1.5 True of Blood: Kallen's Tale (10 page)

Chapter 1
1

I am not going to be able to sleep anytime soon, so I stay in the sky.  I might as well make sure that we are not being followed.  For the next hour, I fly in concentric circles, going as far out as five miles.  Not a Fairy anywhere.  As I am heading back towards the cave, because I am not sleeping in a tree again, snow begins to fall.  By the time I
near the cave, the wind is howling and snow is falling in such a thick wall, I have to guide myself back with my ability to sense Fairies. 
It leads me right to Xandra.

I am fighting the wind now, and my feathers are soaked.  Her sensibilities be damned, I am not staying in this form.  I will freeze to death.  As soon as I fly into the cave, I begin to change.  Xandra is startled by my sudden appearance, and she quickly turns away as
when she realizes what I am doing
.

When I am once again fully clothed, I
announce
,
“You may look now.” 
I come f
arther into the cave
. 
“It appears we may be here longer than I hoped
. 
The weather has taken a turn.” 
T
hat is not really true.  T
his is too small of a space to be trapped in with her during a blizzard.  I am determined to leave in the morning, regardless of the weather.  I
sit down, probably closer than she would like, and lea
n
my
back against the rock wall of the cave.

“I can hear that,”
she says, as she
snuggle
s
deeper into
her sleeping bag.
 
I will wait until she falls asleep to make mine.  I am still angry that she thought I would force myself on her
, so I do not want to risk any more accusations if my sleeping bag happens to be too close to hers
.

A loud crashing
noise
outside
causes her to sit up straight. 
“I believe that was a tree falling, nothing to worry about
,
”
I assure her.
Would she just go to sleep, already?  I am freezing.

Looking over at me, she says,
“Okay, it’s ridiculous that I’m in a nice warm sleeping bag and you’re freezing to death.” 
She unzips her coat and grasps her amulet.  She had better not be thinking of touching me with that thing again
.
I am definitely not in the mood. 

She does not.  She takes
the amulet off
and
lays it on the ground next to her. 
Then she gestures to me. 
“Come here.”

Not a chance. 
I do not know what she is thinking, but I do not trust her. 
“I
a
m fine
.
”
I will make my own sleeping bag.

“Stop being stubborn and come here.”
 
She unzips the sleeping bag, allowing enough room for me to crawl into it.  I am beyond confused
, now
.  What is with the complete one eighty about sleeping anywhere near me
?
  I hesitate for a moment, but
,
what the
hell.  If she is offering, her body heat will definitely keep me warmer than
a sleeping bag.  I crawl towards her, shedding my boots and coat.

It is a tight fit, and we end up with her back to my front.  No complaints here.  I zip the bag back up, and try hard not to let her know how much I enjoy lying like this with her. 
I really have to get my body under control around her.

“You’re cold
,
”
she says.

“That was the point of you inviting me inside your warm cocoon.” 
I slide one of my arms underneath her, and the other I wrap around her waist.  I can feel her
tense
, but it seems more like nervousness than her not wanting to be near me.  I am beginning to think that her comment from earlier was more related to her innocence than a lack of attraction.

I cannot help whispering in her ear,
“You have nothing to worry about
.  R
emember
,
I am only here for your body heat, not your body.”

She shifts so she can see my face
.  “Is ten minutes a day the most you’re allowed to be a nice guy
,
and the rest of the day you’re required to be as big of a jerk as you can be?”

She looks so cute with her nose scrunched up like that, I have to chuckle.  “So it would seem.”  I pull her closer in the name of warmth, though I doubt she would believe that. 
Nor do
I
.

“How long do you think the storm will last?”

I
shrug.  “It came on quickly
,
so I am hoping that it will blow over just as quickly
.  B
ut
,
as I am sure you know from living in the mountains
,
that is not always the case.”

She
groan
s
.  “We could be here for days.”

I am suddenly not opposed to the idea. 
“
Which is why it was a good idea to have followed a less than obvious path.
  If we are not able to move from here
,
we are still difficult to find
,
even without magical help.”

“Fine, you win.  You’re smarter than me.  Are you happy now?”

I laugh
again.  “As I am three hundred and fifty years older than you
,
I certainly hope I have garnered more intelligence than you have in your seventeen years.”

She shifts again, and now her body is pressed even more intimately against me.  I wonder if it feels as good
to
her as it does
to
me.
It is she
e
r force of will tha
t keeps my hands from
wande
ring.

“If you believe that
,
then why do you keep getting so annoyed with me when I don’t know all of the things you do?”

I
sigh.  “I am afraid patience is not one of my virtues.”

“You have virtues?”

She has a sharp tongue, just like me. 
I am not ready to admit that that is one of her endearing qualities, though. 
“You seem to fling barbs just as readily as I do.”

She looks sheepish, now. 
“Sorry, I guess I do.”

I lift my hand to push back a strand of her long, silky black hair from her face. 
“You have the eyes of a Fairy.  Your beauty belies the Witch’s blood that flows through your veins.”
  I am treading dangerous water here.  I need to back off.

