1.5 True of Blood: Kallen's Tale (21 page)

When I come back into the cabin, she is sitting in front of the fire.  Turning towards me as I put the dishes away, she says,
“Thank you for making lunch, I really would have done it.”

I shrug. 
“I simply warmed a can of soup.” 

She is silent, but her eyes are lingering on me. 
And my body.
  What the hell?  Does she want me or not?
 

From out of nowhere
, she asks,
“Will you tell me about the Fae realm now?”

Okay, I do feel badly about not talking to her about her heritage.  In my defense, I was pretty pissed at the time. 
“I am sorry I was not more forthcoming the last time you asked me that.  I am afraid I was taking out my feelings about never seeing my home again on you
,
when it is certainly not your fault.”

“Must we do this?”
she asks.

Color me
confused.  “Do what?”

“Analyze everything that has happened.  You already gave me a blanket apology.”

I smile.  She is using my own words against me. 
“I guess I did.” 
I sit down next to her and I find her eyes lingering on my body again.  Not that I am complaining, I simply wish she would
stop if she does not intend to do anything about it
.  Either she wants me or she does not.  I can live with either.  One more happily than the other
, though
.

I explain a little about my realm.  When I happen to mention that Fairies create things for those who cannot, she interrupts. 
“Do you mean things like clothes?”

I nod.  Then I notice the look on her face. 
Oh, god.
  I was not supposed to let that slip; she knows now that some of the things I told her were not true. 
Another nail in the coffin containing any attraction she had for me. 
“Yes, I could have used my magic to make you your own blanket and myself a sleeping bag.  I much preferred sharing with you.”
  There, it is out there.  She knows how much a fool I have been.

Her mouth drops open.  I am preparing for her tirade, or a slap in the face, but it does not come.  Instead, she starts laughing. 
“You are not mad at me?”
I ask, still waiting for the tantrum.

Rising to her knees,
Xandra
comes closer.  I am tempted to lean back away from her, because she has a glint in her eye that I cannot figure out, but I hold my ground.  W
hen she snakes her arms around my neck, I am
more confused than I have ever been in my life.  Then,
she does the last thing I thought she would.  She kisses me.  Not the passionate kiss of last night, but it is a very nice kiss.
  Pulling back slightly, she says,
“No, I am not mad at you.  But you’re still a jerk.”

Wrapping my arms around her, I consider myself a lost cause.  She has the ability to turn my brain to mush, and I suspect she is starting to see that. 
“You know, I have been told that more in the last several days than I have been in my entire life.  But I have also never behaved as badly as I have over the last several days
,
so it has been deserved.” 
I pull her closer again, but not to kiss her. 
Turning her around, s
he nestles between my legs with her back to me, and I rest my chin on her head as we stare into the fire.  I do not dare say anything in fear of spoiling this moment
. 

Xandra, on the other hand, does not seem to mind doing so
.  “Why haven’t you gotten married in the last three h
undred and sixty seven years?” she asks. 
Another out of the blue question.
  I would love to spend a day in her mind, figuring out how she is able to jump from topic to topic so quickly. 

We spend several minutes discussing my age and how time passes differently between realms.  It is one of the most relaxed conversations we have had.  Until Xandra again makes a wild turn in subject matter. 
I feel her tense slightly, as she says,
“Did you have a lot of girlfriends?”

Interesting.
  “I had a lot of friends who were female, but I am thinking that is not quite what you are asking me.”

“Were there a lot of girls that you kissed?”

I cannot help but laugh, now. 
She is jealous.  I can hear it in her voice as she asks her questions. 
Amazing.
 
I pull her closer as I
quell her concerns. 
But, I cannot help teasing her a little bit by telling her me being sought after, and Grandmother having to deny requests of arranged marriage.

“So, your grandmother said no to all these families?” 

“Yes.  She always told me that I was meant for a love match.  She also told me that my destiny lay elsewhere.  I never understood that until she approached me about coming here.”
  Like a lightning bolt, th
e
thought hits me that it might not have been to save the realms that she sent me here.  Perhaps, she thought my love match is in this realm.  I am not ready to think to
o much about that at the moment, but it does seem a bit more than coincidental.

