Chapter 07
Paulina smiled when the guests at her party offered her happy birthday wishes. Her hand wrapped around the crystal pendant that Kwan gave her earlier that day. He came by early in the morning, wanting to give her the present on her birthday and apologize for not attending her party that evening. Paulina understood his reason for not coming. Her emerald gaze drifted across the room to where Skulker was joking around with some of his football buddies. She certainly didn't want Kwan sticking around to receive more harassment from Skulker. Her hand tightened around the crystal as her jaw clenched. She hated seeing the way Skulker acted around Kwan and the effect he had on the Asian man. The aura around Kwan steadily grew darker in the years since Skulker first started attending Casper High. It was clouded with depression and misery and fear. She worried about Kwan, even more after what Dash told her the other day about Skulker possibly wanting to take Kwan against his will.
The door bell ringing broke Paulina out of her thoughts. She left the room and walked down the hallway toward the front door. A smile spread across her face when she opened the door and found Dash standing on her doorstep. "And I thought you weren't going to come tonight."
"I'm not staying. I just wanted to drop off your present." Dash grabbed her by the wrist then pulled her outside with him as he closed the door on the noise coming from the party room. "Here." He held out the small, wrapped package.
"So secretive," Paulina teased, not sure why they needed to be alone for him to give her the present. She tore off the wrapping paper and stared at the present. "Oh, Dash!" She lifted her gaze to him and smiled. "I love them!"
"Danny picked them out." Dash rubbed awkwardly at the back of his neck.
"How was your little date with him?" Paulina grinned as she snapped the butterfly hairclips into place. They went well with the pink dress she was wearing.
"I wouldn't exactly call it a date." With a frown, Dash leaned against the side of the house. "He still doesn't want to be in a relationship with anyone." His arms folded, and he dropped his gaze to the ground. "But there's something else we need to talk about."
Paulina's brow wrinkled as she took in Dash's posture. "Okay. Why do I get the feeling this isn't going to be good news?"
"Because it's not," Dash grumbled, refusing to look at her. "I wasn't trying to hear his thoughts, but he's so loud sometimes. I didn't mean to catch this bit of information. It's important though. He won't come out and say it himself." Dash lifted his gaze at last, and Paulina swallowed at that hint of worry and fear in his dark blue eyes. "His parents hunt the supernatural."
"What?" Paulina shouted, panic making her body tremble. "But-" She shook her head. It was too hard to digest that information. "He seems so normal and nice. Danny can't-"
"He actually thinks our town is normal." Dash quirked a tiny smirk.
"Dash, if Danny is a hunter like his parents, what do you think is going to happen when he finds out about you?" Paulina reached up and rubbed her thumb over the crystal pendant. She really wanted to like Danny, but if he was a hunter too, then she didn't think being friends would be possible. Why did Dash have to tell her about this? She would have been happier not knowing.
"I'm not all that convinced that he is a hunter. I think he was more embarrassed by the fact that his parents are hunters." Dash shrugged, broad shoulders hunching. "Maybe I'm just hoping too much that I can still have a relationship with him."
Paulina sighed as she rubbed at her forehead. "Well, you two are a perfect match. I don't think you would be if something like this would come between you."
"I was thinking of telling him." Dash lifted his gaze, meeting Paulina's eyes like he was searching them for a sign that he was being an idiot. "He's hiding more than just the fact that his parents are hunters. Maybe if I break through this wall of secrets, I can get him to open up about what else he's hiding."
"That sounds like a dangerous game to play, Dash." Paulina frowned at him. "What if he runs home and tells his parents?"
"I don't think he tells his parents all that much about him. I get the feeling that he didn't even want his parents to meet me." Dash pushed away from the house then placed his hands on Paulina's shoulders. "Look. If he does going off and tell his parents, at least it's only me that they know about. I'm not going to spill everyone's deep dark secrets to him. I'm only going to him about myself. After that, if I have to, I'll leave town to escape his parents."
