House of Korba Read online

  “Shit, Sang, are you okay?” Silas called to me, his hands reaching for my shoulders. His eyes were wide, horror-stricken. He got on his knees on the couch, hovering over me. “Sang?”

  I coughed, yanking out his cell phone. The screen was glowing. “What...” I panted, still short of breath. The shock was gone, but the area on my breast tingled.

  “Fuck. I forgot you had that,” he said. He took the phone from my hands, but continued to hover over me. “What?” he barked at whoever was on the line.

  I cupped a palm over my breast to ease the sting. “Ow,” I breathed, still clutching at my chest. What happened? Did his phone shock me? It felt familiar, but not as strong as a zap from a stun gun.

  Silas’s face went dark and he moved off of me to sit back on the couch, listening to his phone. He grunted, handing it off to me. “He wants to talk to you.”

  “I don’t know if I want it,” I said. “It shocked me. I think it’s broken.”

  “Just talk to him,” Silas said, frowning.

  I moved slowly but trusted him enough to take the phone. “Hello?”

  “Sorry,” North’s voice powered through to my ear. “What the hell was his phone doing in your bra?”

  “Wait...wait...ugh...what?” The shock had left my breast tingling and feeling weird and the questions I wanted to fire back at him weren’t formulating properly.

  “Don’t put his phone in your bra. In fact, don’t hold his phone. And tell Silas to back off if he’s scaring you,” he ordered.

  “How did you know it was in my bra?” I countered, finally finding the words.

  North fell silent.

  “North?” I demanded.

  Silence.

  Something clicked in my brain. “Were you watching us?”

  “It’s a good thing I was.”

  “There’s a camera on us now? I thought they were for emergencies.”

  “I was making sure you were okay.”

  “I’m with Silas,” I said. Didn’t he trust him? Wasn’t that enough? “Did you shock me? These phones can shock you?”

  “I thought it was in Silas’s pocket.”

  “So you were trying to shock Silas.”

  “He deserved it.”

  “Why in the world do you have shocking phones? And why are you watching us? And that was mean. I can’t believe you’d do that.”

  “He’d do it to me.”

  “I don’t care. Don’t shock. No more shocking. That hurts.”

  “Sang,” he bellowed into the phone. “I will shock who I want if I think they need it. Don’t let Silas intimidate you. Tell him to back off if you’re uncomfortable.”

  “I’m uncomfortable with someone watching us without saying they’re going to do it and trying to shock other people, North.”

  “Don’t make me come over there.”

  “Ugh,” I grumbled, and I moved the phone from my face, hitting the button to end the call. I tossed it to another part of the couch, falling back and putting my hands on my face.

  My phone started buzzing in the other cup in my bra, scaring me that it might actually shock me, too. I quickly pulled it out of my bra, tossing it over with the other one. I caught North’s name on the screen, but I ignored it.

  “Your phone isn’t set to do that,” Silas said. He had a knee up on the couch, sitting back on his heel, looking solemn and uncertain.

  “Why is yours set like that?”

  “It’s the emergency line,” Silas said. “When it rings through and it’s on silent, it shocks you to make sure you feel it.”

  I sat up again, rubbing at the spot in my chest. “That hurts. Holy crow, I can’t believe you do that to each other.”

  “It’s also not really meant for...I mean we usually carry those in our pockets. It’s not so bad when it’s on the ass. Or I guess I’m used to it.”

  “Why isn’t mine set like that?”

  His eyebrows furrowed. “What?”

  “Why isn’t my phone set to shock?”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “I mean, why don’t I get an emergency line with a shock thingie? Why can’t you shock me for emergencies?”

  His lips parted, his mouth moving as if he was looking for an answer but didn’t really have one.

  I frowned. I knew the answer but I didn’t want to say it out loud. I didn’t have an emergency line because they wouldn’t call me if they had an emergency. Useless Sang.

  “Can you believe him?” I groused. If Silas didn’t want to talk about Academy things, then he could listen to me complain. “He’s watching us and then tries to shock you.” I lowered the hem at the neck of my shirt a few inches, revealing the skin that had been electrified. The area looked normal. No burns.

