Page 19 of Cast in Shadow (Drenched in Darkness #1)

19

Shay slept clear through the night. Thankfully. When I got up at 4:00am to get ready for my meeting with Emerson, she sat up, bright and perky.

“Going for a run?” she asked, stretching her arms high above her head.

“No rest for the wicked.” But for what it was worth, I actually had gotten a little rest. As had Nguyen, at least before he slipped out in the middle of the night. “How are you feeling?”

She shook her head, then nodded. “Better, but now that I’ve had a little bit to process all the shit from yesterday, I have questions.”

“Like what?” I asked, sitting in the chair Nguyen had claimed as his own the night before to put on my running shoes.

“The Brethren, for starters,” Shay said, combing her fingers through her sleep matted hair. “How did they know about me and Nguyen?”

I laced up my left shoe. “I don’t know, but I intend to find out. Did Phineas say anything to you about another member of the Brethren named Theloneus? ”

The corners of her mouth tightened. “No. He only wanted to know about Lexa. And you.” Her voice shook on the confession, and when I looked a little closer, she was trembling.

I was an idiot.

She might have thought she was ready, but it was too soon to be having this conversation with her. I finished tying my other shoe quickly and stood, motioning her to me. She shuffled over in her bare feet and hot pink skull pajamas.

When her arms came around my waist, I pulled her in closer and rested my cheek on her head. “We don’t have to talk about this right now. In fact, why don’t you settle back in? I can make you a big bowl of cereal, and you can stream whatever you want until you fall back asleep.”

She nodded weakly but didn’t say anything.

“Or I can stay, if that would make you feel better,” I offered, sensing her reluctance.

“No.” She pulled back to look up at me. “I’m just feeling… a lot.”

“Which is totally normal,” I said softly.

I was years older than her the first time I’d had to endure any kind of torture outside of the ridiculousness of polite society. The experience had left me somehow emotionally overwhelmed and completely numb.

“It takes time to process everything, but I promise, it does get better.”

Her lips quirked up on one side. It wasn’t quite a smile, but it was closer to one than I’d dared to hope for. “I figured you would say something like that.” She pulled away, and I couldn’t tell if my predictable assurance was a good thing or a bad thing.

“Did it help?”

She sank back onto the sofa and looked up at me. “A little.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?” I was already about three seconds away from reaching out to Emerson to reschedule our meeting.

Shay shook her head. “I’m a big kid. I’ll be fine on my own. But I’ll take you up on the cereal.”

I studied the circles under her normally bright eyes and had to bite my lip to keep from saying what I was really thinking. Instead, I headed into the kitchenette. “I have just the thing.”

After pouring her an enormous bowl of the colorful, sugary cereal I kept on hand just for her, I dropped a kiss on the top of her head and grabbed my earpiece and phone off the end table. “If anything comes up, or even if you just feel like you need someone to talk to, call me.”

Munching on a mouthful of crunchy goodness, she nodded twice and gave me an awkward thumbs up with her spoon still in her hand.

She was a long way from being okay. She might be doing a decent job of faking it, for now, but pushing her wouldn’t help. All I could do was make sure I was there when she needed me.

Emerson wasn’t waiting at the trailhead when I got to the park, which was honestly a bit of a surprise. The man was never late, and it wasn’t like he had to drive. He could just think of a place and go there. I, on the other hand, made the trip across the city with my stomach in knots and my mind spiraling.

And here I was, twenty minutes after pulling up, sitting alone inside my Jeep with the parking lot light shining down on me.

He did say he’d meet me, right? I hadn’t dreamed up that little exchange the night before?

It would have been a simple thing to just reach out and ask if he would be there, but I wasn’t ready to have him in my head again. The more I heard him and felt him, the further I slid down a very slippery slope.

I let another few minutes pass before letting out an impatient huff. Just because he was a no-show, it didn’t mean I couldn’t still get in that run. Plus, it would keep my mind from worrying too much about the countless reasons why he hadn’t made our rendezvous.

I got out of the Jeep and turned my attention to the trail. A walking warm up was out of the question today. I was in the mood for a hard burn, so the minute the ground shifted from asphalt to combed dirt beneath my feet, I broke into a jog.

