by Mindy Majors
“Bite me,” Kassie said, as she smiled sweetly and called the guys in for dinner.
They all sat down at the table to eat dinner, chicken in white wine sauce over a bed of asparagus pasta and for desert, butterscotch mousse with homemade whipped topping. Kassaundra loved it when Sym made this meal, it was her favorite. Symarah hated to cook and wasn’t usually very good at it but there were a few things that she made really well and this was one of them. Symarah refused to let anyone talk about Vaiden during dinner and informed everyone that they were only to discuss pleasant things for the rest of the evening. During dinner they talked about the movies they had watched the night before and about Kassie’s shop and apartment being rebuilt. The insurance was going to cover the entire cost; it was actually going to be bigger and much better. In addition to her place being rebuilt at no cost to her, she would also be getting a rather sizeable check from the insurance company due to the fact that she lost her grandmother’s very old, very expensive wedding ring in the fire. When Daire offered his condolences for “the loss of such a precious irreplaceable family heirloom,” as he put it, she laughed and said, “Irreplaceable? “She was married nine times; I have six siblings and we each got one of these so-called irreplaceable wedding rings.”
“Well, the ring might not have been irreplaceable, but it was worth a fortune,” Symarah reminded her.
“Yeah,” Kassie agreed, “enough for me to replace all my old mediocre crap with shiny brand new crap.”
“A toast to Nana,” Symarah suggested as she raised her glass.
“To Nana,” they declared, cheerfully raising their glasses.
After dinner and desert were eaten and the table was cleared, the girls excused themselves so that they could change into their pajamas. When they returned to the living room in their P.J.’s Daire couldn’t help but notice how different the two friends were. Kassie was wearing a pair of black cotton shorts that said “Come to the Dark Side, We Have Cookies” on the butt, and a white T-shirt that had a cranky looking dinosaur on the front and it said “Grumposaurus.” Symarah was wearing a black satin tank and matching black satin pants. Daire couldn’t take his eyes off of her; she was so beautiful, even with no makeup and her hair up in a ponytail she still took his breath away.
“What?” Symarah asked when she noticed Daire staring. “Do I look that bad?”
“I was just thinking you must really love black,” he lied. The last thing he wanted to do was admit his intense attraction to her in front of Jareth and Kassie.
“Let’s play a game,” Kassie said, holding up the Monopoly box she had found at the back of Symarah’s closet.
They spent the next three hours playing the game and arguing over what property to trade for what. Jareth suggested a trade of his Baltic Avenue for Symarah’s Boardwalk.
“No way,” she shook her head.
“But it would give us both a monopoly so we could set up hotels, it’s a win-win,” he had argued.
“No, YOU could set up luxury hotels, but Baltic Avenue is the slums of the Monopoly world, so all I would have is crack houses,” she complained.
In the end it wouldn’t have mattered if they traded or not because as usual, Kassie crushed everybody, they all had to mortgage their properties to pay her rents; Daire went bankrupt, Symarah had about twenty-nine dollars left and Jareth had about three thousand dollars. They packed up the game and put it away.
“So, what are we gonna do next?” Kassie asked.
“I’m going to go and see if I can get any information on Vaiden’s whereabouts, maybe someone saw him lurking around your shop before the fire,” Jareth answered.
“No, I said no business today. I just want one day to try and forget that someone is trying to kill me,” Symarah said.
“It’s after midnight so technically it’s tomorrow already; besides we can’t just sit around and wait for him to strike, he’s far too dangerous,” Jareth reminded her.
She knew he was right; she’d felt Vaiden’s power, his pure hatred. She knew firsthand how ruthless he could be. “Fine, you can go but be careful.
“I will be cautious, I promise you that,” Jareth agreed, and then flashed himself out of the house.
“Well, I’m not ready for bed just yet, what should we do?” Kassie asked.
“We could watch a movie or something,” Symarah offered.
“I know what we could do, let’s work on the puzzle,” Kassie suggested.
“Okay,” Symarah agreed, noticing that her friend was acting a little strange.
They made their way into the family room where the puzzle was waiting patiently on the coffee table for someone to finish it; Kassie quickly sat in the armchair leaving the loveseat for Symarah and Daire.
“Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh,” Daire said, impressed with her taste in art.
“It’s my favorite, so when I saw this puzzle, I had to have it,” Symarah told him.
“It is a beautiful painting,” he agreed.
“Well it may be a beautiful painting, but as a puzzle it’s a pain in the ass,” Kassie groused, “all the pieces look the same.”
They all began sifting through the puzzle pieces.
“It’s kind of cold Sym; can you turn on the fireplace?”
“Sure,” she agreed as she walked over and flipped a switch on the wall and a beautiful fire immediately sprung to life. She seated herself back on the loveseat next to Daire and continued sifting through the pieces. After a few minutes Kassie excused herself saying that she needed something to drink and walked off in the direction of the kitchen, but when she turned the corner she stood and listened to see if her plan was going to work. They started talking about art and after a few more minutes they were talking and laughing like old friends, they weren’t even looking at the puzzle anymore. Kassie couldn’t believe Symarah fell for that whole “let’s work on the puzzle” thing, she knew Kassie hated that puzzle. Sym had given her a suspicious look when she suggested it but then she let it go, and she didn’t even notice when Kassie made a mad dash for the armchair so that she and Daire would have to sit together on the loveseat. Kassie had the whole thing planned from the minute Jareth said he was leaving, and now here they were sitting together on the loveseat, in front of the fireplace alone.
