living covenant 03 - eternal covenant Read online

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, tugging a restless hand through my hair. “Were you sleeping on the floor with me?”

  Aric switched on the lights around the mirror, keeping the overhead off, and ruefully smiled. “I didn’t want you to be alone.”

  “I don’t think that counts when you’re sick, but it was a nice gesture,” I said, rubbing my stomach.

  “How do you feel?” Aric asked, concern washing over his features.

  “I’m still a little shaky,” I admitted. “I don’t think there’s anything left in my stomach to throw up, though.”

  “Here; I brought you a bottle of water,” Aric said, rummaging around on the tile floor until he found it. I took the bottle without question and carefully sipped. “What was that, Zoe?”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked, frustration taking over. “I don’t know what you’re trying to get at.”

  “Your dream,” Aric said, licking his lips. “I was in your dream.”

  I froze, surprised. “You were?”

  “You were dreaming about the day we met,” Aric said. “I dream about it all the time. That’s how I recognized it.”

  “How do you know you weren’t just having the same dream as me?” That’s plausible, right?

  “Because I felt it from your point of view,” Aric replied. “When I dream about the day we met I always try to think of ways that I could’ve been more suave and debonair. What I just relived was from your point of view. I knew what you were thinking.”

  Well … that was embarrassing. “Oh … um … hmm.”

  “Don’t worry,” Aric said, smirking. “It was cute. I especially liked the part where you thought Covenant College grew hot guys on trees.”

  “I don’t understand,” I admitted. “I … how could we share a dream?”

  “You’re magic, Zoe,” Aric said. “I think you let your guard down when you were sick. I was holding your hand and … it happened.”

  “Are you saying I have the ability to draw you into my mind?”

  Aric shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “Okay, I’ll play,” I said, licking my lips. “What am I thinking now?”

  “You’re thinking that I’m handsome and you’re embarrassed,” Aric answered, not missing a beat. “I don’t need to be a mind reader to know that.”

  “Uh-huh.” I still wasn’t convinced.

  “Do you feel well enough to move to the bed?” Aric asked. “I’m too old to sleep on the bathroom floor.”

  “You didn’t have to sleep with me the first time,” I grumbled, getting to my feet. “Hold on.”

  Aric patiently watched as I brushed my teeth and gargled mouthwash before leading me to the bed. He settled us both, making sure I had a pillow propping up my head before cuddling behind me. “Try it again,” he prodded.

  “Try what?” I didn’t want to unleash my frustration on him, but my patience was at an all-time low – which is saying something, because patience is the one thing for which I’ll never be known.

  “Pick a memory,” Aric instructed, rubbing the back of my neck. “Relax. Let go. Pick a memory. I want to see if you can do it on purpose.”

  “I think this is ridiculous, Aric,” I muttered, although I squeezed my eyes shut. “I’m tired. I need to sleep.”

  “Then go to sleep,” Aric prodded. “Try to find a good memory before you do, though. Make it fun.”

  “You’re unbelievable,” I grumbled. “It was a coincidence that we dreamed the same thing.”

  “I don’t believe in coincidences,” Aric said, his voice a low murmur. “Go to sleep. Remember something fun.”

  I RECOGNIZED IT RIGHT AWAY.

  “Aric?”

  He didn’t answer. Did that mean he wasn’t here?

  “So what’s going on?” Aric asked, as he looked me up and down after I climbed into his truck. “You look like you haven’t slept in weeks.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I didn’t mean… .”

  “No, that’s just what every girl wants to hear.”

  “Are you still upset about last night?”

  “Yes ... no ... I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it.”

  “Then what’s wrong?”

  I launched into a recitation of what had happened since I had left him the previous night. When I was done, I couldn’t help but notice that he didn’t look nearly as upset as I felt. In fact, his shoulders were shaking with silent laughter.

  “It’s not funny.”

  “Girls, I swear.”

  “What?”

