by V L Friends
I gave him a confused look but I knew what he was asking; I just wanted him to say it.
“What are you talking about?” I continued.
“You’re a Christian, right?” he said.
I nodded as I splashed more paint on the canvas with my brush.
“No, I don’t think they do. Julian knows who my mother was, so I think he must suspect,” I said.
“It certainly explains a lot,” he said grimly before walking back to sit down.
I had no idea what he meant by that but I didn’t care. I knew not to prod him. He was in one of his moods. Something had him on edge and I decided that it was better to ignore him today.
I could feel it too. The atmosphere was changing. I stood there looking off into the woods. It was now mid-day. Why was it so dark? The fog started to roll in again.
I decided to make conversation to ease the tension.
“I have been meaning to ask you something. How is it you are a female panther, yet you are male? I mean, how does that all work?” I asked him.
“My panther is a separate being living inside me. We coexist.” His eyes seemed to brighten at my interest.
“So, can you hear her thoughts when you are in your form?” I asked.
“I can. She is talking with me about you now, in fact,” he said with a grin.
“Does she speak when she is in her panther form?” I continued with increasing curiosity.
“She can but mostly chooses not to,” he said.
“Fascinating!” I said and my mind began to flood with more questions, but I decided not to prod too much because the look on his face began to get serious as he stared off into the woods again.
I turned my attention back to what I was doing for a while and when I glanced back he was staring at me again.
“You are so beautiful,” I heard Lucian murmur, so softly I could barely hear him.
I stiffened. I never knew what to do or say when he would say things like this to me. At least he was keeping his distance.
“Take it easy,” his voice returned to normal now. “It’s not like I am going to jump you or anything.”
“Well, I never know. After all, you are an incubus, yah?” I smirked as I glanced back at him still in his chair on the other side of the porch.
He let out a soft chuckle.
“So that’s it. You think every nice thing I say to you is designed to get in your pants?” he said, sounding offended.
“Is it?” I asked with slight amusement.
“I assure you, love, if I wanted to sleep with you, I would have done it already. You would not have stood a chance at resisting me.” His voice sounded almost like a hiss.
Needing to change the subject but not wanting to be too obvious about changing the subject, I turned to face him directly and I let out a long sigh.
“Lucian, have you ever been in love?”
A slow, sly grin appeared on his face and I could almost read what it meant.
“Many times.”
“I mean, really in love. The kind where you want to be with no one else and you could see yourself spending forever with them and them alone?” I realized that my dreamy-eyed look must seem utterly ridiculous to him but I didn’t care.
The smile left him and was replaced with a look of defeat and he shook his head slightly.
“You?” he asked, returning his attention back to the woods.
“Not like that. I want to,” I said.
“Not me,” he said. “That kind of love is full of pain and agony. It’s a trap. One person forever. It is not realistic. I prefer to be honest and tell my lovers the truth.”
“Well, that kind of love is full of the utmost intimacy, trust, and is rare but it is exactly the kind I look for and will wait for,” I said.
“Hmmm,” he said, but then turned and seemed to be looking at something in the woods with a faraway look on his face that turned quickly from mere worry lines to frantic, before he shot up out of his chair.
“Anaya, get inside now and lock all the doors! Do not come out for any reason! I must go. Stay inside until I return!”
“Why? What’s happening?”
He grabbed me by the wrist and yanked me through the door before pulling it shut.
“Do as I say! Now!” he growled. “Turn out the lights and hide!”
I did as he said as I wondered what or who had him so riled up. I went to the second floor to Julian’s room. It was the one with the best view of the woods. As I crouched and watched the woods basked in the fog, I waited and waited. From somewhere in the middle of the forest a lightning bolt shot from the ground to the sky, followed by a series of smaller bolts of lightning. The sound of crackling was in the air and then… nothing. I waited but all I got was silence, dead silence. Not even the sound of crickets.
Lucian returned to the house calling out to me to come to him. If it weren’t for the fact that he sounded so commanding, like a master calling his servants to him, I probably would have gone to him right away. I couldn’t let him think that he had any hold on me, so I didn’t. I just sat there in Julian’s room. That was probably a mistake, though, because it only enhanced his predator traits as he began to hunt me.
“Are you playing with me then, little dove?” His creepy voice indicated the shift into the predator. “I know you are here.”
He was terrifying! His voice had changed to a low, menacing tone.
I pondered for a second, jumping under Julian’s bed, but quickly came to my senses.
I sprang to my feet. “I’m here, Lucian! I’ll be right down!” I yelled out into the quiet, trying to act casual.
“Ah, good girl” his voice seemed to hiss. A part of me trembled at what I would see when I found him.
I crept to the top of the stairs and peered down into the darkness. My legs could not stop trembling.
“Lucian?” I whispered.
“What?” He was somewhere down there, just beyond the bottom step. His voice sounded back to normal but irritated.
“Can we turn the lights on now?” I said.
With a heavy sigh, I could hear his feet stride across the floor and the click of a light switch.
