Chapter 20: Chapter 20

The day that we planned to leave comes and I try to focus on packing my clothes in a bag even though I can feel the warmth of Nathan behind me.

Nathan feels that it is irrelevant to pack but I am thinking ahead. I may have to stay in Andrew's house for more than what we planned and I will like to be prepared because I doubt that Nathan would like to see me putting on Andrew's clothes.

I glance at Nathan and see him glancing at the house with a thoughtful look. It turns out that he is a neat freak, when I first saw him cleaning the house I was shocked but I guess that this is one of the attributes of the 'real' him.

"Is there anything I need to know before we go?" I ask him when we begin to walk out of the house.

He glances my way then he looks straight ahead. "Don't get close to the forest and don't run away."

I don't know if he is joking or not but I can't stop myself from rolling my eyes. Tell me something that I don't know. "I mean, things I need to know about you."

He frowns and slows down a little so that we can both walk side by side. "What else do you want to know?"

I shrug as I look forward, seeing that we are a few minutes away from Andrew's home. "Anything that I don't know about you."

After a small while of silence, he tells me. "My full name is Nathaniel, my mother normally called me Nathan. The truth is that I have forgotten my last name."

He looks like he is lost in his own mind. Maybe he is just trying to figure out what he isn't tell me.

Taking this as a clear opportunity, I ask. "What did you do on your business trip?"

My question happens to knock him out of his thoughts and he scowls at me. "Why are you asking?"

"Because I want to know." I narrow my eyes at him, he doesn't want me to know or what?

"It wasn't necessary a business trip." His hand shoots up to scratch the back of his head as he turns his face away from me. "I wasn't myself but even in that state, I made it my priority to know more about our mating and to see if there is going to be any issue."

"Issue? I don't get it." From here, I can see the path to Andrew's house. The river we pass by makes me know that we are close because his house is close to the river.

"I don't know what will happen if we mark or mate with each other, Isabella and until I find answers to those questions we'll be left in the dark for now."

For now. At least, it's a little reassuring.

"Nathaniel." I mutter silently and I see him snap his head to look at me from the corner of my eye. So he is affected when I say his full name. "I think I'm going to call you that from now on."

I smile at him as we stop in front of Andrew's door step and I knock slowly. "Anyone home?"

It takes a while for someone to open the door. It's David who opens it and he gives us a look that makes me know how uninterested he is at my arrival.

"Is Andrew at home?" I lean forward a bit. "I would really like to talk to him."

He stares back at me with a lot of blankness before he walks inside, leaving the door open for us. Nathaniel and I, glance at each other.

David is letting us in like that? I thought he would give me a stare down or something.

I can't think much into it anymore. I have things to do here. I shake my head as I walk inside the house and trace Andrew's scent. I find him in Shelia's room, sitting close to her. Nathan follows me in without a word.

"Hey." I mutter silently, catching their attention in a second. Their faces shows how shocked they are as they stare at me.

Slowly, a smile breaks off on Shelia's lips as her little fingers squeeze the bed covers on her body.

"Isabella! Where did you..." Her voice stops when she sees Nathan behind me. Oh yeah, I forgot that he acted stupidly when we came last.

So not to make things awkward, I smile and walk towards both of them. "You look great, Shelia but I really have to talk to your brother, can I borrow him for a minute?"

Her mouth is sealed but it slowly opens as she nods and responds quietly. "Yeah."

I don't waste anymore time to drag Andrew to his feet and out of the room. We stand a few meters away from the door of Shelia's room to discuss.

Andrew doesn't say a word and I glance at Nathan who looks ahead without any emotion. Is Andrew really afraid of him?

"I came to apologise for how I acted two days back." Nathan begins.

Andrew's body tenses but in his eyes, I can see that he is surprised. "What do you both want? I don't have any time to waste with both of you."

He turns his face away with a scoff.

That was rude but I understand. He is mad at me for leaving like I did and for not even contacting him in anyway.

It's not like I have a phone. I probably need to get one soon.

"Actually, we also came here to help Shelia. Nathan knows how to reverse the-" I look around and see no one but I still lean closer to Andrew to whisper. "-curse."

"I don't believe you." He squints his eyes at me and I sigh.

"I don't need you to believe me, I need you to trust me. You should know that Nathan is... important."

He folds his arms and leans back on the wall. "Yeah, I know who your mate is. He is the god that has been staying in the city for a few years now. Everyone knows him."

