Chapter 4
    I just stared at him. He was grinning, so I imagine he got this reaction a lot from girls.
“ Cheyenne, this is Destin.” My dad said gesturing from me to the other gorgeous boy.
“ Nice to meet you.” Destin said still grinning.
“ Yeah, same here. I’ll see you around.” I said, trying to get away so I could think. Yesterday there were no ‘gorgeous’ boys here, a few hott ones yes, but now two absolutely gorgeous boys were hired. In the same day. After I had been marked last night. Geesh. This was crazy.
“ Not so fast Chey.” My dad’s voice stopped me.
“ I want you to help Destin get his horse settled in and show him around, ok? Now be a good girl.” He smiled and patted me on the shoulder as he walked by, making me fume inside. He didn’t have to treat me like a little kid. I was seventeen for heaven’s sake.
“ It gets better.” Destin called as he dismounted and led his horse closer to me.
Oh no way. No way on earth. He could read minds too? One boy was enough, now there was two?!
“ It’s nice to meet you.” Destin said again when he was standing less than a foot away from me.
“ Yeah. Same here.” I answered. I took him in, from head to toes. He was amazing as well. He had blonde hair that wasn’t as long as Trey’s. He had gem green eyes that did the exact same thing as Trey’s did. The green was constantly changing shades. He was tan as well, and looked pretty buff. Where was the paparazzi following him? He could be an escaped model too.
I finally glanced down at his outstretched hand. I slowly laid my hand in his. He never broke eye contact as his grip tightened on my hand. Immediately a fire raced through my veins, making my body arch toward him. I inhaled sharply through my nose and took a step closer. A wanting filled my body, achingly sweet.
A smug grin flitted across Destin’s face and he slid his hand so that our fingers were interlaced. The fire burned stronger.
“ Hey Chey.” Jaydon trotted a bay gelding up to us. Destin dropped my hand and the fire disappeared. I blinked in shock. That could only mean one thing. I had been feeling how he felt about me. Did this mean he had a gift too?
“ Trey was looking for you. He says that you need to talk.” Jaydon continued.
“ Okay. Thanks.” I answered, not looking at Destin.
“ Hey, are you ok?” She asked, taking in my face.
“ Yeah, I’ll be fine.” I said slowly.
“ Hi. I’m Destin. I work here now.” Destin flashed an amazing smile and reached up to shake Jaydon’s hand. Jaydon’s eyes opened wide and her lips parted. She slumped slightly in the saddle. Something was wrong. Destin let her hand go. Jaydon straightened and blinked, looking confused.
“ Well, I’ll see you later Chey!” She called and trotted the bay away.
“ What did you just do to her?” I snapped, whirling on Destin. His green eyes flashed dangerously.
“ Nothing.” He recovered and flashed a cute bad boy grin.
“ I believe you were showing me the way to my stall?” He continued.
“ Right.” I answered acting like I was just gonna let it go. But I was going to find out what was going on around here.
I stopped in front of one of the smaller barns.
“ You should find stall 36 open.” I said, looking down at my boots, instead of Destin’s face. His warm hand lifted my chin. The fire raced back into my body.
“ Don’t do that.” I meant to snap but my voice came out breathless. Destin flashed a knowing smile.
“ I’m not doing anything.” He answered. “ Come with me.”
“ I shouldn’t.” I replied, being honest. Some little voice was screaming in my head, telling me this was bad to be with him.
“ Which is exactly why you want to.” Destin smiled and took a step closer. He was right. I wanted to go with him. I just wanted him.
“ Well, come on then.” I finally managed to pull away from his touch.
I led the way to a big stall.
“ Here.” I opened the opened the stall door. Destin led the horse in and quickly unsaddled him. The big black horse nuzzled him gently as he carried the tack out of the stall.
“ Is there somewhere I can store this?” He asked.
“ Yeah. Here’s a tack room over here. Its smaller than the other ones but it has enough room.” I rambled. I was just creeped out with all this stuff that had been going on. Destin flashed me a wicked smile when he caught me staring. I led the way into the tack room and cleared a saddle rack off for him. He slung his saddle up and fixed the saddle blanket and bridle around it. I followed him to the door, thinking we were leaving. Instead, Destin looked down the isle and then pulled the tack room door shut.
“ What are you doing?” I asked, my heart starting to pound.
“ Just having a little chat.” Destin replied. He settled down on a stack of feed bags and stretched his long legs out.
“ About what?” I answered warily. There was just something about this guy. I was attracted to him a lot but something seemed dangerous.
“ That’s what you like, don’t you?”
I blinked. “ What?”
“ I’m the bad boy type. You’re more attracted to that kind instead of the goody-goody type like Trey.”
I glared. “ How do you know Trey?”
Destin smiled and my heart fluttered. This was unreal. No, This was stupid. I corrected myself.
“ Just by how you’ve felt with him. And what you think of him.”
My eyes got wider. “ You can hear everything I think?” Trey could only hear certain things.
Destin’s smile grew. “ Yeah. I hear more than he does.” His green eyes turned dark and smoky. His smile turned seductive.
“ I bet I make you feel more too. Don’t I?” He prompted, holding out his hand. My heart stuttered and my chest hurt.
I just nodded, unable to lie or to speak. I glanced down at his outstretched hand. There on his wrist was the same type of mark that I had. But Destin’s was not the same color. His was the color of green of his eyes, but outlined in black. I grabbed his hand and stepped closer, lifting his hand so I could see it better.
“ Neat huh? You have one too?” He asked, pulling me closer with his other hand.
“ Yeah.” I answered, flipping my hand over so he could she my mark.
“ It’s amazing.” He replied, tracing the pattern with a warm finger, making my head race.
