Two
Seduction
One tahun yang lalu . . . Laramie, Wyoming
The first time she saw him, he was alone, sitting in a booth across the kantin, diner from her with a thick book in his hands. From where she was sitting, it looked nearly as big as a phone book for a major city. There was no way he was actually membaca it. Though he was sitting down, he looked tall, nearly as tall as Adam, and his hair was unruly and light brown — almost like light gold. She couldn’t see his eyes. He was looking through the book so intently she supposed it was possible for him to be membaca such a large book.
He had to be new around here. She’d never seen him before even though that wasn’t really saying much. She’d only lived nearby about six months, but she came into town every day. She kinda had to. She would go out of her mind if she stayed in the house with Adam lebih than a few hours at a time. She loved Adam, really, but he’d been taking care of her since she’d been nine, and she wasn’t a little girl anymore. She drove and played poker and pool just as often as he did, and she knew how to pull her own weight. He knew that too. He just trouble admitting she was grown up — atau as grown-up as he’d been when all this started for him. They’d been on the pindah for almost nine years. She didn’t have any friends — except for Cas, but he was angel, and that kind of made him geographically undesirable as a friend.
After six months, she’d become accustomed to certain things — like the diner. It was the first thing she saw when she got into town, and she stopped there every hari to get something to eat. She always had money, but after a little while, the waitress behind the front counter — Barbara — had started giving her a free plate, stating “you’re about as regular here as a bowl of oatmeal. Keep your money for college.” She never had the jantung to tell Barbara that college wasn’t in her near future. The only thing she had planned for right now was staying alive. That didn’t mean she couldn’t hold her own against any other high school graduate her age, but it just wasn’t in the cards for her right now. In fact, if Sam had anything to say about it with all those crazy assignments he would send her, she could beat the pantat, keledai off every college graduate within a two-hundred-mile radius of her — and on any diberikan day.
She’d asked Barbara about this new patron after seeing him in the same booth five days in a row, but the woman who seemed to know everything about everyone had no idea who he was. That led to an incredibly awkward first meeting. She might’ve smelled like cow dung for the cold response she got out of him, and the selanjutnya one was even worse. She was curious and persistent. And after a week, he finally opened up to her. It was like a switch had been flipped. But he wasn’t alone anymore.
For the last week atau so, he’d had another man with him who looked about Adam’s age, and even though he’d been just as nice, he kind of creeped her out.
“I thought anda were old enough to be out without a chaperone,” she komentar as they walked through town with his companion a few feet behind him like a Secret Service man.
“Oh, don’t mind Donovan. He’s my brother,” he explained. “He’s just looking after me.”
“Well, I have a brother,” she added carefully, “but he trusts me. Most of the time.” At that, she smiled.
“Does it bother anda that he looks out for me?” he asked, his voice turning concerned.
“When anda put it like that, no, but it’s like he thinks I’m going to do something horrible to you.”
The selanjutnya day, Donovan was gone.
After a couple of weeks of it being just the two of them, she felt the need to get a few formalities out of the way.
“Keiran,” she said, “I want anda to meet my brother. Adam.”
“You do?” he asked, sounding like he’d never expected her to say that to him.
“Well, yeah,” she insisted. “I know your family. I want anda to meet mine.”
He smiled for the first time in three weeks, and she couldn’t believe how amazing it made him look. “I would cinta to,” he agreed.
The first meeting with Adam did not go well at all, especially with him asking the stupidest pertanyaan to get a certain response out of Keiran. It was worse that Mary really had no way of stopping him. She knew he was only looking out for her, and she knew his reasons were much lebih noble than anyone else’s who would follow their brother through the streets of a small town. But it was still annoying.
“Mary tells me you’re new in town,” Adam berkata as they all sat at the kantin, diner in their usual booth. “How new are you?”
Mary sighed heavily as she sat in the booth with Adam, lifting apologetic eyes to their guest. He smiled graciously.
“We just got into town a few weeks ago,” he answered willingly.
“You and your brother?” Adam asked, his voice filled with suspicion.
“Yes,” Keiran answered with a nod.
“So where are your parents?”
“Adam,” she exclaimed, “I didn’t want anda to meet him so anda could interrogate him!”
