Between (17 page)

“
What do I think? I think this is going to be the best sex of your life,” he says, the heat in his gaze matching that of our skin.

I open my mouth to protest at his arrogance
, but then he looks back to me, pausing. For the first time ever, I see an unguarded Alek. In his eyes is a part of his soul I think is long-hidden, a need to connect with someone. He let his guard down once when I took his energy; in return, I put my trust in him not to take everything from me. Even though I know we’ll always struggle with each other, the weird bond between us has an unspoken trust and a connection that won’t be broken easily.

And I’m sure
the promise behind his words is not only conceited but also correct.

CHAPTER
16

I wake in an empty bed, but the sheets next to me are warm.
The sun filters through the thin, brown curtains and I try to figure out what time it is. My bathrobe lies forlornly on the floor where I threw it yesterday evening. The air in the room is cool but noticeably warmer than the chill, which came with the Shades.

Has
Alek gone? His leather jacket slung over the chair answers my question; he never goes anywhere without it.

I lie back down and stretch like a cat, buzzing with the after-effects of sex with
Alek. Heavy footsteps approach and he appears in the doorway, hair mussed, in sweatpants and carrying mugs.

I
should be used to seeing the muscled definition of his torso, but that doesn’t stop me staring appreciatively now. "Is that coffee? I thought you only drank beer?"

He rolls his eyes at me and sits on the bed. "Here you go, Casper."

I smack him on the back of the head and he rubs his hair. "I swear, you had better stop calling me that or there’s trouble for you."

Alek
sets the mugs on the floor and leans over, rubbing a thumb along my cheek. "Trouble like earlier?"

The touch triggers the want to climb back on top of him. Marvelling at my restraint, I move my face from his touch. "Next time
, I’ll be taking, not giving."

"Soon, I hope."

He’s shirtless and I run my finger from his neck to his abs, my eyes fixed on his the whole time. I enjoy how he shivers slightly and the restraint when he closes his eyes against me. He has colour back; the lips I used to fantasise about that have touched almost every part of my body are no longer white.

"Maybe."

He stopped last night before he drained too much from me. There’s a delicate balance between what we can give and take, and I suspect it will take a while to work out. That’s
if
we work out. Alek opens his eyes again then pushes his mouth onto mine without a word. The strength of his kiss and the hand pressed in the small of my back against the hard planes of his naked chest rewind me straight back to last night. As Alek’s mouth closes around mine and my pebbling nipples brush against the warmth of his chest, I’m aware being held by Alek is as powerful as the energy itself. There’s a comfort in being anchored to someone else in the maelstrom surrounding us.

Aware we’ll be pulled back into part of that maelstrom, I place both hands between us and push him away by the chest.

"I have a shift in a few hours," I say.

Alek
releases me and passes my robe from the floor. "I guess you’d better put some clothes on then."

I shrug the robe on and tie the belt.
"Can we leave?" I blurt. "I don't like living here; it scares me."

Alek
regards me over his mug. "We? That was a bit sudden." I open my mouth to clarify then spot the teasing smirk. "I can’t leave."

"Why?"

"Because I’m dangerous, I told you. This house is a focal point for Shades, a ready food source. If I leave, I leave my food source. I don’t want to hurt people." He drinks. "Besides, I’ve lived here a long time. And I mean a
long
time."

"So
, how come I can be around people?"

"You don’t need much energy yet
; you’re new and still have some of your own energy left. Once you use it up, you’ll be more like me."

"So
, you’re older and need more?" He nods. "How long have you been here?"

"About twenty years since I died." He catches my look. "Correct, we don’t age."

"How did you die?"

"I’m not going there, Rose. So don’t even ask." He stands and rummages around in a drawer for a T-shirt.

"Twenty years? That explains your crap music taste then," I say, hoping to lighten the darkening mood.

He snorts softly as he pulls a black T-shirt out.

Alek crosses back to me, placing his lips on my forehead. "I can leave temporarily, for a few hours if my energy levels are okay. That's how I manage to work; and why I work in a bar."

"How can you work among people if you say you drain energy?"

"The bar is the best kind of place to work; the number of people and the amount of energy they bring with them fills the place. You must’ve been clubbing. The energy in those places is huge and people who are at the bar don’t notice losing any to me. So, if there’s been no Shades through in the house, I can absorb some at work and I don’t need to go looking elsewhere."

I nod and slurp my coffee, wishing this
were a normal relationship with a normal guy, not someone who cavalierly talks about sucking the life out of people.

"Will I get urges to
feed that I can’t control, like real vampires and blood?"

"Only if you’re really low on energy and probably not for a few years yet." He strokes my hair. "Don’t stress
; the world is safe from you."

I push his shoulder. "This isn’t funny!"

Alek doesn’t apologise. Time for a subject change. "I know this guy who says there are people at the hospital who are killing patients," I say.

"
What guy? What did he tell you?"

"Not much. He’s a paranormal investigator and…"

"A what?" asks Alek with a laugh.

"He investigates ghosts and other supernatural occurrences."

"A ghostbuster? There’s loads of those freaks around. The Shades have great fun winding them up." He shakes his head. "What exactly does he know?"

