(a/n: alright I've finally gotten a chance to edit and there are a few things that changed because we had some explaining to do, but if you liked the old version better I understand and you can vent your feelings to me. -love Sarox42 <3)
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I was completely overjoyed to be going with Corin. We were all standing in the hotel lobby as he silently slipped his arm around my waist while I was talking to Rob. I don't even remember what we were talking about now. All of my focus had gone into keeping tabs on Corin.
"Your hair looks amazing," he whispered in my ear. I felt my stomach fill up with butterflies.
"I tried very hard," I whispered back.
"Your dress looks good as well." His mouth was tickling my ear; so naturally, I had forgotten what my dress even looked like. It was a light blue with black satin (or whatever it's called) over top of it.
"Most of my work went into Sarah's hair though," I said kind of loudly. I was still mad at her for taking it down.
"It's not my fault it looked wrong." Sarah shrugged nonchalantly.
"You just aren't used to having your hair up." I rolled my eyes at her. Before leaving to go our separate ways, I pulled Sarah and Robin over to discuss a meeting place. "Now assuming that this will go completely wrong—."
"That's a fair assumption," Sarah interrupted. I raised my eyebrow and she motioned for me to continue.
"As I was saying, we need to think of a place where we can all get to quickly so we can leave immediately. It has to be Egyptian obviously."
"Well, where's the most logical place?" Rob looked at both me and Sarah curiously. Sarah shrugged and left the answering to me, as per usual.
"Cleopatra's Needle," I said matter-a-factly. Soon after that Sarah and Jace walked out the door on the way to the warehouse. I bit my lip, wishing I had told them good luck.
"Eva," Corin said drawing my attention back to him. "So we're getting information?" Corin grabbed a hold of my hand. Again, I felt like I was soaring and I had to remind myself that we were on a mission and not on a date. But why can't it be both? Immediately after I thought that I felt guilty. There were loads of reasons and four of them were my family. I shook my head to clear my thoughts.
"Yep." I muttered.
"How do you plan on doing that?" he replied. He was still holding my hand. I told myself to concentrate on the mission.
"I thought you were going to come up with this." I said half just to bug him half because I couldn't think of anything with him so close. I was appreciating the dark brown of his eyes when he told me his plan for the evening.
"Well we could always just walk around and talk to people." Corin said. I stared at him.
"Obviously," I said, slightly annoyed. "We're going to have to talk to people to find out about the amulet. But shouldn't we have, I don't know, a strategy?" Corin cocked his head to the side like he was considering this.
"Mmm, no."
***
We shadowed there. Despite Sarah's warnings, it wasn't that bothersome. Shadowing wasn't as difficult as going through the Duat so I wasn't losing my mind at having to walk through walls or anything. After talking to Sarah and Jace in that alley, we went directly to Warehouse 6. Getting into the party was easy. Knocking out the guard that was overly suspicious was even easier. Getting some of the Darklings to talk, that was a little harder. None of them recognized me, but Corin on the other hand was a little risk. He was a leader at one of the camps, meaning that some of the Darklings would know his face. So I was elected to be the one who did most of the talking. Joy, because I have the best people skills. Not.
"Hey you!" I yelled to the girl passing by in front of me. I probably should have thought twice since she was twice the size of me, buff, and had like sixteen facial piercings. She turned and gave me the most horrible look possible. "I was just going to ask a question," I said defensively.
"Ask away," she said with a really annoyed attitude. I gave a tentative smile to try to seem friendly but she just glared.
"Do you know what happened to that one chick's amulet?" I asked.
"I don't even know what you're talking about," she sneered and went on her way. I sighed. It was like the seventh time I had struck out.
"Well that didn't work," I said as I walked back to where Corin was. He was leaning against the wall looking a little more attractive than necessary. Grinning, he grabbed my hand and started tugging me towards the stairs. We started making our way up to the balcony, above the dancing crowd. The rest of the gang was supposed to try to meet there but Corin and I hadn't seen any of them.
"Of course not." Corin gave me a grin. "Instead of asking gorilla girls that could snap you in half you should probably start talking to the opposite sex."
"And just how am I supposed to talk to guys?" I snapped at him.
"Well, first off, you can't go up to them and ask. You have to flirt, get to know them, get them comfortable," he said. I started complaining about my inability to flirt when he held up his hand to stop my constant talking. "You are more capable than you let yourself believe."
