“The hunters,” I bit my lip. “Why?”
He didn't answer. He just pulled me after him into his room. He put me on his bed and turned the light on. Only now I noticed that he wore his usual clothes for the night; only pants. His chest was naked and that turned almost instantly my wild imagination on. I was really stunned; I was attacked just few minutes ago. I should be scared, crying and so on. But no, I was thinking about my protector's naked chest. Something really wasn't right with me.
I turned my eyes away from him before he could even notice where I was staring. And lucky for me, he was thinking about something so intensively, that my thoughts to him was nothing.
I lifted my legs on the bed and curled up into a ball. My body was trembling, heart was racing. It was exactly how I had always imagined that my characters would feel after an attack, but I had never wished for myself to be attacked by anyone.
Christopher moved closer to me and sat on the bed. His eyes turned to me. In his face I could see sympathetic. These things were his daily bread. Nothing special. But to me... it was new and frightening.
“Will Avery catch him?” I asked in tiny voice. My hands on my chest, feeling my restless heart.
He didn't hurry to answer to my question, and when he did, he didn't sound happy.
“No. She won't catch him. They are quick.”
He stood up and walked out from the room for some minutes. When he returned, I could see a medicine chest in his hands. He sat back on the bed and started acting like a doctor; sit, lift you chin up, don't move, and stop acting like a baby...
“You know, it burns,” I said as he gently touched my little wound on the neck with medicine.
“Like it is my fault that you don't know how to fight,” he snapped.
“I know how to fight. After all, I have...had a brother,” my voice broke.
He primed his lips. He didn't say anything else for good ten minutes. I kept my mouth shut too. I didn't know what I actually could tell him. Everything seemed so pointless, so unreal.
Christopher soon ended the procedure. But still, he didn't hurry to start talking again. From his face I could see that he liked silence. I liked it, too, but not when needed to distract myself. I needed to talk with someone, that my thoughts couldn't return again and again to this night's event.
After five or ten minutes, Avery returned disappointed. In her hand I noticed a gun. So, they both were armed.
“He is a good runner,” she said, entering into the room and taking a good look at me. “He won't come again, Vanessa,” she said to me. I nodded, because it was the only thing I thought was right for me to do.
“She is in shock,” Christopher said as he stood up. “You need to take some sleep. Lie back on my bed,” I looked at him with a doubt in my eyes. “Don't worry, nothing will happen. Avery and I will be with you. Now, sleep,” he ordered me.
I glanced at Avery. She smiled and approached closer to me. Her hands soon stroke my hair in calming gesture.
“Close your eyes and sleep. Nothing will happen to you. We promise.”
I bit my lip and nodded reluctantly. Then, I put my head on Christopher's pillow. Avery watched me with encouraging eyes. I really wanted to believe that nothing will happen to me, but that wound on my neck didn't let me believe in that. Something will happen. Maybe not today, not tomorrow, but it still will.
I close my eyes.
<<>>
I opened my eyes when I felt someone's touch. I jumped and moved away from the edge to another side. My eyes were wide and searching for enemy. But there wasn't any in the room. The only living being here were I and Avery. She even laughed from my behavior.
“Calm down,” she said calmly. “Nothing bad will happen. It's time for you to wake up and prepare yourself for university.”
I hugged myself. I didn't want to go to university. To be honest, I didn't even want to leave this room. The world, behind these walls, was scary and dangerous.
Avery noticed my hesitation. From her eyes I could see the same sympathetic which was in Christopher's face this night.
“Everything is okay, Vanessa. Nothing will hurt you. Christopher and I will make sure about that.”
The funniest thing of all this was that someone attacked me in my home, where my protector and tutor was only five feet away. Okay, maybe ten... fifteen... That didn't make a huge difference. I was still attacked in my home, which had to be the safest place in this universe for me.
“I want to stay at home today,” I said, bringing my legs closer to my chest.” I need time,” I explained.
Avery nodded understandingly. Unfortunately, that didn't mean that she would let me stay at home. She just agreed with the fact that maybe I should stay at home.
“Get up and take a shower. I will bring you your clothes and then you can get something into your stomach,” she said and strode quickly from the room that I couldn't say any word.
Great, I said in my mind.
Avery wanted me to leave the building, like I would be safer in the street than in the room.
I moaned and stood up reluctantly. My arms were around my waist. In small and slow steps I walked to the bathroom. My eyes darted to the ground on which soon I noticed Snow. The kitty mewed and started walking around me. I smiled.
After ten minutes I was done with that entire shower thing and sat over the table with Avery and Christopher. I heard Anna in the kitchen, making us some food.
I didn't dare to lift my eyes from my hands, which were resting on my lap. But even without glancing around, I could feel their eyes on me, trying to understand what was going on in my mind.
“Why must I go to university?” I asked in small voice.
“Because you need to go there,” Christopher answered.
“And why do I need to go there?”
“Vanessa,” Avery addressed to me. I lifted my eyes to meet hers. “The hunters came here, tried to do only God knows what. Maybe they tried to scare you or give as a sign. I don't know. But whatever their intentions were. We must show them that everything is okay, that we don't fear them.”
