Now You Seer

Complications

I wanted to smack him. And kiss him. I wasn't quite sure which one was going to win, but considering I barely knew him I doubted it would be the latter.

"You wanna put a wager on that?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Not right now. The elders are debating right now, and won't have a verdict until later today. I was thinking we could spend some time together while its still legal." he suggested.

"That sounds great, but I'm gonna have to pass. I need to be out of here before nighttime so I can continue my road trip." I told him seriously.

James made a disappointed face at me, then walked over so he was right in front of me.

"What's so bad about staying here with me?"

I had to think on that one for a moment, but once I was finished I had a real gem ready to throw at him "Well my mom will probably want to know where I am."

He looked dumbstruck for a moment, before a low chuckle came from deep in his throat.

"Cleo, is it? How old are you?"

"James, is it? I'm eighteen. Almost nineteen, but that doesn't make kidnapping me okay." I stood up from the couch, but that didn't really help my situation any. He was still a good two heads taller than me, a skyscraper compared to my office building. I felt plain next to him.

"Well," he said slowly "at least you're not a minor."

I flopped back down onto the couch and yawned hugely, not even bothering to cover my mouth like my mother had taught me. It wasn't like they were particularly polite when trapping me.

"Yeah, because that would probably stop you from doing anything you planned on doing with me, anyway." I agreed with him sarcastically, crossing my legs blinking around the room calmly.

There was a noise from next to me, and I glanced over to see Cameron with his hand loosely covering his smile. He was laughing, probably at me, but laughing all the same.

James smirked at me, the corner of his mouth turning upward into a devilish grin that had my insides squirming.

I was fixated on that corner for a moment, just staring at the perfect shade of pink his lips were, along with the massively attractive scar running down his cheek. And then I got up from my chair, my feet slowly stepping towards him.

Um, hello? Earth to brain, earth to brain! If you could stop these shenanigans, it would be greatly appreciated.

A hopeful glint passed through his icy eyes, and with a snap I was out of it, realizing that I was just in front of him, my neck craned up to see him better. But the trance was broken, and like a bat out of hell I was flying across the room to the nearest window, holding onto it for dear life while sucking in breaths of air as quickly as possible. My knees were shaking, and I could feel my eyes watering with the effort it took to not jump back over to him.

"Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit. No fucking way." I muttered to myself under my breath, digging my nails into the white panel of the window to help with the pain.

Yes, the pain. I could feel my chest aching. I could physically feel it, like heartburn after eating a massive cheeseburger, burrowing into my ribs and making my insides pulse.

"Cleo?" Mae called softly, having been sitting there the whole time, watching me go through the process of insanity. James moved out of the corner of my eye, sitting down on the couch where I had been before and sighing deeply, as if this was all a rather tedious process.

"What? What's happening to me? Is this normal?" I practically screeched, clutching the spot between my breasts and feeling my heart thrumming there.

"Yes, Cleo, it is. Finding a mate in the supernatural world is kind of special thing. A deal closer, of sorts. We- well, James and I were raised to think that upon finding our mates, they would reciprocate our immediate love as soon as we met them." Mae continued, looking concerned "But you're not even trying to be close with him, which I must admit is a bit of a shock."

"What do you mean?" I groaned, not understanding what she had meant.

"First of all as mates, even for a human, you should feel an intense pull to be near him. And from all the other she-wolves that cling to him, I was rather under the impression that females find him attractive." Mae explained, and I felt the need to roll my eyes. She was saying that I wasn't drooling, which he wasn't used to.

I was still having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that another person could physically impact me without even touching me. I mean, emotionally, it was fine. Of course I was going to be impacted emotionally.

Have at it, extremely attractive male who makes my heart thrum and makes me swoon. Make me feel like I'm losing my mind. But physical pain? Fuck that, I didn't sign up for any of this!

I glanced at James, who also had a hand clutching his chest, and immediately I felt terrible. I was causing him pain. I was causing me pain. I was making a mess of this. And my pain muddled brain then made me do the stupidest thing ever. It made me walk over to him like I had before, then flop down on his lap.

A complete stranger. Perhaps I would have done that the first time, if I hadn't snapped out of the trance sooner. But it was getting stronger.

His lap was comfy, really, and his arms immediately wrapped loosely around my waist once I settled in. But again I came back to myself, and began struggling to get away. His arms held me back, just as strong and electric as they were this morning, and he growled lowly in my ear.

"Cleo, just sit still. I know you're not crazy about me; I got it. Fine. But just sit still for a minute so the pain stops, and then you can go back to sulking." he seemed rather peeved with me, and part of me wanted to blush in embarrassment. All of the conflicting emotions inside of me were making it difficult for me to control stuff, like how I was acting and what I was saying.

My chest was saying 'Yes, yes, stay where you are and don't move. In fact, just kiss him and jump his bones right now before he has a chance to see how bonkers you are.' while my head was saying 'Cleo, get your very human ass back to a respectable distance and just wait out the pain till they let you go'.

So obviously I needed to re-evaluate my life.

At this point I like to think of myself as pretty stable, because I wasn't freaking out about all the supernatural bullshit, and because I was maintaining a clear mind while also having direct contact to Mr.Sex God.

The aching was going away already, and as soon as it was manageable I was up and out of his grip, my movement just quick enough to escape his clutches.

I sat down as quickly as I could in the chair next to the couch, only about four or five feet from James, and buried my head in my hands.

I had read Twilight before. I had gone through a Sarah Dessen phase, racing through paperback after paperback containing information about sappy teenage romances. I'd never really had a boyfriend, but up until today, I had always thought I had a pretty good grip on love.

But those books can't describe love. They can't capture the raw emotion of complete and utter adoration.

Perhaps, though, my dear reader, you can think about someone you love. It doesn't need to be romantic, it could be for your mother or any other family member. That feeling of strong love, that grows and expands at a healthy rate. You learn to love another individual, you see the good and the bad of that person.

But to actually love someone immediately, without knowing a single thing about them, is not only incredibly disorienting, but impossibly painful. These supernatural beings surrounding me, all strong and powerful, they were used to these strange occurrences, they had been raised to believe that it was normal.

But I was not raised that way, and my head was doing its best to remind me that no, I should not feel so strongly about James.

I don't even know his fucking last name. But I did know, with absolute certainty, that I was in love with him. A kind of love that wouldn't just disappear because I didn't like it or it didn't make sense.