His eyes were so green that I forgot what I had been about to say. I settled for staring up at them contently. My hand dropped down to my side, and we stood there, close enough so that I could smell his scent, just looking at each other. The wind whipped around us, a few scattered leaves flying around us in swirls.
Callum came closer. My heart stopped beating for a moment. I could see every line, every detail of his beautiful face. He looked as if he were in pain. I wanted to make that pain disappear, but I didn't know how. "Can you forgive me?" he asked, gently pleading.
"Can I forgive you?" I repeated, taken aback.
He looked away from me. "Yes. I know it is a lot to ask, but-"
I stopped him before he could continue. I tilted my head to the side to look at his eyes, which were focused on a strand of ivy hanging off the stone wall behind me. "Callum," I said, "I don't need to forgive you. I need to thank you."
The wind whispered in the trees as the night wrapped around our silence. The moon had disappeared behind a thick cloud, and the world fell dark with only the faintest shades of gray resting on its surface. Callum's outline stood before me, motionless. Shadows covered half his face.
Callum's voice was hard as it broke the silence. "Thank me for what?"
I frowned, and said, "For everything."
"Dahlia," he said firmly, "I did nothing but stand by and watch you get attacked—"
"No, you didn't," I interrupted. "You saved me."
The cloud passed by the moon and disappeared into a sea of other clouds. Callum's face was now wholly visible to me. The moonlight reflected off his eyes as he stared at me. He shook his head, and he clenched his jaw. "You're wrong," he said.
"I don't think so." I smiled weakly, and turned my gaze to the sky above us.
Only the wind was heard when the silence between us fell again. I watched the clouds move quickly across the sky, like currents in a stream.
Unexpectedly, Callum exhaled with a laugh.
"What?" I asked, looking down from the moon.
Shaking his head, he said, "I was just thinking I've never met a girl like you before."
I said slowly, "I guess I'll take that as a compliment."
Callum's one dimple appeared on his right cheek. "I would. I've been around a very long time, and yet I've never been so," he paused, trying to choose the right words, "Bewitched by any one person. But then you come into my life, and I can't stop thinking about you."
I froze. My breathing stopped, and my heart beat so loud I could hear it in my head. My thoughts raced back and forth, and his words echoed through my mind. I was overreacting, and I didn't know why. I forced myself to take a breath and meet his eyes. They were twinkling with a knowing amusement.
Callum smiled, and held out his hand to me. "Come," he said, "I want to show you something."
* * *
Callum took my hand in his and led me down the stone path, away from the house. His skin felt cool and smooth like granite. We walked for what seemed like a long time, passing bush after bush, flower after flower. It was blissful, weaving through the night, guided by the moonlight and Callum's hand. It nearly made me forget everything, almost wiped the fear of this newfound world away.
The path ended at the trunk of a willow tree, its long, thin branches hanging low enough to sweep the ground. Callum stopped in front of it and turned to me. The faint moonlight fell upon his face, and I saw a soft smile begin to spread from one corner of his mouth to the other. He raised his free hand and grabbed a handful of the branches.
"Are you ready?" he asked.
I looked at him curiously. "For what?"
Callum pulled back the willow branches. Brilliant light met my eyes, blinding me for a moment. I gave Callum a questioning look, but he merely nodded toward the small opening the branches had been hiding. I stepped through it, into the brightness.
My breath caught in my throat as I looked at what lay before me. I was standing on the top of a hill, gazing out at a magnificent view of lush fields. The landscape spread out farther than my eye could see. Fields stretched out with no limits, no end. Grass the colour of emeralds brushed the bottoms of my jeans, each blade winnowing in the light breeze.
What was truly amazing, however, was the fact that a shining yellow sun hovered above me in the cerulean sky. Before I had stepped through the branches, the sun had been long gone, having disappeared hours ago, replaced by the moon. Now it was beaming down upon me, its rays soaking through my skin, warming me like it was noon.
