But here he is, in front of me.
"I can’t tell you where I was," he finally answers. While his voice is low and grating, some of the monstrous growl drains away.
So many more questions bubble up inside me, punching and kicking at each other to get out first. My grip tightens on the bra I still hold to my naked breasts. Shame continues to burn my exposed skin.
"Did you leave because of me?" I immediately want to take back my first question.
That low, long rumble again.
Oh God, how I missed it. I missed it so bad that hearing it again generates a new kind of ache in my chest.
"Evie."
It’s only my name, but it sends hot feelings of need crashing over me. With few words, he says so much, and he fills my simple name with pity.
Did he miss me? Has he completely moved on?
I haven’t. Not even close.
It’s the reason I check under my bed five times a day.
... Okay, twenty.
It’s the reason I have to dangle an entire arm over the edge of the bed when I sleep.
And it’s the reason I put myself in a compromising situation tonight. Because I had to believe he’d come for me.
He did.
Relief and anger still war inside me. But a third feeling takes the lead, swelling unbearably in my heart. Grief.
"I couldn’t follow you. You know that." My tone is bitter, as I’m unable to let the hurt seep through. I have no way of reaching Shadow wherever he goes when he disappears.
"Evie." This time it’s a plea for understanding. It pulls at a string connected to my navel.
"How could you leave me like that?" I yell this time, angrily fastening my bra back on.
Then he’s in my face. All I see are his misty eyes, lit with white-hot fury that scalds me to my bones. "You think I wanted to leave you?" he snarls.
His words shock me, but I’m on a roll with my anger. It tumbles downhill like a giant boulder I’ll end up smashed under, but the momentum feels so good I don’t care.
My arms cross over my stomach, as if I can stop that jerking sensation just behind my belly button. "Didn’t you? You hated being trapped with me. Always watching from under the bed. You couldn’t wait to get away from me. You’re just like everyone else."
Tears crowd in my throat, but my eyes burn from the hate I feel. I hate him. He is a monster, after all.
Suddenly, I’m up against the wall where John or James was pinned ten minutes ago. Shadow’s grip encircles my arms with an almost bruising grip. I welcome it. Heat rushes through my veins as every nerve ending receives tiny lightning strikes.
"You don’t know what I do," he says, voice full of gravel, fury, and anguish. "What I’d give up for you. What I gave up for you. I gave my freedom up for you."
The question comes out a half-strangled whisper. "What?"
Building Character
"Evie," Marie’s bored, Brazilian-Portuguese accented voice interrupts my dusting. "You forgot one of the bathrooms on the third floor. It’s the one attached to the pink room."
"I’m on it," I say to Marie. She’s my age, but her aunt is our boss, so she doesn’t hesitate to tell me what to do. Setting down the rag and spray, I wipe the sweat from my brow with my arm. I take a second to stretch my back, but a persistent knot refuses to release.
My fingers stroke along my neck a moment, remembering the feel of dark tendrils wrapped around it last night. Not a single bruise has bloomed in its wake. An involuntary shiver runs through me at the ghost of his touch that leaves me both unsettled and comforted.