I turned my face to the ground. It was easy for them to say that, because right now I felt like a little rabbit, hich was surrounded by many wolves. The only question was, which one of them was the hungriest to start the attack.
“I called Tobias,” Christopher continued our conversation. He thought that his news will cheer me up a little, but it did other effect; I wanted to run and hide. “He will go with you.”
“And you? Will you be my shadow?” I asked and then took a deep breath. I didn't know why, but his answer to this question was really important for me.
“You don't need to be concerned about that. We won't let anything happen to you,” he said in cold voice.
I lifted my face and turned it to him. I frowned.
“Yea, I can see that,” I pointed with my finger to my neck. “I was attacked in my own room, under your nose. You know what, waking up in the coffin was scary, but being attacked in my own bed... well, that really caps the globe,” I said in angry tone.
“We won't let...” he was starting, but I hushed him.
“Yea, I heard that,” I took a bite of my cinnamon roll and took a sip of milk. I didn't dare to say anything else. They also kept their mouths shut, maybe thinking, that I wouldn't listen to them right now.
And then the door bell killed the silence. Tobias was here, ready to take me from one nightmare to another. Well, I had a really colorful life.
I put a scarf around my neck that Tobias couldn't notice my wound. I didn't really want to talk with him about what happened this night. I didn't even want to remember it.
Christopher stood behind when I opened the door and meet warm Tobias smile. Without missing a beat, he moved closer to me and kissed.
“Hi, beautiful,” he said to me, forcing my heart to beat a little faster in my chest.
I grinned and glanced at Christopher. My protector stood steadily, watching us from the distance
and in silence. He reminded me of a beautiful statue, which picture I would like to have in my room and stare for hours.
“I am going,” I said. He nodded and shift his eyes from me to Tobias, who met them with curious.
“Good morning, Christopher. Nice to see you.”
Christopher narrowed his eyes and, without telling a word, turned to us his back. He walked back to Avery.
“He isn't in mood?” Tobias said a bit confused.
I didn't reply to that. I took Tobias's hand and pulled him away from my home in which I would prefer staying than leaving.
“Is everything okay?” he asked me, concerned, when we were far away from my home.
The weather chilly, huge, heavy clouds were in the sky, threatening every second to burst and leave everything wet behind them.
“Not really, but I don't want to speak about that,” I admitted and put my head on his shoulder. It was so great to be so close to someone, when you are sad or scared. In my case, I felt both of those emotions.
But it wasn't destined for my head to be on his shoulder. Soon, he stepped one step away from me. He greeted his teeth from pain as his hand shot straight to his shoulder.
“Is everything okay?” I asked worried.
“Yea. I just hit my shoulder to the door really hard when I was going to the bathroom,” he explained, slowly removing his hand from his shoulder.
“Oh,” I licked my lips.
He pull a small smile on his face and took my hand again into his.
“So, maybe you would like to skip today's lecture and do something fun instead?”
He was tempting me to be a bad girl. I would have without a second thought accepted his offer. I really needed to do something fun. Unfortunately, I shook my head. I wasn't sure if that would be safe for me.
“We should go to university and listen about some boring authors, who are dead.”
“Are you sure?” he snaked his right arm around my waist. “No one would even notice our absence.”
I wanted to laugh. Yea, no one, I said ironically in my mind.
“Next time we could do that,” I smirked. He returned my smile.
Avery and Christopher were right, unfortunately. I felt even more safer being in the crowd than in my room. Nothing bad could happen to me while so many people were around me. And plus, Tobias, who held my hand all the time. But of course, there were time when he had to let go it, for example, when I had to visit to the bathroom.
Before our last lecture, I decided to visit that special room. But what I found when I walked out from it, didn't pleased me. Tobias was standing and chatting with a girl. The same girl, who I met at our first day. Jilly...Jenna... Julia. Yea, Julia. That was her name.
She was seeing only him, her fingers playing with her hair. She was totally flirting with him and she didn't intend to hide that.
I didn't hurry to approached Tobias and her. I decided to be aloof for some minutes and just see how Tobias will act, although I felt urge to slap her in the face. I wanted to give and do exactly that, but I wasn't a savage and I didn't want that my soul would win against my brain. Plus, I was curious, how his soul will force him to do with a soul which wasn't his another half.
I folded my arms across my chest and tried to admire the show. Tobias didn't notice me standing and watching him. That was good. He won't try to hide anything then.
Julia said something and Tobias started laughing. Although he was gazing at her, I could still tell that he wasn't really with her. His mind was in another world, in which Julia wasn't invited.
Soon she realized that and decided to take another tactic, which forced me to bite on the bullet, clench my hands. Julia started touching his hand. Then her fingers ran slowly toward his chest. My soul wanted to push that girl from the stairs. I step one small step back from shock. It wasn't me. I didn't like violence and I wound ever hurt somebody even if that somebody was trying to steal my boyfriend.