“Sounds like she was as cryptic as my mom.”

I laugh.
  “Yes.”
 
Perhaps worse.

“If you wanted to be close to me that first night, why were you such a jerk?” 
Another whiplash inducing topic change.
 

I take a moment to figure out how to best answer her question. 
I decide the truth is the best way.  I explain to her that I was angry for having to come here, and that I had preconceived ideas about her that ended up not being true.  It sounds so benign now, but at the time it did not.

Snuggling closer to me, she asks,
“How are we going to find
Maurelle
and
Olwyn
?”

I put a finger under her chin and tilt her face until she is looking
up
at me. 
“Does that mean that you agree to my plan?”

“I can’t think of a better one and I really want this to be over.”

I am beginning to dread when this is over. 
“I will miss you when this is over.”

She looks confused. 
“What do you mean?”

I try to smile, but I am not convinced I succeed. 
“I have the distinct impression that you do not want to see me again after this.”

She rolls her eyes. 
“And here I thought you had an ego big enough to keep you warm
,
but you’re just as confused as I am about all of this, aren’t you?”

“It seems so.”
 
Probably more so.

She lifts her lips to mine, giving me a light, soft kiss
. 
“How about if we just take this one day at a time?
  I’m still getting used to the idea that I like you instead of hate you.”

I laugh. 
“Well, I guess there is hope then.”

She settles back against me again.  After a moment, she says,
“You didn’t answer my question.  How are we going to find
Maurelle
and
Olwyn
?”
 

I explain how I am able to send mental messages, or thoughts, to other Fairies. 
Often,
incredibly painful thought
s
for the receiver.
  If I project a shouting thought, the pain increases. 
At least, that is what Kegan tells me.

“Can all Fairies do that?”
she asks.

“No, each Fairy is somewhat unique in their abilities.
” I go on to explain and eventually, it comes out that Grandmother has the power of divination.
 
I also explain how futures seen by her are not absolutes.  When Xandra asks if Grandmother had seen her, I have to admit that she did.  Of course, that leads to more questions.  Eventually, I have to tell
her about Grandmother seeing her open the realms on purpose. 
That does not go over well.

Still, she asks,
“So, w
hen do you want to meet them?”  I believe she is
no less
unsure about the plan
, so I admire her courage
.

“Do you still want a day to rest and prepare?”

She almost laughs. 
“Not really much to prepare.  My magic has two settings, dormant and destructive.”

She does have a point. 
“If you are ready, then I will call to them now.  It may take them some time to find us as I cannot give them exact directions.”
  But I can give them a lot of directions, increasing the pain of the message.
 
Fear and uncertainty wash over her face
, and my simmering anger with Dagda grows even more for putting her through this
. 

Xandra
stands and begins pacing back and forth, worrying a groove in the floorboards.  I send the other Fairies a message as I stand, as well.
 
“It’s done,”
I say
after a moment
.

She turns around and bites her bottom lip.  She looks so sexy when she does that
.  “How do you know they got the message?”

“I just know.”
  I have never had a message fail to reach its intended receiver.

She looks so fragile when she says quietly,
“Okay.”

Cha
pter 2
3

I cannot stand seeing her like this.  I like her feisty
and happy
, not worried
and
scared.  I go to her and cup her cheeks in my hands.  Bringing my lips to hers in a light kiss, I pull back just far enough to lean my forehead against hers. 
“This is going to work,”
I assure her.  It has to.  There is no doubt in my mind that I could easily take care of
Maur
elle
and
Olwyn
myself, but it is important that she defend herself.  If she is unable, she will never truly be safe.

Ducking under my chin, she wraps her arms around my waist.  Pulling her close, I hold her for a long time.  I am trying hard to keep my body’s reaction
under control
, but it is having a problem
complying
. 
Which is why I am in heaven when she snakes her arms up and around my neck, pulling me down into a kiss.
  Her lips are hungry, her tongue searching for mine, exploring my mouth as I explore hers.  For a girl who has been isolated in the mountains, and I assume did not have a lot of suitors, she is a great kisser. 

