He remained still and peered past me into the trees. I found it hard to read his
face. His expression was not worried, but I thought it brooding, or rather, preoccupied
with being anxious about something.
"I need to find a dark place. A safe place."
The dead and the sunlight didn't mix well. They burned, badly, and burst into
extravagant blue and red flames. Then their blackened corpses flaked into ash. I could
see why he might be anxious to find a 'dark place' as he put it.
"My wardrobe is dark." The words popped out of my mouth before they
registered. "Wait," I said, and held up my palm. The standard cracks in my judgment
were now gaping canyons, and there were all kinds of crazy ideas flying around.
"You're friendly, right? If I help you, you aren't going to turn on me. Or turn me."
"As you pointed out, the sun is rising and I weaken by the moment. I need to
talk to you. Hear what I have to say then I'll go."
"Okay," I said slowly. There did not seem to be too big a downside to this
arrangement. "I can do that, hear you out. But tell me, the fairy-boy I met is hunting
you." I watched his face carefully. "Why? Did you do something bad to him or his
kind?"
He looked me over so intently I squirmed in my skin. He made a quick
movement with his hand that said 'so what'.
"If they find my resting place they will kill me, and they won't listen to what I
have to say, which is why you must."
I mouthed my next words silently before I spoke them aloud. "I'm a fairy too."
It was easy to say and I smiled. "It's important I know if talking to you will get me in
trouble." I paused then grunted. "In more trouble than I already am, I mean."
His eyebrows rose and he focused on me more intently. I backed up a pace and
couldn't help cupping my neck with my hand. He tilted his head and narrowed those
bottomless eyes of his.
"I smell magic, but you seem human to me in every way."
"You seem to know a lot about me and what I've been doing. But then if you
knew a lot about me you would know I have only just found out I'm a fairy." That
sentence was convoluted, and I had confused myself. It made some kind of crazy
sense, so I stood my ground and waited for his answer.
The vampire did not seem confused. "I can explain. But at night." His eyes
darted to the east and his mouth pulled down.
The sky was much lighter now, but the clouds gave extra cover. Time was
running out, I was beyond terrified, the curls of fear in my stomach were tornadoes,
and I felt a responsibility to protect this vampire from bursting into a firework display.
"My wardrobe it is." He placed a hand on my lower back and I jerked away.
"Watch the hands," I said and eyed him.
"I'm going to carry you," he explained. "It will be faster and we will not be
seen."
No doubt he could carry me, but still, the thought of being so close to death
itself was worrisome. His presence still rubbed me up the wrong way. I was strong
willed, not infallible, and me losing control would be fatal.
"No funny business. I'll scream and dead or not, it will hurt your ears."
He shook his head, face serious. "No funny business," he promised.
"Could you put the fangs away?"
"I like the way you smell."
"That is creepy," I said and plucked at my bottom lip. "You're creepy."
His body kind of vibrated, and a strange grizzly sound came out of his mouth. I
guess since vampires didn't use air to talk or breathe they sounded, moved and even
laughed differently to normal beings. I jumped, but thankfully he was too preoccupied
with laughing to notice, or to comment on noticing.
"No biting. I swear."
I was having a hard time. Vampires were more often than not attractive in a
scary, dead, don't look them straight in the eye, ripping throats out and wallowing in
'top yourself' amounts of despair, way. This vampire-boy was positively spritely. It
was such a stark contrast to my preconceptions cultivated by years of Sect reports, I
kept having mini flashes of the different ways he would grab me, and sink his fangs
into my flesh.
"Can't get much crazier than I already am," I said finally, and shuddered.
Another flash of watching him drink me to death had me wishing I'd stayed my ass in
bed.
The vampire picked me up and broke out into a ground-eating run. I noticed
then that he was not breathing and wondered if that was by choice? It was strange to
be so close to another person and not sense the normal rise and fall of the chest. There
was no heartbeat either. No body heat. Just this animated body walking and talking
and carrying me. People said vampires were soulless, and I did not agree. They had
souls, dark ones. Here I must say I also believed there were different kinds of dark.
There was a dark that was evil and cruel, and there was a dark that was solitary and
simply absent of light. Maybe this boy was the clear dark.
I kept thinking nice fluffy thoughts of flames that didn't blister the skin because
they looked pretty, and bolts of lightning that wouldn't kill you dead because they
were a gift from the sky. Making bad things good helped me to not freak out, and start
bawling in this demons embrace. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stop the thought that really mattered. This vampire needed something from me. That was the
reason I was still alive. And, I concluded he must be cunning. Breandan seemed a
good tracker and he'd been fooled. I was sure he would not have left me if he'd
thought there was a chance I'd be in danger.