“It’s okay,” Keiran allowed. “My parents were killed in a car accident about nine years ago. My brother Donovan was old enough to take custody of me, and we’ve been moving around ever since.”
“Does your brother not have a regular job?”
He lifted his eyes to Mary’s, and for a brief detik atau two, his eyes flashed bright green. In an instant, Mary was overwhelmed with the strangest vision — one she hadn’t been haunted oleh since she’d been eight years old.
“He’s a freelance photographer,” Keiran answered with a nod in Adam’s direction. “We pindah when his assignment is finished.”
“And exactly what assignment is your brother doing around here?” Adam asked, glancing at Mary and somehow berating her for not thinking ahead about this situation. “We’re in the middle of nowhere.”
“That was part of his assignment,” Keiran replied smoothly. “Small town life. Places forgotten oleh the progression of technology. I’ve been helping him, and you’d be surprised the things he’s found worth . . . documenting.”
Adam scoffed softly, motioning for Barbara to come to the table. “I doubt there’s much interest in this place,” he argued. “Laramie isn’t exactly famous for anything.”
“Adam, that’s not very nice,” Mary interrupted. “No one’s ever asked anda about what anda do atau why. It’s not fair to pertanyaan the way someone else lives. Keiran, I’m sorry. I know I berkata Adam trusts me, but sometimes, he forgets I can take care of myself.”
Adam opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted oleh Barbara as she brought three lebih glasses of water. As of yet, there was no food on the table. Mary was quickly losing her appetite, and all she really wanted right now was to get away from Adam’s overprotectiveness.
“You all look hungry,” Barbara commented. “I can get anda three specials. No charge.”
Mary opened her mouth, but Keiran spoke before she could.
“That sounds wonderful,” he agreed, glancing at her and grinning crookedly. Somehow, she became hungry without realizing it, and she looked at Barbara, nodding.
“That does sound good,” she amended.
Barbara looked at Adam, giving him what could only be described as an evil eye before he grudgingly agreed.
“All right, fine,” he yielded. “Three specials.”
Barbara nodded. “Comin’ right up.”
It was quiet for a menit atau two, and Keiran drank his water silently before looking at Adam pointedly.
“So, what are anda doing in town?” he asked. “Mary berkata you’ve been here over six months.”
Adam sat back and folded his arms stubbornly over his chest. “I’m a writer,” he offered as his cover story, the fourth atau fifth he’d come up with so far. “And I don’t like staying in the same place for very long. I guess I’m a lot like your brother. I go where the assignments take me, except I make the assignments myself.”
Keiran smiled again, bowing his head. “Of course. But surely, it can’t be easy on Mary. Not being able to make friends atau roots. Isn’t she old enough to look after herself? To go where she wants.”
“Well, a lot like you,” Adam stated plainly, “our parents died when she was young, and it’s my job to take care of her. I don’t hold her here with me. She stays because she knows I can keep her safe.”
“From what?” Keiran asked with a chuckle.
“From you,” Adam berkata bluntly. “And other guys like you. Blowing into town and targeting the first girl who shows anda the slightest bit of attention. Thinking anda can wedge yourself between her and her family so anda can manipulate her into thinking I’m trapping her. And I wonder if anda and your brother even care about the fact that it’s wrong to do something like that.”
“That’s enough,” Mary exclaimed, causing them both to look at her. “I’m not a little girl atau an invalid. I’m not blind atau stupid. Can’t the two of anda find something else to talk about?! Please? The weather. Sports. The horror movie revival at the theater! Anything. Change the subject now, atau I’m leaving. And the two of anda can argue about ulterior motives until anda both go blue in the face.”
Adam bowed his head, exhaling sharply and glancing at Mary. “Sorry. I just don’t want anda to get hurt,” he reiterated. “You know that.”
Mary laid her hand over his shoulder. “I know. And we’ve talked about this. I know what to do.” She looked at Keiran. “And I cinta my brother. He’s taken care of me the last nine years. He’s my family, and I don’t feel smothered oleh him. I didn’t mean to imply that I do.”
Keiran also bowed his head. “Of course,” he berkata again. “It was wrong of me to presume anything of a situation I know nothing about. It won’t happen again.”
“Okay,” Mary said, sitting up straight as she relaxed and smiling slightly as Barbara brought a plate of biscuits to the table.
