“Good job, Ally girl.” Asher’s voice spoke in my ear.
“I didn’t realize”–I moved to the hand hold–“how rough the rock would be.”
“Killing your nails, huh?”
“Go to hell.”
The guys laughter rang in my ear as I grinned. Apparently, I was on speaker phone. I kept moving, the guys staying quiet to let me concentrate. Losing track of time, I focused on moving right and clipping my rope through my quick draws.
“Ally, how are you doing?” Asher asked as I tried to catch my breath some time later.
“Just out of breath.”
“Do you want to rest?”
I looked up at the cliff. Wait, that was only like twenty feet. That couldn’t be right. I looked down. The world spun. “Shit.” I closed my eyes as the world twirled while I clung to the rock.
“Ally, talk to me.” Asher’s rich baritone was comforting.
“I was fucking stupid and looked down.” I looked up for my next hand hold.
“Are you dizzy?”
“I was, but as long as I don’t look down, I think I’m fine.” Which wasn’t going to do shit for when I come back down. My heart pounded in my chest, sweat rolled down my back. My fingers started to ache. “My hands are starting to ache.”
“Loosen your grip, that’s usually where you have trouble first.”
Loosen… I focused on relaxing my fingers a bit. The pain in my hands eased. “Oh, yeah…”
“Do you want to come down?” Zeke asked.
“No.” I scoffed. “I want to fucking finish this climb.”
The guys chuckled.
“Staying in one place isn’t going to do it,” Asher reminded me.
I cursed, took several deep breaths and started moving again. When I reached the next bolt, I couldn’t pull enough rope to get it into the carabiner. “Need some slack.” The tension on the rope eased and I managed it. “Tension.” The slack disappeared.
I kept moving and focused on not looking down.
“Hey, you guys going to be done soon?” A man’s voice sounded in my ear.
“She’s almost to the top.” Isaac answered.
“Sure she is, we’ll just sit here for another hour and wait as the line gets longer.” The voice said.
“It’s her first climb, asshole.” Ethan’s voice was loud. “And we’re climbing after her.”
My temper sparked as I pulled myself up. “Who the hell is that?”
“Some rude jerk. Ally, ignore it. Focus on what you’re doing.” My bluetooth crackled.
“Tell that asshole to go find a pinecone then sit on it and rotate.” I grunted as I grabbed another hand hold.
Laughter erupted in my ear. Asher told everyone to shut up or they’ll distract me. I found a good toe hold and moved. My other foot found a ledge. I pulled myself up and found two bolts. One above the other. It was the lower off. I was at the top. “I’m at the top.”
The guys cheered in my ear.
“Good job, Ally. Now, don’t forget to quick draw yourself to it before you undo that knot.”
“I don’t think I’m going to forget that.” I muttered as I pulled my last quick draw. I snapped one end to the main load loop on my harness then snapped the other to the bolt. Taking a deep breath, I started pulling rope from below. I made a loop and moved that through both bolts, created the figure eight knot that Asher had drilled into my head so much I could probably do it in my sleep. Then I clipped another carabiner on the end. After hooking that to my main load bearing loop, I began to untie the original figure eight knot that kept the rope attached to my harness. I unclipped the quick draw. I checked the knots and clips again. “Okay, am I rappelling or are you lowering me? ‘Cause I need to set up my belay if I’m rappelling.”
“Did you double-check your knots?” Asher asked.
“Yep.”
“Lower her.” Zeke’s voice ordered in my ear. “She doesn’t have a lot of experience rappelling.”
“How is she going to get that experience if she never does it?” Isaac asked.
“I agree with Zeke,” Miles said. “It’s her first outdoor climb, let’s not risk the chance that her arms are more tired than she knows.”
The guys continued to debate until I had enough. “Guys! I’m on a fucking cliff! Make a decision.”
“I’m lowering you.” Asher made the call.
