Prey.

36.

Neela woke up with pain shooting throughout her whole body, "hey. You're awake," Sean smiled sincerely all while looking at her vitals. "How do you feel?"

Neela tried to move at least her neck, but was stopped due to the fact that her entire body became rigid. "My body is on fire, my back is paralyzed." Neela spoke very tensely with her eyes closed.

"I know," Sean spoke from behind her, probably filling out paperwork, "you're gonna be in a state of paralysis for a few minutes. That's the only bad thing that comes with that power of mine."

For a few moments, it was really quiet. The only noises the could be heard were Neela's occasional groaning and Neela's breathing. That was the case until Sean spoke up, "when I first performed the power on you, you were so scared that you didn't even go through the paralysis. I'm glad you didn't, though. Ryan was sitting in front of you while you slept. It would've been a burden for you to seen him while paralyzed."

Neela said nothing. She was glad too, actually. She couldn't imagine having to stare at his face while crying, begging to be away from him, or even begging to be able to move. A soft knock pulled Neela away from her thoughts, Sean and Neela both looked to the door to see Ryan peeking his head in. "Hi, angel," Ryan slowly walked to her bedside to look at Neela.

It really wasn't that bad to look at him now, in Neela's opinion. It would feel even better to look at him if she knew everything. But, she couldn't—unless she were to live like them. Neela could never live this life like how they do. All she wanted was something simple.

"How are you feeling?" Neela was finally getting feeling back in her body, so she lifted her shoulders to depict a shrug. "Everything hurts," Neela spoke normally, "but that's really expected at this point." Neela spoke in her usual soft and meek voice, but she felt as if her words were cold and harsh. "I'm sorry," she spoke plainly with her head down as he sat up.

"Do you really think I'd get angry over something so petty?" Neela's head cocked to the side with her eyes closed as she remembered that Ryan said those exact words in her dream. "I don't know," Neela spoke monotone. She spoke as if she were a really bad actress reading a script. "The dream you gets so angry over nothing. I thought you would've been the same." Neela spoke the same words as wells. At this point, nervousness begun to erupt in Neela's stomach, her hands have begun to sweat.

Ryan shook his head with his lips pursed. "No," Ryan spoke seriously. "I am nothing like him," he suddenly grabbed Neela by the bottom of her shirt, "you know good and well that the human me is nothing like dream nor demon me." Ryan begin to look sad as he just gawked at his hand touching the fabric that had just touched his mate.

"Did you tell Sean?" Ryan spoke softly, his eyes still glued to his fingers. "Tell me what?" Sean looked away from his computer to his younger brother. "I can touch Neela by her shirt, see?" Ryan used Neela's shirt—almost like a leash—to turn her, so Sean could see it. "That's—I don't know how to feel about that. But I know it's a step in the right direction." Sean smiled.

"Now, I have a proposal of my own," Sean inwardly groaned. All of his old proposals always ended with Neela coming to live with them. What could he possibly want?! "I want to test and see that if she and I—or one of us—wear gloves, could we finally touch each other?"

Sean froze in his spot, his eyes widen. To be honest, no one has really though of that. Ryan could finally be happy with being able to feel Neela's warmth. It isn't exactly what he wanted, but he'd vow to himself that he'll get it someday. If Ryan wore the gloves all the time, it could help Neela not get hurt so much. "That's something none of us thought about," Sean leaned back in his seat, "we'll have to talk to father about it."

Once Neela was all ready to walk, they searched for Damien. They found him at the dining room table, eating steak and potatoes. "Father," Ryan chuckled, "why are you eating human food?"

Damien shrugged with a 'hmph,' sound. "I don't know. Was just curious as to how it tasted. It's pretty good."

"Okay. Completely off topic of human food, but okay," Sean quickly sat down in front of Damien. "Ryan cane up with an idea that was very brilliant. It could solve a lot of things in the house,"

"Really? Tell me, my son," Damien patted the seat next to him and Ryan finally let got of Neela's shirt to sit next to his father. "I was resting and I had a premonition. Neela and I were finally touching and it was skin-to-skin. We were talking about how grateful we were for thinking of the glove idea. If one, or both of us, wears gloves, then we can finally touch. It'll help my demon with control, father." Ryan looked deeply in his fathers eyes for any sort of rejection or mistrust, he found none of it. Except, his eyes lit up.

"That's actually a great idea," Damien leaned back in his chair and forgot all about his human food. "If you keep training and if it keeps going well, we can get thinner gloves for you to wear until it's just skin."

Sean spoke up, "you both have to remember that it's not gonna be easy nor will it be quick. It's gonna take a lot of time, patience, and practice. There's gonna be days where his demon will want to come out after being hidden away for so long, there will be bad days where either of you will be careless. There will be days that you'll be hurt, Neela." Neela nodded slowly. She didn't want to be able to touch Ryan. No one has even asked if she was okay with this, she wasn't! She just had to go with the flow.

Even then, if this worked, she would still have to deal with the depression and loneliness. She would still had to deal with the dreams. She would still have to deal with not being able to see her father. She would still have to deal with having no one who actually cared.