1.5 True of Blood: Kallen's Tale (20 page)

“Then you should do what you came here to do,”
she whispers
.

I sigh in frustration this time. 
“I recall telling you to stop being so dramatic
,
and I did not come to this realm to end your life.  I came to assess if you would willingly allow the gate between realms to be open and I know the answer to that.  You would not.  And, you seem to be strong enough that no one could force you to do it.  Just because your magic is wild and untamed does not mean you are going to use it willy-nilly and cause
mass destruction.  You can simply choose not to use it unless provoked
,
as you have your entire life.”

“Willy-nilly?”
she says with a giggle
.  “You are old.”

I nip her
ear lobe.  “Out of that entire speech, the only thing you heard was my use of an antiquated term?”

To my surprise, she turns and kisses me softly
, then murmurs against my lips,
“I heard everything you said.  Thank you.” 
Turning back around, she pulls my arms tighter around her, as we fall asleep together.

Chapter
21

Apparently, sleeping this close to her, my body needs much less rest than I thought it
did.
  Perhaps Xandra feels the same way
. 
After all, she did kiss me earlier. 
Pushing her hair aside, I graze her neck with my lips.

She awakens with a smile. 
“Mm, that tickles
.”  That certainly does not sound like she wants me to stop.

Clarifying a misconception of hers, I whisper in her ear,
“I would find you just as beautiful if there were a million Fairy women for me to choose from
.
”
  Her smile becomes wider.
“May I kiss you?”
I
ask
,
as
my
lips
find her
ear.
 

“You are kissing me,”
she says with a small giggle, causing me to nip her ear lobe
.

With an exaggerated sigh, she rolls towards me and says,
“Fine
.
”

I give her a sour look. 
“I would hate to put you out.”

With a teasing glint in her eye, she replies,
“Well, I did almost kill you today
.  I
t’s the least that I can do
.
”

I raise my eyebrows. 
“Are you telling me a kiss from you at this point would simply be out of remorse?”
That is not what her eyes are telling me. 

“Of course, would there be any other reason?”

She is annoying me again. 
I shift
so that I am lying over her, supporting my weight with my elbows
.  Surprised,
she lets out a small squeal.  With a growl, I say, “Tell you what,
I will start kissing you
,
and you let me know when it is no longer about remorse but pleasure.”

She purses her lips.
  “Is there another option?”

I like her in this playful mood.  I wish I could see it more often
.  “Yes, you could simply admit that you would find it pleasurable if I kissed you.”

With mock surprise, she says,
“I could never admit that.”

“You are the most stubborn, aggravating, and mouthy Witch Fairy I have ever come across.”

S
he
snort
s
.  “I’m the only Witch Fairy you’ve come across.”

“You do have a point.  Regardless, I am afraid I am going to have to go back to kissing you for my original reason.”

“Oh? And what was that?”

I grin
widely
. 
“To shut you up.”
 

And
then my
lips are on
hers.  She opens them for me and I groan as my tongue begins to explore her mouth, her tongue dancing with mine with just as much passion.  When she wraps her arms around me, I deepen the kiss, and everything that has happened between us over the last several days does not matter anymore.  There are only her lips and the feel of her body
under mine
. 

Her warm, soft hands slip under my shirt, and I almost lose control when she purrs against my lips,
“Get rid of this
.
”

She does not have to ask me twice,
and
this is definitely a time when magic comes in handy.  As soon as my shirt is gone, her hands begin to wander over my exposed flesh. 
“I have wanted to kiss you like this since the moment I saw you,”
I
say
,
as
I
kiss a trail down
her
jaw
.  She moans as I find a sensitive spot behind her ear.

“Liar,”
she says, and then gasps slightly as I slide my hand under her shirt, following the natural line of her curves.  I still my hand a moment, but she kisses me deeply, letting me know without a doubt that it is okay.
 

