Avenging Amethyst (Immortal Eyes) (11 page)

A blurry person
opened the door. I blinked a few times to try to see who it was but my vision
wouldn't clear. I could hear the deep male voice speaking but it sounded like I
was underwater. Suddenly, I felt dizzy and I could feel my whole body tingling.
The person reached for me and I jumped on him. I could hear the voice in my
head urging me to kill him.

I landed with a
thud on top of the person as we both feel to the ground. I started throwing
punches but before I could do any damage, I heard another voice in my head; one
that I didn't recognize.

Avery,
concentrate. The darkness has you, you have to fight back
, said the foreign voice.

Don't listen
to him
, the
first voice said.
He is the one holding you prisoner. You must kill him.

I continued
attacking but all of the voices in my head were making it throb. I forced
myself off of the person I was struggling with, closed my eyes and held the
sides of my head with both hands. The voices kept arguing with each other,
trying to push me in one direction or another. It was too much for me to handle
and I screamed. Both voices stopped.

I needed to
remember how I got here and what was going on before I could decide which voice
I was going to listen to. The last thing I could remember was waking up in my
bed at my mom's house.

My mom. There
was something about my mom that was important but I couldn't grasp the thought.
Was one of the voices I was hearing my mom? My mom had warned me that something
evil was after me. But when?

Then everything
came rushing back to me. My mom being killed. The demon. The Zhulik. Being a
Lovac. Then I remembered about the darkness. I concentrated on finding it
inside my head and sure enough, I could feel the slime in my brain. I felt
myself get goose bumps and forced myself to concentrate on blocking the
darkness out.

As soon as I
unraveled it and threw up a wall I gasped. Noise and sight came back to me,
crystal clear. I was curled in a ball on the ground and my hands were wrapped
around my still throbbing head. Whoever was in the room with me put a hand on
my shoulder and tried to help me sit up. I looked around and saw Felix crouched
next to me. He had a concerned and almost frightened look in his eyes.

"Are you
okay?" he asked.

"What...
What happened?" I muttered.

"You tell
me. I just opened the door and you were staring at me with foggy eyes. When I
went to touch you, you tackled me to the ground."

I shook my head
and felt tears starting to form in my eyes. "I just remember waking up and
not knowing where I was. A voice in my head told me I had to kill you. That you
were holding me captive here. I couldn't even see who you were. You were
blurring and when you spoke it sounded like I was under water."

"The
darkness had a hold of you. I tried to influence you to take control
back." He was speaking so calmly and running his hand along my back. His
concern was making it harder to hold the tears back and they soon spilled over.

"I
heard," I said and wiped my eyes. "Your voice and the other voice
in my head made me confused. I couldn't figure out which one to choose."

"Well, I'm
glad you chose the right one."

Thinking about
the voices in my head and how unnatural it had felt made me rock back and forth
in my huddled ball. When I spoke my voice sounded hysterical. "I felt like
I was going crazy. I don't want to go crazy."

I looked at
Felix with pleading eyes. I knew there was nothing he could do but I wanted him
to tell me everything would be alright, that I wouldn’t go crazy and he
would help me through it. Instead, he took my face in his hands, wiped some of
the tears off of my cheek and kissed me.

I froze
instantly. I had never been kissed before and Felix was the last person I
imagined I would be kissing. My thoughts only made me hesitate for a moment
though. I realized that I wanted this. If Felix did too, I wouldn’t deny
him.

I unfolded
myself from the fetal and wrapped my arms tightly around Felix’s neck. I
had no idea how to kiss but Felix took control and gently eased my mouth open
with his tongue. In seconds we were kissing passionately and I completely
forgot about the outside world.

Felix’s
arms moved to wrap around my waist and pull me closer to him. We were still
kneeling on the ground but I ignore the pain in my knees and concentrated on
the warmth of his body. He felt good pressed against me and he tasted even
better.

We had only been
kissing for a moment before Felix suddenly broke away, pulling out of our kiss,
standing up and moving a few feet away in one fluid motion. It was so sudden
that I was still staring at the spot he had just been and my arms were still in
the air. I dropped them awkwardly and looked around in confusion.

Felix was
standing on the other side of his bed. His eyes still held desire from the kiss
and his breath was ragged. He was also visibly shaking.

"I
shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry. I don’t know what came
over me. I think you should leave."

I was
speechless. One moment, I was enjoying one of the best feelings I had ever felt
and the next it was ripped away. I thought he wanted it? What made him change
his mind so suddenly?

Before I had the
chance to respond, Riley was standing in the door way.      

"What’s
going on?" she asked hesitantly.

I was still sitting
on the ground and I looked at Felix for an answer. I wasn’t sure what was
going on, myself.

"She had a
run in with darkness," Felix said calmly. "I opened the door and
she started attacking me. I had to influence her to help her get control of
herself again."

Riley’s
eyes widened and she fell down on the ground next to me. "Are you
okay?" she asked quietly. She gently put her arm on my shoulder and
looked at me with deep concern. I was still speechless, so all I could do was
nod.

Felix left his
spot from the other side of the bed and kneeled down next to Riley. He
didn’t comfort me this time.

"Can she
stay with you tonight?" Felix asked Riley. "I’ll take her to
talk to Carson in the morning."

Riley nodded and
started to help me up when I finally found my voice. "Why do I need to
see Carson?"

