Shadowed Strength: Shadowed Series Book One Read online

“You’re not the boss of me,” she retorted while trying to tug her elbow from his iron grasp.

  “You’d be wise to listen to me on this, Sissy. Stay. Away. From. Melanie. I’m not kidding. This is going to get ugly, fast.”

  Sissy finally succeeded in rescuing her arm from his grasp, and hurried through the door. Jeremy stood perfectly still, staring at the floor, trying to get his anger under control. Melanie took a few tentative steps and stopped just out of arms-length in front of him.

  “Hey,” she whispered. “You okay?”

  His shoulders slumped, he took a deep breath and looked up at her face. “Mel, I am so sorry! I hate the way she treats you and it makes me want to…to strangle her!”

  Melanie closed the gap between them and placed one palm on his cheek. He closed his eyes and leaned his head into her hand. Melanie’s heart skipped a beat and she started to pull her hand away, but he covered it with his own and held it there.

  “That feels nice,” he breathed.

  He opened his eyes and she got lost in their dark depths. With one last deep breath, he clasped her fingers and pulled them away from his face. He gave her fingers a reassuring squeeze and released her hand.

  “Let’s go to lunch.”

  Melanie released a pent up breath and smiled. “Let’s.”

  Walking through the cafeteria doors, Melanie noticed that the lunch line had dwindled to a few stragglers. The noise level didn’t decrease and she was relieved that no one seemed to notice their entrance.

  She scanned the room as they waited in line and found Tara and Chris sitting at their normal table. Melanie noticed that Tara had saved her a chair, as usual.

  Tara noticed Jeremy walking beside Melanie, nudged Chris, and whispered in his ear. He glanced over at the duo and grinned. He got up, found an empty chair at another table and dragged it over next to Melanie’s reserved seat. Tara shot Melanie a thumbs up sign and waggled her eyebrows.

  Melanie stole a quick glance at Jeremy and was relieved to see he was looking at the lunch selection, and not at the shenanigans going on at the table. They both chose burgers and fries with chocolate milk. When they reached the register, Jeremy paid for both lunches. She blushed and thanked him.

  At the table, Jeremy politely held her chair for her while she sat, then took the empty seat next to her, his thigh pressed against hers. The contact had her wound up so tight, she thought she was going to throw up all over her lunch tray.

  She knew Jeremy and Chris were talking, with Tara chiming in and trying to draw her into the conversation, but she couldn’t hear anything above the blood pounding in her ears. She sat there, not eating, not talking, just thinking about that moment when her hand was on his cheek and his warm palm covered hers.

  She analyzed the entire scene in her head, from start to finish. She rationalized that Jeremy was just upset. He didn’t really want her comfort, anyone would have sufficed. How could he want her? Plain Jane. Piglet. Gal Pal Melanie.

  “What? Huh?” she stammered, as she felt an elbow nudge her in the ribs.

  “You okay? Why aren’t you eating?” he asked close to her ear.

  She shivered. “I’m sorry. I just zoned out for a minute. I’m not really that hungry, I guess.”

  Tara piped in, “Mel, you had a soda for breakfast. You should eat something.”

  “Yes, Mother,” Melanie replied sarcastically.

  Melanie picked at her fries and ate a few so the group would stop staring at her. She glance down at her belly roll and thought maybe she should have chosen the salad bar instead of the greasy burger and fries. She peeked from under her lashes at Jeremy, to find him staring directly into her eyes. He smiled and nudged his knee against hers under the table. She grinned and nudged him back.

  Her phoned chimed an incoming text. She checked it to find it was from Tara, from across the table.

  “What is going on w/ u 2?!? I need details, like immediately!”

  Melanie smiled and glanced over at Tara and silently mouthed the words “after school.” Tara winked with grin and joined back into the conversation between Jeremy and Chris.

  The rest of the school day passed in a blur for Melanie. She didn’t retain any information from her last three classes because her mind kept wandering back to that moment with Jeremy. His face was so warm and soft. His dark chocolate eyes were so deep and beautiful.

