Ch. 103: Following

CHAPTER 103

Ally~

Last night was a bust, but something in me is convinced I need to try again tonight. Nick will be here shortly, and we are wrapping up a movie in the living room. My mom already went to bed, and now it’s just the two of us. I tried asking him a bit about what is going on with him, but in typical Kyle fashion he just made some jokes and brushed off my concerns. So I didn’t push him. Yet.

When the movie finishes I make a show of stretching and yawning and telling him I was going to bed, likely to immediately crash. Kyle’s eyes flicker with something I can’t name and he just nods.

I resist the urge to literally shake answers from him.

In my room I see a new message from Nick on my phone telling me he’s outside and ready for whenever I need him. I find myself holding the phone to my chest like it was actually Nick there telling me this and I was hugging him.

Man, I’ve got it so bad.

After almost an hour I can’t take it anymore and I quietly sneak to the window to let Nick in. I shouldn’t have been surprised to see him standing right there, like he was waiting for me right as I opened the window to look out.

“Don’t you look beautiful,” Nick says close to my ear. It sends shivers down my spine and I suddenly remember I’m in my pajamas.

I scootch aside and he expertly climbs in without making a sound. His soundless movements remind me that his wolf is a predator. Of course even in this cold he doesn’t need a jacket.

He leans in to kiss me and I respond, so incredibly happy to have him here, to be in his arms. We kiss for too long and I remember why he’s actually here and pull away.

“One more?” he whispers, a devilish grin on his face.

“Nick,” I chuckle softly. “We have to focus.”

I see something in his eyes that hints at some smart comment he wants to make but then his face jerks to the side. His body tenses.

“He’s moving,” Nick says in a whisper, and he grabs my hand as he walks toward the hall.

I crouch down and watch Kyle through the crack, he makes his way towards the front door and ever so quietly opens it, then shuts it gently behind him.

“Any ideas on where he’s going?” Nick asks me from above.

“No clue,” I answer and stand up to open the door all the way.

“Let’s find out, shall we?” he says, his eyes full of mischief and his arm extended for me.

I roll my eyes at him and take his arm as we make our way quietly through the hall.

Nick motions that he wants to be the one to open the door and I nod in agreement. Here he is walking silently all this way and even though this has been my house for my entire life I still managed to step on two creaking areas. Nick opens the door, guides me through, and closes it silently, quickly grabbing my coat by the door. The guy could be a ninja assassin.

I peer down the steps and Nick swiftly picks me up and rushes on down before I could stop him. Again, he moves in total silence. I am in awe of my mate.

“Dang - did we lose him?” I whisper to Nick.

He just smiles. “Oh my lovely mate, you have much to learn about my abilities.”

I roll my eyes again but can’t help but smile too.

“This way,” he guides us down the hill to the right. 

After a minute or two I finally see the outline of Kyle up ahead.

“Is there anything out this way?” he asked me.

“No it’s just a bunch of suburbs. Houses. Parks. The corner store is in the opposite direction…” I think aloud.

We continued to follow him for a bit.

“We need to get closer,” I decided. 

Nick looks at me sidelong for a second then nods, and we pick up our pace and start walking along the other side of the street. Before I knew it I was nearly next to him.

My amulet started to heat up and I know what it’s trying to tell me.

“Closer,” I insist and start to walk faster.

“Al, are you sure? It’s a miracle he hasn’t already noticed us,” Nick asks me, keeping up with my new pace.

But there’s no time to respond to him. I need to get up there, to catch up to him.

And then I’m there, running past him. I turn to look at him and his eyes are open, but he’s not really ‘there.’ I stop dead in my tracks.

“Is he - asleep?” Nick asks, somehow right next to me.

Kyle doesn’t turn to us, he doesn’t notice us at all. Instead he just continues on downhill.

“What in the-?” I ask as we watch him continue on. “He’s sleepwalking. Is that even a real thing?”

“I guess we’re going to find out,” Nick says, grabbing my hand and heading after him.

My mind spun with more questions as we followed Kyle past block after block. What is going on? Is this why Kyle has looked so tired lately? And where is he going?




Rachel~

I woke up to bright lights and the sound of something beeping. It was so cold. Blinking as much as I could to adjust my eyes didn’t seem to help. Everything I tried to see, I instead could only see the figure from earlier. I was hit again by warmth and pain. Pain from my chest, like I had to put down a puppy. Like my mom had been murdered. Pain like… I couldn’t describe it.

“Rach!” Meg yelled and shook my arm a little.

I tried to focus on her frame but all I could see was a figure when I closed my eyes. And so I focused as hard as I could on this person, letting the warmth and grief I felt wash over me. I felt like crying. Like screaming. But instead I was stuck in my body again. Unable to show what was happening.

“Mija!” my mom’s voice sounded loud and like it was coming from right next to me. Her cold hands cupped my face. “Can you hear me?”

But I still couldn’t focus and so I reached for the figure in the shadows of my eyes. I reached for him. Him. I felt a pull, a tug in my heart.

“Rachel?” I heard a faint, pained voice ask.. 

I knew that voice. I know that voice. He was so worried. His voice came from everywhere all at once.

And then it was all gone again. I tried to hold on, to respond, but it all slipped through my hands like sand.




Nick~

We followed the red-headed fae for almost an hour before he came to a standstill. We had somehow walked up and over the mountain and were nearly in Melbourne. 

I wanted to wake him up a while ago but Ally wouldn’t hear of it. She said she had read it was dangerous to wake a sleepwalker. And as she pointed out, this was a rule for mortal humans, we had no idea what it could do to a member of the fae. Let alone one whose power is about sleep and dreaming.

And now he was just standing there. I looked over at Ally to see her totally concentrated on what was before us. Kyle was standing there, with a look I couldn’t name on his face, in the middle of a field of grass, surrounded by trees. I breathed out and it came out more like a ‘huff.’ Ally glanced at me but just then Kyle jerked his hand forward and walked further - into nothing. And just like that he was gone.

“Goddess!” I gasped, signaling Ally to turn around.

“Where did he go?” she asked me in a frantic tone.

I pushed some loose hair out of my face.

“Nick!” Ally shoved me a little on the arm. “What happened?”

“He just shot his arm out and walked like two steps and he - disappeared,” I explained as we both slowly moved to where Kyle had been standing.

The closer we got to where Kyle had stood, the more hair on my arms stood up. My wolf growled in my mind in warning.

I held my arm out, blocking Ally.

“Ally - my wolf really doesn’t like this. Something is just - not right - here…” I said to her as I held her shoulder.

“Nick,” she said softly. 

I didn’t look at her, I knew she would want to go closer and I couldn’t tell her not to. 

“Nick, you need to let me go,” she said again, in a soothing tone. I just held onto her and took a breath before finally opening my eyes to see-

Her eyes. Her big, beautiful brown eyes. Such strength and surety in them. I breathed again and released her. I believed in her and she seemed sure of what she needed to do.

Her amulet glowed as she took another step forward, but before she moved again she held out her hand to me. I took it without hesitation. And together we stepped into the unknown.