Chapter One
Celine leaned her forehead against her palm. Her head throbbed mercilessly against the back of her eyes, hammering away at her skull as payment for another sleepless night.
She rolled slightly to her side and stared at the cup of coffee sitting next to her. The scent of the sweet brew was doing very little to rouse her senses at this point. She reached out and placed the cup to her lips. She sucked down half the coffee. The hot liquid pooled in her stomach and only made her sleepier than she already was.
Celine let out a long sigh. The dreams came over and over, never letting her manage to get a decent night’s sleep. Each time they were the same, replaying until she finally gave up and got out of bed. She wasn’t even sure why she was so terrified, but that didn’t mean she was able to shake the feeling. Nothing really made much sense at all, other than the fear.
The fear. It wasn't something she had ever really felt in her life. Not like this at least.
Sure, Celine watched the occasional movie that scared the crap out of her, but this wasn't the same. This was the sort of fear that stayed and seeped into your bones, that followed you in every waking moment of the day. It was the kind of terror that lingered even long after the light of morning.
It wasn’t even like she had much to go on. She wasn’t sure if the dreams were just not that detailed, or if she was forgetting things when she awakened. It was hard to figure out what was causing your dreams when they didn’t remind her of anything from your waking life.
All Celine could recall was that the dreams were the same, but the specific details eluded her other than a dark shadow, snippets of cold woods around her, and the smell of freshly mulched leaves.
There was also the unsettling feeling of truth to the whole thing. A dream had never before been so real to her, like something she had lived but still unfamiliar all the same.
When she thought a bit about it, one explanation presented itself. Considering the things that had been going on in their sleepy little town, maybe it wasn’t all that surprising Celine was having these dreams.
Sure, on occasion, she thought she got a little better insight into someone, a feeling about them, a kind of vibe, but it’s not like she really thought it was truly psychic powers or anything. so recent events were the likely reason.
Animals had gone missing, and people had been killed. Celine was waiting for Jessica Fletcher to pop up, and then maybe it’d all make sense.
The one thing that gave her any comfort in the dream was the man. The one you could say under normal circumstances would be the man of her dreams: Atticus.
Every day he came to the office building with a few of the men from his group and the mayor's new boyfriend, Quintus. Celine couldn’t say she exactly understood why they all needed to stop by daily, but she wasn’t going to complain about seeing Atticus and his rocking bod.
Why couldn’t it be his body and all the ways she’d like to use it that popped up in her dreams?
Celine snorted. No, it wasn't creepy at all that she was watching some man so closely that now she was dreaming about him in the most bizarre way possible.
Sure, it might have comforted her, but it was still strange. She felt an extreme attraction to him, a compatible vibe of sorts, but that could have just been good old-fashioned lust. The guy was built like a Greek god, after all.
Celine set the cup of coffee back on her desk, tossed her oversized glasses to the side, and placed her head down on the papers there.
His face entered her mind again. Same square jaw. The same slight stubble he always seemed to have, along with the roguish dark hair that made her fingers itch to run through it. And the deep blue eyes. Always the eyes. The bluest eyes she'd ever seen. In fact, she wasn't even sure she'd seen a blue that shade before.
Celine frowned. That was her image of Atticus from the dream, and it matched the flesh-and-blood man. Well, almost. Atticus didn’t have blue eyes. They were brown.
Not only were they brown, but a very dull sort of brown. No fleck of anything other than brown.
The other difference was how the dream man looked at her. Something the real Atticus never did. In fact, it was rare he ever looked at her directly. Most times it was like he was looking anywhere but at her, as if he couldn’t stand the sight of her.
Celine let out a long sigh. It wasn’t like she had any reason to expect some random hunk to be into her.
Dream Atticus always stared back at her so intently. Even now just the thought of it made her shiver a little with the growing need she had trouble ignoring.
It was clear to her that she had more than a deep fascination for the man. A crush didn’t seem to cover it. Maybe infatuated was the word. Although it seemed a little extreme. After all, it wasn’t like she hadn’t been around men before.
Although she'd never been one to go on many dates, it wasn’t as if she never did. Just rarely.
Celine couldn't really say why that was. It wasn't exactly like she was unattractive. Sure, some people weren't so fond of her curly, sometimes described as unruly, strawberry blonde hair. And in school she had been called four eyes. But still, she was cute enough to never want for a boyfriend if she so desired.
For her it wasn't necessarily that she couldn't get a date but more that she didn't care for the dates she could get. Usually just something felt off about their vibe. Not dangerous, just not what she wanted.
Some people would call that being picky, but she considered it a matter of self-respect. Not that that seemed to stop her mother.
Celine loved the woman, she really did, but if the old woman didn't stop trying to set her up with every man that stopped by her mother’s house, she might just pull out all of her hair in frustration.
It didn’t help that even if she had been interested, her mother was all the way in California. Which might have been on the moon for as often as Celine got to visit.
No, the fact was that Atticus was the first man to catch her attention in some time. In fact, she wasn't so certain that any man had ever caught her attention in quite the same way.
Celine picked her glasses up off the desk and placed them back on her nose. The world around her returned into focus.
She then picked up the coffee mug on the desk and drained the rest of its content. Come hell or high water, she had to get through this day, and if it meant she did it shaking from too much coffee, that's just how she'd do it.
The front door jingled open. She looked up and smiled as Allison stepped inside.
For the past year, she'd been secretary to the other woman. The fantastic new mayor the town needed to bring in some real change. Someone forward-thinking enough to lead them into the future.
Allison was more than just her boss. She was a friend and someone Celine both liked and trusted.
The mayor placed her jacket on the hook in the corner of the office and turned to stare at Celine, a slight frown on her face.
"Another bad night?" Allison asked.
Celine let out another quiet sigh. There was no point trying to hide it. After a week of bad dreams and dark circles under her eyes, she'd stopped trying to pretend it was just a passing phase.
Still, she kept some of the truth to herself. There was no point in freaking her friend out. As it was, she didn't much expect Allison to believe her. She never was one that believed dreams meant anything other than what they were.
Hell, Celine wasn't even certain it was more than what it was, despite being a little more open-minded about the possibility.
"I'll be fine," she said, and smiled warmly. She lifted up her empty cup of coffee. "One more of these and I'll be able to run cross country."
Allison rolled her eyes and snorted loudly. She stepped over to her office door but paused in the doorway to look back at her.
"Just make sure you’re taking care of yourself," Allison said with a slight smile.
Celine nodded and gave a little salute. "Sure thing, boss."
Allison shook her head and stepped into her office.
Celine’s heart started to hammer and her palms sweat. She knew it wouldn't be long before the men came. It was always the same time every day for the last week.
Part of her wondered how much time they could spend talking about the new animal sound barriers they had put up around town, but she partially suspected that since the system was new, it required a bit of tweaking.
Or at least she hoped it did. Though it seemed like the system was working. The number of missing animal reports in town had dramatically dropped, but it seemed like some people in neighboring communities were now reporting more, so she wondered if they’d just made the animals someone else’s problem.
Maybe that wasn't so fair of Eagle Ridge, and she could only hope they were trying to find a better solution.
That said, it didn’t seem like they were having near the number of incidents even in those places that Eagle Ridge had before the sound barrier system had been set up.
Another wide yawn cut into her thoughts, and Celine glanced down at her empty cup.
It’d be better to start another cup with the way she was feeling. There was no turning back now.