I had made me and Julius a cup of tea afterwards. Everything had still felt a little hot and heavy. I touch Julius's lip. It was already healing. I giggled. So that's how it becomes a bad habit huh? Julius grabs my hand touching his lip. "What are you laughing at?" He asks. I look up at him and smirk. "Your bad habits of course. I almost thought I was gonna devour you for a second." I say. Even though deep down I probably wouldn't have stopped if the tea pot hadn't yelled out bloody murder. I sigh in disbelief. It almost felt as if it were a dream I was so up in the clouds. As we walk back to my dorm for bed Julius kisses me on the forehead and walks away.
I felt giddy. I wonder if he felt the same way. I smiled. I open the door and almost fall over. Eli?! "Eli what in the world are you doing by the damn door." I whine. I lift Eli up and put her in bed. Jesus lady would it kill you to be a little organized. I sit up but Eli groans and pulls me back in. Now I'm being spooned. Great. I turn over to face her. She was so pretty when she slept. I touched her soft cheeks. They were so soft. Eli opened her eyes slightly and grinned. "Your back June bug." She whispered. I nod my head a kiss her forehead like Julius had done to me. Eli yawns and then burrows her head into the crevice of my neck. I'm so comfortable.
The next morning I wake up with Eli gone again. I roll over and groan. I hear the bathroom door open.
"Are you whining for me grumpy pants." Eli asked I sit up to rub my eyes and I yawn. "Yea come eat with me." I ask with puppy dog eyes. She smiles and I hurry up to get ready.
After we grab breakfast we head to our favorite spot which was in the middle of the cafeteria hall. I've been having questions about my mom and her encounters with the outside realm. "So since we know it's possible to breed hybrid babies. How was my mom ever able to cross the outside realm?" I ask Eli. I can tell she was happy to explain. "Well humans aren't necessarily capable of entering our realm unless it was with the help of an entity. Which I'm pretty sure was your father, a vampire. Even after a human is able to enter the outside realm they would only have a short time to be in it. Unlike us we are able to hold our form in the human realm but not in our own. Once we enter, we become our true selves. Where you would have your fangs and your eyes would change, as well as your skin. For me, my eyes, nails, and teeth. But the true difference is, the full moon. It's different in the outside realm, we'd fully transform. That's when our instincts kick in, the same for vampires, we both run rampant under the moons commands. Completely held under the spell of our creator. When we aren't in our realm we are weaker. Our instincts dull and we aren't able to completely transform under the moonlight, because the human realm is the realm created before the first solar eclipse, when the shadow moon was created. Our legends date back with our ancestors about our origin and the birth of the moons shadow. We were solely created for the purposes of nightfall. The protectors of the shadow moon herself. Some say that our moons are polar opposites, which is why we were created under the shadows, because our moon felt powerless against her sister the original moon. The best part is that every solar eclipse after the first one allows both humans and outsiders to cross paths as our realms become one. I think to celebrate the shadow moons birth." Eli explains. I'm in complete awe. That is so beautiful. "So then do you think I'd survive with a longer life span hanging out in the outside realm? Like come and go as you guys please?" I ask. Eli looked a little conflicted. "Well to be quite honest I'm not really sure. Growing up we've heard legends of the hybrids who were more powerful then the entities themselves, but it was nothing short of folklore. Nothing but bedtime stories to put children to sleep." She explained. My heart fluttered. More powerful? No way. "Do you think we could try?" I ask willingly. Eli smiles. "Shit, why not?" She replies. We both laugh in unison. "So then how come you guys are able to live here without being under the shadow moon?" I ask still laughing. Eli sits up and spreads her arms across the table. "Because the shadow moon was created from the original moon right? So we are allowed roam both realms as we please without harm to the human race. if we did harm we would be punished and shown our true forms inside the human realm, as well as our own." Eli states. Interesting. I wonder if the moon there treated entities different. Our moon basically controls nature at night. A goddess that watches over us and the nocturnal animals. Artemis. I guess we view our realms differently because of the environment they produce. I was able to ask Eli about my father then. "So my dad, he was able to be with my mom here, why did he ever leave? do you think he was afraid of what id become?" I ask her. Eli nods. "Its likely, back at home our elders like to put scary stories in our heads about hybrids. I think thats a part of it and maybe he also wasn't ready to have a kid. I don't know much about their lives but if its anything like my parents, they would kill your mother and then you if you ever entered our realm." she explains. I guess entities get scared too. I swallow hard and clear my throat. "I still wanna go. I don't care." I tell her. Eli smiles and shrugs. Sometimes its good to be careless. She didn't have to tell me.