After that, the “meeting” was exceptionally personable and even a little overly nice as both Adam and Keiran avoided talking about the one thing they clearly wanted to talk about, and even though Mary was a little lebih than annoyed oleh the end of dinner, she was glad Adam had accepted what she’d said.
She knew what was at stake, especially since she’d been told about it every hari for the last several years of her life. She knew she wasn’t aman, brankas without Adam, and she knew why. It wasn’t just because she was a girl, and it wasn’t just because she was young. She was different from everyone else around her, and she was constantly reminded of it whenever she began to attract attention from people who saw the thing in her that was different.
But Mary hadn’t made a real friend since she was ten years old. She hadn’t known a real halaman awal in nine years, and simply referring to Adam as her halaman awal wasn’t enough anymore. She’d never had a boyfriend atau gone on a date. She’d never even kissed a boy before, and it was starting to take its toll on her feminine side. She couldn’t pretend she was okay with this arrangement anymore, and it wasn’t good enough for Adam to keep saying he just wanted to keep her safe. She knew he would do everything he could to keep her safe. He always had. And she knew he always would, but it just wasn’t enough anymore.
After dinner, Adam reluctantly left Mary with Keiran so he could go back to house to run sweeps of the town for any unusual activity, and even though he disguised it as “research,” Mary was glad he doing something to keep himself busy. Once she and Keiran were alone, she was surprised to find she didn’t want the night to end, and she thought of the first thing she could to keep it going.
“The theater really is tampilkan a horror movie revival this week,” she berkata as they walked from the kantin, diner closer to the center of town. “I know the ticket booth guy. He can get us a good deal.”
Keiran smiled then. “Is it aman, brankas to think I’m not the only one who doesn’t want to go home?” He asked.
Mary blushed. “Maybe,” she berkata softly.
“Horror movies?” He verified.
“From the thirties and forties,” she nodded. “I’ve seen a few of them. Not very scary, but nostalgic, I guess.”
“Then I would cinta to,” he agreed.
Experimentally, Mary wrapped her hand around his upper arm, and he looked at her with a crooked grin a few detik before she lowered her hand down his arm to his hand. Gently, he linked his fingers between hers, and Mary felt something she’d never felt before. She’d only known Keiran a couple of months, but she liked spending time with him, and it was obvious he liked spending time with her. She hoped they could keep doing this, and it looked like he wanted it too. Mary had never had a boyfriend. She wondered if it was too soon to think she had one now.
The theater house was one of those old buildings with the ticket booth out front and the concessions inside, and when Mary talked to the box office guy, he easily gave her two discounted tickets to [i]Doomed to Die[/b]. There weren’t that many people in the theater, and Mary found a kursi close to the back since the screen wasn’t the massive kind in modern theaters in the bigger cities. She liked coming to this theater since she could talk to guys in the film booth to play pretty much anything she wanted. There was something to be berkata about being inquisitive and new in town. Her newness had yet to wear off. She hoped it never did.
Halfway through the movie, Keiran draped his arm over the back Mary’s kursi without doing any of the normal “moves” most boys did to make it look natural for them to do what they’d just done. To Mary, it wasn’t unnatural for him to put his arm around her. In fact, the longer he had his arm around her, the lebih natural it felt. He reached for her hand then, and she reciprocated easily, linking her fingers with his and laying her head over his shoulder. It didn’t feel awkward, and it didn’t seem too new for her to be so comfortable with him. It felt normal. And even though Mary had no comparison for what she was feeling, she liked it. A lot.
The movie was almost over when Mary lifted her head and looked at Keiran, and he looked at her half a menit before leaning closer until his nose caressed hers gently. His breath was warm and sweet, and his lips came dangerously close to hers before an explosion of sound in the movie startled them both. She giggled then, and he laughed, watching the credits for a menit and then looking at her again.
“It’s late,” she whispered. “I need to get home.”
“I can walk you,” he offered.
She didn’t hesitate. “Okay.”
With that, he took her hand and helped her to her feet, following her out of the theater and then away from the building as the jalan, street lamps of the town illuminated the jalan, street blocks. It was after nine o’clock, and Mary lived a few miles outside town. She’d walked before, but tonight, it was different. Tonight, she wasn’t walking alone.
“Did anda like the movie?” Mary asked Keiran as they walked arm in arm down the sidewalk.
