Soulmates. (Harry Styles) -completed-

♥-chapter eleven-♥

Keeping low, Harry led me down the course of a shallow stream that fed into the Eyrie. He was wearing walking boots, but my canvas trainers had no purchase on the stones and I kept stumbling.

Hold onto my jacket, he told me. Almost there now. 

As the stream go deeper, the bank lowered allowing us to clamber out of the gully. We emerged on the grassy slope in front of the house.

'Sense anything?' Harry asked.

'No. See anything?'

'No. Let's make a run for the house.' He gave my arm a squeeze. 'On three. One - two - three!'

Feet squelching in my shoes, I sprinted across the open ground and through the front door. I heard the lock click behind me without Harry touching it.

'Your dad and Liam OK?' I panted.

He looked distant for a second, checking in with the rest of his family. 

'They're fine, but they lost the hunters. You were right: there was two of them. They took off out of town in an unmarked SUV. Black, dark windows. Hundreds of cars like it in the mountains. Dad says stay here until he gets back. Let's look at that eye.'

Harry steered me into the downstairs bathroom and sat me on the edge of the bath. As he fumbled with the first aid box, I realised that he was shaking.

I put my hand on his arm. 'It's OK.'

'It's not OK.' He ripped open a pack of cotton wool, shooting the balls all over the vanity unit. 'We're supposed to be safe here.' Fury rather than shock was making him tremble. 

'Why wouldn't you be safe? What's going on Harry? You don't seem surprised that someone wanted to shoot you.'

He gave a hollow laugh. 'It does make a kind of horrible sense, Ken.' He rinsed out the flannel and placed it against my eye, the cold dulling the edge of pain. 'Hold that there.' He then cleaned my cuts and scratches with cotton wool. 'I realise you want to know why that might be, but it's better for you and for us if you don't.'

'I'm supposed to be OK with that? I go for a walk with you, and get shot at, and I'm not supposed to wonder why? I can live with exploding lemons and the rest of it, but this is different. You almost died.'

He pushed the cloth back against my cheek where I had let it drop away. 'I know you're mad at me.'

'I'm not mad at you! I'm mad at the people who just tried to kill us! Have you told the police?'

'Yeah, Dad's handling it. They'll be along and probably want to talk to you.' He took the cloth away and whistled. 'How's this for a first date: I've given you a black eye.'

That gave me a jolt.

'This was a date? You asked me out here on, like, a date and I missed it?'

'Yeah, well not many boys take their girls out on a duck shoot with them as a target for their first date. You have to give me points for style, Ken.'

I hadn't got past the first bit yet. 'This was a date?' I repeated.

He pulled me up into his arms, my head against his chest. 'It was a date - I was trying to get you used to me, kinda in my natural habitat. But I can do better, I promise.' He nuzzled my hair. 'Thanks for keeping a cool head out there.'

'Thanks for getting us through it.'

'Harry? Kenzie? Are you all right?' Des was shouting from the passage.

'I'm here, Dad. I'm fine. Kenzie's a bit roughed up but she'll be OK.'

Des hovered in the door, his expression anguished. 'What happened? Didn't you see the danger, Harry?'