Chapter 12

Aithne's POV

I watched him leave, feeling my anger intensify with every step he took until I could no longer see him. When I could no longer see Kyros I reached for him with my mind and found our connection blocked. I knew it was by his own doing and on an intellectual level I understood why he would block me from his mind. He had important business to attend to, business which might be rather dangerous. I understood that and I willed myself to keep that in mind.

I turned to Samson looking into his eyes, he simply stared back giving a soft understanding smile before turning back to the vampires that he now commanded. He talked with them wanting their intake on Donovan's flaws as a leader. The male vampires were very informative having their own personal intakes on what had gone wrong. As I listened my understanding of the clan grew. The clan was currently struggling; bad investments made by Donovan and his fledgling Desdemona had nearly cost the clan everything.

The majority of the male vampires placed the blame on Desdemona quite certain she had caused all of the financial troubles. I looked around myself when the conversation turned to discuss the female vampire known as Desdemona, my dislike increased for her certainly as they told their tales of the woman. I gave another glance to Samson when I felt his eyes on me. I stared into his eyes and saw a brief flash of worry mixed with anger. I was silent for a moment and had decided that I had listened long enough to what the men had to say.

I glanced over to the female vampires and I thought of going over there for a moment or two. Quietly thinking it through I decided against it, feeling uncomfortable within the group I was in now and not feeling comfortable enough to go over to the group of female vampires. I cursed Kyros into perdition once more for leaving me in this annoying situation.

Sighing softly I turned to leave, deciding that I had had enough of the conversation and wanted to go to the room that belonged to Kyros. I only took a step away from the group before I felt a cool hand wrap around my wrist and turned to see Samson staring at me.

I stared into his eyes my jaw clenched waiting for him to explain why he was holding me back. "I do not think it is wise for you to be alone at this time. Stay with me for a while," he said adding a please through the twinkle in his eyes. I was glad that his new position had not changed him too much.

"All right," I said softly and when I agreed he let go of my wrist. I stood beside Samson once more listening to the easy conversation once again. This time while they talked I familiarized myself with the group. The rusty colored hair gentleman to the left was named Grayson. While the slightly shorter vampire with stubble on his chin was Charles. The green-eyed boy who asked a lot of questions and stood \across from me was named Jason. There were five other male vampires around but I did not catch their names.

The groups topics were interesting and soon they distracted me from my anger and slight worry over Kyros. Jason had bravely asked what Samson planned to do differently and what his plans were. I thought he was jumping the gun just a tad, Samson had barely had the position for an hour. Samson surprised me though, he answered their questions with an insight that gave a glimpse of what kind of leader he could be.

Samson usually did his best to look harmless, with an easygoing smile on his face. A sweet natural charm that easily put you off your guard. I learned many things while standing next to him and not all of them revolved around vampire politics. Eventually the talk died down and Samson skillfully evaded Jason's incessant questions. Slowly backing away until both of us could break away from the group of male vampires.

Charles and Grayson helped keep Jason distracted long enough for Samson and I to make our break both of us needing some peace and quiet. I was surprised when Samson went straight into the kitchen to the refrigerator and began to pull out ingredients. I knew that he could not eat and now that I was a vampire he should have known that I could not eat human food either.

He worked silently as he organized his ingredients and pulled out his cooking tools. I had never been much of a cook so this was all new to me. Samson seemed calmer now that he was here, though I would never have believed cooking would be a vampire's specialty. In Samson's case it was, he moved around the kitchen with ease measuring and mixing. He had no recipe out simply going from one ingredient to the next with practiced ease.

I continued to watch him, the silence was a comfortable one, he had started to gently hum, not paying much attention to me anymore. Now that we were alone he looked so much younger, like the man he might have been before Kyros had changed him. I sighed softly wondering what I would have been or could have done before he found me.

He gave me a glance and paused for a moment, his hand poised above the mixing bowl, the two cups of sugar suspended in the air. His hand did not waver , it was like I had pressed the pause button and he was now frozen. His eyebrows raised slightly giving me a deep searching look, one that I could not currently face. I looked away letting him bake in peace, I currently wanted to keep my thoughts to myself.

"What are you thinking about?" Samson asked and he began to move once more, like a switch had been flipped and he was back to life. With a flick of his wrist he dumped the sugar into the bowl and began to measure out other ingredients already he had preheated the oven and the warmth was beginning to fill the kitchen.

"I was thinking about you," I said truthfully not wanting to lie to him. I knew he was secure with his masculinity and would not mind the truth. In fact I bet he preferred it, he seemed like the kind of man who appreciated blunt honesty. He looked like he wanted nothing to be held back, I could relate with him, I had felt that way many times and was glad I was not the only one who wanted the truth and nothing but the truth.

"Oh really, what about me?" He asked his voice guarded at first, to make up for the slightly stern voice he gave a pretty boy smile that was contagious and had me smiling as well.

"Just found it amusing that you cook when you are stressed." I said softly with a little shrug of my shoulders to show that it was not a big deal. The way his expression changed I could see that it was a big deal to him. Now he was frowning, staring down at the bowl like he had been caught in some heinous act. I wondered what was wrong moving from my perch on the counter to take a closer look.

Samson shook his head like he was clearing himself from a memory before looking back to me once more. "Maybe I just like to cook, I am not stressed." He said his tone playful, so very casual and I could tell he was hiding away. The realization made me frown but I would not argue with him over his own feelings. I did not know him well enough to really have a heart to heart chat about him and his insecurities I had my own problems.

"Whatever you say Samson," I said softly and moved back away looking out the window that rested above the kitchen sink. Staring out into the darkness, as I sat there quietly my fears swamped me once more. All of my anguish over Kyros and where he was now came back tenfold and I had to keep myself under control not to reach for him. At least an hour should have passed, and that was enough time for him to be there and in the middle of whatever he was doing.

