ALEXANDRIA'S POV
I paced back and forth in Freya's room waiting for her to wake up. Dante sat in the corner with his head lowered, afraid of what I might do to him. I can't believe he let me feed off of her while I was in that state. If I had stopped a moment later she would definitely be dead right now. I stopped and looked down at Freya as she laid on her bed, breathing lightly. I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't of stopped, if I had been the cause of her death. The thought nearly brought me to my knee's, it would have destroyed me. I let out a breathe I was holding in absentmindedly and walked to the edge of the bed. Sitting down slowly and reaching up to brush some hair out of her face I let out a sigh. "What were you thinking Dante?" I asked exasperatedly. He looked up at me before speaking in a low voice, "She swore she was going to do it whether I helped her or not, she wanted to be the one who saved you. Hell she insisted upon it, I figured she was safer with me there to try and stop you if you went too far." He returned his gaze to the floor then. "Believe me Lex I feel horrible about this, I'm not an idiot. I didn't want to let her do it I knew it would kill you if she died. I mean I've never seen you fight with Jesse like that over anyone or anything. It was obvious what it would mean to you if, not only she died, but you were the one to do it. But I swear it was her choice and she wasn't going to let anyone talk her out of it." He spoke after a moment, keeping his eyes trained on the floor beneath him. I considered his words as I slowly caressed Freya's cheek. She insisted she was the one who would save me? Did it mean that much to her? I looked back over at Dante before speaking. "I don't know what this is Dante, I haven't felt anything this strong in ages. Not for anyone of our kind especially not a mortal. I don't even know her, I saw her last night and she was in trouble. For some reason I couldn't just ignore her screams like I always do. I saved her! Ever since I heard her its like I'm being pulled towards her. I couldn't just leave, I need to know her. Jesse will never allow it though, I don't know what to do." I choked out as I started to cry. Dante sat in the corner of the room a look of utter bewilderment on his face. I can imagine why, in all these years he's never seen me cry, not once. He looked confused before he hesitantly got up and walked towards me, sitting next to me and slowly pulling me into a hug. "Alex you need to talk to Jesse, maybe he will understand if you just try to explain it to him. Maybe when he see's how much it means to you, how much it is confusing you, he will come around and give it a chance." He spoke while rubbing circles on my back. I let out a strangled laugh at the notion, my brother was everything but understanding. Centuries of emotionless wondering has left him completely disconnected from the human world. He hates them, if we didn't need them for food I would wager money he would try and find a way to destroy them all. We were betrayed by mortals, they took everything from us. And ever since we've harbored nothing but ill will towards them. Founded on a pact we made nearly four centuries ago when we lost all we held dear. "He will never agree to this, this is the one thing that might separate us." I mumbled to Dante while leaning into him for support. "I won't let him hurt her, even if it means one of us dying." I spoke with more confidence in my voice then before. I felt stirring on the bed behind us after a moment and couldn't help my excitement as I turned around. Freya's eye lids started to flutter open and a groan escaped her lips. She reached up to grab her forehead as her eyes finally opened fully, finding my eyes first. "You're okay." She spoke softly, reaching out to stroke my face. I couldn't help but laugh, after everything she's been through she's still worried about me. "I'm perfectly fine, what about you Freya? How do you feel?" I questioned once I stopped laughing. She groaned again before squeezing her eyes closed. "My head is throbbing." She said opening her eyes again. This was something I predicted due to the amount of blood she lost. I reached to the side table where there was a bottle of water, two aspirin, and an iron supplement already waiting. I handed the pills to her while unscrewing the bottle of water. She drank from the bottle greedily draining it and all three pills in a few gulps. She looked over at Dante smiling, "I told you I could do it." She said almost smugly making us both laugh. How could she be in such high spirits after enduring what she just went through a few hours ago. She really was amazing, she tried sitting up then reaching out for support. "So did anything else happen, you know after I passed out? Did he ever come back?" She questioned looking between me and Dante. We shook our heads while observing her curious behavior. Most mortals would be terrified after everything that happened, but not her. She seems to have brushed it off as just another rough day like any other. Me and Dante stayed like that for the rest of the night. Sitting on her bed, talking, getting to know her a little better. Her and Dante were being much more open then me. I was more an observer, it's been far too long since I've let anybody in. I couldn't just open up right away. But I enjoyed the conversation, learning things about her. Like the fact that she loves animals, and music was her life. She played guitar and sang and wanted to perform for the rest of her