by Jeff Hale
“There,” she said, her voice low and breathy. “We’ll have some privacy now.”
“Er…. are you…?” I started to ask if she was sure but she pulled me over to the desk. She pulled the chair out, turned it around and sat me down in it. She walked over to her dresser and put on some music, but turned it down low. She turned and walked slowly towards me.
“Look, Serena, are you sure about this?” I asked, shaking a bit myself. I was scared at the intensity of emotion that I felt towards her, and felt in return from her. I wasn’t sure we were ready for this yet.
“I’ve nevah been more sure of anythin’ in mah life as I am about ya, Rick. This feels so right.” She straddled me and put her arms around my neck again.
I glanced down and noticed that she hadn’t changed from those bikini bottoms into anything else. She wasn’t wearing anything below the waist, and what I saw I hadn’t seen since we were little kids. I hurriedly looked back up to her face.
“We’re only fourteen. I mean, isn’t it a bit early?” I asked, her face inches from mine. I could feel the heat from her body, especially from the area that rested on my lap. I could smell the faint scent of lilacs and the heavier, tangy scent of chlorine.
“We’re almost fifteen, and I love ya, Rick. I know I do. Even Alysa thinks that I am in love with ya, that it’s not just some crush or puppy love. That’s all that matters fer this, that we love each other.”
“I… I’m not sure…” I tried to breathe but couldn’t again. I stared into those incredibly green eyes and felt them searching me, asking me if I was going to let this happen. I nodded slightly and she kissed me.
She stood long enough to remove my swim shorts and then straddled me again, making me very aware of her. Then she pulled my shirt off, her hands on my bare skin making me shiver. I tugged at her own wet shirt, drawing it over her head, and then just sat there and stared at her naked breasts for the first time. They were a bit fuller than I expected, her body and legs toned from swimming.
“What are ya doin’, Rick?” she asked softly, looking worried.
“Just enjoying the view,” I said simply.
She smiled the crooked smile that told me that she meant to be bad. Or bad for her anyway. She leaned in and pulled my head down to her breasts and I took the invitation to explore them. After a few moments I could feel her trembling, then she let out a low moan that grew louder until it became a tiny scream, collapsing against me.
“Oh. Wow. I’ve nevah… nevah felt like that before. That felt… good. That must have been what Alysa was talkin’ about. I didn’t think I’d feel that until we actually… did stuff.” She kissed me, and I kissed her back, deeply, and a bit harder this time. She pressed back in return, and she reached down between us to situate herself.
“C- careful. Slowly,” I said. “I heard it’s supposed to hurt the first time for girls.”
“I’ll be okay. I know what ta expect. Sorta.” She kissed me again and pushed herself down onto me. It felt good, almost painful as I felt something snap, and I didn’t want it to stop, but she went still for a moment, a cry coming from her. I glanced down between us and almost panicked when I saw the tiniest trickle of blood.
“Oh, Jesus. You’re bleeding! Are you okay. Oh jeez, I knew this was a bad idea.”
“I’m okay. Really, I’m fine now. It’s jus’ a bit… tight… but it feels kinda good now,” she whispered in my ear. I nodded, and felt her move against me. It felt really good. I’d never felt anything quite like it in my life.
We both found our release minutes later and she collapsed in my arms then, sweaty and exhausted. I picked her up and carried her to the bed, then I laid her down and lay down next to her. Her eyes were only partially open as she looked at me.
“Happy birthday,” I said.
She smiled at me. A smile that looked content and happy and made me feel things that I had never felt before. Ever.
“I love ya, Rick. I always have. I always will,” was the last thing she said before drifting off to sleep. I knew in that exact moment, with no more confusion, that I felt the same way about her.
TEN
When I awoke from the dream, I felt an immense amount of frustration, and had no one to help me alleviate the problem. I decided to just ignore it until it went away. Dreaming of my first time with Serena was a bit odd considering the circumstances, but I figured it was the Aether trying to tell me something.
