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  When my brain was done processing all this bizarre information, I screamed, heaving the flashlight at the dog. I hoped to break its leg, making it harder for it to chase me. But when I got to my feet and started to run, it followed me without any difficulty.

  It was uncannily quiet as it ran—it didn't pant, nor did its feet seem to make much noise as it struck the puddles I sloshed through. A chill ran through me as I understood why I'd heard it crunch after me in the woods. It had wanted me to hear, to be afraid. That spoke of a cunning, sadistic intelligence I didn't want to accept.

  I got four feet when its giant mouth clamped on my waist. A scream ripped from my throat as the skin there turned to white-hot fire. My brain shrieked that someone was skewering my skin with countless red-hot pokers. I was assaulted by the sickening aroma of burning flesh. Another scream ripped at my throat as my legs crumpled, my hands flying to my injured side. Hot, thick torrents of blood soaked instantly through my nice shirt. Turning over on my back, screaming yet again at the agony the movement caused, I squinted up at the creature in the rain. It hung back a little now, eying me in absolute silence as it sniffed the air and circled. I knew it was deciding which part of me to eat first.

  When it took a step forward, I beat at its legs and haunches with my fists. Its muscles felt like they were made of iron—scalding hot iron. The rainwater actually sizzled when I made contact, and, yelping, I withdrew my hands. I began to watch it quietly instead, waiting for it to make a move. If I was alert, if I was very careful, I knew I could outsmart it. Whatever animal it was, no matter how smart, I was a human being. And no other species on earth was more intelligent than humans.

  Except it's not from Earth, is it? Does that look like anything you ever studied in zoology?

  I told the voice to shut the hell up. I couldn't start thinking like that. Insanity was only a few more thoughts down that road.

  The creature bared its teeth at me. I saw them glowing in the gloom, as if they were made of white phosphorous. When it stepped even closer, I bent my knees and kicked up and out with all my strength.

  I saw that I'd hit it square under the jaw. I could feel that I'd connected with it—the impact jarred the bones in my legs all the way up my thighs and into my hips. But the thing didn't even blink or step away. Its face didn't move, as if my entire strength was nothing but a feather's weight.

  And just when the gravity of that was sinking in, just when fear was beginning to claw its way through my chest into all of my internal organs, the creature lunged.

  Everything happened so fast after that.

  I lay on the wet ground, dirt covering every surface of my body, bleeding and getting weaker by the second. I couldn't seem to close my eyes, though I knew I should—this wasn't going to be pretty. But then a fierce snarl tore through the air and the dog thing's eyes went wide. A moment later, I heard a tremendous crack and its head went limp, falling to the side at an impossible angle. And then, right before me, the creature turned to ash. Disintegrated. It was completely gone.

  I blinked several times and looked up into Dax Allard's face. His copper eyes seemed to shine as he stood there in the rain and cold without even a jacket on. His shirt was plastered to his body, every muscle outlined. His hands, clenched into fists, seemed to be steaming. But as I watched, stock-still, his eyes stopped shining and the steam evaporated into nothingness.

  "Are you all right?" he asked, his voice gruff. He took a few steps toward me but didn’t offer his hand, as if he was afraid to touch me.

  "Um..." My side didn’t hurt anymore, but I couldn’t tell if that was because I was in shock. I stumbled to my feet and the world spun.

  Almost instantly, I felt arms—scalding hot arms—like steel traps around my waist and I shrieked as the spot where the creature had bitten me flared with pain.

  Dax pulled his arms away but kept one hot hand at my lower back to hold me up. He cursed under his breath. "Were you bitten?"

  I blinked up at him again, feeling faint. My vision was growing darker at the corners. I wanted to reply and tell him that yes, I had been bitten, and um, would he mind explaining exactly what had just happened?

  But all I managed was to faint dead away.

  When I woke up, I was warm and dry and my head felt pleasantly fuzzy. Ensconced under the weight of something fabulously soft and warm, I waited as my eyes slowly focused. A big fireplace, roaring. Men's voices, murmuring somewhere behind me. A high ceiling, giant bookcases...where was I?

  "Ms. Beaumont?"

