Forever and Beyond

by Jayde Scott

  “That I can’t deny,” I said.

  “What about this one?” She held up a glossy, black, front zip bodysuit including a shiny belt, tight in all the wrong places, that might just look great on a diver…or a burglar. I tried to imagine myself in it, but only managed to conjure the image of a black balloon. Trust me, it wasn’t a pretty sight.

  “I couldn’t possibly wear that. Have you seen my hips?”

  Julie inclined her head and tapped a finger against her lips. “Hmm, you’re right.”

  “You could’ve at least pretended I wasn’t right,” I muttered under my breath.

  “What about this one?” She pointed at a baggy white jumpsuit at least four sizes too big. It looked like a painter’s outfit, minus the splashes of paint. It was even more horrendous than the black bodysuit.

  “In case you haven’t noticed, it’s white! That tiny detail might just not help me blend in very well.”

  Julie shrugged. “We could dye it.”

  “Are you mad? We have to be back in an hour. That’s not enough time to dye an oversized piece of cotton. Not to mention it looks like a shapeless sack of potatoes.”

  “It’s not my fault nothing fits you.” She crossed her arms over her chest and shot me a venomous look. “I was just trying to help, you know.”

  I took a deep breath to calm myself. “I know. I’m sorry. Just let me do this, please.”

  “Fine,” she said, but the edge in her voice told me she was nothing but fine with it. Ignoring her, I took a good five minutes to go through rack after rack of clothes in the hope I might find something that wasn’t hideous, ludicrous, or downright cringeworthy. In the end I decided Julie probably picked the best pieces.

  “I’ll take the diver’s outfit,” I heard myself say.

  “Told you. Besides, it’s supposed to be Catwoman.” Julie smiled triumphantly and tossed it toward me. I caught it in mid-air and tried not to look at it as I pushed it inside my handbag, lest I change my mind, then fished out a handful of coins and left them on one of the makeup tables.

  When we left the theater the evening sky was streaked with red and orange. Hurrying through the streets, we reached home in the nick of time to get changed, toss my red coat over my outfit, and slip into a flat pair of boots. Outside, dawn slowly descended and dark gray clouds shooed away the burning colors of the evening. I waited until Aidan and Kieran closed the shutters before I joined them in the hall. Thank Goodness they didn’t switch on the lights and my coat hid half of my outfit.

  Kieran eyed me up and down. “That coat’s going to have to go, and pronto. They’ll see us from space.”

  “Why?” I peered down, frowning. “What’s wrong with it?”

  “Are you kidding me?” Kieran laughed. “You look like a big neon advertisement with the inscription, Hey, everyone, we’re over here. Just follow the big red target.” He raised his brows at Aidan. “Didn’t you fill her in on what to wear?”

  “You know Amber has a mind of her own,” Aidan muttered. Damn straight.

  “I was cold,” I said, raising my chin defiantly. “But don’t worry I’ll take it off. I’ll meet you guys outside, okay?”

  Aidan shot me a questioning look but didn’t argue. I waited until the door closed behind them, then slipped out of my beautiful red coat.

  “They have no sense for fashion,” Julie said with a sigh full of regret.

  I nodded and headed out, wondering what they’d say once they saw my Catwoman outfit.

  The street was empty, the shutters closed for the night. Hundreds of stars dotted the night sky. The torch in front of our house had not been lit yet, or maybe it had been blown out. For a moment, I honestly hoped the guys wouldn’t notice, but then Aidan frowned.

  “Now we’re talking,” Kieran said with a leer. I thought he might just start to wolf-whistle or something.

  “Oh, shut up.” I walked past when Aidan grabbed my arm to stop me.

  “You took the whole afternoon looking for clothes and that’s what you decided to wear?”

  I shrugged and rolled my eyes. “You said anything black and no exposed skin. This covers my entire body.”

  “You look hot,” Kieran chimed in. “And very distracting. No wonder they don’t let women join the Night Guard.”

  “It was Julie’s idea,” I said.

  “So not true,” Julie yelled in my ear. “Tell them you’re lying.” I shook my head. “Tell them!” she yelled again.

