She smiled faintly. “I guess.” She looked exhausted. I fully expected her to slip off to sleep, if I could just lessen her tension a little. Her muscles felt tight, her posture stiff, even with my body practically wrapped around her as a safeguard. Then I wondered whether it was not just the height that had her so on edge, but because… well, my body was practically wrapped around her. We were very close to one another in this position. Some might even call it intimate. Maybe I had been too presumptuous in drawing her so close to me. I had just wanted her to feel secure.
I was about to suggest a change of position when she began to loosen a little. Slowly, her muscles relaxed against me and she leaned her head back until it rested against my chest.
I glanced down at her face, her eyes beginning to droop. And then after perhaps a quarter of an hour, sleep stole her from me.
I dared not budge an inch lest I wake her from what was likely only a fragile slumber. But I found myself continually glancing down at her face. Her peaceful, sleeping face. I gazed down the gentle slope of her nose, her soft, full lips parted slightly as she breathed.
Even though from this height I had a full view of the dazzling, star-strewn sky, strangely, that night it was Victoria my gaze was drawn to.
Victoria
It was a miracle that I managed to sleep, though I was so very tired. I had almost been falling asleep on Bastien’s back before climbing up here.
The slumber was not deep, however, and it did not last long. I stole just enough rest to not feel like a zombie when I woke up, I guessed a couple of hours later. It took me a few seconds to remember where I was, with muscular arms bound around me, the long strong legs of a man on either side of me, and beyond that a steep drop of God knew how many feet.
I looked up, my eyes meeting Bastien’s gray ones, and it all came flooding back. I offered him a small smile, which he returned, before I let out a yawn.
“You seem rested,” he remarked.
“Yeah, thanks… You didn’t sleep at all, did you?”
He shook his head, chuckling. I would have been horrified if his response had been yes.
I gazed up at the glittering night sky. Although there was a cool wind up here, I was still wearing my uniform jacket, and with Bastien’s body heat radiating into me from all sides, I felt pleasantly warm.
“So when did you last sleep?” I wondered.
“I don’t remember,” he replied.
“You’re like a vampire. After all this running, you barely need to sit down.” Vampire. I winced internally as I said the word. My chest ached as I thought of my mother and father. I’ve got to get back to them. I will get back to them. We just need to find a portal. Of all these tribes we were about to visit, one of them was bound to know of an alternate portal. One of them just has to. I didn’t want to consider the possibility that the portal within the hunters’ compound might be the only one left open.
“I suppose we are alike in that sense,” Bastien replied. “Though I have never personally seen, met, or known a vampire.”
I couldn’t help but tilt my head back and widen my eyes at him. “Really? You’ve never seen a vampire?”
A smile curved his lips. “No. But that should not be so strange to you. This is the realm of werewolves, after all.”
It was. But I’d thought vampires were known to visit here from time to time. I supposed just not in his area.
“Why don’t you tell me about vampires?” he asked, a curious sparkle in his eyes. “Are they all as bloodthirsty as they’re rumored to be?”
I chuckled to myself. “No, not all of them. It just depends which one you meet. Those in The Shade never drink human blood… You wanna know something? My own parents are vampires.”
His brows furrowed. “What? How is that possible?”
I let out a sigh. This was going to be a long story. I recounted the discovery of the cure to him; he was interested in every detail of the history of how it all happened. Then he began to ask me other questions—questions about The Shade. He wanted to know what kinds of creatures lived with us. In addition to our werewolves, I told him about our dragons, our jinn, our fae, our vampires, our humans, and the increasing number of half-breeds who inhabited our island.
I was surprised by his surprise as I described all these species. He had heard of these creatures, but he’d lived such a sheltered life in The Woodlands until now that he had never seen any of them before. I sure found that ironic. Here I, a human girl, found myself educating a werewolf about supernatural creatures. Though, of course I had an unfair advantage being born and bred in The Shade. There really was no place like it. Corrine often referred to it as a supernatural zoo, though my aunt Sofia preferred to describe it as a shelter. A sanctuary for all.
Bastien was truly mesmerized by The Shade and its inhabitants, and by the end of my explanations, I couldn’t help but chuckle at his awed expression.
“A trip to The Shade really would be educational for you,” I said, grinning. “Hopefully after”—if—“you and your people manage to fix this mess, you will pay us a visit.”