She looks even more nervous, now. 
“Your ten minutes are up for the day, remember?”
she
whisper
s
.

I
smile.  “I believe it is after the midnight hour.  I am allowed ten minutes for this new day.” 
Not being able to resist teasing her, I lean closer to her.  Her eyes grow bigger in proportion to how close my lips are to hers.  She may be nervous, but she is not pushing me away.  I
suddenly
realize that I am no longer teasing her, and if I do not stop, I will be kissing her.  There is too much she does not know about the reason I am here
; it would not be right
.  I cannot do this. 
Nor do I know for sure that she is even attracted to me the way I am to her. 
So, I shift and whisper in her ear,
“Do not worry, I do not kiss Witches.”

I am surprised at how quickly her face shifts from nervous to angry, as she
turn
s away from me again. 
“I’m surprised you’re cold, your ego is big enough to use as a blanket.” 

Yes, she can be witty.  I barely
contain my amusement, as I say, “
Good night, Xandra
.
”

Chapter 1
2

Morning comes all too soon. 
I feel Xandra stirring and my instinct is to wrap my arms around her to pull
her
closer
to me
.  I stop myself just in time as my eyes pop open. 
Instead,
I yawn and say,
“I did not figure you to be an early riser.  I assumed you would be lazy and want to sleep until noon.”

She gives me a dirty look. 
“You and your compliments
;
my
heart’s
all aflutter.” 
I laugh as I pull on the zipper to set us free from the sleeping bag.

As she puts her boots back on, she says,
“You know, it’s nice to find that you actually have a sense of humor
,
but are you able to laugh at anything besides me?”

I like how feisty she is this morning.  I grin, and say,
“You should feel proud; I have not found anything as amusing as you in a very long time.  You are bringing back a part of me that I had thought was lost.”
  At least, since I left my realm
, anyway
.

“Glad I could help,”
she grumbles as we begin to pack our things back up.

The last thing Xandra picks up is her amulet.  I am curious to see if she puts it on, or puts it in her backpack. 
She puts it on. 
So much for any trust
developing
between us.
  I do not know why it bothers me so much, but it does.  Without a word, I take her backpack as well as mine
,
and walk out of the cave.  This is a great start to what is looking like another miserable day.
  At least the snow has stopped.

We walk
west
for another couple of hours in silence.  Anger is simmering in the back of my mind
,
and I do not dare say anything to her
for fear of what would come out of my mouth
. 
I believe what infuriates me the most is
not that her attraction may be lesse
r than mine, but that my ego is
so badly battered by her rejection. 
I am not used to being
found lacking
.  Now I have to wonder – was Kegan right?  Is it not my looks and charm that make me attractive to the Fairies back home, but my full-blooded status?
 
The more I think about it, the
more
irrationally
angry I become with Xandra. 
More than once, I have had
to
resist the temptation to let branch
es
swing back and hit her. 

After falling for the third time in the snow
because I am walking so fast
, she says testily,
“Aren’t I supposed to be practicing my magic?”

I stop to look at her and I have to bite my inner lip to keep from laughing.  She looks so cute covered in snow
that I feel my bad mood starting to slip away
.  I walk over to help her up
, but
w
hen I am near, she throws a handful of
snow at me.  What the hell, another mood swing
?
 
One that brings her back to crazy, apparently.
 
Perhaps her insanity runs in
hour
segments, allowing her to be sane only every other hour. 
I am about to turn around when she throws even more snow at me, hitting me in the head. 

Shaking
off the snow, I
ask, “Are you enjoying yourself?”

She grins. 
“Yes, at the moment I am.  Don’t you know how to have fun?”

She wants fun? 
“In this little game of yours, am I supposed to retaliate in kind?”

“That’s how a snowball fight usually goes, yeah.”

“Alright then.”
 
Concentrating on the tree branches over her, I shake the snow from them, covering her with snow.  I expect her to yell at me after the surprise wears off, but instead, she looks thoughtful. 

“Can I do that?”
she asks.

I do not know that I want her to be able to do that. 
That could be bad for me. 
“I do not know,”
I
say
.

With an exaggerated look of astonishment, she says,
“Wow, there’s something you don’t know?  Isn’t your head going to explode now from the devastation to your psyche?”

I am tempted to make more snow fall on her, but I resist
because I probably deserved that
. 
“Seeing as you are half Fairy
,
it is likely you are able to do some of the things I am.  The Cowan Fairies are able to do a lot of things a true blooded Fairy is
,
but not all.  Your Witch’s blood may allow you to do more than they can.”
  Probably not much more, though.

“So a Cowan Fairy wouldn’t be able to make the snow fall off the tree?”
she asks, standing up and brushing off her pants.  Now, that is something I would not mind helping her with.

Lustful thoughts aside, I say,
“No, Cowan Fairies are not able to perform magic by just thinking about what they want to do.  They must use incantations or spells similar to how Witches perform their magic.”

Frown lines form on her brow. 
“But
,
I saw
Maurelle
and
Olwyn
change from their animal forms to human without the need for an incantation or a spell.”

“What you saw was them thinking the spelled word that had been recited in their incantations that allowed them to assume their animal form and then be released from it.”

