The Second Covenant

Walking through town was like walking through the past. The buildings hadn’t changed, red brick three story shops, an actual apocathary, a new age store, this is Ipswich after all. There was a little mom and pop gas station, Nikki’s was around the corner, the Pharmacy. All of it was old, historically old. People were already starting to put out Christmas decorations, green and red everywhere I looked. Why is it that Christmas comes before Thanksgiving? I mean it doesn’t but still.

I liked walking down the street and having people wave at me, call out and ask after my family. It made me feel better, really normal. “Cherish, wait up!” I turned at the voice and saw Molly, wrapped up in a white wool coat, crossing the street towards me. I waited with a smile and was awed by the smile on her face, the lightness in her blue eyes. “Hi Molly.” I said and she blushed a bit. “Hi, I haven’t gotten the chance to call.”

I waved my hand and shrugged. “It’s alright, how are you?” I looked at her earnestly and she inhaled deeply, nodding. “Better.” Then she laughed, just a little one and it lit up her face. She really was beautiful. “More than better. I feel…” She stopped and searched for the word, but I knew what she meant. “Free.” I murmured.

Her smile slipped a bit and a shadow passed over her happiness. “Yeah. I really do. But I‘m still waiting for the other shoe to drop.” She admitted with a sad smile. I touched her hand and we shared a silent moment, complete understanding. “I was going to go get some coffee, want to come?” I asked and she nodded. “Yeah.” We walked quietly and when she spoke it was soft. “At the Dells, you told me I wasn’t the only one.” I nodded. “That’s right, did the police tell you anything?” She shook her head with wide eyes. “No, other than Taylor had confessed to what he did. To me.” She had to force out the words, still, after nearly a year.

In the back of my mind I wondered what might have happened to me if I’d screamed. “He confessed to six other girls, along with you and I.” Her jaw dropped, an instant shimmer filing her eyes. “Oh god.” The horror of those two words made me nod in agreement.
I brought up the sounds of Taylor screaming, begging while I had held him up in the air. Maybe it was wrong, but the memory comforted me. We ordered our coffee and chose a booth that was relatively private. “I guess there is such a thing as karma after all.”

Molly said and I smiled at her. “What do you mean?” Her eyes sparkled with laughter, she really was amazingly pretty. I wondered why she wasn’t part of the popular set. But then again, you did have to have a certain amount of ruthlessness to be one of the IT crowd. “He’ll go to jail, some hardcore prison. With his good looks…” She trailed off and lifted her brows and I laughed with her. “Maybe we should send him a note. ‘don’t drop the soap.’”

We laughed a bit more and then Molly sighed, her smile turning soft. “I’m just glad he‘ll be punished.” I raised my little coffee cup. “Here, here.” We drank in quiet and then Molly blushed, I wondered what she was thinking about. “Hey Molly, would you and your parents like to come to my place for Thanksgiving?” She blinked. “I mean, if you aren’t already doing something?” She just looked at me for a moment before smiling this huge smile. “I’ll ask. Thanks.” I shrugged and wondered at wishes. Looking down into my cup I thought hard. “I’ve not ever been invited over to someone’s place before.” Molly said and my eyebrows shot up. “Well I invite you over anytime you want to come.”

When we left the coffee shop, Molly gasped shortly. “Oh, I forgot your red cloak thing.” I shrugged. “No big, I know where you live.” I waggled my brows at her and she smiled again. We walked, looking in the windows. I looked across the street, a compelling need to do so, and there was Druex, the sleeves of his sweater pushed up, his jeans low on his hips, talking with another guy who’s face I couldn’t see about the sign they were putting up. Druex looked up and right over at me. The smile on his face dropped my belly and thirty yards, my reaction to seeing him, alive and free of blood made me feel faint.

I waved and his smile grew. “And here I thought he looked amazing without the shirt on. Is it hot to you? I feel flushed.” Molly said in a low voice. “I know.” I echoed. “Just keep walking, it gets better with distance.” I grumbled and we turned the corner, Molly gave one of those girly little eep’s and I cursed.
Two blocks over, a car was being swarmed with waiting reporters. “Fuck.” I hissed and apparently the sound carried, or maybe the reporters just have super hearing, because one of them shouted, “There she is!”

I backed up slowly, Molly had wrapped her hand around mine and I could practically taste her terror. “I don’t know which one of us is on the menu, but I suggest we run for it.” I told Molly. She agreed and we hightailed it back around the corner, we ran right by Druex, who I guess was going to follow me to say hi, and I waved again. I saw him poke his head around the corner and then I was focused on running. So focused that I eeped, when Druex appeared on my other side, grabbed my hand and pulled us across the street, and into the dimness of his bar.

Molly collapsed against the wall, looking a little pale, she was breathing harder, but not panting and I put my hand on her shoulder. She gave me a weak smile and closed her eyes, leaning her head back. “Shit.” She said. “Yeah.”
“So why did I just see a horde of reporters chasing you?” I grinned but saw Molly flash me an uncertain look. “Happens to us snobby rich kids every once and a while.” Druex looked at Molly and saw her pale face but didn‘t say anything, I could tell he knew I was lying. “Well, now that you’re here…”

He towered over me, looking down with that fire in his eyes and his smile turned into a grin. I stood there like a deer in the headlights, waiting to be plowed over. “I didn’t get a kiss goodnight the other day.” He pointed his finger at me with a teasing light in his gaze. “Or the day before that.” My skin prickled and I shivered in my warm coat. My brain raced to say something, not stupid. “I wasn’t about to make out with you in front of my dad. Or my uncles. I rather like all of you in one piece.” My face flamed at that and his lashes lowered to that sexy look, the one that curled my toes up.

