Blood. Jake looked down. It soaked his bare feet, the bottom of his jeans, the pine needles where he stood. The copper scent burned his nose as he inhaled.
Blinking, he looked up again. He was dreaming. Lizzie’s dream. From the deepest, farthest corner of his mind, he realized this. And with the realization came the sickening dread. The helplessness he always felt when he stepped inside this nightmare forest. The one that wouldn’t let him go. It just kept calling him back to its darkness, to its chilling moon and stars. And the cave. The ever-present cave with the monstrous, yawning mouth and jagged, stone teeth.
Lizzie’s in there. She’s in there, and she’s never coming out.
He took a step and felt his feet sink into the damp, spongy earth. The silence that settled over him made his skin crawl.
“Lizzie!”
No answer. He knew there wouldn’t be. Yet he always had to call out, hoping this time would be different.
He took another step, then another. The trees to his right loomed, their skeleton arms reaching down as if wanting to touch him as he passed.
“Lizzie!”
Silence. Another few steps. Jake wanted to wake up. The closer he got, the more his heart raced, pounding to the point of dizziness.
Fifteen feet. Maybe less. This time he was closer than he’d ever been. So close that he could smell the moss clinging to the walls of the cave, the damp mustiness of it. An icy drop of condensation from above dripped onto his neck and ran down his back. Shivering, he brushed it away.
“Lizzie?” This time it was a question. It seemed to encompass everything. Where are you? Why did this happen? What hurt you? They all tumbled around in his mind in a confusion of words and phrases, none of them making any sense. Because she was gone. And he knew he’d never understand why.
“I’m here.”
Jake froze. He stared at the mouth of the cave, his hands dropping to his sides. His entire body felt numb, as if someone had drained him of all pain and emotion. He was only aware of the voice.
“Lizzie?”
“Here…”
A terrible ache began in his chest and worked its way up his throat until he thought he might choke where he stood. He forced one foot forward until he’d taken a full step. Then another. He could see the outcropping of rock from the cave, and how it glistened with moisture, red and brilliant.
Blood.
He felt in his pocket for the gun, but it wasn’t there. Instead, he wrapped his hand around something slender and sharp, cold against his skin. He pulled it from his pocket and looked down. His grandfather’s letter opener.
“I’m here,” said the voice. “Come closer so I can see you.”
Not Lizzie’s voice. He knew that now. It was what stood over her, what guarded her body. Its kill.
He could hear it breathing. But it didn’t sound normal. It sounded more like panting.
“Who are you?” He strained to see inside the blackness of the cave. To see some kind of movement that he’d recognize as human. “Your voice…”
“The better to greet you with,” it said, its tone silken and deadly. The thing that spoke was female, and she stood only a few feet away.
He stepped closer, closer. Toward the nothingness that was the cave. Toward the voice that drew him in like a monster to its lair.
And then there were two glowing eyes. They burned through the darkness. He stopped, a sudden terror rooting his feet. “Your eyes…”
A laugh, low and soft. “The better to see you with,” she said.
I want to go home now. I want my son. I want to wake up.
He lifted his head, pushing down the panic that threatened to take hold. “Who are you?” he asked again.
And then, like a specter, it stepped from the shadows. The being that the voice belonged to.
He stared at the blonde hair that tumbled past her shoulders. The eyes that were no longer black, but an amber so fiercely bright that he had to look away.
“You’ve known all along,” Aimee said, her voice as smooth and sharp as glass. “Haven’t you?”
Jake didn’t wake with the jolt that usually followed a nightmare, but with a slow, tentative opening of his eyes. His heart pounded with leftover terror, and a slick sweat covered his skin.
He lay perfectly still and stared up at the ceiling until it came into focus. Aimee. Wolf. One in the same…
Blinking, he willed deep, even breaths until he felt his pulse begin to slow. He squeezed the sheets in his fists, concentrating on their texture, how the down pillow felt bunched underneath his neck. He moved his feet against the weight of the comforter, all in an effort to remind himself that he was awake now. It had been a dream. Lizzie wasn’t in a cave somewhere. He wasn’t wandering the forest trying to find her.
