The Dark Warlock: The Nox Haven Series

Chapter 3: Two Hundred

"I know you worry, Aleksander." I said, "But there is no need to. Once you stop worrying about this, you can be a lot happier."

"Don't you think I haven't tried," he snapped. "Every time I hold you, I don't want to remember how every Volkov before me was robbed of their happy ending. You know people think that we have everything. But wealth, power and good-looks mean nothing if you can't have the right person to share it with."

The image of Aleksander's tortured blue eyes were replaced by Adeline's.

"Was your happily ending taken away too?" I asked.

I didn't expect for her to reply, she was a picture after all. So, I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard a feminine voice calling my name. Was it the ghost of Adeline Volkov?

"Caddie..."

"Caddie!"

The wall of pictures began to shake. Pictures fell to the ground, as the wall came crumbling down. I was surrounded by darkness, Adeline's picture was suspended in the air. Was there something I was supposed to see?

My eyes opened before I could find out.

Blurry faces leaned over me, their worried voices created a buzz in the background. I wanted the voices to disappear completely, so I could go back and figure out what was so special about Adeline's picture. Why did she speak to me so profoundly? Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried to revisit the dream but it was gone. Locked away in bowels of my memory.

"Caddie please wake up. Come on girl, don't look into the light. You're too young to die- I'm too young to die!"

My eyes snapped open when the sound of my hysterical best friend became clear and concise. Tears shined in her emerald eyes but it was very possible she was crying over the loss of her life, rather than mine. That didn't stop me from loving her. I expected nothing less from Alix Slade.

"I am not dead Alix," I pushed her away when she began to pucker her lips for CPR.

Alix wiped away a fake bead of sweat, "Oh thank god. I was so worried."

For me or for you? I decided it would be best for my friendship if I did not vocalize my question. Jaxon and Aleksander sat beside Alix, their faces reflected their emotions of relief and mild disgust. I could have been wrong but I believed they relieved I was alive and disgusted that Alix almost kissed me.

Jaxon nodded in my peripheral vision.

"I am so glad you can feel my emotions right now. Words could not possibly describe how relieved I feel," Aleksander's Russian accent thickened as worry laced his his tone.

The addictive sparks, I only felt with him elicited as he wrapped his arm and around my waist and pulled me into his lap. Borrowing my face into the crease of his neck, I inhaled his intoxicating male musk and played with hair on the back of his neck. Damn our bond, I mentally cursed. I should have been freaking out. I blacked out for goodness sake and yet all I could do was play with the fringe of his hair.

"What happened," I murmured hesitantly, not wanting to break the spell of peace.

"I don't know," Aleksander replied honestly. His words only increased the knotting of my stomach. "I only remember the necklace breaking, nothing else."

"I still have the scroll," Alix said.

Peeling my eyes away from Aleksander's hair, I stared at the small document as if it were cursed. I wanted nothing to do with it. It was just a certificate of death for those I loved.

"Caddie-" Jaxon started but I cut him off.

He could disagree with my thoughts all he wanted but that didn't change my memory. Every time I chose to go on an adventure somebody else paid for the trip. No more casualties.