Chapter 7 - Chapter Seven

Arianne spent the rest of her afternoon in her room until it was time of dinner.

As she ate, she wondered how on earth Kieran and Jaxon managed to cook something so good. They couldn’t boil an egg without making a mess. She was enjoying her meal when Kieran told her Luca had cooked dinner. She choked and spat what was in her mouth onto her plate.

“Ari!” Jaxon looked at her warningly.

“Sorry,” she mumbled and reaching for her glass of milk. She took a long sip of milk, avoiding Luca’s gaze.

“Is there something wrong with the food?” Luca asked her, his voice smooth.

“No,” Ari said, putting down her milk. “It’s…very delicious,” she added, meaning it.

Luca smiled. “Good.”

For the rest of dinner, she could feel his intense gaze boring into her as she finished her meal. When she could take it no longer, she stood up abruptly.

“Can I be excused? I’m…full. And very tired.”

Kieran looked up from his plate. “Oh, okay. Goodnight,” he said, holding his arms out for a hug. She leant down, wrapped her arms around him, pulled away, and disappeared into her room, where they could hear her scream into her pillow.

Jaxon spun Ari’s empty glass on the table while Kieran focused on what was left on his dinner and Luca stifled a smile.

Kieran yawned. “I don’t know about you, but I’m gonna crash early tonight.”

Jaxon looked at him in disdain. “You slept till one in the afternoon and then had a three-hour nap afterwards and you’re already tired at nine in the evening. I haven’t slept in more than a hundred years.”

“Well, need I say that you’re not human? Or have you figured that out already?” Kieran snapped.

Luca stood up. “I’ll leave you two to your…uh, bickering. I’m going to sleep now.”

Kieran and Jaxon looked at each other as Luca walked out of the room. “Bickering?” Kieran exclaimed. “We need to teach this boy some manners.”

Luca opened the door to Ari’s—well, his and Ari’s for the time being—room. He went inside and saw Arianne sitting on the bed. She was hugging her knees and staring into blank space.

“Ari?”

“Arianne. Only my friends call me Ari,” she said, snapping out of her reverie.

“Sorry,” Luca said, sounding genuinely sincere. He walked over and sat down on the bed beside her. She shifted away from him.

“Arianne, are you okay?”
She didn’t answer him; she was too busy thinking about how good her name sounded when he said it. Arianne. It was like an angel singing.

“Arianne?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Are you—”

“I’m going to brush my teeth,” she announced, interrupting him. She jumped off the bed and stalked into the bathroom. When she came back, Luca opened his mouth to say something, but Ari beat him to it.

“I’m really tired. I want to sleep now,” she said, not wanting to hear his voice. She climbed under the covers.

“Right. Sweet dreams, then.” He sat on the floor, watching her.

Arianne felt a twang of annoyance. “What are you doing on the floor?”

“Letting you sleep,” he said simply.

“But where are you going to sleep?”

“On the floor.”

“But…” she shook her head, frustrated. “Don’t be silly.”

“How is it silly?”

“It’s freezing. You’ll have turned into an ice statue by the morning.”

“So?”

She was getting seriously annoyed now. “Get in here,” she said.

He stood up. “Only if you don’t mind.”

She pursed her lips. As much as she hated him, she didn’t want to wake up and see him dead by morning. “I don’t mind.”

One side of his mouth pulled up into a half-smile. “I must remark on how sincere that sounded.”

“Then you don’t have much to remark on, do you?” She shot back.

He chuckled and slipped under the covers next to her.
Ari shifted uncomfortably. The bed suddenly seemed too small. She could feel the heat, the warmth radiating from his body. She was freezing. She shivered.

Luca looked at her. “Are you cold?” He asked, shifting closer to her.

“No, I’m fine,” she said, budging up the furthest end of the bed so that she was pressed against the wall. The ice-cold, freezing wall.

He grabbed her hand. “But you’re shivering,” he protested, frowning. “Are you sure—”

She pulled her hand away. “So,” she said, interrupting him (again). “What do you think of Ki and Jax?”

Luca looked at her, still frowning slightly, but he answered her question after a moment. “They’re really nice about me being here, unlike some people.”

Ari, who didn’t like where the conversation was going, looked for a way to change the subject. “No, I mean about them not being human.”

“Well, I’m not having any trouble getting over it. I mean, they’re so nice and hospitable and everything. Just because they’re not human doesn’t mean they’re evil or bad or anything like that.”

“Mm.”

He paused. “How are you taking it?”

“I’m taking it just fine. I’ve known them for fifteen years. They brought me up. They’re like, my best friends and my family.”

“No, I mean about you not being human.”

She looked up at him then, and found herself unable to look away from his gaze. He looked into her eyes, his midnight blue eyes probing. She suddenly felt extremely vulnerable and extremely bare, as if he could see right through her.

