17. Janie
Chapter 17
Janie
T he shadows wrapped around my door, and the door swung open. I huffed as I glanced at Meical. “I could have opened that,” I said“I thought opening the door for the lady was respectful?” he asked.
I huffed as I walked into the apartment. “You’re not sleeping in my room.”
“Where am I supposed to go?” he asked with a wicked grin on his face.
“I don’t know. The shadows?” I hissed as I threw my purse down.
“You are my mate. I wanted to get to know you. My body craves yours. And I was using a bit of your body to regain my physical self. It’s just energy. It won’t make your life any shorter. It's a whole different experience when it's a mate.”
I whipped around, not realizing what he was saying until just now. “You could have taken away my life?!”
“I didn’t! I told you. And the dreams helped.”
I groaned and paced the living room. “Why couldn’t you feed off someone else?”
“You’re my mate. It’s different. Stronger. Better. And I don’t want to cause those feelings with anyone else other than my mate. I needed you. I did feed off others. But you . . . it was special with you. I learned more and more about you.”
I screamed as I threw my arms up in the air. I took my shoes off and threw them at him. He caught them with shadowy tentacles and placed them on the shoe shelf. With a forceful slam, I threw my body onto the couch and crossed my arms in a huff. “I’m sorry. I just feel violated,” I whispered. “After the other day, I’m shaken. I’m human. I don’t know what any of this means. Do you have more rights than I do because I am your mate? Half your answers are ‘mate this, mate that.’”
He sat beside me, and I felt his warm hand on my thigh. “I must be doing a terrible job at explaining this life to you. Years ago, I stopped feeding. When I did that, I became the shadows. I fed from you because I knew if I slipped into your dreams, I could feed off your sexual energy. No years lost. Just the energy. A sampler of the future. Our future.”
“So like an incubus. Like the guy you ate the other day?”
“His powerful emotions, years and?—”
I jumped back into the arm of the couch. “You took years from me?”
“No. I took your sexual energy into your dreams.”
“But you mentioned years.”
“That is what I did with the man in the shop. He had a dark energy. As we talked, I fed off of him. If I ate someone fully, there would be too many bodies. Now, he will turn weaker and his crimes will diminish. It can’t be tracked to me. ”
“That’s why the lights flickered? But they flickered here. Were you feeding on me when I was awake?”
“No, I was trying to communicate with you, but that did not work. You should learn morse code.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not learning morse code to communicate with a monster.”
He chuckled.
I huffed again and stood up. A cold tentacle grabbed my shoulder and twisted my body back to him. I stumbled and fell into his lap. More tentacles wrapped around my body, preventing my head from hitting the coffee table. As I sat up in his lap, I panted. His thumb grabbed my chin and tilted my head up toward his. Even sitting down with his human form, he towered over me. I bit my lip. “I’m just feeling raw right now. You said you’ve been watching me for months? Everything?” My cheeks warmed as I thought of the times I may have masturbated or looked disgusting on a day off.
Meical’s eyes darkened as he rested his head on my forehead. “Before you lit up my darkness, I was just a being in the shadows. Existing. I followed you. The desire to be near you consumed me, driving me to seek your company at any cost. I have been here for months. Watching you. Learning your preferences. You are the light in my darkness. I can’t help but to follow you.”
“You’ve been in my dreams.”
“I was feeding from you. I used your sexual desire to help give me the energy to step back into the light,” he said. With a deep breath, he let out a long, weary sigh. “Maybe I shouldn’t have done it, but since you are my mate, it was the easiest way at first. I could get to know you. Talk to you. Urien helped me with the incubus at the bar. I tried to give you pleasure?— ”
“You did that at work. I was so frazzled that’s why I accepted Rick’s date request,” I whispered.
The tendrils wrapped around my body disappeared. Meical pulled back. “Oh.”
Standing up once more, I couldn't help but purse my lips in annoyance. “I just don’t think you are thinking about this in a human way. Are you going to sleep on the couch?”
“I can fall back into the shadows like I have been living for years,” he replied.
“Don’t get into my dreams tonight.”
“I told you, I don’t need to do that anymore.”
I walked to my bedroom. “I don’t like any of this.”
He followed me and paused at my doorway. “How can I make this up to you?”
With a quick motion, I spun around and settled my hands on my hips. “I don’t know. I’m just overwhelmed right now.” Stepping into my room, I reached for the light switch and flooded the space with brightness. No matter where I looked, there was a shadow somewhere in the room. My apartment, my bedroom, my bathroom didn’t feel safe anymore. I took off my clothes and quickly climbed into my pajamas. He had seen every facet of me. Everything. I felt naked and vulnerable. I crawled underneath the covers and fell asleep.