The Hidden (Heartfire) (2 page)

"It's fuzzy but yeah, now that you mention it. My God- did they hurt you Kaylia?"

She shook her head adamantly.

"No. That's just it. You rescued me."

I grinned.

"Good. I think you should go to the police though. File a report against those guys. They could try again. Or hurt someone else."

She shook her head, her eyes wide as saucers.

"That's just the thing Dylan. They won't try again."

"What do you mean?"

She looked away, biting her lip.

"You... hurt them. I think you hurt them real bad."

I stared at her as her words sunk in. She didn't notice that I was freaking out. She got caught up in her story, the words starting to really flow.

"You were really upset- angry. I thought you were going to kill them. All of them. But they ran away. Then..."

My voice sounded raw and low as I asked her what happened next. I had to know. Even if it meant I would never forgive myself.

"You picked me up and carried me for a long time. I didn't know where we were going but you didn't stop. You just ran deeper and deeper into the woods."

I closed my eyes, trying to remember. But nothing was coming to me. Flashes of trees in the darkness maybe... but then even that was gone.

"I'm sorry, I can't remember that."

"You took me into the woods and then you- you were-"

She trailed off, her breath coming in tiny gasps.

"Shhhhh- it's okay Kaylia. Just tell me."

"I don't think that you wanted to hurt me but you were... not yourself."

I leaned back in my seat. A cold feeling was settling into my chest. I knew what she was going to say before she even said it.

"What do you mean not myself?"

"You changed Dylan. You were touching me, kissing-"

I tried to make a joke. If we had fooled around then I was really wishing I could remember. But I was still afraid of what else she might say.

"I like the sound of that."

"No, Dylan. You were rough, not listening to me. And it was my first time so I told you to stop."

"Wait, what?"

Her voice was soft as she looked at her hands in her lap. She was clearly embarassed about telling me she was a virgin. And that I'd basically tried to force myself on her. I felt sick to my stomach at the thought.

"You were going too fast. So I told you to stop."

My heart was beating hard in my chest.
What the fuck had happened to me last night?
I would never hurt Kaylia, or scare her. But it sounded like I'd done just that. And then some.

"And you did. You stopped."

"Thank god. You were scaring me Kaylia. Is that it? I'm sorry if I went too fast."

"No, that's not it."

I knew I wouldn't have roughed her up or pushed too hard. Not only would I never do that to any woman, but Kaylia was so precious to me, I would never even think about doing that.

"What then?"

 
"Your face- it looked different Dylan. And your eyes-"

"My eyes what?"

"They were red."

"What, like bloodshot?"

"No- I mean the pupils. They were red Dylan. They didn't look..."

She trailed off but I needed to hear it. I needed her to spell it out for me.

"They didn't look what, Kaylia?"

She lifted her eyes to me and I saw the awe in them. The fear. The truth.

"They didn't look human."

The waitress chose that exact moment to bring our food. I ignored her, staring intently into Kaylia's eyes over the steaming plates. The silence spun out between us, pushing us farther apart from each other.

"That sounds like something out of a horror movie. Are you sure you weren't dreaming?"

She shook her head softly. Her eyes were sad. Almost as if she knew she was hurting me.

"No, Dylan. I wasn't. But I have seen something like that before. In a dream."

I cursed and stood up.

"Go on and eat. I just- I need some air."

"It's okay, Dylan. I can go. You stay. Eat."

"No! I'll be back in a minute. Please, don't leave."

But when I came back a few minutes later, she was gone.

Kaylia

ὧ

Tears were streaming down my face as I walked through town back towards campus. I had said what I needed to say. I owed him the truth, as strange and horrible as it was.

What Dylan did with it was up to him.

The worst part was, I couldn't think of a single way to help him. It sounded crazy. I knew that. How could you help a monster?

Even if that monster had a heart of gold.

But something inside me kept saying that I should- maybe even that I was the only one who
could
help him.

How was that possible?

If Dylan was ill- or under some sort of a curse- the moon had brought it out last night. He was a danger to himself and others. Well, not everyone. He hadn't been a danger to
me.

He'd protected me. Maybe that was what had started this. Maybe the fear and anger from the attack outside the stadium had made him change...

As scary as it had been last night, I knew now he wouldn't have hurt me.

It wasn't in his nature.

He had proved that last night. He could easily have overpowered me. Forced himself on me. It was clear he wanted me badly. He could have just taken what he wanted. I would never have been able to stop him.

It didn't even matter that he was amped up from the change last night. He wouldn't have needed super powers to do that. He was a big guy and I was... not.

For a moment it had seemed like he would have pushed me to go farther than I wanted to. Instead he'd curled up around me, refusing to let me leave, but doing nothing. He'd held me until he'd fallen into a deep sleep, his arms locked around me as the moon started to sink towards the horizon.

I had tried to extricate myself from his grasp but he'd held me firmly, growling softly in his sleep each time I'd tried to move away. It was terrifying, but in a way it might have been worse if he'd let me go.

Because at the very least, Dylan gave off a lot of heat. He was basically a big, incredibly strong furnace. It had been dark but I could have sworn he was hairier than usual too.

Toward dawn he'd started to change back again. To his normal self. His breathing had evened out, his features shifted, his muscles transforming from super sized to their normal, already substantial state.

I had slipped away finally, watching in morbid fascination as his body contorted. It looked like it hurt him to change. Even though I'd been frightened, I had hated seeing that. I didn't want him to hurt.

Ever.

I could have just left him there. Maybe I should have.

But I didn't. I almost felt that I physically couldn't leave his side. But tonight I had done what I should have done last night in the woods.

I'd walked away.

Dylan

Chapter Three
 

♆

I stared up into the stands as I ran out to the field. Kaylia had been avoiding me all week. I'd decided to give her time to come to grips with what had happened. We both needed to wrap our heads around it.

