“That’s not what I asked.”
“So it isn’t.”
Agh, He is so aggravating! I gritted my teeth as I felt his hand in my hair and felt a chill run over my body. I tensed as his hand moved to touch my neck.
He sighed and dropped his hand. “Fine. I am here to enlighten you, since you can’t seem to make the connections yourself.”
“Connections? What connections? And do you mind if we turn on a light. I would feel much better if I could see.”
He gave a sort of snicker and made a gesture I couldn’t see and the lights came on. “Better?”
The sudden change made my eyes burn and I flinched and rubbed my eyes to ease them. When I could see, I looked up to find him way too close, as usual, and staring down at me with a beautiful smirk on his face, his violet eyes glowing. Halo. He was definitely a good looking guy, but never had he looked as good as he did right now. Which made things all the more worse. I debated how to respond to his question, but given his appearance, I didn’t trust myself to speak, so I only nodded.
“Good,” he said gesturing to the bed behind him. “Have a seat.” He turned and placed a hand on my back, guiding me to the bed.
Just as I sat, my phone chimed. I reached for it, but before my fingers touched it, Halo reached out and grabbed it. He looked at it quick and handed it to me, the dazzling smile on his face. “Write him back. Tell him your fine and going to bed.”
I took the phone from him and looked at the screen. Of course, it was Jayson checking in because it had been over and hour since I wrote. I did as Halo asked and put my phone back on the table. My gaze drifted back to where Halo was standing against my wall. When he saw me look at him, he smiled again and dropping his crossed arms began a devastatingly beautiful stride toward me. It was so, animal like. There is no other way to describe to grace.
He came and sat on the bed beside me. “Okay, Halo, the mystery is getting old. Just get to it.” I said, beyond freaked and starting to get mad. One of these days, it was going to get me in trouble.
His eyebrows shot up in surprise then slightly nodded his head. “So,” he said as he leaned back to lounge on my bed. “How have you been sleeping?”
His question shot threw me, sending chills up my spine. “Fine, why?”
An eyebrow quirked. “No nightmares? Or other… dreams?”
He knew! How did he know? “Nope, all’s well in the REM cycle.” I lied.
He gave me a very passive face and sat up, inching closer. “Really,” his gaze locked with mine for a second, as if he was waiting for me to change my mind, than he turned his attention to the other side of the room and got up. He walked with that amazing stride over to my window and pulled the curtains away, staring out into the dark words. He didn’t say anything for a couple of minutes, just stared outside. When he finally spoke, his voice made me jump. “You know, I do prefer your room shrouded in darkness with only the moonlight streaming in to see by.” He finished his comment by turning to meet my gaze. What he saw on my face must have been what he was looking for because that cocky, beautiful grin was back.
I watched, unmoving, as he walked back to my bed. His eyes never left mine. His body mimicked the exact position that they had months ago, their first night I dreamed someone was in my room.
The realization of who the guy was that haunted my dreams every night for months. Who made me a walking zombie at school. Who made me do…
“You?” It came out no more than a whisper but more of a growl.
He just gave a small nod and kept walking.
“Why? Why would you do that to me?”
He had reached me now, but was standing in front of me, not touching me or the bed, just looking at me. His amazing smile faltered at my question and slowly disappeared. “It wasn’t intentional, at first.”
I waited for him to continue, but he didn’t and my inpatients won out over my common sense and I raised my hand up and twisted my wrist around in a motion that said, “come on, keep going”.
His eyes narrowed but he continued. “The first time, you found me. You came to me. And you weren’t scared.” He stopped again, and looked deep into my eyes. “So I decided to try and visit you. My first visit didn’t exactly go as planned. Much better, actually.”
I felt the heat rush to my face and I tried to turn my head so he wouldn’t see, but he reached out and grabbed my face, forcing me to look at him.
“Don’t turn away. I love that you blush for me.”
This time I narrowed my eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself. If I knew…”
“If you knew what? If you knew it was me you wouldn’t have?” He took a deep breathe. “Trystie, you did know. Every morning when you walked into class, I saw it in your eyes. The recognition. It was there everyday.”
Without removing his hand, he started to move forward, pushing me backwards on the bed. “I told you I knew you wanted me,” he whispered.
I scrambled as fast as I could across the bed. So fast, I fell off the other end and landed awkwardly, knocking the breath out of me. Before I could manage to blink away some of the discomfort, Halo leaped over the bed and landed, all graceful and animal-like, on top of me.
It took every ounce of me, but I didn’t give him the reaction he wanted. As calmly as I could I said, “Kimber is downstairs. She’ll hear you. What…”
“She won’t hear anything.”
For some reason, I believed him. “You want me to scream. You want me to be scared. Well, you aren’t going to get what you want from me.”
“You know, I think that’s what I like most about you, how strong you are. I was hoping you weren’t just playing that way in your dreams.”
I laid there on the floor, with Halo on all fours over me, and tried to regain my breath. When the pain subsided, I asked the questions I needed to know. “Why are you hurting people, Halo? And why haven’t you done anything to me, besides give me nightmares?”
