Chapter Thirty – Justin

I finally calmed my parents down, at least enough for them to focus on Max's engagement. Now there was one last thing I had to do.

I walked down the hallway, into Alex's room. I knocked first, and she made a grunting noise. That was all I ever got from her, so I entered.

She was lying on her bed, face down. I sat down next to her.

"Alex, we need to talk." She grunted back. "Alex, this is important." I gulped. "I won't stop you from being with Mason." I heard nothing, so I kept going. "I don't like him. I don't like him at all. He's way too old for you and a werewolf and really whiny and he doesn't like me, but I'm not going to stop you from dating him."

She rolled over and glared at me. Her eyes were vicious. She must have been really annoyed with my calling out her boyfriend's negative qualities, but I had to go on.

"You would just date him anyway, behind my back. And I owe you one. I owe you so much. You brought back Juliet. You're stronger than I am, Alex. I didn't have the guts to do that. You risked everything to save her, so I'm not going to stop you from getting what you want."

"I wasn't. I did it under a Damned spell." She told me. I knew something was wrong, but I wasn't sure what.

"Alex, you could have done anything. You could have been anything, under that spell. You just had to do something, and it could have been anything. And you made a hard choice to save good people from bad ends. You could have been a monster, but you weren't. I wouldn't have been so selfless, not with those words on my arm." And I was completely truthful.

"You can't do anything bad. You're Justin." Alex answered, and buried her face back into her pillow. I looked at my little sister, my little devil.

"Alex, you don't know that. I do. I know what I would have done, and it wouldn't have been good. Without feeling bad, I would have done something I would have regretted for the rest of my life." I patted her back, hoping she would feel better soon.

"I left him. I kicked him out. He, I didn't know him. It didn't matter. You get your happy ending. You get Juliet. And I'm left with nothing, I killed for nothing." She didn't rise. I kept my hand on her back.

"You still have me." I said the first thing that came to mind after that revelation.

"What?" She looked at me, taking her head away from the pillow.

"I'll take care of you, even if Mason's gone. That's what I do. I've been doing that since Mom brought you home."

Alex smiled. "Thank you." And she had her grin on her face now. "But I just realized, you owe me for bringing back your girlfriend. You owe me big time." Unless she gets back together with Mason.

I swallowed. I could have mentioned all the times she had owed me, and said we were even. But I couldn't do that. She was happy, and I couldn't let her be like she was after the last time she broke up with Mason.

"What do you want?" I asked her.

That grin, the grin of a devil was still on her face. "I'll think of something."

Author's Note:

Thank you all for reading and reviewing. I hope you enjoyed this, my first fanfic. Feel free to give any questions or comments you have, and I will answer them over PM. There is one that I didn't answer on purpose, as I plan to explore it elsewhere. Also I believe it fits better to leave some things open, and not have everything wrapped up so tightly.

As always, thanks to Not Just a Nerd for her tireless beta reading of Once There Was a Maiden. The true blue Jalex shipper enabled an Alex/Mason fic. And for that she has my gratitude. And other feelings that are confusing and scary.