I started laughing. "You can't be serious." He looked pretty serious. "No. I can't flirt. I have no people skills what-so-ever. I'll scare the poor guys off before I get any information out of them."
"You are more capable at flirting then you let yourself believe," he said again.
"Fine. I'll go and try again." In defeat, I walked over to a group of guys and sat down. "Hey guys. What are you doing tonight?" I said, in a flirty voice. They looked at me like I was crazy and got up and left. I scowled and looked back at Corin to find that he was laughing at me. My scowl immediately turned into a glare and he stopped. I got up and walked over to him. "Would you like to try this?" I said through gritted teeth.
"Watch and learn." He winked at me as he sauntered toward a group of girls that had been watching us for the past five minutes. After much laughing and numbers changing hands, plus a few smirks in my general direction, he came back to me with a wide grin on his face. I felt a little jealous as I saw a few of the girls watch him go.
"Don't even start the gloating Mr. Suave," I said before I could stop myself.
He stopped and his grin got wider. "Would I ever do that?" he asked, his head tilting to the side. He really did look cute like that... [Sarah: Yo, focus Eva!]
"Yes, yes you would Corin," I said with my arms crossed over my chest. He looked almost hurt.
"You don't know me then."
"I know you more than you know," I said smirking. He was really close to me now and with the wall of warm bodies pressing in all around us I almost felt claustrophobic, but in a good way.
"Doubt it." My heart jumped as he flicked a piece of hair off my shoulder. "You just met me a week ago," he reminded me with his smart ass attitude. I smirked again.
"And in that time, I have really gotten to know you," I said. A guy pushed past me, knocking me into Corin's arms. He steadied me but didn't let me go.
"Well then. If you know me oh so well," he said pulling me a little closer, "what am I thinking?" He was pressed right against me, leaning over so his eyes were right in front of my face.
"You," I said, starting to lean in a little, "are thinking about doing this." I crashed my lips against his and brought my hands up to the back of his head. He started in surprise but relaxed, kissing me back. His hands pressed into the small of my back keeping me close to him. My entire being was humming with happiness because he was finally kissing me. And let me tell you, that was some excellent kissing. We stood there like that for five minutes then he pulled away. "What's wrong?" I asked looking at him.
"We're being watched," he said looking at the group of girls he had been talking to earler. They were all watching us with looks that said they were second guessing what they had told Corin.
"Speaking of which," I said, "what did they tell you?"
"Uh, they look pissed," he said, "let's go hide from them. I'll tell you in private." We hurried to the other end of the balcony. Once we were safely out of the girls, I pulled him into a tiny alcove that was unoccupied.
"Now tell me, what'd they say?"
Biting his bottom lips, which was really hot for the record, he said, "Well I had to do some reading between the lines." I raised my eyebrows in expectation. He seemed to lose his train of thought and started to kiss me again but I pulled back.
"I'm not kissing you till you tell me everything."
Corin nodded. "Well, I know that the amulet is here for sure. And the next one...? Well apparently the entire world knows about our quest and what we're trying to do. But luckily, they haven't connected our names and faces. Yet. But anyways, they were talking about us and how hopeless it was and they said, 'they are going to have a lot of fun in Paris'." He looked me straight in the face.
"You think it's in Paris?" I clarified.
"Yes, I do. Actually I'm positive." He leaned in again, this time with determination, but I held up my hand to stop him again.
"Was that it?" I asked trying to keep him on track.
"Yes that's it," he murmured, attempting to lean in farther. I nodded and let him. He started kissing me again and I got lost in it. My sense of time was nonexistent when Corin was holding me against him. I liked how his lips were soft and tasted like my favorite gum. I had no idea how long we were standing there.
The next thing I remember, there was a giant boom coming from outside the alcove. My memory decided to kick in at that moment and I started hyperventilating. Robin, Sarah, Jace, Bleu. The explosion could only mean one thing. We were caught. It was time to go. "Come on!" I yelped at him dragging him out of the hidden corner and pushing through the angry crowd. They were straining to see what had happened. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of red and reached out automatically. I seized Rob by her arm and she gave a shriek but she realized it was me immediately. She was clinging to Bleu in the middle of the raging crowd. The four of us waded to the edge of the balcony and stared down at the chaos. Jace and Sarah were back to back in the middle of the floor. I groaned. How were we getting out of this? Corin hugged me tight around my waist. I calmed down, but at the same time, got really mad. It seemed that my messed up life also managed to mess up my evening.