  “Fine,” I said for the sake of my hearing. “She wants me to tell you that I’m lying. I agreed to wear the costume, but only because I don’t have anything else to wear.”

  “Nice.” Kieran winked. “I bet the remaining accessories are hidden in your bedroom.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, ignoring him.

  “Tell him that I could wear this for him,” Julie yelled in my ear. “And that I’d look hot in it.”

  I groaned inwardly, ignoring her also. Both of them were as annoying as flies with an inflated ego you couldn’t fit through the door. They were so conceited I swear they’d just hit it off. Too bad Kieran wasn’t a necromancer.

  “You know, I could put on my pantomime outfit and we could go as twins,” Kieran said, bursting in a fit of laughter.

  I took off down the street, hoping they’d leave me alone but, as usual, that was too much to ask for.

  “Where did you get it from anyway?” Kieran asked. “It looks like something on television in a late night show, you know, the one not suitable for watchers under eighteen.”

  “You’d know.” I shot him a peeved look.

  “Unfortunately, my brother’s right for a change. Put on my coat,” Aidan said, slipping out of it to reveal a black shirt that hung to his body like a sheath. For once, I didn’t argue. His leather coat weighed a ton and was a few sizes too large, but it smelled of him and made Kieran shut up. I inhaled slowly to soothe my nerves, only now realizing my hands were shaking. We had a mission to fulfill. I didn’t know what to expect, but I could feel its magnitude in the air. Julie seemed to sense it too because she glided beside us in silence as we made our way to the designated meeting point at the northwest side of the wall.

  Chapter 16

  Thunder broke the silence. A light drizzle covered my face; tiny drops at first that soon turned into torrential rain flooding the darkened streets of Morganefaire. The rain was so strong my eyelashes clung to my cheeks and made me waddle around blindly. I stepped easily over the slick bricks, minding Aidan’s leather coat that seemed to want to soak up every drop of water in the surrounding area, and hurried my pace to keep up with Aidan and Kieran.

  “We’re close to the wall,” Aidan said.

  I swallowed hard. So this was supposed to be the stuff of my nightmares. If only I could see a darn thing.

  Kieran touched my shoulder to get my attention. “Hey, now would be as good a time as any.”

  “What?” I yelled through the thunder rumbling overhead.

  “To show us the hot outfit you’re wearing.”

  “But I’m soaked.” And then I understood his suggestion. The idiot wanted to see some kind of wet T-shirt contest. I rolled my eyes. “Get your freak on somewhere else, Kieran.”

  “I was just kidding.” He grinned proudly. “I’ve got a girlfriend now.”

  “That certainly didn’t stop you from making an unnecessary comment. Just keep moving,” Aidan said. “The guys are along this border somewhere.”

  Lightning flashed, illuminating the towering buildings around us for a moment. “You sure you got the right spot?” Kieran asked.

  “Do I look like I make mistakes?” Aidan snapped, stomping through a shallow puddle of water.

  Kieran followed behind. “No. Never. Oh mighty Aidan, Lord of the Vampires.”

  Aidan shot him an irritated look but didn’t comment. I only noticed the men of the Night Guard—around twenty-five or thirty of them—when I almost bumped into the dark-haired guy, Iain. He wrapped h
is arm around my waist to steady me, laughing out loud, the sound echoing in my ears and getting on my nerves. I pressed my hand against his softening belly to put some distance between us and wiped a hand over my damp eyes. The downpour calmed down a little, but not quite enough. I probably looked like a wet raccoon with streaks of mascara running down my face. Definitely not the impression I wanted to give on my first day on the job.

  I shot Aidan my ‘got-it-under-control’ smile and turned back to Iain who seemed to have started his instructions for the night.

  “We’ll be around the corner, watching the east of the city. You stay here and watch this part of the wall in a five hundred feet parameter to your right,” Iain called to me through the rain, pointing ahead. “You need to climb on top of the wall; that’s what the ladders are for.” He emphasized the words like I was an idiot.