  I turned to look at the soft, French-accented voice. It was Oscar, smiling down at me. I tried to smile back, but my lips felt weird, as if they didn't really belong on my face.

  "Here; a drink."

  I moved my gaze lower and lower until it settled on his gloved hands. He held a small silver tray on which there was a glass of something yellow.

  "What..." When my voice came out a hoarse whisper, I cleared my throat and tried again. "What is it?"

  "Hot toddy." He set the tray on the table at the head of the couch I was laying on and helped me sit up. I winced as a faraway, foggy pain lit up various parts of my body.

  Oscar handed me the hot glass. I wrapped my hands around it and inhaled the aroma. After a long, deep gulp that warmed my stomach and spread to my chest, I looked back at him.

  He had a tense, wary look in his eyes, but his mouth was curved upward in a smile. "Better?"

  I nodded and set the glass aside, my head starting to buzz with questions. But the toddy and whatever else they'd given me formed a veil over my thoughts and I fought to find one to ask. It wasn’t entirely surprising, which one surfaced first. "Where's Dax?"

  "I'm here." I heard footsteps behind me and then Dax came around. He'd changed into a cream-colored short-sleeved shirt and dark jeans. Silhouetted against the fire, his eyes cautious, his face perfectly calm, he looked like some kind of avenging angel.

  I shook my head, trying to shake another question loose. Finally, haltingly, I said, "What...what was that thing?"

  He continued to gaze at me calmly. "What thing?"

  "That large black creature." I held my hand up high to indicate how enormous it was. "It attacked me? You somehow...disabled it?" I stared at him. What was he trying to do? How could he not remember?

  A faint wrinkle creased his brow, but other than that, he looked unperturbed. "Miss Beaumont—"

  "Cara."

  "Cara. You've had a trauma. Your car broke down on the way back into town, and you were attacked by a big wild dog. I suspect it was rabid. We had a doctor come look at you and he gave you the antidote, so there's nothing to worry about."

  I laughed disbelievingly. "That wasn't a dog!" I looked slowly from Dax's impassive face to Oscar's careful eyes, the smile slipping from my face. "And you know that," I said softly, mostly to myself. What was going on?

  Dax and Oscar exchanged a fleeting glance. Then Dax looked back at me, his face still a mask, giving nothing away. “No. It was a dog.”

  There was something wooden and robotic about the way he said it, as if he didn’t really expect me to believe his words. With a trembling hand, I reached for the hot toddy and took another sip. Then, after I set it back down, I looked right back into Dax Allard's unfathomable copper eyes. "There was a… a creature in the woods with large red eyes and wings folded to its sides. It stalked me and attacked me, and would likely have killed me if you hadn't come along at exactly the right time." A fire log popped in the fireplace, making me jump, but I kept going. "I tried to attack it, but...it was like it was made of steel…or iron. Nothing I did fazed it.

  “But then you were there. You went right up to it and broke its neck. And then it disintegrated into ashes, right in front of me. And your hands...there was steam coming out of your hands, as if they were smoking hot." A series of images of the attack flashed through my mind. I remembered the searing pain of the thing's teeth in my side. The absolute heat of Dax's iron arms as he grabbed me before I fainted. I put my hand
to my head. I might be drugged, but I had never been as sure of anything as I was of what I’d witnessed. I knew I’d never forget. "I passed out after that, and you must've brought me here." Another log popped, but none of us acknowledged it that time.

  Oscar and Dax were both staring at me as if they weren't quite sure what to say.

  Something in my face or my voice must’ve made an impact. There was a deep silence, during which the three of us continued to stare at each other. Finally, Oscar spoke in a soft, hushed voice. "May we ask you for an oath of silence?"

  I looked at him, my damp fists opening and closing on the soft blanket covering me. "I need to know what exactly happened. What was that thing? And…how did Dax do what he did?"

  A shadow crossed Dax's face. "Absolutely not. That is none of your concern."

  Oscar turned to him. "Dax..." he began, placating.

  “It’s none of my concern?” The drugs had definitely lowered my inhibition. Anger heated my cheeks more than the fire. “That thing attacked me. It could attack me again—or someone else in town. I deserve to know what it was.”

