Chapter 35: Close call

LILAC

I want to kiss you Lilac.

I did not expect him to say that, but honestly there are a lot of things I do not expect from Kael. And a lot of unexpected things has also been happening lately. How do I reply him? Kael keeps staring at me unashamedly and as if spellbound I can’t look away. Heat creeps up my cheeks at his intense gaze and I swallow hard not knowing what to do.

"Lilac-"

Wait. He stands up. He is coming towards me. Is he really going to kiss me? "Stop!" I squeak, hurriedly standing up and almost hitting my legs on the chair, stumbling in the process. "Don’t come close!"

Kael comes to an abrupt halt just a few feet away from me, his eyes widens in confusion? Or not? I don’t know. "Why?"

I blink, rubbing my palms against my cloth in sheer nervousness. "You can’t just blurt out stuffs like that!" I mumble. I can hear my heart thumping loudly in my chest and if I looked at myself in the mirror right now, I’ll probably be as red as a tomato.

"What?" Kael’s confused face starts to morph into...a smile? And then he bursts into laughter.

"You-you are laughing?" My own confusion is evident now. "Why are you laughing?"

He shrugs. "You are quite funny if you want to be," he says.

I was not trying to be funny, but I do not tell him that. "I am not going to kiss you," I tell him instead.

"Maybe not." An arrogant smile curls up his lips, lighting up his blue eyes. I look away, trying not to get lost in them. He is not ready to be my friend, he is nor ready for us to get closer. Why would he want to kiss me? And why is he being extra friendly when just minutes ago he looked like he would swallow me whole when I walked through the door with Roman. I don’t know what to think, even though I know Kael’s emotions flip over constantly like a chameleon’s skin. Still, I do not know what to make of this. Maybe he is trying to bait me? For what though?

"Your confidence is misleading," I tell him with a snort.

"And you don’t like me oozing it?" His head corks to a side, amusement swirling as he stares at me.

"Like I said, it is misleading," I repeat and take my seat again then I look away from him. "I wouldn’t even call it confidence, arrogance would be the best word to describe it." I add.

"Haa... You think I’m arrogant?"

"You are arrogant." Carla returns from where she went, holding up a vase. That’s probably what she went to get outside. "You are very arrogant. Your cockiness borders on delusion sometimes," she states, settling the vase down on the coffee table.

"Delusion? You think I’m delusional?"

"Sometimes."

"Goodness! Carla! Is that what you’ve thought of me all my life?"

Carla shrugs and then goes to sit on the chair. "Maybe." Kael grumbles and I smile at the playfulness between both of them. They seem close, closer than normal patient and therapist. Makes me wonder about the story behind their relationship. Carla pins him with an hard scolding stare and he looks away with a scoff.

I finally remember why I am here, which actually leaves a sore feeling in my throat. My gaze finds Kael again, and I cannot seem to comprehend that he is actually a bloodsucker, just like the vamps. "What’s a moon Lykae?" My question startles both myself and Kael, his head snaps to my direction in shock. Carla says nothing.

"What?"

"I was reading a book, and I saw them talk about Moon Lykaes in passing." My lie comes out easily. Kael looks at Carla, and they share a knowing look.

"It is nothing you should worry yourself about," Kael replies me yet his eyes speaks an entirely different story. He is hiding something. What if Talon was actually right? What if he is actually a moon lykae? Suddenly my hands are shaking as I welcome the thoughts, my heart is beating so fast in fear.

"Why shouldn’t I worry myself about it? I live in a world of Lycans. Shouldn’t I be well versed in the history of my new home?" I try to keep my breath even as I speak, I fold my palms against my cloth to hide the shaking. I do not want him to suspect my fear, I do not want him to know I am indirectly probing him to tell me what he truly is.

"Are you sure you read it from a book? If you did, there should have been more details about it right?" Carla says eyeing me cautiously slash suspiciously, now she is exuding that same old wisdom that she carries every time she walks into a class.

"It was said in passing."

"And what book would that be?"

"It didn’t have a title " I sputter nervously, biting my lips at my obvious lie.

"Lilac-" Kael starts to speak while Carla is still watching me closely. I feel cramped, better to spit it all out.

"Are you a moon Lykae?" I ask bluntly. The words leave my mouth before I can stop myself, my heart jumps inside my ribcage and I immediately regret asking. His eyes go wide and his mouth drops open for a moment, and then he shakes himself out of his stunned state, he straightens his back and puts up an expression of mock indignation.

"What have you heard?" Is his curt reply, his voice cold as ice.

He is not denying it, why isn’t he denying it? "What I have heard does not matter Kael, I am asking you to tell me."

"There are some things you shouldn’t bother yourself about, Lilac."

"Like the fact that my husband is a Moon Lykae? And probably sucks blood like the vampires?" Accusation gleams in my every word, while I hold his gaze, daring him to prove me wrong. Daring him to tell me how this is all a misunderstanding and that I should not have listened to Talon.

"If I am, would you leave me?"

His question seems to freeze the environment. Kael stares at me like we are the only one in here, and I might be mistaken at the vulnerability that seems to flash in his eyes as he waits for my answer. I remember him asking me something like this at the chicken shop and I re-echo the same answer I had given him that day.

I clear my throat. "I can’t leave if I wanted to."

"Right. You cannot." He mumbles. I am about to speak again when I hear a loud piercing scream of agony and a thud from outside.

"What the hell is that?" Kael sprints up along with Carla and I, and we hurriedly rush outside.

"Roman!" My eyes widen in terror at the scene. Roman lays there, blood pooling beside him, a dagger stuck to his abdomen. Without thinking, I lunge at him, tears pricking at my eyes. He is not dead. He is not dead. "Roman!" I think I hear Carla talking on the phone. She is calling the ambulance.

The dagger. That fucking dagger is the same just like the one that was found on Nino and Olivia. It has the same crest.

"Roman!" My fingers finds his neck, checking for his pulse. I can’t feel anything. I look up at Carla and Kael. "Why can’t I feel anything? He is not breathing?!" Tears are running down my face now. "Can’t you do something? You are a witch aren’t you? Can’t you heal him or something?" I ask Carla desperately. "Please?"

Kael comes to grab me and pulls me away from Roman, I can hear ambulance siren coming closer. "He is not dead. You can’t let them take him away! Why aren’t you doing something?!" I struggle against Kael’s firm hold on me but his arms tighten, holding me in place while he strokes my hair.

The ambulance is here now, and I watch as they lift Roman up in a stretcher. No, he is not dead is he?

"He won’t die." Carla finally speaks.

"What?!"

"He is not dead." She says again and then walks inside leaving me with Kael who says nothing. I want to believe her, I badly want to.

"We have to go with them."

"The crest." Kael says instead of replying me, "It is the same."

I noticed that too.

\---