Andreas was lying naked on his bed. Leita had just left to go outside to the small lake near his mansion. She hadn’t bothered to redress herself first and Andreas could admit that she had absolutely no reason to be shy of that body. But he couldn’t keep his mind focused on her. He longed for olive skin, dark hair and those big brown eyes that would occasional shine with a sheen of sapphire. To him, she was more beautiful. Leita was an ice sculpture. Her personality not much different. And while she had been fun and was able to take his mind off Lana for a few moments, she compare in no means to that day at the waterfall.
Missing Lana was a physical ache, one he was able to ignore in the cove as he was faced with too many other voids in his life. But now that he was out and in the company of another woman, he felt her loss.
He was never going to stop missing her.
His mind drifted back to the conversation he had had with Casian. What if he was right and Lana was still in fact alive? How would Andreas deal with that? And why did he not know where she was? Unless he really had scared her off by opening up about his haunted past—even if he hadn’t told her everything, things he couldn’t even deal with yet.
A knock on his mansion’s door pulled him out of his mind. He sighed as he got off his bed and slipped on a pair of pants. The knocking became more persistent and Andreas wondered who the hell would bother him this late at night.
He flashed himself to the front door and opened it, not bothering to hide his annoyance. “What?” he snapped, but immediately regretted it when he saw the girl. Her blond hair was plastered onto her face, her pale blue eyes wide and frantic. “Izzy?” he asked.
Her eyes found his, and she practically jumped into his arms. Unsure what to do or how to assess the situation, Andreas stood there, stupefied. But when he started to note how the young girl trembled, he embraced her also.
“Izzy, what’s wrong?”
Her head rested on his bare chest and she clung to him as if her life depended on it. “I need help…” she squeaked out.
“What happened?” he asked, his voice lowered, concerned as he brushed her wet hair was from her face.
The girl sniffed. “My mother… got sick and passed away a couple of days ago… and Elijah… he cracked… He tried to… tried to hurt me again. I ran away before he could… but… but I have… I have nowhere else to go… and I’m s-scared,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Andreas’ eyes was wide, his mouth agape. And of course Leita chose that moment to return. Andreas locked eyes with her as she started to walk closer behind the child. He shot her a warning look and shook his head. She raised her eyebrows and he mother for her to wait. He wasn’t completely oblivious to the fact that she was still naked, but at the moment the girl in his arms was more important. Leita remained where she was, crossing her arms over her chest, rapping her foot impatiently and Andreas was left wondering why he didn’t just send her back to where she came from instead of allowing her to come into his house again.
And then he remembered.
With a heavy sigh, he steered Izzy in the direction of the stairs and started leading her to the room she had previously occupied in his house. He paused when they got there and knelt down so they could be closer to eye level. He cupped her cheeks between his hands, suddenly overwhelmed with how protective he felt over this girl.
“You can stay here for as long as you’d like. My door is always open to you, okay?”
Izzy looked like she was about to cry again, but instead hugged Andreas once more. It kept surprising him. He was so unused to that kind of affection. Even when he was younger, before shit went to hell, his mother and Dylan had been the only two people who ever hugged him. He swallowed back the lump in his throat.
“Thank you, Andreas.”
He smiled, a genuine smile, not a smirk, as she entered the room.
His thoughts were running a million miles a second as he walked back downstairs to where Leita was. He manifested a shirt and tossed it in her general direction. She caught it, her eyebrows furrowed.
“Who was the girl?” she asked with a sneer.
“Someone who is under my protection and if you lay a finger on will cost you your life,” Andreas said. His words heavy with dangerous foreboding.
Leita pulled on the shirt and stepped toward him, wrapping her arms around his waist from behind. “I wasn’t planning on hurting her… she reminds me too much of someone I know.”
“Oh, you have a heart after all?”
She frowned. “Not one I use very often.”
Andreas turned and looked at her, and this time really tried to see Leita. She was hiding so much under all those layers of coldness. Perhaps he had finally found a kindred spirit.
His mind drifted back to Izzy. It surprised him that he felt so protective over her. Maybe it was because she was so young, or maybe it was something else entirely. One thing Andreas knew for sure, though, was that he would protect her.
He would not fail her like he had Dylan and Lana. Izzy would remain safe, whatever it took. He would not lose another person, especially not one so sweet, innocent, and full of life. His curse would break.
YOU ARE READING
Haunting Shadows (Book 2)
Fantastik"What if my sins are all I've become? Will you still love me if the Andreas you once knew is too far gone to ever get back?" Lana had survived burning on the stake, but at what cost? Every time she closes her eyes, she revisits the horror of burning...
