Soul exchange

Six ~ What are you doing to me, woman?

Nyx jolted awake in the dark on a soft mattress she didn't recognise. Panic stabbed her chest, and she kicked off the weighted duvets searching blindly for the edge of the bed. Tears of frustration escaped when she couldn't find it. She whimpered as she crawled across what she assumed to be metres of mattress.

"What the hell?" she cried, curling into the fetal position and sobbing. "Where am I?" A door opened in less than a minute, and light poured through onto her tear-stained, blotchy face.

Warm hands cradled her shoulders, and a familiar voice silenced her. "Miss knight, you're having a nightmare. You're safe."

Peeling her eyelids open against the light, Nyx saw Neo's face inches in front of hers. His eyes appeared black, and she jerked away in terror. The brief touch in her dazed state was not enough for her to read his soul, but a sinking dread pooled in her gut. "Who are you? What are you? Why am I here, and why won't you touch me?"

Neo pulled back, his eyes returning to their dark brown, whites visible and bright in the darkness. "We have already had our introductions, Miss Knight. You fell asleep after washing your face and were having a nightmare." He cleared his throat slightly before adding, "I assumed you would prefer a stranger didn't touch you on the first night of meeting."

Nyx sniffled and leaned back, almost tumbling off the bed onto the hardwood floors.

How is that possible? It was so much bigger before. 

"What time is it?" she asked, hands clawing into the bedsheets as she found her balance.

"Three-thirty in the morning. Perhaps you should rest more, and we can talk when you wake at a more reasonable hour."

"No!" The word jumped out so quick that Nyx didn't even have time to process her reasoning. "I mean, no, I- Can you stay?"

Neo's expression faltered. "You want me to stay?"

"Yes. I feel safer with you here."

His face seemed dubious, and he looked to the open doorway as if he wanted to escape. The implication hurt Nyx deeply, and she stubbornly wiped another tear from her face.

Get a grip, you idiot. Just because he doesn't like you doesn't mean you need to cry! She chastised herself harshly, and Neo turned to face her with a sigh.

"Lie down and rest."

"But I-"

"I will sit over here. Lie down, Miss Knight." His husky reprimand made her quiver. It wasn't a sensation she had felt before, and she followed his order tentatively.

"You're not really twenty-five, are you?"

Neo groaned and rubbed his calloused hands down his face. "For all intents and purposes, this body is twenty-five years old. Now, will you relax?"

"Your body?"

"Yes."

"And your mind?" Nyx was half delirious from exhaustion which somehow gave her the courage to voice the conspiracies in her head. If she could manipulate the souls of others through touch, and he didn't want her to touch him, maybe he knew what she was, and he was different too.

"Very perceptive," his scratchy voice remarked. "I would say thousands of years old, but I assume you would never believe me, nor remember this in the morning regardless."

"Are you special too? Do you have... abilities?" That was the most Nyx had ever been able to articulate her gift. Every other attempt through childhood would have her tongue twisting in knots and aching. Even attempting to write it down made her pass out.