Zach’s being unusually quiet and I’m not sure why, but I figure he’s just nervous about answering my questions when I got around to them.
I began to think of other things that have happened in such a small amount of time. Without realizing it until now… my life has changed. Everything I used to know, that I thought was made up, is now true. Katrina told me the truth about the psychopath Vampire that’s going to kill her one day, well that day came, but he wasn’t successful at it. Thank God. I wondered again why he didn’t finish killing her. I knew he could have very easily and he could have killed me with a flick of his wrist before I ever let out a scream. It seems strange to me. I wonder if all Vampires are like him or are there actually nice ones out there? Who knows? Well, maybe Zach, but I’m not going there right now.
I feel like I’m in an exclusive club. Being some of the few people in the world that know another world exists and lives alongside us. Katrina, me and now sadly, Bree are some of the few that know about it. I never wanted her to find out. I was shocked when she handled it so well. I was expecting to see her go screaming to mom or maybe the police. The weirdest of things happened. She’s actually trying to be nice to Zach. I wonder if she’s sick, or maybe she’s scared. When I get home, I’ll try to talk to her about it, I want to see where her head is at on the whole Zach’s-a-Shape-Shifter thing.
I started to remember the dream I had of those monsters in the woods. That’s burned forever into my brain. Now that I’m thinking about it again I started to creep myself out. I’m in the woods once again, but there are two differences, one, I’m not alone, and two, its daylight.
Light… I specifically remember a light in the woods as it flashed from behind the woman. It was so bright that everything lit up like the fourth of July, and in a second everything went black again. I remember seeing that light again… this morning.
But I didn’t know about Zach before my dream, or that he can create a light… My stomach started to sink and I stopped walking…
“Lexi?” Zach looks worried. “Lexi, what’s wrong? If you’re afraid we can go back. I swear I’m not going to hurt you…” Zach kept babbling like he always does when he’s nervous.
I shook my head as my mind raced. He stopped talking and waited for me to say something.
“I…” I paused trying to think of a good question to ask.
“What is it?” Zach asked with deep concern.
I looked into his eyes. I want to see if he’s going to lie to me or not when I ask him this question. “Why… did you keep telling me to stay out of the woods?”
His eyes flinched and something flashed in them… horror, maybe.
“I didn’t want you to get hurt,” he said a bit unsure.
I took a deep breath, “Don’t lie to me. What happened this weekend? I know something happened. I’ve had nightmares and I know you were there.”
He averted his eyes. “Damn,” he mumbled not meaning for me to hear. He returned my gaze and said, “That is something, I’d rather forget myself…”
I turned and walked away from him, toward a fallen tree that lay a few feet away. I sat down and patted the spot next to me. Zach very reluctantly walked over and took a seat. He sat down with a deep sigh before he spoke.
“Tell me what you remember, and I’ll fill in the blanks.”
I started to tell him what I could remember, and it was mostly from my dream. Zach nodded and fiddled with a twig he picked up off the ground as he listened.
“The last thing I remember was that monsters hand around my neck, the other’s fangs on my shoulder and a bright light. Everything went black after that.”
He threw the broken twig to the ground. “I’m sorry,” he said with sadness. “I didn’t mean for any of that to happen. I didn’t think you would follow me into the woods, so I didn’t stay around to wait for you. I was almost home when I heard you scream. I suddenly felt sick for leaving you, especially knowing those Arachnids were still lingering around. I rushed back as fast as I could and I was almost too late. Just a few more seconds and there would have been no saving you.” He paused with a shudder going through his body. He turned and hugged me tightly. “I’m so sorry Lexi. I wish you didn’t remember that horrid night. You weren’t supposed to remember.”
My head swirled around his words… mostly the word Arachnid…
“Why wasn’t I supposed to remember?” I questioned as he pulled back to look at my horror-filled face. The realization that it actually happened to me, sank in and I wanted to throw up.
