His Favourite Obsession

Visit

Viviene's POV

I was on the terrace and the moon was so bright it made me squint. A chill went up my neck. The same chill I used to get on Lydia's birthday, before everything happened, before my parents died. My hand moved to the door on its own, old habit, locked everything and hide in my room. But my feet didn't move. I just stood there.

The night air touched my face and I didn't flinch. My chest wasn't tight. My hands weren't shaking. I didn't want to run.

That was strange. For three years I've been scared of the dark. The dark is where the voice was, the one that told me to sleep that night. The dark is where things hide. But tonight the dark felt almost gentle, and I didn't know what to do with that. I didn't trust it. But I stayed outside anyway, just breathing, just watching the moon, until my eyes got heavy and I went inside.

I didn't lock the bedroom door. I saw myself not lock it. Then I got into bed and closed my eyes and the sleep came fast. No dreams. No faces. Nothing.

I don't remember lying down.

~•~•~•~•~•~

Lucas's POV

I don't know why I was outside her house again. I was running and then I stopped because she was there, on the terrace, just standing with her face up toward the moon. The fear coming off her was thick, the way it always is, bitter and sharp and so familiar I could taste it. Under the fear there was sadness. Under the sadness there was something soft I don't have a word for.

I pushed a little calm toward her. Not much. I didn't want to do too much. Just enough so she could sleep without the nightmares for one night. She needed rest. Tomorrow would be hard and I couldn't stop it but I could give her tonight.

She went inside and I waited. When the light in her room clicked off I climbed up to the balcony. The railing is old and it groaned but she didn't wake up. She was already asleep, curled up small with her hands under her chin like a little kid. I sat there watching her through the glass until the sun came up and burned my skin.

I jumped down and ran to the car. My arms were already red even through the window.

"You're wearing a t-shirt."

Sebastian. Sitting in the passenger seat like he belonged there. He's been doing this since we were kids.

"I told you to go home last night," I said.

"Father called." He crossed his arms and he looked like our father when he did that. "He's mad. You broke the agreement."

"I didn't break anything. I was just visiting."

"Visiting." He said the word flat, the way you say a word you don't believe. "That's what you call it."

I started the car.

"The law is the law," he said. He wasn't smiling now. "You got your final warning three years ago. Father said he'd burn you if you mess up again. He meant it."

I smiled a little. I couldn't help it. The old man has been threatening to burn me for a hundred years.

~•~•~•~•~•~

Viviene's POV

I woke up feeling light. That was new. I didn't trust it but I felt it. My chest wasn't tight. My jaw wasn't sore from clenching. I smiled a little while getting out of bed. Just a little. I don't remember the last time I did that.

I Showered , ate beakfast at the table instead of standing over the sink. Then to the office.

The Kallean Financial Firm was already busy when I got there. Uncle Theodore was at my desk fixing a nameplate. It said my name in small letters and I stared at it too long.

"This is yours," he said. "Good luck, hija."

"Thank you."

I sat down and worked. Calls. Appointments. A meeting at eleven and another one at two. By five o'clock my eyes burned and my shoulders hurt and I was so tired but it felt good. The kind of tired that means you did something real.

Uncle Theodore came to my desk. "Tired, hija?"

"A little. My body forgot what work feels like."

He nodded. Then his face did that thing where he's choosing his words carefully. "We have a meeting tomorrow night. A charity ball but there's business too. You'll need to come."

My hand started shaking. Just the fingers at first. "At night?"

"Yes, hija."

I swallowed. The good feeling from the whole day went cold in my stomach. "Uncle, I can't. You know I can't. The dark, I just — can I please skip this one? Please."

He looked at my hand. I know he saw it shaking because he looked right at it and then his face went soft. "Okay," he said. "Next time."

He didn't say it mean. He said it like he was hoping there would be a next time. That made my chest hurt a little.

I was quiet the whole way home. He waited in the driveway until I got inside before he drove off.

