Seeker (Completed)

Meet the Panel

Chapter 20

I stare at Tristan. Well, how do I put this, the situation is very awkward. Here I was smart-mouthing the guy who's held up in the highest esteem. There I was thinking, who does he think he is strutting around like he owned the place, and then it turns out that he actually does. Then again...I am the seeker; he needs me. I do an evil Mwahaha in my head as I realize I can act as I like and he can't do jack sh*t about it.

"You should bow!" Emma's voice goes icy.

"Your Majesty." I say and guess what's back again? Yup, my sarcasm. I do a mellow-dramatic curtsy. "How dare you!" She shouts at me and raises her hand. Tristan grabs it before she can deliver a well-earned strike. "Now, Emma. This is our Seeker." She goes purple in the face and storms off. Just as I thought, he doesn't want to piss me off because he needs me on his side.

"Follow me," he leads the way. Who does he think I am, his dog? He turns around and raises his eyebrows at me. "I did not mean to cause you any disrespect." Wait! I did not say that out load did I? No, I don't think I did. How did he hear it? My mind goes rambling on and on. He chuckles at me, almost as though he can hear my internal debate. What if he can read minds? God, that would be embarrassing. What if he saw about private stuff like Zack and I? Automatically my mind pops up with a mental picture of what we were up to earlier on...you know, on the hospital bed. Tristan cocks his head to one side, awkwardly rubs his jaw and glances away from my eyes. "F*ck!" I swear under my breath. This is humiliating. He clears his throat. "Don't worry. I've seen worse."

Layla, open your mind to me? ' I don't know how!' I think back at him. Come on Layls. I sigh in frustration; he can't even hear me. "Who can't hear you?" Tristan asks as he leads me down an endless valley of hallways. "You're pretty nosey. Why don't you mind your own business?" I snarl at him. He chuckles.

"You are my business." I feel my wrist heat up so I glance down. My green vine snaking around it feels like it's on fire. Layls, I'm sorry this is going to hurt. There's a sudden sharp pain scraping my skull. My vision goes black and I fall to the floor. Daggers keep stabbing, my head is throbbing and then it just...stops.

I open my eyes to see a concerned Tristan staring at me. His features instantly evolve into a scowl. What's his issue? He keeps glaring at me. "I'm fine, thank you for asking." I shoot at him sarcastically. He shoves me against the wall and places his hands on my temple. I struggle but it really is no use. He frowns. "Who put a block up?" He scrutinizes me. Ya, I wonder and I can't help but smile. 'You rock!' I think at him. Now are you ready to admit I'm the cool one in this relationship? 'Keep on dreaming' I mentally roll my eyes.

I clear my throat; Tristan blinks a few times and gives me a surprised look as though he forgot I was there. "Yes, my apologies." He says and gently lets go of me. He immediately goes to my wrist and pushes up the bracelets to find my vine engraving. "Fairy, lucky." I wrench my arm out of his grip and mumble rude words under my breath. "Yes, very lucky," he continues. "To have a fairy that can put up mind blocks and even luckier that you're the seeker so I won't go through the torturous process of trying to break them." He comes closer and breaths in my face. God, give me the strength of patience. All I want to do is shove this guy and kick some ass. Don't push your limits. Tristan has snapping points and when he snaps...well apparently it's not pretty.

"Now are you going to be honest with me or am I going to have to painfully strip those mind blocks of yours?" I raise my hands in mock defeat.

"I would go with stripping but I'm not sure you could handle all this." I playfully gesture along my body. Just to let you know I'm mentally gagging. Tristan looks confused...then his eyes widen in realization. Poor naïve soul. I laugh at him. He clears his throat and continues down the hallway, opens a door and gestures for me to follow.

Inside there is a huge table surrounded with people...but not all are people. I notice people with bright green eyes and leafy clothing, people with fangs in their smiles, golden-yellow flashing eyes and deep blue ones with a fragrance of sea-salt. My eyes glide to a young girl with eyes of emerald and raven-black hair tumbling down her back. Isabella? I take in a sharp breath.

They all stand up. I'm not even sure what is happening when my legs move on their own accord, running to Isabella and I wrap my arms around her. She stiffens and the whole assembly goes into a deadly silence. "Izzy, I missed you." I whisper. I blink a few times, coming into realization of what I had just done. WTF? Sorry, Layls. I got a bit carried away. Great, Nick has the power to control my body. Just great. Isabella's eyes soften. "Nicki?"

"That guy just knows how to get into girls' heads." I joke at her and she chuckles. "So Nicki and you are partners. What an intriguing match."

Tristan clears his throat bringing us both back to reality. "Back to business. Layla Winters welcome to The Guardian's Panel."