“No. I’ll never be ready, but I’m here.”
Our eyes hold each other’s a moment then he nods, lifting an arm and putting it around me, drawing me closer to him. My body is pressed against his chest, and I’m surprised at how normal he feels. I’d expected him to be extremely cold or rigid. He’s none of those things. He feels like a man.
Lowering his face to mine, I study his features, contrasting them to my love. Where Koa’s skin is smooth, brown toffee, Hayden’s is pale cream. Instead of Koa’s full lips and square jaw, Hayden’s lips are thin, his features sharp and defined. Only one thing is the same. When Hayden pulls me against his body, I feel his strength. I won’t get away from him easily.
“Close your eyes,” he says in his elegant, clipped manner of speaking. His breath is right at my lashes, causing me to blink. “Close them.”
For a moment, I resist, staring directly into his eyes now burning with blue fire. The slightest smirk curls his lips, and I give in. He seems merely to hold me, standing there on the front steps of his house.
“Now open them,” he whispers.
When I do, my heart plunges to my stomach. The entire scene has changed. I’m standing before a large stone castle with hideous spires rising like spikes in the darkness. The air is cold like standing inside a cooler, and the sky is a pale bluish hue. Everything is slightly damp, and the colors are stone grey, purple, and black. Far off in the distance, I hear a roar like wind blowing or a cyclone spinning, and a shrill noise like a scream seems to disappear in the air.
My heart beats faster. Hayden’s arm is still tight around me. I’m still pressed against his chest, and his eyes burn into mine. He waits, studying every emotion flickering across my mind, staring as if trying to see the depths of my soul. I wait, unsure what will happen next. Just when I think he’ll never release me, he does.
His arm disappears from around me, and I have to take a step back to find my balance. A light flickers above, and I glance up at the enormity of the structure before me.
Hayden steps to the side, and with a wave of his arm he speaks. “Welcome home, my love. I hope you’re very happy here.”
* * *
Koa
I’m on my feet in panther form before my eyes have fully opened. The sensation hits me so hard, it wakes me from my dream of Mercy’s arms, her beautiful body. A quick look around the apartment, and I know she’s gone. I know what she’s done. I heard her heart cry out the moment it happened
.
My door is cracked and I’m outside, running down the stairs and into the woods as fast as my panther legs will carry me. I’m moving fast, pushing my muscles to make the miles disappear.
Crossing the soft green lawn, I run straight to the house but stop when I see the front door standing open. The driveway is paved in compact pea-gravel, and my paws make a soft crunching noise as I round the circular fountain to where I can sense he stood. His evil lingers, but it’s faint, dying away on the wind.
The muscles in my legs quiver as I stalk slowly toward the door. She’s gone. My Mercy has been taken. She left before I could wake up, so I wouldn’t see her go. So I couldn’t try and stop her, so I wouldn’t fight him.
A cramp hits my insides so hard. I lift my head to the sky, and with a loud ROAR! I unleash the pain ripping through my chest.
Another roar, and I’m blind with fury. I want to rip things apart with my teeth. I want to shred them with my huge claws and make them scream with pain.
Dylan appears in the doorway, and when she sees me, she grasps the handle, pushing it almost closed, hiding behind it. I have no clothes, so I can’t shift and speak to her. Still I stand and watch her, my sides heaving with the weight of my pain.
“She said goodbye,” the woman calls through the crack in the door. “She told us all goodbye then she summoned him. He was only here a moment, and he took her.”
I’m breathing hard, every word she speaks shredding my insides.
She should be gone. The firstborn should be taken, but that’s not how the curse works. Mercy’s beautiful body, her shining blue eyes and gorgeous white smile, the warmth of her soul — all gone. Closing my eyes, I let out another low roar. My fangs are bared, and anger rolls off me in waves.
Falling back, I turn to the woods. I’m just leaving when I hear Dylan’s voice behind me. “I’m sorry.”
Stretching out to my full eight-foot length, I run to our meadow, tracing all my steps the night I felt him. Adrenaline pulses in my veins, and I’m desperate to find anything that might lead me to her.
I was on the cliff, near the observatory when he hit me with the wave of his power. With a quiet lunge, I’m on the rock, looking deep into the woods for any signs of a fault line or shift in the earth’s surface. I don’t see anything unusual.
Through all my studies in the library I couldn’t find any record of fault lines or earthquakes in the area. Still, it has to be here. He said the ley line crossed a rift between the worlds. It’s the only thing that makes sense. I was too close to the boundary. He was either coming or going, and I startled him, causing him to lash out in self-defense.
Hopping down, I plunge deep into the forest. My large paws barely make a sound in the damp leaves. Lifting my head, I scent the air. Moldering wood, crisp maple… Someone’s burning a fire off to the west. Heading back in the direction of the university, I cut a wide path to the north to avoid being seen.
The scent of fire has me curious. It’s not cold enough for fire, and it doesn’t smell like burning leaves. Running at top speed, I reach the edge of the forest. An open field is between the point where I’m hidden in the underbrush and a series of ancient brick buildings. A lone highway cuts through the field, and patches of trees line either side. The fire is coming from behind those buildings.
It’s a risk, but I’m willing to take it. A black panther cutting across an empty field in broad daylight is just asking to be caught, but the thought of Mercy pushes me on. Running at top speed, I reach the first line of trees without incident. A car zips past on the two-lane road, no change in speed. I stay low watching as it disappears.