Torn Page 0,57

and in several different directions before he sighed and looked up at me. Shaking his head, he said, "It's not here. Whatever language this is, it isn't close enough to Greek to read any of it. It was a good idea Ivy. If it was close enough, it might have worked." He slumped and leaned back against the wall, gripping his forehead in his hands. "Is it spreading?" The question took me by surprise because he never asked me about it.

I looked up at him, while leaving my fingers on the book. "What?"

His face turned up to look at me. There was a weariness there that was growing harder to ignore. "Is the poison from the fang spreading inside of you? Can you tell?"

Without thinking, I pressed my hand to my chest and shook my head. The searing pain of the poison traveling through my body was burned into my memory forever. "No, it's not moving. At least it isn't right now. I'd feel it if it was. The sapphire serum seems to be isolated to this one spot." I pressed my fingers to the top of my left breast, grateful that Lorren crystalized it. But I knew it was slowly leaking into me because effonating had done something to it. I suspected that the heat of effoanting messed with Lorren's crystallization of the serum, but I didn't know for sure. And, I didn't know how much time I had before the poison would kill me. I was hoping that I'd be able to tell before it became critical, since I'd experienced the full brunt of the sapphire serum before.

Collin tilted his head back against the wall. "That's unusual." He let the words hang in the air, and when I didn't reply he added, "Normally the poison would travel through the victim - it spiders out away from the original wound like mold. But yours isn't?" I shook my head. Where was this going? Why was he looking at me like that? Collin stared at me for a few moments. I couldn't sense what he was thinking through the bond, although I reached out for it. He scolded as he felt me intrude into his thoughts, "Ask me, if you want to know. Don't try and press into my mind and steal what I'm thinking."

Feeling sheepish, I looked away and said, "You seem leery of something. I just wanted to know what it was. That's all. I didn't mean to..." I looked up at him. "I'll try not to do it again, but it's difficult to shut out your thoughts and feelings. Sometimes I can't no matter how hard I try."

"Yeah, but right now that isn't what happened. You felt scared and went digging through my mind. Not the same." His words were warning, but I didn't back down so fast.

I pointed at him, "You did the same thing just now!" Smugness rolled off of me. "That's how you knew I felt scared."

He laughed, "No, that wasn't it." Leaning forward, he asked, "Damn, Ivy. Don't you use any of your senses anymore? I looked at you, okay? I see fear in your eyes. Something I said spooked you, so I asked what it was and you responded by diving into my thoughts." Well, that would explain it too. I looked back down at the book, as if it interested me amazingly so.

I shouldn't have pressed into his mind. Privacy was something we both valued, but I wanted it because I was hiding so many secrets. I was beginning to wonder if he was doing the same thing. "You're right," I muttered softly, not wanting to fight with him.

Collin walked over to me, and hovered over the book. Glancing out of the corner of my eye, I saw a smile spread across his face, "What was that, Ivy? Could you speak up? I didn't quite catch those last words."

My smugness evaporated. I shouldn't have pried and he knew it. I had no idea how he was controlling himself and not taking a mind dive when I didn't answer him, but he didn't. I hated admitting I was wrong, and he knew it. "Fine," I said, not taking my eyes off the book, "you deserve to gloat. You were right. I was wrong."

His fingers wrapped around my waist as he came up behind me. "What's that? I can't hear you!" The instant he said those words, he started tickling me. I jerked away from the book, swatting at his hands.

I tried to