Page 57 of Blood Ties
This time I tensed then pulled away from him. I wanted out of the bed and out of the conversation.
“Gaby, damn it. Talk to me.”
I reached for some discarded clothing, wanting to cover myself feeling entirely too vulnerable. “Grayson, I’m fine. Okay?” I spat pulling the clothing on. It was one of Grayson’s work shirts.
“You’re not fine. You almost had another damn panic attack. Please just tell me.” I could hear the urgency in his voice, but I still didn’t speak. “Something happened while I was gone. You’re not talking to me. You’re not talking to Shawn.”
“If somethinghadhappened, and I’m not saying that it did, don’t you think I’d talk about it if I wanted? Having you send Shawn in to interrogate me or having you bombard me with questions, wouldn’t make it any easier.”
Grayson studied me for a moment. He let the silence grow. When he spoke again he was much calmer, his tone was gentler. “You’re absolutely right,” he sighed. Standing he made his way to me before wrapping his arms around me. I could see in his eyes he wanted to press the issue. It was taking a lot of will power to refrain. “Just promise me that you’ll talk to someone about it? I hope it’s me, because you know you can tell me anything, but if it’s not…” he let out a deep breath. “I just don’t want you to let it fester, alright?” I nodded. “Good. I’m going to get dressed.”
Monday, I got to thinking about talking to someone. It wasn’t information I wanted to get out, so I called the one person I could. It was around two in the afternoon when Sebastian walked through the door of the café I was sitting at. I didn’t have to look up to know he was there. The tether alerted me the moment he was close.
“Gaby,” he took a seat across from me. “Your call was pleasantly unexpected.”
I was too. Calling Sebastian had felt like ten shades of wrong, but I needed to clear my head without burdening anyone else.
I sat there quietly for a moment not knowing what to say. Seeing my predicament, Sebastian spoke for me.
“Nightmares or panic attacks?”
I looked at him completely bewildered. “Both?” I answered.
He nodded then ordered himself a coffee. “I’m assuming no one else knows?” I shook my head. “I figured as much. Otherwise I doubt you’d have called. It gets better Gaby.”
“It’s not even about what happened, Sebastian. I’ve had to wash blood off me before.”
“It’s about what almost did,” he stated. I nodded, surprised he understood. “Gaby, I would have never let that happen.”
As reassuring as I’m sure he meant those words, they held little value for me. What if he hadn’t been following me that night? What if they had spelled him too? I shared my concerns.
“I’m an angel, Gaby. It takes a great deal of power for a witch to do any harm to me. You’re only half. It’s a bit easier for them to hurt you. Easier, but still difficult. Those vamps paid a lot of money for that curse.”
“And what if you hadn’t been following me? I mean just so you know, that’s not okay. And if you hadn’t saved my life because of it, we would have already had it out over it. I don’t want to think that I have to watch my every move because someone’s watching me.”
Sebastian sighed, “It’s not like that. I keep my distance. And I wasn’t even following you that night.”
Now I was confused. He had already mentioned he was following me. That’s how he was there to stop what happened. Seeing my befuddlement, Sebastian explained. “I was close by. I had been out flying, trying to clear my head when I felt…” he gestured with his hand trying to come up with the right word.
“You felt me,” I whispered almost in a daze. Could it be possible that Sebastian felt the connection too?
“Your fear. Yes.”
“Do you feel things from me a lot?”
Sebastian seemed a little unsure how to answer. He looked worried that the answer might upset me. He tentatively nodded.
“How long?”
“Since the moment you stumbled into my room. It’s like this…”
“Tether,” I answered.
He nodded, seeming in awe that I understood so well. “You feel it too?”
“Not emotions. I just thought I was feeling your power.” I knew it was a lie. I felt something that was connecting me to him. I was feeling a little overwhelmed with the conversation when Sebastian grabbed my hand drawing my attention back to him. My hand tingled against his. It felt like the molecules in my palm were trying to escape into him.
“Like I said, I wouldn’t have let anything happen to you.” I looked at his face and I believed him. “The only reason it got as far as it did was because I couldn’t just fly down. Anyone could have seen me. I had to make sure that I wasn’t revealing the supernatural world to a bunch of humans. But when I saw what that animal was about to do…” He shook his head. I couldn’t feel the anger radiating off of him, but I could definitely see it. “I would have rather had every vampire in the city out there doing mind erasing tricks then had been a second later getting to you.”
