by Sarra Cannon
Fourteen
Eva
The sun was just beginning to set as we stepped back onto the beach toward Drifter’s bar. I still hadn’t managed to line up a place to sleep for the night, but I knew I couldn’t rely on Nik’s kindness forever. Besides, he only had one bed, and I was already feeling more for him than I should. I didn’t want to push it and end up falling for someone I would just have to say goodbye to in a few days.
If I even had that long.
My heart tightened at the thought. I’d felt so incredibly close to him under the water, like I was seeing him—and the whole world—in a whole new way. I was afraid I was already starting to fall for him, but I pushed that thought away and decided to focus on my growling stomach, instead.
“I don’t suppose you’d be up for some dinner?” I asked.
“After that swim, I could eat just about anything,” Nik said. “There’s this great place in town called the Dark Horse Diner, if you want to give it a shot.”
“Absolutely,” I said, but then I looked down at my clothes and frowned. “I should probably change clothes, though, and I still haven’t found a place to stay. Do you mind if I change in your room real quick?”
I had completely forgotten to go shopping for more clothes this morning, so I would just have to change back into the same jeans, tank top, and hoodie I was wearing when I left Vegas. I made a mental note to find a shop in the morning and buy enough clothes to get me through at least a few days at a time before I needed to find a laundromat.
“Of course,” Nik said. “I should probably change, too. The Dark Horse isn’t exactly the fanciest place in town, but they probably wouldn’t like us showing up in wet bathing suits. Besides, it’s only going to get colder.”
I laughed, but then he grabbed my hand, and I suddenly felt like I’d had the wind knocked out of me. I pulled away before I even knew what I was doing.
Nik frowned and stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Sorry,” he said.
“No, I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m just not used to getting close to people so fast. I didn’t mean to pull away like that. Just reflex, I guess.”
“I get it,” he said, but he didn’t reach for me again. “Where are you from, anyway? We haven’t really had the chance to talk about it.”
My stomach flipped over. There was a reason I hadn’t discussed my past with him, yet. In some ways, I wanted to pretend the past didn’t exist for me here and maybe I could start fresh. But there was also a part of me that knew I wouldn’t be able to stay, so what use would it be to get too close to someone new?
“It’s complicated,” I said, taking longer strides. I told myself I was just hungry, but deep down, I knew I was avoiding the question.
We’d just had this amazing connection, and he’d taken a huge risk showing me the most incredible place I’d ever seen in my life, but I still couldn’t bring myself to share my story with him.
“Is that really all I get?” he asked, practically having to jog to catch up with me. “Everyone’s past is complicated.”
I turned on him. “Is that so?” I asked. “Then why don’t you tell me about your past? What about that silver bracelet you never take off, but can’t stop fumbling with? And the story of why you live above some dive bar and don’t have a single picture of your family in your room? Why don’t we start with that?”
Nik winced and turned away, but he didn’t exactly start offering any answers to my questions. Instead, his hand went to the silver bracelet coiled around his wrist.
“That’s what I thought,” I mumbled. I took off down the beach again, reaching the stairs leading up to Drifter’s in less than a minute.
“Eva, wait,” he called, touching my arm.
I spun around to find him so close, I could feel the warmth of his skin against mine. I didn’t know if I wanted to punch him or kiss him.
“What?” I asked, breathless.
He stepped even closer, and I realized without a doubt that I wanted him to kiss me. Which only made me want to run away. I didn’t know how to handle these kinds of emotions. I didn’t know if trusting him was stupid or beautiful. I just felt confused and turned around.
The way his muscular chest rose and fell with each breath wasn’t helping matters, either.
“You’re right. I have my secrets, too,” he said. “Things I’m not ready to talk about. I guess that makes it unfair for me to pressure you about your past, too, but seriously, all I asked was where you’re from. I just want to get to know you better. I didn’t ask you to tell me your darkest secrets. Are you really so terrified of a true connection you can’t even say a word about who you are or where you’re from?”
God, this man could read me like a book. I was terrified.
I couldn’t afford to be feeling this way right now. I should have just stolen another car and gotten the hell out of this town first thing this morning.
But another part of me didn’t want to go. I wanted to be the kind of girl who could open up her heart and be free to have real feelings for a change.
I’d spent my whole life so focused on revenge and escape that I didn’t even know how to handle anything else. I always thought gaining my freedom from Dominic would mean staying on the run. I had never even entertained the idea of staying in one spot, falling in love, making real friends.
What was I doing?
I ran a hand through my wavy hair, my fingers snagging on a mess of tangles. This wasn’t freedom at all if the only thing I could do was run, but I had no idea what else to do.
Still, after everything Nik had done for me, I owed him something.
I took a deep breath and looked him in the eye.
“I’m from Las Vegas,” I said. “But that’s all you’re going to get out of me until after I’ve had dinner. I’m starving.”
A smile teased his lips, and he nodded. “That wasn’t so bad, now was it?” he asked.