I laughed in disbelief as I took in the view, the sun, the feel of it all. This couldn't be real. Turning to Callum to ask, I noticed he was no longer standing behind me in the shade of the willow tree. My eyes darted around and finally landed on his figure standing on the hill. His face was tilted upwards towards the sun, embracing it with a smile. I slowly made my way to him, coming to a standstill beside him.
A butterfly fluttered past us. Its brown and yellow speckled wings sparkled in the bright sunlight. It sailed on the gentle blow of the breeze, rising high and dropping low.
I followed the butterfly with my eyes, awestruck. "How—" I said in a small voice, "—how is this possible?"
"Magic," was Callum's simple answer.
He looked down at me, the smile still on his mouth. It had shifted, however, into a different kind of smile. Where it had been private and contemplative before, it was now slightly bitter.
"What?" I asked, perplexed.
Callum swept his gaze over the stunning view with a wistful expression. "It's simply an illusion. If it was real, I would have turned to ashes by now."
I blinked up at him. At first, I thought it had been a metaphor. I realized after a moment that it wasn't. "Right."
The butterfly landed on Callum's arm. He raised it, looking at the creature with a distant gaze. "Living in the shadows for so long, watching the nights pass by year after year, it makes me wonder what the rest of the world is like." His eyes flickered up to mine. His arm dropped and the butterfly took flight. "Though this isn't real, it's something."
"So," I spread my arms wide to demonstrate. "It's like artificial daylight?"
He thought about it for a second, and then said, "I suppose so."
"How does it work?" I seemed to be asking nothing but questions.
Callum's soft black curls glinted in the light, blowing gently in the wind. His skin was so pale it was almost translucent. I could see the scar above his eyebrow more clearly in the sun. On anyone else, it would have been an imperfection. But not on Callum. It only enhanced his magnificence.
He glanced at me. I was suddenly drowning in two pools of rich green, struggling for a breath. How could any one person have this kind of effect on me? I drew my eyes away from his, and focused on the grass beneath my feet.
"An elf owed me a favour, so I had him create a place where I could feel," I heard him suck in a breath, "alive."
At that, I looked up. "An elf?" I repeated.
Callum chuckled quietly. "There are many things out there besides vampires and humans," he said.
I wanted him to explain a bit further, but I didn't push it. Maybe I didn't want to know what lurked in the shadows.
Callum sat down on the grass in one graceful movement. He patted the spot next to him, so I sat as well. My legs were extended in front of me, and I placed my hands behind me. The long blades of grass tickled my hands as the wind made them dance.
"Why do they hide in the dark?" I asked.
He sighed. "The darkness acts as a separator between worlds. We control the night, and they control the day."
"Has it always been like that?"
His lips curved into a shrewd smile and he said, "Yes. Humans simply do not wish to know what goes bump in the night."
"I can see why," I murmured. My voice had been lost in the wind, but Callum had heard my words. He turned slightly towards me with an almost hurt expression. I sighed, feeling awful. "I didn't mean you, Callum."
He half-laughed a
nd looked out over the fields. "I know what you mean," he said.
"It just," I tried to explain, "hasn't been the easiest time for me, finding out about all this."
Callum nodded, and muttered grimly, "I know."
"Your buddy Liam filled me in on some things, though," I said. I felt a frown come across my face as I remembered Liam telling me about the jacket.
He noticed the frown, and turned so he was facing me. "What's the matter?"
"He told me about the jacket," I said, my voice hard.
I saw something flicker over his face. It looked suspiciously like the expression a boy caught red-handed with his hand in the cookie jar would have. "Yes, Dahlia," he said quickly. "I didn't mean—"
"Didn't mean to make me yours?" I interrupted. "Didn't mean to make me a piece of property?"
"Dahlia, I—"
"Why? And why didn't you tell me? You could have at least told me about the meaning of accepting a damn jacket," I went on heatedly. "But I had to find out about it from Liam. Liam! That piece of—"
Callum said calmly, "I did it so you'd have some sort of protection when I wasn't around."
