Storm Brew

My foot must've gotten stuck in gunk more than six times. Going this deep into the woods was something I hadn't done with the sun hanging over my head, little alone at night. It was easy to see Nate's path—he'd broken branches and the foot prints were unmistakeably from his combat boots. Thanks to some moon light I wasn't completely and utterly blind. My hands sported a few minor scratches since I had to fend off some bushes—some of them had spikes. I was getting pretty fed up with chasing after Nathaniel. Saying he was angry was an understatement, and it was my fault—but I'd been calling him for over an hour. One freaking hour we'd been walking in this forest maze!

When I did catch up to him I was going to set things right, then I'd slap him upside the head—my eyes popped as I slammed into a tree trunk—it didn't hurt as much as I'd expected it. Nate's hair stood out from all rest with the shinning moon raining down on him. Relief flooded through me. I actually thought I'd be seeing a woman dressed in black—just because I wouldn't be affected by the curse or whatever it was, didn't mean I wanted to see her. If I didn't know better, I'd say Nate growled at me... just looking into his exploding irises brought my strength to my knees.

"You stopped..." I mumbled.

"Only because you're making sure every living animal in this forest comes out and attacks us." His voice was a mix of huskiness and hardness. "By the way," he whispered in that scary tone of his. "Stop following me."

I watched his hands—both of them on either side of me. I was still glued to the pine tree.

"I..." I began when he stepped over another path with dead branches. Sighing greatly I snapped from the pine's side taking three long strides catching his leather jacket. Nate looked over his shoulder with piercing eyes. "I want to talk—we have to."

"Now you want to talk things out?" He turned towards me slapping my hand away. I rubbed it with the other one, looking at him with a slight frown. "Don't you think that train left already?" Nate stated with boiling anger. "The bags under your eyes are looking better. Must be the change in the sleeping company."

It was like he slapped my face. I felt my cheeks redden, both of them. It wasn't embarrassment, though, it was anger.

"I didn't sleep with Aric!" I fisted my hands at both sides.

"Then it must be from not being near me—isn't it?" I shook my head, but he didn't stop. "You look at me and run off. I go out to look for you and I don't find you anywhere—seems like you don't want to be with me!"

I rubbed my palms around my face.

"No, it's not that—of course it's not—" I ran out of breath in the middle of my anxiety.

"He didn't kidnap you, you chose to stay with him." He spat the word 'chose' like it was vile. "You said it."

"I know—but it's not like that—"

"Then how is it?" He took one looming step toward me and I stood my ground.

"I did it for you." I whispered looking anywhere but his eyes—they were too intense right now.

There was silence. I could hear water—maybe from the creek I'd found once—but we were so deep into the forest...

"For me?" His whisper, on contrary to mine, was cutting—deadly.

The look in his face challenged me, told me I was lying straightly. I knew I'd hurt him, I had chosen bad words to express myself—I knew that—but I did not tolerate that he'd think I was a liar. I didn't lie. He could tell when I was lying for Pete's sake!

"Yes, for you," my tone rose, my eyes sharpened locking on his. "I did all this for you—actually, now that we're being honest about Aric's involvement with me I can tell you." I tried to pretend I didn't see the brief flinch of his face. "I sought him out when Drew took you—I paid him to find you. He took me there. That's how I got to you." My hair covered my face when I leant it down for one single second. "I didn't tell you because you were going to—"

"Be pissed? Yeah, you're right."

Lifting my head I saw Nate's long eyelashes brush the hard planes of his European cheeks. I wondered if he was calming down, I reached out a finger wanting to touch his jaw line—it recoiled when his eyes opened unexpectedly.

"This is my fault, huh?"

"No, it's no one's fault." Except Drew's she kidnapped her adopted brother, making me kill her.

Nathaniel took long, deep breaths—his fist collided into the pine tree trunk. This seemed like a reenactment of when I first told him about Aric.

"I was going crazy looking for you and you were fine with—"

"Well, I was actually going crazy! I was seeing your dead sister for God's sake, Nate!"

He looked slightly baffled before he assimilated it.

"Why couldn't you have told me that? Didn't you think I could help you?" I took two little steps to the side as his body shook with incarcerated anger. "I'm getting sick of everyone thinking I can't protect or help you—Reed says it, Anna does too, and apparently you think it." His spread arms fell to his sides as he shook his head looking to the sky. "Go back to your new bodyguard—see what I care." He spun on his heel efficiently leaving me to stare after him.

