Bite Me Softly

Chapter 13: Cursed Bloom

They walked in silence for a while, their footsteps quiet on the leaf-strewn path. The sun had already dipped low, casting everything in shades of blue and gray. The town looked still, like it had been waiting for night to fall. For secrets to stir.

Kade kept a careful distance between them, but his presence felt as heavy as the shadows that clung to the trees. Aria glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, trying to read the sharp lines of his face. His jaw was tense, his shoulders stiff.

She knew what she had heard. Ryker’s voice, hushed but firm. Kade’s reply, clipped with frustration. The rogue attack, as they called it, wasn’t a random event. Someone else had been involved. And now, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was walking through a story she didn’t understand, one where the pages were missing.

Her chest felt tight. The air too thin.

“Kade,” she said quietly, her voice catching on his name.

He looked over at her, face unreadable.

“I heard you and Ryker,” she said, not bothering to soften it. “Back at the school.”

He exhaled slowly. “You weren’t supposed to.”

“Clearly,” she said, stopping on the sidewalk. “But I did. So stop pretending nothing’s wrong.”

He turned toward her fully now. His eyes met hers, and she could see the struggle in them. He wasn’t just hiding something. He was protecting something.

Or someone.

“You don’t want to know the truth,” he said.

“Yes,” she said. “I do. Because I’m already in this, Kade. I wake up with a fire in my chest. My emotions are… wrong. Too loud. It’s like I’m feeling things that aren’t even mine.”

His brow furrowed, and something like fear flickered across his face. “You’re feeling it already.”

Aria nodded. “What is it?”

Kade didn’t answer right away. He looked down at the pavement, like the truth might be hidden in the cracks between the stones.

“I don’t know everything,” he admitted. “But that feeling? It’s part of the bond. It makes you more… open. More tied to everything. Me. The others. Even the ones who don’t want to be found.”

Her stomach twisted. “Like the one who attacked me.”

He looked up. “That wasn’t just one. The rogue wasn’t acting alone. We think someone is moving pieces behind the scenes. Stirring things up.”

“Why?”

“Because of you. Because of what happened. Because someone out there thinks you’re not supposed to survive this.”

The wind picked up, carrying the scent of pine and cold metal. Aria’s hands trembled at her sides. She curled them into fists.

“I’m not afraid of the truth,” she said. “I’m afraid of being kept in the dark.”

Kade stepped closer, slow and deliberate. “Then promise me something.”

She tilted her head, wary.

“When things get worse, and they will, you don’t try to handle it alone.”

Something in his voice broke her. The rawness. The plea hidden beneath the words.

“I already feel like I’m falling apart,” she whispered. “But when I’m near you, it’s like the pieces fit. Even if I don’t want them to.”

His expression softened. He reached out, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear, his fingers lingering just a second too long.

“You’re stronger than you think,” he said.

“Maybe. But I’m still changing.”

He nodded. “And I’ll be here when you do.”

They didn’t speak again as they reached her house. But when she looked back over her shoulder before going inside, Kade was still there.

The house was too quiet when I walked in.

Not the comfortable kind of quiet, the kind that welcomed you home. This felt... still. Like the air had settled wrong. Like the walls were holding their breath.

I closed the door behind me, slow. My fingers hovered over the lock a moment longer than they should have before I turned it. The click echoed louder than I expected.

“Aunt Mel?” I called out, even though I already knew she wasn’t home. Her car hadn’t been in the driveway. She worked late on Thursdays. Always had.

No answer.

Still, I listened. For creaking floorboards. For movement. For anything.

Nothing.

The kitchen looked normal at first glance. Keys on the counter. A half-drunk mug of tea in the sink. A grocery list scrawled in my aunt’s neat handwriting on the fridge. But something in me tightened.

I stepped further in, my shoes making soft sounds against the tile. The lights were too bright. Or maybe too dim. I couldn’t tell. My pulse quickened anyway.

The hallway stretched out ahead of me, longer than usual, like the shadows were deeper somehow. I didn’t run. I didn’t dare.

When I reached my bedroom, I stopped in the doorway.

Everything looked... fine.

Except it wasn’t.

The blinds were half-open, and I always left them shut. A book I’d left on my desk had been moved slightly, just enough that it caught my eye. My pillow was on the wrong side of the bed. The drawer where I kept my journals was open just a c***k. Not wide. Not obvious. But I hadn’t left it that way.

Goosebumps prickled along my arms.

I stepped inside, slow and quiet.

The floor didn’t creak. The walls didn’t shift. But the air felt heavy. Like someone had breathed here. Moved here. Touched things they shouldn’t have.

I checked the window. Still locked.

The closet. Still shut.

But my room felt invaded. Like the ghost of someone else’s presence still lingered, just enough for the hair at the back of my neck to stand up.

I sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the drawer. My hand trembled as I pulled it open.

My journal was still there. Nothing looked out of place. But the pages were ruffled, like they’d been flipped through in a hurry.

Someone had been here.

And they hadn’t wanted me to know.

I pressed a hand to my chest. My heart thudded hard beneath my ribs, too fast, too loud. The tether I felt to Kade flickered, distant, faint, but still there.

This wasn’t him.

And I knew it.

Whoever had been here hadn’t come for comfort or answers.

They came to watch. To learn.

To remind me that I wasn’t safe.

Not here.

Not even in my own room.

I didn’t move right away.

My fingers tightened around the edge of the drawer, nails digging into the wood. I kept staring at the journal, like it might offer answers if I just looked hard enough. But it stayed silent. Just like the room. Just like the house.

Why me?

The question cracked open inside me, sharp and raw. I wasn’t special. I didn’t have powers. I wasn’t brave or brilliant or strong. I was just a girl who’d wanted to disappear. Who’d spent too many nights wishing for a different life.

Now I had one. And I didn’t know if it was mine to keep.

Why would someone break into my room? Why go through my things? What did they expect to find?

What did they already know?

Was it the bite? The bond?

Or was it something else entirely?

I stood abruptly, the legs of the bed creaking beneath me. The ache in my shoulder pulsed like a warning. My thoughts blurred, scrambled. I needed to tell someone. I needed to do something.

I grabbed my phone from the nightstand. My hand hovered over Kade’s name.

I didn’t want to need him again so soon. Not after what we’d just shared. Not after I’d started to feel like maybe I could stand on my own. I’d only just gotten his number. But this wasn’t something I could ignore. It wasn’t just about me anymore.

Someone had come here.

And they hadn’t come to talk.

I pressed call.

It rang once. Twice.

Then, his voice.

“Aria?”

I exhaled, shaky and fast.

“Someone’s been in my room,” I whispered.

A pause. Then I heard the sharp inhale on the other end of the line.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I mean, nothing happened. But things are off. Touched. Looked through.”

“I’m on my way,” he said.

He didn’t ask if I was sure. He didn’t question me. He just said it like a promise.

I lowered the phone and stared at the window again. The glass reflected only my own wide eyes.

I didn’t feel fine.

I felt watched. Hunted.

And for the first time since that night in the woods, I realized I might be at the center of something far bigger than I understood.

I didn’t know what they wanted.

But I had a sinking feeling they already knew everything about me.

And I was running out of places to hide.