Fade (19 page)

“Do they accept it?” I asked. “Wait, how many other shifters live here?”

“Eight.”

Oh. I thought about that for a moment, trying to fit it into my mind alongside everything else I’d learned lately, but I wasn’t sure where the information fit. I decided to figure it out later, and then groaned to myself. The list of things I would figure out later had become scarily long. “Continue.”

“They don’t always like my decision, but even the ones that don’t appreciate it tolerate me because their alpha, Kalei, demands it.” He sighed. “But maybe not for much longer.”

“Because of Dani?”

“Partly.” He stopped walking but didn’t say anything more.

”Dace … .” I warned, not willing to let him clam up on me now, not when I felt like we were finally getting somewhere.

“I’m not trying to stall you, Arionna,” he said. “I’m thinking.”

I wanted to tell him to think a little faster.

“How much do you know?” he asked, no doubt sensing my charitable spell quickly coming to an end.

I hated waiting. It sucked.

“About Dani? Only what I felt from you before you closed me out.”

“And what was that?”

I hesitated, not sure if I should tell him the truth, and not sure if he’d be able to tell if I lied. I decided to go the honesty route. I didn’t like lying or being lied to. “You were furious and disgusted. Because of what happened to her, I think. Because of what you saw.”

“You feel more than you should,” he muttered more to himself than to me.

He hadn’t meant it as a compliment, or for my ears, but having a little confirmation that the link between us wasn’t as much of a one-way street as Dace seemed to want it to be gratified me. “Was I wrong?”

“No,” he said, the word little more than a sigh. “You weren’t wrong.”

“How did she die?” So long as I was getting answers, I figured I might as well try for that one.

“Do you really want to know the answer to that?” He tried intimidating me into backing down and pretending I didn’t want to know, a half growl in his voice.

He didn’t intimidate me though, and he knew it. “Yeah, I think I really do want that answer, Dace.” Something monumental was occurring here, and it involved me somehow. I needed to know how and why. Finding out more about Dani’s death seemed a prudent way to begin trying to sort out the mystery.

“A shifter.”

Even though I’d known that all along, the confirmation made my blood run cold. One more thing settled atop the big, scary pile that made me certain the things occurring here were way outside of anything I had ever experienced. Where did all of this end? Was there a point when things stopped sounding so insane and frightening? Where all of it made sense and I could breathe again?

“One of yours?”

“No, not one of mine.” Certainty colored Dace’s words

I couldn’t help but wonder if he simply hoped he was right or if he knew it for fact. I decided not to ask that question, not sure I wanted to hear his answer. “Why?”

“Why am I certain, or why Dani?”

“Why her, I guess. Why now?” I’d asked earlier, but he hadn’t answered. No surprise there. He didn’t answer the vast majority of my questions.

“I don’t know.” He cleared his throat roughly. “Because of us. Maybe.”

“Because of us.” A thousand little bees stung at my heart as I processed that. How much worse did believing we were at fault make him feel? “Why?”

“I don’t know. There was no reason … .” His jaw clicked, as if he were clenching it hard enough that it groaned under the pressure again.

I placed my hand on his arm, giving him my silent support as he tried to fight whatever demons surfaced for him. Call me crazy, but I had a feeling Dace had more demons than most people. His dad had seen to that.

After a minute, his jaw relaxed, and he placed his hand beneath my arm to guide me. “There was no reason,” he repeated more calmly this time, steering me through the darkness once more. “You know that feeling you’ve been having? That something is coming?”

“Yeah … .”

“I feel it, too. I don’t know what’s coming, but I’ve always had this sense that I’m different than other shifters for a reason. Since you got here, the feeling’s gotten stronger.”

“What does that mean?”

“Honestly? I don’t know. I just know something is coming, and I’m supposed to do something about it. Now that you’re here, it’s started. I just have to figure out what it is and who’s involved.”

“What about … ?” Did I really want to say what I thought? Dace was already angry. I didn’t want to make it worse, and I had a feeling he and his wolf weren’t going to be all sunshine and daises talking about how Ronan factored into all of this.

“What about what?”