He came back to the stairs to look up at me. Much to my relief, he was his usual self. He held out his hand to me.
“You can come down. Everything is okay. Come to me,” he said.
“What happened?” I asked as I walked down the stairs and took his hand. He wove his fingers between mine and leaned in, his breath on my neck. Then he stepped back and led me to sit down with him, his hands still holding mine.
“There were trespassers in the woods. I’ve taken care of them and warded the property with my magic. They won’t be able to get through again,” he said.
“Taken care of them?” I questioned his words.
“Nothing for you to concern yourself with.” His expression went stern with his words but then he changed the subject.
“Are you shaking?” He grabbed my arms and cupped my cheeks, looking at me close with concern. “You are afraid.” He pulled me into him and rubbed my back to comfort me.
“You scared me with that… hunter demeanor,” I said.
“Ah, that. It’s instinctual. If I am not able to find the one I am protecting, especially after battling for that one, then it takes me awhile to unhook from that predator in me. As soon as I hear your voice I start to come back. It’s better and quicker if I feel your touch. It’s because of the protector spell. It bonds me to you.”
“I told you I didn’t want you using your magic on me.” I shook my head in protest.
“Take it easy; I did not bond you to me, just me to you, and its temporary. This helps me to always know where you are,” he says.
“Gee, that’s not creepy at all,” I retorted, rolling my eyes.
Just then I could hear the screech of tires, and seconds later the front door flung open as Caleb called out frantically.
“Anaya!”
“We are right here, cousin
,” Lucian called out to him.
Apparently, Julian had texted Caleb to get home. ‘They’re coming for her!’ he had texted Caleb. After Julian made his way home from his supposed meeting, he explained to all of us that some rogue witch covens had decided to end Anaya’s life just in case she would be a threat. The meeting was a ploy to get Julian away from the house because he was considered the strongest opposition, as he was the overseer of all the covens in the area. No one knew about Lucian being there but I imagine he had now made his presence known.
“I have a plan,” said Lucian. “This plan will get Louis on our side, and once he labels her a non-threat no one will go against him.”
Chapter 6 - The Monster
“Ouch!”
I think I must have stepped on Julian’s foot for the twentieth time.
It was Julian’s idea to teach me grace and poise by teaching me ballroom dancing. I issued a protest, my way, by acting clumsy and bored.
“I know you are a dancer, so stop pretending, damn it!” Julian growled. He was losing his patience with me.
I took comfort in the fact that he was as miserable as he was making me. Lately, we adopted a tolerance for one another, given our circumstances, but I could feel something festering. His cool indifference toward me caused a rage to surge from the very core of me, ready to burst any second. Some might say this was a passive aggressive way of dealing with my rage. At least I was taking it out on him instead of Caleb. I know Julian, Caleb, and even Lucian were all working a plan to keep me out of danger and this was all a part of it, but it meant I would be going to my least favorite thing and with my least favorite kind of people. This just added a cherry on top of my current swirl of soul-rattling detour from normal. I have never felt at home at cocktail parties, balls, mixers, or around crowds, for that matter, much less with uppity rich people. I was planning to be a wildlife specialist. I belonged in the jungles with the apes or in the forest with the bears and cougars. I knew nothing about this world I was suddenly being forced into. It was all of it that was screwing with my mental and emotional stability.
This was all part of Julian and Caleb’s plan to introduce me to the others of their kind. They needed to see that I was not a threat. First, I was to go to this formal party this old guy was putting on. He apparently was this 300-year old walker who had a lot of power and say with “the others.” If I showed that I was likable and refined and could fit into their world, then he might take a liking to me and decide not to kill me. Lucian said if they could show that I am nothing but a defenseless human with no powers, it would detour anyone from either wanting to use me or kill me.
Apparently, some of the others got riled up about hearing that I was a human walker mix because they believed heaven had allowed for the possibility to occur only two times before and it was usually to bring destruction to their kind. No wonder they wanted me dead.
“How did you even know I am a dancer?” I asked Julian with suspicion.
“Darling, you underestimate me. I have seen you dance at your recitals and, yes, I even set foot inside a church once just to see you dance.”
“Really? Then why the hell have I never seen you in my entire childhood?” The heat must have been getting to me, along with everything else. What did I care what he did? He was probably lying anyway.
“Easy, now.” He was deliberately trying to speak softly. “I already told you that your mom and I decided it would be better for you not to see me.”
“Whatever!” I pulled away. I didn’t like being in close proximity with Julian, especially since the incident in the study. He was too unpredictable. One second he was soft and gentle and the next he was hurting me.
I was honestly starting to feel sorry for the guy. This was the first time in the two months since I had been here that he finally got up the nerve to try doing something kind of… “father-daughter-like.” I am even admitting that I was being impossible. I couldn’t help it. Every time I was around him, my stomach was in knots and my heart would pound so hard it hurt. There was always this feeling in the pit of my stomach that he was dangerous and unpredictable. What was wrong with me?! I hoped to God he did not notice how nervous he made me.
He let go of my hands. “I give up! Caleb, your turn. I have to go.”
