SERAPHS: THE AWAKENING

CHAPTER SIX

Nora got home and went straight to the fridge. She poured water into a glass cup and drank it all at once. She looked around the empty house, Marisa was not home. Probably still working on her article at The Frontier. She refilled the glass cup and went upstairs with it, dragging her backpack in her other hand. Nora jerked backwards, against the door with a gasp as soon as she entered her room, spilling the water in her cup.

"W—ha...what are you doing here?!"

Keelan looked away from the street to Nora. She dropped her backpack on the floor and cup on her nightstand. She wanted to see Keelan again, but she never guessed her wish would come through this fast. Keelan sat by her window nook, his natural tanned skin, shimmering under the sun's reflection.

"How...how did you get in here?" Nora managed to say, afraid he would hear her thoughts.

Keelan stood up from the window nook and closed in on her, too close that she involuntarily took a step back. Keelan held her and pulled her closer. He leaned down to match Nora's height until she could inhale his sweet masculine smell. "Your neck has healed up," he said. His voice melted in Nora's ears like snow under cool sunlight and his forest green eyes sank into Nora's. "Saw a bruise on it when I brought you home last night." He let go of her and locked his hands behind him as he perambulated the room like a government inspector. This gave Nora a chance to size him up. His visibly defined muscles bulged underneath the black V-neck he wore and he was much taller than Nora had thought.

"You brought me home?" her eyes followed Keelan as he strolled around the room.

"Uhm hum," he nodded. He stopped at Nora's music collection, stacked on a shelf. "You love music?" he asked Nora and resumed his inspection.

Nora was still processing how Keelan brought her home last night that she didn't get his last question. "What?" Keelan didn't repeat his question, so Nora charged forward with her questions. "How did you know where to bring me?"

"Max checked your purse and found your identification card," he responded, his eyes skimming over Nora's bookshelf. "I assume you don't like this too," he showed a book he had picked to Nora.

Her eyes fell on the book, "Great Gatsby? Who told you I don't like it?"

"You don't like Romeo and Juliet—"

"How did you know I don't like Romeo and Juliet?"

"Your argument in class?"

"My argument in class? Wait, did you—were you the person stalking me in school earlier today?!"

"I wasn't stalking you," he protested in a well-modulated voice. "I had to see how you were doing. I couldn't exactly stick around last night. I needed to go back to hunt the Telane demons plaguing your town."

Telane demons were night demons with acid-base saliva. Seraphs could see them for what they were but human's mind could not process the sight of them. What they would see instead was what they feared most, their worst nightmare. Telane demons often leave Hell for Earth to hunt, feed and procreate. Earth was their vacation spot. Humans go to Hawaii, Telane demons go to Earth. When Seraphs got a whiff of their migration, they portalled to Earth to crash their vacation.

Nora folded her arms across her chest. "And your only other option was to stalk me?"

"Please stop using the word 'stalk'," he murmured.

"You couldn't walk up to me and ask, like a normal person."

Keelan looked at Nora and chuckled. "You didn't answer my question."

"What question?"

"That you do not like Great Gatsby—"

"It wasn't a question. You made a statement, an assumption."