Bring Me To Life
Tangled Up In Blue:
Sophie Deveraux sat down on the armchair across from the beautiful Rebekah and the narcissistic Niklaus with a blank expression on her pretty face as she folded her hands in her lap. She listened intently as she listened to their plan to find their missing brother and struggled to keep the disinterested look on her face as her anger grew with every word.
"Are you out of your mind? No way." Sophie declared firmly as she glared at the two Originals with a disbelieving frown and Rebekah sighed heavily as she leaned forward in her seat on the couch across from Sophie.
"It's very simple. We need you to perform a teeny, tiny locator spell to help us find our brother." Rebekah explained to her in a slightly condescending tone as she tried her hardest to keep her anger in check because they needed the witch's help to find Elijah.
"Witches who practice magic in this town get caught, and they get killed." The young witch reminded them in a hard voice as she moved her gaze in between the two siblings and narrowed her dark brown eyes at them almost warningly.
"Yes, about that. It seems you left out a crucial detail when we made our deal—Marcel's secret weapon, the way he knows when a witch is using magic." Klaus said to her pointedly as he pursed his lips at her and leaned his elbows on his knees as he stared straight at her as though daring her to dispute him.
"Girl about yay high, cute as a button, anger issues." Rebekah added mockingly as she held her hand in the air near her shoulder to demonstrate and Sophie felt her insides freeze with a mix with emotions as her eyes widened.
"Davina? Where have you seen her?" Sophie asked in a demand as she clenched her hands into fist and ignored the mild guilt she felt at the thoughts she was having but focused on the hope that Rebekah had unknowingly given her.
"I don't know. The little brat erased my memory right after she threw me out a window with her bloody mind." Rebekah hissed menacingly as she scowled at the memory of being bested by a 16 year old and shook her long blonde hair over her left shoulder.
Sophie felt the brief flash of hope diminish at the Originals words but tried not to show the disappointment on her face as she settled back in her seat.
"Let me cut to the chase. Davina has Elijah. You witches, I assume, want to get Davina away from Marcel. We don't know where she is. Ergo, we need magic." Klaus told the witch in a calm voice as he leaned back on the couch he was sitting on and placed his behind his head leisurely as Sophie glared at him.
"Davina would sense it." Sophie argued with a shake of her head as she crossed her ankles and dug nails into the palms of her hands to stop her from saying anything that would complicate the situation. Her parents, her sister and the elders in the coven had always berated her when she was younger for speaking without thinking but she and Imogen had ignored them as they followed no rules but their own. Sophie swallowed heavily at the thought of her lost best friend but didn't allow her thoughts to wander too far into the past.
"Unless, of course, another witch—say, a traitor to the cause, Katie for example—was to perform much more powerful magic at the same time. That would create a smokescreen, concealing your very small spell from Davina." Rebekah said with a small bloodthirsty smirk as she tilted her head to the side and tapped her boot impatiently as she waited for the inevitable to come out of the witch's mouth.
"Katie doesn't deserve to die."
"Sophie Deveraux." Klaus suddenly exclaimed loudly as he slammed his hand down on the coffee room in between them and Sophie jumped slightly as he stood up from the couch. "You're in no position to be so principled. You can't win a war without a few strategic losses, no matter how regrettable they may be. How many times have the vampires been one step ahead, known something they shouldn't? Your sister, executed in the public square for practicing magic, who knew she'd be caught? Did she even attempt to flee?"
"She was caught hiding in a cargo hold of a freighter before it set sail down the Mississippi." Sophie admitted softly as hot tears filled her dark brown eyes but she dug her nails into her palms so that she didn't cry in front of the Originals because she refused to show them weakness.
"And who, pray tell, of Marcel's valued inner circle manages his business at the docks?"
"Katie's boyfriend, Thierry." Sophie stated quietly as she closed her eyes against her tears and supressed the small swell of guilt in her stomach as she nodded her head slowly in acknowledgement to their point.
Rebekah sat at the bar counter at Rousseau's with a half empty glass of scotch in front of her as she smiled at the blonde bartender on the opposite side of the bar.
"And so then I moved back here to be closer to my brothers because—let's face it—family's important, right, Camille?" Rebekah asked with a slight bitterness in her British accented voice as she swirled her scotch around in the glass.
"Cami. I have to change this name tag. Drunk guys keep hitting on me in French." Cami said with a small smile on her lips as she cleaned a glass with a rag and Rebekah chuckled slightly as she nodded in acknowledgment. "You sure you haven't been in here before?"