Butterflies danced in my stomach as he walked past me, his warm skin brushing mine. The one touch lit a fire inside me so bright, it ran through my veins like a lightning bolt.
Man, I was in real trouble with this guy. And unlike everything else I’d faced in my life, this was a type of trouble I had no clue how to escape.
Fifteen
Nik
While Eva changed upstairs in my room, I sat at the bar downstairs, Drifter hovering over me like an eagle.
“You gave her a potion and showed her your underwater cave?” he asked. “This is more serious than I thought.”
He looked around, as if afraid someone might overhear. But there was no one in the bar but the two of us. It was still too early for the drinking crowd and too late for the regular day-timers.
“I wanted her to see it,” I said. “I don’t see what the big deal is.”
“The big deal is that in all the time I’ve known you, not once have I ever seen this love-sick expression you’ve got on your face right now. But may I remind you that you’ve got a shackle around your wrist there that means you belong to a certain siren here in town,” he said. “In case you’ve forgotten.”
I sighed. How could I ever forget something like that? But there was no way for Selena to know I’d gone underwater without her permission, and I knew that Eva wasn’t going to tell anyone.
“I needed an afternoon in the water,” I said. “Besides, I can trust Eva.”
“Don’t get me wrong, she seems like a nice girl. But you just met her,” he said. “And you ought not forget that trusting a woman is exactly what got you into this mess in the first place.”
“Eva isn’t a siren,” I said. “She’s not manipulating me or trying to capture me.”
“I didn’t say that she was.” He held his hands up in protest. “I’m just saying I care about you, and I don’t want to see you getting hurt. Or her, for that matter.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked. “I wouldn’t hurt her.”
“Oh, I know that, mate,” he said. “It’s Selena I’m worried ab
out. She believes she owns you fair and square, and she’s not one to share her property with other women.”
Drifter poured himself a tall shot of whiskey, and I motioned for him to pour one for me, too.
He was right. I was getting in too deep with Eva, already. No matter how much I wanted to keep her safe from whatever it was she was running from, I had problems of my own to deal with.
For some reason, when I was around her, I managed to forget all about Selena’s hold over me. I downed the shot of whiskey and closed my eyes as the liquid burned its way down my throat. It was opposite of the cool ocean feel of Anna’s potion, and I liked the way it burned. It filled me with a fire I hadn’t allowed myself to feel in a very long time.
When Selena had first shackled me and cursed me to remain in human form, I had tried several times to escape, but nothing had worked. The shackle on my wrist kept me magically bound to her, and I’d learned the hard way that the only way to get it off was for Selena herself to unlock it.
I knew from years of experience that there was nothing that would make her voluntarily set me free. Over time, I had just given up. I had resigned myself to this life of imprisonment and tried to make the most of my time in Willow Harbor. I had kept to myself as much as possible, making a few friends like Anna and Adam along the way, but I hadn’t felt this strongly about anyone in my whole life.
I wanted to be free of Selena so I could be free to pursue Eva without putting her in danger.
When Eva walked down the stairs, her hair settled in deep amber waves from her time in the ocean, I knew it was no accident that I had been the one to find her there the night she came to town. For some reason, our paths were meant to cross, and whether I had wanted it to or not, my fate shifted the moment she passed through the gates of Willow Harbor.
The thought scared me, but it also made me more determined than ever to find a way out of this shackle.
Sixteen
Eva
I took my time changing clothes. I needed a few minutes away from Nik.
And yet, I couldn’t wait to get back to his side.
He had my head completely turned around. When I left Vegas, all I wanted to do was be safe and free. I wanted to hit the coast and then keeping moving, maybe head down to Florida until it got too hot next summer. Then, who knows? Tennessee? New York?
The key was to stay on the road as much as possible. Try to go unnoticed. Hide my magic at all times, just like my mother taught me when I was little.
But somehow, I had ended up in a town full of magic, and the first guy I met already recognized it in me, even if he didn’t know exactly what my powers were. I had either royally failed or won the lottery. I still wasn’t sure which.
And I probably wasn’t going to figure it out tonight.
I hung my wet bathing suit up in Nik’s shower, checked to make sure my dagger was still tucked away inside my purse, and headed back downstairs with what little belongings I had. Hopefully, I could find a nice but reasonably priced hotel in town where I could stay for a night or two.
I had some money from selling my mother’s bracelet, but since I still didn’t know how much the repairs on my car would be, I needed to spend it sparingly. Besides, unless I could find a way to bring in money on the road without using my magic, it was going to be a tough time ahead for me for a while.
The more time I spent here in Willow Harbor, though, the more I hoped that after some time, I might feel safe enough to come back here to stay longer.
Maybe that was a fool’s dream, though.
I needed to just be happy I had these few wonderful days here and let it go at that. There would be more adventures to come, hopefully, even if none of them would involve a place quite like this one.
Or a man quite like Nik.
Still, maybe it was for the best that I would have to leave. From what I knew of love, it mostly ended in broken hearts.
