Aspen County

I am in the worst pain I've ever been in before when I wake up.

My eyes haven't even opened when I absorb that. For a second, my mind is completely blank, and all that I can register is the pain I feel in my gut. I can't remember why I'm in so much pain or how, but I know that I'm in pain. There's also something warm holding my hand.

After several minutes, I force my eyes to open, and I realize what's making my hand so warm: Keene is lying beside me, fast asleep, my hand curled up in both of his. A worried look mars his cute face, and I don't bother trying to pull my hand away. The fact that he stayed with me brings a smile to my lips, and I find pleasure and comfort in that contact, the only distraction I have from the all-consuming, agonizing pain.

And then it all slams back into me—the battle, the cot, the restraints. Louve.

Without thinking, I try yanking my body up into a sitting position, tugging my hand away from Keene accidentally in the process. Alarmed, he immediately jolts awake and up. Noticing me sitting up and hunched over in pain with my hand clutching my stomach, he wraps his arms around me and begins stroking my arm.

"Lovett, are you alright. Lay down—you're still weak from fighting Monique. Don't strain yourself right now. I watched you." He chokes over those words. "You went through a lot in there."

"I have to see Louve. I have to make sure she's alright." I try squirming away from him, ignoring that my words slurred from my pain, but he holds me too tightly in his strong arms, and I don't have the energy to fight back.

"Lovett, lie down. You were fighting with Monique for three days straight, and it has drained you. You must relax. If it will ease your troubled mind, I'll go check on her, but you need to stay here for now. I'll only go if you relax and rest."

I finally nod, and he releases me. I let gravity draw me back down onto the comfortable pillow with a small thud, and he gazes down at me adoringly, stroking some hair off of my forehead. "Do you need anything while I'm up?" he asks quietly.

"No, just please tell me that she's okay." He nods and presses a kiss to my forehead before slipping out of bed and into the living room.

I can hear him creeping through the hut, and the image of him sneaking around and glancing around corners before turning them makes me smile, but I keep from laughing, afraid of hurting myself even more. He pokes his head back in the room before the rest of his body follows. Slipping back under the covers where he belongs, he presses a quick kiss to my lips before lying on his side, cuddling with his pillow and gazing at me.

"She's okay," he whispers. "Her breathing is stabilizing, and she's back to being regular, furless Louve. Now will you please go back to sleep?" He gently strokes the side of my face, and I lean into his hand.

"What would I do without you?" I whisper, reaching up to graze the backs of my fingers against his cheeks as well.

"I think the better question is what I would do without you." He leans forward and kisses me again.

"Well, I'd be dealing with my crazy sister alone, and you would be preparing to become Shaman of the village without a mate by your side."

He smiles slightly at me. "It was lonely before I met you. I’m just glad that I really do have someone there to help me make decisions. I can see you being a great leader for our people during war."

"Well Louve was the one who really kept us all together when we were battling the hunters. As horrible as it may sound, I'm glad that that particular family line ends with that girl who will probably never know about who we are. But Louve, well, she came up with the plans. They were reckless, but they got stuff done with only two injuries and one death during the whole thing." I don’t see any need to mention Susanne or Cannan—they didn't die in battle. "Considering that everyone we fought was well-equipped and we were completely outnumbered, and even though I really am sorry about having lost my aunt, I think that those are good odds. But why does that matter? Who else will we really war with besides humans? Not the other creatures out there, right?"

"How do you know about the other creatures that are out there? Surely your father or uncle didn't teach you; those raised outside of the village are generally informed of that when they prepare to depart home and live on their own. Those raised in the village very rarely are told before they are teenagers in school."

"Oddly enough, Monique told us before we began fighting. That was such an strange battle." I shake my head and curl closer to him. "But honestly, is that risk present?"

Keene sighs and rolls onto his back, wrapping his arm around me and absentmindedly running the tips of his fingers up and down my bicep. "Unfortunately, I don't know. We could very well declare war on the Vampires tomorrow. And if we did, we would need a strong military leader. That just isn't me." He looks over at me. "But I can sense that power and drive within you, Lovett. I can see that, if put to the test, you could truly lead our people to victory. And if you can't, no one else would. And don't forget, I know this kind of stuff—it's my area of expertise."

"Not even Redell? I mean, I know he's only one, but isn't he already being trained in the ways of your ancestors?"

"Yes, that is true. However, grandmother has told me that Redell, like myself, won't be the most proficient fighter or the best military leader. I believe that part of the reason she approves of you for me with such certainty is that we create a great balance with each other. You're strong and dedicated and passionate. I have a different power within me. I'm clever and insightful and will one day foretell Prophecies that no one else ever sees coming. But try getting me to lead our people into battle against anyone, whether it be fellow Supernaturals or humans, and I'll be the first to raise a proverbial white flag."

I chuckle. "Well then I'll be the one who leads our people into battle. You just worry about whether or not we come back."

He kisses my forehead as I close my eyes and begin drifting back to sleep. "I always will," he whispers before pain-induced exhaustion snatches me back into its grasp.
* * * * *
Three days after the battle, I'm able to stand and stumble around with Keene's help; Louve is breathing steadily but rarely wakes up, let alone get out of bed. Ryder rarely leaves her side.

A week after the battle, I'm able to move around on my own for increasingly longer periods of time; Louve is able to move around for a few minutes each day as long as someone is with her. I finally manage to convince Keene that I'm well enough that he can resume his place as his grandmother's eyes and ears on the village.

