by Skye Malone
He groaned.
My heart scrambled up my throat. Straightening as fast as my muscles could move, I backpedaled from him and retreated to Zeke’s side. His eyes fastened on the man, Zeke pulled open the door.
We headed outside.
The night beyond the porch was pitch black and rain gushed down in a torrent. With legs that felt like rubber, I jogged across the sodden yard toward the truck, with Zeke coming behind. The doors weren’t locked, and when we pulled them open, the smell of dust and old motor oil filtered into the rainy night air.
We climbed in, the musty bench seat squeaking loudly beneath us. The engine growled when it kicked over, and the gearshift by the steering wheel locked into reverse at my frantic tug.
The front door opened again and light from the house spilled into the yard. One arm hanging awkwardly at his side and the other bracing him on the wall, Earl gave a furious shout at the sight of us in his truck.
He started down the stairs.
I flattened the pedal to the floor and sent the truck flying backward. Crushing my bare foot to the brake, I took only long enough to throw the gearshift into drive and crank the wheel in a turn, and then we were off again.
The truck raced down the dark road, carrying us away from Earl.
Chapter Two
Zeke
I didn’t know where we were going and I was fairly certain Chloe didn’t either.
Though I doubted either of us cared.
My ribs ached from hitting the rails beside the stairs and my body felt like it’d been run over by the rig of a deep sea trawler. For her own part, Chloe looked like she’d gone a dozen rounds with a giant squid and barely survived. From the darkening skin around her neck to the marks I’d spotted on her shoulders and arms, there didn’t seem to be an inch of her that wasn’t banged up somehow.
I hated the sight of it and my stomach roiled at the thought of what that bastard had been about to do to her. In all of dehaian history, I’d never heard of anything like the monsters we’d encountered in the past day. But between that Noah guy and now Earl, I was starting to wonder how many people over the years who I’d thought were human had actually been those greliaran things in disguise.
Another wave of dizziness rolled through me and I rested my head against the cold glass of the window, waiting for it to pass. That psycho had given us something, and that something was taking a damnably long time to wear off.
“You okay?” Chloe asked over the roar of the rain.
I looked over. In brief twitches, she pulled her gaze from the road to glance at me worriedly. With effort, I buried a grimace. “Yeah,” I replied, straightening again. “You?”
She nodded. Her hands adjusted their death grip on the steering wheel while she returned her focus to the track ahead. The twin lights of the truck illuminated the narrow gravel path, though the night swallowed the forest on every other side. With an emerald sheen, her green eyes glowed, obviously compensating for the darkness.
I watched her, not believing the silent answer for a moment.
But from the way she shuddered every few seconds, I also got the feeling that pushing her was a really bad idea right now.
The track widened and the truck bounced over holes in the gravel surface. The line of trees pulled farther back, giving the rain more opportunity to pound down and turn the grassy ditches on either side of the road to deep water and mud. In misleading curves that felt more maliciously random than anything, the road twisted, heading first away from the ocean and then gradually toward it again.
But no signs appeared. Nothing showed where we were, not even the invisible stars overhead.
Lights glared as a maroon SUV raced around the turn ahead. Chloe hissed with pain, wincing while she quickly adjusted her eyes back to normal human sight. The SUV flew by, passing only inches from the truck’s side.
Red light flashed behind us. I twisted in the seat in time to see the vehicle come to a sharp stop.
Chloe muttered a desperate curse.
“What?” I asked.
“When I woke up, I heard Earl calling someone. They sounded like they might be the same as him.”
Trying not to swear as well, I looked back at the SUV. It was turning around. Inside, I could see the shadowy forms of five people so big, it was hard to believe they’d fit in the vehicle.
And then the SUV’s rear tires hit the side of the road. Hit the mud and the water, and the vehicle lurched down. For a heartbeat, the SUV stopped, and then the other tires spun on the slick gravel and the vehicle rocked, as though trying to drag itself from the mud.
“They’re stuck,” I told her. “Go!”
The truck accelerated as Chloe pushed the pedal farther toward the floor. A curve in the road swallowed my view of the SUV.
Chloe kept going. Small sounds escaped her while the tires slid, barely keeping to the wet road. A triangular sign bearing the word ‘yield’ flashed past as the road curved again and joined a broader strip of concrete. With a quick glance over her shoulder, Chloe raced the truck through the turn, sending it skidding onto the highway ahead of a semi.
Angry honking followed us as we sped away.
“Anything?” Chloe asked.
I looked back. “No.”
A breath left her. On the wheel, her hands shook and she adjusted her grip distractedly.
“Chloe,” I tried.
She didn’t respond. Breathing hard, she tossed short glances to the mirror, checking the road, and then steered the truck around another semi in our path.
I returned my gaze to the highway. I wanted to reach out and take her hand. I wanted to do something, anything to calm her. But I wasn’t sure it’d be welcome. In fact, I was pretty certain it wouldn’t, given how tense things had been between us for the past day. At best, I’d just upset her more. At worst, I’d startle her enough to accidentally send the truck careening from the road.
And so I did nothing and hated myself for it.