It was still dark out, and this particular trail wasn’t exactly well lit. That was half the reason I chose it. The idea of meeting Emerson, intentionally, had this taboo element that lit up my nerve endings. Taboo things happened in the dark, away from prying eyes.

Plus, if anyone or anything was stupid enough to come at me on that trail, well, it was their funeral.

When my muscles felt nice and warm, I picked up the pace. The only way to stay in shape was to put in the work, even for a powerful witch with healing magic. And yeah, sometimes, the work sucked, which was why I usually ran with music. Running without it was a reminder of how much of the natural world I missed when I cranked the tunes.

Of course, communing with nature wasn’t always the goal. Some days I had to turn the music up just to keep moving. There was something about the right beat and the right volume. It carried its own kind of magic, pumping motivation and drive into my system even when I wasn’t feeling up to it.

I was less than ten minutes in when a sliver of warning slithered down my spine. The trail looked empty in the pre-dawn darkness, but I got the sudden crawling sense that I wasn’t alone. I scanned my surroundings without slowing my pace, throwing a quick glance over my shoulder. A fine sheen of sweat had formed on my neck and back, giving my heated skin an unsettling shot of cold when the breeze shifted my way.

There was no clear visual sign anyone was out there, but that warning tingle would not relent.

After another minute or so, the trail split into a slightly rougher four-mile loop. The path on the left would take me uphill first. The path on the right would take me down.

Did I want a harder climb to try to lose whoever or whatever was following me because of the effort? Or did I want the gentle downward slope for speed?

Neither, actually. Because I would ultimately end up running right back to this point. Which made this fork in the trail the perfect place to lay in wait.

I stopped abruptly and turned in a slow circle as I tried to steady my breath. I wasn’t winded yet, but my senses were alive with the knowledge that someone was out there watching me, which seemed to amplify everything. Except that eerie feeling sliding across my sticky skin was still all I had. There was no whisper of magic hiding in the trees. No pungent scent of a lingering attacker.

The fine hairs on the back of my neck rose. Whatever was out there was dangerous.

“I know you’re there,” I called.

My stalker surely already knew that from the way I’d turned and scanned the area, but it was still worth saying aloud, if only for my own peace of mind. Plus, if there were any other non-threatening runners and walkers out this early, hopefully it would serve as a warning to them.

I stood there waiting for something to reveal itself, inhaling the nip of cold and the wild scent of forest around me with each breath. Leaves rustled in the crisp breeze, and my skin broke out in goosebumps when another wave of awareness hit me .

Adrenaline spiked in my veins as I wheeled around, and there he was. Emerson. Fifty-paces away. Dressed in black joggers and a fitted black t-shirt. Wearing an expression that made my pulse trip.

Hungry was the only way to describe it, and the gleam in his eyes promised trouble.

When he didn’t move, I eased my mental barriers down. “Is everything okay?”

He rolled his bottom lip between his teeth. “I brought my running shoes,” he said in my head, his voice deliciously wicked. “Now run, Sai. Fast as you can.”

Electricity raced up my spine. I spun and took off without thinking. Within a minute, my heart was beating bloody bruises against my ribcage.

Alarm and excitement warred within me as I pushed my muscles harder. My logical brain said I should stop this. Encouraging a demon to chase me—to hunt me—was so incredibly foolish. But that other part of my brain, the only one that was left functioning when all my blood rushed to other places, was too caught up in the thrill to care.

Fear was an excellent motivator, except now, I wasn’t really afraid for my life anymore. I had been once, for a very long time. Now, I was afraid of what Emerson would make me feel if he caught me.

That thought was almost enough to pull me to a stop. My feet stuttered and I tripped. It was pure luck that I was able to catch myself before gravity dragged me down, and when I righted myself, I shot off the path into the trees.

I could hear him behind me. With every labored thump of my heart and every rapidly shallowing breath, he was gaining on me.

It was clear what he wanted. His lust pulsed through our connection like a heartbeat all its own. The sensation made my nipples pull tight in my sports bra, and the ache between my legs was getting harder and harder to ignore.

