Page 25 of If I Were Wind

“Careful.” He took the brunt of the impact, caging me, but didn’t complain. In fact, he was laughing hard, carelessly happy.

Try as I might, I couldn’t remember having ever heard him laughing so hard. His body shook with laughter, and funny noises hiccupped out of him. He was holding me, finally without tension on his face. In the jumble of the fall, I was squashed against him harder, the merging getting deeper. Another warm sensation washed over me, like walking through the spray of hot water from a shower. His raw feelings sank into me and mingled with mine. His careless happiness was contagious and left a trail of happy thoughts behind. His thoughts. About me.

I saw myself through his eyes, more beautiful than I was, my lips fuller, my breasts heavier, my skin smoother. I felt his fierce desire for me, a piercing need that burned inside him, torturing him. I heard the sound of my voice through his ears, sweeter than it really was. I smelled my own scent, sweet and spicy and maddening for him. My smile flashed through snippets of memories, as if I were watching my reflection in a myriad of shattered mirrors. His desire to protect me pulsated every time he stared at me. He wanted to take me, to bury himself deep inside me. If he hadn’t done it earlier, it was because he hadn’t wanted to scare me, to overwhelm me, to hurt me. Oh, he had no idea.

“Not in the woods.” His thoughts echoed in my mind. “Not like that. You deserve better.”

“I wouldn’t mind, though.” Our exchange of thoughts lasted a second.

Roy let out a groan. Something cold intruded in our space. It was a thought or a memory, but it wasn’t mine. No, I was wrong. It wasn’t a memory, but another presence, as if there was a third person merging with us, watching us, and feeling what we were feeling. A pair of amber eyes flickered in front of me. Roy’s eyes. No, it wasn’t him. It was Lukas, his twin. Roy and Lukas were running along a steep path in Raven Park, the connection between them so strong that I gasped. It was an invisible vine, wrapping them together. The coldness intruded again, causing my teeth to chatter. The presence grew stronger, and my pulse spiked with fear, as if someone or something was chasing me.

“What is that?” I asked, dread crawling up my neck. “There’s something—”

Roy split us so fast that pain rippled through my body. For the second time, I fell over to the hard ground with a thud. Agony burned up my back and shoulders, all the warmth of earlier gone. Something sharp scratched my elbow. I groaned, sitting on the ground.

Hair wild over his reddened face, Roy loomed over me, his fists clenched at his side.

“What happened?” I asked, rubbing my sore spots. “Why did you split us?”

His chest was heaving as he stood there, eyes flaring wide. A glimmer of fear sparked in his gaze and rippled down his body.

“Roy, talk to me.” I picked myself up, brushing dry leaves from my skin and wincing at the stones pressing against the soles of my feet. “What happened during the merging? What was that menacing presence?”

The moment I stretched out an arm to touch him, he sprang back. In a blur of black fur, he turned into his eight-foot-tall panther in all his massive and terrifying glory. Fangs flashed under his upper lip. He half crouched on his legs, snarling.

“I don’t understand.” I took another step towards him. “And you aren’t going to scare me. Talk to me.”

A low growl rumbled out of him, but it wasn’t a warning. It sounded like the desperate cry of a creature in pain. Before I could touch him, he leapt into the brush, and on silent paws disappeared, leaving a trail of desperation behind.

I rubbed my goosebumped arms, wondering, not for the first time, what the hell had happened.

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