AEGIS ↠ EMBRY CALL [R.U]

49| CAR RIDES AND LEGENDS

The light from the window woke Callas up. The curtain had been drawn closed, but there was still a gap between them which allowed for a steady stream of light to flood into the small room. She had fallen asleep by the time that she got back to the spare bedroom, not bothering to change out of her clothes and into something more comfortable. A part of her wanted to convince herself that it was all a dream, that whatever she had lived through yesterday was simply the result of her head injury, but she knew better than to believe that. It was all real. They weren't completely human. They were, to an extent, immortal, as long as they continued to 'phase' into a wolf. Something that happened because of the presence of a vampire. The bloodsucking demons with a thirst for sending fear and terror into the hearts of both innocent and non-innocent humans alike. A groan left her lips as she squinted her eyes tightly, rolling over to the other side of the bed, hitting into a warm body as she did. With one eye weakly opening, she spotted Reed sleeping with his mouth open, his chest rising up and down at a steady pace. There was a smile that reached her lips as she closed her eyes again, wanting nothing more than to sleep for a few more hours at least before she really had to wake up. It was all real, and Reed was a part of it. He was one of them.

     "Your heart rate picked up," Reed mumbled, not opening his eyes. "You okay?" His voice was low, almost a grumble.

     "I will be, one day." She sighed.

     "I asked Sam if we could ease you into the world first, but he said seeing it with your eyes would have made it easier for you to believe. He didn't consider the psychological strain it would have caused."

     Callas shrugged. "Either way, it would have ended up with me knowing about it all."

     Reed scratched his chest, letting out a groan as he sat up, rubbing his face with his hands. "I'm sorry that I caused you to faint."

     "I've had worse things happen to me, Reed." Callas moved to sit next to him, both of them resting their backs against the headboard of the bed, her hand raised to the bandage on her forehead, wincing. "At least you didn't hurt me."

     "If I didn't have control, I would have."

     "But you do. So, it's not something you should dwell on."

     "How old are you?"

     Callas rolled her eyes. "All I'm saying is, it could have been a lot worse." He nodded his head at her, glancing over to her laptop—with the screen no longer on. "Were you scared?" She asked curiously.

     "When?"

     "You first phased."

     Reed nodded his head again. "Terrified. It's not every day that you chase a vampire into the woods and transform into a wolf."

     She hummed. "How did you cope?"

     "It took a while. I almost tore Jared's throat out when I saw him. I didn't know what to do. But then I had this... voice, in my head, then multiple voices, I freaked out even more, and I ran. I just kept running before..."

     Callas heard his hesitation to continue and turned her head to look at him, gulping as her eyes stared at his face. "Before?"

     "I don't know," he whispered. "I stopped when I realised that it could have gone after you back at the bonfire." He turned his head to look at her. "I wanted to run back to you, but I knew you'd be even more scared than you already were, and Sam—" He scoffed, shaking his head, looking at the wall in front of him. "Sam cut me off. Got me to change back, took me here, explained everything that he could before I lunged at him."