Thinking of the fairy-boy had me thinking on a new problem I had created for
myself. What did I do and say the next time I saw him? Did I tell him about the
vampire-boy in the wardrobe? Breandan had said he'd come back, but not when so I
figured he'd probably give me a few days to adjust. He'd seemed very conscious I
accept what he'd told me, and he'd made an effort to ask how I was feeling and if I'd
wanted to talk about it. The vampire could die for the day in my wardrobe, ask me his
questions after sunset then go on his merry way. Problem solved, because then I
would wake up.
I had decided right around the time I saw the green fairy-girl that I was
dreaming.
We ended back on the Temple grounds in a few blinks of the eye. At first it
looked like he was going to run through the brick wall that surrounded the Temple,
and I squeezed my eyes shut. I felt a jolt. Air whistled past my head and other sounds
drowned in a loud whoosh. The vampire-boy did a fast movement, another bigger jolt
then the wind was blowing the hair back from my face again. It was hard to figure out
the speed he ran at in the dark, but the wind on my face gave me a little thrill. If ever I
needed to run away from him I'd be faster.
Something struck me as a little odd. He seemed to know exactly where he was
going.
I said, "You've been here before."
This was more evidence I was still sleeping safely in my bed.
"No. Your scent is distinctive."
"Huh. The key is in my left butt pocket," I said candidly.
"I see," he said. We reached my room and he threw me over his shoulder. It was
neat, and swift, and not a little bit uncomfortable. "May I?"
"Uh, may you what? May you take the key, or may you drain me for dinner?"
"You have to invite me in." He sounded strained. "The hallways are public but
your room is private. Invite me in."
"Sorry, I forgot. I'm a little nervous with this whole thing. I'm still waiting for
you to try and take a chunk out of me. Sure, go ahead. I invite– Wait. It will only let
you in right? The invitation won't throw my room wide open to all vampires, I mean."
"Only me. And I cannot extend the invitation to others. Are you satisfied? The
night is over."
"I invite you to enter my room," I said and giggled. It sounded so formal.
There was a light brush against my butt then we were in my room, and he was
placing me down on the bed.
"Ta," I said and fell back, rubbed my face on my blanket. It smelled like trees,
rain and sunlight. I blinked. It smelled like me, but it also reminded me of Breandan.
"This is your wardrobe?" My vampire-boy did not sound happy.
"It's small, but it will do the job." He shot me a look that on a human face
would have been long suffering. He was too strange looking to look anything other
than intimidating. "Give me a break, it's not like this was ever a scenario I'd ever
have to prepare for." I started pulling clothes out onto the floor until the space was
empty. "There," I said with satisfaction. The space was big enough for two people. He
was being prissy. I deliberated for a moment if you could catch anything from sharing
bed linen with a vampire, but then gave myself a mental slap. I chucked my pillow
and blanket in there and nodded. "Best I can do."
The vampire picked up my hand and bent over. My heart stuttered and I
flinched. He paused and his shoulders shook with laughter again.
"No biting," he repeated.
Keeping eye contact, he flipped my hand over and kissed my palm. The press of
his skin to mine was almost beyond words. His lips were firm and the tip of his
tongue wet. It was odd, cold and overly smooth, but not unpleasant. My mouth
opened and I made a gasping, choking sound. I blushed from the soles of my feet
right up to the tip of my ears. I tugged my hand away, hid it behind my back.
"Once you're in I'll close the doors, and no one will be the wiser." I glanced out
the window. "You'd better tuck yourself in now. There's a storm, but I can see breaks
in the cloud cover."
He lacked the smooth and predatory movement of vampire as he staggered
forward and collapsed into the space. We'd pushed our luck too far. He was visibly
exhausted, which was fascinating to see on one of the most powerful demons in
existence. Face shadowed he sighed, shifted a bit, and sat with his legs bent in font. He wasn't very tall. It must have just been his scary vampire presence and the pulsing
darkness following him around that made him seem huge to me. In a very human
move he propped the pillow to the side and leaned his head.
"At sunset we will talk."
I nodded. Pushing the hair out of my eyes I smiled at him. "Sure thing." I went
to close the door, but then stopped and yanked it open again. "Oh wait, my name's
Rae."
His eyes were already half closed, and as he died for the day he said, "Tomas."