My hand begins a downward journey,
as I imagine the
treasures her body holds.  Just as my hand glides over the front of her jeans, reality sets in.  Xandra and I just
recently
met, and we are not hand-fasted. 
T
his is getting dangerously close to point where we would have to be
, though
. 
At least, in my realm.
  Not to mention the fact that she feels horrible about what happened earlier; maybe this would not be happening if that was not the case. 
I need to know that she wants me simply because she desires me.  Not for any other reasons. 
With every microgram of will power I have, I pull my mouth from hers and I stop my hands from wandering.  Closing my eyes, I try to calm my heart rate
and breathing.  Not an easy task with my body wanting so badly to continue what we were doing. 

Xandra groans in frustration.  She tries to pull me back to her, but I cannot.  I fear I would not be able to stop if I kiss her like that again. 
“What’s wrong?”
she asks, her voice laden with frustration
.  “Is this because I’m a half-breed?”

That she could think something so silly after how I was just kissing her makes me laugh.  I open my eyes and say with a smile,
“No, it is not.  As a matter of fact, I have experienced a complete
turnaround
in my opinion regarding the attraction of a full-blooded Fairy.  It seems that I happen to prefer half-breeds.”

Her brow creases
.  “Then why did you stop kissing me?”

I am already regretting that decision, even if it was the right one. 
“Because, my beautiful Witch Fairy, ironic as it may be since I was the one who initiated this, I fear that you may truly only be kissing me because of what happened earlier today.”

“I’m not,”
she says, trying to pull me back to her again.  I cannot help but chuckle.  I like her enthusiasm.
 

She glowers up at me. 
“You’re laughing at me again.”

“I assure you, I am laughing in joy for your
eagerness
,”
I say.  I lean down and give her a light kiss and then roll to the side, because I am certainly not going to get my body or my hormones to give up on the idea of taking things further if she is still lying under me. 
“But it would be wrong of me to let things go any further until we both know for certain this is what you want.”

She rolls onto her side, away from me. 
“Who died and made you the kissing police.”

I am almost surprised to realize she thinks I am rejecting her advances. 
Silly girl.
  Smoothing her hair back from her neck, I kiss it lightly. 
“I want to continue what we were doing just as badly as you seem to right now
;
but I fear we were heading toward committing to something I am not certain you want
,
and I will not take advantage of our unusual circumstances.  Your emotions are running high
,
and I’m not convinced you are of the right frame of mind to make this decision.  It is important to me that you truly want to kiss me out of sheer desire
,
not because of some misplaced guilt.”

She sighs and I feel her body relax. 
I wrap my arms around her and pull her tight.  Just to be absolutely clear about things, I whisper in her ear,
“And just so you know,
if we ever made love, according to Fairy law
,
we would be hand-fasted.”

Her body instantly tenses again.  With a chuckle, I fall back to sleep with her in my arms.

Chapter
22

Xandra is sound asleep when I wake.  Instead of waking her with a kiss,
or more,
like my body is telling me to, I sit up and carefully climb over her to get out of bed. 
Stretching quietly, I
am pleasantly surprise
d
to find that I have completely recovered from yesterday. 

I
magic
a coat
and boots
and go outside to relieve my bladder.  When I come back, she is still sleeping.  She looks so
peaceful;
I do not have the heart to wake her up.  Instead, I go outside to chop wood.  I do not know how long we will be here, and we have already greatly diminished the supply in the cabin.  It would also be rude to use all of the wood, leaving none for the rangers when they return.

With
the
new saw
I created
in my hand, I
take to the forest.  When I have enough
wood
,
I magically lift it and bring it to the side of the cabin. 
I use a hatchet to chop the
pieces
into firewood. 
I could use magic to do this as well, but
I enjoy the exercise.  As much as we have walked, I have not had a real workout since I left my realm
, so this feels good
. 

When I have a good size pile of wood, I bring in an armful to place by the fire.  I am happy to see Xandra up. 
“You’re finally awake,”
I say
as
I put the wood in the box by the fireplace.
“Are you hungry?”

“Starving
.
”

I cannot pass up an opportunity to tease her. 
“Me
,
too
.
 
I believe you promised to cook all the meals if you did not keep your promise not to douse me with more snow yesterday.” 

