𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐏𝐚𝐬𝐭

T H I R T Y - E I G H T

Perez and I stopped dancing to see Nicandro standing with both hands in his stuffed in his pockets. Perez let go his hands from my waist and I let go mine from his shoulders. Our eyes met for a brief second before my eyes wandered around the ballroom and I can see many pairs of eyes on us.

"She's all yours, cousin." Perez said and walked away, but I could hear a little venom in both their voices when they were exchanging words.

Nicandro gave me a small smile, "Shall we?"

"We shall." I replied him and I put my hands on his shoulders while he put his hands on my waist.

When Nicandro did that, it didn't felt awkward like when Perez did it. I'm well aware that probably everyone in the ballroom is staring at us including his grandfather and parents but I did not look elsewhere but what's in front of me. Both of us try to follow each other's footsteps and came into the same rhythm within a minute of dancing and I had thankfully also managed not to step on his shoe.

I broke the silence, "Did you lie to me about the guy who tried to kill me in Palencia actually tried to kill you?"

He frowned, "No, why would I lie to you?"

"N-yeah, never mind." I shook my head.

"Why do you ask that?" I can feel him trying to decipher the look on my face.

"It's something about Louis, the guy that talked to me when I was captured didn't even know I was in Palencia."

His body tensed a little, "That means someone else is after you."

"Yeah, but it's because I was digging around in the wrong places the fast few weeks and probably upset someone I shouldn't mess with."

"Alveanea, that's-"

"No, I'm done. All I want is find out what happened to my parents which I did, and now I have a shot at a normal life so no, I don't want to find out who that guy was working for."

He stayed quiet for a few seconds before nodding his head, "Okay."

"You were right." I changed the topic.

He raised his eyebrows, "About what?"

"I'm a scorpio."

He smiled which leaves his dimples showing, "When's your birthday?"

"Thirty first October." I replied.

"On Halloween." He stated.

"I don't think it was coincidental, I love anything horror."

I found out my birthday yesterday when it was needed to fill in the forms for the schools I'm possibly going to so I asked Peter to track down Anton's phone number. The time when I met Anton my brain was too occupied as I had just found out my parents were drug dealers that I hadn't thought about the question I was wondering about my whole life until Nicandro and I had a conversation about birthdays back in Palencia.

I heard him suck in a breath before asking, "Did Perez... say anything to you?"

"About you?"

"Yeah."

"He was just curious about what makes me more 'special' than the other girls since you've never taken them on a date to a party before."

"I see." I could sense some uneasiness in his voice.

"I can tell he's not your favourite person."

Nicandro pursed his lips into a straight line before saying, "No, but his little brother, Pascul is."