Blood Lines: Kallen's Tale (Witch Fairy #3.5)

by Bonnie Lamer

  “Should we sit out on the terrace?” Xandra asks as she opens the door to her bedroom.

  “No way,” Alita says firmly shaking her head. “The less I see of that spider web, the happier I am.”

  We all laugh but we also all agree. I will admit to some squeamishness about it. “Yeah, it is pretty disturbing,” Xandra says. “I still can’t believe Isla came up with something so dark and potentially fatal.”

  As if to prove its worth, an explosion of sound echoes around the spider web. We all rush outside to see what caused it. Looking up, we can vaguely see the red glowing light of some sort of missile attempting to penetrate the web. The web doesn’t even dip in with the impact.

  Kegan lets out a low whistle. “You are one amazing Fairy.”

  “Witch Fairy,” I correct him. Xandra is in front of me and I wrap my arms around her waist and she leans back against my chest.

  We stand outside for a little bit listening to the sounds of Xenia’s followers trying to penetrate the web. Several more attempts are made but not so much as one piece of silk detaches. When it is finally apparent that whoever is doing this is giving up for the night, we go back into Xandra’s room and spend some time just hanging out and talking.

  It is not long before Tabitha pokes her head in the door. “What are the four of you doing? Do you have any idea what time it is? You head on back to your own rooms now.” She looks pointedly at me for that last part. “Scoot, you two. These young ladies need to dress for bed. Do not make me tell your Grandmother that you are harassing her guests. And you are to stay out.” Again, she looks pointedly at me. I try to look offended but her expression tells me she is once again not buying it. I feel it is best to leave without argument. My head has been through enough today. It does not need another smack.

  Of course, Tabitha is insane if she thinks I am going to sleep in my own bed tonight. I wait in my room reading a book until I am sure that everyone else is asleep. Then I slip into my raven form and fly above the house from my balcony to Xandra’s. But when I land, I discover that I am not the only one who decided to pay her a visit.

  “I am sorry, Xandra. I just had to feel your kiss at least once,” Kegan says and my heart misses a beat.

  It starts again when I hear Xandra’s reply. “You know, there are laws against stuff like this! At least, there are in my realm.”

  “I am sorry I invaded your privacy, but you have turned my life upside down. I have never been so affected by a girl before. I believe I am in love with you.”

  “Are you kidding me? You just met me yesterday. What did you think would happen here? Did you think you would come in and wow me with a kiss, I’d dump Kallen and we’d live happily ever after? Not going to happen.”

  That is all I need to hear. I am back in my form and next to Kegan in a heartbeat. I grab him by the neck and push him against the wall. Hard enough to crack the plaster. “You accost the one I love in the middle of the night? You have crossed a line, cousin.” I pull him forward and then shove his head into the wall again. Kegan is pulling at my hand but my strength is fueled by betrayal and anger. He does not have a chance of removing it from his neck.

  I hear Xandra say, “Kallen, you’re going to kill him.” I do not care. I smack his head into the wall again. “Kallen, you have to stop.”

  Suddenly, the room is flooded with light. Now I can see the face of the cousin who has betrayed me and it is purple. “Kallen, let him go,” Grandmother says sharply from the doorway.

  I do not know if I can. All I want to do is smack his head into the wall again. But a sideways glance at Xandra and the horrified look on her face makes me let go. Kegan slides down the wall gasping for the oxygen I have been denying him.

  “What is going on?” Dagda says loudly. He stops in the doorway and assesses the scene. “Xandra, why are they in your room?”

  “Hey, how did I become the bad guy in this? What a bunch of chauvinistic crap. I’ll have you know, I was sound asleep until five minutes ago.”

  Dagda takes a few deep breaths before he responds to being spoken to that way. “I apologize for assuming the worst.” Even Grandmother gives him a quizzical look for that comment. “I still would like an explanation. Kallen, why are you in Xandra’s room?”

  I turn around and the expression on Dagda’s face tells me that I look as angry as I am. “I am preventing any further advances on her from my cousin.” That is the last time that word is going to pass through my lips when speaking of him.

  Thunder clouds are forming in Dagda’s eyes. “Kegan, is this true?”

  Kegan’s vocal chords are having difficulty at the moment. Xandra steps in for him. “Okay, this is getting blown all out of proportion.”

  Is she serious? I cross my arms over my chest to keep from throttling her. “What proportion of anger do you think finding Kegan in your room in the middle of the night merits?”

  “So, you’re mad at me now? How does that work out?”

  I will not let her twist this into making it my fault. I have every right to be angry. “I apologize. I was under the impression that you did not want him in here. Perhaps I was mistaken.”

  She gets off the bed and stands in front of me. “You’re being a jerk.” Rounding on Kegan, she says, “Get out of my room. Now.”

