SURPRISE
Things after Braxton’s death never seemed to be the same to me—and I honestly don’t mean that in a bad way. If anything, things were better after a few days. Of course I had terrible nightmares. The ones where I would be running away from the exotic glowing eyes. But as I ran away from them, I would always get caught up with Braxton. He would grab me, drag me to a dungeon full of Hellions and after that, it would end because Jules and Felix would show up and rescue me.
Today, the weather is actually nice for a winter day. It isn’t too brisk but it isn’t anywhere near warm. I sip at my coffee on the balcony of my apartment as I stare across the street at the passing cars and the busy city.
I smile to myself, thinking about all that I’ve been through. Who knew that this world would be like this . . . such a supernatural mess? I wonder what else is out there, what else is waiting to hop out and reveal itself to me. What surprises me most is the fact that I’m still afraid, but I no longer care. I no longer feel the need to panic because I know that I have a mate around that can feel everything that I feel—that knows everything that I know. He’s there for me, has been since day one of meeting me.
A knock comes from behind, interrupting my thoughts as I spin around. Liam steps out in a pressed white collar shirt, a black and grey tie, and grey slacks. “Well, look at you,” I say, smiling with my mug between both hands.
He chuckles as he steps out in his slick black dress-shoes. “Ah, well,” he shrugs, grinning.
“You even gelled your hair back. I’m impressed.” I grin.
“Gotta make some kind of impression, Zandy—even though I know this job is in the bag for me.”
I narrow my eyes playfully. “Hey, you never know. Someone else could be up for the money.”
“Nah, Felix has my back.” His lip quirks up but my smile fades quickly. I haven’t talked with Felix since the night that he killed Braxton—which was five days ago. I’ve wanted to talk to him. I’ve wanted to see if he’s okay but I don’t want him to catch his feelings for me again. I know that he’s trying to let me go—trying to relinquish our memories and his feelings but he won’t be able to do that if I keep trying to check up on him. Liam notices the change of my mood and quickly changes the subject. “So, anyway, I came out to see if you were okay.”
“Yeah,” I nod as I blink slowly. “Yeah I’m fine.”
“You sure?”
“Positive, Lemon.” I grin again.
“Stop that,” he scolds mildly. He takes another step forward with a smile still gracing his lips and I’m not sure what’s different, but he’s . . . happier. I thought that he would be more stressed or worried about the safety of his life but he seems to be fine with everything that had happened—like he knew something was wrong but didn’t want to believe it.
“I think I should be the one asking if you’re alright,” I say, tilting my head and placing my coffee on the table beside me.
“I’m actually great, Alex.” He nods but he doesn’t eye me. He looks past me to watch the passing cars and pedestrians. “These past few days I’ve been thinking about a lot.”
“And?” My arms fold.
“And you and Jules were right,” he sighs. “I should kick my habits and toss them aside. I want to stop drinking and smoking so much—but not completely.” He smiles as he takes another step forward and reaches for my hand. “I almost lost you, Alex, and I didn’t even realize how much you were going through but if I had, I would have quit a long time ago. You needed me, but I couldn’t understand that because I was too stoned or too drunk to notice.” He shakes his head, eyeing me with hard green eyes. He takes a deep breath but I pull him in quickly and grip onto him.
“I love you, Liam,” I whisper over his shoulder.
“I love you, too, Zandy.” He clutches me in his arms, his voice thickening and being threatened by tears.
“No—no crying,” I say playfully before pulling away to look at him. I clasp his hands and he nods while pressing his lips. “I’m sure you’re going to do great today.”
“Yeah.” He releases my hands with a sigh. “I guess I better get out of here. I just thought I would let you know, even though you’re going to London and won’t really see me as much.” His face depresses and I tilt my head with a slight frown.
“You don’t want me to leave?”
“Yeah, I do,” he says a little too quickly. “You should leave. I know it will be what is best for you, Zandy. I love you and I only want you to be safe. I’ll be fine here, I promise.”
“You swear?” I prod.
