Blue Lightning

Salem, Massachusetts

July 14th, 1692

As the sun set behind the trees of the surrounding woods, cabins all around the town began to illuminate from oil lamps. The setting was quiet, aside from one lively house in which two families rejoiced in celebration.

"Happy birthday, darling," cooed a young-looking middle-aged woman named Anabelle Harris. She handed over a box to a child with equally long, beautiful raven black hair to match that of her mothers. The child's grey-blue eyes shifted from her mother's gentle brown eyes into the eyes of a man with shaggy brown hair and matching blue eyes. Her bright smile turned quizzical as she searched for approval in her father's eyes while running her fingers underneath the wrappings around the box.

"Go on, you're going to love it," the girl's father, Charles Harris beckoned. He eagerly grabbed another sweet roll and bit at it before offering another sweet roll to the couple who sat beside the young girl's father. The couple politely declined having another roll before they skeptically handed the bowl of sweets to their beckoning children who all welcomed the sweets with huge grins on their face.

The young girl hesitated no longer after receiving her father's confirmation and easily tore the paper to shreds and opened the box to find a lone doll sitting, awaiting her loving grasp. Anita, with black, long hair and green eyes, stood up from her chair directly across from the birthday girl to peek inside the box, eliciting an interested "ooh" from the only daughter to the Lockwood family. The young girl gasped in joy and quickly snatched the small toy and tossed the box carelessly to the side, earning a yelp from what lay in the direction of the thrown box. Shaking free of the tossed box that fell atop his head, the wolf-pup with sandy colored fur glared up at her with his glistening green eyes and gave her a growl.

"Wilhelm, it was just an accident; Hailey did not mean to hit you. Stop that growling right now, young man," a stern, masculine voice warned.

The wolf-pup glanced at the man who stood beside Hailey's father and bowed his head in an apologetic manner. This man, Reynold Lockwood, fathered this pup as well as three other shapeshifters, Markus, Anita, and Stark. Reynold was much taller than Hailey's parents. He had sandy brown hair, much like Wilhelm, and the same golden eyes that glimmered like a burning fire.

Undetected by everyone else, Markus—Anita's fraternal twin, wearing the same black hair but different golden eyes—leaned to his left with a smirk on his face and whispered into his brother Stark's ear, who also grew a small dark grin on his face from what his brother had to say.

Wilhelm stood up, now a sandy-haired human boy who had the same green eye-color as his wolf persona and tan skin that matched his father's.

"Oh, Rey, it's not Wilhelm's fault," Anabelle insisted before turning her attention to her daughter and raising her eyebrows expectantly, motioning to the younger child who began to rub his eyes.

Taking in her mother's hint, Hailey mimicked Wilhelm's previous apologetic face. "Sorry, Wilhelm," she apologized, holding her doll closer.

"It's okay Hailey, my teeth are just achy," he whimpered before turning to his father. "I wasn't trying to growl at her, Father, honest," he mumbled before he began to gnaw on his knuckles.

"I understand, Son, it is a difficult process growing in adult teeth, but you just need to tough it out-" Reynold's brow furrowed before he added "-chew on this, not your fingers." He tossed a leftover steak bone up to his teething son. Wilhelm feverishly snatched it from the air and began slobbering on it.

Hailey giggled at Wilhelm's frantic chewing but was quickly disrupted from her doll suddenly being taken from under her arms. Hailey jumped out of her seat and turned around to see Markus standing there, dangling the toy in front of her fair-skinned face.

Markus was tall for his age; despite being 147 years old, he wore the face and physical attributes of a 12-year-old boy and he was five inches taller than Hailey who had just turned 144. He and his twin sister Anita were the only two who had jet black hair like their mother's; aside from sharing the similar qualities such as hair, and skin color, they looked nothing alike. Markus was even taller than Anita, who stood at about four-foot-nine-inches tall, taller by an inch compared to Hailey.

When Hailey tried to snatch the toy back, he began dangling it well above her head. She jumped in frustration and whined as he smiled teasingly, his eyes narrowed challengingly at her. Trying to be quick, she jumped again trying to snatch her doll back but failed to grab hold of even one of the dolls tiny woven legs.

"Give it back, Markus!" Hailey demanded.

"Markus, play fair," warned his mother, Andrea Lockwood. Her emerald-green eyes narrowed at him as she folded her hands carefully in her lap.

