"It's al right," he said, laughing, and fel back on the huge rock, carrying her with him. She landed half on top of him. His arms came around her, but not too tightly. His hands gently rested on her back.
Blinking, she felt her panic evaporate, and she met his green eyes. This close, the flecks of gold seemed brighter. Her gaze lowered to his mouth, to his lips that appeared so soft, so inviting.
The warmth of his body melted against hers. His natural scent worked its way into her senses. She caught her breath.
"You okay now?" he asked, his voice deeper.
"Yeah." When he stole her panic, had he taken her wil power, too, because she real y wanted Derek to kiss her. Or she could just kiss him. It sounded like a damn good idea to her. She inched a bit nearer until his lips were so close to hers she could feel their heat.
"Let her go!" a dark male voice boomed from behind them.
Chapter Nineteen
"Let her go, now!"
The deeply serious voice rang a few familiar bel s, but quicker than she could wrap her brain around it, Derek shot up with a force that sent Kylie rol ing right to the edge of the rock.
Right before Kylie fel , Derek caught her. As soon as she felt secure, she raised her head. Lucas leered at them from the edge of the stream. The flickering of sun and shadows surrounded him, adding to his intimidating presence. His light blue eyes pierced into them with the harshest of stares.
"She's fine," Derek said, his tone matching his stern expression.
Feeling suddenly foolish, she felt the need to explain. "I saw a snake."
Lucas inhaled. He looked around on the ground. "A water moccasin."
"I know," she said. "That's why I screamed."
"It's gone," Derek said, and his words implied that Lucas should be gone as wel .
"I heard her scream," Lucas said, as if he, too, felt the need to explain his behavior.
The two guys stared at each other, neither saying a word. Kylie got the distinct feeling they didn't get along. She wondered if fairies and werewolves also had bad blood between them. Heck, for al she knew, World War I could ...
"She's not screaming anymore," Derek said.
"I'm fine." She jumped down from the rock-after giving the ground a quick check for snakes first. When she looked up, Lucas had turned his disapproving gaze on her. "If you're that scared of snakes, maybe you should stay out of the woods."
"I'm not that scared, it just-"
"I took care of her," Derek said. His tone was dark, almost angry.
"Yeah, I saw how you were doing that."
Derek sat up higher on the rock as if he was ready to leap down. "Look, if you have a problem-"
Lucas apparently didn't care to hear what Derek had to say because he swung around and in less than a second, he was gone. Kylie blushed, realizing how the situation must have appeared to Lucas. Then seeing the unhappy expression on Derek's face, she said, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have screamed, it was just-"
"You didn't do anything wrong." Derek offered her his hand to pul her back up. "He was being a jerk and overreacting. He didn't have to come here. I wouldn't have let anything happen to you."
She stared at Derek's hand and remembered how her fear had subsided with his intense touch.
"What happened just now?" she asked.
"He just overreacted-"
"No. Not with Lucas. With your touch..."
"What do you mean? My touch?"
Other questions started buzzing around like bees gone wild. "How did you know the snake was here?"
The look, the one that said he didn't like talking about himself, returned but she wasn't about to let him off this hook. Not this time.
"Wait. Did you make that snake come here?" she asked.
He frowned. "Do you think I'd put you in danger just for kicks?"
Did she believe that? "No. I don't. But you knew it was here. You knew it was here before it showed itself."
"I only knew a second before. If I had known earlier, I'd have stopped you from getting down."
The sun sprayed a new bright stream of light through the trees and it hit her eyes, making it hard to see. "How? How did you know?"
He jumped from the rock, landing solid on his feet beside her. "It's part of my gift," he said, but he didn't sound happy about it.
"You can predict the future?" she asked.
"I wish."
"Then what?"
"I can read the emotions of animals and creatures." He tucked the tips of his fingers into his pockets.
"Wow." She attempted to wrap her mind around it. "That's..."
"Weird, I know," he growled. "Like I'm Tarzan or something. Holiday says I can shut it off, and that's why I'm here. To learn how. But Holiday's not thril ed about my quest. She thinks I'm going to be letting down some Fae god if I turn my back on my gift. But the Fae god can just go to hel . I didn't ask for this. The only Fae in my life left me and Mom. Why the hel would I want to be like him?"
Kylie heard the pain in his voice and related in a big way. "You wouldn't. I'm sorry."
She meant it, too. Not just because she understood al about parental resentment right now, but because like him, if she turned out to be supernatural, she'd be shipping the gift back to sender. While Derek's plight contained a lot of emotional baggage, Kylie's contained a heck of a lot of questions. And the unknown brought on its own emotional issues. While she knew the truth could prove to be painful, she needed answers. And standing in the middle of the woods, with the mixture of sun and shadows, feeling submersed in the supernatural world, she became determined to find those answers.
She met Derek's gaze again. "Communicating with animals can't be nearly as bad as ... some other things."
He kicked a rock into the stream. It splashed and seemed to blend in with the other woodsy noises. "Like seeing ghosts?" he asked, understanding more than she wanted him to.
"Among other things," she said honestly. "I can't imagine waking up and realizing I have to drink ... blood." Just the mention of the word reminded her of what Derek had done to get her name for this hour chat.
And she couldn't let him do it. She didn't know how to stop it, but she had to try.
She looked at her watch. "We should probably be heading back."
Reaching over, he took her hand in his and turned her wrist over so he could see the time. The feel of his hand sent a sweet electrical current up her arm and it reminded her how close she had come to letting Derek kiss her. Or had she almost kissed him?