Heart of Stone (Parts I & II)

II. Chapter 15 | Part 2 - Aubree

Gwen clucked her tongue. "Yeah, that probably would have avoided the whole thing, but oh well. Nothing you can do now."

Aubree nodded as she raised her gaze to meet Gwen's. Gwen's eyes were fixed on the hallway the pair had disappeared down before flicking to Aubree's a split second later. "Don't be too hard on Papa. He was acting on instinct."

Aubree tried replaying the scene from Stone's perspective, and although he acted brashly, she could understand where he was coming from. Still, he didn't need to pin Alistair against the wall with so much force.

Gunner sat down on the sofa across from them. Even with clothes on, Aubree had a hard time looking at him without feeling uncomfortable. He was built like a tank. She couldn't wrap her head around it.

Sighing, Gwen pulled herself up from the couch, but stopped and looked over her shoulder. Her eyes locked with Gunner's in a silent exchange before she lowered herself back down on the couch and huffed. She clenched and unclenched her jaw for a minute before relaxing.

Aubree raised a questioning eyebrow.

Gwen sighed, brushing her hair back from her face and looking away. "I hate seeing him like this... Mentally beating himself up..."

"It's between him and Alistair," Gunner said in his deep baritone voice.

"I know," Gwen muttered.

Aubree swallowed, her heart clenching. "Maybe I should go—"

"He doesn't want to see you right now," Gunner said.

Aubree flinched at his words.

Gwen glared at him. "What he means is, Papa's too upset right now. He doesn't want you to see him like this. He needs a minute."

"That's what I said," Gunner said.

"No, that's what she said," came Alistair's voice before he turned around the corner and entered the living room. He turned to Aubree with a hopeful grin. "Did I get it right?"

Relief fluttered over Aubree at the sight of him and hearing him crack a joke. She smiled weakly at the dark-haired man. "Yeah, that's how the joke goes."

He threw his head back and laughed. He walked up behind the couch Aubree and Gwen were sitting on and draped his arms over it in the space between them. He grinned at Aubree, despite the worried look she had on her face when she saw him.

"Is everything okay?"

"Don't you worry, sugarplum. I'm fine. Not a scratch on me. And that puppy in there is fine too. He'll come out when he's ready."

"Excuse me, did you call me a puppy?" came Stone's voice as he walked into the living room.

Aubree's heart leaped when she saw him and his face, blank of all emotion. She knew that face. That mask. He was shielding himself. While she understood, she still didn't like it, nor the fact that he avoided meeting her gaze. It made her nervous.

"Hey, we should head out and give these two lovebirds a moment, ja?" Alistair suggested to Gwen and Gunner.

The pair nodded and went outside. Alistair followed them and winked at Aubree before closing the door.

Aubree lowered her gaze to her clammy hands in her lap, her heart beating hard, and her mouth full of cotton. Behind her, Stone shuffled into the kitchen where she heard ice being dispensed into a glass followed by water. She looked over her shoulder, but could not see him.

A rope wound around her heart and tugged her toward him in the kitchen, growing tighter the more she resisted the pull.

Brushing the loose strands of hair from her face, she took a deep breath and stood up, smoothing out the hem of her shirt over her jeans. The bruises on her hips were still tender, but she was tired of holding ice packs to them. She supposed she should reapply them again and get over the freezing cold bite.

Treading softly into the kitchen, she caught Stone downing the last of the water in his glass before refilling it. Ignoring her entrance, he moved over to the sliding glass door and gazed out with a faraway look in his eyes.

Heaving a sigh, she fetched the plastic bag sitting in the sink that she had been using before, dumped it of its melting ice, and went to refill it. After wrapping it in a cloth, she sat down at the table and pressed it to her left hip. She felt his eyes on her as she moved to the table and a low rumble emitted from his throat.

"It's fine," she assured him. "The cold is bothering me more than the pain from the bruises."

He didn't say anything. He didn't move. He stood there with the glass in hand, facing the window with the occasional fleeting glance at Aubree from the corner of his eye.

After a few minutes, she heaved a sigh. She stood up from the table and set the bag of ice on top before turning to him. "Tell me what happened back there. Tell me what you're thinking. Just... Say something."

"What do you want me to say?" His gaze fixed on something outside.

She folded her arms across her chest. "I don't care what you say, just talk to me."

"I don't know what to say."

She groaned in exasperation. "Why are you making this so complicated?"

He turned and barked, "Because I—" and cut himself off. Biting his lip, his face turned the deepest shade of red she had ever seen on him before he turned away. It wasn't an angry red, but rather a red of embarrassment.

"Stone?" She reached out and took his glass of water from him and set it on the table before returning to his side. Resting her hand on his arm, she asked, "Because you, what?"

He swallowed. "I have to protect you."

"Protect me?" she repeated. "Is that all?"

Even though she wanted to stay calm, her voice was raising and she couldn't help it. She didn't want to spend her life being locked up in a house, escorted around the city whenever she pleased, and needing a constant babysitter. She wanted more than that from him. She needed more than that from him. There had to be more than that.

"Is that all you want to do for the rest of my life?" she demanded, withdrawing her hand from his arm. "Because that's not good enough for me. I don't want—"

"But I want that," he shot back. Anger and pain laced his words and twisted his face in a grimace. "You don't understand how much it will kill me if something should happen to you."

He looked away, his Adam's apple bobbed up and down in his throat as his nostrils flared.

"I will die someday, Stone." Her voice softened. "I can't prevent that. I do want to live every day of my life to the fullest. And while I can understand your need to keep me safe from harm, it doesn't matter how much you try to protect me, I will die one day."

He jerked his head back toward her. His eyes ablaze. "I know that!" he snapped. "Don't you think that's always on my mind too?"

Her heart was racing as he bit back his anger, balling his hands into fists at his side as he inhaled a shuddering breath. She took a deep breath as well and released it the same time he did, his fists relaxing at his side. He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to the sliding glass door.

"While I do worry about your well-being in the present," he said in a low, gravelly voice, "the truth is that I'm scared of the future. Not including the vampires... I'm scared... of watching you grow old. I'm scared of seeing your body deteriorate, becoming weak, brittle, and even more fragile than it is now. I'm scared of your mind slipping away and you waking up one morning and not recognizing me. And I'm even more scared of you not waking up at all..."

She cupped his scruffy cheek in the palm of her hand as her heart overflowed with emotions. He reached up to cradle her hand with his as he drew his pain-filled gaze down to hers. "I'm scared of that too, but that's far into the future. Right now, I'm here, I'm alive, and I'm with you." She swallowed. "And I'm going to cherish every moment of it."

---- AUTHOR'S NOTE ----

Bloopers for this chapter are up in "Bonus Biscuits."

Dedicated to Stellaluna1129 

*Copyright Jo Lee Hunt (Joflower) 2016*