"She's a friend of mine. Maybe you've seen her with me." A voice interrupted Rebekah as she went to answer the curious blonde and Cami glanced of her shoulder with a smile at the woman who was approaching them from behind.
"Hey, Imogen! I didn't think you'd actually come. I know you avoid this place like the plague." Camille teased her friend lightly as the brunette sat down the stool next to Rebekah with a smile at the bartender and Rebekah looked between the two in confusion as to why the witch was lying about them being friends.
"Sophie's not here, right?" Imogen asked her with a quirked eyebrow as she leaned her elbows on the bar counter and Cami chuckled softly as she shook her head in answer to her friend. "Well, as long as Sophie isn't here, I can be."
"I still don't know why two don't like each other."
"And you probably never will. You aren't a psychologist yet and I'm not paying you 200 dollars an hour to listen to me bitch. You're my friend so you have to do that for free." The young witch pointed out jokingly with a smirk and Camille rolled her blue eyes at her with a small genuine smile gracing her lips for first time that day.
"You're lucky I can tolerate your weird personality. Take your alcohol and let me work." Cami said in amusement as she poured the brunette a glass of bourbon and placed it on the counter in front of her.
"You're the one who invited me down here." Imogen reminded her playfully as she wrapped her hand around the glass and risked a quick glance at the blonde Original watching the witch and bartender interact with an almost jealous expression.
"I regret it." The blonde behind the counter said drily as she kept her pretty face serious before cracking a small smile and watching away from the duo at the bar as she threw the rag over her shoulder.
"Why did you lie to her?" Rebekah asked the brunette witch next to her curiously with a slight edge of suspicious in her accented voice and Imogen took a leisurely sip of her drink as she studied the blonde next to her. With one glance, Imogen could immediately tell that the youngest Mikaelson was lonely and that was something she could relate to at the moment.
"Maybe it wasn't a lie." The witch finally said seriously as she placed her glass down on the counter in front of her and Rebekah raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow at her vague answer in question as she sipped her own glass of scotch. "Maybe it was a prediction of the future."
"Why would you want to be friends with someone that threatened to kill you?"
"If I hated everyone who threatened to kill me, I wouldn't have any friends at all. I asked around about you after our little altercation and found out that you were looking for your brother. Elijah, right? The moral Original Vampire, always wears a suit, dead sexy? You see what I did there with the dead pun?" Imogen asked airily as she tilted her head to the side and pursed her lips slightly as she swirled her bourbon around in the glass. Rebekah couldn't help but quirk a small smile at the witch's description of her brother as she nodded her head and placed her now empty glass down on the bar counter in front of her. "Family is important. I'd do anything for mine. It would be hypocritical of me to fault someone for doing the same."
"For the record, I'm glad I didn't kill you. I like you, Imogen. Most girls have the unfortunate tendency of being whiny little twits." Rebekah told the young witch nonchalantly as she pushed a strand of blonde hair behind her ear and the brunette next to her laughed softly at the compliment as she downed the rest of her drink.
"Thank you. I like you, too. Most female vampires around here have the unfortunate tendency of being annoyingly high and mighty." Imogen replied with a roll of her blue eyes as she turned her body to face Rebekah and the blonde laughed slightly as she shook her head at the witch's point of view.
"Hey, I'm supposed to go to this posh charity thing thrown by this philanthropist tonight. He's a bit of a Gatsby, throws a mean party. Any interest?" Rebekah asked the young witch curiously as she bit the inside of her cheek and ignored the slight swell of guilt as a plan began to form in her mind that centred on the brunette.
"You mean the fundraiser Marcel is throwing? I already have my invite. What I don't have is a dress. Want to come shopping with Cami and I?" Imogen asked sincerely as she canted her head to the side and looked at the blonde next to her with honest blue eyes that made Rebekah feel slightly guilty as she nodded politely.
"I would love to."
"Good, because Cami may be an awesome friend but she has horrible taste in clothes!" the young witch said as she raised her voice at the end of the statement so that the bartender at the other end of the counter could hear her over the sound of the other patrons.
"Shut up!" Cami shouted back at her playfully as she poured a drink for a customer without looking at her friend and she fought the grin that spread across her lips at her friends teasing. She turned her head to look back at the brunette with a wink and saw that Imogen was sticking her tongue out at her as Rebekah tried to not laugh at their childish antics.
