“What is it, Winnie?” Jahla sighed.
Blinking, she flinched slightly on finding the woman now staring right back at her. “Ah, well, you wouldn’t care to explain how Ollie is healing so fast, would you?”
Because Ollie was healing super-fast—too fast. After being the poster child for domestic bruises in the past, due to her parents being highly religious nut jobs, Winnie knew all too well how long it usually took for ones that dark to heal. Too damn long, that was for sure. Yet, Ollie’s were already yellow and it had only been five days.
Jahla grimaced, but stayed silent, averting her gaze slightly.
“I take it from your expression that you can’t.”
She shrugged. “Not…really? I mean, he’s always healed pretty fast.”
Winnie would admit, based on a few past incidents, Jahla wasn’t wrong. Which just made her seriously wonder how she hadn’t questioned it before now, with her previous medical background. Well, attempted medical background. Two years in pre-med did not a doctor make.
“You realize that is pretty shocking with how his body fails to correctly absorb iron, and to a lesser extent, B12, right?”
“I don’t know what you want me to say, Winnie. His body is going to do what it’s going to do.”
Winnie sighed. “Fine, I’ll drop it, but just be aware that I find it questionable.”
Ollie smiledas he spotted Noble sitting to the left of the kitchen table, his chair pulled out a bit away from it. “They told me you came up to feed Red.”
His boyfriend’s face pinched a bit. “Ah…not exactly.”
“I mean, I figured you came to ask him something, as he doesn’t usually eat at this time anyway. Though I think everyone else thought you came up here to tempt me into sex,” Ollie said with a hesitant little giggle, heat spreading across his cheeks.
The man chuckled and reached a hand out for him. “Maybe in a bit I will. Come here.”
Giggling, he hurried over, and let Noble pull him sideways onto his lap.
“So rather than tempting you, it’s more that I wanted to talk to you about something.”
His stomach dropped instantly at the words. Was this it? Was he finally too much? Though…it would be a bit odd to be broken up with while sitting in the man’s lap…
“Wh-what do you want to talk about?” Ollie winced as he stuttered.
Noble gave him a light kiss on the forehead, while gripping his hands, which he’d unconsciously wound together. “Relax, Baby. I won’t say it’s exactly good news, but I promise you, it has nothing to do with us or our relationship.”
Swallowing, he took a deep breath in and slowly let it out. “I’m…calm.”
“I’m not sure if there is a right or wrong way to go about this, so I’m just going to explain as best I can. Also, Red decided it was best that I be the one to say it, even though I don't fully agree with that assessment. But it’s about what happened on Sunday.”
Ollie frowned. “What about it…aside from it being horrible all around?”
“About you feeling as if there were emotions that weren’t your own calling to you.”
Right…Ollie had assumed Red knew something more about that. At the time, he’d wanted to know, but based on Noble’s grim expression, he maybe didn’t want to anymore.
“And?”
“We believe, based on past occurrences and Red’s sources, that they were in fact not your emotions, which is why they felt so wrong.”
His heart had already started to pick up its pace at the implications, and Ollie felt a possible meltdown or even a panic attack rapidly coming on. “Ha—I think I need you to just tell me everything in one go, preferably before I freak out.”
“Okay. While it’s likely they fed off your real emotions at the time and built on them, we believe that the entity that is The Living Flame was present in your mind at that moment. While I wouldn’t say they were in complete control, when you gave in, their emotions mixed with yours, causing you to lose full mental awareness of your own actions.”
Darkness started to encroach on the edges of his vision, as his new reality filtered into his brain. The Living Flame, a being that likely could be considered all-powerful, had beenINhis mind—in his little old mind! And maybe they still were, because the emotions were still there. They were still fucking there! Feelings that didn’t feel like they were his own were still there! Aha—still there!
Oh, God...was The Living Flame in his mind even now?! Had they never left? Was Ollie now sharing his body with something else? Was he even in control, or did he just think he was?!
