This is Book 1 of the Arcelia Series.* Book 2 is in the works!
*Can be read as a stand-alone
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Malik Jackson needed help. After being exiled from the ocean, he washed up on the beach covered in injuries and missi...
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~ ~ Malik ~ ~
I had never slept so peacefully in my life. Lately, my subconscious has been plagued with nightmares. But this morning, I woke up feeling refreshed and calm for once.
Xander was sitting up on the bed, reading a book when I opened my eyes. My head rested against his stomach, my body curled into his. Our legs tangled at the end of the bed. As I took in our position, I shot up and moved away from him, blushing furiously. "Sorry!" He probably didn't want to be that close to me. Oh god, do I smell?
Xander reached towards me with one hand, the other one supporting the book in his hand so he didn't lose his page. He gave me a soft smile, inviting me to lay against him again. "Come back, Malik. If I didn't want you laying on me, trust me, I would've pushed you away." I moved over so I sat next to him against the headboard, and he looped an arm around my waist to keep me there. I laid my head down on his shoulder.
"What are you reading?" I looked up at him as I spoke.
"Just some book in French," he shrugged, showing me the pages. I couldn't read a word.
"You speak French?" I raised an eyebrow. This man keeps surprising me. It felt like he knew everything about me, but I was still learning things about him.
"I'm a vampire, Malik. I have the wisdom and intelligence of 3 regular lifetimes combined, what else am I gonna do with it?" He had a good point. Learning languages certainly takes a lot of intelligence. It made me wonder what other languages he knew, so I asked him. "Spanish, Italian, Dutch, German, a bit of Chinese, Japanese. I'll probably learn more in my lifetime," he answered as if it was a normal thing to know seven languages.
"Goddamn!" I laughed.
"We should take a look at the map of the forest today, so you can at least see what's around us," Xander marked his page and closed the book, setting it aside.
"I hadn't even thought of that. Will we be able to go to the beach today?" I was both excited, and nervous to see the ocean. Excited, because it's my home and I missed the familiar vastness of it. But I was also nervous. I didn't know if it would be safe after what happened. After what I did.
"Yes, I can take you there every day if you want me to. Although, today is our last clear day before we get some bad storms." That worried me, but I brushed it off, not wanting to get anxious.
We decided to get up and have breakfast in Xander's personal kitchen; the one on the third floor near his bedroom. After that, he took me to his study down on the second floor, where he pulled out a map of the area. It spread across his desk and showed the vast forest, with the mansion in the heart of the woods. I took a mental picture, knowing it would come in handy.
"This is the forest. There are tons of little paths and roads that split off from each other like a maze. Those are to distract and delay people who are trying to find me. It's impossible to navigate without having some sense of where you're going." Xander pointed to a highlighted path that went to the edge of the island. "That's the way to the beach. There's really not much else around." He pointed out a few more landmarks. A lake with a waterfall here, a gazebo there, and a long river that cut through the forest and dropped off into the ocean. I memorized each of their locations.
