Aryan von Nacht was a hell of a good liar, but even he had his limits. Keir let out a frustrated growl, the late October breeze mussing his hair slightly as he lay on the grass, leaves the color of fire raining down around him. One such leaf landed on his forehead, but he made no effort to remove it. Absentmindedly, his thoughts drifted to Leora. That brought at least a ghost of a smile to his lips. Their last encounter had been rather interesting, he'd had to admit. It made him wonder what she was planning next.
This had to stop. She felt it constantly, this prickle on the back of her neck like she was being watched. She was sensitive to the sensationāshe had been watched for most of her life, and her father had impressed upon her at great length the importance of being aware of oneās surroundings. As such, sheād learned to distinguish this particular unease from all others. A few times, sheād been almost certain sheād seen or heard or smelled something, but every time she had attempted to follow that fleeting sensation, sheād turned up entirely nothing. Not even the traces of a presence. If the others hadnāt been experiencing something similar, sheād have thought she was crazy. Balthasar described it as almost constant. When sheād tried to talk to Hel about it, the girl had seemed the slightest bit surprised it wasnāt simply a conjuration of her own mind, but then sheād narrowed her eyes slightly, and shook her head. In the end, sheād said nothing further.
If it wasnāt that, it was the letters. Leo thought she understood the real reason the were sent. The threats were vague, and rarely anything she hadnāt seen or heard before, but the point was that no matter how hard they looked, it was impossible to figure out where they came from. Someone was taunting them, not with the threats themselves, but with the fact that they were so ignorant of where the letters even came from. She knew Ary and Uncle Morgan had both been working diligently to find the source, but nothing, and her brothers hadnāt turned up anything either. It was like the person they were dealing with was justā¦ a ghost.
It had quickly become the reason for her rather harsh treatment of the gym equipment, and the last time heād seen her, the Headmaster had joked heād need a new budget line just for her pretty soon, could she please just go back to helping her cousins destroy school property? That had wrung a small smile from her, but she was finding it honestly difficult to be cheerful these days. Wellā¦ she knew something that would take her mind off of her foreboding feelings, and she lifted her chin, catching his scent on the air and smiling secretively to herself. Time for another round in the ringābut this one was very different from the boxing one.
He had to have smelled her by nowāhers was not the kind of scent one could hide, which worked at times to her disadvantage. Nevertheless, he allowed her to approach without comment, perhaps to see what she would do. She sat just beside his shoulder, legs folded underneath her, and plucked the leaf from his head with evident amusement, tilting an eyebrow. She moved though, leaning forward so that her hair curtained their faces from outside view, a smirk tugging at her lips, which were perhaps eight inches at most from his. āTrying to become one with nature, Keir?ā she asked, light amusement clear in her tone.
Keir looked up at Leora through half-lidded eyes. He reached up and touched the leaf she'd plucked from his forehead, the thing instantly becoming frosted. "Are you kidding? I'm already one with nature, in some sense."
He'd smelled her approach, but had said nothing, waiting to see what she'd do on her own. "This is a bit backwards. Normally I have to seek you out. That desperate for my company? You could have just asked, you know. How could I ever say no to my favorite cousin?" He smiled coyly at her, looking like a coyote.
āWell, the game wouldnāt be much fun if the players were always predictable, would it?ā Leora asked by way of reply, cutting a mischief-laden glance at her cousin. She turned the leaf about in her fingers, twirling it by the stem, then shrugged and tucked it behind an ear, as though it were now some kind of strange hair accessory. Given that the colors of it were similar to her eyes, it contrasted sharply with the darkness of her locks. She chuckled softly, almost under her breath, at his assertion that he was one with nature, after a fashion.
āOh? Shall I make it snow? Then youād really be in your element, so to speak. I wouldnāt want you to feel too thrown off by my sudden change in tactics.ā It was odd, but sometimes, it was easy to forget that she was trying to seduce him and just fall back into the way theyād always treated each other, like everything was a competition. But some part of her would never forget, and that despite the fact that she was close enough to feel his heat she did not touch him was evidence enough of this. The last time she had was quite not of her own intending, a couple months ago when Alarica had pulled her into a strange, extended three-way hug session. Sheād not been oblivious to their proximity, and sheād rather enjoyed it.
Perhaps it had only made things worse. But if it was worse for herā¦ she supposed she could only hope that it had made things a little more difficult for him as well.
Keir raised his eyebrows slightly. "Change of tactics? Hmm, it sounds interesting. But what would you do If I told you I didn't really care if I lost or not?"
That in and of itself was true, he really didn't care if he won or lost; either way, in his mind, he won, whether he had her in the end or not. If he did, well, that was just a bonus. And she didn't have to know that what he said was completely true. She could take it however she wanted, really. He rolled over, propping his chin up with his elbows. His ice blue eyes bored into hers, just watching, waiting, like some wolf watching its prey.
That predatory stare was almost enough to shorten her breath, but she feigned indifference to it, though she could almost feel it, even when she wasnāt seeing it. āIād say you have a very strange way of acting like it,ā Leo replied without missing a beat. Inwardly, she was a little more confused than she let on, however, because she detected that the statement was more or less honest. Surely she must be imagining that, because there were very few things that statement could possibly mean if true. It could express a painful level of indifference to her presence, orā¦ it could express something almost the oppositeāthat he didnāt care, because the important part of the end result was the same either way. But the only thing a win and a loss had in common was a kissā¦
So, detected honesty or not, she was going to treat the statement like it was false, and another maneuver in the game they were playing. Because she wasnāt too sure she wanted to contemplate either of those two possibilities at length, for what they would reveal about her. Leo had very clear personal boundaries when it came to things like this, and one of those boundaries was that emotions, real, powerful emotions, didnāt get involved. Because if anything ever went wrong, a break with her would never be clean. Her mother had told her about Fenrirātheir shared blood created addicts. She would not do that. Not to anyone. And the best way to avoid it was to avoid entanglements of the sort that made the offer an option.
It was ironic, that she disliked shallow attachments, but they were all sheād ever let herself have. āAnd maybe Iād be a bit disappointed. Weāve been rivals for how long now? I rather count on a challenge from you, Keir. Unless you think I should take my efforts elsewhereā¦ā
Keir feigned a hurt look. "And leave me all alone? Now you're just making me sad, Leo. I never said I wouldn't give you a challenge. I just said I don't care what the end outcome is. I mean, the bragging rights would be a nice thing to have, of course."
He stood up, crouching next to her as he whispered, "Come now, when have I not given you a challenge? Besides, the game is only half the fun, in the end." He stood up, leaving her. The game had taken a few different turns, and Keir, for one, was thoroughly enjoying himself.