“That is something we can talk about later.” He watched my face and touched my cheek with his palm, wiping away an escaped tear.
I nodded my head and pulled his hand from my face, holding it in my hands. I looked down, not sure if I really want an answer to the question I’m about to ask.
“What… were they?” I questioned, keeping my eyes on the leaf covered ground.
Zach cleared his throat and started acting uncomfortable. “Uh… hmm… Are you really sure you want me to answer that?”
I looked up at him. “No, I don’t, but I am now part of your world. I need to know. Not that I want to know, I need to know.”
He nodded his head in understanding. Taking a deep breath he began. “Arachne is what we call them in the supernatural world. There are not many of them left, but yet they are highly elusive. So, we can’t be sure of exactly how many are out there. They mostly prey on large animals, such as deer, or cows and I’ve only heard of a few cases that they’ve attacked a human. They enjoy stalking their prey and toying with them, feeding on their fear. The male is the only one that can transform, as you saw…” He paused when I flinched and pulled me closer, putting an arm around me before he continued. “Are you sure you want me to continue?” He asked uncertain.
I can’t speak, so I nodded my head for him to continue.
“Okay… if you insist…” He paused. When I didn’t say anything, he continued. “The female is the one responsible for capturing the prey as the hairs that cover her body are poisonous. When she grabs the prey, some hairs come loose in the prey’s skin. The hair sends venom into the prey’s bloodstream, causing the prey to go into an unconscious like state, rendering it harmless to the male. Once the prey is unconscious, the male moves in and injects his venom into the victim… essentially liquefying-”
I suddenly stood up and ran from Zach to the nearest tree and dry heaved. Zach stood behind me and rubbed my back as I can’t stop and it was making my stomach and ribs hurt with the force. I tried to get things to calm down by taking deep breaths through my nose and letting it out from my mouth. After a few times, it seems to be helping. I’m grateful I didn’t eat anything today, or this could have been worse.
When I stood up, Zach asked, “Are you okay?” Then he got a look at my face and said, “I think you need to sit back down.”
He pulled me back to the fallen tree and pulled me onto his lap, holding me tightly.
“Please tell me they don’t make webs to sleep in at night,” I whispered.
He laughed lightly, “No, but they do have an uncanny way of climbing trees.” He tried to lighten the mood.
I thought for a second trying to wrap my head around the whole situation. “So… you’re really telling me I was almost turned into a bag of jelly for them to suck dry?” I put my hand over my mouth, breathing deeply through my nose, trying to contain the nausea building in my gut.
He took a moment to answer. “Basically… yeah.”
“I’m gonna be sick…” I warned him before I leaned forward and started dry heaving again.
After a moment Zach said, “I’m sorry Lexi. I truly am… But at least they won’t be coming back.”
I looked at him with a bit of shock, and said, “How do you know they’re not coming back?”
It took him longer to answer than it should have. “I… killed them.”
“How?” I sucked in the air. “You didn’t get hurt, did you?” I started looking him over,
panicking.
“I’m fine. I’ve fought bigger threats, so it was hardly a challenge. Besides, once an Arachne attacks or kills a human, they have to be disposed of because they develop the taste for them and it will draw attention to our world.” He tried to justify his actions.
I hugged him tightly. “Thanks for saving me,” I said quietly. I reached up, meaning to kiss him on the cheek, but he caught me off guard and pressed his lips to mine.
His lips are always so soft and the way he moves them sends a flood of heat through my body. It may be cold out, but I feel very warm in this moment.
“My pleasure,” he said with a sexy looking smile. I’ve never seen this smirk before, and it has my heart racing. His lips pulled up higher at one side than the other creating a crooked, devilish grin. It’s absolutely the sexiest thing I have seen yet, and that is saying something.
He caught me gazing at him. “What?”
“You’re sexy,” I blurted out before I could control my mouth… again. I blushed a deep red. I’m seriously gonna to have to invest in a zipper to glue to my mouth, so before I unzip it, I can think about what I’m going to say.
