The soothing night breeze gently tickled her face skin, while she remained wrapped in the warmth of his coat, he had given to her earlier.
They had spent most of the day in this place; a lake at the foot of a rocky hill that stood at the boundary between Argan and the capital. It was not the main passage used by travelers anyways, so it was always desolate. To be honest, its serenity and calmness was just what she needed to calm her nerves down after what happened in the morning.
She had totally forgotten about Vesper, Khalan and their fight for the long hours she had spent here and only wished to be drowned in its peace for the rest of her life just as she was now.
"Here" Hal handed her a finely peeled apple.
She had long lost count of how many times he handed her fruits to eat throughout their stay here, he was just too concerned about her not going hungry and kept stuffing her with all the fruit she had missed him coming with, not saving any for himself.
"Is that the last one?" she asked, looking into the basket he had put them in to find it empty.
"Yes" he nodded.
"You should have it then" she pushed his hand that handed her the apple earlier back to him.
"I am not hungry. Besides, I brought them all for you" he said, handing her the apple once again.
"You brought them all for me?" her tone grew soft.
"Yes" his black orbs held this intense care within them while he spoke.
Saskia paused a bit, stared intently at him while she had just one thought in mind; how could he care so much for her even though they just met days ago?'
She was not used to people showing her this much care and not expecting anything in return, especially men. It always seemed as if she had to give something in return for each unexpected favor she was shown but here he was, beating down all that ideology that stated it impossible for one to be genuinely kind and not want anything in return or was she speaking too soon?
Yes. She might be judging him too soon. He was a man after all, embodied with pure lust, whether human or spirit she had seen enough to be easily deceived like she almost was just now.
She understood that he may be all kind to her because of her parents' sacrifice for the spirit race, but he was not the first spirit to bear this kind arc. Although she genuinely accepted all their goodness towards her, she could not help but feel uneasy about this spirit before her.
He was so appealing, kind, cared about her even down to the most overlooked things. He had shown her all this just in the short period of time they had known each other and in as much as she hated so much to admit it, she thinks she might be taking a likening to him already.
"Are you alright?" he asked her, noticing how much she zoned out, completely engrossed in her thoughts.
"Yes" she nodded quickly, "I am fine. We have been here for hours; there is no way I would believe you are not hungry. Have the apple" she pushed his hand back to him for the second time, "I insist."
"Oh" Hal paused a bit. "Thank you then." He breathed then sank his teeth deep into the apple, giving Saskia, who kept her gaze fixed on him the opportunity to notice his slightly elongated fangs.
It was not strange to her however, she already knew he was a spirit and just got to realize that she had no idea what clan he was from.
"You are of the panther clan, right?" she asked instinctively, choosing to rather guess that ask him directly. "You must be of a black panther descent, right?" 'His black orbs must mean something' she thought.
Hal felt his mortal heart stop pulsing for few seconds, it was finally here, a moment he never wished would make its way to him too soon. However, it was here and he must face it. Still in his thoughts, he debated on what answer to give her. He could simply go ahead and tell her the truth right now but that would be too much for her to handle, he was very sure of that.
His race was the most dreaded among all five races by humans. They were believed to be blood thirsty, full or wrath, beings of darkness and completely enslaved under the honey thorns of unquenchable lust.
Of truth, all these stereotypes were not wrong at all. They were all that and more, but it could be controlled. Also, they had love in them too, maybe obsession and total possession over their mates but that did not mean that they could not be loved and could not be the sweetest towards whoever their demon mate conscience recognizes.
But she was still a human after all, he had no idea how to explain all this to her without unintentionally scaring her out of his life completely. Moreover, he was yet to think about their mating, there was no way she could handle his true form slipping out slowly at each feeling and touch of pleasure. No way, she was not going to take this at all. She cannot, impossible.
"Why are you suddenly quiet" she squinted her grey peepers. "Surprised I got it on the first guess?" she smiled cheekily.
"Guess I did a bad job hiding it properly" he returned her smile, his was a lot stiffer and more unnatural like he was being forced to, and she noticed it but chose to act oblivious. "You are indeed very smart" he added.
"Of course I am" she sounded proud of herself. She just took a wild guess and was right at once. It was no surprise however, she has always been well acquainted with the spirit race since she was a child till date. Even her best friend was a spirit too.
'Oh no!' her expression turned blue. 'Her best friend! Vesper!' she had totally forgotten about her and thinking about her now made her remember that she was not feeling well before they left the mansion, she must return immediately and find out how she was doing.
"What is it?" Hal asked, seeing her mood swing to one he was not comfortable with.
"We have spent so much time here. I almost forgot about Vesper" her tone was filled with worry. "She was still unwell when we left, I must return to find out how she is fairing."
"Alright then, let us return immediately."
He spread his arms out to receive her so he could teleport them together to the mansion but suddenly, something strange started happening.
The lake began boiling up profusely, so much that they could feel the heat from the boulder they sat on.
"What is going on?" Saskia' asked under terrified breaths.
"I have no idea, stay close to me" Hal pulled her closer into his arms, his eyes fixated on the lake to know what was actually going on and just then, it all seemed to calm down.
The lake stopped boiling and it all came to rest.
However, Hal remained alert, not very certain that the danger was finally gone and just as he predicted, in exactly three seconds, the lake burst into enormous flames, stretching farther from where they stood and towering high unto the dark night sky.
"What is going on?" Saskia cried, fear making her heart skip too many beats at once.
"I am not sure, but we must leave here now."
Without hesitation, he maintained his tightened grip around her and together they left the horror of the towering wall of blazing fire that basically appeared from nowhere.