The Keeping

by Nicky Charles

  “Probably until morning.” Ryne glanced at his watch. “It’s almost four now. By time the rain stops, it will be getting dark and too late to do anything.”

  She whimpered and opened her eyes, looking at him resignedly. “As I recall from the tour of the house, you don’t have any spare rooms do you?”

  “Well, technically there are lots of rooms, but as you saw, they’re sealed off because the windows aren’t air tight and there’s no furniture in them either.” He winked at her. “Don’t worry. You could always sleep with me.”

  That comment had her standing upright, indignation spreading through her. “If you think for one minute that I’d—”

  “Hey, I’m just teasing. The couch is pretty comfortable.” He grinned cheekily. “And if you change your mind, my bedroom is right next door.”

  Mel didn’t find that overly amusing or comforting. Ryne did have a bedroom right down the hall from the entertainment room, complete with its own bathroom and a connecting door to his office. The other two men slept upstairs. “Thanks, but I’m sure I’ll be fine all on my own.”

  “You never know; you could have a bad dream.” He had a certain glint in his eye that made her feel he knew something she didn’t know, but for the life of her couldn’t figure out what it might be.

  Resigned to her fate, Mel made the best of things. She helped make a simple pasta supper and did the dishes. When they all decided to spend the night watching a movie, she volunteered to make the popcorn and carried the bowls and cans of pop into the entertainment room. Ryne remained calm, even a bit charming, giving no sign of his earlier bad mood. Bryan and Daniel also acted as if the incident had never happened. Slowly, Mel relaxed, coming to the conclusion that it was an issue between the three men and if it didn’t bother them, then she wouldn’t dwell on it.

  After putting the movie into the DVD player, Ryne sat on the couch beside her while the other two settled in the recliners. She noticed that while they spoke to her, they also kept their distance and never looked at her directly. Mel couldn’t help but wonder what Ryne had said about her that would have them acting so oddly. Why did he want them to stay away? Was he afraid that she’d ask them questions? That must be it, she decided. The man really was way too caught up in this privacy thing.

  That made her think back to the conversation she’d overheard between Kane and Elise. Kane had been worried about the discovery of something and it had to do with one of Ryne’s pictures. She decided it was most likely the one that Mr. Greyson had. Now what could be so special about a picture of a wolf? Whatever it was, Ryne didn’t want her finding out about it. And quite probably Daniel and Bryan were aware of the secret too, otherwise why would Ryne want to keep her away from them. Hmm… It was all very puzzling. Hopefully, if she set her questions up carefully enough, Ryne would reveal something that would help her figure out the little mystery.

  Speaking of mysteries, she glanced back at the TV screen and then hurriedly looked away again. The men had picked the movie and, of course, had chosen a horror flick complete with mass murders, blood, guts, undead monsters and a hapless female who spent a lot of time screaming and wandering into places she’d be better off staying away from, all in the middle of a storm. Mel shook her head. What woman would be that clueless?

  Another blood chilling scream came from the speakers and even without looking, Mel was aware of the mutilated body parts on the TV screen. She fought to suppress a shudder, hating this type of movie. Almost every man she’d ever dated thought the more guns and gore in the script, the better. What was wrong with a nice romantic comedy? A little hugging, a little kissing, a few misunderstandings, and then, a ‘happily ever after’ ending!

  Beside her, Ryne shifted on the couch and Mel tried to imagine him watching a chic-flick. Hmm… There’d be a girl snuggled up beside him, her head on his shoulder while he gently played with her hair. Frowning, Mel realized the girl was herself. Darn! That was the second time, she’d found her imagination creating scenarios depicting the two of them. What was going on?

  Out of the corner of her eye, she studied him, wondering exactly what it was about Ryne that her subconscious found so appealing. His dark hair looked thick and soft and had a slight curl to it where it brushed his collar. She wondered how it would actually feel, if she were to run her fingers through it. In contrast, a shadow of stubble graced his jaw and she was quite sure it would be rough against her skin. Her gaze moved upward and she noted fine laugh lines at the corner of his eye, and the strong brow above. Just in time, she caught herself reaching up to trace the feature with her fingers.

