"What does it taste like?" I ask, unsure of whether or not I truly want the answer. Knowing that I can't unring a bell. He moves closer to me, coming further into the room so that he can sit on the cot. For a brief moment our bodies brush and he touches my hip. I tell myself it's purely for his stability that I don't step back. "Your blood?" He asks, clarifying. Again he's lower than I, looking up at me from the foot of the cot. His hand hasn't moved from my hip. I nod silently, breath ceasing in my lungs in anticipation. The light in his eyes shifts, "Your blood is different in many ways. You say the bite is a drug? You have no idea what's in your veins... I can still feel it, within me. Your taste is much like your smell: rich and earthy. Warm. I could get drunk on you, Jacob." Quiet hangs between us, and the way he's looking at me makes the few inches of separation tangible and painful. At some point I started breathing again, but words don't come. Whether he's noticed the shift in the air, I'm unsure, but like so many moments before this one, I feel pinned by his stare. "Does that answer your question?"

Marie always thought her life was dull, or that maybe she just was. The only thing that she felt made her special was learning Morse Code with her best friend, Ashley, so that the two could have secret conversations. Now, much older during sophomore summer break, Ashley is off to camp and Marie is left with two choices: help renovate her family home, or get a job. Life at the coffee shop is enough of a distraction to get her from day to day, but everything changes when she realizes one of the coffee kettles is dripping out a message to her: FROM OUTSIDE To her delight, Marie realizes that water is talking to her through the code she and Ashley learned when they were children! Everything is amazing until the messages become more cryptic, more threatening. Suddenly, Marie is thrust into a world of fae, elementals, and a supernatural power struggle that has existed for centuries. Will Marie be able to save her family and home before her time is up?