It’s Funny How Love Starts (IFHLS Book 1)

 Zane’s POV

The next few days were chaotic. When we went back to Lucas’ mansion, it was a total wreck. And when I say wreck, I meant the house was totally inhabitable, even to rodents. Thankfully Derek was kind enough to house us at his own home which was equally big, if not bigger, than Lucas’.

In the end, the werewolves won only because Travis killed Kent. The other hunters were too shocked to find their boss dead that they all retreated, leaving the werewolves victorious.

Uncle Amos fought bravely with all the other werewolves and came out with barely a scratch. He also helped organize everyone and made sure they were alive and OK. We lost a lot of werewolves that night. When Alexia heard she wanted to heal everyone but we knew the darkness had an advantage over her when she brought them back to life so Lucas had no choice but to lock her in her room just in case she had any plan of sneaking out.

As for Jace and Phoebe, we buried them in the graveyard. Jace now lay with his parents and Phoebe was carried to a different part of the graveyard. Although I had some guilt of killing Phoebe, it was kind of done by accident. She tripped while trying to attack me and fell on the knife I held in my hands. The worse thing was I didn’t feel bad, I just pitied her. She accidently killed herself fired up by her jealousy.

After three days, we were still at Derek’s place but he didn’t seem to mind. He was feeding himself through blood bags since he couldn’t exactly bring his ‘meal’ home anymore. How awkward that would be.

For three days straight I’ve been lounging out on the front porch which thankfully had a porch swing. The afternoon went by so quickly that it felt like it was always evening. The sun was quickly setting, turning the sky into a pink hue. It’s been a while since I had taken time to observe the sky. Usually Alexia and I would have carried out a blanket outside to our backyard at home and watched the sunset until the stars came out. I missed the old times and I had to take a deep breath to try and forget that things will never be the same again.

“Daydreaming again, Zane?” Uncle Amos said next to me.

“No, just thinking about things,” I said absent-mindedly. I didn’t even notice Amos sitting on the swing with me.

“You tend to think too hard on too many things,” Amos chuckled. “What’s on your mind?”

“I just miss the old days when things were a lot easier,” I sighed. It didn’t hurt to tell Uncle Amos what was on my mind.

“Nothing will ever come to you easily from now on,” Amos said mysteriously. “Things will get harder but you have to push through to seek what you want.”

“What are you talking about? You’re talking in code,” I mumbled, not quite getting where he’s going at.

“You’ll get what I mean in a future time. I just felt like I needed to share that with you. You have a long journey ahead of you.” Uncle Amos stood up and said his farewell, disappearing before I had a chance to question him further. As soon as Uncle Amos disappeared to who knows where, a door opened and closed.

“Thought I find you here,” Travis said coming up to me. He looked at me but I didn’t reply so he sat on the swings next to me where Uncle Amos sat just a few second ago. “How’s your leg?” he asked. Alexia healed my leg although I told her not to but she could be demanding at times and didn’t leave me any choice.

“It’s healing. How’s your head?” I asked.

“I’ll live,” he smiled. “Hey, you said you’d do anything to help Alexia, right?” he asked suddenly.

“Yeah, why?” I said slowly, getting suspicious.

“What if I told you I might know a way to get rid of the darkness controlling Alexia?” Travis asked. I snapped my head to him, looking to see if he thought it was a joke but he looked dead serious.

“Go on,” I said slowly, narrowing my eyes on him. Was it even possible?

“It’s not much to go onto but it’s a start,” Travis said, making sure I didn’t put my hopes too high. “You know the prophecy for Alexia? Well, there’s more to it.”

“And how would you know?” I challenged.

“Funny you should ask. Amos told me the rest of the prophecy. It doesn’t seem like a prophecy but more like a quest so that’s why Amos said he needed to tell me the rest after other things were dealt with,” Travis explained. “Anyways, the rest of the prophecy might help you in some way. The last part of the prophecy is

To help the Healer the cursed stone you must scout,
In order to rid the darkness, take that different route.
After the stone is obtained from the heart of the country,
One must trap the darkness in the stone although it will be bloody.
Only then will the darkness be slain,
Until another tale will this prophecy be raised again.”

I stared at Travis as if he was crazy. What on earth did it mean? What cursed stone? Where’s the heart of the country? Did it mean literally or metaphorically?

“The last two lines don’t rhyme.” That was the only thing that came out of my mouth at that point. Travis gave me an ‘are-you-kidding’ look.

“I don’t think that’s the point,” Travis said. “All we really need to do is find the cursed stone from the heart of the country and somehow trap the darkness.” Even as he said it with enthusiasm and ease, we both knew how little the chance was for us to find it.

“Wait,” I said, piecing the information together. “Isn’t the heart of the country in Washington D. C? That’s the heart of the government and the government is the heart of the country, right?” I said, getting excited.

“Yeah and there might be someone I know who might be able to crack the rest of the prophecy!” Travis said excitedly. Finally we were getting somewhere.

“Do you know where he is?” I asked. We had to go find him now. Time was ticking.

“Actually she has no way of communication but I know where she lives so we can visit her,” Travis said, getting up. “We should leave tomorrow. Will that be enough time to say bye to Alexia?”

“I can’t tell her about our plan or else the darkness will know too.” I didn’t want to leave her but I promised myself it would be only a little while until I find what we need to heal her. “But why are you helping?”

“Let’s just say I only like certain werewolves.” I smiled at that. Travis is one human I could get used to in my life.

“Then I guess we’re heading out tomorrow,” I returned the smile and Travis nodded. “Thanks for everything,” I said and he stood up to leave.

