You're Mine E-Book

Somer Canon

• Herausgeber: French Press
• Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 474

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Insecure misfit Ioni Davis never thinks she’ll find love in her sleepy West Virginia hometown. Then the tall, fascinating stranger Raber Belliveau transfers to her school.
Their attraction is instant and red-hot. And a shared fascination with witchcraft bonds the young lovers even closer.
But while Ioni is responsibly studying her newfound religion of Wicca, Raber has chosen an altogether…different path.
Soon, Raber’s behavior becomes manipulative. Even abusive. And their love story for the ages is turning into a macabre farce. All Ioni wants to do is get out.
But Raber has discovered a dreadful way to control their relationship. A ritual which hasn’t been attempted in over a century. A spell to unleash a bloodthirsty terror which can never be satisfied.
Ioni finds herself trapped in a struggle for her life and even her free will against a once-trusted lover who has assured her…
YOU’RE MINE

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Praise for YOU’RE MINE

YOU’RE MINE | Somer Canon

PART ONE

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

PART TWO

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Epilogue

Publisher’s Note

About the Author

Praise for YOU’RE MINE

“Somer Canon delivers a gripping tale of doomed love and the dark twisted need to control.”

- Ali Seay, author of GO DOWN HARD and TO OFFER HER PLEASURE

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“I LOVED THIS NOVEL! A blend of occult horror, suspense, and coming-of-age, the story kept me in its grip from the first page to the last. A cautionary tale about the dangers of power, magic, and the desire to be loved, this is one of Somer Canon’s finest books.”

- Regina Garza Mitchell, co-editor of THE BIG BOOK OF BLASPHEMY and two-time Golden Apple Writer-in-Residence 

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“TWISTY, DANGEROUS, sexy, and tense, YOU’RE MINE will seize you by the throat and tighten its stranglehold until the very last page. Somer Canon is a fantastic storyteller with a fearsome, unforgettable voice.”

- Jonathan Janz, author of THE SIREN AND THE SPECTER and MARLA

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"SOMER CANON IS A VIBRANT, vital voice in the horror genre today, and YOU’RE MINE is proof why. Creepy, cool, and unforgettable, you'll descend into the world of Ioni and Raber as they fall for witchcraft and each other, all with disastrous, devilish consequences. Read all of Somer Canon's work, starting with this killer book."

- Gwendolyn Kiste, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of THE RUST MAIDENS and RELUCTANT IMMORTALS

Copyright © 2022 by Somer Canon

Cover art copyright © 2022 Chris Enterline

Have you ever wondered what kind of makeup goth witches wear?  Well, if you read to the end of the copyright page you deserve to find out.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any other mode of information storage or sharing, without the written consent of the publisher, except where permitted by law.

Names, places, characters, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously.  Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.  And they wear ma-scare-a, of course.

YOU’RE MINE

Somer Canon

To all who are lost and looking for their path:  Find it yourself. Don't be led. 

PART ONE

Chapter One

The public school cafeteria of the United States is a place that tends to bring physical reactions to those who have been through them. Oddly scented, not always terribly clean, and full of one’s peers, hostile and otherwise, it’s a place that sends adults into fits of nostalgia while the hapless students look on with a mixture of comfortable familiarity and self-esteem shriveling anxiety.

On no other day were those anxious feelings more prominent than the first day of school. Well, except maybe that last first day. The last time one experiences that first day can be bittersweet, but for some, for those who would laugh derisively at the notion that high school contains the best years of your life, that final first day marks a great relief. With adulthood and independence on the horizon, and the desperate hope that one will no longer have to suffer the forced society of public school, that last first day is actually pretty fucking incredible. Freedom was less than a year away, and the world opened up with endless possibilities for those new graduates. At that age, with inexperience allowing optimism to rule, people tend to think that time is limitless and all things are possible. Experience teaches which of those things is true and which is absolute soul-sucking bullshit.

On this last first day, the cafeteria was noisy with excitement as students milled in and sorted themselves into their appropriate social groups. Colorful clothing adhering to style standards detailed in popular magazines washed through the large room. There were the style anomalies, of course. In Stearnsville, a town that boasted an almost twenty percent poverty rate, there were more than a few tattered shirts and hole-riddled pants that weren’t made so on purpose. Even with those stylistic aberrations, one’s eye was inevitably drawn to one particular table in the room. The weirdo table.

Calling the high school seniors seated at the table “weirdos” was a broad enough description (and insult) for the small, mostly white town to handle. Heavy, black eye-makeup, piercings, and tattoos adorned the four as did surprising flashes of color in either clothes or hair dyes that contrasted with their mostly black wardrobes. Where most of the other students were exuberant and energized, the four at the weirdo table were more subdued, talking among themselves privately. They weren’t goths, really, a style that still had a sizable fan base at the time, but they were certainly alternative.

“Everybody must think we're over here plotting something,” Ioni thought as she looked at her three companions. “Nothing could be further from the truth.” She smiled as she listened to the conversation going on.

“Oh, come on!” Nathan Newell said. “This group is every bit as attention-getting as any other group of obnoxious teens! I have every reason to believe that I can land a Marlon Brando look-alike in this crowd. I stand out!”

“Nath,” Arlie Swiger said, smiling. “I’ll never understand this weird infatuation with Marlon Brando. Did you ever see him in his later years?”

“Girl, my god!” Nathan squeaked. “Don't try to crap up my mental image like that! I'm talking a young Brando here! Young!”