I locked the doors. Shut the windows. Got into bed. And then I lay there waiting for the fear to come.

It didn't come.

That should have made me feel good. It didn't.

~•~•~•~•~•~

Lucas's POV

Same spot on her balcony. Same railing groaning under my weight.

She was asleep. Curled up the same way as before. The calm I gave her last night was still there but thinner now. She had a good day. I could feel it in the way she slept, looser and softer. Satisfied about something.

That made her more open. Peaceful people don't see things coming.

"You've been here for days now."

Sebastian sat next to me on the railing. No smirk this time.

"I'm worried," he said. "Do you actually get what Father will do if you slip?"

"I'm not doing anything wrong."

"Not yet." He looked through the glass at her face. "But what about when you get close to her? What about when you want to taste her? Like before. You promised, Lucas."

I didn't answer. I just watched her breathe. Her face looked young in the moonlight. It did something to my chest I don't know how to say.

"Stay away from her," I said.

"I'm not the one you need to worry about."

He left. No sound. He's always been good at that.

I went to the DarkNight Club after. It's the only place people like us can go. The bouncer bowed and said something I didn't listen to. I walked to the bar and drank.

I've been drinking for a hundred years. It doesn't help but I still do it.

~•~•~•~•~•~

Viviene's POV

Two weeks went by.

Wake, shower, work, sleep. The same every day. The routine helped and I was too tired at night to think much, so the fear came less. Not because I was braver but because I didn't have the energy for it. That was fine. I told myself it was fine.

Then Lydia took me to a bar.

Bachelorette's. A place for single women and the men who hunt them. I wore my old pants ,a sweatshirt and flat shoes. No makeup and just a thick glasses on my nose. I looked like someone's aunt who got lost on the way home.

"Drink!" Lydia yelled over the music.

"No."

She ordered me a mojito anyway. "Just one. After that I leave you alone." Then she was gone into the crowd.

I picked up the glass. Before I could drink, someone took it out of my hand.

I looked up. The guy standing there looked — I don't know. Gray eyes and dark hair and a face that didn't look real. Not in a bad way. Just in a way that made me forget what I was doing for a second.

"Hey." His voice was low but I heard him fine.

"That's my drink," I said.

He didn't give it back. "Your friend ordered it. Not you."

"How did you know that?"

"I was sitting behind you."

"Oh."

I reached for the glass again. He leaned closer and his mouth was near my ear and my heart started going too fast. "Mojito is bad for you. Let's throw it away."

I nodded. I didn't mean to nod. My head just did it.

He put the glass down. I looked at myself in the mirror behind the bar. Old sweatshirt,bad hair and thick glasses. Sitting next to women in tiny dresses and high heels. And next to me, him. It was so stupid I almost laughed out loud.

I grabbed the mojito back and drank it in one go. "Waiter! Another one."

He was looking at me. Not at the other women. At me.

"What?" I said.

"Are you trying to get drunk?"

"Two drinks." I held up two fingers. "Then I go home."

"How?"

"Lydia. She's here somewhere."

The waiter brought my second drink. I smiled at him. "Thank you."

The man next to me made a sound. Low, like a growl. When I looked at him he was staring at the waiter with his jaw tight and his hands curled on the bar. I felt that prickle on my neck. The one that means something is off. Not fear exactly. But close.

I ignored it. I saw Lydia near the bar and almost cried from relief. I grabbed her wrist.

"Take me home." I said, and I didn't look back.

~•~•~•~•~•~

At home I locked everything and sat on my bed in the same sweatshirt with the same glasses. I kept thinking about his face. Those gray eyes. The way he leaned close and for a second I forgot to be scared.

I didn't ask his name. It doesn't matter.

I was wearing my worst clothes. No makeup. Glasses thick like windows. A man who looks like that doesn't look at a woman who looks like me.

I'm sure of it.

I'm sure of a lot of things.