Page 56 of Soul of Shadow
“Are you?” He reached up a pale hand and touched it to the top of her head, at the place where her dark hair met her skin. “And how does that make you feel?”
Her breath rose in her chest, becoming shallow. There were those pesky älvor again, fluttering around her stomach as if in a frenzy.
“Elias,” she whispered. “What are we really doing down here?”
“Nothing.” He ran his fingers down her hairline, letting them linger at the base of her chin. “I just wanted to be alone with you.”
Charlie’s body froze. What was going on? How drunk must he have been to say something as outrageous as that? They were onlypretendingto date, and only for the sake of a mission that heforcedher to help with. He had bullied her into this. Threatened her life. Threatened the people she loved. His behavior since they’d arrived at the game had been bizarre, erratic, as if someone else had taken over his body.
“What for?” she asked slowly.
His fingers brushed down her chin, along the side of her neck, finally coming to rest at the hollow at the base of her throat. They left a trail of heat in their wake. He stared at the place where they rested for several seconds, a strange look in his eyes. A gleam, a focus. A hunger.
Then, as if suddenly remembering where he was, he pulled his hand away and took a step backward. His face melted into its usual sarcastic smile. “To discuss homecoming attire, of course,” he said. “Tell me about your dress for tomorrow. So I can coordinate.”
Charlie hadn’t realized she was holding her breath until she finally expelled it, gradually, silently, not wanting Elias to realize the effect his closeness had upon her.
“Um.” She scrambled for words. For one coherent thought. “I… don’t have one. I didn’t find anything I liked at the store.”
Elias knit his brow. “You don’t have one? Then what are you going to do about tomorrow?”
She shrugged. “Borrow something from Lou, probably. That’s what I did last year.”
He seemed unnaturally disturbed by this information. “But you’re so beautiful,” he said. “You should have something special. Something that feels likeyou.”
Her heart went completely still.You’re so beautiful.
He took a step closer, and she felt it again, that sense that the world was falling away, that everything was collapsing into this one moment, his hand rising to her cheek, his eyes dark and molten, his face bending forward, drawing near, only a breath away…
A loud squeak sounded at Charlie’s feet.
She and Elias startled apart. They looked down, only to find the vätte plopped on the ground beside their shoes.
“Did you…” Charlie blinked in shock. “Did youwalkhere?”
The vätte nodded eagerly.
She let her head fall into her hands, peeking at the creature through her fingers.
“Well, well.” Elias bent down and scratched under the vätte’s hat. He leaned into Elias’s palm, making a low noise of enjoyment. “You seem to have found yourself a loyal follower.” He looked up at Charlie. “Have you named him yet?”
“Named him?” Charlie lifted her head from her hands. “Why would I do that?”
“It’s your prerogative, as a human to whom a vätte has attached himself. Vätte are wanderers. They spend their immortal lives drifting from place to place, in search of a truly brave soul to follow. Once they’ve found one, it’s up to the human to give them a name.” He tickled under the creature’s chin. “That nameis like a stamp of authentication. It seals the bond between the vätte and the human.”
“But that’s ridiculous,” Charlie said, straightening all the way back up. “I don’t want to bind this creature to me. I don’t even know what that means.”
The vätte, hearing this, turned away from Elias’s hand, drooping slightly.
“It’s okay, buddy,” Elias whispered. “She doesn’t mean it.”
“Of course I mean it. I’m in way over my head, here, and I can’t afford to—”
A rib-rattling roar ripped through the air.
It wasn’t the roar of the crowd, or of an angry coach yelling at a referee. It was guttural, inhuman, like something out of the monster movies that her mom loved watching so much. It sent Charlie to her knees, hunching down as if she could duck beneath the horrifying noise.
A protective arm landed on her shoulders as Elias crouched beside her.