I decided to go to the school for one last round of classes with the hopes that I would see someone looking at something that I couldn’t see. I also planned to keep my mind on the idea of talking with Baba Yaga in hopes that she might allow me to find her so I could do just that. If she had anything to do with Kent’s disappearance, I wanted to know so that I at least knew to quit looking.
When I arrived in the Cryptozoology class I saw Celeste look up at me and give me a bit of a neutral look. She gave me a little wave then turned back around. Okay, now I was really confused. As the class went on I saw someone, one of the guys that tended to wear their frat logo openly, glancing at me every once in a while. I was getting a bit weirded out by it, but I kept my cool. After class was over he approached me. He was a few inches shorter than me, but a lot wider. He was obviously into sports of some sort judging by the letterman’s jacket he had tied around his waist. He had on a t-shirt with his frat letters on it and a pair of blue jeans.
“Hey… Aerick, right?” he asked as I stood up.
“Yeah. Why?” I asked bluntly.
“Well, you’re normal, so I figured you would want to know,” he said conspiratorially.
“Know…? What?” I asked, getting impatient.
“Well, you dated Katelyn Shaughnessy, right?” he asked cagily.
“Yes. Spit it the fuck out or get out of my face,” I prompted tightly.
“Well, she’s an Aetheric. A shifter,” he whispered to me.
I gave him a blasé look. “And?” I asked.
“I just thought you would want to know that you dated an Aetheric. You deserve to know if you’re a normal person,” he said, giving me a sympathetic look.
“Okay. And how do you know this? Did she tell you?” I asked. I knew that the school had a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ type of policy regarding Aetherics.
“No. But some of us more discerning students, well, we like to be in the know. We feel that it’s our right to know who these creatures are,” he said, sounding a bit like a politician.
“And why do you feel that?” I asked, getting a little defensive. Not just for myself but for Kat; I might be pissed as hell at her right now, but I didn’t like the way this guy was talking.
“Because they aren’t human. Let’s put it this way, what if you don’t like someone, and they piss you off, hey, maybe even rightfully so. You get in their face, and next thing you know, you’re dead and they’re scraping parts of you off the roof of the next building over. Don’t we have a right to know who we should be cautious around? Shouldn’t we know who is a new Aetheric and can’t control their abilities? Shouldn’t we know that the person we’re dating might be a corpse or an animal?” he pointed out.
On one hand, he had a point. On the other, he sounded like a complete fucking bigot. “So how do you know who’s an Aetheric then?” I asked.
“Oh. We have someone working as an office aide in our group. That’s how we got the list,” he admitted.
“Interesting. Well, if I have any questions or concerns,” I pointed at his shirt, “I’ll know to go to the Alpha Kappa house. Right?” I asked.
“Absolutely. Take it easy,” he said before walking away.
I sighed and went to my next class. When I got there I hoped that Celeste wouldn’t mind me sitting next to her again. After the disgusted look she had given me at the mall on account of Malachai, I wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t want to be near me. But she didn’t move away when I sat down. I noticed that she was wearing a pair of fairly short denim shorts and a really low cut blouse today
. It was nothing short of distracting.
“So, who was that… guy ya ditched me fer at the Mall the other day?” She gave me a quizzical look.
“Uh. No one. Well someone you should stay away from if you see him again. He’s very dangerous,” I said, remembering Lucien’s warning. I took a deep breath and could smell that faint scent of lilacs, and I sighed as I let my breath out.
“So ya decided ta come back ta class?” she asked, one eyebrow arched.
“Yeah. Sure. Why not? For now anyway,” I replied, shrugging.
“Good. Because I really need some help,” she said, sounding happy and slightly excited.
“Okay, well maybe you can help me. What’s this about an old homeless lady that’s been seen around campus?” I asked bluntly.
“Oh, the old lady ghost? No one really knows anything about her, jus’ that she’s harmless. Kris says she’s creepy, but I don’t think so. She’s just an old lady ghost,” she said, shrugging like it was nothing.
