Chapter Sixteen

Messing With My Head

At some point in the night, the temperature seemed to raise to 110 degrees. I could feel it, even though I was dead asleep, and being that I was asleep, I was suffering the pains of suffocation when my subconscious mind couldn't figure out how to pull the blanket off of me. For awhile, I was fine being spread out and feeling as though I was baking in an oven. But then I started panting, and I was starting to wake myself up.

The thing about waking up because of heat is that it's not an easy thing to do. Heat makes you feel completely drained anyways, so it wasn't like freezing -- where you don't want to leave the warmth of your curled body heat . Instead you're problem is just waking up. And when I finally did wake up enough, I couldn't actually move. I groaned instead.

I started to push the blanket off of me, but then a second thought came. I turned over, and pushed myself over towards where Evanen was at the edge of his side of the bed. He was laying on his stomach, his head turned the opposite direction of me as he slept. For a vampire, Evanen seemed to sleep like any regular human could sleep, as though dead. And sometimes I wondered about that, especially after Mikel had said not even he could sleep like he used to.

Without even considering what Evanen would think, I flung my upper torso across his back, laying the side of my face on the base of his neck and my arm was laid on top of his, my hand stopping a bit above his elbow in a half-clawed position. The sudden wave of cool from his body was utter relief on my part, and I sighed before drifting back into a more peaceful sleep.

Hailence. Okay, so I spoke too soon.

I ignored that voice that had entered my head last time. But, like last time, a sudden notion to get up, walk out of the room, and travel out to the garden for some unknown reason moved through my brain coaxingly against my own accord. Don't panic, I told myself. The key is not to panic. And I kept my eyes tightly closed, my heart starting to pound in my chest.

Hailence, come to me.

Go away, I thought fervently. Leave me alone.

I can't. You've got to come to me.

My heart now skipped a beat, and I gasped. Not only was someone trying to tell me to do something by entering my head, but they could hear my own thoughts, too. I felt Evanen suddenly stir from beneath me, but that didn't make me feel better.

Don't tell him anything. Just pretend to sleep. And another notion to pretend to sleep before slipping out of the room and into my most likely doom flashed through my mind.

"Hailence," Evanen asked carefully, "What's wrong?"

I hesitated, breathing rapidly. "Help me," I said quietly, "Someone's in my--"

Suddenly, a jolt of pain ran down my spine as that someone yelled: No! It's important that you come to me! Come to me! Come to me come to me come to me come to me... The words were suddenly vibrating throughout my skull, as though they had lost control as to their direct determination. I dug my nails into Evanen's arm, wincing at the sudden, loud jumble of commands in my brain that drowned out any other sense of the world.

Evanen quickly reached back to grip my lower arm, and gently pulled me off of his back and onto my own back. He moved above me, his expression one of determination while he spread his hands on both sides of my head. My eyes rolled back into my head as all sense of reality was blotted out by the reverbrating words twisting around all thoughts left in my head. It was as though the words were destroying any thought it came into contact with; thoughts of screaming, struggling, crying... or breathing.

Without panicking, Evanen bent down and pressed his forehead against mine, and suddenly there was a third person within my mind. The third force, Evanen, wasn't a voice of any kind, but more like hands. And he started trapping the reflective words into his hands, before crushing them from existence. At first it seemed as though he wasn't doing anything, and I felt darkness starting to surround me as my body refused to take in oxygen. And when there weren't but a couple of repeating 'come to me' commands, another order came into my thoughts.

Breathe.

I gulped in air as though I had been drowning, and the relief flooded my own thoughts back into order so that the few commands bouncing around seemed in the distance. My eyes fluttered open to see Evanen's face directly above mine, his hands still on the side of my head. For a moment, I was about to ask what had just happened. And then as though the sudden attack of thought-commands had drained any existence of energy within me, my body gave up, and I was back into the pits of darkness that came with passing out.

