“Did you… ever…”
“I’ve never had the pleasure of feeling his 1200 thread count sheets on my bare back, if that’s what you mean.”
“No, I meant – have you ever been in love?” Ariana sighed, thinking of what her life had been like before that freak accident changed it forever. “I’ve been in love – once – and it was the best thing to ever happen to me. The best feeling ever.”
“Well, I ain’t gonna waste my time on one man. I’ve had my heart broken a few times and it won’t happen again.”
“Oh, come on, you can’t not fall in love because you’re afraid you’ll get hurt. You can’t choose with whom or when you’ll fall in love, anyway. It just happens – BAM!”
“If you’re into falling in love, you’re in luck. This island is full of hot guys. Take your pick.”
“No,” Ariana sighed again. “I’m not interested. I miss Michael so much.”
“I thought you couldn’t choose.”
Ariana shoved her plate away, but didn’t answer.
Becky stuffed the last two bites of cheeseburger in her mouth all at once, stood and picked up her tray. With a mouth full of food, she said, “Come on, girl, we’ll go see if Rainey’s finished talking with King Hotness.”
They dropped their trays off at a window with a conveyer that took them through a washer and walked back to the elevator. Becky pushed the button for the basement; the doors shut and took them down. Ariana wondered where all the different floors went to, but she figured she would find out all that in time. This felt almost like the time after her parents had died and she had to stay with a foster family for a while. Even the new school was ten times the size of her old one. She’d felt lost for weeks.
When the elevator doors opened again Ariana expected to see pipes and boilers, concrete floors and dim lighting, but it wasn’t like that at all. The floors in the hall were dark gray shiny marble with the walls made of different shades of smooth gray stone. Beautiful lights hung from the ceiling and there were only three doors in the long hall.
Becky must have been reading Ariana’s mind because she smiled and said. “That door on the left has all the boilers and air conditioners and water tanks and stuff in it. I think it would be terrible to work in there. Not bad when everything works fine, but when something goes wrong that must be the worst job of them all. The door on the right is Rainey’s classroom. Here, I’ll show you.”
Becky opened the door and turned on the light. The huge room was made of the same stone and marble they’d seen in the hallway. Long tall tables sat neatly in a row, barstools beneath them. At one end, there was a large desk made out of stone, with a black granite top.
“This room is safe, I mean really safe. Witches can come in here and try a new spell, and if it’s going to hurt anyone or not work quite right, the spell won’t work at all. Rainey put a protection spell on the classroom to make it safe for us, witches, to practice. Here is a textbook that Rainey wrote. It tells all about the history of witches. How they used to be burned at the stake, and how we joined together and are much stronger today. Rainey won’t mind if you borrow it, I’m sure. We have a huge library. You might find something about your ancestors in there. A lot of witches go through their whole life believing they’re human, without a clue to what they really are.”
“Oh, I hope I’m a witch. Where is Rainey’s lair? I want to see it, if she’ll let us. I’ve never seen a witch’s lair.”
“It’s the door in the middle. We’ll have to ring the bell before we walk down the hall to her lair first, or we’ll end up with electric blue hair. Come on, let’s go.” Becky turned out the light and shut the door. They walked to the middle door and rang the bell to Rainey’s lair.
CHAPTER 9
“Here, drink this,” Rainey said as she handed Abe a small vial of opaque green liquid. “Your hair will be back to normal in just a couple of minutes.”
Abe drank it and made a face. It had to have been the most awful thing he’d ever put in his mouth. The thought crossed his mind that maybe this nasty stuff wouldn’t work on him because he was a vampire. After all, he couldn’t eat real food, either. Then, he would have endured this repulsive taste for nothing. He could just see Rainey using Revlon to dye his hair.
Still, he did get a buzz from drinking alcohol and he’d never been able to work out how that happened in all his years. He had never been drunk, and didn’t know how much liquor it would take to get him that way, but he had caught a buzz once or twice. He enjoyed drinking alcohol for the simple reason that it was something different. A human doesn’t like to only eat pizza or cheeseburgers all the time and the same applied to Abe’s kind. Blood, although necessary to stay alive, got old, boring, after a while. His favorite drink was Jack Daniels, or an AB Negative girl.
