“I’ll be back then,” Crystal said, and disappeared into the cave.
Carly’s gaze flitted after her before moving to Abel, who was staring back at her. But Carly didn’t feel right looking at him like that, not when she was conflicted by what had happened between them in the shift. So she attempted to change the subject instead. “I guess we didn’t fool you, Gabe? With our hiding spot?”
Gabe didn’t appear amused. “Honestly? I didn’t expect to find you and Abel so far down in the maze. I know how much you hate it down there, Crawford. Although, it seems Carly didn’t give you much say in the matter.”
“You know what they say about these caves—all the legends and stuff,” Abel replied, looking over his shoulder into the cavern. “There’s a reason I don’t like it down there.”
“That’s all it is—legends and stuff. Even if some massive slaughter did happen down there, there’s no way this place is actually haunted. Abel, I didn’t think you of all people would believe in ghosts.”
“Is it just legend?” Abel questioned. “You’re not always right about everything, Hutchinson. Besides, we both know what happened to your mother down there.”
Carly’s thoughts flashed to the painting of the gray and white wolf in the entryway of Gabe’s house—a picture his mother had painted when he’d been a baby. That was before she’d disappeared in the caves, never to be heard from again. Carly had also lost her mother in the spring, and had come to learn she’d been killed by a vampire-like creature called a ruskah that had also threatened to take Carly’s life. Not only had Gabe gotten Carly through the challenge of killing the persistent ruskah, he also understood what it was like to lose a parent—and that would bond them forever.
Whether or not he’d intended it, Abel’s words were hurtful—but Carly was still surprised when Gabe lunged toward him, raising his fist in the air.
“Gabriel!” Carly cried as she reached up and clamped onto his arm, pulling his hand back down to his side. She’d never seen him do anything like that before, and it had her rattled. “I’m sure Abel didn’t mean anything by it, okay? Please calm down. You’re scaring me.”
“Yeah, Hutchinson, calm down,” Abel said, kicking at the grass. “I didn’t mean anything by it.”
Gabe blinked, and it was as if he’d just woken up—as if he’d somehow been unaware that he’d almost punched his friend. “I… am sorry. I don’t… I don’t know what came over me.”
Carly searched Gabe’s thoughts and saw only transparency. She wasn’t sure what had come over him either, but it had been a strange day all around. Maybe a change of environment would bring things back to normal.
“I’ll wait for Crys and the others if you two want to go ahead,” Abel offered.
“Sure,” Gabe said. “Thanks, Crawford.”
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll catch up soon.”
Gabe nodded, and took off toward his Jetta parked just past the trees.
Carly followed after him, waiting to speak until they were tucked inside the car. “What was that back there with Abel?”
Gabe turned over the engine and turned up the Johnny Cash album on the stereo.
“I’m just asking questions,” Carly clarified. “You never talk about it, but it’s apparent you two don’t exactly get along. I mean, it looked like you could have hit him back there. That scared me, Gabe. You scared me.”
“Carly,” Gabe sighed as he put the car into gear and drove down the narrow road. “I didn’t mean to scare you, okay? I’m sorry I did. When I found you and Abel together, when I saw the way he was holding you, the way he was looking at you—”
“It didn’t mean anything,” she interrupted, still convincing herself it hadn’t. “I can’t explain what happened in that shift with Abel, but I promise you, it didn’t mean anything. Not to me. You’re my boyfriend, Gabe—you’re the one I want to be with. Just you.”
Gabe focused on the road ahead. “Carly, I saw sparks in the air around you when Abel was holding you, and—”
“You got jealous.”
“That should only happen when I touch you.”
He was jealous, and she didn’t much appreciate it.
“Sparks don’t mean anything, Gabe,” she reminded him. “You’re the one who said they’re just excess energy from shifting. Look, we both know Abel used to have a crush on me—”
“Now you admit it,” he grumbled.
“—But he knows you and I are together. Abel knows I’m not an option. And he hasn’t done anything to come between us, has he?”
