Darlings of Paranormal Romance (Anthology) (222 page)

Her head snapped toward the Kember. In
the blink of an eye, he stood before her, blocking her way to the
car. Her eyes widened and I heard her intake of breath. She turned
and ran into the forest.

He watched her run.

Everything around me slipped and ran
together like a wet canvas. The scene before me melted and darkness
rushed in.

Replaced at once with concerned green
eyes, a creased brow…

Aiden.

His hands gripped my arms. He gazed
straight into my eyes. “Can you hear me? Taylee?”

I blinked.

He breathed in relief.

I opened my mouth, staring at Aiden in
disbelief. “…what the—?”

He hesitantly released me and motioned
around us. “I don’t know. You were in a trance or something. I’ve
been trying to get your attention for the last half hour. Are you
okay?”

“
I…” We were still out in
the forest, but out of the trees. Few stars dotted the sky and the
moon’s light reflected right on…the cabin. I walked here? A chill
shot up my spine. I stood at the exact same distance and angle I
had in my dream—or whatever it was. “The girl was there,” I
whispered, pointing past his head at the place I had seen
her.

He glanced behind his shoulder, then
back at me. “No one was there.”

I stepped around him but couldn’t make
out much detail in the darkness. “You’re sure?”

“
Yes, it’s abandoned.
Windows are broken and a few logs are rotted away.”

No, that couldn’t be right. I
squinted, trying to get a better view of the house and cursed my
normal eye sight.

“
What’s going on? One
second you collapsed and the next you were on your feet walking.
You wouldn’t answer me. You wouldn’t look at me…”

“
I-I thought I was
dreaming.” Without hesitation, I blurted the entire vision to him,
all the while trying to make sense of it.

Aiden pivoted toward the house and
raked his fingers through his hair. “I don’t even know what to tell
you. Kind of sounds like an illusion.”

“
One way to find out.” I
stepped around him.

Reaching out as I passed, he stopped
me. “It’s midnight. Let’s come back tomorrow.” He gestured to the
sky. “When you can see.”

I pushed his hand back from my
stomach, smirking. “Your sense of adventure gets lost with your
humor, Captain?”

“
This isn’t some kind of
’do now, think later’ situation. If what you saw was, in fact, an
illusion, the girl may not even exist. This could be a set up. You
may be walking right into someone’s hands.”

I considered it. “Well…you sense
anything? Anyone lurking in the shadows?”

His stiff reply took a moment to come.
“No. Not that I hear.”

“
Good. Now we’ve thought
about it, let’s go.” I tried to step forward, but my ankle caught
in the knee-deep weeds, making me trip.

He caught my elbow and sighed.
“Careful.”

I straightened and pushed back the
hair hanging in my face, my cheeks growing warm. Walking forward, a
lot more cautious, I made my way to the entrance. I turned the
handle and pushed on the door. It wouldn’t budge. “Son of a— did
they cement this thing in?” I kicked it hard, cursing it to hell.
“It’s stuck!”

Aiden motioned me aside. He wiggled
the handle and it broke off, clattering as it hit the cracked
concrete pad.

I scoffed. “That’ll work,
too.”

He slammed his shoulder into it and
the door flew open, dangling on one hinge.

I rolled my eyes. “Showoff.” Though
I’d never admit it to him, I was actually quite
impressed.

A hint of what could’ve been a smile
touched his lips, but otherwise he didn’t acknowledge my comment.
Testing each step with his foot, he went inside the mass of
shadows. “Step where I do.” He turned back and held out his hand,
giving me something. “The last thing we need is you falling through
the floor.”

I frowned, turning over the smooth
cylindrical object in my hand: A flashlight. “You’ve had this the
whole time?” His hand, still outstretched, caught my attention. My
chest tightened and the flashlight situation left my mind. I
stepped inside the house and took it. I hated how warm and strong
it felt around mine. As bad as my emotions wanted to wig out, they
were blocked when I took in the abandoned house.

Moving the light beam across the
space, I grimaced at the apparent living room. Back in the day, it
was probably beautiful and cozy with the huge rock fireplace and
tall windows, but all traces of that were gone. The only things
that’d occupied it in the last decade were most likely animals and
guys like Herman.

Dust from the warped wood floors
clouded and swirled in the air as we walked. I pressed my lips
tightly together, but the powdery substance wafted into my nose. I
coughed and fanned my face. “Nice. When do we move in?”

“
Strange.”

I peered
around the room wondering what had him stumped. Sofas were ripped
and moldy. Pictures covered in cobwebs hung on the walls…I didn’t
find it strange, just gross. Aiden pulled me around a broken coffee
table positioned in front of a small boxy TV and bent to dust off a
few magazines splayed across the floor. He picked one up. Faded and
torn, but enough intact to make out the cover. A TV Guide that
advertised Disney’s
Beauty and the
Beast
. His brow furrowed and he tossed it
back onto the ground.

“
Come on.” He pulled me
toward a staircase winding to the second level.

The flashlight beam bounced off four
doors and the cracked walls of the narrow hallway at the top of the
stairs. Aiden didn’t hesitate. He opened the first door we came to
and dragged me inside. A long desk, still covered in papers,
dominated the middle of the room. On it sat a grey computer I swore
was older than the Golden Gate Bridge.

He blew out a huff of air as he looked
around.

I jerked my hand from his and turned
on him. “Okay, enough with the huffing and puffing. I know you’re
confused. Time to share with the class.”

He motioned around the office. “You
don’t find any of this odd?”

“
What?
That people were able to function before
real
computers?”

“
That someone left all
their stuff.”

“
Oh, that.” I took in the
room one more time. “Yeah, I’d say it’s weird. What does it have to
do with the girl?”