Rebekah and Klaus entered the party held by Marcel arm in arm dressed in formal wear and wearing knowing smirks on their faces as they looked around the room filled with vampires and human's alike.
"Well, this certainly is a fitting backdrop for tonight's events, I must say." Klaus mused softly as he looked around at the dancing people, falling confetti and flutes of champagne that were being passed around on trays. His blue eyed gaze flickered around the crowded ballroom for any sign of Marcel as he grabbed two flutes of champagne from a passing waiter's tray and silently handed one over to his sister.
Rebekah made an appreciative noise in the back of her throat as she took the offered flute and delicately lifted it to her lips as she sipped the bubbly liquid. She ran a hand down the front of her stunning black floor length gown that she had brought earlier that day when she went shopping with Imogen and Cami.
The youngest Mikaelson couldn't remember a time when she had just been shopping with girlfriends without a devious motivation behind the event but today she genuinely had a good time shopping, getting her nails done and talking about pointless topics. Rebekah felt guilty for trying to use the young witch earlier but she had soon learned that Imogen was not one to be used or manipulated.
"Everything is in place." Rebekah murmured to her brother softly so that no vampire at the party would overhear them as she glanced at him from the corner of her eye.
"What's she doing here?" Klaus asked suddenly in a dangerously low voice as he looked at something or someone on the opposite side of the ballroom and Rebekah followed his gaze with a confused frown to see a familiar brunette.
Imogen stood near the entrance with her head held high in confidence as she looked around the room filled with vampires and smirked to herself when many heads turned in her direction. Her floor length white gown was perfectly crafted to her thin body and her long brunette hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun. She offered a passing waiter a small smile as she took the flute of champagne that he presented to her and looked around the ballroom for someone in particular.
"What better way to distract Marcel than to put his very delicate, new girl in a room chock full of vampires?" Rebekah asked rhetorically with a small smirk when she saw the anger in her older brother's eyes as he looked at the young witch and she wondered why he was having such a reaction to her presence.
Imogen's blue eyed swept around the ballroom for Marcel as she delicately sipped her champagne and she smiled when she caught sight of a familiar blonde crossing the room towards her. Rebekah sauntered across the ballroom as though she owned the entire room and people stopped to stare at the beautiful blonde but she barely noticed them.
"Rebekah. You look incredible." The young witch complimented her with a sincere smile as Rebekah came to a stop in front of her and grinned back at her with mirth twinkling in her cerulean blue eyes.
"Hello, darling. You look precious." Rebekah greeted her warmly as she grasped Imogen's forearms in her hands loosely and glanced down at her stunning gown as she nodded to herself in approval.
"This party is ridiculous. I hate these things." Imogen complained with an eye roll as she glanced around the ballroom in distaste and smiled friendly at some of the vampire's that she knew. Her blue eyes locked on the familiar man curly light brown hair and light blue eyes that she had seen around with Marcel and she noticed him running his gaze down her body but it surprise her that it wasn't in a sexual way. "Is he your date for the night?"
"He's the brother, actually, and my sister is right. You do look stunning." The man said in a British accent like Rebekah's as he approached them from behind and smiled charmingly at the young witch as she tilted her head to side in consideration.
"You clean up pretty well yourself."
"Well, don't be fooled, love. I'm the devil in disguise." He responded in amusement with a smirk on his lips as he lifted his champagne flute up to his mouth and Imogen quirked an eyebrow at him as a smirk fought its way onto her own lips, knowing very well that he was speaking the truth.
"You two chit-chat. I need booze." Rebekah said in a bored voice as she looked between the two of them with a hint of pleasure in her blue eyes and they both nodded as she turned on her heel to go find the bar.
"Shall we?" The man asked her as he held out his arm for her to take and she nodded at him as she slipped her arm into the crook of his elbow before directing her towards the opposite end of the bar that Rebekah had gone to.
"So, I already know who you are but are you going to introduce yourself?" Imogen asked him playfully with a smirk as they came to a stop at the bar counter and he chuckled softly as he held up his hand for the bartender at the other end of the bar. "You're being very rude."
"Klaus Mikaelson." He introduced himself with a self-assured smirk on his handsome face as held out a hand for her to take and the young witch smirked back at him as she placed her hand in his.
"I figured as much. Congratulations, by the way." She said to him nonchalantly as she pulled her hand away and leaned on the bar to wave impatiently at the bartender. Klaus gave her an incredulously frown as she sighed at the lack of attention from the bartender and turned back to face him with a polite smile. She tilted her head to the side in consideration when she saw the baffled expression on his handsome face. "On breaking your hybrid curse. I highly doubt anyone has said that to you, mainly because of the sacrificing and death, but breaking a curse after thousands years is no easy feat. Congratulations."
