Blood Betrayal

Chapter Two

Sam twirled a ruby red strand of long curly hair around her finger as she pouted. “Don’t you trust me?” 

  “As far as you can throw me.” Alistair smiled at his wife. She gave a full hearty laugh that turned his smile into a grin. 

  “Great, it’s settled then, I’ll go with you when you talk to the court.” 

  “I trust you, but you haven’t learned enough.” His face fell serious. Sam rolled her eyes at his warning. She was so beautiful and so new. Still only a hundred years old, it gave her a naivety that he both cherished and couldn’t wait to rid her of. 

 “We could just go together and have fun. I don’t have to see the political stuff, it’s just that you go away to do all these things-” she pulled herself from his embrace, “-while I’m stuck here.” 

  Sam rolled out of bed. Her tone had tried for relaxed but she hid her emotions poorly.

He got to his feet. Years of practise made his movements appear effortless, something Sam had yet to master.

  “We both know someone has to watch the children.” 

  “Sure, back when they were kids, now they’re old enough to move out if they wanted. Besides, they’re supposed to guard us,” Sam shot back at him. 

  Her green eyes narrowed the way they did when she grew angry. Her emotion always spilled out through her eyes. Once she learned how to mask her thoughts and emotions that would change. It was one of the many things he would miss of her young naivety. 

  He tried to ply her with reason. “You’ve been quite adamant that you don’t have any interest in our politics.” 

  “Well, I don’t. It’s boring and way too complicated. I mean, who cares what the Psukhikos or the Fera or whatever are doing? Shouldn’t we care more about our own people?” 

  The fact she knew that much was a good start. Trying to teach her about the distinct races was a lesson in patience. Until that moment, he hadn’t been sure any of it had sunk in. Questioning why they needed to monitor other groups spoke to her lack of understanding. 

  With her arms crossed and her hip cocked, she looked far too cute to be intimidating. He chuckled at her standoffish stance. 

  “Don’t laugh! We’re supposed to be fighting.” 

  Her words were insistent, but she relaxed her arms. They could never fight well. They always ended up laughing. Yet another reason to love her with all his heart. 

  “I can’t help myself, just seeing your beautiful face every night makes me too overjoyed for fighting,” he purred with affection. 

  She watched him dress in dark wash jeans and a loose long sleeve shirt. It was a shade of blue that made the amber brown of his eyes pop against the olive of his skin.

  “Well, damn. You know how to end a fight. It’s not fair you’ve had thousands of years to practise your masculine wiles.” 

  “No one I have known could have prepared me for one as befuddling as you.” He frowned at her as she pulled a tee shirt over her tall willowy frame covering her small breasts. 

  “You’ve known thousands of girls.” 

  A smart-ass comment like that was meant to be wry. It sounded whiny even to her ears. Eighty-six years sounded like a very long time to be with someone. In reality wasn’t very much time when you could live forever. Now and then it felt like she didn't know the man she loved. He lived so much life. Maybe their time together was a blink for him. A dark cloud passed through her eyes, taking the smile from her face.