The First Touch (16 page)

Grayton snapped
, “
You think?”

Serena snapped back, “Quiet! Take her to the bed
, let her work through it
.” Ivan picked
up her limp body and carried her to the bedroom, placing
her gently on to the mattress.

Grief

They all stood there staring at her unmoving body. Serena looked at Ivan’s skin again and little marks were now noticeable along his neck, just like his forearm. His skin was now radiating heat and Serena frowned. Grayton saw the look of concern on her face and understood Serena’s need to s
peak with Ivan alone. He slipped out of
the room and headed over to
the book shelves by the desk next to
the living room.

Serena looked at Iva
n worry in her eyes
, “
How long do these last?”

Ivan replied still irritated, “I do not know. She did not say. In the coffee shop it was only a few minutes but she was not unconscious there.”

Serena looked at the clock next to the bed, “You only have ten maybe eleven hours left Ivan
,”
he nodded his head in agreement.

Then Gra
yton entered the room again, asking
pessimistically, “What if she has moved into the first stage of the transformation?”

Ivan shot Serena a look and she asked still worried, “What does her skin feel like?” Ivan reached out and touched her face and then pulled his hand back frustrated, “I don’t know I can not feel anything aside from the fire.”

Grayton suggested then, “Her eyes, they should be clouded, if she is changing.”

Ivan reached for her eye lids and slid them up gently answering, “No, I think she is sleeping.”

Serena agreed, “Her heart rate and br
eathing suggest sleep.” I
nstantly chastising
Ivan, “You should not have waited for Grayton. You should have just kissed her and saved yourself, he would not have blamed you.”

Ivan looked up at Grayton
,
who smiled genuinely as he replied, “I believe Ivan knows me better than you do Serena.”

Serena snapped at him then, “Well
I
would not have blamed you. Besides, she might not be intended for either of you.”

Ivan replied
sourly
, “I know.”

“What if she does not wake up?”

Ivan returned quickly, “She will wake up.” Serena shot him a look, and he added
tensely
, “I will give her an hour and then I will try to wake her.”

Serena
shook her head no, and then
repeated, “You should not have waited.”

Ivan offered reluct
antly, “She had a dream about
meeting and kissing
someone and about Sophia doing the same. I did not talk to
her about the process because I knew that it was too soon. She decided to be.... difficult. She tortured me until I answered the questions that she had about the dreams
, and the voices
.”

“Clever girl,
”
Serena beamed.

Grayton added irritated, “It is not torture if you enjoyed it Ivan.”

Serena snapped then, “He called you here to help you Grayton.”

“No he called me here to clear his conscious. If she was meant for me then he wants to soften the blow of stealing her first kiss, with another female for me.”

Serena replied disapprovingly, “You know that it does not work that way.”

Grayton repeated
her earlier words
, “It is not an exact science.”

She huffed
, “Now you are just being difficult.”

Then Serena’s looked over and saw a book on the shelf that she recognized and pulled it down
distractedly
. She opened it to the spot that had a corner bent back. There was a passage underlined and she read it aloud to the two men standing in the room.

Ivan listened as Serena read it asking, “What book is that?”

Grayton cut her off finishing the last two lines of the passage from memory. Then he announced the Title and Author, and Serena nodded her
head confirming his prediction
. Grayton reached for the book just as she lifted the bent corner b
ack
,
smoothing it flat and read
,
Grayton
.
Then she yanked the book back and snapped, “Not yet.” Her anger alone sent both men rushing towards her
,
to take a l
ook. She held it to her body protectively and then hissed at them as they approached.

Grayton was faste
r and stronger than Ivan and snatching
to the book first. He scanned it quickly finding his name written in the corne
r. He handed the book to Ivan
smug
ly.
Then h
e turned and looked at
Autumn
who was sleeping on the bed peacefully and smiled a small smile at her. Ivan watched his reaction and searched the pages frantically.

It took him a few moments longer
,
since he began looking through the underlined words first. Then his face turned sickly
,
as he saw the word under the tab and ripp
ed the page from the book. Instantly,
he began searching though the other books on the shelves
,
searching for a
ny other notes
. As Grayto
n watched Ivan’s reaction to another
book
,
he pulled
yet another
title down from the shelf and flipped though it. He smiled triumph
antly reading his own name aloud
this time,
and Ivan reached over and yanked the book from his hands.