“I did,” he nodded. “It was very interesting.”
She leaned back to look at him, and he turned his eyes to her. “Really?” She asked. “It wasn’t bad?”
He shook his head. “No. Of course not. We should do it again.”
Mary smiled. “We should,” she agreed.
They walked until the sidewalks stopped and turned into rocky paths leading out of town, and even though Mary was sure it would look strange to Keiran for them to be walking in the middle of nowhere in the dark oleh themselves, he never berkata anything. He actually held onto her tighter the further away from town they got. Mary was relieved he didn’t find it odd that she walked this far away from town oleh herself, and she thought it was very sweet of him to walk with her when it could’ve gone the other way entirely.
They were less than half a mile from the house Mary and Adam were staying in when it sounded like they were being followed. It was strange since the area was supposed to be clear of criminals and . . . other things. Mary looked behind them once, seeing the outline of a tall man in heavy clothes less than a hundred feet away, and after that, she urged Keiran to walk faster despite them being on a muddy dirt road four miles outside town.
The footfalls of their follower got closer in an unusually fast manner, and before they got a fourth of the way along the road closer to her house, a fast, blurry shape flew across the dirt road ahead of them. Mary stopped, realizing she didn’t have any weapons on her and knowing she couldn’t call for Adam. Keiran would think she was crazy for calling him.
“What’s going on?” Keiran asked as he looked around and held her closer to him.
“I don’t know. Let’s just keep walking. My house is less than a quarter mile away.”
Together, they both began walked again, only to see another fast, blurry shape fly across the road, closer now than it had been before. They stopped again, and Keiran yelled.
“Who are you?! What do anda want?!”
“Shh,” Mary whispered. “That’s not safe.”
“But we’re in the middle of nowhere, alone, and I won’t —”
The shape flew at them out of nowhere, knocking Keiran to the ground and grabbing Mary before she could make another sound. Dark trees and foliage flew passed her as the figure carried her through the trees and then suddenly stopped, slamming her against a hard pohon and nearly knocking her unconscious. Stars flooded her vision, and the earth began spinning quickly despite her being held in place. Her vision became blurry, and she couldn’t make out the figure in front of her. After a few seconds, she could feel his hands on her, and she felt her feet leave the ground.
“Only the best for a daughter of Lilith,” the figure whispered to her, his voice raspy and heavy.
Mary felt a new set of chills slide up her spine, and she tried to fight, thinking so intensely about the spells and incantations she’d been taught. She kicked at her attacker, only to get her legs pinned against the tree, and she slammed her fists into his neck and shoulders until her arms were wrenched away and then around the tree. Pain shot up her left arm as the joint in her shoulder slipped out of its socket, and she cried out a few detik before her attacked punched her in the face.
There was something different about this attacker. He didn’t fight like a demon atau a revenant. He fought like a . . . human. And he knew she wasn’t completely human. When she felt the cold edge of a serrated blade press against her neck, she knew one lebih thing. She was going to die.
He was knocked away from her suddenly, and she fell to the ground as the figure of Keiran appeared to be fighting this attacker. She was so dizzy, and she could barely see straight. She felt blood trickling down her neck, and she felt an image of her mother flash before her eyes before she passed out, falling to the forest floor instantly.
Gentle fingertips brought Mary from her unconsciousness, and she opened her eyes to see the blurry image of Keiran above her with something red smeared down the right side of his face.
“Mary,” he whispered. “Are anda okay?”
She grasped onto his hands as he helped her sit up, and her vision cleared to see they were back on the road to her house. She looked at Keiran again, realizing he was bleeding and reaching for his face.
“You’re bleeding,” she exclaimed.
He squeezed her hands, helping her to her feet. “So are you.” Without a word, he lifted her in his arms and continued walking down the dirt road.
“What happened? How did anda fight him off?”
He grinned. “Well, I didn’t. He hit me with that pisau of his, and I guess the two of us were too much trouble. He was gone when I got my bearings back. Did he hurt you?” he asked softly. “I mean, other than when he punched you. I fixed your arm.”
Mary knew she was okay because of the protection spell that had been placed on her oleh Cas over nine years earlier, but she couldn’t tell Keiran that. “I’m okay,” she assured him.
That appeared to satisfy him, and he held onto her tighter still walking toward her house.
