Without realizing what I was doing, I brushed my hand gently along the lines of his abdominal muscles, letting the hardness of pure muscle tone flex beneath my fingers. I blushed into a deeper glow, removing my hand quickly and apologetically meeting Seth’s eyes. He stared back at me, more amused than ever, but there was something deeper behind his obvious entertainment, something I wasn’t quite ready to investigate yet.

“Sorry,” I laughed, trying to lighten the sudden tension between us. “I was just making sure they were, uh, real.”

Seth smiled wider, disarming me with his charming, boyish grin. He sat up fully then, leaning forward and cupping my jaw with his strong, calloused hand. “Stella, what are you doing here? Seriously, are you Ok?”

I wasn’t expecting the gentleness of his tone and felt my face heat beneath his hand, realizing he might actually start to believe I was as crazy as I felt.

“I had this dream…. I mean, I’m pretty sure it was a dream now that I think about it, even though I can’t really remember that much about it now….” I rambled, trying to distinguish what had exactly happened and what it was that made me rush over here. “To be honest, I don’t know what I’m doing here. I woke up and I just knew you were in trouble. I could feel you Seth, your agony, your fear…. And I could feel the Darkness here. What may have started as a dream…. a dream I can’t remember at all…. turned into real fear when I woke up and believed it was actually happening to you. I rushed over here, prepared to save your life when I got here. Except, when I got here, you weren’t being attacked by hordes of Shadow minions, you were just sleeping. But I felt it everywhere, I felt the Darkness everywhere, Seth. I was so scared, even when I got here. The air was so thick with evil…. I have honestly never been more scared in my life. I was positive you were in trouble. I mean, I was so sure.” I finished feeling exhausted and deflated. I just wanted everything to make sense. There were so many changes happening in my life, so many different things I needed to adjust to I didn’t really want to deal with being crazy right now.

I just wanted to fight the Darkness. Completely sane and with all my mental faculties completely intact.

Why did that feel so unattainable?

“Oh, Stel,” Seth sighed sympathetically, pulling me into his arms. I leaned against him as he wrapped his strong arms around me and held me tightly against his chest. “So what you’re telling me is that all I have to do to get you into my bed at night is pretend to be in danger?”

I snapped my head up, not expecting his joke. He smiled down at me in a way that let me know he was joking so I slapped his bicep, pretending to be very offended. He just chuckled, dipping his head into the crook of my neck and holding me tighter.

“We are going to figure this out,” he whispered, his breath hot against my already heated skin. “You’re not crazy, and there’s nothing wrong with you so stop thinking those thoughts right now.”

My shoulders trembled from the seriousness of his tone and I desperately tried to obey him. But how could I believe there was nothing wrong with me when the walls of my sanity seemed to continue to crumble.

“Seth? Where are you?” Jupiter’s sharp voice called from somewhere else in the house. “Are you Ok?”

“I’m in here, I’m fine,” he called back. He adjusted us on his bed so that I wasn’t curled completely into him and we were sitting side by side instead of me basically in his lap.

I heard Jupiter making his way through the small house to Seth’s room, but got distracted when I noticed Seth reaching down to pull sweatpants over his bare calves and thighs and oh dear lord…. boxer briefs.

I quickly turned my head, shielding my face with a hand over my eyes. Unfortunately Jupiter entered the room at the exact moment Seth was pulling his gray pants over his waist.

“Oh,” Jupiter grunted suddenly making this whole situation extremely uncomfortable. “Uh, sorry, I didn’t mean to, uh…. I was just wondering what happened to the front door?”

“This isn’t what it looks like!” I blurted, standing up and putting distance between Seth and me. “I was just worried about Seth and I needed to make sure he was Ok!”

“So worried you had to break my front door?” Jupiter accused, but his mercury eyes blazed with something I could almost define as humor for just a second before settling back to irritation.

“She felt the Darkness again,” Seth explained solemnly. I wasn’t exactly prepared to share everything with Jupiter, although I knew that I should. Mostly I just wanted to forget this night ever happened and I would have stayed in bed where I belonged.

“You felt it here?” Jupiter questioned, his bushy eyebrows drawn together in concern making it look like he had a long, white, fuzzy caterpillar crawling across his forehead. “You mean with Seth?” Jupiter clarified and suddenly I didn’t feel so crazy or wrong, suddenly I felt like Jupiter might understand me. But he didn’t say anything more; he didn’t even attempt to alleviate my fears. He just continued to look between us.

“Where are you coming from?” Seth broke the silence, noting Jupiter’s worn leather jacket and brown loafers that had tracked in snow.

“I met Serena and Nate earlier tonight, they were having issues down in Rio. They called for backup, and I decided to go and let you two rest,” he explained, his eyes flicking over the room as if continuing to search for the evil we had all decided wasn’t there to begin with.

