The Hidden (The Hidden Trilogy) (43 page)

My eyes grew wide as my mouth dropped open. “I
did
? Baby, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

He shrugged. “It’s okay now. I popped it back into place against a doorframe.”

So
that
was what the thud was… “I didn’t really think I could hurt you.”

He laughed. “You can now, so be gentle with me.” He climbed under the covers. “How’s your hand?”

I took the ice pack off, surprised to see the skin around my knuckle was no longer purple but a shade of yellowish-green, like it was an old bruise. I made a tentative fist, preparing for a jolt of pain. None came. I stretched out my hand and made another fist. Still nothing. “It’s…fine, I guess.”

“Good. It was probably just a fracture. Those don’t take too long to heal.” He paused before saying, “There’s something else we need to talk about.”

I yawned and stretched, placing the ice pack on the nightstand. I snuggled up next to him, and asked, “Can’t it wait till tomorrow?”

“It really can’t. You need to make a decision tonight.”

I arched an eyebrow and looked up at him. “Make a decision about what?”

“Emily…there were witnesses tonight. People saw you die. How’s it going to look when the dead girl they brought into the morgue isn’t there in the morning?”

“Oh. I didn’t think about that.”
Shit
. Panic struck me, seizing up my chest. “Thomas, what’re we gonna do? They have my name and my license plate number. They can find me!”

He pulled me into him. “
Shhh
,” he whispered against my hair. “Nobody’s gonna get you, I promise.” He let out a soft chuckle next to my ear. “They’d have to get through
me
first, okay?” He pulled back and cupped my face in his hands, wiping away my tears.

I gave him a weak smile and nodded, then took a deep breath and exhaled. “Okay.”

“And they
don’t
have your license plate number or your name–at least not yet.”

“How…?”

“Matt tore off your license plates and crumpled the bumpers so you couldn’t tell they were missing. He also grabbed your insurance papers and registration from your glove box. The VIN sticker inside the driver’s side door was unreadable, as was the one on your dashboard, so…I think we’re good.”

Clutching my chest, I exhaled slowly.
Thank God
. “Did you get away before anyone saw you?”

Anguish crossed his face as he nodded. “I kept telling myself you’d come back. You
had
to. I couldn’t live with the alternative.” He shook his head like he was ridding himself of the memory. “Needless to say, I was going crazy waiting to find out. I couldn’t keep it together long enough to stop crying.”

“You were crying?” As soon as the words left my mouth, I wanted to kick myself. Why was
that
the first thing I had to focus on?

He frowned. “Of course. I thought I’d lost you, Em. I was bawling like a baby.”

If the situation had been reversed, if I thought I’d lost Thomas… I pushed the thought away immediately. I couldn’t even go there in the hypothetical. My heart ached for Thomas, because his
wasn’t
hypothetical–he’d actually witnessed my death tonight. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”

“You’re here now, that’s all that matters…” He pulled me closer to him. “You need to make a decision, Em. Either you stay dead or you…
don’t
.”

“But I’m
not
dead. How could I…?” My brows knit together in confusion. “
Huh?
”

“Think about it. You’re not going to age another day and it won’t be too long before people take notice, especially your parents… In a couple years, you won’t even be able to visit them anymore. They’ll want to know
why
. Why you never visit, only call. It’s not fair to them, Emily. You need to give them closure.”

I sat there and let his words sink in. My eyes wandered down to the white cotton t-shirt I wore. Even in the dim light of the room, I saw the individual threads of the shirt, intricately woven together.

Thomas was right. I’d changed so much tonight, but at the same time, I’d never change again. I was frozen in appearance for the rest of eternity. I’d have to move on sooner or later, and it wasn’t fair to just vanish without a trace. I needed to die and let my loved ones bury me, so the grieving process could begin. For all of us.

My throat constricted at the thought. My parents would be
devastated
. Absolutely heart-broken. But it had to be done. I
knew
this, and yet the thought didn’t make it any easier.

It was funny, in a twisted sort of way, that the night I gained my future was the same night I lost my past.