"Stark and I had a great idea for a game, Mother—a great way for all of us to have fun," he said innocently before looking at Hailey, winking and dangling the doll above her head. "Haylee included," he added.

"I don't want to play your dumb game, now give me my doll!" she demanded with as fierce of a glare as she could muster up.

"Hailey! Manners! You must learn to share. Why don't you give Stark and Markus's game a try?" Anabelle insisted.

"Yeah c'mon, Hailey!" chimed Stark, the eldest of the three Lockwood children.

Hailey frowned but complied to her mother's request with a small sigh and proceeded to follow a taunting Markus and a smirking Stark into the living room.

Stark was dark and lanky like Markus, however, being the oldest of the four, Stark began gaining a more muscular figure, a result of going through puberty. His complexion mimicked the pale and fainted-freckling skin of his mother while his eyes were gold much like his father.

As they entered the room, Markus suddenly stopped and turned around to face Hailey, whose face was slightly pink with humiliation at being much smaller and fragile than the two shapeshifters that taunted her so. "What's the game?" she questioned irritably.

"The game is called 'Human in the Middle!'" Stark cheered. He grabbed her wrist and pulled Hailey slightly away from Markus before letting go and trotting to equidistant on the opposite side of her. "We stand here like this. You stand in the middle-"

"-and try to catch!" Markus finished as he tossed the doll high over Hailey's head over and into Stark's clutches.

After jumping and chasing her doll back and forth between the two of them, jumping and trying to grasp it with all her might, Hailey began to grow so frustrated it was upsetting her. She threw each of them a fierce glare as tears started filling her eyes.

"Stop it! I don't want to play this game anymore! Give her back!" Hailey shouted.

"Quit being such a poor sport!" called Stark, tossing the doll back to Markus with a laugh.

Markus was reaching for the doll when his feet suddenly gave out from underneath him causing him to wheeze as his back hit the ground. He winced in pain and opened his eyes to see Anita glaring down at him, hands balled into fists on her hips.

"You guys are so mean!" she exclaimed, crossing her arms and turning her glare to her older brother.

Markus looked up at his sister, shocked which quickly turned to anger from embarrassment.

"Hey, come on, Anita. Just toss me the doll, we'll play more fairly this time," Stark promised, holding out his hands.

"No, Stark, you won't. You guys are jerks. It's her birthday for peat sake, you know you should both be nicer to her at the very least for this one day," she retorted as she picked the doll off the floor.

Hailey looked at her gratefully and dried her eyes on her sleeve before reaching for the doll in Anita's grasp. She looked at me apologetically and handed it back to me with care. She then turned her attention to Markus who had risen from the floor and ran his hand through his shaggy hair.

"Sorry," he mumbled to me and glared at the floor then back at Anita. "You know you shouldn't try to act like mom all the time, Miss Bossy Pants," he snapped darkly.

"Maybe she wouldn't be so bossy if you weren't such a meany," Hailey snapped back, stepping in front of Anita, crossing her arms.

Markus glared at her before his lips curled into a twisted smirk. "Aw, I'm a meany am I? I didn't reawize wittle haiwee was still such a baby. No wonder you need that stupid doll," Markus teased.

Hailey's face turned red, but before she could retort back, Anita pushed her aside and poked at her brother's chest. "You need to stop it before I knock you flat on your ass again!" Anita warned.

The other three gasped at Anita's bravery of speaking with such language.

Markus stood speechless for a moment before glaring at her and pointing back. "I'm going to tell mother you said a bad word!" he informed before taking off towards the dining room.

"Now look who's being childish!" Anita called back before shifting into her wolf form and tackling him to the ground, growling.

With a huffing sound as he struggled against his sister's weight, Mark glared up at her, ears and tail forming from his human form. "What are you, a horse? You weigh like five tons," he strained. Anita growled and barked at him before attempting to bite at his face, with a free arm he snatched her muzzle, leaving her growling under his grip and whimpering at the pain of biting her tongue as he tightened his grip. Mark then shifted into a full wolf, allowing himself the strength to force her off him and cause her to slam into the couch. They circled one another, each growling ferociously. Stark sat back in the love seat and propped his feet onto the table, eagerly watching his brother and sister's duel. Hailey looked to Stark.

