A knife stabs me somewhere in the brain and I wince, my eye twitches but I mind my manners. "Nice to meet you." I stick out my hand. "Gypsy Stone."
The second he slides his palm against mine, my vision goes black but only for a second before something replaces it.
Andrej is sitting across from me, a chess board between us.
He's dressed in black linen underneath shiny black armor, his dark brow furrowed as he picks up his knight and takes one of my pawns.
I can hear myself giggle, see his brows drop further as I take his queen.
The image blurs, is fleeting before the man with the soulless eyes appears.
His hand on my throat.
Eyes to the sky...
Then something else.
Andrej cradling a small child to his chest, a baby. A blonde baby with big blue-green eyes that smile up at him.
He hums softly, presses a kiss to her forehead as he sways, rocks, soothes her.
Her tiny fingers grip his much larger one, holds it tight while her eyes grow heavy.
“Vieš, ako vel'mi t'a milujem, kvetinové diet'a?”
Another lifetime flashes in my mind; Andrej in battle, bloodshed, fire. So much hurt and anger followed quickly by incredible compassion and love. Love for his brothers, love for a woman, love for her baby.
Allie.
Daisy.
Andrej...
"Gypsy? Gypsy, hon, are you ok?"
I blink repeatedly at Casey's voice and find that I'm still holding Andrej's hand. It actually seems to be the only thing keeping me from falling over.
"Yeah..." I nod. "Yeah, I'm fine, sorry. I just—I'm just getting a bit of a headache."
"You sure you're alright? You look pretty pale."
This helps get my head right and I smirk and let go of Andrej's hand. "If I get any paler I'll be see-through."
Casey cracks up and I see a slight twitch to Andrej's lip.
Huh.
He must have liked that.
"So how was your first night? Think you'll stick around?" Casey asks as she takes off her apron and sets it on top of her tray.
I shrug. "It was a good night. Good job to have until I move on."
"Travis is great about dividing the bartender tips." Casey looks back toward the floor where Brie and Joyce are. "If it were either of them I'd tell you to double check, but Travis will do you right."
Andrej immediately scowls and I can't help but giggle.
Apparently he took that the wrong way and is offended on my behalf.
