One Bite

Chapter 5-1

For once in my life, I didn't want to blink. Blinking was a natural, necessary but unnoticed bodily function that cleaned and lubricated my eyes. But, for me, I worried that once I blinked, the view in front of me again disappeared under my own mind's tricks.

The directional wind that blew straight in my face and dried out my eyes, searing their edges with strain, was no help against my internal conflict.

Solomon's scent hit me like an icy blast of arctic wind. The amount of information I learned from his presence blew my mind. He smelled like, of all things, the cold. A near-smoky sensation of ice cold air filled my nostrils. It shot tiny, ice-needle prick-like sensations through me, like a mild brain-freeze in my sinuses.

His tall, large-boned but slim muscular toned body stood with an elevated chest, exuding a quiet level of energy. Underneath his cool demeanor though, confidence, power, and a storm of emotional energy that, considering the circumstances, he kept locked down like an iron vault.

Like he's hiding how he's... No, couldn't be.

The edge of his long, dark gray coat flapped on both sides of his long legs with each closer step that he took. The biting wind at his back, his straight, platinum-blonde hair lifted off his shoulders like the strands levitated. A few strands brushed over his high, sharp, angled cheekbones. The view of his sky-blue eyes, as if I looked into a mirror, blurred from my sight as dryness stung tears into my eyes.

'Zara...' He flashed his open palms to me, a movement that flinched my eyes. 'No one here is going to hurt you.'

'How can you link me?' My knees brushed against the crushed gravel of the one-way road when I crouched down and picked up the Silencer gun I'd dropped. 

With a shaky hand, I clipped the safety back in place, then slid it into my holster. The aching sting of gravel biting my knees drew my hands down to brush them clean. My calves quivered when I squeezed my thighs and stood upright.

'You linked me.' He took another step forward. 'Despite how I've tried and tried, I couldn't reach you. But two days ago, I heard you, Zara.'

My feet froze in my spot and my layers of denial peeled back with each slow, steady step he took, closing the gap between us. The weighted, curious eyes of Simon, Raina, Idris, and Cole blurred out of recognition. Tobias' grimace as his hand gripped his bullet wound all faded away.

Solomon's scent wrapped around me, unleashing a familiarity within the newness. I didn't dare close my eyes but if I did, then I stepped back onto one of the North's white cliffs and the cold, briny wind caressing my skin. The flash of my memory from my last night there refreshed in my mind, as clear as looking at a mental postcard. I stood in the tallest packhouse tower, gazing where the navy blue sky met the horizon in the near-black water. The white peaks of the rough waves reflected off the pale light from the low-hung three-quarter moon.

A smile twitched the corners of my mouth up.

Except the briny stink is missing.

Solomon's stoic expression softened, then his eyes sparkled like aquamarine gemstones. 'Appreciate that, thanks.'

My lips parted and his scents coated over my tongue. 'How can you hear me already?'

He paused eighteen inches from me, his presence and scent overwhelming the space between us. My frozen feet stumbled back, but he reached out, clasping my wrists with a firm, gentle grip, and steadied me.

Warmth flowed between us, like a broken cord was welded back together with one contact. My eyes locked onto his, observing the flickers of green dancing in the depths of his ice-blue irises. A tickling sensation down my cheeks informed me I started crying.