I begin to fidget with the bottom of my shirt. "So... Will you let him help?"

He watches me intensely. "Why do you want to help my sister so badly?"

This shuts me up quickly. I remember that his brother, David asked me the same thing too. I look down at my hands, aware of his eyes on me.

"The truth is that I don't know. I guess that I see my little cousin in her. Shelia is a great girl, she doesn't deserve to die or maybe I'm just being selfish and doing this for my own gain." I look up at him. "I care too much to let her die and I don't know how I will feel if that happens."

I've already lost so many people in my life.

He doesn't say a word for a while though he stares at me like he knows the exact reason.

"Tell me how you are going to fix her up." He glances at Nathan. "I need details."

I can sense that right now, Andrew doesn't care if Nathan is a god or not. He is not being disrespectful but there is a little rudeness in the way he talks.

I stop my thoughts and turn to Nathan. He didn't tell me what his plan is and to be honest, I have no clue on what he is going to do.

"I'll detect the curse and suck it out of her."

Suck it?

"Um... What does that mean exactly?" I scowl at him. "Like Andrew said, we need details."

His eyes skims through my face and he sighs, looking away for a moment. "It means that I will transfer the curse from her body to mine."

My mouth falls open immediately. What?

"You're insane, that's not going to happen." I glare at him. "So this is the reason you didn't want to tell me in the first place."

"I'll be fine. I will need rest after that but my body can hold it and nothing will happen to me." He says, his eyes holding so much sincerity. "Although I may have to recover from it and I will possibly be in pain for a few days as my body tries to kill the curse, but I'll be alright."

"That doesn't sound alright." Andrew speaks, turning my attention back to him. "Are you sure about this? I don't want Isabella coming back here with tears in her eyes."

"Why would I come back crying? What are you talking about?"

"Stop being so uptight, you know what I mean." He rolls his eyes. "Well, at least you're not talking like an old lady again."

Before I can say anything to counter him, Nathan chips in. "Like I said, I'll be fine. Thanks for worrying about me but I can take care of myself."

I don't know if his change of attitude is because of the way I am freely talking to Andrew or because of that spell he told me about. Though, he did promise that he won't use it again, right?

"Alright, but you have to promise that Isabella won't come back crying."

Shelia?

My eyes widen when I see Shelia standing beside us with her eyes on Nathan. The latter doesn't seem surprised, did he know when she came here? Why didn't I sense her or even hear her footsteps.

"Aren't you supposed to be in bed." Her brother glares at her. "What are you doing here."

"My room is just a few hand stretches away." She says. Hand stretches? "And I could hear your little discussion. I know what is inside of me and I want it out as quickly as possible."

I am tempted to take a step back when I remember the time she told me that she knows about her death and she has accepted it but right now, it's like she is saying the opposite. Is she rejecting her death? Is she is pushing forward?

"Good. The little one has agreed and we should begin soon." After Nathan speaks, Shelia walks to him and grabs his big hands. She drags him into her room and we follow behind her.

"Is this going to be like a witch movie. Are you going to draw a circle on the ground and chant in different languages?" Shelia asks curiously and Nathan shakes his head as he beckons her to sit on her bed.

"No, I just need you to sit still and relax. This might hurt a bit." Nathan says as he sits down on the chair beside her bed.

Andrew and I stay close to the wall close to her door as we watch whatever is going to happen. My fists unfold and fold back as I juggle through my thoughts.

He'll be fine. He'll be fine. Yeah, he will. Just trust him, Isabella. That's not so hard. Right?

Oh gosh, I'm freaking out.

I tense up immediately and look down at my hand. I see a bigger hand clasping mine and holding it tightly.

"Everything will be alright." Andrew's eyes stare at me with encouragement and I hesitate but nod slowly.

"Yeah, you're right." I squeeze his palm and watch him smile. When I turn back to Shelia, I see Natan staring at me in a strange way. It's only for a second before he turns back to Shelia.

"Are you comfortable now?" Nathan asks Shelia and I awkwardly remove my hand from Andrew's grip. I can feel Andrew's eyes on me but I focus on Shelia and Nathan.

This is so awkward. I need to learn how to deal with stuffs like this.

"Now close your eyes." Nathan whispers and Shelia does as he asks. Slowly, the air changes its direction, I can feel it. It's swirling, moving to a different place.

"I'm guessing that this is his power." Andrew leans closer to me. "It's pretty cool."

"Yes, I suppose that it is."