“Nightmares?” he actually smirked again. My hand itched with the urge to smack him.
“Yes, nightmares. Beautiful nightmares, but nightmares all the same.”
That amazing smile returned and it took all my strength not to reach for him. What is wrong with me?
“I didn’t give you nightmares. And just so you know, not all of your “nightmares” were “nightmares”.”
What exactly does that mean? My mind screamed at me, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask. I don’t think I am fully prepared to know what he meant. Instead, I stared at him, expecting him to continue.
He seemed to understand because he did, taking my hand and pulling me up as he did so. “I know what you really want to ask, and I will answer it, but not yet. However, I will explain that I had to hurt people, as you put it, because of you.”
I arched an eyebrow, but said nothing.
“You decided to no longer see me, so I couldn’t… get to you.”
I closed my eyes and shook my head. My mind was spinning.
My head stopped shaking and I opened my eyes to see that Halo had his hands on either side of my face, holding me still. For what felt like and eternity, we sat there staring at each other. My breathing was ragged and heart was beating so hard I’m sure he could feel it.
I blinked hard, trying to erase him from my vision, than yanked myself from his grasp and ran toward the door. Before I could even reach it, he was there, blocking my only exit.
“What the hell are you?” I screamed.
“There, that’s the question you really wanted to ask. And you already know the answer. Think about it,” he said, taking a step toward me and I took a step back, countering him. “What was the best part of our little meetings? It happened every time. It was, after all, your favorite part. I couldn’t leave you without you insisting.” He snickered and glanced toward the bed quickly before his eyes returned to mine. “The difference between what we did and what happened with the other girls was that I needed it. Mostly. It was just something about you. I had every intention of
hurting you, at first, but you weren’t afraid and,” he bent down toward my neck and took a deep breath in. “You smelled so good. You tasted even better.” He licked the side of my neck where I remembered his teeth sinking in and a chill ran through me.
The problem, I wasn’t entirely sure it was from fear.
His teeth grazed my neck and I sighed, felt my tense body loosen.
I realized what I was doing and shoved him away. As hard as I possibly could. Which unfortunately didn’t do a whole lot.
“What the hell do you want from me, Halo?”
He licked his lips and I found my eyes inadvertently watch the movement. God, he is beautiful. I mentally slapped myself in the head and looked back into his eyes.
“Tell me what I am, Trystie.”
I tried my best not to roll my eyes, than couldn’t believe I was even contemplating what he wanted me to say. Was there such a thing?
“Vampire.” I whispered.
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you. Could you say that a little louder?”
I looked up into his amazing eyes and walked right up to him. “You’re a vampire.”
A flash of something crossed over his eyes, and was gone before I could even tell what it was and was completely erased when he smiled. “Close, but we'll just say I am a Vampiric Fae for now, not truly a vampire in the same sense. After all, I’m clearly not dead,” he said, reaching for me again. “Now here is what I need from you. I want you to break up with Kamdyn and never talk to him again.” I opened my mouth to speak but he put his finger over my lips to quiet me. “I want you to write to Jayson and tell him you don’t need a ride tomorrow, in fact,” he leaned close to whisper in my ear. “Just between you and me, you won’t need a ride from anyone anymore.”
“Why do you want me to do this? They have nothing to do with you? Why should I do any of this?”
“I have a great surprise for you. You see, I know exactly what is happening to you. I don’t know how it is happening or why, but I do know what you are becoming. And I know that Kamdyn is Fae, Sidhe to be exact. I know this because I am his brother. That’s why I’m here. His father, my father, sent me here to see exactly what he was doing, what he was becoming. I was sent here to kill him if he wasn’t becoming what he wanted. But I found something even better. You. He’s in love with you, you know. And the one thing that would do more damage to him than death, would be for you to betray him and break his heart.
“Which is exactly what you are going to do. Tomorrow. You are going to tell him about us and that you don’t love him. You can even tell him that I’m his brother if you’d like, it would only drive the knife in deeper. But you will not tell him that I told you to do this.
“I am only going to say this once. As much as I enjoy chasing those girls down, I will give it up for you. But I will do it to others if I have to and you know exactly who I will start with. As long as you do what I want, no one else will get hurt. I promise”
Looking into his eyes, I saw that he meant it. As long as I played along, he would hurt no one else. I couldn’t live with myself knowing someone else got hurt because of me. Because of my choices.
“Tell me, Halo, why would you want to hurt your own brother?”
“Ah,” he said. I watched as an array of emotions flashed over his face. I saw anger, fear, hatred and love. In the end, he settled for as blank as a face carved of stone. “It’s simple really, he’s stands in my way.”
“In your way for what? He lives here, what could he possibly be in the way of. He doesn’t know anything about where he came from.”
