THE NIGHT WAS WARM AND THICK, dark enough to blindfold me so that Justin didn't have to. He led me by the hand like he was taking me somewhere secret, but I knew where we were going – theoretically, at least. I recalled our conversation at school, the one that had ended with something about the Hills and a warning, apparently. I'd thought he would forget about it, between rugby practise and whatever he did once he got home, until I saw his text. Justin was not a man of many promises, but he kept the ones he made, and tonight was no exception.

"Didn't you hear the warnings on the news?" I asked, treading over tree roots and rocks as carefully as one would without a sense of sight.

"I did," he said pointedly. So, obviously the curfews and restrictions placed by the police were only applicable to mundanes.

"I know you said you'd be more honest with me, but this isn't what I had in mind."

Justin glanced at me over his shoulder. There was this fair luminescence up ahead of us, tracing his features ever so slightly, so I could just make out his smile. "You know, despite everything, your curiosity is one of the sexiest things about you, Leslie." Did he just call me –? "You have questions; I'm just going to remind you how badly you want to know the answers."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

The blue luminescence intensified, lighting our path from somewhere deeper and pulling us into the woods – into the Hills. Soon, we reached an expanse of grass and underbrush, mint-green beneath the light's cool touch, the source of the light itself becoming entirely visible. It was a waterfall.

"Whoa." Do waterfalls always look this... magical? I glimpsed at Justin and, even though I was sure he had been here before, his eyes made me believe he was seeing this all of the first time. A whole world had opened up to us, and for a brief yet beautiful moment, it felt as if it was all ours.

"Come on," Justin urged me along with his bright excitement, until the riverbank was just one step away, and then we removed our shoes.

I watched our reflections in the crystalline water, watched the way our smiles widen to grins, before Justin dropped his backpack and then his shirt onto the dew-licked grass. What happened next was something I should have seen coming, but I was preoccupied with the buttons on my shorts, and then I heard a splash, and then I was wet.

"Justin, you little –!" I called with a laugh, eyeballing the culprit before wriggling out of my pants. "Screw it!" I left the shirt.

I chased him around for all of five seconds before we met the edge of the river again, and he proceeded to jump cannonball style into the water.

Splash!

When I thought Justin had had enough, I felt a force pull me by the hand and into the river. I emerged from the waters, and my drenched hair drooped before my eyes like the branches of a willow tree, before Justin swam closer and tucked it behind my ears.

"What do you think?" he asked, his voice whispering with the waterfall. He had this expression in his eyes that was so sincere, thoughtful. It chilled me.

"I, uhm... I-it's..." I tripped over my thoughts as they grew into words. Justin cupped my face, looking at me the way he did.

I was scared to admit that he was right, that I could feel the furnace of my curious mind catching fire, burning with questions. The closed door was in front of me; I finally had the key, all I had to do was turn it. I thought this was exactly what I had prepared for, but it seemed like the more Justin was willing to open up, the less I was willing to hear. Or maybe I had been deluding myself from the start. I wasn't ready for any of this; maybe I never was. That was when I felt his arms around me.

He'd never felt so warm.

"Don't be scared."

With the waves nudging us lazily, I breathed against the droplets on his shoulder, hugged him tight. "I'm only scared that whatever you tell me will change us for the worse. I understand now why you were always so secretive, and you were right to be."

Justin let me go as his hand ran through his hair, stopping midway to scratch the top of his head. "I can't tell you that it won't change us," he sighed. "Or that my parents will ever approve. But there's only one way to find out." He took my hand and brought it above the water. "Don't tell me you're giving up now. I was so scared of what my parents might do if you found out about us, but when I saw how they treated you after everything you did last night, I realised how unfair this has been. You are so passionate, smart, and brave. And you deserve better, Leslie."

I was at a loss for words. I felt seen and yet, so transparent, like I wasn't really there, like I'd melted into the water and become one with the Hills. I'd forgotten the dangers of this place, I forgot curfew and laws and reason. I was only me and Justin was him, and I had to kiss him. He said I was passionate, so I was, pressing my lips into his as if they were all that held me to this plane. Before I knew it, I could feel his tongue on mine, and I hesitated for a second.

"You've never kissed me like that before."

"You don't like it?" His question was a whisper against my mouth.

Would it be wrong if I did? I couldn't put an answer into words, so I shook my head coyly, tilted it, and fitted us back together. Wherever Justin's hands went, my skin tingled perversely; from my arms, to my waist, down to my thighs as he raised my legs and hooked them around his pelvis. I could have kissed him until I had no breath to spare.

He drew away first, although I was still perched against him, and I could feel...

"Leslie." I felt exposed when my name sizzled across his tongue, made naked entirely by his voice alone.

"Y-Yes?"

The ochre in Justin's eyes was beginning to turn to that intense gold. "I love you."

"I love you, too," I said with a smile.

"I want you."

"I know," I teased, his gaze enchanting me all the while. "So... why don't you take me?"

Tantalising, Justin leaned in closer, close enough that I could have whimpered. "Is that a challenge?"

