Daryn Silver gazed upon the young girl who was standing on a highway in the middle of the night with a young boy. Her dark hair was wavy and curled inwards to frame her pet.i.te face. They tumbled past her shoulders. Her long curved lashes fanned her green eyes, which looked dull and tired and flitty, imparting her nervousness. Her long eyelashes dominated her small, oval face. His eyes settled on her perfect bow-shaped lips that were literally begging to be kissed. She was wearing tight blue jeans paired with a black blouse, which contoured her curves made for his—He inhaled her scent and to his surprise it— it was good; it was like a drug to his wounds. Daryn"s breath was held for a second. His mind was thrown into a whirl of confusion. That was a first.
Dawn squinted her eyes to take a better look at the man who had stopped for them. She could feel his stare on her and instinctively her mind went to the metal rod.
Recovering from his state immediately and controlling his emotions, he asked in a gravelly voice, "Who are you? Why are you standing alone on this highway?" Was she a neotide? His eyes narrowed.
Dawn gulped and recoiled a little. Through the shadow that covered his upper face, she could make out his black, cold eyes that glinted with danger and it make her bones chill to the core. "Are you a neotide?"
"No," Dawn responded. What even a neotide was?
Before Dawn could say anything Cole asked "Mister, could you please give us a lift?" He was also trying to figure out the person inside the SUV.
The man in the car sized them up like he was some kind of a predator. Inside Dawn cringed feeling crushed under his almost lethal aura. She lost all hope of getting a lift.
To her surprise, he answered in a cold, curt voice that could put Arctic to shame, "Get in."
The man didn"t even ask where the siblings were heading. She found that odd but at that moment all she wanted was to get away as far as possible from this city, as far away as possible from her father"s mistress whom she was always suspicious of announcing a million dollar reward on them. She had repeatedly warned her father to be wary of her but he didn"t listen to her calling her immature all the time.
Dawn and Cole stashed their suitcase and sat inside. Dawn sat in the pa.s.senger seat after she settled Cole.
There was silence in the car. Daryn started the car without speaking a word. As the car cruised the highway, the small flag fluttered fiercely in the wind. Dawn"s gaze fixed on the flag and she wondered if it would break away from its pole. She s.h.i.+fted her attention to the man who was driving. He looked aggressive. His face was too angular. The highway lights would fall on his face every now and then.
And she was intimidated. She couldn"t understand as to why the car was filled with metallic smell, as if that of blood.
"Mister, thank you for giving us a lift," she croaked.
Daryn turned his face towards her and Dawn"s breath got choked in her throat. He looked like a cold sober giant. "Don"t get intimidated, don"t get intimidated," Dawn reminded herself. "He won"t bite you." But with recent incident Dawn wasn"t sure of her last statement that bounced around in her head. If he attacked her, she would simply bludgeon him.
He looked at her for a second, nodded and then continued to drive without speaking a word.
Dawn"s hands became clammy and she pressed her elbows into the sides hunching a little. Her leg muscles tightened at the scary aura that man was emitting. She could almost feel he would kill the two of them and bury them somewhere for pleasure. She looked behind at her brother who was already half asleep. "Cole, you okay?" she asked.
Cole opened his eyes lazily and replied in a sleepy voice, "Yes."
As the car glided at high speed, Dawn noticed that stars that shone brilliantly were all covered with dark clouds. There was hardly any traffic on the road and they pa.s.sed two cars in the next one-hour. Suddenly it started to rain heavily. The car"s wipers started automatically sensing the moisture. She could hear the splas.h.i.+ng noise the tires made as they sailed over the rain-soaked highway. She looked outside the tinted gla.s.ses. It was hard to make out anything but one thing was for sure—they had hit the country roads and all around the tinted gla.s.ses there were fields.
From the corner of her eyes she looked at him and noticed how the yellow bright lights that played with the globules of water on the front gla.s.s, reflected on his devilishly handsome face that exhibited such icy coldness that it could shatter a gla.s.s into thousand pieces. His muscular built scared Dawn and she could almost imagine him picking her up in the air and throwing her out of the car even if she whimpered. His tousled, thick dark hair fell on his forehead and over his very deep black eyes. In one word, he looked feral.
Dawn bit her lip and took in a deep breath. She diverted her gaze to the deluge outside. She was too tired and thankfully her body temperature was normal. She wanted to sleep being mentally and physically exhausted but she kept her eyes open. Her gaze turned to the driver. He hadn"t talked even for a minute ever since they had taken the lift, which was good in a way. She was about to switch her attention to the rains that lashed the car on the outside when her eyes saw his torso—his lower abdomen and her mouth fell open. No wonder he was keeping quiet. Was he also running away from someone?
At first she saw something dark on his s.h.i.+rt and when she squinted to see what it was, she clutched her seatbelt tight. There was blood on his s.h.i.+rt. In fact his s.h.i.+rt was soaked with blood on the front side. But it wasn"t there when they started. Her mind became numb and her facial muscles became slack. She blinked slowly as she felt a knot in her stomach. Her thoughts regarding the man swirled so quickly that it was hard to follow them. She gulped and then pointed out, "Mister, you are bleeding."