“Excuse me young man?” Cage asked staring at the young boy who ignored everyone else in the room as he walked over to Naomi and place his hands on her shoulders. “Hello?”

Asher ignored him and looked Naomi in the eyes, her tears burning him in his heart as he could feel the power threatening to take control while he fought to control it. “I couldn’t listen anymore, your sobs hurt my heart. That’s enough, no more,” he said, his voice calm but authoritative and it slammed into everyone’s heart.

“Master Alexander the third, you are not supposed to be in my office,” the principal said, hating the boy’s attitude immediately. “You are supposed to be in your class.” Everyone glanced from the principal to the boy who pretended to not hear him as he was still preoccupied with the girl. “Asher!” he yelled this time.

Asher ignored him as he wiped away Naomi’s tears and pulled her into his arms. Having him hug her seemed to have broken Naomi’s resolve as she started sobbing hardly this time. Asher closed his eyes and held onto her tightly, the power in him fighting to take control but he knew if he should succumb, he would be waking up to a bloody office. Only his Nightwalker’s powers can work here effectively and so with Naomi still sobbing in his arms, he turned to the grownups with his blood red eyes. “Trisha and Rebecca got into an accident and died, nothing more, nothing less. You would all leave here to grieve them and plan their funerals and no one is to talk about it ever again or what even brought it.” Done with his compelling, he grabbed Naomi’s hand and walked out of the office.

Detective cage woke up first and blinked twice, “my apologies for your loss, Mr. and Mrs. Harris, Mr. and Mrs. Richie. If you need my help in planning their funerals, you just have to ask.”

“Yes, mine too,” Marshall added.

“Thank you,” Trisha’s parents said with a sad smile, tears coating their eyes.

“We just hope you would make out time to attend,” Rebecca’s parents added.

“Of course,” the officers said and stood up. “Principal Hugo, we will keep in touch.”

“Thank you,” the principal said.

“I don’t know why I am here but I am really sorry for your loss. Maybe if you gentlemen have free time on your hands, you can help me investigate for my two men? I heard from their families that they went into the woods last night and they are not back yet.”

“That seem like a case for the cops. Let’s head on then,” Cage said and they walked out of the office.

Meanwhile, Asher took Naomi straight to the woods and when they got there, he said not a word as he teleported and they appeared right in the living room of his manor. Noami would say to have slightly gotten used to his teleportation that she wasn’t as shocked as she was last night. Asher led her straight to his kitchen where he fetched her a glass of water. “Thank you,” she said, taking it from him.

With a nod, Asher turned to the cooker to make them something. “You hungry?” he asked. “Mind you, I only know how to make sandwich.”

Naomi chuckled at that, “that will be enough for me too.”

With a nod, he opened the refrigerator and got out the ingredients he needed.

“Asher, do you think it would work?” Naomi asked after a moment of silent.

“Would what work?”

“What you said to them. Would they just forget about everything? Is that how you made my father forget about last night? And his men, the two ones that are missing, did you hurt them?”

“That’s a lot of questions in on sentence,” Asher said, pausing from what he was doing.

“Then can you answer them?”

Sighing he turned to her. “Yes.”

Naomi was confused, “yes?”

“Yes.” He replied. “Your three questions, the answer to them is yes.”

Naomi stared at him, thinking about her three questions but the one that shocked her the more was the last one. “Why?”

Without thinking, Asher knew where the why was coming from. He closed his eyes and bit his lower lip. “I had to. It was either them or you,” he glanced at her, his eyes burning red now, “and I can’t bear to hurt you, Naomi, I can’t. The thing is, little by little you are beginning to mean a lot to me. I can’t even begin to explain how that is possible. I don’t like humans, I really don’t.” he closed their distance and grabbed her hands in his. “But, from that night in the woods, that first night I saw you, I have become drawn to you for no just reason, a reason I just can’t say. I don’t know what it entails Naomi but I knew last night I can’t hurt you, no, I really can’t. And just last night I found out from my aunt that something big is coming, something big with me in the middle.” He sighed and walked away, “I don’t even know why I am telling you this.”

Naomi watched his back, she thought of the discussion she had with him yesterday, or the discussion she thought she had with him because every time she thought about it, it always seems like a dream to her. She gulped and her fingers tightened on the glass of water. “What big is coming?”

“I don’t know,” Asher replied sharply and turned back to her. “I don’t know, but I do know that whatever it is, I wouldn’t want you to get caught up in it, which means I should be staying away from you and I had it in mind to do that today. I had it in mind to meet you and tell you that I won’t be seeing you again or any time soon but then I had to come to the school and see how everyone was looking at you and suspecting you and I knew instantly, instantly that I can’t leave you at this moment. I can’t let you go through this alone. And the thing I fought yesterday, that creature, I’m scared of another one coming after you and I wouldn’t be there to protect you.”

Naomi nodded, “the thing yesterday, it was Jeremy.”

Asher frowned, “who?”

“Jeremy, one of our classmates that died two weeks ago.”

“How did you know that?”

“Right before you killed it, it showed himself and he…blamed me for what happened to him and for me not saving him.”

Asher’s frown deepened, “I do not understand, how is it your fault?”

“I saw his death, he had bumped into me that day and I had seen him, I had seen the Lorry smash him but I didn’t say anything, I didn’t call out to him. The guilt has been eating me up and it was why I told Trisha about hers.”

“Wait, he came after you as a ghoul simply because you didn’t stop him from venturing out that day and dying?”

Naomi nodded.

Asher stared at her without a word.

“What?” she asked.

“I told you last night that you interest me and that there is something about you I want to find out.”

“Yes?”

“Early this morning, I had wanted to stay away from you, to protect you from me from whatever would happen but now I can’t help but feel like you are going to play an important role here.”

“And why is that?”

“Because I do not think that a ghoul has ever attacked anyone simply because they could have stopped their deaths. From what I had learned about the ghouls last night, they feed on corpse, so why come after you?” Asher shook his head, “no, you have to meet her.”

“Meet who?”

“My aunt. She is a pure blood witch and like you, she sees future, things that would still happen. She has them like visions, just like you. From the start, I couldn’t figure out why a human could see visions but now, Naomi, what if you are a witch?”

“What?” Naomi was shocked. “Can you hear yourself right now, Asher?”

Asher ran his fingers through his black hair, “it’s the only way it would make sense. I mean, why on earth would you see visions if you are just a human? And why would I be pulled to you? Why am I pulled to you, Naomi?”

“I-I don’t know,” she whispered, staring deep into his eyes. “I don’t know.”

Asher stared at her hazel eyes and slowly, his eyes traveled to her lips. He could feel the urge like last night building up and once more, he told himself that it wasn’t right and it shouldn’t be now. He needs to figure out the deal with her first. However, even though he thought that, he could feel himself covering up the distance between them, like something was pushing him to her. He placed his hand under her chin, softly pushing her head up and his slowly lowered his head to her height. Their lips were inches apart and her scent was assailing his nostrils, making him swoon and just as their lips were to touch, he heard the voice loud in his head, ‘soon’ and he jerked back instantly, staring at Naomi like he had seen a ghost.