THE IMMORTAL: Dance with the Dragon

10: Clawesome

Samara met Danteous at the well that night and every night for the next few days while also helping Leela with the housework and training for hours during the day. She was so exhausted she could barely stand by the end of her and Leela's training matches. Leela started becoming suspicious and began asking her more questions:

"Why are you still so tired, you should be able to sleep by now?"

"Are you okay?"

"Is there anything you want to tell me?"

Every time Leela would ask if she was okay and why she was so tired, Samara always had the same excuse: her mind was in overdrive with everything going on. Eventually, Leela dropped it and stopped asking her and Samara thought that was the end of it.

Her nights with Danteous mostly consisted of walks through the forest and on the beach while reminiscing about their childhood. Other than being more bold in his advances (he was no longer an awkward teen), he seemed like the old Danteous to her. She could feel all those first-love feelings coming back to the surface. Despite those feelings, she wasn't ready for their relationship to move on to the next step—she had learned her lesson from last time with Brent.

They held hands when they walked. They talked about everything except Cyril. Both of them avoided the subject.

"When are you going to talk to Leela?" Danteous asked one night as they walked together through the forest.

Samara shrugged. "I don't know." She hadn't really thought about it. Asking Leela to trust Danteous enough to have a sit down conversation with him wasn't something she was looking forward to. Leela was stubborn and good at holding a grudge. In Leela's eyes Danteous had abandoned her—she swore she wouldn't forgive him for that. And then, there was the fact she was convinced he was working with his father now and if Samara was honest with herself, she wasn't one hundred percent sure that he wasn't. Most of her trusted him but there was still a nagging voice at the back of her mind that sounded a lot like Leela.

"You still don't trust me, do you?" Danteous said.

"I don't know," she admitted. Then looking up at him, she smiled shyly and added, "Sorry."

He tightened his hand around hers. "That's all right. We have time."

Did they? Samara doubted that.

They made it to a clearing that Samara recognized as a spot she and Leela would sometimes train at. Danteous climbed onto a boulder and then offered a hand to her, helping her up so she could sit beside him.

"I used to come out here when I was a boy," Danteous said looking up at the clear sky; thousands of stars looked back down at them.

"It seems so long ago, doesn't it?" Samara pulled her knees up to her chest and gazed with him. It was quiet other than an occasional rustle of the trees as a breeze swept through, and the chirping of crickets.

"It does," he agreed. "But it wasn't that long ago we were children."

"You were always 'too cool' to play with us," Samara teased.

He laughed. "It wasn't that. You two were always pranking me and trying to be as annoying as possible—it made me want to get away from you."

Samara laughed at the memories. "Yeah, that was mostly me. I came up with most of the ideas, Leela just went along with them."

Danteous leaned close to her. "Oh I know, you were a little terror." He touched her lips softly with his. "How things can change ... now I can't imagine being away from you."

Samara's heart pounded in her chest and for a minute she was worried he would be able to hear it. The touch of his lips against hers, the warmth of his body so close, his breath against her lips, it all sent warmth throughout her every time they were close. They kissed again, Samara ignoring the warnings screaming in her mind.