth is devouring mine. His hands inch a little higher up my waist, bunching my shirt in his hands.

His hands stroke up my breasts and I crave his touch more than I crave my next breath. “Cash..”

“What, baby? What do you need?”

You. My hands tangle in his hair as his mouth moves from my lips to my neck. I tilt my head back, offering myself to him without words. His hands lift me until my legs are wrapped around his waist and he is gripping my ass tightly.

“Aria, I-”

Ding.

The sound of the doorbell ringing throught the house pulls me back. At first I can only stand frozen, staring at him. Mason. He's here. “Dog-boy.”

“Be nice.” I warn him.

“If he touches you, I will rip his arms off of his body and shove them up his a-”

“That's enough of that.” I tell him. Running from the kitchen I pull the door open just as he rings the bell once more. “Hey Mason!”

“Aria, I missed you!” He sweeps me into his arms and gives me a tight hug.

I laugh. “I missed you too. It's only been a week though.” Me and Mason spend the next thirty minutes catching up, as Cash goes back to his room. I give Mason a little insight into what has been going on with me, without going into too much detail. “So, that's why I haven't been there.”

“Man. That's rough.”

He pulls me in close for a hug, holding me for a long while. I have no clue you aren't alone until an animalistic growl echoes in my head. I know all too well that no one else heard it. Cash is angry at Mason for touching me. I am a little flattered by his jealousy on one hand. The vain parts of me crave that little thrill I get, knowing I hold such power over him.

On the other hand, I am so confused. He has kissed me once, but I am still not even sure he likes me as a person, better yet as something more. His kissing me hasn't changed that. Besides, just as I am confused about his feelings, I am confused by my own.

I have known since the first day I saw him that I was fascinated by his looks and intrigued by his mannerisms. But finding someone attractive and having a small crush is something completely different from actually acting on those feelings. Eventually, I am going to have to find out what he meant by kissing me.

I pull out of Mason's arms and he grins down at me. He leans his head down, as if to kiss me, when suddenly a throat clearing behind me causes his head to snap up. “Mr. Bradbury.”

“Mr. Corvus.” Cash says. “I need to speak with Aria.” He gives Mason a hard look. “Privately.”

“Yeah, okay. I should be going anyways.” Mason grins down at me once again. He is always so happy that it is kind of infectious. I grin back up at him, feeling happier than I have in a while. “I'll call you tonight, babe.”

He tips his head and to my surprise, presses his lips to mine. His hand slides up to tangle in the hair at the nape of my neck and his other is pressed into the small of my back. I lean into the kiss but all too soon he pulls away. “Talk to you later.” Then he is gone, the sound of the front door closing is the only sound in the house at the moment.

I stand dazed for a moment before I turn my head, finally remembering Cash. He gives me a disgusted look and stalks out of the room, stomping up the stairs. I sigh, laying back on the couch, throwing an arm over my face. I go from being noticed by no one to being caught between two gorgeous men. At this exact moment, I am not sure which is worse.

After a while of stewing over how crazy my life has gotten and how I can't do anything about it, I get up to finish dinner. I call up the stairs to Cash, but he doesn't answer. Seriously? Is he pouting? Because that is SO not an attractive quality in a grown ass man! I slam the serving spoon down on the counter and flounce from the room, climbing the stairs as I mutter to myself. I stop outside his door and take a calming breath. I can't go pounding on his door like the police, so I take slow breaths until I can knock calmly.

My hand raps the door and nothing. “Cash?”

Silence.

“Seriously? Are you ignoring me? What are you? Two?” I huff, pushing open the door. “Cash?”

I spot him immediately. He is at the desk, books and paper spread everywhere. What softens my heart is that he is slumped over, sound asleep. He is so cute in sleep, with all the frown lines eased from his face. I have to physically fight the urge to go and caress his face. Quietly I leave the room, pulling the door closed behind him.

I fix him and Maddy each a plate, putting them in the fridge. I eat my meal alone at the kitchen counter, clean the kitchen and then head to my room for the night. I throw on a t-shirt and a pair of socks, then climb into bed. I consider reading a book, but decide I don't have the right focus for that. I could watch a movie but I just am not feeling it. Instead, I turn off the lights and lay down, listening to music. I feel yourself drifting off, my eye lids growing heavy. I close my eyes, giving in to the urge to sleep.

“Help me, Aria.”