  What would it feel like to kiss him?

  She wouldn’t admit it to anyone but Tara, but she’d never been kissed before. Not a real kiss, anyway. She’d had that quick peck on the lips from David Heron in ninth grade, but that was the extent of her experience.

  Would Jeremy know I’d never done it if he kissed me? Would he be disappointed? Probably. I have no clue what I’m doing. She left her last class with a frown pulling at her lips.

  “Ugh,” she said aloud and breezed through the double doors into the bright sunshine outside.

  It was warm for early April in southern Georgia, so Melanie took off her sweater before walking through the parking lot to Tara’s car. She tied the arms of the sweater around her waist, looking down as she walked forward and stepped off the curb.

  What happened next was a blur; she heard a loud noise and at the same time felt steely arms cage around her middle and pull her back. As she was falling, which felt like a movie in slow motion, it registered that the noise was a car horn and screeching tires.

  Then she thought, Oh, crap, I’m falling, and the arms around her rib cage tightened and slowed her fall.

  Her eyes were squeezed shut and her breath was held as she waited for an impact that never came. She released her pent up breath and opened her eyes. Jeremy’s eyes stared back at her, really close.

  Huh, his eyes are lighter near the pupil, closer to amber than dark brown, she thought for a brief second before the position of their bodies dawned on her and she nearly panicked.

  She was leaning back at a forty-five degree angle, wrapped in Jeremy’s strong arms. He was holding her entire weight off the ground with those arms, and one leg had slipped between hers to balance the weight of their two bodies. His nose was nearly touching hers, their faces so close that all she would have to do is lift her chin to steal a kiss. That gorgeous curl had flopped onto his forehead again.

  “Uh, thanks,” she said and tried to disentangle herself from him without falling on her butt.

  “You’re welcome,” he replied and pulled her completely upright, but didn’t release his grip. His eyes grew tense. “You could have been really hurt, Mel. These jerks drive like idiots through the lot, and you know it. You have to pay attention.”

  Melanie blushed at being chastised by him. She didn’t know whether to be angry that he was being so bossy, or flattered that he seemed to care so much.

  “Sorry,” she mumbled. Why hasn’t he let go of me yet? she thought.

  As if he heard her thoughts, he released her and took a small step backwards. “Just be more careful, okay?”

  Melanie saluted like a good little soldier and said “Yes, sir!”

  That put a half grin on his face. He shook his head, then said goodbye and turned around and walked away. Melanie, carefully checking both ways for traffic, walked through the parking lot to find Tara sitting in her car with a dumbfounded look on her face.

  “What’s with you?” Melanie asked as she slid into the passenger seat.

  “What’s with me? What’s with you and Jeremy, is what I want to know.”

  “What do you mean?” Melanie asked, pretending ignorance, buckling her seatbelt.

  “Mel, he walked you to second period and kissed you!”

  “On the forehead,” Melanie interjected.

  “Pshht. It was a kiss. Then you too showed up at lunch together practically holding hands…”

  “We were not!”

  Tara continued without acknowledging the interruption. “and then, he gave you mushy, puppy dog eyes all through lunch…”

  “What?!?”

  “…and don’t
think I didn’t notice the knee bumps under the table. Then, he races across the parking lot like Superman or something to rescue you from an oncoming car, and holds you in the classic damsel-in-distress pose for, like, ever. I thought he was going to kiss you and carry you off into the sunset or something. Now spill. Every single detail.”

  “Wait. Wait. What do you mean he raced across the parking lot? He was close to me when it happened.”

  “Nope. He was three rows over and about six spaces down. The only reason I know for sure is because Chris stopped to talk to him after saying bye to me and I saw them there. The next thing I know, Jeremy is running over the top of a car right next to me and hauling major booty to get to you. I’ve never seen him move that fast. Never really seen anybody move that fast. Adrenaline, I guess.”

  “Huh. Weird,” Melanie replied.

  “You are changing the subject,” Tara said in a sing-song voice. “Get to it, missy. I want details, and I want them now.”

