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I stared out the window into the growing dusk, surlier than when we’d set out. I was trapped on this island, trapped in a too-tight wet suit, about to be trapped in fre
ezing, black water. It put me in a complaining mood. “It’s so dark here. ”
“Enjoy it. You won’t realize you miss the darkness until it’s gone. ”
“I doubt that. ” I chafed my arms. We were in the middle of nowhere, and the prospect of vampires running amok in the steely half-light turned my skin to gooseflesh.
“We’re close to the pole. Just as there are months of mostly darkness, there will come a time of near-constant twilight. They call it the Dimming. ”
The word sent a shiver across my skin, even as a lightbulb went on in my head. We were near the Arctic Circle. Summer would be here before I knew it. Come June, there would be a sun that never set in a sky that was rarely bright. “The land of the midnight sun,” I muttered. “And that’s why vampires like it?”
“Aye, that’s why. It enables vampires to move about, imagining the sun on their skin, but without risk of discomfort. ” His voice was laden with some heavy emotion that told me he spoke of more than just the loss of suntans and his daily dose of vitamin D. “So appreciate the darkness now, Annelise, because you’ll miss it come the Dimming. ”
“Fine. I’ll start missing it tomorrow. How about that?” My heart rate spiked as a gently lapping cove came into view. The gunmetal sky was darkening rapidly now, pressing down on water the color of night. He pulled to a stop beside a jagged boulder, casting the car into cold shadow. I clung tight to my buckled seat belt. “But for now, it’s too dark for my taste. ”
“Annelise. ” He turned to face me. Dramatic shadows accentuated his stubble, the cleft in his chin, the shock of hair on his brow, like he’d become a charcoal drawing. “There is no putting this off. You must learn. And you must open your mind to the night. It, too, has lessons to teach. There’s a Chinese proverb. ‘Better to light a candle than curse the darkness. ’ ”
“Thanks, Obi-Wan. I’ll remember that as I drown. ”
He raised his arm, and I bristled, wondering if he dared try one of those touches again. I held my breath, but the moment passed.
Instead, he pointed to the shore. “Go stand by the water. Dip your feet. I need to put on my wet suit. ”
“You’re coming in, too?” I knew instant relief. Though, thinking about it, it was obvious he couldn’t let me go in the sea alone. My panicked brain just hadn’t gotten that far.
Then another fact struck me. It meant Ronan and I would be in the water. Together. And he was graduating from swim trunks to a wet suit. A skintight wet suit.
He gave me a quiet smile. “I’ll not let you drown, Annelise. ”
As shocking as it seemed, I truly believed him. Mustering a smile, I nodded and turned toward the water.
Large, softly rounded stones lined the shore, and I clambered over them. Venturing in the growing darkness, balancing on rocks, and even the naked feel of the wet suit—it all made me feel free, like I was a child again. Or, rather, like the child I’d never been. My youth had been strip malls and parking lots. But in the dark, in this place, Central Florida was a surreal and distant memory.
I hopped off the last of the big rocks and reached the water. Tentatively, I edged closer and closer to the quietly lapping waves. I wore a pair of skintight booties, and I scuffed them over the rounded pebbles of the shoreline, marveling at how the thick neoprene protected me from the elements.
Twilight had turned the sky a flat, slate gray. I inched closer, straining to see. Elsewhere I’d spotted crashing waves, but enormous rocks bracketed Crispin’s Cove on either side, sheltering it from the larger surf.
“Ready?” Ronan materialized from behind a boulder.
I tossed off a mirthless laugh. “I was born ready. ”
Slipping a hand under my elbow, he began to usher me in.
“Wait, wait, wait. ” I dug in my heels. The water was completely black. “I’m not ready. ”
Taking my shoulders in his hands, he turned me to face him. “And that’s your first lesson: You never will be. Now come. All I ask tonight is that you work on your floating. Can you do that?”
I suspected I could, but with his hands on me, I didn’t trust the feeling. I frowned at my shoulder. “You’re making me think I can do it, with that hoodoo touch of yours. ”
“Look at me, Annelise. ” His voice was deep and commanding, and I couldn’t help but raise my eyes to his. My shoulders and neck grew warm and tingly, my brain muzzy. I felt like a melting pat of butter.
Abruptly, he pulled his hands away, and I was instantly chilled. “That was my ‘hoodoo touch. ’ ”
“Oh,” I said meekly. The memory of his touch seared through the fabric of my wet suit. I rolled my shoulders to erase the sensation. “Do you promise not to do that again?”
“The only thing I can promise is that you’re more capable than you realize, and your mind more formidable than most. ”
“Because I’m so smart?”
