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  I looked up at a faraway canopy of green leaves with a fuzziness of how I'd gotten there, laying beneath a massive tree. My hands gripped damp sand, dirt, and pebbles and I gingerly lifted myself into a seated position. Everything seemed to throb with the movement, especially the side of my head, which I suddenly remembered hitting very hard.

Anxiety slammed into me. I remembered being in the memory of Death's training room, before I'd fallen again...fallen into that ice cold water that dragged me deep into its depths. I lifted my fingertips to the sensitive spot on my skull, the harsh outline of a welt raised there.

Turning over my shoulder, I realized what I had been resting my head on had been a neatly folded up off-white garment on top of a protruding root from the tree. A steady throb in my ankle drew my attention to my ankle. It was propped up on another one of the tree's roots and swollen like a football. The ankle of my skin-tight pants must have been cut open with a sharp weapon of some sort, because there was a bandage of material around my now bare foot, which matched the material of another garment of fabric thrown in a haphazardly manner by my feet.

Someone had aided my injury.

I pictured the man running along the bank toward me. Suddenly I had the vague recollection of large hands gripping my body from beneath the water and yanking me free from a wreath of debris. He must have also carried me to the shore, as there were no dragged marks in the sand.

Reaching for the garment at my feet, I spread it out in my hands. The thing was way too large to be a woman's shirt and had a long length to it. A tunic, made of wool.

"Saved by a fashion icon," I said sarcastically.

A gust of humid air carried a windstorm of pollen off the trees, and I shielded my face as the yellow storm blew all over me. I gave a little yelp and used the outdated garment to shield my face, but not before a bunch of it go into my eyes and up my nostrils, which threw me into a sneezing fit.

"Seriously?" I growled once I stopped sneezing, wiping at my eyes with the tunic to get all the crud out. "What is this, Pollen Land?"

That's when I noticed the field of wild flowers to my left. It seemed to go on forever, and I brought the tunic away from my face at the unexpected, beautiful sight. "Wow. Guess I spoke too soon––"

"NNNRRRFFFF!"

I screamed, my eyes nearly popping out of my skull as a big black snout of an animal popped out from behind the tree behind me and nudged right into my face. My body locked up in fear as the massive black creature rounded the tree.

No, not a beast. A horse. And not just any normal horse. An enormous black stallion. It's head bent down to pluck at a long patch of grass beside me with its teeth. It chewed and tilted its narrow head to the side, ears flicking a little as it watched me with a calm, curious, intelligent black eye.

Although the stallion didn't have a hellish red iris, flames shooting out its nostrils, or a magical Labrador retriever shrunk down size, I recognize the stallions unique features instantly.

"Cruentas," I whispered, a smile curving my mouth.

The stallion shook its head and gave a great whiney. "I guess this is before you became a demon-horse, huh?" I reached up to stroke his coat from the ground, as he was still leaning his head toward me, and he rubbed into my hand for a longer pet, making me laugh

Suddenly I heard what sounded like a deep male curse.

My heart nearly pounded out of my chest. I slowly turned my head to the other side, looking back out into the water. There was a man at the center of the river. I couldn't see his face, but his head appeared to be angled down at the water, like he was trying to see something. He plunged down into the river, disappearing for a minute or so, before bobbing back up again with a gasp. Turning toward the bank, his powerful arms carried him effortlessly as he swam hard and fast.

When his rose up from the water, it was as if it were a sin walking in slow motion. Water clung to his deeply suntanned skin, maneuvering down his broad shoulders and chest. He waded further up the bank, my eyes following the seductive trails of water down his tampered waist, the preposterous deep ridges of abdominals. The 'V' of his hips unveiled with his bare, powerful legs. My poor innocent eyes feasted a moment too long on the depths of damnation before me.

"Oh, my God," I muttered, before I snapped out of it and had the awareness to look sharply away.

He was completely naked.

And he was Death.

Well, Death before he became Death. I mean, of course kinda pieced two and two together after I saw non-demon horse Cruentas and the whole Roman tunic looking thing, plus I'd gotten a brief look of his face as he came up the bank. Like, before the whole slow-motion, coming-out-of-the water-buck-naked-don't-give-a-damn moment.

I assumed I was probably two-thousand years in time in the Roman era. The freaking Roman era. As I mentally tried to reel this over how far back I'd gone into Death's memories and his fading conscious, Alexandru's shadow suddenly cast a bit of darkness over the ground. He stood over me

"Potest ego meam tunicam?"

