Lost Without You

“Emma? Emma, can you hear me? Emma!” I yelled panicking with the fact that Emmanuelle wasn’t waking up.

“Paul, calm down. She’s fine.” Emily said gently dabbing a warm washcloth on Emma’s forehead.

I took a deep breath still feeling panicky. I had never expected in a million years for Emma to pass out after being told something, but I guess everything comes as a surprise now a days. I moved away from Emma and sat down in the chair that was beside the sofa closer toward her head. I covered my face with my hands not understanding why it had to be today about a serious situation that Emma had to pass out. Not my ideal of a perfect day.

“What the hell happened?” I heard Carlos’ voice entering the house. Looking up at him, normally I wasn’t intimidated by anyone after going through the transformation and my temper went through the roof, I had to admit that Carlos was scary looking at the moment with his face blood red and his muscles popping from his body. “What the hell, Paul? What the hell happened to my cousin?!”

“Okay, you need to calm down because it’s not going to help the situation. She simply passed out and she should be up soon.” Emily said standing up from beside Emmanuelle.

“You don’t tell me what to do!” Carlos snarled at Emily, but she held up her guard obviously having to deal with Sam, Jared and I.

I heard a shift of movement and I looked over at Emma to see that she was lightly stirring giving me hope that she is waking up. I moved from the chair to beside the sofa taking Emma’s hand in mine seeing her eyes moving a little before they fluttered open. I smile broke out on my face, only for a second until Emma looked over at me and pulled her hand away from me. It nearly broke my heart into two by the moment and it made me question if she ever wanted to be around me again unless it was necessary.

“Thank God!” Carlos said pushing Emily and me aside to pulled Emma up into a hug only to hear her yelp and that caused something to snap inside of me.

Immediately my body began to violently shake along with a growl forcing itself out of my throat taking Carlos instantly. He gave me a questioning look that was mixed in with some of the anger that he was still feeling. Within a blink of an eye, I charged at Carlos to push him away and off of Emma and into the wall that separated the living room from the kitchen. I heard Emily’s voice trying to tell me something, but I was too angry to clearly hear what she said. Although I had a good idea of what she might have said, it wasn’t until another voice had spoke that stopped me from nearly killing him.

“Paul, please!” Emmanuelle’s voice echoed in my ears.

I loosened my grip on Carlos who stood up against the wall near a heart attack and turned to see Emma sitting up on the sofa with tears threatening to spill. I fully released Carlos and took a few steps away from him feeling my heart break even more, if it was even possible, seeing my imprint in tears because of me. I was making my imprint on the verge of tears all because I let the animalistic side of me take over and was minutes away from killing her cousin for making her yelp in pain.

“Emma, I’m sorry. I don’t know what got over me.” I apologized walking over toward her to sit down in front of her. “Please forgive me.”

“Can we talk more privately?” she asked whispering, looking behind me at Carlos and Emily.

“Well, since you’re up and seem fine, I’ll go.” Emily said. “Nice to meet you, Emma.”

Emma nodded toward Emily before looking at me with a questioning look meaning that I had some explaining to do whenever we do get our privacy to talk. Emma and I turned to look at Carlos waiting for him to leave, but he had already made a mad dash toward the room that he was staying in during the visit. I turned back to face Emma to see that she was looking out the window with a questioning and curious look on her face.

“Who was that girl?” she asked never looking back at me.

“Emily. She’s Sam’s fiancé. She came here to help me when you passed out because I had no idea what to do.” I answered. She nodded, but never looked back toward me or changed her facial expression and I knew she was thinking if she heard me right about imprinting on her. “You know you can ask me or tell me anything, right?”

“Did you tell me that you imprinted on me?” she asked immediately after I finished.

“Yes, I did.”

“I can remember parts of what it means.” Emma said sighing before looking back at me. “Can you like explain it to me?”

“Imprinting is where us shape-shifter finds their . . . soul mates. It’s like love at first sight, but only stronger because she becomes our gravity, what holds us down on Earth.” I explained to her. “You’re not going to pass out again, are you?”

She shook her head no before saying, “No. I was just caught off guard earlier, trying to take everything in and was just overwhelmed with the news.” I nodded this time waiting for her to say something else about me imprinting on her. “So that’s the reason why I feel some kind of pull toward you?”

“Yes because I feel it toward you as well . . . because I’m falling in love with you.”

Emma stared at me obviously not knowing what to say. Again, I waited for her to say something or do something, but she just stared at me with her chocolate brown eyes that drew me into her making me do the unexpected. I kissed her.