Drawn

The thing trapped me against the wall, wings stretched on either side of me, and shrouded me in its cloak. “Such a pretty girl,” it hissed into my ear.

  I sucked in a ragged breath. And then I smelled him. That spicy scent, like autumn air.

  “Drew?”

  The thing laughed and dropped its head against my shoulder.

  “Drew Barony?” Relief and fury mingled in my throat.

  “Hey, Juliet.”

  “Drew, you enormous idiot!”

  “Did I scare you?” he said in his creepy monster voice.

  “Julie?” Damon called from too far away.

  “In here!”

  I pushed at where I thought Drew’s shoulders would be, and actually knocked him in the jaw. He fell back a step.

  “Hey!”

  “You deserve it, you big creep. And don’t call me pretty when it’s pitch dark.”

  “All girls are pretty in the dark.”

  “Stop using that voice.” My heart whumped slower with each beat. “You are such a complete jerk.”

  He leaned in toward me again. “You love me, and you know it.” His hand slid around my waist.

  Damon called my name again, from the hallway.

  “Over here.” I pressed my palms flat against Drew’s chest.

  “Last chance for a kiss?” Drew whispered.

  “Drew Barony,” I said. “I will never, ever, be on your list.”

  “Sure you will.”

  He snaked his arm around my waist and pulled me hard against him.

  “Stop it.”

  “All I want is a kiss.”

  “You’re not getting it.” I braced myself against his chest with both forearms.

  Damon called from right outside the door. He pulled on it and it rattled inside the frame.

  Drew laughed. “The granary locks. He’s not coming in.” He pushed me back against the wall and pinned me there again. “We’re all alone, babe. You don’t have to fight. I won’t tell Damon if you don’t.”

  Adrenaline pumped into every vein and capillary in my body and I pushed with all my strength to get Drew off of me. But the force of his arms collapsed mine between us. The gauze bandage twisted around my right arm and pulled at my shredded flesh. I wrenched my head to the side as his mouth crushed into my cheekbone. His dry lips sent a shudder of disgust up my back.

  He cursed and grabbed my chin.

  “Stop!” I screamed, and called Damon’s name again.

  I let go of Damon! Why did I let go of him?

  Drew’s fingers clamped around my jaw and forced me to face him. “One kiss, J. It’s no big deal.”

  “No!”

  He laughed, and I felt his hot breath on my mouth. “Yes.”

  I don’t want this! Please, God, don’t let him do this!

  Then, for just a second, all my physical senses stopped.

  I saw it all inside me, all at once—the real Drew, the real me, Damon and the darkness and the light, truth and pain and deception and hope. I knew then that the whole of everything lay open before God, and he knew it all.

  He saw this, and he knew it. And he didn’t like it.

  And I didn’t either.

  “I said no!” I yelled right into Drew’s face, and did the only thing I could with the only weapon I had.

  I bit him. Hard.

  Drew thundered, deep in his throat, and I felt the heat and vibration of it erupt through my jaw and over my cheeks and eyes. He grabbed my face with both hands, and the claws he wore covered my temples. A trickle of his blood slid into my mouth and I let go of him, and spit it out.

  Drew pulled away and let fly a string of curse words as vile as anything I’d ever heard.

  The strobe light flashed again, and I dashed for the door. My hands shook like earthquakes as I fumbled to turn the lock.

  “Julie?”

  “Damon!”

  The lock popped and I swung it open. Damon caught me as I fell out.

  “Where did you go?” he asked. “All of the sudden you weren’t there.”

  I threw my arms around him. “Get me out of here.”

  “What happened?”

  “Please, I want to go. Right now.”

  * * * * *

  How Damon found the way out mystified me, but he led me through a doorway, down a hall, straight through two more haunted rooms, and under a series of blankets hung in another hallway that dropped us just outside the corral behind the barn.

  I leaned against the wall and shook as my eyes adjusted to the brighter lights.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “Drew was in there.”

