Chapter 2

All Conri could do was watch. Their bond was only strong enough to dream share and occasionally they might be able to hear each other's thoughts or maybe even see through the others eyes. It had only been about a week since that first dream share and since then he set aside time every day to reach out to Keira through that bond to check on her well-being. To see that she was safe. As safe as she could be given her current circumstances. Every time he saw that miserable excuse of a human, let alone potential mate, Conri struggled to contain his rage and contempt at how the filth treated Keira. But he had to contain it, to protect everything he held dear. If he interfered or even attempted to expedite the bonding stage, there would be hell to pay. Jeopardizing everything he had spent so long trying to preserve, his world, everything he held dear, her world, her sanity; so many innocent lives would pay just for his impatience. The extent of the damage was unknown to him, but his imagination always brought the worst scenarios to the front of his mind and the possibilities and potential was overwhelming. On top of all of that he also had to consider that the bond wouldn't even hold true, a bond with a human was only whispered in ancient myths and legends that nobody, not even the Seers could tell if there was any truth to them. So much uncertainty that Conri was reluctant to even announce that the bond even existed. He didn't fear the uncertainty of what the bond meant, and obviously he intended to give it time to develop and fully snap into place before taking any sort of action. Regardless of what a bond between himself and a human woman would mean, his people and his Inner Circle would accept and protect her regardless. It was that even after the bond had fully set, he was reluctant to take her from the life she knew. Conri knew and understood what it was like to leave your home, choice or not, and he wouldn't put that pain onto anyone if he could help it. That was a thought and conversation for a future that had not yet been determined. At the current moment he was taking his daily reprieve from his responsibilities to observe her day.

It seemed that today Keira was alone at home and cleaning the entire living space she and that disgusting prick shared. Conri could see exactly why she called it her "gilded cage." And he supposed that to those unaware of the monster in their midst, Keira would be considered lucky- spoiled even. As he watched her dutifully work through all her chores, he made mental notes of the layout and where everything was in the home. Someday that information could prove useful. Everything he saw gave him more and more insight into both individuals living there. The knowledge that it wasn't a house, but an apartment made every detail even more intriguing. The space had cherry wood floors all throughout, save for the bathroom. The entry door revealed a large living space open to the kitchen adjacent with opulent seating enough for sizable gatherings. He couldn't help but notice that aside from the floors everything was in shades of white with stainless steel accents. Colorless and lifeless, cold. During the past week he hadn't seen any indication that they had entertained at all so perhaps it was all a façade to appear more welcoming or accommodating. He watched as Keira picked up odds and ends, wiping surfaces of dust and debris, she was listening to music in her earbuds and dancing and singing along. At times she would close her eyes, tilting her head up toward the sky as she sang. It was as if the music cleansed her very soul of all the darkness she endured.

By the time she made her way to the bedroom Conri had become so absorbed in the music and the taste of freedom coursing through her, that it had become impossible to discern where her mind ended and his began. And that was just fine with him. For a few moments he felt whole and at home; content just to have this moment. What caught his attention was that she had stopped entirely. Keira was just standing in place staring.

She was in the doorway of the bedroom and staring at nothing. He could feel the fear and anxiety building in her as she was most likely flashing back to a week ago when she had to clean her blood from those pretty wood floors. And as quickly as she paused, she shook her head and then started looking around taking note of what needed to be done. Conri took those moments as an opportunity to really get a good look at this particular room since the last time he saw any of it she had been so focused on protecting herself. A large bed dominated the room, the headboard and all the other furniture in the room was an abyss of darkness, fabric and leather of the blackest black. The bedding was no different, even though you could tell the sheets were silken, it was a black hole to be engulfed in every time she would lay in it. The nightstands on either side each had a reading lamp, and everything put away neatly in the drawer, so organized it begged the question of if anyone did any real living here. Keira walked straight to the double doors of the closet, if you could even call it that since it was large enough to easily be a spare bedroom. And even though it was a closet, it wasn't clothes that took up the majority of the space, but books. So many books of different sizes and so many colors of bindings. So many worlds for her to retreat to. If a shelf didn't have clothes it was filled with books.

"I really need to reorganize all this again," he heard her say to herself, "I just don't have that kind of time before Alexei gets home so it'll have to wait." With a sigh she turned off the light and closed the doors before moving on to assess the bathroom. Finally, she seemed to Conri to be moving forward from her anxiety of her flash back earlier and was once again lost in her music. These moments must have been rare for her indeed, the person she was when nobody was around was not at all the fragile dove he thought her to be, though her singing was as beautiful as morning doves' calls, all hidden by her own façade of being hopelessly devoted to that cur Alexei.

Conri saw the bathroom and thought she had stepped into some clinic with how stark the contrast was between the darkness of the bedroom to the stark white of the bathroom. And it was the entirety of the bathroom. From the marble counters to the porcelain double sink to the toilet to the white soaker tub behind the glass walls and door of the shower area to the white hexagonal tiles. The only thing that was another color was the floor of the bathing area, which looked like gray sand and felt as smooth as the marble counter, and all the containers holding soaps and other necessities. He saw her look at herself in the internally lit mirror and the cold light made her skin look just as colorless as the rest of the space, as if between the abyss of the bedroom and the clinical feel of the bathroom all the color and life had been drained from her. Yet she was relaxed and in her own mental world where her mind was still. Conri couldn't help but be entranced by her. He didn't know what the future held for either of them, but he wished he could just hold this moment for both of them and live in it.

Neither of them could have even imagined how everything would fall apart before them. They would soon have to let the pieces fall where they may.