Steel: The Transformation

Chapter 49

Chapter 49

Cleo POV

I woke up, short of breath and scanned the room to make sure that everything was as it had been before I fell asleep. I took a good few deep breaths before I had convinced myself that the walls were not closing in on me. I pushed myself out of the bed and got dressed, I knew that after waking up from a nightmare there was no point in trying to fall back asleep again.

I wrapped my hands around the warm cup of tea, drinking is slowly in the dim kitchen, small strands of grey light were starting to push their way through the blinds. Everything had suddenly changed again, Rose had found someone who knew my parents. I smiled to myself when thinking of Claire. I listened for a second and could confirm by her deep breaths that she was still asleep upstairs in one of the spare rooms. As my mind turned to Rose I couldn't help but to scrunch up my nose, why had she been so weird earlier? Had I done something to her or had she just been in a bad mood? And what about Alec? I hadn't had a chance to speak to him in private since Rose had been back. As I thought of him, I felt the jolt pass through me and my mind swirled in with his. I could tell that he was awake.

"Want to talk?" The thought bounced through my mind and echoed into his before I could stop myself.

"Meet me out back," he responded and I felt our mind link pass.

I put down my tea and walked towards the back door.

I closed the door behind me, looking towards the woods.

"Hey," Alec said as he turned the corner of my house.

"Hi," I said and walked down the stairs, lengthening my step as I prepared for a quick walk over to the woods.

"I think we're better off staying close to house," his words stopped me in my tracks.

I turned and looked at him, his eyes looked tired. I studied his face, he looked like he hadn't been getting enough sleep. My body gravitated towards his, wanting to be close to him. As I stepped towards him, he took a slight step back and lightly held up his hand. I felt my stomach turn to ice. Why was he so stiff around me?

"What's going on I asked?" suspicion creeping in to my voice.

"Let's just focus on the big fight. There's so many threats right now so let's keep our minds on that," his excuse came out straight. Instinctively I didn't believe him. He hadn't cared about that before. Why did he suddenly care about that now?

"Tell me the real reason," my voice was short and impatient.

He sighed as he resigned that he had not been successful with the excuse that he had made up.

He grabbed my hand gently, almost as if he thought that holding it too tightly would make it break. "Things are more complicated than what you know."

"Okay," I looked at him. I could see that he was conflicted but I couldn't figure out why.

"You know how I feel about you," he started. As he spoke I didn't have a good feeling about where the conversation was going.

"But you are my mentee and I am your mentor. We should focus on that. That's why I was sent here. I was trusted to be your mentor and I don't feel like I'm doing a very good job."

I felt doubt well up in my chest, was it really that simple? Did he feel like he was getting distracted from his responsibilities? Surely there had to be more than that. I knew his mind well by now, I knew that he would hesitate if that was all there was.

"There's something you're not telling me," my words were soft as if I was walking on egg shelves, as if I knew that something would come.

He sighed again, his eyes looked torn but he spoke, "You know I don't want to keep anything from you. But I didn't think it mattered. Nothing's going on between us anymore."