"Thank you." Klaus replied with a chuckle as he offered her a genuine smile and leaned his elbow on the bar top as he looked at her as though he was seeing her for the first time.
At the other end of the bar, Rebekah sighed slightly as the human bartender hired for the event appeared in front of her and she smiled at her flirtatiously as she leaned forward a little.
"Scotch, please." She told him softly as she batted her eyelashes slightly and he smirked back at her as he nodded in acknowledgement.
"You trying to be cute, inviting her here?" Marcel asked her as he appeared at her side with a frown on his handsome face and Rebekah sighed to herself as the bartender walked away to get her drink for her.
"I think she's darling. I can tell you fancy her pure heart. Perhaps I'll feed it to you." She said with a tight smile on her lips as she turned her head to glance at him and ignored the familiar tightening of her stomach as she swept her cerulean blue gaze over his tuxedo clad body.
"Hmm. Jealousy looks good on you, Bekah."
"You can relax. Imogen was the one to approach me, not the other way around." Rebekah admitted to him with a small smile as the bartender approached her with her glass of scotch in hand and he placed it down in front of her as he winked in her direction.
"She has no sense of danger." Marcel mumbled fondly as he looked over his shoulder at the other end of the bar where the young witch was speaking to Klaus and smiled slightly when she glanced over in his direction.
Across the room at the other end of the bar, Imogen tilted her head to the side slightly in consideration as she watched Marcel and Rebekah interact with one another and she could practically see the tension coming off the two of them.
"Earlier when we were shopping, Rebekah mentioned an on and off again relationship. The guy she was talking about... I'm sensing that would be Marcel." Imogen admitted to the hybrid next to her as she leaned her elbows on the bar counter and Klaus turned his head to follow her bluish gaze over to his darling little sister and Marcel.
"I wouldn't worry about it. Ancient history." Klaus told her honestly as he narrowed his light blue eyes at his protégé and felt a protective rage in his chest as he lifted his glass of scotch to his lips.
"I'm beginning to think your sister is a bit of a bitch." She said drily as she looked back him with a quirked eyebrow and he laughed out loud at the understatement as he nodded his head in agreement.
"It's as though she invented the term."
"I like it. She's honest. Not a lot of people are these days." The young witch murmured quietly as she sipped her glass of wine and she noticed the confused looked the Original hybrid was giving her so she sighed as she nibbled on her lower lip. "People tend to only tell you what they want or what they think you need to know. Rebekah is blunt. She doesn't just tell you what she thinks you want to know. Even though she wants people to like her for who she is, she refuses to lie just for their benefit. Honesty is something I value. I understand the value of duplicity but candour is a quality that only a certain few have."
"That's certainly an astute perceptive for someone so young." Klaus commented softly as he looked into her sincere bluish eyes and felt himself actually wanting to know more about the young witch next to him. Imogen smiled a little as she sipped her wine and turned away from his intense light blue eyes as she shrugged delicately.
"Imogen!" she heard a familiar voice call out to her from behind and she subconsciously smiled as she turned around in surprise to face the dark skinned vampire that was approaching her with a charming smile on his lips.
"Marcel. Finally decided to grace us with your presence, I see." Klaus greeted the man with a smirk as he turned the vampire that he raised as his own but saw that all of Marcel's attention was on the brunette witch besides him.
"Hey. Killer party." Imogen joked in a flirty voice as she took a step towards the dark eyed man and he chuckled lightly as he leaned forward he press a lingering kiss to her cheek. She internally cursed herself as her heartbeat started racing at the contact but had to smile slightly as Marcel pulled back with a smirk on his lips.
"Sorry I took so long. I got caught up talking to the mayor." Marcel apologised to her softly as he stepped closer to her side and she shook her head with an understanding smile as she placed her wine glass down on the bar counter top.
"No explanation necessary. You do your thing, I'll entertain myself."
"What, leave you alone, looking the way you do? Hell with that." he protest sincerely as his dark brown eyes raked over her toned body a lustful glint and he grinned a little when he heard her heart rate exhilarate.
"Come on then. I want to dance." She told him with a teasing smile as she gripped one of his hands on hers and began walking towards the dance floor as he chuckled softly in amusement at her forceful attitude but allowed her to pull him along behind her.
