Starkissed

Chapter Fifteen

     When my fist connected with Kade's face, there was no crunch of bone or cartilage like I had been expecting. He merely stepped back, therefore lessening the strength of the blow I had landed to his handsome face. I knew he could have avoided my hit easily, but for some reason he had let me make contact. Probably because he knew that once my brain caught up with my body I would feel awful about punching him. Which, would be correct.

Bastard. My eyes narrowed at him angrily. As he stared at me with nearly glowing otherworldly blue eyes, looking neither shocked nor ruffled in the slightest, my fury sparked once more.

God damn it Emily! I chastised myself internally. Keep your damn temper in check!

I began to feel hot. Scorching hot, from the inside out. I felt the tickle of flames kiss my fingertips just as panic began to lodge itself in my throat at the thought of once again becoming a human fireball. Out of what appeared to be instinct, Kade wrapped his large hand around my arm. He ignored the flames that had already started to work themselves up from the tips of my fingers to the middle of my forearm.

He was going to singe his whole hand off if he kept touching me! Hadn't his family ever taught him not to play with fire?

I opened my mouth to protest further but instead of words, a sharp scream escaped my lips as my body fell back, barely managing to stay on the examination table as I crumpled in to myself, shuddering from the pain uncontrollably. This pain was nearly worse than anything the scientists had done to me.

I looked up at Kade through blurry, tear filled eyes as I convulsed in pain once more. He was staring down at me with wide eyes, seeming to be frozen in place as he watched me writhe in pain. His outstretched hand was limp, seeming to be stuck in his own head over what was currently happening.

Doctor Ama sprung into action immediately, grabbing Kade's shoulder as she wrenched his frozen body in her direction, forcing him to make eye contact with her. "Kade, you need to calm her down. Her body is succumbing to the radiation that comes from her abilities. She hasn't completed the transition yet and isn't immune to her power's effects until she does. If you don't calm her down, she will die. And she will destroy this entire building with her."

With horror filled eyes, I realized that my entire body was now on fire. I was beginning to catch objects around me ablaze. Ama had grabbed a fire extinguisher and was putting the flames out as they began, but I could see that she was still worried about the possible outcome here.

I focussed on my breathing, attempting to calm myself down. It was whenever I was seriously overwhelmed with any kind of emotion that this seemed to happen. Whether it be rage, lust, it didn't seem to matter. I watched Kade as he neared my smouldering body and raised his hands up in some sort of peace-offering sign. His expression was no longer stricken with panic, but with determination. I nodded, letting him know that I was okay if he came closer to me. Later... later, I would kick his ass for lying to me. For pretending that nothing was going on between us.

Kade brought his palm to my face, wincing as the flames danced along the edges of his hand. My eyes widened in horror; I was burning him. The anger and betrayal that I had been feeling towards Kade dissipated immediately, instead replaced with self-hatred and regret towards myself and what had happened today.

It was as if a bucket of ice-cold water had been thrown over me, and suddenly the flames were gone, vanished as if they had never been here in the first place. I sat up, grabbing for his hand worriedly as I looked at the angry, blistered looking skin.

"I'm sorry," I whispered brokenly. The words got lodged in my throat as I struggled with my emotions, coming out with a sob. I had no idea what I was doing. No idea how to get used to this new life, no idea how to take in all of the information that had been thrown at me in such a short amount of time. And no idea how to process that I was supposed to be with him... forever.