Cautiously, he moved to the desk and
started wiping the dust off papers. He rummaged through them and
rubbed his brow. “I don’t know yet.”

“
Well, what’re you looking
for?”

He winced, and I quickly moved the
light beam from his face.

“
Anything. If I can find a
bill or letter it could tell us who lived here.”

“
Good thinking. Me and
trusty flashlight’ll check the room across the hall.”

He pointed a finger in my direction
without looking up. “Stay.”

“
Dog commands? Really?” I
placed my hand on my hip and glared.

“
Power bill.” Aiden
unfolded the paper. “This has to give us something.”

I stared expectantly at
him.

He tapped his chin, eyebrows drawn
together.

“
What?”

He set the bill down and slowly lifted
his head until his eyes met mine. My heart thudded in my chest and
not because of the beautiful green emeralds staring back at me. It
was the look in them. Compassion, confusion and a lot of other
things that told me something along the lines of: shit.

Give me life-sucking monsters any day.
Bad news—anything life changing—and…

I spun on my heel and walked out of
the room.

“
Taylee!”

Half way across the hallway, his tone
stopped me. Not harsh or exasperated. Panicked. He barreled over
the desk and bound toward me.

I found out a second too late
why.

Chapter 18

Like the wood was made of sawdust, it
disintegrated beneath my feet. I fell straight through the
floor.

Everything happened in slow motion. I
squeezed my eyes shut. A high pitched scream escaped my lips as a
picture of me with a broken back, flashed through my mind. Body
cast…wheel chair…Aiden spoon feeding me...

Air burst from my lungs when I hit
something firm but, surprisingly, soft. I clutched the flashlight
in hand and opened my eyes as Aiden crashed down next to
me.

Before I could regain my stolen
breath, Aiden rolled over top of me. He didn’t smoother me, he
supported his own weight, hovering like a shield. A cracking,
creaking sound, met my ears. Debris piled around us—on top of us—as
the ceiling crumbled and clattered to the floor.

Gasping, I sucked in dust then coughed
hoarsely. A musty, damp smell flooded my nose. My throat burned and
scratched like I’d inhaled a screw or…sheetrock. I dropped the
flashlight and lifted my hands to pull my shirt over my face, but
they got distracted when my fingers brushed along Aiden’s solid
abs, then pecks.

Nice…

Once the
crashing stopped and the cabin finished its attempt to kill us, I
could feel Aiden’s glare bored into me. “Don’t you
ever
listen?”

“
Sure.” I shrugged. “Every
once in a while.”

“
You
could’ve gotten yourself killed. Do you think I’d tell you
to
stay
if I
didn’t have a reason?”

“
I think you’ve had one too
many dogs, personally.”

“
Start being
responsible.”

What made him think I wasn’t trying?
It’s not like I knew the floor would cave in. These things just
happened to me—victim of wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time
syndrome.

Silence
filled the cabin and I realized neither of us had moved. He still
hovered over me and I couldn’t bring myself to let go of his shirt,
though my fingers ached. I cursed my ridiculous, teenage-girl
stomach flutters and strained my eyes in the darkness, trying to
see Aiden.
Please don’t let him feel how
much I like this.
Maybe he was enjoying the
warmth our bodies created, too. I might be irresponsible, but
something made me think it gave him a break from his endless
perfection.

Aiden grunted and pulled his body off
mine.

Crashing sounds echoed through the
room as more pieces of ceiling hit the floor. I covered my head,
pulled my knees to my chest and let out a horrible girlish
squeal.

“
It’s okay.” Aiden coughed,
his voice close—like he was standing right in front of me. “It was
the wood sliding off my back.”

“
Oh, uh,
I-I know.” I jolted to the sitting position feeling a bit sheepish
and pushed a strand of hair behind my ear.
Idiot!
Had I been alone, I would’ve
slapped my forehead. Reaching out, I moved my hands over the chunks
of wood next to me. “Where’s my flashlight?”

“
Broken. How’re you— hurt
anywhere?”

I flinched when his fingers
unexpectedly tilted my chin.

“
Did I startle you?” There
was a sort of humor to his question—something I’d never heard
before.

I scowled. “Not all of us can see in
the dark, Batman.”

“
Batman
can’t
see in the dark.”

“
I’m. Fine.” I pushed his
hand away, still irritated.

Aiden didn’t argue, so I guessed he
believed me. The sound of boots tromping across the floor made me
reach forward to see if he was still there. He wasn’t.

Out of frustration and the need for
something to do, I started shoving piles of sheetrock off the
surface I sat on. A bed. I laughed coldly.

“
What?” Wood snapped and
knocked together in the same direction Aiden’s voice came
from.

“
Well, I’m beginning to
think fate keeps me alive for the sole reason of hurling its next
life threatening situation at me.”

I didn’t hear his response. Instead,
my attention got swallowed by the flicker of light sparking across
the room. It built into a small flame then continued to grow bigger
until a rock fireplace appeared and Aiden crouched in front of it.
Within minutes, a full-fledged fire developed.

Fire…

The hole
in my chest ached. The void in my stomach churned. I squeezed my
eyes closed but felt the heat against my skin. Smelled the smoke.
Heard the roar. Saw
his
face.

“
Open your eyes.” Like
Aiden knew the horrors running through my mind, he grabbed my
shoulders and twisted me away from the fire. Kneeling in front of
me, he assessed me. “Still with me?”

My heart pounded. Beads of sweat
formed on my brow. I nodded and peered around the room, trying to
divert my thoughts. A big dresser, walk-in closet and two
nightstands took up most of the space around me. I’d fallen right
into the master suite.