The shadowy figure must have heard my gasp and turned toward me before I had a chance to bolt. I expected to see hallowed eyes without a soul or the eyes the color of blood not aqua eyes brimming with sadness.
“Travis?” I expelled on a rush of air. Stepping closer into the room, I could make out his sharp cheekbones, his frowning mouth, and his moppy sandy hair. “What the hell? You literally just shaved off ten years of my life. Between you and Chase, I don’t know how many I have left.”
“Sorry,” he apologized, his voice falling flat, not at all like the usual carefree disposition I was accustomed to.
Plopping my badonkadonk down on the sofa beside Travis, I didn’t bother with the lights. Darkness seemed to suit both our moods. Misery really did love company, and he looked like he could use a friend. Why he chose me was mind-boggling. I could only assume this surprise visit was about Emma.
I looked at my friend and for the first time since I had known him, he seemed deflated. Not at all like the Adonis God I associated him to. His shirt was wrinkled as if he just threw on whatever was lying on the floor. His eyes were ringed in puffiness and dark circles. And a single whiff said he desperately needed a shower. Travis looked like crapola.
“Talk to me, what’s going on?” I kept my voice soft.
He ran both hands through his already wild hair. “Nobody gets it. Not what’s running through my head, or how I am feeling inside. They’ve tried to pretend nothing is different, but that’s just it. Everything is different. To make matters worse…the one person I want to talk to…the one who would get it. Well, I can’t be sure she won’t try to stake me before hearing me out.” He dropped his head into his hands.
I scooted closer to him on the couch. My heart lurched inside my ribcage for him, for his evident pain. “Travis,” I said gently. “I can’t pretend to understand what you are going through, but I’ll listen. I won’t judge you for what you’re feeling. Trust me, if I can be tied to your dumbass cousin, then I must have the empathy of a freaking saint.” My jab at Chase got me the smallest of a smirk. It was a start.
Emma’s return had messed with his head. “I’ve never experienced a shock like that. It jolted through my system, I was useless against it,” he said, bringing the memories back to life. “A part of me never expected to see her again. Never see her face. Never hear her voice. Touch her. It was surreal. Just the sight of her stole the breath from my lungs.”
I thought about what he said, seeing someone you thought was gone from your life forever. I knew that if my dad suddenly appeared one day, I would drop dead on the spot. All things considered, I thought Travis handled the situation as well as was expected.
His voice quivered ever so slightly. “Emma and I don’t have the kind of link you and Chase do, but I would have given my life for hers a million times over. That has to count for something.”
“It does,” I assured with compassion.
He lifted his head, meeting my eyes with so much pain swimming in them. “I feel like I should have done something. I should have known she was in trouble, that she needed me.”
His guilt was monumental. It stifled the air. He blamed himself for what had happened to Emma, for her transformation into a vicious hunter. How did one absolve that kind of blame from his shoulders? I couldn’t stand to see Travis take such a gigantic heap of fault onto him. It was unfair, unjust, and plain out bullshit. “Travis, you couldn’t have known. This guilt you’re carrying around is going to eat you up inside, and it’s not what Emma would want. Not the Emma you knew.”
He didn’t look convinced. “Maybe,” he conceded, but I could tell that he was just being polite, he didn’t really believe it. I wasn’t sure there was anything I could have said that would have made a difference.
Of course I wasn’t one to give up.
“Emma showed up at school this week,” I said, unsure whether it was a wise decision to tell him. I took the chance.
“She was?” There was a touch of hope in his voice. It killed me to have to crush it.
I nodded and pulled my legs under me. “Yeah.”
He took a deep breath. “I’m guessing by your tone, it didn’t go well.”
“Depends on who you talk to. School was definitely buzzing, that’s for sure. I’d never heard so much outlandish gibberish in my life.”
“That’s a small town for you. News like that is the biggest thing of the year. It tops Fall Harvest.”
Good Lord. The peeps of Spring Valley needed to get a life.
Travis’s lashes lowered. “Did she…”
“Try to shank me in the hall?” I supplied, only partially joking. “No, but I got the impression that she would have liked to cut out my tongue.” That might not have been the smartest answer, but sometimes my mouth is flapping before I realize what I was saying.