Shades of Human (Faerie-Tail Awakening Book 1) Page 3

  And then my stalker vanished right before my eyes.

  No, seriously. One moment he was there in all his ruggedly built slice of man with seductive eyes that tempted me to give in to a would-be killer. Then he stepped forward, one boot then the next dipping into a puddle—a puddle that swallowed him whole.

  “What the hell is going on?”

  I didn’t stick around to find out, but I knew he would be back, and maybe next time I wouldn’t get out of this alive.

  Chapter Four

  I was going effing bananas. Seriously. Effing. Bananas.

  There was no other explanation for it. Everything I had seen, everything I had heard, none of it could be real. Sexy Stalker was a figment of my imagination. So was how hot he was. So was his dagger. So was everything he had said to me. So was him disappearing into a freaking puddle!

  I paced in my makeshift apartment, not seeing the stained wooden panels that made up the floor or my meager possessions that made this abandoned warehouse mezzanine loft my home. The faint glow of a single floor lamp lit the space. The room ran on free power, only because this was one of my jobs. The warehouse below was stacked full with boxes of merchandise. My job was to be here at night to guard the goods. Good thing I was a light sleeper, or should I say recurring nightmare waker, and the owner didn’t mind me staying here so long as the rent came out of my pay.

  But none of that was even in my mind now as I returned to the bay of twenty small square windows. Each adjoined pane was dirty and many were cracked. One was only partially filled with broken glass from a misdirected sparrow I managed to keep alive while its injured wing healed.

  Down in the alley, I could see the spot Sexonlegs had disappeared from. The rain had let up, but the puddle was still there, glossy and rippling, taunting me each time I returned and stared down at it. There had been no sign of ice then and there still wasn’t now.

  I still didn’t believe my eyes—or the fact that Stalker Guy hadn’t returned to finish me off.

  The ground level was alarmed and secured by padlocked steel doors. In here I was safer, at least, I hoped I was…unless my stalker decided to appear from the water that leaked from my roof.

  “Don’t be stupid,” I chided myself, glaring at the wet patch that was growing now that I had removed the bowl I usually left there to collect the water.

  None of it could be real, none of it. I had to be going crazy, having some kind of psychotic break because of the anniversary. I wasn’t sure if this alternative was worse, because if any of it was real, that meant…everything I thought that had happened to my mom could be real too. My memories from when I was four and saw my mamma die right before my eyes as I screamed for her not to leave me could be real. But they couldn’t be. People didn’t appear through puddles. Monsters didn’t exist. And yet, I had done exactly what she had asked of me my entire life. I never accepted help, and…I never listened to the voices. Sometimes when I was alone, I heard whispers on the cold air, promises of wonder and grandeur, promises of a life that was far greater than where I’d ended up.

  But it wasn’t real.

  And where I was now was just fine with me.

  I sighed and turned away from the cracked window that let both the rain and the cold inside. Winter was coming fast, and I needed to patch it up again until the next bird paid me a visit.

  With a sigh, while swearing I didn’t miss the attention that small, winged creature had given me, I abandoned the tuna can I’d emptied into a plastic bin filled with more of the same and strode to the door. I could hear the water running, and I didn’t have long before it would overflow. And soggy boxes meant big trouble for me and getting kicked out on my ass.

  The barrier to my loft creaked open with a nudge, and I poked my head through. The warehouse was quiet, not a sound to be heard. I stepped out onto the grated walkway, gripped the post, and kicked my legs over the edge. And then I was plummeting, sliding down the fireman style pole and disappearing behind the stacked crates and boxes before the alarm could trip.

  I hit the ground in a crouch and looked around.

  Still nothing. Phew.

  Feeling a little silly and quite paranoid, I straightened and walked normally. I could hear the water louder now, the tone changing as the bath filled up. I headed for the open door and stalled when I reached the glow of the light that shone out. Glancing back over my shoulder, I quickly blew a kiss between the stacks—to the very spot my mother had vanished from. The patchiness of her spilled blood still left a faded stain. “Love you, Mamma.”