  “Amber is a badass you don’t want to mess with,” Kieran said. “She’s up to the challenge so leaving her here is an insult I won’t stand for.”

  Aidan nodded. “Kieran’s right. There’s nothing here to guard.” I peered at the dark shadow that presumably was the wall rising against the canvass of the night. Behind me was nothing but buildings and empty streets stretching out in the distance. Everything looked quiet, isolated and, most importantly, boring.

  “Precisely. We don’t need a woman standing in our way.” Iain chuckled and turned away.

  I caught his arm and forced him to face me, and for a moment I felt rage bubble up inside me. “Mate, you’ve no idea who you’re talking to,” I hissed.

  His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed hard, but he didn’t try to escape my iron grip. Eventually, I let go of him and turned on my heel. If he wanted me northwest of the wall, then so be it. I’d circle it once, maybe twice, then commence my own investigation. No guy would ever tell me what to do. I wondered why they wanted to recruit Julie for the Night Guard when their view on women wasn’t so great, basically still stuck in medieval times. What did they want Julie for anyway? To get them coffee...or mugs of ale?

  “Amber,” Aidan called after me. “Wait up,” he said, grabbing my arm. “I’m going to get you a better assignment. You’re a force to be reckoned with.”

  “Damn straight,” Kieran said, stepping behind him.

  Aidan’s lips pressed into a grim line. “We need their support but if they can’t treat you as an equal, then I’m leaving.”

  “Me too,” Kieran said to Aidan. “I told you we couldn’t trust a guy in tights. Their taste in clothing is as bad as yours.”

  I grabbed my boyfriend’s arm, my eyes throwing daggers at Iain, who was standing a few feet away to give us privacy. “No! Don’t start trouble over me,” I said. “You’re right, we need them on our side. I can take one for the team. But if it wasn’t for this brethren and war thing, I’d kick his ass into next week.”

  He smiled. “I’d kick him into next month.”

  Seeing Aidan stick up for me was so romantic and sweet, I almost forgot my anger. “For now, we’ll play by his rules. I’ll try to control my temper for the sake of the greater good.” I gently brushed my fingertips over his lips, right where the raindrops entered his mouth, and rose on my toes to capture his mouth in a tender kiss.

  “We’ll be around the corner.” He hesitated. I could sense the ‘if you need me’ part in the air. Thank goodness he kept quiet.

  “Great.” I turned my back on him and started in the direction Iain had pointed. For a while, I could hear the men in the distance, joking and laughing, as though their job was nothing more than a gathering of friends over the usual weekly drink. But their voices grew faint, their words indistinct, until I could hear them no more. The sound of my boots pounding the cobblestone path was almost as loud as the white noise made by the rain. And then, all of a sudden, the rain stopped and the sky cleared. The clouds made room for countless stars to take their place. Even Julie seemed to have forsaken me.

  I walked five hundred feet to my right, then stopped to peer around me, wondering how it could possibly be so quiet. Even in the middle of nowhere in Scotland, the night came with its own noises: fireflies buzzing around the bushes, owls hooting for their prey, tiny critters scavenging the bushes for food. My heightened hearing usually picked up every sound, but here the night remained as silent as a tomb. Just to hear something, even if it was my own footsteps, and to be sure I hadn’t gone completely deaf from Julie’s screaming, I blew my hot breath into my palms and circled the last building until I stood in front of the imposing structure that was Morganefaire’s wall.

  Except for the gate on the south side, the wall formed an unbroken barricade between Morganefaire’s inhabitants and the outside world. The thick bricks reached at least twenty feet into the sky and glistened in the moonlight. I didn’t see a ladder, but between the stones were tiny indentations that looked like countless eyes. I guessed their purpose was to climb up because they reminded me of the protrusions used for indoor climbing walls. I pushed my index finger into one of the dents and tested the stone. My palm nestling comfortably against the opening I raised myself a few inches off the ground. It seemed secure enough and yet…my heart began to pump harder and a first rivulet of sweat trickled down my back. I swear for a moment even my head began to spin.