"Dash," Paulina said, and she could hear the whine in her voice. She frowned at the stubborn look in his eyes. "Who am I going to eat lunch with if you leave? What am I going to eat for lunch?"
Dash laughed, shaking his head. "Have a little faith in him? Until I tell him, just pretend like you don't know about his parents. I just thought I should tell you so you can avoid letting anything slip. I should probably be going now. Don't want to keep you from your party too long. They might send out a search party." He grinned then leaned in to kiss Paulina on the cheek. "Happy birthday."
"Thanks," Paulina murmured softly. She watched him walk to his car. With the worry running through her, she wasn't sure she wanted to return to her party. How could Danny be the son of hunters? It was like some cruel twist of fate that Danny, who was pretty much perfect for Dash, would wind up being a danger to them. When the door opened, she turned around to blink at the woman with long dark hair.
"What are you doing out here?" Desiree asked as she leaned against the doorframe. A delicate eyebrow raised in question.
Paulina shook her head. "Just getting some fresh air."
"Oh?" Desiree rolled her eyes as she stepped out, pulling the door closed after her. "And here I thought you were chatting with that block head."
"Dash is not a block head," Paulina snapped, treading dangerously close to growling at the other woman. "And you're one to talk." She sighed when Desiree blinked in confusion. "You hang out with that asshole Skulker."
Desiree shrugged, the strap of her baby blue top slipping down one tanned shoulder. "It's not like I like him," she said as she looked away. "I only approached him because I thought I could offer him help." She wiggled the fingers of one hand at Paulina, who caught the meaning immediately. "But it turns out I couldn't."
"You couldn't help him?" Paulina's brow rose in surprise, and she almost laughed in her disbelief. "I wouldn't have thought there was anything you couldn't help with." She frowned darkly at the other woman when she thought about what Skulker wanted. She was fairly well aware of what the other woman was capable of, which was why it surprised her that Desiree couldn't help Skulker achieve his goal.
"I can't really explain it." Desire huffed a sigh, confusion drawing her brow together. Then she smirked and leaned toward Paulina. "But since we're on this topic, tell me. What exactly is it those eyes of yours can see? How does your whole match making thing work?"
Paulina blinked rapidly a few times, startled by the question. Desiree's sudden closeness didn't help her to gather her thoughts either. "It's not exactly all that interesting," she murmured, looking away from the inquisitive eyes focused so fully upon her. The women of Paulina's family always had a knack for match making, though it was her father that passed down the trait to her. When she was little, her grandmother told her that she had the "gift of sight." In simple terms, it meant that she was able to see the aura that surrounded people.
"Nope," Desiree said, shaking her head. She poked Paulina in her side. "You're talking. I'm not letting you get away until you tell me about it." She grabbed hold of Paulina's hand and held on to it, lacing their fingers to keep a tight grip.
With a sigh, Paulina used her free hand to brush back some of her ebony hair. "I just read the auras around people. Usually, it just lets me decipher what emotions they're feeling." She shrugged because it really wasn't that impressive of an ability. "As for match making, well," she frowned, thinking of how best to explain it. "It's weird. I look at the two people, and it's almost like there's this thread of energy that connects them. And when they're near each other, it's like their auras merge, in a way, like they become one." She laughed, feeling silly explaining something that she only partly understood. "That must sound pretty crazy."
Desiree, instead, looked thoughtful as she took in what Paulina said. "And what do you see when you look at Skulker and Kwan together?"
"Definitely not a match made in heaven." Paulina frowned and tugged her hand free of Desiree's hold. "And if you're helping Skulker to rape Kwan-"
"Whoa!" Desiree held up her hands, shock playing across her face. "I am not helping him do something like that."
"Then what's the whole thing about? I would have thought with your wish granting abilities, you could have given him anything that he wanted." Paulina folded her arms in thought. If Skulker didn't want to rape Kwan, then what did he want from the Asian jock? She only felt minor relief that Skulker's harassment wasn't related to a sexual desire.
"Being a genie isn't all fun, you know." Desiree placed her hands on her hips as she glowered. "And it's not like I got a rule book for how everything works with granting wishes. All I know is that when I granted his wish, it rebounded."
