“What do you mean?” My hands; there’s a luminescence barely visible, but it’s there. “Am I glowing?”
“The humans won’t see how much, but they will think you’ve got very strange-coloured hair.”
I pull at a strand to examine the white-gold shine. “Ooh, pretty.” He looks at me sternly and I pout.
“Rose, just get in the car.”
I climb into the car and pull on my seatbelt; the warmth of the air from the vents barely touches the heat flowing inside. Freezing me back out, Alek pushes the idling car into gear. As I sit with hot air blowing in my face, I stare straight ahead, watching the windscreen wipers that struggle with the rain still crashing down, and consider our weird relationship. A thought strikes me. Alek could’ve done the same to me, but didn’t. And he still could. Am I safe?
Chapter 14
Something feels wrong the moment I step into the house, and I turn to Alek as he enters behind me. The gas fire roars in the corner but the breath mists in front of my mouth, and the warmth in my body from Alek’s kiss dissipates.
I look to Alek, who closes the door and rubs his head. “What?”
“A Shade. Perfect, I can get back some of the energy some chick stole from me.” He smirks at me, and I’m relieved he’s forgiven me for my accidental attack.
“There’s one in the house?”
Alek shakes his head and walks slowly to the hallway, and then stands at the bottom of the stairs. Turning to me, he puts a finger to his lips. I pull a face and mouth ‘what’s going on?’ to him. Pushing the damp hair from his face, he kicks off his boots and disappears up the stairs. Mildly amused at the fact this is the first time I’ve heard him walk upstairs quietly, I shiver, the cold intensifying around me.
I peel off my wet coat and drape it over the back of the sofa before walking toward the gas fire. The heat from the fire only reaches a few centimetres and when I hold my hands in front, the numb cold doesn’t leave. My damp hair cools against my neck; the icy sensation from the wet tendrils crawls down my back. I don’t want to keep my back to the expanse of the room behind, so I turn, half-expecting to come face to face with the red-haired girl. Although Alek said she’s fully dead now, I don’t know what laws of the universe apply anymore. She could be back again.
To my relief, there’s no one there, so I remain as close to the fire as I can without igniting and wait for Alek to return. A few minutes later, he reappears, still dressed in his damp clothes.
“I don’t know, it’s odd,” he says as if to himself.
“What is?”
“You can feel the cold, too, right?”
I point at myself. “Am I blue? Because I feel like I’m going blue.” I shake as if to reinforce the point.
Alek smiles. “I meant the house. I’m sure there’s a Shade here, unless it left recently and left the cold behind.”
“Shade?”
“Yeah, and Lizzie isn’t here either. I hope nothing happened to her.”
“So, I can go and get changed then?” I ask.
Something stands between us in the room, besides the cold. Unspoken desire remains from the encounter in the car, even though the high has left me. The memory of that triggers other memories of our kisses, touches.
“Your eyes are your betrayer.”
“What do you mean?”
“The first day you looked at me, I could see everything you thought about me, and it’s in your eyes now.”
I close my eyes. “There. Now you can’t see.”
A soft laugh escapes Alek and I open one eye. “Shit, I wish I had more energy right now,” he says.
“Why?”
“You know why.” Darkness circles his dull eyes; weakness, caused by me. “And there’s no point being all pink and virginal about this.”
At the use of the word, I inhale sharply. No, I’m not a virgin, but I’m not promiscuous. Alek slips so easily back into teasing me and it pisses me off. “I’m going to get changed.”
“Good idea. You’ll catch your death in those clothes.” Again, the smug smirk and the clever connotation.
I approach Alek and stand close enough for the spark to flicker between us. “Now I know what I can do to you; don’t you think you’d better be careful how you treat me?” I whisper, skin almost touching skin.
The power shift is reflected by the confusion and desire in his expression. I hold back the urge to act on the growing intensity between us and move past him to the hallway.
“Only because I let you,” he calls after me.
I make a soft sound of amusement as I climb the stairs, because I know his words are only half-true. Our encounter in the car demonstrates he’s not as in control of the situation – or me – as he would like.