4. No Ordinary Day

Emma heard the words slip out of her mouth, "You are mine!"

Utter fear filled her to the very core and she covered her mouth with her hands to keep from speaking anything else to him. 

The tingling sensation wouldn't leave her hand and she rubbed it before crying out, "What kind of monster are you? Just leave me alone!"

Emma backed away from Matthias' shadow and bumped into the bed. She was scared of him now.

Who could haunt your dreams and your waking hours? He was a freak. This was not natural!

Was she going crazy?

She screamed, "I am not yours! You freak."

Matthias cringed at her torment as he could hear every word and feel every ounce of pain. He knew that he needed to do something, but what?

He cast his thoughts to her as he watched her green eyes grow even larger with fear as she heard his words, 'Emma, I am not a freak or a monster, but I am not human in the true sense.'

"Then what are you?" she questioned an apparently empty room as fear was running rampant through her veins.

'I cannot say until you are turned,' he cast again.

"Turned? What? No way in hell are you turning me into a monster freak like you!"

'Emma, please! Please Emma whatever you do, don't reject me. It will shatter our souls. We will be forever damaged. Please Emma, please give me time to show you how much I love you. Our bond will grow stronger and you will no longer fear me.'

She was now pacing around the room holding her head, trying to block out his words.  She refused to look in his direction for fear of giving into him.

Part of Emma knew that he was telling the truth, about their souls. Something inside of her was warning her not to reject him.

Stopping by the bathroom door she said in a voice full of hate, "Leave me now while I shower and get ready for work. I smell your stupid musky scent whenever you are around and I know you watch me, you pervert!"

Matthias closed his shadow eyes and wanted to die on the inside. How had he messed this up? Well after a thousand years, he didn't have much experience in being a mate as he only just used the woman in his life.

He was useless and was making a complete fool of himself.

He was so tempted to appear before her but decided against it, before casting 'Emma, I am sorry and will leave now. We will talk later after work, in your dreams.'

Just like that, he was gone and she felt a pang of regret and missed his presence. She wanted to call him back but then realized that she was being foolish.

She was supposed to hate this man, not love or long for him.

What the hell was wrong with her?

Managing to get dressed for work, she felt frazzled as she left for the office and was surprised at how much she missed his presence as she was waiting for the elevator to go up to her office on the nineteenth floor.

Emma entered the elevator in her new grey suit that showed off her legs perfectly and noticed the man standing next to her, looking coyly at her legs, when she smelled the musky scent of her ghost.

She grew pale and felt slightly dizzy as he overwhelmed her senses. Closing her eyes, she put one hand out to balance herself and she went right through his icy shadow.

She screamed out and pulled her left hand back and held it in her right hand, when she heard the stranger ask, "Ma'am, are you all right?"

"Yes, I am so sorry. I just felt a bit dizzy and the movement of the elevator messed up my balance. Thank you for asking," she replied politely.

The stranger suddenly grew very quiet and turned to her and said, "Please forgive me for my thoughts about you were repugnant. I will never look at you in that demeaning way again."

As he finished his very robotic statement, the elevator door opened and the stranger exited onto the fourteenth floor, in a state of confusion and remained so rattled that he needed to go home and spend the day in bed to recover.

Emma, on the other hand, knew exactly who was behind the icy spot in the elevator and she guessed her shadow ghost was manipulating the stranger's words.

'You are correct, Emma. That man's mind was vile. The way he looked at you and his thoughts. He's lucky he still has a brain to use. I should have rendered him helpless for the rest of his vile life.'

Emma was now infuriated and marched immediately off of the elevator and directly to her office without saying good morning to anybody.

It was NOT a GOOD morning. Not by any stretch of the imagination. How was she so lucky to gain a stalker ghost?

What the bloody hell!

She was seething with him and just wanted to be left alone regardless of their stupid soulmate thing.

Slamming her office door a wee bit too hard, she turned to look in her office and she knew that she wasn't alone, for she smelled his musky rain scent again and pushed at him and finding his icy patch.

Seething she growled, "You bastard! I just want you to leave me alone. I don't need a babysitter and you are ruining everything. How am I supposed to work today? I can't even concentrate!"

Matthias just stood there, flummoxed and unsure of what to do. He could just leave or reveal himself. Casting to her wasn't really working and was messing everything up, but he carried on, hoping that he could change her mind.

'Emma, please. I am just making sure that you come to no harm on your way to work. I just want you to be safe.'

She just laughed hauntingly and sat defeated in her office chair.

"I am tired of this. Just reveal yourself already. I know what you look like. We have touched in my dreams and you have followed me everywhere, even watching me in my shower. I know this because your scent gives you away."

'It's too early. Not yet.'

"Ghost, what's too early! For it isn't too early for you to stalk me and freak me out," she snapped at his too early crap!

'I will be back to follow you home after work and we can talk when you get home.'

"In person?" she asked but she knew that he was gone.

Just then, Randy swung her office door open and was surprised as he asked, "I thought that I heard you talking with someone. Are you talking to yourself?"

She just looked at him like he was mad and smiled politely, "Oh, good morning Randy. No, I just was on the phone, but got off right as you were barging in. What can I do for you this lovely morning?"

"I need you to come with me," he said as he walked out of her office hastily.

Randy might be a total flirt after hours, but he was all business during normal business hours and he was actually the VP of commercial strategy for their agency.

She followed him into the conference room and she was stunned when she saw that the board was sitting around the room.

Randy waited for her and ushered her into the room and asked her to sit next to him.

She felt like her insides were filled with ice as she was unprepared for this surprise meeting. This time, she knew it wasn't her ghost's icy presence creating the feeling.

Randy looked up at her and very seriously asked, "Emma Stanford, we have discussed your marketing proposal further and we do not believe that we can accomplish all that you have outlined with you in your current position. We would like to offer you VP of Marketing for the Personal Care Division with your own staff to manage the expansion."

Emma was frozen in place and didn't know what to say, when she heard a voice in her head, 'Thank them for the opportunity then decline the position.'

Standing up, she raced out of the conference room and headed straight to her office where for the second time in one morning, she slammed the door too hard and through gritted teeth, she exclaimed, "Now! You better show yourself now!"