Excerpt:
Ariel stared
into the darkness. She could see a surprisingly good distance inside, thanks to
her enhanced vision. Nothing stood out to her, and the terminus of the passage
was lost to the murk. The darkness seemed welcoming, somehow.
It seemed safe
to turn her back on the cave, and she did so, gazing out from the precipice to
survey the valley in front of her. Ordinarily, she would have thought the wide,
tree-filled expanse so beautiful. She loved nature and hiking. It was one of
the reasons she had come out here in the first place.
But she felt
nothing now, only emptiness. She wondered if she would ever be able to
appreciate such beauty again, given what she had become.
She glanced at
the cave once more. Again, she felt drawn to it, but she shook her head.
Not going
inside.
Though she was
incredibly upset, she didn't have a death wish. There might be a bear or
something sleeping inside. Or maybe a dragon, like that stupid sign had said.
Wouldn't surprise her anymore, not in the least: she was being hunted by lions
who could become humans, after all. And she was one of those lions.
For now, all she
wanted was to get away from those hunters. She would stay here for a few hours,
long enough to be sure the animals had gone away. And then she would climb back
down and get the hell out of here.
And what then?
Well, she figured she would have to live out the rest of her days in the woods.
It would be a solitary life, away from the technology that drove modern
society. She would have to give up all her friends and family.
Maybe she could
get a sat-phone or something, so she could still talk to her family
occasionally. But she couldn't return, at least not until she could get the
beast inside of her under control. That was something she doubted would ever be
possible. Then again, moments ago she had exerted her will on the lioness and
prevented her from ripping out of her skin. That was something, at least. A
reason to hope.
She sat down on
the precipice and settled in for a long wait. She decided she would stay here
until nightfall. That would be the best time to retreat, since her beast
operated best in the dark.
But so do the
other lions, she reminded herself.
Maybe that
wasn't such a good idea. Well, she'd sit here for a while, and make up her mind
on what she wanted to do.
Maybe a minute
passed before she heard a voice behind her. "Well hello."
Ariel spun in
fright; when she saw the man standing at the cave mouth, she momentarily forgot
all fear, forgot where she was and how she got there, and instead simply
stared, spellbound.
Standing in
front of the cave entrance towered the most beautiful man she had ever seen. He
had to be at least six and a half feet tall. He was too gorgeous to be a model.
Too breathtaking to be a movie star. She got butterflies in her stomach just
looking at him. Where to begin? His hair… oh yes, his hair. It was as if
someone had taken several bars of gold and melted them down to form the bouncy
curls that fell around that spectacular face. His eyes were a fiery gold like
his hair, almost unnaturally so. They were almond-shaped and beguiling, shining
with intelligence.
His broad, bold
nose jutted aristocratically from his face, perfect in every way. The plump
lips of his chiseled, sensuous mouth had such gorgeous curves—if any lips were
created for kissing, it was those. He had a strong, aristocratic jaw that
matched his nose, and blemish-free, smooth bronze skin.
His thickly
corded neck disappeared into the collar of a black and gold dress shirt, whose
sleeves were rolled back to the elbows, revealing his muscular forearms. Black
and gold tribal dragons were tattooed from wrists to elbows on each arm. The
shirt did little to conceal the outline of his wide, powerful shoulders, and
the hard muscles of his pecs that pressed out from beneath the fabric. She
could make out the lines of a six-pack.
A designer belt
cinched his lean waist, and below that he wore dark-washed, fitted jeans. Her
eyes lingered on his groin, where—
Ariel blinked as
she realized the brazenness of what she was doing, and the spell broke. She
quickly lifted her eyes back to his face.
The beautiful
man's lips were upturned in amusement.
She realized she
was stark naked and quickly covered her breasts with one arm, twisting her
torso away and covering her bum with her other hand. She kept her gaze on him,
staring at him over one shoulder.
"What are
you looking at?" she said.
"I'm
looking at you," he replied defiantly. She hadn't noticed it when he spoke
before, but even his voice was sexy as hell.
As she gazed at
his haughty expression, the fear returned. Not of him, but for him.
"Are you
one of them?" she said.
"One of
who?" the man said, still smiling.
"You're
obviously not a backpacker or camper," Ariel said. "You don't find
many people who dress like European fashionistas in the wilderness of the
Midwest."
"No, you
don't," the man said hypnotically.
Then again, if
he was one of the lion-men who pursued her, he would have been butt-naked, like
her.
"Look, it's
been a rough few days," she said. "I'm not in the mood for
games."
"You seem
in surprisingly good spirits to me," the man said.
She smiled
fleetingly. "Call it a defense mechanism. Listen, if you're not one of
them, then you're putting yourself at risk. I'm not someone you want to know. I
have to get myself as far away from civilization as I can. Those lions did…
something… to me. I could change at a moment's notice. You could die."
"Change?"
he said.
She heard the
distant roar of a lion echo from the valley below.
That triggered
the beast, and the lioness in her clawed to get out. Clawed clawed clawed.
"I—"
she said. But the words came out a growl. "Run," she managed to
finish.