There was a long pause before Gabe finally admitted, “No.”
Carly reached for Gabe’s hand, squeezing it tight in hers. “You’re my best friend in the whole world, Gabe. You mean everything to me, and I don’t want to let whatever it was that happened today in the caves get in the way of that. I’m okay forgetting about it if you are. All of it.”
Gabe cleared his throat. “Yeah, maybe that’s a good idea.”
Carly leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “Have I mentioned how excited I am to go swimming today?”
That got him to smile. “A few times. I’m excited to take you.”
“Does that mean you’re actually going to let me in the water?”
“I’d only advised against it before because that water is a lot colder and a lot stronger than you’ll be expecting. I’ve been shifting since I was a baby, and swimming in Lake Superior is still a fight for me. You mean everything to me, too, Carly, and I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I’m not going to get hurt,” Carly determined as Gabe pulled up to their favorite beach. He parked behind a black Chevy Avalanche, which meant Kyle had borrowed it from his dad and he and Sharla had beaten them to the lake. “Looks like we’re not the first ones here.”
“Guess not,” Gabe replied, and put the Jetta in park. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”
“More than ready,” Carly said, and hopped out of the car.
“Well, if it isn’t my two favorite people in the whole wide world,” Kyle Valentine greeted them as he pulled his t-shirt up over his head. His blond hair fell in loose waves past his broad shoulders, which still had some tan from the summer months. “We were just about to get in the water. Care to join us?”
“Are you kidding?” Carly laughed. “I can’t wait to get in there.”
“You’re finally letting her take on the waves, huh, Gabe? Way to put a short leash on your woman like that.”
Gabe eyed him as a fluffy gray rabbit hopped across the sand, stopping at his feet.
In a flash, the rabbit shapeshifted into a gorgeous young blonde with a sour disposition. Sharla Phillips, now in her human form, threw her hands on her hips as she took a moment to examine Gabe. Sharla’s crush on him wasn’t a secret, although she’d given Gabe his space since Carly had officially become his girlfriend.
“Glad you could make it,” Sharla spoke with a yawn as she turned to gaze out at the Great Lake. “Are we going in the water or what? It’d be nice to have some fun before I go home and finish my history paper.”
“Yes, we’re going in the water,” Carly confirmed, and tore out of her jeans and sweater, revealing the black two-piece bathing suit underneath. She didn’t think much of it until she caught Kyle ogling her. “Um…?”
“Kyle, really?” Gabe snapped.
“Sorry,” Kyle muttered, his cheeks red as he sprinted into the water.
“I guess we’ll see you out there then,” Sharla said, and turned to skip into the Great Lake.
“I’m getting so sick of Kyle looking at me like that,” Carly complained, crossing her arms over her torso in attempt to hide some skin. And that’s when she caught Gabe looking at her the exact same way. “Are you all that obvious?”
Gabe hinted at a smile. “Have you not seen yourself?”
Carly laughed at his predictability and kissed him on the mouth. I’m sorry, she thought, knowing his sensitive shifter ears would hear her. I don’t know what happened with Abel,
but I wish it’d been with you. I care about you so much, Gabriel. You’re all I want.
Don’t apologize, Gabe telepathed back. You didn’t do anything wrong, Carly. I’m just stunned you were able to carry one of us with you into your shift like that. That’s got to take a tremendous amount of power—to conceal a live supernatural being as part of you. It’s power I didn’t realize we were capable of, and… And it makes me understand how absolutely amazing you are, and how absolutely lost I’d be without you.
“Seriously?” Sharla whined from the water. “Do you two have to do that all the time?”
Carly’s face burned as she took a step back from Gabe. Telepathy meant she could have entire conversations with her boyfriend without saying one word. It also meant it was easy to lose track of what else she and Gabe were doing. She wasn’t generally so careless in front of other people, but it had been a weird day.
“Sorry, Sharla,” Gabe called out.
Sharla spun away from them, and muttered, “Whatever. You’re going to do what you want anyway.”