  Clasping her hands together to prevent any further slips, she inhaled deeply ignoring the tingling in her hands and chanted ‘don’t touch, don’t touch’ over and over to herself. Her deep inhalation had made her more aware of his scent, a combination of spice and woods and maleness. With him sitting so near, she could feel the heat coming off of him and fought the urge to snuggle up close, just as she had in her fantasy moments before.

  Damn, what was the matter with her? So what if he was the sexiest man she’d seen in ages. Getting all hot and bothered over him was not part of the game plan, no matter how much her body might wish otherwise. She snuck another look his way, and noticed the corner of his mouth twitching. Quickly averting her eyes, she stared blindly at the screen.

  A moment later, she felt Ryne leaning towards her. Out of the corner of his mouth, he whispered to her. “See anything you like?” Her audible gasp caused him to chuckle darkly. Crossing her arms, she compressed her lips and studiously ignored him. Thankfully, the closing musical score was now playing. The camera zoomed in on a particularly gruesome corpse as a background for the credits and she shuddered in distaste. Sensing Ryne looking her way, she pasted a nonchalant expression on her face. There was no way she’d let him know the contents of the movie bothered her; she’d never hear the end of it.

  The other two stood, and between yawns, carried on a discussion about the special effects they’d just seen.

  “Oh man, when that body ripped open—have you ever seen such realistic looking organs?” Bryan enthused as he gathered the empty popcorn bowls.

  “Yeah and that zombie was awesome. The makeup was so real. I wonder how they got the rotting flesh to just sort of hang there.” Daniel followed Bryan’s lead, gathering the pop cans and then heading into the kitchen. Mel gulped, forcing herself to not think about rotting flesh and realistic organs. She got to her feet and hesitated as to what to say.

  Ryne was placing the DVD back in its case. He looked over his shoulder at her. “You okay?”

  “Sure. Never better.” Mel put on her perkiest attitude and snatched up the pillow he’d set out for her earlier. “Can’t wait to go to bed and get a good night’s sleep.”

  She was sure she saw a smirk pass over Ryne’s face before he nodded. “All right. If you need anything, you know where I am.”

  Mel hugged the pillow and waggled her fingers at him. With one more assessing look her way, he left the room.

  *****

  Sometime during the night, Mel woke with a start, her heart pounding. She lay there, trying to separate dream from reality, to convince herself that she was awake and no longer running through the woods being chased by a pack of wolves. What was it with wolves lately? Wolves had never figured prominently in her life before. Now they were in pictures, walking around her cabin, cornering her in the woods and even chasing her in her sleep.

  She withdrew her arm from under the blanket and brushed her hair from her sweaty forehead. Her hand was shaking with leftover fear. Pushing herself upright, she hugged her knees to her chest and tried to calm down. The room was cool and she shivered slightly, pulling the blanket closer. Ryne’s t-shirt was long enough to cover her adequately, but not overly warm. For a moment, she considered putting her jeans on again, but decided against it; they fit too tightly to make for comfortable sleepwear.

  The house was still; everyone apparently asleep, except for hersel
f. Rain beat down outside, tapping on the windows. An occasional flash of light and a slight rumbling of thunder let her know that Ryne had been right. A storm had rolled in.

  As it got closer, lightning flashes would briefly illuminate the room, casting weird shadows on the wall. Mel shivered again, but this time due to nerves. There was nothing in the room with her, she knew that, but she’d never liked shadows. They always took on ominous shapes, turning harmless daytime bits of furniture into scary creatures of the night.

  A tapping sound began to make itself noticed and she stiffened, trying to locate its source. It seemed to be coming from the window. Carefully, and oh so slowly, she moved her head in that direction, wondering what she would see. Of course, there was nothing there, but still the tapping continued. Her overactive imagination began to kick-in and Mel sought to suppress it with the weight of logic.