“Cross my heart.” He reveals a stable smile that I haven’t seen in a very long time. He looks so healthy when he’s sober and I can tell that he means every word of what he is saying. “I know now that it had to be hell for Jules these past four years. I blamed him—and I’m truly sorry—but I take it all back because if anything, he deserves to be with you, even more than me . . .your own brother.”
“Thank you, Liam.”
“Not a problem. But let me get out of here. I’ll see you tonight?” His eyebrows rise as he makes his way back towards the balcony door.
“Yeah. It’s my last night. I’ll be here, sharing it with you.”
“Kay,” he murmurs. “See you tonight. Wish me luck!” he calls while stepping into the house. I listen as he collects his keys and then the front door creaks open before clicking shut.
I reach for my coffee and make my way into the apartment. I’m proud of Liam and I guess that it took a life-or-death situation to get him to snap out of his immature phase. He’s trying to change—not only for me but for himself, too. I don’t expect him to just ditch the habits right away, but I know he’ll do it. I know he’ll make the change. I won’t rush him.
I place my mug on the coffee table then make my way to my bedroom. I sigh but as I glance at the beautiful, pale man sitting in my grey chair with his curly hair pushed back and his leather jacket on, I grin and my heart doubles in speed. He smiles heavily as his brown eyes melt with mine while he stands from the chair.
“Jules,” I breathe. “What are you doing here?”
“Is that how you greet your future roommate?” He smirks as he steps closer to me. Heat flourishes through me as he presses in. He’s always so tantalizing, so mesmerizing. The cut above his eyebrow and on his cheekbone is healing nicely and it honestly makes him look hotter. They’re battle scars and I find that extremely attractive. He licks his bottom lip as he tilts his head, pulls me in by my waist, and strokes my cheek. “I wanted to surprise you,” he murmurs.
“With what?”
“It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you, now would it?” His eyes remain soft. I’ve never seen him so at ease, so peaceful. He’s even more beautiful when he’s this way. “But I guess I could show you since they’re right here.” He turns me around and we face the bed. On top of the bed are three lavender suitcases with gold bows on top of them.
“Are they all packed?” I ask, smiling up at him.
“All packed,” he replies, “I wanted to save you the hassle. You had all of your clothes out and half of them were stuffed in that red duffel bag which isn’t anywhere near big enough.”
“Why, thank you,” I say, turning to wrap my arms around his neck. “But I know you. This isn’t the only part of the surprise.”
He chuckles as he snakes his arms around my waist again. He kisses the tip of my nose, my scraped cheek, my scraped forehead, and then my lips gently. “You know me so well. I must say, you’re catching onto my habits pretty quickly.”
“You could say that.”
He nods, his chocolate brown eyes locking with mine. “Well, the rest of the surprise isn’t here and it isn’t anytime soon. It’s actually at seven tonight.”
“Can I get a clue of what it is?” I beg. “Just a tiny one.”
“Alexandria,” he chuckles, placing a finger on the fold of my lips. “I love you, but no. I want this to be as big of a surprise for you as possible.
It took a lot of planning and a lot of . . .” He stops talking as he tilts his head. “Ah, I see what you’ve done. You know I babble. That is all I’m saying.” He pulls away then heads for my bed to grab my new suitcases. “I’ll go store these in the trunk of the car. In the meantime, if you have anything else that you may want to take, be sure to pack it. Afterwards, I want to take you to the mall and buy you a new outfit that will make up for the one that I’d burned Thursday night.” He grins, placing the smallest suitcase beneath his arm and clutching the larger two in both hands. He marches out of my bedroom door and rounds the corner.
He isn’t going to tell me a thing and now I’m really anxious. When Jules surprises me, they’re all great surprises. I’m always stunned and caught off guard but at the end, I’m always happy that I went along with it. So that’s what I’ll do tonight. Go along with it. I won’t ask any more questions, I’ll just wait for the rest of his surprise. It can’t be too bad.
At least, I hope it isn’t.
