Shadows

Chapter 16

After that, Adam and Ash backed off, way off. And things…ah, they were great. School was almost out, and he and Bethany honestly couldn’t get enough of each other. Daemon said he was whipped a few days ago, but Dawson didn’t care. Thinking about her brought a smile to his face. And being with her completed him in a way he’d never thought possible. With Bethany, he didn’t think of himself as something separate from the thousands of people around him.

He just was…himself.

Dee even started hanging out with them the times he’d brought Bethany to their house. Daemon was never there when she was, and he really hadn’t warmed up to her yet, but when they joined him for lunch, he kept it cool.

It killed him that Daemon still hadn’t accepted their relationship. And he knew it bothered Bethany, too, because she didn’t want to be the cause of any of their problems, but it wasn’t like they weren’t trying. It was on Daemon. He’d come around only when he wanted to.

And right now, he knew where Daemon was. With Ash. They were back together again. As much as that bothered him, he kept his mouth shut. The whole throwing stones in glass houses stuff sucked.

There was a knock on the front door. Smiling, Dawson swung his legs off the couch and went to answer.

Bethany stood there, hair pulled back in a high ponytail. His gaze drifted over her, and damn, he had more reasons to love warm weather. She was wearing shorts that showed off her legs and a hoodie over her tank top.

She stuck out one foot. “These are the only sneakers I have. You think they’ll work?”

Without saying a word, he wrapped his arms around her waist, lifting her off her feet with ease. “You’ll look cute up there.”

She laughed. “Dawson—”

Lowering her slowly against his chest, he grinned as her cheeks flushed. Her whiskey-colored eyes heated seconds before he kissed her. When he settled her on her feet again, she swayed a little.

“That’s the kind of greeting I like,” she said, touching her lips.

His eyes followed her movements to those pink lips. There was green paint on her pinkie, and seeing that, his heart expanded. As he wrapped his hand around the one on her mouth, he realized he was absolutely crazy about her. Pulling her into the living room, he kept going until the backs of his legs hit the couch and he sat. Bethany climbed into his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck.

Dawson stopped breathing as he tilted his head back, and she lowered her mouth to his. The kiss was deep and scorching, endless. Not breaking contact, she unzipped her hoodie and he pushed it off her shoulders. Running his fingers up her bare arms, he grinned against her mouth when she shivered.

He could feel the cells in his body striving to change as he slipped his fingers under the hem of her shirt, going up and up until she was making soft little sounds. The rush of sensations firing through him drowned out everything else. When she started moving against him, his hands dropped to her hips, his fingers digging into the denim of her shorts.

Thank God no one was home, because they would’ve gotten an eyeful.

And that snapped him out of the haze. He clasped her cheeks, his thumb stroking along her jaw. “We…we have to stop…or I won’t be able to.”

For a second, it seemed like Bethany didn’t get it, and then her face turned cherry red. “Oh.”

“Yeah,” he murmured, his eyes dropping to her swollen lips. God, she was beautiful to him — perfect.

Bethany shuddered. “We don’t have to stop, you know? I’m…I’m ready.”

He almost lost his hold then. The images her words brought forth tested what self-control he had. Wanting nothing more than to carry her upstairs and show her just how much she got to him, he wanted their first time to be special. Dinner, a movie, maybe some flowers and candles — not doing it on the couch or on his unmade bed in his messy bedroom that had socks and God knows what else strewn across the floor.

“Later,” he promised, meaning it.

She snuggled in, resting her cheek on his shoulder. “Soon?”

“Very soon…”

Several minutes passed and then she said, ““So…back to the shoes. They’ll work, right?”

“They’re perfect for where I’m taking you.” They were going hiking again. Two weekends ago, he’d taken her on the trails, but today, he wanted to show her one of his favorite lookout spots. They were supposed to go last weekend, but it had rained for days, saturating the ground.

Bethany climbed off him. It was time to get this show on the road, because if he didn’t, his best intentions were going to fly right out the window. He grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge, and they headed to his car.

They drove about a mile down the road, turning onto a little-known access road to the Seneca Rocks. Park Rangers steered clear of this part. Mainly because it led to the colony deep within the forests surrounded the Rocks. And tourists were forbidden. Signs warning against trespassing were everywhere.

Parking about two miles from the entrance, they hoofed it for about forty minutes. Bethany laughed and chattered the whole way. Several times they stopped so she could take pictures of the scenery she wanted to paint later.

