Chapter 11 - Lex

"What's this about, Lex?" Damon demands the moment he walks in, going straight to the point as always. He is the last to arrive. The others are sitting on the terrace attached to the living room, drinking beer.

"I'd rather talk to all of you together," I say, gesturing with my head to where the others are sitting. "Go on," I say to him as I went to fetch more beer.

All eyes are on me when I go out.

"I see that there's going to be no small talk," I say, passing the beers.

"What's this about, Lex?" Damon repeats.

"Alright then. Are you guys feeling it?" I say, looking intently at their faces.

"So this is not about Nic then?" TJ asks, cocking an eyebrow. But he is not smiling as he would be, if he hadn't been feeling it.

"What? No! Why did you guys simply assume that?" I say, glaring at all of them.

"Alright, alright," Liam says, holding up both his hands up in a gesture meant to pacify. It only irritates me. But I bite down on my irritation and take a few deep breaths. I need to do something about the sleep deprivation.

"Look guys, this is serious. Just tell me if you have been feeling it?"

"Yeah," Damon is the first to speak up. His serious brown eyes are even more serious than usual.

"Yeah, I've felt it too," says TJ.

Liam and Pat also nod.

"I'm feeling this for the first time since… you know…" Damon leaves the sentence unfinished. Pat, who is sitting the closest to him, squeezes his shoulder. Damon hardly ever refers to his past, but if he has felt the need to bring this up, it is serious.

"I knew it was bad," I say, rubbing my face. If we are all feeling the presence of a threat in our gut, it is damn serious.

"So what do we do?" I ask, running a hand through my hair.

We all look at each other, but nobody speaks.

"There's nothing to do," Damon says finally.

"What do you mean? There must be something!" I ask, raising my voice. I instantly regret it. "Sorry."

"What's with you, man? Is it that time of the month?" Sarcasm is dripping out of Liam's voice. I want to slug him, but I lean forward on my elbows and close my eyes.

"Hey, Lex. What is it?" Pat asks, leaning forward to look at my face.

"Sorry, guys. I don't know who or what this danger is or how it could harm us. I've never felt it before. It is making me edgy," I say, still not looking up at the guys.

"What is it exactly that you haven't felt before?" TJ asks. There's something in his voice that tells me that he's not speaking about the potential peril. My eyebrows shoot up my forehead as I look up at him.

"This constant gnawing in my stomach that tells me that danger is just around the corner. Only, when I go around the corner, there's nothing. Nothing at all! My senses are on hyper-alert all the time. I feel like I'm a soldier who has to go into combat at a moment's notice."

"Whoa!" Pat holds up his hand. "I haven't been feeling it that strongly. I just feel a dull ache at the back of my head. I can tell that something's not right, but I'm not feeling it with the same intensity as you."

The others all agree that they haven't been feeling it as intensely as I've been feeling it.

"So it's probably something to do with you," TJ says with a speculative look.

I jerk up my head to look at him. Could it be true?

"But why me? I mean, nothing has changed in my life!" I say even as I feel a horrible, sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Could it have something to do with Nic? No! It can't be! There's no logic to it.

"Come on, Smoky," Liam says, rolling his eyes.

"What, Nic again?" I try to sound as disbelieving as possible.

"Yeah."

"Nic couldn't possibly be dangerous!" I object.

The others say nothing, but I see them exchange meaningful glances. I sigh. It's time to be hyper-rational.

"Look, you are worried that she might be the one. That she might be my soul mate. But if that were true, why would I feel as if my life is in danger?" I say looking around at them.

"Well, you know what happens when a Quartz dragon loses his mate," Pat says carefully.

I stand up abruptly, spilling beer all over my trousers.

"Nic is in danger?" I can't keep the panic out of my voice.

"But you say she isn't your soul mate," TJ shrugs.

I sit down carefully.

"Yeah. That's right. You're right. She isn't my soul mate, so there can be no way what we are feeling has got to do anything with Nic. But on the off-chance that this has indeed got something to do with Nic, we need to do something." I say, trying to calm myself down.

"TJ, can we arrange for her to have security?" There's a note of panic in my voice that I absolutely hate.

"I'll see what I can do," he says stiffly. TJ is not his usual self at all. I wonder if he is downplaying the danger.

We talk for a while about the issue, but we keep coming back to the same conclusion. Till we know what the threat is, we can't be specifically prepared for it. All I can do is keep Nic in my sight for as many hours a day as possible. She's safe at the office and doesn't really go out a lot once she gets home. So that leaves the commute. I privately vow to drop Nic home every day, and I'll have Chuck pick her up in the mornings. I will hear no argument from her on this.

After an hour or so, the guys all leave one by one, but TJ hangs back.

"So what did you do yesterday?" he asks once we are alone on the terrace.

"Oh, nothing really," I say, getting up to get more beer. I want to avoid any conversation pertaining to Nic.

"Really? So you didn't spend the day with Nic?" he asks, following me inside.

"If you already know, why do you ask?" I say, glaring at him.

"I don't think you should try to seduce her," he says bluntly.

"I will seduce who I want, and I will thank you to stay out of my business," I say, closing the fridge a little too forcefully. "How did you know anyway? Do you have us under surveillance or something?" I goad, wanting an excuse to fight him. Perhaps a good exchange of blows will help relieve some of my frustration and nerves.

"Nice try," he says, seeing right through my ruse. "I'm not going to fight you, Lex. I know because Chuck mentioned it to me this morning in passing. He didn't think it was a secret."

TJ sits down on the couch in the living room, one leg crossed over the other, his arms spread wide on the headrest.

"You guys think it is a bad idea, but believe me, I know what I'm doing. It's the only way to get her out of my system once and for all," I say, sitting down next to him.

"The question you should be asking yourself is why you feel so strongly attracted to her," TJ says, fixing me with a stare.

"Because she is an attractive woman. That's all there is to it. Look, please let me handle this my way, alright?" I say, keeping my tone as even as possible.

He stares at me for a really long time. It is as if we are having a staring match. But he finally nods and gets up.

"Just promise me that you will be careful," he says, looking over his shoulder just as he is about to step out of the door.

"I will," I say solemnly.

Once he leaves, I sit down on the couch with a sigh. The patent leather couch is already sticky with the beer on my trousers from where I had sat before, but I could care less. I don't know what I'm doing, and I don't know how I could possibly be careful.

But I am single-mindedly determined to win Nic over.