Granted

Walking through the huge mansion, I was given several curious glances. Some were not as curious as they were irked as they stared hard in my direction. Those were the ones that I deftly avoided as I made my way through the building. When it came to asking where I might find Kallan, I was careful to choose only those that seemed more curious than malicious.

A few questions later regarding his whereabouts, I was finally standing outside the door to his office. None of the corridors I had been down had been empty, and most of those present were a little too curious for my own tastes. I grumbled to myself, something about the things we tolerate for the people we love, trying to tamp down the distaste at having to track down a man that had already dismissed me. Thoughts of how he might answer my request had been flavoring my nerves and resolve since I started on this task to find him. Yeah, if it wasn’t for my little moon, I would be miles away from here by now.

Pacing in front of the door for a minute or two, I tried to contemplate what I would say and how I would say it. A shadow moved across the corridor at the end of the hallway, reminding me how ridiculous I must look pacing outside of his office. Distinct memories of a long-ago childhood when girls were teased mercilessly for their blushing crushes came to mind, making me irritable. I swallowed the grumble that rose within me, knowing that I was certainly not that girl.

A soft giggle had me peering more closely into the shadows of the hallway. There was a frail woman, moving slowly through the shadows towards me. Her small, gnarled hands clutched over the top of a smooth hand-crafted walking stick, her steps were short and unhurried. Her face was full of wrinkles, making it hard to see the smile that she wore on her face, but the smile itself was evident in her eyes. Though her beautiful blue eyes were nearly hidden from view, the wrinkles and smile nearly concealing them in their wake, they sparkled with an amusement that made my skin want to prickle.

“You must know that he is already aware you are here,” she said as she moved closer to me, the smile and humor evident in her tone. “He would have smelled you coming from nearly a mile away.”

Admittedly, I had not thought of that when I arrived. In fact, the thought of him as not a man but a lycan had somewhat escaped me as I contemplated what I would say to him. It wasn’t that I did not remember he was a lycan, it was that I had thought of him more as a man. Strange how a few days could make me temporarily forget how lethal these beasts were.

My head fell back before I sighed and closed my eyes. When I let my head drop to face her once more, I offered, “With so many people roaming around, maybe he missed mine.” I gave a chagrined smile, still not believing I forgot to see him as the enemy, but rather someone to be negotiated with.

The woman cackled merrily, coughing at the sudden spasm in her chest. Finally, she controlled her breath enough to say, “That is not possible.” She smiled at me, putting a hand out to pat my own gently.

“Yeah, yeah,” I grumbled. “I get it! I stink.” It was the same thing the other woman had told me. I was starting to get a complex.

The woman patted my hand once more. “No, no. That’s not it, my dear.” She sniffed the air delicately as if bracing herself against the stench. “You don’t really stink at all. Aside from the fact that you are nearing your cycle, you smell clean enough.”

That little reminder was getting very irritating. “What is it with you all and reminding me about my period,” I grumbled.

Her wrinkled face creased even more, her thin lips pursing against one another just before making a tsking sound that grated on my nerves. “My dear, it isn’t a reminder but a caution. Though you have not gone through your first heat, that desire to slick your channel will run strong in most males of our kind. The fact that you are pure will only make that desire compounded.”

My face burned bright, both embarrassment and resentment reddening my features. Instinct and indignation were readily available to blurt out retorts that would not have benefited the situation in the least. They were on my tongue ready to be released, but I resisted.

Looking at the bright eyes twinkling back at me, I could sense the intelligence behind them. Here was a woman that spoke her mind frankly, but held no ill will towards me. In fact, in her own poorly chosen words, she was trying to make me more aware.

The laughter started to roil within me as I laughed at my own thoughts. This woman was an older version of me, no doubt. The way she spoke her mind without a second thought to the choice of her words was symbolic of how my own mouth worked at times, though I was sometimes provoked to say much worse things. Things that were not always in an effort to help others.