“Look how you’re dressed,” Adam Burnside interjected. “Aren't you supposed to lust after dark brooding types who understand darkness the way you do?”

This was an inside joke among the group. They weren't dark, nor were they brooding. They liked art, music, and movies and while Nine Inch Nails and Orgy were CDs frequently listened to by the group, most of them would shame-facedly admit to liking Britney Spears and The Backstreet Boys as well. They weren’t much different from their peers, but their aesthetic set them on the outskirts as the strange ones. It bothered them from time to time because the teen years are full of doubt and the need for acceptance, but it also thrilled them because they felt a little bit of pride in daring to be different. That something as trivial as their clothes could upset people emboldened them to take it further, to push ridiculous boundaries.

“Listen here, Mister Adam,” Nathan said tartly. “Just because I choose the lifestyle of the dark and malevolent, doesn't mean that I don't enjoy a good ol' American boy every now and then. I know you and Arlie make the perfect picture of goth love, but I really couldn't bear not being the pretty one in my relationship. What can I say, I just want a manly man to sweep me off my feet.”

“Whoa, whoa,” Adam said, waving his hands. “Are you trying to say my lady ain't pretty?”

“Arlie is breathtaking,” Nathan said, smiling. “Only half of her head has hair, and the hair that she does have is purple. She's the only person I've ever met who can actually wear a size zero pant and she has fantastic taste in body ink. I think what I was saying was that it's you who aren't the pretty one.” Nathan gestured to Adam. “I mean, come on. Platinum hair, pale skin, shaved eyebrows and like six holes in each ear? Striking? Sure? But Jared Leto you ain’t, my friend.”

“Piercings, pale skin, eyebrows plucked to near oblivion, and I'm pretty sure your hair was dyed platinum just a couple of weeks ago,” Ioni said, smiling.

“I learned from my wannabe ways,” Nathan said, gesturing to his pink mohawk with his black painted fingernails and smiling with his black-lined lips. “It's also precisely why I need a manly man in order to be the pretty one.”

The group snickered. Nathan was the clown of the group. Ioni became friends with him in the sixth grade. He was the first openly gay peer she’d met up to that point. Their town typically saw the gay kids move far away before coming out of the closet, but Nathan was comfortable with who he was and equally comfortable with letting people who thought him laughable or worse know that they could go straight to hell. Since Ioni had a rather rough time with puberty and identity, it helped her to know someone who was comfortable in their own skin when she felt anything but. As a teenaged girl who carried more weight than others her age and who developed breasts about two years before anyone else, feeling normal was nearly impossible for Ioni Davis.

Arlie and her boyfriend Adam came to the group by way of high school art class. They were a strange couple. Adam's family was famously wealthy for the area and Arlie lived with a single mother in HUD housing. Arlie joked that the only reason they had come together was “when you're the only two goth kids in school, nobody else wants you,” because they’d gone to a different middle school than Ioni and Nathan and actually were the only two kids with that aesthetic there. But Ioni knew better. There were real feelings seated in the foundation of their relationship and while it was possible that weird attracted weird, it was deeper than a similar taste in black eyeliner.

Ioni, herself, came from a well-to-do family. With a CPA for a father and a caterer for a mother, money wasn't tight for her family like it was for so many other families in their town. She was the middle of three sisters. Her older sister, Rose, still lived at home with her baby and her younger sister, Amanda, was a shining beacon of perfection and athleticism next to her large, awkward sisters.

Ioni was very awkward, she had to admit. She had made it to her final year of high school without ever having a boyfriend, the epitome of the teenaged experience as she saw it. At five feet eleven inches tall, she towered over most other girls, and her curvy figure seemed grotesque to her when compared to the more fashionable bony figures she saw all around her. Her friends did their best to combat her self-loathing, always assuring her of her beauty and winning personality, but she couldn’t internalize their words. All she saw when she looked in the mirror was a towering bulk who wore loud clothes to cover up the endless faults reflected back at her.

Nathan let out a long high-pitched whistle. The group looked in the direction of his pointing finger.

“What the...?” Adam said.

“Oh no,” Arlie said, laughing.

“Another goth?” Ioni asked, smiling.

“Another goth,” Nathan confirmed.

The tall, pale, heavyset, and bald kid was wearing a long black trench coat over black pants, something only the edgiest of personalities dared to do after Columbine. His eyes were lined heavily with black liner and his ears were laden with silver earrings of all shapes and sizes. He was standing alone, staring at their little group. Ioni felt a rush of heat run up her neck when his eyes grazed over her, returned, and settled on her face. His stare was even and intense.

“Let's be hospitable and welcome the new school freak,” Nathan said, waving to the new stranger.

Ioni drummed her fingers on the table nervously as he approached them. For such a large guy, he moved lightly. His gaze stayed on the group as he approached them, and Ioni noticed that he refused to push his body up against the wall to avoid the other students passing by him, and he never lowered his eyes to stare at the floor as she often did.

“Greetings!” Nathan said, standing and shaking the stranger's hand. “We were shocked to see another goth in this place, man. Hi! My name’s Nathan!”

A warm smile spread across the stranger's full lips and he put a large hand on Nathan's slender shoulder.

“My name is Raber Belliveau.” He looked around the cafeteria, at the other tables and then again at the group. There was a note of desperate hope in his voice when he spoke again.  “Please tell me you’re all seniors,” he said.

“Thankfully, yes,” Nathan said. “All four of us are Class of 2002, on a glorious countdown until our tenure in the public school system is at an end.”