Well, that made it mostly easy. I leaned back away from the rock. “Okay, I’m ready to go.”
“I’m ready for you,” Asher promised.
I leaned further back and trusted my weight to the rope and Asher. He began lowering me down the rock face, my job was simply to make sure I didn’t hit anything and pick up my quick draws on my way down. I slowly spun away from the cliff face and had to catch my breath. The forest was below, and the sun high in the bright blue sky. It was stunning. Okay, maybe the height wasn’t so bad. I was smiling when I turned back to the cliff face.
By the time they lowered me to the ground my arms were aching. I unclipped from the rope. “Off belay.” I turned and smiled up at Asher. His eyes were bright, his smile was huge.
I threw my arms in the air. “I did it!”
Asher picked me up and hugged me. “I’m proud of you, Ally girl.”
Isaac took me from Asher and hugged me tight as he set me down on the ground. I squeezed him back. Isaac let me turn to his brother.
Ethan pulled me close and kissed my cheek. “Great job, Beautiful.”
When Ethan pulled back, I turned to Zeke. I didn’t hug Zeke, he wasn’t a public display of affection kind of guy. Instead I showed him my arms and hands. “See, all in one piece.”
His lips lifted into a half grin. “Good. I would have been pissed.”
“What would be different?” I snickered as he smiled and shook his head.
Isaac
When we got back to camp, Tara was sitting in camp at the table with Dean and Danielle playing cards. They were laughing, just having a good time. I froze as I went to close the truck door. Danielle… black shadows moved over her face in a strange ripple pattern. As she laughed the color faded, when she stopped it was back. Despair poured through me, filling me until I struggled to keep my head above water. I waited for anyone else to notice but everyone was acting as if they didn’t see it. No… no… it was like with the demon all over again.
My throat grew dry, my stomach rolled and bile rose. Not again.
“I’m going to change and take Hades swimming.” Lexie headed for her tent jerking my attention away. That black sinking feeling disappeared.
Shit, what the hell was that? I put my hands in my pockets and made a point to sit down out of arms reach of everyone. Lexie will change, come back out and she’ll tell me if she sees it… I took an emotional inventory. I wasn’t mad, at least any more mad than I should be about the dating thing. I wasn’t wanting to hurt anyone… I eyed Danielle. Could she be possessed? Maybe… then why the hell would I see it and not the others?
As minutes rolled by and I didn’t attack anyone, I slowly started to relax a bit. No emotional surges, no voice in my head… I eyed Hades. The dog simply continued lying on his back with his belly in the sun and his tongue lolling out. Okay, he wasn’t reacting.
It wasn’t long before Ethan came over and sat down in his chair.
I was about to open my mouth when Lexie got out of her tent in her swimsuit. Bolting to my feet, I went straight to her and took her arm. “We need to talk.”
Lexie.
Isaac didn’t give me a chance to answer, he simply pulled me through camp and onto the trail. Worry knotted my gut. I hadn’t seen him this way since New Orleans…
“What’s going on?” I pulled my arm from his grasp just in case Zeke was watching and thought Isaac was hurting me.
“I’m seeing shit.” He ran his hands through his hair, his eyes grew wide. He kept his gaze on the ground as we walked deeper into the woods.
My chest grew tight. “What are you seeing?”
Please, please don’t let it be another demon… It would tear him apart a second time.
He swallowed hard. “There was a shadow on that girl, Danielle, it was on her face.”
My stomach dropped. “What kind?”
He stopped in the trail and looked at me like I was insane. “What?”
“What did it look like?” I struggled to keep my voice down.
He shook his head as his eyes unfocused. “Um, kinda like when you look at the bottom of a pool when the suns out. That weird rippling effect.”
The tension in my shoulders eased. “Okay, that’s not what I saw when you were possessed.” I took his hand in mine. “That could mean something different. Was it constant? Did it behave in anyway?”
His eyes focused again on me. “Yeah, it would almost disappear when she was laughing and when she stopped it came back.”
