by Magnum Opus
She playfully punched his arm and said, "C'mon what is with the sad face?" Roy grunted. "What are you a pig?" said Aradia laughing a bit. She had meant it as a joke but Roy did not see it that way. He looked at her fiercely and said, "No I am not a pig and neither am I twilight fan!" "What?" Aradia asked completely confused. "You know a twilight fan. A person who is into the concept of a beautiful, nice, perfectly decent girl falling in love with a vampire!" "You think I am beautiful?" Aradia asked playfully. "Aradia!" cried Roy. "What?" asked Aradia? "You know what I am talking about!" said Roy giving her the most serious look she had ever seen on anyone even her father. Aradia's face grew stony. Roy tired to maintain his tough guy attitude but it was obvious that once he saw Aradia's face change he started to tremble.
"Roy I do not know what your deal is but there appears to be a lot of things you do not understand." Roy opened his mouth to argue but Aradia cut him off, "so allow me to explain things to you so you can understand. One, in spite of everything that has happened between us neither I or you have indicated that there is anything between us at all so until we do we should not act otherwise. Two, since we are not together it is none of your damn business who I date or do not date let alone find attractive."
"So you do find him attractive," Roy muttered but Aradia continued like she had not heard him. "Three, the fact is I do want I want, when I want to, anytime anywhere whether it is staring at a vampire boy or dancing in the forest showing off everyone of my powers in such a way that it makes the mind freak guy on A&E look like a birthday magician! I can do just that and you cannot do a damn thing about it!" Aradia stood up, shoved her books into her backpack, slammed her hand on the table, said, "So there!" and stomped out of the diner.
Chapter Sixteen
Roy had not run after her and for that Aradia was grateful. She had to admit she did like Roy and not just as a friend. However, even though Aradia had never had a boyfriend before she knew that you can't be with someone if you were constantly thinking about somebody else. Roy may be sweet, kind, funny, good looking and fun but still no matter what Roy did, Aradia could not stop thinking about Beau. Aradia groaned in frustration dropping her books to the ground. She was now in the Salem woods completely alone and isolated. While most people would think that was scary Aradia relished these times. When she was alone she was not criticized, did not have to hide her powers or opinions basically when she was alone she could do whatever she wanted. She took a deep breath inhaling the fresh clean air scented with many different fragrances like pine, wildflowers, dirt, pollen, and animals. As she exhaled she started to remember what she said to Roy and when she got to the part where she remembered about showing off her powers she started thinking. It always made her feel better whenever she released her magic without holding back. Her magic was mostly her energy and like all energy if you bottle it up it makes you feel more stressed. Or made you explode Aradia thought to herself. Since she was all alone and needed to do some venting she decided to hell with it I am going to do exactly what I said to Roy. I am going to show off all my powers right here and now! She looked around in all directions and tried to sense, using the very magic she was talking about, if there really was no one for miles around.
Eventually, she felt satisfied enough with her isolation, hid her bags and books safely behind a tree, grabbed her iPod Touch and looked through her music library. If I am going to show off I must as well have music, Aradia thought as she searched for the perfect song. Finally she found what she was looking for: Avril Lavigne's song One of Those Girls. She held her iPod touch to her belt and after holding her hand over it and concentrating for a few minutes she manage to fuse it to her belt. Afterwards, she pumped up the volume and got going. Mouthing along to the words of the song, Aradia started to dance. She did a few back flips but as she landed she used her power to crack some of the tree trunks. As she went along to the lyrics she made jets of fire shoot from her hand, the ground shift, and the wind move so swiftly and fast that it seemed to look like silk. She waved her hands in circles to make small voids of darkness. At the end of her fingertips she made balls of light appear. At the part of the lyrics where Avril Lavigne mentioned being high Aradia saw a huge tree and grinning with the idea that had just popped into her head she ran towards it. Semi jumping and semi levitating Aradia rose to the top of the tree grabbing onto the very end of it and when the song got to the word die Aradia turned around, held out her arms and fell backwards from the tree. As she reached the bottom she flipped and landed on her feet as swift and as satisfied as a cat. She turned clearly not done. Looking around she spotted a lake and raced towards it. At first, she appeared to be in the process of diving into the lake fully clothed in the middle of October but once she got to the water she actually ran right onto the lake! Every step she took, the water underneath her feet turned into thick ice and yet without skates Aradia managed to maintain her balance. She even managed to keep her shoes from getting wet. As the song got to a soft speaking part Aradia stopped. She still stood on the ice but waving her arms in a rhythmic motion she made the water around her rise and swirl in such a magical way that it would have made people who were watching think of the transformation of the swan into a princess in Swan Lake. Using only her hands and moving her arms, the water obeyed her every motion but as the song sped up the water turned into fire as she raced back towards the land. As the song began to end Aradia really began to let loose. She broke entire trees with just one touch from her hand, sliding her feet she made the ground around move like an ocean wave crashing into the beach; she shot bolts of light and darkness into the sky like fireworks. But for the finale and wanting to make it as grandiose as possible Aradia raised her hand into the air, summoned a bolt of lightning into her grasp, and finally she raised both her hands into the air and shot the lightning back into the sky with a loud crack and boom! Invigorated from her workout Aradia went back to get her stuff. She was feeling energized, happy, and cheerful never realizing that only a few feet away stood a boy holding a mini video camera. A boy with wavy blonde hair and a completely mystified look on his face. "Well now," he murmured to himself as he watched Aradia trot off happily towards the road talking to her mother on her cell phone, "this just got a whole lot more interesting."
