Page 194 of Shifting Hearts 1
A tiny glow bug floated before the girl with red curls, a tempting wisp that pulled her away from our party. She dartedforward, tripping over herself in her haste to exit the woods. Tiny hands waved in the slivers of muted sunlight. Then she was gone, breaking through the edge of the forest to freedom.
A scream built in my throat that never ripped through the forest as she disappeared, like she’d never been there at all. The next child followed her, shooting between twisted, grabbing branches that swayed in their constant back-and-forth motion though they were too tall to touch the children.
Too high to be bothered by our passing, but they moved all the same.
"We’re there,” I breathed.
We're there we’re there we’re there.
The chant changed as the children charged forward en masse. I halted, allowing myself a smile, counting heads yet again as each child passed beneath the wavering branches.
And then I did something I'd never let myself do before. Just as Joey's head of dirty blond hair was replaced by scratching branches still shifting when they never should have, I glanced over my shoulder, and looked back.
I stared into the darkness, daring the shadows to expose their secrets.
Whoever watched me travel through the forest, who watched me last night and listened to my sounds in the darkness, that was the presence I dared to show themselves now. I waited, holding my breath until my lungs were fit to pop. An invisible touch grazed my spine in a cold caress as I twisted on my heels, spinning in a perfect circle to find that the only company I kept?—
Was my own.
Goose flesh broke out on my arms. Without conscious thought I twisted back the way the others had disappeared and sprinted to the edge of the forest. My bare feet slid on the dew laden, lush new grass beyond. Sunlight instantly warmed my skin, bringing with it a welcoming heat that delivered instantcolor to pallored faces, including my own. Happiness filled the clearing at the door to my mother’s cottage, cries and laughter and tears circulating at the children’s new found freedom.
I stood still amidst it all, my back aching from the pressure that lingered along my spine where the forest watched.
And waited.
TWO
WOLF
Itasted her fear and reveled in it. The way she stared between the shadows, right through me like she knew exactly where I stood, left my hips jerking with the need to slam her to the ground and remove any sliver of innocence she might still possess.
That, and the way she protected the kids. Not that I had the luxury of morals, not in my line of work. Still, her fear tasted like prey I chased beyond the forest for hours, edging myself to satisfy the type of hunger that only came with the chase, and never with catching the object of my desire.
She thought the forest watched her, that evil stalked her steps, ready to snatch her wards from her fine, pale hands.
She was right. And she was wrong.
My little treat didn't live by the grace of her sacrifices, thinking that here, she alone protected them. Nor did she have any idea why I followed her, or why I let her see my eyes years ago, when she first entered the forest. Then, when I approached her, even in the shadows, she baulked at my presence, pushingme away. And even though I knew she was the perfect mate, I kept that knowledge inside as it ate at me.
And I watched. Waited, just like the other creature in the forest who knew that she belonged to us, though he hadn’t admitted to knowing it yet.
Soon, she would know. Because I refused to wait any longer. Then she would be mine, perfect and tender and ripe. Like the hunter I’d been for so long, her stalker, I tasted her footprints, searing her flavor into my tongue.
My treat was addictive, the drug I kept myself high on between jobs. And this would be my sweetest delicacy yet.
“Are you done?” Dagan’s raspy voice moved with him as he flowed between trees.
The forest dweller slid from trunk to trunk until he stood next to me, his skin bearing the patterns of the elm he stepped from last, his surfaces hard and roughened next to my muted gray fur.
His feet pressed over her imprints, removing the last of her lingering scent.
I growled my displeasure. "If you insist on touching her with your leaves and branches, you’ll scare her off and we won’t have this…pleasure again.” I glared at the treeman as his skin returned to normal.
Two out of time beings who shared an obsession in a human world.
Bryn.
My claws and teeth retracted painfully as I worked my jaw, letting my body find its way through the fur that decorated the forest’s path. A path that would cease to exist the moment we stepped away from it.