"Not much
; he works in the morgue and…"

This time
Alek’s amusement heads toward hilarity at my comment. "Of course he does! Does he take his equipment with him? Zaps a few of the unwelcome residents?"

I’m offended on Tom’s behalf. "He’s a nice guy!"

"That doesn’t mean he genuinely knows anything. Humans can delude themselves into seeing things they want to and ignoring things they don’t."

"If
there really is something going on at the hospital that’s a threat, it might affect us. Tom should be able to help."

"Rose. Firstly, I couldn’t care less how many people are dying
; secondly, the answer to who’s responsible is Finn. You know that."

"No. He denied it and I believe him. Tom says it’s something darker…So did Finn."

Alek stands and turns to me. "Did you listen to the crucial fact he was sent to kill you, Rose? And you’re still talking to this guy!"

"I told you I spoke to him!"

"I’m trying to keep you safe; you could at least help yourself!" he snaps.

I cross my arms and
frown at him. "And I said I didn’t want keeping safe!"

"You need to stop thinking you have control over your life, Rose. That went the day Finn sent you back here! What are you going to do? Live a long and happy life as Miss Independence
? Get married and have kids? Not going to happen."

His words are a slap
; a future I’d not considered is as lost to me as everything else. But I won’t let Alek see he's upset me. "I can still be me."

I’m unsure if
Alek means to look down at me with pity, but he does. "And what’s that, Rose? What are you? Because you’re not Rose Walker, not anymore."

"I am! I have a job, records, a birth certificate
, and no death certificate!"

Alek
pushes a hand through his hair. "Yeah, for now. What about in twenty years’ time, and you look the same?" He catches my bad attempt to show I’m not bothered. "Look, if you don’t want to deal with this right now, I don’t blame you. Okay, so I annoy you sometimes, but I’m better for you than some weird dude who works in a morgue and a Reaper sent kill you!"

He’s right. I don’t want to face this. I’ve never wanted to admit anything has changed
since the night I almost died. I wouldn’t listen when family and doctors told me I needed more time to recover. I couldn’t accept my life had been interrupted, and so I left the childhood home I’d been forced to return to, got this job, and proved a point to them all. Everyone was surprised by how well I coped and so quickly after such a major accident. If only they knew the truth about my new life, the truth I can’t accept myself.

"I’m getting ready for work." I move
toward the bedroom door and Alek extends a hand to stop me. I shrug him off.

Conversation and ceasefire over.

****

Dressed and ready to leave for the day, I duck into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water.
Alek is in the lounge watching TV, long legs stretched on the table in front of him.

"Are you going to work?" he asks, not looking at me.

"I told you I had a shift."

"You’re not going."

"I’m sorry? Since when did you run my life?"

Alek
shifts around in the sofa, leaning his arm across the back of the sofa. "Did you miss the part about Shades trying to kill you? Or Finn? Or fuck knows what else is out there?"

"They’re not going to do it in front of anyone, are they? I’ll come straight home."

He narrows his eyes at me. "Maybe I should come with you."

"Oh
, no. No way. No one tells me what to do."

Shaking his head,
Alek turns back to the TV. "Fair enough. Just don’t come running to me when you’re dead."

I open my mouth to retort I can’t go running to him when I’m dead
, but I don’t know anymore.

“So
, are you going to trap me in the house again, like the other day?” I ask him.

He frowns. “That
wasn’t me; I don’t know what that was.”

That leaves one other person responsible. I don’t voice that I think it was Lizzie
; I don’t think I need to.

"I’m going to talk to Tom," I say. "I called him and I’m meeting him before work."

"Why?"

"Because he might help me make sense of all this."

"Seriously, Rose?"

“Seriously,
Alek.”

Alek
sits forward and grabs his jacket from the sofa. "Fine. I want to meet this freak."

"
Alek…"

"
I’ll be nice, I promise." He stands, shrugging on his jacket.

I very much doubt he will
be.

****

We wait for Tom on the same bench I met Finn, outside the hospital, around the time my world started to shift into ten shades of crazy. Alek leans against a nearby tree, legs stretched out and hands buried in his jacket pocket. He’s returned to his normal Alek persona, which upsets me after what we did last night. In my past life, I only had sex in a mutual, loving relationship; definitely not with someone I barely knew and doubted if I liked much. Although sex with Alek is unlike anything I’ve experienced before, our relationship is a million miles away from my past ones. His behaviour now hurts.

When Tom arrives, he’s not eating which surprises me. He has his coat wrapped around him
, and his face falls when he sees Alek.

"
Who’s this?" asks Tom.

"
Alek."

Tom’s mouth drops open and
Alek laughs, pointing at Tom. "This guy is the one you think can help us?"

"He’s told me a few things I think we need to consider."

"Oh, really?" asks Alek "Like what?"

Tom sits next to me on the bench, not meeting
Alek’s eyes. "The people killing at the hospital. Things. I think they're suspicious of me, too; I'm scared. I thought they were resurrecting ghosts, but it’s more than that. And they know I’m aware." He lowers his voice conspiratorially. "These guys are evil!"

I blink at him. "Killing people how?"

"They go into the wards where people are dying and they take them. I’ve been speaking to my friends around the country. They’re getting everywhere, as if they’re grouping and planning something."

"Do you know anything about the Reapers? They could be doing that," asks
Alek.