Archaic (18 page)

He was going to open the door and see me like this.

"I'm coming in," he told me as I heard the door handle turn.

There was no hiding now.

"What the hell!" he said when he filled the doorway. In seconds he was beside the bath, taking my cut wrist into his hand. I gasped in pain as his hand wrapped around the cut to block off the blood flow. His eyes scanned my body for any more injuries. There was so much blood, and I closed my eyes for a moment.

"What have you done?" he rasped as he inspected my cut before he wrapped his hand on it again. Warmth from his hand radiated through the open wound on my wrist. He was healing me.

His eyes searched mine as his energy healed my wrist. I closed my eyes. Tired and weak, I welcomed the darkness when it came.

When I pulled myself from the darkness, I blinked a couple of times when I opened my eyes, trying to figure out where I was. The morning sunlight shone in through the window and I recognized the room as Jared's straight away. How had I gotten here? I tried to sit up but I was too weak. My wrist throbbed. I lifted my arm and saw that my wrist was bandaged.

The final few minutes of what had happened flooded back. The blood, Jared's horrified expression. There was no way to explain myself out of this.

Closing my eyes I let out a heavy breath. This hadn't been part of my plan. I opened my eyes again and looked down to see I was wrapped in a sheet with a blanket over it. Tentatively I lifted the blanket and sheet and saw I was still dressed in my underwear. The sheet I was wrapped in was red with my blood. It brought the memory of what I'd done back. I knew I had lost so much blood, but seeing the sheet covered nearly entirely in the red of my blood hit me hard. I dropped my head back onto the pillow.

It was then that I noticed I wasn't alone.

My eyes found Jared sitting in a chair in the corner of the room a few feet away from the side of the bed I was lying in. Silently, he watched me. He was still wearing the same clothes that he'd worn when he'd found me and he was still covered in dried blood. There was even a smear of blood on his face.

He didn't say anything as my eyes met his. I didn't say anything either. I swallowed my nervousness as he remained still. His face was expressionless. Had he discovered my secret, or was he still mystified as to why he'd found me the way he had?

I dragged my eyes away from him, unable to leave myself open to his piercing gaze.

"Why?" he asked.

I couldn't answer. I needed to know how much he knew before I could answer that question, so I remained quiet. I heard him stand up and walk over to me.

"Why did you do it, Ava?" he asked softy. I still didn't know how much he knew, so I kept my gaze fixed on the curtains of his room just behind him, unable to look directly at him.

His hand reached for the blanket that covered me and he ripped it off me. My eyes shot to his eyes, which were dark with rage. He reached for my arm and dragged me out of the bed. I clutched at the sheet I was still wrapped in as I stumbled out of the bed. He dragged me over to the full-length mirror in the corner of his room nearby the window and held me in front of it. He stood behind me as our eyes connected through the mirror.

"Why did you do it, Ava?" he asked fiercely as he held my arms. He released my one arm to grab the sheet and pull it away from my body. Exposed and vulnerable, I stood looking at my reflection in the mirror.

My underwear was still covered in my blood. Dried red blood covered nearly my entire body. I tried to avert my gaze because I didn't want to see it but, with his fingers to my chin, he forced me to face my reflection in the mirror.

"Why?" he yelled at me. Tears stung my eyes before I dropped my head into my hands. His one hand was still loosely wrapped around my arm.

"Tell me why?" he repeated, his voice softer, almost pleading.

I pulled away from him and I stumbled forward slightly. I turned to face him, and saw his eyes fixed on me, waiting for an answer to his question. Didn't he know what I was? Hadn't he realized that I was a monster? Tears started to slide down my cheeks.

"I don't understand why you would do that," he said, as he reached to hold me by the arms while his eyes searched mine for answers.

I couldn't tell him. He would hate me. I swallowed the overwhelming emotion building up inside of me.

"Tell me," he shouted and I felt the full wave of his anger hit me. His eyes seemed brighter as they bore into me. He shook me slightly in frustration. Anger welled up inside of me and I ripped my arms from his hands.

"Because I'm a monster!" I yelled back. My breathing was hard as I took in his shocked expression.

Energy began to swirl around me and I could feel the anger about to overflow inside of me as my hair whipped across my face.

Realization finally dawned in his features. He understood.

His bedroom door flew open as Tyler and Danny entered the room. Jared moved quickly to put his body protectively between me and them.

"Don't touch her," he yelled at them, holding his open hands out toward them. They stood there with a look of disbelief on their faces as they took in the scene before them.

I was struggling to control the power now radiating from within me. Jared turned back to me. Tyler and Danny remained near the door, ready to spring into action if needed. Jared turned to face me and took a tentative step toward me.

"Don't," I whispered, shaking my head. I didn't want to hurt him and I had no control of the energy swirling around me. His eyes held mine as he took another step closer and held his hands out to show me that he wasn't going to hurt me.

"Don't come any closer, I don't want to hurt you and I can't stop," I pleaded with him. He stopped and dropped his hands to his sides.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. My emotions felt out of control and I expelled a sharp breath, trying to ease the conflicting emotions tearing me apart. With another breath my anger began to ease and with it the buildup of energy. The energy around me began to weaken. It began to die down and quiet descended in the room. I opened my eyes. Jared walked toward me, holding a blanket. He wrapped it around me. Behind him, Danny and Tyler stood with shocked expressions, still trying to process what they'd just seen.