Ivan located the page where Grayton’s name was written again and ripped it from the book. Meanwhile
,
Grayton smiled satisfied as he pulled another book from the shelf that
he
recognized
,
already feeling confident that he
would find his name in the bindings
as well. When he realized that he was right
,
the grin returned
,
even larger than before. Serena tried in vein to convince them to stop
then, but in spite of
he
r
protests
,
she knew that
there was no stopping them
, not now
.

Ivan was almost completely irrational in his testosterone filled body, the fire burning unbelievably hot. With the added stress of the insecure bond in addition to the possibility of his mates desire to kiss another male, his body ran even hotter. Also the longer his mind was left to itself
,
the more erratic it had
beco
me
, only serving to increase
the fires destructive power
. He
now
only
had hours left before it cooked his brain
,
and his body spontaneously combusted
,
from the sheer strength of the destruction on his system.

Grayton on the other hand watched for five hundred years as everyone
around him
found their mates
,
and he was left to suffer an eternity
,
alone
in the dark. He had for the first time in five lif
e times, the smallest taste of that
possibility now. It was so close to bubbling over. Now this pos
sibility no matter how small, had become
all consuming
, comforting even, and after years of pain this slight r
eprieve felt like heaven. A
half an hour later
,
nearly all of the books on the shelves was either ripped to shreds
,
or burning in the fireplace.

Once that was done, Grayton laid down on the couch by the roaring fire, wa
tching the flames, a smug grin o
n his face
,
cherishing his small victory over his endless pain. Ivan on the other hand was still spun up
,
pacing in the hall, mumbling to himself and try
ing desperately to calm
down. Serena
meanwhile, sat
on the couch trying to distract
herself
from the
chaos of the situation, flipping
throu
gh the channels anxiously.
C
ontinually
checking
the clock
on the wall,
before glancing back over her shoulder at
Autumn
,
asleep
in the bedroom.

Autumn awoke minutes later
,
to an empty room
. A
s she sat up, her head began pounding.
Her memory came flooding back, last night, and this morning, they were
here
.

She reached for the glass of water and pills left by the bedside,
Serena no doubt
. Then as
soon as she swallowed
,
she reached for her journ
al under the pillow next to her
and scribbled the memory down while it was still fresh. Then she tucked it back under the pillow and looked at the clock. It was seven fo
rty five. How long had she been asleep?
She was doing the math as
she stepped out on to the paper covered floor and
nearly slipped
and
said to herself, “What the…”

It took her a moment to realize that they were
her
books. Her first thoughts
were confus
ed
,
though she called out, “Ivan!
” She looked around completely baffled
,
when
he entered the room
,
she asked worriedly
, “What happened in here? Did I do this?”

He said nothin
g he just stared at her; anger and hurt in his eyes
. As she stepped closer, her first reaction was to
sooth him but then she saw
the mess
that
continued out in
to the living room. S
he brushed past him looking at the giant mounds of destroyed books, gasping at the destruction. Then she looked up at
Serena who was standing
expectantly
waiting
for her to speak. The curtains had been drawn so that the room was dark
now
,
save the roaring fire place
,
which was astonishingly
overflowing with the pages of her books. Autumn put her
hand over her mouth,
but that did no
t stop the sob from coming out
, as she began to tremble
.

Serena finally explained
, “They found some notes in the books.”

Autumn replied incredulously, “So they de
stroyed them all!” She looked to
Ivan
f
or confirmation
disbelievingly. Then she looked back at Serena who nodded her head yes. She began to frantically search though the piles of torn up novels. No one moved a muscle; they just watched her unravel before their eyes
, unexpectedly
.

Serena shot Ivan a dirty look
,
and gestured for him to go to her
after she realized that there was something more amiss
. He shook his h
ead no; his pain was too deep at the moment
and the fire in his head
too hot
to touch her, comfort her
. She was crying over some books that she had written Grayton’s name in over and over again. He felt like crying out now, his heart breaking, he did n
ot want to be close to her.
No
, he did
not want to feel the
heat, the flames that rose up from their connection
, not now
.

Grayton on the other hand felt instant r
emorse
for
hurting them both. His old friend’s look was
his fault, but w
atching
her
cry was like torture
,
slow and painful,
there was no denying it or so he thought. H
e watched as Ivan selfishly refused to comfort her and his instincts kicked in. His brow furrowed and he began to walk towards her
,
determined to comfort her somehow
, even if it meant making things worse for him
. Ivan watched Grayton making his move and the fire spiked i
n his chest. The next thing he
knew he was kneeling next to
Autumn’s
body glaring
up
at Grayton
, warning him to stay the course
.