life. The way she talked about it made it seem like she was beyond passionate about playing. I smiled as she babbled away about writing music, which Dante was contributing to, being a guitarist as well. Around eight o'clock there was a knock on her door and the young boy I assumed to be her brother entered the room carrying two plates of food. He stopped when he noticed us and looked down at the plates. "Well damn Freya, if I would have known you had company I would have brought more plates." He said with frown on his face. Me and Dante laughed and I spoke, "It's fine, we're aren't hungry anyway.". He walked over to the bed then handing Freya her plate before setting his down on the end table and extending his hand to towards us. "My name is Mikael." He spoke with a smile. Dante reached out first introducing himself, then me. "So how come I've never seen you guys around before?" Mikael questioned while getting comfortable on the bed and picking his plate back up. "We just moved here, I ran into Freya last night." I spoke while keeping eye contact with his sister. I really had a hard time keeping my eyes off her. She smiled while Dante continued a conversation with her younger brother. He seemed like a good kid, well spoken and kind. The longer I sat here the more I forgot why I had hated mortals so much for so many years. Around ten Mikael got up announcing he was going to bed, he had to get up early in the morning for school. After he left the room Dante turned to me with a serious look on his face. What are we going to do about Jesse? If you're right and he wont leave this alone, then nobody here is safe." He spoke in a hard tone. I think being around these two was starting to have a similar effect on him, at least towards his view of these humans. I sighed before speaking, "I will have to go find him and speak to him alone, try and gauge were he's at right now. I really don't think this is something he will except but maybe we can come to some sort of compromise.". I looked back at Freya and she had a worried look on her face. I guess she never thought about Mikael getting caught in the cross hairs. It was obvious her and her younger brother were extremely close. I reached out and grabbed her hand, stroking my thumb across it. "Don't worry lovely, we wont let anything happen to you or your family. I swear this to you." I spoke in a whisper staring deeply into her eyes. Willing her to believe my conviction to this statement. I looked back over at Dante before speaking again. "I'll go in the morning, we'll both stay the night here to make sure he doesn't come back. Then in the morning I will go and find my brother. I will try and reason with him. You will stay here to make sure nothing happens when I'm gone.". Freya squeezed my hand bringing my attention back to her. "I don't want you to go. What if he hurts you again." She spoke with a worried look on her face. Again I couldn't help but smile, this girl amazes me. "I will be fine, without you there he won't go into a rage. I know he doesn't want to kill me. He's angry but he doesn't hate me. If anything right now he feels betrayed, he feels like I've broken a vow to him. I need to try and talk him down. To make him see that maybe people have changed." I spoke looking down at our entwined hands. "Why does he hate humans so much?" Freya questioned pulling me back to reality. I tried to speak but couldn't. I wasn't ready to expose that much of myself yet. I let out a sigh before saying, "I'm sorry Freya, I can't tell you that. Not yet anyway, its something extraordinarily personal and I've never really talked about it before. Please don't question further about that. I will tell you when I'm ready, okay?". I held my breathe while waiting for an answer. "Of course Alex, just know that I am hear whenever you are ready to talk about it." She spoke while pulling my chin up so I was looking in her eyes. I saw the honesty that laid there and almost folded right there. But I held it in, I needed to figure out what this was first. Dante yawned then bringing our attention to the time. None of us had really slept at all the night before and it was approaching eleven o'clock. "I think it's time to sleep." Freya spoke through a giggle. Dante got up heading towards a couch against the wall. "I call the couch." He said shooting a smirk back at us before flopping down on the couch and rolling over. Freya blushed before saying, "You can stay on the bed with me.". She got up grabbing two pairs of shorts and two t-shirts for both of us and then returned to the bed. Handing me clothes to sleep in she walked into her closet to change. I just changed right there and got in the bed, waiting for her to return so I could shut off the light. She walked back out of the closet looking down at the floor with a soft blush on her cheeks. A lot of skin was exposed and she was obviously a bit self conscious. before I could even think about it my mouth started to speak, " You are beautiful.". My eyes widened at my words as a smile graced her lips. She walked back to the bed a bit more confident now and got in. I reached over turning out the light before facing her. She was already looking at me and now only a few inches away from my face. A smile broke out across my lips as I reached over and pulled her into me, Cuddling her and feeling her heart beat speed up against my chest. It made me happy that I seemed to make her just as nervous as she made me. We fell asleep like that, me holding her in my arms. I could really get used to the way this felt.