Chapter Seventeen
That night Beau showed the video of Aradia to his father. Needless to say, when Dr. Dayton saw a perfectly ordinary looking girl shooting fire out of her hands and dancing on water he was amazed. "Are you sure this is legit?" he finally asked his son. Beau grunted and said, “dad do you honestly believe that I would make a phony tape like this to show you as a prank." His father straightened up and looked at him, "is that a trick question?" he asked sarcastically. Beau let out an exasperated sigh and said, "Look Dad if you think this is all bull then please say so. Otherwise let me be on my bloody way and I will know next time not to bother you when I make videos of girls doing weird stuff in the forest." He turned in the motion of stalking off but his father clasped him on his shoulder and said, “sorry son I just can't believe that what I am seeing is real." Beau smiled and turned to look back at the tape, "neither could I." "You really have no idea what this girl is?" his father asked. Beau shook his head and said, "No. Nobody does I doubt even her friends know what she is either." "How about her family?" Beau shrugged his shoulders and said, "My guess is they know about her powers but what she is probably not."
"Hmmm," is how Beau’s father answered him. Dr. Dayton took out the DVD that Beau had recorded the video on, out of the DVD player. After balancing it in between his fingers for a little, his father finally sighed and said, "I guess I better check this out. I think I will be able to tell what she is if I get a sample of her blood but the odds are she and her parents are too weary to have her be taken to the hospital. Dr. Dayton then paused. Suddenly, he snapped his fingers, "I got it! I will hire some people to keep an eye on her so if she ever gets into an accident and loses blood I will have them gather samples until I have enough to test!" Beau gr
inned, satisfied with his father's planning, but as he turned to walk up the stairs to his room a voice came out from behind them and said, "I do hope you don't think that that is the end of it." He whipped around to stare at his brother Xan. "What do you mean Xan?" Xan shrugged and said, "Well sure Dad is going to use his position at the hospital as a hematologist to find out about this chick but her blood is not going to explain everything about her." Beau just stared at his brother blankly until Xan let out an exasperated sigh and said, "Beau have you ever heard the expression 'news straight from the horse's mouth'?" Beau nodded, "Yeah I have and quite frankly I think it’s a bloody stupid one." Xan waved his hand brushing his brother's comment away, "that is not my point." "Then what is?" Beau snapped. "My point is the only way if really wanted to find out about this girl you are going have to get a better source." "Oh yeah?" Beau scoffed, "what would be better than her blood?" "Her" Xan responded with a wicked grin. Beau’s mouth fell open. He stood still a while gaping until he finally managed to sputter, "What is that supposed to mean?" Xan shrugged and said, "All I am saying is if you really want to know what this girl is all about then you should just ask her." Beau scoffed loudly and said, "Yeah I will walk right up to her and ask a few questions like what the hell is she and how can she do the things she does and she will answer me truthfully." "Not if she gives you the information voluntarily." Beau raised an eyebrow at his brother who added, "All I am saying is if you spend some time with her she's bound to tell you all kinds of interesting things about herself." Beau was still perplexed until Xan groaned, frustrated with his brother's slowness, finally spat out what he was trying to say, "look hang out with this girl a little bit, get to know her, start earning her trust and my guess is within a few days at the most she will probably tell you exactly what she is and more." Now understanding exactly what Xan was suggesting, Beau pulled a face and said, "Are you suggesting that I try to trick her?" Xan shrugged and said, "It's not trickery if she tells you stuff willingly." "But I would still be pretending," Beau argued but Xan cut him off by saying, "no you would not be pretending. You would be getting to know the girl more intimately to see if she is potential girlfriend material and if not tell her straight out that you don't feel nothing with her and that will be the end of it." Beau scowled and said sarcastically, "gee Xan you make seducing girls sound so easy." "It is once you get the hang of it," said Xan smiling. Beau just groaned in response and stomped up to his room. He was insulted that his brother Xan would even suggest such a thing: seducing a girl just to get her to spill her secrets. Still he had to admit that the idea did indeed have merit and as he slammed the door to his room and leaned against it the idea of hanging out with the girl did have some appeal. He remembered the night of Jayden’s party when he watched Aradia dance with Roy. He remembered watching her long red hair swirling down her shoulders shining as brightly as gold, her smile as wide and as charming as an angel's, and her body so pink and well formed and correctly proportioned in every place. But most of all he remembered hearing the music and seeing her body sway with the beat and wanting her so badly. He would be the first to admit that he was not innocent so to speak. He had had lots of women since he had become a vampire but the thing of it is though out of all the women he had been with in his long life Aradia definitely fascinated him in a way no one else ever had. Beau wanted to believe it was just her incredible magic and not knowing what she was that were the only things that attracted him to her but looking back on how he had watched Aradia as she had danced he knew that there was definitely more to it than that.
