Bite Me

I woke up outside of my house in Skylar’s car. I hadn’t moved at all from the sitting position I had been in. Neither had Skye. I turned to look at him. He was stiff; every muscle was being forced to be unmovable. Oddly enough, he didn’t look like he was in pain or like his body was uncomfortable. He looked like he had been frozen. He wasn’t even blinking. I slowly extended my arm, and then my hand, and then one long skinny finger until I finally poked him with the lightest touch. He didn’t move. I poked him again, harder. Skye still didn’t move. He just sat in the same exact position. My brow furrowed in frustration. I didn’t like being ignored, especially by the guy that had just knocked me out with some weird paper. And I was still ticked at him for that bullshit Protector act. If I was smart, I would have just gone inside my house but seeing as I’m a bit daft, I didn’t. Instead I sucked in a deep breath and leaned in so close to Skye that I was almost touching him.

“OI!” I shouted in his ear.

Nothing. I tried again, louder.

“OI! SKYLAR!”

He still didn’t move. This was getting weirder and weirder by the minute. Suddenly, I heard a small chuckle from behind me and then came the oh-so familiar ice down my back feeling. I whipped my head around ready to punch his lights out this time. Michael just looked at me. No fear or shock or curiosity. Just a normal look. I was so bloody done at this point in time. I didn't care why he was in the car or how he got in the car, I just wanted him gone. I did what seemed to make the most sense: I reached back and boxed his ear.

“Ow!” He yelped, grabbing the side of his head.

“Sod off, you twat!”

I lifted my hand again. He reached up to stop me, but flinched as soon as he came into contact with my skin. His eyes were flooded with terror again.

“Don’t tell Skylar.” He whispered urgently.

Then he snapped his fingers and I suddenly I felt the life rush back into the world. I blinked and he was gone. What was this shit?! I heard Skylar exhale so I rounded on him next.

“Where the bloody hell do you get off, Skylar! You can’t just pull that shit and then knock me the fuck out!” I screeched.

“I’m sorry!” He cried, shirking away, “I truly am, Annika! I wanted to tell you but there are rules for this sort of thing.”

“Yeah? Okay then, I’ve got a rule for you.” I flipped him the bird and stomped out of the car.

I heard the crunch of gravel, signifying that Skylar was actually chasing after me. He grabbed my arm then immediately dropped it with cry. I stopped walking to glare at him, but he was looking at his hand.

“Annika.” He said, so low I felt it reverberate in my bones. “There are rules because I have to keep you safe and you have to keep everyone else safe.”

He sounded so serious that I found myself speechless. He walked closer to me, before putting the same hand he had touched me with in front of my face. It was bright red, like it had been burned.

“You have powers you can’t even fathom the intensity of. They’ve been lurking underneath the surface for your whole life and now that you need them, they’re flooding out. But you’re so young, you can’t control them yet. You need to work on your temper because if you let it run rampant the result could be deadly. And you need to learn when to stop pushing someone for information. If you force answers out of people, you’re not going to like what they are.”

The way he was speaking, his tone and his mannerisms, made me realize that I was dealing with an extremely wise and brilliant man, not some creepy teenager. For once, I was actually taking something someone was telling me seriously.

“It is of the utmost importance that you keep my identity as your Protector a secret. Under no circumstances are you to tell anyone about me. I know this is confusing and a lot for you to take in right now, but I promise, I will sit down and talk everything out with you soon. Alright?”

“Alright.” I whispered.

“Okay, so I’ll pick you up tomorrow at 7:30 for school.” He smiled crookedly and I started walking towards the door.

“Annika!” He called, and I turned around to see his face clouded with indecision. “Don’t...don’t go near the Malums okay? I’ll explain why later, just, for now, avoid them at all costs. Don’t talk to them, don’t look at them, try not to even think about them. Please.”

I almost told Skye, right then and there, that Michael had just been in the car and the entire world had been at a stand-still expect for the two of us. I wanted to tell him so badly. But, as much as I disliked Michael, he had sounded so afraid. And I had boxed him pretty hard. He probably wanted nothing more than to stay away from me now, which worked out for the both of us. So it seemed better to just pretend it had never happened.

I just nodded my understanding. Skye nodded as well and stuck his hands in his back pockets. I pulled my house keys out of my bag and unlocked the front door. I turned in time to see him start his car and waved before stepping inside the crème-coloured cottage and closing the door behind me, turning the lock.

I pressed my back against the door and slid down until I was sitting. My head was spinning. I had only been here a day and I was already dealing with more drama than had ever been thrust at me in Liverpool. My brain could hardly keep up. Why couldn’t we have just gone to California?