1.5 True of Blood: Kallen's Tale (23 page)

Chapter 26

I cannot take this waiting.  When Xandra had passed out, I carried her back into the cabin and laid her on the cot.  She has been out cold for a few hours now and it is getting nerve wracking waiting for her to open her eyes. 

Meanwhile, I have had several hours to wonder if I did the right thing by staying.  Yes, I believe she me
an
t it at the time, but was
her invitation to stay
simply the poison talking?  She did say she felt drunk. 
“Xandra, please wake up,”
I whisper close to her ear.  I am kneeling against the cot with my chin resting on my arms. 
“Please, you have to wake up.”

Finally, she begins to stir.  A heavy weight has
suddenly
been lifted from my heart. 
“You didn’t go home,”
she says softly.

I smile. 
“No, I did not.  I chose to stay.”

Her brow scrunches into a little frown.  I want to kiss it away. 
“But you could have gone home and lived with the other Fairies.  My father wouldn’t have dared to hurt you.”

I chuckle. 
“No, after your little conversation with him, he probably would not have.”
  Not to mention he would have had Grandmother to contend with if you tried to come after me.

“Then why didn’t you go?”

I
am going to
put my heart on the line to see what she is going to do with it.  I am tired of the uncertainty. 
“Why would I go back to the Fae realm when the Witch Fairy I want to be with is in this one?”

She skips over that and asks,
“What about your grandmother?”

Yes, what about Grandmother.  Why did she not tell me everything? 
“Somehow, I suspect my grandmother knew I would
n
o
t want to go back.  I think she may have changed some of the details of her divination to get me to come here
,
knowing what I would actually find.  I believe she knew why you opened the realm and that it was only one way.  I feel foolish
for ever
suspecting you would do it any other way.  And I
a
m sorry I did not trust your judgment earlier.”

“Huh.  The people who raised us kept a lot of secrets from us, didn’t they?  Did you really stay here for me?”
she asks as she tries to sit up.  She immediately
lays
back down. 
“Wow, my head hurts.”

Again, heart on the line.
 
“Yes, I really did.  And I believe your headache can be attributed to a
hangover
.”

She is shocked. 
“A hangover?
 
But I didn’t drink anything.”

I laugh. 
“No, but you absorbed an awful lot of Fairy poison into your bloodstream
,
which you seem to metabolize as others would alcohol.  I should have suspected that you were not affected by things the same way as others of the Fae
,
because you were able to wear your amulet without harm.”

She groans and distress washes over her face. 
“I can’t believe I lost Mom’s amulet. 
And her
grimoire
.
  Do you think you remember where that cave was so we can go back there in the summer and look for them?”

She has yet to respond to my declarations in regards to why I stayed.  This leaves me unsure of how to answer this question.  I believe I will go with optimism. 
“Of course
.
”

“What are you thinking?”
she asks. 

I will wait until she is feeling better to discuss it. 
“Nothing that can’t wait
,
”
I say
.

Xandra is glaring at me now. 
“After everything we’ve been through you’re really going to give me that crap of an answer?”

Fine.
 
If she insists.
  I cannot seem to meet her eyes, though.
  “I made the decision to stay based on my desires
,
but I have no knowledge of how you feel about it.”

She rolls her eyes at me. 
“Kallen, if I wanted you to leave
,
I would have shoved you back to your realm like I did
Maurelle
and
Olwyn
.  Though, it may be a shock to Mom and Dad when I ask them if my boyfriend can stay with us because he just gave up his entire realm and everything he knows to be with me.”

All this time alone has given me a false sense of reality.  She has a home to go back to now.  I do not.  She has a family. 
One that does not like me; which is understandable,
considering my behavior in the presence.
  They are never going to accept me. 
“I had not thought everything through as you have apparently.  Do you honestly believe your parents will accept me into your home?  I did not make the greatest impression when I was there last.”

She laughs. 
“No, you didn’t.  But you did teach me how to use my magic and helped me get rid of the Fairies who wanted to kill me.  I’m pretty sure they’ll overlook your rude behavior.  But you’ll have to stay in the guestroom because we’re not getting hand-fasted any time soon.”