“Arianne, you may want to breathe,” he reminded her after a few seconds.

“Uh, yeah, right.” She dragged air into her lungs and forced it out again. “I was…I don’t know what came over me.”

His eyes darkened in colour—if that was possible—capturing her gaze even more intensely. “Do you really not know?”

She retreated as close as possible to the wall. “No, I don’t,” she managed to choke out.

He cocked his head sideways. “Well,” he said at last. “If you say so.”

“I do say so.”

Suddenly, she was very aware that he was very close to her. Close as in, move-even-the-teeniest-bit-and-she’d-touch-him close. He reached up and tucked a strand of black hair that had fallen over her face behind her ear. She shuddered at his touch and looked down, feeling the heat in her cheeks.

“You still haven’t answered my question yet. How are you taking it?”

“Just fine,” Arianne breathed.

She felt his fingers find her chin and gently tilt it upward so that he was looking straight into her eyes. “Would you like me to tell you something?”

Arianne, with some difficulty, dragged another lungful of air in. “Be my guest.”

“I’m not human, either.”

Arianne froze. “What?

“I’m…not a vampire, or a werewolf. I’m…a mixture of different things. Just like you.”

“Oh. And uh, what are you a mixture of?”

“I’m half human, half dragon.”
“You’re a dragon?” She asked him, frowning.

“Well…half of it.”

Arianne snorted. “If you say so.”

“I do say so.”

She looked up. “You have to stop copying everything I’m saying.”

He looked into her eyes. “I’m not.”

She looked away. “Is that why you know they’re not human?”

“Yeah. We can always tell whether other people are human or not.”

“No wonder Ki and Jax always looked a bit…different.”

“How about me? Do I look different?”

Ari gritted her teeth. “I don’t know. I don’t look at you much.” She turned onto her side so that he was behind her. “I’m going to sleep now. Good night.”

He leant close to her. “Sweet dreams,” he whispered, his breath tickling her neck. Arianne felt her stomach flip, but she tried her best to ignore it as she stared at the wall, because somehow, Luca’s presence made it impossible to sleep.

After a few hours, Arianne was completely nerve-wracked. She had been telling, no, begging, for herself to fall asleep, to no avail. She turned around and found herself face to face with Luca.

“Oh,” she exclaimed. “Sorry. Did I wake you?”

“No. Why are you still awake? It’s almost one in the morning.”

“I can’t sleep,” she moaned, rubbing her hands over her eyes. “I’m so tired.”

“What’s on your mind?” He asked her.

She looked at him, surprised. “Nothing.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Nothing?”

She gritted her teeth. “Nothing,” she repeated forcefully.

He sighed. “Fine, now we have to find a way to get this…‘nothing’ out of your mind,” he said.

She shot him a look. “And how will we do that?”

“Oh, I have a few ideas,” he said, smiling that half-smile of his.

She rolled her eyes. “Keep your hands to yourself.”

Luca laughed softly and tilted her chin up again. Arianne was extremely aware to the fact that she was heating up. Not only her cheeks, but her entire body was heating up. She shivered. Luca laughed again.

“What?”

“It’s just that you do that whenever I touch you,” Luca explained. “I find that amusing.”

“Amusing?”

“Yes. Amusing.”

Arianne pursed her lips and fought the urge to punch him.

“How long has it been since you’ve hugged someone?” Luca asked suddenly.

She looked at him as if he had just told her he showered ten times a day. “Uh well, I don’t know. I hug Ki and Jax everyday.”

“No, not one of those I-put-my-arms-around-you-and-then-let-go hugs. I mean the deep, long, meaningful ones. The ones that chase away all your problems and make you temporarily forget everything, and the only thing you remember and know is that you’re in the arms of someone else.”

Arianne realised that this must have been the longest sentence she had ever hear him say. She thought about mocking him about it, but decided against it. “Well, then I guess I haven’t had one in a long time.”

“Neither have I.” He slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her away from the wall and towards him.

“Hey! What the hell are you doing?” She protested, trying ineffectively to push him away.

Luca ignored her. “I’m guessing one of the reasons you can’t sleep is because you were practically lying against that stone cold wall.”

“That may have been a reason,” Arianne said, gasping for breath as he drew her close.

He looked at her. After some hesitation, she slid her arms around him and hugged him for about a second. Just when she was about to pull away, he spoke.

“Cara,” he said softly. “That was not a hug.” Arianne looked at him, surprised at the term of endearment that had just been used on her.

He smiled and tightened his arms around her. As he pulled her even closer to him, Arianne could smell the scent of his shampoo. His hair was still slightly damp from his shower. She breathed in, and almost instantly, she forgot everything. She lost herself into an imaginary world where nothing was wrong. She closed her eyes and before she knew it, her exhaustion overcame her, and she fell into a deep sleep.

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