"And you are talking like an old lady again."

I turn to glare at him for a moment until I see his smile. I turn back to the scene in front of me immediately.

I really need to learn how to stop theses awkward situations.

My attention gets carried away by the faint glow that illuminates from Nathan's palm that is on Shelia's head.

The drastic change of the room's temperature startles me. It was warm a few minutes ago but now, it's freezing. I hug myself, trying to radiate heat throughout my body.

If I, a werewolf, feel chilly then I wonder how Shelia and Andrew must be feeling right now. As I thought, Andrew is hugging himself too with his teeth clashing against each other.

I exhale and watch as a fog appears in front of my face. How is he making this place so cold.

I am not sure that Shelia is feeling this cold. She looks like she is asleep but she is still sitting while the glow coming from Nathan's palm increases.

I don't know why his palm is glowing but it increases by the second, blinding my eyes for a few minutes.

It stings and I close my eyes to stop it from hurting me but it's no good. In this moment, I forget about the freezing air and about Shelia or the others. All I can think of is a way to get away from this light.

I feel my way to the door but I can't concentrate to get close to the door. Slowly, the pain in my eyes fades away and so does the blinding light.

I hear a groan before I open my eyes. Although my eyes are open, everything is blurring. It takes a while before I can see properly, before I see Nathan laying Shelia on her bed. He covers her up with her bed cover and I look for Andrew.

I see him rubbing his eyes with a little bit of aggression. In a few seconds, he looks my way.

"What just happened."

"I guess that I should have warned you. I'm sorry about that, it wasn't what I was expecting." Nathan apologises as he stands to his feet. "It's done, the curse is now in me. So your sister will be fine, she just needs a little rest."

"Thank you." Andrew says behind me. "Thank you so much."

Nathan nods and walks to me, grabbing me by the hand but I shake my head at him.

"Give me a second."

He stares at me for a while before he nods again and walks outside. The door closes, leaving me with Andrew and his sleeping sister.

"It seems too good to be true."

I smack my lips together and nod. "I guess you are right but we aren't done yet."

He turns to me in confusion and I continue. "Nathan didn't tell me what he was planning to do but he did tell me that he doesn't know if it will be a permanent solution or not so you need to watch her. See if she will show any symptoms that she used to and if so, call us..."

I frown when I remember that I don't have a phone.

"On second thought, just visit. You do know his house right?"

"I could ask around." He suggests with a shrug, hiding his true emotions from me. "Thank you again. Even though it is a temporary solution or something that she has to go through all her life, I am glad that she will have the change to live."

I smile. "It's not me you should be thanking, Andrew. Take care of yourself and take care of her too. I'll visit again when I have the change."

He gives me a nod before I walk out of the door. The rest of the time turns into a blur, it's not the type of blur that I felt before. I just zone out a bit but I do remember a little.

We are walking back home and I turn to my mate. "Thank you, Nathaniel." I smile.

In return, he smiles too but says. "Nathan. Call me Nathan."

I decide not to argue with him. I remember when he said that his mother called him that, and if me calling him Nathan will make him feel happy then I will. He has already done a lot for me, he helped Shelia and I am forever in his debt.

Even though it is likely to be a temporary solution, I am grateful.

We arrive at his house and I throw the bags filled with clothes on the couch. It turns out that I didn't need them.

"I'll go get a glass of water. You want one?" Nathan asks as he disappears into the kitchen.

"Yeah, sure!" I shout loudly but he is already gone. I hope he hears me. He doesn't have werewolf hearing but I am sure that my yelling worked as I planned.

I sigh and flop down on the sofa as I begin to think about Nathan and I relationship. I guess you could say that it's more than complicated, especially now that I know that he reads minds.

I have to ask about his other powers and also make him promise to not use any of his powers on me. I am more keen on him not reading my mind again.

With a sigh, I slouch down on the sofa.

Maybe I should give him a chance, we are mates after all and he is turning out to be a nice guy. I just need to be thorough and talk to him more often. I also need to know more about him.

Suddenly, a thought flows into my head, making a red tint stain my cheeks.

Ugh! What is wrong with me, why am I thinking about mating with him! No, no, no!

I stand to my feet and walk to the kitchen, trying to control myself. "Nathan, you're taking a lot of time getting a g-"

My eyes widen when I see him lying unconscious on the floor. I rush to him immediately.

"Nathan?" Oh goddess no! "Nathaniel, wake up!"