Bloodlust (The Blood Series #1)

Chapter 14

  I have lived in this town for all of my life. I know most parts of it like the back of my hand. Blood territory by the docks is the only one I have always avoided like the plague for obvious reasons but other than that I know my town. I watch as the my hometown passes by and notice right away when the car doesn't head straight home.

"Where are we going?" I demand. I'm so not in the mood for a road trip.

Nathan doesn't take his eyes off the road as he replies: "I said I was taking you to see a doctor and that's what I'm doing."

"I won't go", I announce adamantly. I'm pretty sure Nathan is taking me to some shady doctor who his gang uses to patch them up after a drug deal goes wrong or something and if I wasn't this tired I'd start a massive fight about it. I can't imagine Nathan selling drugs but the rest of the Bloods are a completely different story. And I don't think the Blood family has earned their vast fortune by working 9 to 5 jobs, generation after generation.

"I could just as easily drag you."

"No, you couldn't."

He gives me a you are kidding, right? look and I give up. "Not that easily, anyway", I grumble. The corner of his mouth curves up a little and like a thief in the night his hand rises almost as if to caress my cheek but then he stops, realizing what he was about to do. Oddly, I find myself wishing he hadn't stopped.

"I'm fine, I don't need to see a doctor."

Nathan suddenly pulls over although I'm pretty sure that's illegal without a stop sign or by the very least rest stop. Fortunately, our school is located in the middle of nowhere so the road there isn't exactly filled with cars but still. He should be more careful. I start to protest but Nathan pulls me closer to him which shuts my mouth right up. "Show me your eyes", he orders me then.

I pull back. "No", I huff and cast my eyes down so he can't see how terrible I look.

"Prove me wrong. Show me your eyes. If they are fine, I'll drive you straight home", he provokes me but I'm not falling for it.

"You'll drive me straight home in any case or..." I threaten but he merely smiles at my attempt. Probably my threats don't sound that scary if you have been dealing with bad guys since you could talk.

"Let me see your eyes", he asks again, this time gentler, softer. I roll my eyes but look up so he can inspect my eyes. I know what he's going to find. My eye balls are bloodshot from lack of sleep and after he sees them up close, there is no way he'll let me just go home. Nathan is such a meddler, he is always getting into other people's business, I think peeved.

But I lose my train of thought when Nathan touches my cheekbones lightly as he pulls me closer to him. The light flowing through the windows ignites my eyes. He tilts my head back and leans so close to me that I can feel his even breaths on my face. His scent, so new but yet so familiar, swirls around me, intoxicating me, bewitching me.

After he's done checking my eyes, he lets go of my face and offers me a small smile. "You know what I'm going to say, don't you?"

I nod grumpily. "Let's go see the wizard."

"You don't know how right you are", Nathan laughs.

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When we get to wherever we just got to, I put my school bag on my shoulder and slide out of the car. I slam the door and check the surroundings for bus stops or taxi places. I don't spot any which sucks. I'm stuck with Nathan as my ride so if he decides to yet again take a detour I'll have to go along with it. I huff and then look around some more. The area around is industrial, mainly small companies for fishing and such and then of course there's an army of warehouses.

Nathan reaches for my hand but I snatch it away. "I'm fine, I can walk just fine on my own--"

And of course right after I say that, I nearly fall because my leg hits a rock on the parking lot. The only reason I'm able to stay standing is because Nathan grabs my arm and steadies me.

"Oh shut up", I groan as I release myself from his grip, my cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

Nathan lets out a surprised laugh. Every time he laughs, I get the feeling he doesn't do it very often although being around me seems to crack him up all the time. "I didn't say anything", he objects.

"But you were going to, something along the lines of HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH. Am I right or am I right?"

"I would never laugh at you", Nathan tries to say but he can't hold his poker face even till the end of the sentence. His laugh rumbles around me and I find it to be one of my favorite sounds which is of course ridiculous because for the umpteenth time, I don't even know him!

But maybe I want to.

Nathan leads me inside to one of the grey warehouses. There's nothing special about this building, nothing that separates it from all the other warehouses. I start to wonder just what kind of a clinic is located in an industrial area as we walk into a lobby of sorts. It's decorated exactly like any other waiting room in a doctor's office, the walls are white and the floor is calming light blue. Few chairs are set strategically around the room with small tables next to them.

There's a man sitting behind computer desk facing us. "Do you have an appointment?" he asks without looking up from the computer screen.

"I don't need an appointment", Nathan says in a low voice. The man looks up and I can tell the exact second when he realizes who Nathan is because his eyes fly wide and his behavior changes from bored to hyper vigilant.

"Yes, of course. I'll go see if Dr Harris is already done with her patient", he babbles and scurries off.