Jake’s foot touched something warm and smooth. There was a sleepy moan, a gentle movement beside him. Then silence again.
Shifting, he saw the curve of Aimee’s naked shoulder. How it seemed to glow under the moonlight coming in through the window. She lay facing away from him—just her hair visible on the pillow. A mound of dark spun gold, curling this way and that. As if it had been placed there just to tempt him.
Careful not to wake her, he rolled over to face her back. Such a sweet, soulful, mysterious being. His heart ached just looking at her. But at the same time, he was hesitant. What was she hiding? Something dangerous? It had to be something significant in order for her to play dead this long. He’d known that from the beginning. But the deeper he got with her, the more it nagged at him. The more his curiosity gradually turned to obsession.
You’ve known all along… Her eyes in the dream had been animal eyes. A killer’s eyes.
Jake watched her shoulder rise and fall as she slept. He couldn’t believe that she hid something dark. He just couldn’t. Yet he’d be lying to himself if he didn’t admit to wondering about what she’d told him so far. Who or what was she protecting? Someone else? Or herself?
She shifted, murmuring something in her sleep. Her voice was nothing more than a whimper, small and sad. He leaned closer, getting ready to pull her close. Fuck the doubts, fuck the fear. Fuck it all.
And then he saw it.
The muscles in his back tightened until they were hard and quivering underneath his skin. Grinding his teeth together, he squinted through the darkness.
He touched her hair where something sharp and distinctive protruded… A pine needle.
Slowly, he raked his gaze down her side, down, down, until he looked at her feet. They were sticking out from underneath the comforter as if she’d gotten hot. Her legs were long and smooth in the moonlight. Strong and muscled. But that wasn’t what had him staring.
It looked like dried mud smeared along the comforter.
His blood slowed, then chilled. What the hell?
Reaching down, he ran his fingers along her skin. Definitely mud. A lot of it.
She turned sleepily and opened her eyes. “Wha…”
“Your feet,” he whispered. “There’s mud on them.”
Sitting up, she tore off the covers. Her mouth hung open, her expression in the dim light of the room openly horrified. “Oh my God.”
“Aimee…”
She smiled nervously, and he waited for what seemed like forever for an explanation. People didn’t just go walking around outside barefoot in the middle of the night, in the dead of winter. That was something a crazy person did. Or a person who was hiding something maybe? He pushed the thought away before it could take hold.
She moved her hair away from her face. “Jake, I should have told you before. I sleepwalk.” She looked up at him. “I sleepwalk. That’s why…this. I’m so sorry.”
He stared at her feet, at the mud that so obviously didn’t belong. It made his stomach ball up in an uncomfortable knot. Still, he leaned in and kissed her forehead. Sleepwalking…
“Don’t be sorry. But my God, it’s dangerous. How long have you been doing it?”
“Ever since I can remember.” She frowned. “Never this bad. Maybe it’s because I’m sleeping over here and I’m not used to it? I don’t know…”
He’d heard about people who walked in their sleep, who were unaware of things they did while they were totally out of it. He knew it was possible, because Daniel did it sometimes. It was freaky.
Climbing out of bed, she gave him a look over her shoulder. “I’ll go clean up.”
He nodded and watched her smooth, naked body move out of the room like a ghost.
She was graceful, beautiful. A mysterious creature that he didn’t quite know yet. And before he could help it, he wondered what else she did while he slept.
* * * *
Aimee walked along beside Maggie, looking over at her every now and then. The trail passed right behind Jake’s house. Nothing strenuous or steep, but she still worried.
“Are you sure you’re okay, Mags?”
Maggie stepped over a rock and cradled her swollen belly over the sizeable down jacket. “You sound like Koda. You guys have to stop watching me like I’m going to explode.”
“Well…”
She gave Aimee a look.
“But the whole hospital thing.”
“Just a false alarm, a few Braxton Hicks. No worries.”
“Braxton what?”
“Fake labor pains. That’s all.”
She frowned, unconvinced. Maggie looked fantastic. Rosy cheeks, a bounce in her step, but still.
“I feel awful that I wasn’t there,” she said sullenly.
Maggie stopped in the middle of the trail and turned, brushing a stray curl away from her face. “You know what I think about that one.”
