Heartbeats

Chapter Thirty-Five

CALEB

"It's tragic, don't you think?" Adelaide was lying next to me in bed, a distracting thought particularly considering she wasn't wearing pants. I was on my phone booking an air ticket to India. One way. I had stayed two weeks after the incident, long enough to make sure all the loose ends were tied. Long enough to watch Charles writhe in agony while he was side-lined by a corpse. Long enough to make this hurt.

She rolled over to face me, and I hastily locked the screen and set my phone on the night stand. "Why? She didn't love him."

Adelaide scowled. "She did, Caleb. She just couldn't love him the way that's human, the way he needed." I would never understand why she was so caught up in human emotion, why she held on to the part of her that was distant, but I let her have it.

"I guess you're right." My agreement was stemmed in apathy. I rolled to look into her beautiful eyes. "When are you not?"

That made her blush, and that shot a rush to my heart. I smiled and sat up a little more, cupping her cheek with my hand and moving in to kiss her. She tasted like fresh air, like adolescent blood, like the last known bit of innocence existing in this world.

She tasted like guilt too.

I coaxed her into a deep sleep, spending these last moments with her the way any lover would. She wouldn't recognize my actions until the morning, until it was too late.

She looked too good in the moonlight, her glow rivalling Earth's satellite. I kissed her bare shoulder tenderly and left my letter on the pillow. She whimpered in her sleep, unconsciously making it harder for me to tear myself from her side.

I wasn't expecting anything on the other side of the door when I left her room.

"This is messed up, Caleb." He hated me for this.

Charles didn't even turn to face me. He sat in the recliner, his hair a mess from another sleepless night. The wolf girl was asleep in his bed, having nightmares again. I could hear her fits from here. No wonder he had moved to the living room.

"This is necessary, kid. You wouldn't understand." I didn't feel like fighting with him. I didn't feel like explaining this to him. He didn't need to be involved.

He just waved his hand to pass me by, too tired to deal with me.

Like leaving didn't hurt me. Like I didn't know I was walking away from my girl, the one God had set on this earth just for me. He had no idea what there was in our world that he was shielded from.

The silence made the air thick as I waded through it. When I made it to the door I turned back one last time. "I'll let you know where to reach me when I figure things out."

He nodded, standing slowly. We could both hear crying coming from his room. How fragile she was, and how human she made him seem. It was this weakness that I couldn't afford to have, not in my line of work.

-

I yawned despite the three espressos I had consumed while waiting for my delayed flight. I was one of maybe ten waiting for this flight, and the only one not carrying a briefcase.

Well this flight is going to be no fun.

I checked the screen again, noting that boarding time was still thirty minutes away before I allowed myself to make another trip to the round-the-clock coffee shop. I wasn't paying much attention to where I walked, seeing no need for it when the airport was deserted, so I was caught off guard when someone clipped my shoulder and spun me around.

"Sorry," I coughed, taken back by the force of the motion.

"You can't outrun this." Two voices ripped from the girl's petite frame, hissing.

My eyes widened. "What did you say?" I grabbed her shoulder firmly.

The voices laughed, and the girl's purple eyes twinkled. "He's waiting for you."

"Who?" I shook her roughly.

"Get off of me!" The purple disappeared, and this girl slapped me across my face before running away, terrified.

I just stood there, and for once I could feel how cold the blood in my veins actually was.