Lost Read Free

a hellhound that decorated his sweatshirt. She stared at the image of the giant dog with its teeth bared. He wondered if she was processing what she was seeing, realizing that the man she was confiding in, trusting to hold her so close, had much more in common with the beast of the underworld she stared at than the angel she had called him before.
    “And you made it,” he replied, the closest words to assurance he could give her.
    “I made it,” she whispered, but there was failure in her voice.
    “It's all you could do,” he murmured.
    She was hurting. He ran his fingers through her curls again, brushed his thumb over the lump. “What's your name?” he asked. He hadn't wanted to know before, hadn't wanted that connection.
    “Rachel.”
    “It's a pretty name.” Biblical, a sign he was making a mistake.
    “What's yours?” She sounded calmer now. The ordinary talk was helping.
    “Cameron.” He watched as she digested that, and then added, “Have you lost consciousness?” If she had, if there was risk to her from her injuries, then what? He couldn't leave his hunt to take her to a doctor.
    But she shook her head. “No, why?”
    He smiled. She wasn't even aware of her own wounds; she was too caught up in worrying about her friends. She needed someone to worry about her.
    He ran the backs of his fingers down her cheek. A bit of mud clung to her cheekbone. He swept it aside. Then he tipped her face up to his and stared into her eyes.
    “Everything will be okay, Rachel. You did the right thing.” He willed her to believe him, to trust him.
    Her teeth sank into her lower lip; a line formed between her brows.
    “You did the right thing,” he repeated.
    She stared at him as if not understanding his words. He waited. The vampire talent for mesmerizing had never failed him, but the bump on her head, perhaps—
    Her lips parted; she expelled a breath. “I did the right thing. Everything will be okay.” Her gaze flickered, and then her eyelids lowered. Her face slipped to the side, so her cheek was nestled against his chest. Concern that she was losing consciousness caused him to stiffen, but as he moved, her eyes flew open.
    She stared at him, the intensity of her gaze matching his. “You'll make sure of it, won't you? You'll make sure everything is okay.”
    And without thinking, without pausing, he slowly... surely... nodded his head.
    As she closed her eyes and sighed, he closed his too and wondered who was mesmerizing whom.
    o0o
    Everything would be okay.
    As she stumbled over the rough ground, the words echoed through Rachel's mind. Inexplicably, she believed them. She had since Cameron had held her against his chest.
    Now he walked only inches from her side. Through sheer will, she managed not to glance in his direction.
    Being near him made her feel alive and exhilarated.
    Her body tingled with the kind of awareness you felt when walking beside a precipice, knowing that with each step you could trip and fall.
    She stared at the ground, checking. It was solid here. The cliff's edge was far to their left now. They were weaving their way down the slope, heading to the bottom where the road and Nancy’s car lay.
    So the feeling wasn’t from the risk of a fall or even the wreck.
    It was Cameron.
    He strummed with energy. So much that when she had placed her hand on his chest, she had expected to feel it vibrating against her palm. But she'd felt nothing unusual, only the raised design on his shirt.
    And then as she looked into his eyes, she had begun to calm. His assurance that everything would be okay had wrapped around her like a warm blanket, encouraged her to relax and trust.
    Deep in her thoughts, her toe again caught on a root or some other object not visible in the darkness. Her body catapulted forward. Cameron's arm looped around her waist and stopped her descent. She was pulled backwards, until her spine rested against his chest.
    Another wave of peace settled over her. She rolled her head to the side.