Page 48 of Lightning Angel
Tristan came to the other side and got behind the wheel. Alexa breathed in relief as the car gave an all-too-familiar purr and began to move.
“Thank you.” She glanced at him. When he met her gaze and opened his mouth to respond, she cut in, “I know you don’t want me to thank you, but gratitude is all I have. So, thank you.”
Tristan nodded, swallowing whatever he wanted to say, and brought his eyes back on the road. “And I’m sorry he came to you after I promised only last night he wouldn’t.”
“Tristan!” Alexa’s eyes widened at his words. “Don’t youdarethink this is your fault!”
“I promised you—”
“You’re not responsible for Brandon’s actions or motives,” she said, admonishingly. “While I wonder where he got the guts to come back after the scare you gave him, this is none of your fault! Brandon is vile and stupid, stupid enough to convince himself whatever he experienced last night was his mind playing tricks on him. That might be the case; who else in their right mind would come back to a place where they had a ghost-like attack?”
Alexa huffed and crossed her arms, looking away to the window.
“Maybe the scare wasn’t enough for him.” Tristan sighed. “Perhaps the best thing to do is turning him in to the police.”
Alexa’s gaze snapped to him. “Can we do that?”
“Of course, Alexa,” he said incredulously, not taking his eyes off the road as they rode out of her neighborhood. “He blackmailed you, and you nearly got yourself killed for it; he broke into your house and attempted sexually assault you. We have proof that they could use against him.”
“I-I have his text messages.” Her words stuttered, sensing the fury in his voice. “I think they could prove more than my words would?”
Tristan turned to her, his eyes softening like earlier. Alexa wondered what it was about her that kept softening him whenever he looked at her. Pity? She hated it, because it was all everyone had to give her and Cassie after their dad’s death. But with the wayhiseyes softened, Alexa wasn’t sure if she cared.
“That’ll do.”
She gave him a small smile and looked away, suddenly nervous. The feeling almost made her laugh;she,nervous? When was the last time she was nervous around a boy?
Alexa leaned back in her seat and ran a hand over its side, feeling the familiar leather against her palm. Tristan didn’t seem to have bothered to change anything or install something new into the car, and it gave her a sense of nostalgia. It felt like the car was still hers, like nothing had changed.
“I’m surprised you haven’t bothered to make changes in the car yet,” she commented, taking the topic away from Brandon. “I had thought you’d do something to it so I wouldn’t recognize my former car the next time I saw it.”
A small smile lifted the corner of his lips. “To be honest, I’m not a fan of vehicles. With my ability to teleport, I have never had the need for one. Yet my godfather bought me a motorcycle a few years ago; it sits in my garage barely driven. Dad nagged me a lot of times to let him buy me a car and I have protested saying I have no use for one.Thishad been a surprise. I didn’t know about it until the car was in our front yard.”
“That explains why you haven’t bothered to make changes,” she said with a teasing smile. “Any other boy would’ve done otherwise, to make no sure one thinks the car previously belonged to a girl.”
Tristan chuckled. “I suppose.”
“So, you never use a vehicle for your travels?”
“You’d be surprised, but I barely travel; visiting my cousins who live in the outskirts of the city is where I ever go, and like once in a year, I’d take my motorcycle with me. All the other times, I teleport. My family knowsabout my… special abilities.” He spared her a brief glance. “I do go to the town sometimes, attend some boring parties of older people with my dad… but mostly, I stay at home. It’s something with what I am.”
The questions Alexa had wanted to ask Tristan increased, and she didn’t know which one to ask first. “Is there a limit to your teleporting? Like, how far can you shift from a place?”
Tristan met her gaze with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “I haven’t tried it out of the state yet.”
Alexa gasped and gave him her most disbelieving look.
He chuckled. “I’ve teleported to the farthest corner of Oregon once, but never tried out of the state.”
Alexa couldn’t breathe as she stared at him, marveling. “Why not?”
“Perhaps I lacked inspiration.”
She snorted a laugh. “You’re unbelievable.”
“No, it’s the truth, actually. If someone inspires me to try, I will.”
Alexa shook her head in disbelief. Just as she opened her mouth to respond, her phone pinged with a message. She took it out of her bag, expecting Cassie, but seeing Brandon’s name froze her internally.