by Rachel Jonas
It turned out to be exactly what I needed.
I could feel the dampness of the soil seeping into the knees of my jeans; I knew the dirt and blood covering him would get on me, too, but… I didn’t care.
I simply did not care.
I was so relieved he was okay and maybe even to be in his arms.
“Why’d you come?” he breathed, his words moving into my hair.
I shook my head and sniffled before rambling in his ear. “Because—because I knew something was wrong, and I knew you needed help, and—”
I felt Liam shaking his head long before he cut me off. “Never again,” he said sternly. “Don’t ever… run toward danger because of me, because of anyone.” The words were intense, striking bone when he spoke them. “Do you understand?”
I sniffled again and he brought me even closer. Until I felt his heart beating against mine—fast, strong, steady.
My hand touched the top of the largest wound on his back and he winced a bit. I moved my fingers away from it, but didn’t let go.
I couldn’t.
Not yet.
“You shouldn’t have come,” he asserted once more, but his tone was too soft to qualify as a true warning.
“Then maybe it’s time for you to get a telephone.” I managed to smile through a curtain of tears. The gentle drumming of his heart pumped half a pace faster and I noticed the subtle change.
“Why on Earth would I need a phone?” he asked. “The one person in the world who matters knows exactly how to reach me?”
The statement made my entire body fill with heat and butterflies, not just my stomach. I couldn’t respond, though. If I did, too many things would happen. Too many things would change. Ideas would enter my head that I couldn’t afford to entertain.
So, knowing my limits, I moved on from the statement quickly. “What are these things?”
Liam’s shoulders rose and fell as my arms rested over them.
“Mutts,” was his answer. “The first time I suspected they were here in Seaton Falls was the first night I heard your voice. I was chasing something in the woods, but hadn’t gotten close enough yet to tell if my suspicion was right.”
I remembered the night he spoke of clearly. It the first time I saw through his eyes while I was still awake. The dark shadow he chased through the woods wasn’t far from memory either.
“Where there are a few of these things, there are usually many,” he added. “Which is all the more reason for you not to wander out here alone.”
I ignored his light chastisement and asked another question. “Where’d they come from?”
He shrugged again. “My guess? They’re another wave of punishment from Sebastian.”
The more I heard, the more I wondered what the clan had planned to stop him. How they intended to fight back.
Assuming such a plan even existed.
“I don’t want you out alone, especially at night,” Liam added, picking up with the portion of our conversation I tried to avoid. “Do your parents take you to school? If not, let me drive you. It’s safer.”
My heart skipped a beat at the question and my natural reaction was to lean away from him. He made me think of Nick—reason number one why I shouldn’t have been so comfortable in his arms in the first place.
My once tight embrace fell to Liam’s shoulders and I didn’t answer right away. A look behind his eyes made me suspect he knew why I backed off, although he said nothing as I put distance between us.
“They, uh… no. They don’t,” I answered. “But Nick walks me, so…”
I was uncomfortable, but not because I had anything to hide. Uncomfortable because of the past Liam and I shared.
Because of our connection.
Because I didn’t want to hurt him.
His tone stayed level, but his thick brow quirked when he asked, “Am I supposed to pretend that’s good enough?”
I didn’t know what to say, so I stammered for a bit, trapped in his stare, wishing he’d blink or something.
“I strongly suggest that you think long and hard about this, considering the situation,” he added, looking around at the fur-covered bodies of four mutts littering his yard. I did the same, taking in the sheer size of the things. They were as large as they were ugly.
“You’re strong,” Liam said, “but you have no idea how to defend yourself yet.”
I thought about that, chewing my lip as I Imagined the long walk home after school. With Nick in practice until evening, I’d be making that trip alone and… the thought of having to pass the woods by myself scared me a little.
“I don’t need a ride to school,” I repeated, asserting my stance on keeping things the way they were with Nick, but there was a compromise. One that might appease Liam. One that could quite possibly keep me alive if there really were more of these things.
“But… what about a ride home?”
He sighed, feeling agitated from the sound of it. His hands fell away from my waist and he reared back again, letting his shoulder touch the bark of the tree behind him. It was clear he didn’t think this option was sufficient either, but it was the best I could do.
“I can’t just change my routine. Me and Nick’s routine,” I clarified. “Not without and explanation and… I’m not ready to do that right now,” I added quietly.
I wouldn’t go into detail with Liam, but with all the changes I was going through, Nick and I were treading on thin ice. After the awkwardness between us earlier, I couldn’t add one more thing to the pile. Our walks to school were what initially bonded us and were probably what would eventually repair us—our time together without the rest of the world getting in the way.
And I wouldn’t be the one to destroy that chance.
“Evangeline, you have no idea the danger you could be in if those things figure out what you are,” he blurted. “If they somehow alert Sebastian to… who you are, it just…” Frustration stole the words right out of his mouth and he paused to breathe, mumbling something under his breath about how stubborn I’ve always been.
