Shadowed Strength: Shadowed Series Book One (15 page)

“Yes, mom,” Melanie said tersely. “Come on
Ace, let’s go.”

Melanie left her room and flew down the stairs
with Ace on her heels. She ran out the back door and into the yard. She headed
straight for the tree line and dropped to her knees as Ace skidded to a halt
beside her. She threw her arms around his neck and squeezed hard as he licked
her face.

“I love you,” she whispered. Ace rubbed the
top of his head against her cheek and darted into the woods. 

The rest of the week flew by with no new messages
or creepy gifts appearing in Melanie’s locker. She, Jeremy and Tara met at
Melanie’s house after to school every day to study, or at least that’s what
they told everyone. What they were really doing was brainstorming. They had to
figure out who this stalker was before things escalated.

Friday afternoon, as they finished up their
“study” session, they were no closer to a suspect than they were when they
started. The only thing they all agreed on was that it couldn’t be Chris.

“Maybe we should just tell him and see what he
thinks,” Tara said.

 She sighed as she packed up her
notebooks and pens. She had been taking notes on every idea they came up with,
which wasn’t much, in the hopes that when she reread it something would come to
her.

“No, I don’t think that’s a good idea,”
replied Jeremy. “There’s no reason to involve him. He’d just get paranoid.
We’ll figure this out.” He took Melanie’s hand. “I know we will.”

“Okay. Well kiddos, I’m off. Don’t do anything
I wouldn’t do,” she said with a wink and walked out the door.

“Why does she have to say that every freaking
day?” Melanie asked with her eyes closed and her face pointed up to the
ceiling.

“Because,” Jeremy said as he pulled her in for
a tight hug, “she knows what I want to do to you.” He kissed her softly.

“Mm, that’s nice.”

“Hey,” Jeremy said as he pulled back so he
could see her face. “Let’s do something tomorrow. Just you and me.”

“Sounds…perfect. What did you have in mind Mr.
Stevens?”

“Well, Miss Johnson, I thought we could go down
to the lake for a picnic. The water is still too cold to swim, but the weather
should be nice. I want to take you on a real date.”

“Then it’s a date!”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The next morning, Melanie was on pins and
needles waiting for Jeremy to pick her up at noon like they had decided. She
had spent over an hour trying on every outfit in her closet. She finally
decided on a knee length baby blue sundress with a lightweight white sweater
that she wore unbuttoned.

“This is ridiculous,” she groaned to herself
as she strapped on a pair of white sandals. “Jeremy sees me every day in jeans
and t-shirts.”

She went into the bathroom to put on some
mascara and lip gloss. She stared at herself in the mirror and said “You are
beautiful,” but it was different this time. She really looked at herself. The
blue of her dress made her eyes look vibrant and her excitement made them
shine. She was smiling and her happiness made her skin glow.

“You
are
beautiful,”
she said and flipped off the light and went downstairs to wait.

“Wow, look at you,” her mom said from her
place on the couch when she walked into the living room. “You look great!”

“Thanks, mom.”

“Where is he taking you again?”

“To the lake for a picnic.”

“Melanie, be careful, okay? I know you like
this boy, but I don’t want you getting yourself in over your head. You’re still
so young…”

“Mom! I’m sixteen! And Jeremy and I have been
friends for a long time. I trust him.”

“Well, sixteen you may be, but you’re still my
little girl and if he so much as…”

Melanie was saved by a knock on the door.
“Mom, please stop. He’s here.”

“I’ll get it,” her mom said as she hopped off
the couch and walked to the door. She opened it and stepped aside to let Jeremy
enter.

Melanie sucked in a deep breath when she got a
look at him. He looked amazing. He had on a tight, black t-shirt and a pair of
low-slung jeans with black flip flops. His dark brown hair looked artfully
messy, but with enough gel to keep that curl from flopping onto his forehead.

“Hi, Mrs. Johnson. It’s nice to see you
again.”

“You too, Jeremy, and it’s Ms., not Mrs.”

