FIVE: Cade

Cade finally approaches Alize.

FIVE: Cade

    Cade crouched on the windowsill outside the girl’s bedroom, peering through her silk curtains into the room. He could make out enough to know that the maid was still there. He scowled. The woman had been hovering about all day making it impossible for him to try and confront the girl. As he watched the maid sponging the girl’s forehead while she moaned pathetically he frowned again. She was making quite a scene. Although her injuries were far from minor, she probable had a concussion and a bruised spine, the fuss everyone was making was quite unnecessary. Nymph’s were extremely resilient to pain and injury, like Druyd’s. If the girl had been a human he would understand the dramatics, humans had a much lower pain tolerance. At the same time though, he wasn’t surprised. Nymph’s had long ago embraced the human race as their equals and had attempted to assimilate by ignoring the powers that made them unique; now they were even pretending to be as vulnerable as humans. But as Cade watched her rolling around in her bed he wondered if maybe the girl actually believed she was in as much pain as she was appearing to be in. If she had grown being treated as a human maybe she truly believed to have the same physical limits as one.
    The woman poured the girl yet another cup of water and straightened her bed sheets again. The girl lay staring at the ceiling as though watching something no one could see. Cade wondered what she was thinking, the look of terror in her eyes led him to believe she was most likely thinking about him and the scene she had witnessed. He winced, getting her to trust him was going to be much more difficult than he’d thought, but he had to try. Cade waited a while longer watching the richly orange fire of the sun setting behind the trees surrounding the mansion. Suddenly, a wave of weakness overtook him. He squeezed his eyes shut as his forehead seemed to contract with a sudden searing pain through his temples. He groped blindly on the sill to find something secure to grasp. Before he could obtain a decent grip, however, the pain was gone, just as quickly as it had come. He breathed heavily and leaned against the stone window frame for support. Uneasily, he looked down at the ground. Very close call. He was unimaginably high up and sitting on a sill only a few inches wide. Had the spell lasted a second more he’d be sprawled, broken, on the ground below. Under a spell he had no way of catching himself and was much more susceptible to injury. He gripped the stone sill nervously and felt the grooves pressing into his skin.
    There was the muffled sound of a door closing from inside the room and he turned to look. The maid was gone. Based on the swiftly approaching darkness he doubted she would be back for a while. Balancing carefully, he reached down and removed a small dagger from his boot. He watched the girl’s sleeping back for a moment and then jammed the tip of the blade under the window and pushed down.
    The window rose smoothly and silently and the girl, though he could feel she was still awake, was too engrossed in her own thoughts to have heard it. A second later he was at her bedside. She turned over, sensing something, but before it could register he had a firm grip over her mouth. She stiffened and glanced up at him, eyes wild and pulse racing. Her eyes were the most striking blue he’d ever encountered. The color of the sky on the clearest day of the summer. After a moment he had to look away.
    The break of their gaze prompted her to struggle, but he held her fast and leaned close to her ear. “Please don’t scream. I’m here to explain myself.” The girl stopped struggling and looked at him again, her eyes searching his face in fear and confusion. He could feel the anxiety pulsing through her veins. Taking a deep breath he looked her right in the eye and said, in the most sincere voice he could, “I’m not here to hurt you.” Her pulse didn’t slow and he struggled for what else to say. “Look,” he began finally, “What you saw last night, it was wrong. I wasn’t going to kill that man.” The mention of the previous night prompted the girl to begin shaking violently. He sighed, “You don’t believe me.” Her eyes told him that she clearly didn’t.
    Cade speculated for a moment, trying to formulate a plan on the spot, maybe he should have thought it over more. Suppressing frustration, he looked her directly in the eyes. “Look, I don’t want to hurt you, honestly. But you have to hear me out, I want to explain myself.” She swallowed nervously and stared at him like a terrified kitten. After what seemed like an eternity she nodded slightly. “Look,” he added, “How about I give you my weapons, you promise not to scream, and then we talk.” He knew relinquishing his weapons wouldn’t do much good, he could easily incapacitate her without weapons, but he thought it might help. After a moments hesitation, she nodded more decidedly than before. He released her from his grip. Immediately, she shrank up against the headboard and began shaking. They stared at each other for a moment. He could feel the anxiety in her aura and hear her quick breathing, but when she finally spoke her voice was eerily steady.
    “Give me your weapons,” she demanded harshly.
    “Oh, right,” he replied quickly. He reached into his boots slowly, still gazing at the girl. She was small but beautiful. Her golden curls tumbled down her back and across her shoulders. They were messy but stunning all the same. She had a bloodstained cloth tied around her head and a strip of cloth wound around her wrist. She was wearing a simple, yet elegant, light blue nightdress. Her terror-filled blue eyes were her most striking feature. Strangely, her appearance filled him with hatred. Hatred for this girl who had ruined his career and possibly his life. He felt the dagger between his fingers; he wanted nothing more than to plunge it into the soft, perfect skin of her neck.