  Kegan stumbles to his feet and begins to walk. He is teetering as if he might fall any moment but he still gives me a wide berth as he goes around me to the door. His eyes are cast downwards as he walks by Grandmother and Dagda.

  “Kegan, wait for me in the kitchen,” Grandmother says and he gives the slightest of nods and then grimaces in pain. His neck is already bruising. Turning to Xandra, she says, “Xandra, do remember what I said to you on the stairs yesterday. Dagda, Xandra and Kallen need some time alone.”

  “I am not leaving them alone together in her room in the middle of the night,” he growls.

  Grandmother raises a brow. “You seem to have forgotten that you are not in your home. In my home, I make the decisions regarding my grandson and our guest.”

  “She is my daughter,” he practically shouts which elicits a snort from Xandra.

  Fire dances in Grandmother’s eyes. “A claim that you failed to make until it served your purpose.” With a glance towards us, she turns back to Dagda and says, “Do you really believe you have a choice in this matter?”

  Dagda turns towards us now. After assessing the look on Xandra’s face, he turns and walks away. With a slight nod, Grandmother leaves the room closing the door behind her.

  I cannot stop the words as much as I know they are not true. “Did you enjoy his kiss?” I sneer.

  I expect an angry retort but what I get is a pillow slapped against me. Then another. And another one. Has she gone insane? “How long do you plan to continue this?” I ask.

  She shrugs. “Until you apologize for what you said.”

  “You want me to apologize?” She has gone crazy.

  “Yup.”

  “For what?”

  “For what you said before I started hitting you with the pillow.”

  My temper is increasing by the second. I feel it best not to say the words that are going through my mind at the moment. When Xandra hits me with the pillow again, I grab it out of her hands and toss it across the room.

  She simply turns around to grab another one. Just to save me from having to throw all the pillows off the balcony, I say, “Fine, I apologize.” Her response is to hit me with another pillow.

  “You are not helping my mood,” I grind out.

  “That’s okay. This is doing wonders for mine.” She hits me again.

  Okay, she is right. I am being ridiculous. I already know that Kegan was uninvited and unwelcome so why am I acting like this? I grab the pillow out of her hands like I did the first one. When she crawls across the bed to get another one, I grab her ankles and drag her back towards the edge of the bed. She barely puts up a struggle as she is laughing too hard to put any effort into it. I kneel over her and gentl
y grab her wrists. I pull them above her head and admit to myself and her why I am acting like a maniac. “I have never felt jealousy before.” At least not to this extent, and only with her. “I was unable to control it.” I let go of her wrists and then run my fingers through my hair. “I was coming to you and I heard Kegan’s voice. I did not know who to be angrier with.”

  “Kallen, I didn’t…”

  I place a finger on her lips. “Let me finish. I listened to what was being said. I was wrong in accusing you of anything. You made it clear that he was unwelcome.”

  She smiles. “Finally, a real apology.”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, now you have to go get the pillows you threw over there.”

  My turn to smile. “Why should I have to retrieve the objects of your assault?”

  “Because you were the biggest jerk.”

  I chuckle. “I will retrieve them only if I may use one.”

  “Does that mean I can finally go back to sleep?”

  I do not respond as I get off the bed to retrieve the pillows. Coming back to the bed, I say, “Move over.”

  She slides over and pulls the covers up. She lifts her head so I can put a pillow underneath it and then I lay next to her. I put my arm around her waist and pull her close. “I love you,” I whisper as I darken the lights in the room. “I hate being away from you.”

  “I love you, too.” Then she adds, “Not that I want you to leave, but won’t Isla be mad?”

  “I do not care.” She must like my response because she curls up next to me and falls back to sleep.

  Chapter 23

  I wake up to an empty bed. That surprises me. Xandra is not usually such an early riser. Deciding to go find her, I stretch my arms and back before I get up. Xandra opens the door as if on cue saving me the trouble. “Where did you run off to?” I ask through a yawn.

  “I had to talk to Isla about something.”

  She has my full attention now. “About what?”

  She walks to the bed and climbs back in. “About how I can keep her grandson from being a jealous jerk.”

  Since I have been acting like a jealous jerk I really have nothing to say to that. Therefore, I tickle her instead. Fortunately for me, she is very ticklish. “Stop it,” she says through a gasping laugh.

  Like that is going to happen. I continue to tickle her for several more minutes as she laughs until she is breathless. Finally, I listen to her pleas and let her go. She lies on her back for a few minutes trying to breath normally again. Looking over at me, she says, “You are so mean.”

  I reach out and brush her hair from her face. As much as I do not want to broach the topic, a thought has been nagging at me since last night. “It is often said that Kegan and I could be twins. His personality is more relaxed, more playful, and he tends to be much nicer than I am.”

  She looks confused. “So?”

  “Here, it would never be a possibility that he could steal someone away from me because of his Cowan blood. But with you, it is different. You do not care about any of that.”