I wobbled when I
found my feet and Felix’s arms shot out to steady me. An electric heat
shot through my body and by the way Felix tensed, I bet he felt the same. His
voice was still calm when he spoke. "He's kind of like a school counselor.
He studies a lot of psychology and opens his door to anyone in the facility
that wants to talk about any problems they have. He's especially good at
helping Lovac deal with the trauma of when darkness takes control."

There was still
concern in his eyes but there was also something underlying it. It was either
frustration or anger or a combination of both. I let Riley lead me away and did
my best not to feel the pain of rejection from Felix.

Riley’s
room was only a few doors down from Felix’s. All of the decorations
indicated that she had lived in this room for a while, probably since she first
started training. The major contrast from my room was the bunk bed pushed
against the wall.

"Do you
share this room with someone?" I asked, sitting down on the lower bunk.

Riley’s
eyes had the familiar sadness in them. "Used to," she muttered.
"I’m one of the few Lovac who were born as a twin. She was killed
by a werewolf a few weeks after we graduated training."

"I’m
so sorry," I immediately said. Having lost my only family member, I knew
what she was going through. I always heard twins had a special bond though, and
I wondered if that made the pain worse.

Riley shrugged
and took a seat at the desk along the opposite wall. "The worst part about
all of it was I tried to warn her. I had a vision of it but she wouldn’t
listen to me. She was too eager to start fighting. You’re eagerness
reminds me of her."

Guilt engulfed
me and I stared at my hands in my lap.

"What
really happened back there?" Riley asked, nodding her head in the
direction of Felix’s room.

"What do
you mean?" Had she seen a vision of the kiss and just wanted me to admit
to her or was she just that intuitive?

"Felix
didn’t tell me the whole story. I know him too well to know that he was
keeping something from me."

I opened my
mouth to pretend I didn’t have any idea about what she was talking about
but changed my mind. So what is Felix had kissed me? It’s not like it was
a crime. My anger at his sudden change in desire also had something to do with
my decision to tell Riley.

"He kissed
me. And not just an innocent kiss."

Riley
didn’t look surprised. She just nodded her head in resignation. "I
could tell Felix was attracted to you the moment I met you. Since most Lovac
grow up together, we think of each other more as a brother or sister than
someone we could be attracted to. But we still have hormones, so whenever we
meet a Lovac we didn’t grow up with, it gets messy. Once a year, Lovac
and Nesmyr from the other two regions in the Amazon and Ukraine, meet with us.
We usually mess around with the Lovac that come. You’re kind of like one
of those visiting Lovac. I’m sure a lot of other male Lovac are admiring
you from a distance. Felix just can’t seem to control himself."

I sighed. Even
though it was nice that I was being admired, it felt forced. Like the only
reason I was attractive to any of these people was because I was something new
and different that they didn’t consider family.

"So the
only reason Felix is attracted to me is because I’m the only one around
that he can be attracted to?" My voice gave away my disappointment and
Riley instantly caught on.

"Don’t
let it get to you too much. You and I and even Felix all know that a
relationship between you two won’t end well. Besides, I told you that you
would find your true Dimidium. I won’t hold it against you if you want to
have some fun with Felix, but keep in mind that if you get too close, both of
you will end up hurt when your Dimidium comes around."

I half sighed
and half groaned as I threw myself back on the bed. Riley laughed at my
frustration and crawled onto the top bunk.

"Why do
boy problems suck?" I asked the mattress above me.

"You never
had any human boys flirting after you back home?" The genuine shock in
her voice boosted my bruised ego and I smiled to myself.

"No,"
I said. "My mom never let me get close enough to another boy to have
feelings for them."

"That
means Felix was probably your first kiss then. How was it?"

"Amazing."
It wasn’t even close to how I really felt about it. It was beyond amazing
but I didn’t think any word would be accurate. It was nice to have
someone to talk about it. I had never had a close friend before either and I
secretly hoped Riley and I would get closer.

Riley spent the
next ten minutes telling me about her first kiss with a Lovac from the Ukraine.
The way she spoke indicated that she hadn’t had anyone to talk girl talk
with for a while either. After she finished, exhaustion had crept back up on
both of us and we silently drifted off into sleep. The nightmares stayed away
for the rest of the night but the traumatic feeling the darkness left with me
didn’t disappear.

"What a
nice surprise," Carson said cheerfully the next morning when Felix took me
to his office. "What can I do for you two?"

"Avery had
her first major run in with darkness last night and I think she really needs to
talk to you," Felix said. He was talking to Carson like I wasn't even
there but I didn't mind. Even though I slept off the worst of the traumatic feeling,
I still didn't feel back to normal and my mind kept wandering.

"Avery?"
Carson said, snapping me out of my thoughts again. Felix had to do the same
thing multiple times earlier in the morning.

"Sorry. I
can't seem to stay focused on anything," I said.

"That tends
to happen after the first couple of times," Carson said. "Why don't
you and Felix come into my office and tell me what happened."

Felix and I sat
down in some chairs in front of Carson's desk. His office looked like a typical
psychologist's office, with book cases lining the wall, framed degrees hanging
up and even a few fake plants. Like everywhere else in this facility, it
smelled lightly of incense. I had come to the conclusion that they burned
incense in the air ducts since the smell was everywhere.

Once again, I
had lost myself in my thoughts and had to be prompted again by Carson to tell
him what happened. I told him every detail I could remember, leaving off the
stuff about Felix kissing me. Once I finished I could feel myself trembling
again and my eyes were full of tears. Felix had taken my hand and was squeezing
it gently, trying to calm me down.