Heart Bitten

Chapter 16

Hazrat Inayat Khan once said, "The best thing is not to hate anyone, only to love. That is the only way out of it. As soon as you have forgiven those whom you hate, you have gotten rid of them. Then you have no reason to hate them; you just forget."

But sometimes it's hard to take your own advice.

So I am not forgiving Dominic yet.

He has to do way more than just say sorry for me to forgive him. But I hardly doubt he will do that. After he disappeared when he saw the scene where Christopher and I were hugging, I never saw him again. The mansion was so big that one could hide and never be found forever. And I didn't bother to look for him.

I was hanging out at the dry kitchen with Grace when Maxine approached us.

Yes, he finally appeared after he attacked me at the waterfall. I don't blame him for trying to stay out of my sight after the incident; I wanted to kill him after what he did to me. But I remain seated at my stool, eating my fruit tart and ignoring his existence.

Maxine opened the top cabinet where they stored their blood supplies in wine bottles and took out a bottle. He poured himself a glass and placed the bottle back. I didn't have to look at him to know that he was staring at me. Grace busied herself with the fruit tart I made and pretend not to notice the uncomfortable silence in the room.

And Mindy the housekeeper just had to choose the wrong time to barge in.

"Adele, are you ever going to do your own-oh, master Maxine! I didn't know you were here!" Mindy flipped her long carrot red hair and blinked her violet eyes at Maxine.

I rolled my eyes; Mindy is flirtatious when any of the Donahue brothers are nearby. It's like someone flipped her switch and she turned almost immediately from snappy to flirty. She can be really annoying when she wants to but most of the time helpful. Though I don't understand why she hates me more than she hates Grace the werewolf. It's like my sole existence annoys her to death. Oh wait, she already is dead.

"Mindy and Grace, would you mind giving us some time alone?"

Maxine's sudden request surprised everyone, including me. Grace looked at me uncertainly, deciding whether or not it is safe to leave me alone with someone that nearly killed me back then. Mindy however was glaring at me and if looks could kill, I'd already been dead. I looked at Grace and nodded slightly. Grace sighed and stood up to leave, dragging Mindy together out of the room and closing the door behind them.

I eyed Maxine suspiciously and he sighed, "Will you stop looking at me like that? I'm not going to hurt you."

"You already did."

Maxine threw his hands up in frustration, "Will you please not make this any harder than it already is?" I shrugged my shoulders and continue to poke my fruit tart with my fork. Maxine slipped into a stool opposite me but I didn't look up. "Look, I'm sorry for what I did that day-"

"Did what?" I asked innocently.

"Adele!" Maxine groaned and I smiled, who knows making fun of Maxine can be this interesting?

"You know what? I'd love to kill you for what you did that day." I took a bite at my fruit tart and pointed the fork at him. "But for now, I forgive you so don't bother apologizing. It's annoying." Maxine smiled with what I think was relief and I chuckled, "You look pretty stupid when you try to get your point straight." And he scowled at me.

"I'm curious in knowing what happened between you and that silly brother of mine." Maxine leaned in and gave me seductive smile, "Want to fill me in with details?"

I looked at him innocently, "Which silly one?"

Maxine rolled his eyes, "Everyone could hear you bawling your eyes out yesterday and now you said nothing happened?"