“I'm glad we agree on that sentiment,” Raber said, eying Ioni. He turned fully to her and held out his hand. “I saw you from across the room. I'm sorry if I look like a creep, but I just couldn't stop staring at you. Hi, I'm Raber, and you are?”

It felt like gallons of hot blood rushed into Ioni's face all at once as she blushed heavily. Nobody, nobody had ever talked to her like that before. Raber looked down at her with amusement in his eyes, waiting for her to gather herself enough to respond. She looked at the trusted faces of her friends and nearly bust out laughing when she saw them all wearing a uniform look of gape-mouthed shock. She looked back at Raber, into his lovely, green eyes. They were wreathed with luxurious, long eyelashes. She blushed when she realized that she had been quiet for too long. She swallowed hard and took his large, cool hand.

“I'm Ioni,” she said, relieved that her voice sounded calm and even. “I, uh, I don't think you're being a creep. I didn't really notice you staring at us.”

“You,” Raber corrected. “I was staring at you. At first I did notice the group. I can't tell you how relieved I was to see a group of similarly-fashioned folks at this podunk school, but once I got a good look at you and your amazing face and that gorgeous hair of yours, I think I almost crossed the creepy line.” He leaned ever so slightly closer to her and seemed to almost breathe her in.

Ioni choked on her own saliva and started coughing.

Nathan, Arlie, and Adam burst out laughing at that. Ioni felt a cloud of tension dissipate from the group and she smiled down at her lap. Raber straightened to his full height and joined in on the giggles, still looking down at her.

“You never talk to me that way, you jerk!” Arlie said, playfully swatting Adam on the arm.

“I've seen you at your worst, woman!” Adam said, smiling. “Let's see him talk to her like that after he's seen her with a raging case of the puking flu!”

“And you two are?” Raber asked, still smiling.

“I'm Arlie and this is my long-time love monkey, Adam.”

“These two have been a couple since before puberty,” Nathan interjected. “The whole school has a sort of long-running bet about how long they'll be together. They just keep beating the odds.”

“I like that,” Raber said. “This is my fourth school since I started kindergarten and this is the first time that I've met a long-term couple that lasted more than a year or two. Maybe you guys are the real deal.”

“Don't get them talking about it,” Nathan said, putting his hands over his ears. “They don't believe in soul mates or true love but then again, these assholes have the luxury to say that while the rest of us losers keep looking for the next short-term heartburn.”

“But enough about us,” Adam said, throwing a wad of paper at Nathan with a smile.

“Yes, enough about you,” Nathan said, dodging the paper. “Raber, I'm sitting here and I'm thinking that maybe you should answer us some questions about your intentions toward our beloved Ioni here. She's gorgeous, for sure, but are you some creepy predator hoping for a swim in her cleavage or are you really just some poor schmo that got gobsmacked by her? I'm not bringing the claws out, yet, but I've been this girl's bestie for a while and I'm not gonna be okay with someone who just wants to use her as a grope-fest. I know I'm scrappy and your size, frankly, scares the sparkles right out of my eyeliner, but I will not allow you to make an easy meal out of my girl here.”

Raber looked Ioni in the eyes and spoke to Nathan, never pulling his penetrating gaze from her.

“I'm not a predator,” he said. “Gobsmacked is a good way to describe my reaction to seeing this beautiful creature. Honestly, I hadn't noticed her splendid womanliness until you pointed it out.” Ioni frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. She was uncomfortable being talked about like she wasn’t there. Raber went on.

“I was brought in by her beautiful, shiny, black hair and her magnificent lips.” Raber laughed and ran a hand over his shining head. “I'm making her uncomfortable. I'll stop. I have no real plans for Ioni as of now, except to just let her know that when I first saw her, I was so taken with her that my lungs could not draw air. I hope to be friends with all of you and that includes Ioni. That's all.”

“Well, damn,” Arlie said, fanning herself, laughing.

“No shit, my friend,” Nathan said. “Why can't I find a silver-tongued guy like that?”

“Okay, that's enough of me making an ass out of myself,” Raber said. “How about we all compare schedules so I can hope to run into some of you during the day?”

Schedule cards were produced and there were pleased mumbles when Adam noticed that Raber was in a lot of the advanced and college-level classes with him. Then Nathan burst out laughing, pointing at the cards.

“Oh man, we all went the predictable route with art class? Could we be any more cliché?” Nathan said.

“It's not cliché! It's the easy class!” Ioni laughed.  Art was great because Ms. Mimm, the art teacher, was an old hippie who let the students mess around as long as they took time to admire her work from time to time. They weren’t really expected to produce much themselves. They told Raber as much.

“Why are high school art teacher always hippies?” Raber asked, laughing. “I mean, it's that way everywhere I go! Does Ms. Mimm have a little studio somewhere in town? Like a cheap little mission-style house that is just covered with her weird paintings and clay sculptures?”

“Jesus, dude. You describe it perfectly,” Adam said.

“Well I have no reason to feel displaced here, then,” Raber said.

“Look, Raber,” Adam began. “We've got a few classes together and obviously we shop at the same stores so how about we exchange our personal information and just go ahead and call this initiation done?”

“That's a good idea,” Nathan said. “Newest member of the weirdo club, welcome!”

Pieces of notebook paper were produced while phone numbers, and ICQ and AIM handles were written down. When Ioni passed her paper to Raber, he looked it over carefully and tucked it into his coat. He put the papers from everybody else into his 5-Star binder. It was a deliberate act that she was meant to see, but her friends’ smirking faces showed that they’d seen it too.

