Hidden in the Sun

Chapter 10

"I will always be here when you seek me dragul meu." He mumbled fondly stroking my cheek once again. "Just think of me and I'll be with you." He finished leaning down to place the softest of kisses upon my lips stunning even my confused mind with the intense energy that trembled across the place where his lips touched mine. "Remember." The words echoed through my mind as I was plunged into icy darkness, his warmth lost to the cold recesses of mind as his words echoed into the abyss. 

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NO!

My mind screamed as my eyes violently yanked open to reveal a white textured ceiling completely foreign to me.

What? I had to go back, I had to remember! 

"She's awake!" a light familiar voice rang out drawing my eyes to a small pixie like girl. 

Mary.

I strained my mind trying to understand what thoughts I had been trying to hold onto, but the only thing that swirled to the surface was a gentle 'Remember'. I could hear it in a soft male whisper. It didn't make sense though, so I let it go as the vivid waking world overtook my mind. 

Where am I?

"What..." I tried in a hoarse barely audible voice. A sharp sting drew my attention to an I.V. as I tried to sit up.

"Evelyn, stay still, the poison is still dissolving from your body." My eyes glance to the source of the voice belonging to Hanabusa; the headmaster. A quick flash of memory passed through my brain; I had asked to go to him for some reason. The feeling of that urgency bubble up in my stomach reminding me of the dread... the fear...

"Poison?" I rasped out grasping to understand before all the memories came rushing back. Nightshadow. Suddenly a familiar pair of electric sapphire eyes came into view.

"Easy there." His velvety voice rang through the room soothingly and somehow eased my racing heart as he gently places a hand on my shoulder and pushed my back onto the raised hospital-like bed. His eyes were enthralling. How could someone have eyes so intense and still be able to look at me with so much... wait... he was looking at me tenderly. It was a split second before his guards went back up and the chilly caution set his eyes in their usual glare. A weird feeling shot through my belly but not unpleasantly as I wondered if I had imagined the softness ever being there.

"I'm allergic to nightshadow." I mumbled not able to look away from those aquatic-colored eyes. 

"We know." He responded with a hint of a frown seeming just as unable to look away as me. Something in his eyes darkened ashe stared and they grew sharper as the once cautious look morphed into something more... distrustful. 

"What we don't know is why." Hanabusa said stepping up to the other side of me opposite to James. "Mary could you please give us a moment alone with Miss Woolacott?" 

My eyes finally pulled away from James breaking the trance to look at Mary who stood at the end of the bed. When she didn't move, I gave her a gentle nod.

The click of the door echoed through the silence of the room and the air grew tense as I stared back and forth between the two men. 

"Miss Woolacott-"

"Evelyn." I corrected reflexively. The headmaster paused and then continued. I've never been comfortable with formalities. 

"Nightshadow is not poisonous to humans." 

"It is to me." I responded confused. 

"Nightshadow can only affect the supernatural; those who are demon touched, angel touched, or spirit touched." Hanabusa proceeded.

"So?" I questioned feeling like I'm missing the punchline.

"So, what are you?" James asked in a slightly irritated tone, his fists clenching at his sides. My eyebrows shot up on their own.

"Like my pronouns or what?" I ask with a halfhearted chuckle not missing the sneer that appeared on the Eldest Prince's face. They were acting weird. 

"No Evelyn," James growled out causing me to flinch at the sudden change, "like what species are you? Humans biologically cannot be affected. It's a flower born of the darkest magic therefor it only targets magic, divinity, and demon essence in the soul. Humans don't have that, so what are you?" his voice sounded almost animalistic at the end in a jarring sort of way.

Hanabusa remained quiet and unmoving after James finished. Have they gone mad? What he's suggesting is absurd. 

"I. Am. Human." I said slowly. "Can't you tell? Like smell or something?" I said getting agitated that this was even a conversation.

"Stop lying!" James snarled clenching a cold hand threateningly around my neck in the split second it took me to process his words. The fire in his eyes was a terrifying contrast to their icy color, no longer bothering to restrain himself. My heart jumped into my throat as I realized how serious he was. I clawed at his hand as I could barely breathe. 

"No!" I wheezed with wide bewildered eyes trying by best to force my mouth to say that I wasn't lying, but I couldn't.

"Prince Jameson!" Hanabusa quipped. "It is obvious the child does not know, now let her go!"

His grip on my throat tightened painfully successfully cutting off all air supply. My heartbeat thrummed in my ears loudly as I tried desperately to pry his hand free. What could I possibly know? There was nothing to know. I am what I have always been... at the bottom of the food chain. 

"I will not! She has to know something! I am the prince-" I started to feel dizzy as I drew my blurry eyes to the headmaster begging for help, but his eyes were trained solely on my constrictor.

"AND I AM THE HEADMASTER! Inside these walls you heed ME." Hanabusa boomed as spots started to dot my vision and my lungs burned. "Now, let. Her. GO!"

For one fearful moment I realize he might not let me go. Would anyone actually care? I was a weak human left alone in the world and he was a Prince among vampires. He stood on the supernatural council (alongside his father) that ruled the world. I was disposable. Just one flick of his wrist he could end it... just one-

With a loud growl in my face, he surprised me by releasing me, throwing back on the bed hard enough that it slammed against the wall loudly. I took a greedy breath setting my lungs afire with a separate kind of pain than they had felt previously. I met his eyes for a moment and for the briefest fraction of a second, something unusual, flashed burdening. With a growl he whipped around and stormed out of the room.