Seduction
One tahun yang lalu . . . Laramie, Wyoming
The first time she saw him, he was alone, sitting in a booth across the kantin, diner from her with a thick book in his hands. From where she was sitting, it looked nearly as big as a phone book for a major city. There was no way he was actually membaca it. Though he was sitting down, he looked tall, nearly as tall as Adam, and his hair was unruly and light brown — almost like light gold. She couldn’t see his eyes. He was looking through the book so intently she supposed it was possible for him to be membaca such a large book.
He had to be new around here. She’d never seen him before even though that wasn’t really saying much. She’d only lived nearby about six months, but she came into town every day. She kinda had to. She would go out of her mind if she stayed in the house with Adam lebih than a few hours at a time. She loved Adam, really, but he’d been taking care of her since she’d been nine, and she wasn’t a little girl anymore. She drove and played poker and pool just as often as he did, and she knew how to pull her own weight. He knew that too. He just trouble admitting she was grown up — atau as grown-up as he’d been when all this started for him. They’d been on the pindah for almost nine years. She didn’t have any friends — except for Cas, but he was angel, and that kind of made him geographically undesirable as a friend.
After six months, she’d become accustomed to certain things — like the diner. It was the first thing she saw when she got into town, and she stopped there every hari to get something to eat. She always had money, but after a little while, the waitress behind the front counter — Barbara — had started giving her a free plate, stating “you’re about as regular here as a bowl of oatmeal. Keep your money for college.” She never had the jantung to tell Barbara that college wasn’t in her near future. The only thing she had planned for right now was staying alive. That didn’t mean she couldn’t hold her own against any other high school graduate her age, but it just wasn’t in the cards for her right now. In fact, if Sam had anything to say about it with all those crazy assignments he would send her, she could beat the pantat, keledai off every college graduate within a two-hundred-mile radius of her — and on any diberikan day.
She’d asked Barbara about this new patron after seeing him in the same booth five days in a row, but the woman who seemed to know everything about everyone had no idea who he was. That led to an incredibly awkward first meeting. She might’ve smelled like cow dung for the cold response she got out of him, and the selanjutnya one was even worse. She was curious and persistent. And after a week, he finally opened up to her. It was like a switch had been flipped. But he wasn’t alone anymore.
For the last week atau so, he’d had another man with him who looked about Adam’s age, and even though he’d been just as nice, he kind of creeped her out.
“I thought anda were old enough to be out without a chaperone,” she komentar as they walked through town with his companion a few feet behind him like a Secret Service man.
“Oh, don’t mind Donovan. He’s my brother,” he explained. “He’s just looking after me.”
“Well, I have a brother,” she added carefully, “but he trusts me. Most of the time.” At that, she smiled.
“Does it bother anda that he looks out for me?” he asked, his voice turning concerned.
“When anda put it like that, no, but it’s like he thinks I’m going to do something horrible to you.”
The selanjutnya day, Donovan was gone.
After a couple of weeks of it being just the two of them, she felt the need to get a few formalities out of the way.
“Keiran,” she said, “I want anda to meet my brother. Adam.”
“You do?” he asked, sounding like he’d never expected her to say that to him.
“Well, yeah,” she insisted. “I know your family. I want anda to meet mine.”
He smiled for the first time in three weeks, and she couldn’t believe how amazing it made him look. “I would cinta to,” he agreed.
The first meeting with Adam did not go well at all, especially with him asking the stupidest pertanyaan to get a certain response out of Keiran. It was worse that Mary really had no way of stopping him. She knew he was only looking out for her, and she knew his reasons were much lebih noble than anyone else’s who would follow their brother through the streets of a small town. But it was still annoying.
“Mary tells me you’re new in town,” Adam berkata as they all sat at the kantin, diner in their usual booth. “How new are you?”
Mary sighed heavily as she sat in the booth with Adam, lifting apologetic eyes to their guest. He smiled graciously.
“We just got into town a few weeks ago,” he answered willingly.
“You and your brother?” Adam asked, his voice filled with suspicion.
“Yes,” Keiran answered with a nod.
“So where are your parents?”
“Adam,” she exclaimed, “I didn’t want anda to meet him so anda could interrogate him!”