Nik’s eyes lit up when I came down the stairs, and my heart expanded. I had no idea why he was being so nice to me or why he seemed to care about me as much as he did, but the feeling was mutual.
I simply couldn’t resist him, no matter how hard I tried.
“You ready to go?” he asked.
I nodded. “I’m ready,” I said.
I noticed Drifter behind the bar, staring at me with an intense look I couldn’t make out. Was he angry? Or scared? Or just curious?
“Good to see you again, Drifter,” I said.
He raised an eyebrow and lifted his glass to me before he downed a shot of something brown. Truthfully, it looked more like two shots at a time, but the drink barely seemed to faze him.
He was a strange man. He’d seemed totally delighted to have me come in last night, but now he seemed distant and worried. What exactly had Nik said to him about me?
I would have to ask him at dinner, which just reminded me that my stomach was still growling from hunger. Our underwater swim was incredible, but it had taken a lot out of me. I wanted to eat a big dinner and crawl into a nice, comfy bed for about ten hours.
“You two be safe out there,” Drifter said. “The night before Halloween in Willow Harbor, you never know who you might run into.”
I eyed Nik, as if to ask if Drifter was being serious, but Nik just laughed.
“We’ll be fine, old man,” he said. “You want me to bring you back something good from the Dark Horse Diner?”
“Some of those fancy onion rings would be nice,” he said. “And a slice of that pumpkin cheesecake, if you don’t mind.”
“Will do,” Nik said. He opened the door and motioned for me to head out.
“Thank you,” I said.
Once we got back out to the boardwalk toward town, I asked if Drifter was serious about it being dangerous around here near Halloween.
“Let me put it this way. It wouldn’t be smart to walk around alone after dark any time of year in Willow Harbor, but it’s particularly dumb around this time of year,” he said with a laugh. “Well, not unless you know how to defend yourself against creatures of the night.”
I shivered, wishing I had thought to ask Nik if I could borrow his jacket again. This hoodie wasn’t cutting it.
“Creatures of the night?” I asked, glancing around. The boardwalk was teeming with people up ahead in the lights, but it was the shadows that worried me.
“Vampires, werewolves, different types of shifters, nagas, and the list goes on,” Nik said. “Just about anything Hollywood ever imagined on-screen is real and living here in Willow Harbor. And other things Hollywood could never dream of.”
I moved closer to Nik’s side. If I hadn’t experienced the things I had in my lifetime, I might not have believed him, but I knew about the things a demon could do. If there were others just as bad—or worse—I didn’t want to get caught out here alone.
“I thought you said this was a safe town. It doesn’t sound very safe.”
“You get used to it, and you learn the rules,” he said. “Don’t go out to the beach alone at night, especially during summer solstice. Be careful anywhere in the woods alone, especially near the borders of town. There are certain unspoken rules here the whole town knows and keeps in place. The vampires aren’t allowed to hunt here, stuff like that. But every once in a while, especially during the higher energy times of year, someone will go rogue.”
My head was spinning from all of this information. First, he brought me to this amazing underwater cave where I could actually breathe water like it was air, and now he tells me that vampires are real and walking around.
In some ways, it made me want to go check on my car and get out of here as fast as possible, but in other ways, it made me feel freer than I ever had in my life.
If the people in this town were used to those who could do extraordinary things, maybe I wouldn’t be so different. Maybe I would be free to just be myself for a change. In a town where everyone was different, different became normal. I liked the sound of that.
Of course, I liked it more
with a big strong guy like Nik at my side. I glanced at him. Was he hiding supernatural powers of his own? Why was I so scared to ask him about it?
“Something tells me you could take care of yourself, though,” he said.
“Why would you think that?”
“Just a feeling I get from you,” he said with a shrug. “That you’re independent and would do whatever it takes to stay that way.”
I nodded, feeling a bit sick at the thought of what I’d had to do to get out of the suite at Mist Lake Towers where Dominic had held me prisoner.
“Yeah, I have a feeling you can take care of yourself,” he said. “You’ll be fine here, I promise.”
Nik placed his arm around my shoulders, warming me instantly. This time, I didn’t pull away from him.
We walked together the rest of the way down the boardwalk and then turned toward main street and headed into town. The large Willow Tree was just as inviting after dark as it was during the day, and I longed to go sit near it again and feel its energy. Maybe in the morning I could grab some breakfast and go sit near it for a while.
The Dark Horse Diner was located right there on Main Street, and it was filled with people by the time we got there. It was nice to feel the buzz of energy when we walked inside. The place was decorated like a real, old-fashioned diner, complete with black and white checkered floors and cozy booths. There was a real home-town feel about this place, as if everyone knew everyone else, and no one was a stranger.
That being said, Nik and I got a lot of looks when we walked inside and chose a booth near the window.
“Everyone is staring at us,” I said in a whisper.
“People aren’t used to seeing new blood around here,” he said, and I winced at his choice of words.
Were any of the people here vampires? Shifters? How could you tell the difference?