His sexy grin became huge. He let out a low chuckle while he looked at me with a sparkle in his eye. “No, you’re the sexy one here.”
“Liar.”
“It’s very true.”
“Mm-hmm,” I disagreed.
“It’s true, but you will see that for yourself someday.”
“Whatever you say.”
“Sounds about right,” He laughed
I rolled my eyes.
With the mood lightened, and the Arachne in my not so distant past, we started walking again. It was a few minutes of comfortable silence when I thought of something.
“Bree…” I said to myself in thought, but Zach heard me.
He cocked his head to the side, “What about Bree?” He questioned curiously.
“I heard Bree’s voice that night in the woods…”
Zach’s face contorted in horror for a split second before returning to normal.
I squinted my eyes in accusation. “She was, wasn’t she?”
Zach cleared his throat uncomfortably but refused to speak.
“She took care of me, claiming I was sick. She gave me tea that made me groggy…” My eyes widened in horror at the realization. I never put it together till now.
Zach still refused to say anything and in frustration, I yanked his arm to make him stop walking and turn toward me.
“Zach! Tell me what’s going on!” I almost shrieked.
He turned toward me with saddened eyes. “I can’t Lexi. I promised.”
“Promised who? Promised what?” I said with anger. When he didn’t answer, I said, “You promised my sister something?” Still no reply, but a small flash in his eyes told me I’m right. “I heard what she said. About you not telling me anything about her.”
His head snapped up with wide eyes. “You… you heard that? But how?”
“Does it matter!? I heard her say it! Now tell me!” I became angry and exasperated.
“Lexi,” he said calmly. “When Bree spoke… she barely mouthed the words. Making sure I would be the only one to hear her…”
My eyebrows scrunched down in confusion. “It was muffled, but I heard her.”
Zach’s eyes now scrunched in confusion, then softens as he looks at me. A smile played at his lips. “You are truly one of a kind my Lovely Lexi.”
“Don’t change the subject, Zach. I want answers.”
He sighed, “I made a promise, and I will not go back on that promise. What I will tell you, is that Bree loves you and will always protect you, as will I. If you want to know more than that, you will have to ask her.” He smiled devilishly.
I sighed and mumbled, “Nothings normal anymore…”
Zach’s face fell into sadness. “I’m sorry Lexi. I truly am.”
“This isn’t your fault Zach. It’s just that there is a lot going on, all these new changes, and the only solid thing I thought I had left was my family… Turns out, Bree is hiding something big from me.” I sighed shaking my head. “I don’t know if I am strong enough to handle what she has to say to me…” I trailed off, not really expecting him to answer.
Zach wrapped his arms around me in a tight embrace. I placed my arms behind his back and squeezed, wrapping my fingers around the fabric of his shirt. I allowed tears to fall as my face pressed into his shoulder.
“Lexi,” Zach spoke softly, “no one expects you to keep it together all the time. You are allowed to have breakdowns. You’ve already been through a lot and you’ve remained strong through it all. You are an amazing woman. Not only in your strength, but in your ways of caring for others. The way you’ve stood by Katrina. The way you’ve stayed by me, even knowing the truth. When you feel you are ready, talk to Bree about what she has to say. But just know, she is still your sister. That will never change. She loves you and will always be there for you. She and I have our differences in some situations, but you are our commonality.” He paused, placing his hands on my face, cradling me gently, pulling my face to look up at him. The love and devotion in his eyes, cause me to tear up again. “You… bring us together. We both love you.” He wiped the tears from my cheeks using his thumbs. “That, my beautiful soul, will never change.”
I looked deep into his eyes, into their dark abyss. I stretched up on my tips toes and Zach brought his lips to mine. His lips moved gently across mine, caressing them as if they are fragile like fractured glass. The love I’d seen in his eyes, flowed into me through his kiss.
