Scented

Chapter Seventeen

This will probably be posted in a couple months from now but as I'm writing this note school is starting in two days and I still have half a novel to read, two essays to write, 30 more science questions to answer, and a lab to complete.

And yet I am doing this.

This is how to procrastinate and neglect responsibilities 101.

Unedited

~*~

Zev ate four bowls of cereal that morning. Roman, six. Alexandra ate nothing at all.

Her cereal sat in front of her untouched. She couldn't think about eating when all that was on her mind was Roman's offer. Six more days until he left, until she could leave. What about Zev? She'd be leaving him too. She'd be abandoning him. Though his ideas of love still seemed twisted to her, all he's ever done was care for her. Alexandra was drowning in her thoughts.

With her spoon, she pushed the pieces of cereal into the milk until they were completely submerged. She languidly swirled her spoon.

"Are you gonna eat that? It'll get soggy and go to waste if you don't," Roman said.

"Then don't let it." Alexandra slid the cereal across the counter. "Here. You eat it."

Roman veraciously ate.

Though Zev instinctively wanted to make Alexandra eat something, he decided against it. He knew how stubborn she'd get. He cleared his throat and asked, "Do you still want to see the interpreter today, Alexandra?"

Though the vivid and realistic images were burned in her memory, Alexandra wanted to forget all about her dream. She wanted to brush it off as a moment of insanity. After all, she was a victim of a kidnapping.

"It's okay I already forgot what my dream was about," she fibbed.

Zev knew she was lying. He didn't need to see if she couldn't look him in the eyes. He didn't need to hear for any variations in the pitch of her voice. As her mate, Zev just knew he was being lied to. "Okay, that's alright," he replied as he stood up from his seat. "I'm headed to the village today." Zev dismally sighed. "Homes were destroyed and so many of our people were killed."

"My condolences," said Alexandra. Our people, he said. Our people.

"Vampires," Roman scoffed. "Sick, bloody bastards." He pushed away the half eaten bowl of cereal, his appetite suddenly vanishing.

Zev headed to the front door only to look back towards Alexandra and ask, "Do you want to go with me?"

Taken aback, she carefully replied, "I don't want to intrude. Besides, I don't think anyone from your...pack-"

"Family."

"-family wants to see any more outsiders for at least a little while."

Zev nodded. He wasn't expecting any other answer but he was sincerely hoping for a different one. "I'll be back before dusk." With that and without shoes, Zev exited the house and made his was towards the broken village.

Roman and Alexandra were left sitting in silence for a moment.

Family? She felt pain for Zev's loss, but what about her family? The one she was taken away from?  And her and Zev didn't share people. She had people; she had the rest of the hunters. She had her father and her best friend.

Her heart ached.

She didn't want to cause Zev any more pain, heavens knew he'd been through hell, but how does that make the pain he's caused her condonable? She wanted to see her family, to stop her pain, one that she was continually being reminded about.

"I'll go."

Knowing what he heard, but wanting to see if she was absolutely sure, Roman asked, "What did you say, Al?"

"I'll go with you," she reiterated. "I'll leave with you. You'll take me back home."

"Bossy," Roman snickered, his mood changing. He retrieved the bowl of cereal and continued eating. "I like it. Alright, well I don't leave for another six days-"

"Why can't we leave now?"

Roman curiously stared at her. "Why so eager?" He questioned back.

"Because I miss home. Your turn to answer."

"Why are you just now missing home? You didn't exactly jump at my offer the first time 'round."

"Because... I don't know. I'm getting homesick. Maybe I'm only now comprehending my kidnapping. Your turn," Alexandra huffed.

"Was it something Zev said? Did something happen that made you change your mind?"

Alexandra shot up from her seat and smacked one palm on the table. "Dammit, Roman enough questions and more answers! Jeez, if anyone changed their mind it was you! I thought you wanted me gone!"

Roman raised both hands as a gesture of his surrender. He sighed, "I dunno. I mean, I know. I know that I wanted you gone the first second I saw you. Not dead or anything, but just out of Zev's life."

Alexandra defensively crossed her arms. "Why's that?"

"Because you human. At least I think you are."

Alexandra refused to acknowledge that comment.

"I thought that it wasn't right what Zev did. He brought a human, not to mention a hunter, into his home and introduced you, a hunter, to the family. Who does that?"

"I can't help that I was born into a family of hunters."

"Yeah, well none of us can help being born infected sons of bitches."

An uncomfortable silence smothered them until Roman calmly added, "I didn't think it was right until I saw how much he cares about you--and I say cares because I know you'd freak out at the word love. This idiot would die for you."

Alexandra needed Roman to stop talking.

"You still haven't answered me. Why can't we leave tonight?"

Roman stood up from his seat and sauntered over to the sink with the ceramic bowl in his hand.

"Actually," he began as he turned the water on and cleaned the bowl, "we can. I said a week because I wanted you to think about the offer, and now you have."

Roman dried his hand, walked into the other room, fell back onto the couch, and loudly inhaled and slowly exhaled. Alexandra followed, omitting the theatrics.

"Have you ever felt anything for him at all?" He asked.

Alexandra nervously chewed the inside corner of her mouth. "I...don't know," she answered. "I think there's a part of me that has grown to respect him. I believe he's a good and caring person."

"But have you felt anything? Any emotions? Not just respect?"

She locked and unlocked, intertwined and untangled her fingers over and over again. "I don't know. Maybe? I think so..." Not wanting to dive into the conversation any deeper, she jokingly added, "Maybe he should've kidnapped me after a first date. At least I would've known him as a normal person for a short while rather than my kidnapper."

Roman weakly chuckled. "Yeah, a normal person."

~*~

I chose writing over sleep, but then again, that's what the weekends are for: sleep.