Valentine's Day : CUPID'S MATCH BOOK 2

Chapter 38

We get out of the car.

The night is dark; the sky spattered with white blinking stars. On one side of the road the landscape is mountainous, on the other a track leads down the sloped rocks toward the ocean. Other than the overly dramatic yawn that escapes Cupid's lips as he stretches, the lulling sound of crashing waves is all I can hear.

Despite the surrounding serenity – my skin prickles. There's a sense of foreboding lingering in the air among the scents of salt and seaweed.

Cal throws a sideways look at me, then at Cupid.

"I don't like doing this in the dark," he says. "We don't know what we're going to find."

"What choice do we have," says Cupid. "You were right before – if Valentine hasn't already got his life thread – he'll certainly be looking for it now. We can't risk waiting until morning."

Cal exhales sharply out of his nose.

"Well maybe if we hadn't made so many stops..." he looks pointedly between me and Cupid.

Before either of us can retort he heads to the trunk of the car to pull out some weapons. Cupid rolls his eyes at me, stretching out his arms again and allowing his grey T-Shirt to ride up slightly - exposing the bare skin of his hips. My eyes linger for a moment before I quickly avert my gaze away.

Now is probably not the time for me to be imagining what Cupid would look like with his top off...

Cal tosses a bow and quiver to Cupid. He catches them and slings them over his body in a smooth movement before wandering over to the edge of the road to look down onto the black rocky beach below. Cal passes another set to me before arming himself.

I shiver a little in the bite of the sea breeze. To my side Cal uncurls his scarf from his neck and thrusts it out in front of me. I look at him in confusion a moment.

"You're cold," he says. "Here."

"Oh...No...I'm fine, thanks..." I say. "If we end up in a fight I'll probably end up tripping on it or something..."

A ghost of a smile flickers on his lips before he shrugs and tosses it into the backseat of the car.

"Your loss," he says.

"Where is this loom then...?" I ask.

Cupid – stood staring toward the ocean, his broad frame backlit by the moon, looks over his shoulder.

"Down here," he says.

Cal and I come to stand on either side of him. He points down the wild rocky track into the darkness.

"There's a cave in the rocks by the ocean, see it?"

My eyes find a black, ragged looking hole in the cliff – waves crashing into the rocks by it. It's pitch black – and darkness seems to leak out of it into the night.