  I blinked fast, fighting the heat of tears back as I walked through the door into the bathroom. Shutting the door behind me, I crossed the path of cracked, dirty, and missing tiles, bypassing the stained porcelain steel sink and two toilet cubicles with doors that sported various carvings from long-gone disgruntled workers. Reaching the open shower space at the end, I reached for the knob and turned the water off. The pipes groaned, and the rainhead that sprinkled down from the ceiling slowed to a trickle and then a pitter-patter until only an intermittent drop remained. I smiled weakly at the bath that sat out of place in the dirty space, watching the ripples settle from the center and peter out to the edge of the porcelain. It wasn’t plumbed and it wasn’t meant to be there. A lucky find someone with too much money was throwing out just because it had a few scrapes, chips, and cracks. A little silicone had fixed it up, and wallah, I had a bath to soak the stresses of the days away…while closing my eyes and pretending I didn’t hear the voices in my head.

  But I did. I always had.

  Staring down at the water as the final ripples settled, I made my eyes remain there. Water was my fear, the element that had given that monster the means to take my mother from me. But it was also my weakness. Since I can remember, I’d always felt connected to water. It was all I drank, and the notion of staying away from it made my chest tighten. The silky touch of immersing myself was like nothing I had ever felt before, and it made my body hum and my legs tingle all the way down to my toes.

  Being near water created discomfort too, but for an entirely different reason. But I had refused long ago to let my fears rule me. Which is why I now lived here. First I had wanted clues to figure out what had happened to my mamma. When I didn’t find anything and was caught snooping, all I wanted after that was to be close to her again…and this place gave me that, at a great price too.

  I peeled my wet jacket off then my T-shirt as I continued to stare, minding the few small holes so I didn’t rip them any further. My jeans came next, almost knocking me on my backside as they got balled up around my ankles. Then I just stood there, skin prickling at the draft that swept in from who knows where as I stared down into the water. I stared so hard my eyes started to burn, gathering tears like they were trying to put out a fire. But then it happened, the thing I’d been waiting for. A face rose up from deep below the surface, a few years older than me with long auburn hair that was full and curvy in a body wave kind of way and floating around her as if she were underwater. Her sloped nose and high cheekbones came next, perfect and proportioned, and then her eyes appeared—the color of a raging ocean.

  I gasped. The same color I had seen today on my stalker.

  The imaginary sight vanished as if it were spilled ink being swept away on a current, replacing the face of my mother with my own. We were so much alike. Same bone structure. Same long wavy hair. Same plump lips. But not our eyes. They were nothing alike. Not in color and not in shape. Where hers were almond and aquamarine, mine were shaped like an anime character’s and emerald green with flecks of sapphire.

  I leaned forward, one hand on the bath’s curved edge and the other reaching down toward the reflection of my face. This was as close as I ever got to seeing myself, apart from in Uni photos that were snapped before I could get out of the shot. I glanced over at the sink, mouth pressing into a thin line at the vacant spot that had never been painted where a mirror used to hang. On my first snoop of the warehouse, the voices had gotten over
whelming, and I’d smashed the mirror until every shard resembled tiny flakes mixed with slivers of dust.

  The water reached up to lap at my fingers without warning. My head spun back around. No drops fell from the rainhead, and yet the surface shifted suddenly as if it were a rolling wave. Water crashed over the edge of the bath—and then I saw it. Something, no, someone was in the tub. His form came alive as if he were a painting being forged from brush and color: flesh covering a competition-worthy body, rich long hair, and…a fading flash of iridescent gold and shimmering black below his waist.

  I straightened, heart leaping into my throat—and his hand caught my wrist.

  A scream ripped from my throat and I tugged, sliding on the wet tiles as my stalker’s face emerged out of the splashing surface. I clenched my fist and popped him in the face. Sexonlegs squeezed my wrist hard, his head snapping sideways and other arm falling over the bath’s edge. He gasped, wheezing on the air as I tugged, finally breaking his hold as I tore him from the water. I scrambled up and back as he flopped over the edge. The view of his toned backside froze me on the spot, but if anyone asked, I would swear it was his legs. As he tumbled over the edge, the blur of gold and black I thought I’d seen was almost gone, fading right before my eyes as he slapped down onto the hard tiles.

