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right?” I asked discreetly but little good that did.
    “C’mon, get
yourself together. You can cry later. Right now, you have to call
your dad.” I gave Luke a harsh look at his insensitivities. “Say
you’ve already left—for Atlanta. That will buy us some time
because he won’t expect you for a while. Tell him—“
    “I know,” she
stopped him. Good. Otherwise I would have and it wouldn’t
have been with words.
    I tried to ignore Ana’s
conversation as she spoke to her father. She had easily gone along
with what Luke had told her. Her father bought it easily and she
didn’t have to make a lot of excuses. When I heard her heartbeat
start to change, I decided to listen in. With my hearing, I could
make out everything that was said on the other line.
    When she finished
arguing with her father, and threw her phone against the wall, I felt guilty for listening in.
    She dropped to the bed,
muffling her sounds in a pillow. My instinct sent me to sit beside
her.
    “Please, just leave
me the hell alone,” Ana turned her head to yell at me.
    “No, Ana, I am here
for you. I don’t want to see you hurt.” The sight of her tears
pained me.
    “Well get used to
it!” She seemed to cry even harder.
    I ran my hand over my
face. Man, why did I have to screw up everything ? I should never
have put her through all this. I should have just told her everything
from the beginning. About why I was avoiding her, about why I had to
kidnap her. “I am sorry for hurting you. I was just trying to
protect you.”
    “I don’t care, ok?
Take me wherever. Kill me for all I care. I have nothing to go back
to, anyway.”
    I smirked. “That is
just like you to be so melodramatic.”
    ` She was talking about
her conversation with her father. I had overheard him basically
kicking Ana out so his girlfriend and their baby could move in. I
wouldn’t have let her go back there anyway but I knew because of
the hurricane it seemed like she had lost so much. “You will always
have a place to go back to—with me. You can live with me. We have a
house in New Orleans,” came out of my mouth before I could think
how she would react to such a declaration.
    I held my breath,
waiting for her response. I was relieved when she turned her back to
face me. Her tears had stopped and although she didn’t reply, she
seemed comforted at my words. She sat up, inching closer to me to
rest her head on my chest. I wrapped my arms tightly around her and
pulled her back down to the bed. I clenched my teeth together as she
squirmed in my arms. Again, satisfaction came over me that I was able
to comfort her, protect her. She nestled her head closer to my heart
and I made sure to keep it beating steadily. When her breathing
steadied, I knew that she had fallen asleep. A human. Falling
asleep on me. My arms tightened around her.

Chapter Eleven
    Hours later, Ana was
still sleeping. I wondered how much of her need for rest was due to
what she’d been through and how much was because the potion was
still in her system. I would be having a serious chat with Sansha
about this later.
    Luke was getting
impatient and I ignored him as he went to wait in the car. Slamming
the door on his way out was intentional, and not shortly after Ana
awoke quietly.
    She looked around,
letting the memories come back to her.
    “Luke’s already
outside. The weather is calmer so we should get going shortly, if
that’s ok with you.” I had wondered why I even gave her the
opportunity to say no.
    To my surprise, she
nodded. “When we get back home you can have your things sent over
to our house. It’s actually not that far from yours.”
    “What a surprise,”
she had a hint of playfulness in her tone when she said, “and what
will your parents have to say about that?”
    I remembered I still
hadn’t told her where we were going. “I guess we will find out.”
One corner of my lips pulled into a smile.
    “What do you mean?”
    “Why don’t you go
get changed and I will tell