Kai's POV
I honestly haven't been able to shake the memory out of my head for two days now. Elaine's action that day made me wonder if it was just reflex or adrenaline or if she had special abilities she hadn't tampered with yet.
Aside from that, she had been so intentional about taking care of me and Damien as well and making sure that we both got back on our feet really soon. It felt extraordinary how she was able to handle two complex creatures and acted as though it were nothing or more a chore she had gotten used to.
"Thanks a lot for everything, Elaine," I lowered my voice in gratitude while she checked my wound.
"All things being equal, you could have healed perfectly on your own if your healing process wasn't slowed down, right?" She ignored me, with her gaze fixed on my neck. The breath from her nostrils and mouth while she spoke so closely to my skin brought a tingling sensation, and I couldn't help but smile for the gift of her.
"Before I forget, what you did that day was very risky…" I trailed off, not wanting to sound ungrateful or anything of the sort. "You could have gotten yourself killed," I expressed my worry and genuine concern slowly.
"There was no way I could have sat there and watched him kill you, Kai," she argued back, still focused on changing the bandage. "He was so close to putting an end to your existence in case you don't remember."
True. Initially, I felt betrayed by Damien when he hadn't shown up at some point. I thought that he had taken advantage of the situation, concluded that I wouldn't make it out alive, and then taken Elaine somewhere far away where only he could have access to her. I didn't know the plan about Luca, and for that, if she hadn't done what she did, I wouldn't be here staring at her beautiful eyes, playing with the strands of her hair, and creating vivid pictures of how I'd take her breath away in so many ways if she didn't stop breathing against my skin.
"Well, I'd die in peace knowing that you're safe rather than the other way around."
"Trust me, you'd look for ways to rise from the dead if leaving me safe means leaving me with Luca," she teased, making me chuckle.
Even her sense of humor turned me on. Oh, Elaine! If only she knew she was the very end of me, and perhaps my enemies could just figure out this one way to destroy me utterly.
"Speaking of Luca," I cleared my throat. "Did he tell you that he planned everything out with the members of the cult?"
"He didn't say or admit it, but maybe he knew something about it because there was no way in a million that he'd make a perfect plan if he hadn't somehow figured out everything that was supposed to occur that night."
"So you agree that he has something to do with an association as evil as that just to have you?" I asked, slightly stunned by Luca's desperate measures.
"Honestly, I don't even know what he wants anymore because sometimes, it's like he wants to take you out by all means, and the next second he is so power-hungry that he could kill for it, and the next, he is just so obsessed with me," she ranted, expressing her confusion towards Luca's moves and intentions.
"Hopefully, he'll come clean someday," I told her while moving the strands of her hair obstructing me from seeing the perfection in her eyes.
"Hopefully," she repeated.
"I need you to do me a favor, and it's very serious, okay?"
"Sure, I'm all ears," she responded immediately, putting a stop to everything she was doing to give me her maximum attention.
"It's about Luca, Elaine. Maybe if that night hadn't happened, you wouldn't have fully understood the reason I asked you to stay away from him and the reason why Damien's hatred for him isn't even going to fade in death. I don't know in what ways he has gotten to you, but if you trust me enough, please stay away from him as far as you can, and if something goes on with him, my ears are always open for you to tell me anything, okay?"
"You're right. It took until that night for me to understand how much his heart has been hardened," she admitted. "I thought he was just misunderstood… he actually told me things about the curse, and I thought that for him to give me that type of information when he could hoard it and watch you suffer, it made him different from what he was being described as. However, I know better now," she smiled, leaning close enough to kiss me on my lips.
"Thank you."
"It's my pleasure," she breathed out while getting up on her feet. "I'd be going to check up on Damien. See you later."
I watched as she left, though with a pang in my chest. The jealous part of me wondered if she felt the same way towards Damien. It made me wonder if the roles were reversed or matters got worse and both Damien and I were in the fighting scene, whom she'd go to rescue first and if she had a chance to pick this time, whom she'd pick over the other.
After a while of distracting myself and trying to make sure that my focus was completely on healing, I went to see Damien to know how he was doing and thank him properly.
"Hey," I greeted, walking in at the wrong time when his lips were a breath apart from Elaine's and a perfect time to stop both of them from getting to kiss each other. "Sorry," I quickly apologized.
"Oh-uhm… don't worry about it. I was just about to leave," she smiled nervously while avoiding my gaze until she left the room.
"You can apologize all over again," Damien rolled his eyes, clearly not buying my apology.
"I'm sorry," I apologized again.
"What do you want?"
"Nothing in particular," I began while sitting on the chair close to his bed. "I just wanted to thank you for that night."
"I did nothing—"
"I don't care, okay?" I cut him short. "You clearly would have if not for Luca, and what if you had died from whatever it was that Luca did to you? Your blood would be on me as well."
There was a momentary silence between the two of us until he cleared his throat.
"Well, I'm glad we made it, and that's thanks to whatever it was that came over Elaine because honestly, she was our saving grace back there. She really marveled at everyone, including members of the cult present. I just hope they wouldn't see her as a threat and start coming for her in no time."
"I doubt they would, but if they do, we'd surely find a way around it," I responded, pondering on the possibilities of his last statement and choosing not to believe that Elaine would be in any kind of danger that I'd be unable to save her from.
"If you say so," he shrugged. "Thanks for checking up on me, though," he tugged the side of his lips to give me a small smile.
I returned and left his room so that he could get some rest. Damien was much stronger than that, but Luca's dark magic proved to be more powerful.
I hadn't seen Elaine for the rest of the day after searching Damien's entire mansion. We had come to an agreement that the three of us would stay close to each other just in case something happened and we were taken by surprise.
Sighing at the possibility of her returning back to the motel, I told Damien that I would be back soon before leaving. My guess was right. Elaine was in her room doing heaven knows what until I arrived.
"Are you okay?" I asked when I met the worried look in her eyes.
"Yeah… I'm fine, I'm just…" she trailed off, still avoiding my gaze. "Look, I'm sorry for what happened with Damien," she rushed to say, but I didn't let her continue.
"It's actually fine, and I totally understand everything," I smiled at her, raising her chin upwards so that she could finally look me in the eyes, but she pushed my fingers away.
"It's not fine, Kai!" She protested, stepping away from me. "It's not okay that even before I met you in person, I've been having dreams about you, and I can't even distract my thoughts from you, but someone else shows up and…" she trailed off.
Her words really hurt me, and I wished she knew just how they did get to me.
"Are you just going to stand there and say nothing?" She complained, irritated by my silence. Again, if only she knew…
"I do have a lot of things to tell you, but I don't know how to… maybe because I'm scared of you receiving it the wrong way. Regardless, if you really want to know what it is, then here it is. I love you, Elaine," I said the words like nothing on earth was as fragile as they were and they could end up breaking if I wasn't so careful with them.
"You what?" She asked back, her voice void of emotion. Now I was really considering taking it back because this only meant that she was in love with Damien instead.