Masquerade (33 page)

His blond head poked in the window,
“Is she gone?”

I giggled. “Yes.”

“
I thought she’d never go
to bed.” As he walked toward the bed, I admired the way he moved
with such grace, and I thought of how hard his body had felt
pressed against mine. I was disappointed when he crouched down
beside the bed instead of climbing in.

“
You okay?” he reached out
and threaded his fingers through mine.

I nodded. “I’m glad you came
back.”

“
Yeah?” His smile was quick
and my heart sped up at the sight. “Want me to hang out
awhile?”

I tugged his hand and pulled the
covers back in invitation. He slid between the sheets, and I threw
an arm and leg over him then rested my cheek against his chest.
“Can you stay?”

He pressed a kiss to my forehead.
“Yeah.”

I yawned as my eyes slid closed. He
was comfortable, and I felt safer than ever before. When I opened
my eyes again Sam was slipping out from beneath me. I made a sound
of protest and clutched at him. He leaned in close and whispered,
“The sun is coming up. I have to go.”

It was morning? I looked toward the
window and saw that the sky was lightening. I couldn’t remember the
last time I’d slept so peacefully. I started to pull myself up but
Sam pressed me back against the pillows. “Go back to
sleep.”

“
Miss you.”

“
I’ll be in the barn, up in
the loft. Come see me later.” I grabbed his hand, and he kissed me.
I heard a sound in the hallway – Grandma was up. “I have to go,” he
whispered, tucking the blanket around me.

I nodded. “I’ll meet you in the
barn.”

“
I love you.”

Before I could tell him the same he
disappeared out the window.

Chapter
Seventeen

Heven

“
You’re up early,” Grandma
said, not bothering to hide her surprise. She was measuring coffee
into the pot and then turned it on to brew.

“
I fell asleep early last
night.”

“
Sleep well?”

“
Yes.”

“
How about I make a big
breakfast to celebrate?”

My stomach grumbled loudly, and I
nodded. “I’m starved.”

“
Wonderful!”

“
I think I’ll go see Jasper
and give the horses some hay.”

“
They’ll like that.” She
was already pulling out pans from the cupboard.

“
Would you like some
help?”

She waved me off. “Shoo!”

I shoved my feet into my sneakers and
palmed the doorknob. Nervously, I turned back. “Uh, Grandma, would
it be okay if I called Sam and invited him for
breakfast?”

“
Now that’s a name I
haven’t heard in a while.”

“
I
–
uh asked him for some space. You
know after Mom…”

“
I understand.” She nodded,
not turning away from her cooking. “Sure, honey, call him. The more
the merrier!”

I swallowed past the lump in my
throat. Her love and acceptance meant more to me than she could
ever know. “Thanks, Gran. I love you.”

“
I love you, too. Now go on
and feed the horses.”

My pace quickened the closer I got to
the barn. Anticipation curled around me as I swung open the barn
door and shut it behind me. I ran to the ladder that led up to the
loft, calling his name as I went. He appeared at the top with a
smile on his face. I climbed up the ladder as fast as I could. Once
at the top I launched myself at him, eager to feel his arms close
around me.

“
I didn’t expect you until
later,” he laughed.

I snuggled in closer, enjoying his
scent. “I couldn’t wait.”

He chuckled again.

“
You’re invited to
breakfast!”

“
I am?”

“
Uh-huh. Grandma was so
happy I got up early and wasn’t depressed that she is cooking a
huge breakfast. She said I could call and invite you.”

“
Sure beats the power bars
I’ve been eating.”

I remembered that he was spending his
nights here, and I pulled away, feeling guilty. A pile of clothes
lay off to the side, and a single blanket was tossed across a loose
bed of hay, near it was a small flashlight and a book. His book bag
and sneakers were tossed in another corner. “Have you been spending
all your time here?”

He shrugged.

“
But why?”

“
I told you
why.”

“
So
she’s still around?” The thought gave me the
willies.

He shook his head. “Not
since right after prom. She took off, and I haven’t seen her
since.”

“
She left?”

“
Yeah, I think she’s still
out searching.”

“
Then why are you
practically living in the barn?”

“
She’ll come
back.”

“
Because she wants to kill
me.”

“
She won’t.” His voice was
harder than I’d ever heard it before. “I’ll kill her
first.”

The absolute resolve in his voice
scared me. Was he really capable of killing her? Of killing anyone?
I backed up toward the ladder. “I need to feed the
horses.”

“
I’ll watch from up here.”
He smiled a tilted smile, and just like that, he transformed back
into the boy I loved.

“
You have something against
horses?”

“
More like they have
something against me.” Again he smiled
–
a quick flash of white
teeth.

I paused climbing down the ladder and
looked up at him. He stood over me all bronze and gold. His skin
always looked kissed by the sun, and his hair always glistened with
beautiful gold highlights. It was so incredibly easy to forget what
he was, but even as I remembered, I noticed his full peach lips and
round hazel eyes. That’s when it hit me. I didn’t care what he was
or wasn’t, because to me, he was everything, and nothing was going
to change that.

“
Heven?”

I shook my head, trying to clear it.
“It’s nothing.” I smiled and finished going down the ladder.
“Grandma mentioned that the horses seemed restless to her lately. I
guess I know why.”

“
I stay up here away from
them. I don’t want to make them uneasy.”

“
I know.” I headed into the
tack room to get a bag of grain. When I came back out I looked up,
and he was peering over the edge watching me. “So tell
me…”

“
Tell you what?”

