Alek shifts. “Yeah.”
If I wasn’t so desperate to stay close to him and have him touch me again, I’d leave. Or go to bed. God, I want to be in his bed. I shake away the images my mind eagerly conjures which are distracting me from his crazy story. “This is too much for me to take in. Are you saying Shades want to feed on my energy?”
“Yes. And we can feed on theirs. They can be a food source for us.”
“A food source?” I practically shriek the words. “What the hell?”
“You need a different kind of energy to survive now, Rose, not just food. One place it can come from is Shades, and this house is a focal point where a lot try to come through from the Void.”
Void? I hold up a hand. “Alek. Stop. I don’t know what drugs you’re on, but this is crazy.” The mood swings, the weird behaviour…“Do you have a medical condition? Do you need me to find Lizzie to help you?”
“What? Why?”
“I had a friend in high school; he was schizophrenic, and...”
Alek laughs at me. Actually bloody laughs, and I feel like hitting him. “No, I’m not. I may be a lot of things, but I’m not insane.”
I decide not to push this. Despite his protests, he’s evidently unstable and if he continues with his delusions, who knows what he might do next. Tomorrow I’ll speak to Lizzie.
When Alek stands and approaches me, I regret the fact I chose to stand against the wall. “I understand how confusing this must be, but think about everything that’s happened tonight.”
I hardly hear the words because he touches my face and his cool fingertips become searing hot, as if burning my skin and the same arc of desire crosses me. Alek’s eyes darken and he slides his hand up my arm to pull me closer.
“I gave some of my energy to you, to help you survive, energy I took from the Shades.” The hoarseness in his low tone does nothing to quell my swing back into a longing for him now that he’s close again. “You don’t want to go where they come from, and you were heading there after the Shade outside the pub took your energy.”
“Please stop talking now.” My breathing difficulties are out of control and the last thing I want to do is collapse.
Alek rubs his thumb against my lip, jolting the strange energized desire for him back to life. “The kiss was…interesting.” He withdraws his thumb and stares at my mouth. “But not such a good idea between us.”
Again, another unanswered question. The heaviness in my limbs and numbing of my brain interferes with asking him why. I dip my head, away from his hand. I need to get away from.
“And I can safely go to sleep now?” I ask, feigning nonchalance.
Alek licks his lips and steps back. “Yes. And tomorrow I’ll tell you about Finn.”
“Finn? Is he a Shade or like us?”
“Neither.”
“Of course,” I mutter. “I’m going to bed.” Far away from Alek before the other part of my brain decides I should do something I might regret, but would undoubtedly enjoy. A lot.
“Yeah. And sorry.”
“For?”
“Tipping water on your head.” He grins, the old Alek sliding back in.
This is my cue to edge our conversation away from his crazy talk and leave. “Right. Asshole. I’m going to bed.”
Heart thumping in my ears, I head toward the stairs. I’m half-relieved and half-disappointed when he doesn’t follow me.
“Night, Casper!” he calls, a teasing tone to his voice.
When I sleep, there’s no fog and no nightmares, only dreams of Alek and intense sex.
Chapter 11
I wake the next morning to my phone ringing and check the number.
Finn.
There are texts, too, starting from half an hour after I left him at the pub. Until I’ve figured out what’s going on, I don’t have the energy to attempt to explain anything to Finn My head pounds, a constricted feeling like dehydration. I shrug on my robe and pad downstairs, still woozy and half-expecting to have dreamt everything.
Lizzie is in the kitchen, eating cornflakes. She’s dressed like me, PJs and robe. Should I ask her about Alek and tell her my suspicions about his mental state?
She eyes me over her bowl. “Wow, you look like crap.”
I make a humph noise. “Thanks.”
“Late night?”
“Kind of.” I fill a glass with water.
“Same, I didn’t get in until three.”
“Late shift?”
“Something like that.”
“About Alek…” I begin but don’t get to finish my question.
A door bangs upstairs, and then footsteps rapidly descend the stairs. My stomach fills with butterflies and for good reason; Alek appears in the doorway. His brown eyes meet mine and the desire to touch him re-enters. He runs his tongue along his bottom lip then looks away.
“Lizzie, are we going out today?”
She slurps some milk from her spoon. “Out?”
“I promised you a trip to the movies.”
He’s ignoring me. Completely bloody ignoring me. I clear my throat, but he doesn’t respond.