“You’re right. He knows nothing about who he is or why he’s even here. And he isn’t supposed to be told until he’s older, but I don’t see the harm in telling you. He’s stands in the way of my court. My father, our father, is the King of Darkness. The King of the Unseelie court. That makes Kamdyn and I, princes. You have seen one of my gifts a few times. I can manipulate shadows. My gift manifested early, making it very strong. Because of it, my title is Prince of Shadows.” He did a little bow as if to present himself properly. “My brother is also a prince of the Unseelie court, since we have the same father. The truth is, his mother is the Queen of the Seelie court. So he is an heir to both.”
My eyebrows shot up in shock at the unexpected news. I had completely forgotten that I was standing here with a vampire who was basically threatening everyone I loved, just for me to walk away from Kamdyn.
“So that makes Kamdyn something really special,” he said waving his arms in the air dramatically, using a mocking tone.
“If he was so special, why did they send him away?”
“The Queen did. My father practically demanded he be his heir, which would only be sensible, but the Queen wouldn’t hear it. So she sent him away, to grow up far away from the courts, without any influence by either side and to eventually rule over the court he chooses. Anyway, if he chose the Unseelie court, I wouldn’t be able to have the thrown, if he chose the Seelie court-
“He would be your counter and therefore, your rival.” I finished for him. Halo smiled. “And if I agree to leave Kamdyn, you will not hurt him?”
“Not just leave him, Trystie. You leave him for me.” He flashed me a smile that could melt metal. “I’m going to make you a princess.”
I didn’t want this, but I would do anything, absolutely anything to keep Kamdyn safe. I could play a long for a while; at least long enough to get this settled and get Halo away from here. I could find a way out of this. I could.
When I opened my mouth to give him my answer, no words came out, a fine sheen of sweat coated my skin. I licked my lips and tried again, failing. In the end, I settled for nodding.
Chapter Twenty
The next morning I asked Kimber if I could stay home. Apparently I was good at faking sick because she agreed without a fight. Or maybe just one look at my puffy face told her all she needed to know. Once Kimber went about her business getting ready for work, I sent a text to Jayson telling him I didn’t need a ride.
And purposely left out that I didn’t need at ride ever again.
I could only be hopeful that it wasn’t necessary to do so.
It seemed the second Kimber yelled upstairs to say goodbye and I heard the front door close behind her that Halo appeared in my doorway.
I said nothing as he walked gracefully into my room, closing the door behind him. Just the sight of him made me want to scream out all my frustration. So, instead of giving in to the rage that was building inside, I just rolled over in bed, putting my back to him, and pulled the covers up over my head.
Somewhere in the back of my mind I heard him talking to me, asking me questions. But for all I know, he was speaking another language because I understood none of if and didn’t have the strength to voice how much I didn’t care.
So, while I continued to hear this musical buzz from somewhere in my room, I completely zoned out. The first place my mind went was the last thing I want to think about right now. Straight for Kamdyn.
All I could feel was how much I cared for him. How much I was going to hurt him with what I needed to go. How much I was going to hurt myself was irrelevant. I didn’t want to do this, but if it was a decision between his life and my happiness, well, I would do anything within my power to keep him alive.
Just thinking about it made me want to cry, but I cried so much last night, my eyes seemed dry, my tears all used up.
I don’t know how long I laid there with my mind wondering. It couldn’t have been longer than a few minutes, given Halo’s intolerability. Suddenly his voice came back into focus. I could feel the aggravation behind it, but I still didn’t look at him.
I felt the bed move under his weight as he flipped the covers off me and pulled me around to face him. When my eyes found his, I watched as his hard expression slowly softened and became almost…concerned. To my surprise, he climbed in and laid along side me, wrapping his arms tightly around me, he pulled me into his chest, holding me tight.
I didn’t have the strength to fight.
I made a deal with Halo. And as much as I wanted to go back on it, I couldn’t risk what was at stack. So around one that afternoon, I wrote Kamdyn a text, asking him to meet me at the Starbucks at the plaza in town after school.
Shortly after two that afternoon, we pulled up in front of the coffee shop. I sucked in air deeply, trying to gather any remaining strength I have in me, and reached for the door handle. Before I could pull on it, Halo reached out and grabbed my hand.
Since this morning, he no longer had that rigid demeanor. I felt his thumb making small calming circles over the top of my hand. I pulled my gaze away from those circles to look at his face.
“Whenever you’re ready to go, just come outside. I’ll be there to pick you up.” The sincerity, the caring and emotion he held in his voice was more like a knife in my stomach then a comfort.
Again, all I could do was nod as I opened the door and made my way inside.
I found a large table close to the front door and sat down with my Latte to wait for Kamdyn to arrive. Within two minutes, I heard the door swing open. I didn’t need to look up to know it was Kamdyn. When I felt awareness crawl up my spine, I just knew he was there. He quickly walked over to the table and stood beside me with a hand lightly placed on the back of my neck.
I didn’t stand, or even look up at him, just jutted my chin in the direction of the seat across from me.
I took a deep breath.
“Trystie, I know something’s wrong. I can feel your unease. It’s vibrating off of you. What’s going on?”
“Kamdyn, listen, and don’t say anything until I’m done, okay? I have something important to tell you and I need you to understand.”
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