Author: Eden Beck
Category: Paranormal
Go to read content：https://readnovelfree.com/p/29741_19
“I could ask you the same thing,” he says as he hops down from the hood of the car. “Little late for you to be roaming the woods alone, isn’t it?” He walks closer to me and even though I think I should probably back away from him further, I find myself frozen to the spot.
He stands so close to me that I can feel his breath against my face. It’s warm and he smells woodsy, like patchouli and sage.
“What are you, my keeper or something?” I say as I try to sound cool and unaffected by his presence. In reality, I feel as if every inch of my body has been set alight.
He takes a step even closer so that now our noses are almost touching.
“I could be,” he whispers, and all that pent up energy inside me explodes up my spine.
Whispers: Interactive StoriesMake your own choices and decide what happens next!
I find myself unable to take my eyes away from his as if the gray pools in his pupils are swallowing all of my common sense. I could stay like this forever.
And from the still way he stands, one hand nearly brushing my own, his own eyes locked with mine—so could he.
If only fate didn’t seem so determined to intervene.
“What in the actual hell do you think you’re doing out here?” Rory’s voice hollers as he strides into the barn along with Marlowe. “Do you have a death wish or something?”
They carry with them a rush of cold air from the forest, cold enough to dissipate the heat that’s been growing steadily between Kaleb and myself. And just enough to start bringing me back to my senses.
“Is that a threat?” I ask as I turn around to look at him, despite still not wanting to take my eyes off Kaleb.
“Not exactly a threat,” he says sternly. “A friendly bit of warning.”
I huff and purse my lips, not buying his bullshit. “That friendly warning sounds an awful lot like what your father said to me earlier, and it didn’t sound that friendly coming from him either.”
“Romulus came to see you?” Marlowe asks from his position next to Rory. I can tell from the tone of his voice that he’s surprised.
“I don’t care how friendly it sounds or not,” Rory continues, disregarding Marlowe entirely. “You can’t just wander around other people’s property at night, touching their things.”
I glance over at the car, rusting with age. It doesn’t look like it’s been touched in a decade … maybe longer.
“Sorry,” I say, no hint of an apology in my voice, “but I didn’t think anyone would care. And this is kind of my property. I mean, we’re renting it but …”
“No, this is our property.” As he says it, Rory’s face grows red. “And you’d do well to remember that.”
It’s late, and my temper is short.
I settle into a more dismissive posture. “So how am I supposed to know what’s your land then? I didn’t see any signs.”
“That’s because all the land is ours,” Marlowe says, his voice far more measured than Rory’s as he steps forward. “Everything from that closest ridge of mountains to the bridge down by the river, that’s ours.”
He nods through the gap in the barn door towards the snow-tipped mountains in the distance.
“Right,” I say, trying to hide the fact that I’m just a teeny bit impressed. “So what am I supposed to do then, if you own all the land? Do you plan on just showing up every time I step off the driveway up to the cabin? What about the grass around the school, is that yours too?”
I know I’m being a little ridiculous, but so are they.
Rory doesn’t like my defiance. For a moment, his jaw works wordlessly.
Then, after a pause, he barks out, “Just don’t be an idiot. Show some respect. This isn’t your land, this is ours.”
“Your father’s, you mean,” I mutter.
“And what’s his is ours,” Rory growls back. For a second, he looks wild. He looks more like a creature of the forest than a man, but then just as quickly, his face hardens and he’s nothing more than an overgrown boy. “You shouldn’t be wandering around here,” he says, finally. He glances over at his brothers, then grabs Kaleb by the arm.
“Let’s go.”
Kaleb hesitates as though he’s getting ready to argue with his brother, but apparently thinks better of it and goes along with him at the last second. Neither one of them says anything else to me before leaving the barn. I stand here, not quite sure what to make of any of it.