Life had never been as complicated as it had become in the past few weeks. Hell, the past few days alone were more complicated than anything else combined. We’d managed to survive that behemoth, and an attack by mercenaries before that.
And my brother.
I closed my eyes, drawing a breath to steady myself. I still didn’t know what to think about that. How to feel. Niall had joined the Sylphaen. He’d killed our dad, or at least agreed to let it happen, and nearly killed our older brother Ren as well. He’d lied to me, to Ina, to all of us for years, and never once gave any sign he’d thrown his loyalty in with those psychopaths.
And a few hours ago, he’d kidnapped Chloe with the intent of killing her to somehow gain abilities he claimed she possessed.
I didn’t know what to believe anymore. I was just so angry I felt like taking on a shark.
Or fifty.
Opening my eyes, I locked my attention on the terrain while I tried to calm down. I’d deal with Niall. Fix this somehow. I’d make it so that Chloe really could be safe in Nyciena, and my sister and Ren too, and get the Sylphaen away from us once and for all. The woman Niall had worked with, Liana, was already gone. I’d killed her – an act I knew I should feel… something… about, even if I couldn’t figure out what. And the rest of them would be stopped. I’d get back home and I’d make Ren understand that had to happen.
But later. It would have to come later. At the moment, the ocean was still full of those bastards. I needed to get Chloe away from here.
Even if I had no clue where ‘here’ was.
I scanned the landscape beyond the road. The rain had slowed over the past few minutes, becoming nothing more than a light drizzle. Moonlight pushed past the thinning cloud cover, silvering the trees and the wide fields that interrupted them. In the shadows, enormous houses nestled on the far sides of the open spaces, darkened for the night with only the occasional security light to draw attention to their presence.
It all felt surreal, a
nd not just because I’d never ridden in a truck, or even a car, before. The sensation of flying over the ground without moving a muscle was incredible, to be sure. But I’d never traveled so far from the ocean that the air didn’t carry its salty smell and gaps in the terrain didn’t show glimpses of the water. It was so strange.
And it was starting to become uncomfortable.
I swallowed as a prickling sensation ran over my skin. We were crossing more than a mile a minute, if the markers by the roadside were any indication. It wouldn’t be long till the discomfort became so strong, I couldn’t go any farther.
Fighting back a grimace, I shifted on the seat. That was the point. When I reached the limit of how far I could go, any Sylphaen would have too. And that’d mean Chloe was safe.
Though there were still the behemoths we’d left in the SUV to consider.
And maybe they couldn’t travel far from the ocean either. Or maybe they wouldn’t be able to track her, now that we’d left them stuck on that little country road. The point was, the more distance she had from this place, the more she’d stand a chance of escaping the people who’d tried to hurt her.
Of course, she’d also be alone.
The prickling on my skin increased. I couldn’t help that. I could only get her as far from here as possible and then head back to deal with Niall. He’d sworn he wouldn’t touch Ina, and I’d warned her about him besides, but he’d also been lying for damn near half a decade.
I couldn’t risk him hurting my sister.
And I didn’t want to leave Chloe by herself, miles from her home.
My brow furrowed as I pushed the last thought away. What I wanted didn’t matter. The ocean and the fact I was dehaian wasn’t going to give me a choice.
Light glowed against the night sky while we descended toward a city and then gradually followed the curving highway around its edge. The miles sped past, and time did too, and soon the night swallowed the city again.
I felt like someone was running razors over my skin.
Shivering, I adjusted my position on the seat. Just a bit farther, and I’d tell her we needed to stop. That she had to go on alone.
A mile flew by. The razors dug deeper, bit into my muscles and bones, and tugged like a thousand fishhooks trying to drag me back toward the sea. A short gasp escaped me at the pain and involuntarily, my hand twitched for the door handle.
“Zeke?” Chloe called worriedly.
I couldn’t move to look at her and my voice felt lodged in my throat. I pulled a ragged breath through gritted teeth, trying to find a way to speak.
“Oh God, Zeke!” she cried. “I’m so sorry! I wasn’t even–”
She steered the car to the side of the highway and came to a quick stop. Twisting on the bench seat, she grabbed my hands.
A feeling like the ocean itself spread from my fingers and up through my arms, driving the pain away. Blinking, I looked over at her.
“What?” she asked, confused by my expression.
“What did you do?”
Her head shook. “Nothing.”
I stared at her while the feeling of razors and fishhooks melted away as though it’d never been. “You made it stop. The pull of the water.”
Chloe’s brow furrowed in desperate bafflement. “I-I didn’t… I was just worried.”
Her gaze dropped to our hands. Swallowing hard, she inched her fingers from mine.
The pain didn’t return.
“Are you still okay?” she asked.
I nodded.
She echoed the motion, seeming shaken. Drawing an unsteady breath, she put her hands back on the steering wheel and glanced to the highway.
“Chloe?”
A semi flew past, its lights silhouetting her briefly before it was gone.
“Bit farther then?” she asked without turning back to me.
I hesitated. “Yeah.”
She nodded again. The truck pulled onto the road.