Just as Travis turned back towards the house and opened the door, Alexia stepped outside. “Hey, Travis. Is your head better?” she asked, politely.

“Yeah, thanks,” he said but he sounded urgent, as if he needed to do something. There was a lot to prepare for tomorrow.

“Oh, are you busy? I’m sorry,” she apologized, hearing his urgency.

“Haha, sorry Alexia,” he apologized. Travis gave one last grin to Alexia and a side glance to me before he left.

 “Alexia,” I acknowledged her when she sat on the swings with me.

“Zane,” she said nodding. If we saw how we were right now a month ago, we would’ve laughed and thought it was crazy but here we were, sitting awkwardly next to each other as if we didn’t even know each other anymore.

“Zane, thank you for everything,” she said so suddenly that it took me by surprise.

“What do you mean?” She had nothing to thank me for.

“You stuck with me through all this time. Every day I was scared that you would leave me but every day you never left.” Her voice was soft as she said it and it left me a little heartbroken. I would have to break that streak tomorrow.

“What are you talking about?” I laughed happily. “Even if I leave, you should never be sad or scared. You have Lucas, Uncle Amos, and even Derek.”

“Yeah, but you’re still my brother. You know the prophecy really did come true,” she said and I looked up at her in confusion.

“What do you mean?”

“‘Avenging the blood of both parents is sworn?’ That didn’t mean my biological parents, Zane. It meant our parents,” she explained and suddenly everything seemed to make since.

“You killed Jace,” I said, grasping the facts. Jace was the murderer.

“Yeah,” she winced. I knew it took a lot for Alexia to kill her biological, psychopathic brother. Even before we knew of it, Jace was always kind to Alexia. “And the darkness was kind of concealed but since I brought Lucas back, it did find me and this time it’s affecting my decisions and choices that I face much harder this time.”

My fist clenched at that. The darkness was making her suffer. It was the right decision to leave right away tomorrow. I would have gone out right now but we had to leave subtly and quietly without being noticed until we were far gone.

“Don’t worry Alexia. We’ll make out of it, I promise,” I said softly, stroking her hair and this time, she didn’t protest.

“Together,” she sighed and got up. “I should get back inside. I promised Lucas we would make dinner together.” Since Derek doesn’t eat food, we each went around buying and making food for everyone each meal.

“OK then. I’ll be looking forward to it!” I gave her my best smile and she went back inside.

I released the fake smile and sighed. I swung the porch swing several times, soaking in the last bit of  sun which was now seeping into the horizon and I couldn’t help but feel a small twinge of guilt for leaving her behind but I kept telling myself it was for the best.

Alexia’s POV

I went back inside after talking with Zane and bumped into Derek.

“Hello my little wolf,” he bowed formally. I laughed, taking my chance to mess with his hair. He scowled but he couldn’t hide his smile. “I think you’re getting a little too comfortable with me, little wolf. I am the vampire king. You should be bowing down at my feet and kissing up to me,” he joked, adding a wink.

“Well, Mr. Cocky, I don’t think you can control this little girl,” I grinned.

“I won’t be too sure about that,” he said before he picked me up and spun me around. I laughed as started to mess with my hair.

“You know I hate it when people do that,” I tried saying it bitterly but it was half-hearted. Who can ever get mad at Derek Hainsworth?

“Which is exactly why I like doing so. I take joy in tormenting you little wolf,” he gave a half smirk.

“I would absolutely love to prove to you how much I can stand your witty comebacks but I should really get Lucas downstairs so we can cook dinner.”

“Then you should be on your way. You don’t want to keep your mate waiting. That little one really loves you, doesn’t he?” Derek smiled and there was something else in his voice. Admiration?

“Well, I don’t think he loves me yet,” I said honestly, thinking about our private conversations. He made it clear he only ‘liked’ me for right now.

“I wouldn’t say that,” Derek trailed on. “But the question is do you love him?”

Love was something greater and harder to understand but I was beginning to know what it was to love. Love is selfless. I sacrificed a part of my life source to save Lucas. That action wasn’t because I ‘liked’ him…it was because I loved him.

I gasped. “I…I love him,” I said but came out in barely a whisper.

“Well, little wolf, if you’re still here then I should be telling you this: Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy. They confess,” he chuckled and then I sprinted upstairs with this new realization.

I knocked on the door of the room we were staying in and opened it before I got an answer. I saw Lucas pulling his head through the shirt hole, changing at the moment but I ran up to him and gave him the biggest hug I could.

“Alexia?” he said surprised and taken aback but he chuckled. “Are you OK?” He brushed a random piece of my hair back behind my ear and looked at me with his beautiful grey eyes which shined like two moons.

“I’m fine. I’m-” I paused and started again. “Lucas Slade, I think I’m in love with you.” As soon as I said it, I bit my lips, afraid of what he would say.

“Alexia, I longed forever for you to say those words to me,” he said softly, looking deep into my eyes. “Alexia Maxilum,” he said, touching my cheeks, affection written all over his eyes and I couldn’t help but feel a small shiver go up me as he said my full name in his husky voice. “I love you with all my heart,” he finished before kissing me with everything he had. The kiss felt like two old soul finally finding each other and coming together as one for the first time. The kiss wasn’t fueled by lust or hunger but it was driven with complete love and reliance on one another. We were the other half of our souls. True mates.

I always thought back to the first time we met. It was funny and unfortunate that we met on a bad start. He didn’t even notice or acknowledge me when he first came over for dinner and I didn’t really care for him either. He was just another one of my dad’s business people but after everything we’ve been through with the hunter attacks, the darkness and the prophecy, and even him dying, I knew we could overcome anything together. It really is funny how love starts.