Frost's Touch (Book One of the Eternal Warmth Trilogy)

XXXIX. The Secret's Out

  “What else?” Jack urged, wanting to know the rest as he stroked Iana’s soft hair and held her close to him.

  “When they touched, it was like they melted into each other. You couldn’t tell them apart. But, there was this little black part of your soul, and when it touched mine, it was gone, it disappeared.”

And when they combine their fleeting hearts,

For eternity they will never split apart.

  These words froze Jack’s being. They were connected, their souls finally were together. Is that why he felt closer to her? Why he sort of felt what she was feeling. Was it the other way around too?

  Then Jack knew that he needed to tell her.

  “Um, Iana,” Jack hesitated, “there’s something that I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

  Iana smiled, and kissed Jack again, surprising him.  He took that as the go ahead to tell her.

  “You said that our souls, kind of intertwined each other together?”

   She nodded.

  “Well, when Lillian cursed me, her curse said that once the bearer of my soul combined her soul with mine, we would be with each other for eternity, do you know what that means?” Jack asked. Iana shook her head, and Jack breathed, preparing for the onslaught he was about to receive. “It means that we are both immortal beings now. When it said that we would be together for eternity, it literally meant that we would be.”

  Iana did not move, speak, or look at Jack, and he was afraid that she’d gone into shock. His question was answered when Iana breathed shakily and looked up at him.

  “Just,” she said, “let me lay with you. I need to think.”

  And so they did. Jack pulled Iana onto his chest and fell against the bed.

  “I’m sorry,” Cindy whispered. She was sitting on the loveseat in Tyler’s living room, while he stood with his arms crossed over his broad chest, looking so much like his great to the nth grandfather.

  “You didn’t think to tell me?” Tyler asked calmly, but Cindy knew better. Because in his eyes, was the rage of her not telling him.

  “I was afraid to tell you. When I fell for you, I thought that if I told you, you would tell me to leave and never come back.”

  Tyler’s blue eyes narrowed down at Cindy, and her mind flashed to more than four hundred years ago, when she was the apprentice of a warlock that lived to serve the king of Romania, Klaus Straventiano. Tyler is a direct descendant of Straventiano, and so is Iana, which meant they were royalty. Klaus was half-vampire, which also meant that both Tyler and Iana had a hint of vampire in them; it probably showed in their height or eyes. Vampire’s eyes were always more vibrant, and they are usually taller than the human.

  Tyler was almost exactly like Klaus, the only thing different was the nose. Though Klaus’s mother, Marisol, was a roman women, Klaus got his father Roland’s nose, a long but thin one. Tyler obviously went after his Roman side, because his nose was a true Roman nose, long and thick, accentuating his face and cheekbones.

  “How long have you lived, Cindy?”

  Cindy cast her eyes down. “I was born four hundred and seventy two years ago. Witches age as slow as werewolves, so it will be five hundred years before I look seventy.”

  Tyler was silent the whole time she explained this, and a couple minutes afterward. He stayed against the doorframe of the room, his arms still crossed, and Cindy couldn’t help but eye the muscles flexing.

  “How do I know that you aren’t just here to kidnap or kill my daughter?” He finally spoke, and his gaze was an intense one, enough to make Cindy look down at her lap, in which held her folded hands, trembling from the onslaught.

  Cindy looked up bravely, and kept a neutral tone, with an expressionless face. “I would’ve already done that, wouldn’t I Tyler?” Cindy stood up, walking over to Tyler until his crossed arms almost touched her shoulder.

  Damn he’s tall, Cindy mused as she looked up at him.

  But maybe I’m short?

  Nah. Cindy was on the short side but not the shortest. She was 5”5’, so there were plenty of other women she needed to look down at when talking.

  “Why must you find something bad about me?” Cindy questioned, curiously looking up at Tyler. He avoided her gaze. “Yes, I’m a witch. I have been my whole existence. But I’m not bad. Very few witches are.”

  Tyler still didn’t look at her. Cindy gave up. She hung her head low, and began to walk away.

  That is until Tyler yanked her back and smashed his lips onto hers.

  Damn this women. Damn her.

  Tyler didn’t want to believe that she wasn’t a danger to him and Iana, but his heart didn’t listen to his head.

  His head, said to question her about everything.

  His heart, said to love her the way she is. That no matter what, his heart would always choose and love her over any other women.

  His heart, still yearned to be with Chelsea. It missed her laugh, and the way she felt in his arms. But she was gone, and died giving him the greatest gift in the world, Iana.

  “No matter how many things I thing you might do to hurt either Iana, Jack or me, I know you won’t do it.” Tyler said, but once he pulled away and placed their foreheads together.

  “I won’t. I promise I won’t,” Cindy whispered, “Iana is like my daughter now, and soon, she will be my daughter. Right Tyler, right?”

  “Yes, she will be. Very soon.”