“So they can’t just change form at will like you can.”

“Correct.”

“So how do we see if I can make snow fall from the trees?”

Moving my eyes slowly down to her chest, I enjoy the color that floods into her cheek
s
as she believes me to be blatantly assessing her physical form. 
“You will have to remove your amulet for me to help you learn how.”

Looking nervous now instead of embarrassed, she
hesitates, which makes that anger simmering inside of me start to boil again.  If she refuses, I am going to become a raven and leave her here to find her own way home.  After a long moment, she finally takes it off.

“I am glad that I passed whatever test you were putting me through in your mind before removing your amulet,”
I say dryly
.

Ignoring me, she says,
“What do I have to do?”

Taking off my gloves, I
hold my hand out to her.
“We are going to do something similar to what you did with your mother to heal me
.  B
ut instead of joining our
mana
to make a
saka
,
” as her mother had described it,
“
I am simply going to act as a channel for your
mana
, o
r magic as the Fae call it, to flow through
,
so that I can direct it to where it needs to go.  This is how Fairy children are taught by their parents.”
  That training is generally started when
they are
five
, not seventeen.  I do not tell her that.

Taking off her gloves, she takes my outstretched hand.  Or, should I say, she lays her hand on top of mine.  I raise my eyebrows and look at her until she takes a firm grip
.
“Better.
 
Now, you need to envision what you want to do as you pull the magic into you.  Fairy magic is drawn from the earth the same way that Witch magic is
,
only it is wilder and stronger.  It is easy for Fairy magic to go astray if you do not keep a tight hold on it.”

She closes her eyes and I feel the magic flow into her.  And it keeps flowing.  Until it overflows and she no longer has control over it
as the trees all around us begin to shake and sway
. 
I drop her hand as the magic begins to burn through me, now. 
Damn it, she is going to
cause an avalanche if she keeps this up!  I take a firm hold of her chin and shake
it
. 
“Open your eyes, dammit!”

She is not responding.  She is simply standing there with a look of ecstasy on her face
,
while the mountain is about to bury us in its snowy blanket.  I grab her hand again
, which hurts because her magic starts to flow through me again,
and I squeeze hard on it and her face.  Finally, she opens her eyes.

“Ouch
,
s
top it,”
she mumble
s
almost incoherently since I am still squeezing her face.

“Is it gone?”
I ask.  I believe that it is, but I cannot be sure if she is still holding a small amount
of magic
that could start causing trouble again
.  She is looking at me like I am crazy
.  S
he apparently has no clue what I am talking about.  I sigh.
  “The magic, has all of it left you?” 
She nods her head and I finally let go of her.

“What is the matter with you?”
she demands, placing both hands on her hips.
 
I incline my head in disbelief and then I sweep my arm out, showing her the trees that are now barren. 
“What did you do that for?”
she asks.

Definitely not the response I was expecting.  She cannot possibly be this senseless. 
“What exactly is it you believe I did?”

“You used your own magic.  How are we going to know if mine works if you don’t let me try?”
  Or maybe she can be.  I cannot help but laugh. 

“Just what’s so funny about you not letting me use my own magic?”

I try to stop laughing as I shake my head. 
Unbelievable.
 
It takes several moments to convince her that it was indeed her magic, not mine, that caused the snow to fall from the trees.
  Finally, we can be on our way again. 
I believe we are far enough away from her home, now we
need to find suitable shelter where we can set up camp and I can put a circle up to prevent detection by
Maurelle
and
Olwyn
.

We walk again for some time in silence,
but it is a more comfortable silence.  My anger from earlier has been rapidly dissipating, leaving me more at peace,
as I scan the area for a good place to set up camp. 
A glint in the corner of my eye draws my attention to
the
northeast. 
I can just make out the mouth of a cave near an overhang.  It is camouflaged well, and will allow us to hear anyone traipsing around.  It is perfect.

I stop and Xandra, not paying attention, almost runs into me.  “Here,” I say and I start to walk towards the cave.

“Here?” she
says,
confusion clear in her voice.

I stop and turn around. 
“This is where we will set up camp.”

She looks around, completely missing the cave.  That is good.  Means others probably will, as well. 
“Why here?”

“Exactly,”
I say
with a smile.

“What?”

She will be happy to learn that our long trek is coming to an end, allowing us to settle in one place so she can start her lessons. 
“Come,”
I say, and I start walking again.  It takes me a moment to realize she is not behind me. 
I turn around to fin
d
her glowering in my direction. 
What is wrong with her now?  I am hungry and would like to set up camp. 
“Come
,
”
I say, more impatiently this time.

“I’m not a dog,” she says as she crosses her arms over her chest.

Her crazy flag is flying again.  I have no idea what she is talking about. 
“I do not recall implying that you are any type of canine.”

“Come,”
she says.  I assume her attempt at a baritone is supposed to be an imitation of my voice.
  “That’s how you call a dog.”

Are you kidding me?  She takes offense at the stupidest things. 
“Would you rather I say, oh, please, my Fairy Princess, will you grant me the honor of accompanying me so I may show you to our new abode?”