Molly smiled at Druex. “Nice to see you again. But I really need to go, is there a back door?” I put my hands in my pockets and smiled up at him, enjoying the deeper flare of his interest when I did. “I’ll take a rain check on this whole making out thing.” He laughed, his mouth curved in that perfectly stomach flopping smirk. “I’ll walk you to Molly’s car and then we’ll talk about it.” I shook my head back and forth slowly, in amazement “You really think I’m going to kiss you don’t you?” He nodded. “I really do, this will be the third time I’ve hauled your butt out of trouble.” He was really right. I couldn’t help it.

Neither could I help touching him, reassuring myself that last night really had been a dream. I closed the small distance between us and gave my lips lightly, a mere breath of skin on skin, I felt him tense, like he was going to grab me, but I stepped back, basking in the warmth of his eyes. “For someone who isn’t my sweetie, we seem to be doing our fair share of kissing. Back door Casanova, and it was only two times. I could have taken that bitch at the Dells.”

I took Molly’s arm in mine with a sweet smile and saw her lips twitching. “Sorry to cramp your style Cherish.” She said dryly and I grinned at her. “You’re welcome to cramp it anytime you want. Saves me from making a spectacle out of myself. Door?” Druex rolled his eyes but led us back through a very nice bar area. The wood floors were dark, I don’t know what kind of wood, but it looked old. There were a few pool tables in one corner, and a dance floor that had been outlined in a circle of paler wood.

Weird, but it was a neat effect. It was still being built I guess because the place was empty of tables and chairs. “When do you open?” Druex looked at me over his shoulder and smiled. “Two weeks. We’re still getting all the stuff delivered.” He pointed to a second floor. “There’s a place to eat up there, down here’s for the drinking and dancing.”
How very Euro. “What’s the third floor?” Molly asked and Druex gave us both his signature grin. “My apartment.” He looked then just at me and I almost unbuttoned my coat.

It was getting really hot and it was all him. I saw Molly off and then I realized I was all alone. With Druex. God of making me feel like mush. He didn’t say anything, just took my hand, laced our fingers together and tugged me back down the two blocks to his bar. “What’s your place called?” I asked, a trifle bit breathless because I was so close to him, needing to fill the quiet. “The Circle.” We walked back into the dimness and by this time I had both my hands wrapped around his.

He took me up to the second level and then to the third. To his living room and stopped in the center. His eyes bored down into mine, made my body grow heavy with wanting. “Do you have one already?” He murmured the words, just above my lips and I could almost feel the sweep of them on mine. “One what?” I replied, swallowing thickly as my brain tried to work. “A boyfriend.” I shivered at his dark tone, it was one that told me I had best say no. “No, I’m taking applications though.” The words left my mouth and then he was kissing me. He’d kept his hands to himself until then, and now he wrapped his arms around me and pulled my up onto my toes. I had to brace my hand on his chest so I could reach up and tangle my other hand in his hair. “It better be a seriously short list.”

My body was mush, Cherish shaped mush. I let my head fall back on his arm and smiled up at him. “Eight, nine guys tops.” I purred, feeling just plain drugged and happy and loving the way his eyes narrowed. Not even the tiny voice of guilt in the back of my mind could make the feeling go away. I lifted my face and offered him another soul stealing kiss, which of course he didn’t say no to.

I murmured my appreciation when he cradled my face in his hands and pressed the heat of his kisses on me. That something, lifted inside me, rubbing against the inside of my skin sensually. I was in danger of drowning in sensation, distantly I could hear Highway to Hell playing. “You’re phone is ringing.” Druex muttered but I drew him back down. “Who ever it is can leave a message. I’m busy with an audition.” He chuckled but we continued our explorations. The ringing stopped and I relaxed my whole body into Druex’s hold.

In the back of my mind, I wondered if I was taking this a bit fast. I mean, I’ve know this amazing kissing machine for a little over a week, I know his name and that he owns this bar and that his apartment smells like nag champa. And that’s it. And Peyton was in love with me. Hello Guilt. Where ya been?

So when my cell started again I grumbled and answered it. “Miss Danvers?” I licked my lips to savor the taste of Druex’s kisses, absolutely loved the way his eyes darkened while he watched me do it. “Yes?”
“This is Detective Thomas, how are you?”
The pleasure of making out with a beautiful man began to fade a little, his question put me on edge for some reason. “Fine, is something wrong?”
He sighed heavily and I feeling of dread rose up inside me. “Unfortunately. There wont be a case for the police to take to court. Not anymore.”
“Why not?” I demanded, that thing was not going to get away with it, seven girls, seven lives ruined. How dare they not… “Taylor Hodges hung himself last night in his cell.” I nearly dropped my phone. My hands went numb, I went numb. “S-sorry?” Druex took my elbows and moved me to a chair gently. “I just wanted to call and let you know. This isn’t the justice we wanted. But he’s gone.”

I hung up the phone and stared at it for a long time. “Cherish?” I blinked up at Druex, my eyes completely dry and not one ounce of remorse or pity for Taylor. He’d hung himself, committed suicide. He was burning in Hell, according to his faith. Amen. “Sorry. Um, that guy you oh so heroically rescued me from killed himself last night.” There wasn’t any judgment in his eyes at my less that sad tone. “That doesn’t appear to make you very upset.” I shook my head with a ghost of a smile. “Not really, no. He raped seven different girls I went to school with.” His brows drew together in a angry line. “Should we throw a party?” I laughed and shook my head. “No. But I’ll take a celebratory kiss anyway.”
It rocked my socks off