With a sharp inhale, Lord Nikolus removed his hand from his pants' pocket and pushed it through his short chestnut hair. He placed himself in front of her, surprising Celestiana, and searched her features. She avoided looking at him.
"I didn't mean to upset you," he blurted out. Grabbing her attention, their eyes locked. Again, she could perceive the truth in every word of his statement.
She peeked at Elliot. Given his confused expression, she realised he couldn't hear them. Nikolus must have cast the voice blocking spell around them, she noted to herself.
She tried to sense his magic, what her father and the Lord himself had advised her to always check, but she failed to pick any essence of the power.
"I-" he began but stopped, his body tensing as if voicing the following words were hurting him physically. He surveyed the mountains and rocky hills, avoiding her.
A faint smile threatened to spill on her face. He wanted to apologise to her. She bit her bottom lip as she recalled him once mentioning that he has never thanked nor apologised to anyone in his long span of life.
"Vampires are short-tempered?" she mused, her hazel eyes glinting with amusement and shifting to bright greenish-blue.
"Yes," he exclaimed, his muscles visibly relaxing.
"And they always do stupid things," she included.
He opened his mouth to agree but paused and drew his brows together, "No," he shook his head. Celestiana gave him a pointed glance, and he rolled his eyes, "Some times, some of them," he stated.
She pressed her full lips into a thin line, and glared at him for a moment, and continued, "You regret what you did?" she prompted.
"No, I don't," he snapped and to her dismay, he wasn't lying. He admitted, "but I do regret hurting you,"
"Please don't do it again," she requested, looking into his eyes.
He sighed, "I'll try to have better control if it ever happened," he promised and took a step back. "But you'll be leaving for the Liberty Kingdom at dawn," he reminded her.
She understood what he meant; they might never see each other after today. A pang of pain shot through her heart. In the past months, she had grown close to him. In fact, she counted him as her first and only supernatural friend.
"I guess we should get going," Elliot announced, drawing Celestiana's attention to himself. The Lord had dropped the shield. She nodded.
Elliot straightened himself as he walked to Celest, grasped her hand, and tugged her to move.
She wiggled out of his hold and faced Lord Nikolus. "What about my family?" she asked. The question had been bugging her from the very first moment, igniting apprehension she no longer could avoid. She decided to voice her concern to him, and continued, "What if they find ou-"
But he didn't give her the chance to finish her sentence, "If they find out. I'll preclude that from happening," he assured her with ease.
"But how? You can't distract the whole vampire team as well as my mum, who's been trying to track me ever since she found out. It's impossible," she fretted.
"Nothing's impossible," he stated with a small smile. He locked his emerald green eyes with her hazel's, leaning slightly towards her. She tilted her head to observe his features. "Do you trust me, Celest?" he queried.
"Yes. More than anyone," she replied without a second of hesitation.
The corners of his mouth lifted upward upon hearing her answer. He took Celestiana's hands in his large ones, giving them a gentle yet reassuring squeeze. "I will have everything under control. I promise to prevent your family from discovering your whereabouts. And I swear on Goddess Vitaria to keep them safe, no matter the cost. All you need to do is take care of yourself. Don't worry about anything else," his deep voice lulled her jittering nerves. Ease washed through her body as she held his gaze. Memorising every detail of his magical eyes.
"You should leave now," he advised her softly.
The calmness offered just by gazing into his eyes that seemed to have a life of their own. The sense of his warm hands engulfing hers. All too pleasant to let go.
She knew she would miss him dearly. In the course of five months, he'd become her anchor. The only person who kept her company and checked on her well being every day. Treated her not as a monstrous Primous from a witch's descent, but rather a lone girl, dragged into a mess she never asked for. She had gotten used to his odd behaviour and had begun enjoying it too.
Celestiana pulled her hand out of his grasp and wrapped her arms with all her might around his waist in a tight embrace. She pressed her cheek to his chest, felt him hesitate before raising his hands. They hovered in midair, as if he didn't know where to place them. After a moment, he gently settled one around her shoulder and rested the other on the small of her back.
Celestiana closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, filling her senses with his woody scent. She held onto him for a little longer before pulling away.
They bid their farewell, Elliot intertwined his fingers with hers and they set off towards the human base city.
As the distance grew between them, Celestiana glanced behind her. Finding Lord Nikolus leaning to the hood of his car, arms crossed in front of his chest and eyes fixed on them. Or maybe herself? She couldn't tell.
But in that instant, every magical cell in her body began producing uneasiness. As if she was making one of her biggest mistakes. The senses provided by her powers were never wrong; she was sure of that. But yet, the promise of having a future with her love, Elliot, made her turn a blind eye to it and pushed it aside.
Celestiana hoped she wouldn't regret it later.
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