I'd done my best to be mature about it.

But I could feel the familiar pressure growing inside me. The urge to see her was so strong that it felt like there was something ferocious in my belly, waiting to be let out.

I had texted her at least five times this week already. She hadn't responded to any of them. She hadn't worked her shifts at the field house either.

I wasn't the only one who noticed that.

All the guys wondered about the fine ass woman who served the mashed potatoes.

They'd all noticed her over the semester, that was for sure. They made comments almost every time she was there. Comments about what they'd like to do to her, and what they would like
her
to do to
them
.

They were very descriptive. Creative even. Disrepectful and disgusting.
 

If it wasn't Kaylia I would have tuned it out. It was just locker room talk. Instead I wanted to rip their heads off.

I wanted to rip everyone's heads off.

And that was before I showed up for Freshman Lit and Kaylia was nowhere to be found.
 

Dammit! She was hiding from me. That wasn't playing fair. We had to talk. We had to work things out. I needed someone to talk to about what was happing to me. To us. It's not like anyone else would understand. But she wasn't even giving me a chance.

Now I was starting to get worried. And pissed off.

Really, really pissed off.

Howl at the moon pissed off.

I smirked. That was almost funny.

I wondered if Kaylia would think so.

I pushed my mouth guard into place and took position. The game was almost over. We were already winning by a lot, but it didn't matter. I wasn't going to hold back. I wanted to crush the opponents.

I wanted to
break something.

So I did. I called a play that had me running with the ball instead of just throwing it. I smashed through their defensive line like the players were cardboard cutouts isntead of real people.

It was better to think of them like that. Not flesh and bone. Just paper.

It made it easier to bash through them.

Fifteen minutes later and I was in the locker room, getting slapped on the back. I'd dominated the end of the game. The whole game really. Every game.

There were reporters waiting in the locker room to interview me and snap pictures.

Even the national sportscasters were talking about me now- they did a segment called D-watch. Agents were calling too. I was insta-famous. The new rage. An anomaly.

If only they knew why... It would a whole different sort of news frenzy. As it was, I was the flavor of the month. And it showed no sign of slowing down.

It was insane. It was more than I'd ever dreamed of when thinking about going into sports as a career. It was more than I wanted.
 

Much more.

I loved playing ball but I really didn't like the attention. It made me want to crawl out of my skin and hide. At this moment I wanted to be anywhere but here.

But I smiled and gave the interviews, trying to keep them short. By the time I was done the locker room was empty. I pulled on my jacket and walked out, checking my phone for a message from Kaylia.

Nothing.

I wasn't going to put up with this much longer. I was going to have to go over there and-

CRACK

Something me in the back. Hard. I turned to see a man lifting a two by four and swinging it towards me.
 

Right at my head.

I dropped and rolled into the guy's legs without even thinking. I felt the two by four fall to the ground, brushing my shoulder as the man above me screamed.
 

Guess I must have knocked out his kneecap. He'd probably walk with a limp for a long ass time. Maybe forever.

Good.

There were others there, in the shadows. I could sense them without even looking. Four of them jumped out at me and attacked. I fought ferociously, without thought, like an animal.

They yelped in surprise at my ferocity. It was clear they'd expected to be delivering an ass whooping, not getting one. But that was exactly what was going down.

Surprise, dirtbags!

Two guys tried to grab my arms but I just lifted them up and tossed them away. They fell to the ground, struggling to get up again. One guy punched my stomach and I just looked at him. His jaw dropped as he gripped his injured hand. I put him on the ground with one punch. Then I dealt with the two cowards who had tried to hold me down.

That left just one. This guy looked familiar. I had a feeling he'd been there the night Kaylia had been attacked. Probably all of them had.

My blood started to boil.

I grabbed him by the throat while he swung at me again and again, barely even feeling his fists. That's how feeble he was compared to me. I took a moment, wondering what the most satisfying way to deal with him would be.

I wanted to hurt him. Badly. In the darkest part of me, I probably would be glad to end him once or for all.

I decided not to choke him. Kaylia wouldn't like that. And I didn't want to get in trouble.

So I threw him instead. I decided to let gravity decide how badly he was injured. Then my hands would be relatively clean.

Karmically speaking anyway.

He hit one of the support beams and slid to the ground, unmoving.

In minutes it was over and there were five men laying on the ground whimpering.
As the red haze started to clear from my mind I recognized who they were. These must be the guys I'd beat up after the last game. Big guys, too. They had been surprisingly easy to take down. I was tempted to make sure they stayed down, to really hurt them. That was a risky move though. And Kaylia wouldn't like it. Hopefully after this time, they'd stay away.

For their own good.

I brushed myself off and walked home.

Kaylia

♆

I stared at the alarm clock across the room. I'd been doing this for hours, closing and opening my eyes endlessly, unable to get back to sleep. The blue lights rearranged themselves again.

4:45 AM

The dream had woken me up from a deep slumber. Or rather, I'd somehow torn myself out of it. The rending had been so abrupt that I'd literally felt myself land back in my body with a heavy thump.

For the first time ever, I'd gotten spooked in the dream.

I never got scared in my dreams. The dream world was my domain. I was more powerful than anyone I'd ever encountered. Asleep, I was pretty much a queen.

A bad ass queen.

But last night I'd felt completely taken by surprise. Once again I'd been drawn, pulled almost against my will to Dylan's suite. Each night since the full moon I made the familiar journey. The campus looked ordinary in dreamland, as I traversed it in what felt like the blink of an eye.

Once I got inside his suite though, nothing had looked normal. This was not a college campus. This was not a dorm room, or even a type of room I'd ever seen before. His room looked almost... medieval.