Suddenly, she found herself reminded of all the time she had spent with her ex-boyfriend and mentor, Marcus Cruz. She remembered the time she had run across him on the street as no more than a child. She was sixteen when she had first met him and had trusted him wholeheartedly to take her in. He had given her shelter, food, clothes, and compassion while everyone else had simply ran in terror. Despite the fact he was her mentor and protector, he was at one point her lover as well. Around the age of 20, she realized that the love she had with Marcus wasn’t her destiny. Her love for Marcus was simply strong friendship rather than a romantic relationship. She knew now where she always seemed to go when the rest of her world was falling out around her; the one person who would always be there for her, no matter what others thought.

“I have to see Marcus.” She mumbled to herself, shivering from the cold winter breeze as she stood up from the freezing metal bench.

She began walking down the cold, wet street and approached a familiar brick building. The lights were off, but she knew that Marcus would still be awake. She came to the door and pressed the buzzer. Once. Then, twice. The rain slowly stopped, leaving her utterly soaked. This caused her makeup to smear more than it already was. She took a deep breath and waited for a moment. The cold wind ripped through Winnie’s dress. She feared hypothermia might overcome her. She wrapped her arms around herself and heard a familiar, husky voice on the other end of the speaker.

“It had better be important."

“I-It’s Winnie,” she stammered. She brushed her icy hands over her face, trying to look somewhat presentable and knowing it wasn’t possible right now. There was a beep and the door instantly opened. She walked through and up the stairs. When she got to the hall, a towering man stood in the doorway to greet her. He took in her appearance, put his arm around her, and led her inside without a word. They walked to the velvet couch and she sat down, pulling a fleece, mink blanket around her frigid body.

“You want a drink, kitten?” Marcus asked, eying her. She nodded slowly and he snapped his fingers. Green mist swirled slowly out of his wiggling fingers until the shape of a porcelain mug was formed. He looked down to his hands and handed her a hot chocolate with an alcoholic kick. She drank it too quickly and was pleased when it refilled itself. She looked at Marcus for a moment and turned her gaze back down to the floor. Marcus sat beside her and squeezed her hand.

“Is it Daniel?” She nodded in reply and felt her eyes stinging with tears again. Marcus grimaced. “He’s an ass. You want to talk about it?” He asked as he pulled her close to him to attempt to warm her up. She shook her head and opened her mouth as if to say something, but closed it again.

“You were right, Marcus. He’s nothing but an experiment, you know. He has to be with other women to keep his species going. I just-” she took a deep breath and felt Marcus squeeze her hand again as her words faltered. “I just can’t stay with him knowing that. And, of course, I’ve known for a while, but I finally broke it off. I just- I didn’t know where else to go. I’m sorr-” Marcus shook his head.

“No, no, no, kitten. No need to apologize. You know you are always welcome here. I’m sorry about him. He didn’t deserve you. But you need to remember that once you make the decision to move on, you can’t choose to look back. Your destiny won’t be found in a rear view mirror. You have to keep moving forward and you have to fight.”

His words spoke to her heart. She shifted closer to him, looked up at his face, and took in his overall comforting presence. His golden brown eyes were enhanced by the lighting. His curly, brown hair stopped just above his shoulders. She always seemed to find herself crying on Marcus’ shoulder.

“You’re such a good person,” she mumbled through her tears. He laughed at that.

“I’m anything but.” He put his gentle arm around her and joined her under the warm blanket like they had so many times before. He was her best friend long before he was her boyfriend and she loved their friendship. He was always here for her.

Resting her cold face in the crook of his neck, she shivered. He always seemed to be naturally warm-blooded. She remembered the hours spent cuddling with him, in this very same living room even. She could feel his breath flow past her cheek and the familiar scent of Marcus wafted up her nose.

“I love you more than anyone, you know that right?” she whispered into his neck. Marcus gazed at her with his loving eyes.

