7 The Curse of the Stone Reversed

The alpha tapped his fingers on the table, nervously, he also tapped his foot on the floor, he could feel sweat beads forming on his forehead and his heart was having a mental breakdown right down.

He tried breathing calmly but the futile attempt was enough to make anyone fall into pits of laughter. She slowly raised the spoon to her mouth and savoured the taste, she appeared to be in deep thoughts as she smacked her lips.

Then finally "Ummm..... not bad" she said.

Xavier stared at her, flabbergasted at the undetailed answer. He went out to the castle early this morning and stole, pardon me, he took some ingredients from the stall to make soup for his vampire. The alpha would never steal anything not to talk of from his own castle.

It took him three miserable attempts before he could construct a soup that society deemed eatable. Now, the only answer she could give him was 'Not bad', the alpha sulked down on the chair as disappointment covered his face.

Tashina almost cracked a smile at the sulking werewolf but quickly threw a spoon of soup into her mouth. The soup was delicious, but she isn't sure if maybe that's just because she was hungry. Tashina saw how hard and long it took for him to prepare a decent soup and appreciated it.

Yet, the thought that he is only doing this for personal and dangerous reasons still flickered into her head sometimes.

"So, what's your name?" she asked as she took some bread. She wasn't a fan of solid food because as a vampire, fluids were the best meal, especially the blood of any creature but once in a while she did try them out.

"Xavier" he gave out a short answer.

"Who are you?"

"A person"

"Where are you from?"

"A place" he gave vague answers.

"Will you answer my questions or not?" she was irritated from the unspecified answers of his.

"Will you eat your food or not?" he retaliated.

She stuffed huge pieces of bread into her mouth to prevent her from laying series of curses unto the man that saved her life. Xavier let out a snort when he saw her cute, full, round cheeks filled with bread.

The princess sent a glare of fire towards his direction as her mouth was occupied. He masked his chuckle with a cough.

"So, what's your name?" he asked.

"Why should I answer your question when you didn't?" she finally swallowed the bread and spoke.

"At least I did answer my name so I thought you should too"

"Nobody asked you to. You did because you wanted to but I don't want to. Period"

"Period? Is that your name?" Xavier asked.

"Are you insane? Who on earth name would be Period? I mean do you even listen to yourself?"

"Well, since you don't want to tell me your name. I might as well call you that, huh"

"....."

"Hey, Period"

"Tashina, My name is Tashina. Never in your life call me period, Mr Xavier" She said in frustration.

The alpha cracked a grin as she fell into the trap of telling him her name.

"Tashina, Tashina. Ummm,,, Nice name" he mused.

"I thought vampires heal but your wound is still very deep. Why aren't you healing? Or are you a half breed?" he asked as he took some slices of bread from the basket.

"We heal faster from normal wounds" she stood and went close to the window. The entire woods which was at the other side of the river was filled with white, snow. Snow rarely fall at South-Mairak, this was the first time in a century she has seen so much snow.

"Normal? What's so abnormal about yours?"

"It was from the cooper-bronze metal. I am sure your place has a lot of it" she scoffed.

"But you were attacked by vampires, right? What were you doing at the other side of the border anyway?" He asked as he stood and walked towards her.

"You ask too many questions, Mr Xavier"

"As the saver of your life, I deserve an explanation"

"I don't own anyone an explanation" she turned back and deep green eyes met steel blue eyes and it was like time froze for them both.

The feeling of anger, pain and rage flowed through her streams and as an werewolf, he sniffed her emotions and his eyes bleed out curiosity.

Unable to take any more of her powerful emotions, he turned about to leave when she held his hand.

"Why-why does your heart... beat so fast?" she murmured, breathlessly.

A vampire has the ability to sense the blood pumping through someone's heart, they can see through another one's body just by a touch but there are times when the Vampire gets affected by the heartbeats of another, be it human or werewolf.

She couldn't feel anything last night because the strength to look into someone's blood wasn't available but now that she is agile and much better, the frantic rise and fall of his heart leaves a dull pain on her chest.

"What do you mean?" he raised his eyebrows.

"It's so rampant that it distracts me. I can almost feel the way it moves" she mumbled as she squeezed her face in slight pain.

Tashina has never felt a heartbeat so strong. It was like their heart was tied in series of complexly knotted strings and to loosen it, was utterly impossible.

He took her hand and pressed it to his beating chest.

"Tell me what you see" he whispered, breathlessly.

She closed her eyes and the image of his raw, hot blood pumping through his veins was enchanting and excruciating at the same time.

"I see stone. It's not complete, it covers half of the heart that beats so fast one would think you ran a marathon. It's like a process that stopped suddenly" she mumbled and opened her eyes to see his breathtaking eyes looking so deep into hers.

Xavier had felt it since the first time he saw her. But she confirmed it, his hardening heart has stopped turning into stone.

It was like a curse reversed. Like in fairytales, when only a true love kiss can wake up the Sleeping Beauty. In the alpha's case, just a sniff of his vampire was enough.

The irony of the situation.

"Why is it so? Is that how every werewolves' heart is? That's just outright weird" she grimaced.

"Not every one of our heart is like this. I am just exceptional" he chuckled dryly.

"Of course you are, not every werewolf saves a dying vampire" she commented and he cracked a grin.

When she saw his lips raise, she had no other choice but to also smile.

They stared deeply into each other's eyes as unknown feelings filled the tense air. Then suddenly, the alpha smelt someone approaching the tower and quickly put up guard.

"Stay behind me and don't move" he warned as he stood in front of her to protect her from whoever dared interrupt a moment between the alpha and his vampire.