Shopping Troubles

I was surprised when Ray reached out and touched my cheek. I was shocked and pleased. Her fingers were warm on my cheek and for a moment I dared to close my eyes and enjoy it, but I had a bigger overwhelming urge to attack her right there. I could have her drained before even Brendan could get to me.. so I had to force myself to take a step away from her. It was safer this way.

"No you don't.. I woldn't ever expect to get a thank you.." I smiled. "I've done too much to be able to earn something as nice."

I rose an eyebrow, not able to hide my humor when Ray said that she had parked outside of a Victoria's Secret. I dug inside her mind for a moment and saw that she had gone in and bought a couple kinky pairs of panties. It made me smirk.

"Find anything interesting in there?" I snickered. "I assume that's why you stopped."

I snorted at him, suddenly feeling a bit defiant.

"You haven't done anything wrong to me, so you deserve my thanks for doing something so nice" I smirked and waggled a finger at him "So just be a good boy and accept it or we'll stand here arguing all night" I snickered

I gave a casual shrug when he asked if I'd found anything interesting. I was from LA so I was used to shopping there.

"Don't know why you're so curious" I chuckled "but that's where I always shop for my under clothes and they have some really nice clothes there too. Their sweaters are nice and soft" I shrugged again

"Bri, do we need to call your mom and let her know Bren and Blake are going to help us find our cars so she doesn't have to come find us?" I asked, turning my attention to Bri

I snorted when Bri asked me if the guys were going to come back.

"Not if they value their lives" I growled slightly and snickered "You don't have to worry your pretty little head though, Bri. They didn't seem to know what to do with themselves when they met someone that fought back" I shrugged "And if they do come back, we'll just take care of them again"

I reached out and stroked her cheek with my cold fingers as gently as I could.

"Don't worry, Bri, you're perfectly safe now" I said softly so only she could hear me "I won't let anyone hurt you"

Not even myself, no matter how friggin tempting it got

I heard the slight growl in Brendan's voice. I didn't know how I'd caught it because it was so faint but I would have bet my life on it. I eyed him and had the strong urge to reach out and touch him, but I resisted. Something about him, the way he looked at me, told me that he didn't want me to touch him son instead I kept my arms locked around me as I held myself, basically.

"Promise?"

I sounded like a little kid who was asking their parents to promise that there was no monster under the bed. It made me blush slightly and then a feeling of being dirty swept over me when I thought back to my attacker and where he'd had his hand. For some reason I reached down just to make sure that I really had buttoned my jeans and gave a sigh.

"Thank you, Brendan. For making him stop."

If Brendan and Blake hadn't shown up, I hated to think of what would have happened. What would have been happening right now, in fact. I closed my eyes as I felt Brendan's fingers on my cheek again. It didn't bother me that they were cold at all, I actually liked when he touched me.. I was just finding it hard not to touch him in return.

"I believe you."

I chuckled at Ray when she suddenly felt like being defiant and told me just to accept her thanks. I gave a slight nod of my head to show her that I accepted it because I didn't know if I could bring myself to say it. I hated being thanked after all the awful things that I'd done. Brendan liked to tease me and say I reminded him of Angel from that Buffy show. Always trying to make up for the evil I'd done. I told him I didn't think it was funny, but I knew that he was right.

"Don't know why?" I rose an eyebrow at her, obviously thinking she'd fallen on her head at some point when she was a baby or something. I'd met stubborn girls before but none as much as Ray. There was a vast difference between being innocent and being too innocent. Ray fell into the second category, apparently.

"Why would any guy want to know what a girl bought in there?"

I was very careful not to say what I was interested in what she bought in there. I'd looked in her mind plenty of times to know that she wouldn't believe me even if I had told her that I was interested in it.

I turned to look at Bri when Ray asked her question and chuckled because she didn't look like she'd heard a word that Ray had said. I took a peek into her mind this time and snorted when I saw that Brendan had the same sort of affect he had on his would-be victims. A sort of hypnotic state - except he was doing nothing but stroking her cheek.

"How about you two can use my cell phone once we've located your cars?"

I smirked triumphantly when Blake yielded to me. I felt like I'd just won some sort of epic battle or something and it made me giggle. I blinked though and rose an eyebrow when he acted like I should know why a guy would be interested in what I'd bought in Victoria's Secret.

"I..don't know" I admitted sheepishly, blushing "A lacey underwear fetish or something?" I shrugged and giggled

I'd been bounced around too much to even have friends; I sure as hell had never had a boyfriend or anything like that. I looked over at Bri when she didn't answer me and I giggled again.

"Yeah, think that might be best" I snickered to Blake quietly "I apparently don't exist right now"

"I promise" I said in ernest

I watched her reach down and check her pants again and frowned. I couldn't really imagine what sort of terrible thoughts were going through her head. The fact that she was hugging herself hadn't gone unnoticed either. I wanted to comfort her, but the only way to do that was to hug her and then I'd have to stop breathing and she might notice that.

"Bri, I want you to listen to me" I said in my low hypnotic voice for only her to hear "What happened is over. You weren't hurt. You aren't dirty. It wasn't your fault. You're safe now and can relax and be happy again"

Sure, it was cheating to use my power against her like this; but it was the only way I could think to truly comfort her since I couldn't give her the sort of human comfort she needed right now. So, I was just stroking her cheek and using my power to ease her troubled mind.

"Good idea" I chuckled, looking up over at Blake and smirking slightly.

I stopped stroking Bri's cheek and smiled at her "Now let's go find your car"

I honestly believed Brendan when he promised. There was something about his presence and the way he said it that made me believe that it was true, and he would have put his own life on the line to keep to his promise. I didn't know why I thought that. We were simply teenagers and we generally didn't keep to our promises but I didn't question him.

"Thanks."

I smiled with my eyes still closed and when he spoke next I felt like a large weight had been taken off my shoulders and the knot in my stomach loosened. I didn't know what it was about what he had just said but I felt better.. relieved.. it was over and I could be myself again.

I blushed brightly when I realized that everyone was talking about something and I seemed to have drifted off into a daydream. I cleared my throat and ran my hand through my hair.

"Um, ok." I laughed a little. "Finding my car would be awesome right now."

I wanted to get out of here because I realized that I'd just totally blanked out a good couple of minutes because I'd been so into Brendan and it was a little embarrassing. I walked close to Ray as both of the boys walked in front of us to find our car and I noticed that both of them kept glancing around like they were seeing if someone was coming. It was comforting.

We found Ray's car first and she drove us to find mine. It was a little nerve wracking to be that close to Brendan in such a small space and all of us, besides Ray, ran out of the car the second we could. I hopped into mine, promised Ray I would call her when I got home, and then we all went our separate ways.. all of us back home where we could think all night about what had happened tonight.

Lp All