Lorelai moves in beside me at the railing, watching as the house staff discusses the best way to get the body down. They've agreed that a winged supe needs to do it. The question now is which fairy or angel will head the task.
"Is Cordelia all right?" my best friend asks.
I lift my shoulder in a defeated shrug. "For now...she seemed to need a second, so I gave her that. But whoever is doing this went after her last night. They tried to drown her in the pool. It's the reason I moved her into my room."
"Is there a reason you didn't think it necessary to share that with the rest of the house?"
I push away from the iron railing and run my palm over the back of my neck. "Because half of the attendees would be all right if someone killed Cordelia. They believe she is a threat to our existence. I'm not giving another person the opening to harm her and blame it on this killer."
I forego telling Lorelai the discovery I've made about Cordelia. It's like this house has eyes and ears everywhere. If someone found out she is a Dreamwalker, it would likely be another reason someone attempts to take her life.
"Fine, I guess that makes sense, but Elias, I get the feeling you're not quite telling me everything here. There's a missing piece to this puzzle, and I'm the best at completing puzzles. So spill it. What else is going on?"
I shake my head as I walk back toward my room. "Nothing, Lorelai. I told you. I have to get back to her. She was really shaken up by all of this."
Lorelai snatches my wrist, pulls me back toward her and hisses in my ear, "Do you know who's doing this?"
"I have no clue," I say, ripping my arm from her grasp.
"But you have an idea."
"It's a stupid assumption that makes no sense. None at all. Honestly, it is more like my mind playing tricks on me. There is no way."
Her eyebrows shoot up and her mouth goes slack. "Elias, you know that's crazy. Why would you even think that?"
I run my fingers through my hair, leaving it standing on its ends. "They left a note on Cordelia after they tried to drown her. What it said hit a nerve with me. It was like they knew that I..." I shake my head not needing to finish the thought. Lorelai was there on the worst night of my life. She doesn't need me to regale her with all the gory details. "I'm just exhausted, and I've got seven weeks ahead of me worrying about this woman because we are all spellbound to this island. I'm sure I'm overthinking it."
She nods and tilts her head toward my room. "It's going to be all right. In fact, everything is going to be great if this match works out for you. Go woo your girl, big guy."
I roll my eyes and step into my room.
And I am both flabbergasted and a little bit hurt by what I see.
All of Cordelia's bags are sitting either on the bed or in one of the chairs in front of the fireplace, and she's shoving the contents of the nightstand drawer into her oversized purse. When she notices I'm standing there, she nearly jumps out of her skin and struggles to find her words.
"Elias, I—I'm—I think I'm going to go back to my room for a while," she manages, throwing the purse over her shoulder and piling her duffel bag on top of her large rolling suitcase.
I slide my hands into my joggers and stroll around the bed, taking in the mess she has made. With every step I take, the fear of her decision to leave my room rolls into anger. "Why would you do that when you know someone in this house is hurting people? For fuck's sake, they have already hurt you."
She steps back and away from me, nearly bumping into the wardrobe behind her. "I just think it's—it's better if I—"
She has no reason for what she's doing. She can't even string a sentence together. What the fuck is she thinking?
"Better if you what, Cordelia?" I demand, stepping closer and caging her in between my body and the wardrobe.
She tucks her lips between her teeth and I can see her hands trembling as she brings them up to run her fingers through her hair, gripping it at the roots. "I don't know!" she exclaims. "Please, Elias, just let me go. I need space." But she makes no move to push me out of the way; she just stares up at me with those sparkling grey eyes.
"Space from what?"
"This...everything. I don't think this was a good idea. We hardly know each other."
I search her face for more to her answer. It doesn't make sense. Why would she want to go back to her room when she saw what happened to the troll. All I find is pure terror that rips through me. I take a step back and give her a fraction of the space she needs from me.
"I'll sleep in the chair or even the bathroom if it makes you feel better. But I think you are making a mistake by leaving this room."
Her eyes dart around the room and I can tell she's considering my words. And I think for a moment that I've gotten through to her. That she'll allow me to continue watching over her, keeping her safe.
But she sidesteps me and shakes her head. "I can't stay, Elias...I—" Her eyebrows furrow and she meets my gaze as she says, "You were in my dream tonight."
The sudden shift in topic startles me and I tilt my head to the side. "What? What are you talking about?"
"I had a nightmare tonight. Right before everything happened. You were in it...it was so real. But you didn't wake up with me. Not like before," she says, and her voice is so wistful, it nearly cracks my heart in two.