I bit my lip, letting everything sink in. “Thomas?”

“Hmm?” He sat up and began stroking my back.

“If I stay dead…what will happen?”

“I’ll go to the police station in the morning and give them your name so they can contact your parents and the school. Then we can leave.” He tucked my hair behind my ear. “We’ll go wherever you want. We can start a new life together.”

“What about the morgue? My body’s missing.”

“It’s already been taken care of.”

I eyed him suspiciously. “How?”

He grabbed the remote off the nightstand and turned on the TV. The glare from the giant screen blinded me for a second, but my new eyes quickly adjusted. He flipped through a few channels, stopping on the news. There was a reporter standing in front of a burning building, the caption at the bottom of the screen flashing “Fire at Potomac Ridge Hospital.”

Holy shit. Is that…?

The reporter’s deep voice cut through my train of thought. “I’m standing here just outside Potomac Ridge Hospital, where a late night fire is still raging in the city’s morgue. Firefighters have been able to keep the blaze from spreading to other areas of the hospital, and authorities have informed me no one was harmed in the fire…”

I tuned out at that point, instead focusing on the bright orange flames as they licked at the building and reached up into the black sky, eventually billowing into smoke.

Jesus. Christ.

I turned to Thomas with wide eyes. “
You
did this?”

He kind of shrugged and turned off the TV. “It had to be done whether or not you decide to stay dead. This way they won’t know your body’s missing.”

“When did you have the time?” I tried to think back to when he could’ve had the opportunity.

He looked away sheepishly. “You were in the shower for a while…”

“Oh my god.” I buried my face in my hands.

What the hell was he
thinking
?

Guilt flooded me as soon as the thought entered my mind. I knew what he was thinking. He did this for
me
. He was protecting me the only way he could. I should be…thankful, I guess.

I sighed and lifted my head to look at him. “I don’t like that you did this. People could’ve gotten hurt, or you could’ve been seen… But you’re right. It was necessary.”

“I made sure the building was empty before I torched it, and nobody saw me, I’m sure of it. I was moving too fast, even for the security cameras to catch.”

“Good.” I settled back down into bed, slightly wincing at the roughness of the sheets against my newly sensitive skin. “
Ouch
.”

“It doesn’t last that long,” Thomas said as he lay next to me. “I’ll make sure to get some silk sheets tomorrow. They’ll be a little softer.”

I nodded and turned to face him. “So what happens if I
don’t
want to stay dead?”

“That’ll be a little trickier.”

Hope surged in me. “But still do-able?”

“Yeah, we’d just have to make sure they couldn’t identify your car.” He looked thoughtful for a moment, then frowned. “We’d probably have to get it out of police impound,” he said, mostly to himself.

Now
I
frowned. “How would we do that?”

He sighed. “We’d have to sneak it out. I’d probably need Matt and Mel to help me.” He scrubbed his face, and for the first time ever, he looked worn out. “Is that what you want?”

“I don’t know.” I ran my fingers through my damp hair, feeling the impossibly soft and silky strands. “I don’t think I’m ready to be dead. I want a chance to say goodbye to everyone.”

Thomas pushed a lock of hair away from my face. “That won’t make leaving them any easier,” he said softly.

“I know.” My voice waivered as fresh tears sprung to my eyes for the millionth time that night. “Can I think about it? I mean, I don’t have to decide right this second, do I?”

He shook his head and gave me a sad smile. “Sorry, but you have to make a decision tonight. If we’re gonna get your car out of impound, we need to do it soon.”

“Oh.” I looked down at my hand, seeing nothing but flawless skin. The yellowish-green bruise had faded completely.

I knew what I
should
do, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Yeah, it would probably make it harder in the long run, but right now, I didn’t really care. I wanted to see my parents over winter break. I wanted to see Beth and go back to school. I wanted to be a normal person who didn’t have the weight of the world sitting on their shoulders. I just wanted more time…

But hey, joke’s on me, right? ’Cause I had nothing but it now.

I shook my head. “I’m sorry, but…I’m not ready.”

