Love. It was a word Alec always found hard to swallow. Over the years he had tried to chase the very meaning of that word, but always came up empty handed. For the longest time he had thought himself incapable of it. He couldn’t be with a woman longer than a month at the most, that had to mean he couldn’t make enough room in his dark heart for such a thing, right? Whenever a woman looked into his eyes, their own eyes heavy-lidded and shimmering with emotion as they whispered those three dangerous words; I love you. Fear struck his heart. He felt suffocated. He felt tense. He had to leave, he didn’t know where he had to leave to but he needed to put as much distance between him and those women as possible.
He made it a habit of leaving without so much as a word; he felt it was easier to break their hearts and never look back rather than give them an explanation. A very vulnerable explanation as to why he couldn’t stay and love them. Stay and be that man that they desired. He could never be that man, at least that’s what he had thought. He had a problem, he was willing to admit that.
Years would go by and Alec would jump from woman to woman, detached and unfocused. He never seen the same woman more than once, it was a rule he had given himself. If he indulge them more than once, there was always that risk of them falling for him and him having to hurt them in order to get away. Despite the cold hearted appearance he liked to wear, he did not like to break the hearts of women. He hated it and he hated himself for doing it, but it was better this way. Safer this way.
The immortal warlock, the warrior from legend would lock himself away in his New Orleans flat and drown himself with whisky and work. His mind was on little else, until he met her. Alec was struck to the bone in a moment of breathless delight, and unfamiliar little shard of light flashing within the darkness of his heart. The light only spread like a flame when she smiled at him, for a moment he felt as if he couldn’t breathe, let alone think. She was the mere definition of perfection. She was a beauty, she was grace, she was all that was good in the world.
Alec Bane was a man of addiction, and from the very moment he had bumped into her he had become the victim of the addition that was her. She awoke desires in him he thought himself not capable of wanting; She made him want to be a good person. She made him want to open his heart to her. She made him want to love, to love her with his entire soul until his very last breath.
With just one look in his direction she broke down the walls guarding his heart, turned them to ash. He needed her. To go on in this life without her, that would be the crulest form of torture known to man. For the first time in his very long life, he wanted all the things he feared. He wanted her at his side. He wanted to call her his. He wanted nothing but her for the rest of his days. He wanted a family with her, a life of happiness. Because he knew he would finally be happy with her in his life; she was his happiness. In her, he had found the love of his life and a home for his heart.
She was all he could ever think about. The warlock was so lost in love he was positive his heart even beat her name. Alec Bane, in love. The very thought was laughable, but it was true. She had brought the powerful warlock to his knees and wrapped him around her finger. He loved her, he loved her, he loved her.
And he could continue to love her until the end of this world and the next. She had taught him love was not a weakness, it was unmistakable power.