****
“Don’t you think this is a bit too much?” I ask, tugging on my scarf.
Jules looks me over in my black peat coat, lacey black evening dress, and black tights. His lips curl upward to smile as he parks the car, turns the ignition off, and immediately hops out. I shake my head as I pull the visor down and make sure that my cherry red lipstick isn’t on my teeth. My makeup is fine. Everything is fine. Jules insisted that I dress up as nicely as I could so I decided to go with this outfit. And I guess with dressing nicely, you have to apply makeup to that. I definitely needed foundation to cover the scratches that are all over my face. He says that I look smashing and, for once, I agree. He swings my door open and I take the first step out in my black stiletto. He eyes my bare legs with a grin. “Delicious.” His eyes scan me seductively as he grips my hand.
The heat rushes to my cheeks as I look at him beneath my eyelashes. The thing that confuses me about Jules is that he didn’t bother to change clothes. He has the same outfit on from earlier. You would think that he would try to get fancy, too, but he didn’t bother. He leads me toward a restaurant that seems extremely expensive, especially by the soft gold lighting and the people in their nice dresses, suits, and jewelry. Most of the men are dressed in high-dime suits and most of the women are dressed in dresses that look as nice and as expensive as mine. Jules didn’t have a problem buying it. He said that it looked too great on me to pass on.
“Jules, are you sure about this place?” I ask as he continues to lead the way forward. He isn’t dressed to fit in at all.
“Not my choice,” he mutters.
“What do you mean?”
Ignore me, he swings the door open and escorts me in. I eye him as I step in, growing more and more suspicious about his behavior by the second. The man behind the host stand watches us as we pass by the long line of waiting people. He preps his mouth to speak and stop Jules but changes his mind as Jules glares at him threateningly.
We march through the restaurant and some of the people stare at us like we’re garbage—especially Jules. He looks at each of them as he passes by until we reach a set of double doors that are ahead.
“Jules, where are you taking me?” I ask impatiently. He’s acting out of character and this kind of restaurant isn’t one that he would have chosen. But as soon as the doors swing open, I gasp from the stunning scenery.
The room is dim but lit with soft gold lighting. An aisle is made of fluorescent white bulbs and at the end of the aisle is a table covered in a white table cloth, red rose petals, and two tall red candles that look like they’ve just been lit. The room smells like sweet vanilla and it has a really warm feeling to it. Jules stops abruptly and pulls me to his side but what I pay attention to most is the man standing beside one of the chairs of the romantic table with his fingers folded in front of him. He didn’t get a scar on him from the fight. His face is perfect, still chiseled in a way that only a professional artist could get right. He smiles lightly, his hazel eyes softening with mine. He takes a step forward in his black three-piece suit. His hair is pushed back (like usual) but he looks . . . magnificent.
“Hello, Alexandria,” Felix says, grinning.
“Felix,” I breathe, still disbelieving that it’s him. I turn to face Jules who has his lips pressed together. “Jules, you set this up with him?”
“Yeah,” he sighs. “I did. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t want to at all—I refused his offer at first—but I figured you could get a few hours with him before we take off tomorrow. I know you’ve wanted to. Remember, I can feel you.” He smiles wryly as he turns to face me.
“But I thought that this was going to be our night.”
“We have plenty of nights ahead of us, Alexandria.” I nod then he turns to face Felix again. “She’s all yours. Just have her home before ten, please.” Jules lifts my hand as Felix meets up to us. Felix grabs onto the hand that Jules offers gently but his eyes remain glued on me. And I have no choice but to keep my eyes glued on him.
“That won’t be a problem,” Felix murmurs, his soft hazel eyes still staring into mine. He finally finds the will to tear his gaze away and give Jules some sort of attention. “Thank you—for this.”
“No thanks needed. Just tell her everything, like you’d promised.”
“Everything like what?” I ask, turning to look at Jules.
Jules shakes his head. “I’ll leave that to him. Enjoy your night, Alexandria. I’ll see you when you arrive home.” He forces a smile. He eyes Felix then me again before turning around and making his way out of the double doors.
