A/N:
Released on January 16, 2019

Omg I'm keeping up with my unofficial schedule! It's Wednesday, which is supposed to be an update day, along with Saturday.

We'll see if it lasts XD

Anyway, I was glad when I named the chapter and it turned out to be a literal and metaphorical thing :)

Enjoy!

Word Count: 2457

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Chapter 37: Bright Spots in the Dark

Anthony left as promised, after making sure we knew that we were welcome to anything in the kitchen.

I was a little hungry, despite the fact that I'd been having a good intake of blood recently.

We still felt hungry from time to time, probably a habit that our bodies were used to from when we were human.

And it had been a while since I had something to eat, my meals being consisted of blood ever since I left home.

I searched inside the fridge for food, finding a few types of meat and some cheese for sandwiches.

I held it up to show Zane, to which he nodded his head that it was fine. He found the bread in a drawer and grabbed the other stuff from me, insisting that I sit down.

I settled into a seat at the kitchen table, watching with a content smile as he prepared the food.

I turned to where I set my bag down beside me, quickly rummaging through it for my phone. Remarkably, I found it toward the bottom of the bag unharmed.

I went to my contacts folder, wondering if I should text my mom to let her know that I was okay.

I figured that would be best, seeing as I'd been gone for a few days.

So I typed out a message, making sure that it was short and sweet. I hit send just as Zane set a paper plate in front of me that held my dinner.

At least, I was pretty sure it was dinner time since I could see the sun setting through the blinds.

My eating schedule was very off due to the fact that I hadn't had actual food in a while, plus we usually just drank blood whenever we needed to.

That's what happens when you're on the run.

I set my phone down to eat with my boyfriend, both of us munching on salami and cheese sandwiches, along with some applesauce that he found in the fridge.

It might've been small, but the normalcy of it made the meal perfect.

But as soon as we were done and the disposable plates had been thrown away, my worries came flooding back to me.

I stared at my cell, feeling the need to make another call.

The first person in my contacts was Ash, being first in alphabetical order. He was the one I needed to call, to let him know what was going on and to see if he was okay.

I could reach out to him telepathically, but I didn't want to waste the energy or run the chance of scaring him. It probably freaked people out when I spoke in their minds...

"What are you up to?" Zane asked absentmindedly, not sounding all that curious.

"I'm going to call Ash." I told him as I stood from my seat, having decided on the matter.

His eyebrows were raised when I glanced at him on my way to the living room, but he didn't say a word.

The phone rang multiple times while I took a seat on the couch. Just as I thought he wouldn't answer, his voice came through. "Alicia?"

"Hey, Ash." I said in a neutral tone, as if everything was normal. "I just wanted to tell you what's been going on, and see what's up with you."

So I told him what happened, explaining that we were found by Storm's vampires and that they found us because of a spy in the Topeka hunters.

Ash was silent for a moment before he answered in a hushed voice, as if he was trying to hide his emotions. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you."

"No, this isn't your battle to fight." I brushed it off, no longer that upset with him for leaving us. "Besides, didn't you mention something in that note you left about possibly getting rid of the hunters? What happened with that?"

There was a pause as he recalled what went on that day. "Yeah, you don't have to worry about them. I sort of chased them off."

"That's good." I replied slowly, thinking it was better to not ask for clarification.

"Well, it was nice catching up. Call me if you get into trouble." Ash offered, although I didn't know how he'd be able to help, or if he'd be willing to if I did call on him.

"Sure." I agreed, not bothering to speak my negative thoughts.

We exchanged quick goodbyes and I hung up the phone, setting it back in my backpack.

Zane was there before I knew it, grabbing my hands to pull me from my seat and spin me around.

He pulled me in close like we were dancing, an amused smirk on his face as I looked at him with wide eyes.

"Oh, so you're not going to mope because this is Anthony's house and you don't trust him?" I quipped, having thought that it was exactly what he might do.

He gazed off as if he was pondering the idea. "Nope. I'm not in the mood for that."

I smiled at the sudden optimism, unable to help it as a bit of happiness surged through me from having that moment with him.

"What are you in the mood for?" I asked as he held me at arm's length, staring at me with an unreadable expression.

He guided me back to the couch, pulling me down next to him as he intertwined our fingers. "How about some relaxing time, just the two of us?"

"Sounds good to me." I replied, tired from all of the telepathy and physical fighting that had gone on. I pulled my hair from its ponytail, letting it rest on my shoulders.

Neither of us moved from our spots, arms pressed against each other as we stared. I thought about falling asleep with my head on his shoulder, but I had a feeling that it wasn't time for that.

The way that Zane was looking at me, eyes filled with what could only be admiration, made me hesitate.

"What?" I managed to whisper, wondering what he was thinking about.

He reached out with his free hand to brush the hair out of my face, tucking it behind my ear and leaving his hand there to caress my cheek. "I just can't believe we're here, sitting in a house alone, in a town with no other vampires. We can finally relax for a second."

I knew where his thoughts were headed when he glanced away from me briefly, trying to hide the look of concern.

I put my hand over his, keeping it against my skin while gaining. "We'll have more time like this. You're the one who's usually the one telling me that we can do this. We can get your telepathy back and find my brother."

Zane's lips settled into a bittersweet smile, one that I recognized from when I was struggling to stop my worrying and just enjoy the uninterrupted moments we had.

I let go of his hand, leaning closer until our lips brushed against one another, knowing that would get his mind off of things.

He made an almost imperceptible noise of surprise but responded instantly, his hand migrating from my face to my lower back to pull me closer.

