Steel: The Transformation

Chapter 12

                 

Chapter 12

Cleo POV

The white wall in front of us looked daunting. Alec plunked down the paint buckets that he had ordered from the janitor and smiled at me, "I was actually looking forward to this bit."

"Why? Are you a good painter?" I asked wryly.

"Not particularly, but it means that I can poke fun at your lack of painting skills," he smirked at me.

I could see in his eyes that with each wonky brush stroke, he was going to make fun of me.

"Well..." I sighed. "We can always cover the most horrible parts with gun power clouds."

We had finally settled on using the French Revolution as the topic of the mural, reasoning that a big fight scene would help distract from our lack of painting skills.

"Oh, I made these," Alec pulled out some stencils of soldiers in different fight positions.

"You're so smart sometimes."

I was happy that he had thought of this idea as it would help us improve the look of this mural. What a stupid punishment for being late to a lecture. Needless to say neither Alec nor I had ever dared being late to European History again.

"So let's start doing the field and the sky, then we'll stencil the soldiers and finally cover up all mistakes with gun power clouds," he handed me a paint brush.

"Sounds like a plan," I handed him a paint can that I had opened, "I nominate you to start doing the field."

"So much more difficult than the sky," he groaned but took the can from me anyway.

We settled into painting in silence. I watched the light grey colour bloom across the wall, forming what I hoped looked like adequate storm clouds. It was surprising how quickly Alec and I had become friends. In a way we were more than friends, the bonding ceremony meant that he was my Mentor now. Something had changed since Rose left, without her here Alec was my only connection to the Basati and I was grateful to have him by my side. He had already both told and taught me more than Rose had. He had given me all the information about the wolves but left it up to me to choose how to handle the situation. He trusted me. The thought made me smile.

"What are you thinking about?"

"What?"

"You're smiling to yourself and I know it can't be the joy of painting that is making you so happy," he teased.

"Nothing. It wasn't important," I lied.

"You know that I can tell that you're lying," his voice was still teasing but I could swear that there was a serious undertone on it.

"I'm not going to tell you anyway." I flicked my paintbrush at him, a small cluster of paint dots stained his jeans.

"I guess I'll have to figure out another way to know what you're thinking," he smiled back at me.

"Why don't you just read my mind then?"

I didn't know why that question had come out of my mouth, it was as if it had been pulled out of thin air. But something inside me told me that it wasn't a coincidence that I had asked it. I looked at Alec, his eyes were serious telling me that he too knew that there was something more behind the question.

"You should trust your instincts more," he told me.

Then he swiftly looked around, confirming that the hallway was completely empty. He turned back to face me and took a deep breath, his eyes shifted to red amber and I could feel that same jolt that I felt during the bonding ceremony. The emotions swirling through my body was unlike anything I had ever experience before, it was like all the thoughts and feelings that Alec had mixed in with my own.