Summer Beach Read

Chapter Eight

Raven gasped as she rounded the hallway corner, her feet racing below her, and knowing that he was going to catch up to her any minute. She could hear the growl of the cheetah in full chase, and realized her time was running short. The top speed of a cheetah was roughly sixty miles an hour, and if-

"Hey, Raven."

"Hello, friend! We have returned from the double date!"

"Hey, girl. I see the power’s still out."

Raven skidded to a halt in front of her friends, struggling to her keep her composure. She was now fully regretting not having the comfort of her cloak. She would have at least been able to hide her flushed cheeks in its shadows. She straightened out her t-shirt and ran her fingers through her hair, knowing a cheetah was stalking her down the hall.

Starfire looked genuinely curious, Robin looked confused, and Cyborg just looked annoyed. Her friends’ expressions varied across the board, not that she blamed them. It was unusual to see her like this, and completely foreign to see her running through the halls.

Raven cleared her throat and stared ahead, focusing on the wall behind them and not the soft padding of a great cat behind her. “Oh. You’re back.”

Robin glanced over her shoulder, obviously looking for whatever was bothering her. “Everything okay? Beast Boy didn’t start a fight did he?”

"No, he did not." The fight really was her fault anyway. "And, yes, everything is okay." Raven kept her face blank, betraying none of her excitement to her friends. "I’m-" A loud roar broke her sentence and sent a shiver down her spine in response. "-going to go to my room. Let me know when the power is fixed. Thank you."

With that she opened a dark portal and sunk into the floor, just as a green cheetah rounded the corner with another roar. In a second, Raven found herself on the floor below, hearing the confused shouts and Robin’s scolding of Beast Boy for transforming within the halls of the tower. He didn’t say anything in his defense, but mumbled a few things Raven couldn’t quite make out.

"Sorry, Beast Boy. I just didn’t want to explain." She stared at the ceiling above her and made her way back to her room via the stairwell. She really didn’t want to see any of her friends again, lest they start questioning her strange behavior again.

It really wasn’t her fault though. He started it. Sort of.

As she pushed the door to her room open open and stared inside, she could see a shadow leap towards her. She opened her mouth to let out a shocked scream, but a hand clamped down over her mouth and pulled her inside the darkness of her room, slamming the door shut.

"Shh, Rae. They’ll hear us."

She struggled against his hold on her and glared at him, eyes adjusting to the nearly lightless room. “What in the world are you doing?”

"Um, winning. Duh.” He wrapped his arms around her waist and pushed her down on her bed, crawling over her her form. His fanged smile glinted in the faint light of the city and the occasional flashes of lightning from the storm still raging on outside her window. “I thought that was the point of playing.”

Raven raised an eyebrow, trying not to feel the way her heart was pounding against her ribs as he stared down at her, eyes wide and wild with excitement and anticipation. She swallowed her own emotions and stared up at him, fighting to keep her face blank. “Well, now what?”

He gave a low chuckle. “Now? We keep playing.” He leaned down and ran his lips along the line of her jaw, close to her ear. He nibbled on her flesh, swirling his tongue over his red love bites. “Neither one of us has won the war yet.”