The woman chuckled softly, seeming to sense the turmoil I was going through. Her own laughter only made mine bubble forth, and I laughed outright. It suddenly seemed so unreal to have an older woman such as herself talk about slicking channels, and more incongruous that she was having this conversation...with me...outside Kallan’s office.

The laughter rolled through me, causing me to laugh even harder. The more I thought about this woman and her unbridled words, the more funny I thought the whole scenario was. Her wrinkles bounced on her face as her own laughter joined mine, The excess skin springing to life with a vivacity of its own. Her free gnarled hand lifted to cover her mouth to prevent herself from being as loud; however, I had no such qualms.

I had not laughed like this in a long time and it felt refreshing to put everything else aside for just that moment. My laughter sounded so foreign to my own ears, causing me to laugh even more at how absolutely unnatural it sounded. Tears sprung forward, and I welcomed them with more unabated laughter.

The door to the office opened, leaving both of us laughing in the face of a sobered Jensen. When his brows furrowed at the two of us, I couldn’t resist another bout of laughter. The scrawny, thin features of his face puckered with annoyance were so like him, yet I just found it more hysterical that he offered it to the old woman as well as me.

The man rolled his eyes heavenward, muttering something about the strange antics of humans and their effect on their elders streaming from his lips before turning his gaze on me. “If you are quite finished, Lord Kolbeck will grant you a moment of his time.” His bleak, pale eyes with those furry blonde brows above them nearly washed out the other features of his face. If not for the ever-present frown that embellished it, he might be unmemorable.

The choice of his words made me stiffen. Instinct once again started to rear its ugly head. “Grant me,” I questioned him haughtily before I could even stop myself.

The woman chuckled once more before turning towards the way she had come, clutching her walking stick firmly once more. “Seems, my dear, you still have a lot to learn,” she snickered, walking away from me.

Jensen smirked at me, the words of the wisened woman falling on us both. As he watched my expression, he continued. “Yes, grant you a moment of his time, but only a moment.” He cast his eyes down to a golden strap surrounding his wrist. “If I was you, I would get on with it,” he snickered, dropping his hand back to his side and duly walking away from me, leaving the door wide open.

Suddenly, everything that was funny only a moment before seemed so absurd now. I poked my head around the corner to see him sitting behind a desk that seemed small in comparison to his size. Maybe it was his stature that made everything else seem so small in comparison, as even the room seemed to be much too small to stand within its confines with him present.

Kallan’s eyes were fixed on an unusual screen before him. Images and letters scrolled across it, the glass screen being visible from all sides. If she knew how to read them, no doubt it would confide all their secrets to her. However, the symbols and letters were not the same that she had learned growing up. They were something much more intricate and complex, like an ancient alphabet.

The images, however, were an entirely different story. When my eyes fell on them, my breath left me. The brutality of them was enough to make me wish I had not taken breakfast that morning. Women, men, and children were shredded to pieces, the remnants deprived of any fluid whatsoever. Where one might expect to find puddles of blood around the victims, there was none.

My stomach heaved on its own accord, forcing Kallan’s eyes to look up from his screen. Clutching my stomach, I doubled over as I felt another wave of nausea overcome me. Kallan waved his hand over the screen, effectively turning the light off that had streamed from within the glass.

He cursed softly before he scrubbed his hands over his face. “How can I help you, Sedona,” he asked, irritation lacing his words.

For a moment, I couldn’t speak. My brain went on holiday during that brief view of his screen, allowing me only to react from the images I saw. Those sapphire orbs watched me, quiet confidence in them that masked all other emotions that might have been found there.

As the seconds passed, my legs felt strong enough to support my weight once more. Using the frame of the door as support, I stood tall and straightened my spine. In that instant, I remembered all the rumors about their kind...I remembered the tales of how deadly they really were.

“What happened to those people,” I asked, my voice whispering into the room.

His head turned to the screen fleetingly before he let his gaze drift back to me. “That is what we are trying to find out,” he said gently.

His words registered, but barely. I nodded my head in response to his words. Tales of the horrors of the supernatural ran through my mind, reminding me of all the frightening beings that surrounded us at all times...and not all of them supernatural.