Tobias came back to reality and removed her hand from his body in really gentle gesture. His face was telling everyone that he was disgust by her behavior. She took a small step back, totally unhappy by the course of the events. She had another kind of scenario in her mind.
I unclenched my hands and approached them. Tobias noticed me ant walked around Julia. I was glad by his behavior.
“Done?” he asked, taking my hand.
I nodded and stole a glance at Julia. She scowled at me and walked down the corridor, pretending not to see us.
Everyone was searching for their happiness. I was one of those few lucky ones, who didn't need to struggle in this world in order to get it. But how much will I need to pay for that?
Chapter twenty
My and Tobias's ways separated at the same second as Christopher pulled his car in our way. He didn't seem to be happy. That turned my alarm on in my head. Was something wrong? Did those hunters attack us again?
I said bye to Tobias and kissed him on a cheek before I took a seat in the car. Christopher sat in the driver's seat and without saying a word, let the car move further and further. I noticed how tightly he was holding the wheel. His knuckles were turning white. He was very angry or extremely scared. But really, he scared? No, it didn't sound right. Christopher was angry. That was closer to reality.
“So?” I said when the silence started to annoyed me.
“So what?” Christopher asked in cold tone. His face was deadpan.
“What happened? You seem a little... I don't know how to put that...furious. Did something happen?”
He glanced at me and shook his head slowly.
“You sure?” I wasn't convinced. Did he really think he will fool me? My brother was a king of lies. I knew how to recognize a lying person. And right now, he was hiding the truth from me.
“One hundred percentage sure,” he assured me. I rolled my eyes. What kind of point was to lie? I will never understand that.
“I don't believe you, but if you don't want to tell me, so say it. Don't lie,” I said offended and looked through the window. Only now I realized that buildings were new to me. It wasn't the way to our home. “Where are we going?”
“Workers are at your home right now. They are repairing the windows and installing a new signalization. Actually, three signalizations, if we want to be precise.”
“Why so much?” the number surprised me.
“Because we want to make sure that you are safe when you are in your cosy bed,” he answered dryly as he turned the wheel to his left.
I folded my arms over my chest irritated. He was teasing me.
“And we are going where?”
“You need to eat,” he said.
By golly! I said in my mind. He was so talkative today.
“You know what?” I asked him. He didn't even glance at me. That hurt my feelings a bit. “You should talk less, because otherwise you will break your tongue,” I mocked at him.
I noticed him rolling his eyes, but still, he kept his tongue locked into his mouth as it was a prisoner without right to see the sun again.
“Really? What have I done now?” I asked, toying with my lock of hair.
“I see you have recovered.”
“He speaks,” I bit my lip as lifted my hands up.
“And he bites,” he added annoyed. I frowned, dropping my hair form my fingers.
I didn't say a word to him. I just sat patiently, waiting for the car to pull into some kind of parking lot. My wish was fulfilled after long ten minutes in the same car with Christopher. He didn't even let me turn the radio on that our tips would be jauntier, because I felt like he was taking me to the prison. Christopher was such a snob. A really old snob.
“Fast food restaurant?” I asked with narrowed eyes. “You know that I am vegetarian, yes?”
He rolled his eyes and then nodded.
“If you want, you can eat fried potatoes,” he said simply,” because I want something unhealthy and tasty at the same time.”
“Let me translate that. You want to l
ook like a huge ball?” I frowned from disgust when the image of him being fat reached my mind.
He grinned.
“Well, we live only one time,” and he laugh. We both knew that we didn't have one life.
We entered into the building. I frowned as I smelled meat's sense. I almost puked right in front of Christopher and other people, who ate their food with appetite.
“You want to kill me,” I said, pulling my one hand to my mouth and another to my stomach. There was no doubt that something will come out from my mouth. Christopher realized the same fact.
“Okay, go to the car. I will buy the food to go, okay?” I nodded and grabbed the keys from his hand. Then, I ran as fast as my legs could carry me.
I really had never thought that fresh air was such a good thing in my life. Really, what was he thinking by taking me into this place? And why did I react like this? After all, it wasn't my first time in these places.
I walked straight to the car and sat in it, but I didn't close the door. I wanted that fresh air could caress me longer. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Then, I opened my eyes and stared to a playground. Next to the swings two people were standing and watching me. It was a woman and a man. The woman looked oddly familiar to me while the man was new to me. He seemed somewhere around the same age as the woman, although I could be mistaking. I didn't know if his hair was dyed white or it was really white. He was a strapping man, with cyan eyes. I had to admit, I saw this kind of eyes for the first time and I liked them.
The man said something to the woman. She nodded and grinned.
I knew that I had seen her somewhere, but I couldn't remember where and when. Or maybe she just reminded me someone I knew.
I glanced at the building, trying to see where Christopher took so long. And when I returned my eyes back to that couple, they were gone. And than the truth hit me; I had seen that woman in the super mall with Agnes.
I quickly pulled myself into the car and closed the door. Then, I pushed the lock and scanned the area, searching for them. Lucky or not, I didn't see them. They were gone. It couldn't be coincidence that I saw that woman again, here.
Languish for you (My soulmate) Page 18