About a week and a half after the battle, I'm almost completely back to normal with sporatic waves of dizziness; Louve is able to wander a little more each day, generally with someone but sometimes on her own. Convinced that I'll be okay for a few hours out of the hut, I pull on my shoes and walk out into the snow.

As I approach his hut, Keene is making his way from the general direction of Egeria's hut. When he sees me, his pace increases as my pulse does the same. We reach his front door at the same time, and he clasps my hands in his, and our lips meet immediately, albeit briefly.

He releases one of my hands and caresses my cheek. "I had a feeling I'd find you here," he whispers as I lean into his hand.

"How could I stay away," I murmur back.

He reaches for the door, still holding my hand, and pulls me inside. "You want some water?"

"I'm alright." I fall to the couch, using his hand as leverage to make him come with me.

He smiles. "How do you feel?" He asks softly, reaching up to push some of my long hair out of my face. "Still having dizzy spells?"

"Yeah, but the fight isn't why I feel dizzy right now," I whisper, well aware of how close we are.

He chuckles and leans forward, and this time when we kiss, it isn't like when we kissed outside. It's deep and passionate, and sensuous. Our arms wrap tightly around each other's bodies, and I push him onto his back, our lips never parting.

I start to feel light-headed, and I reluctantly pull away so that we—mostly I—can catch our breath. We gaze at each other lovingly, and his eyes put his desire on display from the lust and...I think love that are in their dark brown depths.

"I want to know about you." I suddenly murmur. "I want to know all about you and your life like you do mine."

"Well I don't know all about you," he replies evasively. He shifts us so that we're on our sides facing each other, our bodies close so that I don't fall off of the couch. He sighs and thinks for a moment. "Okay, so you know about my sister dying during the ninth Cycle this year. My parents passed away almost two years ago now, but my grandmother's mate was also killed when I was five while out with a party trying to discover any nearby hunters getting too close to throw them off of our trail—we do that once or twice a year. All of them were killed by hunters. I've been scared to leave the village since I learned of what happened to my grandfather, but my parents' and my sister's deaths simply reinforced that paranoia, especially after everything that you've endured as well. What I am truly afraid of, though, is that one day Redell may choose to leave. For one thing, he is the only one who can one day take my place, and even if that wasn't so, he's all that remains of my sister.

"What else?" He pauses for a moment. "I actually spent very little time as a child with my parents. I lived mostly with Grandmother from the age of six until I was around seventeen. She taught me everything I know; oddly enough, she actually knew I was gay before I did. She began dropping hints for a few weeks when I was about 14 until I finally figured it out. She told me she had actually sensed it when I was 10 and that there was nothing wrong with me at all. I was just a slow learner, I suppose." He shrugs adorably.

"She was always patient with me, Grandmother, and she never judged or scolded me. She only tried to instil values of right and wrong within me as I grew up and matured so that I could make the right choices on my own without having to be told. I know that once day, when Grandmother passes on, I'll have to take care of and teach Redell like she has; I just hope that I'm as good to him as she always was to me."

"I'm sure you will be," I offer softly. "Just look at how patient you've been with me through all of this chaos."

"That's not the same thing." He averts his eyes

"But isn't it?" I argue softly, reaching up to turn his face so that I can look into his eyes again. "You care about both Redell and me equally, if in different ways. You've guided and assisted Louve and me so through this whole thing. It'll be the same with Redell. Only this time, I'll be able to lend a hand."

"But a lot of that was Grandmother; I was just the messenger most of the time. You would've been fine without me."

"As much as I respect and adore Egeria, I knew that I could trust you as soon as we met. You got me to open up and tell you about things I don't even discuss with Louve. And as far as being alright without you is concerned, she wasn't the one who visited us in a dream, and she didn't come up with that incantation; you did. That was all you, and it was powerful. Just look at what it did to both Louve and Monique. You'll be a great Shaman when your time comes—I have no doubt about it."

"But Grandmother's been so wonderful, and I'm so young—the youngest ever, in case you don't remember. How can I lead our people as beautifully and peacefully as she has?"

"You aren't your grandmother, Keene; you're you. You'll do things in your own way and your own time, and I'll help you along the way. I won't let you go into this alone."

He leans forward slightly and pecks my lips with his, wrapping his arms around my waist to pull our bodies closer together. He pulls away slightly, our foreheads still touching and our lips barely a breath away from each other. And in that moment, I know. Keene is the only one for me. We understand each other, and it feels almost as though I'm complete. It's like my dad said when he explained how he knew that my mother was the right one for him despite what either society dictated: we just work. He soothes my flaws, and I help him muddle through his. We fix and support each other. I never want to leave his side, and I never want him to leave mine; the thought is too painful to bear.

As we gaze into each other's eyes, we begin to slowly smile simultaneously. He reaches his hand up and touches my heart through my shirt. It immediately speeds up, and I move even closer so that I can faintly feel his lips against mine. "Do you feel what I do?" he murmurs quietly, his voice barely a whisper.

"You know how I feel every second of every day; you tell me," I reply, my voice low and husky.

"Yes, you do." He grabs my shirt and pulls our bodies as close together as physically possible before crushing our lips together in a dizzying kiss. We soon make our way to his room, grateful that he lives alone.

I don't leave Keene's hut until early the next morning.