  “This is only a problem with girls.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “It’s just that you like drama.”

  “I don’t think it’s funny,” I said. “Paris isn’t speaking to me. Laura is a mess. Brittany is sitting there and judging me in her little matching sweater sets. It’s a nightmare.”

  “It will blow over,” Aric said dismissively.

  “What if it doesn’t?”

  “Paris seems like a reasonable person. She just needs some time to calm down. Besides, she can’t expect you to just stop being friends with Laura because she had sex with her ex-boyfriend.”

  “Would you be fine with one of your friends having sex with your ex?” I asked pointedly.

  “I guess it depends on the ex,” Aric said.

  I narrowed my eyes in his direction. “Which ex would you have a problem with?”

  Aric smirked. “I can’t think of one off the top of my head. If I do, though, I’ll get back to you.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You think you’re so cute.”

  “And you disagree?”

  “Right now I do.”

  Aric flashed his dimples at me. “Why don’t I believe you?”

  WHEN I opened my eyes the morning sunlight filtered through the bedroom window, and Aric was already awake. He hadn’t moved his arm from around my waist, but his eyes were keenly focused on me.

  “You did it again.”

  I frowned. “You don’t know that,” I said, the dream rushing back. It was freshman year, a time when the things that seemed most dire would eventually turn out to be nothing but funny memories. That was long before Laura turned evil and Aric professed his love. “What did I dream about?”

  Aric didn’t generally appreciate tests, but he didn’t put up a fight on this one. “It was the day you had the falling out with Paris about standing up for Laura,” he said. “You called me to pick you up because you couldn’t take the fighting. I remember feeling … relieved … that you turned to me.”

  My heart rolled. “Relieved?”

  “Up until then I worried you didn’t think of me as anything other than a convenient way to amuse yourself,” Aric admitted. “That day I knew at least part of you needed me.”

  “The bitchy part that didn’t want to deal with female issues,” I said, laughing at the memory.

  “It still meant something to me,” Aric said. “It means more now that I know you wanted me to make you feel better.”

  I rubbed the morning crusties from my eyes as I considered what this new wrinkle really meant. “Why do you think this is happening now?”

  “I don’t know,” Aric answered as he shifted me so I faced him. He ran his finger down my cheek and studied my face, his expression earnest. “I think maybe it’s something you can do because you absorbed The Archimage. I can’t be sure, though. It’s … interesting.”

  “I’m not sure that’s the word I would use,” I countered. “Why do you think it happened last night? Why didn’t it happen before now?”

  “Your defenses were down last night,” Aric said. “Getting sick made you weak.”

  “I’m not weak!”

  “Not weak like that,” Aric chided. “Your body was tired. It could only focus on one thing. That was you being sick. That allowed your mind to wander.”

  “Why did I pull you into it, though? Even subconsciously, how would I know to do that?�
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  “I don’t know,” Aric said. “I liked it, though. I liked feeling what you were feeling, even if it wasn’t love yet. There was still something there.”

  “There was always something there,” I said. “From the moment I saw you … there was something.”

  “That could be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” Aric said, snuggling closer and resting his chin on my forehead. “Try to do it when you’re awake again. Pick a good memory, though.”

  “I can’t do it on command. I’m not a trained monkey.”

  Aric ignored my statement. “Show me the first time you saw me without my shirt on. You don’t have to hold back on the drool. We have to shower before breakfast anyway.”

  “You’re such a pig sometimes.”

  I could feel Aric’s lips curl into a grin against my head. “Show me.”

  “I can’t do it right now,” I said. “I feel too much pressure to try. What if I accidentally show you a horrible memory?”

  “We’re building a life together, Zoe,” Aric said. “I’ve lived all of the horrible memories.”

  Not all of them. He hadn’t been there for all of them. “If I promise to try again tonight when we go to bed, will you let this go for the day? I need to think about it.”

