Blood of the Pure (Gaea) (63 page)

“You?”

“Why? It almost sounds like I’ve never done it before!”

And it wasn’t as if I could argue with that, I told myself, remembering the baked fish he’d made to impress my mom.

“No ... I mean, I know you’re quite capable. In fact, what can’t you do?” I teased and he walked to the door in three surprising fast steps. To me, it almost looked like he’d run, although it clearly wasn’t the case.

“So, just do as I say!” he firmly restated in that tone that was practically impossible to disobey. “Lea?”

“I’ll be there in a minute,” the boy replied and only then did I notice his mischievous, amused smile.

Chapter Twenty-Two

ZIP

– Malkuth - The Pure Virgin. The reward of the Magister Templi.
1
–

“My selfishness is like an incandescent, sharp storm that, ruthlessly, won’t be stopped by anyone.

Once awake, this burning monster opens paths never seen before,

demanding a world of his own, a world I know that doesn’t belong to me.

Even so, the impulse that drives it forth is pure and, like such, irresistible ...

This is the true voice of my heart.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

n a silent agreement we waited until he left, to be sure we could talk without being overheard.

Lea smiled happily and hugged me again.

“Thank you, Mari! Thank you so much!”

“What for?” I asked, holding his small, apparently frail body against my chest and he looked up at me, his eyes looking even brighter.

Once more I remembered how much I’d missed him. How much I’d missed the smell of wet earth after the rain of his hair, or his mischievous smile. I didn’t know for sure how many times I’d hallucinated, hearing the sound of his golden bell echoing all over the house, or even his fast running footsteps on the stairs.

“For letting us stay.”

“You have nothing to thank me for. To tell you the truth, I’m being very selfish right now,” I confessed and smiled at his puzzled expression. “I’m doing this for me. Because I don’t want to be left alone, again,” I admitted and he looked at me with a serious expression. And I knew if anyone could understand the true meaning of my words, that person was Lea.

“You won’t be alone anymore, I promise! And you don’t have to worry about anything. We’ll protect you!”

The absolute confidence in his voice made me slightly embarrassed and I tussled his hair as if that could maintain the image of the small child I so much tried to hold on to.

“I know that! And I’m sorry. I’m sure I’ll probably end up making everything much more difficult for you all. And that you would all have it easier if you would leave. But even so, I don’t want you to go! I know I’ll never forgive myself if anything happens to any of you because I’m being stubborn. But still, I can’t make it weigh enough to change my decision.” Lea seemed to seriously ponder my words for a moment.

“It’s not really like that,” he said. “Although I might not have liked it all that much in the beginning, and sometimes I still struggle against it, the truth is that your presence has a big influence on all of us. These last few days were ... very difficult. Master was always in a bad mood, hardly speaking to us unless to talk about ways to destroy our enemies, even though he never wanted anything to do with this war before. He never smiled and rarely slept. All he did was give orders to everyone,” he lamented with a sorrowful expression. “I missed being here a lot.”

I recalled the letters Steph had given me and smiled.

“But he never stopped thinking about you, not even for a moment. He knew you missed me,” I told him.

“Even so, he kept telling us we were never coming back,” Lea said with a sigh. “Even when he was hurt. He forbade me to bring him here, and I waited for him to get better, hiding him while Alexander distracted our enemy. But he didn’t get better at all! And I didn’t know what else to do. And I thought that if I disobeyed him he’d get mad and punish me, that he probably wouldn’t want me anymore.” The anguish in his voice told me exactly how hard it had been for him to make that decision. “But I just couldn’t watch him suffer any longer. And so I decided I didn’t care what would happen afterwards, if it meant he’d get better. Not even if he decided to kill me. But then ... everything changed. He didn’t get mad at all, or even punish me for disobeying. He began smiling again and playing with me. I think he’s also much happier here. I guess Master also missed you very much, but of course, he’d never say anything like that,” he added, lowering his voice to a whisper as if he were afraid someone other than me might hear him, and I couldn’t help laughing at his secretive expression.

“I guess it’s hard for him, dealing with things like feelings,” I supposed after our previous talk and Lea nodded.

“I suppose. Because Master rarely deals with other people and he’s kind of indifferent to everyone around him.”

“Except you.” Lea smiled at that, his eyes alight with pride.

“What about you, Mari? Did you miss us?”

“I almost died from missing you so much!” I confessed. “I guess I don’t know how to live without you anymore. Which is probably no good at all. But I don’t really want to think about it right now. I was also really, really happy to see you all again. Even though you scared me to death!” I scolded him and Lea smiled.

“I knew you would help him!”

“I didn’t do anything special. I’m quite sure that if he’d been Human, he’d be dead without a doubt.”

“Even so, you did help him!” he insisted and his expression became more serious. “And by the way, let’s see it.”

“See?” I asked unable to understand and Lea poked his small finger at my ribs, making me cringe in pain as I tried to avoid his touch.

“You were hurt yesterday when Master threw you across the room.”

