Chapter Eleven

NATHEN

 

Cameron’s warm skin and body against Nathen’s accentuated the difference in temperature between a living being and an undead one. He’d noticed it early on but had not said anything, and Cameron had not yet brought it up. The warmth was inviting, and he gravitated to it like a moth to a flame.

Nathen centered his mind to a singular point, and slowly his awareness began to shift to the clear thoughtless void of mindfulness. Still conscious of his surroundings, his senses were subdued. He had learned to meditate at his mother’s insistence, due to his emotional outbursts when he was younger. As he got older, however, he enjoyed doing it as it helped clear his mind of unwanted thoughts and emotions that troubled him. Or like now, to simply help lull his lover to sleep.

He waited until Cameron’s breathing turned rhythmic and orderly, then focused back on his body and room and exited the meditative state. Gingerly lifting Cameron’s arm, he shifted to sitting and retrieved his laptop from the nightstand.

The process of entering the digital world was similar from Nathen’s perspective to entering his usual meditative trance, but instead of internal, he focused externally on the digital device. The room faded, like a dream going from black, to black-and-white, to vibrant color. He stood once more in the library, surrounded by shelves—only this time the place was brightly lit and the color of the book bindings popped with vivid hues. A large gothic ringed chandelier with thousands of candles hung over a larger round table now also covered in piles of books, most of them open, their pages quickly turning of their own accord. The child he had seen earlier stood next to the table, staring intently at the books, its head shifting back and forth with unnatural speed. Nathen could still not tell its sex, but it appeared slightly older than before —taller, broader, and more developed.

Though he could process the speed vampires could achieve, the child’s face was a blur even to Nathen. At a certain semi-conscious level, he experienced cautious apprehension; something he remembered feeling when standing next to a large predatory cat at the zoo. Though he could speed up his own abilities, he couldn’t imagine being able to read so many books at once, so quickly.

One of the books on the table lifted and rocketed toward an empty space on a nearby shelf, while a different book flew from a close shelf to take its place. It opened and its pages turned in a fanlike arc. He couldn’t discern any actions taken by the child. Except for its head, it stood statue still.

Nathen debated interrupting it, though it didn’t seem to react or notice him. He hesitantly moved closer to it and the spread of books on the table. He noted some of the closed books and recognized them as ones he had in his science folder, mostly dealing with quantum physics and biology.

Nathen considered for a moment and reminded himself how annoyed he got when others interrupted him when he was in the middle of concentrating. Changing his mind on interacting with the being just yet, he stepped away from the table and ended his projection. His conscious awareness shifted back to the room as he became aware of his body and the unusually hot laptop on his thighs.