Cursed: Immortal

Chapter 9: The 'Fun' In 'Dysfunctional'

~Scarlet~

"It cannot be..." I whisper repeatedly, while Ian holds me, cradling me like a baby against his chest. After a few minutes of elation at knowing I can die, I snap out of my reverie, guilt gnawing at me. This was not the time to celebrate; he is obviously distraught by this.

"Ian..." I sit up, his arms loosening their hold on mine. Sighing, he lets go of me and pushes himself backwards. I pull my knees up to my chest and rest my head on them, watching him.

He gets up and runs his hand through his hair, his eyes never leaving mine. He turns towards the door, then back to me, obviously undecided, but I say nothing. I just pull on my hair, hoping he hasn't known me long enough to understand what it signifies.

Eventually, after running his hand through his hair at least a dozen times, he goes to the door again.  Turning towards me, he opens his mouth, and then closes it. Feigning indifference, I stretch my legs out, putting my arms behind me for support.

"I think we need to...take a break," he says, seemingly relieved. I get up and pull down my shirt, but stay where I am.

"If that's what you want," I shrug, "But I still have to protect you, at least until the other Council members get here." I look away from him, and cross my arms, hoping he'll leave. I knew he'd try something like this, but I'm not going to try and stop him, it's his life, after all.

He opens the door and looks back at me, obviously conflicted, but I shoo him away with my hands, and he finally leaves.

I sit back down on the floor when I feel his presence moving about his room and sigh, trying to calm myself a bit before I have to do anything else.

I'm jolted out of my meditation by the constant buzzing of my phone. I really do not like these things; all they do is make it easier for other people to stick their noses into my business.

Shaking my head, I get up and walk to my bookshelf, put the book away and turn to the staircase. Checking my phone before I go upstairs, I open a notification politely telling me that the High Council will be arriving in two days.

I groan and set the bottle down after I check the date that I got it. They would all be arriving the next morning. Picking it up again, I flash into the villa a few miles from the school grounds, the one reserved for anyone I invite to visit, and begin to open suites and clean them with various motions of my hands

When the rooms are ready I turn towards Ian's room, but stop myself and check the suites again. Each of the council members are bringing their seconds-in-command, so I have to make sure that all the rooms are set up to suit everyone.

The room for Wilhelm and Amelia is almost ready when I get there, I just have to stock them up on a few flea-repellent toiletries and they will be fine. I am very tempted to just give Gabriel a blanket in the corner of the sitting room, but think better of it, as well as putting fleas into his bed.  One of us has to act maturely, after all.

Vladimir and Svetlana would bring their own coffins (more theatrical than actually necessary), so the bed in there will need to be moved and the curtains darkened. Vampires have an aversion to sunlight that can be described as more of an allergy, though the way Svetlana acts, you'd swear she was dying. At least Dmitri was easy to ignore, he never had any problems.

Marcus and Sapphira's suites were fairly easy to do, but I still resented my father's presence in the castle. With a flick of my hand I dyed the sheets the precise colour Sapphira hates, sometimes I like being childish. Smiling to myself, I shut the door and make the bottle disappear into a dustbin.

Hades will be staying elsewhere for the duration of Ian's tests, as I refused to have him anywhere near where I reside (if I can help it), in case he tries to kill me, again.