That was freaky as hell… “Okay, that has to be something else. The shadow on you affected your emotions and spread. This sounds like it reacts to it.”
He thought about it. “It kind of looked that way.”
I took a deep breath and tried to think. Evie had said something… “What did Evie tell you when you two talked? About side effects?”
His eyes unfocused as he pressed his lips together. “That… um… something about seeing shit other people won’t.”
Relief let me almost limp. “Okay, then it might be something completely normal that people just don’t see.”
He nodded several times, his color coming back. “Yeah, that feels…” He met my eyes. “When I first saw it, I felt…” The amber in his eyes faded a little.
I stepped closer until I pressed against him. “You felt what?”
He swallowed hard. “I felt like I did before Boulder. Hopeless and… in a pit I couldn’t get out of. It was so deep that I couldn’t even scream. It was… I was alone. Really fucking alone.”
I reached up and held his face in my hands. “You’re not there anymore. You weren’t alone then, and you aren’t now. Just talk to me.”
His hand held one of my hands to his face. “I don’t think it was me.”
“What do you mean?”
“When I looked away from her, the feeling was just… gone.” He shrugged. “It disappeared.”
“Maybe you should talk to her. Or we can call Evelyn?”
“Maybe…” He let my hand slip from his face.
“You’re going to call Evelyn, right?” I needed to be sure that he wasn’t going to keep it to himself.
“Yeah, she gave me her number in case something weird happened.” He looked out at the water. “I’ll call tonight.”
I tugged his shirt to bring his attention back to me. “Come on. It’s a beautiful day and I want to go swimming.”
Isaac smiled then turned around on the trail and we headed back to camp. Asher and Miles were in their suits and walking away from the back of the trailer.
Miles shifted a coil of rope over his shoulder. “I’ll find a higher and further out branch this year.”
“I don’t know.” Asher grinned. “Seeing Zeke hit the water early would be kind of satisfying.”
Miles chuckled.
“What are you guys doing?” I eyed them playfully.
“We’re hanging the rope swing.” Asher gestured toward the lake. “Can you go tell Zeke we’re going to hang the rope, and if he’s not there he’s going to have to deal with our decision.”
I chuckled. “I’ll go tell him. Come on, Hades.”
I headed across the campsite and through the long grass. The crickets started jumping away. Hades gave chase. I smiled as he jumped and ran through the grass. The crickets kept evading him and he’d change direction only to slide in the grass. I reached the back side of the tent. Figuring Zeke was inside, I walked around the side to the front, “Hey, Zeke…” I froze.
Zeke’s back was to me as he was finishing tying his board shorts. “God damn it, Lexie!” He grabbed a shirt off the top of the overhang. Scars covered him from the base of his neck to his lower back. I saw everything in a heartbeat but at the same time saw none of it. What drew my eye and kept me looking were the lines of his body. The hard muscles of his shoulders and back, his firm wide waist… The line of his spine going down that muscular… My body throbbed. His black shirt covered his back and I was hit with the urge to genuinely pout for the first time in my life. Instead I met his furious gaze.
“What the fuck are you doing?” The veins in his neck began to bulge. “Get a good long fucking look?” He grabbed his sandals and started walking away.
Then it hit me what he was thinking. “Zeke!”
He didn’t stop.
“I already knew you had scars.” I started after him. “Remember?”
He stopped, the skin on his neck turning red, his clenched fist shaking.
Stay patient, Lexie... I walked around to stand in front of him. His jaw was clenched so much I was sure his teeth would crack any second. “That’s not why I was staring.”
He refused to look at me. He just glared over my head. “Sure, it wasn’t.” His sarcasm was so thick it was practically dripping in the air.
“Zeke, you might not understand this so I’m just going to tell you flat out.” My face grew warm. I can’t believe I was going to have to point this out… “You’re hot.”
His brow wrinkled, he looked down at me. “What?”
