Coveted [New/Revised Version]

SILENCE IS COMPLIANCE

     "It's this house." Lisa said quietly from the passenger seat.

Sky eased the car to a stop in front of the large burgundy colonial house. He looked sideways at Lisa when she didn't immediately step out. Just like that, his senses were on high alert. He thought of their last lone encounter and tensed. Lisa slowly turned her head to look at him. She spoke, tilting her head precariously.

"You called Iris, Sue, Penelope, and Gregory after our episode. Why?"

"I needed a friend to talk to." Sky replied with his trademark smile. "I get lonely sometimes. You?"

"I don't like sarcasm, Sky." Lisa hissed.

"Well, I don't like witches fucking with my phone." Sky hissed right back.

"I only wanted to assure you didn't say anything presumptuous while you still misunderstood."

"Misunderstood?"

"Yes," she replied. "It seems you're still confused about what happened."

"Do I?" Sky inquired mockingly. "Maybe you should take this opportunity to enlighten me."

"I lost my temper." Lisa explained with a meek shrug of her shoulders. "I'm sorry. I'm sure you've been angry before."

"I have." He narrowed his eyes at Lisa. "But normally when I'm pissed, I don't drag people out of their cars and levitate them."

She smiled tightly at him.

"I still don't know what you were doing out there with those guys but it looked really suspect. Normally, I could give a damn about your extracurricular activities but it involved Drusilla. I don't doubt you manipulated the situation so she'd say yes to Zander being her Fall Formal date. What I wonder is why."

"Is that distrust I sense?" said Lisa in a wounded voice. "In me?"

"It's getting there."

"Iris is my nearest, dearest friend." She shook her head. "I have nothing but her best interest in mind."

Her eyes told him she was telling the truth. The even rhythm of her heart said that too. But Sky wasn't easily fooled. He knew there were ways to master the manipulation of the heart and the facial expressions one displayed to appear trustworthy when in reality that wasn't the case.

"Then why are you so touchy about this?" Tension filled his question. "Why don't you just tell me the truth about what you were doing at the beach?"

"I've told you the truth." Lisa threw up her hands in agitation.

"Omission is a form of lying Lisa."

Her composed demeanor slowly changed and her face contorted in an all-consuming, nose flaring rage. The light brown eyes that were just looking at him harmlessly flashed a ferocious ocher as the atmosphere in the car turned from warm to stifling. Her chest rose and fell quickly. Again, that undetected force moved Lisa's hair about her eerily.

"You dare call me a liar!" She shouted in fury. His eyebrows shot up. It seemed the angrier she got, the less she sounded like the girl he was used to. Her dialect sounded a lot like Zairian's and Samael's. "Who are you to question my motives?"

"I'm Skylark Jayden Dean Emerrosah." Sky answered. "I ask whatever the hell I want to and if whatever you were doing hurts her—"

"How dare you try to threaten me." she snarled. "If I wanted, I could destroy you this instant. I'm not one to trifle with. You don't know me. Don't ever presume to."