Aura smiled as she listened to him talk about his former life. “I had a good life too. I was going to get my own tattoo parlor one day. That didn’t work out well at all.”
“Your own tattoo parlor?” He looked her over, and put a hand over on her shoulder where she had claw marks and chains inked to her skin. “So what, did you do these yourself, then?”
She shook her head, but it took some time for her to answer since she wasn’t expecting him to touch her. It was strange, after spending all her time alone in silence to be touched by someone else. Aura missed the company and the chance to just…talk. “It’s not quite the same experience if you do it to yourself. It feels too good to pay attention, the needles raking up and down your skin, and you just end up with permanent scribbles.”
That made him break out laughing. “I never thought about it that way, I guess. Virgin skin.” He said as he spun around to show her his un-tattooed skin, though it was plenty decorated with scars.
Aura ran her fingers across his scars as he spun. “I could do something for you, if you wanted.”
“What’d you have in mind?”
She shrugged and then pulled her fingers away from his skin. “The artist doesn’t usually choose for the person getting the tattoo.”
“So? You make exceptions for old friends, don’t you?” He looked around at a group of several wolves that passed by, currently in wolf form, who were glaring at the two of them, and then he looked back at her. “Wow. So…Lea wasn’t kidding.”
Aura crossed her arms and looked down at the ground. “When I’m in my wolf, I can hear them all. Some of them wish that they could do something about it, drive me away from here. I’ve even heard some who want to hurt me but know that it would only end up badly for them if they do. They all want me gone. Honestly, I don’t even know why I’m still here.”
“Lea said it was because you fell in love with a Shadowborn.” His tone got a little more serious, but he didn’t look back at the audience that had gathered. “Is he the guy I’ve been hearing so much about up in Ireland? The guy the whole wolf community is currently scared shitless of?”
“He stepped up against Council fighters with a Lightborn.” She said, still staring at the ground. “So, yeah. Probably.”
“I’m sorry.” Ziem said quietly, with the most serious look on his face that he’d worn so far. He usually wasn’t known for being very serious about anything. “This all has to suck for you. It’s not like you can really help who you fell for, is it?”
“I deserved it.” She said quietly. “I loved them both, and so I lost them both. Him and Nick.”
“Just because you love something doesn’t mean you have to lose it.” He sighed heavily and got closer to her, poking her side. “Is this what ten years and two boyfriends have done to you? Made you all serious and grim all the time?”
Aura looked up and met his eyes. Just like nearly every else around them, his eyes were hazel, but they were patterned differently. Their eyes were like fingerprints with color, different and beautiful in their uniqueness. Her eyes were heavier on the green in the mixture with the brown, Nick’s were heavier on the brown, but Ziem’s were a balance that was stunning. “It hurts. That changes things.”
“Yeah. Pain does that.” He sighed and looked her over one more time. “Well, whatever happens now, I’ll be sticking around for a while. Unless Nick…excuse me, the Alpha…re-invokes my exile. Which I hope he doesn’t. When it comes to a fight, it looks like this is where the party’s at for the immediate future.”
Aura shrugged as she backed away from him to distance herself, to give him a way out if he wanted it. “No one is going to invite you to any parties if you keep hanging around me.”
“I don’t know. The party seems to follow you, actually. Here, Geneva, the road in between. I think I’ll just keep on hanging around you and wait for somebody who needs punching, if that’s alright.” Ziem’s grin was relentless.
She looked back inside her small house. “Do you want to come in? I haven’t seen you in forever. If you’re going to be stubborn enough to hang around me, I wouldn’t mind having you around.” She gave him a small smile that was silently thanking him for not caring about what other people thought.
“I’ll come back a little later, if that’s okay. I’ve got some buddies I need to get settled in here first, then I apparently need to be officially un-exiled.” He stepped forward with a hand on her waist, obviously not caring in the slightest about what other people thought of him near her. They had all abandoned him once too, but he had lived on happily besides. He would continue however he liked. “But I’ll be back a little later, if I can.”
Aura obviously looked a little disappointed, but then she nodded and stepped back into her house. She wasn’t going to beg for his company no matter how lonely she felt. “See ya, Ziem.”
He saw the look of disappointment and caught her hand on her way back into the house. He obviously never was afraid of being physically forward with her. “Hey…”
Aura looked down at his hand holding hers and she couldn’t help but hold on a little tighter. Aura was the one who had initiated everything with him ten years ago, after all. She’d had a crush on him forever, and she was the one who had kissed him and ultimately caused his exile, though she hadn’t known that would happen. Another
