Deceitful (Rules of Deception 1)

“So . . . was there?” I asked to cut through the tense silence. I felt his muscles shift beneath my fingers, making me acutely aware of the fact that I was still touching him. I pulled back.

“I’m not sure if I should tell you,” he said carefully, setting down an untouched slice.

He knew.

“My teacher.”

He grimaced. “Yeah. I tried to talk you out of it but you wouldn’t listen.”

Devon leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs. “Is it over now or do you still feel something for that . . . guy?” I could tell that he’d almost called Mr. Yates another name and frankly I couldn’t blame him. The whole thing creeped me out. How much worse must it have been for him to witness it unfolding?

“It’s over. I don’t remember him as anything but a teacher,” I said, for once telling the truth.

Devon scanned my face. “You mean it?”

“I mean it. It’s like I never had feelings for him in the first place.”

Dimples flashed in his cheeks. My body flushed with heat. He grabbed a cold slice of pizza and ate it in just a few bites.

Tucking my legs under me, I rested my head on the back of the couch, close to his shoulder. He smelled of soap, clean skin, and something warmer—cinnamon maybe. I had to stop myself from burying my nose in his shirt. That would’ve looked really bad. I could just imagine what Major would do if he found out I’d failed the mission because I wanted to smell Devon. What the hell was wrong with me?

The Terminator found his temporary end in a junk press and my eyelids began to droop. Sleep sounded like a good plan. After all the heavy food and excitement of the day, it couldn’t come fast enough.

“So you really can’t remember anything about the day, you know, you were attacked?” Devon’s voice crashed through my slumber-like trance. I jerked my head up. There was something odd about the way he asked.

He was facing the TV but his expression was so tense it resembled a stone mask.

“No,” I said. “It’s a huge black void in my memory.”

He nodded but his lips and the muscles in his neck visibly tightened.

“Why do you hate Ryan so much?” I blurted.

He stiffened. “I don’t hate him. I just never liked how possessive he was. He was jealous and a control freak, and he still hasn’t gotten over the breakup.”

The end credits scrolled up the screen but they blurred before my eyes. What had been a comfortable silence now felt like the moment when the birds go quiet in the forest and you know something terrible is stalking you.

I stood up. “I’m tired.”

Devon didn’t follow me; instead he kept staring at the black screen.

My steps echoed in the hallway. Linda and Ronald would return any moment from their dinner. It was dark in my room—no, Madison’s room. Rain pelted against the window, creating a nice change from the silence in the corridor. I wished Holly was there to give me one of her pep talks. That was something I could have used.

I went over to the window and pried it open. The frame groaned but with a jerk the window slid up and cool air streamed in. The fresh smell of rain in the night was one of my absolute favorites.

A shadow shifted on the street. I poked my head out. Even in the rain, the hooded stranger waited on the other side, staring at my window. I grabbed my cell phone from the nightstand and the pepper spray from my purse, slipped into my ballet flats and rushed out of the room and down the stairs. Devon appeared in the hall, his eyes bleary. I didn’t stop to explain.

My feet carried me outside where the rain plastered my hair down and soaked through my clothes. The stranger turned the corner as I crossed our front yard.

I pumped my legs. I heard Devon’s steps behind me and his shouts of confusion, but I turned a corner and then another until it appeared that I’d lost him. I stormed into the forest at the edge of our neighborhood, where the stranger had disappeared just moments before.

From up ahead, the sound of twigs breaking kept me on the trail. Devon must have given up or lost sight of me because I didn’t hear him behind me.

Without streetlights, the forest’s darkness was absolute. Rain rattled the leaves, and twigs snapped under my shoes. Shape-shifting while running was difficult and straining, but with Madison’s short legs I’d never catch the guy. Who was he? The killer? And I was alone in a dark forest with him. Maybe not my best plan.

I let the rippling wash over me. Tearing, stretching, twisting, remodeling. My clothes strained and ripped. I stumbled a few times over my lengthening legs but then, with Alec’s body, I gained on the stranger. Wind howled in my ears and for a moment I lost my bearings as he disappeared from view.