Levina darted her eyes between I and Raul, wondering if it was a good choice to leave the drama that was about to unfold.
When she stood up, I was sure that she had made the choice to hear a drama she wanted to happen, from me; for if she chose to stay, it might not happen. It amused me.
I watched, keeping the amusement away from my face, as she sauntered away from me, to the door. She was about to leave when Raul suddenly called her back, drawing my attention to him for the first time since he had come into the store room.
“What’s my mother delivery doing here?”
It was then I realized that I was still squatting by the carton. Oh god. I mentally palmed my head, since doing that physically would only toughen the uncertain situation we were already in. How do I convince Raul that I had not touched the carton?
“I don’t know. We had been offloading the cartons when we had seen it.” Levina’s confidence was something to be envied.
Raul looked at her, and then at me. I had stood up immediately he had asked the question, never mind that he had already seen me. “So, you two didn’t touch it?” He was looking at me as he asked this, as if he could read my mind.
“We were curious. But we couldn’t get around opening it. It seemed the plaque had been stuck somewhere, preventing us from opening it.” I answered, knowing from the sudden softening of his eyes from panic to calmness that he had bought my answer. I had believed that saying that we didn’t touch it was unbelievable, to anyone else for that matter.
But why had he panicked? Wasn’t it just wine? Didn’t he know what’s in the carton already? Was he just protecting his mother blindly? Was that the reason he was working here; to make sure that the wine got to his mother, including her other deliveries?
Well, it was a good set up if I must say. I inhaled softly, when Levina nodded at me, and left, having noted that the conversation involving her was over. Now, it was just I and Raul.
I didn’t ask him what he wanted with me, why he wanted to see me, rather I sat down on one of the cartons and waited. He must have waited for today, seeing that I was only in the storeroom on Fridays. The other days were spent on the counter.
“You aren’t going to talk to me really? You are rating me together with the triplets?
I said nothing. It wasn’t a question that required my input.
He sighed, kicked a carton to my side, and sat on it. “Dora, are you angry with me?”
I shook my head in reply. “I just want to be alone at the moment.”
“Is it because of what happened last weekend?”
I looked at him then, to explain what had really happened last weekend, to explain his own point of debate. When his eyes left mine to gaze at my neck, I knew what exactly he was talking about.
“I see you are covering it. Who gave you the mark? Who bit you?”
Panic started in my belly then. I saw it first in the unsteadiness of my hands. Quickly, I placed them within my thighs, and then worked on stilling my mind. It was just Raul and he was just asking a question. “I don’t want to talk about that.”
“Yeah, I can see that. How had you kept it hidden all this while? Why not attempt to do the same now if you want it to stay hidden still?”
How do I explain to him that I hadn’t been the one that had covered the mark the first time? How do I tell him I’ve been searching for ways to cover it, but to no avail? At the end, I settled for a shrug of my shoulders. There was nothing to say.
“Did someone cover it for you the first time?”
I nodded; it didn’t seem okay ignoring him again, and the question was a harmless one.
“So, do you want my help in covering it?”
I hadn’t expected the question. I had thought he would make a remark concerning how I was unable to use a cloaking spell, despite the level of my magic. Could he really cover it? I soughed. I had been avoiding my helper all this while. I gave a nod again. He shifted closer to me.
“My mother taught me this spell specially. She says it would work in a case where other cloaking spells fail. Hopefully, it will work this time around.”
“Can it be removed?”
Raul cocked his head to the side, his hand suspended in the air. “I don’t think so. Only if there is a higher energy or power at work. Most times, it stays put. Should we try it?”
I nodded. Of course try it!
I didn’t close my eyes, wanting to see his expression, when he gently removed the scarf from my neck. There was a note of surprise mixed with unbelief in them, but it was quickly pushed down to blankness, aloofness, right before he placed his hand above the mark, and shut his eyes.
Up close, Raul looked so beautiful. His eyelashes were thick black and long; the same story with his eyebrows. His nose was aristocratic, and his soft lips…I remembered the last kiss that we had shared in the storeroom. I was still thinking of that, when he spoke: “You are looking at my lips like you want to forget…”
He smiled then, his eyes still closed, ushering me into the presence of his glittering white teeth that was evenly shaped. I chuckled, and then stiffened when I felt the tendrils of magic working on the mark, working on covering the mark.
I knew when it was done. It barely lasted thirty seconds.
“See, your skin is as good as new.”
I stood up from the carton when he opened his eyes, partly because the view was distracting, and partly because I wanted to check out his work on the window.
“Thanks…” I muttered gratefully, when I saw that the mark was now unseen. I was still admiring the neat work that gave me no pain, when I felt him behind me.
“You didn’t ask me why I didn’t speak any words…”
I shrugged my shoulders, my breath catching when he slithered his hands around my waist, and pulled himself closer to me.
“I didn’t see the need. We are in the same magic class after all; we mostly work with our minds.” I answered softly, aware of the spike in my heart rate. We were two classes ahead of Rachel, and three ahead of Duke. The latter had graduated from the school, but he still attended the class, just like other people in the community.
Although the magic classes was conducted in the school environment, it was separated from our normal classes, and compulsory to everyone in the community. It was just a training ground with levels, with people training to be better.
“That’s right.” He dropped a kiss on my neck.
I inhaled deeply, wanting this, but knowing that I didn’t need it, not when I wasn’t remotely interested in a relationship with him at the moment. So, I took his arms from my waist and let them fall to his sides. Then, I turned around and stared at him blandly. “Were you expecting a payment for helping me?”
Unbelief buttered his features. He scoffed in response, and folded his arms across his chest. “Are you being serious now, Dora? Why would you think touching you is my method of collecting payment? Is this my first time of touching you?”
“No, but I didn’t give you permission this time.”
“You mean like I didn’t give you permission to use me on Friday to keep the boys away from you…”
I piqued my eyebrow as if I didn’t know what he was talking about.
“Don’t give me that look. You know I had wondered why you had suddenly wanted to kiss me, and then the next moment whilst we did so, the Lycan boys happened to be there. Seeing that mark now, I can finally understand it. You heard them coming.”
I made no effort to deny, not like he gave me a choice. He was on a roll.
“The mark on your neck was given to you by either a werewolf or a vampire; and since vampires are viler than death, they can’t bit you and you still remain alive…or wait…is that why you had been in a coma? You had been bitten by a vampire? How did you survive? That would explain your heightened senses… But doesn’t that mean your blood is corrupted?”
He sure had an active imagination. I thought, relaxing the grip I had on my heart, when I thought that he was making a headway with his theory earlier. Well, he almost did.
But I wasn’t sure what that meant for me, seeing the confusion mixed with disgust in his eyes. Yet that was understandable if he was correct. Only that he was not.
He was about to speak again, when Levina strolled inside the room without knocking. Girl was really intent on seeing something. She paused a few feet away from Raul and I.
The slight frown on her face told me something was up. What now?
“A girl called Naomi is here. She said she is your friend…?”