Dare (19 page)

“What?” I whispered.

He nudged me against the back of the theater. My back flattened on the wall. “When I saw you, I knew we had a connection.” His hands coasted over my hips.

I pulled his lips back to mine. I didn’t care about connections. All I knew was that the guy could kiss.

Yes, Case Maddox had tricked me. Thank God, I figured it out before it was too late. Case was a liar. He was a bully. He was evil and he had my friends.

That was fall of my junior year. He had lied about why he was a transfer student. He had lied about his real eye color. There wasn’t a shred of honesty anywhere under his skin. Now I watched him as he guarded Tegan and led the Tribe against me.

Vix elbowed me. “Uh-oh. Look.”

I followed the end of her finger. Case was on the phone. The video controllers were on the floor.

“They know,” I growled. “Eli must not have stayed on campus for his second class.”

Vix tugged on me. “We better go. Case and Trev are headed this way.”

We rushed from the loft. They were likely headed to the underground theater, the place where, for a few moments, I had thought he was a good guy. All of that was history.

“Maybe we can beat them there.” I tugged on Vix. “We have to at least try.” I felt desperate and hunted at the same time.

We ran to my car, and I took every shortcut I knew to get us to campus ahead of Case. I parked in a handicap spot in front of the union and dashed inside the concrete and brick building.

Vix was rushing beside me, as desperate as I was to find Eva. We raced down the staircase to the bottom level of the union. I shoved open the double doors to the theater. My eyes adjusted to the darkness.

“She’s not here,” I whispered. I couldn’t feel a supernatural presence.

Vix growled and paced along the rows of seats.

“How did they beat us to her? They were behind us.” She kicked at the back of one of the chairs.

“There are more of them than us. Abi isn’t anywhere near panther form. Case is using all of our weaknesses.” I sat in an empty chair. “He probably had Eli move her, or Ronan. We should have gone after Tegan.”

Vix sat next to me. The white screen hanging from the ceiling was ripped in the corner.

“What now?” The anger had faded from her voice.

“I’ll call Ian. He can give us a new location and we’ll make another plan.”

“Whatever you need me to do, you know I’ll do it.”

“I know you will. Let’s just hope it doesn’t get any worse.”

I
shoved the sweatpants over my legs as I sat on the edge of my bed and dropped them on the floor. Ice would be good. Narcotics would have been better. I should have had it cared for the night the jaguar scratched me, but I needed to keep the secret. I felt like I was keeping a lot of secrets lately.

The pain was searing. I felt the heat around the wound. “Damn.” I fell back on my pillow.

I thought I might try to get a workout in. At least I could do some upper body today, but I hadn’t slept and I didn’t know if I had the energy to make it the garage. I didn’t want to think about him today. I needed the focus. My practice was what kept me steady. Without it, I could sink into the blackness.

I balled my fists. Why was he gone? Damn it. Why was I here and he was gone?

I filled my lungs with air, visualizing the energy in my body. It helped.

This leg was making me crazy.

My run-in with Silver had taken me in a completely different direction. Pressed to find my own answers, I ended up aligning with a fanatic. Maybe my injury was creating delusions. The man actually believed the panther was a girl. A living, breathing person.

I wasn’t so sure anymore that hunting a panther in the woods at night was a good idea. I had already been hurt once.

I stared at the ceiling fan until my eyes closed.

I don’t know how long I had slept. I rubbed my eyes. My entire body felt stiff. I had slept in one position, not moving or turning.

I picked up my phone off the bedside table and scrolled through my last few calls. I tapped on Dare’s number.

“Hey.”

She answered right away.

“How’s your day going?” I sat forward, trying to stretch. Was it normal I missed the sound of her voice?

“It’s a little hectic right now. Can I call you back?” It sounded like she was running.

“Sure.” I thought about saying something dumb like I was thinking about her, or I had just had a dream about her, but she didn’t sound interested. Something was distracting her.

“Sorry, Zac. I’ll call. I’ll stop by later and see how your leg’s doing.”

Before I could update her, the phone went dark. I scowled at it. I tossed my phone on the mattress and forced myself out of the room. I needed food.

I fixed a sandwich and sat at the kitchen table. It was empty and quiet here alone. I didn’t usually spend much time here other than sleeping and working out, but I realized it felt more like home than anywhere else I had lived.

What was it about Dare that had gotten in my head? I’d known the girl four days. Somehow, that had been enough to make me act like an idiot.

I swallowed the ibuprofen she left for me with a full glass of water. I looked at the door that led to the garage. I couldn’t sit around like this the rest of the day.

Once I was inside, I flipped the lights and hit power on the AC unit I had installed in one of the door’s windows. The landlord wasn’t thrilled when I told him I was going to put a window unit in, but I promised to pay for a new window when I moved out.

I tried to calm the pain in my leg by taking in a few deep breaths. I stood, bearing most of my weight on my right leg, raising and lowering my arms. My lungs filling and expelling air. My arms both heavy and light as I sliced through the space in front of me. Eventually, I closed my eyes and focused on my breath.

I balanced on my right leg, sweeping my left heel to the side. I didn’t feel the pulsing from the injury. I had silenced everything.

The movements flowed through me. I had done them so many times it was as natural as breathing. I didn’t have to think what came next. My body was trained.

“Zac! What are you doing on your leg?”

I halted. Dare stood in the doorway leading to the kitchen. “How did you get in here? I thought you were busy.”

She held up a key. “You left the spare under the mat. Not really high security.” She walked toward me, her eyes scanning my leg.

“I guess I should move that.” I hopped to a chair. Without the breathing, I felt the pain rush through my leg.

“I was worried about you. I called you back, but you didn’t answer and then you didn’t answer your door either.”

“You were worried?”

“I was, but it looks like I was worried about the wrong thing.”

I shook my head. “This is good for me. It actually keeps the pain down.”

She stooped to the floor to examine my leg. “I don’t think it’s getting better.”

“I’ll be fine.” I reached for a pair of gloves and slid my fingers through them. I tightened the straps over my wrists.

“What are you doing?”

“Ready for your first lesson?” I pushed off the chair.

“I’m not going to train with you now. You’re hurt. You need rest, not-not this.”

“Afraid I’ll kick your ass?” I challenged. I liked how her eyes flared.

“I think it will be the other way around.” She stood in front of me. “I could use a few pointers first, though.” She sighed. “I can’t believe I’m going to let you do this on that leg. You should be lying down.”

I laughed. This was going to be fun. I placed my hands on her shoulders. “Just do what I do. We’ll take it slowly.”

She nodded. “Ok. I’m ready.”

I showed her how to breathe from her diaphragm, deepening the connection to her core. She was a quick study. After thirty minutes, she had mirrored all my movements. I wished my leg were healed. There was so much more I could have shown her.

“Can you show me what you do if you’re attacked?” She stood back from me for a second.

“Sure.” I shrugged. “Attack me.”

“Can’t you just go through the motions? I don’t want to hurt your leg.”

“You won’t get that far. Just come at me.” I eyed her. For a second, I thought she was going to back down, but then she launched herself at me.

My arm circled up, blocking her fist, knocking it away. My other arm reached for her shoulder and spun her until she was pressed against my chest. My forearm dug into her throat.