Midnight Surrender: A Paranormal Romance Anthology

by Abel, Charlotte

  “Hello.” Oh good, I still knew how to speak. But my relief was short lived because he smiled and my lungs forgot I needed them to live.

  Eyes so dark I was surprised I couldn’t see the stars in them swept past my shoulder to the emptiness behind me.

  “Alone?” He cocked his head to the side, knocking dark fringes into his face. I fisted my fingers and stuffed them behind me, blocking the temptation to touch.

  I moistened my lips. “No, I’m here with someone.”

  Something feral leapt behind his eyes, but it could have been a trick of the light, because it was just as quickly gone and he was straightening, tucking hands into his pockets. “Are ya now? And where might he be then?” When I couldn’t answer, because I had no idea, he grinned a little. “Not very smart of him to be leaving you here alone where any scoundrel could steal ya away.”

  The statement almost made me laugh. “Don’t think I can handle a scoundrel or two?”

  He moved a fraction of a step closer. His heat burned me. I nearly gasped. “Aye, lass, I think you could. Doesn’t mean I think you should.”

  I bit my lip and dropped my gaze. “I think the only scoundrel here tonight is you.” I peered at him through my lashes. “Tell me, do girls really fall for that smoky, Irish drawl of yours?”

  His lips bowed and his eyes gleamed with the challenge. “I don’t know. Do they?”

  “I think accents are overrated.” I lied instead of telling him only a lunatic wouldn’t melt in a gooey puddle at the sound of his voice.

  “Ah, perhaps, but…” His grin was crooked, his eyes smoldering, and when he raked his tongue over his teeth, he was everything my mother had warned me about. “Ya know what they say about Irish men, don’t ya?” His voice dropped to a husky purr that skated down my spine like the expert fingers of a pianist. “We’ll ruin ya for all other men if ya let us.”

  Every fiber of my being, my soul… my sanity, begged him to do it! Ruin me. It was only the tiny voice in the distance that kept me rooted, kept me from lunging on him. It was the quickly unraveling tether reminding me that this wasn’t me! I wasn’t this person. I didn’t just throw myself at random strangers, I didn’t come undone by a pretty face, and I most certainly did not go up in flames by a touch. But the second he raised a hand and skimmed the tips of his fingers down the length of my arm I was done. It was as if that simple gesture had the power to destroy me. My heart tripped over itself. It stumbled, struggling to catch up to the sudden rush of heat that spiked in the pit of my stomach. My knees quivered. My toes curled. My world tipped off its axis.

  “Nora?”

  I broke the surface back into reality with a choked gasp. His masterful spell, like glittery confetti, burst around me, leaving me shaken and unsteady as the rest of the world roared back into focus.

  “Nora.” My name left his lips in a husky murmur of wonderment. I shivered. I had never shivered at the sound of my own name before. But then again, I had never met a person who could make me forget it before either.

  “Hey!” A hand closed hard around my arm, jarring me back to reality and the reason I was even there.

  Eyes the shiny black of the ocean at twilight rose past my shoulder to the hulk of a man standing there. Then dropped to the hand claiming my upper arm and narrowed dangerously. My throat went dry.

  Brad Hensley, captain of the football team and my date, swung a meaty arm around my shoulders and snapped me into his side the way a frog’s tongue snatches a fly into its mouth. “I’ve been calling you for like ten minutes! We’re about to start the game…” His attention turned to the third person in our party. “This guy bothering you?”

  I dampened my lips. “No. We were just talking.”

  Brad looked the stranger over. “I’ve never seen you before. Are you a Serpent?”

  I peeked at the gold, silver and black jersey straining over Brad’s bulk, then at the stranger’s beautifully naked torso. No. He was definitely not part of our school football team.

  “No,” the stranger answered in that melodious voice.

  Brad straightened to his full six-five and folded his arms. His wide shoulders tightened. His biceps bulged. It was a move I’d seen him use before when he was trying to be intimidating. Brad, I was sure, had been a bear in a past life.