“As do I, Winnie,” he said as he slid a piece of wet hair behind her ear. After looking at him for a hard minute, Winnie leaned in and kissed him slowly him on the lips. He had extraordinarily soft lips, like always, but his facial hair had started to grow out a bit and tickled her lips. He responded willingly and she continued kissing him harder and more longingly. He moved one hand to her waist and the other behind her head. He intertwined his fingers in her damp hair and deepened the kiss. Her hands slid up his shirt to feel his abs. The kiss turned sloppy and their tongues started to clash. As if a bucket of ice water was dumped on him, Marcus quickly pulled away.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” He asked furrowing his brows and looking at her with question. “I don’t want you to regret any of this in the morning.” Winnie moved to straddle him.

“I’m sure. I need you right now.” She looked at him longingly and leaned down to kiss his neck. He moaned softly into the air and continued to kiss her harder than before. His hand brushed over her face and he thought it felt wet. He willed himself to pull away once again and lift her face. Her breath was ragged, even more so than what this situation could cause, and he knew it. He wiped her cheeks and she opened her eyes. She was, indeed, crying. He looked at her with concerned, golden-brown eyes. She shook her head and wiped her face. She then intertwined her fingers in his messy hair and pulled him back to the kiss once more.

They ended up in the bedroom upstairs on Marcus’ queen size bed with their clothes hurled around the room. Over an hour passes of their bodies intertwining in several positions. The air was hot and sweat crept down Winnie’s forehead. She lie next to Marcus and put her head on his chest to feel his heart beating.

“Are you okay?” he asked her softly, worried.

“Physically? I mean I’ve had worse,” she joked, smirking up at him. His only reply was the continued focusing of his golden-brown eyes at her, so she added, “I’ll be fine. Thanks.” She leaned up and pressed a chaste kiss to his cheek. He smiled softly and pulled more of the blankets up around her naked body. She yawned and felt her eye droop. Exhaustion was finally catching up with her. She laid her head on his bare chest and was soothed to sleep by his steady heartbeat.

Marcus looked down at Winnie, the girl he had taken in years ago, who had easily become one of his best friends and saw him as a mentor. He looked at her face that had always been there to pick him up when he had needed it. He had seen her challenged with many difficulties in her life: being abandoned by her family, friends, the world. She had been shunned similarly to how he had been.

She looked so exhausted, not like she needed more sleep, but simply she was exhausted of life. She had gotten to the age where she was starting to come to terms with how hard being immortal really was. After being alive so long, one begins to stop feeling. Marcus hoped that she would not reach that extreme, but it was coming. She had gone through the period of her life where she screwed around, partied, and tried so hard to feel something. She had been through the drug and alcohol phase. Anything she could think of to help, she had tried. Marcus attempted to be there for her the whole time. Although, when Daniel came around, Marcus noticed that she was definitely feeling something. It may have been confusion, hatred, love, anger and so much sadness, but she was feeling.

Now that he thought about it, that may have been the reason she unconsciously put herself through the hell that was her relationship with Daniel. They had gone through their fair share of breakups; she had been hurt and angry over every last one. This one, though, seemed to be different, the end. This caused Marcus to be both grateful and worried that their cycle of hell was over. He was far from happy that Winnie had been so repeatedly pained by the same person, of whom she claimed was her true love. But he was thrilled to think that she wouldn’t go back. Marcus wondered how this would affect Winnie later on. It was simply the concern that once your heart was burnt, torn, and beaten repeatedly for so long by the one you love more than anything, it becomes extremely hard to give your heart away and to let others in.

He brushed his hand gently over her peaceful face, feeling the warmth of her soft skin. He loved this woman so much and he could discern how troubled she had been lately. She had kept commenting more and more about Daniel’s lifestyle. Marcus had seen this day coming for a while. He had been watching and waiting for them to end it due to Daniel being a complete jerk, but he did not tell Winnie that. He thought she deserved better. She had always been easily susceptible to anxiety attacks and depression. She tried to keep up the facade that nothing ever hurt her, but when it got down to it, she was just scared of what would happen tomorrow. Marcus had quickly learned to read her emotions and body language. He could tell she had been through hell and at some point, she would tell him more about it. He sighed as he closed his own eyes and lulled his brain to stop rambling about so he could fall asleep.