Amber Dusk | OLD Version

☼ Chapter VIII ☼

picture; Sonya Reinove

song; "Cry Little Sister" by Aiden (it really, really describes Lorelai's relationship with her brother)

author's note; This isn't a new chapter! I am shortening and editing chapters so they aren't 20-30 pages long. I didn't realize how long they were, and it gets boring reading a chapter so dragged out. The real chapter 7 will be posted at the end of August!

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I hadn't even bothered to say goodbye to Derik after I changed. What he had said before had not only really made me mad, but it hit a nerve. Rushes of memories assaulted me again and again—Lainey, Gavin, my parents, Cetilayn. I suddenly felt horrible as I remembered I never tried to contact Lainey or Gavin since coming to the Academy.

I wonder what Lainey thought when I disappeared—when Meredith disappeared. Did she think I started the Change and ran away like Cetilayn? Did she try to talk to Colton about us? What did he say to her, knowing my mom had been killed?

Sighing and shaking my head, my hand deftly shoved my dorm key into the lock and I pushed the door open wide.

All the lights were off and I guessed that Ankiel and Trent were in classes. I still didn't even know which one of them was my roommate, but honestly, they both would probably be around a lot regardless of who my roommate was.

A small part of me hoped it was Trent.

Those violet-amber eyes flicked across the forefront of my mind, and a small smile threatened to settle itself onto my mouth. The way he had pulled me behind him and the crackling ghost of sparks reminded me of someone else—someone I was still currently pretty annoyed at.

Regardless of my feelings toward Derik, both the feelings born from the Mate pull and the anger, something about Trent intrigued me to no end.

Why did I feel myself being pulled toward him in the same way I was drawn to Derik?

My mind was so preoccupied with thoughts of Trent that when I tugged my book bag up from the floor, I almost didn't notice Eloize's journal and had turned to leave the room.

Luckily I was digging through it to make sure I had everything I needed, and realized it was missing. Twisting around, I furrowed my brows together in confusion.

Last night when I woke up from my dream, her journal had still been inside my book bag--because I hadn't ever taken it out to begin with. With slow, cautious steps, I moved back over towards my desk.

Eloize's journal lay face down, opened. Shaky fingers reached out to grab the leathery-soft book, and when I flipped it over to the page it was on, the excerpt was the last I remembered reading about Eloize being Mated to an Olicidove Lycan.

It was on the exact page I had read right before I was choked.

A flash of pain arched across my temples and wintry air suddenly gusted passed me. Swirling around, I suddenly realized that one of the doors leading out to the veranda on the far side of my room was wide open.

My feet rushed in that direction and I leant out over the edge of the balcony and peered down into the rush of the dormitory halls below.

At the back of my mind, I remembered feeling cold last night when I woke up before Trent and Ankiel had come in. How had I not noticed the balcony door was open?

It was easy to note that nothing looked out of the ordinary as I peered down over the edge of the railing, and I stumbled backward as the itchy sensation of being watched curdled over my skin.