Sireenia stood beside her and tightened her robe. She glanced from Saren to me. Then she stepped forward. "Davy, it is very important to tell us, can you control your powers?"
"You mean: can I do this stuff at will? Not really, but sometimes. Sometimes I can do it and sometimes I can't." I shrugged. "When I really want something to happen, it happens. I wouldn't bank on it, though."
"Why could you stop me now and you couldn't before? I've been training you for three months. I've been hitting you with my powers for that long and you've been taking it?"
"They didn't really hurt." Even though they had and my body had been swollen the entire time. "I don't know, maybe I was just tired of it. Maybe I was distracted by something else. I have no idea."
"What were you thinking before Saren tried to attack you? I saw a look on your face. What was it?" Sireenia stepped forward. Her gaze was intent on me.
"I have no idea. I thought about you guys, what you were, and then I looked up and Saren's coming at me. That's all I remember."
"No, you had a different look. When you thought about us, you were surprised. When Saren attacked you, you were annoyed. She distracted you from a thought. What was it? What were you thinking between those two things? Think, Davy."
"I wasn't. Really. You guys were talking about vortexes and the thread being taken out of you. Then," I shrugged. "I have no idea."
"I felt pain from you." Sireenia tilted her head to the side. "I can feel emotions, not as well as you, but I felt sadness from you. Then panic. What were you scared of?"
"Or who."
"Who are you scared of you?"
Both of them watched me. I wondered if they could hear thoughts too.
I shrugged again. "I have no idea. I just know that I haven't felt normal for awhile, not since…" Not since the last time I had seen Roane when we had talked in the library and he left me.
"There! What are you thinking right now?" Sireenia surged towards me and her hands grabbed my arms.
The moment her hands touched me, a surge of memories rushed through me. The first time I saw Roane in the library, when I saw him in my dorm. Then he stood behind me when Sheila asked if he was my date. A rush of adrenalin went through me as I remembered our first kiss, when I slammed my mouth against his. And then I remembered when we made love. I'd never felt such a desperate fever before him.
"Oh dear." Sireenia wrapped me in her arms before she turned towards Saren. "It's him. It's the vampire."
I tensed and expected a biting comment from her, but it never came. Instead, I heard the door close a second later and felt Saren's absence more than I'd ever felt her presence. I pulled away from Sireenia. "What was it? Is she upset?"
"No, she's not. She's feeling her own memories." She moved to hold my face in both of her hands and then she closed her eyes.
Warmth started to pulsate through me. It spread from her fingertips into my skin, down my neck, arms, waist, and all the way to my toes. She was taking away my pain and giving me a different emotion, one of fondness. It felt good and I closed my eyes before I pulled away. "No. That's not real. It's not right that I take that from you."
"You do it all the time. You take away others' pain so I'm taking yours."
"You can't have my pain. You have enough of your own."
"I don't take it into me. Watch."
As I did, Sireenia moved back and held out her arms. She smiled and then closed her eyes. A moment later a coat transformed over her skin. It was a second layer of skin, but white. As soon as it was done growing over her it cemented to her skin and she opened her eyes with that same smile. Then she shook her body. The white skin fell away and left behind her normal skin with a rosy glow over it.
"See?" she asked. "I have some tricks up my sleeve too."
"I don't even know what I would look like if I could do that. I'd be like a quilt or something."
"I was empathic when I was human. My ability has progressed since I held the thread in me and since I lost the thread."
"What happened to you when the thread left you? Roane told me that every person dies once the thread leaves them."
"I did die, but I didn't. The human soul died, as it should, but we passed on to a different realm. There's a part in us, all of us, that connected with the Immortal and the essence of it gave us a different life. This is where we all go. This is where you will go too, I suppose."
"How many are there of you?"
"The older threads, what I call myself, have developed ourselves into these bodies. I chose this body to look like this, the way Saren also looks how she wants to. We don't have real bodies. You can touch us and see us, but no one else can; only someone who is connected to the Immortal thread can. The magic is unparalleled. It is unimaginable, but we do know certain rules and one of them is that the Alpha werewolf cannot know who you are. You must be able to hide yourself to him."