Page 69 of Shifters' Fated Summer
Cade let out a snuffly snore as he exhaled.
He was asleep.
Shit.
Cheeks flushing, I closed my eyes and tried to rest too. It seemed impossible with his body against mine. I wiggled, wanting to grind against him, but the angle wasn’t right and I was terrified of waking him up. He needed to sleep and heal.
Finally, I gave in and relaxed into his hold. With the steady feel of his chest rising under my head and hand, it didn’t take too long for me to drift off too.
Chapter 25
Cade
Yellowed grass and low scrub surrounded the road I was walking down. I looked around, confused by my surroundings. It seemed like a rural farm, somewhere I had absolutely never been. Ahead, yelling voices emanated from a run-down home with a rusty pickup truck out front.
Frowning, I jogged down the drive and onto the steps. The front door swung wide open. Past a patchy orange sofa, a woman stood in the middle of a linoleum kitchen. She clutched a boy to her. He was scrawny with a shock of golden hair, maybe ten-years-old.
A man stomped closer. I cringed, waiting for them to notice me, but I was ignored. The man’s face reddened and he started yelling. The words garbled together into a mix of sounds and fury.
As he screamed at them, the room darkened. Suddenly, it was night outside, and the filtered sunlight through the broken miniblinds faded to nothing.
The blond boy turned and made direct eye contact with me. His eyes were wide and terrified, the whitesstanding out starkly on his gaunt face.
I flinched as the back door banged open. A pale, looming figure darted in with fangs flashing. A vampire, dressed in torn clothes and so thin his skin was translucent.
The man jerked back, waving his arms defensively. “I don’t want any trouble. You can have them!” he shouted, pointing at the woman and child.
Rage curled in my veins as my fingers curled into fists. What a piece of shit.
The vampire grinned, showing two sets of needle teeth. He leapt on the man, sinking his fangs into the man’s neck before he could react.
The woman let out a blood curdling shriek. A second vampire brushed past me, coming from the front door.
The mother shoved the boy back, screaming for him to run, before she threw herself between him and the second vampire.
My heart raced as terror stole my senses. There was nothing I could do as the vampire seized the woman and bit into her exposed neck.
The boy stumbled and fell against the kitchen counter. I jolted forward to help him, but he wrenched open the drawer and pulled out a handgun.
Shocked, I dropped to the ground, my hands over my head instinctively. This might not be real, but I wasn’t taking any chances and getting shot.
Swinging it around, the boy took aim. His first shot missed, and the second vampiredropped the woman and advanced toward him. Tears coated the boy’s face as he held the gun with both hands and took a second shot.
The vampire fell in a heap. The second vampire hissed, releasing the man and turning away. The boy took a third shot that went wide, but the vampire disappeared out the front door before he could try again.
The boy rushed to his mother’s side, shaking her gently. Her throat was sliced open and blood pooled around her limp form.
The boy looked up at me, and I met golden-honey eyes in a blood streaked face, and my heart broke. His eyes hardened.
Slowly, he rose, the gun gripped in one hand. With heavy steps, he approached the man who sputtered on the floor, blood seeping out of his ravaged neck.
The boy loomed over him, the gun shaking. My stomach twisted. He wouldn’t shoot this man, possibly his father, would he?
He leveled the gun at the man, but didn’t fire. As we watched, the life drained out of him and he went still. The boy stared, tears running down his cheeks, for a long moment after the man’s death.
“It’s okay,” I said softly, even though I wasn’t sure he could hear me. A flickering fire lit those eyes as he turned to me.
The dream faded away, and I came back to myself. Cade was warm against my chest and stomach. He had turned in his sleep until we were nose to nose and both ofhis arms were around me. The ice pack lay discarded between us and had lost all of its chill.
