The Eyes Of 'Rah

Back on the Counter

Sighting the familiar pinafore far away, Xavier stood on the path she was threading on with his arms crossed, watching her as she seemed to be in a deep thought, with her lowered head and slow pace.

"There you are" Xavier placed his hands on her shoulder to steady her when she wobbled after bumping into him.

Seraphine was surprised to see the vampire, "how did you find me?"

Peering into the dark tinted spectacle, "I can find you wherever you are" Xavier brushed her hair off her shoulder.

Her cheek turned pink, she felt warm hearing the confidence in his voice on how he can find her anywhere, her cheeks turned pink even further as she remembered the incident the night before.

"Was this why you came last night?" Taking her hand in his, he swung it up and down as they trailed along the long path.

Quietly, "yes" lowering her head as she nodded. Disengaging her hands from his, Seraphine stopped midway and faced the handsome vampire, whose ruffled cloth could mean he was in a hurry but that didn't mar his good looks anyway.

"I'm sorry for my rude behaviours yesterday, I shouldn't have invaded your privacy. Believe me, it was so unlike me and I promise never to repeat it" looking straight into the forest green eyes, she restrain herself from smoothing his messy hair.

Xavier moved closer to her, putting what he had wanted to do since into test, he watched calmly as she stood still in apprehension, waiting for what he wanted to do. Xavier reached for her spectacle slowly, reading her body language to see if she would fret but she didn't.

He smiled inwardly, feeling honoured that this little human had trusted him enough to have not objected to what he was doing. Xavier gently and slowly took of her spectacle, "I've wanted to do this since" staring right back at her, he buried himself in her white iris, "I'm sorry too for behaving that way towards you yesterday "

He looked at the red-rimmed eyes, brushing off the little tears which had smeared on her cheekbones.

The moment must have been bewitching because the next thing Seraphine knew afterwards was feeling Xavier's lips on one of her eyes.

It took few seconds before he took his mouth off,  Xavier cleared his throat, wanting to erase the awkwardness that followed, "what did you find out from the woman?"

After taking some time to narrate the whole thing to him, with his usual attentive attitude, he asked, "he has a moon shape mark under his eyes?"

Seraphine nodded, stretching her feet on the footstool, rubbing her foot, Xavier knocked on the roof, "take us to the local inn"

"Why?" She paused her activity.

"You need to eat something, I could hear the wars going on in your stomach and the local inn here is quite famous for their delectable dish" placing a hand on her stomachvas if that would stop it from rumbling.

Xavier carried her feet off the stool and placed them on his lap, not giving her a glance as he massaged her feet.

Seraphine groaned softly in pleasure, gone was the protest she wanted to express about his sudden action, she was too relieved of the pressure points he rubbed, shedding off the ache she felt earlier due to walking for a long distance.

"I'll ask Herbert to find him" he assured her, while kneading her feet. Seraphine nodded again.

"How do you feel?" They both know he was asking about her reaction to the woman's confession.

"I knew it was a false accusation right from the beginning, if only she had come forward that time" she sighed as her heart sunk lower, thinking about her poor father, "perhaps father would've still been alive now"

A determined look replaced the dejected one, "I'm going to try everything I can to look for the man and bring him to justice" Xavier squeezed her feet in consolation.

They were both lost in their thoughts until the carriage stopped, Xavier had been enjoying playing with her feet until he felt it being pulled out of his hands. Seraphine on the other hand had also been enjoying the feel of his hands in her feet while thinking about the !an with the moonshape mark.

Not until the carriage stopped moving did she become aware that her feet had developed a mind of their own and taken solace with Xavier's fingers.

Helping her out of the carriage, Xavier held her hand in his as they entered the inn.
*********

Annaliese placed a straw hat on her head to shield her eyes from the sun, turning to one of her disciples, "where is the tea I asked you to brew?"

"Here" the young girl carefully handed her the hot liquid, her shyness didn't allow her ask what Annaliese needed the tea for. If she could remember, Annaliese didn't like the smell of a ginger, not to talk of brewing one for tea, making her wonder why she suddenly told her to brew her one.

"I'll be back before noon"

The redhead witch instructed the coachman to meet her at the healing bay, wanting to feel the energy of the earth around her feet, she decided to take the shorter route which involved going by foot.

Used to her eccentric behaviour, the coachman didn't ask for reason, only nodded and kicked the horses in motion.

Annaliese looked down at the brewed tea, wondering who would be the receiver. She had been preparing for a visit to the healing bay when she felt a strong urge to take a ginger tea along with her, seeing just a flash of an image of her handing the flask to someone. Unfortunately, she didn't know whom.

Before she would round the corner which would take her straight to the healing bay, Annaliese saw two men, one bent between his knees while the other patted his back gently, seeing the familiar face to be Xavier's friend, she moved closer.

"Is everything all right"

Francis looked behind him to see Annaliese, "actually, I'm beginning to suspect if things are all right. He has been vomitting for few minutes now. I'm afraid he would start emptying his intestines soon"

She looked up at the person and realised it to be Daniel Manchester. Opening the flask, she bent on one knee and encouraged him to sniff the smell of the ginger.

Stopping herself from throwing up when she caught a whiff of the tea. With the help of Francis, Daniel inhaled the smell and downed the content afterwards.

"Thank you, I thought I was going to empty my guts" Daniel who felt relieved after sometime spoke.

"No problem. Just go home and get some rest"

"I will" leaning on Francis, he thanked her again before they departed.
***********

Seraphine got down from the carriage, insisting that Xavier shouldn't bother, he had done more than enough for her today, wanting him to go and rest as well.

"I'll let you know what Herbert finds out when he's done" nodding, Seraphine closed the door behind her as soon as the carriage moved.

"How was it?"

Hearing the old man's voice from the kitchenette, she went ahead and stood by the door way, relaying everything about  the woman's confession  and her search for the man with the strange mark.

Forcing down a yawn which the old man noticed, he stood and pull her towards the stairs, "we will talk about it more tomorrow. You need to sleep"

Perhaps if both of them had turned towards the counter area or briefly glace at it, they would have seen the book, "Creature of the Past"  which Seraphine had turned the shop upside down to find, lying lazily on the table like it never left.