By eleven, I was still tossing and turning in bed. Sleep eluded me. I lay on my back, staring at the ceiling, while I counted sheep in the hopes of getting bored enough so that I could fall asleep. A sudden tap on my window interrupted my wandering thoughts and surprised me so much I jerked at the noise and sat up immediately, staring at the window. Not again, I’m not ready for this!
Another light tap, and I was fairly certain someone was flinging little pebbles at my window. Wouldn’t it be ironic if I actually saw that monster flinging rocks at my window to let me know it was still out there, watching, waiting to get me?
Scared but curious, I rose from bed and made my way toward the window. I hesitated but a moment before moving the curtains aside and peering out. To my surprise, Kyran was standing there, wearing nothing but a pair of dark pants, and I couldn’t help but admire the way the moon shone on his muscles as he stood out in the open. It was a most intriguing sight, Kyran bathed in moonlight, his long chestnut-colored hair blowing in the wind. It was as if he was a creature of the night, and the darkness hid the mysteries behind his face.
Since I couldn’t just stand there and ogle him all night long—no matter how much I wanted to—I opened the window and leaned out.
“What’re you doing here?” I spoke loud enough so he could hear, but not so loud that I might be heard by Vicki or the girls.
“I came to check up on you. I was worried.”
I could see the concern on his face and I started to feel guilty for not answering his calls. He’d probably called me like a hundred times but I hadn’t bothered to call him back or even text him to let him know I was okay.
“I’m sorry. I needed some time to myself.” Gazing down at those enchanting silver eyes brought on the need to be closer, to touch him, to kiss him. “I’m coming down to talk, wait right there.”
His long hair blew in the wind, framing his handsome face so that all I could see were those strange eyes that both scared and lured me to him. “No, it’s not a good idea.”
I could have sworn I saw his eyes glow for just a brief moment but he looked away before I could make sense of what I saw.
“I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“Come up, Kyran.”
I saw him ponder the idea for a few seconds before he replied. “Okay.”
“Let me open the door for you.” Was I seriously considering sneaking a boy into my room in the middle of the night? Yes, of course I was.
“There’s no need. I can come up through the window.”
“How are you going to accomplish that?”
“Just step back.”
Not knowing how he would accomplish that action but anxious to see him up close, I stepped back. A few seconds later, I saw both his hands holding on to the windowsill and then he was inside my bedroom. “How on earth did you do that?” I asked, astonished.
He turned to close the window and I took several steps toward him. He smelled of male cologne and the outdoors. It was a very alluring aroma, so appealing that I couldn’t help but want to fill my nostrils with it. As I approached, he turned and began to silently appraise me. All of a sudden, the brazen Marjorie was gone and I was unexpectedly self-conscious at wearing short pajama bottoms, especially after his silver eyes roamed the length of my legs in an appreciative manner. His eyebrows arched as if he’d seen something he liked.
“Hey, my face is up here,” I said once I noticed his gaze lingering on my legs for longer than necessary.
“Sorry,” he answered sheepishly. “Something is different with you, Marjorie.” I actually saw him raise his chin and his nostrils flared as he sniffed the air. He then wrinkled his nose as if he caught a whiff of something. “You…smell…like blood.”
What? Oh my Gosh! How? After two showers and some perfume, he could still smell it on me? I stepped back from him but he took hold of my wrist and pulled me to him. I couldn’t help but lift my arm to sniff it.
“I’m sorry, I don’t smell anything. How can you tell?”
Kyran shook his head and pulled me toward him, wrapping his arms around me as he embraced me.
“Blood has a very distinct odor to it that doesn’t dissipate right away, and I smell a few traces of it here and there on you. But…” He actually sniffed me. “It’s animal blood.”
Jesus, what the hell? “How do you know that?”
“Animal blood smells different from human.”
I’d smelled blood before, both animal and human, and it all smelled pretty much the same to me. “Yeah, well, I had a very crappy morning.” I pulled away from him and sat on my bed.
“Were you hurt?” I could hear the concern in his voice.
“No, I’m fine.”
He stepped back from me to gaze upon my face. I took in the opportunity to scrutinize his admirable physique.
“I’m glad to see you well.”
“Did you think something bad happened to me?”
He hesitated for a bit, but finally said, “I thought that…you…”
Ah, I got it. He thought that because of what happened the day before I wouldn’t want to see him.
“Will you sit with me?” I reached out for him, hoping he’d take my hand. He did. As he sat down next to me, I leaned into him and closed my eyes. My head lay comfortably on his chest, which felt smooth and warm and smelled so blatantly male. “I missed you today.” As we embraced, I realized just how much I had missed him, everything about him—the unique smell of his smooth skin, that light French accent when he spoke, and the feel of his arms when they wrapped around me.
Kyran’s big hand toyed with my long hair, curling his fingers in it, as his other hand caressed my back with slow and soft movements. The way he touched me made me compare it to how one touches a porcelain doll when one fears that touching it too roughly will break it into pieces. That’s exactly what being cuddled by Kyran felt like.
