Chapter 20
Liz burst into the room, her eyes immediately settling on Erik before she ran forward and hugged him. I guess she had seen the text I sent her fairly quickly. She pulled away and inspected Erik, seeming relived when she saw he looked better.
“I was so worried,” she said, sounding like she was going to cry. Indeed there were unshed tears in her eyes and she was barely restraining herself.
Erik seemed to notice this too because he said, “It’s okay, I’m alright, you don’t have to worry about me anymore,” he assured her. “I am freed from the magically induced coma brought on by my thoughtlessly done spell. I really should have taken more time and not rushed in blindly. I was arrogant and I thought I could do it. I need to revaluate my skills.
I could tell Liz wanted to believe her but the hunter in her was prepared for the worst. She nodded and controlled her emotions, looking more put together now that she realized her calm façade wasn’t working.
“I’m glad your back. You were really missed; it was so strange not having you around. I just wish I could have done something to help you, to make sure your spell never went wrong. I think everyone wishes that.”
“Thanks,” Erik chuckled sheepishly. He ran a hand through his hair messing it up, parts of it stuck up and I felt like laughing.
Erik yawned and Liz looked sympathetic noticing the dark shadows under his eyes. “You should get some sleep, you’ll feel better. We can always talk about this some more after you’ve had some rest and recuperated.”
Erik shifted, uncomfortable all of a sudden. “I feel fine. I don’t need to sleep.” At everyone’s doubtful expressions he rolled his eyes and told us the truth. I don’t think I want to, or can,” he admitted ashamed. “After that time I spent in a coma, sleeping is too similar and I don’t want to experience that right now, not knowing if I’ll wake up in the morning.”
Erik’s father nodded understandingly. “You don’t have to go to sleep if you don’t want to. I’ll stay with you and keep you company so you don’t fall asleep.”
Erik smiled at his father and I took that as my cue to leave. I heard Liz follow me out into the hall. She shut the door quietly behind her and then breathed out a sigh of relief. Erik being in a coma had obviously been hard on her.
“Well it’s been a long day, and now that Erik’s awake and that problem is solved I think I’m going to catch some sleep,” I called over my shoulder. It was a lie, I didn’t feel the slightest bit tired but I got the feeling she wanted to talk to me, and I wasn’t up for that right now.
“Wait,” she replied quickly. “I need to talk to you.” I resisted the urge to sigh in annoyance. “Please? It’s important.” It likely wasn’t important, it could wait until tomorrow but Liz had always been impatient.
“Fine,” I said, finding no tactful way to decline. I held the door open to my room for Liz and then closed the door behind us. She stood in the middle of the room shivering slightly because of the cold getting through the boarded up broken window. I sat on my bed. “What is this about?”
“I wanted to talk about what happened between us,” she whispered slowly before her eyes met mine. I couldn’t tell what she was feeling because her face was a mask and no ounce of emotion penetrated her eyes. There were times I could read her like a book; this was not one of those times. She was trying really hard to not convey what was going through her head.
“Yeah, I figured,” I began. I opened my mouth to say that I hadn’t thought that through and that it was a mistake but sat beside me, our legs touching and she interrupted me.
“I have always liked you,” she told me. I felt uncomfortable with her proximity to me. This was going nowhere good and fast. “After you were with that vampire bitch you probably were deeply affected by it. But I think I can break through your walls. You just have to let me.” Is she serious?
“Liz,” I started but was once again cut off.
She grabbed my left hand and held it tightly. I wanted to rip my hand out of hers. I couldn’t help but remember how our friendship used to be before her infatuation with me had complicated things. Her face was close to mine and her gaze was fixated on my lips.
“I don’t think we should go further though,” she sighed. I raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything, it was highly doubtful that she would let me finish saying anything.
She was giving off mixed signals, I thought. I would be amused with this situation if it wasn’t happening to me. She said she didn’t want to go further into a relationship with me but yet the way she was looking at me said otherwise. It was also news to me that it was implied we were in a relationship because I had mistakenly kissed her.
I should have just told her that we would talk tomorrow. And then postpone it as much as I could. I really didn’t like this conversation. Didn’t she notice I wasn’t interested in her? from the way I’m feeling I would think that it would be obvious to anyone, anyone except Liz apparently because she was oblivious.
Liz lowered her gaze, avoiding my eyes. “I think you’re still hooked up on Alexandria, and I don’t want to be a rebound. I’ll be around when you get over her, I’ll wait for you.” She looked down at her lap not wanting to see my reaction but I was completely okay with not getting into a relationship with her now, but that didn’t mean I wanted her to wait for me when I was confident I didn’t like her like that.
“Well isn’t this nice.” I jumped and my head spun to look at the doorway. I hadn’t even noticed that the door opened, clearly Liz hadn’t either. Great hunters we were at that moment. Alexandria was leaning against the doorway. “I probably should have knocked. I think I’m intruding on a very private moment,” her voice was dripping with sarcasm.
“What are you doing here?” I asked her. “I thought you were leaving, never talking to me again, basically doing a vanishing act, like you never existed.” Not my best moment but the feelings that bubbled up at the sight of her had taken over.