  My gaze flicked over to the stranger, searching his face for signs of fear, uncertainty even. But there was none of that there. No. He was amused. Brad probably outweighed him by a hundred pounds and was a solid force of muscle. Yet, the stranger stood there, head cocked to the side; the ghost of a smile haunting his firm lips like Brad was an overindulged puppy doing an adorable trick.

  “Well, who the hell are you?” Brad challenged. “What the hell are you doing here? This is a private party!”

  “Keane,” straight, white teeth flashed in a cutting grin, “and you’re trespassing on private land.”

  Brad’s eyes widened. His arms dropped down to his sides. “No shit! We thought this place was like public property. It’s the middle of nowhere.”

  Wickety Bridge and the surrounding wilderness was public property as far as anyone in the town of Mayborn was concerned. No one except the high school kids ever ventured past the perimeter. It was off limits because of bears, but that didn’t stop the after game parties, campouts and secret meetings of all kinds.

  Keane’s eyes narrowed, but his razorblade smile remained firmly in place. “That’s the way I like it. It keeps people from hearing my victims scream when I torture them.”

  Brad blinked. The little hamster turning the wheels inside his head seemed to be working double time trying to wrap his brain around the blunt statement. I watched him, practically seeing the sweat dot his temples and the little tick he always seemed to get in his right eye when he just didn’t get it.

  Brad wasn’t intentionally stupid. He was just lazy. If he applied half the energy he spent chasing girls and playing sports, he’d be the next Einstein. In turn it made me question my own common sense. What the hell was I doing with this idiot?

  At long last, he grinned at Keane. “Victims. Right. Funny. You’re kidding, right?” Brad pressed when Keane said nothing. Brad snorted. “Whatever, man. Come on, Nora.” He grabbed me again, something he’d been doing all night, something that was quickly beginning to wear down the lock keeping me from killing him.

  “Damn it, Brad!” I wrenched free of his fat fingers. “Knock it off!”

  “I don’t think the lady likes being manhandled,” Keane said evenly, but there was danger blazing behind his eyes as he bore into Brad. “If you cherish your life, you won’t touch her again.”

  Brad may not have been the sharpest tool in the shed, but even he knew when he was being threatened. “What’s it to you anyway? She’s here with me!”

  Those bottomless eyes swerved to me. They slid over the Goddess dress I’d picked for the Halloween bonfire, lingering a little too long on the slit that ran up the side of the dress before gradually roaming up once more to my face. He seemed to come to some inner conclusion as he confronted Brad again.

  “Aye, but she’ll be leaving with me.”

  ****

  In all truths, I should have been appalled by his audacity. I only just met the guy. He had some serious nerve thinking I would just up and go anywhere with him. What annoyed me most was the fact that, if he asked, I probably would.

  Beside me, Brad staggered a moment. His face bunched into one of confusion as he tried to weigh what this new bit of information meant. For the hundredth time that night, I again asked myself why. Why was I with this guy? Then I remembered. That’s right, because he asked me and I thought, ‘Oh my God! The hottest guy in school was asking me to the Halloween bonfire.’ Five minutes after arriving, I was ready to leave. Brad was as interesting as a rusty nail and his friends — who I knew everything about, but they didn’t know a thing about me — I may as well not have existed. I was the outcast. The band geek. They were as surprised by Brad asking me as I was. Our circles we
re as far apart as Pluto and Earth, yet, somehow, during one of his many orbits around himself, Brad had caught a flickering glimpse of me and decided that I was the girl he wanted to grope all night.

  Lucky. Me.

  Nevertheless, if he grabbed me again, I was prepared to kick his boys up into his throat and walk the two hours home.

  “Whatever, man,” Brad muttered at long last. He began walking away. “Come on, Nora. The guys are ready to start the game.”

  “What game?” Keane interrupted smoothly, neatly keeping his hands behind his back and his expression choirboy innocent.

  Brad scowled. “What’s it to you?”

  Keane shrugged. “Well, seeing as how I’m being gracious enough to let you use my land… the least you can do is tell me.”

  The muscles in Brad’s jaw bunched as if he were chewing steal. “Hide and seek!” he barked finally.

  A brow winged up on Keane’s triangular face. “The children’s game?”

