Stone

The young man lifted a slender hand and pushed the hood of his cloak back, revealing a boyish face with fierce, bright red eyes.

"We've been worried about you." His voice was high, lilted, and had the hints of accent to it. Izzie moved her body so she was standing in front of Saix, like she was trying to shield him from this boy.

"Why are you here?" She asked, her voice flat.

"We received a very worried call from Alexander. He said you and Iris disappeared without a trace and have been gone for months. And it certainly was strange. When I arrived, I could tell your scents had been dissipating for a while. And then when you do show back up, who do you have in tow with you but a human." Saix opened his mouth to correct the term human, but Izzie inconspicuously elbowed him. "So you understand, then? You and your little friend need to come with me to Spain. Protocol, see."

"I am not going to Spain." Saix said, immediately annoyed.

The young man raised his eyebrows, a spark flashing in his scarlet eyes, and Izzie slowly turned to face him.

"We don't have a choice." She said lowly. He stared down at her, confused for a moment, and then it clicked. This wasn't some random boy. He had to have been a member of that Council she had told them about. Izzie gazed up at him, beseeching, and he sighed, resigned.

"Alright."

"Good," The boy said. "Obviously we can't run there, since someone needs to breathe, so I'll book the next flight. Excuse me." The boy turned and headed toward the line of trees, disappearing into the bush, and Izzie dropped her head in her hands.

"I shouldn't have let anyone come here. I'm so sorry, Saix."

"Who is that boy?"

"Weston. He's part of the Council's guard."

"Why would they be worried about you? I thought you hadn't seen them since the seventeen-hundreds,"

"We haven't, but my creator visits from time to time. He must have thought something happened to us and called the Council to investigate."

"That's who Alexander is?" Izzie nodded silently, her expression wracked with worry.

"Saix, I need you to listen to me, alright? You cannot, and I mean cannot, be…well, you."

"Excuse me?"

"Look, I like you the way you are. Your sarcasm and snarky remarks don't bother me, but…they will bother the Council. You have to be polite with them. Don't speak unless spoken to, don't be rude, just…please, Saix. I'm not willing to lose you to them."

It was completely inappropriate given the situation, but that last sentence made his face turn red, made a weird feeling shoot through his stomach. He swallowed tightly.

"Alright, I'll be on my best behavior." Izzie nodded fervently, lifting a hand and biting nervously on her thumb nail. "Isabella, I'll be fine."

"You don't know that," She whispered. Just as she finished speaking, Weston reemerged from the bush, flipping a cell phone closed, and said,

"We're on the one-forty flight to Spain from Missoula International."

"Missoula?" Izzie repeated. "That's half an hour away and it's one-fifteen right now."

"They're going to hold the plane at the terminal until we get there. So let us go, hm?"

"What about passports? He doesn't have one."

Weston sighed. "You forget just how influential we are even in the human world. Don't worry about a passport. Now come." He gestured back toward the house, and when Izzie and Saix looked, they saw a sleek black car idling in the driveway. Without thinking, Izzie wrapped her hand around Saix's, and he looked down at her, a little startled, but didn't pull away. Weston eyed them, and turned to head to the car.

A large man exited the driver's side and opened the back door. He was obviously a vampire too-blazing red eyes and very pale skin.

"Good to see you again, Isabella." He said, his voice becoming sickeningly sweet as he said her name. Saix narrowed his eyes, his hand tightening around Izzie's, and she gave it a reassuring pump. They climbed into the backseat, and the man and Weston slid into the front seats. The car rolled smoothly from the driveway and pulled onto the road.

In his hand, Izzie's was gradually getting warmer. She sat as close as she could get without climbing onto his lap, her face stone and her gaze fixed on the back of the passenger seat. Saix found himself keeping his eyes on her. Maybe he was waiting for a change in her expression, for it to soften even a little. He wasn't used to seeing her gentle face look so intense, and he wasn't sure he liked it. It wasn't until they merged onto the freeway that one of the two vampires up front spoke.

"You two seem very close," Weston remarked, his eyes reflected in the rearview mirror. Saix made good on his promise and didn't speak, and Izzie didn't grant them the courtesy of responding either. Seeing their silence, Weston smiled a little, and looked to the man driving, who was shaking his head a little.

"Any sane vampire would turn a human they fell in love with." He said.

"I'm not human." Even though Saix had grumbled this under his breath, everyone heard him. Izzie's hand tightened against his, though she didn't give any other response to his words. Weston turned his torso to give him a perplexed look.

