by Mary Martel
A twig snapped in the woods in the direction of the trail and I froze. My heartbeat immediately sped up and my breath caught in my throat. My entire body froze solid, and I strained to hear anything more in the dark.
Male voices came from the front of the house and I realized no one had gone inside the house and Tyson was talking to someone. If it were one of the guys wouldn't he have called out for me to come up front or come back and gotten me already? I thought so, but then maybe he was telling whoever it was about the missing cat we'd both seemed to have momentarily forgotten about.
Something shuffled at the end of the trail and hair on the back of my neck rose. There was someone or something over there, I could feel their eyes on me as I sat frozen.
If I screamed, I knew whoever was around front and Ty would come running for me. But whatever was at the edge of the trail was a whole lot closer to me than the people in front of the house.
I wracked my brain, trying to remember what sort of animals were native to the area and in my extreme panic I came up blank.
This was not good.
I needed a weapon. And fast.
I glanced down at my hands clenched tightly together in my lap and caught sight of the flashlight sticking halfway out of the front of my hoodie pocket, the one the phone hadn't gotten stuffed in. I had forgotten about the flashlight, which was absurd because it wasn't light, and it was pretty awkward with the way it stuck out of my hoodie. I remembered thinking in my head when Ty handed it to me that it was heavy-duty. Now, the flashlight would make a mighty fine weapon if I had to brandish it about as a weapon. It would work perfectly for clubbing something or someone across the head or really wherever I could reach them with it.
I wasn't picky, just really into my own survival.
What to do now that I had a weapon, though? Take it out of my pocket and get up and run? I certainly couldn't leave it in my pocket and run with it, not without it probably falling out, landing on one of my feet, and injuring me. It was too awkward to run with the thing in my pocket, and I would honestly feel a whole lot better with it in my hand.
The phone in my pocket vibrated again and it startled me so much that I jumped and let out a very unattractive squeak. I looked around the back of the yard with big eyes, forgetting that I shouldn't be looking towards the head of the trail because I didn't want whoever or whatever was there to know I knew there was something or someone there.
"Shit," I muttered under my breath in shaky voice.
My breath escalated as I fought off the urge to raise my hand and press it to my chest to stop it from trying to jump out of my chest and run far, far away from me. I didn't think it would have been a smart move on my part because it would have been a dead giveaway, exposing the fact I was scared out of my freaking brain.
I might have been scared, but that didn't mean I wanted other people to know about it, especially if they were creeper people waiting at the edge of the woods for their chance to pounce on me or do whatever nefarious things they were going to do to me. I was more than positive it would be nefarious, too, nothing good could come from this.
The phone vibrating with a text message had given me an idea that wouldn't give me away and might make it so I wouldn't have to run across the yard while screaming bloody murder and wielding my flashlight like a warrior wields its sword.
Very slowly, so as not to startle the being watching me, I pulled my phone out of my pocket. I double tapped the screen, bringing it to life once again. After swiping to unlock it I didn't click on the unread messages from Damien. They wouldn't help me at the moment, so I ignored them. The part of me that was into instant gratification rebelled.
I clicked on Tyson's name after tapping on the messages icon and opened up our texts. I quickly typed up a text.
Ariel: Something on trail. Get back ASAP
I hit send and stared at the lit screen for all I was worth. I watched for that little check mark to appear, telling me he'd read the message. I wasn't even sure Ty had his phone with him.
The voices in front of the house rose. I was able to make out Tyson's voice and the voice of another male. I thought it might have been Dash, but wasn't sure. I only thought it was Dash because the voice never grew as loud as Ty's did, and there was a certain gravelly undertone to it that reminded me of Dash. I could have been wrong, though, and probably was.
What I didn't hear was a phone ring or anything of the like.
Fuck.
I clicked on Damien's name and opened up his texts. Texting Ty didn't seem entirely reliable at the moment. Damien lived with Julian in a small house in town, so they weren't close, but they could use their phones and get ahold of the others and sound the alarm.
Damien: I can just see you now. I bet you didn't mean to ask me to come over and pick out your outfit.
Damien: You can pick out your own clothes and I will love them, promise. You look great in everything you wear. Just make sure it's warm.
Fuck.
I didn't need Damien being sweet right now, I needed a badass with a gun. Or something. Maybe a can of pepper spray?
Did Damien own a gun? I didn’t know, but I was betting Quinton might have one. I didn’t think either of them would have a canister of pepper spray at the ready, it wasn’t a very manly thing to be carting around.
Ariel: Forget about the clothes. Someone’s at the front door and someone else is in the woods. Cat is also missing. Tyson has gone AWOL. Send backup ASAP!
That might have been a bit dramatic for me, but I was hoping it would get the job done.
I stuffed the phone back in my hoodie and pulled the flashlight out of the other pocket. Screw leaving it in there. As soon as I had it in my hand I immediately felt better. The weight of it felt just right in the palm of my hand.
My phone started vibrating and kept right on going, letting me know I had a phone call instead of another text. I'd probably freaked Damien right the hell out. Good. I didn't want to be alone in my own freak out, it was never fun to be alone.
