73

I could watch her for hours. She moved around the study, trying to clean another mess that the house had decided to create. It was happening more often now but none of us had been seriously injured so far.

It had drained all the water from the pool in the bathing room and killed all the flowers in the front yard. Florence said she had never seen anything like it and I could tell it was making her sad. Wes was taking his shift with Clay in the library, which seemed to be the place most affected. The house had taken to shattering the glass windows at a moment's notice.

“Are you going to help?” She turned to me.

She looked so pretty in her overalls and tank top. It was strange to think that she had been bundled beneath all those layers of blouses and skirts for so long, when her natural figure was one to be celebrated without the help of any corsets or clothing trickery.

Her auburn hair cascaded over her shoulders as she stood up and put her hands on her hips.

“Koen.” She waved her hands in the air.

“No,” I hummed, unable to take my eyes off her. “I have a better idea.”

Hoping off the couch, I took her by the hand and dragged her out into the foyer of the Manor, beneath the chandelier. I took out my phone, barely enough battery left but just enough to make her smile. I opened my downloaded songs and set it on the table before hitting play. A procession of electric guitar and soft drums echoed off the high ceiling of the Manor.

“Dance with me?”

“I think our definitions of dancing might be slightly different, Koen,” Florence quipped but took my hand anyway, curling against my body as I wrapped my other arm around her waist.

“Swaying side to side is the same in every period, Blossom,” I chuckled and let the music guide us as we danced in lazy circles beneath the flickering candlelight of the chandelier. “One day, we’ll have time, and you can teach me the waltz?”

I felt her body tense at the mention of the future. The same way it always did when we mentioned doing anything outside the Manor or dreamed out loud about our futures beyond the haunted walls.

“That would be nice.” She entertained the idea but I could tell the conversation had turned her thoughts sour. “Will you tell me about your life before this?” She asked me.

I had known that Clay would have told her some of the moments in our pasts. That was just him; he shared everything because he believed it was a way to spread knowledge. But sometimes secrets were meant to be kept.

“What do you want to know?” I asked her.

“Everything. ”

“I’ve known Wes since I could talk. I was so little when my parents died. I don’t remember their faces but Wes has always been there for me.” I shrugged. “His parents rescued me from a vampire nest when I was young and I’ve been hunting with them ever since.”

“I’m sorry about your parents.” She kissed my cheek, where a soft dimple formed from my smile, and a scowl formed on her lips.

“Don’t be.” I stole a kiss from her, choosing to chase the feeling of her lips on my skin instead of dwelling on death. “I didn’t know them.”

“It’s heartbreaking all the same, Koen.” She rubbed her hand over my face. “It must be exhausting, moving all the time like that.”

“Do you still get sad about your lost life?” I asked her. Clay had shown me all the information about her, about her friend Aisling. I couldn’t imagine watching life grow and thrive outside my reach like that.

“All the time.” She said it in a way that made it seem like, even at a distance, it was better than nothing; and maybe it was but it still felt wrong.

“I don’t think I was ever meant for normalcy, Koen. The universe had other plans.”

“I know for certain I would die if I stopped moving. I've never lived in one place for longer than a month,” I trailed off.

“I’m an advocate for freedom, but even that seems…” She stopped.

“Chaotic?” I laughed and tangled our fingers together a little tighter. “It is. But with Clay and Wes, it just feels normal. There’s not much I wouldn’t do for them. They’re my only family.”

“The loyalty between the three of you is rather impressive,” Florence noted .

“That loyalty has kept us alive longer than most Hunters.” I swallowed tightly. “We’ve had a lot of close calls that could have ended a lot worse if we hadn’t had each other's backs.”

“Except here,” she said, her tone hesitant.

“This–” I stopped. “–you…” I held her hand to my lips and stared across the distance into her bright green eyes. “...are different. We’ve fought over girls before,” I explained lightly. Clayton usually wins the fight. He’s a little more debonair.”

She shrugged but agreed. “Maybe a bit. But you are sweet and charismatic.”

“We decided a long time ago that sharing was always better than fighting. Of course, only in the instances when sharing was favored and consented to. And if it wasn’t, it was always in good fun. Flirting and fighting; making it a competition was a way to keep busy.”

