Page 27 of Sweet Silver Bells
She took in a breath, her dark hair framing her sharp features. “You asked my name. It is Olivia.”
A tear ran down her cheek.
“Why are you crying?”
She shook her head.
“I understand,” he said. “I cry, too.”
“My father, he was the last one to say my name out loud.”
Over one hundred years ago.
It’s not real, Hunter.
Hunter began stepping back toward her as the strength she presented slowly melted away. He put his hand up to her cheek. She flinched, but let him touch her, lips parted, nearly trembling.
Hunter looked into her dark eyes.
Beautiful. She was devastatingly beautiful.
“Olivia,” he said. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Will you come back?” she asked.
Hunter forgot to breathe. It was the way she looked at him, the way her haunting gaze bore into his soul, as if she saw something there, something he didn’t know about, lying dormant, waiting to impress her. There was an expectation.
What do you need?
“Do you want me to come back?” Hunter asked.
“Hmmm.”
Her interest seemed fading; whatever she hoped to pull out of him wasn’t coming forward. Her eyes went vacant, her long lashes brushing her cheeks again while she blinked, unmoving, unshifting, still as an ancient tree.
It suddenly felt so wrong now to walk away. He was planted, rooted there with her. He could stay within her energy all day, even though he wasn’t sure how to handle it, how to act right around her.
Olivia.
Her name wrapped around his mind, a song stuck in his head, one that would never leave him.
“Please,” he whispered one last time. “Come with me.”
Olivia smiled, and as she opened her mouth, a song came out. Hunter only heard the first few words, a magic filling him like a parasite, a love bomb that soothed him into a blank state.
“Hark how the bells,
Sweet silver bells
All seems to say
Throw cares away.”
Hunter blacked out, though he stood firm. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, his fists clenched at his sides. His body responded to her song, to magic that made him move closer to the enchanting voice that brought his body into hers.
Hunter’s mouth opened as he completed her song in a stunned mental paralysis.
“Christmas is here, bringing good cheer.”
