Falling Darkness: The second book in the Falling Awake Series (15 page)

When I was sure I had everything, I put on my coat and just as I was about to leave, I remembered the most important thing.

My mom’s dream catcher.

I dashed back over to the bed, where I kept it, hanging above the headboard every night, except tonight, the hook was empty.

I
wasn’t particularly happy to be there and when I walked through his door, Caleb looked even less happy to see me.

Instead of speaking to me, his glare travelled behind me to Ressler. “What’s she doing here?”

I could feel the scowl biting into my face.

Ressler threw my bag down onto the sleek, black leather sofa. “She’s staying here,” he said, offering no form of explanation.

“Why?” Caleb held something in his hand and he quickly folded it up, slipping it into his back pocket.

“Someone set fire to the attic at her place. And someone’s been crawling around tonight, creeping her out.”

Creeping me out? Way to make me sound like a real baby. It wasn’t like I wanted to come here. I had no choice.

“How did someone get in to set a fire?” Caleb looked pissed and one look at Ressler told me that he felt the same.

“How am I supposed to know? I was in there all night.”

“Wow, this isn’t Ressler fault,” I cut in. How dare he? He’s busy ramming his tongue down Tamara’s throat while Ressler is with me nearly every second of the day. He had some nerve. Only someone with an ego as big as Caleb’s could pull that crap off.

Caleb made a grunting sound and smiled to himself. “I’ll stay at your place. Give me your keys,” he said, holding his waiting hand out towards me.

“But it’s not safe,” I said, feeling anxious at just the thought of him being alone in there. What if crazy lunatic showed back up?

Ressler handed over my keys to Caleb and I watched the exchange with dread in my heart. I didn’t want him to stay there, no matter how much of a jerk he was.

“Are you coming?” Caleb asked him.

I looked over at Ressler.

“Will you be okay here?” he asked me.

I nodded. “Yeah.”

Ressler swiftly leaned down and kissed me on the cheek. “Call me if you need me.”

He was just leaving with Caleb when I went to call out his name.

“Pria.” The sound of Leah calling my name, cut me short and the door to Caleb’s closed behind him and Ressler.

Leah walked into the living room with a serious expression on her face for once. She looked just as beautiful as ever in black, Lycra leggings and a fitted white t-shirt. This might be the most casually dressed I had ever seen her, but her beauty was still there, underneath. It was impossible to miss. Her light brown hair was a mass of waves covering her shoulders and most of her back and I found myself wishing I could just change my hair daily, like that.

“Yeah?”

She sat down on the sofa, curling her legs under her and I sat down next to her when she didn’t answer me right away. Something was wrong.

“At Cape Flattery, what happened to Caleb?” she asked me.

“Why?”

“That night, he came back here a different person.”

“I don’t know.” I looked into her intense black eyes. “The witch doctor said something to him, but Caleb swore he was fine- that nothing happened.”

“There’s something inside of him and its dark and growing stronger every day. I can feel it, it’s so strong. It’s not natural.”

I thought about what Caleb told me, about not being himself. It was the truth. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because you are the only one that can fix it.”

“How do you figure that?” I asked her. “I don’t know where you’ve been, but Caleb hates me.” That was the truth also. In everyday life I was nothing more than a pain in his ass. I felt like the least desirable candidate to do anything to help.

“When he’s with you, the light overtakes the dark and he shows a shadow of himself. When he’s not with you, his heart is as good as dead.”

“I don’t know how to help him,” I said flatly. “He would never let me, anyway. It’s a waste of time.”

“You have to help him.”

“I don’t have to do anything,” I snapped back.

“Oh yeah? Then how do you expect to get through any of this without his help? Answer me that. And he can’t help you when he’s turned so bad that he doesn’t care anymore. Because, that’s what’s happening. If this carries on, the Caleb you know, will be completely gone.”

I reared back at her sharp tone. I was so stuck on the idea that Caleb couldn’t stand me anymore that this answer just seemed too easy. Something so far from Caleb’s control just didn’t seem plausible.

“This is really all down to the witch doctor?” I asked.

“I know it is

“What do I do?”

“I don’t know, but you need to do something, and fast.”

“And what about Tamara, how do you explain that?” I asked, feeling superior. I wouldn’t roll over and accept that Caleb was totally faultless in this. If his heart was so dead, then why the sudden interest in the skanky cheerleader all of a sudden?

“I can’t explain that, and I don’t know who Tamara is,” Leah said with a shrug of her shoulders.

So he had never brought her around here then. That was good. Or, Leah was covering for him, which made much more sense. I wasn’t supposed to care anyway, I reminded myself.

“I’ll try,” I said. “I really don’t see what I can do, though.”

“Make sure you do try.”

I’d had enough of this conversation. If Caleb really was changing as Leah put it, there was really nothing I could do. He had a worse attitude with me than he did everyone else.

“Help him, and I’ll help you,” Leah offered.

I met her gaze full on. “Help me, how?”

“You don’t need Ressler to take you to Neah Bay.”

“He told you?”

“Yes.”

I didn’t realize Ressler or Caleb told her anything. She seemed to know most things already and the only thing she ever really offered to a situation was judgment.

“You’re right, I don’t need him. But if I go alone, Ressler, Drake, or Caleb, will only follow me anyway. So I might as well make it hassle free for myself and just bring one of them along. Plus I need Sully’s boat.”

“Sully’s boat,” Leah scoffed. “That piece of junk. We can do better than that now, can’t we?” She suggested, arching her eyebrow. The smallest smile spread across her rose pink lips and I felt myself smile a little, too.

“You want to help me?”

