I Can't Get the Vampire Rogue to Romance Me

Chapter 61 - Achievement Unlocked

Evangeline wasn't terribly surprised that Valerian appeared near her alcove. Without the willow tree, she had chosen a more remote cave alcove than the rest, but she could hear Artmond talking to Sigismund as if he were sitting right next to her. What surprised her was that he knocked on the side of the wall a few steps from where she had laid out her roll, instead of strolling right in like the cat who was king.

"May I speak with you?" he asked, in the most sincere voice she had heard from him yet. His affectation was at such a minimum that she nodded before she meant to.

He came in, versus sauntered in, and sat down next to her on her roll.

"Okay, you're starting to scare me," she joked, "You're acting far too normal."

"I died today, Evie. I don't have the energy right now," he said, folding his legs at the ankles and his hands in the diamond created by his legs. Nothing about his posture was sexy or come hither like.

She had never felt so compelled to lean in, his weariness banishing her wariness. Still she resisted doing more than setting elbow on a drawn in knee, her cheek resting on her knuckles as she drank this new Valerian in.

And the final Meta point she had harbored tingled insistently, like a bee hovering over a piece of ripe fruit.

They sat that way for a long time, but Evangeline was in no hurry. She could recognize that he needed time to—

"I don't really know what to say to someone who saved my life."

Whatever she thought he had been about to say it hadn't been that.

"Well... you could start with thank you," she offered.

He glanced at her sideways. "Can I? It sounds like to small a word for the situation."

She shrugged a shoulder. "Yeah, but... what else is there?"

He nodded taking that in. "Hence my confoundment. You see, 'thank you'... in my family, it was always seen as a declaration of payment owed. Being in debt to each other can be a very dangerous proposition so it isn't something you say if you can avoid it. If not saying it is less trouble than saying it." He fell silent again, his eyebrows pinching together. "I have never needed to explain this before. It was always understood."

"It sounds like a tough way to live," Evangeline offered him.

He met her gaze then full on, his face an open mirror of the pain and child-like hope for understanding long denied, fearful while willing to risk again.

Evangeline saw herself reflected in that face.

"Thank you," Valerian said.

"You're welcome," she returned, smiling. Then she reached for his hand and squeezed it, so he could feel it.

"I'm so relieved it worked," she added a second later, breaking the tension.

He chuckled, "me too. I've heard Sigismund's whole explanation as to why it shouldn't have."

"I wouldn't worry about what Sigismund says," Evangeline dismissed, flicking at a tiny pebble on the cave floor to watch it skitter many skips away.

"Why?" he asked.

It was a reasonable question to ask, but Evangeline wasn't sure how to phrase it. The Meta points tingle began to burn. She continued to ignore it; it was a headache that she just didn't have time for.

"Because every so often... the gods make these exceptions to the way the rules of a world are and you happen to be one of them," she said. The burning immediately subsided. She swore she could almost sense surprise at her answer through it, but she had no way of proving that.

Valerian wrinkled his nose at that. "I don't put a whole lot of stock in gods, you should know. When I've need them most, they haven't been there."

"Oh, I don't think they're doing it for your benefit. I think it was just more convenient for them," she answered, then wondered if that was saying too much.

Valerian laughed though. "That does sound more like what I've come to expect."

"Look, my best explanation is that," she gestured at the nebulous sky represented by the cave ceiling, "The gods have an interest in me playing their... game and you are a part of that... and I think as long as we keep following their... chosen path for us. We should be okay?" She shrugged. "I don't know, that's just what I think."

Then Valerian leaned forward and kissed her.

She was so shocked by it, she froze as his lips pressed against hers. His other hand swept up and cupped her jaw as his lips worked, his tongue teasing at the entrance to her mouth, asking to be invited in.

She jerked back, breaking the kiss and leaving him surprised, his lips left puckering from her abrupt departure.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Shhhh," he hushed, "Let me reward you for what you've done for me." He moved in again, bringing his other hand up to cup her face.

She held up her hands. "No, no. You don't... you don't have to do that."

"It's alright. I want to," he assured. "I told you thank you."

He moved in again, but she put her hands firmly on his shoulders keeping him back.

"Valerian! You don't owe me sex for helping you. That's not why I did it."

Then her head burst into flames. Not literally, but she couldn't think at all, let alone a better way to describe it as the Meta point raged at her. A sharp whimper escaped lips as Evangeline pressed her hands into her head, which did nothing to ease the pain.

"Evangeline?" Valerian's voice was far, far away and she was barely aware that his hands were bracing her back. She reached out one hand and he grasped it, thumbs locked to thumbs.

"Sigismund!" Valerian shouted.

"No, don't...!" then she flinched again as a new wave broke over her.

"What. An. Ass," she ground out through her teeth.

Immediately the pain released as her final Meta point burned away.