“I’m a genius,” Kassie thought to herself, as she slowly dimmed the lights in the family room and headed off to bed.
Neither Daire nor Symarah noticed the dimming of the lights, they were too busy laughing. Daire had just told her about the time when Jareth got so drunk that he couldn’t control his powers and when he went to flash himself back to his house he missed and ended up in the shower with his 60-year-old neighbor, who screamed and proceeded to beat him with her back scrubber.
“I can’t imagine him being drunk, he’s so reserved.” Symarah laughed at the image the story brought to her mind.
“He has his moments,” Daire chuckled.
“You two seem pretty close, how long have you been friends?”
“We grew up together,” Daire answered, not wanting to admit that they were thousands of years old, it was bad enough that she even knew Atlantean gods existed.
Although there was much debate these days as to whether Atlantis was real or not, most people believed it to be a myth. Among the believers there was still debate as to its location and how long ago it sank; some believed that it happened around 9600 B.C. based on Plato’s writings, but others believed that it was not possible for there to be such an advanced race of people that long ago and determined that Plato’s writings were flawed and that Atlantis sank in 900 B.C.. The truth was that Atlantis was as old as time, but when the truth didn’t make sense or was too difficult to believe, humans always altered it to make it fit into their nice neat little idea of what was real; more often than not they would even disregard fact and overlook the flaws in their thinking in order to force logical explanations of extraordinary events.
“The two of you must have been through a lot,” Symarah said.
&
nbsp; “I owe him my life,” Daire answered.
“How so?”
“About a century ago I was tracking a demmic, that’s Atlantean for fallen, and I was lead into an ambush,” Daire explained. “I was careless and it almost cost me my life. If Jareth hadn’t shown up when he did I would be dead.”
“Did he kill the demmic?” she asked.
“No, we barely made it out of there with our lives,” Daire told her. “Athena has the entire council looking for him.”
“There’s a council?”
“Yes, the surien council was set up to track down the most dangerous of the demmic, kind of like the FBI and their most wanted list,” Daire explained.
“This demmic, it was Vaiden wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” Daire reluctantly admitted.
“If you don’t mind me asking, why does he want revenge against you so badly?”
“Because I killed his soul mate,” Daire answered.
Daire was hoping she wouldn’t ask that question. She would probably freak out once she knew the truth, but he had to tell her what happened; he owed her an explanation since this whole situation was his fault.
“Back in the late 1400’s I was sent by the council to Bucharest, Romania to execute a demmic. The most merciless of all the fallen, he was known for impaling his victims. He drank their blood and was also rumored to have bathed in their blood as well. He killed indiscriminately, men, women, and children alike. In fact he believed that drinking the blood of infants would eventually break Poseidon’s curse. His army had just successfully invaded Wallachia. After retaking the throne, most of his forces had returned to Transylvania, leaving him with little protection, but before I could complete my task a large Turkish army entered Wallachia, forcing him to march against them. Because his ranks were considerably depleted, he was desperate and willing to accept any recruit who was willing to fight. I volunteered and fought beside him. While everyone else was distracted by battle I seized my opportunity and beheaded him. When his army found him they assumed that he was killed in battle and his death was blamed on the Turks. There was one soldier who saw me kill the demmic but no one believed him, except Vaiden. He knew from the soldier’s description that it was me and he has devoted his life to exacting his revenge.”
“Wait, are you talking about Vlad Tepes III … Dracula was an Atlantean god?”
“Yes.”
“Vaiden’s soul mate was Dracula? Didn’t Dracula have a wife who threw herself out of a window in the tower of his castle?”
“Vlad pushed her out the window after she walked in on him and Vaiden in bed together and she threatened to tell everyone.”
“But how could he have waged wars when he couldn't go out in the day?”
“Vlad always did everything at night, including his battles.”
“And no one ever suspected?”
“He told everyone that he preferred to do everything under cover of darkness, making it easier to see and not be seen.”
“So why is he picking on me?” Symarah asked.
“I honestly don’t know, maybe he saw the books you wrote and assumed that we were lovers because you know so much about my life. I’m sorry you got dragged into this Symarah.”
“It’s not your fault Daire, you were just doing your job; how were you to know Vaiden would go psycho and try to kill someone you don’t even know?”
“Still, I know this is not easy for you,” Daire said.
“It’s all so overwhelming; I don’t know how to handle it,” she admitted.
“I promise that Jareth and I will do everything in our power to keep you safe.”
“I know you would never let anyone hurt us, I trust you,” Symarah smiled warmly.
Hearing her say that she trusted him warmed his heart a little. It was nice to have someone he could talk to and not have to hide anything. She knew who he was, what he was, and yet she still accepted him, even trusted him.
“Can I ask you something Daire?”
“You can ask me anything.”