  Silas’s eyes followed the hem of my shirt down and he moved closer, hovering over me. “You’re okay, though, right?”

  “I think so,” I said, replacing the hem up and pressing my palm down on my breast over my shirt. “You should shock him back.”

  Silas smirked. “I’ll do it if you want me to.”

  “No,” I said, even though I wanted to say yes. I dropped my hand from my chest. It still felt funny. “He’ll probably expects it and isn’t holding it.”

  “We could wait until he’s asleep,” Silas said.

  I laughed. I had to give North some credit. It was like a light switch. The Silas I’d been used to seemed to be back. He lightened the mood and I wasn’t nearly so stiff and afraid any more. “Let’s wait until we do another sleepover thing. Then we can watch.”

  Silas beamed. “Kota will ground us.”

  “Totally worth it.”

  Silas boomed with laughter, sitting back on the couch and putting a hand on his chest. “You’re as bad as Luke.”

  “Oh wait,” I said, getting up so I was kneeling on the couch, making my eyes wide. “It’d be really cool if we could get it to do it without using the emergency button and make it go off at random intervals. It’d totally drive him crazy.”

  “Now you’re thinking evil.” He smirked. “Remind me not to get on your bad side.”

  “I wouldn’t really do it,” I said, swinging slightly off balance. I shot a hand out to his leg to keep myself upright as I sat back on my heels. “It’s just fun to think about. Besides, North can beat me up.”

  Silas turned to me, grasped my hands and held them up to stabilize me as I knee-balanced on the couch. “North wouldn’t beat you up.”

  “He might if I zapped him.”

  Silas grinned, squeezing my hands once. “You want to really drive him crazy?”

  I bit my lower lip, nodding, but unsure if I wanted to zap North really. It really did hurt.

  “Go put on something you can get wet in, and we’ll go down to the hot tub. No cameras there. He can’t watch us.”

  I grinned, nodding. “Yeah. He’s not supposed to be doing that, anyway.” I jumped up from the couch, excited by the new plan. I grabbed the straps of my book bag to pick it up. “Serves him right.”

  Silas stood up, took my hand and guided me back toward the hallway and stopped at a door, opening it to reveal a guest bathroom with just a toilet and sink. “You’ve got something that will work?”

  I pushed a palm across my cheek, rubbing. “I might. The things I grabbed to sleep in should be fine.”

  “I can give you a shirt to sleep in if you want.”

  Going to see a hot tub and sleeping in one of his shirts later? I was starting to really like visiting his house. “Okay.” I stepped into the bathroom, closing the door and throwing the lock.

  I pushed my back to the door, taking a deep breath. I was excited to explore, but part of me was feeling nervous again. I’d be out of reach of North’s eyes. Did I want to get so close to Silas again? I hated to admit that I did, and at the same time I couldn’t help but feel like maybe North was mad at me for being so close with Silas. He didn’t sound mad about that before. He said to tell Silas to back off if I was uncomfortable. The confusi
on of everyone being so unclear was worst. What did they want me to do?

  I fished out a tighter tank top and a pair of dark blue cotton shorts. I blushed when I realized the shorts were from Victoria’s Secret and had the word Angel scrawled across the hips. I hurriedly got dressed in them, dropping the lower hem of the tank top down to cover the word. It felt a little awkward to wear them around Silas when he called me angel in Greek. It felt like encouraging something I wasn’t sure I was ready to think about.

  When I finished, I stuffed the clothes I’d worn back into my bag, slung it over my shoulder, and opened the door. I stopped, looking up one hallway and down the other back toward the living room. Where did he go? I stood alone in the hallway, waiting, listening. Thumping from a stereo sounded below my feet. A car engine started up somewhere close by. There were so many new noises, and I felt the encroachment of other people being around us. I wondered how Silas listened out for trouble.

  But then I remembered not everyone needed to. I’d spent years listening to the sounds of my own house to figure out when it was safe to emerge from my room unnoticed. Normal people didn’t have to do that.

