Free Consume (The Devoured Series) by Shelly Crane

few bills on the table.
     
    "You look right peeked, honey," our waitress said as Eli wrapped an arm around my waist. I wanted to resort to sarcasm at her comment. Something like, 'Thank you, Captain Obvious', but refrained. I was very strange feeling in the emotional department, as well as the physical.
     
    "Clara," I heard loudly in my ear and recoiled.
     
    "What?" I said in irritation. "Why are you yelling?"
     
    Eli tipped my chin up and looked at my face closely. I looked around the room without moving my head. We were no longer in the Café car. We were in a bathroom. I looked back up at him in question. I didn't even remember him bringing me there. "What's going on? Why were you yelling?"
     
    He held my face gently and looked into my eyes. He looked upset, but wouldn't answer me. I just watched him. His face seemed to swim, as if I were drugged or something. I squinted to make it go away. He moved his thumb over my cheek before saying, "What is going on with you?"
     
    But he wasn’t talking to me, he was talking about me.
     
    "What's wrong, Eli?"
     
    "I don't know, baby." He pulled me to him, wrapping me in the warm cocoon of his arms."You're scaring me though."
     
    He sounded scared, too. I gripped him tightly. "I'm sorry."
     
    He laughed and pulled back to let his forehead touch mine. "Only you would apologize for something like that."
     
    "What's the matter? How did we get in here?"
     
    He gulped. "You don't remember?" I shook my head 'no'. "You…passed out in the Café car. I picked you up and brought you in here and tried to wake you up."
     
    "Why would I pass out?"
     
    "I don't know," he hedged, too carefully. "But your eyes…"
     
    "What?" I asked. I could have just turned to look in the mirror myself, but the way he was speaking scared me more than anything. I let him tell me instead.
     
    "Your eyes are purple."
     
    The gasp hung in my throat. "But I thought you said they'd be green, that they couldn't be purple-"
     
    "They can't," he whispered. "They can't, Clara." He gulped again and brushed a thumb across my lips. "It's a good thing we're headed to The Wall, because I have to figure out what's going on with you. Someone there can help, though it'll come with a price."
     
    I turned to the mirror slowly. The purple in Eli's eyes looked natural and sexy. The purple in my eyes made me look sick. Creepily pale and sick. I turned away from the mirror.
     
    "Eli… I'm…" I felt myself begin to shake. I felt wrong and Eli could tell that.
     
    "You're scared, I know." He licked his bottom lip and grimaced. "Gah, I hate the taste of your fear."
     
    I let him lift me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist. He held me easily and pressed me to him. Before I knew it we were back in our seats, but he didn't put me down. He reclined the seat once more and sat down with me in his lap. He lifted my face with his finger and looked at me, almost sternly.
     
    "Now you listen to me," he whispered. "We'll find out what's going on, and you'll be fine. We’ll do whatever it takes. I'll give them anything they ask in return for the answers, and you will not try to stop me. Do you hear me? You're going to be fine."
     
    "Ok," I answered weakly.
     
    "Clara," he complained.
     
    "Yes. Ok." I looked up at him and he pulled my forehead to his with a hand on the back of my neck.
     
    "You know what's scaring me most?" he asked. I didn't answer. I knew it was rhetorical. "I ordered you around and you didn’t even try to fight back with sarcasm. Where's my snarky Clara at, huh?"
     
    "She's falling asleep," I said and smiled slightly. "I'm sorry."
     
    "Sleep, love. Just sleep." He hugged me tighter. "I'll be right here."
     
    "I know. I love…" I wasn't sure if I finished my thought or not before slipping into sleep.
     
     
     
     
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Nine
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    The next time I woke, it was daytime again. Enoch and Finn had returned and Eli