The next day at school was tough to sit through. I was hung over from the sunshine, summer wine, and too much dancing. I sat at my workstation and stared out the French doors next to me, barely able to hold back my yawns.
"Avery!" hissed Max angrily with a kick at my stool.
My eyes snapped open and I nearly fell backward off of my seat. "What? Max, geez..." I complained through another yawn.
"You were snoring and everyone was looking at us. It's embarrassing!" she exclaimed.
"Why are you embarrassed? You're not the one who's snoring," I muttered crankily. Normally I would be mortified that I’d fallen asleep in class and begun to snore, but the fact that it was bugging Max was worth it.
"It's embarrassing because I’m the one who is stuck sitting next to you and, since you’re asleep, I’m getting all the looks and stares," she claimed with a huff and sigh. Then she turned and faced the front of the class with her arms crossed tight across her chest and her nose in the air. I rolled my eyes and went back to staring out the window.
After school that day, I headed home to take a much-needed nap in my big, comfy bed. It was all I could think about the whole way there. Julie was at the library again and Will was working a shift at the coffee shop, so I had the apartment all to myself, except for Lattie. As soon as I opened the door she flew right over to me, bursting with excitement.
"Avery! You are home! I waited all day long for you to come home. Can we go somewhere? I'm very bored.” She fluttered around my head, making me dizzy. I was so sleepy. I could practically hear my duvet beckoning me to curl up with it. The last thing I wanted to do was trudge back down those stairs again and go for a walk.
"Um, Lattie, I really need to take a nap. We didn’t get home until like three in the morning. Can we go for a walk later?" I begged as I threw my bag and shoes in the corner.
"Oh...okay...I guess I could just watch a movie or something," she replied sadly. I looked at my tiny friend and saw how disappointed she was. I couldn't bear to see that expression on her face.
"Alright, I’ll tell you what. Let me make something to eat and then we'll go for a walk. I can always sleep when we get back."
She brightened up instantly. "Thank you, Avery!" And she flew over to the kitchen to sit on a tin of flour. "Can we have pancakes?"
We decided to take a walk through the park. We spent a lot of time here, but it was so enormous and beautiful that I never grew tired of being here. The sun was setting behind the trees and cast a hazy blue and orange hue through the autumn leaves. Plus, there was a hotdog stand down by the pond that had the best hotdogs ever.
Lattie flew next to my head, disguised as a small bird, as we strolled down the gravel path. I was finishing off my hot dog when I had a strange feeling come over me, a feeling almost like fear, but not quite. It was more like...like something else, but I couldn't figure it out. It did, however, feel very familiar.
Then I realized I’d felt like this at the gallery, the same night that I met that scary woman. I stopped in my tracks and looked around for her. I never did get a really good look at her that night but was sure I would know her when I saw her.
"Avery, what's wrong?" Lattie asked.
"Lattie, I think there may be someone from the Seelie court following me. You need to leave now," I warned her. If this chick was from the Seelie court and she saw Lattie, things could get bad because Lattie had run away from them.
"No, if you are in trouble then I am staying with you. I can't leave you alone Avery, what kind of friend would I be if I did?"
"And what kind of a friend would I be if I got you hurt? Lattie, go now," I ordered. She looked at me hesitantly but then decided to leave. She flew off back toward the apartment. I felt better knowing that she would be safe.
I still didn't see anyone around, but I did still feel anxious, scared and tense. I walked toward the woods where I figured she might be. That's where she’d been outside of the gallery and I doubted somehow, that she would show herself in plain sight in the park. As I pushed small branches and bushes aside, I felt the fear grow stronger. I was heading in the right direction. But then I thought about something. Why was I going in the direction of the fear? Was this another manipulative skill of the scary woman?
"Well, here we are," said a menacing voice. I turned to find her standing a few feet from me in torn and tattered black clothing, almost like combat wear. Then, for the first time, I noticed black, bat-like wings tucked behind her. She was some sort of fairy, that I was sure of.
"Who are you? I'm telling you, lady, I’m not who you think I am," I told her again.
