~ Chapter Seven ~

Sweet torturous heat wrapped itself around Theo's body, lightly moaning his name. He threaded a hand into pale blonde hair, almost the color of snow, and pulled her closer, running his lips down her neck to nip lightly at her collarbone. He grinned when she shivered and rubbed herself against him, begging for release. She flipped him over so that she was straddling him and kissed him boldly, sucking his bottom lip into her mouth. Theo growled in warning, but let her control the situation for the moment. Her hands wove trails of fire down his stomach as she continued to tease him. Dark green eyes filled with desire met his own, forcing him to swallow a groan. Her hands rubbed circles on his thighs, moving closer and closer-

A loud knock on his door wrenched Theo from his erotic dream. He groaned and willed his body to behave, pissed that he had had another dream with her in it. Erotic dreams were one thing...but erotic dreams with-he cut off the thought and pushed it to the back of his mind. It didn't mean anything; he was just a horny teenager, that's all.

Whoever was at his door, knocked again, causing Theo to curse angrily. Grabbing a pair of sweats, he pulled them on and hoped they were baggy enough to hide the obvious bulge. "Hold on!" he said gruffly when they knocked for a third time. "What!" he barked, wrenching open the door.

Alexia stood on the other side with her hand raised as if she was going to knock again. 'Oh gods,' Theo thought as he took in her disheveled appearance. She looked like she had just gotten out of bed, with her large t-shirt and messy hair. He found himself wondering if she had anything on under the shirt. This was not good.

Awareness coursed through his body as he struggled to form words. "Alexia?" he managed to rasp, wondering why the hell she was at his door. He had done everything in his power to stay away from her, to protect her from himself, yet here she was, half dressed and at his bedroom door like the worst temptation. Theo had to resist the urge to grab her and take up where his dream had left off.

She continued to just stand there, staring at him without emotion. "Alexia?" he asked again, this time his voice sounding surer. "Is something wrong?" He waited for a minute before realizing there was something off. Her eyes weren't her natural bottle green, but rather they were pitch black, like she was dead inside; emotionless.

Growing worried, Theo stepped forward and placed his hands on her arms, ignoring the slight electric current that jolted through him where their skin touched. "Pest, please answer me," he said softly, using his pet name for her. She hated it when he called her that, but he figured it had to get some kind of reaction out of her. Nothing.

Theo started shaking her lightly, growing frantic that she wasn't responding. There was clearly something wrong with her, but he had no idea how to fix it. "Alexia, answer me damn it!" he roared, shaking her more forcefully.

Suddenly she blinked rapidly, as color flooded into her eyes again. "What-" she choked out, reaching out her hands to steady herself. They landed on Theo's bare chest and she flushed, trying to pull them back quickly. He was faster than her though and held them there, staring at her intensely.

"Why are you outside of my room?" he asked in a low voice, never breaking eye contact. Uncomfortable with the warmth radiating off his chest and onto her palms, Alexia struggled for a minute before realizing it was pointless. "Answer me Alexia," he demanded. "Why are you outside of my room, half naked, and why did it take me over five minutes to get any sort of reaction from you?"

She looked adorably confused as she tried to process everything that Theo had just said. When she realized she was wearing a large t-shirt she blushed and wished she could hide her face. Alexia was mortified. She had no idea why she was at Theo's door or why she was half dressed.

"I don't...I can't remember," she whispered, licking her dry lips. It felt like sand had been poured down her throat and into her lungs. She coughed weakly and gave Theo an embarrassed look. "Um...can I have some water?"

He narrowed his eyes as his grip on her wrists tightened. "You don't remember?" Had she slept walked and somehow ended up at his door? That didn't make sense though...her eyes had been black, like someone had possessed her.

"Please," she said weakly, "my throat is really dry."

Muttering under his breath, Theo released one of her wrists, but tugged her into his room by the other. He grabbed a cup from the bathroom sink and filled it up for her. "Here," he said gruffly.

She gave him a look of relief and gulped the water down. Theo was transfixed, watching her throat as she swallowed the water. This was torture; having her in his room, half naked. He rubbed a hand down his face and tried to re-gather his thoughts.

"What can you remember?" he said softly, once she had finished drinking and set the cup aside.

Alexia scrunched her brow as she thought of the last thing she could recall. "Ivy and I were in her room, talking until late...probably about 3am or so, maybe later. After that we both fell asleep and that's all I can remember." She gave Theo a desperate look and bit her lip, knowing that she sounded like a complete idiot at the moment.

"That's all you can remember? Nothing else? No random little detail you aren't mentioning?" he pressed. Theo found it hard to believe that she couldn't remember anything else. There had to be a suppressed memory or something.

He watched as she closed her eyes tightly and tried to think back. Her nose was scrunched up and he had to resist the urge to reach out and run his fingers over the curves of her face, or to lean forward and kiss the tiny creases.

She blinked open her eyes and cocked her head. "I had a really weird...dream or something. I mean, it felt like a dream, but now that I think about it, it wasn't exactly a dream." Alexia huffed irritably and rubbed her temples. She hated how flustered and idiotic she sounded whenever she talked to Theo. He had to think she was a bit slow with the way she acted.

"I remember dreaming about...something," she coughed, turning red, "but the dream abruptly changed and everything was foggy. There was this voice, whispering things at me, but I couldn't hear it at first. I remember straining to hear it until it boomed throughout my mind, telling me to..." she paused and bit her lip, trying to remember.

