Transactional Relationship Theory
The shiver that runs through my entire body when I plunge into the unnatural dim beyond the gate is easy enough to dismiss.
My senses are heightened; it’s the middle of the night, and I’m alone in a forbidden place with a man who has given me a sense of unease since the first day we met.
I’m sure the heavy, rapid thud of my heart is a perfectly reasonable reaction to the whiplash of the evening and the rigid timeline Elias has imposed.
That has to be it; it’s definitely not the fact that the darkness just beyond the edges of my adjusted vision isn’t behaving normally.
The more I try to comprehend it, the harder I stare, the less it makes sense.
It’s not even an absence of light, but a physical weight that seems to disturb the air.
I shove the thought away. I don’t have time to waste diagnosing the atmosphere.
Instead I move quickly up the neglected gravel driveway, forcing myself to overlook the small oddities. The mosses and grasses overtaking the grounds are fascinating, but I can see them from the gates. I need to find what lies beyond the artificial daytime of the streetlamps.
I jump at the sound of a quiet curse. Elias. I’d almost forgotten about my chaperone, but the tall man hovers behind me like a shadow. Thankfully, he doesn’t try to fill the strange air with words.
My urgency doesn’t allow me to glance back, but I suspect, if I did, the usually smug man would be showing another expression entirely. I don’t blame him. It’s almost impossibly devoid of light for the few feet we’ve made it onto the estate.
“Let me get my flashlight.”
“No!” I spin around so quickly I lose my balance.
Between one heartbeat and the next, I’m plummeting toward the ground, falling backwards with not nearly enough poise to guarantee I’ll land on the softest part of me. I brace for the impact, but it never comes. Instead, I am met with a lack of sensory input so absolute that it is deafening.
“Breaking all of our unspoken rules tonight, aren’t you?”
The shift is violent. I’m no longer falling. I am braced against a hard, warm surface. Judging by the rhythmic vibration in time with the words in my ear, I think it’s safe to say that surface is a man. The familiarity that floods me is uncanny.
But that’s nearly impossible. When one wakes up at 7 PM every day, they don’t tend to have booming social lives, at least not in their thirties.
I don’t know enough people here to recognize someone by feel alone.
The closest thing I have is how many times I’ve imagined what Rowan’s body would feel like against mine, but I don’t think my imagination is quite that powerful.
Yet, the firm hands that grip my shoulders and steady me until I’m back on my feet, feel right.
Even once I have my composure, I still feel the heat radiating from behind me.
I angle my body to assess the man who just saved me from an unceremonious tumble, but his grip on me strengthens slightly, keeping me facing forward.
“Don’t turn around, Auburn. Trust me.” His breath is hot, searing against the shell of my ear, as he whispers the words to me.
I should run. Scream, maybe. It doesn’t feel necessary. The unease that has tangled my stomach in knots is suspiciously absent. If I were more reckless, I would explore the hot tingle of curiosity that’s replaced it.
That voice…
“Auburn!”
The sheriff stands a few feet in front of me, his eyes wide as he stares through me as if I’ve been erased from being. I wave weakly.
“Auburn, where the fuck are you?” His tone is thin and impatient, but he doesn’t acknowledge me at all.
The aura around me shifts, clearly unhappy with the man whose composure is obviously fraying in front of us.
“He can’t see us because he only sees the space where we should be,” the deep voice offers, barely above a whisper, an edge that is so familiar I can’t stand it.
“How can that be?” I don’t know why I match his volume, but the barely audible sound feels so natural in the heavy and expectant dead of night.
“He doesn’t belong here.” I’m aware the heat at my back hasn’t dissipated. My logic is short-circuiting against a sudden and bone-deep desire to lean back into him.
“Technically, he does more than I do.”
The answering laugh behind me is so deep and warm that it makes me far too aware of the blood thrumming through my veins.
“Wrong on both counts, Auburn.”
I shake my head violently. My thoughts feel sluggish and thick. Why am I entertaining this absurdity?
“How do you know my name?” I jump at the sharp sound of my own voice as it comes out at regular volume. Then I hear the gravel crunch as Elias moves toward the sound.
“Auburn!”
I don’t scan for him; instead, I spin on my heel to get a good look at the man toying with me.
A chilling wave of realization washes across my skin as I register that I’m not looking at a man.
I’m faced with a void, suspiciously shaped like a tall, broad-shouldered being.
The absence of light that somehow still forms into facial features is striking, I can’t stop staring at the lips. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear-
“Oh, sweetheart. That was a bad choice.”
He shakes his head slightly as he regards me, a sad expression crossing the facsimile of human features.
I hear the scrape of gravel getting louder under hurried footsteps as Elias draws so close I fear he might barrel into me.
I blink. I must have.
The being is gone. No shift, no sound. One moment he is there, the next he isn’t. Nothing but his ominous, nonsensical message hangs in the air to suggest he was ever real.
The sheriff grabs and yanks my hand so roughly that it feels as though my shoulder might get pulled out of its socket.
“Elias, that hurts!”
If he’s heard me, he shows no indication as he continues dragging me back toward the gate.
“Elias, wait.” I try to dig my heels in, but his insistence doesn’t lessen.
His hand constricts around my wrist enough that I worry it might snap.
The threat of permanent or even semi-permanent damage is enough to make my feet move in the direction he wants me to go, but his grip doesn’t loosen.
Even when we make it to the other side of the gate, and he slams it shut, I still feel his fingertips digging into my flesh.
“Where the fuck did you go?” When he rounds on me, he barely looks like himself. Something in his face is wrong. His eyes are blazing, and his chest rises and falls as though he’s just run a marathon.
“I tripped.” Adrenaline makes my voice shake more than I want it to, only amplifying when Elias surges deeper into my personal space, looming over me with unmistakable intent to intimidate.
“I’m serious, Auburn. Where did you go? I will drag your ass to the precinct this instant if you’re fucking with me.”
Any veneer of control has shattered. The wild edge in the blonde man’s eyes makes ice form in my veins.
“I tripped, Elias. I fell backward, and I think I hit my head. I thought I saw someone and-”
“Who?” He finally drops my wrist only to grab my chin and force me to look at him.
“I don’t know, I don’t think-”
“Release her, Carston.” The words aren’t fully formed, more like wind threading through branches, shaped into a threat.
Relief blossoms in my nervous system as Elias steps away from me, and I take advantage of his distraction to put as much space between us as possible.
“I’m armed,” he threatens loudly, still looking around wildly for the source of the command.
But the street is empty.
“Get in the car.” I shake my head instinctively.
“I can walk home, it’s not far-”
He smiles, the man from moments ago nowhere to be found, his usual controlling, and frankly unsettling air of arrogance firmly back in place.
“We’re going to dinner. Get in the car.”
The dim beyond the gates seems to flare with the same indignation I feel. I open my mouth to decline yet again, but in typical Elias fashion, he doesn’t let me speak.
“You owe me, Auburn. Now get in the car.”