“You’ve been up since dawn and you haven’t eaten because you were waiting for me to cook for you?  That’s just pathetic,”
she
grumble
s
as
she
stand
s
up. 
I laugh as I put a log on the fire. 

G
etting her coat and boots on,
Xandra prepares
to go outside.  She does not say anything more on her way out. 
That is okay,
I have already surmised from the last several days that she is not a morning person. 

After getting the fire situated, I pull out some soup and start it to boil.  It does not smell as tasty as the stuff we had last night, but it should be edible.  I am starting to fear I will never again have a decent meal, though. 

Xandra is not long outside.  When she comes in, I look up from the soup. 
“I believe I have a new plan.”

She looks wary. 
“Okay.”

I take a good look at her face.  I do not believe that she is wary about my plan.  It seems I was right last night in putting on the brakes; she has regret written all over her face. 
I
fell for it again.  What a fool I am. 
I raise a brow and try to keep my voice even. 
“It does not have anything to do with physical contact between you and me
.
”
To my humiliation, she visibly relaxes.  Good to know where I stand. 
Nowhere.

Not verbally acknowledging
my comment, she asks,
“Does it have to do with
Maurelle
and
Olwyn
?”

I see how she wants to play this.  We shall pretend nothing happened between us. 
Fine.
  I certainly am not going to let her know I was foolish enough to believe she was interested in anything other than momentary comfort. 
“Yes.”

“I’m all ears,”
she says.  She seems at a loss about something
, but I have no idea what.  I probably do not want to know, so I do not ask her about it
.  After standing in the middle of the room awkwardly for a few minutes, she finally sits down at the table.

The soup has come to a boil, giving me an excuse to focus on something other than her.  I am feeling rather insulted at the moment, but
again,
she does not need to know that. 
I plan to behave perfectly normal. 
Pouring out the soup into two bowls, I place one in front of her.

“Thank you,”
she says with a
smile.  “What’s your plan?”

Determined to keep this all business from here on out, I harden my heart against her smiles. 
“Since it is apparently impossible to teach you any
self-control
,”
I
say
.  She makes a face at me, and I cannot help but laugh.  She does make it hard to be upset with her
, sometimes.  Perhaps when this is all done, we can be friends
. 
“I think we should go with your strength.”

Her
mouth drops open
.
“You want me to kill them?”

I am quite taken aback by that. 
“What did I say that made you jump to that conclusion?”

I believe she is embarrassed now, if the blood rushing to her cheeks is any indication. 
“Nothing.
  What did you mean?”

I stare at her for a moment, wondering where she gets these insane ideas from.  And why she has no stop valve on her mouth.  She says out loud everything that is on her mind
.  “As I was saying, we should go with your strength
,
and that is using your wild magic on a grand scale.”

She is looking at me as if I am the insane one now. 
“So I can start another avalanche or a rock slide?”

I scowl.  If she would be quiet for a moment, I could explain my plan to her. 
“Are you going to let me finish
,
or should I just expect you to interrupt after each sentence?”

After giving me a dirty look, she cocks her head to the side and does something weird with her fingers and her lips.  I assume that the gesture indicates that she is not going to interrupt again.  I am doubtful, but I
continue
. 
“The runners that your father sent here, as I explained before, were chosen because of their willingness to do anything it takes to get the job done.  They would bring you to him with barely a last breath in you
,
if they get their hands on you.”

“That sounds pleasant,”
she
mumble
s.

I cock my head and stare at her in disbelief.  It is like talking to a two year old sometimes.  She does some weird hand gesture again
and
I shake my head.  This is
going to be yet another long day.  Continuing, I say,
“Pooka warriors are nothing better than mercenaries.  They understand violence better than they understand logic
,
so reasoning with them is almost impossible.  But you have already gone a long way, I
a
m sure, of impressing upon them that you are considerably stronger than they are.  I believe taking the fight to them is our best bet.  If we actively seek them out and take up an offensive strategy rather than defensive
,
and then you give them an even better demonstration of your magic, that may be enough for them to tuck tail and run away.”