"You're not? I thought you smelled different." Saix looked to Izzie, who was staring emotionless at Weston. When he looked back, he noticed that the man driving was staring at him in the rearview mirror. The car didn't deviate one inch from its course. His teeth came down on his tongue to prevent himself from saying anything more, and Weston turned his eyes to Izzie, then sighed, settling back into his seat. "Very well. All will come forth soon."

The rest of the ride was silent, and they arrived at the airport at one-forty-seven. Before they exited the car, Weston and the other man put on a pair of sunglasses, and offered a pair to Izzie, who lightly slapped them away. The big man let out a low growl, but didn't force her to take them. Once they entered the huge building, the man flagged down a security guard, spoke to him for a long while, and then he led them straight to the gate, completely bypassing the metal detectors and other security measures usually undertaken at an airport. The guard leaned close to the woman who accepted tickets and told her something, and she nodded, smiling at the man and Weston as she handed them their itinerary.

"Unfortunately, we couldn't get four seats together. It's two and two." The man smiled charmingly as he accepted the four strips of paper from her.

"That's perfectly fine. Thank you for holding the plane for us." The way he spoke was so sweet and honeyed that the woman swayed on her feet, completely hypnotized by him. As he walked by her, she came to her senses, her cheeks turning pink.

They boarded the plane, earning them sharp glares from the other passengers, some of them eyeing Saix suspiciously. The stewardess showed Izzie and Saix to their seats, then the other man and Weston to theirs. Shortly after they were seated, the pilot announced they were clear to leave the terminal, and the plane began its ascent.

"I shouldn't have said anything," Saix said, glancing over the head of his seat several rows down to the two vampires. The boy Weston had his head angled toward him, but he couldn't see his eyes for the shades.

"They were going to find out through Atticus," Izzie said lowly.

"Are you mad?" Saix asked quietly. He absolutely hated the thought that she could be angry with him. After a half-hour of seeing her stare straight ahead with a stone expression, Izzie finally turned her head to look at him.

"No," she replied, her voice just a breath. "I'm worried. Atticus is…curious. When he learns you're not human, he'll want to see what the limits of your abilities are. He could-" Izzie abruptly cut herself off, her eyes narrowing. After a moment, she looked back to Saix and mouthed, "They're listening."

Saix glanced over his shoulder and saw both of them with their heads turned toward plane shook a little as they went through an air pocket, and he turned to look back at Izzie.

"I'm sorry, Saix," She whispered. "I never should have allowed anyone to come back."

"Don't apologize," He told her. "I'm not upset with you or anything." Izzie smiled self-depreciatingly.

"Anyone else would be. You're in danger."

"Well so are you."

She shook her head slightly, lifting her hand to touch his cheek. Her cold, stony fingers smoothed slowly across his skin as if he were the most fragile thing in the world, each brush sending waves of pleasant sensation through his body. Her index finger traveled up, and she traced the shallow crevice of space under his right eye, staring up directly into his irises. "I don't care about me," She told him, her voice soft. "I'm not as easily broken. You're strong, Saix, but if Atticus decides you're too much of a threat to us, nothing will stop him from killing you. The guard obeys every word he says and I'm not strong enough to protect you from all of them. You could die. Because of me." As she spoke, the tears that had been swimming in her eyes fell, and Saix started a bit.

He had seen Izzie cry from relief and compassion, but this was the first time he'd seen her cry from fear. Her face was arranged differently; her eyebrows scrunched, and her eyes completely devoid of hope…He wanted to do something, anything, to stop those kind of tears. Still, he really didn't know what to do. He wasn't so good at the comforting. If someone needed a rude remark or a sarcastic comment, he had a full arsenal of those ready to go. But comfort? Completely empty. So, very awkwardly, Saix lifted his hands and swiped his thumbs against Izzie's cheeks, clearing away the tears trailing from her eyes.

"Don't cry," He murmured. She scoffed, her expression appreciative, but the tears kept coming. He wiped away each one as he chewed on the inside of his lip. "What can I do?"

Izzie shook her head slightly, and it felt like a rock dropped to the pit of his stomach. No one likes feeling helpless, and even more so when they can't help someone they care about. As Saix sat, unbelievably frustrated, Izzie leaned forward, getting so close her face disappeared into the crook of his neck, her nose brushing his skin. He froze, wondering for a split second if she was just going to kill him herself, save him from being tortured by the Council, but he felt her torso expand, contract, then expand again.