  Now she looks more confused. “Are you trying to convince me I should date him instead? Because you’re not doing a very good job, if you are.”

  “I am simply pointing out that I would understand if you would prefer someone with a personality closer to your own.” That is a lie. It would kill me.

  She looks at me as if I am stupid. “Then I wouldn’t have anyone to hit with pillows when they’re being a jerk. Like now.” She pulls the pillow out from under her head and attempts to hit me with it but I catch it before she can make contact. “And being with someone just like me? How boring is that? It sounds like you’re giving me Kegan’s resume for the job of being my boyfriend. If you’re ready to give up the position, I prefer to find my own candidates, thank you very much. Being with someone who looks so much like you would serve as a constant reminder of what I lost. Why would I want that?”

  She could not have come up with better words if she had taken a week to think of them. A smug smile finds its way to my face. “Would you truly be heartbroken if we parted ways?”

  She successfully hits me with the pillow this time because I let her. “You don’t have to be so happy about it.” I laugh and grab the pillow then throw it off the bed. I do not want any distractions when I kiss her. Which I do. Long and hard.

  I am disappointed when she pulls away after a few minutes. “Kallen, what is this going to do to your relationship with Kegan.”

  The rage I felt last night towards him is returning. Why is she spoiling the mood by bringing this up? “I do not have a cousin.”

  She shakes her head. “That’s not a very mature way to handle this. You love Kegan, I know you do. Yeah, he did something really crappy and I’d feel betrayed, too. But we’re trapped in a giant spider web for at least a couple more days, so you’re not going to be able to avoid him.”

  She is more blasé about this than I would like her to be. “He came into your room in the middle of the night to try to seduce you.”

  “Yeah, and I’m really mad about that. But I don’t hate him. I just think he did a really stupid thing without thinking it through. To be honest, it probably has more to do with your competitive natures than it does me.”

  “Then you do not give yourself enough credit.”

  A knock on the door keeps her from responding. Tabitha bustles into the room. “Isla told me you were up. Kallen, you need to scoot on out of here so Xandra can bathe. Go on now,” she adds when I do not immediately stand up.

  Reluctantly, I do get up. I lean over and give Xandra a quick kiss and then walk towards the door. On my way, I lean over and give Tabitha a kiss on the cheek. As I close the door behind me I hear her say to Xandra, “Up, missy. Stop looking all moon eyed.” That makes me chuckle to myself.

  I walk down the hallway to my room and as soon as I pass Kegan’s door, it opens. I keep walking. I open my bedroom door and slam it closed behind me. Childish yes but I am not ready to talk to him yet. Stripping off my clothes, I step into my shower and let the hot water try to work the knots out of my muscles.

  When I come out of the bathroom, Kegan is sitting on my bed. “Leave,” I say as I run a comb through my hair.

  “We need to talk, cousin.”

  “We did talk. Last night. In my girlfriend’s bedroom where you were attempting to seduce her.”

  “I have no idea why I did that.” He stands up and starts pacing. “I am such an idiot. For god’s sake, you know I have been in love with Alita my whole damn life. I think that is what last night was all about. I am so frustrated with Alita because she will not even try to overcome the obstacles for us. She keeps telling me to find someone else.”

  “And you chose my girlfriend? So far, your explanation sucks.”

  He does the hand through the hair thing I do when I am upset. “I know.” He stops pacing and looks up at me. “I just wanted to make Alita jealous.”

  “Again, with my girlfriend. When exactly is this explanation going to make me not want to finish what I started last night?”

  Kegan throws himself into one of my chairs. “I am a stupid jackass. I betrayed your trust in a misguided attempt to make the one I love want to at least try to be with me. Kill me now, I deserve it.”

  I shake my head. I know that he is not telling the whole truth but I think that he is lying to himself as much as he is to me. But I do not want to continue being angry with him. It takes too much energy that is better spent elsewhere at the moment. “You are pathetic. And lucky.” He looks up at me with raised brows. “Lucky that I believe you. But next time you want to make Alita jealous, your eyes, hands and lips had better not go anywhere near Xandra. I am still pissed but as I do not want to get blood all over my favorite chair, I will let you live at least until after breakfast. I kill better on a full stomach.”

  Relief washes over his face. “Are we good then?”

  I snort. “Not at all. Whatever the reason, you still kissed my girlfriend. I
simply agreed not to kill you.”

  He rises from the chair. “That is a start. I will find a way to win back your trust, cousin.”

  “Good luck with that. Go apologize to Xandra. From a distance.” A slight smile crawls onto his face as he makes his way to the door.

  After shaving and dressing, I find Kegan and Xandra in the hall outside her room. “Have you made your peace?” Xandra jumps at the sound of my voice.

  Kegan nods his head. “I believe so.”