“ I don’t understand what’s going on.” I admitted, standing close to him. His eyes raised from looking at my mark to meet my eyes. For a moment I saw something flicker in the back of his green eyes, looking as awful lot like red, but it disappeared.
“ I don’t either. But I do know that you are amazing.” He answered and pulled me even closer.
“ Thanks. I think. But how did you and Trey come here the same day? I was just marked last night.”
“ I don’t really know.” Destin leaned closer to me. My knees felt weak. I dropped to sit on a feed bag next to him. He reached up and cupped the side of my face with his hand. Looking into my eyes, the fire came racing back. I leaned closer, like a moth drawn by a flame, but slightly afraid of being burnt.
“ It’s ok.” Destin murmured and I could feel his hot breath on my lips. I couldn’t help it. I moved closer. I honestly couldn’t pull away. It was like he had a hold of my mind and was controlling my body. His lips touched mine and the fire blazed white hot through my veins. I pulled back and looked at him. His green eyes were flickering, just like a candle. As I watched, they got greener and brighter, and the burning inside of me intensified. I had to put it out before I was burned from the inside out. I grabbed his face and pulled him to me, crushing my lips to his. The fire, instead of going out like I thought, burned hotter. His lips were hungry on mine, his tongue pressing on my lips, asking for entrance. Which I was unable to deny him. I was gasping and I leaned closer. I tangled my fingers in his slightly long hair. This was going too far. I tried to pull away. Destin slipped his mouth from my lips and started kissing a distracting trail down my neck to my collar bone.
“ We have to stop.” I whispered. He just moaned and pulled me closer. I felt his teeth sliding along my neck.
“ Destin.” I groaned, not wanting him to stop, but knowing we had to. He must have decided I was talking too much because he put his lips back on mine, kissing me hungrily. My knee slid on the feed bag and our mouths jolted, causing his teeth to nick my bottom lip. The taste of blood slowly filled my mouth, but it wasn’t a nasty taste. Somehow with Destin kissing me made it taste hott. And it didn’t faze Destin a bit. If anything, he kissed me harder, his tongue gently tracing the spot where his teeth had nicked my lip. The tack room door flew open and I jumped. Destin traced my bottom lip one more time before shoving away. I blinked in confusion as the room seemed to glow. Trey stood in the door, blue light surrounding him. His blue eyes sparkled dangerously. The light seemed to be concentrated mainly in his hands, which were currently balled into fists at his sides. The air around me seemed electrified. The blue light coming from Trey brushed over me, feeling oddly like a comforting touch.
“ Hey Trey. Its been a while.” Destin stood up slowly, grinning.
“ Not long enough.” Trey snapped back, the blue light becoming stronger. What? Destin told me that he didn’t know Trey!
“ I see you know Cheyenne.” Destin gestured to me, still sitting on the feed bags.
“ Yeah.”
“ Quite a girl, isn’t she?” Destin taunted.
“ I wouldn’t know.” Trey growled.
Destin pretended to look shocked. “ Oh really?”
I looked back and forth between them like watching a tennis match. Obviously there was more going on here. They were reading each other’s minds, and talking like that.
“ Come here, Chey.” Destin said softly. He reached out a hand toward me. I just sat there, looking at his hand like it had a disease. I was so confused. We were all on the same side here right? Then why were Trey and Destin fighting?
“ Cheyenne.” Destin snapped and grabbed a hold of me.
“ Don’t touch her!” Trey yelled and the blue light flashed, surrounding Destin. I saw Destin grit his teeth and a muscle jump in his jaw. But at the same time, a searing pain entered me. I screamed and dropped to my knees on the floor, hugging myself as the pain seared through me.
Trey gasped and the pain ended. Destin chuckled.
“ Oh right. That was what I forgot to tell you.” Destin said victoriously.
“ How?” Trey snapped.
Destin smiled and reached down, helping me stand. He traced a now gentle finger over my bottom lip. Trey took a step forward, his blue light flicking dangerously.
“ You better think before you act.” Destin snapped.
“ Whatever hurts me, hurts her.”
“ I know how it works!” Trey snapped back.
Destin raised a hand and green light looking like fire shot from it, hitting Trey. Trey staggered back a step and started to raise his hands.
“ Now, now.” Destin chided. Trey reluctantly dropped his hands.
Destin started to raise his hand again. I couldn’t believe this. Trey couldn’t hurt Destin because anything he did to him hurt me, so Destin was able to hurt Trey as much as he wanted, and Trey wouldn’t fight back. This was not fair.
“ Enough.” I yelled. Both guys turned to me.
“ This is ridiculous. Why can’t we all just get along?” I asked.
Destin looked at Trey incredulously. “ You didn’t tell her.”
Trey just glared with his jaw clenched.
“ Tell me what?” I asked.
Destin raised his hands.
“ I said enough!” I yelled again. Destin was still raising his hands. I thrust my hands out and to my complete amazement, white light, looking a lot like flames, leapt from my hands, dancing playfully before hitting Destin. Destin looked shocked as the force of my power flung him against the opposite side of the tack room. I clenched my hands at my sides, comforted by the white light still dancing around me. Fury burned deep within me causing my power to jump around me and get even brighter.
“ I don’t know what you did to me, but it won’t happen again.” I snapped, my voice sounded weirdly magnified by my power still growing around me. Destin blinked in shock.
I turned to Trey and saw him take a couple of steps back, looking afraid. I sighed, relaxed and suddenly felt empty. The white light was gone. Tiredness filled me and I stumbled toward Trey. He came forward eagerly now that my power was out. I didn’t see Destin raise his hands. Trey threw up a hand just as a wall of green magic came toward us. A wall of blue rose to meet the wall of green and I felt the pain slash through me again. I gasped as I felt what Destin was feeling yet again.
“ I’m sorry.” Trey whispered just as my vision went black and I collapsed.