“That’s good to hear.” His ministrations were causing me to relax to such a degree that I was close to falling asleep as he held me. My eyes began to droop a little and I couldn’t stop the yawn that escaped my lips. “You’re tired. I should let you rest.” He sounded like he was looking for any excuse to bolt from the room.
He started to rise from my bed, and I grabbed his forearms to stop him.
“No, don’t leave. Stay with me.”
He hesitated. “I don’t…think I can.”
“Please.”
He nodded apprehensively but ultimately climbed into the bed with me and lay next to me. We lay facing each other, my legs entangled with his, his long arm draped over my hips. I couldn’t help but stare at those gorgeous silver eyes. At least with Kyran there, I didn’t feel as vulnerable as I did before. For some reason, he made me feel safe.
Kyran lifted a hand to caress my cheek and I watched as I anticipated that touch. Slowly his fingers danced across my face, touching, stroking, worshiping my skin. A light quiver shook my body, a reaction to his tactile manipulation. I shivered, and not from a drop in room temperature. He traced the outline of my jaw with his long fingers, which seemed rather experienced for a guy who usually avoided any human contact. From my jaw to my neck, he toyed with my skin, caressing until I thought he would leave a permanent mark on my soul if not on my body. His soft touch was scorching hot and it left my skin feeling like it had just been burned.
“You’re beautiful,” he murmured as he traced my lips with his index finger.
“Kiss me, Kyran.”
He smiled but then shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“You can kiss me, or I can kiss you.”
His eyes widened at my boldness. Yes, I was feeling bold. His presence sparked a sense of normalcy I hadn’t felt all day. I wanted to feel his lips on mine, simple as that.
He made no move to accommodate my request, so I came up onto my knees and pressed my chest to his. Before he could even mouth out a protest, I kissed him. I wasn’t exactly experienced in the kissing department, but
I was sure becoming an expert practicing on Kyran.
The feel of his large hands caressing my back was invigorating. As I slipped my tongue inside his mouth, he pulled me closer to his hot body, pressing me tight against his muscled form. A soft groan escaped his lips. That simple sound turned my blood to liquid fire. For just one instant, I broke the magic of the kiss to allow my hands to roam freely across the muscles of his chest. I noticed the rise in his body temperature almost at once. He felt warm, more so than usual. It literally felt as if he had a fever of well over a hundred.
Kyran pulled me closer to his body and I gasped when part of my exposed abdomen touched his. My skin felt as if it had been burned by a torch. The heat didn’t repel me. Instead, it added to the barrage of sensations coursing through me. With little effort, Kyran flipped us over so that I lay on my back instead of on top of him. He was now on top. He was now in control. That knowledge should have scared me, but to be honest, it didn’t. He tore my hands away from him and placed them up, over my head, holding them in place with one of his own.
At any given moment, I could have stopped what was transpiring between us, but something kept me going. It was almost as if some invisible force pushed me toward an encounter with Kyran that could potentially lead to the loss of my virtue. Once he put his hands on me, I felt helpless to stop what we’d both started.
“You’ll be the death of me, Marjorie.” He kissed me again, this time with raging desire evident in each stroke of his tongue. His free hand pulled my pajama top up a bit, to just under my breasts. I felt his hand softly caress my abdomen and then slide down to my waist. I was helpless to stop him but found that I didn’t want to. His touch felt so good, I wanted him to keep going, not caring what the end result would be if I allowed his explorations to continue. He stopped the moment his fingers touched the marks he’d left on my body the day before and jerked his hand away as if he had been burned, and looked down at my tiny injuries.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Tell you what?”
“The bruises.”
How on earth could he see them? It was dark in the bedroom.
“It’s nothing. I’m fine.”
“I hurt you.” His fingers traced each and every one of the individual bruises almost as if he was trying to erase them. “I can never hurt you like this again.”
And just like that, he scrambled off the bed and out the window so fast I had no time to even react. How on earth did he not break a leg as he jumped out?
Frustrated, I lay back down on the bed and tried calming my ragged breathing. If I was having trouble sleeping before, I was sure to have more now. It took me a while to finally settle and find comfort in sleep.
***
Throughout the next morning, I fought to get through classes just so I could start feeling normal again. With the attack on my father’s property and my steamy encounter with Kyran, I had more than enough to fill my plate. Every new occurrence in my life had me soberly confused. Truth of the matter was I didn’t know what to expect next or how to react. The events of the previous morning had me in a state of shock. I barely spoke, I couldn’t concentrate, and I paid little attention to my surroundings or anyone around me. After Kyran left the previous night, I wasn’t able to sleep until two in the morning, which only gave me four hours of sleep. And because I was sleep deprived, I was cranky and in a foul mood.
By noon, Tracy had to practically shake me to get me to notice her. She pulled me a few feet away from the car so she could yell at me without anyone overhearing us.
“What has gotten into you, Marjie?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re walking around like a goddamn zombie. What is it? What’s wrong?”
For the first time that day, I looked around me and noticed the worried expression on my friends’ faces. A short distance away Kyran, Alexis, and Josephine were also staring at me.
“Aren’t we going to lunch?” I asked, hoping to change the subject.
