Tree Of Souls (Transfusion Saga #6) - Stephanie Hudson Page 0,106

for once this wasn’t what I commented on.

“So, what did you do up here with your father and what was he like?” I asked seeing as he was in a chatty mood. I noticed him glance at me from the corner of his eye before taking a swig of his beer and looking back over the vista of colours.

“He did what most things fathers did at that age with their sons, he taught me to hunt, to be cunning and to be fast.” I raised a brow in question, prompting him to tell me,

“I was something of a troublemaker.” I burst out laughing at this and couldn’t help but continue to chuckle after it.

“I am shocked, of course,” I said making him scoff,

“Yeah, I just bet you are.”

“So, what you’re saying is that you have always been one of the bad boys, eh?” I said teasing him. His amused look said it all. Then after a minute of thought he continued,

“I questioned everything, including authority.”

“Noooo…that doesn’t sound like you at all.” He gave me wry grin and said,

“I wasn’t one to conform, unless there was a cause I believed in.” I took a breath and decided to see how far this conversation would go.

“Is that why you followed Jesus?” I braved to ask. He gave a smile and told me gently,

“Not ready to go there just yet, sweet.” I granted him a little nod of understanding and decided to switch to when he first became who he was today, thinking this was a good way to keep him talking.

“So, you didn’t deal with authority well…Must have been the natural born leader in you then,” I commented taking another swig of my beer. But then he shocked me by saying,

“I never wanted to be a leader, least of all a King.” I frowned before pointing out the obvious,

“Lucius, you were a Roman Emperor.”

“Yes, but only under the order of your father did I become so, my little scholar,” he told me making me nearly choke on a swallow of beer. He chuckled at my reaction.

“I didn’t know that,” I said, pointing out the obvious.

“Two thousand years of history, sweetheart, there is a lot you don’t know,” he said making me release a sigh because I knew it was true. I mean just how many layers could a guy that old have?

“Hardly seems fair seeing as you know everything about me,” I complained on a sigh, making him remind me,

“I’m talking now I believe.” I grinned at him and agreed, tipping the neck of my beer at him,

“That you are.” I took a sip and then said,

“And not that I want to seem ungrateful or at the risk of making you stop or regret that…”

“You want to know, why now?” he cut me off from my rambling,

“Yeah, I want to know why now,” I repeated wanting to know why he was all of a sudden Mister chatty past pants and was letting me into the world of Lucius.

“Let’s just call it the first steps to gaining back that trust that has been lost,” he replied making me realise that he was doing this for me…or so I thought, until he added,

“Besides, I realise that expecting you to be content at only knowing the past thirty years of my life is unrealistic.”

“Oh really?”

“Well, given your curious nature, your love of history and tenaciousness at getting what you want, then yeah, it was unrealistic.” He teased making me shout,

“Oi!” This before throwing the first thing my hand grabbed from the table, which was a half-eaten pastry.

“Gods, woman, will you stop throwing shit at me!” he complained as it missed him by an inch as it went sailing past his face.

“I will, when you stop pissing me off, handsome!” I threw back at him without an ounce of malice, making him grumble,

“Fuck, wish she would go back to slapping me…ends better.”

“Who are you even talking to?” I snapped making him grant me a dangerous grin. Then he placed his bottle down next to his chair, doing so without taking his eyes off me.

“Oh no…no you don’t…” I started to say moving from my chair and starting to walk backwards, keeping him in sight as he rose from his seat, ready to start stalking me.

“No…you…don’t…Lucius, ah!” I shouted as I turned to run back to the car finding myself grabbed from behind and thrown over his shoulder.

“Well, look at that, caught you again!” he shouted. Then, just as he started walking me to the back of