Thomas smiled at me and placed his hand on top of mine. “It’s okay. I get it.”

He dug his phone out of his pocket and started texting someone. I figured it was Matt or Mel, maybe both.

I lay back on his bed, and stretched. My body still felt tight, like all my muscles had contracted at the same time.

I watched the tendons in his forearms move as he texted. I’d never noticed them do that before. Actually, there was
a lot
about Thomas I’d never noticed before, with my limited vision. My eyes raked over his naked torso and flawless skin–skin that I now saw truly
was
flawless. My heightened vision saw no discernible pores on his skin. Not anywhere.

I ran my fingertips up his back, really feeling his skin for the first time. It felt softer than before, probably because of my limited perception of touch. The delicate skin of a newborn was rough in comparison to him.

I wonder if the skin on his cock is still softer than–

“Oh my god.” I sat upright instantaneously, giving myself vertigo.

“What?” Thomas asked, concern etched on his face.

How
had I not thought of this sooner? “You said– I thought–” I tried to take a deep breath, but my lungs wouldn’t let me. My heart thundered in my ears as my body tried to hyperventilate.

“Em? Are you okay?”

I vaguely felt Thomas’s hands on my shoulders as his face faded in and out of my vision. Rage overtook me and I shoved him, knocking him off the bed as he flew through the air, landing on his ass several feet away.

I climbed off the bed and stood over him, glaring down as I ignored his incredulous expression. “You said you couldn’t get me pregnant, you liar!”

He rolled his eyes and picked himself up off the ground. “I
couldn’t
. Not before you matured, anyway.”

“Oh.” Relief washed over me. I only had a second to feel bad about pushing him when I thought about the implications of
now
, when I
was
mature. “What about now?”

He met my eyes as he walked past me. “It’s possible.”

I followed him to the bed and climbed back in. “What are we gonna do?”

“There’s not a whole lot we
can
do, short of abstaining.” He leaned in, brushing the tip of his nose along my jaw, and kissed my neck. “But that’s not something I want to abstain from.”

My eyelids fluttered, and I had to move away. I couldn’t think when he did that. “You’re being awfully calm about potentially knocking me up.”

He shrugged. “Having a baby with the woman I love wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.”

My brows shot up to my hairline. “You want to have babies with me?” I had no idea he’d even considered it.

His eyebrows pulled together. “Well, yeah… Haven’t you thought about your future with me? Marriage? Kids?”

I shrugged. “I didn’t think I could have those things with you, and I didn’t want them with anyone else.”

“And now that you can…”

I wrapped my arms around him, hugging him to me. “Yes, of course.” I pulled back, brushing the hair off his forehead. “But I’m not ready for that chapter of my life yet.”

He nodded. “I understand. And in all likelihood, we’re probably getting ahead of ourselves. There are very few women who have gotten pregnant within the first fifty years of maturing.”

“Seriously?”

“Yep. But there’s also a chance that–” He looked away, his face turning somber. “Never mind.”

“No, no ‘never mind.’ Tell me.”

He sighed, briefly meeting my eyes. “Well, there’s a chance that we might not have to worry about this…at
all
.”

“What do you mean?”

“When two different species reproduce, their offspring isn’t always…fertile.”

“Huh. I’m a mule.” My heart sank at the thought that I might not get my perfect life with Thomas after all.

He rubbed slow circles on my back. “Don’t worry about this right now. If it happens, it happens, and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. I’ll love you no matter what. Forever.”

Forever. 
I actually had that option with Thomas now…

Leaning in, I brushed my lips against his. “Forever?”

He nodded and kissed me deeply. “Forever.”

I straddled his lap, taking his face in my hands as our mouths moved against each other. Every skin-on-skin caress and flick of the tongue was intensified, like I was really feeling it for the first time. 

If kissing him feels this good, I can’t wait to see what he feels like inside me...

His breathing was heavy as he broke away. “Move in with me.”

“What?”

“Move in with me. Come on, it makes sense. And it’ll save your parents money. They won’t have to pay for room and board.” He was dead serious.