"Oh, yes you are. I was right. I've been hearing things about you, whispers and stories of the beloved Iron Worlder who dances with the Summer Fey. You, my dear, are absolutely the one who painted the kingdom."
"But what does that have to do with anything?" I shrieked.
"The painting is of the old kingdom, not as it is presently. How could you have known to paint it? You did not live in Faerie, obviously, you are a mere human,” she spat as she eyed me curiously. “So, someone must have told you about it."
"No, you're wrong. I'm telling you, I swear! I don't know any fairies!"
"You are lying!" she bellowed and moved toward me so swiftly that I didn't even see her legs move. She suddenly stood right in front of me, inches from my face which she grabbed with her greasy boney fingers. I could smell her—she reeked of ashes and burning flesh, like death almost. I was so scared that I couldn't blink or breathe.
"You do know fairies, plenty of them. Your name has been spoken among the solitaries for some time now, Iron Worlder." She looked at me like I was the dirt beneath her feet.
"Look, yes, I do know some fairies. But none that would have told me about a kingdom or anything like that, I swear!"
"Just tell me where Orion is!" the crazy fairy screamed with sudden impatience. She released her grip on my jaw and then grabbed my wrist and began to squeeze as if she could force the answer out of me.
"I...I...thought he...died!" I cried back in agony. If she gripped it any tighter, my arm would break. I could feel my fragile mortal bones beginning to bend from pressure and it started to burn like she had lit a fire there.
"Do not mistake me for a fool! Only a Monarch could have told you how to paint that painting! Now tell me where he is!" Her eyes were completely black like Lattie’s, only they were far from cute. It was as if the angrier she became the darker and more menacing they got.
Now, when I glanced up at her face, I could see that the black had begun to run down her cheeks as if her eyes were bleeding tar. The smell of burning flesh was becoming too much for me to handle. I stole a glance over her shoulder to see if anyone was around to help me, or if there was a weapon that I could reach, a rock or a stick, anything. If I could just distract her for a second, maybe I could pull free and make a run for it. I wondered how fast she was.
As if she could read my thoughts, she spoke, "Don't even think about it. I can move much quicker than you could at your very fastest." Her grip on my wrist tightened some more and I lost my breath. I could feel the blood dripping down my arm as she broke through my skin. One tiny bit more force and my arm would surely snap in half. The pain was starting to make me dizzy.
What do I tell her? What was she going to do to me if I couldn't give her the answers she wanted? Because I really couldn’t, I had no idea what she was talking about.
Just then, something moved in the bushes behind the evil fairy. She looked away for a brief second, that's all I needed. I kicked her shin as hard as I could, causing her to let go of my nearly broken wrist, and swooped under her outreached arm and ran. I ran as fast as I could, but apparently not fast enough. Something came down from above, quickly grabbed me and took off into the sky again. I struggled with the creature that had kidnapped me, but it was no good. Its grip was like an iron cage around my body. I kicked and screamed and tried to wiggle free, even though I probably wouldn't survive the fall.
r /> "Stop it! I'm saving your life, damn it!" yelled an annoyed and familiar voice. "Avery, it's okay. It's me."
I looked up to see Jack's beautiful face. I never thought I would be so happy to see him, or so confused. I wished this wasn’t happening, I wished I’d never left my home in the country. Here, I’d been attacked by fairies and no one was what they appeared to be. Maybe this was all a nightmare. Maybe I’d never even left my home. But, then I realized that was just as crazy as the alternative. My throat closed up and I couldn't speak or move. Surprise, surprise, I think I was in shock. We flew through the air for a few seconds before Jack finally broke the silence.
"Hey," he said sweetly in my ear as the cold night air blew through my hair. "Are you okay? Seriously, you need to give me a verbal confirmation on this."
I shook my head, it was all I could do. He held me closer to him, like a baby, and I buried my face in his iron chest. I felt safe there strangely, considering that I was about a hundred feet in the air and moving faster than a speeding vehicle. I still couldn't wrap my mind around what was happening.
We landed on the rooftop of the house he and his sister shared. Jack set me down cautiously and quickly backed away. I looked into the eyes of my hero, but he backed away from me as if he were ashamed.