The man had an undeniable effect on me, but just because my body craved him, it didn’t mean my heart would survive this game.

But what if I wasn’t the only one risking something here? Through the lust, I could feel Emerson’s longing, and it wasn’t just sexual.

My heart lurched. I knew that longing. I’d lived with it. Breathed it in deep. Barely survived beneath the crushing force of it. It was the kind of longing that had left me curled in a ball in an empty bed for days at a time after I’d left him.

The kind that made a person sick and half-crazy.

If I let him catch me, it might just ruin us both.

Which meant I needed to shift gears and try like hell to make it back to my Jeep, even though only half of me wanted that.

When I spotted an opening in the trees leading back to the trail, I cut toward it. I made it two more steps when a rush of desire hit me. My knees went weak. My heart thrummed wildly. And I couldn’t draw enough breath to keep up my pace.

Emerson was playing dirty.

So, I did the only thing I could think of: Fight fire with fire.

I meant to hit him with my desire, as he’d done to me, but I was too new to using our mental connection like this. Instead of letting him see one specific emotion, I pulled the curtain back too far, revealing everything I was feeling. The desire, the fear, the homesickness… all of it rushed out of me through our link.

A grunt sliced through the air like he’d just taken a punch to the gut. Then an inhuman growl rumbled through the darkness.

Shit. A chill spread through my limbs.

I’d been hoping to trip him up. Instead, I’d given him a crystal clear view of how I still felt about him and how much I was holding back .

Branches slapped at my face and my arms. Greedy shrubs snagged my running capris and nipped at my shins as I tore through the trees trying to make it to safe ground, if there even was such a thing. I poured magic into my muscles, willing myself to move faster, and when my feet finally landed on the groomed dirt of the main trail, I pushed even harder.

Daring a glance over my shoulder, I almost hauled myself to a stop when I saw the path behind me was empty. But I kept pushing because I could still feel him out there and in my head.

Cold air stung my throat. My chest and legs burned from the exertion. And when the lights of the parking area came into view, my heart stuttered. I wanted to make it to my Jeep, but I also didn’t.

Some sick, twisted part of me wanted Emerson to catch me.

He must have sensed that desire because another deep growl rolled through my mind. “Do you really think I’ll ever let you slip through my fingers again?”

Two ragged breaths later, a strong arm caught me by the waist mid-stride, lifting me off my feet. I screamed and bucked, trying to break free of his hold. I knew it was him, and as much as I wanted him—desperately—something about this game demanded I fight.

He was the hunter, I was the prey, but I was no toothless kitten.

I wrenched my body in unnatural ways, barely managing to slip free of his grip. He let me get five more steps before he caught my arm and yanked me around. His chest slammed into mine, knocking the air from my already screaming lungs.

Emerson’s eyes glowed a threatening red, fierce and wanting. One hand came up around my neck in an instant, but he didn’t cut off my air this time. The other grabbed a handful of my ass and yanked me right into his swollen cock, the thin fabric of his joggers doing nothing to hide the hardness .

I bucked my hips away and fought with my hands against his hold, no matter how badly the wild parts of me wanted to grind into that hardness. My fingers clawed at his, trying to peel them away from my skin.

For one brief moment, I considered using my magic to break his hold and win this fight. But I still wasn’t sure I wanted to win.

I just knew I wasn’t done fighting.

Wrapping my hands around his meaty forearm, I hauled myself up, putting all my weight on the one limb. It was just enough to catch him off guard, and I used my advantage to wedge my legs between us and pry out of his iron grip.

I landed hard on my back with an, “Oof.”

The tender skin on my neck burned where I’d torn free. My back ached from hitting the ground. But I was actually free, so I scrambled to my feet and took off again.

No more evading. I made a beeline for the Jeep.

Dirt turned to pavement. Empty parking spaces flicked by as I ran, and I started mentally counting down the distance.

Forty yards.

Thirty.

Twenty.

I’m going to make it!

The word “ten” skipped through my mind a split second before a pair of big hands latched onto me.