Aleks chewed the side of his lower lip. “You shouldn’t be around him anyway. First, I don’t like it, and second, you could hurt him.”

All I heard was the word him. I could hurt him.

I frowned. “I can’t hurt you?”

He laughed. “No. I am doomed to walk the earth alone. Nothing can hurt me. Do you honestly think that I’ve never attempted dying?”

I hadn’t ever thought about it. I assumed he enjoyed his life of eternity, doing whatever he wanted and exploring. Well, beyond helping the odd family.

Aleks looked at me and rolled his eyes. “It’s not like in the movies, Aimee. I don’t have a mansion somewhere with all kinds of international money and friends in all the right places. I am alone almost all of the time, except for the odd demon or other mythical being. Anyway, did you hurt Shane?”

I nodded, flinching at the ever-increasing disappointment in his eyes. “It was an accident. I grabbed him to try to make him listen, and my hands pulled from him like they were sucking on him. I looked at him and he was still, like a zombie, and I was filling up. I let go and he left. He seemed dizzy and weird afterward.”

He smirked at me. “You got lucky. Your abilities haven’t set in yet. Until you learn to control that, you might want to refrain from touching anyone.” He looked at me through his lashes. “Except me, of course.”

I smiled at him, knowing I probably wouldn't be able to touch him, not while Shane was alive. That gave us anywhere from sixty to eighty years to work out what we were to each other. It made me smile disgustedly. It was the life sentence I deserved.

We walked back up the beach to where I had built my fire initially, and I watched as he made the new fire. He was much faster at it than I was, and within a very short amount of time, we were sitting by a very warm fire. I felt the damp and the cold, but I didn’t hurt or ache the way I would have before kissing Dorian.

I needed to see my family before Blake decided to continue his witch-hunt and tell my sister. I didn’t want Blake filling their heads with all sorts of truth without me explaining. I hadn’t chosen the path I was on because I had a death wish. I looked at Aleks and recalled how it had only been a few weeks since I was ready to die to be with him.

If I could have one wish, I would end everything between us, just to have all of them back again. The fact that I wasn’t graduating was bothering me beyond belief. I knew I could get my diploma instantly with only a few phone calls. All of my finals had been in January, and generally the last classes were labs and advanced placements. I could have done them all over again in university.

I missed my guild on World of Warcraft, and I missed just chilling, eating a bowl of cereal with my dad, watching the Discovery Channel. From the inside and safety of my home, I had wished for excitement and adventure before my mom had died.

I sat in the middle of a real life adventure and instead of having fun, I was very ready to turn in my hiking boots for flip-flops and boredom. I wanted regular. I wanted Giselle’s million text messages about hot doctors. I wanted to hear where she was going to get a tattoo. She had millions of things to say about tattoos. First, it would have to be nice enough to hide her scars. Second, she would want to still have it when she was old, like thirty-five and shit. And third, it would have to enhance her sexiness, not make her look trashy. Exotic, not stripper. I smiled, recalling the conversation.

I couldn’t make myself get past the fact that my happiness had been the price of Aleks. I knew it wasn’t entirely his fault, but I saw him as the catalyst that had brought me to that moment.

“You’re not in love with me, are you?” he asked, looking me in the eye, demanding an answer.

I was amazed at how easily he had read my face. I forgot that he had spent months memorizing everything I did.

I shook my head. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.”

He nodded and stood up. He walked to where I sat. He did look sexy in the firelight; I had to give him that.

He stood in front of me. “I will wait as long as you need to figure things out. I’ve waited over six hundred years for you. Every day I died being forced to live without love. You’ve taught me to love again and given me a renewed sense of hope.”

In the darkness, his blue eyes stood out even more. They sparkled. He knelt in front of me in the sand. He brushed my hair from my face on either side. His warm hands sent chills up my spine. I watched his eyes for a moment. They changed and became cold and hard. They burned with a hatred, frightening me. His face twitched as he spoke to the side of my head, “What are you doing here?”

I realized he was speaking behind my head. I was off my driftwood, being pulled roughly to the far side of the fire, and placed behind him before I could register what was going on. I couldn’t see anything, only feel his tense body holding me still.

“Son, I just wanted to see you. I’ve missed you all these years. I know you've missed me,” a man spoke. He laughed.