"What's wrong?" I choked out. My throat was like a desert. I reached out to him and put my hand on his arm. I noticed that the wound on my wrist was still bleeding; the blood that had dripped down my arm was now dried and crusted to my skin. It made me nauseous to think of it.
"Aren’t you wondering what I am?" he asked bluntly.
"Sort of. I'm figuring some kind of weird fairy," I answered and sighed as I leaned against the railing. My legs felt as if they would collapse from underneath me at any given moment. “They seem to be everywhere these days.”
He cocked a curious eyebrow. "Explain why you think that."
"Well, you are unnaturally beautiful and now apparently you can fly," I explained. “I mean unless this is all a hallucination.” For a moment I couldn’t help but reflect how nice that would be.
He seemed amused by my conclusion. "Yes, those things are true, minus the hallucination, but a fairy I am not."
"Then...what are you?" I asked, hesitantly now.
"You’re smart, think about it, Avery. Have you ever seen me in the daytime or Celadine for that matter? Were you not instinctively afraid the first time you met us? I do not have sparkly wings, and right now the blood dripping from your arm has my...attention." He laid everything out for me to puzzle over while he leaned against the brick wall beside me.
I thought about these things for a second with the information I had so far gathered. Then the ridiculous realization swept over me like a cold shiver.
"Oh god, you're a vampire?" I asked and burst out laughing hysterically. Jack seemed really upset and annoyed by my reaction.
"Why is this so funny to you? Are you not scared?" he asked angrily.
I just kept laughing. I was definitely in shock. I had to be. My mentor was a vampire art dealer; my best friend an orphan fairy, and my roommate a sprite. Evil fairies were out to get me or kill me or whatever, and now the guy that I had a thing for was a vampire.
"It's just too much. What else can I do but laugh, Jack?" I asked. "My life is a scary fairy tale horror movie. All I need are some witches and a couple of werewolves!"
He stared at me thoughtfully. "Yes, I suppose it does seem that way," he agreed. “But, still, having vampires in your life is no laughing matter, Avery. Celadine and I may seem nice enough, but…” he trailed off.
“But what?” I asked.
“Never mind, come, let’s get you inside. You'll be safer there." I noted how he said ‘safer’ instead of ‘safe’, but I didn’t say anything. He took my hand and led me to the large patio doors on the roof. The doors led us down a long stairway and into the top level of the gigantic house. I looked around and decided this must be Jack's part of the house. It was very masculine, furnished in black leather pieces, dark wooden floors and stone facings. The windows were heavily draped in thick black fabric.
A fire burned in a hearth along the back wall. I headed over to it, sat down, and shivered when I realized how cold I was. Jack noticed the involuntary reaction and grabbed a blanket from the back of the sofa. He came over and sat down directly in front of me, wrapping my body in the warm blanket.
"I'm okay, really. I think the shock is just starting to wear off," I said calmly. "Jack, I probably would have died tonight it wasn't for you. That lady definitely had bad intentions." I shivered again at the thought of her face. Jack wrapped his arms around me then.
"Yes I know," he said flatly. I still didn’t think he knew how he felt about me. "I'm glad I was nearby. I'm sure Celadine would be devastated if anything were to happen to you."
I looked up into his face. He was putting up a front again. I took his cold hand in mine and smiled.
"Thank you, for saving me."
This brought a shy grin to his face and made his blue eyes glisten. "You're most welcome, Avery."
He slowly took my free hand in his and stared into my eyes. The distance between us was lessening inch by inch. I had a million questions that I wanted to be answered, but I couldn't think of a single one at that moment. All I wanted was to be right there, with him holding me and looking at me that way as if he would crumble to pieces if I were to move away.
He took my hands and rested them around his neck. Then he leaned in to gently caress my neck and face with his lips. I wondered if he was going to bite me. Fear struck through my body like a sudden chill. But that wasn’t the scary part, not having a clue what I was doing was far more terrifying.
"You smell like honey and strawberries," he quietly pointed out. Probably from the summer wine, I thought, but didn’t say. Jack grazed my lips and parted them with his own. My entire body was on fire. I let him kiss me, and when I kissed him back everything suddenly changed.