The bell rang and the group disbanded, everyone heading to their respective homerooms. Ioni smiled to herself when she noticed a slight bounce to her step. That year, things were going to be much different for her. She just knew it.

Chapter Two

School had been in session for two weeks. A comfortable routine had been established and the group of outsiders had gained a sense of comfort and trust with their new addition. Raber proved to be easy to laugh with and extremely likable, if not a bit hard to understand. He had a way with words that baffled the group at times. He spoke in a formal manner, like someone from a different era. But that didn’t make Raber as unique as one might assume. Every generation of teenagers will try to find a way to not only set themselves apart from their parents, but also from their own peers. Language was Raber’s form of expression of individuality so that his looks set him apart from the masses, but the way he spoke set him apart from his friends.

Although Raber was ultimately accepted, there were some initial misgivings. Nathan, the truly accepting one of the bunch, was quick to like Raber while Arlie had a few mild gripes about him.

“He's weird, isn't he? I mean, that's not just me talking. The guy is weird,” she said.

“He's a little strange, yeah, but I like him. He's nice enough,” Adam answered.

“It's the way he talks, I guess,” Arlie said. “Who in high school talks that way? Nobody. And I thought Nathan was the limit of crazy-talking.”

“Now listen here, lady-bits,” Nathan interjected. “How dare you try to proclaim who is and is not 'weird.' How the hell can you be weird among the weird? That's not right, and you know it.”

They were all sprawled out on the enormous sectional sofa in Adam's family room watching trash TV. Ioni was cuddled into the inside corner while Nathan was sprawled out with his head resting on one of the arms, his feet on her lap. Adam was propped against the other arm and Arlie was leaning on him. Ioni noticed how Adam’s hand rested comfortably between Arlie's thighs. She envied that comfortable familiarity that wasn't necessarily sexual.

“I'm not condemning the guy, I'm just still trying to get used to him is all. I like him, he's totally nice, but I mean, did you hear how he talked to Ioni that first day? I didn't know whether to be happy or terrified for her,” Arlie said.

“I actually had a similar moment, there,” Ioni said. “I've never had a guy really notice me before, not like that at least. He scared the hell out of me. But it really seems like he's just a normal guy like the rest of us. Sure, he's super smart like Adam and he dresses weird but he's not murdering neighborhood cats or anything. I'm flattered that he has a crush on me, and I'm really happy that he isn't acting like a crazy stalker. Aside from a bunch of compliments, he's never really cornered me or tried to ask me out or anything. I like that he made his feelings known, but backed off right after, like he knew he came on a little too strong.”

“That's beautifully put,” Nathan said. “Really. That's like the perfect way to describe what he's done. It's like he planted a seed and now he's waiting to see what comes of it. I don't care what you guys think, I like that giant bald dude.”

“He is big, isn't he?” Adam said. “He might be intimidating if he weren't so soft-spoken and so....so...what's the word I want? Genteel. That's it. Like he was born into aristocracy or something.”

“And nobody else finds that sort of scary?” Arlie asked.

“Honestly, and I know this is so girl-with-a-crush stupid of me, but I kind of like it. He really expresses himself. It's beautiful.” Ioni said.

“Well since I'm in the minority, I guess I'll just eat it,” Arlie laughed. “I trust you guys and if you say he's cool, then he's cool.”

And that was the end of it. Raber was one of them.

They were in art class one day painting small plaster of Paris trinkets. Their workstation was little more than a long table and they sat on simple wooden stools. The room was on a corner of the building, so it had windows on two of its walls. Rough outlines of Ms. Mimm's future works of art were hung over the neglected chalkboard.

Ioni was daydreaming as she smeared a creamy-orange color over her seashell-shaped trinket box when Raber's voice startled her back to reality.

“I think we've got an easy repartee, the four of us, so maybe it's time that I reveal something about myself to you, my friends,” he said.

They all looked at him, their hands paused above their work.

“I'm not just into the goth clothing line, you know. I feel the need to explain this because I get the idea that you guys are only into the look. No judgment,” Raber said, looking down at his tiny half-painted turtle.

“What's up, dude?” Adam asked.

“Well, I want to tell you something about myself, but I really don't want to scare any of you off. You see, I'm not trying to recruit or anything, this is just something you really should know about me if we're going to be friends. I’ve had an interest in the occult since I was thirteen. I've read a lot about it and I'm on a path right now. I found a blog written by a witch and her writings are helping me a lot in my decision to become a Wiccan. I know maybe this might be a bit much, especially in a town like this. It might become a burden on you guys to associate with me.”

The original three glanced at each other before breaking out into quiet, breathy giggles. For a moment, a dark look passed over Raber's face. It was obvious that he was on the defensive because he thought that they were making fun of him.

“My friend, there isn't a one of us sitting here with you now who hasn’t dabbled in the occult at one time or another,” Nathan said, seeing the look on Raber's face. “Just because we chose as individuals not to go down that path, that doesn't mean that we're going to judge you. And umm, by the way, being friends with you will not be a burden on any of us. Have you met me? If the hayseed redneck fag-beaters in this school can accept me at least on a formal basis, I'm sure they'll be cool with you. And if they're not, who the hell cares? We're out of here in less than a year.”

“There's no judgment from people like us,” Arlie said. “That's the last thing you need to worry about.”

“I took an interest in becoming a cyberwitch for a while. I found an online coven and everything,” Adam said. “If you wanna know some sites, I can get that for you, no problem.”