She was breathing, very deeply, very deliberately, her breath cool on his skin. Saix frowned and leaned back a little, inclining his head so he could somewhat see her face. "What are you doing?"

Izzie reached a hand to the back of his head and pulled him back to her, locking her arm so he couldn't pull away. "Solidifying your scent," She replied, her voice at his ear making a pleasant shiver go down his spine. Still, Saix shook his head.

"It hurts you, though, doesn't it?"

"It's worth it," She whispered. "And if we get out of this alive I'll do it again." Then she let out a low growl, startling Saix. She must have heard something one of the other two did or said that she didn't like.

After a moment or two, Saix asked, "If they kill me-" He felt her flinch. "-will they let you live?"

Izzie didn't pull back, so he couldn't see her face, but he felt her fingers curl against his coat. "Atticus wants my talent. He doesn't have a shield like me in his guard. He could rationalize that I would show…remorse," She growled the word as if it tasted disgusting on her tongue. "And allow me to live, but even if he tries to say I repent for exposing us, I'm not going to live without you."

Saix blinked, surprised. "Not going to live without me? What the hell are you talking about?"

He tried pulling her back, but she was as unmovable as a statue. She responded as if she didn't notice him pushing at her arms. "If you die, what reason do I have to continue existing myself?"

"Iris, for one!" He was abruptly furious, and he raised his voice to a volume that had the person in front of him shush him. He sneered, but lowered his voice. "She's a child. She needs you."

"Alexander will take care of her,"

"Isabella Santoro!"

"Saix," Finally, she lifted her head and looked at him, and her expression had him clamping his lips shut. "I love Iris, make no mistake. She's a sweet girl and of course I love her, but you? You are the reason I have to stay alive. I know that it's hard for you to comprehend and you might think that I would be able to move on with my life if you were gone, but that's just not true. We're connected, more deeply than you think. If you're cut, I'll bleed. Part of me is you."

Saix stared at her a little while, then stubbornly shook his head. "No. It doesn't make sense. Your life means more than mine. I'm nothing, literally nothing."

"You exist on some level. If you didn't, you wouldn't be here and we never would have met. In fact, I know your existence is so substantial because…" Izzie trailed off, casting her eyes to his chest, and he nudged her.

"Because what?"

She gazed at a certain spot on him for a moment before she looked back to him, her eyes glimmering with tears again. "Ti amo." Saix frowned, confused, and Izzie was grateful he didn't understand a lick of Italian. She leaned forward, pressing the side of her face to his chest, her ear resting over his heart. He sat quietly in his seat, combing through the words Italian words he had looked up in his head-he grew irritated when she would utter phrases under her breath, so he looked up what she said.

Testardo—Stubborn.

Tesoro—Treasure.

Stupido uomo—Stupid man.

He knew he had seen the phrase "ti amo", but he was having a hard time remembering what it meant because she didn't say it, so he didn't feel the need to commit it to memory.

Well, "ti" means I, Saix thought. So she's saying "I…" something. Taking the context of the conversation into consideration, along with the fact that their lives were in danger, he figured it had to mean something important, but it wasn't something Izzie could tell him in a way he'd understand.

Amo, amo…

Oh!

With a sudden surge of clear memory, Saix could recall a list of common sayings in Italian-words and phrases those starting to learn would need. On the list were sayings such as "hello", "goodbye", "please", and "thank you"…and also "I love you".

I love you.

Ti amo.

"Ti amo" meant "I love you".

Saix's eyes widened, and he slowly turned his gaze down to the top of Izzie's head as a weird feeling ran through his gut. She just told him she loved him. He didn't say anything. He couldn't. Beyond his voice being paralyzed in his throat, he didn't know what to say, and he was pretty sure anything he did say wouldn't be the right thing to say. Logically, he rejected the idea that anyone could love him as he was now. He wasn't exactly the nicest person in the world. But…instinctually, he thought it made perfect sense.

They fit together perfectly, even as he was now with his broken pieces and jagged edges. And even with the sharp splinters of himself, he had never managed to cut Izzie; she took those shards and put them back where they needed to be. She made him feel like he had a heart. So, even though he was blanking on what to say, his body responded, guiding his arms to wrap tightly around her, to rest his cheek on the top of her head.

They spent the rest of the seventeen hour flight like that, only pulling away from each other during mealtimes or when Saix needed to use the restroom. Toward the end of the flight, Saix had drifted into an uneasy sleep, dreaming of bright flashes of red and yellow.

When he awoke next, the pilot was announcing their descent into Spain.

…