Touch Me ✔

Chapter Twelve

I peeked around the corner of the hallway cautiously, having only just stepped a few feet from Oliver's room. I hadn't been awake long, but like always Oliver wasn't around to greet me. So I thought it was a good time to sneak off to visit Theo, being that I could remember where his room was inside the massive building.

I stepped into the halls quietly, my feet bare against the cool floor. When no one appeared to stop me, I began to run on the tip of my feet until I was in front of his door. My heart was pulsing in my throat, not out of fear or panic. It was an excitement; that either I would get to see Theo or that Oliver would catch me. Both scenarios were endearing to me.

I tapped lightly on the door with my fingertips, placing my ear against the wood. When no one answered, I opened the door quietly, peering into that familiar pristine room curiously. A quick look told me that neither scenarios I had hoped for was waiting for me. Theo wasn't here and obviously neither was Oliver. I sighed in disappointment.

The room itself looked untouched. I walked to the piano, touching the keys lightly. There was a new empty composer sheet ready for a new piece to be created, but not a single scratch of pencil on it. I wondered how often Theo would stare at it before coming up without inspiration and move on to something else.

On the table nearby was the piece I remembered, with my name signed on top. I grabbed the sheet music, sat in front of the piano, and began to play it with ease. My thoughts wandered while I played, remembering Theo's lips on mine as the warm water from his shower cascaded over us. Those same lips which covered his bloodied fangs; the fangs that I had watched tear into a man in front of me.

"Did Oliver send you here?" Theo's voice interrupted my thoughts, causing me to nearly leap out of my own skin. I pulled my hands into my lap and looked over my shoulder at him. He stood in the doorway, still and guarded as though I were the dangerous one in the room.

"I came here myself," I answered honestly, wondering if he'd shepherd me back to where I was supposed to be. But my answer seemed to thaw him. His shoulders relaxed just a fraction and he moved towards me for the first time in a long time. When he sat next to me, he sighed before glancing at the door.

"I thought he might be playing a game," Theo said in an offhand type of way, as if the thought didn't mean to leave his tongue.

"Oliver wouldn't play games. He respects you," I answered anyway, peering at him openly. Theo's dark eyes slid back to me, obvious disbelief in response to my statement.

"All Oliver does is play games, Katia. It's how he became a vampire. Of us all, he's the master mimic," Theo tilted his head, as if uncertain of his own facts, "Besides Seb. You'd think his blood would run warm, looking at him."

I frowned.

"What's 'mimic'?" I asked. Theo's eyes darkened as if he'd only just noticed what he said. He leaned closer to me, touching my hair absently as he mulled over his thoughts.

"It's like I told you before, Katia. We're cursed. All we have is a lust for blood. There's nothing human left in us." He told me, his voice low with self-loathing. For some reason, his tone alone brought a sting of tears to my eyes, causing him to hesitate. "Don't cry. I wouldn't hurt you." It wasn't the fear of being harmed that had affected me. It was the sadness that was hidden behind his anger. But I decided not to mention it.

"If you say there's nothing human, then mimicking..." I glanced slowly at his fingers twisting through the strands of my hair slowly.

"We pretend. We mimic emotions, human actions, and pretend the things we do inspire us and the food we eat satisfy us," Theo admitted quietly. He looked at the sheet of music I had been playing, frowning before glancing at me through the corner of his eyes. I was quiet, considering his words carefully. If he meant to say it was all pretend, did this include the way he had warmed up to me over time? Was his kiss on my skin just something he had done, his own type of game to try to feel something similar to humanity?