“There was no blood,” I stated, attempting to choke back the bile that threatened to expel from my throat.

“No,” he sighed, casting his eyes down to his desk to a few scattered papers there. I didn’t want to know what was on them, not if it meant seeing those images again. “No, there wasn’t,” he stated more firmly. Clasping his hands on the desk before his, covering some of the papers from my view, he asked once more. “What can I do for you, Sedona?”

Wrapping my arms across my chest, I found a little more courage knowing that it was not a lycan attack that caused such damage. No blood could only mean one thing...vampires!

“So, we’re just not going to talk about this?”

Kallan shook his head slowly, his eyes trained on my face. “No, we’re not. This is none of your concern, Sedona.”

My eyes widened as I shifted my body weight from the frame of the door. “None of my concern,” I repeated his words back to him. “How can you say this is none of my concern when those are human beings that were lying gutted and shredded on the ground?”

Kallan watched me, his bright blue ones piercing mine. “Because they are not humans as you believe them to be.” He stood from his desk before moving fluidly around it towards the door where I stood. Grabbing the door in one hand, he motioned towards the hallway with the other. “Now, as you can see, I have a lot of work to do.”

The man had a natural knack for dismissing me, and it was starting to irritate the hell out of me. “But, I came here to talk to you,” I countered, annoyed with him for seeming so calm when he was so close to me. The scent of him wafted to my nose, startling me to realize how mouthwatering a scent could actually be. How had I not noticed that before?

“And so we did,” he nodded towards the hallway, his meaning very clear.

Stunned at his casual dismissal of me, I stepped backward. An automatic movement as if his very gesture commanded me. I frowned at him, searching my brain for something to say that would put us back on even ground, if we ever were. Instead, my mouth gaped open, panic starting to seize me. If he didn’t let me stay, it would break my little moon’s heart.

As he started to close the door, I blurted out, “You can’t just tear me and Tala apart!”

“That was your choice, mina para,” he stated, a calm cold saturating his tone.

Before the door latched, I called out, “At least let me stay for the wedding. She has asked that of me!”

The door shut and I thought my request had fallen on deaf ears. A low voice grated through the door, hesitant in its response. “Granted,” he replied. His weight shifted away from the door, and I was once again dismissed. For once, I would like to leave on my own terms.

I stood staring at the door, unsure whether to be pleased with the results of my endeavors or not. On the one hand, I now had permission to stay on the premises until after the wedding. On the other hand, I was staying here until after the wedding in the presence of a man that seemed none too happy to be in my company. Surely it was possible to avoid him for the duration that I was here, right?

“Ms. Clairmont,” that mocking tone crept up my spine.

Turning towards him, I put my hands on my hips. “Jensen,” I greeted, a sweet sarcasm icing my meaning.

The man smirked at me, making me wonder how close he and Kallan really were. I raised a brow as I watched him approach, waiting for the next impatient words that would come from his mouth.

“It appears we have yet to rid ourselves of you.”

“It appears that way,” I replied sweetly. “How lucky for you,” I mocked with a wide grin.

“How lucky indeed,” he retorted. Lifting a hand to motion down the hall, he nodded his head in the same direction. “Allow me to show you to your quarters.”

A flicker of something passed over his features, something akin to a sorrow that he wore on his soul shone through for a fraction of a second. For once, I wondered about Jensen and his story. The fight left me for the moment, and my shoulders relaxed. “Thank you, Jensen.” He turned a skeptical eye on me. Holding up my hand, I gently shook my head. “I call a truce,” I smiled. “At least for now.”

He warily looked at me before giving a brief nod. “Truce,” he repeated. Then his eyes glinted as he grinned. “For now.”

Shaking my head, I chuckled as I preceded him down the hallway. I may not understand him, but there was a deep-seated pain that lurked beneath the skin that I was only too aware of. Maybe they were not too different from us after all. Besides, maybe Jensen could help explain what I had seen on that glass screen. Having him as a friend would far outweigh having him as an enemy.