by S. J. West
He smiles as if I’ve said something amusing. “I believe everyone here this evening knows who you are…may I call you Sarah?”
I nod, feeling even more self-conscious than I already did. I don’t know why it should come as a shock to me that most of the people at the party already know my name. I should have expected it. I guess it’s because I’ve always tried to stay in the shadows during social events, not purposely allowing myself to be cast in the limelight.
Since Julian hasn’t made a vocal objection to my accepting Gage’s offer, I walk away from my companion’s side and accept the arm Gage politely holds out for me to take.
“Be careful, Sarah,” Julian cautions just before we start to walk away.
I turn around and look at him, nodding my head to let him know that I heard his request.
“Thank you for agreeing to dance with me,” Gage says as we near the dancefloor.
“Why were you so persistent about it?” I ask.
“Because I wanted to dance with the most beautiful woman here,” he answers smoothly. “Isn’t that reason enough?”
I know he’s telling the truth… as he sees it anyway.
Gage takes hold of my hand and places his other hand on my back at the waist. We stand together on the dancefloor, waiting for the orchestra to begin its next song which starts only a few seconds later.
“So, is the story true?” he asks me. “Did your mother really raise you without any knowledge of our world?”
I don’t see any harm in answering his question. It seems like almost everyone here knows about my past anyway.
“Yes, she did.”
“And what do you think of us?”
“What do you mean?”
“Are you frightened to find out that what you thought was just fantasy is actually real?”
“Yes and no. I admit there are some people here who make me uncomfortable.”
“I don’t make you uncomfortable, do I?” he asks with an affable grin.
“No,” I answer. “I don’t believe you’re a danger to me.”
“Hmm, then I guess I’m not being mysterious enough. Don’t most women like a little darkness in their men?”
“Not always,” I assure him. “Most of the time we just want someone who cares enough about us to listen to what we have to say.”
“I would say that sentiment goes both ways.”
We’re silent for a moment as we continue to dance. I want to ask something but I’m not sure what his reaction will be to my question. I decide it doesn’t matter. He’ll either answer it or he won’t. Either way, this might be the last time I ever see Gage.
“Why do you distance yourself from the other warlocks and witches?” I ask.
“Noticed that, did you?” He’s flattered to find out I paid that much attention to his behavior at the party. “I get tired of hearing the same old arguments and jealousies vented whenever we get together. They’re a selfish bunch, for the most part.”
“Why did you come to the party if you don’t like to be around them?”
“I came to see you,” he admits freely. “It’s rare we have an outsider enter our midst. Fresh blood as it were,” he jokes.
“Why are you all so curious about me?”
“You’re new and a little mysterious. Plus, most of us have never seen Julian. It’s the first time he’s ever visited his sister here in New Orleans. I must admit I was as curious to see him as I was you. He’s something of a legend.”
A legend? Well, this I have to know more about.
“What do you mean by that?” I ask.
“He doesn’t socialize much, so hardly anyone knows anything about him. Do you like being bonded with him?”
Even though it seems like Gage is asking a sincerely curious question, I still get the feeling he’s digging for information he doesn’t need to know. Julian’s warning of ‘be careful’ makes me hesitant to answer Gage’s seemingly harmless inquiry. Ultimately, I decide that my relationship with Julian isn’t anyone else’s business.
“I’m content with my life, if that’s what you’re asking. I don’t resent being bound to him.”
The song we have been dancing to comes to an end. While everyone is clapping, I curtsey to my partner.
“Thank you for the dance. I should be getting back to my friends.”
Gage bows at the waist. “And thank you for trusting me enough to leave your companion’s side for a short while.”
There is a meow at my feet. I look down to find Viktor pawing at my shoe as if he’s trying to garner my attention. I bend down to pick him up, and cradle him in my arms before I turn away from Gage and walk back to Julian and Daniel.
“Did he behave himself?” Julian asks me as I come to stand in front of him. His tone of voice reminds me of the way Kaylee’s dad questioned me after my first date when I was sixteen.
“Yes, he was a perfect gentleman.” Absently, I begin to pet Viktor between the ears but, strangely enough, this doesn’t earn me a purr from my new feline friend. Viktor’s body feels as tense as a piano wire in my arms. His ears are pointing straight up as if he’s on high alert. I watch as he turns his head to where the alfar queen is standing.
Queen Shael looks our way and her eyes grow wide in alarm. She says something to the tall black man standing beside her, and that’s the last I see of the queen before all hell breaks loose.
I know we’re in trouble when an orange bloom of fire shoots straight up into the air like a firework. There’s a lot of angry yelling, which seems to cause a small number of people to run towards the veranda to escape what’s about to happen. Many of the partygoers emanate extreme excitement for the fight they all feel is about to take place.
“Get in the house!” Julian shouts to Daniel, who doesn’t need to be told twice. He sprints towards the house just as Julian grabs me around the waist. I see his wings burst from his back just before he flies us straight into the air and far away from the ensuing melee. Viktor lets out a startled yelp of surprise for being so rudely yanked from the ground towards the heavens.
