Dreaming with you

Chapter 17

Amanda 

"Bastian", I tried to tell him that he is holding me too tight, but I couldn't breathe. The only thing i could do is tap his side with the palm of my hand. Both of my arms were locked inside his embrace. He finally figured out that he is squishing me and let me go.

"Sorry, I just missed you." He looked like he hadn't slept all night.

"Dreams?" I asked worriedly.

"Worse, reality", he hugged me again, this time, letting me have air. I put my arms around him, wondering what went wrong since last night. And then I figured that dreams were his reality, and I felt so stupid for letting this slip.

"What was it?" I asked him after we separated.

"Emily, you, but it is all so confusing." He sat and run his hands on his scalp, in I realized his hair looked a bit darker, which meant it was longer.

"Tell me", I neared him, sitting on the chair arm.

"Nothing new with Emily. All I see is her sorrow. But when I saw you. I flipped Amanda. I saw you covered in blood, you were alive and moving, but it looked..." he didn't finish.

"Maybe it was just a dream. Real dream." I tried to calm him down. Under my hand on his shoulder I felt his body shake.

"No", he corrected me." I never dream like that. It wasn't a nightmare, it was possible future." He turned his head to me. "One I won't let happen, do you understand?"

"Please tell me this is not the moment you tell me you have to let me go, because you think you are going to do that to me. Because hear me out, I won't let that happen." I used his words emphasizing each word.

"No, I am keeping you. I won't ever lay a hand on you. What I meant is, we will prevent that future. It doesn't have to happen."

"I am not scared", I told him.

"I am", he whispered, his voice so low that I barely heard him. "I found out what happened at the campus."

"Yeah, me too. Damon told me those girls are missing."

Bastian just shook his head. "No, they are not missing, they are lost forever. Somebody killed them, and they are pretty sure it was one of us."

"You mean..." I was terrified to say the word.

"Yes. You see, we have our own police, Special Forces you can call them, which deal with this things. I told you we don't drink from people any more, but like humans, we all have bad seeds in our community. They found the girls and hid their bodies. They were not a pretty site to look at."

"But their families, Bastian, they still hope they are alive. Can you imagine the torture they are going through now?" I jumped from the chair." It is not fair to them."

"I know, but it had to be done. It is just our way. We need to stay hidden from the world. Do you know what would happen if we are found? Slaughter!" He practically screamed last words at me.

There was fire in his eyes right then and I was afraid to say more. Not because I was afraid he would hurt me, but because he was so upset. I knew the subject was touchy, but his reaction was not normal. He went from calm to enraged in zero seconds. I knew he was paranoid from the moment he admitted he followed me to Oxford, acting as a teacher just to see if I knew something about his kind. That was not regular behavior, and I needed him to tell me why he acted like that. What happened to him to become petrified of someone finding his secret?

"Ok, I believe you, just calm down, please." I could saw from few feet away that he was shaking. I slowly approached him, but didn't touch him. You know I will never tell a soul, Bastian.