Rainey interrupted his train of thought. “There you go, Abe. And, yes, I can call you Abe now. You’re fixed. You go spend some time thinking about my vision and we’ll discuss it again tomorrow. I’ve got to go now; I told Ariana I would be back in thirty minutes to take her to eat and that was two hours ago.”
“She’ll figure out soon enough that you are never on time for anything. You didn’t leave her alone, did you?”
“Hell, no. I’m not ignorant. I left her with Becky Smith, her roommate. She is to be a maid, if that’s okay with you.”
“I would rather she be my personal assistant,” Abe said with a smile.
“Abe, chill out. If you don’t take this slow, I have a feeling something bad will take place. And if you happen to see her, you’d better not treat her any differently from anyone else, at least until we get this vision figured out.”
“Yeah, yeah I know. I’ll be good.”
Ding-dong, ding-dong. Rainey walked to the door to see who was ringing her doorbell.
“Uh. We’ll see how good you can be right away, it seems. Ariana and Becky are on their way in. Look, Abe, just walk out the door when they come in. No eye contact, no conversation. Do you understand?”
“Just who is the High Vampire here, you or me?” He crossed his arms over his chest.
“You wanna blow it? Fine. Go ahead. I say we need time to think.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He walked to the door.
Rainey mumbled the counter-spell to the blue-hair-booby-trap and then told Ariana and Becky to come in. She was so nervous, her hands were shaking. “Not a word, Abe, you swear? Swear it!”
Abe sighed. “Damn, Rainey, do I look like a child to you? Give me a little credit. I don’t want to mess this up any more than you do. I love her and I’ve never even heard her voice. Do you know how that makes me feel? Vulnerable! I feel weak. I feel whipped and enslaved because I know if she walked in this room and told me to kiss her feet, I would! It’s killing me that she is this close and I can’t take her in my arms and make love to her. Love to her, Rainey! I have never in my life made love or even wanted to. Plain, old-fashioned sex was good enough for me, but not now. Not anymore. Believe me when I say, I do not want to mess this up. I may never get another chance…”
Becky opened the door to Rainey’s lair. “Excuse us… Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were here, My Lord, please forgive me. We will wait…”
Rainey rushed to Abe and pushed him toward the door. “He was just leaving. I’ll catch you tomorrow for our unfinished business, Abe. Good bye. I’ll send for you first thing after dusk.”
Abe’s eyes locked on Ariana’s and they both froze. Rainey pushed him out the door and slammed it shut behind him.
Wide-eyed, Ariana and Becky stood staring at the door as if they could still see Abe’s retreating form through the wood.
“Are you okay, Rainey? You do realize you just physically threw the High Vampire out on his ass.” Becky said.
Ariana gasped. “That was the High Vampire? Oh my God!”
When she’d walked in the room and saw him, she’d been sure she had met him somewhere before. And he was staring at her so intently. She cou
ldn’t look away from his eyes, not that she wanted to – they were such a pretty blue-green color, like the ocean. She had never seen eyes that color before. She could feel something in the pit of her stomach flutter, but that was crazy. There was no way she could be attracted to another man so soon after Michael’s death. And the High Vampire, for Heaven’s sake.
Ariana’s head was reeling with the intensity of her feelings, feelings she was desperate to subdue out of love and loyalty to Michael. No, no, no. She couldn’t allow herself to feel that way. She’d only just managed to get her head around the fact that she wasn’t going to see Michael ever again and now… Now her core was twisting with the urge to throw herself at this Vampire King, this… stranger she felt she’d known forever. Oh, God – was this love or simply lust and infatuation? Suddenly, a stab of anxiety spiked through her heart as the thought occurred to her that she didn’t know where Abe had gone, and she very much wished she could see him again soon. Why didn’t he stay? Why did Rainey push him out?