We weren’t slow and careful anymore, we were pleasantly aggressive. I had absolutely no control over my limbs; they wrapped themselves around his body like a vice, eager and passionate. Jack swept me up into his arms like a little doll and carried me into his bedroom. He gently laid me on his enormous bed and crawled in beside me. His hands were all over me, discovering every inch of my body as he kissed me. I had no idea what I was doing and the embarrassment was beginning to clear my clouded mind. I couldn’t do this.
“Jack,” I gasped through passionate kisses. “I can’t.”
He stopped immediately and examined my flushed face. I couldn’t tell what he was feeling. Anger? Disappointment?
He never spoke but got up from the bed and slipped into the master bathroom. Seconds later, he emerged with a small red bag and came to sit next to me.
“What’s that?” I asked, still not able to bring myself to look him in the face.
“Your arm,” he replied. “It’s far too distracting for me.” He then unzipped the bag and began to clean my wounded wrist and bandage it tightly.
“Are you mad?” I questioned.
I noticed his face soften as I forced myself to meet his gaze.
“Absolutely not,” he replied softly. “I should ask you the same question. I’m sorry for making you feel pressured. I got…carried away.” He smiled then and some of the tightness in my stomach washed away.
“No, I didn’t feel pressured at all.” I blushed again and looked down at my lap. “I just never…I haven’t…I mean, we don’t know one another that well yet.”
He was still smiling at me. “Fair enough.”
"Jack?" I asked. I wanted some answers. Right then night not have been the best time, but I realized it might be the only time I’d get any.
And, as if he read my mind, he looked at me and said, "Ask away, I have nothing to hide from you now." He slid his fingers into my hand and began to lightly brush my good wrist with his thumb.
"Tell me about you and Celadine. Where did you com
e from? What should I expect with my new found, um, information about you two?"
“It’s a very long and disturbing story. I’m not sure you’ll want to hear it,” Jack replied apprehensively.
“I don’t care, I want to know,” I insisted with a yawn. My sleepless nights were catching up on me. “It may be long but I’m betting it’s interesting.”
He grinned. “Speaking of interesting stories, why don’t you tell me about that fairy?”
“No, not now, I don’t want to think about that,” I replied quickly. I wasn’t going to let him deter me. “Just tell me about you.”
“Fine,” he gave in. "But you have to lay down first, you look exhausted.”
I did as he said and slid further onto the bed and rested my head on the pillow next to his.
“Celi and I were born in Australia a very long time ago," he began. His eyes were already far away with the story as he absentmindedly brushed my arm with his cool fingers. "We had a wonderful mother. She was beautiful, smart and loving. Our father, on the other hand, was not so great. He was basically the village drunk, always out at all hours of the night. He would come home and beat my mother and then Celi, as well, when she got older. One night, he left and didn’t return for days. We hoped that maybe he would never come back, but he did. He came back a changed man, so to speak." He glanced at me to see if I understood.
I thought for a second. "Oh, he was a vampire?” I gasped. It felt silly to say that word as if I were lying or something. But who am I kidding, I live with fairies. Vampires are just as mythical as they are.
"Yes, he was a vampire. He came back to rid himself of the family he never loved and get a meal out of it at the same time. Only, by now, Celi and I were not children anymore. He attacked our mother first and that set us off. We both jumped on him and managed to drag him outside while we screamed for her to run. It happened quite fast after that. I felt a burning wound in my neck and I saw Celi already on the ground, practically dead. My father was about to finish me off when he suddenly jerked and collapsed at my feet. I looked up to see my mother standing there with a broken wooden table leg, its ragged edge dripping with his blood." He stopped there as if remembering all too clearly the memory of his mother’s act.
I squeezed Jack’s hand to comfort him. "Your mother saved you. She was a very brave woman to be able to do that. How did she know to use a wooden stake?"
"Oh, there had been stories and legends of vampire type demons in our village for years. Naturally, you hear of ways to rid yourself of them."