Something dark and big moved in the shadows and I couldn't help myself, I screamed. The shadow was in the shape of a man, a tall man. He came at me out of the dark with one hand held up in a stopping gesture and the other arm was curled up against his chest where he held something close to him.
I didn't think, I simply acted.
To hell with getting close enough to him to hit him with the flashlight, I didn't want to be that close to anyone right now. I threw the flash light at him before he even stepped fully out of the shadows. The flash light whistled as it sailed through the air towards my would be perp. His arm came up to shield his face and he ducked to the side, moving faster than I had seen anyone move before. The light hit his arm with a thud and bounced right off of him. It fell to the ground and landed with a heavy sounding thunk.
I stood up to run as he emerged entirely from the shadows.
My mouth opened as I drew in air, preparing to scream for all I was worth.
A pathetic sounding meow came from the man’s arms and stopped me from running. He had Binx!
Now I was wishing I hadn't been so hasty in my throwing of the light. I wanted it back so I could beat him with it while attempting to wrestle my little furball away from him.
"Put the cat down," I said in a strangled voice. It wouldn't have come out sounding so strangled if I hadn't sucked in that giant lung full of air in preparation for screaming. Which is exactly what I should have been doing instead of attempting to have a conversation with the stranger. Hello?? Stranger danger!
No matter what happened, I would not abandon Binx. Not that the stupid little shit didn't seem to mind where he was. I thought I even heard him purring.
A warm wind came from the man as he lowered his hand and stepped the rest of the way out of the shadows cast by the tree line. He stepped closer to me. That's when I really got scared and learned just what terror really was. This person, whoever they were, was like me. They held magic within them.
He was a w
itch.
But that might have been wrong, because it could have easily been a woman. A woman would make more sense because there was Annabell The Terrible staying with the Council, and she knew exactly where to find me, and, thanks to Tyson, she probably knew more about me than I was comfortable with.
I couldn't see who or what sex the person was because they had their hood up, and it left almost the entirety of their face in the dark and closed off to me.
Was Annabell tall and thin? I had only seen her the one time in the mirror, and that had been months ago. I thought maybe she was thin but as for the height I had no clue. I knew enough about her to know she'd hide her face from me, so the hood made perfect sense for her.
I stepped to the side, clearing the chair and making sure there was a clear path for myself behind me. Just in case I needed to run, which was looking like a really good idea because I'd stupidly thrown away my weapon.
I took another step back as he or she bent over at the waist and gently set Binx down onto the grass. He let out another pathetic meow, as was his way, when he hit the grass and immediately sauntered my way.
"What’s going on?" I choked out in a strangled whisper.
Why in the heck was there a stranger person wandering out in the woods behind Dash's house when there was absolutely nothing around for miles and miles? And why had they had Dash's cat?
They straightened up gracefully, and long arms rose towards the hood that hid their face. The hood was pushed back, and the lurking stranger was revealed.
A strangled noise escaped me that sounded alarmingly similar to a sob that had gotten stuck in my throat, and I took an involuntary step back. I didn't step back because I was afraid, but more so because I was surprised and in shock.
My foot caught on the leg of the orange chair, my boots slipped on the grass and my arms wheeled out at my sides as I tried to catch my balance. As I fell, I watched Rain Kimber lunge for me with outstretched arms. He made it to my side as my back hit the grass and he was beginning to kneel down beside me as the back of my head bounced off some bricks that surrounded the fire pit. Sharp pain spiked through my head as spots flashed in my vision. I put my elbows in the grass and tried to sit up. My arms felt like jelly and slid out from under me. My head connected with what was likely the same brick and blackness over took my vision completely this time, there were no more flashing lights.
"Fuck," a deep voice snarled.
That was the last thing I heard before the world faded away and I was out.
Chapter Ten
I was moving, and not because I was moving myself. I tried to lift my head, but couldn't find the strength to do so. My body was curled up and pressed against something warm. Hard bands were wrapped around me under my knees and upper back. Someone held me in the strength of their arms. They held me so close and secure that I wasn't jostled even the slightest bit as he walked. I only knew we were moving because I felt the air shift against my skin as we moved through it.
I groaned softly as I raised my hand to my head and pressed it against my temple.
"Hurts," I mumbled.
And it did hurt. My entire head hurt. Why did my head hurt? And why was I being carried around?
"What happened to me?" I continued to mumble. "Where's Ty?"
I remembered being with Tyson and going outside to look for that damn cat, but I was drawing a blank on anything after we walked around the corner of the house and stepped into the back yard.
"Binx?" I said in a quiet voice.
I winced at the sound, and even that hurt my head. But I had to know. I had to make sure Tyson had found Binx, because I didn't want to upset Dash. I had gotten him stabbed, I didn't want to lose his cat on top that. He didn't blame me for the first, and I felt he'd lay the blame on Tyson for the last. So, I had to find that damn cat.
My head pounded, and I felt I was missing something important, but the more I thought about it and tried to remember, the more my head throbbed in horrible pain. And, I realized the back of my hair felt wet. "Tyson?" I asked quietly, hoping and praying to whatever holy deity was real that it was Tyson's arms that were holding me so tightly.
