"Believe me, I don't find the idea of you getting hurt funny either."
"Then why are you smiling?"
"I'm smiling because you are absolutely beautiful."
Danger couldn't have been more stunned had he told her to take a flying jump off the Eiffel Tower. It'd been a long time since a man, especially one as handsome as Alexion, had complimented her. She'd almost forgotten the weird fluttering such a thing caused in the stomach. The little bit of embarrassment that was counterbalanced by a slice of pride and gratitude. "Thank you."
"You're welcome."
The weirdest part was, in that moment, she wanted to kiss him. Badly.
But that was nuts and she knew it.
He's not even human.
Neither are you.
Well, her mind had a point, but still... This was neither the time nor the place.
Alexion glanced at Marco, then off into the direction Kyros had fled. The familiar look of torment came back into his hazel-green eyes, as if he wanted to go after his friend. It was followed by a look of reservation that said he knew how futile that action would be.
"Give him time to think it over," she said gently, feeling for him. "He'll come around."
"And if he doesn't?"
He'd be dead, most likely by Alexion's hand. And as distasteful as she found that, she could only imagine how much more so he did. Therefore, it would only be cruel to point it out, and she had a feeling that Alexion had had enough cruelty in his life.
"Can't Ash tell you the outcome? I know he can see the future."
"Yes and no. Neither he nor I can see the future when it relates to us or to anyone close to us."
That didn't seem fair to her. What would be the point of seeing the future if you couldn't help the people closest to you? "It must stink to know everyone's future but your own."
He let out a tired breath. "You've no idea. It's actually cruel in my opinion. But then maybe it doesn't matter after all since futures can and do change. Something as simple as you're supposed to turn right down a street one day... in your bones you know it, and yet for reasons no one understands, you decide to debunk fate and go left. Now instead of meeting the spouse of your dreams and having a house full of kids, you get flattened by an ice-cream truck and spend the next five years in physical therapy recovering from the injuries; or worse, you die from it. And all because you exercised free will and turned the opposite way on a whim."
That was something to give her nightmares. It really didn't bear thinking on since it made her wonder where she had gone so tragically wrong with her own life. Was it fate or free will that had screwed her over?
"Now that's really morbid, Doc Sunshine. Thank you for that one."
He made a small face, as if he realized just how doom-and-gloom he'd been. "It can work in reverse too."
"Yeah, but I notice you didn't think of the positive one first. Freud would have a blast with you, wouldn't he?"
"Probably so," he said flippantly. "I'll have to ask him when I get back."
She paused at his words and what they signified. "You know Sigmund Freud?"
The grin he gave her was absolutely dazzling in its charm and beauty. "No, but I had you going there for a minute, didn't I?"
Danger shook her head. There was something so oddly infectious about him. She hated the thought that she could be charmed so easily, and yet he was doing it little by little.
"So what should we do with Marco?" she asked, returning to the matter at hand.
Alexion looked at the body. "There's not much to be done now."
Danger did a double take as she realized the body had already decomposed. She stared at the blank spot where he'd been lying just a few minutes ago. The only thing left to mark where he'd been was his clothes.
"Mon Dieu," she breathed. "Do we all do that?"