“Thank you,” I offered politely and then clarified, “for letting us get a full night’s sleep. Or at least attempting to let us….”

Jupiter grunted off my thanks and explained, “It was more for me. I haven’t been in a good fight in a while and was feeling antsy. I needed a good workout.”

I nodded, not knowing how else to reply. I wasn’t at all surprised that Jupiter liked to get his hands dirty so to speak. I was actually more surprised that he reasoned it away by giving us a good night’s sleep. I really didn’t think he thought about those kinds of things.

“Did you fly here?” Jupiter asked gruffly and rather randomly.

“Uh, yes.” I stammered, not sure if my truthful admission was about to get me into trouble. “I was in a hurry. Jupiter I really thought Seth was in big trouble, otherwise I wouldn’t have come. I’m sorry about your front door.” I finished meekly; realizing polite knocking would have been just as efficient tonight.

“The door can be fixed,” Jupiter ignored my apology, waving it away with his hand. “Seth, why don’t you drive Stella home? We don’t want to draw any unnecessary attention. I’m sure her parents are worried about her by now anyway. I’m just assuming they don’t know where you are since they aren’t here with you.”

I met Jupiter’s steely gaze and shook my head. “No, they were asleep when I left. They probably have no idea where I am.”

“If this happens again, Stella, your parents would be fantastic help. You need to bring them with you next time, not leave them home alone to worry about your safety,” Jupiter explained and I nodded my head slowly letting the realization that he was right sink in. I had no idea why I didn’t pause long enough to at least let my parents know where I was headed, let alone invite them to come along with me. Worst case scenario I could have taken off just a few minutes before they had and let them catch back up with me after I had engaged in the fight.

“Next time I will,” I promised, shaking my head wearily.

“Seth, go ahead, drive Stella home,” Jupiter suggested again.

I stood up and tried to straighten my posture, but my shoulders slumped in defeat. “Sorry to ruin your night with my crazy,” I offered, feeling on the verge of tears.

Jupiter caught my bicep in a firm grip as I moved toward where he stood in the doorway. “Nobody thinks you’re crazy, Stella. Something is going on, we don’t know what yet and it obviously doesn’t make sense. But something is going on and we are going to get to the bottom of it.” I gulped back the lump in my throat, hearing the solid tone to Jupiter’s confidence and conviction. His beliefs were rooted behind his words and it was hard to think less of myself when my weapon’s trainer held such faith in me.

“Thank you, Jupiter,” I answered meekly, the tears I had been trying to suppress flooding my eyes with gratitude. I blinked them quickly away knowing whatever respect I had garnered with Jupiter would be instantly and forever lost if I broke down in inconsolable tears in the middle of Seth’s bedroom for no reason at all.

“Let’s get you back to bed,” Seth encouraged, placing a warm hand on the small of my back.

I turned into his touch, letting the heat of his strength comfort me. He led me outside and opened the truck door for me so I could climb in. I wanted to apologize again to him, but as he climbed in the cab and started the vehicle I decided I needed to stop apologizing and get better control of my emotions.

“Thanks for driving,” I offered instead.

“Stella,” Seth glanced at me seriously before turning his eyes back to the blackened country roads. “Promise me you will never stop investigating these feelings you’re having.”

“What do you mean?” I asked as Seth followed the gravel roads that traveled between his farm and mine. The frosted night glazed over the windshield with delicate snowflake patterns and our breath puffed around us in white clouds.

“It could have been something tonight, I mean, even though it wasn’t…. it could have been,” Seth paused and gripped the steering wheel tighter. “Thank you for coming to my rescue.”

I cleared my throat, not trusting my voice with a response. Seth was so sincere, so genuine with his gratefulness that I was actually moved by it. I shook my head, trying to clear it of my over-emotional behavior tonight, but the “what if’s” kept running through my mind and I had to fear that Jupiter was right, that something was going on and we just hadn’t figured it out yet.

“And Stel?” Seth asked, a lightness returning to his tone.

“Yeah?”

“Anytime you need me to come check out your room in the middle of the night, I’m just a phone call away,” he turned to me with a sly smile on his lips and I immediately burst into laughter, thankful for his change in tone.

“Oh, really? You’ll come look in my closet for monsters?” I flirted, still laughing at his brazenness.

“Absolutely,” his grin grew into a wide smile and I stared back into those honey colored, heated eyes smiling just as big. “And under your bed…. under your covers…. wherever those monsters might be hiding.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I laughed.

Chapter Fifteen

“Ok, so here’s the plan,” Piper exclaimed in between seventh and eighth period, “Since there are no basketball games tonight we’re going into Omaha to pick out dresses for the Valentine’s dance!”