  The house was quite old. It probably shifted and groaned all the time, the noises actually becoming comforting to those who dwelled within. She speculated how many people had lived—and died—within the walls. Had they been happy? Or had tragedy touched their lives? She amused herself for a moment, populating the house with servants and children, husbands and wives. Did the spirits of the people remain, watching over the next generation?

  Mel was never really sure what she believed when it came to spirits and ghosts. Logically, she knew they didn’t exist, but sometimes she’d read something and wonder. Right now, she was wondering. It was a perfect night for that line of thought, after all. Storms and ghosts seemed to go together. In fact, this was very similar to the movie they’d watched tonight.

  The tapping was growing louder, forcing itself into her awareness again. What was making it? Mel’s fertile mind began to come up with answers. Possibly there was some mystery surrounding the house; a long ago resident out in a storm and locked outside, shivering as the rain soaked their clothing. They had gone from window to window, tapping away, trying to gain someone’s attention so they could come in out of the cold and wet.

  Her palms were damp with sweat now and she surreptitiously wiped them on the blanket covering her. She was trying to be as quiet and as still as possible. No point in drawing attention to herself… just in case. Nervously nibbling on her lower lip, Mel noted that the wind was picking up as the storm got closer. It howled about the house, the sound rising, and falling like the cry of a wolf. Were there wolves outside the house, even now? Mel gulped at the very idea. Maybe wolves had always plagued this house! This new idea took root in her mind.

  What if the person tapping at the window never made it safely inside? What if they had been purposely locked out as a punishment? And maybe, while they were outside, a band of hungry wolves had come by and attacked! The person would have screamed for help, but no one came to save them. In fact, the occupant of the house might have sat in this very room, listening to the pleas for help, laughing insanely as the dastardly plan came to fruition. Outside, the ill-fated victim would have known all this, and with their dying breath, placed a curse on everyone in the house. Now, every time it stormed, the horrible scene replayed and the victim came back, seeking revenge on whoever was inside refusing to let them enter…

  The storm was almost over top of the house now. Lightning flashed, repeatedly illuminating the room then plunging it back into darkness, while thunder shook the whole house. The tapping was picking up speed. Mel’s heart was pounding faster too, her breathing ragged. Clutching the blanket tightly in her hands, she darted her gaze about the room, expecting some evil entity to leap out at her at any moment.

  Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. This was ridiculous; she was a grown woman. What she needed to do was to get up and investigate. She gathered her courage and tried to throw back the covers, but her hand refused to cooperate and merely grasped the blanket more tightly.

  Scowling, she considered the situation. All right, so she was afraid. There were options open to her. She could stay where she was, getting increasingly more scared or she could go find Ryne—except he’d tease her about it unmercifully. Neither idea was overly appealing. Another flash of lightning illuminated the room, and she spied the fireplace.

  Ah-ha! If memory served her correctly, a set of fireplace tools were by its side. The poker could be used as a weapon. Not giving herself time to chicken out, Mel leapt off the sofa and dashed towards the fireplace. Her only goal was to grab the poker before something grabbed her. With more speed than grace, she made her way across the room, stumbling into an end table and causing the lamp on top of it to wobble dangerously.

  “Damn!” She’d tried to grab the lamp, but only succeeded in stubbing her toe on something. Abandoning the lamp in favour of her throbbing foot, she let it crash to the ground. She hopped up and down whimpering in pain while simultaneously glancing over her shoulder towards the window. A burst of light filled the room and she was sure she saw the shadowy shape of a person by the window. Through the noise of the storm, the sound of footsteps reached her ears. Oh God! It was coming to get her…

  A scream ripped from her throat and she turned abruptly in order to grab the poker, only to crash into something hard. Hands grabbed at her and she screamed again, hitting and kicking in an attempt to elude whoever was holding her. Arms tightened around her as she lurched to the side, the suddenness of her movement knocking her opponent off balance. Together they landed on the floor, and she found herself pinned under a heavy body, her assailant’s fingers pressed tightly over her mouth. Luckily, her one arm was free and she swung it with all her might towards her attacker.