My lips sat in a tight line. Temper flaring I skipped forward to wrap his arm tugging it so he'd stop. Nate pulled wanting to yank me off forcefully—I refused to release him. I should have because the next moment I pulled us both to the mushy ground. The fall in that soil didn't hurt—Nate fell to the other side, but I was still holding on to him and—

"Ah!" I screamed.

There were more of those, each more potent than the last. Nathaniel's arm was gone from my grasp. Now my arms locked around his waist, there was something, though—something pressing me into his chest through the rocky turns and tumbles down the brae. Little rocks beat against my body repeatedly, just like they did at Nate's. I couldn't believe there was a small cliff here... Christ, I couldn't think with all the repeated hits.

When we stopped rolling like barrels going down a runaway, I took a minute. There wasn't what I'd call pain, I practically didn't feel my bruised muscles and skin. My head flopped onto something hard—soft at the same time. For a while, I thought I was hearing things—like tick-tock in my head but I wasn't. It was more like a in-beat drum. My hands had gotten to his shoulders—his leather shielded shoulders. My ear was pressed against the left side of his chest. I was listening to Nate's heartbeat. Hmm... it was so good being near him after so long, so nice to feel his—Oh my freaking God. What was I thinking? We'd just... just...

I fought with strength I had and hadn't to lift myself from him—to look at his face.

"Ow," I winced seeing blood caked on one of his temple. "Nate?" My voice croaked from the screaming.

It all brought out in me a pinch of sorrow. He'd gotten hurt because of me. It kept happening no matter how I tried to keep him out of the way—was it physical hurt or emotional. I was afraid of becoming some crazy serial killer—that I'd cut Nate's throat, so I wanted to keep it to myself, when Aric found me I took that chance. I thought I wouldn't get Nate hurt. It did, though.

I bit my lip brushing a wavy hair from his forehead. It mattered when he got injured back when we didn't like each other—now it was just... too much. It twisted my heart until it was nothing.

A cough made me shift off him, afraid he'd broken a rib or something.

"Nate?" I asked again, my fingers hovering above his body.

It wasn't long before his brandy eyes made an appearance.

"You're bad luck..." He wheezed sitting up, holding his abdomen.

"Thanks..." Like I didn't feel bad enough.

When his fingers touched the side of his head and came back sleeked with blood I swallowed thickly, Nate's eyes lifted to mine.

"Are you feeling dizzy?"

"Not from the blood." I rubbed a particular sore spot on my back.

"Good, because I have nothing to clean it with." Nathaniel leant on the steep wall. "How do we get out of here?"

I glanced around. I'd never been here before. Nate wasn't going to like it.

"You don't know." He sighed frustrated reading my face. "Well, I'm sure your Australian bodyguard will sweep in to save you in a minute, so..." He finished glancing me over before falling silent, getting to his feet. His jeans were torn and his T-shirt had a big tear on the back—not to mention the minor cuts on his arms. He was a mess... and an idiot. "You just pulled my arm before look where that got us—"

His silence was never more golden than now. I made it long, going over his lips softly and caring, my fingers never unwrapped from his arm. Nate's eyes widened from shock at first, the, he was responding incredibly. Molding his lush lips to mine, relaxing under them. I could feel so much through it—his worry and insecurity. I hated that I had caused those. I really did. I just wished there was a way to get over this chapter in our lives, that I didn't need to tell him the reasons. But I had. There was no running from it anymore, I had to face the music.

"I hate when you do that..." He breathed against my lips.

My fingers softened the wavy hair.

"No you don't." I touched his nose with mine. "By the way, just so we're clear—you're the only non-kidnapper-bodyguard-boyfriend I want."

There was no smile, but I saw tension leave him further. It was a start, a good one.

"I was worried."

"I know." He'd unconsciously slid down to my side. "I feel so bad for what I did." I never ceased our staring match. "I was just... freaking out." I held my head.

A sigh later, Nathaniel was tucking my hair behind my ear.

"We've got time until we find a way out of here." I smiled at his comment—he showed an upward turn of lips.

Then it occurred to me.

"Where's Anna?"

Nate blinked.

"She stayed in the car." I tilted my head. "I convinced her she should hang around in case we needed a getaway."

"You were going to let her drive your car?" I asked truly appalled.

He rubbed around his bleeding temple and I worried.

"Desperate times." He muttered like Earth was ending. "I'll be fine."

I didn't ask again. I knew he would. Nate was too stubborn to actually get hurt.