“You’re fucking sexy as hell.” A big girly smile spread across my face as my cheeks burned. “I wasn’t staring at your scars, I was… staring at what was under them.” Oh, God, did I just fucking say that?
It was almost as if I hit him with a board. The stunned look on his face had me biting back an embarrassed giggle. I backed up a step and then another. Any second the heat from my face would catch the woods on fire. “I, uh, should go help the guys with the rope swing.”
I turned and started to walk away.
“You’re not going to ask?”
I turned back around but kept walking toward camp. “You’ll tell me when you’re ready. Hades, come on.” Turning back around, I walked back to the lake with as much dignity as I had left.
At the lake, I found Asher and the twins further down the east side of the shore. Where was Miles? Hades and I reached them only to find everyone looking up at the tree. Looking up, I found that Miles was pretty high in the branches. He was out on a thick limb around fifteen feet over the water.
“Is that water deep enough if he falls?” Worried, I tried to judge from the shore.
“Yeah, it’s a steep part of the lake.” Isaac continued to watch Miles as he tied a knot around the thick branch. He threw the rope over the branch. Instead of climbing down, he jumped. He came up and wiped the water from his eyes before I even had a chance to worry if he was all right or not. He snagged the rope and swam to the shore. Hades picked up a stick and hurried to me with his tail wagging.
I smiled as I took it from him. “Want to swim, baby?”
He wagged his tail even more. While the guys did whatever they were doing with the rope. I turned to the lake and chucked the stick out as far as I could. Hades ran full speed into the lake and swam out to pick it up. I was smiling as my baby started back with the stick in his mouth. Hades swam back and climbed out before he immediately shook the water off and raced past me. Turning, I watched Zeke bend down and take the stick from Hades. He straightened and threw the stick further into the water than I had. Hades was ecstatic, he barreled back into the water and swam out.
“I’ll test it.” Isaac chuckled grabbing my attention again. He backed away from the shore and climbed up on a large rock. He swung out on the rope, let go and splashed down.
“Well, that works.” Ethan reached out and got the rope on its way back.
Isaac surfaced. “Hell, yeah!”
I shook my head as Hades swam back to me. When he got out, he was a mass of soaked wrinkles. “Good, baby.” I took the stick and threw it again.
Zeke moved next to me and held o
ut my towel. “You left it on your chair.”
“Thanks.” I took it without looking at him. “Still pissed?”
He sighed. “No.”
Hades ran to Zeke. Zeke praised him and threw it again.
I turned, looked up at him and smiled. “Good. ‘Cause I’m gonna do a flip.” I spun and ran to the boulder before he could try to stop me. But instead of stopping me, he laughed.
Miles handed me the rope when I got to the top. I got a good grip on the rope above one of the knots and jumped off. I swung out with my knees bent. When I almost reached the furthest point, I swung my legs forward then up and back. I let go of the rope as the world spun then righted itself right before I hit the water feet first. The water closed over my head, I swam back to the surface.
I came to the surface to hoots and whistles.
“Damn, Red!” Isaac shook his head.
“Impressive.” Asher smiled.
I chuckled as I started swimming toward the shore. Everyone started swinging off the rope and swimming. Even Tara, Danielle and Dean came down the shore and joined us. All my worries fell away. Everyone relaxed and had fun as we tried to outdo each other by flipping off the rope swing.
A couple of hours later, I got out of the water, sat in the sand and watched everyone keep swimming. Hades seemed to have limitless energy as he swam with the guys and occasionally brought me his stick to throw as I dried in the sun.
My mind wandered back to last night and my dream. I’d been having that dream over and over since the fire in New Orleans. Ever since I heard Dad’s voice… Missed the sound of his voice, how loud it was when he sneezed… My chest ached with an old dull pain that never really went away. Usually I didn’t think about him, I tried not to. But since the fire, he kept creeping back into my thoughts.
When the Dead Have It Easy Page 12