  As her fist connected with a solid wall of muscle, pain shot through her hand and both she, and the person she’d hit, emitted a shocked ‘oomph.’ The only difference was that, while she stopped her assault to focus on the throbbing in her hand, the other individual merely flinched and grabbed her arm, effectively immobilizing her.

  “Are you crazy, woman?” A deep voice rasped in her ear.

  Mel froze. Somehow, even through her fear, she recognized that it was Ryne on top of her. Ceasing her struggles, she blinked up at him, relieved to see a comparatively friendly face—well, friendly compared to the undead creature she’d been imagining. He cautiously removed his hand from her mouth.

  “You’re not going to scream again, are you?” His hand still hovered near her face, obviously ready to cover her mouth, should the need arise.

  She shook her head.

  “Good, because my ears are sensitive to high pitches. I’ll probably be deaf for the next few days because of that scream.” He shifted so that his body no longer pressed flush against hers. Instead, he was straddling her. “Okay, what got you so worked up that you started screeching and wrecking my entertainment room?”

  “I… ” Mel’s mouth suddenly went dry. Now that she was no longer staring at his face, she got a good look at him. Oh. My. Gosh. Ryne was on top of her. A nearly naked Ryne was on top of her! The flashes of lightning illuminated his body in amazing detail. Starting at his broad shoulders, her gaze ran over his muscular chest, noting the flat brown nipples, the faint trace of hair, the well defined abdominals, and lean hips. Black boxer shorts covered his lower half, but hung low enough that she could see the beginning of an interesting ‘v’ that disappeared below his waist band. Under the cover of the boxers… well… a certain something pressed against sensitive portions of her anatomy.

  She gulped and forced her eyes back up to his face only to discover he was glaring down at her impatiently. Oh, right. He’d asked her a question. Now, what was it again? Umm… Ryne wanted to know why she was screaming. Well… Now that she was no longer alone, the danger her imagination had conjured up had faded into obscurity. Mel blushed, feeling rather foolish and looked away, biting her lip. Unfortunately, Ryne didn’t relent despite her obvious discomfort. He just sat on top of her staring down. Mel licked her lips as she realized he wasn’t about to give in to her silent plea. “Er… I heard something.”

  “Such as?”

  “I
know you’ll think this is silly, but… it sounded like someone was tapping at the window and… ”

  “And your imagination took over?” He quirked an eyebrow at her and Mel felt herself flush even more. At least it was dark so he couldn’t see—

  The thought wasn’t even completely formed when the lights went on, exposing her to Ryne’s gaze. She winced at the sudden brightness. Couldn’t anything ever go her way?

  “Hey, what’s going on down here?” Looking up, in the direction of the voice, Mel saw Bryan leaning in the doorway, his hand on the light switch. Muscles rippled across his bare chest and his pyjama pants hung low on his hips. Her heart gave a lurch as she realized nearly naked hunks surrounded her. Unfortunately, none of the hunks seemed as impressed by her, as she was by them. This latest one appeared to be laughing as he took in the scene.

  “Nothing. Go back to bed.” Ryne didn’t move from on top of her and Mel shifted, trying to give him the hint that he really should move.

  “Doesn’t look like nothing to me.” Bryan continued. “More like the two of you are about to get it on.”

  “Sorry to disappoint you, my friend, but it was nothing that interesting. Mel thought she heard a noise at the window.” Ryne completely ignored her efforts to dislodge him.

  Mel stopped struggling, instead twisting her neck so she could better see Bryan. “Yeah, something was tapping at the window and I was getting up to investigate.”

  A grin started to spread over Ryne’s face, as he called her on the veracity of her story. “Really? The window’s the other way. It looks more like you were coming to get me to save you.”

  “Well, I wasn’t. I was going to get a poker from the fireplace and take it with me for protection.” Mel lifted her chin, daring him to doubt her.

  Ryne tossed her a disbelieving look while Bryan crossed the room to check the window. He quickly returned. “Well, you did hear something Mel. The window is leaking and there’s a steady drip landing on the floor. I’ll get a bucket to catch the water.”