I watch all this happen in a flurry, then turn my attention back to Lennon. I follow her, striding quickly across the driveway to the gigantic front lawn.
Mason and Duke burst out the door and fly down the stairs to join me and before I can say a word, there’s a hoot of laughter from inside, followed by a “Nice pajamas, sweetheart!” Fairly certain that was Kai, and I’m going to have to kick his ass in the morning. Irritation knits my brow, but I don’t have time to worry about it as Lennon continues cutting a path across the lawn.
Duke, clearly not in the best mood after being roused out of a dead sleep, grinds out, “What the hell are you doing? Get her ass back inside.” He only pauses briefly before he raises his voice toward Lennon’s retreating form and growls, “Lennon, we told you we’d catch you if you fuckin’ ran. Whatever stunt you’re trying to pull is bullshit.”
She’s completely unresponsive, showing no outward understanding that any of us are out here with her.Holy fuck.That’s when it hits me. It’s not a stunt at all. She’s totally been asleep this entire time. Lennon Bellsleepwalks.
I grip Duke’s shoulders, pushing him back several steps while frowning hard at him. “Would you chill for a second?” I heave out a breath while digging around in my head for any scrap of information I know about sleepwalkers.
“The hell, man,” Duke spits, voice raised with agitation.
I shake my head and hold a finger to my lips, my gaze sliding back to check on the wanderer. I kinda want to see where she’s going, but I doubt she has any clue or destination in mind. She’s simply walking wherever her feet take her.
Mason eyes me warily. “Ah, fuck. Tell me she isn’t—”
I nod, well aware that he’s connecting a few dots. I have concerns with how he’ll handle knowing this likely isn’t the first time she’s done this while she’s been here, but we can’t focus on that right now. “Sleepwalking. She came all the way downstairs. I dumped my stuff off in my room and followed, but I thought she’d gone to the kitchen, so I went there first. She wasn’t there, though. The office or the sitting room, maybe? I looked all over.” Quietly, I murmur, “The next thing I knew I heard the click of the door opening, followed by those annoying you-forgot-to-punch-in-the-codewarning beeps the alarm makes right before it goes off.”
“How do you know she’s not fucking faking it to get out of here?” Mason’s eyes shift between me and Lennon as we walk. I highly doubt he thinks this is the case, and the agitation rolling off him in waves tells me I’m right. More likely he’s trying to convince himself that he didn’t lay his hands on her when she wasn’t conscious. There’s a certain horror in his eyes that we don’t have time to deal with right now.
“Where the fuck would she be going if she were faking it?” I growl, easily dismissing his question. I know he doesn’t need the answer, because he doesn’t believe for a second that she’s faking—because he’s already experienced this with her once before.
Duke tips his chin toward her where she strides slowly in the direction of the wooded area separating our property from the road, completely unaware of the uproar she’s caused. “Are you goddamn kidding me? You know the alarm company will contact your fucking dad and mine, both.”
A surge of anger hits me, and my forehead creases. “How about we quit worrying about ourselves for two damn seconds and think about what we do if this happens when no one’s paying attention? She could hurt herself. We’d be screwed.” I scrub a hand through my hair in frustration. “Shit, we’re not supposed to wake her up, are we?”
Mason rolls his eyes, pulling his phone from his joggers as we continue to follow her. “Time to Google that shit.” Looking down, he quickly taps the question into a search engine. He shakes his head. “It says in most cases, the easiest thing is to guide them back to bed. Quiet voices”—he glances at Duke with the shake of his head—“light touches. No restraining, blocking, grabbing, or awakening them.”
I eye them, knowing this is on me, gritting my teeth. “Well, that puts it on me to bring her back in. I’m afraid she’ll react poorly to either of you talking to her.”
Duke gives me a harsh look. “Why do you even care? Have you appointed yourself her guardian or something?”
My head rears back, surprised by his reaction, but maybe I shouldn’t be. The way he looks at her screams of a desire he won’t ever let himself give into. He’s salty about it, too. “Look, the two of you need to own up to the fact that you’ve both had less than stellar interactions with her thus far. You know I’m right.” I wet my lips. “Get the rest of these jokers back to their rooms so I can bring her in.” I don’t leave any room for arguing. I turn my back on them and stride across the front lawn to corral my Little Gazelle.
I approach quietly, calming my breathing now that we know what’s going on. Part of it, anyway. We have to assume that she sleepwalked onto the balcony the first night. I may have to find a way to stop her from exiting through the front door. The stairs are bad enough. But a goddamn balcony in her room?Shit.
“Lennon, let’s get you back to bed.” I steer her with the lightest touch to make a U-turn. She doesn’t seem to notice the change in direction and is quiet the entire walk back up to the house, staring straight ahead of her. Slowly, but surely, I guide her up the stairs with the barest word here and there. It’s really fucking weird how her body—her mind?—seems to know exactly where she is at all times, and where she’s headed. Not only that, but she seems to have a built-in GPS, avoiding obstacles, like walls and railings. Several times, I peek past the curtain of long blonde hair to find her eyes eerily open, but it’s almost as if there’s no one there. She doesn’t see me, doesn’t recognize me. It’s weird.
At the landing, she turns left. Mason’s and Duke’s brows raise almost in unison from their positions against their doorframes. They’re like twin sentinels as I lead her past them to her room. She goes right in, climbing into the bed as if this wasn’t the strangest occurrence ever. I study her for several moments, unsure if I should leave her or stay to make sure she doesn’t get up again. The errant thought that her feet are probably dirty crosses my mind, but we can always wash the sheets in the morning.
She curls up on her side, and I can’t help myself. I squat down beside her and reach out with a steady hand to tuck a few strands of hair back from her cheek. She blinks. Once at first, then rapidly. Her breath comes faster as she watches me. Likereallywatches me. I skim my fingertips from her shoulder to elbow over and over again, until she calms. Softly, I whisper, “Lennon, are you awake?”
To my surprise, she murmurs, “Y-yes.”
I wince at the stuttered uncertainty. “Are you okay? Do you want me to go?”
She takes one deep breath, then another. “What happened?”
I close my eyes for a moment, glancing down.
“Tell me.”
I hesitate but decide there’s no way around telling the truth. “You went outside while you were sleeping.”
She sucks in a breath. “I opened the door and everything?”
“Yeah, I assume you flipped the lock and walked out. I’d just come in and set the alarm a few minutes before it happened. I saw you on the stairs while I was coming up on the opposite side, and it seemed odd to me, so I went back to check on you.”
Her tongue peeks out to dampen her lips. “You came looking for me?”