  “Okay,” Aric conceded, pressing three quick kisses into my forehead. “You need to shower, though. You stink.”

  “I love that you had enough compassion to sleep on the hard tile with me last night but now you’re telling me I smell.”

  “That’s the way I roll, baby,” Aric said, chuckling. “Once we shower, I need you to try and eat something.”

  My stomach flopped at the mention of food. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

  “We’ll go simple and bland to start you off,” Aric said. “I’ll make toast and you can have some juice. After that we’ll play it by ear.”

  “Aric, before that … can I ask you something?”

  “You can ask me anything.”

  “Did you think I was hot when we first met?” I asked, my inner female coming out to play.

  “I thought you were the prettiest thing I’d ever seen,” Aric said, his expression earnest.

  “That’s sweet.”

  “Then you opened your mouth and I knew I was going to have my hands full.”

  I groaned. “That’s less sweet.”

  “The important thing to take away from that, Zoe, is that I still wanted to get my hands full of you,” Aric offered.

  I gave him a moment to reflect on what he said.

  “That might’ve come out dirtier than I meant,” Aric conceded.

  “We’ve got all day,” I said. “I’m sure things will get dirtier.”

  “We’ve got forever,” Aric corrected. “They can’t help but get dirtier.”

  9

  Nine

  “Try it again,” Aric prodded an hour later.

  “I will literally kill you if you don’t stop saying that,” I warned, staring at the dry toast sitting on my plate.

  “You have to eat,” Aric said. “Stop threatening to kill me, by the way. We both know you won’t do it. You’ll have no one to feed you if that happens, and despite how you’re feeling now, I know that’s very important to you.”

  “More importantly, you’ll have no one to love you,” Kelsey added.

  I scowled. “You are all going to make me throw up again,” I said. “Stop watching me. It makes me uncomfortable.”

  “Leave her alone,” Helen ordered, breezing into the room and stopping next to me. She pressed a hand to my forehead. “You don’t feel warm. You probably ate too much at the tasting yesterday.”

  “Thank you for your diagnosis,” I said. “I … .”

  My mother appeared on the other side and pressed her hand to my forehead. “You don’t have a fever.”

  I jerked my head away. “I do have a headache, though,” I muttered.

  “Maybe you have food poisoning,” Paris suggested.

  “You did eat a bunch of those mushrooms,” Kelsey said. “Maybe one of them was tainted.”

  “That must be it,” I said, scraping my knife against the toast to clean off some of the burnt outer layer.

  “They could’ve been magic mushrooms,” Kelsey offered, remaining oblivious to my discomfort. “You’re probably lucky you didn’t see strange things in your sleep.”

  Aric and I exchanged a quick look. We hadn’t told anyone about the shared dreams, and I was taking the position that we never should. People thought we were co-dependent as it was. This would push them over the edge. I was still having trouble understanding it. I had no idea how others would take it.

  “I don’t think the mushrooms were magic,” I said. “I think it was the salmon.”

  Aric snorted. “You had one bite of the salmon, and you only ate that because I made you.”

  “I was the only one who ate the salmon,” I pointed out. “Two other people had mushrooms and they were fine. I was the only sick one, and I was the only one who ate the salmon. That means it was the salmon.”

  “That sounds like a scientific determination,” Paris teased. “Aric is right, though. You should try eating some toast. It will get you through the morning, and then hopefully you’ll be able to eat something more substantial for lunch.”

  I chomped into the toast and made a big show of chewing, waiting until I forced the bite down and followed it with a swig of juice before speaking. “Happy?”

  “You make this world a better place with the joy you bless us with,” Paris teased.

  I rolled my eyes until they landed on Aric. “What are you doing today?”

  “Taking care of you,” Aric replied. “You need to rest.”

  “I’m fine,” I said, waving off his concerns. “In a couple of hours you won’t even know that I’d been sick.”

  “What do you want to do?”