After Breakfast, Eli and I head to the library. She wanted to show me where the shadow realm was if we ever wanted to travel there soon. Eli unlocks her phone and shows me a map. "See this? Nogales, Arizona, near their border is our own in the city. Its only visible to entities which is why humans are usually unaware that this place exists. Although that place has a lot of entities living there because its so close to the shadow realms border." I nod my head. Im sure they probably have a black market somewhere in Nogales, which is also why many entities leave their realm. To sell. "Eli you've heard of a black market right? is your guy's currency different from ours?" I ask her. she nods and goes through her phone again. "No, yours is too famous and new. we use denarii, our currency is dated back from the punic war. Our ancestors used this currency in exchange for items made from the human realm, though it came from romans. I don't know why but we love our history." she giggles. "I guess since entities age differently then humans do they don't evolve as fast as we do." I guessed. I look up at Eli who had her eyes closed and was nodding her head in agreement.
we leave the library and start walking to the park. On our way we see Julius and his brothers. I slightly hunch my back and hide behind Eli, who's waving happily at the three of them. Eli turns to look at me. "Lets go say hi." she suggested. As we walk over there my heart begins to pound. I hadn't seen Julius since the night we kissed, but he looked happy to see me. Eli goes to talk to jaime and Ron leaving me and Julius alone. "Hey stranger." Julius said. I look up and grin. "You look happy to see me." I tell him. He looks at me and then to Eli. "What were you two doing today?" he asks me. I shrug and bite the tip of my thumb. "Nothing much, she showed where the outside realm was located and about your realms history." I finally say. Julius looks at me with a hint of concern in his expression. "What? don't tell me you both are planning to visit. You would be killed." He tells me and then moves his hand to tug my elbow. I think he wants me to agree with him. HA! Foolish. "Yea so what? maybe ill run into my father I think his name is Aro. My mom mentions him a few times in her journal. And besides I need to figure out if I have any powers in the outside realm. I want to know if I'm able to live longer than a normal human." I say to him. There were so many things that I needed to figure out on my own. If my father were there then maybe id have relatives there too.
Im sure the shadow moon accepts me. "Its worth a shot." I continue. I look at Julius and he is looking over at Eli and the boys with furrowed eyebrows. I guess he doesn't want to listen to me. "Stop acting like you care anyway. Its not like we are dating." I say under my breath. That will make him listen. Julius looks back at me and releases his grip on my elbow. I tense and fold my arms. Julius walks off towards Eli and his brothers. I scrunch my nose for a second and scoff. What an idiot. I head back to our dorms to read, and I don't look back.
When I get to my dorm, my door was already unlocked. I hold my breath when I open the door and walk inside. I look around to make sure nobody is there and then I look around the room to make sure nothing was stolen. I lay down on my bed and take a deep breath. I reach under my sheet for my moms journal but it wasn't there. I panic. I look under my bed and all over Eli's. I can't seem to find it anywhere. Theres no hope its lost. I hear the door click and I sit up. Its Eli. I sigh and lay back down. "Someone raided our room today. I don't remember leaving it unlocked, my journal is gone." I tell her. Eli frowns and goes to sit on her bed across from mine. "That's odd I remember locking the door. who ever it was must have had a DA open our door with their key." she responds. "Do you think it could have been one of our kind? Like another entity here on campus?" I shrug, Its not like my mom wrote info in there that the entities didn't already know. "Hopefully they bring it back." I giggle. "You are so bad at holding grudges." Eli scowls. We were already headed toward the outside realm anyway. "Eli forget about it, its ok. Im sure it'll turn up eventually." I assure her. "Now lets go eat dinner." I smiled.