“We should head in,” Carly decided. “Take off your clothes so we can go swimming.”
Gabe winked back at her. “Please tell me to take off my clothes again.”
Carly drew her fingers up to hide her smile. Although they hadn’t been saints on some of nights they’d spent making out in the woods, they still hadn’t gone all the way. If it were up to Carly, however, that would be changing sooner rather than later. And considering she couldn’t tear her eyes from Gabe’s toned torso as he pulled that Ramones t-shirt up over his head, maybe it would even change tonight.
“I’ve got to admit, Carly,” Gabe said, kicking off his jeans. “I kind of like the way you’re looking at me.”
“I’m not looking at anything,” she lied.
Gabe reached for her hand, sparks shimmering between them. “It’s okay to look. I want you to.”
She turned to hide her blush and pulled Gabe along beside her as she sprinted for the water. This was the first time since she’d started shifting that she really noticed her immunity to temperature extremes. It was December, yet here she was in a bathing suit, stepping into Lake Superior as if it were a warm August afternoon. She expected to have some sort of reaction to the water pooling around her ankles, but felt nothing except the soothing hug of the lake.
Gabe tugged on her hand. “Doing okay so far?”
“I’m great,” she replied.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m fine, Gabriel. You know I’d tell you if I wasn’t.” She waded in further, sand under her feet turning to rock as water skimmed her bare shoulders. The current was stronger here, pushing at her knees, daring them to bend. She took in a deep breath as she surveyed the vast expanse of water. She had faced beasts greater than this and come out the victor. Yet there was something inside her, be it instinct or premonition, that gave her pause.
Gabe nudged her with his elbow. “Well, what are you waiting for?”
“I’m not waiting for anything,” she replied, and hopped up on her tiptoes before she dove into the lake.
Carly’s eyes popped open as her limbs swept through the water, amazed as every detail of the world below sparkled with crystal clarity. A school of little brown fish kept their pace alongside her for a moment, their miniature fins twisting behind them as they zoomed on ahead. There was so much down here to see—beds of seaweed, rainbows of fish, ominous rocks jutting out ahead. It was an entirely different world from her own, and although she was just a visitor, part of her felt at home.
Carly gave her legs a swift kick, propelling her toward the lake floor. Her right arm lunged forward, her body following as her fingers landed on the rough edge of a rock peeking out of sand. Air bubbled from her mouth as a smile made its way to her lips. This was unreal. She’d never imagined in her whole life she could do something this completely cool.
Carly’s amazement was suspended, however, when a glowing gleam hidden in the rock caught her eye. What the hell was that? She blinked, and the brilliant shine remained in her field of vision. That’s when it hit her that whatever was down there was something she was seeing not with her eyes, but psychically, with her mind.
She positioned herself so she was hovering over the white-yellow glow, and ignored the air escaping her lungs. There was a narrow belt of sand cushioning the rock from another protruding out next to it, leaving just enough room to hide a small object beneath the earth. Something was definitely concealed there, and Carly was resolute to figure out what it was.
Carly, Gabe’s voice rang across her thoughts as strong hands clutched onto her shoulders and heaved her up to the surface. She struggled against the force, gasping for air as she broke free from the water. “What the hell?”
Gabe’s jaw tensed as he treaded in the water across from her, which seemed an odd reaction. “You were down there for a really long time, and I didn’t want you to run out of air.”
“Gabe, I was fine. I saw something down there, and I want to dig it up and see what it is.”
He shook his head. “That’s probably not a good idea.”
“Why not? What if it’s something really cool?”
“What if it’s nothing?” he countered. “You’ve been begging me to go swimming, so let’s swim.”
Carly searched his gaze, attempting to find the reason for his hesitation. But there wasn’t so much as a hint behind those pale blue eyes of his. “I just want to see what it is, okay?”
Gabe swallowed, flinching as he asked, “Why?”
“Why not?”