“It’s nothing,” I lied, averting my gaze on the off chance he could see as perfectly in the darkness as I suspected he could.

He stopped walking and reeled me in until our faces were inches apart. Breath blowing across my cheek, he slid his hands up my arms. “What about what, Arionna?” His question sounded commanding and seductive at once.

“That’s not fair, Dace,” I said, my voice breathy. I couldn’t form words through the haze he created in my mind when he got so close to me.

“Isn’t it?” He leaned down until his mouth was right next to my ear. “It’s what you’ve done to me every single time I’ve been in the same general area as you.”

I groaned, my body feeling like rubber.

“Tell me, Arionna.” His sinful tone was more effective so close to my ear. His lips barely brushed my skin, but the sensation sent arcs of heat racing up my spine.

“I … .”

He nuzzled my neck right below my ear, and words ceased to form at all. The fact that I couldn’t see him made his actions that much more intimate and world quaking. My other senses heightened, opening wide to the scent that was all Dace, as well as the heat and sense of rightness I felt any time his skin came into contact with mine.

“Tell me.” His lips hovered over the pulse in my throat, his breath burning at my skin. “Say it, please.”

“Ronan’s involved.” I groaned his name as if it had been pulled from some deep, dark place inside. My legs shook beneath me.

Dace tensed and then, ever so slowly, leaned forward and flicked his tongue across that spot where his lips hovered.

My world fell out of focus, sensation shooting through me with the force of a sonic boom.

He caught me in his arms. “Arionna?” he asked, his voice full of concern. “Are you okay?”

“I … ” I shook my head and cleared my throat. “Um … .” Words escaped me.

“What’s wrong, love?” He ran his hands over me, checking for some injury.

“N-nothing.” I cleared my throat again, my heart fluttering that he’d called me
love
. “You can’t do that.”

“Do what?” he asked.

“Kiss me like that. You made me feel like the world stopped spinning.” I buried my face in his shoulder, a little embarrassed by my breathless admission.

“Nice.” He seemed pleased. Go figure.

I rolled my eyes and squirmed until he let me go, then started to stomp away.

“Hey.” He grabbed my arm and pulled me back to him. “Don’t be angry. I like that I affect you as much as you do me. It’s nice.”

I pulled away from him before I embarrassed myself further. He hesitated and then took my hand, waiting for me to speak.

“I don’t see you losing the ability to think,” I said.

“You shouldn’t be embarrassed.”

“Oh?” I truly hated that he had access to my thoughts right then. It wasn’t fair.

“Oh,” he said as he led me forward. “I’m not.”

As if that helped any at all! “That’s comforting to know,” I retorted, sarcasm dripping.

“It should be. I like how I make you feel, Arionna. It’s exactly the way I feel about you.”

“Have I mentioned how much your admissions drive me insane?” I asked, my heart flip-flopping in my chest. If he kept it up, I’d need a pacemaker before I hit twenty.

“They do? Why?”

“Why?” I shook my head, both frustrated and amused by his obliviousness. Sometimes I honestly believed he didn’t have a clue about women or dating or relationships in general. “Because I never know where I stand with you, Dace. One minute you act like you’d rather not be anywhere near me, and the next, you say things like that. I don’t know what to think. I don’t know what
you
think. It’s exhausting.”

“Oh.” His quiet surprise echoed around us. “You think I don’t want to be near you?”

“Yes. No.” I shook my head helplessly. “I don’t know.” Sometimes, it certainly felt like he didn’t want me getting close to him. In a way, I understood his hesitation. He had this big secret he’d hidden his entire life, and it wasn’t his alone. The wolves, the other shifters, they all relied on him in some way. He was a man apart, he always had been, but knowing that didn’t make dealing with his hot and cold routine any easier.

He was silent for so long, I almost gave up, but then he said, “I still think I shouldn’t be near you. That the worst possible thing in the world for you is to be near me. But I want you close to me, Arionna, even though I know it’s not safe for you. And this?” He lifted our interlaced fingers to his lips, turning them over and kissing the back of my hand soft and feather light. “Isn’t nearly close enough.”

I wanted to throw myself into his arms right then, but he wasn’t finished with his earth-shaking confession.