The thought of her having kissed another makes me want to kiss her deeper, harder.  If there is the slightest chance she has kissed another, I want her to forget all about it. 
Swooping
her up into my arms, never taking my lips from hers, I walk to the cot and lay her down gently.

Before this goes any farther, I need to be sure that this is what she wants.  I lean back and search her face.  The only thing I see is desire
that mirrors mine
. 
I cannot even explain how happy that makes me. 
Her arms pull me closer and
I
lay on the cot with her, my body pressed on top of hers.  Finding her lips again, I kiss her until she moans in pleasure. 

Without taking her mouth from mine, she tugs on my shirt.  I am pretty sure that she wants me to get rid of it.  I do not hesitate to oblige.  When she does take her mouth from mine to whisper in my ear, she drives me from passionate to nearly insane. 
“Mine, too,”
she says, making my heart pound even harder in my chest
.

Removing her shirt with magic
and dropping it on the floor
, I let my hands wander
over
her curves again.  I am
completely
lost in her body and lips. 
I have suddenly come to hate the fact that our time together is only temporary. 
“You are so
beautiful
,
I hate the thought of never seeing you again after today.  It’s driving me mad.”

She gasps as I move my lips to the sensitive part of her neck, behind her ear. 
“I never said I don’t want to see you again
,” she says between
breaths.

I smile against her neck. 
“Maybe not in those words
,
but it comes through loud and clear in everything else you say
.
”

She brings both of her wandering hands up to my face, laying them on my cheeks
, pulling my face back to hers
. 
“I know I’ve been kind of wishy-washy on this whole topic,
but I can’t imagine any more not having you in my life.  You’ve become too important to me, even if you are the world’s biggest jerk sometimes.” 

The last part aside,
that speech reduces me to a
burning
bundle of overactive hormones.  All conscious thought is now lost as I reclaim her lips.  She has agreed to be mine and everything else can be damned at the moment.  I am going to show her with my lips, my hands, and my body just how excited her words have made me. 

For the first time ever, I resent the fact that I can sense other Fairies from great distances.  The damn buzzing in the back of head has started, and there is no ignoring it.  We have to be prepared for them. 
I cannot believe this. 
The first real indication that Xandra may have fallen for me as I have for her, and th
ose two
choose now to show up.
  Perhaps I
will
take care of them myself; I am certainly angry enough at them at the moment to wish them dead. 

Dragging my lips from hers with a frustrated groan, I look down into her vibrant, passion-filled eyes, wanting nothing more than to finish what we started.  Unfortunately, that is not possible
right now
. 
“They’re coming
.
”

The passion immediately drains from her eyes; replaced by fear and uncertainty
again
.  I rise from the cot and dress myself.  Xandra’s sweater is on the floor next to the cot
and s
he leans down with shaky fingers
to
pick it up to put it back on.  Getting her coat and boots from where she had left them near the door, she finally looks at me. 
“How long?”

God, I want to pull her into my arms and be her knight in shining armor, as they used to say in this realm.  Letting her try to handle this situation with her own magic will be one of the hardest things I will ever do. 
“If they keep on the path they are on, it should only
be a few minutes.  They must have been following our trail already when I called to them.” 
My anger is now dripping from my pores in a wild river of fury, looking for something to crash against the rocks.

Xandra says nothing as she walks into my arms.  She squeezes me tight, as I do her. 
“Are you sure I can do this?”
she asks quietly.

“Positive.”
  And if she cannot, I will.

She smiles up at me.  It is a shaky smile. 
“You have been known to be wrong before, you know.”

I shake my head and say with mock arrogance. 
“Very rarely and never more than once a year
,
so I’ve filled my
quota already.”  Her smile increases slightly with my teasing.  Stepping back from our embrace, I put my hands on her shoulders.  Searching her face for any sign she is not, I ask,
“Are you ready?”

I expect no to come out of her mouth.  She surprises me when she says,
“Yes.”

Taking her hand, I squeeze it gently, trying to reassure her.  I lead her outside and we wait.