I looked at him. He was a bit pale.
“How sharp?”
“Very. But we can’t slow down.”
Something hit the back of the car, bumping into it enough to lift the rear wheels off the ground and slowing us down.
I screamed. Light glowed in Lincoln’s eyes as he snarled back at the storm. Whatever it was let go of the car. Wheels hit asphalt, rubber burned and we went forward once more.
“No slowing down,” I said, my voice a whimper. “Got it.”
“You can do this, Vee,” he said, putting a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “I believe in you!”
Wind shrieked. Rain battered the exterior of the car. A tree limb blew through the rear window, lodging itself in the back seat.
“When I say so, tap the brakes and turn. I’ll help with the wheel.”
“Okay.”
Everything narrowed to that point, waiting for Lincoln. The storm lashed out at us, but I tuned it out. I had to. All I could do was peer through the wipers and wait.
“
Now!”
The word burst from his throat. Somehow I didn’t hesitate. I tapped the brakes and pulled the wheel around. Lincoln helped. The car groaned and more rubber vaporized as the car careened around the corner on two wheels.
My screaming merged with the noise from the tires as I rose into the air.
Then we hit a pothole, and the car slammed back down onto all four tires, speeding along the new “road,” which really was little more than a rutted trail between the trees. I had to slow down now. I had no choice.
“
Don’t slow down!” Lincoln howled, reaching past me to put a hand on the window.
Blackness spilled across it, reaching for the car and the road ahead of us. Glass cracked. The roof crumpled slightly.
“Floor it!”
I stomped my foot down as the darkness slithered its way through the cracks, reaching out for us.
“Hold on!” Lincoln roared as the windows shattered and shadow and darkness plunged into the vehicle.
Lincoln
We burst out into the open.
The darkness was yanked out of the car as dense brush and trees gave way to huge open spaces on all sides. Far above, the giant limbs of the trees interlocked to form a nearly impenetrable canopy. Here, the rain was reduced to little more than the droplets trickling their way through the leafy cover.
Sylvie was breathing hard as the car slowed to a halt. Her fingers grasped the wheel so hard her knuckles were white.
“Hey,” I said, leaning over and taking her hands to peel them from the wheel one finger at a time. “Hey, it’s okay. Vee. We made it.”
Cupping her ghastly pale face, fear lines still etched in it, I turned it toward me. Forcing her to lock eyes, to acknowledge that I was right there next to her.
Then I kissed her. It wasn’t planned, it just sort of happened. I shouldn’t have, because she’d asked me to hold back. To wait.
But in that moment, I needed to comfort her. To make her know it was all right.
She kissed me back after a second. Then her body began to relax, which is when she pulled away. I did too.
“You did great,” I told her, not wanting to draw more attention to having just broken our poorly defined boundaries.
She bit on her lip, the look driving me crazy. “Thanks. But, Linc, the storm, it’s still there. I can feel it. At the edges. It’s not gone. Not at all.”
“I know,” I said. I didn’t doubt her words, I knew it was true, I could feel it too.
But how couldshefeel it? Was she not as unaware of the magic in her as she’d led me to believe? I had already been more than uncomfortable with bringing her home. Now though … now I may have just made a bigger mistake than I’d intended.
“Come on,” I told her, pointing. “This way.”
We meandered through the open spaces and past some cabins as I guided Vee to my house. My home.
The further we got from the edges of the den space, the calmer she became. She sat straighter and even began to look around, truly taking in my home for the first time.
“This is quite the sight,” she said, still whispering. “People. And wolves. Together.”
Off to the right, a large chestnut wolf went bounding by, a child of no more than five clinging to its back and laughing wildly as they ran under the gentle rainfall.
“Yes,” I said, watching them go, smiling to no one in particular. “I’ve done my best to keep this place safe so that they can live in peace.”
The car came to a complete stop. Sylvie had taken her foot off the gas, and was staring at me, her beautiful lips parted in the tiniest circle.
“You’ve done your best?” she asked, quoting my line back at me.
I quickly replayed what I’d said, comparing it to what she had seen in the thirty seconds since we’d arrived. There didn’tseem to be any glaring issues with any of it, the unnatural storm aside. So what was her problem? Did she not like happy children, oblivious to the darkness surrounding them? Was she a believer in early exposure to the cruel, hard world of reality? That seemed rather unlike her.
“It’s what a leader should do. Is it not?” I shrugged, not sure what else I could say.
Her eyebrows rose like garage doors, slowly reaching their peak and revealing her eyes in all their beautiful glory. She really was beautiful-a fact I sometimes lost sight of when my wolf rose up with its carnal needs and desires. Attractive, yes, I had always known that. But I should remind myself more often she was beautiful too. A woman, to be cherished and loved,as well as ravished at every opportunity.
I had to stifle a growl. Now was not the time for such delicious thoughts or actions based on such thoughts.
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