9. Meet again

After the first day when Amber Bay didn't wake up I decided that it was only natural that her body was trying to fight the crap and get it out of her system and that the best way to do it was while she was still asleep. I watched her all day, paced the room every now and then, and tried to eat something, but I was only able to take a bite before I lost all my appetite. Once there was a jerk in her body and I had sprinted to her side, but nothing else happened for another hour so I finally moved from that spot.

It was when the second, third and fourth day passed that I started to panic. Amber just laid there, limp as a doll and if it weren't for her heart beat, I would have called her dead. Her skin was deathly pale and almost translucent. I tried to give her some of my blood, thinking maybe it would help somehow, but there wasn't any way that I could get her to swallow, so that plan crashed and burned.

I was never a patient person. Ask anyone around that knows me. I never could sit still and let things happen. I went out and made them happen. I didn't let anyone waste my time. I never waited for a thing in my life and waiting for Amber to wake up was killing me. There was a chance that she would die right there on my bed and the fact that I couldn't a damn thing about it was killing me.

On the fifth day when I realized that staring at her wasn't going to make her wake I picked her up gently and took her into the bathroom. I balanced her on the counter and took a warm, wet rag and washed her face. The Amber Bay I had known never wore makeup and was disgusted with the girls that caked it on. I was shocked to see that with how much makeup she had on, she made those girls she scoffed at look natural. It took me three rags just to get it all off and that was just the face. I moved on to her thick, black eyeliner and mascara. Black came off in thick chunks and when I was finished I could see a trace of the girl I used to know. The bones in her face were poking out of her skin, but my old Amber was still there, somewhere.

Once I was done with her face I started to peel her clothes off. Not that she was wearing too much in the first place. I left on her lacy black bra-which struck a chord of familiarity in the back of my mind. I realized that it was the same bra she had worn the first night we made love-and her underwear. I turned on the bath tub water until the tub was full and the water was steaming. I laid her in there and scrubbed her short, red hair while remembering the smell of her hair when we went on our first date-the smell of hay. I rinsed off her skin and wrapped her in a white towel when I was done, thinking of the way her skin felt against mine. I dressed her in an old shirt of mine and laid her back in my bed with the covers up to her chin.

I sat right next to her like I had for the last couple of days and stared at her. I went over the features of her face again and again. She was still so different and yet still the same. Her clean scent wafted up to my nose and filled my senses. I pictured her face smiling up at me or how her lips felt when they met mine, or how her laugh made my heart stutter and made my skin blood pressure rise. I looked at that perfect face and wished she was mine. I grabbed her hand in a flash and squeezed.

"Please, Amber." I begged her, wishing she could hear me. "Please wake up. I love you. Wake up." I brought her hand to my lips and kissed it softly, reveling in the scent and taste that I hadn't experienced in five years.

I got up and walked over to the wall and banged on the side. "God, Amber! What the hell is wrong with you?" I turned to face her sleeping body. "Do you take pleasure for my pain? Drugs? Alcohol? Why in the world would you get involved with that shit? I thought you had more smarts than that! Apparently not." I slid down onto my knees and put my face to the ground. "Just wake up." I whispered.

Five days. She's been back in my life for five days and she's already thrown my emotions into the wall. She was destroying me from the inside out and I didn't care one bit that she was. She was everything to me, a drug addict or the sweet girl I met in Ohio. It didn't matter who or what she was. She was still Amber.

My cell rang, startling me from my crouch. I got up and answered it quickly.

"Jon?"

"Dad?" I was shocked to hear his voice after the conversation we had not too long ago.

"Where are you?" his voice was sharp.

For a moment I was lost. "Where are you?"

"Jonathan, just tell me where you are in Fort Collins."

Still a little dazed I gave him my address, not knowing how he knew I was in Fort Collins.

"I'll there in ten minutes." There was a growl on the other end of the line and then it went dead. I shut my phone, still not clearly understanding what just happened.

My dad? In Colorado? How did he know I was in Fort Collins? I shook my head. Ever since I was young it seemed like my father always knew where I was. I decided long ago that it was a parent instinct mixed in with his Werewolf genes. If part of his pack was missing he knew just how to find them. It always astounded me, but sooner after that he gave up on looking for me because I was always at a party. It's been a while since my dad has tracked me and it felt kind of nice to know he was looking for me. We still weren't on the best of terms from our fight before I tried to commit suicide, but the fact that he cared enough to want to know where I was made me feel better.

I looked over at Amber and went to sit next to her again. I grasped her hand in mine and brought her palm to my face. Her scent was cleaner today with fewer drugs. She was improving quickly. Her body was dispelling the poison at a fast rate that shocked me since she was so bad. I kissed each of her fingers, savoring the feeling on my lips. There was nothing better than this in the world.

Amber's body seemed to respond to my touch for the first time in days. She stirred as my lips caressed her skin and her mouth parted slightly. She seemed like she was in some sort of peace, like she had something she hasn't had for a while. Her eyes seemed to dance under her lids as my thumb circled the palm of her hand. As quickly as it started her body stilled.

"No." I whispered to her softly in her ear. "Amber, don't leave me. Come back." I leaned over and kissed her lips, sending a jolt of energy through my body. It wasn't just the feeling of pleasure that went through me either. Like it was actually energy. Or something like that. I felt something enter me but I couldn't figure out what it was.

"Amber?" I asked, hoping maybe she woke up from that jolt, but she was as still as the dead. I leaned my head on her chest, trying not to cry. She was here in my arms, but still so far away. Why did she have to leave me? We could have worked it out. At least I think we could have.

The door to my apartment opened and for a few seconds I didn't even bother to look at who had entered. For a few seconds I didn't even care. Al I wanted was here in my arms and she was still on the verge of death.

I turned to face my family and said the first words that came to my mind:

"I don't know what to do."