To my utter dismay, she giggles.  She is insane.  I am sitting here with a Fairy gone mad.  She opens her mouth to say something, but closes it again. 
I wait impatiently for her to stop.  Finally
sobering up, she says hesitantly,
“Okay, I understand your reasoning, but what about what you said about them using my family against me?”
 

There were too many what
abouts
in that sentence.  If we stay friends, I am
going to insist upon teaching her to speak in a way that makes her easier to understand. 
“I’ve been thinking about that
. 
I believe that a more forceful demonstration of your power may be enough to change their minds about anything like that.  I also suspect, now mind you I am saying suspect because I do not know for sure, that you would be able to direct your magic so that it only affects who you want it to affect.”

She does not look convinced.  She may be wondering about my sanity, from the look on her face. 
“What on earth gives you that idea?”
she asks.

I shrug.  I was much happier about explaining my reasoning before her reaction to me this morning. 
“Part of it could probably be put down to intuition
,
but a part of it is how you acted yesterday.”

“When I almost killed you without meaning to.
  That doesn’t seem like a good example to me.”

“But
,
when you focused your magic on me, even though you could not send it back down into the earth, you also pinpointed it only on me.  Not as much as a flake of snow was affected.  You saw me as the threat and you directed your attack only on me.”
  I thought she was
eventually
able to stop because she cared about me.  Now, I am not so sure about that.  I certainly am not going to say
that
out loud.

Sulking, she says,
“I didn’t attack you
.
”
I cock my head and raise my eyebrows.  She quickly moves on.  “
But
,
what makes you think they’ll be so afraid of me that they’ll leave me alone for good?  If they still come after me after what I did to them already
,
doesn’t that prove your theory incorrect?”

I shake my head. 
“No, because I know you were focusing most of your anger at me, not them.  They did not get a true feeling of what it is like to have your magic burning inside of them.  And they probably believed that it was me who was doing it.” 

“But you said that if you hadn’t drawn most of my magic inside of you that I would have killed them.”

“I believe I was mistaken.” 

It is her turn to raise a brow
. 
“You?
  Mistaken?”

I give her a sour look and continue. 
I am not in the mood for her verbal jabs. 
“You stopped focusing on them when they became unconscious
,
and then focused only on
me.  I think letting my magic go only sped up the inevitable. 
That you would have been able to push it out of me eventually.”

A smile tries to curve up her lips. 
“Is that your way of telling me that even though I’m a half-breed
,
I’m stronger than you?”

I believe she is trying to be both smug and flirty.  I refuse to respond to either. 
“
Y
esterday, when it was clear that there was no more fight left in me, your magic pulled back.  I felt it.  I do not believe your magic will make you kill someone
,
but you can hurt them awfully badly.”  I
repress a chill as I remember the pain
.  “Unlike myself, I believe that is a lesson they will learn quickly.”

She sighs
.  “I’m sorry for all the times I hurt you.”

I am not certain if she is serious or not.  So, I simply shrug. 
“You were only doing as I instructed
,
and neither of us knew what we were doing.”

“I wish I could be as confident about this plan as you are.”

So do
I
.  The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can
spend time away from each other.  Even if we can be friends, I suspect I will need a little time to accept that she does not desire me in any other way.  Yes, my ego is that fragile.  Kegan would be laughing so hard if he heard me admit that, he would
sure
ly injure himself as he rolled around on the floor
for several hours
.
“I truly believe it is the best option.  I know how unappealing a life of running from them through the mountains is to you.”
  There may have been a touch of bitterness in my voice.  I am careful not to let it travel to my face.

She is quiet for moment before saying,
“Can I think about it for at least a day?  Maybe work my way up to thinking it’s a good plan?” 

I am surprised, a rational suggestion. 
“That seems fair.
”  Noticing her bowl is empty, I ask, “A
re you done?”
She nods so I pick up both bowls and the pan I used to cook the soup.  Bringing them out to wash them is a great excuse to get a few minutes away from her.  I cannot help feeling that she is sending me mixed signals
, and I need to steel my resolve against trying anything more with her
.  A bit of fresh air should help clear my mind
.