Free Legend 4 - Free Falling by Claudy Conn Page B

irritably but finally, grudgingly offered, “I promise.”
    He smiled broadly, and I had to admit again, shivers . Hormones, you know, have no boss. They are in charge and come and go as they will.
    It popped into my mind that if a girl were interested, he could most certainly stoke up her fire. Good thing I didn’t have the slightest romantic interest in him. Not one bit. Besides, he wasn’t in the least my type. He was too big and brawny. He was too handsome, too masculine, too controlling … too … and whether he looked it or not, there was the age thing. I mean he had lived for eons, and there was I, twenty-one. No match there. Besides, he didn’t like me. In fact, dislike, impatience, and irritation at my company dripped off him in globs! He was here because the queen had commanded this mission. He didn’t have a choice. And besides all that, my heart was shut down, closed off, not in danger—because it just wasn’t working.
    He shifted off, and man, he was right; he was good at what he did. I sure couldn’t track him, and for a few minutes I actually tried. Gave it up though because I knew that, whatever he did to disguise his comings and goings in the atmosphere, it was way beyond my present talent to detect.
    Disguising my scent was just one more thing I was going to have to learn. I sighed and suddenly felt tired—beat-up tired, like it was all becoming over the top for me.
    And then I remembered my dad and just how he’d been murdered. I remembered my mom, who might never come out of her illusion …
    Tears started to sting my eyes. I tried to focus on the herd of sheep grazing in the pasture to the west. It wasn’t working. My thoughts started to frenzy, so I shored my feelings up and headed for my favorite wooded trail through our dark forest. It was a beautiful wide border forest and always reminded me of some enchanted wood from Grimms’ Fairy Tales .
    It was a damp day, and I could feel the mist increasing. I really needed to head home before I got soaked. Oh, I know, I could’ve shifted—but that damn human in me was still at the head of the class, demanding that I retain my human qualities.
    That was when I saw him and stopped dead in my tracks.
    He was a stranger, and we don’t get strangers on our land.
    He walked briskly out of the dark pinewoods and saw me at once, smiled, and started towards me.
    I felt myself tense. I felt the air in my lungs freeze. Some warrior, huh? I mean, I knew at once that he was human. No danger there, so what was the problem?
    The stranger stopped and as though sensing my wariness tried to compensate by smiling like a fool. Then he took another, albeit hesitant, step towards me.
    I heard a faint apology on his lips and zeroed in on what he was saying, noticing at once that not only did he speak with an Irish brogue (not a Scottish accent), but that both his voice and himself were very attractive.
    I mean, before I lost my dad and gave up school, this hotty would have set my heart to flutter, and I would have been sending him some come-hither vibes. Now, all I felt was impatience to move on.
    “Sorry … do excuse me,” he said in that beautiful, musical Irish, “but I think I have strayed off my path and am hopelessly lost. I would appreciate it if you could point me in the right direction.”
    I managed to remember my manners and smiled. I liked the color of his chestnut-shaded hair and the way it fell in thick layers around his really good-looking face. I liked his smiling hazel eyes. He was wearing a denim jacket over jeans and a heavy, earthy-colored sweater. He had a thick blade of wheat between his long fingers.
    However, in spite of these excellent attributes, he was on my land, and I didn’t know him. I was immediately suspicious—after my father’s death, I was always suspicious. After all, we were at war with the Dark Fae, and one had to remain on one’s guard, because they had been enlisting humans to aid them in their ‘takeover’