  “I thought you wanted Paris to put up wards,” I reminded him. “She was supposed to do it yesterday, but my illness derailed things. If those wolves are hanging around, we need to do that before other people start showing up. I don’t think Pemberley will buy another stray dog story.”

  “I don’t think he believed the first one,” Mom said, hopping onto the stool to my left. “He asked us about it when you and Aric were tasting the food. He thought you were hiding something.”

  “Like what?”

  Mom shrugged. “I have no idea. He was suspicious, though.”

  “Maybe he thinks you’re running a dog-fighting ring on the side,” Kelsey suggested. Her imagination is a thing of utter mayhem sometimes.

  “Do you think he wants to partner with us so he can sell magic mushrooms at events?”

  “Knock it off, Zoe,” Aric warned as Kelsey shot me a dirty look. “Don’t take your illness out on everyone else. I do want Paris to put up wards, though. I want to make sure I know if someone tries to sneak on the property.”

  “Then what?” Helen asked. “Are you going to take whoever it is into custody and let Zoe terrorize them with her fire fingers?”

  “They’re technically not fire fingers,” I corrected. “They are magic, though.”

  “Especially when you’re giving me a massage,” Aric said, winking for my benefit. Unfortunately his mother took it as a sex thing even though it was quite the opposite.

  “Don’t be uncouth,” Helen said, smacking Aric’s arm. “You’re much too free with the sex talk.”

  “That wasn’t sex talk,” Paris said. “Zoe has healing magic and she uses it when she rubs Aric’s shoulders. Granted, it does sound as if they’re having sex when it’s going on, but it’s actually pretty innocent.”

  “Oh,” Helen said, properly abashed. “I guess that’s all right then. Did I ever mention I have lower back pain?”

  “I’m not rubbing you,” I said, mortified at the thought. “That’s freaky.”

  “Most men find it a turn on when one woman rubs another,” Helen pointed out, as if she was dropping a nor
mal tidbit into our conversation instead of the equivalent of a dirty bomb.

  “Oh, that is so sick,” Aric said, making a face. “Don’t ruin my massages for me.”

  “What did I say?” Helen asked, faux innocence on display.

  “Let it go, Mom,” Aric said. “Zoe, you need to eat one whole slice of that toast. If you do, I’ll let you go outside with us when we put up the wards. I want you to take it easy, though. I don’t like it when you’re sick.”

  “How often am I sick?”

  Aric knit his eyebrows. “Huh. Now that you mention it, you’re rarely sick,” he said. “Granted, you’ve had a few hangovers that have been strong enough to make us both sick, but you never really get colds or anything.” He turned to my mother. “Is that a mage thing?”

  “It could be,” Mom said, her eyes thoughtful as they landed on me. “Mages don’t get sick. They’re not technically human. Zoe isn’t a full mage. We became human before we had her. She’s something else. She could’ve inherited that from our blood. Ted and I don’t get sick very often either.”

  “Then why did I get so violently ill?” I asked.

  “Maybe food poisoning is different,” Helen suggested. “That’s something tangible causing you to be ill. Your body might be able to fight off viruses.”

  I wasn’t convinced. “I guess.”

  “Maybe Pemberley tried to poison you,” Kelsey said, floating her third conspiracy theory of the morning and pushing me closer to a full-blown migraine. “Maybe you got sick because he was trying to kill you.”

  “Why would he do that if he wants to sell magic mushrooms at our dog fights?” I asked.

  “I hate you sometimes,” Kelsey muttered.

  “You’ll get over it,” I said, biting into my toast again. “I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about.”

  “SO what will this barrier do?” I sat on a canvas chair under a tree an hour later – Aric worried the heat would make me sick again – and watched Paris move around the perimeter of our yard.

  Aric picked a spot in the middle of nowhere when we decided to build the house and that meant we owned a lot of land – which made it nice when he wanted to get all wolfy and run in the woods – but it was also a lot to cover.