"Yeah, that worked real well," I said sarcastically.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you," he continued, "I didn't think you'd take it if I had told you."
"You were right about that."
Callum looked me straight in the eye and said a bit desperately, "Please keep it. It may have not kept Thanatos away, but it's better than nothing."
I stared at him for a moment, trying to ignore his apparent concern, but failing miserably. "Fine," I huffed grudgingly.
A slow smile graced his face. He was amused at something, though I didn't know what. I narrowed my eyes and asked, "What's so funny?"
His smile widened and his dimple popped out. It was hardly real, almost unnatural. I couldn't help thinking his smile was so much more magical than the paradise surrounding us. "I was just thinking," he said.
"About?"
"How cute you are when you get mad."
I felt a faint blush creep into my cheeks. I looked away from him, pulling my knees up to my chest and resting my chin on them. My face was directed away from Callum. I didn't want him to know how much those playful words had affected me. I watched the butterfly land on a dandelion in the distance. It was hard to imagine that the butterfly and dandelion weren't real. Who was I kidding? It was hard to imagine that any of this was real.
"I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, Dahlia," Callum said softly. I could hear the amusement in his voice.
Turning my head to look at him, I forced a smile. "You didn't," I said.
His green eyes twinkled as he stared at me. He didn't break eye contact as he reached behind him and pulled out my Firestar. I lowered my eyes to it. It flashed a dull black in the afternoon sun. "I thought you might like this back," he said, extending the gun to me, butt first.
"Thanks," I said as I gripped the Firestar in my hand. The steel was cool to the touch. After casually inspecting it, I flicked the safety on and tucked it behind me into the waistband of my jeans.
"I hope Liam told you just how hard it is to kill us," Callum said with a charming smile.
"He didn't go into the specifics, but I got the impression it wasn't easy," I said.
"You could say that." He nodded towards the hand that had held the gun. "That won't do you much good."
My right hand touched the cold metal of the Firestar. It had done me good in previous experiences. I grimaced at him, and asked, "Are you sure?"
Callum replied, "Yes. It will only make a mess. More of a danger to you than us."
"What can I use, then? I'm fresh out of wooden stakes."
Shaking his head as he laughed quietly, Callum said, "Don't worry. I've got some extras."
My eyes widened slightly. "Are you serious?"
"Unfortunately," he replied.
A gust of wind blew over the hill, past us, and down into the fields below. I brushed back a few strands of hair that had escaped my ponytail and let out a slow breath. "Okay," I said, determined to keep a level voice, "Tell me what does kill a vampire."
"Standard staking, directly in the heart, and beheading are the most traditional methods." Callum's eyes searched my face as he told me. "It must be done correctly, though. Otherwise, we will just heal. And, trust me, you wouldn't want that."
"And how would I know I did it right?" I asked.
"The vampire would revert to what it would have been if it had not become a vampire," he answered.
I raised my eyebrows. "Huh?"
"In most cases, the vampire would turn to ash," he reiterated. "But if the vampire was new, so to speak, they would most likely become a decaying corpse."
Nodding, I said, "So they would be dead, but just dead. Not…undead."
"Right," Callum said warily, narrowing his eyes a bit. "You're taking this better than I expected."
I shrugged. "Would you rather I freak out and run out of here without knowing how to defend myself from vampires?"
"Of course not," he replied. His bright eyes held some kind of laughter. I saw his lips twitch, fighting the smile that threatening to come out.
"Stop it," I muttered.
"Stop what?" he said innocently.
"Laughing at me."
He stopped fighting the smile, letting it spread across his face. Once again, he stunned me with his beauty. "I'm not laughing at you, Dahlia. I'm just not accustomed to human sayings like 'freak out'."
"Oh." I couldn't think of anything else to say, so I settled for watching the wind play with his hair. Stray curls brushed against his forehead. He kept sweeping them out of his eyes, but they managed to find their way back in a matter of seconds. It made me smile.
"Stop it," he said.
