Immortal Awakening

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Four

I walked down the hallway and stopped at the top of the stairs when I heard her slam the bedroom door, overwhelmed by the odd feeling I always got when walking away from her. It was like the stretching of a rubber band too tightly. The only relief of that feeling was when we were together. I hated that feeling. It made me want to go back and stay right by her side. But she wouldn't have it. Now I knew what I had been putting her through the first few weeks we met. How she felt when I repeatedly pushed her away.

Walking back to the door, I pressed my ear against the cool wood to hear her mumbling about me under her breath. I closed my eyes. I wanted to go back in there, and hug her, and tell her I was sorry for making her upset. Now, I was upset because... because she was upset.

"What are you doing?"

In all my eavesdropping and contemplating knocking on the door, I had completely let my guard down and didn't hear when Nova, Nina's twin sister, came up behind me. I stood straight and scratched the back of my neck, turning around to face the girl that looked like a carbon copy of the one I was so obsessed with. "Nothing."

"Looks like something to me." She strode forward and a few strands of her hair, so much like her sister's, fell into her face a little. On Nina, it was cute. On Nova, it did nothing for me. Her heeled boots made soft sounds on the wooden floor as she came closer.

"I just came from speaking to your sister. That's all," I said as flat as I could, void of any emotion.

"You like her, don't you?"

"I know not what you speak of," I said quickly. Too quickly. She laughed softly.

"Don't play dumb with me, Daniel. I know how you feel."

I stayed silent not daring to speak or move in fear of my voice or actions betraying me. I was supposed to be the one with dwindling humanity. The one who didn't care about anything or anyone, and wasn't afraid of either. But this girl. She made me feel, and care, and I wasn't just afraid of her. She downright petrified me. I lost control of my body when she was around. It took all my willpower to stay on the bed when she walked into the room in only her towel. It also took a lot out of me to pull away when we first kissed. It broke me to see her hurt by those rogue witches, knowing there was nothing I could do. Yet there was nothing that could make me stay away.

"Daniel," Nova started, her voice almost a whisper. "You can't help but be near her, can you?" she asked rhetorically, her voice more serious than I've ever heard it. At least I took it as a rhetorical question, because I wasn't going to respond. "When your lips touch, doesn't it set your skin on fire? Don't you want to be near her all the time for reasons even you can't explain? I know how that feels. I know what it's like."

I sighed, forced a roll of my eyes and walked over to lean against the parallel wall. "I still have no idea what you're talking about," I lied.

"Yes, you do. You know I can compel it out of you, Daniel. You can either admit it now or have me force it out of you." She looked up at me, hair blowing slightly across her forehead from the breeze coming from the open window at the end of the hallway.

I felt a little nervous. I didn't know what Nova was, so I didn't know what she was capable of, and that scared me a little. "Why would my answer matter to you?"

"Because I need to know whether or not I should leave my sister with that hybrid boyfriend of hers," she said simply. "You see, I don't particularly like the boy she's with. He's not her soul mate, and although I have no right to interfere in her love life, I'd rather her not be with someone whose bite could bring her to the brink of death and back. You, on the other hand, are perfectly harmless."