  Tara started the car and backed out of the parking space. She put the convertible top up so they could talk. Melanie told her everything on the drive home.

  Chapter 7

  After dinner, Melanie kissed her mom goodnight and went to her room to study. She had a hard time concentrating because thoughts of Jeremy swirled through her mind on a repeated loop. His eyes, his hands, his mouth…

  She jumped up from her small corner desk and went to her bedroom window. Darkness had overtaken the day, which suited her mood. She decided to stop torturing herself. Jeremy was her friend. That’s it. Whatever she and Tara were reading into it wasn’t real. It was make believe. A fantasy. Melanie knew she needed to live in the real world and not screw up her friendship with him.

  Just as Melanie was resolving to accept things as they were and not how she wanted them to be, a movement to the left of the yard caught her eye. She reached over and quickly snapped off the desk lamp. Her room was now shrouded in darkness, so whoever was out there could not see her. Her pounding heart almost sent her running downstairs to tell her mom when she saw the movement again.

  “Oh, God. It’s him,” she murmured between rapid breaths. “He’s found me. Oh, no. Oh, God. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. What do I do?”

  Just as her world started to spin, the figure moved into the yard. Her breath stopped short and she leaned forward to rest her forehead against the glass.

  It was the dog! At least, it was a dog. She couldn’t be completely sure it was the dog without a closer look. She left the window and darted out of her room and down the stairs. She grabbed her sweater off the hook by the back door, yelled something to her mom about getting some fresh air and ran out into the night.

  Melanie raced to the middle of the yard, where she stopped dead in her tracks as common sense finally caught up to her. She realized that running hell-bent toward a strange dog was not the greatest idea she ever had. She held her breath and scanned the perimeter. Her backyard met the woods on two sides, so the dog could have run off through the trees and disappeared. Or it could be hiding just out of sight, ready to pounce.

  Melanie wasn’t sure what to do. She wanted to see the animal up close. She needed to know that he was real and not some figment of her traumatized imagination. Of course, even if her dog was real, this dog might not be the same one. This dog could be a mangy, rabies carrying mongrel intent on taking a bite out of her.

  Movement to her left caught her eye. Melanie jerked her head in that direction and scanned the tree line until she saw it: a dark shadow with two eyes gleaming softly in the light of the moon.

  She held out a hand and softly whispered “Come here, boy.”

  She heard a soft whimper before the animal slowly crept out of the woods and into her yard, keeping his belly low to the ground. She stood completely still as the dog moved forward and stopped several feet away from her. He kept his head lowered, as if showing submission would make her more at ease. It did.

  Melanie held out her hand, palm down, and made kissing noises. The dog slowly straightened his legs and raised his head. He was huge! He looked kind of like a German shepherd, only solid black and with longer hair. He slowly edged closer and reached out his nose to sniff her fingertips. Melanie didn’t move until he licked her fingers and came closer. She rubbed his head and gave him a scratch behind the ears.

  “I’m so glad you’re being friendly,” she said quietly. “And I’m so glad you’re real! I thought I was going crazy there for a while.”

  The dog huffed and moved in to rub his sides against her legs. He almost knocked her over with his enormous size and weight. His back reached up nearly to her hips and he had to be at least 150 pounds. He stopped rubbing against her and sat down on his haunches in front of her.

  Melanie bent over to take a closer look at the dog’s face. He had dark, almost black, eyes. His snout was long and narrow and his ears stood up at attention. She reached down and felt around his neck for a collar, but there was none.

  “Huh,” she said, “No collar, no tags, nothing. I wonder if you’re microchipped. I should take you to the vet to have you scanned.”

  He let out a whine. “What?” she asked. “No vet?” He huffed in response. “You’re a smart boy,” she said and hugged him around the neck. “Thank you for saving me.” Tears pricked at her eyes.

  Just then she heard the back door to her house open and her mom’s voice call out, “Melanie, are you out here?”

  She stood up and turned to call out “Yes, mom. I found the…” She looked back as she spoke and the dog was gone. “…dog,” she trailed off with a whisper.

