“I didn’t know I would be missed.” She joked, awkwardly patting his back.
He pulled back, a few tears in his eyes.
“I thought something bad had happened to you, and I didn’t trust that Vampire guy.” He glanced at Alek, who decided not to be insulted. Looking back at Lanias he continued, “I’m glad nothing bad happened to you.” Saying it once more while hugging her.
Lanias laughed, “Well now you know, I’m sort of invincible.”
He pulled back, wiping the tears from his eyes. “Yeah.”
“You’ve brought guests,” Dmitri said, coming up behind Fabian he looked at Roni and the girls with him. “What happened?”
“I’ll explain once we get inside.” Alek said, guiding the large crowd toward the front door.
“You said we needed to speak.”This was how Lanias welcomed Alek to her bedroom later.
Alek forced himself to ignore the fact she was only wearing a towel.
He eyed her where she stood leaning against the door of the bathroom, looking from her to the bed then back to her. “How long have you been standing there?”
“Don’t let that worry your pretty little head. You said we needed to ‘Talk’ and I’ve been taxing my brain trying to think of what exactly we need to talk about.” She pushed off the door and walked toward him. “I said all that I needed to get off my chest.”
He pulled off his shirt, “You may have, but I still have things I want to say and questions that need answers. For example, how did you learn about your father? And why didn’t you tell yoursister? I still don’t know enough about your past.” He tossed his shirt on the bed, “I would like to know more about you Lanias.”
Lanias lips worked as she tried to think over how to respond.
He crossed his arms matching her pose and lifted his head to make challenging eye contact.
“I feel like the two of us need to have an honest conversation between us.”
She gave her head a small shake, pressing two fingers to her temple she sighed. “That is the most normal thing that I’ve ever heard you say.”
“Yes, well monster or human. Those who wish to deepen their relationship should be honest with one another.” Alek said, enjoying the wrinkle in her nose and the way she cast him a look clearly questioning his intelligence. “I want to know everything about you. I would assume you’d want the same.”
“Fine,” she walked over the bed and plopped down. “What do you want to know?”
“How did you grow up, if you didn’t grow up with your parents?” That had honestly interested him the minute she’d talked about trying to find her origins.
“I had a mom, though she wasn’t that great at playing mine; she was okay to Sabina. I guess.” She shifted her seating, “Warren, my uncle; paid her to claim me. She would leave me with my grandmother and take off with the money. Sometimes she took Sabina, but mostly she left her too. So, we grew up together, I treated her as my sister and the rest is history.”
“Is it really, what about your grandmother, where is she now?” He asked noting how she didn’t speak about school.
Lanias eyes lost warmth, “Dead. She was killed when they came for us, The Council passed an edict for all suspected numb Witches to be gathered. Those willing to sell their children would be greatly compensated. Sabina’s mother loved that.”
“So, it’s true that you, and the others at the shade are the children from that bus accident.”
She shrugged, pulling her knees to her chest as she crossed her legs. “Yeah, that is very old news. At least for Tiller, he’s been digging into it. Which has been a pain in the ass to cover up, everything was neat, and he’s ruined it with his snooping. My memory charms were works of art. To have him undoing them has been causing me a great inconvenience.” She shook her head.
“Do you remember the time you were there?” He asked, taking in every move she made.
Even as her movements grew agitated her expression remained empty. “Yes.”
Walking to her side, he took a seat. “Do you want to tell me about it?”
“Honestly, no,” she said, looking at him. “I think it would be akin to asking you to tell me about the day you lost your wife.”
He flinched but didn’t pull away from her, he took her hand in his to stop her fiddling. “If you asked it of me, I would tell you.”
She shook her head.