“It’s fine. It’s nothing, really,” I told him, but still placed a protective hand over the area that hurt, so that he wouldn’t poke at it again just for the sake of argument.

“Let me see.”

“Really, Lea. It’s fine.”

Lea folded his arms and gave me a threatening look, but still I wouldn’t capitulate.

“Fine then! I’ll just tell Master to come and take a look,” he decided, nimbly jumping from my lap, and I hardly had enough time to catch hold of him, stopping him from walking away.

“Wait! Fine! I’ll let you see,” I conceded and took a deep breath, pulling my pajama top up.

I looked down at the area that had been hurting since last night. I still hadn’t had the chance to do it myself, and couldn’t help feeling impressed by the large purple area that covered the skin over my ribs. No wonder it hurt so much, I mused as I noticed it had even spread to my back. Lea’s grave expression made me smile and pull my top down again.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” I assured him. “We Humans bruise easily.”

“But it’s so big.”

“It’ll be fine in a couple of days,” I insisted and he looked unconvinced. “You can’t tell him about this, Lea. He’ll be angry and he’ll use this as another excuse to go away. And you don’t want that, right?” I urgently added and he shook his head. “So please,” I pleaded once more, knowing he never hid anything from Gabriel, hoping that the idea of having to leave would be enough to make him keep one small secret, and Lea sighed.

“I won’t tell,” he promised me, but his expression remained grave. “But now you have to take care of yourself, Mari. Ok?” I nodded trying to reassure him and he sighed again. “I better go and see what Master is doing. You get some rest. I’ll come and call you when lunch is ready.”

“Ok.” I decided it best to play the good girl, wondering if a lunch at four o’clock could still be called a lunch, and Lea gave me a last worried look before leaving me alone.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I stretched, composing the old, blue cotton tracksuit I’d put on, and followed Lea down to the kitchen. Halfway down the stairs I could already sense the delicious smell of roasted meat, which unconsciously made me speed my pace. The hunger that up till then I’d been successfully ignoring, suddenly roared in my stomach like a wild beast, leaving me with mouth-watering.

With some reluctance, I stopped at the door and my eyes immediately found the steamy meatloaf already on the table. It was with difficulty that I looked away from my delicious-looking late lunch to watch him as he turned the stove off, placing another pot on the table.

Lea didn’t wait, happily skipping towards his usual place and after climbing on his chair, he sat down, his back very straight, anxiously following the cook’s movements.

I, too, anxiously waited for him to end his culinary tasks and take his own place. Sure I felt proud of myself for overcoming my deep intolerance to his presence, but I still couldn’t control the shaking every time he got a little too close. Besides that, all I had to do was take a peek at him and my heart would immediately go into a raving beat.

He pretended not to notice any of that, or how carefully I chose the farther route from him to get to my seat.

“Did you manage to get some rest?” he asked. I stared at him, surprised by the sheer fact that he had spoken, and nodded. “I just went ahead and used what I could find,” he added, referring to his cooking masterpiece.

“It smells really good!” Lea offered appreciatively, staring at the meatloaf with starving eyes, and I stretched a hand, asking for his plate like always.

“Yes, there’s nothing your Master doesn’t know how to do,” I teased and Lea clapped when I returned him his plate now decorated with three slices of meat and a few spoons of carrot rice.

I then repeated the gesture, asking for Gabriel’s plate, and couldn’t help smiling as his eyes widened in surprise. With some hesitation, and in his usual slow movements, he gave me his plate and anxiously waited. I served him a similar dose of what I’d given Lea and returned it to him, his plate shaking in my hand until he finally took it from me. I could almost swear I could see a brief smile on his face and being aware of that made me feel foolishly happy with myself.

For some time all that one could hear was the sound of cutlery against cutlery. The meatloaf was simply divine, the meat almost melting on my tongue, and I couldn’t recall having ever eaten something quite as delicious. We were practically finished when my mind was finally able to consider other things besides how much every forkful was utterly amazing.

“And Alexander?” I asked, feeling kind of guilty for only noticing his absence now.

“He’s on watch,” Lea answered half chewing, his mouth full, which only made it harder to understand what he was saying. “After lunch I’ll go and change with him.”

“I can go,” Gabriel said and I was immediately captured by his vexed expression. The changes in his face were always faint, to say the least, almost as if his skin was too smooth to allow any big changes. However, as time went by, I noticed I was becoming much more sensitive to those small changes. “I’m fully recovered.”

“One more day, Master. It’s what we agreed,” Lea reminded him with a condescending tone, and he looked away almost pouting, like some thwarted, rebellious teenager.

I choked my laughter, disguising it under the pretense of drinking some water, and Lea smiled victorious since he didn’t insist.

“Hmm, can I ask a question?” I asked, remembering something that had been tumbling around my head for quite some time now, and they both looked at me at the same time, making me feel slightly awkward. “What exactly is a
Medium
? When Jonathan and Alexander arrived, Alexander thought I was your
Medium
,” I recalled, and Gabriel stared down at his plate, playing with some grains of rice.