I watched her as a minute crept by. Her hands flexed on the steering wheel every few moments and her face looked like she was keeping herself calm by willpower alone.
“How are you going to get back?” she asked quietly.
“Figured I’d walk. Maybe hitchhike.”
She paused. “That’s pretty dangerous.”
“I’ll be fine.”
Another moment passed.
“We probably should stop soon then,” she said, her eyes still on the road and her voice small.
I didn’t respond. I needed to get back to protect Ina. I didn’t want to leave Chloe alone.
“Zeke?”
“Not yet.”
Her gaze twitched to me questioningly. “But, if you’re going to make it back safely–”
“Not yet.”
She hesitated and then gave a tiny nod.
The truck continued down the highway to the glow of lights from passing cars and the growl of the tires over the concrete.
One of her hands left the steering wheel and reached over to me. Her fingers wrapped around mine, gripping them tightly, and I could feel her trembling.
Fields swept by, with distant houses picked out by security lights like land-bound stars.
“Are you okay?” I asked carefully.
Her eyes didn’t leave the road. “Fine.”
I put my other hand on top of hers. I felt her tense.
“We probably should still stop at some point. Just to rest for a bit.”
She shook her head. “I’m alright.”
I paused. “Yeah,” I agreed, though I suspected that wasn’t remotely true. “But you still need to sleep eventually.”
Her hand quivered in mine.
“Chloe.”
An exit sign flew past, and its corresponding road too. I saw her gaze flick toward it and then back to the road.
I let out a breath, uncertain what to do. She couldn’t keep going like this. Not all the way back to Kansas, however far away that was.
“There’s nowhere to stop,” she argued, a touch desperately. “Hotels will probably want ID and we don’t–”
“Just pull over somewhere. Away from the highway.”
She stopped herself from glancing to me and kept driving.
A mile passed, and then several more. Another exit sign came into view and in the distance, I could see reflectors marking where its road began. The night swallowed everything else, and the country highway the exit led to showed no signs of civilization along it for miles.
“Please, Chloe.”
She shivered.
My hand tightened on hers.
She guided the truck onto the exit road.
I didn’t say anything while we continued on, leaving the interstate in the darkness behind us. At the tiny intersection of a gravel road, she turned again, and when the highway had vanished from view, she pulled the truck from the path and came to a stop.
She lowered her hand from the steering wheel.
“Why don’t you want to sleep?” I asked her quietly.
A heartbeat passed.
“Brings it back,” she whispered.
My brow furrowed. “Brings what back?”
“What they did. Locking me up. The blindfold. The…”
She shifted her shoulders as though trying to get away from something.
Memory filled in the blanks. Even before Earl had attempted to kill us, there’d been the Sylphaen. That bitch, Liana, and her people who’d beaten Chloe when they dragged her from the pit Ren had put her in.
I took a careful breath, fighting to keep my anger at them from my tone. “I understand.”
Her gaze flicked toward me, not meeting my eyes.
“But,” I continued, “this is hurting you too.”
Her brow twitched down.
“You’re safe, Chloe. They’re not going to find us. The Sylphaen can’t even come inland this far.”
She looked up at me, her green eyes glowing faintly
in the darkness.
“You’re safe,” I said again. “You…”
I hesitated and then reached over, unbuckling the seat belt holding her. I knew what I wanted to do. I just didn’t know if she’d let me.
“You can sleep,” I told her. “I’ll stay awake. I’ll… I’ll keep the memories away.”
Beneath my hand, I felt her tremble. For a moment, she hesitated, and then she inched across the seat toward me.
Gently, I pulled her closer, a breath leaving me at finally having her in my arms again. I could feel her shaking when she laid her head on my shoulder, and carefully, I lifted my hand, brushing the auburn waves of her hair from her cheek.
“Just sleep,” I whispered as she closed her eyes. “It’s going to be okay.”
Chapter Three
Chloe
I opened my eyes to sunshine pouring through the windows and the warmth of Zeke beside me. We were leaning against the door, his arms held me close, and my hand was on his chest.
A blush raced up my neck. Pushing away from the seat, I looked over at him. “I, um… ”
“Good morning,” he said into my awkward pause, a smile tugging at his lips.
I hesitated. He didn’t appear upset. And why would he? Zeke seemed like he’d wanted what had happened between us so far. I’d been the one to bring it to a stop.
Even if I’d wanted it as well.
I dropped my gaze from his. I’d been too tired last night to argue. Too tired to do more than welcome the chance to avoid the nightmares I’d known were waiting. And he’d felt wonderful, holding me in his arms.
He always felt wonderful.
My face grew hotter. “Morning,” I replied, my voice hoarse from the bruises I could feel on my neck. I shifted on the seat to pull away.
“Hey,” he said.
I froze.
“What’s wrong?”
I shook my head, the motion jerky and totally a lie. “Nothing.”
He paused. “Chloe.” His brow furrowed when I looked up at him. “Listen, I’m sorry about yesterday. Us. That’s not how I wanted…” The furrows deepened. “Well, any of that to be.”
“You didn’t?” I replied, confused.