“Oh, thanks, but no. I'm old fashioned. I really feel the need to have physical ritual and motions. I'm going to try to find a coven that practices in-person, not online. But thank you,” Raber said, obviously relieved.

Talk settled into the usual chit-chat about classes and gossip before the bell rang. There was one more period after art class, and Ioni was happy for it. She had some thinking to do.

Later that night, alone in her room, Ioni messaged Raber on the messenger client preferred by the group which had a green flower for a logo.

“I have a question.”

His reply came back almost immediately.

“Sure.”

“You said you weren't looking to recruit anybody in this interest you have in becoming Wiccan. Does that mean you don't want anybody to join you?”

This time there was more of a pause.

“I didn't want anybody to feel pressured, but I'm not adverse to someone going down this path with me if that's what they want,” he said.

Ioni became annoyed that he was leaving it so open. He was being careful and not inviting her, which was what she wanted.

“Well, what would you think if I said that I've been looking into Wicca for a while too and that until you said something today, I hadn't decided if I wanted to try it or not?”

“I'm not sure what to say unless I know what you decided.”

Ioni cursed at her computer screen and she screamed into a pillow. She gathered her thoughts and her courage and sent a reply.

“I think I was scared about going into it alone, but now that you're doing it, I think I might want to give it a serious go.”

“With me?” he replied.

This time Ioni giggled. She was anxious and nervous.

“Yes, with you. Would it be okay if we did this together?”

“Ioni, you've just made my day.”

She sighed heavily, her nervous energy mellowing. That was the first real conversation that she and Raber had had since that first day of school. She had fantasized about different conversations and how they would work out, but this was better than anything her mind had made.

“So what happens now?” she messaged. There was a long wait before her computer chimed at her with his reply and when she saw his reply, she knew that he had needed to gather his courage to send it.

“Can I come over?”

Ioni stared at her screen, a smile cemented on her lips. She was frozen in surprise. She knew that by starting this that she and Raber would be spending a lot of alone time together, but she hadn't imagined that it would be this soon. She knew him to be forward, but that last message surprised her.

She must have been staring at her screen for longer than she thought because it startled her by chirping again with another message from him.

“...or we can meet somewhere neutral. I didn't mean to push myself on you, it just might be easier if we could get this hashed out in person.”

She sighed in relief. A neutral place would be much better.

“We could go to Eat N' Park and talk. It's never really busy this time of night. Do you want to meet there or carpool?” she replied.

Both of them had their own cars and while it would have been perfectly easy for them to just meet at the restaurant, Ioni was curious about what the tone of the dinner would be. They could take her car since she was closer, but it would make more sense if Raber picked her up since she was on his way. She laughed at herself when she noticed that she was drumming her fingers on her desk waiting for his reply.

“I can come pick you up. I'll be there in fifteen.”

That was it. In Ioni's mind at least, it was a date. It would be the first date that she had been on since she was fixed up by Nathan the previous year with a boy from a neighboring school. That had consisted of a few phone calls, sitting next to each other at a basketball game, and then nothing. The most exciting thing to come out of that sad mess was the soft pretzel he’d bought for her at the game.

Ioni jumped up and examined herself in the mirror. She was still such a novice at dating that she didn’t know the etiquette on whether or not it was acceptable to wear the same clothes she’d worm at school that day. But did Raber know that they were going on a date? She knew she’d look strange getting all blown out for just a friendly dinner.  Strapped for time, Ioni opted to just refresh her perfume and apply some lip gloss.

She grabbed her purse and sprinted down the stairs and out the front door. She was far too anxious to worry about how it would look for her to be waiting for Raber. She sat on the cool concrete step leading up to the porch and folded her hands in her lap.

The sky was a mixture of orange and purple as dusk settled over the world. It was still warm at that time of the year and the crickets were chirping in the bushes surrounding her home. She could hear young children playing down the road as well as somebody's television blasting through an open window. Ioni closed her eyes and let the warm air kiss her face and neck.

She heard a car approaching and opened her eyes just in time to see it cruise by. It wasn't the car she was waiting for. She hated waiting.

Again she closed her eyes and tried to focus on the warm night air on her skin. As she tilted her head slightly to the side, she felt her soft hair brush along the side of her neck as it fell forward onto her chest. She inhaled deeply and pictured Raber kneeling before her. She imagined his big hands reaching out to her. At first his hands and strong fingers ran up her forearms. As he leaned closer, he touched either side of her neck and stroked outwards and down her shoulders. Ioni pictured his shocking green eyes half-lidded and watching his seduction. In her mind, his hands reached up and brushed her hair back to expose the nape of her neck. With the skin now exposed, Raber leaned forward and softly brushed his warm dry lips along her neck and down her shoulder. Ioni felt a barrage of shivers shoot down her spine. She exhaled deeply.

“Wherever you are right now, it sure looks like fun,” a voice said right in front of her.

Her eyes snapped open and there stood the object of her fantasy. When her eyes met his, his full lips stretched over his nearly perfect teeth in an amused smile.

Ioni stammered like an idiot before giving up and burying her head in her hands.

At this Raber laughed.

“I was listening to my neighbor's TV, actually,” she said.

Raber, still smiling, shook his head.

Thankfully the awkward moment passed and Ioni stood to follow Raber to his car, a yellow Pontiac Sunfire.

He surprised Ioni by holding her hand all the way to the passenger side and opening the door for her. She got into the seat as carefully as she could, praying that she didn't look like a clumsy clod.

