Witness: See Series (Volume 1)(12)

His lips halted, and as his eyes rose to meet mine, I saw them change from an alluring green to the color of coal. Before I could say or think anything, he flew out of the bed and stood staring across the room. Every muscle in his body was flexed – his eyes were fierce and peered at nothing.

Trembling, I raised to my knees. “Draven…,” I said faintly.

He didn’t make a sound – he didn’t even blink. I stood on the bed and moved closer to him. I was eye-to-eye with him, but I swear he couldn’t see me. I reached my trembling hands for his shoulders; I could feel a pulsating anger emanating from his skin.

“Draven,” I said again. When he didn’t respond, I pulled his stiff body closer to me. “Stop…you’re scaring me…I’m sorry – I love you,” I said as I reached my hands for his flawless face.

In that instant, green began to flood his eyes, and his arm raised and threw something across the room. The sound of it hitting the wall was so loud, so sudden, that I flung myself forward onto Draven. My arms were wrapped around his neck; I was holding him so tight, you’d have thought that my life depended on it. In that second, I felt his arms come around my waist. As he buried his face in my neck, his arms tightened around me.

At that moment, his bedroom door opened. I nervously looked over my shoulder to see a young boy, one of the boys that had come home with Evan, standing there. He looked from us to the wall across the room. My eyes followed his to see a black book with decorative metal silver edges logged in the wall; Draven had thrown it so hard that it stabbed the wall as if it were a dagger.

“A book…that’s different. Can I have it?” the boy asked as he took a step toward it.

Draven let go of me as he rushed to the door. “No…out – now!”

“Sorry – geeze,” the boy said, rolling his eyes. “Next time, I’ll just ignore the fact that it sounded like the wall was coming down.”

“Out!” Draven said as he reached the door. The boy locked eyes with me and smiled wickedly as Draven closed the door and locked it.

“Who…what…what’s going on?” I said as I fell to my knees on the bed.

Draven didn’t answer me. He walked to the wall and pulled the logged book loose. He flipped through the pages, then rolled his eyes before he flung it on the dresser at the foot of the bed. He started to pace the floor as he ran his fingers through his dark hair. My eyes moved over every inch of him. There wasn’t a moment in my life that I hadn’t thought he was the most utterly attractive human being on the planet...but right now…seeing his anger…seeing the raw power he had just displayed…it…it just made him seem near godly – too perfect to touch.

“Draven,” I whispered.

His eyes locked with mine as he kept his pace. “How long…how long have you been talking to him?” he demanded in a low tone.

“A while,” I mumbled.

His jaw tightened as he balled his hands into a fist.

“I…look…all I do is text…I wanted him to think I was asleep – blind…so he would leave us alone...buy us time.”

He shook his head from side to side as he kept his pace. “Time…we’re out of time – our chance to leave here has come and gone.”

“It’s not gone…just delayed.”

He stopped his pace and stared at me. Instantly, almost defensively, I raised my imaginary glass wall in my mind; I didn’t want him to see me right now…obviously, he had already seen more that I would have ever wanted him to.

“It’s gone, Charlie.”

“Austin will come back. That Landen guy is probably still here…I think you need to calm down.”

He tightened his jaw and let out a deep breath. “You were right…we are dangerous…I’m dangerous, and another dimension doesn’t deserve the darkness we’d bring…we aren’t leaving here – not now…I’ve seen too much.”

My eyes locked with his; I focused on him, wanting to see what he’d seen. Draven slowly stepped forward and crawled onto the bed next to me. He reached his hand for the side of face and pulled me within inches of his eyes. “I’m not letting you see…I can’t…I just can’t,” he whispered. I leaned closer to him and let my lips rest on his; he kissed me back with a powerful force full of passion and anger. We fell back on the bed. I wrapped my legs around his and pulled his face gently away from mine. “I may not be able to see it…but I can feel it…tell me why you’re so scared…mad.”

His eyes fell from mine as he rolled to my side and stared at the ceiling. I lay there, trying to calm my beating heart, trying to resist the urge to just fall into his embrace and leave my worries and questions for another time.

“I don’t know what’s happening to me…how to explain it,” he said quietly.

I rolled to my side and pulled myself up on one arm so I could see his intense green eyes more clearly. “Tell me what just happened…that book - where did it come from?”

His eyes moved to mine. “Listen…I know seeing hasn’t come back to you, that you’re not as strong or confident as you were before that demon came into our life…so I don’t even know if I can explain it….I don’t know if I understand it.”