Page 34 of Soul of Shadow #1

As the game went on, the boys kept drinking. Back at the house, Mason had poured the rest of the vodka into a flask, which they now passed back and forth out of sight.

“Be careful how much you drink,” Charlie hissed to Elias. “You’ll be the one at risk of revealing your own secret, not me.”

“Relax, girlfriend,” he whispered. “I’m a mare. Our tolerance is much higher than humans’.”

“That sounds like a myth made up by your own species.”

“Maybe.” He grinned. “Speaking of which, do you have to go to the bathroom?”

“I don’t see how that is a logical segue—”

Elias stood suddenly. “My girlfriend has to go to the bathroom,” he announced to their friends. “I, as her noble boyfriend, will accompany her.”

“Right.” Lou cut a sideways glance at Abigail and Mason, smirking wryly. “They’re going to go ‘to the bathroom.’” She used her fingers to mime air quotes.

Cheeks burning, Charlie grabbed Elias’s hand and pulled him out of their row before the innuendo could escalate any further .

Once they made it out of the bleachers, she turned toward the school, as if they were actually going to use the restroom.

Before she could make it very far, Elias yanked on her hand, pulling her into the slim crack between the scaffolding holding up the bleachers and the two-story equipment shed that stood beside them.

Before she knew it, they were out of sight, underneath the stands.

Charlie had never been under the bleachers before.

It was dark, cut off from the lights of the field and parking lot by the bodies above them and the shed behind them.

She scanned the area, half expecting to find students passing around a hand-rolled joint.

To her surprise, they were alone—though she did spy a few tiny stone creatures with hunched backs and green caps scurrying around.

One of them held what appeared to be a three-headed mouse in its rocky fist, as if they were going to roast it over a spit.

She didn’t even want to know.

Shaking her head, she turned to Elias. “What the hell are we doing?”

“Neither of us needs to use the bathroom,” he responded.

“Obviously.” Charlie looked around the dark, hidden space. “So, what on earth did you bring me down here for?”

“I was just keeping up the ruse,” he said, words slurring slightly. “They think we’re off making out.”

“I’m well aware of that.”

“Are you?” He reached up a pale hand and touched it to the top of her head, at the place where her dark hair met her skin. “And how does that make you feel?”

Her breath rose in her chest, becoming shallow. There were those pesky ?lvor again, fluttering around her stomach as if in a frenzy .

“Elias,” she whispered. “What are we really doing down here?”

“Nothing.” He ran his fingers down her hairline, letting them linger at the base of her chin. “I just wanted to be alone with you.”

Charlie’s body froze. What was going on?

How drunk must he have been to say something as outrageous as that?

They were only pretending to date, and only for the sake of a mission that he forced her to help with.

He had bullied her into this. Threatened her life.

Threatened the people she loved. His behavior since they’d arrived at the game had been bizarre, erratic, as if someone else had taken over his body.

“What for?” she asked slowly.

His fingers brushed down her chin, along the side of her neck, finally coming to rest at the hollow at the base of her throat. They left a trail of heat in their wake. He stared at the place where they rested for several seconds, a strange look in his eyes. A gleam, a focus. A hunger.

Then, as if suddenly remembering where he was, he pulled his hand away and took a step backward. His face melted into its usual sarcastic smile. “To discuss homecoming attire, of course,” he said. “Tell me about your dress for tomorrow. So I can coordinate.”

Charlie hadn’t realized she was holding her breath until she finally expelled it, gradually, silently, not wanting Elias to realize the effect his closeness had upon her.

“Um.” She scrambled for words. For one coherent thought. “I… don’t have one. I didn’t find anything I liked at the store.”

Elias knit his brow. “You don’t have one? Then what are you going to do about tomorrow? ”

She shrugged. “Borrow something from Lou, probably. That’s what I did last year.”

He seemed unnaturally disturbed by this information. “But you’re so beautiful,” he said. “You should have something special. Something that feels like you .”

Her heart went completely still. You’re so beautiful.

He took a step closer, and she felt it again, that sense that the world was falling away, that everything was collapsing into this one moment, his hand rising to her cheek, his eyes dark and molten, his face bending forward, drawing near, only a breath away…

A loud squeak sounded at Charlie’s feet.

She and Elias startled apart. They looked down, only to find the v?tte plopped on the ground beside their shoes.

“Did you…” Charlie blinked in shock. “Did you walk here?”

