Reborn (Shadow Falls: After Dark #1)(74)

“Yes, I do. I know…” He paused. “I know how you…”

“How I what? Don’t you dare tell me you know how I feel. You don’t have a clue what I feel. You don’t know me, you are just…” A crazy, lying vampire who I know I’ve met, but don’t remember. “Leave, damn it!” She growled and showed him her canines.

He still didn’t budge. Was she going to have to throw his ass out?

“Look, I lost my whole family in one day. My father, my mother, my sister. Hell, all I had left was Buster. My dog.. So I do know how you feel. And I know that just sitting at that table letting grief consume you isn’t going to help. What will help is to move. Spend some of the energy. It’ll help deal with the pain. So let’s go for a run. Come on.”

She didn’t move. Her mind chewed on what he’d said. He’d lost his entire family. Was that a lie?

She didn’t think so.

“Don’t make me have to drag you out of here,” he said.

She frowned. “You couldn’t drag me.”

“Oh, yes, I could.” He half smiled as if he’d enjoy the challenge. “Come on. I promise it’ll help.”

Swallowing her pride, she nodded. “Fine.” She lit out. He was right behind her.

At first, she kept her feet on the ground. The hard footfalls against the solid earth felt good. She pushed herself, fast and then faster, until she was in full flight. But the stamina it took to keep moving, and moving fast, was extreme. Her intent wasn’t for it to be a race, but it turned into one. She would get ahead of him, and he would move faster. Energy from being emotionally overloaded fueled her speed.

But no matter how fast she went, she never got more than a few feet in front of him. Each time he’d pass her, he would glance back as if baiting her. She took the bait, each and every time.

How fast was this guy? As fast as Burnett?

They never left the Shadow Falls property. She lost count of how many times they circled it. The tops of the trees appeared in a blur as she moved. She wasn’t even sure how long they’d been at this, she just kept going. All her focus went on flying, and the ache in her heart, the grief and regret, finally lessened.

Damn it, Chase had been right. This was helping.

But how long could she keep it up? How long could she push herself to the extreme? As long as he could, she thought. But after another five minutes, she cratered and admitted he’d won. Slowing down, she landed by the lake. Her descent wasn’t pretty. She hit the ground, lost her footing, and rolled.

Before she could come to a complete stop, he caught her and stood her up. “I’m fine,” she tried to say, but couldn’t push the words out while still trying to draw in air.

She bent at the waist, her lungs working overtime to pull in much-needed oxygen. Just when she finally caught her breath, her stomach roiled. Unable to stop it, she heaved and lost the contents of her stomach. Lost it all over Chase’s feet.

For reasons she didn’t understand, she found it funny. She wiped her mouth, and rose. The expression on his face, staring down at his puke-covered boots, made it funnier. Laughter spilled from her mouth before she could stop it.

His gaze lifted. “Now that’s gross,” he said. His green eyes danced with humor as his lips gave way to a smile. “You feel better?” he asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

“Yeah,” she admitted, giving him the credit he deserved. Oh, she still didn’t like him, or trust him, but she was a big enough person to admit he’d been right.

He started cleaning the tops of his shoes by wiping them on the grass. When he stopped, he looked up. “You should run like that twice a day. Run until you get sick. It’s what you need right now.”

All the humor was sucked right out of the moment. She recalled what he’d told her about his family.

“What happened?” she asked before she could stop herself.

“When you push yourself over the limit, you often lose your cookies.” He grinned, but it came off forced. “You just happened to lose yours all over my boots.”

“No, about your family,” she said, but had a sneaking suspicion he knew what she’d meant all along and just wasn’t willing to talk about it.

She should understand that. It wasn’t as if she didn’t have her own Pandora’s box of secrets. But if he hadn’t wanted her to ask, he should have never said anything. So why had he told her?

Oh, yeah, to get her to go run. But why? Why did he care? It didn’t make a lick of sense.

“I told you,” he said, and glanced toward the lake. “They died.”

“How?” she asked.

“Take thirty more laps with me and I’ll tell you.”

“That’s okay,” she said, realizing she shouldn’t have asked. Not only should she respect his need for privacy, but she didn’t want to know more about him. Knowing more about a person just opened doors to friendships and relationships. Look at Jenny. Della hadn’t wanted to form any ties, and yet somehow they’d been formed anyway. She’d even let the little chameleon hug her. Della didn’t have room in her life for one more person. Not another hugger and especially not a person she didn’t trust.

All of a sudden the sound of water filled her ears. She glanced toward the woods. Was she hearing the rush of the spring, or was it … the falls again? She shouldn’t hear the falls from here.