I turn to look at Nathan. "That wasn't very nice", I chide him. The poor guy looked like Lucifer himself had decided to visit. Well, to him Nathan probably is the spawn of Satan. Much like he was to me only two weeks ago. I have never left him out on purpose but I haven't exactly gone out of my way to befriend him. No one has. It suddenly appears to me that in some level Nathan must be kind of lonely. The only friends he has are the people associated with his family a.k.a. the bad guys. Everyone else is too afraid to even talk to him.

"I don't like waiting", he replies. "Especially when your eyes look like Hell itself burned them."

"You are exaggerating", I claim although my eyes feel like someone has stabbed both of them. I'm doing better after my nap in the car but I'm still seriously sleep-deprived. I would love to lean on Nathan for support but I don't want him to know how miserable I feel. He'd probably chase the receptionist down until he took us to the doctor.

At that moment the receptionist returns and says: "Dr Harris will see you now."

"I don't --" I start to say. Something about this "doctor" is starting to feel really funky. If she's so good at what she does, why is her clinic here?

Nathan pulls me next to him so he supports a portion of my weight. "Let's go", he says and starts walking, me glued to his side. I lean on him heavily and try to stay awake. If I just suffer through this, maybe I can go home and sleep a little. We walk down the hallway and stop at a door. Nathan knocks and pushes it open.

"Hey, Dr Harris", he greets a brunette middle-aged woman who is organizing weird potions on her shelf. As we walk in, she stops and turns to face us. "Nathan. Who's your friend?" she says in a pleasant voice.

"This is Haley", Nathan answers and Dr Harris gives me a quick glance.

"What's wrong with her?" she asks bluntly. I get the feeling that she's very busy and Nathan and I have just made her day even busier.

"Nothing's wrong with me", I snap without really meaning to. "I just haven't slept very well lately, that's all. Nathan is overreacting."

I glare at Nathan who returns it. "Sorry not sorry", he replies and then turns his attention back to Dr Harris. "She can barely walk, that's how bad it has gotten."

"Shut up, Nathan", I groan. "What are you, my mother?"

Dr Harris smiles a little at our exchange. "How much did you sleep last night?"

I shrug. "I don't know. Maybe two hours if you put them together."

"What keeps you from sleeping?" Dr Harris asks. Face of the psycho who haunts my dreams flashes in my mind, as does his many victims and the grossly creative ways he ends their lives. But I don't always dream of him. There is something else, too. A nightmare that keeps replaying in my head, often interfering with psycho dreams, blurring them into a one dream. Sometimes in the middle of a dream I get pulled into another place. It's always the same. I'm running, something's after me but I don't know what. Every time I look over my shoulder to see what's chasing me, there's only darkness behind me.

"Bad dreams", I end up simply answering.

Nathan decides to butt in again. "Haley is a Seer", he tells Dr Harris. A Seer? What's that? And how does Nathan know that? I'm getting really tired of him knowing more about me than I do while I can't even remember sleeping with him. It just doesn't seem fair.

I turn to look at him. "Am a what?" I nearly growl. So nice of him to share that tiny tidbit. Here I've been doing my best to hide it from him just to find out that he already knew!

"You're a Seer. It means that you can see visions of past, present and the future", Nathan recites like he's memorized a certain part of a book for situations like these.

I glare at him with murderous look in my eyes which Dr Harris notes and says: "Nathan, would you go wait outside."

His response is unwavering. "No."

"Don't be such a caveman, Nathan. Get out", I command.

He raises his eye brows at me. "I thought you didn't want to see a doctor."

"I didn't but here I am so back off if you want me to talk to her", I snap. He gives me an intense stare but I don't buckle so he puts up his hands as if to surrender and reluctantly walks out of the room. When I turn back to face Dr Harris, she has a weird look on her face. "What?" I ask.

She gets over it quickly. "Nothing, I've just never heard anyone talk to a Blood like that. Or them to allow someone to talk to them like that. You must be something special."

I snort. "Not even close. I'm not even sure we're friends", I remark.

Dr Harris lets out a laugh. "You might be a Seer, Haley, but in some things you appear to be completely blind", she chuckles. Then she returns to her professional self which I'm grateful for. I don't want to analyse my weird relationship with Nathan. In my mind we just are and that's good enough for me.

"Your Sight has been overused, that's why your visions are probably getting less clear and harder to understand, some may even be mixed together. I'll write you a prescription for eye drops that will ease the redness and some sleeping pills. I must warn you though, they are pretty hardcore so do not under any circumstances mix them with alcohol or other drugs. And Haley, these bad dreams you mentioned... are they supernaturally caused?"

I nod. "Someone knows about my... secret and torments me by making me see his present or future as often as possible."

Dr Harris looks worried. "You need to get training in closing your mind from attacks like that. As a Seer, your abilities are wanted by many. Better prepare yourself for mental attacks as well as physical ones. I'm not kidding, Haley. Being what you are can be very dangerous."

"Isn't that suave", I mutter. This day sucks even more. Not only am I dying from insomnia but now I'm a Seer and on top of that one psycho already after me, others might be coming for me, too? I'm not really one for self-pitying but why always me?