I knew I couldn't let it go further like last time, since I'd only meant it to be a reassuring kiss. So I removed my lips from his, creating a few inches of space between us.

Zane opened his eyes, darkened considerably from our actions and his yearning to be closer to me. He blinked and it was gone, eyes back to normal and him back in control of his emotions.

I pulled him in for one last soft kiss before exiting his personal space. "Why don't we go to sleep? It's been a long day."

He nodded in response, turning off the light in the living room and meeting me in the guest bedroom after we'd both dressed in something more comfortable from our bags that we packed, which held our few personal belongings.

I fell asleep pretty quickly in the bed next to Zane, but after a few hours I became restless.

I eventually decided to give up on sleep for a while, scooting to the side of the bed and putting my bare feet on the carpeted floor.

My boyfriend stirred for a second, but continued sleeping on as if nothing happened, so I took that as a sign to leave the room before I accidentally woke him.

I made my way to the window in the living room, kneeling in front of it and peeking out the blinds to study the calmness of the street.

No one was outside but the moon, high up in the sky to give a little light to the dark night.

A lone street lamp sat a few houses down, giving enough light for my vampiric sight to see everything clearly as if it was daylight.

That's how Zane found me a few minutes later. I was so focused on the outside world that I didn't hear him coming up behind me.

"Couldn't sleep?" He questioned, taking a seat beside me. I only shook my head in response.

He was silent for a few minutes, giving me time to think. "Back when I had trouble sleeping, I'd do some telepathy training. It helped to be focused on something, to block out all of the thoughts that were keeping me awake."

"It's so nice out." I replied, thinking that he had the right idea. "Do you want to go in the backyard and train?"

~*~

We spent hours outside, working on making me stronger so that I could use more telepathy without getting exhausted.

Our breaks consisted of lying in the grass, staring up at the moon and the stars that were so far beyond our reach.

I was more determined to learn what I needed to, so when Zane told me not to hold back too much when he stepped up to be my fighting dummy, I didn't hold back.

I made sure not to hurt him badly, but I tested out different techniques that could be used on a telepath, practicing for the upcoming day when I'd most likely have to fight Storm's telepath.

After I felt confident in my abilities, about four and a half hours later, we went back to sleep and stayed there until around nine in the morning, when my grumbling stomach demanded food.

Apparently, I'd taken a liking to human food again, which was great for when I went back home, but not so great for when I didn't have the time to eat.

Fortunately, we had some time that morning.

~*~

After a quick breakfast, Zane said he wanted to head into town and find a map to make sure that when we left we'd be going in the right direction.

Once we had the item of choice, we hurried back to Anthony's house to study it.

Zane showed me the route we would be taking to get to our destination, and approximately where it was at on the map.

Just as he'd said before, the building looked to be in the middle of nowhere.

I noticed something odd then, a path that we should've taken to get to where we needed to go.

A frown formed on my face as I pointed it out. "Zane, why didn't we go straight to Marysville, instead of going to Topeka? It would've been faster that way."

"Well..." He started off, sounding like he didn't know the answer to that himself. Or like he was making something up. "I didn't know exactly which way to head, so I just headed in the general direction we needed to go."

"Plus, after that werewolf attack when you asked Ash where to go for a safe place to stay, he told you about his old house that was near Topeka." He reminded me, but I wasn't convinced.

"Yeah, but we were headed for Topeka from the very beginning, based on this map." I indicated.

When he doesn't speak up, an accusation comes to mind and falls easily from my mouth. "You were taking us the long way on purpose, giving us more time because you didn't think we could do this."

He became flustered while trying to defend himself. "No! It's just that I knew we needed to get some training in."

That only made me more frustrated, wondering if all of that talk of hope before was a load of crap. "So you did do it on purpose, because you knew I wasn't ready yet!"

Zane shook his head, irritation sparking in his eyes as he struggled to find the words.

He finally just blurted it out. "No, Alicia. You're not the one who's not ready, okay? I am. I'm not ready."

I openly stared at him, unsure of what to say or do at that confession.

He glanced away, glaring at the map as if it had done something to him.

He breathed out before speaking, not exactly angry with our conversation. "It's true that you needed some training. Is it so bad that I want to make sure that you have some moves up your sleeves, one that this guy might not see coming? I just wanted to help."

Zane sighed and looked back to me, shoulders slumped in defeat as he admitted what was wrong. "But I'm not ready to face the fact that I may never have telepathy again."

"But we're going to get it! We'll force them to undo whatever they did to you!" I protested, unable to believe that was what he was upset about.

We'd already talked about that. We knew we could do it.

He shook his head again, seeming hopeless as he fell deeper into despair. "But what if they can't?"

He paused, reeling his emotions in to once again be the guy who didn't ever have doubts. "I just don't want to get my hopes up too high."

I had no more reassurances for him, so I moved closer and put my arm around his waist, hoping that would give him enough faith for the time being.

He responded instantly, putting his arm around me and placing a kiss on my head.

I hated what this trip had done to us, what Storm did to us.

We would win, and we'd do it together because we were a great team. But the most important thing was that we were doing it for each other and for the people we loved.

That meant that we couldn't lose, because we had more to fight for than our enemy did.

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A/N:

Alright, so I'm very excited for the next chapter! Are you ready for Alicia and Zane to make it to Nebraska? (Where Storm's science facility is at)

Bc I am soooooo ready! This is what the whole book has been leading up to, and it's starting in the next chapter! Yay XD

Hopefully it'll be completed and put up on Saturday :) :) :)