We had been practicing outside in the back meadow. Julian said I could imagine the ballroom was like this giant meadow when I was dancing. He had some good ideas. Now he was walking toward the back deck where an amused Caleb sat watching safely seated at a table, beaming from ear to ear. He was obviously enjoying his brother’s torture. Lucian sat in one corner on the porch hunched over with a handful of gemstones in his hand, as he often did when he was working on mixing magic into them. He had more of them hanging from a silver chain he wore around his neck. He would occasionally look up and laugh mockingly or just shake his head at us.
“I have been listening to this excessive bickering of the witches in town. They are complaining about their numbers dwindling. Apparently, there are a number of them converting to be Christians all up and down this state and the next. There is talk of this hidden revival somewhere among the Amish country. There is a witch I know that may know where it is. I’ll be back tonight.” Julian began walking away and stopped to spin and look at me suddenly.
“Anaya… you’re coming with me,” he said.
“NOOOOOO!” I shook my head and laughed nervously. Didn’t he know who I was?
Lucian looked up with interest and wrinkled his brow.
“Julian, that may not be such a good idea,” Lucian said, now standing up.
“Don’t worry; it’ll be fine, cousin.” Julian waved him back as he turned back to me.
“Well, you seem to have this big attitude about all of this and don’t seem to realize the seriousness of this situation. Maybe if you see what you are up against you will get it.”
He was serious.
“Julian, I am not particularly concerned about meeting witches. I am wondering, though...?”
“What? What, pray tell, are you wondering about?” He was getting impatient again.
“Well, will they want to meet me?”
He took off his designer sunglasses, I guess for effect, and looked directly at me. He looked like a runway diva and I had to turn away to hide my amusement. “Anaya, I won’t let anything happen to you! Get your butt in the car!” He turned and walked away, saying, “Besides, you should see Daddy’s work.”
I looked over at Caleb, who was grinning from ear to ear and shrugging his shoulders as if to say it was out of his hands. Caleb expressed that he believed the more time Julian and I spent together the more we would learn about each other and have a chance of bonding. “I bet you’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” I accused.
“Immensely!” he chuckled. “Enjoy your quality time together!” he hollered back. Lucian did not find this amusing and still gave me a look of worry as I turned to walk away. He was the only one of them who knew I was a Christian.
“Ya know, this whole pulling the daddy card every time you want to make me do something is starting to get old,” I hollered ahead to Julian’s back as he was approaching the car.
“Not for me,” he said, happy with himself. “It’s a long car ride and I could use the company.”
It really was a long car ride and seemed longer since we barely spoke. Something was definitely bothering Julian.
I was not going to press. The last thing I wanted was to agitate him, since we were now alone. I just decided to sit back and enjoy the ride in silence.
He broke the hours of silence with, “We are almost there so I should tell you how this is going to go down. Stay behind me and don’t speak! You got that?”
“Um, yeah,” I responded, a bit confused by his harsh tone.
“Good!”
We pulled into some tiny town and he stopped in front of an old pub. The music was blaring and could be heard from outside. I didn’t much care for country music.
Inside we were g
reeted by a very enthusiastic barmaid wearing cut-off shorts, a tank top, and cowboy boots. She was very attractive with her dark skin and long, flowing black hair. Her large brown eyes lit up with recognition at the sight of Julian.
“Hey, baby!” She jumped into Julian’s arms and wrapped her legs around his torso. “What brings you here? You slummin’?” She kissed him full on and he didn’t seem to mind. Her eyes met mine in mid-kiss. Suddenly, her face seemed to change.
“I need some information, Anna. What’s this I hear about your team changing sides?” Julian asked Anna, who still seemed to have her legs gripped firmly around his waist.
They must have been talking code.
“Who’s the skirt, honey?” She gestured to me. She never took her eyes off me.
“This is my new girl.” He never even bothered to say my name. I guess he figured she didn’t really care.
“Great in the sack, isn’t he?” She gave me a wink. Obviously, an effort to feel how close Julian and I are. Gross! I think I may have felt physically nauseous. She studied my face and looked me up and down but I never flinched. I gave nothing away.
“So, Julian,” she turned her attention away from me, “I’m wondering how come you’re here askin’ questions about a certain invasion of another kind while keepin’ company with one of them.” She nodded my direction.
My stomach did a flip. She knew something about me! It took me a second to realize I was holding my breath.
“What are you talking about?” Julian looked at me with curiosity but decided she was bluffing and shrugged it off.
I let out a slow long breath in relief.
“Anna, I don’t have time for these games. I need the name of the person who is holding all these meetings.”
“Here.” Anna scribbled something on a piece of paper and shoved it over. “So, when are you coming back to visit me, baby? We all miss you.”
“Soon… very soon.” He gave her a long kiss that once again stirred up my gag reflexes, then he took a shot of whisky and off we were.
“Ugh!” I mumbled under my breath. It was hard to see him this way. I couldn’t stand it when I saw women fall all over themselves for his attention. I knew he didn’t care about any of them.