  But Dax was glaring at me. "I saved your life. Now I'm asking you not to divulge what you witnessed. I believe that's a fair trade."

  Just like that, my resolve began to crumple. There wasn’t much I could say to that; he had saved my life. If he hadn’t been there, I would’ve died. Without a question. “Fine,” I muttered.

  Oscar cleared his throat delicately. “May I have a word, Mr. Allard?”

  Dax glared at him, as if he wasn’t sure if he wanted to grant him that, but they moved off to the side nonetheless. There was a hushed conversation which I couldn’t hear in spite of straining my ears. They sounded like they were speaking much too low, and I wondered how they understood anything that was being said at all.

  When they returned back to my side, they each had a reflective, cautious expression on their faces. “Ms. Beaumont,” Dax said in his sandpaper voice. “For your troubles, we’d like to offer you one thousand dollars.”

  I stared at him, my head spinning, and not just because of the medicine. They wanted to pay me for my silence? As much as I was indignant that they felt like they could buy my loyalty, I wasn’t delusional enough to say no. I needed that money, desperately. But a thousand dollars wouldn’t go very far. “The job,” I said, my voice hoarse. “That’s what I’d like.”

  Oscar glanced at Dax, as did I. His face was furious, anger and alarm all over it just as it had been when he’d first seen me. He folded his arms across his chest, biceps bulging with the movement. Entranced, I watched his every move, his change of expression.

  “No,” he said flatly.

  Blood rushed to my face at his tone. “What…” I swallowed. There was no way I’d ask this if I wasn’t hopped up on whatever they’d given me, but I wanted to know. “Have I offended you in some way?”

  For a moment, Dax stared at me, confusion coloring every facial feature. When understanding seeped in, his eyes widened. Seemingly unconsciously, he took a step closer to me. In spite of the giant fireplace roaring just a few feet away, I could feel his body heat waft out toward me. He was like a walking furnace. “You think…you’ve offended me?” He actually sounded astounded.

  I stared up into his copper gaze, the effects of the drugs somehow melting away. I was completely hypnotized. There was no way I could’ve lied to him, not even if my life had depended on it right then. Nothing else existed in that moment but the two of us—Oscar, the room, even what had just happened to me in the forest fell away.

  In a quiet voice, I said, “You act like I’m the most abhorrent person you’ve ever met. You refuse to come near me. And you don’t want me working for you. Why else would that be?” Ridiculously, I felt a lump in my throat, simply by speaking of his rejection.

  A muscle tensed in Dax’s jaw, as if he was physically biting back what he wanted to say. His fists tensed into balls, thick veins standing up on his arms. “Ms. Beaumont,” he finally said. His quiet voice held a hint of a tremor. “Believe me when I tell you I am not in the least… offended by you.” He took a deep breath. “It pains me that you think so.”

  “Then…then what is it?” I asked, still gazing into his eyes.

  But he shook his head.

  “Another secret,” I muttered. “You seem to have so many.”

  He smirked, his gorgeous face transforming into something hard and bitter as he looked away, toward the windows and the woods outside. “Yes. And none of them are good. It’d be in your best interests to stay away.”

  The fire crackled. I realized that sometime during our conversation, Oscar had slipped away. I looked down at my hands, fisted in the blanket. “What if…what if I don’t want to stay away?”

  I couldn’t believe I was saying the words out loud. I had just met this man. But somehow I knew that he felt exactly the way I felt. I was beginning to suspect it was the reason he was so…strange around me. There was something between us that eschewed the traditional hesitant, “play it cool” attitude normal guys and girls our age displayed before they got to know each other.

  I expected him to become furious or stalk away. It surprised me when he sighed deeply instead. “Then we’re in trouble,” he said, his voice barely a rumble. “Because I don’t want you to stay away either.”

  I jerked my gaze back up to his eyes. My breath caught when I saw they were practically smoldering, the copper turning to molten liquid. As my heart began to pump furiously in my chest, I asked, “Then it’s settled? I’m working for you?”

