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Fear traced lightning streaks down my spine. I wanted to run, but he stood between me and safety. The only way forward was through him, so rather than run and hide, I raised a hand. “Hey, you. What are you doing here?”
He did not respond, except to come closer. Dread must have twisted my mind, because he moved without taking steps, in a way no human could. I strode forward, aiming to make a loop around him. He moved again, so quickly I cried out.
We were face to face, me and this shadow figure. He was close enough I could have reached out and touched him. I did not. Instead, I ran the other way, toward the beach, pulling up short when he appeared ahead of me.
The lighthouse flashed, and a sharp pain stabbed my side. The shadow figure vanished in the glare, though when I turned toward the house, he was there. So close. I dodged, but so did he. The faster I ran, the faster he moved. I turned. There he was. I jerked to the side.
And ran right into him.
Dark poured over me, into me, drowning me, leaving me gasping for breath. Every inhalation, though, brought more darkness in. I thrashed, standing on tiptoe, pushing back against this…this…this force.
“No.” My attempt at refusal ended in a gag, as if I could vomit up this invading thing.
Darkness, malevolence, evil filled me, stretching out as if to follow my muscles and sinews and veins, to occupy every part. I fought, fists clenched, muscles tense, resisting its progress. The little magic I possessed would do me no good here, as I could no more reach inside myself and change into something else than I could fly to the moon.
I wouldn’t give up, though my fight did little good. The voice I thought of as me, myself, my constant inner companion, felt crowded, stifled. A lonely sound in the face of the rushing, howling malice that filled my thoughts. So little space. So little air. I fell to my knees. I would not give in. I would not…
“No, you will not take him.”
The words came from a great distance. Rough hands grabbed my shoulders and shook me. My head snapped, rocked, came to rest against a firm thigh. I stayed there, grateful to be able to draw in a breath.
“Leave him.” A new power bathed me. This one was warm instead of cold, light instead of darkness. The shadow being thrashed strongly enough to make my arms move, but the steady voice from above kept up a stream of refusal. “You will not have this one. Go back to hell where you belong.”
Now when I fought, I was able to gain leverage. My muscles tensed and twisted, and with a cry that started somewhere deep in my gut, I forced the thing away.
And with it gone, I fell to the ground. For a long moment, my world went dark.
“Vincent.” Someone shook my shoulder. “Vincent. Are you there?”
“Where else would I be?”
The shaking gentled and strong hands lifted me till I was sitting up, though propped against a warm body. Rafe. I recognized his scent, smokey and herbal, even though I could not coax my eyes to open.
He had an arm around my shoulders, and both of us seemed content to simply rest against each other. Only when he exhaled in something like a sigh did I speak. “I suppose that was our friendly Ferox Cor.”
“It was.” His voice rumbled against my chest.
“Thank you for freeing me. I couldn’t have done it on my own.”
He pulled me tighter against his body. “Martin Gallagher overestimated his own strength. His pride has threatened us all.”
There was a note of finality in his voice, as if he’d said all he wanted to about his father and the Ferox Cor. To be honest, I was fairly sick of both subjects myself. “I was looking for you because I couldn’t sleep.”
He stilled, a marked enough change that I pried my eyes open. We sat on the edge of the lawn, the gravely beach at our feet. The clouds had thinned enough to let the moon send a shaft of light across the water. I glanced at Rafe and found him looking at me with an intensity that made my heartbeat rise again.
But for an entirely different reason.
“I think we will be safe for now. The thing will need regain its strength,” he said.
My breath caught in my throat. I had no idea whether he was telling me the truth, although, “in this situation, I’ll bow to your greater experience.”
I loaded my smile with all the invitation possible. To be this close to a man who may never have truly seen me added a frisson of excitement to the experience. Other men had wanted me because I was handsome, but I had no idea why Rafe did.
Those thoughts ran through my head between one heartbeat and the next, and then I reached for Rafe, laying my palm on his cheek. “Do you want me to kiss you?”
Some tension in him melted away. “Yes, and in this circumstance I’ll bow to your greater experience.”
I straightened, at the same time pulling him in. We paused with our faces so close his breath brushed against my lips. My gut swirling with a mix of desire, excitement, and something like fear, I closed the gap.