    He froze, his hand molding to the curves of the dagger’s handle. “Now, please,” the girl snapped. Cade blinked at her, and suddenly the anger disappeared. Flustered, he dropped the dagger on the bed as if it had burned him. She snatched it up and clutched it in her lap. Cade stared at her, horrified with himself. He was completely bewildered and disgusted by his emotions. His life depended on this moment and he had to keep control of himself. The girl was staring at him, her eyes wide. He realized that she had felt the intense hatred he’d just experienced. Nymphs, like Druyds, could sense one another’s feelings through their auras, although most Nymphs didn’t realize it. He had to be more careful.
    It was a moment before Cade was able to regain his stability. He stepped back from her carefully, worried about what he might do if he got too close. “My name is Cade,” he told her, “What is your name?”
    The girl just looked at him, she appeared to be trying to disappear into the headboard. It was a few moments before she replied quietly, “Alize.”
    Cade pulled a wooden chair from the desk and placed it next to the bed, reclining in it. He attempted to look as innocuous as possible. “Well it’s nice to meet you,” he said, throwing her a smile.
    Alize only glared at him suspiciously, “What do you want?” She asked in a small voice.
    “To convince you that I wasn’t trying to kill that man,” Cade tried. She only stared at him, plainly unconvinced.
    “I saw you try to do it. You were going to.” She said, her voice barely above a whisper. He could see her picturing the event, her eyes wide with terror, and watched as she began to shake again.
    “I wasn’t,” Cade exclaimed harsher than he’d intended, she withdrew further against the headboard in fright. He took a deep breath and said more calmly, “I was just threatening to kill him if he didn’t give me what I wanted. I never actually intended to actually do so.”
    Alize tightened her grip on the dagger, “But I felt it,” she stated hesitantly. Cade smiled at her naivety. “In your aura,” she continued more assuredly. Cade’s grin disappeared and he frowned. She knew more than he thought she did.  He had to be more careful, the more she knew the more she would be able to infer about his actions and the harder this would be.
    Cade leaned forward and Alize jumped at his sudden movement, her breathing quickening alongside her pulse. “Well I have to be convincing, don’t I?”
    “So you’re a thief?” She accused. Her voice was still small and quiet but her eyes were reflecting disgust rather than fright now.
    “Ah, no,” Cade said grinning. “He was the thief, I was merely retrieving what was stolen from a friend,” he lied. His boss was no more a friend to him than Daemon was. Truthfully, he had no idea what he had been stealing or why, he had simply been sent to seize it. Maybe the man had stolen it, but he didn’t know and it didn’t matter. What mattered was getting Alize to trust him.
    “I don’t believe you,” she hissed.
    “And why not?” He was trying hard not to lose his patience.
    “Why should I?” She had a point. “What was the object?” She inquired.
    Cade looked her in the eyes, “And item of importance that you wouldn’t -”
    “You don’t know,” she cut him off. He looked up and was surprised to see a small disapproving smirk on her face. “Why would you steal something for a friend who won’t even tell you what it is that you’re after? Clearly they don’t trust you, and what kind of friend doesn’t trust you? Sounds suspicious to me.”
    Her voice had become steadier and louder in the course of her accusation. Before Cade could respond she had continued, “And if the money this friend had given you was good enough then why not just kill the man? It would eliminate future issues for the both of you. Just clean up behind yourself.” Her tone was suddenly venomous and Cade withdrew in surprise. Her beautiful eyes were narrowed in repulsion. She seemed to have forgotten to be afraid.
    Cade struggled to keep a calm front and raised an eyebrow, “Those are pretty big assumptions, it’s not always wise to make such big assumptions.”
    “What are you -” She started, then they both froze at the sound of someone ascending the stairs outside her bedroom. Cade was on his feet in seconds, hand outstretched.
    “My blade,” he whispered urgently. To his dismay she stared furiously up at him and tightened her grip.
    “How do I know you wont kill me in my sleep,” she hissed.
    Cade gaped at her. “Because it would be stupid. And if I really wanted to kill you I could get other blades.”
    “I’m not done talking to you. Having possession of this I can be sure you’ll be back.”
    He stared at the blade in her hand and seethed with anger, if he could only distract her. But he heard the footsteps again, swiftly approaching and thought the better of it. Besides, he had to come back anyway. As the doorknob turned Alize quickly stuffed the knife under her pillow. When she glanced back towards the chair, he was gone.
 
   

Author's Note

Please tell me what you think. Criticism wanted.

Reviews

[Mary Evans]

Really nicely written. I like the dynamics and progression of the story. Pacing and dialogues are good too. All errors are spotted are missing commas, that can be fixed easily.
So yea, really nice job, keep up the good work.

[HappyAccident]

Man I haven't read the other chapters ,but this makes me want to go back and read the whole thing.You described this girl's mindset through Cade's thoughts which was amazing.Maybe a spell check will help with this.