Eventually, when Arthur seemed to be staring at the phone in confusion, she took it back, concluding that the call had likely ended.
“What did he say?”
“He said … he’ll come. How does that thing work?”
“It’s a whole day’s lesson for another time,” she yawned, settling back on the pillows. “How did you get here?”
“Knox,” Arthur said. “He’s off to cause trouble up the road.”
Annalise laughed, crossing her legs at the ankle. Now that getting out was in her near future, her mood was much improved.
They chatted with a natural flow and only a few translation errors appearing, until Gregory arrived. She was happy to see him because that meant going home and escaping this place. As a wheel chair arrived - hospital policy to take her to the car - she realized what a shift in attitude this was from the day she arrived. She had been petrified of the Initials the day she arrived, feeling like a prisoner. But now, a part of her brain was happy to go home with them, grateful for the escape, and she couldn’t wait to settle onto the couch in the mansion and relax.
Gregory, ever the gentleman, reached for the handles of the wheelchair to push her out and Arthur nearly body-checked his brother out of the way to do it. Annalise looked up with a smirk.
“I guess I’m a popular person.”
“That you are,” Gregory agreed, as they started down the hallway.
“How’s Rosa?” Annalise asked.
“She’s fine. A bit stressed, I think, because her show opens on Tuesday. ”
“Oh that’s right!” Annalise had forgotten all about Rosa’s performance in Jonesville, a half an hour north of the city, where one of the bigger theaters was. “You’re attending, of course?”
“Yes,” he replied, as they went through the double doors, into the bright sunshine. She blinked twice, not used to the outside light. It was cold out, winter was on its way, late as always and she drew her coat tighter. “I’ve enjoyed ballet for centuries, and the Nutcracker is one of my favorites. And the fact that your girlfriend is dancing in it makes it better?”
Gregory smiled.
“Something like that,” he said. “If you two want to stay here, I’ll get the car.”
“Thanks,” Annalise said, reaching up to tie her hair into a pony tail and looking up at Arthur. “Do you want to go?”
“Where?”
“To Rosa’s show. On Tuesday.”
“With you?” he looked down.
“Yes, unless you hate me or something.”
“No,” he shook his head, frustrated. “I mean, are you well enough?”
“They let me go, didn’t they? Anyway, it’s a few days away, right?”
“Yes,” Arthur agreed, as Gregory’s black SUV pulled up. “Perhaps.”
“Think of it as a lesson,” she said, about to get up. Arthur was in front of her in an instant, and before she knew what was happening, she was in his arms again, being carried to the car. The wheel chair moved in the wind, and she was about to protest that someone should have put the brakes on it. But she was enjoying the warmth he provided, the shelter from the wind, and so she said nothing, burying her face in his neck. It wasn’t strictly necessary, she probably should have walked, but there was something about his arms around her that made her feel safe. Safe. A word she never would have applied to the Initials before today.
She felt so safe, in fact, that she fell asleep on the car ride home, her shoulder nestled against Arthur’s muscular arm. A bit uncomfortable, he wrapped his arm around her, letting her head fall deeper against him. Gregory glanced in the rear-view mirror.
“Is she alright?”
“Yes,” Arthur said, although he sounded unsure of himself.
“Your language has improved greatly,” his brother said, by way of compliment. “Are you starting to feel less overwhelmed by the world?”
“The world has changed very much, and not all for the better,” Arthur replied, and Gregory couldn’t necessarily disagree with that. “But Annalise shows me the things that are good.”
He probably didn’t mean it as sweet and kind as it came out, but his brother smiled anyway, going back to driving and occasionally glancing in the mirror. For the first time since Arthur’s awakening, he saw him focused on something other than his pain, his depression. He saw a flicker of the old Arthur, his regent and right hand man, forgetting his troubles to focus on Annalise’s comfort. Perhaps this girl was good for him in, more ways than they had counted on.
What pained him, though, was that knowing Annalise wouldn’t last forever. One way or another, the girl was mortal and would meet her fate soon enough. She had made her wishes clear should she suddenly expire, and he wondered if Arthur knew that.
Being an immortal and age old vampire, death was just a part of living, and yet, it always hit harder than it should. Even Rosa, who made her wishes of vampirism clear, would be a different person when she was turned, and the human he knew would be dead. It was never an easy transition, whether they lost their mortality to this curse, or to a grave.
He just hoped, when the time came, that Annalise’s death didn’t undo all the good that she had done his brother.
Gregory pulled up in the driveway, and didn’t attempt to help Arthur with her. Arthur was fully focused on her comfort and concerns, and she barely stirred as he carried her into the house. Gregory watched, with a twinge of pain, as he took her upstairs.
Since the love of his life, his human life, had perished over a millennium ago, he had never been able to bring his heart to care for a woman as strongly. He cared deeply about Rosa, but it wasn’t love, not the way he used to have it. He had a flicker of hope for Arthur though, that maybe there was something there with this girl, and maybe she could mend his broken heart, before the end.
“Arthur,” he said, trying to break the horrible mood. “I asked you to do the dishes at home. Why weren’t they done?”