“Yeah, well plans change,” she answered. I blinked in confusion. That was not what I was expecting her to say. There was something wrong with her if she hadn’t given me some well thought out, annoying response, and the kind that was specially designed to get under someone’s skin.
I took a better look at her and noted that she looked a bit dishevelled, not the perfect appearance I was used to her having. Her hair wasn’t perfect, her skin was shades paler than normal and her posture was slumped. There were dark circles under her red-rimmed eyes and a slight tremor to her hands. If I didn’t know better I would say she was sick, but vampires didn’t get sick.
“Well, change your plans and go away,” Liz sneered. “You made your choice, you left Damien, and you can’t come back, apologize and expect everything to revert to how it was before.” I didn’t say anything to contradict Liz but I still like Alexandria. I couldn’t get over her this quickly.
“Oh give it a break. You always come across as so desperate, that’s why no one likes you,” Alexandria muttered. “For your information, I’m not here to talk to Damien and beg him to take me back,” she rolled her eyes, as if disgusted with that image.
“Then why are you here?” I snapped. She never explained anything fully.
“I heard the good news,” she replied faking confusion. “It’s so wonderful that Erik is awake. However did that happen?” I suddenly caught on to what she was getting at. Liz still did not comprehend.
“Why does it matter? You never liked him anyways. You’re just using this as an excuse to see Damien again.”
“Yeah, no,” she said drawing out the a in yeah. “You really don’t have the background information needed to understand this conversation. So why don’t you shut your mouth. Cause you’re not contributing anything to this, okay?”
Liz looked to me. “You’re just going to let her talk to me like that.”
“I can’t explain this to you right now.” Liz frowned but nodded.
“Oh and FYI, Damien doesn’t have feelings for you. He’s most like scared of how desperate you come off as.” Liz looked hurt and shut her mouth, her eyes periodically flickering between Alexandria and I.
“Where is it?” Alexandria demanded. I shrugged, pretending I didn’t know the whereabouts of her ring. “Don’t lie to me,” she said threateningly. Her eyes narrowed. “Erik has it doesn’t he?”
She spun around quickly but her sense of balance was off and she held onto the wall to avoid falling down. I was on my feet in moments and at her side, staring intently into her eyes.
“What’s wrong with you?” I asked worriedly. She sighed and stopped using the wall to stand. I watched her carefully as she swayed a little, unsure if she would fall over.
“Nothing you can know about,” she said cryptically before her lips twisted into a smirk. “Is my keeping secrets still bugging you? Are you going to go behind my back to find out what happening to me?”
She laughed and I looked at her as if she was crazy. Her eyes were dark with hunger so I knew she didn’t need to feed but I couldn’t think of anything else that would affect her like this? Was it magic perhaps?
Before I could react Alexandria was walking away. I exchanged an exasperated look with Liz and together we followed Alexandria who had burst into Erik’s room.
Erik’s father stood up, glaring at Alexandria and Erik looked disoriented at Alexandria’s sudden entrance, he looked as if he was half asleep but I could tell that he was still fighting sleep.
“What’s going on here?” Max White demanded.
“I need my ring back. I gave it to Damien, solely for the purpose of protecting him but he didn’t listen. He just had to experiment with it.” she shot an icy look in my direction.
I crossed my arms. I didn’t see how saving Erik with her ring was a bad thing. A thought crossed my mind. It was her ring, she had probably known it could somehow save Erik and had said nothing.
Erik’s father looked confused but then he looked down at Erik’s hand, which still had the ring. He lunged for it before Alexandria could do anything.
“This saved my son’s life? I saw it glow, it evidently has some kind of power.” he inquired waving it about. He ran his fingers over the engravings. “I’ve never seen something like this. What language is this?”
“None of your business,” Alexandria snapped. “Just give it back, I need it back.” I could hear a note of desperation in her voice. Why did she care so much about the ring? “You have no use for it. You don’t even know what it is or does. And you’ll never find out anything about it, so just give it to me.”
“Do what she asks,” I sighed. I didn’t understand what she wanted it for but I saw how much she wanted it back. It seemed cruel to keep it away from her. Alexandria glanced at me sadly then returned her attention to the ring.
Erik’s father sighed and held it out but Alexandria froze.
“You think you can give me a duplicate created with magic?” she asked her voice rising in volume. “Where is my ring?” Erik’s father was shocked she knew the difference but pulled out and handed her the real ring. He dropped it into her hand and she winced as it came in contact with her skin. She put it into a pocket and I caught sight of a burn, the exact shape and size of the ring.
“What?” I started to ask but in the blink of an eye she was gone. No answers, once again. Typical Alexandria behavior. Everyone stared at the spot she had occupied, trying to make sense of what just happened.
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Alexandria came back. but was a little under the weather, strange. I'm not sure if whatever is going on with Alexandria is interesting you guys but i assure you, its a big part of this story.
I'm like 2/3rds of the way done this book. Can't believe it! i've come so far with this story, but still got lots more to go :) hope you enjoyed reading this chapter.