The debris and seaweed--the injured man--all of it was gone.
As if her unexpected discovery that morning had been naught but a troubling dream.
She stood at the edge of the shoreline, her toes immersed in saltwater and foam as another wave skated up the beach. Guilt welled bitterly in her throat when she thought of the stranger and how she had denied his plea for help. Was he out there somewhere, drifting lifelessly in the black vastness of the ocean beyond?#p#分页标题#e#
If so, then she was an accomplice to his death, as responsible as the storm he had barely survived, and the sea that likely claimed him after all. The knowledge squeezed her heart, useless remorse pressing down upon her as she gazed out at the emptiness of the horizon.
“I'm so sorry,” she murmured, the pendant chain dangling limp from her fingertips.
Something knocked lightly against her foot as the wave that surged about her ankles now slid back from shore. It was her errant glove, the one she had dropped in her fright. Serena stooped down to pick it up, her ears ringing with the liquid roar of the sea. Waterlogged, likely ruined from its salty bath, the leather glove dripped a steady patter around her feet. She wrung it out, then turned to go back home.
Something tall and shadowed blocked her path.
“What did you do with it, wench?”
Serena tilted her head up...and up some more...until she was staring into a night-dark expression of seething rage.
Animosity radiated like fire from the man she had unwillingly left to die on the beach that morning. Serena took a step back in reflex.
“You stole something from me,” the stranger growled, his voice a raw, throaty scrape of sound that skittered along her spine. “Damn it, woman! Tell me what you've done with it.”
“H-here,” she stammered, holding the pendant out before her in her ungloved fingers. “I didn't mean to take it.”
A large hand jutted toward her to grab for the necklace. Serena drew her arm back the instant his fingers closed around the chain, relieved that she could command her wits enough to avoid contact with him. His coarse chuckle held no humor.
“So, you're a petty thief as well.” The pendant disappeared in his curled fist. “No more games now. Give me the other item you took while I lay bleeding and unconscious at your feet.”
“I-I don't know what you mean. I took nothing else from you, I swear it.”
He took a step forward, a menacing step that put him much too close to her. Serena retreated a couple of paces, wading backward into the water. Wet sand sucked at her heels as the tide swelled with the incoming rush of another wave, the dark water catching the hem of her long chemise. The fabric twisted about her ankles, nearly tripping her.
“What did you take from this satchel?” he demanded, flinging an empty leather bag at her.
Serena caught it in her arms, confusion swamping her as quickly as the coming tide. “I took nothing out of this. You had the bag when I found you today, but I know naught of what it contained. For all I know, it was empty even at that time.”
“Lies!” he bellowed.
His fists were held rigidly at his sides, and in the scant light of the partial moon and scattered stars, something wild flared in his eyes.
It was all the warning she had. In a flash of movement, the stranger lunged for her. Serena cried out, narrowly escaping his swinging grasp. She threw the satchel at his face, hearing the wet leather slap his skin as she pivoted on her heel and dodged his long reach.
All of Calandra's warnings came back to her now, a thousand cautions about the brutal, unfeeling nature of men. What a fool she had been to doubt her mother, even for a moment.
Serena ran out of the water and up onto the beach, but the man was right behind her. His steps were weak, faltering from his exhaustion and the lack of traction in the sand. But still he gained on her, each long-legged stride outpacing two of hers. Suddenly he was on her. A firm, heavy hand landed on her shoulder, throwing her off balance. He spun her around to face him, teeth bared bright white in the darkness, his breath hissing out from between his clenched jaw.#p#分页标题#e#
“Why run if you have nothing to hide, eh, girl?”
“Let me go!”
Serena struggled against him, but it was futile. He locked her shoulders in his iron grasp, glaring down at her. Before she could think better of it, she brought up her hands and slapped them against the muscular planes of his chest.
Mother Mary.
She touched him.
Touched him without the protective barrier of her gloves.
Sensation hit her at once, a gale force wave of emotion. Her palms felt white-hot where they pushed against him, enlivened with the awakening hum of insight. Too stricken to break away, too awash in the power of her gift, Serena could only stand there, frozen, gaping up at his furious countenance while her touch read all the anger and hatred that filled his heart--indeed, his very soul.