Chapter 15

“Time of Reconciliation ... Time of Rebalancing.

Reason over Emotion.

Reinforcement of the Sacred Bound between those who walk the Path.

The Moon, in the Sky, is Full and Bright."

- The Prophet of Truth

Alexis entered his room with a tired sigh, but immediately stopped by the door as he felt her presence.

“Sarah …” the name rolled out of his lips with a longing he had refused to acknowledge up till then, and as she didn’t answer, he closed his eyes and allowed the shadows surrounding him to show him the world he couldn’t see.

Sarah was lying on his bed and by her rhythmic, calm breathing he knew she’d fallen asleep, tired of waiting for him.

In silent steps he walked to the bed and the shadows covering her told him in detail the way she was lying, with her right arm under her head, her right hand half opened, her tousled hair spread all over his bed. Her scent filled him in a way he couldn’t help shudder. Everything about her was simply perfect.

“I’m just a coward,” he admitted in a low voice, not wanting to wake her. “And I know you’re right … But it’s just too scary, knowing that I can’t always be by your side to protect you. And I just didn’t want you to know about the fear that eats me inside at the thought that … something might happen to you.”

Sarah smiled softly before his honesty and opened her eyes to look at him. He was so beautiful, so unreal sitting there, right beside her. In fact the only thing missing from that breathtaking picture was the light from his stormy gaze.

“I know,” she told him, sitting up, and he seemed surprised to hear the sound of her voice. “What do you think I feel, every time you leave and I just stay here, not knowing where you are or how to reach you? When the only certainty I have is that I’ll never be able to help you, even if you need me?” Alexis took a deep breath and then her arms were around his neck, and there was nothing more important or more real than her warmth. “Are they a weight?” she asked leaning her head against his shoulder and her breath, so close to his skin, left him burning inside. “The differences that separate us,” she concluded and he held her by an arm, pulling her closer so that she’d sit on his lap.

“There’s nothing able to separate us,” he stated without the shadow of a doubt and Sarah smiled, caressing his serious face.

“That set us apart, then,” she corrected and he buried his nose on the base of her neck, breathing in her scent, kissing her warm soft skin.

“All this is new to me. I’ve lived on my own for far too long, and I’ve lived without hope of ever being able to find you,” he confessed and Sarah couldn’t help smile at how he’d implied that she was, and had always been, the only one in his life, even before they’d met. “I had strengthened my mind and locked my emotions away, certain that I’d be alone forever, until the madness took over me completely. You changed all this and you are … very different from everything I’ve ever known. I just need to learn how to live again, and how to live by your side.”

“Well, I suppose that’s true both ways,” she admitted and Alexis kissed her leaving her lightheaded.

Sarah wrapped her arms around his neck once more, trying to keep up with him, but he was just too skilled, always leaving her breathless and shaking.

“Tell me. To which extend are you attached to the clothes you’re wearing?” he asked her, caressing her lips with each word, his warm breath mingling with hers, and Sarah forced her clouded mind to search for the meaning of his words.

“What…?”

“Your clothes, Sarah. To which extend do you like them,” he repeated, his voice rough with urgency, his burning desire drowning her mind.

“Right now I’d say they’re really annoying,” she replied with a smile when he licked her neck from the ear to her collarbone, making her shiver.

“Couldn’t agree more,” he declared and, with those words, her clothes disappeared; a thin, cold dust sliding over her skin, leaving a gasp of surprise in her lips.

However, the strange sensation was quickly replaced by the heat of his skin against hers, as he embraced her passionately, caressing her and touching her to the point where she could no longer tell where they were, or where he begun and she ended. Alexis was all there was. All that her senses captured. And she opened her body, her heart and her Soul to receive him, wishing she could just keep him there, safe from the cold hard world that every night threatened to steal him away.