Broken: A YA Paranormal Romance Novel (Volume 1 of the Reflections Books)
Page 7
**
It looked like the sun must have set hours ago, but it wasn't really dark. The full moon seemed oddly brighter than normal, edging the landscape with a silvery tracing. The cool illumination was strangely complemented by the warm tendrils of light trying to escape from the greenery surrounding the area.
I let my gaze drop, and found an unearthly pool of liquid light at my feet. The quiet murmur of falling water to my right kindled a burning thirst I hadn't realized I'd been feeling since I opened my eyes.
Looking towards the waterfall, I found a shimmering ribbon of light working its way down the rock face. The sight was so incredibly beautiful it took me several moments to realize the tendril was the waterfall I'd been looking for.
I reached into the dancing pool of light at my feet and smiled as my cupped hands came away filled with water that lit up my palms. I couldn't imagine anything more surreal. I might have stayed there for hours if the barest whisper of sound hadn't distracted me.
Alec was staring at me, an expression of disapproval marring otherwise perfect features.
"Of all the places for you to intrude, why did it have to be here?"
For a second, surrounded as I was by such beauty, I did feel like an intruder. He was gorgeous, and his tan skin seemed to have the slightest hint of light playing beneath its surface. I was as plain and ugly as always. My response popped out before I could think about it.
"Only you could see such beauty and think only of keeping it to yourself. Trust me, even with surroundings like this I'd much rather be elsewhere if you're part of the bargain."
The thought of being elsewhere brought our newest crisis to mind, and I realized that it was very likely I wouldn't have to worry about Britney, Alec, or Brandon for very much longer.
"At least you won't have to suffer my presence for much longer; we'll be gone all too quickly."
The fact I was saying these things to Alec when I knew this all had to be a dream was ludicrous, but it wasn't as ludicrous as the way he flinched at my words.
"No, you're right, all too soon you'll go the way of so many others. If I can depend on nothing else, I can rely on that."
A little eddy of wind found its way into our grotto, and for the first time my newly-acute sense of smell registered Alec's presence. His scent was divine, full of subtle themes I wasn't experienced enough to pick out, all of which screamed of warm power and rock-like masculinity. For half a second the torrent of sensation was too strong to leave room for conscious thought.
I realized I'd closed my eyes to better savor the experience. When I opened them Alec's expression had moved from annoyance to sadness. I had a pair of heartbeats to wonder at the strange tricks my subconscious was playing on me, and then the dream started fading away.
The heavenly surroundings were predictably the first thing to disappear, leaving afterimages of light burned into the corners of my vision. Alec was the next thing to go, but the memory of his features clung to my mind long after I found myself in a featureless void. Stranger still, his scent stayed with me even longer. I was just self-aware enough to hope I'd remember it all when I awoke in the morning.