Bonded by Blood

T H I R T Y T H R E E

I accepted the paper and pencils, feeling a glimmer of gratitude within me. "Okay." There was something remarkably soothing about the weight of the art supplies in my hands, a tangible escape from the physical discomfort I was currently feeling.

"You can draw anything you want." Nikolai encouraged, grabbing some pencils for himself.

"Anything I want?" I repeated in growing excitement as the surface of the paper invited me to create, to pour my emotions out onto the blank canvas.

"Anything you want." He reassured.

With a steady hand and an unfettered heart, I began to sketch, to weave together fragments of my mind onto the welcoming canvas. The pencils danced across the page, leaving trails of color in their wake. With each stroke, I felt the weight of my emotions lightening, the pain in my feet gradually fading into the background, replaced by the sheer joy of drawing something I had recently seen in my dream.

"What's that?" Nikolai moved closer towards me to examine my drawing even further.

"It's a drawing of a wolf I remember seeing in my dream." I watched as he keenly observed the drawing. "It was huge and it had thick white fur that looked like diamonds."

Nikolai's cheeks began to turn into a shade of rosy pink, causing him to turn away from me in pure bashfulness. "You must've been scared."

"No-I, I wasn't. It was the most beautiful wolf I've ever seen in my life." I whisper, causing him to turn back to face me with a slightly relieved expression.

Suddenly, a sense of realization had came over me the moment our eyes interlocked. Nikolai's eyes had the same distinct hue that the wolf in my dream had, and it made all of my suspicions hard to ignore.

For years I thought of vampires and werewolves to be nothing more of primitive fantasy, relics of the media as well as bygone religions that all coalesced as a product of an overactive imagination. But upon remembering Dydan's confession at Cloud Lake as well as the eyes that the wolf possessed being all too similar to Nikolai's, I knew without a doubt that I may have just unconsciously immersed myself into the world of vampires and werewolves.

"Wait, that wasn't a dream." I spoke out as he watched my process the truth. "It was you, wasn't it? You're the wolf that saved me!?"

He takes in my look of realization before talking once more. "Is it all starting to make sense to you now?"

I nervously gulped before slowly nodding. "Yeah, I suppose." I aimlessly looked down trying to process it all. "I-I just would've never thought."

"Are you scared now?" He asked, carefully examining for my impending reaction.

"N-No, not really. I'm more so shocked about the fact that I grew up in this town and yet I didn't even know half of its secrets." I nervously laughed. "Thanks for not killing me that night." I added in a tone of relief.

"Some things are best kept as secrets so just as long as you keep your mouth shut about all of this then I wouldn't have a reason to." He winked with dry humor, catching me off guard as inexplicable heat quickly rushed to my cheeks. "And besides, I could say the same thing to you. I was expecting you to wake up all paranoid-trying to kill me or something." We both lightly laughed at that.

It was the first time I've ever seen Nikolai laugh and it was a great alternative from his usually cold and grumpy mood. "Considering how good I slept, I can assure you that was the last thing on my mind."

"Oh yeah? Is that so?" He ran his hands through his thick blonde hair, continuing to talk with his dry humor.

"Yeah." I reassured with a growing smirk. "You have a nice doggy bed." I teased shortly after.