Alejo

-----

"Are you done soon?" I asked from the couch.

"In just a minute!" Morana shouted back at me.

I smiled to myself at how adorable she was. She had spent at least the last hour getting ready in her room for the party she was going to that evening. It really was a shame I couldn't go with her. She had been so excited about it when she'd told me and gone on a long tangent on how she loved Halloween. Going with her to the party would definitely be much more fun than what I had to do that evening.

Everything had been amazing since Mabon. Spending time with Morana was better than anything I had ever done. Even when we just watched a movie together, it was all so much more fun than anything else. It had all made me able to forget about the shitty parts of my life. That in itself made the day feel even worse than usual.

I stared off to the side, out the window. The sun had already set, but it was not dark quite yet. I tried to not think about that it was Samhain while that was the only thing I could think about, when I heard the clearing of a throat.

"Tada!" Morana said, as I turned my head to look at her.

She wore a black corset dress which had a Victorian air to it, though much less puffy. To cover herself a bit more, she wore a black lace bolero with long sleeves and a wide opening at the wrists. And, of course, she wore a witch hat.

Her outfit made it suddenly make sense to me why she had also been washing out the black color from her hair and then spent time coloring it earlier today. It had become white and stood out a lot compared to all of the black.

"What do you think?" she asked and did a quick spin.

"That you're the best-looking witch I've ever seen," I smiled at her, and it definitely was the case. Both when it came to real witches and people dressed up as witches.

She pouted at my answer and said in a fake hurt tone, "And I wasn't that before?"

"That's true," I nodded. "You've always been the best-looking witch I've ever seen."

She laughed, seemed to take my words as me playing along with her. It was the truth though. She was the most beautiful witch, the most beautiful person I had ever seen.

I still couldn't understand how she wasn't my mate. Over the past month, I had tried to make sense of it and tried to find some reason for why we weren't perfect for each other. But even her annoying habits weren't annoying at all. Like that she seemed to be incapable of finishing a cup of coffee. And would always leave the half-drunken cup in the sink instead of emptying it and putting it into the machine.

It definitely was a thing which should cause annoyance and I had waited for it to do so. But so far it hadn't. Instead, that cup only served as a reminder of that she was there and it always made me smile.

"So, when will you be off to the coven?" she asked and walked over to me.

"I don't have to be there until slightly before midnight," I answered as she sat down and did my best to hide my emotions. The only good thing was that the Samhain ceremony was short. It started at midnight and I was usually done with the cleaning by one. The bad part was that they did still take a lot of blood, probably the most blood out of all of the holidays. And since it was done in one go, it always made me extra weak.

"Will you be alright?" she asked and frowned slightly. Evidently, I hadn't done a good job of hiding my feelings.

"I will. No need to worry. I'm used to it," I answered and smiled. I placed a finger between her eyebrows to smooth out the wrinkle which was there.

She didn't seem convinced, but also didn't press the topic further.

"So you want me to take you to the party?" I asked to change the topic. Being with Morana was far too good to waste it on unhappy things.

"Well, I am running a bit late, so ehm, could you teleport me there?" She asked it with some uncertainty, but her eyes lit up in a way which made me sure she was excited at the prospect of magic.

She really seemed to enjoy all the magic I had taught her and she definitely was a natural at it. She got better and better much faster than I had expected and it filled me with pride. But also some worry, which I thankfully had managed to keep Morana from sensing. I knew her potential for magic was much, much greater than what I could teach her and what would she do when she found out she couldn't learn more from me? Would she try to find another teacher? Ask to be introduced to the coven? And then what?

But every time my mind went in those directions, I forced myself to focus on the here and now. Like the fact that she was excited about the prospects of me teleporting her.

"Sure," I answered and stood up.

She stood as well, and I put my arms around her. I hugged her much more intimately than what was needed, but relished in the physical contact. Then I twisted my body while concentrating on the address she had told me earlier that day.

In the next moment, we stood in an alleyway next to a club. We walked out of it together and almost instantly Dereck was next to us.

I had to suppress a snort.

He wore a long black cap that was red on the inside and had a red collar. Black pants and vest but a ruffle white shirt underneath and had painted a red line from the side of his mouth which I assumed was supposed to be blood. Clearly he was dressed as a vampire, though I had never seen a vampire dressed like that.

"There you are!" he said to Morana and seemed to completely ignore my presence. Which was very fine by me.

We had met by now a couple of more times, always when I had dropped Morana off or picked her up from work. There always was a certain amount of tension between us, but we seemed to have come to a silent agreement of acknowledging each other only when necessary and then keep things cordial.

"Sorry, took longer to get dressed than I thought," she answered and then did a spin for him to see the outfit just like she'd done for me. Irritation started to rise in me.

"You look amazing! Probably your best witch outfit yet," he told her, and I stopped myself from rolling my eyes.

"Thanks," she beamed.

"I should get going again," I cut into the conversation. I knew I had to leave or risk saying something rude to Dereck, which could end up hurting Morana as well. Probably would end up hurting her more than Dereck.

"Alright. I hope you have..." she started saying, but then just gave me a crooked smile, obviously knowing that wishing me a good time wasn't actually possible.

"Message me when you're ready to go home," I told her. "If I'm done, I'll come and get you."

She nodded and then gave me a hug.

"Message me at any point if there is something," she whispered quietly into my ear. She had her mouth so close to me, her lips brushed against my ear as she spoke. It sent shivers through my body, which mixed with the warmth I felt over her caring words.

"I will," I whispered back and tightened my hold on her for a second before letting go.

I knew Dereck looked at me with a murderous glare. But at that point, it didn't matter at all. The only thing I could focus on was Morana, who felt like the most amazing shining light in my life. More than that, she had during the past month basically become my life. All that I did, I did for her or at least always had her in consideration.

Turning around and walking back into that alley felt incredibly hard. Much harder than it had ever felt to leave her at her work. It had to be because I would go home to just wait the hours which were left until midnight and then go to the coven. But it also felt like it wasn't really that.

My stomach felt heavy and my body anxious. Almost as if it tried to tell me something bad was going to happen. But it had to be because of the imminent ceremony with the coven. What else could it be?

If you did not read the warnings in the description of the book before you started to read, I would suggest reading them now. This is the only in-book-warning I will give. If you have any questions about any of the warnings, feel free to reach out to me. I'm more than happy to specify.

Elena

❤️