"Absolutely."

Thus, equanimity became rapture.

Deeper into the night, we found ourselves lying on the grass beside the river after. It turned out that Justin's backpack was kitted with warm clothes for the both of us to change into, as well as provisions. I was in his arms, dressed in his clothes, and eating one of the best sandwiches ever made when I realised how much this felt more like a date than anything else. In that small moment, I could understand why Justin wanted normal, it was so much easier this way, but I didn't want easy. I didn't think so anyway. Why would I when the alternative was magic and splendour and truth? Justin was right; I wanted to know more. And so, I asked my first question.

"Okay, so I know you have super strength, reflexes and endurance –"

"So, it was good for you, too?"

I smacked his chest. "Stop."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," he laughed, the sound stripping me of whatever composure I'd mustered until I laughed, too.

Did we actually just have sex in the Hills? This was how people died! I guess it really is too late for 'normal.'

"Anyway... Do you heal quickly, too?"

"Yes, we do, though the healing time varies between one werewolf and another."

"May I see?"

When Justin nodded, I plucked a stone from the ground. "Y-yes," he said softly, allowing me to begin the slightest incision on the inside of his hand. He bit his lip to brace for the pain.

"Are you sure?"

"Can't be much worse than having your bones shift around inside of you."

I winced. "That doesn't... never mind." What do I even say to that?

I applied a bit of pressure, until I'd drawn blood, and then retracted my hand. Before a single drop could spill onto the grass, the cut disappeared completely, as if I hadn't even touched him.

"Magical, isn't it?" he uttered, once it had become obvious that I was at a loss for words.

Imagining such a phenomenon was one thing, witnessing it was something on a whole other level. Justin wasn't invincible, but if he had told me otherwise, I would have believed him. What more was his body capable of?

"You are extraordinary, Justin Levine, and I am so lucky to love you," I said simply, and then the realisation kicked in that I had just cut my boyfriend with a stone, and I chucked it immediately. "I'm sorry about that!"

"It's okay," he chuckled, but even that couldn't reassure me this time. I knew it had to have hurt. "Ask me something else."

I hummed. "What about night vision?"

"Yup; my wolf eyes can see in the dark and over long distances. One of my favourite perks," he smiled, and I felt a little warmer.

"Are you fast?"

Justin's smile broadened, and his eyes ignited with a golden exuberance. He leapt to his feet and put some metres between us, until I lost him to the dark and the trees. It was not long before I heard a low growl and was gravitated towards him by his lantern eyes, but when I reached the woods, he'd vanished yet again.

"Justin!" I called for him, not too loud, for fear of what else might be hidden in the shadows. Were there really bears in the Hills? "Justin, where'd you go?" Crap. Maybe I was about to die after all, like in one of those old horror films.

Before I could lose hold of my senses completely, there was another growl. I looked upward to discover a large silhouette high up in the tree nearest to me. Fast climbers: check. I'd expected Justin to return to the ground in the same way he'd gotten up there, but his way down was much faster. As a precaution, I stepped back a considerable number of paces when he jumped down and stuck the landing, his leg muscles bulging, and then relaxing. Suddenly, I was standing eye-to-eye with this colossal creature – fanged and clawed and dangerous – but this time, somehow, I was not scared. I wasn't capable of fearing him. Slowly, I put my hand out towards Justin, towards the fur behind his ear, but he twitched as our peace was interrupted. A rustling sound emanated from the woods, causing him to revert back into human form. Was it the Levines? Had they figured out Justin's plans and followed us here?

I was dead quiet, until I happened to notice something... notable. "My love, your clothes," I whispered.

Reflexively, he put a hand to my mouth, listened some more. When it went quiet, Justin told me to stay where I was and ducked into the shadows, I presumed to find his clothes. Unless, he planned on confronting whatever was making that sound. Surely, it was only one of the forest's inhabitants; a frog or a bird maybe.

Yeah, there's nothing to worry about.

But Justin had taken his sense of comfort along with him, and it was not long before I started to feel uneasy and abandoned in the hollow night – abandoned, but not quite alone. The waterfall continued to whisper in my ears, like it wanted to calm me down, and it had almost worked, until something big landed upon my shoulder.

A hand? I thought. "Justin?"

Justin was clothed by then, and had apparently gone to scout the area. "Leslie, someone's here," he said in an urgent, hushed sound.

"W-where?" I matched his pitch.

Before he could answer, the encompassing rustling sounds seemed to grow louder, before stopping all together, replaced by the distinct crunching of footsteps. I watched as Justin's spine went rigid, and the hairs on my skin stood at attention. One pair of footsteps. Whoever they belonged to happened to be behind me, therefore, I could only see them approach through Justin's eyes, though in the dim light, it was an effort akin to trying to see through fogged glass. That didn't matter to me though; it would have to do, because if my werewolf boyfriend wasn't moving then neither was I.

"What do you think you're doing here?" It wasn't until they spoke that I realised.

It's a girl?