CADDIE's POV:
How do you break up with someone you weren't even dating?
I had no clue. Before Nox Haven I wasn't even able to make one friend let alone one almost boyfriend.
After hours of coming up with lame excuses, I decided to just avoid Cam. He didn't deserve having someone lie to him. He deserved to be happy and fall for a person who could focus on his happiness everyday. Unfortunately, my life was too hectic to fit happiness into the schedule.
And with even with knowing it could never work, every day without Cameron was torture. I hadn't realized how dependent I had become on our friendship, until now. I thought about seeing him, having a dramatic last encounter like they have in the Romance movies. But that was stupid, and I didn't feel like screaming in the rain.
Alix and I made up once I had gotten back to the room. She saw how upset I was, grabbed all of her Nicholas Sparks DVDs and forced me to sit down and watch them. Maybe that's where my idea of yelling in the rain came from- they seemed to do that a lot.
I didn't tell Alix what was bothering me. She had asked, but I assured her it was nothing. Even though the opposite was true. Alix has had my back in every situation, even when I annoyed her half to death. I knew if I told her about this she would want to come with me, but I refused to have her risk her life for me. There were idle moment when I wondered if she already knew. I would catch her giving me a strange knowing look. But if she had already seen it happen, then why wasn't she asking about it? I didn't think she would be one to shy away from an adventure. Unless she was waiting for me to back out. But that wasn't happening either.
Each night that passed I was visited by the beautiful stranger. He begged to be freed and my heart broke for him. Whatever torture he was enduring was sucking the life right out of him. I was his only chance to survive and I couldn't leave him stranded. After the first few visits the shock of his beauty took a back seat in my mind. There was a familiar quality to him, like I had seen in him in another dream before. It sounded silly, but I swore to God that I had seen those eyes before.
On Friday night I let myself fall helplessly into the dream world, waiting for Dmitri. Except that didn't happen, a reoccurring dream from my childhood played on a loop:
"Wait!" The little blonde girl huffed, pulling up her dress to run as fast the little boy a head of her.
They were in a large sunny meadow, the bright green grass and colorful flowers seeming to go on forever.
The boy looked back, his mesmerizing blue eyes twinkled when they landed on hers.
"Hurry up!" He laughed and continued to run.
They couldn't be any older than five or six. The little girl ran as fast as she could, once she was close enough she jumped onto his back, pulling them both down.
"I got you," she chirped and they both giggled hysterically. Rolling onto their backs, the boy grabbed ahold of her tiny hand.
"You'll always get me," He said with a small, sullen smile.
The girl scrunched her nose up in confusion. She yanked a few grass blades from the ground and threw them onto the boy. The boy's smile returned and they began to run again.
I was awoken by a pounding on the door.
"Go away or die!" Alix screamed like a lunatic.
The knocking didn't stop. I glanced over at Alix who had pulled her pillow over her ears. Obviously, she wasn't going to answer it. Pulling myself out of bed, I opened the door. I was only half awake, but once I saw our early morning visitor, I quickly became sober.
"Cam," I squeaked. "What are you doing here?"
He gave me a sad and betrayed look. I peeked at Alix, who was now partially interested. I closed the door behind me and stood out in the hallway. I crossed my arms over my chest, remembering my lack of bra. And the fact that I was still dressed in my sleepwear.
"I'm here to find out what's wrong." He said giving me an accusing glare.
"Nothing is wrong," I said, pushing my guilt to the side.
He was wearing a plain back t-shirt that stretched across his broad shoulders. His worn jeans hung low on his hips. Staring into his piercing gold eyes, I knew that Cam and I had a chance to pass the friend zone. But it would be selfish to try.
"Don't even try to say that. You've been avoiding me for the past week," he managed to say through gritted teeth.
Unfortunately, I didn't have a liable excuse. The truth was my only option, but it refused to come out of my mouth. When I didn't speak Cam sighed. He looked away and rubbed the scruff on his chin.
"Do you want to get out of here?" He asked suddenly.
I raised an eyebrow. For the past week I had tried to avoid him, and yet he still wanted to hang out with. A part of me had hoped that he would grow to hate me for my bipolar attitude towards him. Rationally, I knew I should have turned around and fall back asleep. I needed to be responsible and focus all of my attention into saving Dmitri. My body didn't agree though. I found myself.