At that point, Mr. Moraine started his lecture. Unlike Bianca, he didn’t care if you whispered amongst yourselves while he was lecturing. As long as you didn’t distract anyone else it was fine. In his view, if you messed up because you weren’t paying attention, that was your fault, and your fault alone. His lectures were fast paced and never dull. Even when you already knew the stuff.
After class Celeste looked over at me as she stood up and smiled. “I’ll be callin’ ya later, ya can count on it,” she said as she walked away. I watched the sway of her hips, and how the tight denim hugged her butt. I sighed. Why couldn’t she just remember?
I went home, sat around since Dave was still asleep, and waited for that phone to ring. Then, as it so happened, my phone did ring. I forced myself to let it ring a couple times before I answered it.
“Hello?” I asked.
“Hello, Aerick?” Celeste’s voice came over the line.
“Oh, hey, Celeste,” I said, hoping I sounded nonchalant.
“So uh, did ya want ta come over and…?” I heard her start to ask before I heard a male voice in the background. He was yelling at her pretty loudly.
“’Leste, get your ass off that phone! Who the fuck are you calling anyway?! It better not be another guy!” he screamed.
“N-no one, Travis, I-I was j-jus’ askin’ a classmate fer s-s-some help with mah homework,” she stuttered. She sounded scared.
“Bull-fucking-shit!” he yelled. I heard something smack, maybe the phone, and then his voice on the other end.
“Who the fuck is this?” he demanded to know.
“How about you answer that question yourself, douche,” I retorted.
“If I ever find out who this is, I’ll fucking kill you, you little pricked mother fucker,” he threatened.
“Badder things than you have failed and tried, little human,” I said in a hostile tone.
“Oh, you think you’re a badass, huh? Well, I’m going to find you and put a bullet in your fucking head, then we’ll see how badass you are. Prick,” he said, trying to intimidate me. It didn’t work. “And you, you little skanky ass whore! Talking to some other guy behind my back! You fucking bitch!” was all I heard before the phone went dead. Part of me wanted to teleport over to Celeste’s and turn her boyfriend into a stain on the sidewalk for yelling at her like that, but the other part knew that he was human and my hands were tied. Plus, Celeste would find out what I was and would probably hate me. Maybe they would fight and she would break up with him. I could only hope.
I killed time and frustration by getting some practice in, knowing I needed as much as I could with Malachai out there waiting to strike again. Every time I thought of Malachai hurting Serena, I only renewed my efforts. I finished up around three in the afternoon and went out to take a shower. Dave was awake finally, watching some show on TV. He had had a late night last night and didn’t come in until almost six in the morning.
I decided then and there that he was looking way too tired and stressed to tell him about everything that had been going on. I wasn’t sure I could handle it all. Baba Yaga, Celeste and her douche boyfriend, being around Celeste all the time and not being the object of her affection. It was almost too much at times.
As I got some food I watched the TV from my vantage in the kitchen. Ended up being some science fiction show about Atlantis and the humans that had found it through some gate that created a wormhole through space. They had also come across some vampiric creatures called Wraiths and were fighting a war to eliminate them. I was completely lost, but the way Dave was going on about it, I assumed he had been watching the show since its inception. He also mentioned something about the original series and that the Atlantis show was a spin-off.
The show looked interesting enough, even if the premise was a bit outlandish. Atlantis on some other planet in some other galaxy? Atlantis was on Earth somewhere. Merlin had confirmed as much during the short time I had been under his tutelage.
Atlantis had been the first mixed society where both humans and Aetherics were treated as equals. It fell for unknown reasons, and Camelot came after, trying to do what Atlantis had failed at. Of course, it too fell in time. Maybe we weren’t meant to live as equals at all. It always seemed to fall apart for some reason.
I didn’t go to school the next day, and Saturday finally came around. I started to get ready late in the afternoon, and shortly after I was done, I felt a mental tug and knew that Lucien had arrived with my limo.