Arthur looked confused.
“Don’t we have servants to do that?”
Gregory raised an eyebrow and Annalise shifted.
“No more slaves, Arthur, remember?”
“Yes, but servants?” he looked down at her, and she glanced at Gregory, smiling a bit.
“When have you seen servants in this day and age?”
“When we went to the market,” he replied. “They were helping us, and folding clothes.”
Annalise exploded into laughter, burying her face in his shoulder. Even Gregory had to smirk at that. She looked up at the oldest brother.
“Help.”
He shook his head.
“That’s on you, Annalise.”
Arthur looked between the two of them, confused.
“What?”
“We’ll do a lesson on retail clerks later,” Annalise replied, snuggling deeper in his arm, her heart bursting with affection. “You’re adorable.”
When Tuesday came around, Annalise awoke to chaos in the house. She was feeling much better, and her eyes opened before her alarm clock went off. Of course, that could have been due to the thumps and thuds that were coming from downstairs, followed by quick conversation.
Dressing quickly, she ran a brush through her hair, and wandered down the stairs, leaving the door to her room open. Once she would have locked it, fearful for her life and her possessions. Not that a lock would have done anything against age old vampires, but it was a start, and peace of mind. Now, however, she had no qualms leaving it open.
The giant staircase that she descended down, led to an even bigger lobby, a wide-open space only populated with furniture on its outskirts. Gregory had mentioned that they had used it for balls and dances in the past, and it appeared that’s what it was being used for now. Or at least, a single dance.
Rosa, clad in tiny shorts and a tube top, exposing more skin than most lingerie models, had her ballet shoes laced up her legs, her hair pulled up in a bun. Gregory, his suit jacket off for once, stood on one side of her while, Knox stood on th
e other. Annalise watched while the ballerina leapt and spun and even, to her great surprise, back flipped, everything leading her into landing en Pointe. Both brothers caught her periodically, firm hands on her waist, and Knox even lifted her to assist in a leap.
“What’s going on?” she asked Brock who was sitting on the steps watching. The youngest brother was about to answer when Gregory protested.
“Rosa, darling, it looks fine, it really does.”
“No, there’s something wrong with it, and I’m going to make a fool of myself on stage tonight,” Rosa moaned. “Again.”
“Precious,” Knox was trying to be kind, but Annalise felt like he wanted to rip Rosa’s head off. Or at least her ballet shoes. “We’ve been at this for hours.”
“And we will be at this all day, if I don’t get it right. Again.”
Annalise raised an eyebrow, realizing the power this woman had, the two of them wrapped around her little finger. She would never dare speak to the Initials like that, but Rosa had no fear.
“Where’s Arthur?” she asked Brock, who shrugged.
“He came down for about 3 seconds, and then was scandalized by Rosa. He doesn’t take for granted that staring at scantily-clad women is part of modern day.”
“Uh huh,” Annalise turned back up the stairs, not particularly wanting to watch either, especially with Brock’s gaping. Rosa’s long lean body made her feel insecure of her own. Annalise had never felt beautiful, or ugly, or anything really. She just looked in the mirror and saw herself. The fact that she had once been popular and fawned over was as much a shock to her as it was anyone else. But now, when your body attacked itself daily, beauty wasn’t really something one thought about. Unless a perfect specimen of a woman forced you to focus on your own flaws.
Arthur’s door was closed and she knocked, leaning against the wall.
“Arthur? I don’t want to watch Rosa either.”
There was a moment of silence and then Arthur opened the door. He was dressed casually in tan slacks and a half open dress shirt, his hair slicked back so it fell at the nape of his neck. Annalise tried to keep her composure, but it was a bit difficult. Casual, not focused or stressed, his chiseled features looked stunning in the morning light. For the first time, she saw that he really was handsome. She had been so focused on trying to help him and get out of here that she hadn’t properly looked at him, until now.
“Are they still?” he asked, clearly a bit put out. He and Annalise had a brief lesson on the changing fashions, and Arthur had expressed his embarrassment and dislike of the shortening hemlines and plunging necklines, as the years went on. A true gentleman, he never looked anywhere but the girls’ faces.
She had never seen his room before, but it didn’t surprise her to see that it was perfectly clean. He always took care to put their worksheets and books back exactly where they were supposed to be, and now always helped clear the dishes after dinner. Cleaning up was something familiar that transcended the ages and didn’t require modern knowledge to do so, really. There was a huge bay window and a canopy bed fit for a king, with a few books and paintings. Obviously, he didn’t have a lot of items that he had carried with him through the centuries.
“They are,” she replied. “I think it looks fine. Do you think she’ll be wearing more clothes on stage tonight?”
“Hopefully,” Arthur held the door open wider. “Would you like to hide here?”
She snorted at that, grinning broadly. It was the first time he had used real sarcasm or made a joke, and it made her brim with pride.
“Sure,” she said, slipping in. Out of decency, he didn’t close the door, leaving it open to ensure there was no questionable behaviors. She settled at the foot of the bed and he strolled over to take a seat on the windowsill. “So, what do you want to do today?”
Arthur glanced out the window for a moment and then turned back to her.