"Stark, shouldn't you stop them?" Hailey pleaded.

"No, why should I? Their fights are epic," he said with a grin before propping his head up with his hands folded behind.

"I don't like their fights," Hailey murmured.

"Yeah, but it's a shapeshifter thing—I wouldn't expect a human to understand that," he belittled.

Her frown deepened when he called her 'human'. "I am not a human and you know it! I'm a witch, just like my parents," she informed passionately.

"Oh yeah? Let's see some magic then, Hailey," Stark sat up and folded his hands under his chin

like he was studying her. She flinched and looked down before slowly setting her doll on the floor in front of her and took a stance to try and prove Stark wrong. Closing her eyes for a moment, she took a deep breath and silently begged 'please don't let me fail' before opening her eyes once again.

"I'm waiting," Stark called. Hailey shot him a nasty look before training her focus on the little doll that sit before her.

She held out her hand and bent her fingers slightly to mimic the basic form her mother taught her for initiating the ability to telekinesis—a very simple and well-known trick for witches. She focused hard on the tiny doll in front of her and her eyes narrowed hard in attempt to help her concentration on the lone toy. She took another breath and her hand began to shake from how hard she attempted to lift the toy into the air. Despite her attempts, the pressure she felt in her head was too hard and she ended up releasing the breath she was holding in and breathing rapidly as Stark started cackling over the sound of Mark and Anita's growling and snapping. Hailey felt tears prickled at the corners of her eyes as she picked her doll back up and hung her head in shame.
"Wow, that was truly amazing," Stark stated sarcastically, chuckling some more.

Haylie then glared at the laughing boy and huffed angrily before storming towards the dining room to tell their parents what was going on. However, she froze in her steps before she turned the corner into the kitchen at Reynold's voice talking exasperatedly to her parents.

"She should have begun undergoing transformation within a year of it; I'm just thinking out loud here but I think my age has finally begun to affect me," the 1023-year-old man informed. Hailey tilted her head in confusion. The man sighed before adding "I don't think my bite is going to change Hailey," he said quietly and sighed to my mother, "I'm sorry, Anabelle."

Hailey subconsciously gripped her scarred wrist at the memory of Reynold biting her wrist to save her from falling off a cliff.

"What will we do? They're onto me. I would do anything to save Haylee, even to sacrifice myself, but if word gets out that I am a witch they'll surely you two as well," sadness laced her words as her cries became muffled from leaning into her husband's shoulder. "She is my offspring. She has my blood. She has potential to live for hundreds of years. Yet, she hasn't any magical ability! Not that it matters to any of these village folks. These humans will turn a bucket of water into the police and claim 'witch'. For hundreds of years we've lived in peace, careful not to reveal our magical powers or your shapeshifting powers," she exasperated with a defeated sigh. "Rey, there has to be something we could do. She needs to have some power to defend herself."

"Anabelle, it's a tedious task. If my bite no longer works, I wouldn't dare have one of my children bite her–they aren't ready for that type of commitment. With a bite comes a bond—one I was more than willing to accept for Haylee; she's like a second daughter to me and with my age and wisdom I could manipulate that bond. My children cannot. Also, the bond is the least of my concerns; I'm also concerned about the bite itself. They do not have any self-control yet, their strength and rapid healing abilities. They know no bounds and well, there is nothing slower than a three-legged wolf, you know," he said, eliciting a sharp gasp from Anabelle.

"What about Stark? He is your eldest," Charles questioned.

"He isn't old enough, he's only 164. I wouldn't ask any of them to perform this task until they were older. Much older. Around the age of 400, and that's still pushing it," stressed Reynold. "I'm truly sorry."

"What'll we do? We do not have the currency to move far away from this wretched place." Hailey's mother sighed. "Charles, what'll we do?" she repeated in between sobs.

"We can move together and watch each other's backs," Andrea chimed in. "We've been friends—no, family—for far too long to let you go and struggle to survive."

"I just don't want anything to go wrong. We won't know what places will hold the same ideals as this town. I need Haylee to be able to protect herself," my mother murmured.

Stark came running in, shoving Markus out of his way in hopes of getting second helpings of steak, interrupting the serious talk. Hailey followed in suit after them.

"Aw, come on, Mother, please!" whined Stark.

"No, Stark. Markus! What happened to you?" she demanded, grabbing her sons arm, investigating the bites and claw marks on his skin.