“Oh, sorry, Ms. Johnson.” He looked at
Melanie. “You look beautiful.”

Melanie felt her face heat up. “Thanks, so do
you. I mean, er, you look great. Are you ready? Can we go?”

Jeremy gave her a smile as she grabbed his
hand and tried to tug him out the door. “Bye mom, I’ll be home by midnight!”

“Be careful!” her mom shouted as Melanie
pulled Jeremy through the door and slammed it shut behind him.

Jeremy held her hand all the way to Lake Sinclair,
not letting go even to shift gears. They didn’t speak the entire twenty minutes
it took to drive there, but it was a comfortable silence, not awkward in the
least. They just enjoyed being together.

When they arrived at the state park entrance,
Jeremy paid the parking fee and pulled the truck into a spot in the shade. It
was warm out, the April air showing signs of the summer to come. Melanie wanted
to take off her sweater and leave it in the truck, but she left it on instead
of showing off her bare arms. Even though Jeremy had told her time and again
that he liked the way she looked, loved it even, she was still self-conscious.
Years of harassment and bullying by girls like Sissy Woods had made sure of it.

Melanie shook her head to clear it.
No, not
today. I am not going to think of that hussy while I‘m with Jeremy.

“What’s the matter?” Of course he noticed. He
seemed so in tune with her feelings, he noticed everything.

Melanie just smiled and shook her head slowly.
“Not a thing. This is perfect,” she said as she helped him spread a blanket on
the grass under a huge oak by the bank of the lake.

Jeremy smiled widely. “It’s close to perfect,
but not quite.”

“What do you mean? What’s missing?”

“It’s not what’s missing, it’s that there are
too many people out here.”

Melanie looked around. There was a mom with
two small boys splashing through the ankle-deep water by the shore and another
couple on a blanket about thirty yards from them. “There are five other people
here, Jeremy. This place is usually packed.”

“Like I said, too many people,” he said with
an arched eyebrow and a cocky grin on his face.

Melanie laughed as they sat down on the
blanket and Jeremy started pulling sandwiches and chips out of the backpack
he’d brought with him. While he was busy rummaging through the pack, she,
trying not to let him notice, worked on getting into a comfortable position on
the ground without flashing him her crotch.

She wanted to sit criss-cross-apple-sauce, but
that would never work in her short dress. She tried bending her knees and
tucking them to one side, but not only was that uncomfortable, it made her
belly pooch out.

Without saying a word, Jeremy grabbed her hand
and pulled her toward him. She walked on her knees until she reached where he
was by the trunk of the tree. He spread his legs wide and turned her around and
pulled her down in front of him, with her back to his chest, his back to the
tree. He wrapped his arms around her waist and gave her a squeeze before
reaching for the food and handing her a sandwich.

Melanie relaxed and leaned into him as she ate
her sandwich. “Peanut butter and jelly?” she asked with a snicker.

“What’s wrong with PB&J?”

“Nothing. I just thought you’d be more of a
roast beef kind of guy.”

“Why is that?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I guess I just thought
people who work out eat a lot of protein and no sugar.”

“What makes you think I work out?” He flexed
his bicep in her face. “Oh, is it the size of my guns?”

Melanie laughed and swatted his arm away. “I
wasn’t trying to stroke your ego. You just look like you spend some time at the
gym.” She paused briefly, then continued, “Don’t you?”

“Actually, no. I’ve never been much into
working out. I like to run, but that’s about it.”

“Then how are you so…so…muscly?”

Jeremy barked out a short laugh. “I wasn’t,
until my last birthday. Don’t you remember what I looked like when I moved
here? When we first met?”

“Um, yeah, I do. You look the same to me.”

Utterly gorgeous,
she
added to herself.

“Well, under my clothes I was different. Aww,
you’re blushing again.”

“Shut up!” she said playfully.

“Seriously though, I was skinny with no muscle
definition, because, like I said, I don’t like to work out. But in November,
shortly before my seventeenth birthday, things started to change. My muscles
started getting stronger and my body toned in preparation for the change.”