“I want to see the Waterfalls.”
“The Waterfalls,” she had heard about the natural beauty, less than half an hour walk from their property. “Those are old.”
“So am I,” he replied, pressing his face against the glass. “They are there, through that path.”
“Arthur,” she got off the bed to try and see if she could see them, and he scooted over to allow room for her to sit. “I’m sure that’s a good idea … but your brother is going to kill me if we go and waste time looking at something that isn’t … educational.”
“I want to see something familiar.”
“I know,” she replied, her heart racing in its sadness. “But you have to understand, I’m not here of my own volition. I have to do what Gregory wants, if I want to go home.”
He turned his face towards her, as if realizing this for the first time, although he must have known.
“What you’re teaching me now is that no one cares about Waterfalls anymore.”
She made a face.
“That’s not … entirely inaccurate. And it’s sad commentary on humans these days.”
“Annalise,” his hand slipped a bit on the window and fell on top of hers. “Is this not what you wish?”
“What do you mean?”
“Being here, doing this. If you wish it, I can send you away. I am Gregory’s regent, not his slave. If you want to go home … to be away from here …”
She met his eyes desperately. Such a short time ago, she would have said yes to that, would have loved to be sent home. But now, in the quiet room with Arthur, their faces inches apart, everything was different. The rules of the world didn’t seem to matter, with him this close to her.
Before she knew what was happening, their lips met. It was a soft kiss, gentle, barely touching each other, and it was quick. Before she fully enjoyed it, they were separated, pulled apart, their eyes frantic as they searched each other for meaning.
They both jumped up at the same time, not wanting to be too close, not sure what it meant.
“I want to go to the Waterfalls,” he said, stumbling over the words.
“Well, you can ask your brother, maybe,” she said, and Arthur shook his head, heading for the door.
“I’m not going to ask Gregory anything. I’m going to tell him.”
She could hear him thudding down the stairs, and she sank onto the windowsill again, trying to catch her breath. Oh my God, Oh my God, she thought, her chest heaving. She had kissed him, kissed an Initial, the Initial she was supposed to be teaching.
What if he demanded more, and she wasn’t ready, and this ended badly? That certainly wasn’t the way she wanted to go out.
And what about Tony, back home? Although he was married, and although they weren’t together, there was always something unspoken between the two of them, certainly strong enough that she shouldn’t be running around kissing other boys.
She buried her head in her hands, slowing her breath down until her head stopped spinning.
It was nothing, it meant nothing. A moment, swept up in the beautiful sight from the window, in the romance of a waterfall, and being united by not wanting to be downstairs. It didn’t matter. Arthur was a prince, after all, and he could have anything he wanted. She couldn’t see herself fitting into that equation, at any point.
But after that day, something changed. They didn’t kiss again, but their physical intimacy grew. Watching movies were snuggle fests, her head on his shoulder and his arm around her. When they were walking somewhere alone, their hands were clasped together, swinging between them. And whenever somebody came into the room, they pulled apart, acting as if nothing happened. They never spoke of it, never discussed what was happening, it was just something natural that happened.
All through Rosa’s show, the Nutcracker, their hands brushed, playing games with their fingers. And the next day, watching the Nutcracker movie so that Annalise could take him through the plot, point by point, they were practically on top of each other.
Gregory, who never missed a beat, no matter how careful they were, brought it up to Rosa one
night while they were getting ready for bed.
“Do you think that it’s dangerous, what’s happening?”
She raised an eyebrow at him, pulling her long hair up into a bun.
“What do you mean? That Arthur’s going to suddenly snap her neck?”
“That after she dies, all the good she’s done, will be undone. I’ve been thinking about this for a while.”
“I don’t know,” she sat on the bed, fluffing the pillows. “Do you think they are fools and believe in epic love?”
“I think something is happening,” Gregory said. “What they think it is, or what it is, doesn’t really matter. But Annalise’s time is drawing close.”
“How can you tell? She looks fine.”
“She’s … flickering,” Gregory said and Rosa cocked her head. “It’s a vampire term that only we can see.”
“When I’m not around,” she interjected.
“When you’re not around. We see differently than humans, of course, and it’s like she flickers from this life to the next, on occasion. She’ll be sleeping on the couch, or closing her eyes for a moment, taking a break, and her life force just stops, just for a moment.”
“Huh,” Rosa considered this. “Have you told her doctor?”
“He knows. We’ve made the agreement already. She’ll probably last through Christmas and the New Year and maybe until mid-February, but that’s all. But I’m also not impressed with the relationship that’s developing between Arthur and her. She’s liable to send him into another depression when she perishes, no matter what good she is doing now. The sooner we separate them, the better.” He felt pain in his heart for saying that, but it was only slight. Gregory had been heartbroken as a human, and he never wanted anyone to deal with it again. If he had to pull Arthur apart and have him suffer initial separation, then so be it.
Rosa understood this, although they never spoke of it. This was not a love affair they were having. Words of love or jealously never passed between their lips. When they were together, they were together, and apart, they existed separately, coming and going as they pleased.
A New Start Page 19