23. Twenty-Three - An Abnormal Courtship
Twenty-Three - An Abnormal Courtship
Edric
Ana looks so perfectly sweet between us. She and Viggo are tangled together as they sleep, both of them clinging to me as if they think I’ll get up and walk away.
And I do need to leave, but I have to take Ana away too…
I brush Viggo’s hair back from his face, tucking it behind his ear and smoothing the pad of my thumb across his cheek.
We had both been lost when he found me and from that day forward it had never felt like we needed more. But vampire-born crave connection—it’s why so many poor souls were turned before any of our species understood the drive. And I was raised with the expectation of a large family.
Our search for another partner from the village had started as a desire to connect with the people here more than we ever could on our own. We had looked at the women of the village first, simply because children... some day. But Ana... if Ana doesn’t want children she never has to have them.
“Why,” she asks, stretching against us both. “Are you watching us like that?”
“Why are you awake?” Viggo snuggles closer to her, kissing her shoulder.
“Because as much as we all hate it, Ana has to go home.”
Her eyes fly wide and Viggo groans into the pillow beneath their heads.
“What time is it?” she asks, trying to sit up and giving up immediately when Viggo’s arm keeps her down.
“There are still a few hours until dawn, but I thought we could walk you home before the sun came up and kept him trapped in here.”
“I can’t.” She looks toward the remnants of her dress that none of us can see. “If you remember, I don’t have any clothes. I can’t go traipsing about the village in nothing but a cloak and slippers.”
Viggo makes a pained sound and I also like the image my imagination supplies, just a little too much.
But she doesn’t need to worry. “I have a dress for you.”
“You do?”
I nod and Viggo lets me go, so that I can slip out of the bed.
The dress, laid out by Loric yesterday, hours before she got here, is perfectly ready to be worn.
When I gather it and return to them, she’s sitting upright, with Viggo curled around her.
She blinks at the deep green fabric draped over my arm. “You bought me a dress?”
“We did.”
“Technically, Yenna bought it,” Viggo says. “We thought it might cause too much of a stir if Penny went in and asked for a dress in your size.”
“Misses Scoggins would have interrogated you for the next week straight.”
“Exactly.”
I lay it across the chair and go back to pull my own clothes on. Nothing overly fancy this time.
I finish buttoning my shirt as I make my way back to them and stand at the foot of the bed, watching Viggo thoroughly distract her for a moment. But I clear my throat when I have the front of my trousers buttoned up and Viggo groans in protest.
“Go get dressed or we’ll leave you here to pout.”
He sticks out his lower lip as if to prove that he can pout and come with us at the same time, but he drags himself from the bed and goes to get dressed. It won’t take him long.
Ana looks like she could slide from the bed like melting ice, so I help her to stand and leave her beside the bed post as I collect the dress.
“No undergarments, I’m afraid.”
“That’s okay. You two are the only ones who will see me in it.”
“And Dorrian,” Viggo says as he rejoins us and holds her steady as I lift the dress over her head and guide the sleeves down her arms.
He tightens the laces at her back, trailing kisses along her spine as he does. And I indulge myself too.
I straighten her necklace, tucking it beneath her bodice and then I place a kiss atop each breast and one over her heart.
“You’re making it very hard to want to leave,” she says with a sigh.
“That’s the point, sweetling.” Viggo presses his next kiss to her cheek. “We have to make sure you come back.”
She smiles in that soft lazy way of someone who’s not completely awake yet. “Invite me and I’ll always come.”
“Yes you will.”
Fully—if not properly—dressed, we lead her down the stairs, and I give Blicks a warning glance when he waits for us by the door, our coats and her cloak in hand.
“Good morning, m’lord, mistress, sir.”
She’s sleepy enough, I hope she didn’t notice Blicks’ use of a title she hasn’t yet agreed to. We will have to have a chat later in the day.
He helps us each into our cloaks, handing Viggo his hat, and wishes Ana farewell, weaseling a promise to return out of her.
We’ll talk about that too.
“He’s nice,” she says, leaning on my arm, fingers twined with Viggo’s.
We take the longer path that leads us south until we’re beyond the village before turning west.
The town might love her, but it’s better if she’s not seen out in the middle of the night with us. And Viggo... well, for the moment it’s still better if they don’t know he’s here at all.
But her home sits at the southeast corner of the town and backs up onto a thicket of trees. She kisses us both when we reach the edge of those trees and can go no further with her.
“I will see you soon,” she says as Viggo kisses her wrist and when she turns to me, “And I will see you sooner.”
“Maybe.” Viggo says and I don’t ask what he has planned.
We watch her slip in through the back door to her house.
“She locked it tight,” Viggo says quietly, hearing what I cannot. “And she’s in her room.”
I slip my hand in his and drag him away. He would probably stay here, listening to her sleep until dawn came and turned him to ash.
But he follows me back toward the manor.
“I will be as patient as I can be,” he says when we are far enough away from the village that no sound we make would disturb them. “I will let you tell me when we can ask for more than these stolen nights, but I cannot promise that I will be able to behave for long.”
“If you want her, you have to be patient.”
He makes a face “Accelerate your timeline, or be prepared for my foul moods.”
I laugh and slip my arm around him, drawing him close. “Sometimes you have to work for it. Not everyone is going to take one look at you and decide you’ll be a part of their life forever, or else.”
“You did.”
“I did. And I believe she’ll come around.” I kiss his forehead when we reach Dorrian. “She likes us... we need to work up to love.”
He scowls at me. “Are you coming in? Or are you going to commune with nature?”
“I’ll be back before midday.”
Viggo stops halfway inside. “Penny?”
“Yes?”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Dorrian closes himself and the dryad trapped in the planks smirks at me.
“Is there something you’d like to say?” I ask him.
“Only that you need to keep watering that flower. She blooms with you.”
“I will take that under advisement.”
I trek into the forest—the land I do not own, but that which the Queen bade me to protect—and imagine what it would be like to bring Ana with me on these walks. I wonder how differently she sees this forest.
As the sun rises, the things that used to catch my eye—bear tracks, teeth marks on bark, the tangle of poison ivy—are joined by things I would have overlooked before.
The blue-tipped fern beneath the wide trunk of one tree could do with some pruning... and the dried leaves are a base for several potions.
I have to stop myself from plucking up a bouquet of the different things I see. I can’t take them to her... not yet. But I do keep a list of them, tucking it away as I reach the lake that sits in the middle of my forest.
The silver water catches the light just so and for a moment, I simply stand and stare at it.
Viggo’s right, a normal courtship won’t do for Ana.
I cannot put my finger on it, but something buried deep inside of me makes me think we’re running out of time.