Page 2 of Torn Between Two Worlds

His voice cut through her distress. Right.Critiquing others work, that's why she was there, to learn and get her own work polished for publication.Not to sit and watch as Alcott slowly, but surely, slipped away.

“Sorry, just trying to communicate with the great writing gods and ask for you to be kind and gentle with my submission,” she said with a smile.

This earned her some laughs from the others and an under the table low five from Gina, her best friend. If she didn't know any better, she would have sworn Gina could see Alcott with the way she was looking in his direction. It was more than likely that she was simply looking that way to see what Ciara had kept staring at across the room.

When she turned back to Alcott, more of him was transparent. She was going to lose him, and she didn't know why or how to survive attacks from his kind.

* * *

Alcott wasthe one who had turned her world upside down eleven years before. She'd been reading a young adult book. One minute she was overcome with grief for the male protagonist, a witch named Alcott, because he had lost his family in an attack. The next, she heard someone asking her why they were there exactly.

Parts of that evening were cloudy so many years later. How loudly she had screamed or hitting her head so hard into the wall she blacked out were crystal clear. When she had come to, the man had been holding her, and that had freaked her out even more. By some blessing, the man, Alcott, had known who and what she was. He had explained to her that people like her were far and few between. That she had a gift for the written word. He'd told her a crazy story about her powers, that she could pull a character she felt connected with from a story right out into her own world. All she had to do was feel a strong emotion for them—such as fear, love, hate, joy, lust- and in her life, they would be.

Even a gift that sounded wonderful came with side effects, a cost so to speak. She could pull a character, but if she took the good, the bad came with it and vice versa. The evil that lurked in every novel had a way out through her, just as the good did.

Her mouth had opened with questions that hadn't stopped until he put his hand on her shoulder and smiled at her. His green eyes and perfect smile had charmed her instantly. Had she not experienced his arrival, or maybe had she not been so young and so in love with the idea of him, she wouldn't have believed him.

Or maybe it was how, later that night, the dark witches Alcott had been fighting in the book had come for her. Alcott had protected her, had called her his little sister to love and protect. With him being an older, but still age appropriate boyfriend candidate, it had stung.

Over time, she had forgotten her desire for him, and he truly became the brother she never had. Alcott was her protector from broken hearts to lonely nights, through writer's block, the evil that kept coming after her and even the car accident that had stolen both her parents from her. It seemed the evil would always be coming for her. It was always lurking in the shadows, undetected by others, until she was twenty-seven and possibly had a chance at release. It wouldn't be until then that she could accidentally unleash terror on the world, but with Alcott, her choice was easy.

Eleven years. Alcott had been her light in the dark for just shy of eleven years. He was with her every day, everywhere she went. Together, they’d learned no one else could see him and that she could visit with him, but it meant a stasis type situation for her in her world, but not in his. In his world, she was all right. Through that, they had learned the limitations he faced in her world, he did not face in his.

She could be seen by all, touch anyone she wanted too, live as if she belonged. She had made relationships with friends, shopping trips with his girlfriends and sporting outings with his guy friends. She'd attended coven meetings and holiday ceremonies. She fell fully and completely in love with his world and never wondered about other worlds. She had her home and his, she hadn't needed more.

* * *

When Alcott was quite literallynothing more than a ghost in front of her, she choked out a sob and left the room. Her footfalls pounded loudly onto the laminate floor of the school where the seminar was held. Heads turned to look out the doors of open rooms filled with college students as she barreled past. The metal stairway took her anger and fear with each heavy footstep and cast it out like an earthquake as she slammed down the steps, barely making sure not to miss any and fall.

Naturally, Alcott followed, hounding her with questions once she made it out of the building and gradually began to slow down so people would not wonder what she was running for or from. She grabbed her Bluetooth from her purse and crammed into her ear, a solution they had long ago thought up, so she could talk to him in public without people looking at her funny. Walking so fast she may as well have still been running down the steep hill to the parking lot, she ignored all the questions to the best of her ability. Tears threatened to fall, but she did not cry, she would not allow it.

All she could figure was that she was supposed to be trying multiple Guardians to assure she released the right one when the time came. She had been selfish and had only released Alcott, despite how many books she read a year. She had been holding on to him, determined to have no issues when she was twenty-seven, and he would have true release. Then everyone would be able to see him, to touch him. A concept that had honestly always made her a bit jealous over giving up her private rights to him, but she had never desired another Guardian in any capacity. Alcott was perfect.

When she flung herself into the driver’s seat of her Mini Cooper, she finally spoke full sentences to him. “Alcott, I almost can't see you anymore.” She reached out to touch him, and her fingers went through air, something that had only occurred when she was mad at him and was somehow able to control his ability to touch her.

Her gasp cut through the awkward silence in the car, and her vision grew blurry as tears welled back up in her eyes. She was not a crier, not since the accident that had taken her parents.

He looked flustered and grabbed out to hold her, passing through her as well.

“I'm crossing over. It will just look as if I'm taking a little nap. I've parked for the seminar and seen plenty of students doing it. No one will even look twice.” Putting up the sunscreen, just to be safe, she crawled over the center console. Panic laced her voice, and a tear slipped free, slid down her cheek and hit the leather beneath her.

Alcott looked as if he had been about to complain, but he didn't get the chance to before she closed off her mind and thought about his world.

“What the hell are you doing, doing this in public? Are you crazy?”

His shout accosted her as she shimmered into focus on his side.

He shook her, his hands gripping her shoulders tight in anger. There, in his plane, he was able to make contact.

Thank goodness.

“You're disappearing! You aren't going to be my Guardian anymore. Derrick leaves in two days, we've broken up to do the mature adult thing, and now you're leaving me too. It's not fair to lose my boyfriend and my brother at the same time!” her voice was shrill, and she knew she sounded like a petulant child whose parent took away her toy, but she didn't care. She meant every word.

Derrick was without a doubt the other rock in her world. She had been dating him almost as long as she had really been interested in boys. Alcott had introduced them by shoving her into him at a high school football game. She'd been watching on the sidelines as a freshman cheerleader.

Alcott had joked that she had been undressing the black haired running back so quickly with her eyes that he would be naked before the next play. As Derrick had been walking to the bench, Alcott had casually shoved her into him. It had taken time, but they had grown inseparable. Then he had accepted a scouting position for international teams in Europe because he hadn't been drafted by any teams to play. At twenty-six, he liked to joke that he was all washed up and past his prime and that it was his only chance.

They had spent countless hours talking about it, and after so long together, they had still decided to end things. Neither wanted a strong commitment at that time, and the fact that they could both picture their lives without each other had made her decision. She wanted that romance story all consuming love, and Derrick would forever be her closest friend.

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