  Naked and gasping, he reached for me, and like an idiot, I barely moved, frozen in shock and disbelief. His eyes lost some of their mesmerizing appeal, pinching with strain. “Calliope, help…me,” he spluttered before choking on gasps of air. “Shove…my head…back…under the…water, so I don’t…drown.”

  I actually laughed. Was this guy serious? He spends the afternoon stalking me and chasing me down alleys, then he appears like magic in my effing bathtub and begs me to drown him. “You’re crazy.”

  Or maybe that was me. Was any of this even real?

  Was Mamma’s crazy genetic makeup coming to life in me?

  At my refusal, his hand dropped and he clawed at the tiles, trying to get his muscled arm up to the bath’s edge. Damn he was hot, every muscle popped and bulged all the way from his forearms and biceps, up over his shoulders and back, and down to his chest and abs then legs. This guy was seriously ripped, and what I saw beneath his waist made for a perfect accessory…the first I’d ogled in my entire life…and was I seriously edging around to get a better view?

  “Calli—”

  My sexy stalker’s choked voice as he fell to the now muddy tiles pulled me out of my hormonal thoughts. He had to be lying, playing some sick joke to get me to come closer. But then how was he getting his skin to turn that deathly shade of blue?

  Body shaking as the gasps of his breaths came shorter and faster, I knew I wasn’t about to just stand there and watch this guy die. I’d done that when my mother died. Stalker or not, Sexonlegs was not dying on my watch—if I’d had one.

  Rushing forward, I slid and went sprawling across the wet tiles. Stalker Guy’s body kept me from smashing into the edge of the bath, my chest landing on his back. I gasped at the contact, one, because he was so deliciously warm, and two, because I expected him to throw the charade and turn on me. When he didn’t, I slung my arms under his pits and hauled with all my might. Sexonlegs was heavy, seriously, but his feet shifted below us, planting on the ground to help hoist him up. His shaking hands gripped the bath’s edge, and then he pulled as I pushed, tumbling back into the tub with a splash.

  I stood upright at once, staring down as the water resettled, half expecting Sexonlegs to disappear as I watched. But he didn’t. Not bothering to cover his equipped manhood—I swear I didn’t steal a peek—he let his face float to the surface. Keeping his mouth submerged, his nose met the cold air…and then he breathed in.

  The sound was almost soothing, threatening to loll my heart into a more relaxed state than the jackhammer setting it was currently stuck on. But I wasn’t letting my guard down as I watched the color return to every shredded inch of him while I listened to his breathing level out. His ocean blue eyes flicked to me from above the water, burning into me with an intensity that struck me below the waist.

  I was delusional and crushing on my stalker. Yep, I was seriously losing it! Looney bin, here I come…if I could manage to escape now that his mesmerizing gaze had rooted me to the spot.

  Now, this is why the women in horror movies always died. Stupidity. And now I was one of them.

  Stalker guy’s drenched caramel hair clung to his neck as he slowly lifted the rest of his face out of the water. His eyes never left mine, his sexy mouth parting to take a slow breath in. He cracked a smile, sitting up fully and leaning forward to drape his ripped arms over the bath’s front edge. Which was good, very good. The shift also concealed him below the waist and should have given my brain some ability to think, but those damned eyes. “I didn’t think you’d pass.” His eyes smoldered, doing funny things to my belly. “Thank you.”

  I frowned and questioned what the hell I was doing still standing here. Not that I had anywhere to go. This guy knew where I went to school and now where I lived. Oh, and could just appear and disappear at will. Yeah, so, call me stupid, but what would you do?

  “Passed?” My tone was clipped and my eyes narrowed. Maybe I was asleep and if I pinched myself I would wake up. “And for what?”

  “My test. And for helping to transition my lungs. For helping me even though you could have run away.” He smiled then, and my heart did a somersault. He even had perfect dimples on either side of his five-o’clock shadow. “That won’t work, by the way.”