Chapter Eighteen
Aradia sat in her biology class looking through a microscope, trying to determine what the hell it was she was supposed to be doing. Although she loved making potions and could do incredible things with her powers Aradia had to admit she was a very poor student. In a time where most students got A's and B's Aradia considered herself lucky if she even passed a class. So needless to say biology class was a nightmare and now more than usual since Calvin from her lunch table, her usual lab partner, had been forced to bail out on her today because of the flu. She got distracted as she heard the door slam and looked up to see who it was. She then frowned upon seeing that it was Beau. He handed a note to the teacher who just nodded and waved his hand indicating that Beau was welcome to sit himself. He then strolled down the aisle glancing this way and that looking for an empty seat. Aradia returned to her work knowing that he would probably sit in the back like he usually did but as Beau slowly came up to Aradia's table and saw there was no sitting next to her he smiled at her in a way he had never smiled at her before. "Is this seat taken?" he asked, grinning handsomely. Aradia looked up at him, giving him a look of pure disdain. "As a matter of fact it is taken," Aradia snapped. Beau still smiled and sauntered to the seat he was asking about, a stool right next to Aradia and said, "you're quite right Aradia it is taken: by me that is." Aradia's expression did not change but a faint smile of amusement began to curl upon her lips. "So," Beau asked weaving his hands together and stretching them out until the bones cracked, “what are we supposed to do?" Aradia shrugged and said, "Damned if I know." Beau looked at her, making her hastily add to her previous statement, “I am lousy student okay?" Beau shrugged and said, "hey nobody is perfect." "You got that right," Aradia muttered. Beau grabbed the microscope and after peering into the lens he said, "now I see." "What?" Aradia asked frantically grabbing the microscope back and peering into it again. "We are studying the biology of planets and so we are given slides of plant cells to identify and this particular slide at is a slide of the cell of a Lily’s stem." "Oh!" Aradia nodded eagerly finally understanding. She started looking through the lens and writing notes down, not noticing Beau hovering over her. Suddenly, she began to hear what sounded like someone smelling something. She stiffened and began to focus on what exactly was going on. She then realized Beau’s head was over hers and he was actually smelling her hair! She whipped her head around angrily to face him colliding nose to nose with his face. Aradia froze, completely shocked about being this close to Beau and this time they were indeed close. His forehead was pressed against hers, his deep jet black eyes were staring into hers, the tip of his nose touched hers and a deeply wicked but satisfied grin was on his face. At first, all Aradia could do was breathe heavily but then she remembered how much this guy had been irritating her ever since she started school. Determined to salvage her dignity she tore her face away from him and muttered, "geez Beau the least you could do is buy me dinner or chocolates before you try to get into my pants." Beau chuckled and said, "no wonder Tristan and Roy are completely besotted with you. You are positively charming." Aradia grinned and looked up at him, for a few delicious minutes the two of them just sat together staring into each other's eyes. After a few seconds Beau finally broke the hot and heavy silence between them by saying, "but speaking of dinner would you like to have it? With me that is?"Aradia shrugged casually and said, "I'll think about it." "Okay," Beau responded grinning wickedly still. Soon the bell rang and as Aradia got up to get her books she dropped her pen but as she bent down to get it Beau dove towards it instead, picked it up and slowly raised it towards her outstretched hand. He took his slow and careful time to rub the pen up against her pants leg as he handed it to her. As she took the pen Beau said softly and in a seductive tone, "my Aradia what long and beautiful legs you have." Aradia swore she could feel her heart stopping. She chuckled nervously and as she held the pen in her hand, Beau took her wrist and raised her up slowly. The two of them were completely alone in the class room standing mere inches away from each other. Beau standing over her, gazing into her eyes, and Aradia was staring up at him completely entranced. He still had his hand on her wrist and was now rubbing his thumb over it slowly. Aradia felt tingles all up and down her spine."Now," Beau said, his voice sounding as soft and silky as a designer scarf, "have you thought about it yet?" "Yeah," Aradia said slowly. "So you will have dinner with me?" asked Beau leaning in closer still. Aradia took a deep breath
and finally said, "Make it a movie."