~...~

When I woke up, I was the opposite of exhaustively heated; shivering from a dead cool that had decided to dominate my body. My eyes fluttered to see Evanen's unbreathing face in front of me, his eyes closed in sleep as he kept his forehead pressed against mine. As for the rest of my body, I was pressed against his body, and his arms were wrapped around me in a protective barrier while my hands were held between mine and his chest. For awhile, I just stared at Evanen with confusion as I tried to figure out the bundle of memories in my head. But then I could hear 'come to me' being repeated into chaos.

I started to see if I could just slip out of his grip, but I might as well had been a corpse. "E-e-e-e-e-e-v-v-v-v-v...," I got stuck on the 'v'. Still, it was effective, and Evanen's eyes snapped open to look at me with obvious concern and startlement.

"Can you speak? Talk to me; what's two plus two?" Evanen pulled back away from me a bit to get a better view of me, and I hesitated.

"F-f-f-f-f-.."

"Oh, God, you're verbally impaired," he suddenly said with an aura of doom.

"J-j-just...," I let out a breathe of air, rubbing my upper arms before I could blurt out, "Cold." He suddenly understood, and completely let go of me in order to wrap me up in the warming blankets as best as possible. It wasn't too long before I started to get the feeling of numbness out of my lips.

Evanen suddenly looked guilty. "I didn't mean to do that... I was just trying to..," he gestured towards his head sheepishly, "Keep people out of your head." I covered my nose in the blanket for a moment without responding to this statement.

But then I couldn't hold it in any longer. "What was that, anyway," I asked curiously.

He shrugged, sitting up against the headboard, "Seemed like a classic case of someone losing control of their mind-entering power. Usually its common if the person is very inexperienced... but this person could enter your head and hear your thoughts in the process, so I think it was more of a loss of control when it came to emotions."

I scoffed, "Classic case of mind entering? Since when is entering other people's mind classic?"

"It's an everyday thing in this world, but still.. I couldn't figure out who was in your head. They can cover up their tracks pretty good, and that tells me this person is probably capable of more powerful things. A vampire that can enter a mind, control, and hear while hiding themselves at once is a dangerous one." Evanen frowned, as though sifting through his own thoughts to check if he was missing something vital. But I wasn't worried about that. What he had just said brought a new thought to me.

"But you... can do all of that. At least the entering the mind and controlling... and even breaking control of others... along with blocking them out," I said slowly. Evanen moved his eyes from the wall to me with a look of inner amusement, but he didn't respond. "If you're so dangerous, what've you got to be worried about?"

"Not about myself," He said cryptically, but I could guess what he would be worried about. I continued back into silence, allowing that subject to be dropped. And then I moved closer to Evanen until I could rest my head on his chest.

"Thanks for helping me," I muttered, feeling the cold of his chest start to spread from the point where our skin met throughout the rest of my head. I listened for a sound of life inside his body, much as he had listened to the life in my own awhile back. There was a slushing sound, like something of a river being pushed sluggishly downstream. It was his heart. And even though it seemed like a slow, relunctant pulsing, it was pulsing nonetheless. It was somewhat of a relief, and I was satisfied in listening to something remotely human in Evanen.

"Hey, Evanen," I suddenly started, a question lingering in my head from a long time ago, "What's this talk about a Rising about anyways?"

The door to the room was opened without consideration of privacy, and Cecilian stood at the door with a look of distaste upon her features. "Evanen, I need you downstairs for your opinion," she ordered in an impatient, annoyed voice. I looked up at Evanen to see him not even showing a sign of obliging Cecilian's wishes. Apparently Cecilian saw this too, for she added quietly, "You can bring your bitch with you as well." I felt the sting of that term.

A low growl formed from Evanen's throat, and he snapped, "Fine." Cecilian glared at me before leaving the entrance of the room. I moved away from Evanen, who was suddenly more gloomy than he had previously been. I stood up and stretched, waiting to see what he was planning on doing. He stood up as well, slipping on a shirt from a drawer. Then he turned to look at me.

"Are you coming," he asked, and I noticed the slight hope in his voice.