Florence stared at me like I had three heads.

“You aren’t a competition is what I’m trying to say,” I explained. “It’s different with you. We aren’t bored, this isn’t a game, we're invested .”

“That’s a very odd way to look at promiscuity, Koen,” she said.

“You aren’t entirely wrong, but I also don’t think you have an issue with it,” I challenged her. “I think you enjoy the attention.”

“It was odd at first.” Her brows scrunched. “But it’s been so long I think I craved it more than I wanted to admit. Now I find myself searching for you all the time.”

“I won’t argue with that,” I said to her, my cock twitching at the thought of her being so vulnerable like that. “So you enjoyed it then?”

“Perhaps,” she hummed. “Or perhaps I’m just caught up in the moment and looking to say all the right things to you because there is enough bad going on around us. Some forbidden fantasies and candlelight dancing to make me forget the Manor is trying to kill you all.”

I held onto her a little tighter. My own heart was in utter disbelief that I had come this far in life only to fall for a woman who had lived her entire life in some sort of twisted immortal cage. I pushed her outward, spinning her away from me, and brought her back with her back to my chest, wrapping my arms around her and nuzzling my chin against her neck.

“After all is said and done,” I whispered, “we’ll go back to Hunting.” I paused, the words sticky in my throat as I tried to articulate my confused and disappointed thoughts. “The foolish kid in me wants to ask you to come with us, selfish too, I guess, but after over a century of being unable to decide for yourself. I can’t expect that of you,” I sighed. “But if Clay does figure this out and we can get you free, what will you do?” I asked her.

She stopped briefly. She hadn’t expected me to ask that.

Turning in my arms, she tilted her chin to the ceiling and spoke of her dreams. “I think I would just walk.” She laughed. “As silly as that sounds, so many small things were taken. But just the freedom to go anywhere is what I want back.”

“It doesn’t sound silly at all.” I shook my head. “Promise you’ll try all the food? Everything is so different now and you’ve got to experience it all.” I smiled at her, taking the chance to steal a feathery kiss from her jaw before she looked back at me.

Florence looked at me for a long time and I just stared back. I was unable to convey all of my intense emotions in words correctly. “Koen, I understand what you’re doing,” she said slowly. “But I don’t understand why. Are you trying to push me away?”

“Don’t,” I stopped her with another languid kiss that lasted longer and felt sadder than the others. “I would never.” I silenced her worries as quickly as they had formed, or at least attempted to. “I just want you to understand that you have a choice here,” I explained. “That no matter what it might be, we’ll respect that.”

Respect. The word made her flinch.

“Why is that such a hard concept to grasp?”

“Because respect was never freely given to me, at least not by the men in my life. That was reserved only for other men. I was never extended such a courtesy.”

Her sentiment was valid, but it didn’t ease the stinging in my chest anymore than if she had just shrugged or ignored my question. I felt so bad for her past and all the things she had to endure without the love and protection of a family that genuinely cared about her.

“We can teach you more about equality later. I’m sure Clay has a thousand thoughts on the matter.”

“I have four more books to read,” she joked.

I dropped her hand from mine and lifted her chin to me, pressing our lips together softly. The kiss drowned out the shuddering of the floor boards from the house as she sunk into my touch with a needy urgency.

“I like this song,” she breathed against my lips when she pulled away. “It’s pretty.”

“You’re pretty,” I teased back and spun her away from me again. A fit of giggles exploded from her and cascaded into the air .

“Thank you,” she whispered when she returned, her hair messy and her cheeks flushed. “You always know when I need to…”

“Feel human?” I finished for her. “You make me feel human too, you know?”

“That’s silly.”

“It’s the most serious I’ve ever been,” I said, holding her face in my hands. “You make me feel human, Florence.”

It was short of telling her that I loved her.

I could have yelled it at the top of my lungs repeatedly if I thought she would be ready to hear such blatant nonsense. But this would have to do and, by the look on her face, she understood every tiny unsaid word behind what I had said.

I love you , more than the moon loves the sky and the flowers love the sun.