  “Come on in, honey. It’s getting late.”

  Her mom must not have heard her declaration. Melanie headed toward the house with one last glance at the woods. She decided not to tell her mom about the dog. For now, he was her little secret.

  Cedarwood Street was pitch black. Broken streetlights. Glass everywhere. Her heart started pounding and her mind was screaming for her to run, but her feet started walking forward of their own volition. The cracks on the sidewalk passed in a blur. Knowing there was danger ahead, she tried to turn around, but her body would not obey.

  Her lips were not moving, but she heard her own voice; “Eight, nine, ten.” Counting the steps. A cat jumped out of the bushes, but it didn’t scare her this time. She knew it was coming, and she knew what came next. The end of the hedge grew closer and her heartbeat grew more erratic.

  Suddenly she was off the sidewalk and on the ground. Soft grass was being crushed beneath her while she was being crushed by a heavy body. She fought. Scratching, pushing, punching. All to no avail. She couldn’t budge the man atop her.

  Hands ripped her shirt. Eyes glinted through slits in a black knit mask. She ripped it off his head and stared at it. Blood pounded against her eardrums so loudly, she couldn’t hear anything. A knife shone in the faint moonlight. Raised above her heart.

  I need to look at his face, she thought.

  Her eyes left the knife and moved to his wrist, his elbow, his shoulder, all encased in black. She took a deep breath and prepared to jerk her eyes to his face…

  Melanie jolted awake and sat up straight in her bed, her chest heaving. Tears were streaming down her face and her hands were shaking. She looked at her clock through blurry eyes. It read 3:09 am. She took deep breaths through her nose and tried to relax.

  “It was just a dream. Only a dream.”

  Once Melanie was able to breathe normally, she got up and went downstairs to the kitchen for a glass of water. She stood at the sink and stared out the window at her back yard while recounting the dream in her head. Deep in thought, she almost didn’t see it. Something caught her eye near the tree line. In the shadow of a big pine, she saw movement. She stared until a shape formed in the shadows. It was her dog.

  My dog?

  She realized that’s how she’d come to think of him. He had rescued her, saved her life and her sanity, and now he was hers.

  As she watched, he stood up and loo
ked toward the window. He let out a slight yelp, wagged his tail and disappeared back into the shadowy woods.

  “He’s watching over me,” Melanie whispered, and suddenly felt much better. She went back to bed and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep the second her head hit the pillow.

  As she was getting ready for school the next morning, her thoughts continued to dwell on her dog.

  “Maybe I should name him,” she thought. “Blackie? No. Shep? No.” She shook her head at herself in the mirror.

  “I wonder why he’s decided to be my protector?” she mumbled aloud. “Because, you are beautiful. You are a beautiful girl.” She stopped her daily mantra and groaned. “I’m so stupid,” she whispered. “The dog doesn’t care if I’m beautiful or not. He was just in the right place at the right time and his instincts kicked in. It’s not really about me.”

  If that were really true, she wondered, why was he lurking around the woods in my backyard?

  Chapter 8

  Tara picked her up for school as usual and talked excitedly about a party Chris had decided to throw at his apartment Saturday night. Melanie was really quiet and when Tara noticed, she stopped talking.

  “Oh God, Mel, I’m so sorry,” she said quietly.

  “For what?”

  “I didn’t even think. I’m so stupid. Another party is probably the last thing you want to think about.”

  “You are stupid.” Tara got a hurt look on her face. Melanie slapped her shoulder. “You have nothing to be sorry for. A party at Chris’s sounds awesome and I hope you have a great time. I won’t be going to this one, but I’m not mad at you for talking about it.”

  “Then why are you being so quiet?”

  “I was just thinking about my dog.”

  “What? What dog? You got a dog?”

  “No, not exactly. I meant the dog,”

  Tara had a confused look on her face for a few seconds, then understanding dawned on her. “The dog, as in the dog? The one that saved you?” At Melanie’s nod, she asked “Why are you thinking about him? Did something happen?”