AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 27
SUKI
When Niklas came into bed last night, I was already asleep. I'm not sure how late him and the sheriff stayed up, but I did hear bits and pieces of a conversation about Adrien. The only reason I heard anything was because the conversation got a bit heated. As much as I wanted to hear more, unfortunately my body let me down, and after the emotional day I had, I fell asleep before I understood exactly what was happening.
I felt him come into bed, though, and there was something different in his touch. As soon as the bed dipped behind me, his long, strong arm wrapped around me and rolled me over until I was buried in his pecks. I wasn't quite awake, but aware enough that I felt something in him, in the way he held me, even his breathing felt different with his face buried in my hair.
Now I'm flipping pancakes as I struggle to take my eyes away from the contrast the sunrise makes with the snow-covered mountains, and I'm trying to make sense of what happened last night. The shift in him made me drop my guard, his hold of me was heavy with meaning, one that I'm not sure I'm ready to accept, one that I felt within myself when I circled his waist and held him to me as I fell back asleep.
I know my heart feels something my brain is not ready to believe just yet. I know my body craves his touch more than it craves the air that keeps me alive. I know my mind wants the answer to millions of questions that are straining to burst out because I want to know everything about him.
I know all this... but I am also having trouble identifying if this is an illusion created by the forced proximity. Is what I feel for him the result of our circumstances? Things I felt even before our earth-shattering revelation... Would I feel the same out there in the real world?
Away from this mountain?
Away from this house?
Away from him?
How would I ever know if all I experience is this? My chest feels heavy with emotions I cannot soothe right now...
“Good morning, sweetheart,” Connor startles me, pulling me out of my emotional rollercoaster.
“Good morning. I hope you like pancakes.” I smile at him, and even bathed in the morning light, his features look haunting. I swear his black eyes are darker in the sunlight. Niklas was right… there is something about him.
“My god, you cooked up a feast.” He sniffs the air in appreciation, most likely identifying the smell of bacon mixed with the fresh pancakes.
“I figured you two will need the calories since you are going to work on that snowmobile and whatever else you have planned.” I am still thinking of their discussion last night. Are they planning to go after Adrien? Even so, they would not go today, would they?
“Thank you.” He tenses slightly, looking between me and the stairs, and I frown.
“I need to ask you something, Suki.”
Here we go... I have not even finished my coffee yet. I turn my attention to the pan, pouring more pancake batter in it, and he takes my silence as a cue.
“Do you know who Niklas is?” Well, that is not quite the question I was expecting. I thought he would ask about what I have been through, something personal, but this… no, I was not expecting this. I turn around and catch his strange gaze. Worry does not look good in those hollow eyes.
“Yes.”
“And you're okay knowing what you know about him... you're okay with the person he is?”
I never gave it much thought actually, it never even phased me beyond the fact that he makes my demons a bit too comfortable, always approving of my depravity, of my thirst for goddamn blood.
I nod. “I am more worried about the person I am, yet he has embraced it with open arms.”
Is it surprise or shock that I am seeing in the hollows? He wants to know more, but we hear Niklas' footsteps down the stairs and we both stand there, looking at each other, the confusion in his eyes seeping into suspicion and intrigue, while I just feel... lost.
Before Niklas reaches the bottom of the stairs, I turn my attention back to the pancakes, flipping them over. He greets Connor, before brushing past me, his hand holding my waist in a purely affectionate gesture that makes every cell that forms me melt while simultaneously begging me to scream in confusion. He is not the one confusing me, though—I am.
I look up at him when I am finished taking the pancakes out of the pan, and he looks down at me with an expression that, to the outside world, looks placid, almost devoid of any emotion. Yet that expression bears the subtlest smile, one that is mine and mine alone, the monster in his eyes watching me intensely. He holds me in his stare and even though my expression does not falter and my body does not move, an atomic bomb has been detonated inside of me, shivers replacing the blood in my veins. My chest burns. My demons smile. I want to sink into this feeling, into this comfort, this acceptance... this... affection. And when his monster gives me his cruel grin, my mouth feels instantly parched and I know that the only thing that could sate this thirst is blood.
I need to get away...
The men are sitting at the kitchen island, but I am standing on the opposite side, munching on a piece of bacon, watching the dynamic between the two. I am not particularly hungry and my mind is too busy to even process food. It is interesting though, watching them interact. Of course Niklas is the quiet one, calculated, a man of few words, yet all of them are important. Connor is the extrovert, he does not shy away from the risky questions, not even the dangerous ones, gaining some murderous expressions from Niklas. Yet, he is unphased... interesting. It is almost like a brotherly interaction.
“How long have you known each other?” I hear myself asking. I want to slap my mouth shut, urge myself to actually think before I speak, but it is too late now. They both look at me at once, before turning on each other, their expressions mirrored in a strange way.
“About six years,” Connor finally speaks. Strange, almost like Niklas silently approved of him answering me. Makes me wonder what their conversations were about last night. It also makes me wonder how much Connor actually knows of Niklas. I know he is aware of what he does, yet... I am not surehowmuch he knows exactly.