"Do you think Kyros is fighting right now?" I asked softly not able to keep the slight worry out of my tone. Despite my dislike for him I did care for the bastard. I could not help it, maybe it was vampire tricks that made me worry about his safety. I was moving my hands in a fidgety way, not able to stay still.

"Maybe, I doubt it though without Jayden the Rigorsiete clansmen are spineless. What will keep him there half the night are vampire politics. I do not know that clan well but if I remember correctly it is quite a mess. I believe Howl is still there but if Kyros replaces both clans with vampires that he made himself it will look rather suspicious."

"I do not know who else there is, so Kyros has a lot of work to do. If I did not have the position of leader I would suggest just bringing that clan into our own and making them Camsteins' as well. However I do not want to be responsible for reining in another group that have a different protocol." Samson said while he mixed the ingredients together and began to add eggs and other liquid ingredients.

I listened to Samson speak but I could not really focus on all of his words. There was only one main concept that my brain would focus on and that was the fact that Kyros was safe. I felt somewhat reassured trying to convince myself that he was fine. I hated that I was concerned for him, in my old life I had been used to only caring about myself. Now with Kyros in the picture it seemed no longer possible. Even when he was not here I felt trapped by him and I hated it.

With a soft sigh I shook my head and turned back to Samson still working now he was mixing everything together. "What are you making exactly?" I asked trying to hide the annoyance in my voice. It was not fair to treat Samson this way but I could not help my sudden feelings of anger and frustration. Samson took my clipped tone in stride, not seeming to mind my rude inquiry.

"Oh, I'm making sugar cookies." He said softly and I could hear the slight awkwardness in his voice. I looked to him once more his eyes back on his work as he scooped out the large ball of cookie dough and then proceeded to roll it flat. He no longer looked at me while he worked out of a counter drawer he produced a circular cookie cutter and began to make his cookies.

I moved over to him, wanting a distraction, I started to help him moving the circular cookies on the greased pan. Soon four rows that were six cookies long slid into the over and both of us perched against the counter waiting for them to bake. The peculiarity of the situation never escaped me, I had no room to complain though since I could think of nothing better to do.

I did not know what we would do when they got out of the over. With that thought I looked over to him, "So what are we going to do with the cookies? We can't eat them…" I said softly letting the confusion carry in my voice.

"I know but there are humans that live here, I have made cookies for them before. They like them, especially when I make ginger snap cookies, or snicker doodles." He said softly and I could hear the uncertainty in his voice once more. I looked over to him again and could see that his eyes were staring far off beyond this kitchen.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I finally asked, feeling just as uncertain as he. I was not good with conversation, not to mention I was not exactly the best person to have a heart to heart chat with. I barely knew Samson and even if I had known him all my life I would still never pick myself to help him through his uncertainties.

"Oh…about what?" He asked giving me a look that I could not decipher. I was silent for a moment thinking of how to answer him. Not wanting to bring up the fact that he was stressed over what had just happened. I began to wonder if he had wanted the position as leader in the first place. He did seem like the right man for the job but watching him right now he seemed completely wrong for it.

"I guess…your feelings." I said and felt like such a woman when those words escaped. A sudden burst of masculine laughter escaped from Samson and when he began to laugh I could not help but laugh as well. He just had that sort of contagious personality when he smiled you had to smile when he laughed you had to as well.

We both let out a collective sigh and I shook my head looking over to him once more. "I am worried about Kyros, I hate that I am but I can not help it." I admitted my voice now serious letting him know what was currently wrong with me.

"I am not really frightened of anything, I am merely adjusting to the sudden changes that have occurred in my life." Samson admitted softly with that the buzzer rang and he turned slipping on a pair of mittens and pulling out the golden brown sugar cookies.

"I like these new stoves, they get better every century." He commented softly before he placed the cookie sheet on a cooling rack and turned back to me. "I can not promise you that Kyros is perfectly safe, I believe that he is. He knows how to survive, I know that for certain." Samson said with a sage nod and thankfully for me I believed him.

Even though I believed him it did not mean that my worries would cease. I knew I would not have a moments peace until Kyros strolled through the front door. I thought about him now, focusing on him pressing my way through that connection that we shared. I saw brief glimpses of him, sitting and standing. Never did I see him entrenched in some great battle and that brought me some small amount of peace.

I felt Kyros's frustration for a moment before I was shut away once more. I shook my head clearing his thoughts from my mind, feeling swamped by all of his emotions and thoughts. He was frustrated that things were not going well though I could see he had expected as much.

I looked over to Samson seeing how calm he was despite all that had happened to him. If I were him I would have been terrified, he was everything but terrified. Calmly rolling out his dough to make another batch so that the humans could enjoy sugar cookies made by the newly appointed clan leader. A sort of peacefulness came over me and I was able to calm myself whether Kyros had sent an assurance I was not certain. I was only thankful that I was able to calm down and get to know Samson a little better while Kyros was away on business.

A/N Hope you enjoy this chapter, I know it is not action packed and filled with greatness that'll be the next chapter I suppose. I'm kicking around some ideas for what will be happening, not exactly certain but I'll figure it out soon. I know that it will be in Kyros's POV before I do write the chapter I need to work on Editing Chapter Two of Awakenings. For all my new readers you'll see there's a big gap in...writing skill between Ch 1 and 2. That's because chapters 2-10 were written when I was about 14 or 15 I can't really remember. Anywho so I'm glad this story is popular and I still have a pretty good idea where it's going. Just give me some feedback, I like praise and good suggestions :)

Thanks for reading so far,

Rebe