“We aren’t going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on.”
“Nothing is going on. I’m just tired.” Amongst other things, I needed the kind of help my friends couldn’t give me. “Can we go now?”
“No! We’ll stay here all day if we have to. You need to tell me what’s going on. I’ve never seen you like this. Did something happen at home?”
Honestly, I was surprised that the news of the animal attack on my father’s property hadn’t been broadcast throughout town yet.
“No, I just…I’m fine.” Even from a distance, I felt Kyran stiffen. I glanced over at him and noticed how intensely he was studying me. I felt as if he was waiting for me to say something. “Something did happen.” I turned my attention away from Kyran and focused on Tracy.
“What?”
“Yesterday morning, an animal broke through the wooden fence of the corral and killed one of the horses. I found the half-eaten body in the woods.” I wasn’t exactly lying; that statement was all true except for the whole “animal” part. “I had to scare it away with the help of my dogs. Kennel got killed in the process.” Something about Kyran’s stiff posture told me he’d heard everything I just said.
“You saw everything, didn’t you?”
“Not really. By the time I got there, half of the horse was already gone.”
“Jesus, Marjie! I think you’re in shock!”
“I’ve never felt so close to death as I did yesterday, Tracy. Not even when we had the accident. I thought that damn animal was going to eat me alive.” I admitted that last part more to myself than to her.
“Oh my God! I’m sorry. Were you hurt?”
“No. Mostly just scared out of my mind. I think I still am. I got real close to it and hit it with a metal baseball bat. The dogs snipped at it a few times too. It was one hell of a standoff.”
Kyran’s stiff shoulders slumped and he lowered his head, closing his eyes in the process. Alexis stepped closer and started to murmur something into Kyran’s ear. By the look in Josephine’s eyes, I could tell they were both angry, but I couldn’t tell if they were angry at Kyran or each other.
“How did you scare it away?” Tracy’s eyes were wide with wonder.
“The dogs did it, mostly. I just managed to bat one of its eyes in, and after that, it pretty much ran off.”
“You were that close?” She sounded horrified.
“Yes.”
“What was it?”
“It was too dark for me to be able to tell for sure.”
“But…you must’ve seen something! What did it look like?” Her inquisitiveness made me rethink my decision to talk about what happened at my place. There was only so much I could allow myself to say, and knowing Tracy, she would want for full details.
“Well, I…it was…it resembled a…wolf.” I stumbled through the sentence. Talking about it was not such a good idea after all.
She appeared confused. “What horse got killed?”
“Coal.”
“The black stallion your father bought you for your twelfth birthday?”
I bobbed my head up and down. “The same one.”
Tracy’s hand flew to her mouth. “Things in this town are getting weirder and weirder. First the missing campers, then the four mauled cows, the missing girl, and now the attack on your horse.”
“What? What missing girl?”
“Oh, that’s right, you weren’t here yesterday. The local newspaper ran front-page news on Susie Jones. Remember her?” I shook my head. “The girl that moved out here from Kansas when we were in middle school, you know, she used to have big buck teeth.” I thought over the description then nodded when a mental picture of Susie Jones came to mind. “She went missing two days ago. The last anyone saw her, she was driving through Deadman’s Curve. Her car was found at the bottom of the same ditch we went down. The car was badly mangled, but there was no body inside or anywhere near it. But…”
“What?”
“There was a large poo
l of blood just a few feet away from the car. They also found some hairs and…” Tracy looked like she was going to throw up. “Little bits of flesh the police think might belong to her.”
My stomach didn’t like the crudeness of the story. “They didn’t find Susie?”
“No. Nothing at all.”
“That’s hardly any reason to think…” What? That the same beast that attacked me ate that girl? The attacks were pretty consistent and close together. This was either one hungry pup…or he wasn’t acting alone.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Did they find anything on the scene?”
“No, police say there was no indication anyone was even in the area. In fact, it doesn’t even seem like Susie even got out of the car after it rolled downhill, from what I heard. The police came by campus yesterday asking questions. It seems she was seen speaking with someone before she disappeared and they want to know who it was. They swarmed the school, interrogating everyone that knew her.”
“Then how in the world did she disappear from the car’s interior?”
“That’s what the police are trying to find out.” Tracy shrugged. “I think there are more details, but the police are withholding them for whatever reason.”
Something really bad was happening in Wolf Creek Hollow and I had to find out what it was. There were pieces of a giant puzzle I needed to tie together.
“Trace, can you take me home?”
“What? Why?”
“I really need to go home.”
“Are you sure you want to leave? Angela’s been hoping to get a moment alone with you so she can apologize.”
“No, that has to wait. This is very important.”
“What in the world is so important that you would want to go home now?”
“There’s something I need to do.”
“All right, I’ll take you home.” She shook her head in disapproval. “Let me just tell the others to go out to lunch with Miguel and Rosa.”
“I’ll wait here.”
She shrugged and walked away. The others would start to question me and I was in no mood to answer anything. I had a ton of my own questions I needed answers for. Mostly, I needed to put a name to what hunted me.
Secrets of the Moon Page 20