Chapter 13 Sawyer
Sawyer
Jogging through the winter woods—again—probably suggests something is severely wrong with me. Although, I’ve already established that, so what the hell.
It’s worse this time; I’m aware a vampire is hunting me, and I’m still willingly running.
In truth, the offer of the game was to also determine the layout of the nearby land. The maps I looked at prior to coming didn’t seem too far away from the main roads, but there are also a bunch of smaller roads that connect this place to it.
I walk the entire gravel driveway-slash-road until being met with another thin road, nothing apparent within the near-darkness on either side of me. It’s a mental gamble before heading right—in the direction of the setting sun.
As soon as it’s safe for him, I have no doubt Lucian will find me nearly instantly.
After another few minutes of walking where the wind—though calmer today—nips at my face, the trees split ahead.
A road.
My steps quicken to the T, looking up and down the cement road. Surely this was the one I was driving on before my accident. Question is, which direction was I coming from, and which direction is my car in?f
As I turn around to run away and disappear before Lucian finds me too easily, headlights blind me when an SUV slowly pulls to the side. A vehicle with a symbol on the side pulls up, the reflective word revealing the letters RCMP.
Federal police. This just got more complicated. Wandering the mountain in sub-zero weather on Christmas night isn’t exactly normal, and the police in charge of patrolling Jasper National Park and the surrounding area won’t let me walk away without some sort of questioning.
The window rolls down, an officer stretching across the console until I’m in view. His mustache moves like an entity on its own as he talks, lifting his toque to see me better.
“Miss? You’re quite a ways from town. Are you okay? Need a drive?”
“Just exploring the area.” I thumb behind me. “I have a cabin nearby. I’m good.”
Please don’t ask where. Lucian won’t like a human intruding on our place.
Since when did it become ‘our’ place?
Since when was it ‘humans’ and not ‘people’?
He glances over my shoulder to the skinny dirt road behind me, frowning. “Right. Would you like a drive back? It’s too cold out here, not to mention quite late. Never know what’s roaming the woods.”
Or who. The sun is barley a glow. In minutes, Lucian will come searching.
“It’s okay, I’m heading back now and happy to walk. It’s why I came out here after all. Night, Officer, and Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas.” Reluctance is heavy in his tone, so with a final wave, I turn to walk the way I came. After another moment, tires skid.
At the bottom of the slope, as the road straightens, a figure steps out from the shadows.
Dark hair plastered by the few flakes that have begun floating down from the sky—a tribute to the night’s warmth in comparison to the past few day—makes his skin appear paler.
Eyes as dark as the shadows glint red as his body shifts, one foot in front of the other.
The sun barely set. “You found me in, like, thirty seconds flat.”
A blur takes him from the tree to me, where he cups my face and brings me closer. His touch, normally ice cold, feels warm compared to the air. He’s able to be out here in the frosty temperatures; vampires are so lucky.
“Like I said, I’ll find you anywhere.” He inhales suddenly with a sharp hiss as his hands weigh down my face and red eyes scan the area. “You smell like another human. A male.”
Jesus… It’s one thing to pick out my soap and emotions, but it’s another to pick up on the cop who was close but never touched me.
“Local police are patrolling and offered me a drive to either town or the cabin. Told him I was fine and turned around. Just as he drove off, you appeared.”
As though he didn’t hear any of what I said, his brow furrows. Hands slide from my face before he clutches me harder and claims my mouth. After a long kiss heated enough to remove the surface chill from my body, he murmurs against my lips with a wondrous tone. “You could have left.”
But I chose to stay. Once again, idiot magnet over here with a death wish.
“I want to stay.” My hands covers his, my gloves between us. “I meant it when I said I trust you.” If I’m honest with myself, I more than trust him.
His smiling is bright, a bit of fang. “I have something you’ll enjoy, but if you’re too cold, we should return and warm you up first.”
Body parts are getting numb, which is a sign. “Is it far?”
“Not with me running.”
Curiosity beats out the chill, and on my drive, I did say there was a possibility of dying on this trip. If dying while out with Lucian is the way I’ll go, so be it.
“Let’s go.”
He ducks down and lifts me into his arms, tucking my face into his shoulder as he takes off. Wind beats my back, so I can only imagine what it’d feel like on my face. I curl in tighter, tucking my neck and shoulders behind his arms.
A short while later, Lucian lowers me to my feet to the most unearthly scene.
My entire vision is consumed by the two massive mountains in the distance, one on the right and one to the left, creating a V from the navy-blue sky behind it.
The moon, low and nearly full, rests midway between the two rocky formations that draw attention to the rest of the landscape: the frozen lake covered by a thick sheen of ice and snow.
The snow glistens beneath the moonlight, wholly untouched and serene on its own.
Forests line either side of me, with a boardwalk stretching far.
“I’ve seen this before…” Images from all my online vacation planning become clearer. “Banff?” Jasper to Banff is a six-hour drive, but Lucian ran it in minutes.
“Lake Louise, to be specific. While there are many popular lakes around, this one is the most popular. In the summer, when the ice is gone, the water is so blue, so pure, it’s a crystal.” He pauses. “Like your eyes.”
Not to be self-deprecating or anything, but the colour of my eyes is nothing like what pictures depict this lake as, but the sentiment is sweet.
While I’d love seeing this place during the summer, this works too. Even with the cool wind blowing on my face and the fact my fingers and toes have long begged for heat, this is everything.
Lucian is everything.
He not only saved my life, but he showed me a world I didn’t know to exist beyond movies. He gave me the kind of holiday I dreamed about, and even a small tour of the area, knocking off one place from my mental to-see list. He’s proven he cares—as much as possible anyway.
He’s made me happy.
“Merry Christmas, Sawyer.”
My heart thumps harder, as though trying to tell me something. Something undefinable, having never felt it before. Something that’ll make tomorrow impossible, knowing it’ll be our final day together.
Tearing away from the beauty, I face him, but not without scanning the woods and mountains in the distance, the walking paths stretching on either side, the parking lot which draws endless tourists’ vehicles in the summer, and the hotel with the fortunate pleasure of Lake Louise as the background to their stay.
“Thank you for this.”
He leans down to press cool lips against my forehead. “While I’d love for you to remain, I’ve heard frostbite is an unpleasant side-effect from this kind of weather, so we shouldn’t stay much longer.”
Considering my toes barely have any feeling to them—a wiggle sends a light feedback of pressure but nothing else—Lucian is probably correct. Nonetheless, I twist back to the moon, mountains, and lake to commit them to memory.
This is one of many trips I dreamed of, but staying inside Banff, even during the off-season, costs too much. I resigned myself to not seeing the famous lake in exchange for a mountain getaway. So, while I can, before probably never returning, I study, memorize, and take it all in.
“Alright, I’m ready.”
I’m not, and he knows it too, since he waits another moment before hoisting me up and returning us home.
He strips me from most of my clothes and places me on the floor in front of the lit fire with the fuzzy blanket draped around my shoulders and tucked around my legs, and then he returns with a glass of wine before claiming the space beside me.
“You didn’t bring me clothes.”
“Once you’re not about to die of hypothermia, my plans for your body won’t require clothing.”
If he continues with his plans, I might just fall in love with him.
And that, too, would be unwise.
Right?