"What was the wish?"
Desiree stared at Paulina for a while, almost looking like she wouldn't say. Then she turned her gaze away. "He wanted complete obedience from Kwan."
"So when it rebounded," Paulina said as she tried to piece together what exactly that meant.
"That's right," Desiree grumbled, a dark look entering her eyes. "It hit me. So now I have to be all obedient when I'm around Skulker." She shuddered in disgust. "As if men aren't bad enough, now I have to play pet to that alien?"
"Alien?" Paulina's eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets at that news.
"Apparently, all the teachers know about it, but they didn't want to tell us all about it," Desiree explained, rubbing absently at the gold cuff around one wrist. "From what he's told me, Skulker came from some distant planet. Being sent here is, like, some sort of punishment by his parents for misbehaving or something. He's not very talkative about it."
"So why does he want complete obedience from Kwan?" Paulina felt like her head was spinning with this new information. Skulker was an alien sent to Earth as some sort of grounding? She rubbed at her temples, wondering why things could never be normal for any of them. Even a normal human like Kwan ended up getting dragged into supernatural problems.
Desiree shrugged, not having the answer to that question. "He wouldn't tell me. I didn't know what he was when I approached him after seeing him with Kwan. I told him I could grant wishes, and he made that wish with no further explanation. Now I can't even really question him about it because I have to follow his orders, and he commanded me to never question him."
"What if I wished that you didn't have to listen to him?"
"That could work, but you'd have to get my lamp from Skulker first."
Paulina sighed at that answer. She doubted getting the lamp from Skulker's possession would be an easy task. Moving to lean against the side of the house, Paulina decided to move away from that topic. "I thought genies had to stay in their lamps."
"Not always," Desiree answered, leaning next to her against the wall. "In the early days, my masters would always command me to return to the lamp. But when I ended up here, I was given control over my lamp. If I wanted to grant a wish, I would let the wisher hold the lamp. But after Skulker's wish rebounded, he commanded that I give him the lamp." Desiree sighed as she glared up at the night sky. "I hate men."
"So," Paulina said thoughtfully, "you don't hate Dash for not joining the football team? You hate him simply because he's a guy?"
Desiree turned her gaze on Paulina, and a frown curved down on her face. "Well, it was pretty upsetting that he refused to join the team. Did you ever see him play in gym? The guy would make an excellent quarterback if he gave it half a chance. But," she turned her head away, "men are always the same. They use and abuse. That's all I've known throughout my life. Every master I've had was a man, and they all treated me like a possession to be used any way they saw fit. I may look eighteen, but I'm much, much older than that." Her eyes turned sad. "Because I'm young and beautiful, they liked to have their way with me. They would beat me if I didn't comply to their wishes. They didn't care how badly they hurt me because I would heal."
"That's awful," Paulina said, knowing any words she might speak would offer little comfort for what the other woman experienced. She hung her head, a horrible feeling making her heart sink. "I always thought you were an egotistical-"
"Bitch?" Desiree supplied, but Paulina shook her head.
"I wasn't going to use that term." Paulina offered a small smile, but it didn't reach to her emerald eyes. "You've always ran the school like you were the queen of it. The way you treated people always made me want to hate you."
"Only the men," Desiree reminded. "I've only ever been a bitch to the men. I like the women. I've always liked the women."
Paulina paused to think about that and realized Desiree was right. In their years together at Casper High, Paulina couldn't remember seeing Desiree being mean to the other women. It was only the men that received her cruel words and actions. "They're not all bad though," she tried though she didn't think Desiree would believe that after all that she experienced at the hands of men. "Dash would be nicer to you if you didn't provoke him so much, and Danny is really sweet." She snapped her mouth shut, remembering what Dash told her about Danny's family. "We've been out here for so long! We should probably head back inside now." Paulina laughed, trying to lighten some of the mood. She grabbed hold of Desiree's hand and pulled her back into the house where their absences were hardly noticed.