When they reached the base of the mountains, Bethany swallowed hard. The slope running up the side to the little outcropping that gave a decent view was for beginners, no gear necessary, so Dawson wasn’t worried.

“Are you sure I can climb this without killing myself?” she asked, shielding her eyes with her hand.

“You’ll do fine.” He bent down, kissing her cheek. “It really isn’t that hard, and I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”

She smiled at that and spent the next ten minutes snapping pictures of the glittering rocks. Then they started up the rocky hill bathed in sunlight, moving slowly so that Bethany could get a feel for the terrain. Pebbles and loose dirt streamed down behind them as they made their way up.

“This really isn’t bad,” she said, stopping and glancing behind her. “Whoa. Okay. Remind me not to look back.”

He turned around. Beth’s spine was ramrod straight. “You okay?”

She nodded.

Backtracking to her, he slid a little as he placed a hand on her shoulder. Face pale, she gripped his arm. “Are you sure?” he asked, worried.

“Yeah, I just don’t think I’ve ever been this high up before.”

Dawson smiled. “We aren’t that high up, Bethany.”

Her throat worked. “It doesn’t feel that way.”

Was she afraid of heights? Oh crap, if that were the case, this was a bad idea. “You want to head back down? We can.”

“No.” She shook her head, giving him a wobbly smile as she pried her fingers off his arm. “I want to do this with you. Just…just go slowly, okay?”

Part of him wanted to pick her up and zip her back down to the meadow below, but she insisted and he trusted her to tell him when she’d had enough.

Twenty minutes later, he scrambled up the flat rock and reached down to her. “Give me your hand. I’ll pull you up.”

Eyes narrowed with determination, she placed her hand in his. Warmth cascaded through his chest in response to her trust. Tugging her up, he held her until she was ready to stand. And when she did, he noticed that her legs shook a little as she turned around.

Bethany clutched the camera hanging around her neck. “It’s beautiful.”

He rose to his feet, placing his hands on his hips as he took it all in. The sky was that rare, perfect kind of blue. Clouds were fluffy, looking like they were painted in. Tips of ancient elms rose up, concealing the ground below.

“Yeah,” he said slowly. “It’s amazing. A different world up here.”

She glanced over her shoulder at him. “It would be so cool to be able to sit up here and paint.”

“We could do that.”

Bethany laughed. “I don’t think I’d be able to get my stuff up here.”

“Ye of little faith,” he teased. “I can zip your stuff up here and have it ready in three seconds.”

She grinned. “It’s so strange. Sometimes I just forget…what you are.”

Most people wouldn’t know how to take that, but he recognized it for what it was. And that was why he…why he loved her.

Looking away, he clamped his mouth shut. The words had been in his chest for weeks, maybe months, demanding to be spoken, but any time he tried to force them out of his mouth, he locked up. Bethany hadn’t said those words, either, and if she didn’t feel the same, he was afraid he’d scare her off.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her inch cautiously toward the edge. “Be careful,” he said.

“I’m always careful.”

Dawson pivoted around and crossed to the other side of the rock. From where he stood, he was almost in perfect alignment with where the colony existed. He sighed, closing his eyes. Neither him nor Daemon had heard from them since the beginning of this year. Soon, he realized, soon he would have to face them, and they’d want to talk about mating. What would he say? There was no way he could even entertain the idea of being with someone else. But he couldn’t tell them about Bethany. He wouldn’t be able to tell them anything. And that would go over like a—

A wicked sense of dread shot through him, forcing his eyes open. He glanced down at the sandstone rocks below his feet. The crystals embedded deep into the sediment winked. The surface was shiny, still damp from the recent rain. Slick—

A gasp shattered his core, barely audible but as loud as thunder. The scream that came next chilled his entire body.

There hadn’t even been a second — time seemed to have stopped, though. His heart pounded in his chest as he whipped around, catching the blurred outline of Beth’s flailing arms.

Lead settled in his stomach, but he shot forward, slipping out of his form without thinking about it. He was fast, but all it took was a second — a second for gravity to do its thing. To reach up and suck Bethany down into nothing but space.

But it was worse than just empty air, because then he would’ve had time to catch her.

He went over the edge blindly, knowing that the side she’d slipped off of had several jagged outcroppings that were bone breaking.

And one, a spike about ten fight long and six feet wide, had stopped her fall about thirty feet down.