"Shhh," said a male voice full of gravel. A voice that was most certainly not Tyson's voice.
My eyes flew open and I blinked quickly, over and over again. My eyes wouldn't focus, and the harder I tried, the harder my head throbbed. I closed my eyes, scrunching them up tightly. The few seconds I'd had my eyes open had been enough, though. I'd seen that face a hundred times over, but never in person.
I had a polaroid of him when he was a young man sitting on top of my dresser. I looked at it every day, and I'd memorized that face, those eyes, that hair. I had memorized everything about the man who'd been looking for me for years, the man I'd been stolen away from. The man who was my biological father, if he and Vivian were to be believed. If I'd only had Vivian's word to go on, then I wouldn't have trusted it. And it wasn't even Rain saying he was my father in the letters that made me a believer. It was his eye color that was identical to my own. It was his hair color that was identical to my own. It was his cheek bones and his eyebrows and basically every single physical attribute about him. His DNA definitely ran through my veins. But even that wasn't what made me a believer, it was more than that. It was more the voice that had carried through his written words in the letters that had made me believe this man holding me in his arms could be exactly what he claimed to be; my father. There had been no doubt in my mind that he sincerely, wholeheartedly, loved the girl he was talking about in those letters he'd written to my fake mother. Looking at the pictures let me know I was related, but it was his words that had sold me on the idea. I had been searching for him ever since, because I desperately wanted to have someone love me the way he loved that girl in those letters. He loved her enough to never, ever give up on her, and he'd been searching for years.
If someone loved you enough to look for you for years, and never, not ever, give up on the hope of finding you because you were just that important to them, then didn't that make you something special? I thought Rain's actions didn't only tell me a good deal about just who Rain Kimber was as a human being, but I felt it might have said a little bit about me too. I wanted to be worth all the time and effort he'd put into getting me back into his life. It's part of the reason I had been bleeding myself every single day for weeks now. I felt like he'd earned it from me, like he more than deserved it because of how hard those letters claimed he'd been looking for me, searching for me for years. That kind of devotion deserved just a little bit of devotion back, I thought.
"Rain," I breathed out. Just saying his name had my throat closing up with emotions.
He was here, actually here and holding me in his arms.
I pried my eyes open and forced myself to look up at him. Tears spilled out of my eyes and glided down my cheeks. I didn't care that my head hurt or that the wetness at the back of my head was more than likely blood. I had hit my head on something, and it had made me lose time, and I didn't even care.
"Rain," I repeated on a breathy whisper.
Rain kept walking forward and didn't look down at me when I'd said his name, but he did close his eyes, and his face twisted, like he was in some sort of pain.
"Don't talk right now, baby girl," he said in that deep gravelly voice. "We are going to get you some help for your head. There's a lot of blood leaking out of you, and we've got to put a stop to it. One of those boys should at least know how to take care of you." He ended on a mutter that sounded as empty of emotion as I'd ever heard in a voice before.
Baby girl, he'd called me.
Quinton called me baby and I loved it. Rain calling me baby girl, even though it might have been throwaway for him, I didn't care, because it wasn't throwaway to me and I loved it. I wanted to hear him say it again, twelve hundred more times, and hoped I didn't bleed to death and miss the chance.
"What did I hit my head on?" I mumbled. "And why won't it stop throbbing?"
"A brick
," he muttered back. Then, even quieter, "Here we go, baby."
"What the-" Tyson said loudly, almost shouting.
"Who are you?" Dash yelled, and I winced. Not only because their yelling hurt my already in pain head, but because it was the first time I'd ever heard Dash raise his voice. He didn't need to get loud to get his point across, usually. It was just glaringly obvious.
"What's wrong with her?" Tyson asked, and his voice rose alarmingly higher in volume. "She wasn't back there long enough for something bad to have happened to her. And where in the hell did all of that blood come from?"
Oh boy.
If he could see the blood, then there must have been a whole lot of it. I silently cursed the fact that I didn't have dark hair to cover it up.
"And," Tyson said, slightly quieter, "where the hell did you come from? Nobody could find you anywhere, no one knows anything about you, and all of sudden you're just here?"
"Who are you?" Dash repeated and, this time, he didn't yell. We must be closer to them because I heard him just fine in his normal voice. "Give her to me," he demanded.
Rain completely ignored Dash and Tyson both, and pulled me closer to his chest in his arms. "I don't think so," he rasped out, and his voice was full of gravel. "She's staying with me."
"I don't even know who in the hell you are," Dash growled menacingly. "All I know is you came up here to my fucking house, with Ariel in your arms and bleeding, and you won't tell me who you are, and you think I am going to let you keep her? You are out of your damn mind. Give her to me."
"Dash," I whispered his name urgently as I tilted my head painfully to the side so I could see them. I think it hurt more to look away from Rain than it did to physically move my head. Even though he carried me in his arms, I worried he'd go up in a poof of smoke if and when I looked away from him. Because I was afraid to take my eyes off of him for any amount of time, my eyes raked over the guys and immediately shot right back to Rain.