“It’s okay,” Keiran allowed. “My parents were killed in a car accident about nine years ago. My brother Donovan was old enough to take custody of me, and we’ve been moving around ever since.”
“Does your brother not have a regular job?”
He lifted his eyes to Mary’s, and for a brief detik atau two, his eyes flashed bright green. In an instant, Mary was overwhelmed with the strangest vision — one she hadn’t been haunted oleh since she’d been eight years old.
“He’s a freelance photographer,” Keiran answered with a nod in Adam’s direction. “We pindah when his assignment is finished.”
“And exactly what assignment is your brother doing around here?” Adam asked, glancing at Mary and somehow berating her for not thinking ahead about this situation. “We’re in the middle of nowhere.”
“That was part of his assignment,” Keiran replied smoothly. “Small town life. Places forgotten oleh the progression of technology. I’ve been helping him, and you’d be surprised the things he’s found worth . . . documenting.”
Adam scoffed softly, motioning for Barbara to come to the table. “I doubt there’s much interest in this place,” he argued. “Laramie isn’t exactly famous for anything.”
“Adam, that’s not very nice,” Mary interrupted. “No one’s ever asked anda about what anda do atau why. It’s not fair to pertanyaan the way someone else lives. Keiran, I’m sorry. I know I berkata Adam trusts me, but sometimes, he forgets I can take care of myself.”
Adam opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted oleh Barbara as she brought three lebih glasses of water. As of yet, there was no food on the table. Mary was quickly losing her appetite, and all she really wanted right now was to get away from Adam’s overprotectiveness.
“You all look hungry,” Barbara commented. “I can get anda three specials. No charge.”
Mary opened her mouth, but Keiran spoke before she could.
“That sounds wonderful,” he agreed, glancing at her and grinning crookedly. Somehow, she became hungry without realizing it, and she looked at Barbara, nodding.
“That does sound good,” she amended.
Barbara looked at Adam, giving him what could only be described as an evil eye before he grudgingly agreed.
“All right, fine,” he yielded. “Three specials.”
Barbara nodded. “Comin’ right up.”
It was quiet for a menit atau two, and Keiran drank his water silently before looking at Adam pointedly.
“So, what are anda doing in town?” he asked. “Mary berkata you’ve been here over six months.”
Adam sat back and folded his arms stubbornly over his chest. “I’m a writer,” he offered as his cover story, the fourth atau fifth he’d come up with so far. “And I don’t like staying in the same place for very long. I guess I’m a lot like your brother. I go where the assignments take me, except I make the assignments myself.”
Keiran smiled again, bowing his head. “Of course. But surely, it can’t be easy on Mary. Not being able to make friends atau roots. Isn’t she old enough to look after herself? To go where she wants.”
“Well, a lot like you,” Adam stated plainly, “our parents died when she was young, and it’s my job to take care of her. I don’t hold her here with me. She stays because she knows I can keep her safe.”
“From what?” Keiran asked with a chuckle.
“From you,” Adam berkata bluntly. “And other guys like you. Blowing into town and targeting the first girl who shows anda the slightest bit of attention. Thinking anda can wedge yourself between her and her family so anda can manipulate her into thinking I’m trapping her. And I wonder if anda and your brother even care about the fact that it’s wrong to do something like that.”
“That’s enough,” Mary exclaimed, causing them both to look at her. “I’m not a little girl atau an invalid. I’m not blind atau stupid. Can’t the two of anda find something else to talk about?! Please? The weather. Sports. The horror movie revival at the theater! Anything. Change the subject now, atau I’m leaving. And the two of anda can argue about ulterior motives until anda both go blue in the face.”
Adam bowed his head, exhaling sharply and glancing at Mary. “Sorry. I just don’t want anda to get hurt,” he reiterated. “You know that.”
Mary laid her hand over his shoulder. “I know. And we’ve talked about this. I know what to do.” She looked at Keiran. “And I cinta my brother. He’s taken care of me the last nine years. He’s my family, and I don’t feel smothered oleh him. I didn’t mean to imply that I do.”
Keiran also bowed his head. “Of course,” he berkata again. “It was wrong of me to presume anything of a situation I know nothing about. It won’t happen again.”
“Okay,” Mary said, sitting up straight as she relaxed and smiling slightly as Barbara brought a plate of biscuits to the table.
