| |
Blair
After Elias had talked to Camryn’s parents for what felt like for-freaking-ever, he finally came back over to us.
“So, it looks like we’re going to pitch camp right here,” Elias informed us.
“Here? In Devil’s Falls?” Mila asked him. She swallowed hard. “Bash was telling me more about this place. Is it even safe for us to stay here, Elias?”
“I didn’t sense any imminent dangers out there in the woods, did you?” Elias said in what sounded like an attempt at reassuring her.
Well, it didn’t reassure me.
“You mean, besides that dead demon girl?” I blurted.
“Hey, the demon’s dead. She’s not going to be able to hurt us,” Bash said.
I glanced over at him and rolled my eyes before turning back to Elias. “Do you just expect us to sleep on the ground? Because I got to tell you something. I don’t do grounds.”
“No, I don’t expect you to sleep on the ground,” he replied, his lips twisting upwards into the faintest smile. “We have a bunch of tents in the back of the van. We’ll pitch those. There won’t be enough for all of us. I volunteer to sleep outside. Someone should sleep outside and keep a lookout, anyway.”
“You might get eaten by a bear,” I told him.
“I won’t get eaten by a bear. Trust me.”
I frowned. “Well, you might get sprayed by a skunk then.”
“If that’s the worst thing that happens while we’re here, I’m perfectly all right with that.”
“Um, ew. I won’t be okay with that. I don’t want to have to smell your skunk-sprayed self,” I insisted.
“Blair, stop.” He shot me a warning look. “It’s only going to be for a few nights. I’ll be fine. We’ll all be fine... I think. Now, why don’t you girls go get the tents out of the van, okay?” Elias instructed. Even though he was talking to Camryn, Zoe, and Mila, too, his eyes hadn’t moved away from mine for even a second.
“Yeah, no problem,” Camryn replied.
Leave it to me to be the stubborn one, of course. “And while we’re off getting these tents out of the van, what are you doing to do?”
“I’m going to start building the fire,” he explained.
“It’s hot out. Why do we even need a fire?” I asked with raised eyebrows.
“The air can still get really cool in the middle of the night,” Elias explained as he began to collect large sticks and fallen limbs from the grassy clearing. “Besides, the fire will also give us a source of light.”
“Um, there’s just one itsy bitsy little problem.” I glanced around, as I came to a realization. “There is literally no bathroom here.”
“Who needs a bathroom? We’re in the middle of the woods.”
I just stared at him. “Do you even know who you’re talking to? I don’t do my business in the woods. I don’t even do Porta Potties. They stink. And do you have toilet paper?” I asked pointedly.
“There are some McDonalds napkins in the glove compartment,” Elias offered with a shrug.
“Seriously. You are joking, right? We have to find a bathroom we can make regular trips to,” I insisted.
His dark eyes narrowed in on mine. “We aren’t here to find five-star bathrooms. We’re here to save my brother. Either you want to help or you don’t. If you do, then suck it up, Buttercup.”
Suck it up, Buttercup? His words stung like a hornet. That was all I could think as he turned away from me and began to throw the sticks into a pile.
Stomping away from him, I headed towards the van.
I didn’t understand Elias Sherwood. One minute he was hot, the next minute he was cold. One minute he acted like he cared about me and the next he treated me like I was swamp scum. I honestly couldn’t get a read on his true feelings towards me. I wasn’t sure if he liked me or hated me.
Never in my life had I met a moodier person... well, wolf.
I knew that Camryn could tell how badly I was fuming by the time we reached the van. She had to have. She had known me my entire life. She could read me like no one else.
Then again, the emotions that I was experiencing were nothing like anything else I had ever gone through before. Other boys may have made me mad over the years but never like this.
Ugh. What was going on with me? This was not me. Normally, if someone acted as moody with me as Elias had, I cut him off without even thinking twice about it. If he was a guy who went to our high school, I would have just stopped talking to him.
And yet, there was just something different about Elias. There was something about him that I craved. It was strange and twisted and completely irrational, but it was the truth. I had never wanted anything more than I wanted him, even though I couldn’t fully understand why I felt that way about him myself.
Besides all of that, we had this secret that we were keeping between the two of us – a secret that I didn’t want to let anyone else in on just yet. I wasn’t entirely sure if that was because I wasn’t ready yet or if it was because I liked the fact that Elias and I had a secret. It was something that we shared together, something that bonded us in a way. It might not have been the type of bond that Camryn and Jax shared, but it was something that I wasn’t ready to give up. Not yet, at least.
As Mila lugged one of the tents out of the van, Camryn turned to me. “Blair, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I lied, even though I was anything but fine. I was so angry that I could barely think straight.
“I don’t know what’s gotten into him. I’ve never seen him act like such a jerk before,” Camryn told me.
Except for earlier when he had told me that I needed to learn to listen, I thought. But that was different. He may have been scolding me when he said that, but I knew that the reason was because he cared. He wanted me to be careful, especially now that I was a wolf. I just couldn’t figure this one out.
I shrugged. “It’s whatever.”
She stared at me for a moment before saying, “You can do better than him, anyway, Blair.”
“I know.” And it was true. I knew that I could find a guy who was consistently nice to me, a guy who cared about me not just sometimes but all of the time.
But as crazy as it may have sounded, I just wanted Elias’s moody self.
Grabbing one of the tents from the van, I carried it across the field and placed it about twenty feet away from the one Mila was pitching – and only a few feet away from where Elias was building the fire.
As he moved closer to me to grab a fallen tree branch, his eyes caught on mine. He gave me a small, apologetic smile.
It made my heart swoon. No one had the ability to infuriate me quite the way Elias did. No one could make me angrier... and then make me want him so badly just by smiling at me or even looking at me, for that matter.
“I’m sorry, Blair.”
“Sorry isn’t good enough, Elias. I’m never mean to you. I’m always nice. You have no reason to give me the attitudes you do sometimes. You’re so moody and so frustrating and—” I paused and took a deep breath, knowing that sentence was probably better left unfinished.
“I know that sorry isn’t good enough. I didn’t mean to snap at you. I’m really sorry that I did. It’s just that I’ve been so on edge about Jax. If we don’t find him...” He trailed off, shaking his head. “I don’t even want to think about that. We will find him. I didn’t mean to take my emotions out on you. If you want to find a bathroom, I’ll take you.”
“It’s fine. I better get used to roughing things out, considering what I am, right?” I asked in a low voice, not wanting the others to hear me talking about what I was and coming to their own conclusions.
“It wouldn’t hurt, but I know this isn’t you.”
My eyes locked on his then. “How do you know this isn’t me? Do you even really know the first thing about me, Elias Sherwood? For all you know, I might love camping.” That couldn’t have been further from the truth, but he didn’t need to know that. “Ever since I met you, you made so many judgments about me and you don’t even know me.”
Elias’s dark eyes held mine and a small smile touched his lips. “Are you finished with your little rant now?”
“Maybe I’m not,” I replied, folding my arms over my chest defiantly.
“Okay, because I just figured I’d remind you that you told me this isn’t you. You know, in case you’ve forgotten,” he said amusedly.
“Well... whatever. The rest still stands. You think you know me and act like I’m this helpless little girl, but really you don’t know the first thing about me. Maybe you should get to know me before you make such judgments about me.” I paused before adding, “And you should start being nicer, too, because I might not forgive you next time.”
Then, without saying another word, I stormed away from him.
When I was about halfway back to the van, I glanced over my shoulder at where he was standing. He was staring in my direction with a stupid grin on his face.
I rolled my eyes at him and grabbed the next tent.