I shrugged, "I guess." And I followed him out of the room, both of us being barefooted, and I was wearing my pajamas. It wasn't as if I was going anywhere special. Just going to watch an interaction between Cecilian and Evanen while being assured that nobody was going to attack me in his absence, especially since he wasn't going to be absent.

Evanen led me into the large living room, where Cecilian stood in front of a window and Mikel sat on the end of the couch reading a newspaper. Even though Evanen continued without hesitation, I paused, suspicious as ever and expecting to step on a mine bomb. Evanen turned around and gestered to the couch calmly before proceding towards Cecilian. Mikel looked up from the paper and glanced at me before continuing reading.

I went to the couch and sat down on the middle of it, leaning back to stare at my hands. Suddenly, Evanen and Cecilian were talking, but I frowned when all I heard was something of a "mlur" coming from both of them. Before I could wonder too much on that, someone was moved right next to me, and I turned to see Mikel sitting there. For a moment, I heard Evanen's warning on him accepting his vampire side, and I wondered if maybe it was true in how Mikel smiled assuringly, not showing any of the usual guilt in his expression.

"I thought you might want to read this," He said quietly, holding the newspaper in front of me. I continued to look at him, almost relunctant to look away from the only non-scary face in this house, but I tore my gaze away to look at the paper. One name screamed up at me, and I automatically took the paper.

"Nearly two months have passed since the passing of Kylee Madison and the supposed disappearance of Hailence Truit -- which has been updated due to evidence to an actually running away--, but one boy will not let this hold him back. Darwin Jets, furthermore known as D.J., is still on his search for his classmate yet.

'I don't actually believe she ran away, based on what I know of her, and I refuse to believe otherwise..' says D.J. And so this 18-year-old is raising funds in order to help bring Hailence Truit to the attention of the whole world, in hopes that at least one person knows where she is..." I stopped reading, biting my bottom lip. I suddenly felt inclined to cry, remembering the hurt expression on his face the last time I had saw him.

"Sounds like you have a knight in shining armor, there," Mikel stated with humor, and the image it gave made me break into a smirk. "Someone you know?"

I nodded, "Yeah, he... had a crush on me. Went out on a date once, if you want to call it that." I handed Mikel the paper, and he put it on the side table. I looked over to Evanen and Cecilian to see that they were still talking strangely, almost as though they weren't moving their mouths at all. I went back to frowning, trying to distinguish what they were saying.

"Cecilian doesn't want you to know what they're talking about. She thinks you'll get ideas," Mikel whispered slowly, looking from me to the two talking at the distance. I looked at him again.

"The Rising," I asked in a hushed voice, and he nodded carefully. "Are they talking in another language?"

Mikel smiled with amusement. "Not quite another language..." And he suddenly did the same thing, saying something that made no sense and was only spoken in a quick wisp. I just stared at him for a second, when Evanen suddenly had looked back to do the same thing, making Mikel respond before Evanen responded him... all so quickly that I hadn't even looked at Evanen before it was over.

"What... was that," I asked in utter confusion.

Mikel was looking at Evanen with a sudden guilt in his expression once more, and he looked back to me, wiping it off with a small smile. "He said not to mess with your head," Mikel stated, and I continued to look at him with confusion. "You know, talking like that so that you wouldn't understand what I was saying..."

"Oh," I responded, now understanding. "You don't have to be guilty about that."

He shrugged, "But anyways, it's not the concept of speaking another language. It's just talking extremely fast; such a speed that you wouldn't possibly be able to actually hear words. In fact what I had said to you was a page recitation of a Macbeth speech, but I'm sure all you heard was a mangled word."

Now that was interesting. "Do it again," I insisted, now completely looking at Mikel. His smile widened, obviously pleased with my attention, and he looked back at Cecilian and Evanen. He slowly turned back to me, bending towards my ear carefully, and Evanen's warning was once again in my head. But Mikel stopped just beside my ear, and when Cecilian started to say something to Evanen, Mikel suddenly whispered a breath of what sounded like air to me. I didn't hear a single word in that "speech".