After that, the “meeting” was exceptionally personable and even a little overly nice as both Adam and Keiran avoided talking about the one thing they clearly wanted to talk about, and even though Mary was a little lebih than annoyed oleh the end of dinner, she was glad Adam had accepted what she’d said.
She knew what was at stake, especially since she’d been told about it every hari for the last several years of her life. She knew she wasn’t aman, brankas without Adam, and she knew why. It wasn’t just because she was a girl, and it wasn’t just because she was young. She was different from everyone else around her, and she was constantly reminded of it whenever she began to attract attention from people who saw the thing in her that was different.
But Mary hadn’t made a real friend since she was ten years old. She hadn’t known a real halaman awal in nine years, and simply referring to Adam as her halaman awal wasn’t enough anymore. She’d never had a boyfriend atau gone on a date. She’d never even kissed a boy before, and it was starting to take its toll on her feminine side. She couldn’t pretend she was okay with this arrangement anymore, and it wasn’t good enough for Adam to keep saying he just wanted to keep her safe. She knew he would do everything he could to keep her safe. He always had. And she knew he always would, but it just wasn’t enough anymore.
After dinner, Adam reluctantly left Mary with Keiran so he could go back to house to run sweeps of the town for any unusual activity, and even though he disguised it as “research,” Mary was glad he doing something to keep himself busy. Once she and Keiran were alone, she was surprised to find she didn’t want the night to end, and she thought of the first thing she could to keep it going.
“The theater really is tampilkan a horror movie revival this week,” she berkata as they walked from the kantin, diner closer to the center of town. “I know the ticket booth guy. He can get us a good deal.”
Keiran smiled then. “Is it aman, brankas to think I’m not the only one who doesn’t want to go home?” He asked.
Mary blushed. “Maybe,” she berkata softly.
“Horror movies?” He verified.
“From the thirties and forties,” she nodded. “I’ve seen a few of them. Not very scary, but nostalgic, I guess.”
“Then I would cinta to,” he agreed.
Experimentally, Mary wrapped her hand around his upper arm, and he looked at her with a crooked grin a few detik before she lowered her hand down his arm to his hand. Gently, he linked his fingers between hers, and Mary felt something she’d never felt before. She’d only known Keiran a couple of months, but she liked spending time with him, and it was obvious he liked spending time with her. She hoped they could keep doing this, and it looked like he wanted it too. Mary had never had a boyfriend. She wondered if it was too soon to think she had one now.
The theater house was one of those old buildings with the ticket booth out front and the concessions inside, and when Mary talked to the box office guy, he easily gave her two discounted tickets to [i]Doomed to Die[/b]. There weren’t that many people in the theater, and Mary found a kursi close to the back since the screen wasn’t the massive kind in modern theaters in the bigger cities. She liked coming to this theater since she could talk to guys in the film booth to play pretty much anything she wanted. There was something to be berkata about being inquisitive and new in town. Her newness had yet to wear off. She hoped it never did.
Halfway through the movie, Keiran draped his arm over the back Mary’s kursi without doing any of the normal “moves” most boys did to make it look natural for them to do what they’d just done. To Mary, it wasn’t unnatural for him to put his arm around her. In fact, the longer he had his arm around her, the lebih natural it felt. He reached for her hand then, and she reciprocated easily, linking her fingers with his and laying her head over his shoulder. It didn’t feel awkward, and it didn’t seem too new for her to be so comfortable with him. It felt normal. And even though Mary had no comparison for what she was feeling, she liked it. A lot.
The movie was almost over when Mary lifted her head and looked at Keiran, and he looked at her half a menit before leaning closer until his nose caressed hers gently. His breath was warm and sweet, and his lips came dangerously close to hers before an explosion of sound in the movie startled them both. She giggled then, and he laughed, watching the credits for a menit and then looking at her again.
“It’s late,” she whispered. “I need to get home.”
“I can walk you,” he offered.
She didn’t hesitate. “Okay.”
With that, he took her hand and helped her to her feet, following her out of the theater and then away from the building as the jalan, street lamps of the town illuminated the jalan, street blocks. It was after nine o’clock, and Mary lived a few miles outside town. She’d walked before, but tonight, it was different. Tonight, she wasn’t walking alone.
“Did anda like the movie?” Mary asked Keiran as they walked arm in arm down the sidewalk.
