Twenty seven

Mirabel Ozera

I had waited years for that knock on the door. I wasn't even exaggerating when I said years. Before our involuntarily separation, it could feel like years between our secret moments at St. Vladimir's and our stolen kisses in the Court's library. Now, I had been waiting three years to be able to steal another kiss.

I wasn't sure what I had been expecting when I opened the door, but I wasn't disappointed. There he was. In the flesh, in all his glory. He looked just as he had when I saw him the last time. His black hair was still short, his brown eyes were still deep and intelligent and his mouth still had that tiny smirk that appeared when he was slightly amused. His chin and jaw were a little more defined, a little more man than teenager.

He was even more handsome then I remembered, my imagination and the pictures of him hadn't done him justice. It had helped on a bad day, but it was nothing compared to seeing him in real life again.

He opened up his arms and I was in them within a second. His clothes smelled of him, distantly familiar and so enchanting. Warm tears started to roll down my cheeks, soaking a piece of his shirt. His strong arms closed around me, embracing me against his safe torso.

"I can't believe that you are here", I whispered, pulling him closer to me as if I was afraid that he would vanish again. "I'm almost afraid that you're just a dream."

Alexei moved one hand away from my back and gently put his fingers below my chin, tilting my head up. Softly, as if someone had graced a feather against them, he leaned down and pressed his lips against mine.

"I am not a dream", he mumbled, kissing me tenderly again. "I am very real."

"I've missed you" I sniveled. "More than you can ever imagine."

"I will never leave your side again."

When I opened my eyes, I admired the dark brown color of his eyes behind the veil of tears that clouded my vision. "Do you promise?"

His mouth – those beautiful lips – curved into a smile. "I promise. Queen Vasilisa allowed me to be your guardian."

I let out a squeal, pressing both my hands against my mouth to not scream out loud. If my heart had been beating fast before, it was almost beating its way out of my ribcage by now. I repeated the line in my head several time before I actually understood its meaning. He will never leave my side again.

"Really?" I asked, though it came out muffled beneath my hands.

"Really", Alexei smiled widely, showing all of his white teeth. "Now you will never be rid of me."

With another squeal, I threw my arms around his neck, hugging it so hard I was afraid that I would hurt him. He closed his arms around my waist again, lifting me up from the floor a few inches.

"I wouldn't want it any other way", I sighed happily.

Alexei carefully put me down on the floor again, suddenly stretching his neck to look for something above my head. "Where's Gregory? Can I see him?"

"He's in his play room", I said. "I'll get him for you."

Alexei waited in the living room as I crossed the small hallway and directly to the right where I had been allowed to set up a play room for Gregory. I should have learned by now that there is no possible way to leave that kid alone.

He had torn up all the toys from the toy box and thrown them onto the floor, probably only playing with it for a few seconds at the time before moving onto the next. The entire pile of white sheets that I had placed by the crayons had been painted on and spread out over the floor like a new carpet. The paint of some of the colorful crayons had even made its way up onto the wallpaper.

I sighed. This was a mess that I decided to deal with later. "Greg, there's someone here to see you."

He rapidly turned around, standing like a deer in headlights for a few seconds. Damn, that kid was so cute with his black hair that he refused to let me cut and surprisingly blue eyes (despite his father having dark brown eyes), but there were times when I wondered if it wasn't too late for adoption.

"Is it grandpa?" he asked, carefully stepping on the empty spaced between the toys. "He promised to bring ice cream."

"No it's not grandpa", I said, holding out my hand for him to grab. "Do you remember the pictures that I have showed you of your dad?"

Gregory looked thoughtfully at me for a few seconds before he let go of my hand and turned back into his room. He reached for his superman backpack, hanging on a low hook on the wall, and opened one of the small pockets at the side. With confusion narrowed eyebrows, I watched him pull out a folded piece of paper, unfold it and hold it up with both hands.

"Like this one?" He asked.

I was almost moved to tears again and had to bite my lip to keep the tears from falling. It was indeed a picture of Alexei, the one that I had taken of him and Gregory the day he was born. "Sweetheart, do you keep a picture of him with you at kindergarten?"