It took them a while but in the end they did finally find a good movie or at least that's what they thought. It was an action film (Aradia was into that and everyone knew that those are the only type of movies guys will be willing to see with a girl on a first date) and judging from the previews Aradia thought it would be good. Boy was she wrong! The bad acting was horrid enough but the stupid dialogue, the horrible plot, and the over the top bloody violence... it was enough to make Aradia want to walk right back to the cashier and not just demand her money back but rob the movie theater while she was at it. Beau kept his face impassive but Aradia could tell he was doing his best not to throw his soda at the screen. They still sat through the movie watching and sharing a bucket of popcorn. Aradia had to admit although the movie was terrible it was worth it just to feel Beau’s fingertips constantly brush against hers. Thankfully the movie ended soon but it was while the people were shuffling out (way too fast and eagerly to indicate that even they liked the movie) Aradia decided to finally voice her opinions. "That!" Aradia said in a loud voice that prevented any argument, "has got to be without a doubt the biggest load of cinematic pig crap I have ever seen in my life!" People stopped and stared at her in complete awkward silence Beau, however, looked completely amused, chuckling he rose from his seat, looked to the crowd and said, "it's not like it isn't true." He then reached out his hand to help Aradia from her seat. Smiling she took it and hand in hand they walked towards the exit. They were out the door of the movie theater and into the cool of the night when all of sudden a loud angry voice came out from behind them, "hey!" Aradia let go of Beau’s hand and spun around to face the speaker terrified that it was Roy who she had not told about her date with Beau. But thankfully it was not Roy who was confronting them but unthankfully the speaker belonged to someone advancing towards them was one of a group of werewolves all looking threatening and mad as hell. Beau turned to look at them and said, "yes can I help you?" The speaker who coincidentally was the shortest of the group stood in front of Beau looking at him with murder in his eyes. Ironically, that was the thing he wanted to talk about, "I don't know why one of your people went after my dad killing him but just because the humans don't know shit about us don't meant that one of you aren't going to pay for it!" Beau looked at him and said, "I don't know what you are talking about." "Like hell you don't!" he snapped. "You are talking about the vampire murder?" Aradia asked. The werewolf crew whipped around to look at her wearily but Beau immediately intervened for her by saying, "it's ok she knows about us." "Is she a vampire too?" one of the biggest werewolves of the group asked while studying Aradia more carefully. Beau didn't answer but someone else in the werewolf crew did, "no she is definitely not a vampire." "How can you tell?" one of the werewolves asked. The one who answered shrugged and said, "because she doesn't smell like one of them." The very same werewolf then analyzed Aradia a lot more carefully and added, "come to think of it she does not smell like anything. Anything we know that is." "What do you mean?" the curious werewolf seemed to be full of questions tonight. The werewolf that seemed to have all the answers shrugged and said, "I don't know." "Anyway," the short werewolf interrupted them angered by the change of direction in the conversation, “the fact is we know one of your kind did it and unless they confess to the crime we are going to make every vampire's life in Salem hell!" Beau scoffed and rolled his eyes, "is that supposed to intimidate me?" The werewolf began to advance towards Beau when Aradia planted herself firmly in between them placing both hands on their chests keeping them separate."Now c'mon you guys chill out ok?"she pleaded with them. The werewolf angrily shoved Aradia's hand away and then moved in such a motion that it seemed like he was about to knock her down onto the pavement. Beau sensing this, readied himself to attack when Aradia grabbed the wolf's arm and twisted so swiftly and viciously, that he was on the ground in two seconds. His friends leapt back in shock, surprised that she could possibly be this strong. Aradia, however, noticed nothing and grabbed the back of the werewolf's head, pulled his hair so not only would he be in pain if he struggled but that his ear would be right next to her mouth. "Now listen here you