He rolled his eyes as he let out a sigh, and for the briefest of moments, Carly heard two words flit across his thoughts: amethyst skull.
three
Gabe’s unintentional confession knocked Carly back, and she let out a grunt as she gaped at him. She had done nothing but trust him since they’d met. Even when he’d shapeshifted for the first time in front of her, challenging her to change everything she’d believed in up until that point, she hadn’t given up faith in him. But this…
The pure amethyst skull had been found in a secret passage in Carly’s bedroom months ago, and her father, Howard, had deemed it too dangerous to keep in the house. He and Gabriel had taken it upon themselves to hide it in a secret location where it wouldn’t be found—where it couldn’t fall into the wrong hands. Gabe had been directly involved in picking the hiding spot, and even if the location hadn’t been his idea, he surely could have advised Howard against it.
Gabe and their friends went swimming here all the time. Their small clique frequented this beach year-round, and by placing the skull here, Gabe would have constant access to its temptation. The rare talisman was rumored to will life and death, and Carly had her doubts that even someone as strong as Gabriel, even a full blood shapeshifter, could continually resist its lure.
“Why?” poured from her lips in an exasperated huff.
“I’m sorry,” Gabe offered in a whisper.
“Why did you hide it here? Why did you do that to yourself? To any of us? I can see it, Gabriel. It’s like the North Star down there. What if someone else sees it, too?”
“You can see it? How? I can’t even—”
“What the hell were you thinking, Gabe? If my father had any idea—”
“Howard isn’t going to find out.” It wasn’t a guess—it was a command.
Carly gritted her teeth as she started back toward the shore. She didn’t know what to say, so perhaps nothing was best. This was a big secret to have kept from her. And here she thought she was in love with him—even if she hadn’t disclosed that yet.
“You didn’t touch it,” Gabe called after her. “You saw the skull, Carly, but you didn’t touch it. You don’t know what it was like to have access to that much power. I wasn’t planning on doing anything with it, I just… I just figured if it was here, I could make sure no one takes it. Please, Carly, you have to believe me. I’d never do anything to put you in danger.”
But yo
u already have.
“How are we in danger?” Gabe challenged.
She looked to the water, where she could make out hints of the golden glow even from here.
“Carly, no one else can see it but you.”
“What makes you think that?”
“I can’t even see it,” Gabe confessed, nodding toward the beach where the rest of their friends were now arriving. “They’ve all been out here at least a dozen times since I buried it, and none of them have noticed. You’re the only one who’s ever even sensed it, Carly.”
That didn’t make any sense, but the look in his eyes persuaded her. “Even if you’re right, Gabe, even if no one else can see it, it seems too dangerous to leave it here.”
“I think it’s too dangerous to move it. What if someone were to see us with it, Carly? What if someone were to try to take it? At least this way, we know it’s safe.”
That wasn’t the answer she’d been looking for, but Carly didn’t have a better one. “I just wish you would have told me.”
“I wanted to, but I figured it was better if you didn’t know. There are some things that are better if you just don’t know.”
She didn’t know what to make of his attitude, but didn’t want to argue. She scanned the beach and ascertained that Gabe had been right on one point—their friends seemed oblivious to the presence of the skull. Which meant if Carly made a big deal about it, if she blew this up into a fight, the skull would have to be moved. And maybe right now it was best to leave things the way they were.
“See?” Gabe reasoned. “Besides, where could we move it that would be any safer? It was hidden in a secret passage in your bedroom for months, you even slept by it, and you didn’t have a clue it existed. You’re only panicked because you can see it—but no one else can. Don’t you understand, Carly? You’re special. You can do things other shapeshifters can’t. Look, I wasn’t just jealous that you shifted with Abel instead of me—I was jealous that I didn’t do it, too. Don’t you understand that you’re everything I want to be and more?” Gabe reached for her hand, her skin sizzling as his fingers laced through hers. “You amaze me every single day, and at this point, I can’t imagine the rest of my life without you.”
Legends: Bloodline Book 2 Page 2