"You have got to be kidding me," I muttered to his shadow.

Right when it couldn't get any more awkward. Of course, he spoke Latin, because this freaking memory had to be accurate to the time of the memory and couldn't be convenient to me whats-so-ever.

He repeated the same foreign question once more, slower this time. My thoughts were racing to try and think of a way through this, as he continued to rant at me. "Dude, I don't understand what you're saying, and I'm a little overwhelmed here by the language barrier. And could you please just cover your––"

Alexandru dropped my wet backpack at my feet and not-so-nicely snatched his tunic from his hands.

Ok, rude, and he'd clearly asked for his dress thing back.

I hadn't even noticed he'd rescued my backpack, which explained why he'd been out in the river in the first place. Huh. That was nice of him.

"Quam impetro vestry ad amnem?" Alexandru asked, bending down to snatch another discarded item of clothing on the ground. He pulled the garment on underneath his tunic, halfway turning away from me as he slipped it over his thighs like it was underwear. If it was any attempt at decency, it was a poor one, because all I got was an accidental eyeful of his stupid perfect ass.

He turned toward me again and ran through his wet hair, shaking it out with his fingers to dry it. The man had amazing hair. I mean, so did future Death––his hair was always styled with sinful perfection, but Alexandru had a beautiful mane of a Greek God. He had thick, shoulder-length, golden blond hair with natural highlights of honey and amber that girl's went to the salon for hours to achieve. His hair was more wavy than curly when it was longer. It reminded me of a lion's beautiful mane.

When I didn't say anything in response to his apparent question, Alexandru's voice became more annoyed. "Dicisne?"

Oh, this was a mess. How the hell was I supposed to communicate with him when he was talking gibberish and I could barely focus on the task at hand?

"Quid vis ut aspera juxta aquas?" he demanded, his eyes piercingly bright and alluring under the sunlight. "Tu insanus?"

"Pause," I said, lifting my finger. "Did you just call me insane?"

"O bona." He rubbed his hand down his face in frustration and shook his fist at the sky. "Deorum enim tardum est mihi gratiam in unum!"

"Don't you shake your fist at the sky!" I shouted back at him.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Alexandru put his hands on his hips and looked down at my foot. If I didn't know any better, he was considering abandoning me here like this.

Bending down, he seized my backpack from me again.

"Hey! Give me back my backpack!"

He completely ignored me.

He fiddled with the lock on the top with deft fingers, the muscles in his forearms bulging as he immediately lost his temper and tried to rip the whole thing open. Damn, Romeo really made that thing indestructible, because I was pretty sure those arms of his, even in mortality––or whatever the hell Alexandru was–– were definitely weapons of mass destruction.

"Excuse me, sir," I said in a lame attempt at firmness, seeing as I couldn't get up with my bum foot. "That's a very important bag!"

He lowered into a squat at the ground and pulled out his knife. I pressed back against the tree as he started hacking the backpack with the knife like a serial killer, his eyes widening when not even the blade would cut through the fabric.

"Dude, dude, relax. It's just magic." When I tried to get up and take the bag, my ankle gave a sharp pain, and I cried out. Alexandru looked back at my foot, and my heart hammered as I realized he staring with that shocked expression because the swelling of my foot had rapidly gone down already.

Suddenly, Alexandru stiffened, his jaw clenching hard with the tightening of his face. The backpack in his hands had given him a clear electrocution, by the puff of smoke that emitted from it, but it hadn't been enough to make him drop it.

"BACK OFF!" Romeo's recorded voice exploded through a speaker of the backpack, making me startle and Alexcandru instantly fling the backpack away from him. He fell back onto his butt on the ground and crawled backwards from the thing like it was a river monster. "HONEY, I KNOW YOU KNOW THIS BACKBACK DOES NOT BELONG TO YOU! YOU BETTER RETURN IT, BECAUSE THERE'S MUCH MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM! ZAP-ZAP! BACKPACK, OUT!"

I facepalmed my head. "Romeo..."

Guess he'd even thought of a security system on his backpack. And it was anything about discreet. What he really should have thought of was a floating device for the dang thing.

Alexandru's chest heaved up and down, his eyes wide with fear as he kept his blade pointed at the backpack. "Maleficium!"