“Do you want to tell me why you didn't say anything in front of the others about this interest of yours? I doubt seriously that this embarrasses you. You all seem more than tolerant,” he said, starting the engine.

“To be honest, I am a little embarrassed about it. I'm not embarrassed to tell them about it, they’re cool, but I was embarrassed to do this by myself. I was scared I'd get caught up in something weird or sketchy. You see, for a while Adam was really interested in it and because of that, Arlie was interested. By extension, Nathan and I started looking into it. Nathan was the first to announce that it wasn't his thing, which I found weird. I thought he'd be all over it, but he said that he just couldn't really connect to people who respected nature that much because he'd have to give up some of his favorite makeup.”

“That's totally understandable once you get to know Nathan,” he said, laughing. “What happened with Adam and Arlie?”

“Arlie lost interest. She said there were too many gods and goddesses to keep track of. She's agnostic, but she's also really non-committal and I think actually having to pick any sort of religion is more than she wants to do. She didn't ever try to discourage Adam from looking into it, but I think once he realized that it was something that he'd be doing alone he sort of dropped off. He was the one who did the most serious research with it, though. He actually contacted Wiccans online and asked them a bunch of questions. Adam's big on research and being totally prepared for stuff. But I think once Arlie lost interest and he learned all he could, it wasn’t new and cool anymore.”

As she was talking, Raber had parked and opened her car door for her, taking her hand and leading her into the restaurant. She was mildly distracted from her story because it took a long moment for her to realize that she was walking hand-in-hand with a guy and that they looked like a couple. She was impressed with Raber's smooth execution.

They were seated quickly and had ordered drinks and food. The little restaurant had only a few patrons that night so there was no need to censor their talk. She had worried about people overhearing them, but the relative public privacy was a comfort.

“What about you?” Raber asked. “Did you ever abandon the pursuit or did you just let it go because your friends all lost interest?”

“I mostly let it go because of my friends, but I did always keep this secret desire to look deeper into it. It's not something that you can really just walk out and find in a town like this, and I really didn't feel cool about doing it by myself. If I’d had the group aspect of my friends, I would’ve probably gone whole hog with it.”

Their drinks were brought to them and Ioni thanked the waitress. She looked across the table at Raber and he was smiling at her. She smiled back in a questioning way.

“You're really polite,” he said. “It took that waitress way too long to bring us drinks. I mean look at this place, it's empty, and she took at least five full minutes to do a task that is basically dumping ice into cups and sticking them under a spout. Don't think I'm an asshole or anything, I wasn't going to chew her out, but she definitely didn't deserve that sweet smile and thank you, either.”

Ioni frowned. That little outburst of annoyance surprised her.

“I guess I was busy talking and didn't notice that she took a long time,” she said. “But even if I had noticed, jobs like these suck and I have to try to give these people a little patience. Also, I don't want them spitting in anything I'm going to eat or drink.”

“Fair enough,” Raber said, laughing.

“The food and drinks aren't really all that important, are they?” she asked. “I mean, I thought we were here to talk and have a conversation about this new venture.”

“Of course, you're right,” Raber said. “I'm easily annoyed, but you'll learn that about me quickly enough. I'm sorry. I was just charmed by your sweetness is all.”

Ioni looked down at her lap and smiled. He was so smooth and knew exactly what to say. She could more easily see the green of his eyes in the harsh light and just how long his eyelashes were. She liked the way he looked just then. There was still a dark look to him with the shaved head, ear metal, and hint of eye-makeup, but she could see more of him. There was something strangely intimate about seeing a goth kid slightly stripped down like that. He had noticed her studying him and was smiling again.

“Are you waiting for horns to sprout?” he asked.

“No,” she laughed. “I was just admiring your face.” She felt herself blushing. “You have the prettiest eyes. I was shocked when I noticed how green they are.”

“I'm flattered that you noticed. I'm used to people only seeing the metal and clothes and makeup on me. I didn't know that you were looking that closely,” he said.

“I actually noticed your eyes the first day of school when you made it a point to introduce yourself to me. When you leaned down I could see the pretty green color and your super long lashes,” Ioni said. She realized she was being forward and flattering, but she couldn't seem to stop herself.

Raber's eyebrows shot up in surprise. He sat back and looked at Ioni in a strange way. He didn't say anything for the longest time.

“You noticed things like that the first few minutes of meeting me?” he asked.

“Well, yeah.”

“Really,” he said, frowning now.

“Really. What's up?”

“I don't know. People don't usually notice anything about me other than the facade I create. Truthfully, I'm completely bowled over that a girl, and a pretty girl at that, noticed something like that about me. I've always just been a weirdo sitting alone in a corner, not getting any sort of female attention. For you of all people to notice and admire something physical about me is surprising.”

“Me of all people? What does that mean?” she asked.

“Well,” Raber began. “I made it pretty clear from the start that I'm completely taken by you. You're probably the most beautiful person that I've ever physically been around. When I saw you from across the cafeteria that first day, I was dumbfounded by how you affected me. You’re an ideal to me; something I could never dream of having. So when you pay me a compliment like that, it's surreal.”

“You're talking about me like I'm some sort of cheerleader or movie star. I'm just an average person...well below average if you ask me. I mean, I'm a weirdo, too. I've never had anybody compliment me or show any sort of interest in me beyond staring at my chest. Well, besides you. You surprised me by coming on the way you did that first day. I'm totally not used to that,” she said, staring at her lap.