I looked through the rigid arms holding me in place to see a naked man. He was in his forties, if I had to guess. He was as large as Aleks was, and he looked like Aleks. His eyes were the same white blue. I knew him instantly to be Aleks' father."

“You’ve missed me by running from me every time. I have spent six centuries cleaning up your messes.” Aleks' voice was a deep growl. I had no idea what he was capable of until that moment. He had always seemed like a friendly gentle giant with me, but he was not the same man confronting his father. At that moment he scared me, even though he was protecting me.

The naked man stood tall, proud of his physique. I managed to avoid letting my eyes fall below his face, but it was a struggle.

He held his arms out as if in peace. “Son, I just thought that maybe you would want to bury the hatchet. Besides, I haven’t met your young lady yet. You’re being rude, Aleksander.”

His dad maintained his Norwegian accent, more than likely because he spent most of his time alone.

I felt Aleks's grip tighten on me, his muscles flexed in his back and arms. “She is none of your concern. This is between you and me.” His dad looked as if he were starting to get upset. His body shook in a way I’d only ever seen in a person having a seizure.

His eyes were fixed on me as he licked his lips. His stare was beyond menacing. Instantly, we were moving. I closed my eyes and we stopped.

I was standing outside Shane’s house. Aleks faced me, looking down at me. “I need to do this. I’m so sorry, but I’ve waited for over six hundred years to be able to stop him.”

“Kill him for me too.”

He bent and pressed his lips to mine firmly. There was no messing around with flirty kissing. Just a solid kiss, and then the warm air surrounded me.

He was gone and I was alone again. I turned to look at Shane’s huge house and knew I wasn’t welcome there. I wanted to go home, but I was terrified Blake had been to my dad's already.

My poor dad. I wished I had just been honest with him from the beginning. I walked around the side of Shane’s house and sat on the deck. His windows were closed and he was inside watching TV. I could hear the TV just faintly from the kitchen window that was wide open. I imagined I was in there watching it with him, snuggled into him and warm.

Instead, I sat on the hard deck and waited for Aleks to come back, which was unlikely. I knew his dad would either kill him or run away. I was completely alone again, but this time something was different.

My skin had started to burn and my vision had started to blur. I hugged myself tightly as the stomachache started again, but this time it was intense. I moaned—I couldn’t help myself. I got up, afraid Shane would hear me. I started toward the stalker woods. My legs crumpled along the way, taking me down on the grass. I heard a scream and should have been scared, but I hurt too much to worry about that girl. I crawled along the grass, feeling the sweat pour off of me. I heard the scream again. It was starting to annoy me that the girl wouldn’t shut up.

“Aimee…Aimee… is that you? Aimee, oh my God.” I heard Shane’s voice in the background but I tried to crawl away from him. I needed to keep him safe. I felt the black coming to take me. Shane’s worried face and mouth moving was the last thing I saw. I couldn’t hear anything over the girl screaming.

Chapter Sixteen

When is anything ever enough?

I heard noises. It sounded like someone talking. There were a few of them. I didn’t know where I was, but I was worried Shane was with me. I was so worried I would hurt him. My body felt as if someone had taken a tiny blade and cut every inch of me, and then dripped orange juice on it. I even stung on the bottoms of my feet.

I figured the townsfolk had heard I was a monster and had come with pitchforks to claim me. I could hear them arguing, but I didn’t know what they were saying. I tried to ignore the immense amounts of pain my brain was coping with, and turned off my emotional body. I listened as my sister, Blake, Shane, and someone I didn’t know argued. It was a woman’s voice. I assumed it was Shane’s mom.

“She’s changing, just like she said she would.” Shane’s voice sounded like he was defending me.

“No, she’s sick. We need to get her to a mental institute. The drugs have done something very bad to her; I think she has drug-induced schizophrenia.” Blake spoke coldly. I couldn’t believe he hated me that much to want to commit me.

I heard a growl. “Blake, you try to take her and I will kill you.” Shane was defending me. Bliss and guilt rotated inside of me.

“Boys, seriously. I think we need to think about the fact that it’s Aimee. Boring, lame Aimee. She would never do this on purpose. She hates life or any sort of exciting things and would never worry my dad like this. This is not the norm for her; she is sick. She needs a hospital, not the nutter one either, Blake—I can't believe you said that.” My sister tried to help. I tried not to be offended.

“Shane, I think Alise is right. She needs a doctor. She seems very sick.” The mystery woman spoke, trying to reason.