My turn to laugh.
  There might be a tad bit of disappointment hidden my laughter
, though
. 
“As I would expect.
  You know, you were a sight to behold earlier.  How did you figure out you could do the things you did?”

She pauses a moment before answering. 
“I think the Fairy poison had a lot to do with it.”

She needs to be drunk to control her magic?  That could be interesting. 
“How so?”

“Because before I was thinking too hard about everything so I couldn’t accomplish anything.  When the Fairy poison entered my system, my thoughts became scattered and I didn’t think about any one thing for any amount of time, my thoughts were all over the place.”

My
lips curl upwards as
I
say, “Such as when you asked
Maurelle
about my history with Fairy women?”
  I love the color that washes into her cheeks.

Narrowing her eyes, she says,
“Are you going to keep interrupting?  And don’t think I don’t know you’re laughing at me.”

I feign shock. 
“I would never do such a thing
.
”
I imitate the thing she had done
with her fingers
in front of
her
lips
when she kept interrupting me
.

“And because I wasn’t so afraid of my magic, I was more in tune with it.  I knew what I had to do and it’s almost as if I knew instinctively how to do it.  Does that make sense?”

I cock my head and nod
.  “I believe so.  Apparently, if I had thought to infect you with poison sooner we would not have had to spend so many nights in the cold together.”

She makes a face. 
“Kallen.”

“Yes?”

“Shut up and kiss me.”

My pleasure.
 
“Gladly,”
I
say
as I gently touch my lips to hers.  I want to be careful, she does have a hangover.  I neither want her to be sick, no
r
do I want to increase her headache.  I have a hard time convincing my hands to stay put, though.  Willpower sucks.

“Can we go home
now?” she murmurs against my lips.

Bring her home where I may or may not be welcome, and I certainly will not be able to kiss her the way I want, whenever I want.  Do I have to?  Perhaps I can eke one more night out
of this
.  Pushing a strand of hair from her cheek, I say,
“It’s very late.  It would be better if we got a good night’s sleep first.”

“Okay, then come lay with me because I’m really tired.”

Now that, I will do.
  I
lie
down beside her and wrap her in my arms, pulling her close.  Her eyes close and within minutes, she is sleeping again.

Chapter 27

Waking up with her in my arms is heaven.  I am going to miss this.  Pushing her hair aside, I nuzzle her neck until she starts to stir.  “
Mmm
, good morning,” she purrs.  Yes, it is. 

As much as I want to roll her onto her back and kiss her senseless, I regrettably acknowledge that she wants to get home.  Hopefully, there will be plenty of time for
the
former
in our near future
.  “We should get going if you want to make it home today.  It will be a long walk.”

She groans and pulls my arms tighter around her.  “I don’t want to get up.  This feels too nice.”  She snuggles her body closer to mine, setting my
imagination
in many different directions as
to how
we could spend the day in bed. 

It is my turn to groan.  Then, through gritted teeth, I say, “Xandra, you are making it incredibly difficult to
not
try to convince you to make love.  So, unless you want to be hand-fasted, as we would have to be in that situation, you really need to not do that at the moment.”

To my surprise, she giggles.  “Do I really affect you that way?”

As if she does not already know that.  “Yes, you do.”

She shifts until she can see my face.  Leaning in for a quick kiss, she says, “Good.”  Then, to my great disappointment, she sits up.

We spend a little while
putting the cabin back to rights, trying hard to be considerate guests.  When we are finished, Xandra asks for a few minutes to freshen up.  I offer to help, but she laughs and swats me out the door.
 
When she is done, she
peeks
her head around the door and asks me to make her some clean clothes.  It is not difficult to imagine her in silky, black undergarments.  I wonder if she will let me peek.

“Kallen,” she says through the door. “I need more clothes than this.”

Guess I will not get to peek.  I imagine her in jeans that fit her curves and a form fitting, green sweater that matches her eyes.  I also make her a new coat, as hers has three Fairy dart holes in it. We are now ready to be on our way.