thug!" Aradia whispered angrily in the werewolf's ear, "I wish I could say I understand what you are going through but the truth is I don't so I won't insult you by saying I do. However, I do realize the magnitude in how you want to find the guy who killed your dad and make him pay." "But," she said yanking his hair back even further making him grunt in pain, “that is still no excuse for vigilante justice. The reason we have laws is to follow them understand?" the werewolf nodded feebly while Aradia added, "and besides did it ever occur to you that what if you went after the wrong guy and got him killed. You would basically be killing an innocent man and letting your father's killer go free!" With that last statement Aradia let go of him. The werewolf's face reddened as he got up to glare at Aradia murderously."C'mon Aradia let's go," Beau said so casually that it seemed like what had just happened had not. He then threw his arm around Aradia's shoulders and steered her down the street. Aradia was quiet for most of the walk home, which Beau thought was completely out of character for her. Normally, Beau would leave such matters alone but seeing Aradia so quiet and thoughtful when she was normally outgoing and bubbly made him anxious to find out what was bothering her. "What's up Rai?" he finally asked her. Aradia shrugged off Beau’s shoulders walked two steps in front of him her eyes on the ground deep in thought. She then turned to look at Beau and after a few quiet moments finally said, "you or anyone you know did not do it." "Do what?"Beau asked, completely perplexed. "Kill that guy," Aradia responded instantly. Beau’s mouth dropped open, "what?" "That guy we just talked to and his friends and probably anyone in Salem thinks that a vampire killed that poor man but that's not true. A vampire did not kill that guy." Beau just looked at her utterly bewildered. Normally if someone said those things he would scoff at it and do everything in his power to dissuade them for thinking such a thing. Everything including kicking their ass but as he looked at Aradia staring at him looking so determined he felt something no woman had ever made him feel before: intrigued. "So if it wasn't one of us than who did it?" Beau asked Aradia. Aradia shrugged and said, "I don't know." "So," Beau argued, "you can't say for sure that it was not a vampire." "Yes I can, “said Aradia. Beau chuckled dryly and asked, "how?" "Well," started Aradia as she moved closer to him, "I don't know how you feel about this but after getting to know you I finally realize what most vampires are like." "Oh?" Beau asked raising his eyebrow and looking at Aradia with an amused but extremely sexy face. "Yeah. Vampires are smart, slick, confidant, clever, egotistical," Aradia teased making Beau pull a face, "but most of all they are not stupid and I don't know about you but if I was a vampire and I had fed on someone I would never be stupid enough to leave a body with two puncture wounds lying about. The real point of committing a crime is getting away with it and I doubt a vampire would get away with such a thing if he did it like that.""True," Beau agreed while shoving his right hand into his pocket, "but maybe it was a fledgling.""A what?" "A baby vampire," Beau explained. Aradia nodded understanding but then argued, "but according to my father there was no other way to get in the apartment except through the front door and I don't know about you but at 11 0'clock at night I doubt the murder victim would have opened his door to a baby vampire." "He would if she was a woman," Beau muttered and receiving a nasty glare from Aradia. "But the murder victim was a werewolf and I may be new to the hidden ways but I do know that werewolves do not invite vampires in male or female," Aradia then crossed her arms and looked him right in the eye daring him to challenge her. Beau chuckled amused by Aradia's thinking but still he had to admit what she had said made sense. For the moment the two of them just stood looking at each other in silence forgetting their conversation about murder and being completely entranced with one another yet again. Aradia leaned in closer raising her head to look up at him. It almost seemed like she was going to kiss him but at that moment Beau remembered the rea
l reason he had asked her out. He turned his face quickly away from hers. Aradia looked at him shocked and asked bewildered, "what is the matter?" Beau sighed, looked at her out of the corner of his eye and said, “its nothing." He then took her hand, lead her to his car, got in and drove her home.