  Brad bristled. “It’s a tradition!”

  Long, slender hands went up. Keane shook his head casually. “No offense meant. Please,” he flicked his wrist airily, “continue.”

  I couldn’t fault Brad for looking bemused, a little wary. There was nothing in Keane’s posture to indicate he was making a mockery of the time honored tradition, yet, everything from the way he hooked his thumbs into his belt loops to the tilt of his head sizzled with amusement.

  “Come on, Nora,” Brad said at last, his narrowed, blue eyes trained on Keane. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “Perhaps she would rather stay with me,” Keane said smoothly. “I’d be more than happy to keep her… entertained.” Warm ripples shivered down my spine at the dark intent.

  Brad bared his teeth. “Hey, man, back off!”

  “Should I leave you two to break out the tape measures?” I interjected before Brad’s head could explode. “How about you ask the piece of meat what she wants?”

  Keane turned to me. “All right, darling. What would you like?”

  I didn’t hesitate. “I want to go home.”

  Brad’s face drooped. “But the games are about to begin!”

  “A compromise then.” Keane stepped forward to take the spot next to me, long, slender fingers tapping his pointy chin. “One quick game. I’ll even be… it.”

  Brad’s bushy eyebrows furrowed. “What’s the catch?”

  Keane clasped his hands behind his back and gave an offhand shrug. “Only that if I find you, you stay. If I don’t, you go home.”

  “It’s only fair,” Keane continued in that hypnotic voice of his when Brad hesitated.

  Brad didn’t have to take Keane up on his offer. He and his friends could go to a different place to continue their evening. But it was tradition. It had to be here, in these woods, on this night, although, I doubted anyone knew why. The tradition was so old, the story behind it was no longer even clear.

  Keane turned the full force of those eyes on me, and something in me shifted, liquefied… sighed. “Please stay, darling?”

  One game. What harm could one game do?

  “Fine, but I still think this is a stupid game.”

  His smile was slow, devastatingly brilliant. “Aye, as do I, but I think we’ll both get what we want in the end.”

  I swallowed hard for no reason at all.

  Giving me a wink that made my knees dissolve, Keane went back to giving Brad his full attention. “All right?”

  “Let’s do it!” Brad gave a clap of his hands. “I’ll round everyone up.”

  He ambled off, leaving me alone with the angel of sin. As though sensing my anxious nerves, those dark pools swerved to the corners of his eyes and pinned mine. Something hot and paralyzing shot through me.

  Moonlight spilled over the ridges of his shoulders, trickling down smooth breastplates and a chiseled abdomen. I tried not to trace every line with my eyes.

  “Aren’t you cold?” I blurted stupidly.

  He turned his head ever so slightly in my direction. One eyebrow winged up. “I’ll gladly say yes if ya promise to keep me warm.” He twisted his entire body so we were face-to-face, barely separated by a foot of space. His teeth flashed in a slow, sly grin when I shivered. “Or would ya like me to do the warming?”

  Yes!

  “I’m fine!” I muttered, turning my gaze stubbornly forward.

  He gave a soft chuckle. “That you certainly are.”

  I ignored the sly implication.

  “All right, listen up!” Brad’s commanding voice carried over the small crowd now gathered around us.

  Grateful for the distraction, I watched my date rather than the insanity pulling me to the left and the stranger still watching me, touching me with his eyes.

  “Who’s the guy?” someone shouted from the back.

  “He going to be it,” Brad said. “Everyone scatter!”

  Whoops and hollers filled the clearing as the crowd dispersed, running blindly, a bit wildly into the woods.

  Brad took my hand, his palms rough and sweaty. “Come on!”

  I nearly tripped on the hem of my skirt as he dragged me forward. “Wait—” I had no idea why, but I didn’t want to go! I didn’t want to leave.

  With a mind of its own, my head whipped around over my shoulder. Tendrils of hair flew across my face, momentarily keeping me from the solitary figure standing in the distance, cloaked in the light of the fire. His dark hair fluttered at his back like a sleek cape. His eyes… his eyes burned straight into me.

  “You will be mine soon enough.”