When Xandra comes out of the cabin, I cannot resist backing her up against the door and kissing her senseless.  I am amazed I do not turn the handle and drag her back inside.  I do not think she would mind.
 
But,
I do not.  I drag my lips from hers, and with her hand in mine, we start the long walk home.

Conversation flows easily as we tell each other about our lives.  I admit
,
I leave big chunks
of information
out, simply because I still need time to grieve the loss of my family
and friends
.
  Stopping every quarter mile or so to pull Xandra’s body close to mine
,
and captur
ing
her lips for long moments at a time
,
is helping considerably.

As long as the walk has been, it does not seem long enough when her house comes into view.  I have to face her parents.  I very well may be sleeping outside in a tree
again
this evening. 

Xandra can feel my resistance and she tugs on my arm
, forcing me to move forward,
until we are close to the house.  Fortunately, my trepidation does not affect my memory. 
“Fairy trap,”
I remind her.  I do not want to get caught in that again.  It would probably not be as bad
the
second time, since
I am
becoming more in tune with her mother’s magic, but it would still hurt
.

Xandra looks at it a moment, and then she waves her hand in the air in the vicinity of the trap.  I feel the magic holding the trap in place slide back to the earth.  Okay, I admit
it, that
was impressive.  I believe I am going to be saying that a lot about her power.

In fact, I say it again almost immediately after we enter her house.  Her parents rush to greet her with her grandfather in tow.  It was my understanding that Xandra’s mother was estranged from her parents.  Which I realize was the truth when her grandfather starts a spell that will kill
Xandra
.  I draw my magic
and move in front of her
, willing to do whatever it takes to save her,
but
Xandra calmly uses her own magic to take care of the situation. 
Beauty, intelligence, and power.
 
The trifecta that makes her the perfect Witch Fairy for me.

When her grandfather has sped away, Xandra turns to her parents. 
“Mom, Dad, Kallen stayed in this realm to be with me and he’s going to be living with us because he doesn’t have any place else to go.  I’m pretty tired after walking all day and then using my magic to yet again keep a relative from killing me so after I eat something I’d like to
go to bed.  Kallen will be sleeping with me but we won’t be having sex because to him that would mean we’re hand-fasted and I’m not ready to marry him at this point in my life.  I’m way too young.  Tomorrow we can talk about what we should do about Grandpa getting his Witch council together so he can come back and try to kill me again.  Okay?”

I do not know who is more shocked – her parents or me.  With a warm smile towards her parents, she tugs on my hand and I follow her into the house.  Her parents float in after us.

“Kallen, why don’t you jump in the shower first and I’ll make us some sandwiches.  It’s down the hall there.”  She points
the way
.  To her parents, she says, “I am beat
, so
I’ll tell you everything tomorrow.  Tonight, I need to eat, shower and go to bed.  Okay?”

Her parents nod numbly, so I take her advice, I head to the bathroom for a shower.  There may be a little cowardice in my actions.  I am still afraid her parents are going to kick me out, so I want to make myself as invisible as possible.

After my shower, I don pajama pants and a black t-shirt and walk back to the kitchen.  When I enter, Xandra’s eyes are filled with appreciation for my physical form. 
I like that. 
If her parents were not present,
though,
I would tease her about it.  Right now, I am going to say as little as possible.

After eating the sandwich she made for me, I wait in her room while she showers.  Her parents have yet to say anything to me.  They have tried to talk to Xandra, but she keeps putting them off, insistent that she tell them everything tomorrow. 

Lying on her comfortable bed, I find myself dozing.  It feels good to be warm, clean and on a proper bed.  When Xandra comes in, she tries not to wake me, but I am too aware of her for that to work.  Pulling her into my arms, I wrap us both in the covers. 

Xandra kisses me good night.  A long, slow kiss that makes me
want
to do much more.  If her parents knew the thoughts I am having about their daughter, I believe they would be making raven soup by now. 

Tomorrow may see me out their door, but tonight, I am in Xandra’s bed, and I believe in her heart.  That is enough for right now.