Time with Kyle was nothing I would have possibly imagined. He was funny, a good conversationalist and made me feel warm in a way that I had never felt before. Was this what having a friend was like? Were we even friends?

I wanted us to stay there for as long as we could, not leaving. I wanted to keep asking and answering questions even though I knew I had a lot to hide and didn't plan to tell him. He was a vampire. I knew that. It was mostly rude to ask a vampire about their family because most of the time, their family was dead. Most vampires were turned and rarely born.

And yet, maybe it was because he had answered my other questions but I wanted to know about his siblings and why he said they weren't complete.

My mouth opened to retort to him telling him I had asked too many questions when I heard a little squeaky noise outside the room we were in and my head turned sharply in alarm toward the door. He also turned to look at the direction where the sound was coming from and his expression took on a strange look that I couldn't decipher. This person in front of me looked more worn and serious. But I couldn't dwell on his own expressions because my guards were automatically up again and I rushed up from where I had been sitting.

"I can't believe we got so carried away that we forgot we are not supposed to be here. I can't get caught. We cannot get caught." I rushed, already panicking slightly. With him, for some reason I had lowered my guard and forgotten where I was. There could be someone out there. We were still slaves. I didn't know how things worked here but it was not uncommon for slaves to be killed because they did something they were not supposed to. I thought back to the small slip of cloth in my room that said I was free after this. I couldn't get killed. Not now.

"Gale...calm down. I'm sure it's nothing." Kyle tried to say. I don't know why he was not afraid. Maybe his master or mistress was lenient but I wasn't sure about Lady Karayan. There was something about her......

"I don't.... I mean.... we are not supposed to be here. We really have to go." I said, moving towards the door but he stood up so fast and his hand grabbed mine, tingling erupting where he touched me and I sucked in a deep breath. My reaction to him was unbelievable. I turned to stare into his eyes. They looked pool black in this lighting and his expression had changed into one of such seriousness that it should have been scary, except that it wasn't.

One touch from this beautiful stranger and my breath hitched in my throat, my vision got blurry and I felt like I was supposed to be here. What witchcraft was this? Even then, what should have scared me pulled me. Reluctantly, I dragged my hand gently away, my eyelids fluttering up to look at him.

His eyes were closed and in the next second they were open, looking so very intense. His lips pursed. He hesitated like he wanted to say something but then changed his mind and his shoulders slumped. I wanted to know what he wanted to say but it appeared he had changed his mind.

"Alright then. We should leave. Before we are found here." He said resigned. Why was I disappointed? I was the one who wanted us to leave.

"You said you wanted us to go somewhere tomorrow?" I asked, eager for something to say to fill the silence. A small smile rose on his lips, the side of his lips quirking up in a barely there fashion.

"Well Flower, I didn't say that in those words but yes. I will find you." He spoke mysteriously, leaving my mind wondering. This was dangerous. This was reckless. I was supposed to be laying low. Not making friends. Not meeting handsome men in dark rooms in the middle of the night. Not practically promising to meet him again heaven knows where and do heaven knows what. But heavens be damned this felt so right.

"Alright then." I replied, feeling my face stretch in an unavoidable small smile in return.

"Good night then Kyle." I whispered. He stared at me intently then took my hand again. I ignored the sparks on contact.

"I apologize for being less of a gentleman before this. As the rest of the world slumbers in the remnants of sleepy bliss, and the needfulness of a good rest pushes you away, I wish you a good sleep." He whispered and kissed the back of my hand; a soft, featherlike, brush of lips, barely even two seconds long and yet enough to cause my entire body erupt into flames and my insides turn to mush.

Unbelievable. This man was unbelievable. I was unbelievable for reacting like this but in my defense, never before had I experienced something like this. This was foreign to me. Everything about this.

His hand let mine go with a gentle caress and I missed the touch already. With a small secret smile on his face, he then opened the door for me. It took me a second to regain my bearings and never before had I been so thankful that my dark skin could not show a blush. Gathering myself, I walked out of the door, down the corridor and turned the corner, going away from him. I didn't look back but I felt the heat of his gaze. He had stared at me till he could no longer see me when I turned the corner.

This night had been unexpected, and yet exciting. So exciting.

Luckily, somehow I found my way back to the servants' quarters and I climbed back into bed with Elisa, a goofy, creepy smile wide on my face.

Kyle was something else.

Despite being up most of the night, I still woke up from sleep early, just few seconds before all the other servants had to wake up. Elisa and I woke up, had our baths and went on about our day. Luckily, the girl had not noticed my absence the previous night. The whole time, I couldn't help but be distracted as I thought back to last night.

It was a bright, sunny day and the scorching heat of the sun singed my skin, warming it up, causing little beads of sweat to erupt on my forehead as I dried Lady Karayan's linen in the linen yard. The wash women would have handled this linen but Lady Karayan had insisted before that I and Elisa do it. There had been strange stains on the linen, charcoal marks mixed with blood and she instead she didn't want anyone to see it. It reeked strongly of magic but I was her slave. It was not my place to question anything or say anything. Or even suspect. She had also told us to wash it when the washer women were already done from the linen yard so no other person would see the stains.

Which is why we were currently in a large yard filled with drying linens in white, light blue, pink, peach, grey, brown and yellow. The linens were so many and so big in such a way that a mini maze of color had been formed in between the linen and one could easily get lost in them.

Elisa was on some other part of the lines drying another piece of the linen while I was here, in between two lines of completely white sets of linen trying to dry the other. With the sun, everything seemed so extra bright that I was sure I would have problems seeing immediately I got back into the house.

As if time was slowed for just a moment, and as if I had been transferred to some alternate universe, a small wind blowed, howling lowly just close to my ears and the large white linen that was hanging behind me blowed dramatically towards me and back, ripples forming on it as it made its movement. Something felt strange, like it was the effect of magic.

The linen blowed back towards me, slowly and the wind howled again just close to my ears but this time, as my heart thundered lowly in my chest and I felt like I had been transported, a small voice, barely audible at first then slowly getting louder but never getting louder than a whisper spoke, the sound carried with the strange wind.

The linen blowed back to its spot and then blowed again towards me, the ripples forming on its body.

"Gabrielle...." The voice whispered at length. The voice was low, like a strange faraway sound. I couldn't determine if it was male or female. It sounded weak...like the voice from a lost dream. A part of me was afraid, and yet a part of me, the part I usually reached out to when I summoned my magic but singing out loud, crying, trying to connect with that voice.

And then just like it came, it went again. Time resumed its normal course and just as if one had snapped their fingers, the wind stopped howling, the linens settled and the magic left the air leaving me breathless and wanting.

What was that voice?

I wanted to reach out to it. I had never felt like that.... almost at home. I wanted to cry. I wanted to look for it. But before I could express any other thing, one of the linen turned and Jaira's face poked through, smiling.

I was disoriented. Had she been the one doing that? But it had felt so different. So warm. So at home. Jaira may have been strange but I hadn't felt that with her. But was it a coincidence that the linen stopped blowing just as she walked through?

That witch!!