After she’d gone through self-pity, and melancholy. She was swiftly moving into anger. How dare he run away and not give her a sure answer. Whether it was a yes or no to their relationship. She wanted to fight it out to the conclusion.
But he’d disappeared `To think’.
What did he need to think about?
Either he accepts who I am or he doesn’t.
Nothing else needed to be said. His absence pointed to him not being okay with her real persona. But he hadn’t left her without the possibility of not coming back.
She groaned. She wasn’t the type to overthink things. If she wanted Alek, she should go after him. Pushing up, she said, “Let’s eat, I’m hungry.”
Jumping to her feet. She decided if she didn’t see the annoying man in the next two days, she was going to find him.
Alek had never dealt with a pissed off Witch.
The Past
ALEK
“Where are we?” Raijin asked as they moved through the thick woods.
The high mountains surrounded them, and the thick forestry was only broken up by small pockets of light from above. He’d followed Alek with the hope of learning more about the Surrem, but he couldn’t hide his slight distrust of him. Alek always had a tendency of doing things that put the other Jackal members’ lives on the line.
Alek also had been dark and silent about his past. He’d shown up much like Castian and Malcolm, both brought forth by Tiller with only the words, “Here’s a new partner.”
Watching the enigmatic Vampire’s back now, Raijin felt he should have learned more about him. In all honesty, he should have learned more about all his men. But at the time he’d been living in his own form of limbo. Doing what he must, not allowing himself to feel anything beyond choking self-hate and guilt.
“Romania,” Alek said, his accent now no longer ambiguous. “More specifically, the Carpathian Mountains,” he said as they walked along. “Many years ago, my people and I lived here. Safe from the world and its changing ways. When we were attacked, I gathered my sons and left.”
“How long has it been since you’ve visited?” Raijin asked when they came to a stop at a large boulder. On it was Arabic writing, the letters faded by the passing of time. Some moss had grown to cover most of it.
“Hmm, since the third phase of The Council,” Alek mused. “I spent time in mourning here, while I left my sons in the care of my parents.”
He lifted his hand to his mouth allowing his teeth to pierce his thumb. The dark red blood flowed outward. Alek then spread the blood upon the stone. “Some humans who entered here suffer from the miasma that leaks from the cracks.”
Removing his hand, he turned and took a stance beside Raijin. The boulder began to shudder as the trees trembled before they were sucked underground as the forest floor puffed up. Destroyed buildings burst forth from the ground, as sidewalks came into sight like a cement wave. Raijin watched as a town sprung up all around him.
He soon found himself standing in the center of a village.
“This was once my kingdom,” Alek said by way of explanation, removing his outer coat and suit jacket. He pulled at his tie loosening it. “I promised myself when I left here that I would return to bury the dead after I succeeded in killing the onewho murdered my wife.” He placed his coat on a random high stone and rolled up his sleeves. “You want to know about The Surrem, I’ll tell you, but I want my payment first in exchange for the information.”
Raijin seemed to understand the subtlety in what Alek might want, so he also removed his long leather coat and placed it next to Alek’s. “I was expecting it.”
Alek offered him a sardonic smile. “Assist me in burying them, and once we’re done, I shall tell you everything.”
“Everything? That’s a hefty offer coming from you,” Raijin said, moving to his side. “Are you sure you want to offer me so much.”
“I have nothing to lose,” Alek said walking deeper into the town and picking up the first mangled set of skeletons. “The past needs to be dealt with before I can move on.”
LANIAS
“Focus.”
Roni advised his hands on her shoulder.
Lanias sat in front of him on the deck, her eyes closed. Her skin felt dry, even as she felt like lava was running off her. This time she wasn’t helping with the teens she was learning how to manage her magic and the power added by her father.
“What are you seeing?” Roni asked her. They’d been trying to open her third eye, and Lanias had finally broken through after the fifth try.
