2. Char
2
CHAR
I strangled the steering wheel, breathing hard. Driving too fast. The country road was dark, and I focused on what was just in front of my headlights, leaning into the curves at speeds just shy of dangerous.
“What the hell was that?” My voice pitched high, a little hysterical.
“I don’t know.” Jessica sounded as dazed as I felt. “I don’t know.”
My mind was starting to clear, but none of it made sense. We’d only been in the bar for, what? Twenty minutes? Fated Mates … What the fuck was that name about?
I let out a slow breath, trying to get my heart rate under control. “It was sketchy. The whole thing. I should have listened to you.”
Jess was smart. She’d hesitated outside the door, looking at that neon sign. I was the one who laughed and insisted we have a drink. Like an idiot.
“You didn’t know,” she said. “Annabelle didn’t warn us about any of that. I wonder if she even noticed. She was only there a few minutes to use the bathroom.”
I swore as I came up on another tight turn, cranking the wheel. “How did she not feel it? Even if she wasn’t there long. You felt it, right?”
Jess didn’t answer right away, and I took my eyes off the road for a second to glance at her.
This was supposed to be her night to finally move on, go out for some fun after her nasty breakup. Not some kind of heart-pounding, escape-from-the-scary-bar scenario.
Her hazel eyes met mine as she gave me an awkward smile, and I turned back to the road with a pang of guilt.
“I, um…” She cleared her throat. “Not to get too graphic, but I felt really turned on. Like there was something in the air. The bartender…”
No. He was a doctor.
I almost said it out loud, but I stopped myself.
The city lights glowed beyond the trees ahead, and there were no headlights behind us. I blew out a relieved breath as my eyes flicked to the rearview mirror to make sure. It was tilted down from when I’d used it to check my makeup, and I had to readjust it.
But not before I caught my reflection. My glasses were sliding down my nose, pupils blown so wide I could barely see the blue of my irises. And my hair was somehow mussed, like I’d been hanging out in a sauna. I looked like I’d been fooling around, even though Ryoch never touched me.
And my chest felt hollow because he hadn’t. As if I needed his touch more than my next breath.
Was I that easily taken in by a handsome face? I should have been suspicious right away. No one was that beautiful. But I was pulled toward him like…gravity. Like a satellite caught in an orbit, unable to escape.
What had happened back there? I’d seen things... But I couldn’t have. My brain searched for something concrete.
“They had weird names,” I finally said.
“Yeah.” Jess paused. “And weird eyes.”
Shit yeah . “Silver.”
Jess nodded. She’d seen it too. What the fuck?
“Yes, silver eyes,” Jess said. “And other things…” Her voice trailed off.
“Okay.” I lifted my fingers from the steering wheel one by one, listing what we knew. “Dive bar in the middle of nowhere. Full of hot guys. We started feeling aroused when we went in.” I gripped the wheel again, a shudder running through me. “I mean, it sounds like we were drugged or something, doesn’t it?”
“Maybe?” She sounded doubtful. “Oh, shit.”
“What?” My heart was in my throat.
“I left my credit card.”
I snorted, woozy with relief. “You can cancel it.”
“Hmm…”
As we drove into the city, leaving the last of the country fields behind, the familiar surroundings didn’t quite offer the reassurance I’d expected. Something still felt…wrong.
I pulled off onto Jess’s street a short distance later, parked in front of her townhouse, and let the car idle. The light vibration of the motor did nothing to soothe my nerves. For a minute or two, we just sat in the car in silence.
Jess finally laughed. “This would make good material for one of your books.”
“Ha.” Some of my tension lifted. “Too far in the paranormal direction for what I write.” Or was there a reasonable explanation? “You could research it at the library. Maybe there’s been something like this in the news?”
“I work in the archives, not… Fuck.” She closed her eyes and tilted her head back. “What keywords would I even look up? Optical illusions? Mass hysteria?”
Was that what this was? It seemed so real. I sighed, exhausted and wide awake at the same time. “I don’t think I’m going to sleep well tonight.”
“Want to come in? We could eat ice cream and watch a movie, keep each other company.”
“I wish I could, but I’m meeting my neighbor early tomorrow. I’d better go home.”
Jess nodded. “Okay. I’ve got laundry to do. Very important.” She gave me a goofy grin. “Text me when you get home.”
“I will.”
She was still smiling when she got out. We’d seen the same things, but she wasn’t nearly as stressed about it. Maybe I was overreacting?
I waited until she was inside her place before pulling away.
My little bungalow was on the other side of downtown from Jess’s condo. The direct route took me past a bunch of popular bars and restaurants. It was almost summer, and this part of town was particularly lively. Noisy and active this time of night.
I went slower than usual, weaving through the traffic. Rideshare drivers blocked most of the curb lanes. Drunk people stumbled into the road or swayed on their bicycles, illuminated under spotlights cast by the street lamps.
Usually I loved the energy, the bustling crowds. But I was too unsettled tonight.
Images of Ryoch’s face blurred together in my mind, superimposing on top of each other. The combination was something unearthly. Beautiful but exaggerated bone structure, reddish skin, and silver eyes. And…horns? When I blinked, I saw them like an afterimage behind my eyelids. Small horns above Ryoch’s ears.
I shook myself and drove carefully around the worst of the downtown snarl, letting out a sigh when I finally made it to my neighborhood and pulled into my narrow driveway. The street here was quiet, the houses mostly occupied by a mix of young families and retirees, all of whom went to bed early.
And me. Single romance writer, coming home alone.
Don’t go there.
If there was one thing my neglectful parents had taught me, it was not to feel sorry for myself. As they’d drilled into me, I was on my own, and I would be until I took my final breath. It was the ultimate irony that I wrote happily-ever-after stories, given that my mom and dad were so dysfunctional as a couple.
And if I needed a reminder to feel grateful, I only had to think of my neighbor. Naomi was my age, and she was sick with a rare blood disorder. Tomorrow morning I was driving her to a transfusion appointment.
I had my health, a job I loved, and good friends. So what if the most excited I’d been about a guy in years had probably been a drug-induced hallucination?
It didn’t take long to get ready for bed and slip under the covers in my cozy bedroom. But when I pulled in a deep breath, I caught a hint of Ryoch’s cologne lingering on my skin. The scent filled my lungs and made my heart race, a needy moan erupting from my throat.
Maybe something was seriously wrong with me.
Thoughts of silver eyes and that dimpled smile played on a loop in my mind, making me wet and achy, and it was hours before I finally fell asleep.