  Damon turned back toward the exit.

  I grabbed his arm. “It’s fine,” I told him. “I’m fine. You got me out.”

  “That guy—”

  “I’m okay.”

  “Did he hurt you?”

  My whole body shook, my heart pumped like I’d just run a marathon, and my stomach felt nauseous. But no, Drew didn’t hurt me.

  “Pretty sure I hurt him,” I said.

  “Good.”

  I laughed and wrapped my arms around Damon’s neck. He held me as the terror and anger drained out of my body, and I thanked God Drew didn’t take my first kiss before I could give it to Damon.

  “I shouldn’t have let go of you,” I told him.

  “So don’t ever let go again.”

  Eyes closed, I leaned against him and made a promise. “I won’t.”

  * * * * *

  We got two cups of frothy, green punch, then found an empty bale of hay and sat down.

  I told him about Uncle George and Aunt Millie, and he told me about Adam coming home from the hospital. We talked about whether I should live with Mom or Dad, and about whether Mr. Tollin and Miss Downey had really been secretly in love with each other for years.

  Then Damon put his empty cup on the ground and reached into his jacket pocket. “I’ve got something for you. It’s from me and Dad.”

  “Your dad?” I asked, and took the envelope he offered.

  “I needed his help with it. He’s better at soldering than I am.”

  “What’s soldering?”

  He took my cup and put it next to his. “Just open it.”

  I slid my finger under the envelope’s flap and tore it open. Nonnie’s barrette slid out into my palm.

  “Oh, my gosh.” I looked up at him. “Damon.”

  “I’m sure it doesn’t look like it did. I never saw it before—you know. But all the pieces seemed to be there.”

  Straight as ever, the barrette looked like new. Some of the gems had switched places, but they nestled back in their settings, as though they’d never come out. I turned it over. The clip and hinge lay perfectly against each other.

  He pointed to the hollow channel where the capsule fit. “I’m not sure what that’s about.”

  “Secret compartment.”

  “Seriously?”

  “I can’t believe this. You fix everything,” I whispered.

  “I knew it was important to you.”

  “It’s the last thing she gave me before she died.”

  He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. “It must’ve been important to her.”

  “It was.” I nodded. I thought of the letter from Grandpa, and the prayers she saved in it. For me. And I remembered what she said when she gave it to me.

  When it pleases, love will awaken it, and you’ll see.

  A shiver peppered my skin with goose bumps.

  Damon took my hand and lifted it to his mouth. He kissed the ridge of my knuckles, and everything inside me cheered and fainted and exploded all at the same time.

  Then the lights dimmed and the D.J. put on an old ballad.

  “Dance with me?” Damon asked.

  He led me through the open gate into the corral. Couples spread out around the circle, and we wound here and there among them till we found an open space. He turned to face me, and put his hands on my waist. I reached up around his neck.


  “Hey, you wore the necklace,” he said.

  I touched the heart and the key where they hung between my collarbones on the guitar string. “Yeah. It’s my new favorite.”

  We turned in a slow circle and my eyes settled on his shoulder, but flitted up to his face every few seconds. His went from the top of my head to my shoulders and back again. My breath drew in the scent of wind, and the warmth of him spread over my hands and down my wrists like rivers of honey.

  Then his eyes caught mine.

  I couldn’t look away, and I didn’t want to.

  Those blue eyes in the silver rain,

  sunset blue and warm—

  “You are so pretty,” he whispered.

  The blush washed over me like a splash of sunlight. And I didn’t even care.

  He swallowed and stopped moving. “And I know what you did for Adam.”

  Would I ever remember that night without the taste of it in my mouth?

  “I really wish you hadn’t been in the accident. But if you hadn’t, he’d be dead.”

  “Yeah. I know.”

  “I just wanted to thank you.”

  I shook my head. “Count us even, then.”

  “Huh-uh,” he said. “We’ll never be even.”

