Free NOCTE (Nocte Trilogy #1) by Courtney Cole Page B

the dust
from your tires on the shoulder.”
    I’m worried now because I don’t want to
be a cat killer on top of everything else. Dare takes one look at my expression
and rushes to assure me, probably because he doesn’t want me to cry on him again.
    “I’ll go look for it,” he tells me
quickly.   “Why don’t you go back up
to the house so you’re not standing on the side of the road?”
    I hesitate.   “I should wait for you. I mean, you’re
doing it for me, after all.”
    He smiles, a wide bright smile.   “You can repay me on a different day.
For now, you should get out of the road.”
    “But the groceries,” I murmur, already
heading back to the car.  
    “We’ll get them later.”
    We.  
    Dazed a bit, I start up my car, do a
three-point turn and head back up to my home.   I’m still dazed as I cross the yard and
sink into a chair on the porch to wait.  
    Twenty minutes later, Dare’s bike idles
back up the drive.
    He’s empty-handed.
    “I couldn’t find anything,” he calls out
as he climbs off the bike and idles towards me. “I think maybe you saw a
raccoon or something.”
    I hesitate, trying to picture the animal
I’d seen.  
    “It seemed too small to be a raccoon,” I
offer.
    “Maybe it was a baby,” he suggests.  
    Or
maybe I’ve gone nuts and it wasn’t anything at all.    But of course, I don’t say that.
    “Thank you for looking,” I finally say,
my gaze dropping to his feet.   His
boots are covered in dew and tiny bits of leaves.   He really did trek out into the mountain
to look.  
    “Want to go get your groceries now?”
    I nod reluctantly, for some reason
dreading the idea of driving down the mountain again.  
    Dare looks at me. “Want me to drive you?”
    My head snaps up.   “You want to come?”
    He grins.   “I need some shampoo.   I’ll be happy to drive if you want.”
    “Weren’t you wanting to read or
something?”  
    He rolls his eyes.   “I read at night when I’m trying to go
to sleep. I’m perfectly free at the moment.   In fact, I’ll be free tonight, too.”
    The mere thought of Dare in his bed,
sprawled out, naked, his muscles gleaming in the moonlight, it spreads heat to
my cheeks and I yank my eyes back up to his, focusing on reality, not on Dare
in his bed.  
    He grins.   Dare
me.  
    “Perhaps we should focus on the now, ” he suggests lightly, as if he
knows that he was just undressed in my mind.   I internally combust, then
nod.  
    “Yeah.   I’d better get some groceries.”
    I toss him my keys and we drive down the
mountain.
    We.
    Dare and me.  
    It’s an exhilarating thought, and one
that for the moment, distracts me from sadness.  
    That’s a miracle in itself.

10
    DECEM
    Finn

 
    You’reAMiserableMiseraleMiserableExcuse , the voices hiss and I clench
my teeth and draw around them, drawing faces and then scratching them out every
time a voice says something.   Before
long, the page is covered in scribble.  
    Calla’s gone and I don’t know
where she is, and for the first time in weeks, I’m alone.  
    I don’t like it.
    I don’t like it.  
    A motor roars through the yard and I go
to the window, looking down.   The
new guy stands on the edge of the grass.   Calla stares up at him, her hand so close to the guy’s chest.
    GetAwayFromHer.
    GetAway.
    I watch, enthralled, horrified as my
sister smiles.  
    It’s like she knows him.   Like she belongs there, smiling with
him.
    I’m alone and she’s there.  
    It’s
wrong.
    It’s
wrong.  
    I grit my teeth again, because it’s not
wrong.   My sister is an adult and
she can do what she wishes and obviously it’s normal for her to smile at a guy.
    But not him, the voices protest, so many
of them that I can’t tell them apart.   There’s
something about him, something wrong, something he’s hiding.
    He’s hiding.
    YouCan’tTellHerSheWon’tBelieveYou.   For the first time, I agree with them.   Calla would never believe me if I