Chapter 6 6
Kaelen's POV:
I saw her coming from the bench where I was pretending to read a book on medieval history that I didn't give a damn about, and something in my chest tightened in a way that made no sense.
I didn't even know her name yet, but I had already identified her. Her scent came first, something fresh and clean, like simple soap without the floral perfumes most girls used. Then her presence, that strange tug at my senses that shouldn't have been there for a normal human.
She walked looking at her phone, biting her lower lip, clearly lost or looking for something on the map. She wore jeans and a navy blue T-shirt, her light brown hair pulled back in a ponytail that swung as she walked. New backpack over one shoulder. First time on campus, it was obvious.
Keep your head down, I told myself. Don't look at her. Keep reading your stupid book and let her pass.
But then she looked up.
And she saw me.
Our eyes met, and I swear I felt something stir beneath my skin, that familiar warmth of my essence responding to... to what? She was human. Completely human. There was no way she could...
She quickly looked away, her cheeks red, and walked away faster than necessary.
I sat there, the book open to a page I hadn't read, wondering what the hell had just happened.
I should go away. Forget about her. I had classes to attend, brothers to look after, a whole life to protect. The last thing I needed was to get involved with the girl who saved me last night, no matter how intriguing she was or how strange my body's reaction to her was.
But I closed the book.
I got up.
And I followed her.
Not obviously, not like a stalker. I just... walked in the same general direction, keeping enough distance so she wouldn't notice me but close enough to follow her trail. My ears picked up the sound of her footsteps, the rhythm of her breathing, even her heartbeat, which was faster than normal, probably due to first-day nerves.
I saw her enter the science building. I waited a few minutes and went in too, pretending to look for a classroom while actually tracking where she had gone. Second floor, room 204. General Biology, according to the sign on the door.
Interesting.
I had my own classes: Comparative Literature, a waste of time but necessary to complete credits, and then some History that sounded just as boring. I forced myself to pay attention, take notes, act like a normal student who wasn't obsessed with a girl he met under the worst possible circumstances.
It didn't work.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw hers, dark and determined when she threatened those guys. Every time I tried to concentrate, my brain went back to that moment when she touched me and something inside me awakened.
By the time morning classes were over, I had made a decision.
I was going to talk to her.
Just to thank her properly. To make sure she didn't suspect anything strange about my healing. To... to see if that feeling had been real or just an invention of my imagination.
The cafeteria was crowded when I arrived. I looked for her with my eyes, but it wasn't difficult; my senses found her before my eyes did. She was standing in line, checking her phone with that focused expression she probably wore when reading something important.
I positioned myself strategically near where she would have to pass after paying. I pretended to be looking at the menu on the wall, calculating the exact moment.
She turned around with her tray.
I took two steps forward.
She bumped into me.
Her tray tilted and the sandwich slipped. I caught it before it fell, more by instinct than by design, and when I looked up she was staring at me with those huge eyes full of surprise.
"Careful," I said, trying to sound casual, as if I hadn't just orchestrated the whole encounter.
"I... I'm sorry. I wasn't looking."
God, even her voice was different during the day, less tense than last night. I handed her back the sandwich and blurted out that line about being handy, which sounded sillier than I intended, but she laughed, and that made it worth it.
We sat down. We talked.
And that's when things got complicated.
Because Annabeth wasn't like other people. She didn't accept easy answers. She asked me directly about my injuries, about how it was possible that I was okay, and I had to lie while looking into those intelligent eyes that clearly didn't quite believe me.
"Ice doesn't heal a split lip in twelve hours," she said, and she was right, obviously.
"No, but it reduces the swelling. And the lip wasn't that bad. Just a small cut."
Lie. It had been a deep cut that healed in three hours thanks to my golden lineage.
But she finally dropped the subject, though I saw the doubt in her expression.
We exchanged names. Annabeth. I liked how it sounded, the way the syllables felt in my mouth. I told her I had just moved here, which was true, but I left out the reasons why. I couldn't tell her we were running from people who wanted to drain our blood so they could live forever. That tended to kill conversations.
"This place is quiet," she said. "Boring, but quiet."
"That's good. Sometimes quiet is exactly what you need."
And it was. God, it was. But as I sat there with her, feeling that strange pull growing stronger with every passing minute, I realized that "quiet" was the last thing I was going to have if I kept seeing this girl.
But I couldn't stop myself.
I asked her to have lunch with me. I made up some excuse about wanting to thank her, when really I just wanted to see her again, to understand what it was that made my essence react that way.
She accepted.
She gave me her number, an action so simple and yet so charged at the same time. Her fingers brushed mine as she handed me back my phone, and again that warmth, that recognition.
When I got up to leave, because I really did have class, that part wasn't a lie, I looked at her one last time.
"I'm glad I found you, Annabeth."
And I meant it, even though I probably shouldn't have.
I walked to my next class with her number saved in my phone and a weight on my chest that had nothing to do with last night's injuries.
I sent her a quick text, something simple about meeting up tomorrow and thanking her again. She replied with a thumbs-up emoji, no words, and for some reason that made me smile.
What was I doing?
This was exactly what I shouldn't be doing. Getting involved with someone. Creating connections. Creating reasons to stay in one place when we might have to run away at any moment.
Lucian and Marlen depended on me to keep them safe, and here I was, chasing after a girl because... because what? Because her eyes made me feel things? Because there was something about her that my instincts recognized even though my mind didn't understand what?
I stopped in the middle of the hallway, students passing by me, and closed my eyes.
I had to be careful. Keep my distance. Not let this turn into something that would endanger my family.
But even as I told myself that, I knew it was already too late.
Something had started last night on that dark street, when she fearlessly got out of her car to confront guys three times her size. When she touched me and my essence responded as if it recognized something in her.
And tomorrow, when we had lunch together, maybe I would begin to understand what it was.
Or maybe I would just get myself deeper into something I couldn't control.
Either way, there was no turning back.
I put my phone in my pocket and kept walking to class, feeling the weight of her words still in my mind, the echo of her laughter, the image of her eyes that flashed red for a second when I looked at her in the cafeteria.
Wait, what?
Red?
No. That wasn't possible. Her eyes couldn’t flash in colors because she was human. I was so used to see my siblings’ eyes and my own flashing that I hadn’t noticed that before, especially because I wasn’t used to talk to basically anyone else apart from them.
I stopped again, my heart racing.
Red dragons had been the rarest, the most powerful, the first to be hunted to near extinction. And if she...
No. She was human. She had to be.
But then why did my essence recognize her?
And why, for a fleeting moment when our eyes met in the cafeteria, could I have sworn I saw a red flash in hers?