“I did,” he nodded. “It was very interesting.”
She leaned back to look at him, and he turned his eyes to her. “Really?” She asked. “It wasn’t bad?”
He shook his head. “No. Of course not. We should do it again.”
Mary smiled. “We should,” she agreed.
They walked until the sidewalks stopped and turned into rocky paths leading out of town, and even though Mary was sure it would look strange to Keiran for them to be walking in the middle of nowhere in the dark oleh themselves, he never berkata anything. He actually held onto her tighter the further away from town they got. Mary was relieved he didn’t find it odd that she walked this far away from town oleh herself, and she thought it was very sweet of him to walk with her when it could’ve gone the other way entirely.
They were less than half a mile from the house Mary and Adam were staying in when it sounded like they were being followed. It was strange since the area was supposed to be clear of criminals and . . . other things. Mary looked behind them once, seeing the outline of a tall man in heavy clothes less than a hundred feet away, and after that, she urged Keiran to walk faster despite them being on a muddy dirt road four miles outside town.
The footfalls of their follower got closer in an unusually fast manner, and before they got a fourth of the way along the road closer to her house, a fast, blurry shape flew across the dirt road ahead of them. Mary stopped, realizing she didn’t have any weapons on her and knowing she couldn’t call for Adam. Keiran would think she was crazy for calling him.
“What’s going on?” Keiran asked as he looked around and held her closer to him.
“I don’t know. Let’s just keep walking. My house is less than a quarter mile away.”
Together, they both began walked again, only to see another fast, blurry shape fly across the road, closer now than it had been before. They stopped again, and Keiran yelled.
“Who are you?! What do anda want?!”
“Shh,” Mary whispered. “That’s not safe.”
“But we’re in the middle of nowhere, alone, and I won’t —”
The shape flew at them out of nowhere, knocking Keiran to the ground and grabbing Mary before she could make another sound. Dark trees and foliage flew passed her as the figure carried her through the trees and then suddenly stopped, slamming her against a hard pohon and nearly knocking her unconscious. Stars flooded her vision, and the earth began spinning quickly despite her being held in place. Her vision became blurry, and she couldn’t make out the figure in front of her. After a few seconds, she could feel his hands on her, and she felt her feet leave the ground.
“Only the best for a daughter of Lilith,” the figure whispered to her, his voice raspy and heavy.
Mary felt a new set of chills slide up her spine, and she tried to fight, thinking so intensely about the spells and incantations she’d been taught. She kicked at her attacker, only to get her legs pinned against the tree, and she slammed her fists into his neck and shoulders until her arms were wrenched away and then around the tree. Pain shot up her left arm as the joint in her shoulder slipped out of its socket, and she cried out a few detik before her attacked punched her in the face.
There was something different about this attacker. He didn’t fight like a demon atau a revenant. He fought like a . . . human. And he knew she wasn’t completely human. When she felt the cold edge of a serrated blade press against her neck, she knew one lebih thing. She was going to die.
He was knocked away from her suddenly, and she fell to the ground as the figure of Keiran appeared to be fighting this attacker. She was so dizzy, and she could barely see straight. She felt blood trickling down her neck, and she felt an image of her mother flash before her eyes before she passed out, falling to the forest floor instantly.
Gentle fingertips brought Mary from her unconsciousness, and she opened her eyes to see the blurry image of Keiran above her with something red smeared down the right side of his face.
“Mary,” he whispered. “Are anda okay?”
She grasped onto his hands as he helped her sit up, and her vision cleared to see they were back on the road to her house. She looked at Keiran again, realizing he was bleeding and reaching for his face.
“You’re bleeding,” she exclaimed.
He squeezed her hands, helping her to her feet. “So are you.” Without a word, he lifted her in his arms and continued walking down the dirt road.
“What happened? How did anda fight him off?”
He grinned. “Well, I didn’t. He hit me with that pisau of his, and I guess the two of us were too much trouble. He was gone when I got my bearings back. Did he hurt you?” he asked softly. “I mean, other than when he punched you. I fixed your arm.”
Mary knew she was okay because of the protection spell that had been placed on her oleh Cas over nine years earlier, but she couldn’t tell Keiran that. “I’m okay,” she assured him.
That appeared to satisfy him, and he held onto her tighter still walking toward her house.