Klaus watched the young witch lead Marcel to the dance floor as he sipped his bourbon carelessly and tried to ignore the protective urge he had to rip Marcel's hands off the brunette's waist. He had only ever felt this way towards Rebekah and more recently, towards a certain blonde baby vampire back in Mystic Falls and it terrified him that someone he had only spoken to once could make him feel anything.
Rebekah couldn't help the swell of jealousy she felt as she subtly watched Marcel dance with his arms around Imogen from the corner of her eye and she walked over to stand next to her older brother at the bar.
"You really are a hideously evil little thing, aren't you?" Klaus asked her with an expressionless look on his handsome face as he watched Marcel twirl the brunette under his arm and he could hear her laugh in delight as the dark skinned vampire caught her in his arms with a charming smile.
"Nonsense. They're perfect for each other. You wanted Marcel distracted—voilà." Rebekah said brightly with a smirk as she looked over at her brother and quirked an eyebrow at his unusually serious expression as he shook his head slightly. "What's the matter with you? Your plan is working, Marcel is sufficiently distracted and I made a lovely new friend."
"Nothing is the matter, little sister."
Imogen giggled slightly as Marcel twirled her under his arm and grinned as he pulled her back into his arms expertly. She couldn't help the feeling of happiness she felt when his muscular arms snaked around her thin waist and held her close to his body in an almost protective position because she wasn't used to feeling safe like she was right then.
"You're quite the dancer." Marcel commented with a smile as he tightened his hold on her waist and watched her expression lighten slightly as he spun her around before bring her back into the confines of his arms.
"Thank you. I've had training." Imogen told him with a small smile as she quirked an eyebrow at him playfully and looked into his dark brown eyes as he chuckled at her in amusement. The jazz music changed into a slow song as she glanced down at the ground quickly before looking back up with a small smile and Marcel grinned at her as she wrapped her arms around his neck comfortably.
Marcel couldn't help the small ache in his chest as he looked into her bluish eyes that held too much knowledge for someone her age and he tightened his grip on her thin waist as he thought about what she had hold him about her past. He couldn't imagine anyone wanting to harm the beautiful girl in his arms and the mere thought of it made him want to rip their hearts out so that they couldn't so much as touch her ever again.
The tension between the two of them of palpable as they slowly danced with their arms around each other and they both subconsciously stopped moving as they stared into each other's eyes.
Imogen's breath caught in her throat as her heart began racing as she looked into his dark brown eyes that were darkened with lust and she unintentionally bit her lower lip as his gaze quickly darted to her lips before returning to her eyes. She glanced down at his lips as he started to lean into her and her eyes fluttered closed as she also leaned into him in anticipation.
"Marcel…" a familiar male voice interrupted them when they were only an inch away from each other and Marcel growled in the back of his throat as he pulled away from Imogen reluctantly. He turned his head to the side to see one of his daywalkers standing to the side of the couple with an apologetic look on his face and fought the urge to rip his head off his shoulders for disturbing them.
"Diego, I'm going to kill you." Imogen said drily as she sighed heavily and shook her head slightly as she took a step back from Marcel so that she wasn't pressed up against him but was still encircled loosely in his arms.
"Sorry, guys, but this is urgent." Diego apologised to them as he stepped closer to them so that no one would overhear what he was going to say and leaned down to whisper in the king's ear in case he didn't want Imogen to know what was going on either.
Imogen licked her lip slightly nervously as she waited patiently for the two vampire's to finish conversing and took her time to look around the crowded ballroom as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She glanced back over at Marcel and Diego to see a thunderous expression on his handsome face and she frowned in concern as she stepped back out of his arms.
Marcel froze when he heard that his right hand man Thierry had killed another vampire in order to protect his witch girlfriend and couldn't help the feeling of betrayal in his stomach as he glanced over to the side of the room where the blonde vampire stood with an entourage of guards.
"Excuse me." Marcel murmured quietly to Imogen without taking his dark brown eyes off of Thierry as he squeezed her hand once in apology and then began striding purposefully towards the group near the edge of the dance floor with Diego trailing after him.
Imogen nodded silently as she watched him approach a group of vampire's and frowned in confusion as she saw the dark skinned vampire grab Thierry by the throat before pushing him backwards so that they were not visible to the rest of the party.
The music from the ball could vaguely be heard by the group of vampires as the reigning King of New Orleans pushed Thierry up against the hard brick wall so that his head connected with a thud and he glared at the other vampire as he tightened his hold on his throat.