Gregory nodded, looking down on his socks. He hid his hands behind his back lowered his head as if he was ashamed. "They wanted us to draw mom and dad. I found it on the table… Are you mad at me?"

"Oh honey…" I said, kneeling down to match his height better. "Of course I'm not mad, you can have as many pictures of him as you want! But he is actually here to see you now."

He looked up at me. "In the house?"

I nodded, feeling a smile spreading over my lips. "Yes, he's waiting for you in the living room."

Gregory launched at me and grabbed my hand. "Did he bring a present?"

I sighed at my son's greed for gifts, he had just celebrated his birthday and definitely enjoyed getting presents, and took him through to the living room. At first, he was practically dragging me. But as we rounded the corner into the living room, he suddenly stopped and wanted to hide behind my leg.

Alexei rose from the sofa as he saw us in the arch of the living room, his tall figure nearly dominating the room. I noticed that he was nervously clenching and un-clenching his fists and rubbing his palms against each other. When he saw Gregory, he inhaled as if he was preparing to say something extensive but lost the thread. He rounded the living room table and squatted down, mimicking my position to match Gregory's height, who wasn't more than a meter (40 inches) in height.

"Hi Gregory", he said, giving him a slightly trembling smile. "My name is Alexei."

Gregory peeked at him from behind my leg. "I know."

"Show him the picture", I encouraged. "I'll come with you."

Gregory nudged at my hand as we crossed the living room. He didn't let go of it as he held out the photo to Alexei. His smile softened as he looked at the picture, looking as if he remembered like it was yesterday.

To my surprise, Gregory let go of my hand and moved to stand next to Alexei. He pointed to the baby version of himself in the photo. "That's me."

"I know", Alexei said. "You were very small."

"I'm big now", he said. "Look!"

He squatted down onto the floor and pressed the top of his head against the wood. When he pushed away with his legs, he lost balance for a few seconds and made a clumsy tumble. However, he stood up again and smiled as if he had nailed a gymnastics competition.

Alexei clapped his hands, a smile widening on his lips. "Good job!"

Gregory looked up at me. "Mommy, I'm hungry."

I pulled my fingers through his thick black hair. "We'll start with some pancakes in a few minutes, okay?"

"Okay!" he yelled and ran back in the direction of his playroom.

I rolled my eyes. "He doesn't have much patience."

"He is amazing", Alexei said and rose from the floor. He was still smiling and looked at me with a twinkle in his dark eyes. "And he has a good taste for food."


Gregory went out like a light shortly after 8 o'clock. He fell asleep halfway into changing into his pajamas, so I just put his duvet over him and let him sleep in just his pants. I quietly closed the door behind him after lighting the dim night light in his window.

Alexei was making himself comfortable in my bedroom. Unfortunately, not quite in the dirty sense. He had unpacked his suitcase and placed some of his clothes neatly onto the nightstand on the other side of where I slept. He had removed his shirt, only standing in his jeans. I stopped in the doorway, my eyes following the lean and muscular contour of his torso. He was in better shape that I remembered, not that he had been in bad shape when he left.

He flinched a little when he noticed me. "I didn't see you! Are you sneaking up on me?"

I smiled, walking up to him and placed my hand onto his back. His skin was warm and smooth, it's only blemish was a thin scar on his shoulder that I knew came from when he accidentally scratched it against the sharp corner of a shelf.

He spun around, capturing me in his arms and pressed his lips hard against mine. The sudden attack and the intensity of the kiss caught me off guard for a moment, but I soon eased into it. His warm hands found its way underneath my shirt, his fingers gently digging into the sides of my stomach.

"Is he asleep?" he breathed between kisses.

"Like a rock", I said, my breath coming out in short pants.

Apparently, that was all the confirmation that he needed. I'm sure that he would have ripped of my clothes if he was allowed to, but he settled for rapidly and determinedly throwing my clothes in a pile on the floor. I couldn't even begin to describe how it felt to feel his hands on my body again and his lips against mine again. If I would have known from the beginning that we would one day lie here again, I would have endured the last four years much better. At last, I wasn't missing a single piece of myself.

