Mated

Sixteen

Author's Note: Let's see...does James have a soft side? Enjoy...

I bolted upright, gasping, filling my body with sharp air as if it had been cut from its supply. My lungs burned as if I held my breath, and for far too long.

After my disorientation, I realized James was at my side on the edge of the bed. We were alone in my bedroom. He placed a comforting hand on my shoulder and another unexpectedly fell over my forehead feeling for my temperature without a word.

"I'm going to be sick." I leaned on my side and with one swift movement, he grabbed the small trash can just as everything came up. He held my hair back until I was finished.

"You were in there for a while," he said, referring to the memory.

"How long?"

"It's almost two. In the morning." I was inside those memories for nearly sixteen hours? "Evangeline checked on you a few times but there really wasn't anything she could have done. She says your feelings are cloudy when you're in the visions, like they're still guarded," He handed me a glass of water and I took slow sips.

"What have you seen?" He asked.

I took an extra long swig before facing him. "Diana. Just like before."

He brought a hand up to rub his forehead and gave a small sigh, like he wasn't happy to hear me confirm it. He wasn't the only one.

"Why is this happening to me? Why am I her spitting image? I need answers, James." I searched his face for a sign, something that would give me some sort of answer.

"What I know is," he took the glass from me and held it. "Diana is your ancestor. If you look alike like you say you do, recessive genes must have been passed down to you."

"With her sharing her memories with me, do you think she's trying to send me a message?"

"Yes. I think so."

I breathed, scratched the bridge of my nose, feeling like I could still smell the hearth in Sephiran's cottage. "She was speaking with someone, his name was Sephiran. They were fighting over some law and—the town was upset because a group of boys were killed. Everyone thinks–thought it was his fault."

"Sephiran?"

"He was the Chancellor's brother and...Diana's lover from what I could tell. He sent the boys to kill the Jilo Chancellor."

"Hmm. I've read about some of the Chancellors... and this brother. You're right, this Sephiran was bad news." I frowned, remembering James's mention of the Jilo before.

"Why are Hunters referred to as the Jilo people?"

"Jilo is a race of people who know about our species. Everyone from Jehiva knew about us. Most became werewolf Hunters. But back then, in Diana's time, they existed among our ancestors mostly in peace. They were sworn to secrecy by an ancient treaty banning them from telling other humans about us." A not too far away memory flashed through my mind of when he'd told me that Evangeline was Jilo. "Did anything else happen?"

"The last thing I remember is that Diana was going to try and stop what Sephiran started."

I turned my hands over and stared at them. I thought about both times I was trapped in Diana's body and how I had no control over anything. I want it to stop.

"We will find a way to put an end to the memories," he murmured, reading my mind. He set the glass on the floor. I went into the bathroom to wash and change for bed. When I stepped back in the room where he waited, he stood to leave.