“Yeah. I was just going upstairs.” She turns and disappears.
I close my eyes again and Alek’s music stops, his footsteps banging down the stairs. Snuggling down into the sofa cushions, I pretend to be asleep. My heart thumps in my ears as the footsteps quiet. I wait for him to sweep out of the house, but he’s stopped. After a couple of minutes of silence, I open my eyes. Alek stands in the spot where the red-haired girl was. There’s a softness in his expression which disappears the moment he realises I’m looking at him.
“You got health problems, Casper?”
I push myself up. “No, and don’t call me that.”
His sly smile indicates I just guaranteed he will call me this from now on. “You don’t seem to have a lot of energy.”
“It’s tiring walking up and down that hill to work.” His face indicates his disbelief. “Who’s the girl?”
“Which girl?”
“The red-haired girl.”
He blinks. “Was she here again?”
“Yeah, she said she was staying with you. Didn’t you see her on the stairs?”
Alek rubs his lips with a finger then approaches me without answering my question. I inhale as he sits next to me, on the other end of the sofa and twists his body toward me.
“Did she touch you?”
“Why would she touch me?” I tuck my legs under me and hug my knees.
Alek appraises me. “I won’t touch you.”
“What?”
“Though you look like you could do with a hug.”
I splutter at him. “What?”
“Did you see Finn today?”
His subject changes are confusing my tired brain. “Why?”
“Because I think you should keep away from him.”
“Thanks for your concern again, big brother, but Finn has nothing to do with my health.”
“Don’t call me that.” I’m curled into a ball in the corner and his long leg is close to mine, so close we’re almost touching. I have an image of myself pressed against his leather jacket, an image quickly replaced with me pressed against the naked chest I saw in the kitchen a few nights ago. What the hell is this? He must have too much testosterone, which is why he exudes sex and behaves like he owns the place and everyone in it.
“You okay? Now your breathing’s funny.” Amusement lights his eyes and I realise he’s sitting close deliberately.
I rest my head on my lap, turning my cheek so he can’t see the colour I’ve turned. “I’m tired.”
Alek sits back and places his hands on his knees before standing. He looks back round at me. “Well, if you’re okay then I’m going to work. Sweet dreams, Casper.”
I don’t reply as I watch him leave the house. I’m exhausted; so tired I can’t move, and all I want to do is sleep. My limbs are weak and my muscles ache; I pray I’m not getting the flu. Shivering, I pull my coat around me and doze off.
***
“How many?” hisses a voice I recognise as Alek’s.
I jerk awake and lie still, listening. My neck is stiff from lying on the sofa and I squint at the LED display on the DVD player. 1:14 am.
Lizzie says something to him, but I can’t hear. They’re in the kitchen again and I’m not sure I want to hear the conversation.
“She doesn’t know; what if they attack her?” continues Alek.
Again, a response I can’t hear. I pull myself to my feet and steady myself on the sofa arm. I swear I have the flu; my limbs ache now. Edging closer, I peek around the corner into the short hallway to the kitchen. I can’t see the doorway because the kitchen is opposite the bottom of the stairs, but I can hear them more clearly.
“She’s not well; I think Finn got to her.”
“I doubt he’s touched her; he wouldn’t want to risk her knowing yet. He obviously has other plans while he’s here, apart from her.”
“Then what? Why is she unwell?”
“Maybe she needs more energy, but she shouldn’t yet.”
I rest my head on the wall, running my scalp along the wood chip. What the hell are they talking about? This can’t be about me.
“Some of the others know she’s living here. It’s dangerous.”
Lizzie makes a derisive noise. “Well, you can protect her then.”
“I don’t think she’s the ‘damsel in distress’ sort.”
“Well, seduce her then; it’s obvious you want to.”
I don’t hear Alek’s response, his voice is too low. The aching in my limbs worsens from standing, so I pull myself from the wall back toward the sofa. As I turn around, I find myself inches away from the red-haired girl’s face and stifle a scream.
“Fuck! What are you doing?” I hiss.
The girl steps back and looks at me again. “I thought I imagined you.”
Her voice is hardly audible, and her gaze darts from me to the kitchen behind.
“Yeah, I get the same feeling about you.”
She smiles. “Did Alek bring you, too?”
“Bring me?”
“Here. To stay.”
“I’m renting a room.”
“Alek brought me.”
“Yeah?” My tired legs are waking up as anxiety spikes adrenaline into my muscles. Something is wrong. I carefully back toward the hallway.