“You really can't help yourself, can you? Did I not ask you not to question me about everything I do or decide?”
He actually looked cross now. He didn't wait for an answer and carried on telling me off.
“All you need to do is to concentrate on getting better. Leave everything else up to me. I'm losing my fucking patience with you Eliza. You'll hear everything you need to know soon enough. Get through this phase first. The sooner you accept that we'll look after your best interests the better.”
Jeez, he was so infuriating. Being spoken to like that made my heckles stand on end and I really wanted to shout at him. But instead I turned around with a humph and didn't speak to him again. How could he be so caring and yet such an arse with it!
The day passed away slowly with periods of being awake and asleep, having a late lunch, (still not talking to him), reading a bit of a book and generally feeling a little bit better at the end of the day albeit still exhausted with all my senses being over stimulated. The lights and colours around me were so bright, I could hardly keep my eyes open and Zack passed me some sun glasses. They helped but I barely acknowledged him. I was still annoyed with the way he spoke to me and I wasn't going to let him off the hook easily.
Unfortunately, he didn't seem that fussed with me not paying him any attention. In fact, rather frustratingly, he seemed quite at ease with it all and made no effort to make conversation with me. Not once. I tried to work out what he was feeling but it was like he was wearing a mask. I couldn't tell a thing from looking at him. I needed to ask him to teach me that as soon as possible. I couldn't quite see how I was going to broker that question, since he seemed to get so annoyed with being asked anything. I could almost imagine his answer.
Finally, our silence was broken by a soft knock on the door. Zack stood up and with that I could smell his gorgeous scent again. Mmmmm, so sexy...This was going to be so hard to control.
“Hey sis! Am I glad to see you!" Zack exclaimed.
God, I must have been hard work for him if he was that relieved. Then I got hit with the most exquisite smell, even better than Zack's. And when I laid eyes on Zaphire, I couldn't help myself from gasping. She was the most gorgeous human being I had ever seen! She had intensely dark blue eyes, even more so than Zack's. Beautiful plump lips and long raven black hair. I could feel my heart beat speed up and beating so loud, it was embarrassing. They were sure to notice. I could feel the blood rise to my cheeks and I could hardly breathe. She had literally taken my breath away. Was this normal too? It felt like I'd fallen head over heels in love with her, but that couldn't be possible? I had never, ever felt anything like this for another girl. It must have looked bad, because Zack ushered Zaphire out of the room before we even had a chance to say hello. I did notice them throwing each other knowing glances, before he closed the door behind her. Then he turned to me.
“What happened there? Your heart is pounding like a herd of elephants! Breathe in deeply and count down from ten whilst slowly exhaling.”
I did what he told me to do. I felt so confused; I needed to calm down as fast as I could. But every time I thought about her and her amazingly deep blue eyes and luscious smile, my heart started racing again. I couldn't talk even when I tried. I was just a gibbering wreck, butterflies battering my stomach.
“Eliza, look at me. You need to calm yourself down. Keep breathing in slowly and exhale slowly. Keep counting. Focus on the numbers, nothing else. Empty your mind.”
Finally, I could feel my body reacting to my will to relax. I kept my eyes focussed on the floor and kept counting down from ten, over and over again. I think I must have done that for over half an hour or so. Then I heard Zack's voice in the distance, drawing me back to reality again. I desperately needed a hug. I wanted my mum and I told him that.
CHAPTER 14
I couldn't give Eliza her mum but I would fucking love to give her a hug. She looked so fragile and confused, bless her. However, I couldn't do that and now it looked like Zaphire wouldn't be able to go near her for a while either. At least until she's in better control of her senses and urges. This was incredibly frustrating as I really needed Zaphire to help her with her emotions and that clearly wasn't going to work for a while yet.
However, Eliza learned quickly so maybe not all was lost, as long as she dampened down that stubborn defiant streak of hers.
I was in awe of her determination to control her feelings though, sitting there counting over and over again. I could see it was working, she was calming down. We needed another day or two to make sure all those damned medicines were mostly out of her system to really start her training.
At least Markus would get his way. He wasn't all that keen on my reliance on Zaphire to deal with sensitive issues. He's said before that we rely on each other's strengths too much with the risk of neglecting our own weaker ones. He thought if we never challenge our weaker traits we would never be a whole person and wouldn’t be able to survive on our own. He had got a point, of course. But it was a habit we had fallen