"Well, uh, Anita-" he stuttered.

"Don't blame this on me!" interrupted a shrill voice.

Markus stomped his foot and turned to glare at her. "You changed first!" he retorted.

"Enough, both of you," their mother growled. "What in the world am I going to do if you two insist on fighting every chance you get?"

Anita rubbed her arm and looked away begrudgingly. "They were being mean to Hailey," she muttered.

Andrea's hard gaze turned to Markus who looked back into her eyes and smiled sheepishly. "Heh, I mean, we weren't being that mean," he excused.

She gave him a scolding look and sighed. "You all need some sleep–just look at your brother; he slept through dinner. All children to be sleeping at this point," Andrea asserted.

"Mother, we're not tired," Stark persisted.

"We've got a busy day tomorrow and everyone should get some sleep. Including you, Stark," Reynold interjected.

The eldest child groaned irritably.

Hailey sat down in bed which was right beside Anita and Markus's beds. The twins shifted into their wolf-personas each jumped onto their bed as wolves and curled under the covers.

On the opposite side of the room, Wilhelm laid in the middle bed—directly across from Hailey—Reynold struggled to take the steak-bone from Wilhelm's gnawing muzzle.

"Come on, release, son," Reynold commanded.

Wilhelm grumbled as the bone was pried from his mouth.

"And I want you all to sleep as humans – you know this!" he turned to Markus and Anita who then transformed back to humans, bowing their heads and smiling sheepishly. Wilhelm grabbed his sheet in his mouth and started biting – still as a wolf.

"How come Wilhelm gets to stay a wolf?" whined Markus. "He's been shape-shifting for ten years now! Shouldn't he at least try to make it through the night without transforming…Or wetting the bed," he added with a small smirk and weary eyes.

Wilhelm growled, eyeing at Markus.

"Wilhelm is still young though, Markus. I encourage him to sleep as a human but I do know that this is not always possible," Reynold said. "You should know that too. Need I remind you that you were my most complicated wolf pup?" a small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth at his remark to his son.

Markus' face turned slightly red and looked down, his brow furrowed.

"Now, Stark realizes his duty," he noted that Stark already tucked himself in bed, trying to sleep despite the commotion. "You all should take after him."

Reynold stalked over to the door, grabbing our candle and taking our light with him. He looked back with one last glance. "Goodnight, my children," he said before turning his attention towards Hailey. She had just finished settling in bed when she caught Reynold's glance as he stood in the door frame, his golden-eyes glistening from the candle-light. I looked back into his eyes with wonder, remembering his conversation with my parents. His look of longing was then replaced with a warm smile. "Goodnight, Hailey. Happy birthday," he told her, nodding his head respectfully to the birthday girl before closing the door, leaving the children in the darkness.

Hailey spent the first few hours of the night tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep due to her thoughts on what her parents and the Lockwood's were talking—she tried to understand. What did she need protection from? Why was being a witch so bad? What caused this conversation? Her mother had wanted Reynold to bite her, so she could become like his children—a shape-shifter who could transform into a wolf. Why did Anabelle doubt her own daughter's skills as a witch? She aged like one, surely her magical abilities would come in time to protect her from the evils of the world.

The thought of becoming a shapeshifter caused her to shudder in fear; not that it would have been terrible to have the abilities of a wolf, but seeing how Stark, Markus, Anita, and now Wilhelm struggled with their transforming abilities, she couldn't imagine herself going through that.

But if Reynold would be there to help her, would it really be so bad?

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a weight settling towards the bottom of her bed. It was dark in the room, but moonlight still seeped through, allowing me to see the black wolf-pup with glinting golden eyes that had perched itself–himself–on her bed.

I sat up and looked at him with weary eyes, pretending to be tired. "Markus, go away, go back to sleep," I whispered hoarsely.

He snorted then transformed back into a human, sitting crisscross and facing Hailey. "I can't sleep and neither can you," he said pointedly. She could never really hide her emotions from Markus–or any of the Lockwoods for that matter–their instincts could easily tell them how someone was feeling. "So, what's keeping you up, hmm?" he asked.

"I was just thinking-" she paused, deciding on whether she wanted to tell him before deciding against it. "I was just really excited about my birthday, and I'm sad it had to end."