"Told you what?" Theo asked impatiently. He refused to look abashed when she glared at him.

"I'm trying to remember," she said in a low voice. Alexia knew the words were in the corners of her mind, she just couldn't figure out how to access them. "The voice said...it told me to...oh holy shit," she gasped. "Oh no. Ivy!" Alexia jolted and ran towards his door, preparing to throw it open and go gods know where, but Theo reached out and snagged her around the waist, bringing her back to his side.

"Tell me, Alexia," he commanded in a dark voice. "Tell me what it said."

Her eyes were filling with tears and she kept glancing at the doorway, saying 'please' in a quiet whimper.

"Tell me, damn it, and I'll let you go!" he snarled, tightening his grip.

Alexia was silently crying now, trying to unsuccessfully wipe the tears from her face. "It told me to get out of bed and open the door because someone needed to be let in. I couldn't disobey it, even if I had tried. Alpha Raine said not to let anyone in, but I did, I just opened up the door and left the room. The voice told me to find you...and that was all."

Theo's face had turned an ashen color as he looked down at Alexia. "Who was at the door Alexia?"

"I don't know!" she cried out. Fear gripped Theo as he was torn between attempting to comfort Alexia and seeing if his sister was all right.

He grabbed Alexia's hand and pulled her after him. "Come on, we're going to go check Ivy's room and then we'll figure out what to do, okay?" She nodded weakly and raced after him, as they ran down the hallway. Theo stopped in front of Ivy's door and let out a loud roar. The door was wide open, there was a faint trace of a foreign smell and Ivy was gone.

"Oh gods no," Alexia whimpered. "She can't be gone. She can't be."

Theo turned and caught her in his arms and she started to sob silently. "Shh," he said soothingly. "It's not your fault, we'll get this all figured out."

"I'm sorry," Alexia sniffled, wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her head in his chest. "I'm normally not this weak and helpless."

Theo chuckled ignoring how she felt perfect in his arms, "I know, pest."

"I just feel so stupid. If it weren't for me, Ivy would still be here," she continued on a broken whisper.

Reaching down, Theo angled her head up to look at him. "Don't ever say that. From what it sounds like, you were controlled and there was nothing you could have done about it. Besides, if this was the work of that demon, he would have found another way to get to my sister. It is not your fault. Understood?"

Alexia nodded slowly and found herself staring into Theo's eyes. She tried to blink, or break eye contact, but neither of them moved, afraid to shatter the silence. She wanted to push him away and pull him close in the same instance. For some reason, she felt like they were on the precipice and depending on what happened next would change a lot of things.

Their bodies seemed to strain closer to one another and Alexia felt her eyelids grow heavy. 'Oh gods,' she thought, 'he better not kiss me.' Even though she wanted it more than anything, she knew she was nothing but a pest to Theo and kissing would ruin everything between them...what little they had.

Theo stared at her soft pink lips, and tried to find as many reasons possible as to why he shouldn't kiss Alexia, but his brain was malfunctioning and providing reasons why he 'should' kiss her. This was Alexia, the pest, the woman that haunted his dreams, and twisted his insides around like taffy. Maybe if he kissed her, he wouldn't be so obsessed anymore. Maybe this would be the way to get her out his head. Who was he kidding? Kissing her would only increase his desire for her and he knew it.

"THEO!" he heard his father bellow. Theo jumped back from Alexia with a guilty look and let go of her. They avoided eye contact as Raine stormed down the hallway.

"In here!" Theo called out, realizing his throat was tight. He wasn't sure if he should hate or thank his father at the moment. Raine entered Theo's room and sniffed deeply, tension coursing throughout his body. "Dad, Ivy is gone," Theo said softly, before Raine could ask.

Raine's features tightened as he recognized the scent of the demon. He let out a loud cry of anguish and turned to leave the room. He stopped to point a finger at Theo. "Go find your mother and tell her what has happened, take Alexia with you. I'm going to talk to my men and discuss what we can do."

"What do you mean?" Theo asked frantically. "Shouldn't we just go after them?"

Raine shook his head quickly, "Not if he took her to the demon realm. We can't go there without a demon's permission. For now...all we can do is pray and wait that she returns unharmed. Fuck!" He punched the wall and pushed the tears down that threatened to overflow. He would not break down yet; first he just needed to get his little girl back. Then he would rip the demon a new one.

Theo grabbed Alexia's hand and tugged him after him. "I can walk on my own," she muttered, "you don't have to drag me around everywhere."

He looked at her in surprise and dropped her hand, "Oh...sorry about that, I didn't even notice." She watched him with mixed feelings of amusement, relief and longing. She liked holding his hand, but she was glad he had let go. Without another word he turned and made his way to his mother's room, hoping Alexia would follow. Theo resisted the urge to rub his hand on his pants, to get rid of the tingling feeling in his palm that had appeared once they had let go. Maybe it was better that they hadn't kissed after all. He was hoping he could eventually erase this need for her by distancing himself from her. Just like he always did.

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So this was a bit of insight into Theo and why he's such an ass towards Alexia. Granted, it doesn't answer many questions, (hehe) but he was relatively nice in this chapter...

mmk, don't cross your fingers or anything, this is getting pushed to the side for a bit, as usual.