Consumed » Kai Parker

Sixty Three

Two days.

I stare at the calendar on my phone, trying in vain to make sense of the dwindling timeline. It's like a taunt, the seemingly ordinary day in March with perhaps no significance at all to majority of the Virginia population, or the rest of the world's for that matter. Yet for me, it provokes the kind of dread that makes my stomach feel like it's filled with blocks of ice, stubbornly refusing to melt or allow me to operate comfortably.

Shaking off the goosebumps gathering on the surface of my skin, I hurriedly turn off my phone screen and deposit the dangerous thing on my nightstand. Dwelling on the shortened countdown really isn't doing me any good, but I keep at it, like pressing on a bruise. Or maybe, it's out of some inane belief that obsessing over the elapsed time will grant me some level of control over an event that, in truth, is entirely unpredictable.

Kai strolls into our room, the ease in his shoulders and loping gait a wonder to be envious of. He's rubbing a white towel over his damp hair and the stray water droplets trickling down his bare chest is a supremely effective distraction. A pair of black boxers cover his extremities, but that doesn't stop my mind from spiraling into inappropriate areas regarding pouncing on the damn witch.

Flipping the used towel to rest over his shoulder, he throws me a lazy smirk. "Tagging along to the house of horrors today?"

I muster up a smile. "You have to ask at this point?"

He shrugs. "Wouldn't blame you if the Gemini chaos was driving you a little batty. Actually, I'm right there with you. Remember that fast-forward spell I joked about? Yeah, well, maybe today's the day to figure out the science behind that to take us to the part where I'm coven leader again and you and I are taking a very necessary vacation."

The simple imagery he paints makes my body unwind in full agreement. "Maybe that can be the focus of today's session? I'll help."

"We'll have to make it a secret mission, between us." He winks, then rifles through his drawers for an outfit to change into. "Unless we want the Three Stooges hijacking our future alone time."

I chuckle. "You know, I don't think Quinn deserves to be grouped in with that title."

He hums, considering this. "True. She's got a steady head on her shoulders. So, minus Quinn, the better analogy would be Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee."

"I'm just gonna assume that's your indirect way of saying you like your coven," I tease, knowing they've all come a long ways away from that first, slightly awkward meeting in the living room of our apartment.

Kai pulls on a pair of black jeans, his cheek twitching up into a poorly suppressed smile. "I like them, Charlie. Not exactly top secret information."

I tilt my head. "No? You'd think it was guarded by the Pentagon and everything, the way you dance around the topic whenever I bring it up."

He rolls his eyes, pulling a long-sleeved white henley over his head. In a fashion so fitting of his cavalier manner, he undoes the top two buttons of the few lining the top. Unbidden, my head offers up delicious images of ripping it right back off to admire his rippling muscles with my wandering eyes and equally curious tongue.

With cheeks flushed at the turn my thoughts had taken, I glance away from the man unwittingly encouraging them.

My eyes find my phone in its place on the nightstand and just like that, I'm reminded of the daunting calendar that I'd been unable to look away from minutes before Kai walked in. The mantra starts up again, a clock ticking between the two syllables: two-days, two-days, two-days. My fists clench up in my lap and I think Kai is saying something, his tone light and a contrast to the storm of worry in my head. I can't even make out his words, let alone reply, not with my beating heart filling my ear drums.