Rebels [Blood Magic, Book 4]

Chapter 10: Kiss and Make Up

I followed the shoreline as I ventured away from the lake house, sticking as close to the water's edge as possible, except when forced further inland by boggy conditions or brambles and fallen trees. I didn't move fast, choosing instead to remain fully alert for any danger, supernatural or otherwise. But aside from a few scattered humans in a few scattered lodgings, all fast asleep, our strange little family was alone.

Family. My real one. And what an odd bunch we were. Unlike when I'd first met Ephraim, I felt instantly drawn to my mother. Connected, in some all-encompassing but nonexplainable way. It hadn't been easy to drag myself off the dock and out of her company. I could have talked and talked long past dawn, but she needed to work things out with my father too.

By the time I turned around and retraced my steps back to the property, the sky was purpling with the coming day. The chairs at the water's edge had been abandoned. My mother and father - both creatures of the day - had retired, undoubtedly exhausted after a near all-nighter.

How long had it been since I'd seen a sunrise? Not since the morning the compound fell, and before that? I had no idea. The days and hours always seemed to move differently underground. No time like the present, I thought, and made my way to the dock. If I'd been human, I'd have been courting hypothermia after spending most of the night outside in just a sweater, but the chill only invigorated me. So much better than the recycled air of the motel.

I sank into the lawn chair I'd occupied earlier and stretched out my legs. Still stiff. It'd take a lot more exercise to regain what I'd lost during my hunger strike.

Within five minutes, footsteps approached from the direction of the house. I recognized them immediately.

Only one other person besides me wore boots to the lake, and only one person in my life walked in such a manner that he'd intentionally be heard. The latter a courtesy from long before I could detect him at a few hundred feet no matter how he was approaching.

"Mills," Keel said as he came to a halt behind my chair. I expected his hand to land on my shoulder, but he did not touch me. "It's time to go in."

"I like it out here," I said, still looking out across the lake. The night sounds were giving way to morning ones. I'm not sure I ever noticed that passing of the guard when I'd been human, despite the myriad camping trips, but now it was impossible to ignore. "It's peaceful."

"It's getting late," he said as if he didn't see the beauty or didn't have time to stop and appreciate it.

That rankled me.

"What's late to a creature of the night?" I asked.

He stepped past me, still garbed in the dressier clothes he'd departed the motel in, and gave a nervous glance at the brightening skyline.

"I haven't forgotten the daywalking spell, if that's what you're worried about." When he still seemed hesitant, I added. "It wouldn't be a bad idea to practice it. You too."

A shorter hesitation, then: "In that case, may I join you?"

"Of course." I motioned to the chair my mother had been sitting in earlier.

Keel didn't sit down. Instead, he bent over and unlaced his boots, then stripped both them and his socks from his unnaturally pale feet.

"What are you doing?" I asked when he started rolling up his pants.

"Saw this in an illicit movie once. I've wanted to try it since I was a kid." He sat down at the edge of the dock and plunged his feet into the lake.

I shivered. Staying outside all night might not have made me cold but watching his toes wiggle beneath the water sent a chill tearing through me. "You're going to get frostbite," I warned.