Chapter Seven
She blew out her candles and placed them back in her closet, among the other objects of her trade, then she went to open up the windows, and sighed when the cold winter wind caressed her cheeks. Her dog drew closer and rubbed itself against her legs And for a moment, she could actually forget that there was someone out there who wanted them dead and gone.
“Well, these things happen.” She said after some time, to both herself and her dog and closed the window once again.
“In the meantime, I’m living with a werewolf, who doesn’t know I know that he’s a werewolf, whose ‘friend’ so to speak, is out to get because he believes to be after his woman.”
She sat heavily on her bed and Dante joined her. She ran a hand down his fur,
“The sad part is, I can’t tell him. And if I can’t tell him, what point is there for me to know?” She sighed again and fought against the frustration that was beginning to eat at her.
Why didn’t destiny pick a different individual? One who could easily talk to Alexander about what he needed to know?
In any case, why did she feel like she couldn’t talk to him herself?
“Well that’s simple,” she said quietly, “witches and Werewolves don’t get along.”
Plus, the moment he learned she was a witch, he would leave and never return. And for some reason, that couldn’t quite keep her finger upon, she didn’t want him to go. She could only hope she found a way to speak to him about the impending danger soon costing them both their lives.
~*~*~*~
Alexander woke to a state of absolute confusion.
It was evening time already, but hadn’t it been just morning?
He sat up and groaned at the pain in his back. How had gotten into bed anyway?
He had just been at the dining table, eating breakfast with the redhead.
The redhead, he thought with a fleeting smile, the one who looked at him with eyes that held a million secrets.
Had she been the one who brought him to bed?
But how could she? He weighed over a hundred pounds and she was… delicate.
But then he remembered how it had been her who had managed to drag him to her home the day he encountered the humans.
“And her dog.” He whispered, turning to look at the window. And he soon found himself thinking about Derbyshire, he soon found himself thinking about home.
But home was a long way from where he was, and if he was being honest with himself, home could never more be home. Not with his best friend betraying you a troop of bloodthirsty humans.
But he had family in Derbyshire, aye he did. His cousin, Dinah, the one his best friend believed him to be snatching from him. And for the first time since reaching Bamburgh, he found himself worrying for her. She had tried to warn him about Alejandro’s Ill feelings, but he had pushed her worries to the side, believing that he could handle his friend’s ‘fit.’
Handle it, he had not. If anything, it had bitten him in the arse. And if he was being honest, his rare end was still very sore.
He couldn’t go back to Derbyshire. He hated the thought of cowardice but hated more the idea of being a fool. So he couldn’t and wouldn’t go back to Derbyshire, but he needed to know that his Dinah was okay and to get her away from that mad man as soon as possible.
If it was the very last thing he did in his lifetime.
~*~*~*~
“I make breakfast, you make… dinner?” She jumped at the sound of his voice, and placed her hand over her heart, biting her tongue to keep from cursing him,
“I didn’t realize you had awoken.” He walked closer and sat at the table on her island,
“I’ve actually been awake for some time now. Been, as you one would say, reflecting.” She retrieved the can of spices from a drawer and eyed him curiously,
“Do you wish to share then?”
“Your meal or my thoughts?” She smiled just as he hoped she would. He thought she had a very beautiful smile.
“What’s mine is yours at this point. But I was talking about your thoughts.” He considered her words for a moment and decided that the day to talk about the statement she had made, may surely indeed come, but for that moment, only one thing was necessary,
“I need to go back to Derbyshire.” She grew pale at his words and busied herself with the preparation of their meal to hide her agitation,
“For what reason?” She asked, her back turned to him, and shook her head before facing him again, “is it any of my business what your reasons are anyway.”
“I have made it your business by coming to talk to you about it, have I not?” He said softly, sensing her distress.
“Then, I suppose I ask again, why?”
“I have a cousin, one I fear is in danger, or could be in danger.”
She had a feeling she knew the cousin of which he spoke, and while she connected the dots, she couldn’t help but understand the danger that he feared. But she said nothing, biting her tongue to keep from saying anything at all,
“Do you care to elaborate?”
He leaned back on the chair,
“You see, the sole reason for my ambush, so to speak is because a friend of mine – and I suppose I should no longer address him as such– believed me to want to take his woman from him. This woman is my cousin and my sister of the heart. Unfortunately, he couldn’t see things that way.”
“So he was jealous and angry and sent evil men your way.” She said, her voice shaking as she remembered the vision.
Alexander nodded.
“But you can’t go to Derbyshire.” She said, fighting panic. If he did that, he would be in so much danger. She knew that.
“I know. But if I do not find a way to reach my cousin, then eventually I must go. If only to see her and know that she’s safe.”
She turned away from him again, to find control of her emotions, and then turned to face him once again, only to find him watching her with concern.
How could he be looking at her like she wasn’t okay when he was the one to be worried about?
“You carry this like it’s your problem.”
She snorted out a laugh, “must be the empath in me.”
“I didn’t mean to burden you with this.”
“I’m not burdened.”
He got up and walked closer to her, making her breath hitch. She would choose the burden of his situation over his closeness in any case.
“You lie.” He said looking into her eyes,
“Maybe a little. But it’s who I am. Let me be.”
It was his turn to snort out a laugh,
“In any case, I have someone, who I could speak to, to find out about your cousin.”
“I would be in your debt if you do.”
She smiled, “then you would have a lot of debts, Alexander of Derbyshire.”
He smiled, “nothing like falling into the hands of a beautiful Redhead.”