Rainey stumbled her way to her cabinet and put away the rest of the ingredients she’d got from town. “I… uh, yeah. I know it looked like I threw Abe out, but he was late for an appointment. He’ll thank me for it later. He is a little upset about a current problem, but nothing to do with present company, I promise. Ruling an island is no easy task, you know.”
“I’m pretty good with problem solving,” Ariana offered, trying to shift the focus of her thoughts from Abe to something more practical. Maybe she could see him soon. “Anything we could help with?”
Rainey bustled around the cabinet, pretending to ignore Ariana’s offer.
“Or is this a little more personal? Like, I don’t know, does it have anything to do with ‘Abe only having eyes for one woman?’“ She said it jokingly and even managed a smile, but Ariana felt queasy even thinking about Abe with another woman. What on Earth was her problem? Even if she was over Michael’s death, which she wasn’t, there was no way the High Vampire would give someone as simple as her a second’s thought. Regardless, thinking about him with someone else didn’t make her happy at all and it was all she could do to keep the smile planted on her face and hope it looked real.
“Yeah, and since when is that true, Rainey? I saw him three nights ago with two different girls and he didn’t look like he was picking just one – I’m just sayin’,” Becky said as she helped herself to two cokes out of Rainey’s fridge and handed one to Ariana.
“I’m happy you two want to help, but this stuff is confidential. I can’t tell you anything; you should know that, Becky. Now, did you two eat?”
Ariana was walking around the room, looking at all the different magical accessories. “Yeah, Becky took me to the mess hall. She showed me your classroom and said that I might be able to be in your class, even if I’m not a witch. I borrowed one of your text books. Is that okay with you?”
“Absolutely, keep it as long as you like. And I guess, since you’ve already eaten, you’re here to find out if you are a witch, right?”
“If you don’t mind, I would really like to know,” Ariana said softly.
Rainey grabbed a book from the top cabinet shelf. “Very well, have a seat.” She flipped through the pages. “Ah-ha, here it is – my improved recipe. I will need ginger root – check – thistle – check – and… rosemary – check – and also a needle – check. Now we’ll see…”
Rainey mixed the ingredients together with a little water. It turned a deep dark red. Rainey read out the spell, word for word, from the book. “To thine eyes, you must see. To thine ears, you must hear. If thine of witch blood it shall appear. With this blood from a prick.” Rainey grabbed Ariana’s index finger and pricked it. A little drop of blood pooled up on the tip. Rainey continued her spell. “Will bring you your inner witch.”
Ariana took one look at the little drop of blood and fainted. Becky grabbed her just before her head hit the coffee table.
Rainey sighed. “Well, that wasn’t supposed to happen. How can she be a witch and live on an island full of vampires if she can’t even look at blood without passing out? Wake up, wake up, Ariana,” she said, slapping her cheeks lightly. “If you want to know if you’re a witch you’re gonna have to wake up, or we’ll have to do it all over again.”
Ariana’s eyes fluttered open. “What happened?”
“Nothing yet. You passed out, Princess. Sit up and let’s see if it worked. Okay, according to the book I have to put a drop of your blood in the potion. Turn your head if you think you might faint again.” Rainey squeezed Ariana’s finger and watched as a fat drop of blood appeared. She glanced at the pale face of the girl, smiled, then caught the red fluid in the vial as it fell from Ariana’s finger. “If you have any witch blood, whatsoever, the potion will turn green. Light green for a witch with not so much power,”
“Mine would so be light green,” Becky interrupted.
Rainey only glanced over to her, sighed, then focused on Ariana once again. “Bright green for a witch with normal power and dark green for a witch with extreme power. If it doesn’t turn at all, well… I guess you know what that means.”
They stared at the potion for what seemed like forever. Ariana stood up. “It’s okay, really. I just thought that maybe that’s why you had a vision of me. I thought I was important, too, like you and Becky.”