"What the hell did you do?"
Marcel sat silently on the longue in the private penthouse apartment he kept for himself in the French Quarter for whenever he needed to take a step back from the supernatural aspects of his life and sighed to himself as he leaned back on the comfortable couch in the longue room. After the events of that night all he wanted to do was kick back with his feet up and drink his body weight in alcohol because he couldn't believe that his best friend, the man that had been by his side for the last 70 years had betrayed him.
The night had started out perfectly for him at the ball with Imogen in his arms for the first time but had ended up with him sentencing his friend to 100 years in the Garden and agreeing to return Elijah's body to the Mikaelson's after Klaus had saved his life by killing the witch that attacked him.
The dark skinned vampire groaned loudly to himself as he sat back up as he reached for the nearly empty bottle of scotch on the coffee table in front of him and picked it up to pour the rest of the liquid into the glass besides it. The bottle wobbled slightly as he carelessly placed it back on the table and lifted the glass to his lips as he sighed heavily.
A gentle knock at the first door echoed loudly throughout apartment as he drained the glass of scotch and he frowned in confusion as he looked over at the door before standing up from the couch. He hesitantly walked over to the door as he pursed his lips in annoyance and swung up the door with his mouth open to yell at whoever dared bother him but words escaped him as he caught sight over the person on the other side.
"What are you doing here?" Marcel asked softly as he leaned his shoulder against the doorframe and ignored the ache in his chest as he tilted his head to the side in consideration.
"I heard what happened." Imogen explained with a delicate shrug of her shoulders as she leaned on the opposite side of the doorframe and looked into his dark brown eyes for some sign of how he was coping. She pulled her hand out of behind her body as she smiled slightly and held up an unopened bottle of scotch for him to see. "I brought alcohol."
"Then come on in." he said to her softly as he stepped back so that she could walk past him into the apartment and she nodded once as she handed him the bottle silently before going into the longue room.
"Nice place."
"Thanks. Imogen, what are you doing here?" Marcel asked her in confusion as he crossed his arms over his board chest and watched her fondly as she looked around his place with a critical eye. She turned around to face him with a small half-smile on her beautiful face and he had the sudden urge to kiss her but stayed where he was as she stepped forward a step.
"I have absolutely no idea what you're feeling. I've never had to make decisions for the good of the many like you do every single day, like you had to do tonight. But I do know that Thierry is, or was your best friend and you lost him tonight. Losing someone you care about? That's something I know about." Imogen answered him honestly as she nibbled on her lower lip nervously and tilted her head to the side as her bluish eyes locked onto his dark brown ones. "I can't do anything to help your pain, but I can just be here."
"You're amazing." He blurted out unintentionally as he stared at her stunning blue eyes that were filled with sincerity and he chuckled sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. He watched as Imogen breathed out an unbelieving laugh as she shook her head in denial and lick her lip nervously as she looked down at the ground in embarrassment. Marcel placed the bottle of scotch she brought down on the coffee table as he walked closer to where she was standing across the room and slowly approached her as she crossed her arms over chest almost protectively. "I'm being serious. Imogen, you are amazing."
"I'm not…" she started to protest as she shook her head in denial and he felt a swell of rage over the fact that she couldn't believe someone when they told her how remarkable she was. He grasped one of her hands loosely in his as he stepped closer to her so that they were nearly touching and she looked up at him in surprise as her heart rate picked up speed as he cupped her cheek with his other hand.
"You. Are. Amazing." Marcel told her quietly as he caressed the warm skin over her cheek and stared into her bluish eyes as he tried to tell her silently with his actions. "Understand?"
Imogen sucked in a sharp breath as she stared into his dark brown eyes for any sign of dishonesty but all she could see was warmth and sincerity in their depths. It was strange for her to have someone complimenting her because all she had grown up with was disappointment and disapproval from her parents and the coven elders.
Slowly, she nodded her head in acknowledgement as she reached up to cover the hand that still cupped her cheek and felt warm tears sprung to her eyes as she blinked them away before Marcel could see them.
Marcel offered her a half-smile as he nodded once at her and felt a surge of disappointment as Imogen cleared her throat lightly before stepped back out of his reach. She gently grazed his side with her arm as she walked past him and stopped next to the coffee table to pick up the bottle of scotch.
"Are we going to get drunk or what?" Imogen asked him pointedly with a quirk of her eyebrow as she cocked her hip to the side and Marcel chuckled softly at her as he nodded in agreement before following her over to the couch in the longue room.