"I thought you felt anxious about something. What is it?" his golden eyes glinted at me curiously in the dark.

She stared into his eyes and then quickly looked away, pondering. "I-I was also kind of wondering what it would be like to be a wolf," she confessed, glancing up at him again then past him to where Wilhelm slept.

He looked back at Wilhelm and then slowly bobbed his head, believing in what she said. "Ah, you're worrying about Wilhelm," he said at a low volume. "Yeah, it's not exactly great, but it doesn't always feel as bad as he makes it out to be–he just wants to be babied." Markus rolled his eyes, unable to really be seen amidst the darkness.

"He's only 91," she reminded him.

"Yeah, but still," Markus crossed his arms over his scrawny chest with a huff.

Hailey sighed, beginning to feel sleep tug at her eyes.

"Hey, you can't be getting tired on me, I need my midnight buddy," he shook her awake.

"We should both be trying to get sleep right now don't you think?" she asked, feeling annoyed at his method for keeping her awake.

"Okay, Mommy, onwy if you'wl give me a good night kiss and bwing me some warm miwk to hewp me sweep," he mimicked.

Haylie blushed furiously and blindly smacked him in the face for his teasing.

"Ow, hey!" he complained, holding his cheek.

"Will you two shut up and go to sleep!" came the annoyed voice of Stark from across the room.

Markus huffed and whispered a "fine" as he got off Hailey's bed, heading back to his bed before pouncing on it and laying down, trying to sleep again.

Hailey repositioned herself to laying on her side before sleep finally overcame her.

After laying in the dark for some time, Markus silently got up and jumped back onto the foot of Hailey's bed, causing her to wake with a startle.

She sighed when she realized Markus was back and narrowed her gaze in annoyance. "Why do you need to bother me when you can't sleep?" I questioned.

"Because you can't sleep too," he replied. "Don't pretend like you're special or anything; I would do it to whoever was awake."

"Except, I was asleep!" she grumbled.

"But you're awake now so," Markus smirked, earning a pillow to the face. He grabbed the pillow and glared in Hailey's direction. "Why do you insist on assaulting my face."

"I'm not insulting your face," Hailey retorted, sitting up and crossing her legs.

"ASS-aulting, not insulting," Markus rolled his eyes.

"I'm telling your parents you said a bad word in the morning," Hailey huffed.

Markus growled, "you are so infuriating!" he whispered as loud as he could, careful not to wake his brother again with his frustration.

Hailey responded with pinching his side to further annoy him.

"Ow, quit it!"

"I'm sowwy, did you want 'mommy' to kiss it and make it fweel bwetter?" Hailey smiled innocently and batted her eyelashes at him in the dark, leaning forward puckering her lips, making kiss-noises.

He shoved the pillow back in her face and grimaced. "No, that's gross," Markus grumbled.

"No, you're gross," Hailey muffled against the pillow.

Markus blushed, silently thanking the fact that the darkness was hiding his complexion. Was she about to kiss him? He shook the thought from his mind and shuddered.

"Markus, are you feeling okay? You didn't argue back," Hailey interrupted his thoughts.

"Um, no I'm fine," he assured, running a hand through his hair. "Hey, have you ever really thought about kissing anyone before?"

The question threw her off. What did he mean by that?

"Huh?"

"You know, like our parents?" he asked. "They kiss each other all the time, but how could they like it?" he said, subconsciously swallowing most of the moisture that had been allocating in his mouth and shuddering again. "What purpose does it serve? It seems so stupid."

"It's not stupid," she insisted. "It's a form of affection, as my mother says. When two people love each other very much, they show it by being close to each other."

"I know why I can't sleep, but why can't you sleep?"

"Well, then why not just hug? I mean think about it, why press your mouths together to show affection? Do you know how many germs there are in your mouth?" He shuddered and laughed. "It's like, 'oh, I love you, so here, take all my diseases, possibly some leftover food and spit from the place I sometimes throw up from.'"

Hailey shuddered a little and pondered what he had to say. While she believed in what her mother said, she nodded slightly. "I guess you have a point, it does sound gross when you put it like that."

Markus kept snickering in the dark, then went silent once again. "But still, why do they do it, surely they know this don't they?"

"If you know they must know, so I'm not sure why," Hailey shrugged. "I guess we'll find out when that time comes for us," she laid back and tried to pull the covers over her head, but Markus was sitting heavily on them. "Markus, I'm tired, can you please go-?"