“I can’t force you to do anything,” he conceded, looking in every direction except mine. “But it needs to be said: I value your life over some punk kid’s ego… and so should you.” We locked eyes then. “I know from experience it’s pointless to try changing your mind once it’s made up, but I won’t bend on this. Not completely.” The words came swiftly and cut like a knife. “You’ll have your way,” he added. “Just know there are conditions.”
He never explained what these conditions were and, with him currently oozing pure brute and ferocity from his pores, I didn’t think it was a good idea to ask.
It would have felt very much like poking the bear.
He stood and, despite being put off by my stubbornness, helped me to my feet. The vulnerability that crept in for a time, dissipated now, more and more with each passing second. Mostly due to the combination of Liam’s growing frustration and my guilt.
He stopped at the mutt I witnessed him taking out and I watched closely. Light blazed at the center of Liam’s palm, igniting a flame there. The fur of the beast rustled like porcupine quills, telling of its brittleness when Liam touched it. The body went up in a blaze within a matter of seconds. Stopping at the other three as we neared the house, the same was done to each—an easy way to get rid of the mess, I supposed.
As I walked silently behind him, watching the muscles roll beneath his skin, I noticed something: he recovered from the fatigue and the gashes were gone. Completely.
The only evidence of them ever existing were the streaks of blood staining his flesh. It must have been a shifter thing. If I thought he was in the mood to speak to me, I would have asked about it.
He was quiet now and, while I hated it, I understood. He called himself my warrior once and I hadn’t forgotten. He’d likely spent many years making it his duty to protect me and that carried over into the present. The habit was probably difficult to break, hence our current dilemma. I was trying to be sympa
thetic, but… things were different now. My life was different now.
I was different now.
As much as I hated that I upset him, I had to stand my ground. My relationship with Nick, although undefined, was hanging by a thread thanks to me, and I had to protect it.
Even if Nick might not realize I still cared.
Even if, sometimes, my decisions made Liam unhappy.
Sort of like now, as he trudged toward the house without looking back. The first words he said to me since our disagreement were, “Just let me shower this filth off, then I’ll take you home.”
The tone of his voice suggested he didn’t want to do it, didn’t want to be bothered with me, but I knew better. It was actually the opposite. If he had it his way, now that he knew those things were in Seaton Falls, he’d probably be happier escorting me everywhere, but it couldn’t be that way. The boundaries he spoke of not existing between us in the past were firmly in place in the present and I had no plans to tear them down.
I said nothing as I followed him inside, watched him storm off toward the bathroom. I didn’t sit, just stood against the wall as I listened to water pour from the faucet. There was such a strange mix of feelings brewing inside me. There was, all of a sudden, an imbalanced scale between Liam and Nick.
A scale I didn’t even know existed until tonight.
But it did and the evidence supporting the idea was irrefutable; my tears, the feelings that seeped from our souls while we held each other, the guilt I was currently experiencing from disappointing him… hurting him.
It was all very, very confusing—not knowing whose feelings to put first.
Liam’s?
Nick’s?
And where did mine fit into the equation?
My decision to keep the arrangement with Nick in the morning and allow Liam to bring me home after school was logical. It appeased two dilemmas. At first, I felt obligated to find middle ground—to avoid disappointing Nick, and to satisfy Liam’s undying need to protect me. But was it possible one choice had been made with my heart behind it? And… not just my brain?
Worry began to set in. I’d spent more time than I ever intended to with Liam lately—in person, in our thoughts. It was possible the closeness was beginning to affect me in ways I didn’t think it would. The light in which I saw him was changing, glowing brighter, warmer. It was impossible not to feel something, though, especially with the lingering sense of knowing him. Sometimes… belonging with him.
I hated that I even acknowledged that, but it was true. I felt it, that sense of being home when we were together. And, in this instance, home was not a house or a building made with hands. Home was a state of mind; one I only found myself in when a certain, currently angry dragon shifter was around.
I had to fight the pull, though. It was ancient history just like we were. The feelings were merely an echo from a past I barely remembered and they’d go away with time if I ignored them.
They had to.
Because, in this life, it was me and Nick. So… that just had to be the end of it.
—
Chapter Twenty-Nine —
Nick
Today, I was supposed to walk alone.
That’s what I told myself when I woke up this morning, that I’d just walk right past her house with zero expectations. Zero pressure.
But there she was, standing at the end of her driveway, the wind gently carrying her hair up into the air as she stared down the road. She heard me long before turning. I knew because her heart told me, but I guessed nerves kept her from making eye contact sooner. When she did, when their brown centers locked with mine, I wished from the bottom of my soul I had it in me to keep walking, but I didn’t.
I just didn’t.
Hurt feelings, bruised ego and all, I stopped.
“Morning.” A reluctant smile touched pink, glossed lips.
“Morning.”
Her steps fell in synch with mine. I wasn’t sure what she expected, but I hoped conversation wasn’t part of it. I had none. There was this nagging thought in the back of my mind, worrying I’d say the wrong thing again, making an even bigger mess.
