Icy A

Chapter 2

Andreas had been left in charge by Blake when the young human girl came knocking on the door. Worrying that said girl had been sent by Lucian so as to finish what he had started, Andreas had instructed Ace, the hacker of the group, to open the door together with Felicity, so that he would be left with his sire's mate, should the situation be dangerous.

“If she's human, why is Ace going as well?” Maria asked, bemused, as she watched their retreating backs.

“She could still be a threat, you can never know,” came Jessica's shrug-accompanied explanation.

“Besides, he's the youngest and also the weakest. If he were to be defeated, and the enemy were to come, your safety wouldn't suffer from it,” Andreas supplied flatly, punctuating the defeated part with quote marks using his forefingers.

“It sounds like he's some kind of sacrificial piece in this case,” Maria muttered, sounding mid-astonished, mid-horrified by his calmness.

“He's not a victim here. We would all happily give our life for Blake, make no mistake. In this situation, he was the safest choice,” James explained calmly with a resolution-filled stare, Jessica agreeing with him with a curt nod.

“Right now, our top priority is you. Otherwise, I would have welcomed the guest myself,” came Andreas’ flat input, a hint of sarcasm adorning the part about welcoming the guest.

But as the door opened, and the wind carried on its wings the scent of said guest, and upon hearing the melodic foreign voice, Andreas could feel himself get oddly curious to meet the girl in person.

And Andreas was no social butterfly.

What could ever be this sensation that agitated him all of a sudden? He didn't know, and he wasn't sure he was going to like the answer anyways.

Nevertheless, when Maria told Jessica she wasn't going to be kept away from her friend, he agreed to let her see her. “Justin, James,” he called out, and they rose to their feet, “you'll go first. Then, it'll be the ladies’ turn,” he briefly eyed both Jessica and M-J. “I'll be escorting the princess.” Then turning to face Maria, he added, “You will however stay at a safe distance from this so-called best friend of yours, if you please.”

She nodded in reluctant consent, not fooled for one second by the “if you please”, knowing for a fact that she wouldn't be allowed to see Kelly at all if she were to refuse his condition.

When, the princess’ friend – whose name, he learnt, was Kelly – finally came into view, she looked like she was about to get into a fight with Charlie who, on the other hand, looked like he was about to grab her arm, and maybe forcibly make her leave because she just wouldn't do as she was told.

The sight made Andreas disturbingly excited and immensely annoyed at the same time. And that unsettled him to no end.

Then, he realized the unexpected had happened: He had met his mate.

Andreas was over eight hundred years old, but he would have never betted on finding his mate. Hell, he didn't even believe he had one. So, yeah, his sire had waited for a millennium before finally meeting his one and only but his sire was no ordinary vampire; he was Blake The Troublemaker, and the prophecy predicted their meeting. Andreas, on the other hand, had, up until that moment, firmly believed the one woman he had loved as a human had been his mate. And with her death, he thought he no longer had one, and had never bothered worrying about it.

And yet, it seemed the bright-blue-eyed blonde that was standing a few feet away from him was his one true mate, if his whole being's buzzing was any indication.

Damn, he thought darkly, torn between the desire to claim her right then and there, and the desire to leave, never to return again. He led a peaceful life in Greece, and had only come to the U.S. to help Blake… Never in his wildest dreams, or in his scariest nightmares, had he thought he would meet a human girl that could flip his life upside down – and yet, it seemed he had.

It all took barely a second to sink.

“Charlie,” Andreas’ slightly menacing drawl made Ace's hand stop mid-air, before he could grab her.

While the two friends exchanged pleasantries, Andreas observed calmly and tried to store every little detail in his brain. He had met his mate. And, although there was no such thing as love at first sight, mate or not, he felt impossibly attracted to her.

When he asked her who she was, her eyes assessed him for several seconds before narrowing in obvious frustration, “I could ask you the same question,” she snapped, and then continued in a somewhat more controlled voice, “I'm, Kelly, her best friend. Who are you?”

“The name's Andreas,” was the sole response she got.