"Give me a second to get dressed," I said quietly, and walked back into the dorm. When I opened the door, I hit a spying Alix on the head.
I snickered as she rubbed her head. "You deserve that for eavesdropping."
Grabbing a simple outfit, I quickly changed.
"Are you seriously leaving with him?" Alix asked in surprise, "You just spent the whole week avoiding him."
"I know that," I said, sliding my jeans on.
"Then why are you going?"
I huffed in frustration. How could I possibly explain my decisions when I hardly understood?
"I need to say goodbye."
"Can't you just put that in a text?" Alix called after me.
I hurried out of the room. Cam was still standing there.
I let him lead me out of the school. I expected for him to head towards the private cars but he continued walking until we got to a hidden parking lot. We headed over to a beaten up old Chevy truck.
"This is yours?" I asked skeptically.
He pulled out the keys and unlocked the passenger door.
"I've been working for Ivan and Frederick for the passed few months to save up for it," he explained.
I saw the proud look on his face. A boy who once had everything now struggled to buy a car. It was weird how fast things changed. But Cam seemed unaffected by that truth. He was happy to have gotten it.
It was weird to be around some one with such appreciation for the little things. Especially after being around people who had the ability to get anything they wanted with a blink of an eye. It reminded me of who I was before.
I would never have turned my nose up at riding in this truck before I came to Nox Haven.
"Thank you," I told Cam once he slid into the driver's seat.
His brows knitted together in confusion. "What for?"
I shrugged, slouching back into the torn leather seat. I didn't dare say what I was thinking. It was embarrassing enough to think that, he was keeping me grounded. I've learned a lot and grown from the girl I used to be. But there are some parts of her that I'd still like to keep.
He turned on the radio and pulled out of the parking lot. Most of the school was still asleep. They wouldn't notice our absence until a few hours later.
I smiled as the wind ruffled my hair and sun shined down onto our faces. Jason Derulo's song The Other Side blared through the radio. I couldn't stop myself from singing along.
Cam looked over at me, a smile creeping its way onto his face, too. Seconds later we were both belting out the song, and smiling uncontrollably.
Cam got off on the exit and soon we were driving on the highway. I had no idea where he was taking me, maybe he didn't know either, but I didn't ask.
We ended up at a mall; it was practically empty. Only the employees and adults that had to make quick stops were there.
We practically had the place to ourselves.
"So was this your master plan when you woke me up? Or is this all improvised?"
"Pretty much," he replied and grabbed my hand pulling me into random stores.
I never got my answer, but I suppose that was the point. It didn't matter. All that mattered was that we were here now. We might as well enjoy it.
Neither Cam nor I wanted to buy anything, so we just tried on random outfits until the workers shoed us out of their stores. I found my small hand still tucked inside of his large one. I felt completely at ease walking by his side in the abandoned mall.
"Look at that," I murmured absently, seeing an old photo booth.
"Do you want to see if it still works?"
I didn't see why not, so we both slid into the booth. A dollar was left on the ground. Cam pulled out a crinkled one, smoothed it out over his knee and slid it into the slot. A beep sounded.
"Smile," Cam mumbled placing a corny smile on his face. I mimicked him. We continued on making, silly faces, weird poses and everything in between. I couldn't help but laugh when the booth spat out the collection of our pictures.
"I've never looked more attractive," Cam said sarcastically, pointing towards the picture with his tongue out.
"I don't know. I think it captures your inner dog quite well," I joked, giving his hand an affectionate squeeze.
His eyes crinkled at the sides with amusement.
Cam noticed a smoothie shop was opening and just like everywhere else in the mall it was completely barren. Pulling out his wallet, he handed me a Hamilton and told me to pick whatever I liked. Feeling bad, that I was the only getting a drink I forced him to share with me. I had seen couples do it in movies, and always wondered if it would be romantic. He sat across from me and placed the cup in the middle of the small table.
We both leaned in at the same time to sip from our straws and ended up banging heads.
"Ouch," I said, rubbing my forehead. My head throbbed but I grinned, "I guess my dad was right when he said I had a thick skull."
"I admit that it hurts just like colliding into a brick wall, but you're far from thick skulled. You're one of the most brilliant people I've ever met," he complemented me.
I fidgeted in my seat uncomfortably. I wanted to kiss him, but after the failed smoothie attempt I didn't know how that would go.