“Ready to go? Our limo is here,” I told Dave, walking towards the door.
“Limo? You didn’t say anything about a limo, and hey! Where’d you get the new clothes?” Dave scrambled to get up and ran to his room, leaving the door open as he pulled clothes out of his dresser.
“Lucien. It was all Lucien’s doing,” I called after him.
“The owner of that Velvet Flame club? What? Is he gay and has the hots for you or something?” Dave said as he came back out of his room dressed more normal for him: boots, a decent pair of jeans, and a t-shirt that read, ‘The Best Place to Take a Bullet…’ and under that ‘Is in the Girlfriend’. I just laughed, knowing exactly who that shirt was aimed at. Dave just smiled at me. “I would have worn the one that says ‘Only Fucking Faggots join Fraternities’, but I didn’t want you to have to kill everyone there when they all jumped me at once.”
“Thanks, and no, Lucien isn’t gay. He isn’t… anything, I don’t think. You don’t know, do you?” I asked, suddenly realizing that Dave had never seen Lucien in his Phoenix form.
“I know that he makes me feel weird anytime he comes to talk to you when we’re hanging out,” Dave said, opening the door.
“He’s the Phoenix,” I said as I headed out.
“The Phoenix?” he repeated, still confused.
“Yeah. You know. Phoe-nix?” I drew the word out and saw his eyes go wide as he understood.
“What?! Holy fucking shit!” Dave exclaimed as we made our way to the parking lot.
“Yeah. You feel weird because he has a connection to all living things in some way or another.”
“That explains that. I thought I was turning gay. Every time we were in that place I got horny as all get out. Then again, it may have something to do with the mostly nekkid hot ass fae babes in that place too.” Dave laughed as we approached the limo.
The ogre-gnome I had met at the Mall got out of the driver’s side door of the limo. He was dressed in a full tuxedo, much to my surprise. He cleaned up rather well. He came around and opened the door for me. As we got into the car he winked at me and closed the door behind us. I noticed immediately that we were not alone.
On the seat across from us was what looked like a hawk about the size of a small parrot. It appeared to be on fire, from white to red and orange, to the occasional blue around its stomach. After a moment of staring back at me, it leapt into the air and flew over to land on my shoulder. Surprisingly, no heat came from the bird whatsoever. I knew that Lucien could turn that heat up to the point of
melting concrete. I had seen it done before.
“Holy fucking shit! You weren’t kidding! Wait. Is that him?” Dave asked, taking a closer look at the bird. Lucien fluttered slightly on my shoulder as he did so.
“Easy, old friend,” I whispered. “Yeah, it’s him,” I answered.
“What else are you not telling me?” Dave asked, giving me a suspicious look.
“Probably a lot,” I said honestly.
“Like what?”
“Who knows?” I shrugged.
“You haven’t fucked Nina again have you?”
“Uh. No. I told her it would never happen again.”
“Good. Keep it that way. I don’t want to find out if your kind can get STDs.”
“My kind?” I laughed. “I’m still human, Dave. Fuck.”
“Oh, sorry.” Dave’s expression was a bit sheepish.
“No worries.”
We reached the UNLV campus a short while later. The driver took us to the address of the frat house where the party was supposed to take place. Sure enough, when we arrived the party was in full swing. I could hear some rap song coming from the house, causing the whole house to shake and the windows to rattle on nearby cars with the bass.
I saw people already drinking, talking, and messing around in the front yard. A couple of guys chased a girl, tackling her and tickling her as she squeaked and squirmed to get away from them, obviously having a good time of it though. Several guys were playing football as well. Among them I saw Kevin, shirt off, wearing little more than a pair of denim shorts. He had a UNLV logo tattooed across his upper back and shoulders.
I walked to the front door, and went to walk in when a larger guy sitting on a stool by the door held his hand out, blocking my progress. Lucien fluttered again, and Dave just walked right up to him like he was twice his actual size.