Page 136 of Ominous: Part 1
I don’t dare look at Eli. He’s probably not looking at me, anyway, so I know it doesn’t matter. I can get the answers I need, and I can get away from Dominic.
But with my question, he stops inching closer to my throat, and instead picks his head up, his lake blue eyes locked on mine, his pupils wide and dilated. “Die?” His dark brows dip together, and he pulls me closer by my hip, shifting me on the bench so my body is against his.
I feel as if the floor is tilting beneath my feet, just grazing the hardwoods. Dizziness makes the room spin a little, and I rest my head on my clasped fingers, not daring myself to speak.
“His mom isn’t dead, Eden. She’s remarried, living in Athens.”
I don’t remember gettingup. I don’t know if I said anything to Dominic or not, and I don’t remember flinging open the door of the pool house and stepping outside, cement hot beneath my bare feet. I don’t recall seeing Eli leave the pool, either, but he’s dripping wet, meeting me right at the entrance to the pool house, blocking my view of everyone else in the water, shielding me from the sun, his shadow thrown over my body.
He smells like chlorine and coconuts and something fruity I hate to think is Luna, but I don’t mention any of that.
“You lied to me.” My words are quick and low, and I see the beer bottle dangling from his fingertips, spinning in his hand as he stares at me, his expression unreadable. Water cuts down his nose, dripping off the slope of it. It snakes in rivulets across his hard chest, down the lines of his abs. I ignore how good he looks, and smells, and the chips of emerald in the dark green of his eyes, his lashes long and wet. “Youliedto me.”
I hear someone at my back, but neither Eli nor I look at Dominic.
“Your mom isn’t dead.” I sound like I’m pleading, even to my own ears.
Eli says nothing, his beautiful lips pressed together as he stares at me.
“Why did you lie to me?” I try to keep my voice calm, but my heartbeat is everywhere, and I want to shove him. I settle for digging my nails into my palms, swallowing down the bitter taste still lingering from the coke in my veins.
Eli finally lifts his gaze from mine, to look at Dominic at my back.
Dominic speaks first. “You made this easy for me,” he says, sounding a little amused. “We really should keep track of what secrets we’re sharing. Maybe which girls too.” I feel him step closer, and a second later, his hand comes to my hip.
This time, unlike the last times he’s touched me, I do flinch, mainly because I’m surprised.
But Eli registers the movement, and a smile pulls on his lips.
It makes me feel sick. And in the split second it takes for me to realize why, Eli is already moving. He pushes past me, and I spin around, unsteady as I stumble back a few steps. Eli drops the bottle in his hand, and it shatters on the concrete, amber glass scattering into pieces.
Eli launches his fist into Dominic’s face, and I hear the horrifying crunch of bone the second before blood explodes from Dom’s nostrils, pouring over his lips, down his chin. The force of the blow sends Dominic backward, his head smacking against the glass door of the pool house hard enough it seems to shake the entire structure.
Someone cries out, maybe Luna, but there’s a stranger silence in the backyard as everyone watches Eli’s violence.
Dominic’s hands are over his nose, trying to stop the flow of blood, and my pulse screams in my ears. I think I need to do something, but I don’t know what. It doesn’t seem like anyone else is going to do anything. I think they’re all still in the pool, but I’m too stunned to look away as Eli snatches Dominic’s wrist, twisting it as he yanks it away from his face.
Dominic cries out in pain, blood all over his face, Eli’s back muscles pulled taut as his fingers curl around Dom’s throat. He tilts his head up, knocking it back against the glass again, Dominic’s blood dripping over Eli’s hand.
He presses his body close to Dominic’s, almost in an intimate way as he stares down at him. Dom is pinned to the glass, and Eli’s shoulders heave as he breathes, snatching both of Dom’s wrists in his free hand and holding him down between them, even as Dominic struggles to get free.
With the pinch Eli has on his jaw, under his chin, he stops fighting after a moment. I think he knows Eli could make him lose consciousness with that hold.
“You feelin’ good, Dom?” Eli asks, his voice quiet.
I realize someone has turned down the music out here, and only the thud of bass sounds from inside the pool house, a distant noise that doesn’t drown out Eli’s words.
I take a step toward them, but not another.
Dominic doesn’t answer, his eyes closed.
Eli shoves his head against the door again, loud enough I swear it sounds like something cracks. Dominic’s eyes fly open as he swallows.
“I asked you a question.” I can only see Eli’s side profile, but I know his lips are pulled into a smile.
It’s chilling, seeing him so alarmingly aggressive with a psychotic smile on his face as Dom bleeds on him. And the way no one steps in… it’s almost like they’ve done this dance before.
“No,” Dominic finally says, the word quiet and forced.