“That first night when you saved me from drowning, that wasn’t a dream was it?”
“No, that was real; that was the first time we met.”
“Well, I guess it’s a good thing I don’t get embarrassed easily,” Symarah said, remembering the way she’d flirted with him that first night.
“I do recall you flirting with me, shamelessly in fact,” Daire teased.
“I was not flirting,” she lied.
“Hell never looked this good.” “Isn’t that what you said?” Daire smirked.
He had the sexiest smirk she had ever seen.
“Yeah, well at least I didn’t try to see you naked by pretending it was just a dream,” she reminded him.
He was hoping she wouldn’t remember that. The truth was he remembered everything about that night. He remembered the touch of her fingers on his lips, her intoxicating scent, the way the moonlight illuminated her snow white skin but most of all he remembered the imagined kiss.
“You can’t blame a guy for trying can you?”
“No, I suppose not,” she chuckled. She couldn’t help but smile thinking about that night, about how good it felt to be in his arms as he carried her back to her bedroom, remembering how good it made her feel when he had flirted with her. She wondered what it would be like to kiss him; if it was anything like she had imagined it that night by the tree, it would be the most amazing kiss in history.
“Would you like more wine?” Daire offered.
“No, one is my limit; I’m not really much of a drinker.”
Daire poured himself another glass from the bottle of wine they had been nursing since dinner.
“You might want to slow down on that wine,” she teased, “you wouldn’t want to end up in the shower with some naked lady like Jareth did.”
Her comment conjured images of the two of them in the shower together; the hot water streaming down their bodies as he pinned her against the shower wall. What was it about her that made him want her so much?
“It might not be so bad,” he smiled, “as long as you promise not to hit me with your back scrubber.”
She couldn’t resist that mischievous smirk; the thought of his lean muscular body pressed against hers stirred a desire in her that she hadn’t felt in years and even then it had never been this strong.
“So you don’t like it rough then?” she flirted back.
Her flirtatious comment was almost more than he could handle. He wondered if she had any idea the effect she had on him; her sexy smile, those pouty lips. All he could think of was kissing her, pressing his lips against hers.
“I’ll try to be gentle,” she joked, as she put her hand on his chest.
Her touch was like fire, melting away his last ounce of restraint. He caressed her face as he leaned in and gently kissed her. She smelled like sweet candy. Her hair was like silk. She slid her hand up his chest to his neck. The feel of her soft touch on his skin made him burn with desire, he kissed her more forcefully now. She moaned softly and moved her hand up the back of his neck as his tongue entered her mouth. She had never wanted anyone this much, her whole body ached for him. She gently grabbed a handful of his long black hair as she sucked his tongue deeper into her mouth. Daire could barely control himself; he was so hard it hurt. He longed to be inside her. He leaned her back on the couch and dipped his head down to kiss her neck. She pulled hard on his hair as she felt his fangs lightly scrape her skin. She could feel his lean hard body pressed against hers. She knew she should stop but she couldn’t. Daire knew she wanted him as much as he wanted her, he could feel it. He thrust his hips hard against her cursing the fabric that restrained him; he imagined her naked body pressed against his, her legs wrapped tightly around his waist. He could rid them both of their clothing with a mere thought but he didn’t want to push her into anything she wasn’t ready for.
“I got a lead on Vaiden,” Jareth said as he flashed himself into the family room.
Daire and
Symarah jumped up from the couch trying to hide what they had just been doing.
“It’s late; I should be getting to bed,” Symarah said.
“No, that’s okay, we can talk about this tomorrow,” Jareth said apologetically.
“Really Jareth, it’s fine,” Symarah assured him.
With one last meaningful look at Daire, Symarah bid them both goodnight and headed up to bed.
“You ever heard of knocking old man?” Daire said.
“Have you ever heard of a bedroom and a locked door lover boy?” Jareth teased.
As annoyed as Daire was at Jareth’s interruption, he knew it was for the best. What was I thinking, he scolded himself; this whole situation is screwed up enough as it is, the last thing I need to be doing is making it worse by getting involved with her. Thank the gods Jareth showed up when he did.
CHAPTER 5
“So you had sex right there in the family room? You slut,” Kassie teased.
“NO! You should know me better than that,” Symarah said.
“Calm down, I’m just teasing; besides, who am I to judge.”
“What do you mean?”
“Look, all I know is if a man that gorgeous ever looked at me that way, I’d be all over him.”
“What way, he doesn’t look at me in any certain way.”
“Please, if looks were actions you’d be pregnant by now.”
“Kassaundra Leanne Sims, don’t be so crass!” Symarah scolded.
“Why are you middle-naming me, I’m just being honest.”
“Well, you don’t have to be so disgusting about it, and for your information nothing happened.”
“Let’s see, you made out, he kissed your neck, you pulled his hair; yeah that sure sounds like nothing to me,” Kassie smiled.
“I meant nothing else happened,” Symarah said as she pulled into the parking garage behind her publisher’s office building.
“Why the hell not, have you seen him? He’s a god … literally.”
“Looks aren’t everything Kass, besides it’s just too complicated; even if they do find and kill Vaiden, there’s still the whole Athena thing to deal with.”