The Darkness

Chapter 42

Rogues.  I could tell that this word put Colin in a defensive mode.  I swam quickly back to the grassy edge, where Colin was already pulling on his pants.  

"Celeste stay here, I will be right back?" Colin was hurriedly pulling his shirt over his head ready to take off and leave me alone.

"Wait! You are leaving me here alone?"

"Babe, I promise I will be right back.  I just want to see how many are coming our way."  Colin place a hand behind my neck pulling me forward for a quick brush of his lips on my forehead.

I held onto his wrist not wanting him to leave me.  "Do they know we are here? Can they hear us?"

"No, they are too far and the water is covering up our scent."

"Are you, umm, going to change in a wolf?"

"No, they will be able to sense my presence quicker if I do that. Listen you are safe, I will not let anything happen to you.  I will be right back."  Colin pulled me into his arm giving me a quick squeeze.  He let go looking into my eyes and mouth 'I will be back."  I nodded and before he sprinted away.

I turned to my backpack pulling out clean underwear.  Once dressed into a pair of shorts and a tank top, I rolled the wet clothes up and stuffed them in a smaller compartment of the backpack.  I slapped my hair into  a quick bun and took off in the direction that Colin left not leaving the secluded area of the spring.

It had been almost fifteen minutes and my imagination was making me paranoid. Every snap of a twig or rustle of the leaves, I imagined a horde of blood thirsty wolves was going to come barreling through the trees. Closing my eyes I took deep breaths trying to calm my nerves.  in my mind I began chanting, 'they don't eat people', 'they don't eat people', 'they don't..

I screamed at the touch of  a hand on my shoulder.  The hand immediately covered my mouth.

"Celeste, it's me! Calm down." Colin's voice stilled my movements. He immediately dropped his hands from my mouth and I reeled on him hitting his arm several times.

"You scared the ba jeevus out of me!"

Colin laughed, 'What the heck is a 'ba jeevus'?"

"Something my mom said instead of cussing!  That doesn't matter!  Are we safe?"

"We are going to stay off their radar and we can probably get around them without being notice."

"You didn't answer my question."

Colin didn't respond, but instead grabbed my hand and pulled me through the trees leaving our secluded spring behind. After walking for several minutes, Colin put his finger over his lips indicating that we need to remain silent.  He pointed to a clusters of trees for us to go.  Once there we cowered behind the cluster of trees hopefully camouflaging our position.  Colin pointed to our left and there I could see a group of people heading in the direction of the spring.

.The group consisted of three guys of various sizes. One was short and stocky, another was very tall and slim, and the other guy was average size with athletic build.  They were definitely not the boys next door, all dressed in baggy jeans and tank tops.  Their arms were covered in tattoos, and they had various chains hanging from their belt loop.  The tall guy had a black mohawk while the other two had shaved bald heads.

They had  almost passed us when the tall, mohawk guy turned around stopped glancing in our direction.  Colin immediately pulled me behind him and looked behind us for an escape.  That's when I spotted a young girl with straight black hair holding hands with a toddler.  We both locked eyes at the same time and she froze pulling the toddler into her arms.  Colin started to growl and the hand I had placed on his back for balancing was being pricked by tiny little needles.