The Mask Of The Monster - Chapter 79

(From Ella’s Perspective)

As I fixed my dress and was checking again and again that if the part of the dress on my right breast had gotten wet too, I heard a knock on the door.

I opened the door and there was a man who looked like to be a waiter standing there with a smile.

“This is for you, my lady,” he said and gave me a piece of paper. “The sender mentioned it should be read-only by you, my lady.”

“Thank you,” I said and he went away. I closed the door and was about to unfold the paper, but right at that moment, I heard the restroom door open. I quickly hid the paper inside my bra and pretended to smooth my dress.

“Ready to go?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said. My eyes were trying to look down again and again, but I resisted myself. I would look like a pervert if I did that.

He started buttoning his sleeves and I took the chance to peek down. The bulge was not there anymore. Thinking about the bulge… It appeared to be quite big…

“What’re you looking at?” he asked and I realized that I had not looked away from that place. I hastily looked away, embarrassed so much that I could not think of any way of looking at him again.

He chuckled and approached me. Whenever he was close to me, I could feel a different kind of heat radiating from him like no one else. I wondered if it was just me or everyone could feel it.

“Let’s go home now,” he said, rubbing the back of my neck.

“Will it look bad if you carry me?” I asked.

“You want me to carry you?”

“I don’t feel like_ walking,” I mumbled. Since the moment he did those intimate things with me, I felt quite lazy and moreover, I was a bit embarrassed thinking what would happen if I met Dane on the way. He had seen us like that and even thinking about him looking at me made me want to bury my face somewhere.

“If you want to, I can carry you,” he said. “But I won’t go through the door.”

“What? Then what’re you going to do? Are you going to go through the window? How are you going to do that with me in your arms? Are you really going to jump? You’re not superman, Leandro. You know, superman can fly. He can lighten up his eyes and cut things into pieces or hold things in place- you know many things. He wears that cape-like red thing that flies behind him even when there’s no wind or whatever. And he also wears his underwear from over his pants. And there’s this huge S sign on his chest from over his costume. Anyway, that’s not the point. The point is how do you think you’re going to get out of the window?”

“You trust me with your life, don’t you?”

“I do, but…”

“Then don’t think about anything,” he said and lifted me up from the ground in bridal style.

“Don’t tell me you’re going to jump!” I muttered anxiously.

“Trust me,” he muttered calmly.

The window was open. He stood on the window frame and I looked down. It was an alley, but I could not see anyone near.

He looked down at me and gave me the most handsome smile I had ever seen and suddenly, did the thing that I feared he would do. He jumped out the window. We were on the first floor and I was kind of sure that I was going to die.

I buried my face in his chest, holding his shirt so tightly that I had a feeling that there was a hole in his shirt because of my nails. The sudden rush of the air fell against my skin, but I did not dare to open my eyes. And in a split second, the air did not feel strong anymore, rather it was calm and soothing.

“Open your eyes, Ella,” he said into my ear, his voice hypnotic and melodic, so addictive that I could lose myself in it forever.

I opened my eyes slowly and found it hard to believe that he was still standing with me in his arms with a look as if nothing happened.

“How did you…”

“My monster seems to have quite some advantages that other shifters don’t have,” he said.

“You haven’t told me about any of these things before. I’m so mad at you,” I hissed. I was truly angry. How dare he hide these things from me!

“You never asked,” he pointed out.

“You don’t ask me many things as well, but I tell you nonetheless,” I said angrily. “Fine! Don’t tell me about anything! I’ll walk on my own. Put me down.”

“No.”

“Put me down,” I said again.

“I’ll tell you about everything_ one by one. Just hold onto me.”

The way he talked always made me tremble. I wanted to be angry at him, but I could not. I ended up looking at him, admiring the way he was. I could not believe I liked him this much that I could not even be angry at him.

He paced into the forest and I remained silent, listening to the rhythm of his steady heartbeat while trying to match the beat of my heart with his. His masculine scent was quite engrossing, hard to forget with a deep fragrance.

“You said that a shifter can say if the other person is a shifter or not by their smell,” I said. “Then why didn’t you recognize Jed?”

“That’s because he has never shifted. In this case, they are the same as humans,” he replied.

“Then how do you first shift? Does it just happen… Oh, sorry,” I said quickly, realizing what I had just said. I should have remembered that when Leandro first shifted, he did that out of anger and ended up killing his sister.

“It’s alright,” he said. “You’re the one who told me that hard or not, it’s the truth and we have to accept it. I’ve accepted it, Ella. There’s no point in not mentioning it anymore.

“Right.”

“I heard that they do that when they are too enraged or something like that. It just happens, there’s no particular age or time of when it will happen.”

“Jed said he never planned on shifting,” I mumbled. “Anyway, your sister died when she was ten. But the dress you gave me to wear to the castle- they are not of a ten years old’s. But you said they’re your sister’s.”

“Mother kept making dresses for her even after her death. She would pretend as if she existed,” he muttered.

“That’s_ a bit weird,” I said. “Am I being too harsh?”

“Just talk the way you want, Ella. If anyone says you’re harsh, they have to face me,” he said. “And besides, there’s nothing wrong in being harsh.”

“Because you’re harsh?”

“I’m not harsh with you.”

“I know, but with others, you’re. Anyway, you look good then too, so I guess it’s just part of your personality.

The air was chilly and comfortable. My eyelids became heavy and it became hard for me to keep my eyes open.

“Sleep if you have to,” he said.

I closed my eyes and let my mind travel me to another world of relaxation. Since the night I told him about what happened two years ago, I stopped having the nightmare. It felt like my mind became lighter and I truly could slowly find what I was looking for in life. Now my life was not as boring as before. There were adventure, emotions, feelings, fun, smiles, friends in my life now, that were missing before and I could feel alive for the first time. Perhaps getting through the hole was not a bad thing after all. It was true that my life changed, but definitely in a good way.

I felt a brush of lips on my forehead. Perhaps it was in my dream, but the touch was very gentle and soothing, capable of removing all the worries out of my mind.

I could not believe that I ended up trusting him this much. When we first met, he was ready to kill me, but then he thought otherwise and let me go and I became the first person to get out of his grasp alive. But then I ended up running to him and he went to save me as well, as if there was a pull between us. I made a deal with him after that so I could save my life. It was supposed to be a deal only. But then, this deal made us so close that even the thought of leaving him was unimaginable. And now, he was even okay with me not bringing him information anymore.. All he wanted was to keep me with him. How could it be just mere attraction and nothing more?