So, with the silence between us, it almost felt like we were back at square one—reliving the awkward days when we didn’t know how to speak to each other.
Or, maybe I did know what to say, but knew we wouldn’t be having that conversation any time soon. Evie was… something. Most likely exactly what Roz shared last night.
A dragon shifter.
After sleeping on it, the clues just made too much sense. It was true. Which meant the part about dragons being violent and unpredictable most likely was, too. A large part of me knew the rules didn’t apply to us, but I couldn’t help but to wonder if Evie had bought into it. I hated to think that, but, lately, I could’ve sworn she was already pulling away—maybe because she didn’t think we could find a way to make it work, maybe because she thought she might be dangerous. In fact, we made it well past the gate before she finally spoke again.
“I owe you an apology for yesterday.”
The only thing that made rejection feel worse was follow-up pity, which this felt like. “You don’t have to do that.”
“I do,” she insisted. “I’ve been weird and… you saw me come to the cafeteria, and then you saw me leave.”
I kept quiet, remembering the strange blend of anger and confusion that stuck with me when she walked away yesterday.
“I wish I had the words to explain, but I don’t. I just… needed to take off,” she shrugged.
I nodded, taking slow steps. “Your parents took you home?”
She shook her head. “No, I kinda snuck out. Went to the woods to breathe.”
Sneaking out of Seaton Prep took pretty big balls. Her folks were sure to get a call from Headmaster McNulty in the very near future, but it didn’t seem worth mentioning right now.
“I did some thinking late last night.”
I glanced over when she spoke, as her long lashes blinked in the sunlight. I tried not to let her affect me.
Failed at not letting her affect me.
“What do you think about just… starting over,” she suggested. “From scratch. Take things slow and just… I don’t know.” Her shoulders lifted with a shrug. “Let things flow.”
Let things flow—something I hadn’t done the morning before. Blurting that I was beginning to fall for her was the exact opposite of letting things flow.
“Thoughts?”
The wind blew through her hair again and she looked like an angel. Her expression turned light, hopeful.
I nodded. “I think it’s a good idea.”
Her smile grew. “Cool.” We took a few more steps and she got up the nerve to lace her fingers between mine. “And I’ll tell you everything soon,” she added. “I just need a little time.”
I could respect that. Understood that.
“As much as you need.”
She latched on tighter and I liked the way this felt. The closeness. It was almost like yesterday never happened.
Almost like I didn’t tell her I was falling in love.
Almost like she didn’t freak out a little bit over it.
Almost like I didn’t find out there’s a chance that what she is, what I am, might stand in the way of us every truly getting this right.
But for now, with soft skin against my palm, with a beautiful girl clinging to my arm, I wanted to believe none of that mattered.
School came into view at the bottom of the hill and, as soon as it did, Evie and I stopped at the sound of Richie’s ringtone in my backpack.
“Yeah?”
“Where are you?” His voice was hard and his words came quicker than usual. More urgent.
“On my way to school. Where else would I be?”
He completely ignored my sarcasm, asking someone in the background to give him a moment. “Listen, don’t bother going. All children of the clan have been ordered to return home.”
“What? Why?”
Richie took a breath and finally slowed down to explain. “There was an accident. The official story is an animal attack, but—”
“Unofficially?”
“Unofficially, Officer Chadwick is pretty sure it was something else.”
I had so many questions. Questions I couldn’t ask because of the curious eyes staring back at me as I tried to dig for info without raising red flags.
“What was it?”
“A lycan,” he sighed. “But not like us. The bodies had traces of strange, coarse, dark fur near the wounds. The more I think about it, this might be what Ben saw when he was scouting in the woods before we went camping.” He paused and his tone was grave when he spoke again. “…I wish we’d taken it more seriously when we had the chance, but there was no way of knowing.”
Bodies.
He said bodies.
“Who?” I asked. “Who was it?
When he didn’t answer right away my eyes slammed shut.
“I’m sorry, Nick, but… Maddox. His younger brother, too,” he added. “He was walking him to school not too long ago, taking a shortcut through the woods when it happened.”
I almost dropped the phone hearing it was a classmate, a teammate.
A friend.
His brother couldn’t have been older than twelve and now…
“You’re headed home, right?” Richie cut in.
I nodded, still trying to wrap my mind around things. “I—yeah. Right now,” I assured him.
“Good. Stay inside. I’ll have Kyle or Ben come by to get you. There’s an emergency Council meeting soon.”
“Okay. And, Richie? …Be careful.”
“Always,” he promised. “I’m gonna try to make this right for your friend.”
The line went dead the next second, leaving me to try explaining things to Evie. The story that would be shared on the news was that a wild animal killed Maddox, but I knew better. He was newly shifted, just like all of us. There was no way some run-of-the-mill wolf or coyote could’ve taken him out.
No way.
My head spun, imagining what his parents must have been going through with the loss of not one, but both their sons. And what was out there with the strength to do it? Richie said it was another lycan, but different.