“
What exactly is a
hellhound?”

He was quiet awhile, and I wondered if
he would tell me at all. Before going back into the tack house to
put away the grain, I glanced up. He was still in the same spot,
but he looked a little pained, like he might be ashamed to tell me
about himself. It made my heart hurt to see him that way. I didn’t
ever want him to feel ashamed to be who or what he was with me. I
walked to the bottom of the ladder and dropped the bag of feed as
his gaze flickered to me. “Never mind,” I told him, gently. “I’ve
already decided that it doesn’t change things between us – me
knowing. I still want to be with you.”

He was
shocked by my words, judging by the way that his body jerked
and his eyes widened. His lips parted, and a small sound came out
but otherwise he said nothing. I smiled to show him that I
understood and then walked
back into the
tack room. When I turned from the cubby after putting the bag away,
I was met with intense hazel eyes. “You could be with me, not
knowing anything about what I am?”

“
I already am with
you.”

“
It’s about time.” He
smiled quickly. “You made me work hard enough for you.”

His smile fell away and he grabbed me
and began kissing me aggressively, almost like he was angry that I
dared to make him feel that way. I answered his kiss with my own. I
was frustrated. Frustrated that my love didn’t come through enough
for him to be able to tell me about himself. But this wasn’t the
way to show him. I grabbed his wrists and tugged, pulling his hands
away from my face and placing them at my hips. Then I reached up
and gently ran my fingers through his hair and gentled my lips upon
his own. Just as I’d hoped, the kiss transformed into something
softer, and it became more about giving rather than taking. Every
beat of my heart screamed out my love. I wanted to tell him, so I
pulled back and took a deep breath, but he spoke first.

“
You deserve to
know.”

“
You don’t have
to.”

“
Yes,” he said, pushing a
hand through his hair, “I do. We can’t really be together with this
between us.”

“
So tell me.”

“
I didn’t know what a
hellhound was either until I turned into one when I was
thirteen.”

I wanted to gasp at the young age, at
the innocence that must have been stolen away in that moment, but I
didn’t. Telling me was clearly hard enough for him and I didn’t
want to make it worse.

“
I
was sitting in the kitchen doing my homework one minute, and
the next I was off running into the yard…I didn’t understand what
was happening to me. My skin, it burned. It felt like it was on
fire
–
like it
was just going to melt right off my bones. Every bone in my body
started shaking and making these sounds…this groaning and
crunching.” He shook his head as if to clear the vivid memory and
looked up at me. I nodded and reached out to lace my fingers in
his
.

“
I
thought the pain would never stop. I fell onto the ground, onto my
hands and knees. I remember thinking that I was dying, and then
everything just sort of snapped. And the next time I looked down I
was standing on four paws covered in midnight black fur. My torn
clothes were lying on the ground at my
feet
.
I
could still think – I was still me on the inside, but on the
outside I was something completely different.

I thought that maybe I was
just dreaming, that I fell asleep at the table doing my homework.
But then I heard my mom crying. She was crying and calling my name.
I looked behind me where she stood; the phone was clutched,
forgotten, in her hand. I wanted to tell her that I was okay, and
when I opened my mouth, this growl ripped from my throat. My mother
jumped, and the phone fell out of her hand onto the ground. I moved
to pick it up, and I stumbled. Walking on four legs instead of two
was much harder than you might think. Before I could fall, though,
my reflexes took over, and I sprang up and forward. My mother
screamed and ran. She ran into the house and locked the door.” His
voice had grown quiet and hollow. I couldn’t even begin to imagine
how frightened he must have been, and then his mother ran away, she
turned her back when he needed her most.

“
Sam,” I said, gently. “You
don’t have to tell me anymore.”

“
I want
to.” He said quietly as he moved across the room to stare at the
row of saddles hanging from the wall. “She wouldn’t let me in at
first. I didn’t stay as a hound for very long but changed back
about ten minutes later. I stood there shaking, trying to conceal
my naked body. I couldn’t cry because I was so
shocked
.
Shocked from what was happening to me, but also shocked
because she wouldn’t let me in the door
.
She just stood there and stared at
me like I was a monster, like she was afraid. I heard her talking
on her cell phone to my dad. He was at work, and she was
hysterical. He came home early. I’ll never forget the look on his
face when he came into the kitchen and looked at me. I was sitting
at the table, my whole body hurt, and I was so confused. He was
mad, I could tell by the way the vein in his forehead stood out and
by the way he clenched his jaw. I apologized for what I’d done, and
I swore I wouldn’t do it again. My mother was crying, but he just
stood there, staring at me, like there was no hope. Then he turned
to my mother and told her to get rid of me.”

I gasped, my hand flying up to cover
my mouth.

He smiled a sad kind of smile and
shook his head. “It’s okay, don’t be upset. It was a long time
ago.”

It hadn’t been that long
ago…but it was brand new to me. The things that Sam had lived
through were things that he wouldn’t ever forget
–
neither would
I.

“
Mom sent me to my room,
and they got into a huge fight. I could hear it all, even after
they started whispering. Apparently, Dad had a few
skeletons hiding in the family tree. He carried
the gene mutation for hellhounds, something that was passed down
through the members in his family
.
He said he never told her because they thought
the
gene had died out because a hound
hadn’t been produced in three generations. Usually it’s every other
one. Guess I got lucky.” He laughed, but it was a bitter
sound.