Becky stood up and gave Ariana a hug. “Aww, girl, you are just as important as anyone here. Being a witch isn’t everything. We all have a purpose. We’ve just gotta figure yours out.”
“I think we just did,” Rainey said as the potion was slowly turning a deep shade of green. She felt for the sofa behind her and let herself plop down on the soft cushions. “And I bet you’ll need to pee really soon.”
Suddenly, Ariana grabbed her head as a million thoughts at once stormed through her mind.
CHAPTER 10
If Abe would have had a heart, it would have been thudding its way out of his chest right then. He couldn’t breathe. “What is it about that girl?” He said to no one in particular. His thoughts were so jumbled, he couldn’t think straight. And he still hadn’t heard her voice yet.
“You need help with something, lover?” Julia and Max were walking toward him.
Abe had made the mistake of changing Julia almost four hundred years ago. A witch, psychic and mind reader, he thought she would benefit him as a vampire, too, but really all she had become was a nuisance. Just about everyone on the island thought she was High Vampess and it was obvious that Julia believed and encouraged that opinion. Abe just hadn’t cared enough to correct them, until now. But now wouldn’t be the best time to antagonize her, not with the latest vision Rainey’d had. Julia and Max had both featured highly in it. Abe decided to play it cool until they’d figured out the best course of action.
“Julia,” Abe greeted her. “Max.” He shook Max’s hand.
Max was second in command, under Abe. He was mated with Lidia, the granddaughter of the former High Vampire. Lidia’s mother and grandmother had both been witches.
Max and Julia were clearly on the way to Rainey’s. Unfortunately, there was no way Rainey could handle a visit from them at the moment. Not with all the secrets she was trying to keep locked up in her head and Julia being able to read her like a book. And especially with Ariana in the lair, at Julia’s mercy, as well.
“You going to see Rainey? She isn’t in. I rang the bell about ten times, but she didn’t answer and I don’t want to be the first to try her latest booby trap. There’s no telling what appendages would fall off my body this time.”
Julia lifted an eye brow. “Really? Damn, I was hoping she was running into town. I need a few things and was counting on her to save me a trip. She’s been gone a few days now, hasn’t she? Where did she go, Abe?”
Abe cleared his throat. “I don’t know. She said it was personal.” Yeah, personal to him – still counts as personal. “She might already be back in town; you should try her cell. I’ll find her tomorrow. What I need isn’t tha
t important.”
Abe repeated the lie in his head once or twice, trying to make his brain absorb it as if it were the truth and, for good measure, sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star over and over in his mind, in the background. It was the only song he could think of at the last minute. He never knew when Julia was reading his thoughts, and now wouldn’t be an opportune time for her to be probing him.
Julia looked down the hall to Rainey’s door for a moment, then back at Abe with a curious look on her face. “Heh. Well, I guess I should try her cell. Come on, Max, you have errands to run. Are you coming to my bed tonight, lover?” Julia looked back at Abe.
Her offhand remark grated on Abe. He didn’t have sex with Julia very often, and when he did it was only to shut her up. He didn’t enjoy it anymore; Julia wasn’t a very enjoyable person to be with. He had tried flaunting other vampesses and witches to make her mad enough to leave the island, but for some reason it seemed to make her want him more. He checked his mood before it would give the game away.
“Probably not, I have things to tend to,” he kept his voice pleasant, even managed a small smile. Julia’s bottom lip puckered out like a child who didn’t get their way. “Maybe some other time.”
She gave him a quick smile before she started walking back toward the elevator, singing. “Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder… Good night, Abe. Sweet dreams,” Julia said as the elevator doors closed.
“Damn! Damn, damn, damn! I should just have her shipped off to the mainland so no one would ever have to suffer from her again. I’m the High Vampire. The oldest, strongest vampire on the Island and still that little witch gets under my skin. I’ve got to call Rainey and warn her.” Abe pulled out his cell phone and dialed Rainey’s number.
Eternal Island (Book 1 in the Eternal Series) Page 5