Chapter One
The quiet stillness of the grocery store always put Grace on edge late at night. The time was a dead zone when very few customers even bothered to come in. Not only that, but with all the recent troubles with animal attacks and strangeness from the Azilian cult, even fewer people were wandering town when the sun went down.
As much as she hated to think it, Grace couldn’t help but wonder if those people had the right idea.
Eagle Ridge and the store didn't always used to be this way. She used to enjoy this quiet time of night, even back when she was just a young teen working for her parents. But things had changed over the past few months. Things had grown darker in their small part of the world. She couldn't help but feel like some sort of ominous presence hung over them. Dark, angry, and threatening.
Even Grace’s dreams had turned to nightmares. More often than not when she closed her eyes, she saw the Shadow Man there, the dark figure that lurked within the recesses of her mind.
She’d never encountered such evil before. Never worried that it’d come at her.
Of course she knew evil existed in the world, but in the small haven of Eagle Ridge, she had felt untouched and safe from such things. Her town was a place where teens keying a car was a serious thing, or if someone was hurt, it was because of a wild animal.
Grace wanted to believe the Shadow Man was just a figment of her imagination. It’d be easier, more comforting to believe that, but she didn’t. She’d grown to believe he was far too real.
It was hard not to since her friend Celine had confirmed he’d been showing up in her dreams as well.
She let out a quiet sigh as she walked into the produce aisle.
All her life, she’d worried only about handling what was right in front of her, dealing with whatever life tossed her way. When her parents had died, Grace did what needed to be done.
She got up and went to the grocery store and opened the doors like she had nearly every day of her life. She was never like her sister Allison. Never had great ambition to be mayor of their small town. She was proud of what her sister had accomplished but was content where she was.
Running the grocery store wasn’t glamorous, but it was useful, and that made it satisfying enough for her.
Grace shook her head and reached up to the top of the rack to bring down the new produce.
Lately though, everything felt different. More than that, it actually was different.
Her sister and her friend had both shifted almost all their attention to their new husbands. She couldn’t blame them. That’s why people got married, to spend time with their other half, their soulmates.
Grace let out a long sigh. She wasn’t jealous. All she ever wanted was for those she cared about to be happy. She just felt alone.
She started rearranging heads of lettuce and let out another long sigh. She couldn't spend her time dwelling on what she didn't have. Instead, she needed to be focusing on what was in front of her and what would come tomorrow. The delivery truck would be coming in, and she needed to make sure that all the old inventory was shifted into position. Otherwise, she’d just end up having trouble and stress she could have avoided.
Grace moved a box of red apples down onto the bottom shelf but couldn't stop her mind from wandering.
Every day the man came in now, the strange man from the group outside of town, the same group whose men had impressed her sister and friend enough to marry. It wasn’t like she didn’t understand. They all were huge, fit, well-muscled men, like Greek statues come to life.
She'd heard the man called Vitus before. It was a strange name for an even stranger man.
Each time he came into the store, Grace would find him chatting with the employees in the store, but his eyes were always seeking her out, following her around until she felt them boring into her very soul. It made her feel exposed. Something she wasn't much used to feeling.
A blush spread across her face. No one had given her that kind of attention in her entire life. Most times, she was able to pass through life without much disturbance, avoiding complications.
Through much of high school, she'd gone mostly unnoticed. Her sister ran for whatever student council or club president position she could. Grace was happy just working and sitting in the corner with a good book.
It’s not like she tried to attract much attention. She knew what boys said in school and what men said later. Nice face, but she didn’t do much with her wavy brown hair, and she was short. Her clothing choices could only be described as frumpy. About as far from sex kitten as one could imagine.
It didn’t bother her. Too much attention meant she couldn’t just focus on the here and now. She’d have to start worrying about things she couldn’t control, like the future.
Grace narrowed her eyes as she moved a box of oranges. She was running low. She’d ordered enough, but the last delivery included more than a few bad boxes. She didn’t want to have to worry about another supplier.
Her mind drifted back to school and her life afterward. As time went on, the woman found that she'd spent so much time not trying that most of the men around her had already been taken. Before she hadn’t cared so much. She’d always figured she’d had time. It’s just that her time had run out.
Grace huffed loudly as she heaved another box to the bottom shelf.
But that was before Vitus started coming to her store. It was obvious he was there for her. It’s not like one man needed that many sticks of beef jerky.
