Shadows of the Past

Fifteen

By the end of the day, I was seriously questioning my insanity. No more burning came from my lungs, but it was as if I had been dragging around weights all day, instead of just my feet. I walked out of the school, thankfully not running into Scarlet, and as I turned for the buses, my eyes caught a figure standing on the sidewalk with his feet apart and arms folded. Silver eyes flashed in the sunlight and I groaned.

I stormed across the lawn to him, opening my mouth to make some fit about him picking me up from school but he beat me to it and said "Why are you here?"

"Why am I here? Why are you here?" I tried to lift my arms to bang my fists against his chest like a whiny child, but they could only reach my waist before I had to drop them to my sides. He grabbed them gently in his hands, pulling himself down a little to stare into my eyes.

"Why are you at school? Your parents told me you were so sick you couldn't get out of bed. I would accuse you of playing some sick prank to make me worry and speed up here, but I know you're still not feeling well." His hands squeezed my arms a little. "Your skin is hot to the touch, and your eyes won't stay put. You can't raise your hands, and you couldn't walk in a straight line to me."

"That's not true!" Even to me, my words sounded slurred.

"This isn't a heat." He stated. "Despite your fevered skin, heats don't look like this."

"You've seen a heat?" Heats were rare.

"Once."

"Maybe I'm different?" My head flopped to the side a little, and it took so much effort to right it.

River's head shook and then it blurred in my vision so I couldn't make out the difference between his two eyes. "No. If it was a heat you would have been hanging off of me already, begging for a kiss or even your mark."

My knees buckled and his hands freed my arms as they flashed out to grab my waist and hold me up. "I don't even feel the pull to you." I admitted as a way to back his statement that this was not a heat. But then I thought about it as clearly as I could in my foggy mind.

I had recognized his stance and eyes before I could feel his presence through the bond. That should have struck me strange right away. In fact. . .

"River, I can't feel my wolf." My voice was a whisper and I inhaled sharply. "I can't remember the last time I did." Suddenly I didn't care that I was still convincing myself to hate him, I didn't care that I was mad he felt he needed to come comfort me. My fingers gripped his shirt and I pulled myself against him. Scared, I sought his comfort automatically, but I also wanted to see if any spark reignited when I touched him.

There had been no sparks when he was gripping my arms or when he caught my waist, and there were no sparks now. There was electricity, because it was River and I and apparently there was chemistry without the soul binding, but there was no physical sparkler effect when our skin touched.

I hated that I missed it.

"The sparks," I finally said. "They're gone."

"They're here." He promised, his hands still on my waist. "They are a little weaker though, now that you mention it."

"River." I tilted my chin up and his eyes landed on mine instantly. "I don't feel them at all."

As if he remembered we were in the school's front lawn, he grabbed my arm and started walking to the parking lot. "We're going home." Fear shot through me, but then he clarified. "To your pack house, I mean. Don't worry, I wouldn't kidnap you."

"I wouldn't put it past you." I retorted, but my voice lacked it's usual tone when I said things like that to him.

He noticed too, and his eyes flicked to me, scanning my face with concern. "This isn't right."