Nickolas~~

"Aren't you supposed to be with the others making sure the portal isn't just for show?" Clare asks from her sitting position under the sheets on her bed. I merely nod as I sit next to her , knowing that is exactly where I should be but seeing her blood and feeling her pain made an instinctive need to protect her that I shouldn't have. I concluded that I just needed space from her, though the link was making it the most painful.

"I'd rather be here." I reply with a teasingly mushy smile resulting in a roll of her tired eyes.

"Right well, we both know the real reason you aren't down the hall." she says dryly giving him a knowing look. I laughed humorlessly returning her look with a doubtful one of my own. She didn't know shit, I almost guarantee it.

  "We do?" I ask with a cocked brow.

She sighs, "Come on Nikkie, you  know more than anyone that I do my homework. It says in the books that any link creates a bond you cant ignore. And that whatever feelings between the two are magnified. Now that would suck for people who originally hate each other, which I thought had been the case for you two, but obviously not."

I look up at the ceiling with an exasperated exhale of breath, "And what would the case be then, sister?"

"You want my personal opinion?" she asks with a raise of her brow.

"Like I have a choice in the matter." I mutter giving her a knowing glance. Part of me would rather her not say it out loud because then that would make it real, it wouldn't just be in between me and Ashlynn anymore, but the other part of me wanted her to say it in hopes that her voice wouldn't be disapproving or disappointed that she could validate my feelings.

  She chuckles in response as she states in a matter of fact tone, "I think that whatever hate you felt before when you met her dissipated rather quickly and was replaced with a reluctant feeling that you ignored for a long while before the link. But once the bond came into play, I think it got harder to ignore."

  I sat up and looked at her before grunting and leaning back against the bed frame, "Smart ass." I grumbled running a hand through my hair and then with another thought I asked, "How'd you manage that conclusion?"

She shrugs her thin pale shoulders, "I'm smart and you're just stupid enough to fall for someone like her."

  Rubbing my sleepless eyes with my hands I groan, "God, how am I supposed to turn her in now? I don't know if-"

  Clare interrupts, "You don't. You are too compassionate for that, it would physically kill you."

  A dry caustic laugh escaped me, "Are you serious? That might as well be the most stupid ass reason to not go through with my initial plan." I say as if trying to convince myself as much as her that that excuse could not hold much ground in the matter.

  Clare struggles to sit up and once she does she looks over at him with sincere eyes, "The factors aren't the same as they were when you began to track her down. Nickolas, this is no longer just me and you, it's Ashlynn Brookes  too. And whatever has changed within the two weeks you've known her, has changed the plan."

  "I was supposed to turn her in Clare.." I sayroughly, inwardly wincing at my own weakness. I see her now how Donovan first told me to see her. As someone with deadly flaws. But someone with reasons behind them, she had a backstory to support the hardening of her heart and her just plain dumb ass descisions.

  "I know." She answers and there was only quiet. We sat silently for what seemed ages as we both lost ourselves in our own thoughts. But then she broke the silence, "Did you two..?" She asks with a mischievous grin and I jumped off of the bed,

  "I will not talk to you about this." I said walking out shaking my head as her laugh filled the room behind him.