Julian flies through the sky at a much faster pace than the first time he took me flying. After a few minutes he lands, setting me down a few yards away from the front of the Saint Louis Cathedral. The few tourists standing around us stare in awe, but I don’t have time to deal with them just yet.
“What’s going on?” I ask Julian as he slides a hand into his front pocket and pulls out his cell phone.
“I’m not sure,” he answers hurriedly. “It looked like one of the warlocks cast a warning spell at one of the werewolves.”
He quickly finds a number on his phone and presses dial before placing it up to his ear.
“Helen, are you near Jackson Square?” he asks quickly before saying, “Come to Saint Louis Cathedral. Sarah will be waiting for you.”
He ends the call and hands me the phone.
“She’s on her way. Walk over to the front of the cathedral and stay there until she finds you.”
He turns from me and starts to flutter his wings back and forth in preparation of flight. Just before he takes off, I clamp a hand around his forearm and bring him back down with a strength I didn’t know I possessed until that moment. Viktor jumps from the arm I was cradling him in and walks a few steps away.
“Where are you going?” I demand of Julian. “You’re not going back there, are you?”
“I have to, Sarah,” he says, hastily disengaging my hand from his arm with a strength that’s far greater than mine. “Mira will need my help getting things back under control.”
“I don’t want you going back there!” I say in a scared voice. I’m frightened of what I don’t understand, and completely terrified that something bad will happen to Julian. “There’s so much hatred there, so many of those people were just waiting for something like this to happen. You might get hurt!”
“I’ll be all right,” he promises. “I won’t let anything happen to me. I treasure your life too much.”
“I need to go back now, Sarah,” he says more urgently. “I have to help.”
On impulse, I grab the front of Julian’s shirt and bring his lips down to mine. If we end up dying tonight, I don’t want to regret never having given him a true kiss. There’s no way he can be absolutely sure nothing will happen to him; accidents happen all the time. I don’t want to die with any regrets, and I want him to know how much I care about him.
My heart beats as fast as a freight train as I move my lips against his, kissing him with an urgency and desperate need to let him know how much I want him to return to me. I feel an empty ache begin to fill my heart when I realize something important.
Julian isn’t kissing me back.
I pull away from him, lifting my hand to my lips as I silently wish I could reverse time. What have I done? Did I make my move too fast? Will he bring a stop to what’s been building between us because I foolishly rushed things? As he stands there, staring at me without an ounce of expression on his face, I wish I could disappear into the ground for all eternity.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper to Julian, not knowing what else to say because I’m simply too embarrassed. “I’m so sorry,” I repeat before turning my back to him and walking away to put as much distance as I can between us.
I’m only able to take two steps before I feel Julian grab my left hand and whirl me back around to face him. He places one arm around my back, crushing my body against his, and cradles the nape of my neck with his other hand. When he brings his lips down to mine, I want to cry from joy. His lips move across mine with a hunger similar to the first time he drank my blood. Only this time, he doesn’t seem interested in taking something from me; he wants to share himself with me. I get the distinct feeling he desperately wants me to know how much he cares. Does he love me? I have no idea. But if this kiss is any indication of his true feelings for me, he definitely likes me… a lot.
When he finally pulls his lips away from mine, there’s a fire in his eyes that wasn’t there before.
“I’ll be back,” he promises in a hoarse whisper, before flapping his wings and ascending into the air. I watch him fly across the sky for as long as I can, but he fades from my view only a few short seconds later.
“Are you guys making a movie?” a little blonde girl asks me.
I look over at her and see that she’s standing in front of her parents, who are staring at me in utter shock. When I look around the area, I can see about twenty people wearing the same exact expression.
“Yes,” I lie, smiling as I say it because people always tend to believe a person who looks friendly. “We’re making a vampire romance movie.”
“Are you famous?” she asks as her eyes light up in childlike wonder.
“Not yet,” I tell her, “but maybe this movie will make me famous one day.”
“Come on, Mary Jane,” the girl’s mother says. Unfortunately, the mother looks doubtful I’m speaking the truth. “We should let the lady work and get back to the hotel.”
“Bye!” Mary Jane says as her mother takes her hand, and they all walk away from me rather hurriedly. The other people seem to accept my lie and return to what they were doing before Julian deposited me here. So many movies and TV shows are made in New Orleans nowadays, my lie was completely plausible to the crowd.
“Meow!”
I look over towards the church and see Viktor watching me from his place on the sidewalk step in front of the cathedral. If I didn’t know any better, I would swear the cat is smirking at me.
“What?” I ask him as I walk closer to his position. “Haven’t you ever seen someone happy before?”
Viktor makes something that sounds like a snort before he proceeds to preen himself. I sit down with him and close my eyes, trying to etch Julian’s kiss into my memory. What if he only kissed me because he thought I was embarrassed by his lack of responsiveness to my kiss? Was it a pity kiss? It didn’t feel like one, but it did seem like something Julian would do.
How would the two kisses change our relationship? Most importantly, how do I feel about him? Do I love him? Having never been truly in love before it’s hard to say, but I do know he’s able to make my heart ache in ways I didn’t even know it could.