"Alright, sure, let's go with that," I said, pointing at the backpack myself. "Maleficium!"

"Medico-pythonissam? Quis es?" When I didn't respond, he moved across the ground and picked himself back into a crouched position, turning the jagged end of his knife at me. I put my hands up in fear at the total one-eighty of the situation. Uncertainty wavered over his gaze, implying he was prepared to kill me right then and there. "Quis es?" he demanded.

"Faith Williams?" I asked hesitatingly. I put a hand into my chest and tapped it once. "Faith Williams."

His eyes narrowed in on my lips as I spoke. "Faith Williams?" he said, his accent so thick and awkward over my name. He seemed skeptical of what I was telling him and shook his head sharply, kicking at my bag once. "Maleficium."

Hey, Unknown, I thought to myself as I tried to flex my fingers and make that conduit coin appear in my palm. This ain't working out. Now would be a great time for the memory to change.

Alexandru maneuvered closer to me, pinching the strap of my backpack between his fingers as if it were a dirty diaper, a ticking time bomb, or maybe both. Walking to Cruentas, he started to tie my backpack to his saddle and adjusted some other straps around the horses torso. I thought for sure he would steal my bag and ditch me, when he glanced over his shoulder at me.

He paused for a long moment and titled his head down at me where I still sat on the ground. His mismatched eyes slid over my body, lingering on my legs for an amount of time that made me feel almost flattered. Guilt softened his expression, before he ran a hand aggressively over his face.

He gave a heavy sigh and inclined his head toward Cruentas. "Veni."

"Veni?"

Alexandru clicked his tongue at Cruentas and commanded something foreign at the animal.

Cruentas stepped closer to me, his hooves carefully evading the thick root near my foot. The stallion slowly bowed his front legs, bringing his harness closer to me.

"Now that's cool," I said with a grin. I gripped the leather strap of his saddle and Cruentas lifted me straight off the ground with his powerful strength. I gave a pained groan as I rose, hopping on one foot. I really, really hoped that healed, and fast.

"At least he offered me a hand to get up in the last memory," I muttered to Cruentas, and Cruentas seemed to snort in response.

Alexandru suddenly came around Cruentas and stood incredibly close to me, towering over me in a way that made me lean back against Cruentas' neck.

The sun hit his hair from behind like a golden crown, ironically illuminating around his head like a halo. He looked breathtakingly beautiful up close and without the tattoos and Death's usual facial hair, the sharp, angled aspects of his features seemed more youthful. Despite his massive size, Alexandru looked right about my age, especially without the tattoos and the dark facial hair. But his eyes, still wild and feline-like, were haunting in a way that made him seem wiser than his years.

Lifting his tan, muscular arm, Alexandru showed me the knife in his hand. I swallowed a dryness in my throat as he twirled it around his fingers like he was advertising a magic show. He held the blade firmly in front of my face and smiled.

I nodded like a bobble head. The message was clear and received. No funny business.

Still smiling, although not as threatening-like, he motioned with his head for me to follow him, and then maneuvered me to stand front of the saddle so that I had to hop after him, turned me to the side, and bent down with his hands overlaying each other.

It's not like I had much of a choice here. Talking to the memory of Death and telling him he was unconscious in the Unknown had had ended in him turning to ash. At least this memory was lasting a little longer, and maybe it would further aide me in my journey.

Having no idea what I was getting myself into, I leaned my hand on his broad shoulder and put my good foot into his hand. I yelped as he instantly hoisted my whole weight into the air, nearly tossing me onto the horse with ease. I straddled the saddle and locked up, terrified that I would fall off.

"What about you?" I asked in a wavering voice, as if I actually expected him to understand.

He put his foot in the stirrup and hoisted himself up onto Cruentas' bare back, directly behind me. The next thing I knew, his hands were on my waist. I couldn't breathe. The feeling of his large hands ignited the same nervous feeling that Death gave me.

His hands tightened ever so slightly, before he pulled me further back on the saddle, so that he could more easily hook a strong arm around my middle. Reaching forward, he steered Cruentas away from the river, and I couldn't shake the feeling that there were eyes on us the entire time.

Alexandru snapped the reins, and the powerful beast took off at full gallop into the field of flowers.

***

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P.S- Anyone who speaks Latin will instantly know that I just Google translated everything in this chapter LMFAO. Feel free to put in better translations, you'll be sending me a lot of editing in the future! HAHAHAHA.

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