Scorned by Tyffani Clark Kemp

off his face, but he went still and
turned cold eyes to me.
    “How do you know this name?”
    I shrugged. “Is that important?”
    “Incredibly. Have you spoken to him?”
    “Not, really, no. I saw him with a woman.
Her name was Perdita.”
    “What did you see?” Roman’s voice was calm,
but tense.
    “Not much.”
    “It’s important!” he almost shouted. “What
did you see?”
    I told him about the two visions, leaving
out the intimate details. “She told him they were summonsed to some
meeting tonight.” I shrugged again.
    Roman nodded. Thunder rumbled in the
distance, and I turned to look out the window. A faint cloud was
outlined by the reflection of the silvery moon. Nothing too
menacing until lightning lit the horizon.
    “I should get you home,” Roman said. “Your
family will wonder where you are.”
    I couldn’t hide my disappointment. The only
thing missing was my Pierce and this would be a perfect moment.
    “You like the rain.”
    “Yes,” I answered.
    “I watched you. In the rain with your,” he
paused, “boyfriend.”
    That seemed to bother him. “Yeah. You ruined
that.”
    “Sorry.” He didn’t sound sorry at all.
    “So, you are the one whose eyes I feel. Stop
stalking me.”
    Roman grinned. “Too late.”
    There was no remorse in his voice, only
fierce satisfaction. It should have scared me.
    “Come. We must go.” Roman stood and I
followed suit. He led me back down to the water where clouds were
loomed near.
    “Can we wait a moment?” I asked. “I like the
rain.”
    “LeKrista...” I was afraid he was going to
tell me we had to leave. Instead, his fingers brushed mine and I
looked at him. Something stirred inside me. A dark place woke and
nudged at my soul, asking to be let in. It had always been there,
but never this strong.
    I felt the first drops of rain on my face
and felt the dark place recede.
    “Come.” Roman wrapped his arms around me.
“Let’s get you home.”
    The rain came down as we melted into
nothingness.
     
    I was fully aware that I was seeing through
Lucretious eyes this time, and that I was asleep in my bed at home.
Our minds were separate, but I knew what he was thinking and
feeling. He wanted me here. Perdita was there next to him. She
looked bored as hell and a little pissed off.
    The room was a stone cavern, dimly lit by
torches placed around the room. It wasn’t very impressive on a
decorative scale. Lucretious placed his hands on a large stone
table and brought my attention to the others in the room. There
were thirteen of them, including Lucretious and Perdita.
    “ Why was I not alerted to this
meeting?”
    I recognized Roman’s voice immediately and I
felt Lucretious’ alarm.
    “ We had a few things to discuss with
Lucretious,” a man at the head of the table said.
    “ What are you doing?” Roman asked and it
took a moment for me to realize he was speaking to his
mind.
    “ I don’t know what you’re talking about,
Creator.”
    “ You know very well what I am talking
about,” Roman insisted. Out loud he said, “I see. Well, I will sit
in on the discussion.”
    Lucretious’ anger grew until it leached into
my mind and filled me with a rage I’d never known before. The dark
place from earlier in the night rose up to choke the life from my
body.
     
    I woke shouting and my chest heaved as I
forced air in and out of my lungs. The darkness consumed me and my
vision clouded and went dark. I fell from my bed and stumbled
across the floor to the bathroom from memory. It took several tries
to get the shower going and I fell into the tub without undressing.
The hot water hit me and the darkness flailed and snapped. It
squirmed in my stomach like a dying snake and slowly receded. I
stayed there a long time. When the sun began to peak through the
window, I turned off the water and wrapped myself in a towel. On
autopilot, I dialed Pierce’s number.
    “Hey,” I said when he answered. “I’m headed
your way.”
     
    I pushed curfew and left