  He kept his distance, but the heat wafted off him again. Sweat beaded along my hairline. The room seemed to get much, much warmer, as if the fire were encroaching into it. “Yes,” he muttered, still staring at me. “If that is what you wish.”

  I smiled, the warm, fuzzy feeling seeping back into my body. “It is,” I said, and I felt my eyelids begin to slip shut.

  When I woke up again, I was disoriented. All I remembered was Dax. My eyes swept the room, searching for his face with a voracity I didn’t understand. They settled on Oscar’s instead.

  His pale silver-blue eyes crinkled at the corners. “Do you feel a little better, Ms. Beaumont?”

  “Cara.” My voice was hoarse, my throat dry.

  “Of course,” Oscar said, handing me a glass of water. “Here you are. I imagine the medicine must’ve rather dehydrated you.”

  After I’d gulped down the entire drink, I nodded. “What did you give me, anyway?”

  Something in Oscar’s face closed up and I knew he wouldn’t tell me the truth before he even opened his mouth. “I’m not sure of the exact name,” he said, putting the glass away and refusing to meet my eye. “But then, I’m not a doctor, of course. If you’d like, I can find out for you and call you with the information later.” He smiled kindly.

  “Right.” Another secret. “No, that’s not necessary. I feel much better.” My hands felt for my injured waist, but found a heavy bandage covering it instead. There were no holes in my shirt, and I glanced down, surprised.

  Well, that explained it. I was wearing a t-shirt that was much too large and came down to my knees…and nothing else. Blushing, I looked at Oscar. I didn’t know which was harder to think about; Oscar stripping me down, or Dax. “My clothes…”

  He seemed to understand. “Victorine—my daughter—was the one to change you. Your clothes were ruined, I’m afraid.”

  Oscar had a daughter? Why hadn’t I seen her yet? “Oh. Please thank her for me.”

  Oscar smiled placidly. “Of course.” Tactfully, he glanced at the clock on the wall. I followed his gaze and gasped. It was almost midnight. “When you are well-rested, I can drive you home. Dax has had your car towed; it will be fixed soon.”

  I wondered at him calling Dax “Dax” and not “Mr. Allard.” That careful, respectful veneer he kept while addressing his employer seemed to have slipped, if accidentally. But I knew asking wouldn’t get me any truthful answers. And more than that, I
wanted to ask where Dax was, why he wasn’t here. Didn’t he feel the need to see me, just as I felt the insatiable need to always keep my gaze on him?

  But instead, I swung my legs around. I felt naked in the shirt, which was silly, because I wore dresses and shorts much shorter. I wondered if it was Dax’s shirt, but the thought made me blush. Instead, I busied myself with thinking how remarkable it was that my side didn’t hurt at all. They must have a superb doctor, and even more superb pain medication, though I didn’t feel nearly as drugged anymore.

  “I’m ready to go now,” I said. “I’m sorry. I had no idea it was so late. You should’ve woken me.”

  “I was under strict instructions to let you sleep,” he replied quietly. I didn’t know whether he meant the instructions came from the doctor or Dax, but his tone told me he didn’t really want to discuss it.

  Oscar led the way back out into the long hallway I’d seen earlier that morning. He was in a hurry, walking as fast as he could go without running. My cheeks flushed as I realized it was probably because I’d long overstayed my welcome. It was likely well past his bedtime. Overcome with guilt, I quickened my pace and struggled to keep up with him.

  The gold silk wallpaper glowed softly in the light from the wall sconces as we raced along. It was a perfectly magical house, I thought to myself. Just like Dax, just like whatever secret he was hiding. Reality seemed to take on a different dimension around him.

  One second it was quiet, the only sounds my footsteps and my internal monologue. But the next, a piercing, agonized howl ripped through the air. My hand automatically flew to my mouth, my eyes went wide as the horrible sound went on and on.

  There was also a thunderous banging, as if a wrecking ball was pounding into something that wouldn’t give way. In front of me, Oscar’s steps staggered, but he kept walking. Turning around, a tense smile on his face, he beckoned me forward.

  I stared at him. When the howl and the banging cut off, I waited for him to say something, but he didn’t. I shook my head back and forth, slowly, trying to get a grip. “What…what the hell was that?”