"Cordelia, not every dream you have is dream walking. You're still very immature in your abilities. It's possible that you simply had a normal nightmare."
Anger flashes in her eyes. "Immature? Oh, okay. I'm sorry. We all can't be, like, 500 years old," she snaps.
If this weren't a such a dire situation, I'd probably laugh at her histrionics. I'm not even close to 500 years old. "That's not what I meant, belle rêveur." I don't mean to use the nickname that slipped out last night, but it felt natural and right to call her that.
Her eyes narrow and she grabs the handle of her suitcase. "Well, regardless of if it's real or not, I've always heard it said that dreams all have a kernel of truth in them. So if that's the case..." She shivers. "Anyway...you also didn't even call me that in the dream...You had a different nickname for me...coelhinha?"
I place my hand on her luggage, pinning it where it stands. "I'm not familiar with that term." She yanks on the handle, and I continue to hold it in place. "Why don't you talk to me about the dream you had instead of marching out of my room?"
"Because I don't want to talk about it!"
The lack of open communication and the rash decision to leave grate on my last nerve. "You're so fucking impossible! What are you running from?"
"You! I'm getting away from you, Elias."
I stagger back, my hand pressed to my stomach like she landed a sucker punch to my gut. Her fear is evident, but I didn't expect it to be solely direct at me. I'm racing through my thoughts, desperately seeking what I did wrong. I need to make it right and stop her from making a terrible mistake.
"Why? What did I do?" I ask, sounding utterly pathetic.
"I—you—" She shakes her head so fast her hair falls in front of her face. Her grey eyes shine with tears and I can see that she is conflicted, but her fear is winning out. "Please let me go. I can't be here right now."
I turn my back to her and grip my hair, pulling so hard I can feel strands releasing from my scalp. Every fiber of my body is screaming that this isn't right. I'm tempted to shove her into my closet and lock her in until the end of the summer. But her desperate plea and the storm raging in her expression break me.
"Go, Cordelia," I bark, unable to look at her. I refuse to watch as she walks to her execution.
She inhales, as if she's going to speak, but she must think better of it because I hear the rustling of her purse against her clothes as she moves to gather her suitcases, the thumping of the wheels over the threshold, and then she is gone.
Fuck. No matter what it is she thinks I've done, or what I may end up having to do in order to do so, I have to keep her safe. I fling open the door just in time to see her duck into her room, and I stalk down to Lorelai's and pound on the door.
"What the f—" My best friend says, swinging it open with alarm written on her face. "Oh, shit, Elias, what's wrong? You're cr—" She pulls me inside and grabs a tissue, blotting at my cheeks.
"What? No, I—" But when I lift my hand to take the tissue from her, it's covered in blood.
"Fuck, I hope she didn't see this."
"It looks like it just started. Wait, who? What's going on?"
"Cordelia. She and I had a fight. She went back to her room."
"What? Why?" Lorelai sounds shocked as hell, and quite frankly, so am I.
"I really don't know. Everything seemed fine to me, but all of a sudden after they found the troll hanging from the ceiling, she flipped out. She told me she needed to get away from me. Lore, it's like...it's like she was terrified of me."
"You are a vampire, and some might find that intimidating." She lifts her lips in a sorry excuse for a smile. "Her leaving your room is really getting to you. I can't believe I'm witnessing this...Elias Dagon in love."
"What?" My head snaps up. "No. Absolutely not. I'm just worried about Cordelia's wellbeing. Whoever is killing people is vicious, and she has no way to defend herself like everyone else here. She is an easy target."
"Uh-huh. I've seen you concerned for others' well-being over the years. What I've never seen is you shed a tear over one of them. I've heard of a vampire's blood tears. Never actually seen them. You're in love with her. Do you want me to talk to her? Find out what she's thinking? I won't tell her you're in love with her. Obviously." My best friend shoots me an infuriatingly chipper wink.
I move for the door. "You're delusional. I've known the woman for less than a week. All I know about her is that she gets my dick hard, and she drives me up the wall."
"Sounds like the start of forever to me."
"Fuck off, Lore." I rip the door open and slam it behind me, the wood cracking under the force.
I wish I could say my best friend is completely wrong. The last thing I would do is be reckless with my heart. But as I finish the night out on the floor of the hallway with arms draped over my bent legs and back to Cordelia's door, it hits me that perhaps she is right. I am falling for the Dreamwalker, and she doesn't feel the same.