“I find it surprising that you aren't constantly complimented. You are unbelievably beautiful. Your hair is the first thing I noticed. You have such lovely hair. And then I saw your face, and I was just floored. Those luscious lips, those blue eyes, that perfect skin. You're amazing. And you're tall which is great. I'm tall and a lot of girls just seem tiny to me. I like being close to you. You don't make me feel freakishly proportioned.”

“I don't think you're freakishly proportioned,” Ioni said. “I like your size. I like pretty much everything about you. If I'm being honest here, that first day you scared me, but these past couple of weeks and getting to know you, I've come to realize that I’m really attracted to you. I'm not sure what to do about it, but I know that I like you. I like being near you and I like knowing that I'm gonna see you. I just like you.”

Ioni had a moment of panic after realizing that she had just made herself extremely vulnerable by expressing her feelings so freely. If he laughed at her, she would walk home and quit school. Raber could hurt her or take advantage of those feelings she’d just expressed. Sorry for her self-perceived folly, she looked into the green eyes across the table.

“What to do about it?” he asked. “At this point, we’ve admitted to each other a mutual attraction and interest for further exploration of that. I think the only rational next step is to start dating, don't you think? Don't let me be presumptuous. Is this something that interests you?”

Ioni blinked. What had he just proposed? Was this how a guy asked you to be his girlfriend?

“Uhhh, what?” she asked, shaking her head. “I'm sorry, but what's going on here? I get the mutual attraction thing, but are you proposing that we become an item? Is that what's going on?”

“Did I go too far?” Raber asked, putting his hands up in a defensive gesture.

“No! No, I was just confused. This conversation took a weird turn and I'm lost.”

Raber smiled and sighed. He put his hands down and reached across the table, inviting her to place her hand in his.

“What I'm proposing, Ioni, is that we further explore this mutual interest by becoming an item. I'm proposing that I call you my girlfriend and you call me your boyfriend. I'm proposing that we pair off and get to know each other on several different levels of intimacy. Is this something that you would find agreeable?”

Smiling, she could feel herself blushing profusely. She didn't want to answer immediately, but found herself speaking, almost as if against her own will.

“I've never had a boyfriend before. I'm not sure of how to do this.”

“I've never had a girlfriend before. I'm also not sure of what to do. But I am sure that I want to get to know you better. I want to be close to you and be able to have you for my own. I've desired this since the first moment I laid eyes on you.”

“Well,” she said. “Since you put it that way, I accept your proposal.”

They were holding hands and looking at each other, a newly minted couple. Luckily, their waitress arrived with their food before anything could get awkward.

“I'm not sure what to do now. I feel weird.” She laughed. “I'm almost eighteen years old! I'm almost old enough to vote, but I'm totally lost on what to do right now!”

“Eat your food,” Raber said with a smile. “That's a good start.”

Ioni started on her hamburger. She watched her newly proclaimed boyfriend. His eating was meticulous. There were no smudges of ketchup on his face and not a splatter of grease on his plate. Meanwhile, her hamburger was falling apart on her and she had to finish it with a fork. He caught her watching him and smiled.

“Let's continue our discussion about Wicca, that's why we came on this date after all,” he said.

“Okay,” Ioni said, relieved to be rid of the uncomfortable silence.

“How about we start by you telling me what you know and what interests you about Wicca. We can go from there.” Raber said.

“Well, I wasn't really raised in a religious home. Both of my parents are intellectuals, and for some reason, religion doesn’t fit their worldview. They don’t judge, it’s just not important to them. Officially, I'm agnostic. I believe there's something out there, I just don't know the details. When we were all considering Wicca or Paganism as an interest, I was really drawn to the notion of a nurturing goddess. I liked the idea that all of our energies are in sync with the energies of the earth and that the earth was our source. It was something that just made sense to me.”

Raber was nodding, chewing his food. He wiped his hands on a napkin even though they were clearly clean, pushed his empty plate away, and sat back in the green and maroon vinyl booth.

“That’s probably the best reason I could have expected to hear. You don't sound like you're in love with the fashion of what it would mean to be a 'witch', you sound like you really appreciate the core values of the craft. See, me? I'm in love with an organization that has all of this old, antiquated ritual attached to it. I'm also really interested in the fact that I'm in charge and responsible for what happens in my life. If I do bad, it comes back to me threefold. If I do good, it comes back to me threefold. I don't have to wait until I'm dead to either be rewarded or punished for the choices that I make in my life. I like that I get to be in control. Maybe my reasons come from a place of my being a major control freak, but that's why it appeals to me.”

“I think that if you decide to choose a religion, that it should be a personal thing. I think everybody has different reasons,” Ioni said, shrugging.

“Exactly,” Raber said, smiling at her. “I suppose that our next course of action is to discuss whether or not we want to be solitary witches or if we want to join a coven.”

“Well, what do you prefer?”

“Are you not sure or are you afraid to speak your desire?”

“I...uhhh...I'm not sure what to say. I don't want to say something that would make you change your mind on what you want,” she said.

“I assure you, that won't happen. I will always make my side known. So please, what is it that you were hoping to happen in this?”

“I'm really nervous about joining a coven. I'm not sure how I could be able to fit in. But I also think that I won't get the full experience unless I join one. I like the idea of having a mentor and being able to witness rituals firsthand. What about you?” she asked, unsure. She hated how obvious her lack of confidence was in that moment. She sounded like an idiot.

