Eventide

Chapter 6, Rappelled

  Chapter 6

Rappelled

(Hanging On By A Thread, by The Letter Black)

     Brogan and I walked for several minutes, our synchronized heart beats and light foot falls playing a back beat to the silent tension between us as we worked our way farther from Annabel‘s house.

     “I’m sorry,” he finally said.

     That threw me.  Of all the things I thought he might begin with, an apology was dead last on my list.

     We stopped walking and I turned to him.  “For what?”

     “I didn’t mean to see you like that.”  He rubbed the back of his neck.  Was he blushing?  “I saw your Jeep out there while I was hiking and I waited for you to return, just to make sure you were safe.”

     I didn’t understand.  He had seen me as a wolf, but that should have made him afraid of me, not leave him blushing.

     “I should have looked away sooner, but I was too surprised.”

     “Looked away?”  Clearly, we were two trains on different tracks.

     “Um, yeah.”  He cleared his throat and blushed even harder.  “It took me a few moments before I believed it was you standing there, you know, after you changed.  It took even longer before I realized you were unclothed and I was being unforgivably rude.”

     I felt the sudden heat burst across my face and race down my neck.  Even my ears were aflame.  I had no doubt I was giving him a run for his money in the blush department, but at least he couldn’t see that in the dark.

     “I mean, I’m not sorry I saw you naked, err, I mean I am, or I’m not because you‘re so very…”  He swept his hand up and down in front of me and blew a frustrated breath between his teeth.  “I didn’t know you would be here for dinner tonight and I hadn’t thought this through.

     “What I really mean to say is, I’m sorry I saw you undressed, without your permission.  And, I’m sorry I was too shocked to be a gentleman and avert my eyes sooner.”

     “Forget about it,” I said.  I crossed my arms tight across my chest and stared at my feet.  My ears felt so hot that I wondered if they looked like charcoal briquettes on the sides of my head.

     “Not likely,” he muttered under his breath, low enough that I knew I hadn‘t been meant to hear it.

     We started walking again, slower than before.

     “I have two questions for you,” he said.  “The first one I need an answer to, but you can tell me to mind my own business for the second one, if it’s too personal.”

     “Only two questions?”

     He chuckled.  “I have a million questions, but only one I need you to answer.”

     I nodded.  “Ask.”

     “Try not to get angry.  I have no choice but to ask because I have a responsibility to the team,” he said, “But, I need to know if you’re dangerous.  I think I know the answer, but I need to hear you to say it.  Out loud.”

     “You’re asking me if there’s a chance I’ll phase and hurt someone.”  I shook my head, relieved.  Compared to all the questions he could have asked me, this one was easy.  “No, I’m not dangerous like that.”

     “That’s what you call the change, phasing?”

     I nodded once.  “Your second question?”