  A door opened down the second hallway and Silas popped into view. He was barefoot and wore familiar dark blue swim shorts and a Red Sox t-shirt. He spotted me in the hallway, curled his fingers at me. “Come put your bag in here,” he said.

  I padded down to him, the carpet smooth against my feet. He held out a hand for my bag. I passed it over, and he dropped it just inside the door. It was a bedroom, and I caught a glimpse of a massive bed in the middle before Silas nudged me back down the hallway.

  He headed back to the living room, picking up both of our cell phones to hold in his hand. He disappeared behind a side door and came back with two large towels, picked up his house keys and shooed me out to the front door.

  The crisp air cut into my skin in the shadow of the overhang. When he locked the door, he grabbed my hand and we walked together to the parking lot.

  “Do you like living here?” I asked him as he led me between two buildings and around a pond. Now that we were in the sun, it warmed my body enough to almost enjoy the weather. I couldn’t believe it was almost November and I could walk around in shorts. “I mean in these apartments?”

  “It’s okay,” he said, shifting his hand until his palm met mine in a more substantial grip. “South Carolina isn’t bad. I like the weather. Charleston is nice, but it isn’t Greece.”

  “Do you miss Greece?”

  He flashed a smile at me, giving my hand a gentle squeeze. “Not today.”

  I stared at some Halloween decorations along a few of the porches. I wondered if Greece had Halloween. I couldn’t imagine what it must be like to live a million miles away. I’d moved here, but besides the weather and a beach nearby, it was at least the same language and culture. “But you do sometimes?”

  “Do you miss Illinois?”

  “No.” I felt that was an honest answer. Why would I miss a place where I didn’t have friends and didn’t ever go anywhere to see things?

  He tilted his head at me, raising an eyebrow. “I mean besides living with your crazy parents? Wasn’t there something you liked about it?”

  It took me a moment to respond. “The snow, perhaps. I know it doesn’t really snow here, right?”

  “I’ve never seen snow,” he admitted. “Not in person.”

  I popped my mouth open, but I didn’t realize that perhaps some of the boys, if they’d never been out of South Carolina, they might not have ever seen snow, either. “It doesn’t snow in Greece?”

  “Not on the islands where I’m from.”

  I followed Silas into one of the large buildings near the front office that we had seen when driving in. There was a collection of exercise equipment to the right, reflected in the mirrors hanging from the walls. To the left were a few sauna rooms, a small hallway to restrooms and changing rooms. Further down was a sunroom area, where a large octagon hot tub sat in the middle.

  The room was steamy and heady with pool chemicals. The tub looked clean, with clear aqua water. There were a couple of lounge chairs surrounding the tub under the sunlight streaming in from the windows. A large flat television hung up on one wall, turned to a news station, though the sound was muted.

  “Who watches the news while they sit in a hot tub?” Silas asked, dropping the towels onto one of the chairs which he dragged close to the edge of the hot tub. He studied the television and then scanned the area as if looking for a remote.

  I was drawn to the water, too curious for my own good. I crept up to the edge, touching the water with a toe. I yanked back quickly. The water was exceptionally warm. Since the room was hot, too, it seemed like a silly idea to slip into equally warm water. I wasn’t sure I was going to understand hot tubs.

  Silas managed to find buttons on the side of the TV and switched to a football game. Satisfied, he crossed back to me, hiking the shirt up over his body and dropping it onto the chair next to our towels. His broad shoulders and the muscles of his chest and stomach flexed in a way that sent a ripple of tingles through my spine. Greek gods couldn’t have been designed any better.

  He stared back at me, cocking his head to one side with an eyebrow going up. “What are you waiting for?” he asked.

  “You,” I said.

  He flashed a smile and dropped his keys and our phones by the edge near the pool. He crouched down, slipped his feet in and inched down until he was sitting inside, the water went up to just under his chest. “Come on.”