“What happened?” A harried Helen rushes towards me down the sidewalk, rounding the gate of the church as she clutches four large shopping bags in her hands.
“Someone started a fight at the party,” I tell her, standing up. “Julian went back to help stop it.”
Poor Helen. From the way she’s struggling for air, I can only assume she ran most of the way to the church.
“He should have told you it wasn’t an emergency,” I say to her as she takes a seat on the steps beside me, doing her best to catch her breath.
“Don’t fret about me,” she says, waving a hand in the air. “I’m just getting old, is all. There was a day, not so long ago, that I could have run a marathon through this city and won!” She laughs. “Not anymore, though. I’m afraid those days are far behind me.”
“I see you did a little shopping,” I comment, eyeing the bags in front of her.
“You can’t come to New Orleans and not shop,” she replies, as if the mere thought of not buying something while visiting the city is a sin.
Viktor walks between us and sticks his head into one of the bags, as if searching for something in particular.
Helen stares at the cat for a moment before looking over at me.
“That’s not the alfar queen’s cat, is it?” she asks in amazement.
I pick my nosey cat up and lay him across my lap. He seems to like it there because he rolls onto his back like a dog would, meowing to me as if demanding that I rub his belly.
“Silly cat,” I laugh. Since the kiss with Julian has placed me in such a good mood, I relent to his pushy demand and begin to stroke the soft skin on his stomach.
“She gave him to me tonight,” I tell Helen. “I have no idea why. She just said he decided it was time to move on.”
“Well, that beats anything I have ever seen,” Helen declares, clearly impressed. “As far as I know, he’s only belonged to alfar royalty.”
“That’s what Julian told me.” I can’t help the smile that spreads across my face as his name passes over my lips.
“What else happened this evening?” Helen asks. When I look up, from the cat sprawled across my lap to her questioning gaze, I can’t keep the smile on my face from spreading my lips even wider.
Should I tell her what happened? Maybe she would have a deeper insight into what it all means.
So I tell her everything that happened that night, ending with Julian kissing me before he left.
“Well, that’s definitely interesting,” she says, becoming silent in thought for a few scant seconds. “He’s had lovers in the past, including me, but he always made sure they knew there could never be anything more than friendship between them. You, my dear, are a special case since he literally needs you in order to survive. I’m surprised he’s openly showing you affection, but it gives me hope that he’s finally allowing himself to feel love again.”
Out of nowhere, I suddenly feel a sharp pain deep within my chest. It’s so close to my heart I fear it’s about to burst out of my body. Involuntary, I cry out in pain. I press my hand against my breastbone, desperately trying to take a breath.
“Sarah! What’s wrong?” Helen quickly kneels in front of me, shooing the cat off my lap.
“I don’t know,” I tell her, feeling the pain ease a little into an aching throb. “Something’s wrong, though. We need to find Julian.”
“All right, dear, wait here. I’ll need to go back to the parking garage and get the car. It’s going to take me a little while, but I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
I nod, letting her know that I understand. Helen leaves her bags with me and spr
ints off to get the car. Viktor mewls beside me. I pick him up and cradle him in my arms, gaining comfort from his presence.
“Something’s wrong, Viktor,” I say in a breathless whisper. “Something’s wrong with Julian.”
Viktor licks my face with his warm little pink tongue. I don’t stop him. I take solace in his small act of kindness.
As I sit on the steps in front of Saint Louis Cathedral, the only thing that I’m certain of is that Julian is in trouble and needs my help.
It probably only takes Helen ten minutes to get the car and come back for us, but it feels like hours. The pain in my chest has subsided somewhat by the time I get into the car and we’re on our way back to Mira’s house. My gut tells me that time is of the essence, and I urge Helen to go as fast as the Vanquish will allow her. The engine growls to life as she pushes it to its limits and races down the streets of New Orleans. For an elderly woman, Helen has great reflexes as she maneuvers through what little traffic is left on the road at this late hour. The trip back to Mira’s takes less than five minutes. Quite impressive for a ride that should have taken a little over twice that much time.
I immediately jump out of the car, and run pell-mell into the house even before the vehicle comes to a complete stop. It’s the first time I put my bond with Julian to the test and allow it to guide me through Mira’s mansion to find him. I run up the stairs, pass my own room, and open the door to one that is two doors down from Daniel’s.
Petru, Mira, Adrian, and Daniel are all standing inside, having a hushed conversation in the far corner of the room. Julian is lying unconscious on the bed, with what looks like a small tree limb sticking out of his chest. I run to stand by his side.
“Why haven’t you taken that thing out of him yet?” I yell at them furiously.
“We were debating whether he would bleed to death before his body could heal itself,” Petru tells me with an irritating sense of calm. “And I think you can help him, Sarah.”
“What do you need me to do?”
“That just might work,” Mira says, eyeing me up and down like she’s trying to determine whether I’m capable of the task they have in mind. “With a fresh dose of her blood, he should be able to heal fast enough. Plus, she can replace whatever he loses, but we still need to find a way to wake him up so he can feed.”