  “Okay, then we both owe each other. Huge.”

  He smiled down at me, that Damon smile that turned my knees to noodles. He pulled me closer.

  “I love you like crazy,” he whispered.

  “I know.” I think I just went up in flames.

  He sort of snorted and sort of laughed and pulled away some. “That’s all you have to say to me?”

  “I love you back.”

  “Okay, then. I wasn’t sure.”

  I shook my head. “You are kind of stupid. How could you not be sure?”

  “You don’t give a guy much to go on.”

  “Really?” I asked. “I thought it was pretty obvious.”

  An amplifier screeched and my eardrums shuddered as my shoulders came up. The music stopped.

  The D.J. yelled, “Sorry, folks. Hang on.”

  We stood there under the bright lights, arms still wrapped around each other as slow, awkward seconds passed. Everyone in the corral seemed to wonder the same thing: Dance to silence? Let go?

  “Working,” the D.J. said. “It’s okay, folks.” He fumbled with a tangle of wires. “Why, you dirty rotten…”

  “Come on,” Damon said and led me in the opposite direction. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “Isn’t the gate that way?” I asked.

  “Less crowded this way. And my bike’s on the other side of the barn.”

  I followed Damon up and over the log fence. He helped me down and we wove our way through the crowd.

  “Probably need to get you home soon anyway, huh?”

  “Okay,” I said. “But not too soon.”

  We found his bike. I got on the handlebars and we rode out onto the road. Then he turned onto a side street.

  “I’m going the long way,” he said.

  “This isn’t the long way. It’s the wrong way.”

  “How fast do you want to get home?”

  I turned to him. “Not very.”

  “Okay, then.”

  I settled in against his chest and arms, laid my head against his shoulder, and looked up into the stars. “You are extremely comfortable.”

  “Even the handlebars?”

  “Not so much those.”

  “How much do you trust me?” His voice, right next to my ear, stirred up fresh fizzies everywhere.

  “You really have to ask?”

  “Let go of the handlebars.”

  I looked at him. He grinned.

  “And do what?”

  “Stretch your arms out to the sides.”

  I relaxed my grip a little and felt like I might slide right off. “I don’t know.”

  “Lean back, your whole body, and let yourself fly.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “There’s nowhere for you to fall. You’re no safer holding on than letting go.”

  “Right. I could only fall off.”

  He shook his head. “You’re only going to fall if I drop you. You clutching the handlebars doesn’t change that. Let go and enjoy the ride.”

  I released the bar and slid my hands over top of his.

  “Good start. Keep going.”

  My fingers opened up and air swept under them. My hands rose, and my elbows nestled into the crooks of his. As I spread my arms apart, this incredible feeling of lightness swept over me, like half my weight fluttered off my body and flew away into the sky.

  “Oh my gosh.”

  “Let it all go.”

  I reached out, my arms angled at ninety degrees.

  “Are you speeding up?” I cried.

  “No,” he said into my ear. “It just feels that way. Go with it.”

  My arms tipped back, almost completely open. The air felt like thunder and the sky an endless, rolling ocean. We hurtled into the night, into the nothing, into everything.

  “All the way, Julie.”

  I stretched my arms as far out as they would go, and arched my neck. My hair flew back off Damon’s shoulder, and the atmosphere embraced me, lifted me off the world.

  “This is amazing!” I cried, breathless with the rush of it. I splayed my fingers against the wind, and it raced between them. It caressed my chin and jaw as it swept over me like endless, twisting threads of silk.

  Eyes open to the sky, I flew through it.

  And I heard God alongside us. He was thunder and wind, the air, and the sweet scent of it all around me.

  But he didn’t speak. He just was, and we were, and life was and would be, and nothing could ever change that or take me away from him. I belonged in his hands, these hands that carried me on the night, as Damon and his handlebars carried me through the dark.

  And he was forever, in it and beyond it. He was before anything else was, and he would be after Damon and I and everything else had gone. And he would carry us both into forever with him.