  I was hoping he’d say it was too hot. I sucked in a breath, slid my foot in, resisting the urge to pull out because it felt too warm. Maybe it was because we’d walked in here from the chiller air outside. It was like stepping into a hot shower and your body is still chilled. My body tingled at the temperature change. I managed to stand on the seating area before I wimped out. “It’s hot.”

  “Hot tub,” he said. He curled his fingers at me. “Come on, you’ll get used to it.”

  I huffed, slowly lowering myself until I was on my knees on the seat. It felt like the lower I got down, the warmer the water was. Silas reached a hand out and I took it, letting him pull me over in the water until I was next to him. With my butt on the seat, the water was up to my chest. I let my feet rise up so I wasn’t touching the bottom because it was too hot down there for me.

  He grinned, and swung his head around. “Okay, there’s a button here somewhere.”

  “What does the button do?”

  “You’ll see,” he said, but focused on a spot on the wall across the room. Silas stood up, moved across the tub and got out on the other side, dashed for the button, pushed it and started back.

  The tub started whirling to life around me, and a jet started spraying me in the back under the water. I moved out of its way. The water started swirling around, making a slight whirlpool effect.

  Silas jumped back in, crossing over until he was next to me. “See? Nice.”

  Now that I was in, it did feel good. The jets were interesting. Silas put an arm around my shoulders, and I could sit back, my head resting on him. We cuddled together in the water, watching the muted images of the football game. This was different, but what I expected of Silas. There wasn’t the intensity like we were when we’d sat on his couch. Was it because anyone could walk in at any moment? Did North say something to him that made him back off?

  But here I was next to him, my head on his arm and my thigh brushing his. Maybe it wasn’t Silas throwing signals at me that he wanted to kiss me. Maybe it was in my head because I was nervous being in his house for the first time. I’d been in his lap before. He’d been close to me. I wasn’t scared until I was here at his house.

  But then why did North feel he needed to spy on us and zap Silas?

  One of our phones started to rattle against the concrete behind us. Silas turned to check over my head at them. “It’s yours, Sang.”

  I puffed out a breath. “If it’s North, I’m tempted not
to answer.” I turned to hang over the edge and grab my phone. I leaned against the wall, reading the name.

  I pushed the button. “Luke?”

  “Why is North yelling at me?”

  “I don’t know,” I said, while at the same time feeling Silas’s hands on my back, doing something to the shirt I was wearing. The material was sticking to my body, so I thought at first he was straightening it. When I looked back, he was staring at my butt. I reached around, trying to cover the word scrawled across my hips, but he patted my hand away, pulling the shirt up higher over my waist as his fingertip trailed over the lettering.

  “Well,” Luke said, distracting me from Silas, “it’s something about you. He said you were mad at him and hung up on him. He just snapped at me for not tying my shoes.”

  I made a number of surprise, how-dare-he noises into the phone. It was unfair of North, who started this, to be yelling at Luke. “Tell him to stop.”

  “What?”

  “Tell North I said don’t yell at you.”

  There was a shuffling noise on the phone. Luke’s voice was muffled as he started talking to North.

  Silas’s palm fell onto the small of my back. I turned around and his hand remained on me as I looked up at him. He was grinning proudly, and mouthed, “Love the shorts.”

  I gulped back my heart, trying to focus.

  “North just threw a mug at me for calling you about it.”

  “Would you give him the phone, please?”

  “He doesn’t want it.”

  Who was ignoring who now? I eyeballed Silas, who was tilting his head down at me curiously. “I think it’s time to zap him,” I said.

  Silas lifted a brow. “Are you sure?”

  What other choice did I have? I nodded. “Maybe it’ll calm him down.” It was a strange idea, but North needed someone to fight back with, and if he wouldn’t fight now, then he needed a little nudge. If it wasn’t supposed to hurt that much, then maybe it could work.

  Silas grunted, turned to get his phone and pushed at the screen. “I have you for less than an hour and we’re already in the middle of shit.” He found North’s app, pushed it to open the screen, revealing four different colored squares. He pointed to the green one. “You want to do it?”