"So, what happened then? Well, I know that you survived, obviously, because you're here. But how did you...you know?"
Jack grinned as he leaned in and rested his forehead on mine to look into my eyes. "How did we become what we are?"
I just nodded. Having him so close to me made me lose all coherent thought.
"Just like my mother had heard of how to stop a vampire, she also had heard how they were created. She couldn't bear to lose her two children at the hands of her murderous husband, so she decided that she would rather have us damned than dead. She managed to get both Celi and I into the house and my father as well. She drained what she could of his blood and buried him in the backyard in an unmarked grave. She figured he didn’t deserve to be remembered." Jack's brow creased in the memory of anger as he spoke of his father.
I slowly nodded again in agreement. I couldn’t believe that this beautiful man lying there next to me had been through so much and had lived lifetimes before I was even born. It made me begin to admire him.
"But before she buried him, our mother began to perform a process that she was unsure of but determined to make work. She fed us our father’s blood and then just waited. She monitored us every minute of every day, but after three days went by and we still hadn’t taken so much as a single breath, she began to worry that she had failed. I awoke on the third day, as well as Celadine, and went to the backyard to find our mother digging our graves and crying silently to herself." Jack stopped there for a moment and looked at me.
"Are you sure this okay for you to hear, is it too much for you to handle?"
It was, but I didn't care. I wanted to hear his story; I wanted to know as much about him as I could.
"No, I want to know. It's sad, but I know it has a good ending." I smiled and tightened the grip our hands held. He gently kissed my forehead and continued the story.
"Well, it turned out that she wasn't just digging our graves, there was three deep holes dug. She thought she had failed to save us and refused to live without the children that she loved so much, the children that saved her life in so many ways." I could tell from the way Jack explained this part that he was using his mother’s words, ones he must have heard from her, many times.
"When she turned to see us both standing there, she collapsed on the ground with cries of happiness. Celi and I both went to her and sat on the ground, for what seemed like hours, hugging and holding each other as we cried. But then, suddenly, the sun began to rise, and she quickly got us inside. She explained everything that had happened and why she did it. She begged for our forgiveness, but an angry thought had never crossed our minds toward her. Our mother could have run and saved herself but she stayed and saved us. It's because of that love bond that Celi and I believe we are the way we are."
"What do you mean, 'the way you are'?" I asked. "What's wrong with the way you are?"
"Oh, nothing, to you, but to another vampire we’re different. It's very rare for vampires to develop bonds of love or even friendship of any kind. Usually, we remain solitary, pairing up only for convenience and protection but not for companionship or love." He held me as close to him as he could get me, in an embrace that I never wanted to end. I loved the smell of the night air on his skin and the safe feeling of his arms around me. I could lose myself in him, and never come back.
"That was an intense story,” I replied in almost a whisper. "What happened to your mother?"
"We lived with her in Australia for her lifetime. Once she died of old age, Celi and I left. We couldn't stay there. We never aged and people began to notice. We had already begun to call ourselves her grandchildren. The two of us lived in Europe for a while and then came here."
“Why didn’t you guys change her?”
“To live an immortal life is both a privilege as well as a curse. My mother valued her human life and we would have never taken that from her.”
I just nodded absentmindedly. "Jack, how old are you?" I asked. I wasn't sure if it was an appropriate question, but I figured he’d told me so much already, that telling me his age wouldn't hurt.
He laughed. "Are you sure you want to know?"
I nodded. "Yes, only if you don't mind telling me."
"Celi and I are two hundred and ninety years old. Actually, our birthdays are approaching, in December," he answered.
I was confused. They had the same birthday?
"Are you and Celadine twins?" I asked.
"Yes, I thought you knew that. Isn’t it obvious?"
I should have known. They were both so unnaturally beautiful. They both had the silky black hair, creamy skin, and stunning eyes. But, it had never occurred to me that they were twins.
"Well, I guess there's a lot to learn about you guys," I replied through a yawn. I was so tired, but I didn't want to go to sleep. I didn't want to have to leave him. But, my human weakness got the best of me, and I soon fell into a deep and comfortable sleep in his arms.
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
MATTER OF OPINION