Wayward ➳ Edward Cullen

7. Legends

"Yep." A moment of spying a myriad of people walking around in white lab coats and I remembered TNT played reruns of Dr. Sexy, M.D. on Saturday. A pair of doctors were arguing in a hallway outside a patient's room. Given how close they were standing while staring each other down, the sexual tension was thick enough to cut with that machete Dean was hiding.

"Hasn't been back since?" Dean further prodded.

"Nope."

"That you know of," Dean muttered, more to himself than to me.

It was a notion that had me finally looking over. "I think I'd notice if something was skulking around my room, Dean."

"Unless it hasn't gone in your room." Dean stood up, walked round the coffee table, and headed for the stairs.

He was already at the top and striding into my temporary bedroom by the time I was halfway up after him. "Dean?"

"Relax," he called. "I'm not after your diary." I walked in to find him at the window, curtain shoved aside as he peered out into the backyard. A thoughtful frown gave an unusually serious cast to his face as he stared into the woods. "It doesn't have to come in to watch you." He nodded to a nearby tree at the edge of the house. "Not if it can climb."

The hairs on the back of my arms rose. "Okay. Thanks for those nightmares." I folded my arms to get some warmth back into them and leaned against the doorframe. "Why do you even think it came back?"

Dean hummed and let the curtain fall. "Not saying it did. Just that it could." He turned and regarded me from the window, that serious expression still in place. "There hasn't been anything odd since that night?"

Lips pursed, I shook my head before saying, "No. Nothing." Unless one counted the superpowered family of mysteriously pale people at my school.

Dean took another final glance out the window before nodding himself. "Alright. Must've been a one-off thing then." His brows furrowed, as if trying to figure something out. After a moment, his gaze fell back on me. "Guess you scared it off."

"That's what I told Dad," I reminded him.

"Well, lucky you had that gun and knew how to use it," Dean said, grim. He slid sideways past me and back into the hall.

I followed, nearly on his heels. "Why'd you say that?"

"You kidding me?" Dean demanded, glancing over his shoulder before bounding down the stairs. "Who knows what could've happened."

I thought of Edward protecting me from the van. If the shadow had been Edward, which I still hadn't ruled out, why would he save me if he'd meant to hurt me less than a few weeks earlier? "Maybe he was just curious."

Dean paused on his way to the couch to turn and give me the full effect of his skepticism. "You can't be serious."

I shrugged. "I mean... he was just standing there. Watching."

"Uh. First of all? Creepy. Second of all? How do you know it wasn't deciding the best place to start snacking. Or worse."

"Worse?"

Dean shook his head as he turned and walked back to the couch. "Don't make me spell stuff out, Sarah," he gruffed before sitting down. "I don't want to think it, let alone say it."

Oh.

I hadn't even considered anything other than being maimed, possibly killed, but Dean had a point.

But that wouldn't be Edward. He could barely sit next to me without tensing up. Every time he was close to me it was as if he was a spooked horse waiting to bolt from the room. He didn't seem the slightest bit interested in touching me.