The v?tte nodded eagerly.

She let her head fall into her hands, peeking at the creature through her fingers.

“Well, well.” Elias bent down and scratched under the v?tte’s hat. He leaned into Elias’s palm, making a low noise of enjoyment. “You seem to have found yourself a loyal follower.” He looked up at Charlie. “Have you named him yet?”

“Named him?” Charlie lifted her head from her hands. “Why would I do that?”

“It’s your prerogative, as a human to whom a v?tte has attached himself.

V?tte are wanderers. They spend their immortal lives drifting from place to place, in search of a truly brave soul to follow.

Once they’ve found one, it’s up to the human to give them a name.

” He tickled under the creature’s chin. “That name is like a stamp of authentication. It seals the bond between the v?tte and the human.”

“But that’s ridiculous,” Charlie said, straightening all the way back up. “I don’t want to bind this creature to me. I don’t even know what that means.”

The v?tte, hearing this, turned away from Elias’s hand, drooping slightly.

“It’s okay, buddy,” Elias whispered. “She doesn’t mean it.”

“Of course I mean it. I’m in way over my head, here, and I can’t afford to—”

A rib-rattling roar ripped through the air.

It wasn’t the roar of the crowd, or of an angry coach yelling at a referee. It was guttural, inhuman, like something out of the monster movies that her mom loved watching so much. It sent Charlie to her knees, hunching down as if she could duck beneath the horrifying noise.

A protective arm landed on her shoulders as Elias crouched beside her.

“Shit,” he whispered. “Draugar.”

“Here?” She looked left and right, seeing nothing. “At the football game?”

Another roar tore through the air.

“Come with me,” said Elias.

He took her hand and Charlie scooped up the v?tte, setting him on her shoulder.

Together, they moved through the tangle of metal scaffolding.

They stepped as quietly as possible, nearly tripping over one of the red creatures with green caps.

The entire pack of them was stampeding away, clearly terrified by the presence of the draugar .

At the crack between the bleachers and the equipment shed, Charlie and Elias paused, peering out into the night.

At first, they saw nothing. The parking lot was empty of people.

Night had fallen as they watched the first half of the game, leaving much of the lot in darkness.

Every dozen paces, a streetlight shone down, illuminating a small circle of cement.

Shadows spilled from cars and tires, creating strange shapes on the pavement.

There were no little Asgardian creatures running around. None of the fairies or spirits to which Charlie had become accustomed to seeing. It was as if everything had run away.

Then, from behind a Ford pickup truck rose an impossibly tall shadow.

Charlie sucked in a breath. The draugar stood at least twice the size of a normal human.

It towered over the truck, a thin, stooped, swaying skyscraper of bones and ripped cloth.

A shabby black cloak—hood raised, hem torn and fraying—covered most of its body.

Only inside the hood could she see its true features: a bare skull with sunken holes for eyes and tusks at its nose.

As she watched, it slowly raised one arm, letting the sleeves of its cloak fall back to reveal a long, skeletal hand, which it settled on the hood of the truck.

“Holy shit,” Charlie whispered.

“No kidding,” whispered Elias. “Listen.” He turned to Charlie, eyes shining with intensity. “I need to shift.”

It took Charlie a moment to realize what he meant. “Oh,” she said, looking around beneath the bleachers as if in search of a dressing room. “Right here?”

“Yes, right here.” He beckoned her into the shadows, away from the crack of space that looked out on the draugar. “It will only take a moment. Just keep an eye over your shoulder, and make sure the draugar doesn’t see you. If it does, we’re in serious trouble. Got it?”

The v?tte twittered softly on her shoulder. Balling her hands at her sides, Charlie swallowed once and nodded.

Elias rolled his shoulders back. He closed his eyes and tipped his head up, lips moving as he began to mutter the strange words that Charlie had heard him speak that night in the old house.

She shifted nervously from foot to foot.

The back of her neck prickled, as if someone were sneaking up behind her.

She glanced over her shoulder but saw nothing.

“Come on,” she whispered, bouncing on her toes. “Come on, come on.”

Ignoring her—or perhaps in too much of a trance to even hear—Elias kept speaking under his breath. His eyes were squeezed shut. His body was beginning to sag, as if he no longer had full control of his limbs.

Another ear-splitting roar rattled the bleachers. On her shoulder, the v?tte squeaked and buried his face into her neck.