-Author's Note-

This is my first story on this account and I haven't published anything I've written in years, so consider this my induction back into fanfiction lol I was inspired to finally get back into it by ThatAwkwardVampire's Halloween story Tapetum Lucidum, so I highly recommend you check it out! Just as a general warning, this is rated M for future chapters, but I'm gonna try not to rush into the sexy bits like I usually do, so enjoy and feel free to give me some feedback!
Cover image belongs to me

The Texas rain was merciless against the body of her old Chevy pickup, conducting a haunting symphony that both relaxed and unnerved the driver. Juliana Vega Espinoza, or Anna as she liked to be called, found herself surrounded by a dense, almost unnatural layer of fog and a heavy torrential downpour, the combination making it nearly impossible for her to see more than ten feet in front of her vehicle. She usually loved the sound of rain, especially as it pittered against the roof of a car, but something about this rain seemed full of dread and maliciousness.

She rubbed one of her eyes groggily, squinting against her own fatigue and the thick sheet of rain in front of her. She'd been driving for about three hours now, and she was feeling all of it at this exact moment. She didn't like driving on the best of days. It was scary and nerve wracking, and she hated putting her life in other people's hands like that, but the rain made it ten times worse and she knew if she didn't find a motel soon, she'd be sleeping on the truck's uncomfortable seats with the receiving end of a seat belt in her back.

Taking her eyes off the empty road for a moment, she checked the GPS on her phone to see where on God's green earth she was, but she was met almost mockingly with the rerouting screen. She groaned and closed the GPS, noticing a text from her mother. It'd been sent right before she hit the dead zone and she hadn't noticed it. She peeked at the road briefly before opening the message.

Drive safe please. papa says to get more batteries as soon as you get home

Anna smiled, the text immediately soothing her fried nerves. They were so overbearing, and while that usually irritated her to no end, it was little moments like these that made her appreciate how involved they tried to be with every aspect of her life. That was one of the plus sides to having Southern parents. The last part of the text had her subconsciously touching the hearing aid in her right ear and reminding herself that she needed to order more batteries at the first sign of wifi. God she missed the wifi. She missed her computer and her plants. She missed everything about her apartment really, and while she loved spending time with her parents, and her sister whenever she decided to show up, she loved isolating herself and watching crime shows more.

She'd been so busy longing for the sweet embrace of lemonade and Criminal Minds, that she almost didn't notice the human being standing in the middle of the road. She swerved sharply to miss him, and on the correction turn, she managed to nearly flip the truck over and make an almost 180 degree pivot, facing the truck in the opposite direction she'd been going. Her headlights shone against the man's back as he walked unbothered away from her, as if he hadn't almost caused both of them to meet an untimely demise. The whole thing had her nerves shot and she stared at her hands on the steering wheel, knuckles white from her death-grip. It took her a moment to gather her wits, and once she felt the pounding of her heart die down, she looked back up at the man, who'd moved a considerable distance away despite his relaxed gait. Why the hell was he waking so calmly in this weather?

Making an immediate, spur-of-the-moment decision, she pulled the hearing aid out of her ear and set it on the dashboard before throwing the door open and rushing out into the rain, shouting at the man to stop so she could talk to him. She was soaked head to toe almost immediately and her bewilderment over the guy ahead of her increased tenfold. He'd have to be crazy to be moseying along in this rain like he was.

He didn't seem to be responding to her yelling, and she wondered if he couldn't hear her over the thunderous downpour. She ran ahead to stand right in front of him, ensuring she had his full attention. Being up close and personal with him now, she noticed several things that she hadn't before:

He was very tall. She was 5'2" and her eye level reached just below his chest. He wasn't just tall though, he was built like a goddamn offensive lineman.

The bottom portion of his face, just below his eyes, was covered by a crude leather mask that had a small gash over his mouth for him to breathe out of.

Behind strands of dark wavy hair, were two of the most intense, borderline terrifying eyes she'd ever seen.

Anna couldn't help but stare, her mouth open slightly as her brain processed the flurry of emotions that welled up inside of her, the most prominent one being confusion. He stared down at her, his expression blank and unreadable. Time seemed to go in slow motion, and it was like she could see the universe expanding and exploding right before her, something unnatural and incomprehensible. Looking into his eyes felt sacred and forbidden, and it very well may have been, because he looked away from her and she was immediately released from her moment of nirvana.

"I...uh….sorry to bother you! It's just...what are you doing out here?" she said loudly, trying to be heard over the pouring rain, which seemed quiet compared to the pounding in her chest. He didn't seem to notice, or care for that matter, and he continued to look at the ground as if she wasn't standing a foot from him. She looked at him curiously. Maybe he couldn't hear her? Maybe he didn't speak English? "Can you understand me?" she asked. His eyes flickered briefly up to her in response, and Anna took it as confirmation. She chewed the inside of her cheek, trying to figure what to do next.

Leaving him out in the rain like this would go against every moral bone in her body, as well as the manners that had been hardwired into her being by her parents. On the other hand, he was also a random stranger in the middle of Bumfuck Egypt, and a big, physically imposing one at that. He should have screamed danger to her, but he seemed harmless enough, and she didn't know if she could deal with the guilt of leaving him there. So she decided to do the last thing any God-fearing human being should do in her position.

"Where do you live? I'm gonna take you home."

Not that she expected an answer, but she was pleasantly surprised when he tilted his head up and looked just behind her, gazing into the distance. He lifted a large, calloused hand to point in the same direction. Anna smiled up at him, squinting against the rain pelting her face. With her mind made up, she dashed back towards the truck and started it up. The man had stayed where he was, not even turning to face her. She stuck the hearing aid back in and switched the old Chevy out of park.

The truck came to a rolling stop beside the dark haired behemoth and he seemed to hesitate for several seconds before opening the door and getting in, the old truck groaning under his weight. Anna smiled at him nervously before hurriedly driving away from the site of their near-death experience.