Afterwards, he put his arms around me and pulled me close to him. I leaned my head against his chest, hearing the sound of his steady heartbeat.

"How was it to see Gregory?" I asked. "You looked nervous."

"I was nervous", Alexei smiled. "Nervous and terrified that he would dislike me."

"He adores you. I found out today that he keeps that photo in his kindergarten backpack all the time."

Alexei grew silent for a few seconds, a sad frown taking form on his forehead. "I have missed his entire life. I will never get those years back with him."

"I have tried to talk as much as I can about you, so that he would know you in a way until you returned."

"We weren't sure if I would return", he mumbled.

I sat up, leaning on my elbow. "But you did. Sure, four years has passed since we last saw each other but now you have all the time in the world to be his father."

"I do not know how to be his father, I have not seen him since he was born."

I laid down again, resting my head against his bare chest. "It will come to you, just give it some time. He's a wonderful child."

Alexei smiled. "He is. He has your eyes, I never thought about it in the photos that you sent."

"He's a lot like me", I said, rolling my eyes. "I would have preferred for him to be as calm as you are."

He chuckled. "Perhaps he will calm down when he gets older."

"Hopefully", I said, thinking about the mess in his playroom that I would have to deal with somehow. Sometimes it was just easier to clean it myself than to deal with his grumpiness trying to force him to clean it up. But he had to learn sometime that if he made a mess, he was the one to clean it up.

Alexei tilted my head up again and kissed me softly. "We should sleep. I love you."

I smiled. "I love you too."


About a week later, I knocked on the closed door to William's study. It took almost a minute before he opened it, whipping some blood from the corner of his mouth with a napkin. A feeder was resting in the sofa by the bookshelves, a content smile on her lips and fresh bite marks on her neck.

"Oh sorry", I apologized. "I didn't know that you were busy."

"It's okay, I was done anyway", he smiled. "I was just about to send her over to you."

"Thanks", I said, suddenly realizing that I hadn't had some blood in almost four days. The days had passed in a blissful haze since Alexei came here. I waved a large, brown envelope that I had held in my hand in the air.

William nodded towards it. "What's that?"

I held it out to him. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I have already signed the divorce papers."

Something gloomy passed in William's blue eyes. Without a word, he walked over to his desk and opened the top drawer. He handed me two slim pieces of papers.

"Flight tickets?" I asked, slightly confused until I saw the names on the tickets.

William nodded and pulled his fingers through his black hair. "A company owned by some Moroi in London offered me a new paralegal job there. I asked Julia if she wanted to come with me but… she declined."

I raised my eyebrows. "Are you leaving without her?"

He nodded. "I didn't think that she could just throw away all these years together… But right now this move is exactly what I need. I'll make myself a new life in England."

I felt a sudden urge to give him a hug. He looked as if he tried very hard to keep his emotions in place. I settled for placing my hand on his shoulder instead. "I'm really sorry."

He swallowed. "Thank you." He extended his hand for the papers and signed them all without hesitation. I watched with a slight content as he put down his signature on the papers that ended our marriage of almost three years. However, I also felt very, very guilt-ridden.

"I'm also sorry for putting this on your table at this time… I didn't think that you would have to go through two break-ups."

William smiled faintly at me. "I was expecting this any day now, with Alexei back and all. Besides, it would be a bump in the road if I meet someone in England and I'm already married."

I returned his smile. "That woman will be happy to have you. Despite the factors that made us get married in the first place, I have actually enjoyed being married to you."

That actually made him laugh a little. "I'll make sure that she'll get that in writing before my next wedding."

"What are you going to do with the house?" I asked, looking around in the study. "Are you going to sell it? Should I start looking for another place?"

He shook his head. "If you want and can afford this place, you can stay. But contact me if you plan on moving."

"Of course", I said. "I hope that everything works out for you, as it has for me."

"I hope so too."


Aaah, finally together again! Unfortunately, the story is heading towards an end, there's only two more chapters and an epilogue left. I have really loved writing about these two, I hope that I can continue on their story later on :)

Have a good weekend!

Love, Zeraphime