Shadows of Fate

Chapter 2

Crickets creaked in the dark forest while I lay flush against a warm chest. We were so close that I could smell fresh sage on his skin. His breath warmed my skin. If I tilted my head up, we'd brush lips. My cheeks tingled. How sad was it that my closest chance at seven-minutes-in-heaven with a hot boy was with a comatose partner?

Macking on a passed out guy was definitely number one on the creeper list, but my body hummed like I was a magnet resisting his pull. God, I wanted to kiss him.

All that existed was the image of his calm face in the dark and his steady breath, warm against my skin. My heart pounded and his kept pace. I held my breath and tilted my head up slightly.

Just before our lips touched, a shock of electricity zapped between our mouths. His entire body twitched and, deep in his throat, a weak groan crawled out.

I jerked back, scrambling to sit on my knees and blurting out, "I'm sorry!"

What the hell was I doing? I found a stranger KO'ed and naked in the middle of the woods and all I could think about was hooking up?

"Hey, are you awake?" I asked.

No response.

I scooped up my phone and glared at its lack of bars. Great.

The light cast shadows over his sleeping face. His chest moved slow and steady. I couldn't just leave him here so...exposed.

I took off my hoodie and wrapped the sleeves around his waist, trying my best to keep my eyes away from his nether regions. I could hardly see anything in the dark, but I didn't want to chance glancing at the whole kit-and-caboodle. I mean, I'm not a prude or anything. I totally made out with Cory Tanner last year at the junior semi-formal. Okay, yeah, he ditched me when I wouldn't go to second base—and I still tried to repress that part. I wasn't quite ready to become personally acquainted with the male anatomy, and nothing screams romance like finding a guy roofied in the woods.

I struggled to wrap the arms around his waist. My hoodie didn't cover as much as boxers, or tighty-whiteys for that matter, but it would have to do. I knotted the sleeves, pulling them tight.

"Uhnn..." he groaned.

I yanked my hands away and flung them in the air as if I were caught shoplifting. "I swear, I didn't see anything!"

"R-un," he said.

Someone must have walked over my grave, because an epic chill swept over me. I lowered my arms. Run? Why would he want me to run?

On top of the hill, footsteps crushed fallen leaves and twigs. Right, the big scary not-opossum-thing. Whatever charged at me before now stared down at us.

I shined my small light up the hill, and what peered back made my stomach knot. The eyes had doubled. There were two of them now and they moved low to the ground, as if crouched on all fours. Assuming they had four legs. I still couldn't see anything beyond those reflective glares.

My muscles, my brain, and my instincts all screamed at me to run. Not like before, not with excitement. No, everything about those eyes filled me with terror.

"Hur-ry...run," the stranger pleaded.

I shined the light down to him. His eyelids were parted slightly under a mess of caramel hair. He reached for me. "Go," he said, and his hand fell limp to the ground.

Panic washed over me, and I spun, trying to figure which way was home. The fall had disorientated me. I opened the compass app on my phone that I'd always thought was dumb. Seriously, when would you ever need a compass? Right. Freaking. Now.