  I could live through anything, face whatever came. With him, nothing could throw me down, ever again.

  I could wait for answers to all my tomorrows. I could wait to find out what my gift meant and how God wanted me to use it. And I could wait for all the right moments for Damon and me.

  Because they would come.

  # # #

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  * * *

  Excerpt from Deo Volente, Book II in the DRAWN Series

  DEO VOLENTE: BOOK II in the DRAWN Series

  CHAPTER 1

  THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

  The five words at the top of the poster, painted fuzzy-stem green and tipped in fat drops of blood, made me even more desperate to do what I already wanted to do, which was turn and run.

  It’s only a new school. Just one more cruddy part of the cruddiness that is your life.

  My eyes scanned the rest of the poster that someone taped off-center and cockeyed over the glass front door.

  Auditions: January 12, 1983

  Sign-ups in Mrs. Shively’s Room

  “And it’s a play, not a prophecy,” I assured myself as I pulled open the door with my half-frozen, mittened hand.

  Because I knew something about prophecies.

  Inside the foyer I dug the new schedule out of my jeans pocket. My first class was on the second floor.

  Across the foyer a blue sign with white letters hung over the entrance to a hallway: Fine Arts Wing. As I passed under the sign I got that weird déjà vu feeling. Alternating blue and yellow lockers lined both sides of the hallway, interrupted at regular intervals by classrooms. The tile on the floor and the clocks that hung perpendicular to the walls looked exactly like Parnell’s, where I should’ve been that day.

  A stairway split the end of the hall into Up and Down.

 
The bell rang and far behind me the front doors burst open, filling the foyer with footsteps and voices.

  Another urge to flee swelled up in the pit of my stomach.

  “Chill,” I told myself as I started up the stairs. Just breathe.

  Room 218 stood across the hall at the top of the stairs. The nameplate on the wall next to the door read Mrs. Shively, Honors English.

  Honors?

  I checked the schedule in my hand and noticed what I hadn’t before. Honors English. Honors Math. Honors Social Studies.

  Crud!

  I didn’t sign up for honors classes. Would they let you change your schedule after school already started?

  Chaos came up the stairs behind me, voices and laughter and stomping. I ducked in the door to homeroom.

  The student tables stood in a large, perfect circle around a central table stacked with books. The teacher’s desk tucked into the back corner, catty-cornered next to the window. Mrs. Shively sat there, head bowed over a wide, red-bound grade book.

  I cleared my throat.

  She looked up and smiled, like me just being there made her day. “Good morning. You must be Juliet. Welcome to Sandy Creek.”

  Schedule clutched in my fist I shook my head and forced my feet to take me over to her desk. “There’s been a mistake.”

  “Has there?”

  “I didn’t sign up for honors.”

  She raised her eyebrows.

  “I should be in regular classes.”

  Surprise melted into a chuckle. “Why?”

  “I’m not an honors student.”

  “You’re Juliet Brynn, aren’t you? From Parnell?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “The school that took the state Academic Olympics?”

  She knew about that?

  I tried to explain. “The Olympics. Um, that was just…”

  “I’m sure your team was devastated to lose you right before nationals. What a shame.”

  Yeah. The whole team, including Damon, would go to Chicago in less than two weeks. For three whole days. Without me.

  Just another gift from my parents’ divorce.

  A couple of kids came in the door and sat down in the circle.

  “Take a seat, Juliet.”

  “Julie. I like to be called Julie.” It didn’t look like I’d be getting out of honors today. “Are seats assigned?”

  “Sit anywhere you like.” She pointed to the table laden with books. “Everyone, grab one off each stack.”

  I got the three books—English Grammar and Structure, 8th Grade; Read to Learn, fourth edition; and The Little Prince—and sat down at the desk nearest Mrs. Shively’s. I had the exact same copy of The Little Prince on the shelf in my new bedroom, but filled with highlights and notes from last semester.