She shook her head violently.
No. She couldn’t think that way, especially about Vitus.
Grace didn't need a man, especially not some playboy hotshot. Even if his muscles strained under his shirt and he filled out his pants like no one she'd ever seen.
Her cheeks heated at the thought.
A loud crash outside shook her from her thoughts. Goosebumps prickled her arms as she turned to stare at the back door.
An animal? The animal?
They had all heard the warnings. Some animals had been roaming the words, killing and maiming. Her sister had worked with a woman from the state to help install special sound devices to help protect the town. There very well could be some vicious wild animal wandering outside her store.
Still, Grace couldn't leave it unchecked. This was her livelihood, and there was always a chance that stupid teens were out back causing trouble again. Crazed animals she couldn’t deal with. Punk teens were easy.
Grace grabbed a nearby broom leaning against the wall.
She crept toward the door and opened it slightly, peeking out the crack in the door. The outside motion light had already clicked on. So she wasn’t hearing things. Something had set it off.
She opened the door a bit farther. The only sound was the creak from the hinges.
Nothing waited outside.
"Hello?"
Silence greeted her. She stared off into the darkness that lay past the light, half expecting the monster from her nightmare to come bursting through.
Still nothing.
Grace jumped at the jingle of the front door of the store. If it were more the two-legged kind of animal, maybe they’d gone around front. The noise might have been a diversion to get her in back while they stole from her store.
She took a deep breath and let the door close. She gripped the broom tightly and made her way to the front.
The store was silent, as if wind somehow had pushed the door open and made the bells ring. Normally she could tell which aisle a person was in. It was hard to hide the sound of shuffling feet. All she could hear was the steady hum of the heater.
Grace moved carefully down the aisle. Her eyes flicked back and forth as if she were in some horror movie and expecting some monster to jump out at any second.
When she'd reached the end of the aisle near the front door, she frowned and glanced around.
Nothing out of place. No registers overturned. Not even a candy bar misplaced.
No teens. No animals. Maybe it had been the wind. It’d been exceptionally cold that year, shutting down the school and closing roads all around them. It would be just her luck if the road closed again on delivery day.
"Oh, I'm glad I found you,” a man’s voice said behind her.
Grace whipped around, bringing up her broom. She fumbled.
Her eyes widened in surprise. Vitus stood behind her. He caught the broom in midair. She yelped and let go. Her feet still stumbled to find some footing. She failed and pitched forward directly toward the man now standing in front of her.
Vitus dropped the broom and caught her in his arms. Her fingers slipped around his waist as she struggled to right herself. With his strong arms around her, she finally found her footing and froze.
During her struggle to right herself, the man’s shirt had ridden up slightly on the left side of his body. She blinked and pressed her hand against the revealed bright blue tattoo.
A slow warm hum filled her body, a tingle that shot straight to her very center.
Grace pulled back quickly, panting as she stared at her fingers now, her body on fire in a way she'd never known before.
She had no idea what was going on. She must have been more tired than she realized to start hallucinating something like that.
Her gaze found its way to Vitus’s face. A strange expression covered his face, as if he had just felt the same thing.
No, that wasn't how things worked. That sort of thing wasn’t possible.
Grace took a step back from Vitus and hissed loudly, pain shooting up her leg from her ankle. She hadn’t even realized she’d rolled it.
Vitus grabbed her again, his eyes now staring at her with worry.
"You've twisted it," he said.
Grace shook her head. "It will be fine."
To prove her point, she pressed down slightly on it. Once again pain shot through her leg, but she tried to breathe through it.
Vitus shook his head. From this angle, she could see how dark and soft his hair looked. Her fingers itched to test her theory.
"You just wait here, and I'll make sure your store is all locked up," he said.
She shook her head, her cheeks heating. "That's okay," she said. "My house is just down the road, and I'll be perfectly fine. Really."
This whole thing was silly. She was letting herself get worked up by noises and flustered just because she’d tripped onto a man. A handsome, ridiculously good-looking man. But still just a man.
Vitus leaned in and stared at her intently. She found herself leaning in slightly toward him.
"I have no intention of leaving you here,” Vitus said. “I’ll lock up and walk you home."
There was no question in his words. Grace did the only thing she could. She gave a small nod and handed over the keys in her pocket.