I’m going to be all kinds of bruised tomorrow.
I can’t wait.
Nick braces his hand behind my head and kisses me softly. “Still there?” he asks, an obvious chuckle in his tone.
“Barely,” I answer breathlessly.
His fingers drag through my hair, gaze pouring over me. “You are… something.”
“Athingyou find fascinating?” I suggest, teasing him.
“You’re the only thing I’ll ever find fascinating again.”
A loud thud smacks against the window.
I yelp, and Nick throws his hand across my mouth, head jerking up to look behind us. Pack launches off of the couch and starts barking, Oreo scurrying under the couch. I don’t move as Nick holds me frozen to the spot. The sudden cold air feels like ropes weaving around my arms, my legs.
A shadow flies by the lights reflecting from outside. There’s another thud, another slam.
And again.
Again.
It happens over and over, each quicker than the last. Piling on and on like a machine gun firing at the glass. The house shakes. The cups rattle. I flinch and yelp with each hit, unable to contain my fright as I cower behind Nick’s body.
Nick hasn’t taken a breath since the first one.
And when it finally subsides, when my house stops bleeding dust from the dingy ceiling, I look up from Nick’s chest. Pack is standing up on her hind legs to scratch at the glass, losing her mind as she tries to get whatever that was.
Nick slowly removes his hand from my mouth and peers behind him with wide, angry eyes. He looks somehow taller right now, his eyes burning and jaw taut.
“What the hell was that?” I ask, bewildered.
Nick is already grabbing his pants off of the floor, brows narrowed as he scrutinizes the window. He gives Pack a pet on her head.
“Good girl,” he says as he starts toward the door.
“Nick!”
But he’s opening the screen door to inspect whatever the hell it was flying into my window.
Pack bolts out onto the porch after him.
“Pack, no, wait?—”
“I have her,” Nick calls out.
I pick up my sweatshirt and leggings, and clumsily try to get them, but god, my legs donotwant to work. Eventually, I give up trying to put on pants and pull my sweatshirt down over my ass.
The smell of frost on the air swims around me. It’s almost visible as it circles the room. A strange comfort surrounds me, but I brush off the sensation as nothing more than adrenaline rushing through my veins.
It can’t be anything else.
“Nick!” I hiss. “Pack!”
Pack comes trotting back in a moment later. I bend down and give her a pet as we wait for Nick to come back inside.
“Nick? What is it?” I say loudly.