“I really want to join a coven. I agree with you that the richness of the experience would be much more potent if we were part of a group,” he said. “Are we agreed that we would like to join a coven? Just so I'm certain.”

“Yes,” Ioni said. “I agree that we should join a coven.”

“Then I’ll start looking into it,” Raber said. “Now that we have some of these incidentals worked out on our venture into a new religion, shall we perhaps discuss the scheduling of a date? Or maybe just an alone meeting somewhere so that we can get better acquainted?”

Ioni smiled and eyed him. He was her boyfriend. How was that supposed to work? Would they have to always start with public dates to avoid things getting weird or, heaven forbid, messy? She looked into his face and realized that she was, for all intents and purposes, an adult, and that there was no need for her to play hard-to-get or to be shy about certain aspects of life. She had been curious about sex and sexual experiences, and she was old enough that most people expected that she was at least partially sexually experienced. That was far from the truth, and Ioni was finished with that being the state of her life.

“Aren't we having a date right now?” she asked coyly. “You picked me up, drove me here, we've been holding hands and we've established that we are now an exclusive couple. This sounds a lot like a date to me.”

Raber pulled her knuckles up to his mouth and kissed them.

“You have me there,” he said. “Well, since this is a date, shall we adjourn to another destination after this or shall I drop you off at your doorstep as fresh and virginal as I found you?

Ioni smiled.

“Maybe not quite as fresh as you found me,” she said.

Chapter Three

It was briefly awkward when Ioni told the rest of the friend group that she and Raber were a couple, but they warmed to the idea quickly. They had to admit that they were all curious as to when it was going to happen anyway and Ioni found herself wondering if her friends were hiding a betting pool concerning when she and Raber would get together.

On that first night, it turned out that she was an awkward chicken-shit. Raber had driven her home and walked her to her door where they stared at their feet for a few minutes before he placed a hand under her chin and lifted her eyes to his. He placed a soft, closed-mouthed kiss on her lips and whispered a goodbye into her ear before taking his leave. Ioni watched his retreating back, confused and disappointed. She stupidly assumed that he would know how to move things forward, but she realized her mistake and was angry with herself for leaving everything up to him. She was only sporadically and momentarily empowered by her imminent adulthood, and she needed to find a way to hold on to that mindset and make things happen for herself.

She hadn't quite given Raber enough credit, though. He was still learning and trying to be careful in his navigation of a physical relationship with her. She was quickly put at ease being physical with him because of that cautious attitude. He always made sure to ask her to tell him when she felt things were going too fast or too far.

Nearly a month had passed since that first night at the Eat N’ Park, and Ioni was surprised at how free she was with Raber. She rarely told him to stop or slow down. Sex had not yet happened, but there was a fast and heated progression with their explorations. The first time that they were alone and in private, they had approached each other gingerly, but their shy kisses soon escalated to wandering hands and mouths. Ioni's own appetite surprised her. While she expected Raber to be the first to make the transition to the next step, she found herself making the first move more often than not.

They didn't overly prioritize their physical explorations of each other, however. As it turned out, exploring Wicca was becoming very important to the both of them. They had even found a coven, in a strange, but not entirely surprising place.

It happened in Art class. The group was quiet that day because Nathan was absent and Arlie and Adam were working together on a drawing. Because of that, Raber and Ioni were mumbling to each other about what they’d found in their research.

“When you join a coven, you can choose what they call a magical name,” Raber was telling her. “It would be a name that you would keep secret from most people except for those extremely close to you.”

“Why keep it secret?” Ioni asked.

“In Wicca, some believe that knowing someone or something's name, their true name, gives you power over them. So you would keep this name to yourself and only share it with people who you know wouldn't use it in order to have power over you,” he answered.

“You two,” Ms. Mimm interrupted.

Raber and Ioni jumped and looked up at her. Her graying dark blond hair was a halo of soft frizz. Her long, thin nose was turned slightly upwards and it gave the rest of her face a very dainty look.

“Stay after class for a few minutes, okay?” Ms. Mimm said.

“Okay,” Raber said. He looked at Ioni with confusion on his face.

Ioni noticed that Arlie and Adam were gaping at them with questioning looks. Raber and Ioni both shrugged in answer.

“Were you two jerking each other off under the table or something? She sounded kind of mad,” Adam whispered

“No, nothing like that,” Raber answered. “We were just talking. Is she offended by Wicca? Maybe we shouldn't discuss things like that in school.”

“I don't see why she'd get mad over us talking about that when Nathan sits here sometimes and talks about giving blowjobs to the guy that works the drive-thru window at KFC. Hell, she laughs about it sometimes when she thinks we're not looking, doesn't she Arlie?” Ioni laughed.

“Yes, she totally does,” Arlie answered.

When the bell rang, Raber and Ioni gathered their belongings and walked to the front of the room where Ms. Mimm had a table set up as a desk. It was covered in small potted plants and sketches from both herself and her students. She was standing behind it looking at them.

“I can't talk about things like this during school hours. The PTA would have a fit, but here,” she handed Raber a piece of paper. “That's the address to my studio in case you didn't already know where it is and there are times to come see me. I think I can be of some help to you two,” she said. She smiled and gestured for them to be on their way. Raber and Ioni exchanged confused looks and then looked back to Ms. Mimm. She gestured again for them to go.

“What the hell,” Raber said to Ioni when they got to the hallway.

“I don't know, what the hell,” Ioni answered, taking Raber's arm. They walked side-by-side down the hall until they reached Raber's class. He leaned down and kissed her neck, making her giggle.