“I may not always be easy to figure out, but never, ever think I don’t want you. Wolves mate for life, and mine is yours for however long you want it.”

I struggled to find a response that felt anywhere near adequate.

”I know this is all new and confusing to you, Arionna, and I don’t expect you to say anything now,” he whispered, putting one finger over my lips as I groped along stupidly for words, any words. “Just don’t doubt it. Don’t doubt
me
.”

I bobbed my head once, loving the way his finger made my lips tingle and burn. The sensation was a lesser version of what his kiss did to me. My lips burned at that single point of contact. I think he knew it, too.

“The wolves are coming.” I heard the grin in his voice and knew it had nothing to do with the wolves. He was seriously trying to drive me crazy.

He brushed his finger across my bottom lip then dropped his hand back to my arm, leading me once again into the darkness. I stumbled along at his side, oblivious to anything but his warm heat.

“Whe-where are we going?”
Words! Finally!
I didn’t care that they were breathless.

“Not much farther,” he said, lifting me over a fallen log I hadn’t even seen. His hands momentarily lingered at my sides after he set me on my feet. “You’ll be able to see a little better soon.”

“I will?” That reminded me … “Can
you
see now?”

He chuckled. “Yes, I can see now. Shifters come complete with built-in night vision.”

“Oh. What else do they come equipped with?”

“You didn’t ask any of this last night. Why?” He sounded as curious as me.

”Honestly? It felt more important we focus on the basic stuff first,” I said. “I already knew none of this would make a difference, but if you were a closet Jersey Shore fan, or believed you were the antichrist or something? Totally different story.”

He laughed, one of those head thrown back, tears in your eyes kinds of laughs.

My stomach bottomed out at the sound, another frisson of heat warming me from the inside.

“You really are strange, you know that?” He chuckled again.

Maybe so, but knowing he was different simply hadn’t changed anything for me, but had he loved everything I hated or hated everything I loved? That would have been more difficult to work with. He didn’t have a say in being a shifter, or in his connection to me—which didn’t make a whole lot of sense—but bad taste would have been entirely his fault.

He laughed softly, clearly responding to my thoughts.

“What else?” I demanded.

“We have excellent hearing. We’re also fast, and like I said, we’re strong, we heal rapidly … and then there’s the charm, too.”

“Charm? Are you serious?” I gaped at him, seeing no more than his faint outline. Why would shifters need charm?

“No,” he said and laughed. “But I thought I would try to slip that one in there while I was at it.”

“You—” I snorted, and then I laughed. Laughing with him felt good. Freeing. “I wouldn’t have bought it for long.”

“Oh?” He lifted me over another log, this one a lot bigger than the previous.

I hadn’t noticed before but I could see my surroundings a little better. Not much, but enough to make out a little more than his outline and a bit of the area around us. We were trooping through the heart of the woods, the trail no longer in sight. “Shouldn’t it be darker in the thick of the woods than on the trail?”

“Probably, but we aren’t in the thick of the woods. We’re on the outskirts now.”

We are
? “How?”

“The trail comes quite close to the interstate before heading back around and deeper into the woods.” He paused. “Didn’t you notice it when you were out here before?”

“I had a lot on my mind, and I don’t pay much attention when I’m walking.” I’d always been that way. I walked where my feet led.

“You know,” he mused, his voice a gentle rebuke, “You should try to pay more attention when you’re out here. You could get lost.”

“I don’t get lost.” Really, I didn’t. Apparently some wise angel created me with a subconscious navigation system. Or maybe my internal GPS had more to do with this whole being connected to a shifter thing. Whatever the reason, I appreciated my sense of direction. Because of it, I’d always gotten home safely in the past.

Dace shook his head but let it go. “So, you wouldn’t have bought the charm line?”

I snorted. “You were an ass the first time we talked.”

“Only because you nearly gave me a heart attack,” he protested. “I’m walking along, minding my own business and I see this beautiful girl standing on that old wall like she was trying to fly. I kept thinking you were going to get hurt.”

Oh, well, that was kind of sweet actually. “Haven’t you ever done anything a little insane on the spur of the moment?”