"You also have one of the biggest hearts I've ever seen," he said quietly and the mood shifted.
He knew. I didn't know how, but he already knew. I looked down, at the table. The smoothie barista had gone to the back of the store. We were the only ones there.
"You know why I have to help him, Cam. I can't sit back and let him die," I explained.
"Caddie, they aren't going to kill him. This is exactly what they wanted, for some people to go after him. They want to start a battle," his gold eyes were wide and begging.
"I can't do nothing! Maybe a war is the only way to fix this. The dark ones need to be destroyed." I had already made up my mind, and Cam was beginning to see that there was no point in arguing.
A light exploded over our heads. I could feel the glass shards fall onto our shoulders. We jumped under the table.
"That was just faulty wiring, right?" I asked desperately.
Cam gave me a sympathetic look before shaking his head.
"How do they keep finding me?" I whispered as Cam slowly climbed out from under the table.
"Caddie, this is the 21st century. A random person in China can find you."
My cheeks heated up in embarrassment. He was right, he always seemed to be right.
Cam grabbed my arm and pushed me behind him. We ran out of the smoothie shop and made a beeline for the parking lot. Just as we were about to reached the door my foot tripped on something and I fell to the floor.
"Ahh!" I screamed.
Two gigantic, hissing snakes slithered their way up my leg. I tried to kick them off but it only made them their grip on my leg tighten. Swinging their heads back and forth, they unhinged their jaws, reviewing two sets of pearly white venomous fangs. I squeezed my eyes shut, not wanting to seem them strike but nothing happened. Peaking out of one eye, I looked at my leg and was surprised to see their bodies lying limp on the floor as their heads rolled away. Looking up, I saw Cam standing over me. His eyes were glowing and claws were extended with blood dripping off of them. Gone, was the cute and funny boy I had just shared a smoothie with.
Closing his eyes, Cam took deep breathes and the claws slowly retracted. He held out a declawed hand and helped me to my feet.
We ran out of the mall only to be ambushed by a group of Dark Ones. They were dressed in wrinkled, ripped attire, it looked like they had been rolling in a pit of mud before they attacked us. Their faces were smeared with dirt, perhaps to hide their identity because I couldn't really make out any of their faces. One reached out to grab me but Cam slashes his arm. His body began to shake violently as tufts of his started sprout from random places on his body. The sickening crunch of bones cracking echoed in my ears as he transformed into a deadly beast. The Dark Ones seemed a bit frightened by my guard dog, a few even ran off but the one who tried to grab was persistent. When Cam was fighting off another one of his friends, he tried to ram into me head first
I held onto his head, pressing my fingers against his temples. His eyes rolled back as his skin began to sizzle and crackle. Layer by layer, his skin melted off until I was holding nothing but bone. Staring into the wide eyeholes, I felt my smoothie try to make a reappearance.
The dark ones were in such a frenzy to kill, they didn't even realize what happened to their friend. A woman swung her arm out to cast a spell but someone had grabbed her by the arm and threw her into the wall. I blinked rapidly. Alix definitely knew how to make an appearance.
"I can't leave you alone for three hours!" She yelled, taking out another dark one.
Cam's claws punctured the flesh of a dark one, and he ripped the man's spine out. I looked up at a security camera that was pointed at us, flashing my fingers upwards I fried its circuits. We didn't need that to be on CNN tomorrow.
"Let's go," Alix snarled, taking Cam's keys from his shredded jeans.
"What about Cam?" I asked as she pushed me into the passenger seat.
"He'll follow behind us," she muttered, shoving the key into the slot.
"Do you even know how to drive?" I shrieked.
She gripped the steering wheel and sparks flew throughout the vehicle.
"I don't have to," she said focusing on the steering wheel.
We sped through the streets. I could see Cam through the trees, sprinting in his wolf form to keep up.
"Alix, please don't tell anyone about this. If you're my friend, you won't say anything," I pleaded.
She glanced at me for a second before returning her attention to the steering wheel.
"I won't say anything," she promised. "You're not the only one who would get in trouble. I should have known."
She continued to scold herself for the rest of the way. I didn't say anything else the rest of the ride. My heart hammered in my chest. I didn't think I needed to go find Dmitri anymore for the war to start. It looked like it had already begun.