  Maybe it was the play of fire light splashing across his face, or just a trick of the night, but I could have sworn his lips never moved.

  ***

  The chase was on, the air wrought with tension, with the suspense… with the excitement. The thrill pounded in my blood as I watched the corner of Nora’s white skirt flap once before vanishing into the cluster of trees.

  I couldn’t have planned it all better. True, I hadn’t expected to find her tonight. I hadn’t expected the connection to be so strong, the want so… addicting. There were stories of the power that bonded mates, but the real thing was a thousand times more potent. Damn I wanted her like a human needed air. I wanted to devour her, consume her, drive her into blinding madness and then let her plummet as hard, as fast, as I had. I already knew she felt it. Every breath she took sang through me. Every flicker of her want blistered me. I was teetering, suspended over eternity and she was the only thing holding me.

  “Fifteen seconds, luv,” I murmured into the night. “Fifteen seconds and I will end both our suffering.”

  I waited twelve seconds before setting off after her. It was against the rules, but it was as far as the knot at the back of my belly button would allow her to go, as far away as I was willing to be from her.

  ‘I’m coming, little one,’ I thought, tracing my tongue over my bottom lip, already tasting her there.

  I didn’t care about the others. They could roam aimlessly through the woods for the rest of eternity. They would eventually climb out, get into their cars and leave. I wanted her! She was my prey.

  The autumn winds whispered through the naked branches overhead. They swayed and rustled, speaking in a language only those closest to nature understood. I usually took a moment to listen, to enjoy the subtle beauty of my world, but not tonight. I was on the hunt and nothing was going to stop me.

  ****

  I lost Brad. I stopped to adjust my sandal and I asked Brad to wait, but when I’d straightened, I was the only one in the small clearing. He had kept moving.

  What an ass!

  “Brad!” I called. My voice echoed back at me.

  Behind me, something rustled.

  I whipped around. “Brad?”

  Shadows parted and a tall, lean figure emerged. The moonlight caught the smooth surface of leather pants and glinted off the medallion resting against a beautiful chest. The wind played through strands of shiny ebony. My heart stuttered.
<
br />   “Not quite,” he murmured, advancing on me.

  “H—how did you find me?” I was breathing hard. My heart was pounding. The surge of excitement startled me.

  His grin was devastating. “You’re not exactly stealthy.”

  “I was lost,” I whispered, feeling my cheeks flush.

  His teeth flashed in a crooked smile. “And now I’ve found you. I suppose you know what this means.”

  I shook my head, dizzy, so dizzy with a strange giddiness.

  “It means,” he was four steps away now and closing in fast, “that I get to keep you.”

  I clapped my hands over my mouth as the first giggle poured out, but in no way did that suppress the rest that bubbled up, boiled over. On impulse, a strange, unusual impulse, I snatched up my skirt, spun on my heels and bolted as if I had not a care in the world, as if acting so frivolous and flirty was something I did every day. It was weird, but I didn’t stop. I ran, jumping over fallen logs and dodging trees with an agility of a doe. You would think that I knew where every root, branch and stone lay in the pitch darkness. More than that, you would think I actually liked being chased, which I did. I loved it. I wanted him to chase me, catch me. I wanted so much to play this game with him, to be his prey. I wanted him to—

  I slammed headlong into something solid. Like a rubber ball off a brick wall, I ricocheted and would have hit the ground if I didn’t suddenly find myself grabbed and shoved up against a tree. I was instantly pinned by a lean body.

  YES! This! This is what I wanted. To be captured by him.

  “Game’s over, darling Nora. I win.”

  “Keane…” I should have been appalled by the weak whimper.

  He punctured his growl with a deliberate nip of his teeth against the unsteady pulse at my throat. “You’re mine now!”

  My lashes swept closed. Hot coals drifted through my bloodstream, burning me up inside while his heat scorched the outside. My lungs shuddered with every desperate snatch of air it could suck in. The shaky inhale-exhale ruffled the silence around us.

  What was I doing? What was wrong with me? This wasn’t right. I didn’t even know the guy.

  Yet the moment his lips moved east, my chin tilted, giving him my throat.