  “No freaking way,” I muttered, jumping back down. The Night Guard might not mind climbing up a wall in the middle of the night, but I wasn’t going to risk my neck for nothing. Kneeling the way I had been taught, I pressed my knuckles into the ground and then jumped. I’ve no idea how I did it but somehow I managed to land on top of the about half a foot-wide wall without tripping, toppling over, or losing my balance.

  I took a deep breath and planted my feet wide to steady myself before scanning the city of Morganefaire below. Gosh, it seemed a long way down. Heights weren’t really my thing. I could only hope jumping down was as easy as jumping up, otherwise I might just have a problem.

  “It’s going to be okay,” I mumbled to myself as I focused on the task at hand. It was like being lost in a time warp. To my left, cafes, shops and townhouses in the style of twelfth-century architecture lined the main street. To my right, a giant windmill whirled away in the breeze. Not far from it, a few stray sheep huddled together on a small picturesque field near a winding cobblestone street lined with quaint cottages, beyond which were terraced vineyards and fields. With the rain cleared, my vision amazed me; I could even see the raindrops dripping from the colorful potted flowers dotting the porches. From the corner of my eye I caught an orange spark flickering and growing into a fire as large as the trunk of a tree. In spite of its size, the darkness around it remained impenetrable.

  “That’s the night torch,” Julie said from my left, startling me.

  I jumped a step back, losing my balance for an instant. “What’s wrong with you?” I hissed. “Never sneak up on people like that!”

  “Why the grumpy face?” She regarded me curiously.

  “For starters, I almost fell. I could’ve broken every bone in my body,” I said.

  Julie laughed, her crystalline voice echoing in the silence. “You’re forgetting you’re not human anymore.”

  I forgot indeed. “Thanks for the reminder. But just to clarify, I’m not immune to pain.”

  “I’ve never met a vampire who’s afraid of her own shadow. That’s funny.”

  “I highly doubt you ever met a vampire at all,” I muttered.

  She inhaled, tossed her head back, and stretched out her arms to the side Titanic-style chanting something like, “This is the life.”

  I couldn’t agree less. “Get out of my way. I’m supposed to do a job here,” I muttered. “And you’re definitely not helping.”

  “Nope. This is my job and you’re helping me, remember?”

  “Fine.” I inched closer, figuring she’d step aside if she thought I’d walk through her. She stood her ground.

  “You’re going the wrong way,” Julie said.

  “That’s where I wa
s told to go, five hundred feet to my right and then back to the meeting point.”

  Julie heaved an exaggerated sigh. “And you do everything people tell you to do?”

  She had a point. Dallas told me to get a housekeeping job and retrieve some gems. I did it. Aidan instructed me to find the Book of the Dead. I did it. Cass told me to channel ghosts for her reality television program. I did it. Rebecca made me kiss another man. And I did it—well, technically, I was possessed so it doesn’t really count. But you know what? I was tired of being bossed around.

  If I was supposed to waste a good night’s sleep out here, then I might as well have fun whilst doing so. I was missing all the action because the guys told me to, and in my book a guy ordering a woman around was unacceptable.

  Shooting her a thankful smile I took off, past the five hundred feet parameter I was given. The night torch disappeared behind me as I moved north. I hurried my pace, exhilarated at the thought that I was breaking a few rules here. Even if someone caught me, there was nothing they could do. I could play the dumb chick and pretend I couldn’t count to five hundred. Or, even better, I could tell them to suck it up.

  A strong breeze began to shake the shutters of the buildings below. The night remained dark, illuminated only by the soft glow of the stars, until we reached the next torch. Julie’s hand wrapped around my wrist, sending an electric jolt through me.

  “We’re near the north side,” she whispered, as though she feared being overheard. “This is where the torch went out.”

  It all looked just the same to me. I frowned as I peered at her pale face. “Why isn’t a guard stationed here? Shouldn’t there be one every five hundred feet?”

  “Every one thousand,” Julie said. “He never turned up yesterday, and today he doesn’t seem to want to be here either.”

  “That’s strange. Do you think something scared him?”