Page 3 of Hero

“Are you insane?” my father asks.

I take off down the aisle, fueled by fierce determination, then I quick-time down the church steps, my pulse beating faster than Fred Astaire’s tap shoes.

“But…” my mother calls out to me, “Stop this madness, you silly girl,” she says as she walks out, the crowd following her.

I stop dead in my tracks and turn slowly, just stare at her.

My mother has a look of absolute rage on her face. “Where exactly do you think you’re going?”

“To do what I’ve always wanted to do,” I say.

“Have you lost your mind? What are you talking about?” she asks.

“I’m going to bake. I’m going to start off as a pastry chef, then maybe even start a bakery of my own one day.”

I stare at her, resolute in the face of the tittering responses from Ophelia and her friends.

My mother shakes her head. “With what? We own everything you have. Your cards, your clothes, your apartment, even your friends.”

My shoulders slump. But I stiffen my jaw. “I don’t care. I’ll start over. I’m no longer going to let you control my life.”

“Wake up. You sound deluded. What exactly do you know about the real world? How will you make money? How will you make friends? No man will ever love you.” She shoots out that last remark knowing she’s found her mark, and a look of triumph crosses her face. “You’ve embarrassed yourself enough. Now get back inside.”

Harvey’s face is eerily calm as he snatches my arm. “Are you done creating a scene?”

“Let me go,” I say. My wrist burns as he squeezes it.

“Don’t embarrass me, you silly bitch,” he sneers, yanking hard enough to almost dislocate my arm.

“Take your hands off her.” A voice rumbles behind me.

The crowd gapes. Harvey’s expression engages in a threeway battle between panic, indignation and fear. Following his trembling stare to a wall of smoldering anger, I peer heavenward at my would-be savior.

With brows slammed together, petulant storm clouds embedded in gray-green eyes, and nostrils flaring, this anger is an otherworldly force. And it has a name.

Silas.

2

DELILAH

He came back. But why?

I get my answer soon enough when he grips Harvey’s wrist, prompting him to release me.

Harvey squirms in panic and attempts to fight off the steely grasp. “Unhand me,” he yelps. It’s futile. The difference in strength is between human and superhuman.

Silas imposes an ominous closeness and snarls, “She’s mine. If you so much as look at my woman again, I’ll make you regret it.”

My woman?Come again?

The entire day has felt surreal enough, but now it takes a turn for the damn right insane as I suddenly feel like I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole and crash landed into Wonderland.

Silas effortlessly spins Harvey around and locks his arm behind his back. I watch as the fight visibly seeps from his body before my bearded hero shoves him away.

Then he grabs the back of my neck, slams his lips into mine, and obliterates the whole freaking world.

Brutal. Explosive. Savage. Hot.

---