  “Huh?” I glanced down at my finger and thumb and the place I had pinched along my forearm. And he was right; I wasn’t sleeping, because this sexy naked guy was still dripping wet in my bathtub. His eyes roamed over me then, their ocean color intensifying with their travels. I saw my crumpled wet pile of clothes and suddenly realized I was close to buck naked. All that covered me were black satin panties and a black lace bra. My arms flung around my body, trying and failing to conceal enough to remove the hungry look from his eyes. I darted to the side and pulled a blue towel off the rusted rack by the sink.

  “Ah…” This was too weird and embarrassing. And yet, I didn’t feel scared in this moment. “Who or what are you?” I eyed the water where I thought I’d seen strange colors coating his legs before glaring at his handsome face. “Why are you here? How did you do that, with the water, here and earlier? And why the hell are you following me? What do you want from me?”

  “Chatty much?” Sexonlegs smiled at my death stare, chuckling to himself. And then his face turned grim. “There will be time for that later. You wouldn’t believe me now, anyway. But before I go—”

  “You’re going?” I don’t know why I asked it. I should have been thrilled that my stalker was voluntarily going to leave, unless he planned to finish me off first. Would he kiss me before the final deadly goodbye? Mind out of the gutter, Calli! I chided myself. And morbid much? I shook my head, clearing the cobwebs.

  “You want me to stay?”

  “No, of course not. I want you to leave.” Why did he have to keep staring at me like that, like he hoped I’d recant and beg him to stay. Well, that was not happening. Not today. Not ever. “Leave now.”

  “Very well.”

  The way the words rolled off his tongue begged me to ask where he was from, but I was in a towel with a stranger. Possibly a deranged murderer. This was not how I envision my night going. A relaxing bath, a chat with Mom, and then a bit of painting on the canvasses awaiting color upstairs. Not being stuck fantasizing about a guy that could snap my neck or strangle me with his strong bulging arms. Down girl!

  “You’re in danger, Calliope Rivers.”

  I laughed. “Tell me something I don’t know, creepy, sexy guy.”

  “You think I’m sexy?”

  “What? No! Weren’t you leaving? Go already, or I’m calling the police.”

  “With what?” He called my bluff, and he won, but the seductive glint in his eyes gave way to a look of actual wo
rry. “She’s looking for you. Getting closer. Don’t listen to the voices, and…” His gaze flicked to the area above the cabinet that had no sink. “Stay away from mirrors.”

  “What did you just say?”

  I was moving before I even gave my body permission. Mamma’s crazy dying whispers invaded my mind. But as I reached out to touch my stalker’s arm, he slipped back into the water—and disappeared as if he’d never even been there at all.

  I froze and stared in dumb shock. Maybe my shrink was right. Mamma had been delusional—and now I was too.

  Chapter Five

  I tossed and turned in bed, feeling every lumpy section and jabbing spring on my old double mattress. My hair was a fright, tangled and matted from all the rolling back and forth. But my mindspace was worse. The night had passed in slow motion. There had been no bath to relax and unwind and wash all the crazy of the day away. And then came the dreams. But instead of the mystical landscapes with rainbows, waterfalls, and unicorns that suddenly shifted into nightmares of monsters and running for my life, I dreamed of him…

  In my room on my bed, he sat close to me, reaching up slowly to graze my face with his thumb. He leaned in, lips parting on a breath as I gasped in anticipation.

  But the kiss never happened.

  Suddenly I was naked, stripped of even my underwear. If it had been his hands peeling my unmentionables off as he stared deep into my eyes, things might have progressed from there. But that’s not how it happened. One moment we were about to kiss. The next, I was buck naked and he was standing before me, stalking forward with his dagger that glinted in the streaming moonlight.

  I screamed and shot upright in bed, panting for breath and eyes darting. Everything was quiet, just the trickle of water plummeting down gutter pipes outside from the roof to take away that no-sound buzz in my ears. But it could do nothing about the pulse that throbbed there.