"You think so," I suddenly heard Katha's angry voice from the other side of me, and Mikel back away from my ear with sudden surprise at her presense. "Who would've thought?" Katha glared at Mikel with such rage, that I felt afraid suddenly. I looked over at Mikel, but the startlement was now gone, and he glared back.

"I don't think you should be here," Mikel suddenly growled, and the sound of his rage was startling to me, seeing as I had never heard it once since I'd seen him. Katha seemed shocked as well, but she turned her expression to me and there was the eternal jealousy and rage in her eyes as she glared at me.

"Why not? Hailence and me are best friends," Katha snarled, and she gripped my wrist, tightening her stone fingers around my jello wrist until I felt the burning pressure coaxing me to scream. I opened my mouth, but kept the scream in.

"Let go," Mikel snapped, reaching across me to grip Katha's wrist. At first, nothing happened. And then I heard a crack and winced. It wasn't my wrist that cracked, though, for Katha let go of mine with shock as she grimaced at Mikel's grip on her wrist. He glared at her, and let go. "Don't touch her anymore, Katha. Go somewhere else if you can't tolerate her."

Katha looked pissed. "How is it that now you can tolerate her, when it wasn't too long ago that you wanted to drain her dry? How is it that now you can stand to be around someone so young and full of life," she asked in rage. Mikel continued to glare at her without answering. And suddenly I felt a sting on my wrist, just under where Mikel had bit me on the first night here. Before I could make any noise of a gasp, Katha pulled up my cut wrist, putting the bleeding wound to Mikel's nose.

Katha was suddenly ripped from me, and thrown onto the ground with Evanen standing above her in rage. Mikel pulled me away from where she had been, and gripped my wrist in his hands. "How can you not want to drain her now," Katha screeched, "You've been drinking human blood, haven't you? NOW you drink human blood? Just so you can stand being around her?! You can die, Mikel! I regret EVER turning you, you pitiful, disgusting excuse for a vampire!" I turned from her to look at Mikel, and he was back to looking guilty.

He pulled my wrist to his mouth, and I tried to pull away. "No, don't," I pleaded, now scared. Meanwhile, Katha lunged towards me, and Evanen had to snatch her leg to keep her from trying to rip me to peices. I closed my eyes in fear, but Mikel just trailed his tongue over the cut, stopping the bleeding.

Evanen pulled me away from Mikel, standing in front of me to snarl at him. "You stay away from her," Evanen snapped with rage, and he turned to Katha and Cecilian, "ALL of you stay away from her. If one more person tries to hurt her, I'm gone. No Rising. Nothing. I'm gone." And he growled at Mikel before pulling me out of their vision.

"Right in front of me and everything," He muttered with such seething rage. "Mikel, too. He's dangerous now more than I thought he would ever be. A late bloomer." I hesitated.

"I don't think so," I responded, looking back towards the living room. Evanen grabbed me by the shoulders, turning me towards him.

"Don't fall for it, Hailence," Evanen begged, "Don't fall for his trick."

"I don't believe he's trying to trick me, Evanen," I responded bitterly.

Evanen scoffed, "He's the one that was in your mind last night. Trying to get you to come to him so he could have you for himself. Notice how it happened only after he nearly killed you in the living room? And how he tries to get you to come to him by convincing you you're safe? It's his trick, and you can't fall for it. He's trying to kill you. There's just something about you that made him become an actual vampire."

I hesitated, remembering the voice in my head. It did sound a lot like Mikel, now that I thought about it. But I didn't want to believe it. He's the only one who's been nice to me, even when he was trying to kill me. And killing doesn't seem to be in his nature; at least in his emotional nature. He seemed more likely to be trying to be my friend rather than trying to kill me.

"Promise me you won't go near him," Evanen pleaded.

I hesitated.

"Promise me, for your sake, you won't," Evanen begged more determined.

"I guess," I said, "I promise."