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“Ugh! Stop, dude! I don’t want any weird nicknames!” She closed her eyes briefly, inhaling deeply to steady herself. “Secondly, I have no damn clue what I did. It just kind of happened, jackass,” Erin's nostrils flared as she fixed her piercing eyes on me. “Any ideas? It didn’t happen until I touched your arm.” A faint blush graced her cheekbones.
“I’m not entirely sure either, Erin,” I ran my thumb and pointer finger through the stubble on my chin, contemplating. Her eyes followed the movement. “More than likely, it was probably just random timing. I mean, you’ve been around us most of the day and I don’t think I was the first person you’vehad physical contact with, right?” I could feel Derik grinning beside me. Libby had a glint in her eye; Josh, a shadow of some sort, passed across his features, and Erin…the peach tint that caressed the angles of her face deepened and spread down her neck, stopping at the collar of her shirt.
She began fumbling over her words. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Just weird timing. Josh helped me when I fell out of Derik’s truck at the plant and…after Libby had her flashback. Then on the drive here I was stuck between Josh and Derik.” Her eyes rapidly flickered between each of us. Mostly Josh and me. Erin bit her lip and her gaze finally landed on me.
My heart skipped.
“Don’t sweat it. It’s no big deal. For the time being”—I relaxed my shoulders as I smiled at Erin—“let’s focus on how you’re going to do it again.”
Chapter eight
Erin
Libby, Derik, and Josh worked with me for hours, pushing me in varying degrees to try and figure out how to trigger my little handheld lightning show. I was so exhausted and still felt like I made no progress. I flopped on Seth’s sofa, throwing my arm across my face to shield the ceiling lights from further permeating the headache that pounded behind my eyelids. Seth played spectator, laughing every time I got frustrated. The traitor.
Libby’s ideas ranged from replaying the whole situation out with her retro-what’s-it. She latched her palms onto my shoulders to try and bring the cause out. No luck. Just a lot of sweaty hand prints and Libby being overly positive.
“You can do it, Erin! Just believe in yourself!” I appreciated the effort but dear lord, there was only so much the positive-no-matter-what hype thing could accomplish.
Derik decided to throw a solid right hook into my left eyeat full strengthand knocked me unconscious again, leading to a concussion. Which he just so happily healed. Freaking asshole.Hours later my entire body was still sore and I was ninety-nine percent sure that was the main cause of the killer migraine. Derik might’ve had the power to heal damn near anything, according to him and Libby, but apparently couldn’t do jack-squat about a piercing headache that his ass caused. I called bullshit. Maybe not to his face but he landed his ass back on my shit list for the time being. The only upside was, after realizing I was actually unconscious, Seth whipped his ass.
Josh…was interesting, to say the least. He placed his hand over mine and nothing had happened. And that was entirely expected, given his ability wasn’t effective on other Nephilim. However, moments after he released me, the room faded…I was suddenly surrounded by pitch black. A harrowing feeling surrounded me. Then there was screaming. Blood. Everywhere. I couldn’t breathe. I felt as though I was suffocating. Then I was shaking, or rather, being shaken. The panic fell away and Seth, once again, shook me by the shoulders, pulling me out of it. When it fully fell away, I was pretty sure the look on my face matched Seth’s: drained and pale. Their eyes hollowed, as if they’d witnessed a ghost cross their path. Fear gouged my core. Josh’s face twisted and a shade of green tinged his skin, his jaw ticked.
Seth kicked everyone out after that. Derik and Libby complained, wanting to stay and keep ‘helping.’ Josh apologized, unsure of what the hell had happened, by pulling my hand to his mouth and placing a kiss right in the center. His eyes held mine, which had sent a shiver down my spine. Even thinking about it hours later, the way he looked at me, so devilishly handsome, sent another shiver down the length of my body. I sighed.
I have a panic rendering of the nightmare that started all of this and all I can think of is some ridiculously tall guy I just met.
What the hell is wrong with me?
I shook my head at myself, frustrated.
“I’m sorry about today, Snow. I didn’t think they’d all gang up on you like that. Derik…I should’ve warned you about that…his favorite method of finding answers, ironically, usually involves some form of getting physical. His reason behind it is that he can just heal whatever the hell he ends up doing. Libby, she…she means well, but besides you, she’s the newest to our little group so you’re the first Nephilim newbie she’s been around, besides herself, obviously.”
No kidding. A heads-up on Derik would’ve been helpful.
Seth sat down on the sofa next to me, slinging my legs on top of his as he did so. He leaned over and placed a warm towel across my arm, covering my eyes. “This’ll help.”
I hope so. I get it. Derik was trying to help but this fucking hurts like hell.
I took it and laid it across my eyelids, where the headache throbbed the most. I groaned as the warm towel instantly eased more of the pain.
“God, Seth, this feels amazing,” he chuckled as he traced circles on my knees. I felt myself relax a bit more, the aches from the day beginning to fade. “I could just lay here like this forever.” I sighed, not realizing I had said it out loud until Seth stopped mid-loop.
Fuck. He’s going to take it the wrong way.
I held my breath.
I can just picture it now. “Oh, you got the hots for me, Erin? Weird. Sorry bro, I’m just not that into you.” And then I’d hide in his guest room until he forgot about me or until I simply died from embarrassment.
But it's fine. Everything’s fine.
Oh my God, I’m fucking losing it. What is wrong with me?
Snap out of it!
“I know, right? Probably the best damned couch I could’ve bought.”
I breathed out, lifting the towel slightly to catch a glimpse. Seth had his head down slightly, staring at the spot where my legs rested across his, the smile that sounded in his voice not present. There was a twinge in my heart like there was a pull, an urge, to move closer.
