October 31, 2003 – 06:00
"Why?" he said, frowning.
Coralis sighted when she saw the confusion on his face. He looked disappointed.
"I'm not saying I won't complete it ever, but it's just not the time, for more than one reason."
"I won't change my mind about you if that's what you're worried about," he said, remembering what Sebastian had told him.
"I know, I'm not doubting you," she said, putting on her underwear before going to the table to fill a cup with coffee. "I remember what you said on the field and afterwards."
"You want to be sure you won't change your mind?"
"It's not that either. I can't change my mind about you, we're past that point," she said softly, lifting her branded finger. "We're in the middle of a witch hunt, where everyone everywhere is persecuting anyone they think is summoning demons and shit like that. You walking around with what looks like a tattoo representing our world and linking you to a witch isn't safe."
"I didn't think of that, but from my understanding so far, they're mythological symbols, not related to witchcraft. I'd need to be careful where I'm walking shirtless."
"True, but most people don't know the difference. About 3 years ago, I met with a childhood friend of my mother. She didn't know anything about my bloodline, other than my grandfather telling my dad to never mark his mate. I need to find out why."
He stayed silent for a minute, thinking about what she just said.
"I remember when you and Seb explained the mating ritual to my family, that was less than 3 years ago."
"Yes, and it wasn't something I was going to mention in front of your entire family at the time. When we dropped off Audrey, while we waited for your aunt, Sebastian admitted that he nearly proposed to your sister that night, but felt that it wasn't the time. He wasn't sure if your sister wanted him that way, considering what it meant to us."
"Really?" he said, refilling his cup of coffee.
"Yes, so I mentioned to him about what I just told you. You had already hinted at the topic, but like I've told you before, you needed to figure out what you wanted, so I said to him that I'd tell you when we get there… and, well… you caught me off-guard last night… so here we are."
Frank laughed at that.
"I guess I did, uh!"
"I know I've got an aunt somewhere that should be still alive. I mean, my dad's sister."
"One of the relatives you mentioned as 'don't wanna be found'?"
"Yes. I'll try to reach out to my mother's friend again, to see how I can contact my dad's sister if she is still alive. Hopefully, she knows something. Before I complete the bond with you, that's something I need to do."
He was disappointed, but he understood that it wasn't against him, that it wasn't because she didn't want to complete it with him. She had told him Yes and even wore her people's branding proving it. She committed to him.
"I understand," he said, pulling her to him to hold her in a tight hug. "I was supposed to go to work at 11, I think I should call my boss now to let him know that I won't be coming."
She parted from him and looked at him, frowning.
"We can continue this at a different time if you need to leave now."
"Nah, this is more important. I don't know when the next time will be, and we haven't slept the entire night. It's only a meeting at 11. I'm supposed to be covering a movie release in the evening, I might make it to that one, we'll see."
Frank grabbed his pants to pull his phone out of his pocket.
"One last thing I should mention about the mating mark," she said, and Frank stopped what he was doing to look at her, "unlike Stephanie… you'll probably be seeing disturbing memories… that have been buried deep down. I don't know what you will see… but if we're talking core memories… based on stories I heard… you won't be seeing happy ones and it would probably upset you or give you nightmares."
"Like it gives you nightmares sometimes?" he said, still holding his pants.
She nodded.
"I'll get us more coffee."
While she dialled for the innkeeper to order another pot of coffee, Frank dug into his pants pocket to retrieve his phone, but his hand fell on the box containing the engagement ring. He had forgotten about it. He pulled it out and dropped his pants on the floor.
She held the phone with her right hand when she brought it to her ear. He looked at her left hand, the branding was bright red and still crusted. He remembered what Victoria had said the previous night about it. He took the ring and went next to her. She was talking to the innkeeper when he grabbed her hand. She glanced at him and he brought her hand to his lips to kiss its backside.
She ended her call as he slid the ring along her branded finger.
"I forgot to give you this last night, my apologies," and said and kissed her.
"I see you came fully armed. I couldn't turn you down, uh?"
"That was the idea. I didn't know where you were, but I knew where you'd be. You never miss a game," he said, pulling her again into his arms, "I wish I could just pull you away from all of this, but I know it's not something I can do, you're too much of a key player. I can only hope that the damn hunt will end soon."
"Hope so too. I need to find you a bodyguard today," she said, parting from him when she heard a knock on the door, to put her cloak back on before answering it.
"Wouldn't it be more obvious and raise flags if people see me walking around with bodyguards? I mean, I don't mind it if it can put your mind at ease, but I wonder if it'd have the opposite effect."
"You're underestimating my contacts, hun. For the past 3 weeks, two of my panthers have been keeping an eye out on you, because I needed to make sure you weren't on anyone's radar. Last month, you told me you were looking for a cameraman or someone to help you with sound and recording when you interview artists. Did you find someone?"
"No, I haven't. I'm still too new where I work, so it's not that simple."
"You remember Jessica? Your sister's boss?"
"She's a werewolf, right?"
"Yes. Liam, her son, does that type of stuff, think he's about our age. I've got no issue to pay him to protect you at work and on papers he'd be your assistant, or whatever you need him for," she said while refilling her coffee mug.
"I'd need to meet him, but it could work. When will I be able to see you again? Or at least hear from you?"
"I'm leaving for Asia tonight. I'll think of something to talk to you without raising suspicions on your end."
"Luv, you're overthinking it. It's very easy for me to justify calls from unknown numbers without even telling a lie," he said while grabbing his pants again.
"How?"
"As far as everyone is concerned, I just got myself a fiancée who has deep trust issues and holds dearly to her privacy, which isn't a lie. They're after Blue Thunder, but no one knows anything about Coralis Golmar, so let them think she's human. Your elemental nickname used to protect you from your foes, but right now, it's your civil name protecting you."
She stared at him, not knowing what to say. He was right. He pulled his phone out of his pocket.
"What about this: you worry about protecting me from your people, and I worry about protecting you from my people? We're a team, luv."
She walked up to him to kiss him.
"All right, deal! One more thing. If someone ever comes for me and I'm not around, send them to me, no matter who it is. If you claim that you don't know, most of my foes aren't above torturing people or getting into people's minds to get the information they want and I can't have them touching you if they think you're lying."
"How would that be protecting and helping you?"
"By keeping yourself alive and ensuring I won't go on a rampage that would get me killed. I can fight them if they come for me, but I don't want them touching you to get to me."
"Oh, all right. I send them to you and warn you when they're gone?"
"Sure."
He looked at his phone and saw 6 missed calls and over a dozen text messages.
"Damn, it seems I was distracted. I'll look at them later, it's probably people asking about you."
His phone rang. It was his mother.
"Yes, she said Yes," he said as he picked it up and put her on speakerphone.
"Oh, that's great news, I knew she would."
"There was no way I could have answered differently."
"Frank was so worried about you, I'm glad to hear you two are together right now. I was also calling about something else."
"Did something happen? I had tons of missed calls and text messages, I thought it was from people wanting to know her answer, but maybe not?"
"It's about her and Sebastian, so probably both."
Coralis frowned, wondering if she should call Erik and Henry.
"Me and Sebastian? What else happened, besides what went down at the flyball field last night?"
"Countries have updated their lists of most wanted witches and persons of interest. Apparently, some got killed and it needed to be updated, but the UK will be using them too. You are now 12th on their Most Wanted list, and Sebastian is now listed on the Other Ones of Interest list."