"What if we tried it?"

Again, she was taken aback by his confidence and propped herself up on her elbows.

"What?" she asked, as if she hadn't heard him.

"You know, for science," he said, shifting nervously at the foot of her bed.

"We aren't doing science, we're supposed to be trying to sleep," she grumbled.

"Well, we want to know why, right? So just think of it like a science experiment. I want to know, what the big deal is. Don't you?" he questioned, ignoring his hot cheeks.

I thought for a minute. Yeah, I guess I wanted to know. "Fine, b-but this doesn't mean I love you or anything!" she stuttered.

"I don't want you to because I don't even like you!" he informed, crossing his arms again.

Hailey sat back up and scooted closer to him. She tensed slightly when she felt his hands grab hold of her arms.

"Um, so," Markus fumbled, not moving from the position he put himself in. He stared forward at Hailey's dark figure and felt a weight start to form on his chest.

The silence was really unwelcoming to Hailey so she decided to break it. "I-I think you're supposed to lean," she instructed, blushing slightly.

"I guess," he sighed, as if bored, then did so. "You could lean too, you know."

"Well, I was about to, you know," I replied, mockingly.

"Just lean, Haylee."

And so, she did, each catching their breath in their throat as their noses touched ever so slightly. Hailey was looking directly into his golden eyes, blushing furiously as her heart began to pound in her chest from nervousness.

Markus caught his breath first and narrowed his gaze at her, fixing it to appear annoyed. "You're supposed to tilt your head, dummy," he said annoyed.

"No, you are!" she argued.

"No, you!"

"You!"

"Shut up!" called Stark loudly.

They remained in that position for a long couple of uncomfortable minutes, waiting for the sound of calm snoring to allow them a chance to get their experiment over with. All the while Hailey continued to gazed into Markus' eyes and he looked back into hers calmly.

After a while of watching each other, Hailey huffed, breaking the awkward silence again. "Will you just tilt your head?" she asked irritably.

He sighed back in agitation, "Fine, but only because I want to get this over with."

His head tilted a little and our noses were no longer touching, instead Markus's breath was tickling Hailey's lips slightly. Her stomach churned and she became stiff once again, beginning to feel unsure about wanting to go through with this.

But before she had a chance to back out, his mouth was on hers.

The sensation was strange. And wet. Markus cringed inwardly but that was quickly replaced with a fire that replaced the weight in his chest. Hailey remained still as he kissed her, her cheeks felt like they were on fire and chills were sent down her spine. He leaned in closer, pressing his mouth harder against hers, which was all too soon interrupted by Hailey gasping and pushing on his chest.

"Markus! You got slime in my mouth!" she squealed as she tried wiping the spit off my tongue with her tongue.

Markus snapped out of his daze and grimacing, "No! You got slime in my mouth!" He backed up to the far edge of the bed, spitting onto the floor.

A burst of laughter sounded next to us, causing the two of them to blush furiously and both to look over.

"You two actually did it!" Anita cackled.

Markus turned back into a wolf and jumped over the gap to his bed and hid under his covers, obviously shamed his sister saw that happen–or at least heardit happen.

Stark sat up and shouted "shut up!" with an added growl for emphasis. "God, you guys are so annoying!"

"What? Is it morning already?" A sleepy-eyed Wilhelm sat up and stretched. I heard a yawn from across the room.

"No, it's not morning, Markus and Haylee are being idiots," Stark sneered.

"No, they were kissing!" Anita teased, laughing hard.

"So much for being nice to me, Anita," Hailey grumbled, blushing in embarrassment.

Markus growled and barked at her nonsensical laughing.

"Hey, shut up, moron! You'll wake our parents!" Stark growled back.

Markus huffed and returned to his bed. Laughter continued from Anita.

"Anita! Shut up and sleep!"

Her laughter suddenly stopped. "Jerk," she muttered before turning over in her covers and trying to go back to sleep.

Soon the sound of gentle snoring filled the room again aside from Hailey and Markus. Each were laying on their sides, staring up at the ceiling, thinking about the kiss. Why did people like it so much? Hailey thought it was extremely disgusting.

And yet, though she'd never admit it to him, she couldn't help but feel just a little more drawn to Markus.