In Between

Chapter Twenty-five: Those Voices

Apryl was woken up the next morning by the mind-bomb. If she had to describe it, she would have said that it felt like a release or maybe an expansion. All of the tension that had been weighing her thoughts down suddenly stretched until it became transparent. She sat up feeling light and refreshed. Mel was lying on the other side of the bed, sound asleep, which meant that she and Bri had returned some time during the night with Soren and Cain.

Apryl got up, stretched her limbs, and silently left the room so as not to wake her friend. She walked into the kitchen and found Kieran at the table who stood up instantly and said, "You look happy this morning," which made her realize that she was smiling.

"I guess I just slept well," she told him, beaming for no particular reason.

To her shock, he stepped right up to her and kissed her quickly on the lips before turning to get her some breakfast. She blinked three times in rapid succession and quickly began searching through her mind for an explanation. Oh, that's right—we kissed last night, she remembered. Apryl replayed the scene in her head. It hadn't been what she'd expected at all...In fact, she recalled wanting to stop it from happening.

"Your sister brought Soren and Cain back last night," Kieran told her. "She found them wandering around the Town Square. Apparently, the doctor who'd looked after Soren was working for the council. He had orders to detain us if we showed up at the hospital so we could be questioned about you."

"That's...that's terrible! Are they alright?" Apryl said, distracted and horrified by this news.

"They're fine. The drug he injected them with only knocked them out, and since neither of them had information about where you were, the doctor just let them go. They were completely muddled when Bri and Mel found them, and it's fortunate that they did; if the girls had gone straight to the hospital, they probably would've been drugged as well," Kieran explained. "Draven's with them right now. They're downstairs resting."

Apryl's entire body jerked at the mention of Draven's name, and she nearly dropped the glass of water she had poured. It was lucky that Kieran wasn't facing her, or he would have seen her face flushing. I remember now. I went into Draven's room last night and...Apryl set the glass down, because she couldn't trust her trembling hands.

What had happened to her? She'd been so confused—so disoriented—that she'd done things and said things that she never would have had the guts to. Draven told me that he hated seeing Kieran kissing me, Apryl thought with wonder. She pictured him clearly as he had further admitted to wanting to kiss her. I wanted him to...so badly that I nearly did it myself. 

Apryl distinctly remembered the pleasurable sensation of electricity passing between the two of them. She knew that her face was blazing crimson as she thought about it, and her heart had never beaten louder. Her reaction to the memory was so unexpected—so completely bitter-sweet in its intensity—that she found herself standing in the middle of the room, unable to form a coherent thought.

Kieran placed a bowl of cereal on the table and gestured for her to sit and eat. Apryl hid her face behind her hair, slid mechanically into a chair, and picked up a spoon. So many thoughts began to pass through her mind that it took a few moments for her to notice the whispering. "Did you say something?" she asked Kieran, not wanting to be rude.

"No. Did you hear something?"

"I thought I heard voices whispering," she explained, pausing to listen.

"Maybe it was the guys downstairs. Do you want to go see them? Soren's pretty messed up about everything. I'm sure he could use some comfort," Kieran suggested. He was studying her odd mannerisms with obvious concern on his face. She felt the sudden urge to snap at him to stop scrutinizing her, but stifled it by reminding herself that he only had her best interests at heart. And he has a right to be concerned after how crazy I was acting yesterday, Apryl thought. Had it really all been because of the headache? She couldn't imagine how such a thing could possibly affect her that way.