“I know.”
“You could make it work if you really wanted to.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Mags.”
“I’m just saying. It’s been so long. And now you’ve found this guy. This really great guy. Are you just going to stay dead forever?”
“No.” She kicked at the snow. “Maybe.”
“Do you love him?”
Maggie’s ability to finesse had never been great. It was now roughly ten times worse with pregnancy hormones in the mix.
“I…” The answer was yes. But saying it out loud scared her. Because if she loved him, if she wanted any kind of future with him and Daniel, she’d have to come clean at some point. And the thought of that was almost too much to bear. So much more hung in the balance now.
“You don’t have to answer,” Maggie said. “It’s written all over your face.”
Aimee ignored that, and instead looked toward the mountains in the distance—stark white against the violet backdrop of the sky. It would be dark soon. They should get back.
“I don’t think you should come out here for a while,” Aimee said, changing the subject. Tentacles of unease began creeping along her skin. “Not until you’ve had the baby, okay?”
Maggie frowned. “Zane said the same thing. Why?”
Aimee didn’t want to worry her. Especially since she did look like she was about to pop. But that didn’t change the fact that she should be careful. They all should.
She smiled at her friend. “You’re pregnant. You need to take it easy, that’s all.”
Maggie nodded, seeming mostly satisfied with that. But her brow remained furrowed as if she were still mulling it over.
“Come on. Let’s get back,” Aimee said.
They turned around and began walking in silence toward the cottage.
Aimee knew that she and Jake had definitely been watched up at the cabin. She’d felt it most of that day when they’d been out snowshoeing. The feeling had only grown stronger after the sun had gone down. And when Jake had fallen asleep that night, she’d gotten up to check outside. That was when she’d seen a dark shape beyond the line of trees that surrounded the meadow. She’d transformed then. She hadn’t meant to. But by the time she’d reached the pines, it had disappeared.
For the rest of the trip, she’d been distracted, worried. She’d made up that lame story about sleepwalking to Jake. It had been partly true; she hadn’t really had much control that night. Maybe less than she’d ever had. And it scared her. She felt like she was spiraling. With Jake, with the lie she lived every day. With trying to protect the ones who needed it most. And they didn’t even know it.
“I almost forgot!” Maggie said, stopping to dig in her pocket. “Your present.”
“Aww. We said we weren’t going to do presents this year.”
“Well, I lied.”
“Maggie.”
“You know I’m full of crap when it comes to that.” Maggie looked proud of herself. She pulled out a small, red box and shoved it at Aimee. “Merry Christmas, friend.”
Aimee took it as a wave of nostalgia washed over her. She was unprepared. It swelled with memories of holidays with her family and friends whom she hadn’t seen in years. It was full of loss and longing. Longing for a regular life again.
Maggie rubbed her hands together and grinned. “I know it’s not technically Christmas yet, but I couldn’t wait.”
Swallowing hard, Aimee tore the paper then opened the box where a small, framed picture was nestled in tissue paper.
She pulled it out through a blur of tears, running her thumb over the glass. It was a photo of Maggie and her taken in the fifth grade. They were laughing and had their arms around each other in front of an ice-skating rink. She remembered that trip. Her mother had taken them over Christmas break. They’d gone to a movie afterward.
“Where’d you get this?” she asked.
Maggie sniffed, wiping her eyes. “I went through a box of pictures with your mom last spring, and we found that one. She wanted me to have it. Remember that day?”
“I do. I remember you fell in front of Toby McAllister.”
“Only because you pushed me.”
“That was an accident.”
“Yeah, right.”
Aimee looked at her friend, not knowing if there was ever a time when she’d loved her more. “Thank you, Mags.”
Maggie reached for her hand. “I thought you might need it with everything going on. A nice memory…you know.”
Somewhere in the distance, a coyote yipped, then another not far away. The sound was a reminder that they weren’t the little girls in the picture anymore.
She shivered, burying her chin deeper in her collar. No. They were grown women who lived in another world now. A world where monsters really did exist.
She clutched her friend’s hand, feeling Maggie’s fingers wrap around her own.
“Let’s go,” Aimee said. “It’s getting dark.”