“Want’s a strong word.” Leah stood up and fixed her hands on her hips. “Caleb is going to kill me for this,” she said, still smiling.

“For what?” I asked, still unsure what she was actually planning on doing.

“I hope you’re not scared of heights.”

***

Leah lead me through the bar and outside into the parking lot. She had secured a knit scarf around my neck, gloves on my hands and a beanie on my head. She pulled the scarf tighter, yanking me forward in the process.

“I think that’s tight enough,” I choked out, reaching up to loosen the knot that was slowly but surely cutting off my circulation.

“You’ll thank me later,” she said, checking me over.

I looked down at myself. “What are you looking for?”

“Just making sure you’re ready that’s all.”

“Ready for what? You still haven’t told me what we’re even doing.”

A gust of wind pushed me back as two ginormous wings spread out from behind Leah’s back and set the whole parking lot aglow.

I slung my arm across my face to shield my eyes from the unearthly glow, and when I was sure the light wouldn’t scorch my eyes, I lowered my arm and gasped at her wings.

Blue, white, silver and turquoise glittered all over the surface of the wings, shimmering like tiny butterflies in flight, and that was the only moment I was given to truly appreciate them, when she stepped forward and turned me around, wrapping her arms around my waist and soaring off into the sky.

I squealed, scrunching my eyes tightly closed. I felt like I had left my stomach behind at Sully’s. The air was colder than an ice blast across my face but I didn’t dare move my hands to pull my scarf up and cover my skin.

“Don’t be scared,” Leah said over the sound of the sea and the wind. “I won’t drop you. Promise.” In spite of being ripped thousands of feet into the air, I still picked up the humor in her voice.

I slowly opened my eyes and they instantly took a dry hit of air, forcing me to scrunch them back up.

A few minutes later, I re-opened them, choking on my own amazement as I looked at the dark blue sea below me. I was so high, it was unbelievable. I was-
flying.

The sea was rippled with the silver reflection of the full moon that looked like it was in our direct path. If I didn’t know better, I would think we were going to smash right into it.

There was so much I wanted to ask Leah but every time I opened my mouth to speak, the wind took my breath with it, losing it in the night.

Eventually, and I didn’t know when it happened, I must have fallen asleep because the next thing, I am on the ground and Leah is standing over me with a curious look on her face.

I got up off the floor and wiped my butt down from the sandy road. I looked around me. “We’re here?”

“As near as I’m going,” Leah said. “The harbor’s right down that road there.” I looked out to where she pointed along the curving road that disappeared around the bend of the trees.

“Aren’t you coming with me?” I had never been left on my own in so long, I didn’t know what to do with myself.

“You’re on your own from here. It’s not safe for me to be seen out here.”

Well that was reassuring.

“How will I get home?” I was starting to panic a little. I didn’t want to be stuck out here and I had no money for the ferry. It was still dark out, the sun hadn’t even risen yet. I had told Matoskah I would meet him at ten, or was it ten thirty? I couldn’t even remember. Not that it mattered, I was about five hours too early anyway. And I was tired.

“I’ll find you later.”

“How will you…” I didn’t even get to finish my sentence before her wings were back out and she turned her back to me, nothing more than an oversized black dot now in the sky.

“Ugh!” I kicked my foot into the gravel at the side of the road. What was I supposed to do now?

After turning full circle about four times and deciding the only thing I could do was to go into town, wherever that was. I pulled my beanie down tighter over my head and headed in the direction of the harbor. Where there was a harbor there was a town, right?

The road was dark. The moon was still out and there were no street lights to offer even the tiniest slither of comfort. I reached for my IPhone in my pocket and checked the time. It was almost six in the morning.

Ominous black shadows from the giant spruce and fir trees that lined the road were the only other thing I could see. I could hear plenty of strange noises, but I didn’t really care to find out what they were. The sound of my boots crunching over the road was too loud in my ears and I quickened my pace, hurrying to get to some kind of civilization.

I kept glancing into the trees. The sheer size of them and the darkness they housed, made me nervous as hell. I couldn’t seem to keep my gaze fixed in front of me. When my eyes jutted over into the forest for what I promised myself would be the last time, I started to hum a comforting song that I convinced myself would somehow keep me safe.

The tune fell completely flat when a figure of over six foot, emerged from the trees, like a living shadow plucked straight from the darkness. It was the same misty figure I had seen at Roche Harbor, and this time it was watching me, purposefully.

I was frozen on the spot.

All of a sudden, and from nowhere, my feet started moving and I was running forward. My heavy footsteps and my frantic breath rattled around in my head, making them the only sounds I could hear. They were the sounds of fear.

I looked over and whatever that shadow creature was, it was matching me, step for step, whipping in and out of the trees and unbelievably, it was growing in size. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from it.

The creature had all but doubled in size, with curls of smoke sucked from its frame by the wind. What was this thing?

I pressed more power into my steps and put every single bit of energy I could summon into running as fast as I could. When the trees eventually receded into flat, lifeless, grassy land, and the shadow creature seemed to become nothing more than a part of the darkness, I squealed when I came up hard against something solid and arms wrapped around me, tightly.

“Hey, what are you running from?” It was a boy’s voice speaking softly to me, but I was shaking so hard, I couldn’t look at him let alone voice any kind of a response.

“Pria, it’s me. You’re okay.”

The arms holding me loosened as I backed up a little to look up.

“Matoskah?” The familiarity of his long hair, tan skin, and easy smile made my body slump a little from relief.

“What are you doing here?” he asked me. “It’s barely dawn. We did say ten thirty right?”

“What are you doing here?” I asked, stepping away from him. How did I know he didn’t have anything to do with whatever I just saw? He kept popping up at the strangest times.