I clutched the blanket around me protectively as Jared walked over to them and whispered something to them. They left and Jared closed the door before he turned to me.

Was he going to kill me now, now that he knew what I was, or at least what I was turning into? I stood there, not knowing what was about to happen. He walked toward me as I watched him nervously. He stopped in front of me and reached out to me. I flinched and he frowned as he retracted his hand.

"I won't hurt you," he soothed, and then reached for me again. I was a monster. How could he not want to kill me? I didn't understand.

He gently pulled me into his arms and held me. I laid my head against his chest as his chin rested on the top of my head. The tension in my shoulders eased as I began to relax. I heard the door open again.

"Take her to the spare room and I'll clean this up," I heard Catherine say to him. She didn't ask any questions. Tyler and Danny must have told her. I couldn't face her yet, so I kept my face hidden against Jared's chest. He picked me up and carried me to the spare room, but instead of putting me down in the bedroom he carried me into the adjoining bathroom.

He set me down on the counter.

"We need to clean up." He turned the shower on and adjusted the stream to the right temperature.

He turned to face me.

"You promise not to do anything if I leave you alone in here?" he asked as he helped me stand. The blanket that had covered me fell to the floor. I should have felt embarrassed at only being dressed in my underwear, but it was pointless to care because he'd seen it all before.

It took a moment for me to understand what he was saying.

"I won't do anything," I said in a whisper.

"Promise me," he insisted as his green eyes pierced mine.

"I promise." He believed me, because he handed me a towel and then left me alone in the bathroom to shower.

I stripped my underwear off and threw it into the sink as I climbed into the shower. Under the steady stream of water, I washed every inch of my body, trying to get rid of the memories as the blood washed away. I took off the bandage around my wrist. There was nothing. The cut was totally healed--there wasn't even a scar. I washed my hair as well. I felt so much better when I stepped out of the shower with the towel wrapped around my body.

I walked into the guest bedroom. It was a nice room decorated in a pastel green, which was a soothing color. On the bed I spotted a change of clothes for me. They were my own clothes. Next to my neatly folded clothes was my toothbrush and hairbrush. Someone must have gone back to my house and gotten all of this for me.

It was nice to be able to change into my own clothes. When I saw the bra and panties, I really hoped it was one of the girls who had fetched the clothes for me. Once I finished changing I sat on the bed. Feeling tired, I climbed onto the bed and lay down. I closed my eyes. Not long after I heard the door open, but I was too tired to look. Besides, I was pretty sure it would be Jared.

The bed dipped and I felt him lie down next to me. I opened my eyes to see Jared's familiar eyes watching me. His finger touched my cheek gently. His blood free face and the fresh smell of soap told me he'd showered as well. His touch was soft and comforting. The truth was out. I didn't have to hide it anymore. The weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders.

I thought about Anne.

"Anne--"

"I got Neve to answer any message Anne sent. She has no idea what happened."

I sighed with relief. After everything I'd been through, I was exhausted and I didn't think I could keep my eyes open any longer.

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

"Shh," he soothed, "get some sleep. The loss of blood and healing has taken a lot out of you. We'll talk after we get some rest. No one will harm you."

I felt safe. I hadn't felt safe for a while. I drifted off to sleep.

It was early evening when I opened my eyes to find Jared watching me as he lay beside me. Unsure of what to say, I stared back at him silently.

"How did you figure out that you were changing?" he asked quietly after a few moments of silence.

"I overhead you and some of the others talking after my attack. Catherine asked if Mason had attacked me because they were trying to change humans. I felt so different afterward. It was hard to figure out if it was because I was changing into something else or just suffering from residual shock."

"What made you realize that you were changing?" he asked softly when I paused.

"I cut my finger and it healed." That had been the first sign. "Then I shocked myself trying to open a door and my eyes did that strange film thing that yours do when you guys exert power."

He never said a word. He just continued to lie across from me and listen intently to me.

"The afternoon I disappeared, I discovered I could shoot energy out of my hand."

"That was the residual Hue energy Danny discovered in the clearing?" he asked, sounding very surprised.

"Yes. That's when I realized what exactly I was changing into."

My mind went back to the day he'd kissed me for the first time. Telling him I hadn't felt the same way for him as he did for me had been my way to protect myself against him discovering my secret. Now that my secret was out, I didn't know where we went from here. He'd been getting pretty close to Felicity, so there was a chance that there was no going back and I'd lost him.

"Is that why you told me you weren't interested? Because you thought you were becoming a Hue?" he whispered. His eyes held mine. It was as if he'd been able to read my thoughts.

"Yes," I whispered back.

"So you and Andrew..." he started, still staring at me intently. I couldn't tell what he was thinking.

"There is nothing going on between us. He was just a friend doing another friend a favor," I admitted.

His expression was unreadable. His hand reached out and brushed my cheek softly. I held my breath at his tender touch, trying to stay calm on the outside while my heart sped up.