Bound by Destiny

Chapter 10

The feel of something brushing her face snapped her out of her thoughts. Looking around, she discovered that she'd left the safety of the house walls. She moved further out into the swirling snow, letting the chill in the air combat the imagined flames still licking her skin. Her hands left deep impressions in the built up snow on the stone railing, knuckles almost as white from her grip on the cold rock.

If she felt this horrible now, she could only imagine what it would have been like if she actually loved him. She stared out into the falling snow, trying to convince herself that it could be worse, but she knew better. It couldn't have been.

A familiar voice came from behind her. "You're still here?"

This time she couldn't feel his anger. Not over her own feeling of desolation.

"Yes, Fallon. I'm still here. Had to get rid of the mark, remember?"

"How did that go?"

She shrugged. "It's gone."

"Why does it sound like you're upset about it?"

"I don't know," she lied. Upset was such a mild word to describe the damage that was done.

"What did I tell you, Eve?"

"I really don't give a shit, Fallon. I didn't ask you to come out here and harass me. Somethings I need to deal with on my own and this is one of them."

"So, by dealing with them, you mean hide out here in the cold?"

"Jesus, what's with the fifty questions tonight?" She spun around to face him. "Who cares why I'm out here. They can kill me now. I'm no longer a threat to anyone"

"You couldn't be more wrong about that. Maybe not to Sebastian physically, but I'll never let my guard down around you." He was slouched in one of the iron chairs, seeming to not give a damn about the snow or cold.

"What does that mean?" She pushed away from the railing and dusted off the opposite chair. She mimicked Fallon's slouch. "How am I a threat to you? To any of you? Sure, I may, one day in the future, be able to defend myself against one of you, but right now, especially now, I'm really fucking weak."

He said nothing as he looked at her. At that moment, she would have given anything to be able to see his eyes.

"How old are you?" he finally asked.

"What does that have to do with anything?" she asked, confused by the sudden change in topic.

"Just answer the question."

"If I do, will you go away?"

"No."

She could see his lips curve into a smile and blew out a frustrated breath. "Fine. I'm twenty-seven."

He made a noise but she wasn't sure if it was amusement or anger. "And you don't know how you are a threat to those of us here. Were you sheltered as a child?"

"Fallon, what in the hell are you talking about?" Her head fell back against the cold iron. She was too mentally drained for the mind games he seemed to want to play.

"When I was your age, I was married with two children. Though, I have to admit to that being some time ago." His voice was nonchalant, but she could feel something from him, cutting through her own emotional black hole. The spike in sadness stole her breath and she had to fight herself to not go to him.

"We went on a trip and back in the day, there were no RV's, no campers. Ahh, the frontier days. Good times, those. If the settlers didn't get you, then sickness would. Famine, all sorts of fun things. But that wasn't what got me. Those would have been kinder." The smile on his lips became something ugly. "What my tribe told me about, warned me about, I never believed. That there were things that looked like wolves except they walked on two legs. And their strength... Twenty men couldn't have tore through my family as fast as it did."