Lost in the moment, I pressed myself into him, wrapping my arms around his neck and placing my hands into his short black hair. I pulled him closer and his arms tightened around me lifting me from the ground with ease. I hooked my legs around his waist as our kiss deepened, our lips moving in unison against the others. Nothing around us exists anymore. It’s just him and I… until the snap of a branch caused Zach to immediately go into a defensive position, placing me behind his back.
Peering around Zach, I saw movement down the trail a little ways. Soon, voices reached my ears. A small group of teenagers headed our way.
Zach instantly relaxed and grabbed hold of my hand. His eyes piercing mine. A devilish smile spread across his lips.
I laughed and stretched up, giving Zach a quick peck on the lips. “Thank you,” I whispered an inch from his lips, then kissed him again.
Pulling back from Zach before things got carried away again, I said, “I believe you have something you want to show me?”
Zach nodded his head, lost in wonderment as he searched over my features. A grin spread across his face, “Time to go off trailing.” He laughed, and I smiled.
Zach started to lead the way through the trees, no trail to follow as he kept my hand in his.
“How far do we have to go?” I asked out of curiosity.
“Oh, only about four miles, or so,” he sounds like it’s no big deal.
“Four miles, or so?” I said in disbelief.
“I can carry you if you’re getting tired.” He likes the idea of that as his sexy grin played around his lips.
“No, I’m good. I can walk.”
“Well, if you get tired, let me know.” He smirked.
“I will.”
We headed off the trail into the thick trees. I’m glad they’re bare of leaves or it would be really dense and hard to see. I had to step over fallen trees and if I couldn’t step, Zach was more than happy to hang on to me and leap. He jumped over them like they’re nothing at all. When we were a good way in, and when I couldn’t see the trail anymore, I had a question I want to ask but didn’t want to ask this morning.
“Um… I don’t want to be rude or anything, but I wanted to ask you something.” I kept my voice low.
“What is it?” He sounds curious.
“Well… I wanted to know, with you being a Shape-Shifter and all…” I paused.
“Go ahead,” he prompted
.
“Well, I was wondering… what type of non-human things can you do? I already know you can project your voice in my head.”
“Yeah, we can project our voice to other Shape-Shifters of our world. It doesn’t work on humans unless-” he broke off mid-sentence.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t ‘nothing’ me. Now, what were you going to say?”
“That I also have great hearing, and could probably hear you snoring a mile away.” He smiled that grin again.
He’s distracting me, that’s obvious. “I don’t snore, and that wasn’t what you were going to say.” I didn’t let his smile get to me though I have to fight the urge to let him distract me.
I heard him mumble, “Not easily deterred.”
“What’s that’s supposed to mean?” I’m getting slightly irritated.
“What’s what supposed to mean?” He looked at me innocently.
“You know what I mean,” I scowled at him.
“Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Okay, he’s still attempting to distract me. He’s very good at it. He almost had me forgetting what I was trying to get him to finish.
“You think you’re good at distractions, but I’m a very persistent person. Now, what were you going to say?” I had him, and he had no way out of it.
He groaned. At this point, I know I won. I stifled a giggle so he wouldn’t have something new to try and distract me with.
“Unless a Shape-Shifter had claimed a mate,” he said in such a rush, at first, I thought I didn’t hear him right.
“Claimed a mate?” I said in disbelief. “Apparently you have something to tell me?” I looked at him raising my eyebrows.
He sighed and looks upset. “Yes, claimed a mate. Many creatures from my world have an ability to pick someone they want to be with for the rest of their lives. Once they make that choice, the bond between them cannot be broken unless one dies. When one claims another, someone else can’t step in and take the one that’s already claimed. Usually, the one who is being claimed has a choice in the matter, but when I first set eyes on you in class, when we were looking at each other…” He looked at me for confirmation.
Sapphyre: Burden to Bare (The Sapphyre Saga Book 1) Page 19
