The questions

Ryker

I take a recent soul and go back to my cave. It has been an exhausting day today and all I want to do now is look for Harley and hold her until she falls asleep. I know where she lives, it is late and I am sure she wouldn't be too upset to see me right now.

I wanted to give her space.

She needed it.

Somehow, I suffocated her this past week and just having her by my side made me so comfortable. I didn't want to let her go. I hand the soul over to Leighty and he smiles warmly "Another one bites the dust,'' he jokes.

He has been acting weird.

I don't know what is wrong, I don't even want to find out "Done for the night if you don't mind, I have somewhere to be,'' I tell him.

That is me saying he should leave.

"Is that somewhere Harley?''

I stiffen at his words. I don't even want him to mention her name. I don't want him to think, talk or even utter anything that has to do with her. I want to keep her locked away from him and the rest of them. She wouldn't stay with me. I don't know how to protect her when she is so far away from me.

"Not your business,'' I walk out of the room and he follows me.

"The moment she became your business, she became mine."

"You know, you seem to think she will be the cause of my demise and for the first time in my life, I think I am ready to perish. So why don't you just let me do this on my own."

''I will not let you perish. I would rather watch her die."

I stop walking but we are already outside. The cool air hits me as those words travel to my ears and the anger seeps out of me. Her death is something that I don't even want to think about and he is just saying it so casually.

"You will watch what you say about her.''

I am trying to be calm but he has poked the part of me that I would not like. He knows what he is doing. He is trying to rile me up. It is fucking working.

"Because you love her,'' he says deadpan.

Love?

Is that what I feel?

I am obsessed with her.

I want her but I don't love her.

"This has nothing to do with love. Let me handle this on my own.''

"Okay brother,'' He laughs and I watch him walk away from me. I don't follow him because I don't have anything else to say to him. I don't have to convince him about anything because I want to sort this out on my own. I want to protect her on my own and I don't need him interfering with my plans. In the blink of an eye, I find myself in front of her apartment building. The place where she lives with her family.

The people that should protect her but have done a shitty job at it. I look up at the window and her light is off. I shouldn't climb up to the fire escape and go to her but I already know that is what I am going to do. It is late and she is probably asleep. This is borderline clingy, I don't even care about that. I could go in the way I go into people's houses, with my powers but I don't want to. I don't want to do anything that will end up scaring her.

When I finally get to her room as easy as I knew it would be, I see her, sprawled in bed under the covers. Her breathing is steady, she is beautiful even when she is asleep. This girl is going to be the death of me.

Love?

Is this love?

Leighty seems to think that it is.

I don't know what this is but I don't love. I don't even have the heart to. This is something that I have never felt but I do not know that it is love. I don't know what it is and I don't want to think about it. I feel her move under the covers but she doesn't wake up. I walk over to the side of the bed that she is facing and I get a clearer glimpse of her. Her hair is sprawled over the pillow. Her eyes are closed, her skin pale and shiny under the moonlight.

She is beautiful.

My eyes stay on her—I can't even look away if I want to and I don't want to. Her eyes flutter open slowly and there is confusion on her face as she recognizes me "Is this a dream?'' she whispers into the dead of the night.

I shake my head.

She sits up immediately and I see that she is dressed in a sheer transparent nightgown. My eyes dart to her body, I cannot get enough of her. I can't get enough of her beauty. "What are you doing here?'' she asks me in a whisper.

She doesn't want anyone in the house to hear her.

I get that.

"I missed you,'' I confess.

That is not a lie.

Panic swarms her eyes at my words "My mother is home, if she finds you here, I would be in trouble,'' she cries.

Her mother.

The one she fears.

"Then come with me back to my place, she wouldn't find out then.''

This is just a way to get her back home with me but she can see right through me "I just came back home, it hasn't even been one day since I left you.''

I smile climbing the bed and pulling her into my arms "That just tells you how much you mean to me. Come on Harley, you know you can't resist.''

I am teasing her and enjoying every second of it. Seems like she is enjoying my touch too. I close my eyes for a second and take a deep breath, taking her scent in. She smells like vanilla and something sweet that I can't pinpoint.

"Come home with me,'' I ask her again, this time, hoping for a different answer. Her eyes remain fixed on me, she wants to give in. I can sense the defeat before she even opens her mouth.

Before she says the words that I already know.