“The change?”

“You know, my first shift.”

“Oh right. I forgot.”

“You forgot?” he asked incredulously. Then he
laughed and squeezed her again. “Of course you did.”

She craned her head around to look at his
face. “What does that mean? Of course
I
did?”

“Melanie, if I told anyone else, and I mean
anyone,
that I turn into a dog whenever I want, that’s all they’d ever see when they
look at me- a dog. You are so special and so wonderful that, when you’re with
me, all you see is me. You forget about the dog. You just see the man. I love
that.” He pulled her closer to him and whispered in her ear “I love you,”
before kissing her neck.

Melanie cleared her throat and shoved some
chips into her mouth. She did not want to get swept away by his kisses in
public. He made her lose her mind, and she might do something stupid like turn
around and straddle him in her dress, showing off her thighs and butt to
everyone at the lake. All five of them.

“Tell me something nobody else knows,” Jeremy
said breaking her out of her salacious thoughts.

“Hmm, that’s a tough one,” she replied. “I
think Tara knows everything about me.”

“There has to be something. It’s only fair.
You know a secret about me.” He tickled her side and she squealed and squirmed
until he stopped.

She grew quiet and Jeremy waited without
interruption for her to speak again. There was one thing she never discussed,
even with Tara. It hurt too much so she never, ever talked about it, or rather,
him.

“It’s okay, you can tell me,” Jeremy said
quietly, sensing her tension. “You can tell me anything.”

“I don’t know who my dad is,” she blurted out
before she lost her nerve. “My mom refuses to talk about him. I brought it up
once and she yelled at me to forget it, that I’m better off not knowing, and to
never mention him to her again.”

Jeremy hugged her tight, but didn’t say
anything. He just waited for her to continue.

“Then one day, I went into her room to borrow
a pair of socks and I found a picture in her drawer. It was of a man in his
late twenties, with dark wavy hair and blue eyes. He looked like me. Exactly
like me. I stole the picture and hid it in my room. My mom either didn’t notice
or decided not to ask me about it.”

“Why do you think she refuses to talk about
him?”

“I have no idea. She got so upset when I
brought it up, I’m scared to ask again.”

They sat in silence for several minutes before
Jeremy said, “Thank you for telling me, Mel.”

“Anyway,” she said, changing the subject.
“Let’s get back to you. How many girlfriends have you had?”

She grimaced.
Oh God, why did I ask him
that?

“Why would you ask me that?”

“I, uh, never mind. Forget I asked.”

Jeremy released her waist and started running his
fingers gently through her hair. Melanie shivered as chills ran down her spine.

“No, you obviously want to know, whether you
knew it or not. I’ve had three. The first two were from before I moved to
Amblin.”

Melanie squeezed her eyes shut. It was like looking
at the scene of an accident. She shouldn’t look, but had to.

“What were they like?”

“Well, the first one was love at first sight.”
Melanie inhaled sharply and Jeremy tugged on her hair. “We were seven and she
had just crossed the monkey bars, something I wasn’t able to do yet. We were
together a wonderful and amazing three days until Tommy Matheson hit a baseball
for a grand slam at a little league game. I’m afraid she forgot all about me
after that. I was devastated.”

Melanie elbowed him in the ribs and he
grunted. “You deserved that. What about number two?”

“I was a freshman. She was a junior. We were
together for six months. I thought I knew who she was, but I was wrong.”

“What happened?”

“I was blissfully unaware that she had a dark
side. I was stupid and only saw what she wanted me to see. She was pretty and
sweet, all rainbows and sunshine when she was around me. She was very popular
and hung around with the ‘it’ crowd. I never sensed any unkindness in her.

“Then one day, I was feeling sick and didn’t
go to school. I felt better later in the morning and decided to go in, right at
lunchtime. When I entered the cafeteria, I saw her standing next to table of
freshman girls.” He took a deep breath. “The ugly things I heard her say, right
before she picked up the nearest milk and dumped it on one girl’s head…I
couldn’t believe it, Mel. She was horrible.”