I turn to look at Felix again. “What is there to tell me?”
“Lots of things,” he sighs. “Come, let’s get comfortable.” He leads the way to the table, my hand still in his, until he pulls my chair out for me to sit. “Can I tell you something else?” he asks, helping me slide out of my peat-coat. After he helps me, he slips out of his suit-jacket and places it on the back of his chair.
“Sure.”
“I never knew that you could look any more stunning than what you already are . . . until now.”
I smile softly, my cheeks sparking with heat as I look away from him to the white table cloth and soft rose petals. “Thank you, Felix.” I glance around at the lighting again then at the butlers standing in the corners. “Is this supposed to be a date or something?”
“Could be. I’m glad that Jules actually agreed to it. I have lots to tell you,” he says, sitting in his seat. “I’m also glad that I had the restraint to not take you in my arms and kiss you while he was standing there. That would have been a brutal battle, huh?” he chuckles.
“Felix.” I shake my head, not taking his joke lightly. “Jules and I are more than what we were before. You know that, right?”
“Of course I know that. But he’s given me one more chance to see if you will change your mind—to see if you really want this dramatic change that will be happening in only seven hours,” he says, checking his watch with a frown. I exchange a frown as he flicks his wrist and opens his menu. “What would you like to drink?” he asks.
“What do you mean see if I will change my mind? Why would I change my mind? I told Jules that I want this.”
He groans lightly. “Let’s not get into this right now, Alexandria, please. Let’s at least eat first.”
“I’m not very hungry,” I say stubbornly.
He narrows his eyes. “Alexandria, can we not cherish this moment? It took me hours to have this set up and it cost me a load to rent this room. I don’t mind paying it but please, be grateful.” He looks me over with hard hazel eyes but I shake my head. I really want to know and I’m not waiting until the end of dinner to find out.
“Felix, I think it would be better to let the bad news out first so we can enjoy the rest of our dinner afterwards. Tell me why I’m really here because I know for sure that Jules would never hand me over to you unless he has something up his sleeve. Spill it,” I demand.
“Fine,” he says, sl
amming his menu down and causing the table to shake. “Since you want to know so badly, he wants me to tell you stay here. He’s afraid to take you to London so soon because he doesn’t want you to be bothered by the Leaders or to go through with the training just yet. We both know that you aren’t ready for that. It’s not easy, Alexandria. And I’m not exactly sure what you’re trying to escape or run from but I want you to know now that it will be ten times worse in London than it is here.” He glares at me and he doesn’t bother to remove his eyes from mine. They’re glued.
“Wh—why couldn’t he tell me this himself?”
“Because he doesn’t like to hurt you, Alexandria. And because I know more than he does about this.”
“But how? He’s from London,” I point out. “You’re not.”
“I’m not, but I travel there a lot to know what is going on. I went a few weeks ago and things with the Leaders and the Guardians aren’t pretty right now.” He sighs, sitting back in his chair.
“Well, I don’t care,” I say, reaching for my menu and opening it. “I don’t want to be here anymore.”
He shakes his head with a bitter smile. “I knew we wouldn’t be able to get past the stubborn Alexandria.” He stands and makes his way beside me. He lowers himself to a crouch as he grips onto my hand. “I have to tell you something, but promise me that you won’t tell Jules.”
I nod quickly with a heavy gulp. “Okay.”
He continues to stare into my eyes, building my anticipation and my concern. He turns his head to take a glance at the butlers in the corner who are rolling silverware. “When I—” His mouth snaps shut as he realizes how loud he is. “When I killed Braxton,” he whispers, making sure that he can’t be heard by anyone else but me. “That wasn’t the end of everything.”
I gasp, lowering my head. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that there were a few Hellions that had escaped. They knew we were coming and they took my father away from the castle. I tried to get back as quickly as possible but the place was dry. There was no sign of them. I searched everywhere, Alexandria.”
OBTAINED (Book One) Page 27