"Stop what?" I asked, bewildered, smile disappearing off my face.
"Laughing at me," he replied.
My eyes met his. He flashed me a dazzling smile, and I suddenly felt stupid for not realizing it was a joke. Shaking my head, I had to smile as well.
Callum stretched out his legs and crossed his feet at the ankle. He lay down on the long grass, his arms folded behind his head. He didn't look like a vampire, spread out on the hill, bright yellow sun looming above him. No, he looked like something out of a GQ magazine.
"Work for me," he said suddenly.
I emerged from my thoughts and stared down at him. "I already am."
"I mean fulltime," he said. "Work for me fulltime."
Confused, I said, "But you haven't even seen me work."
"It doesn't matter."
I threw him a puzzled look.
"Though I have the greatest confidence in your abilities, they're not the reason I want you to work for me," he explained, expression now completely serious.
"Then what is the reason?" I asked slowly.
"I want you close," he replied. He gazed up at me steadily, trying to gauge my expression. "I want you near me so I can be there if you…need me."
That warm, inexplicable feeling rose up in me again, just as it had the first time I'd seen Callum tonight. I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply to focus myself. When I opened my eyes, I saw Callum had propped himself up on his elbows, his attention fixed on me.
"Callum, I appreciate the offer," I said, "I really do, but I can't. I've got a job and I'm going to stick with it."
"I thought you might say that," he said lightly. "I suppose I'll just have to keep hiring you through Montgomery Investigations, then."
I adjusted my position so I was sitting cross-legged. Callum was laying merely inches in front of me. "Let's see how this first job goes, then you can decide if you want to hire me again," I reasoned.
In one solid blur, my eyes unable to follow the speed, Callum was kneeling in front of me, one pale hand gripping my upper arm. I didn't even have time to gasp before he spoke in low, rushed tones, "It's not the job that matters, Dahlia. Don't you see? It's not about business; it's about your life."
&n
bsp; I pulled my arm out of his grasp and asked, "What are you talking about?"
Callum eased back, but only slightly. A hazy cloud of black masked the faultless green of his eyes. Uh-oh. "Do you think it's over? Do you think tonight's attack will be the last?" he asked. "Thanatos is only one of many who want to hurt you. And he has proven that he no longer cares about the rules."
My eyes automatically went to the spot where blood had been trickling down the length of his face. It was gone now, but I saw a small cut near his temple. The wound was scabbed and already beginning to heal. I slid my gaze back to his eyes. He closed them and said, "A vampire does not attack another unless they wish to challenge them in some way or another. Thanatos has made it clear that he will not let me stand in the way of his plans concerning you." He opened them again and I was relieved to see most of the black had vanished. "If you were to work for me, I could be close enough to protect you from him and others like him. They're not going to stop, Dahlia. You can't do this on your own."
I heaved a sigh. "I know," I said. "But my job at Montgomery Investigations is one of the only normal things I have left in my life. I can't let go of that."
A flicker of emotion passed over Callum's face. "You don't get a second chance, Dahlia. You're not immortal. If something happened to you and I could have been there to prevent it…I don't think I could—"
"Hey," I stopped him gently. "I'm all yours until the event is over. So don't worry about just yet."
Callum laughed darkly. "Sure."
He stood up abruptly from his kneeling position. His long, dark waves framed his face as the wind played with them. His eyes were back to their usual emerald colour, glittering like diamonds in the vivid sunlight. He extended a hand to me to help me stand. The moment my hand touched his, I was on my feet, standing. Callum had pulled me up with his unfathomable speed. Lightheaded and unsteady, I sent him good-humoured glare. He responded by giving me an innocent, it-wasn't-me look.
Holding my hand in his, Callum turned to look out over the endless fields. We stood there, enjoying the simple beauty of the sun shining down on the green meadows. I couldn't imagine what Callum was thinking. To stand under the sun, see the view in the daylight, but know it wasn't real, just an illusion of what the other side of the world was like. It must have been painful to know what he was missing out on.
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