by A A Mize
Rowan chuckled, dropping his gaze with a little shake of his head. “Deal,” he replied, surprised at how different he felt. How much lighter he felt.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile like that before. Looks good on you. You should keep it.”
“I’ll try. Go get some rest, Matthias.”
“Yeah. You, too,” Matthias replied, pulling the door closed behind him, leaving Rowan and Sophie alone.
Silence returned to the room, allowing Rowan a moment to think. Their conversation had been short, but healing in a way he hadn’t expected. Seeds of change had been planted between them. He had to be sure he started out on the right foot with Sophie.
It had been so easy for Matthias to be affectionate with her, perhaps Rowan could as well. He crossed the room and checked the window, early morning light illuminating the back garden. He closed the heavy curtains tightly, plunging the room into near total darkness.
“Sophie,” Rowan said, turning the name over in his head as he sat on the edge of her bed. It was unusual to allow a human to keep their name once they were Turned, but it wasn’t entirely unheard of. In review, he wondered if he had rather have kept his human name. Damien.
Searching further, the answer was no. He had run from that name and the life that went with it. Being Turned had been his choice. An opportunity to start a fresh life. He kept nothing of what he had. But Sophie was different. She led a troubled existence and yet she loved life for what it was, going as far as to deny near immortality. If he could allow her one thing to hold on to, her name would have to suffice.
Rowan reached out to touch Sophie’s cheek, gently grazing his knuckles over the cut she had received from Yvette. The bruising around it was nearly gone, the cut itself a fresh pink scar. By the time she woke her body would be good as new, with no scars to show for her troubles. Her body would be healed, but her heart would be broken. That feeling was far worse than any physical wound and Rowan wasn’t looking forward to her reaction when she finally awoke.
It would be hours before she would even begin to stir, and he was exhausted. Tentatively, he lay down beside her, tucking the blanket under her sides. Her skin felt cold through the fabric, a harsh reminder that her heart would never beat again.
Rowan missed it. He had found comfort in its rhythm, but an eerie silence settled in his ears and he wondered how the quiet had never bothered him before. It was a comfort lost, but what had he gained? Maybe Sophie herself. Perhaps it was borrowed time, but he hoped to use it well with her.
Outside the sun began to warm the Earth and the birds began to sing. Across town, police hurried to clear the bodies from the Quarter and fabricate a story for the media bloodhounds who would no doubt have to be paid off to keep their mouths shut about anything unusual they had witnessed. The city would be in chaos for many more hours, and once Rowan awoke he and the other Turned would be dragged into the aftermath of the night before.
For the time being, however, he would sleep soundly in the quiet riverside mansion, one arm draped over Sophie as if the world outside wasn’t burning.
55
The sun had barely set when Sophie took her first breath as a Turned. She inhaled deeply, her body feeling stiff, her mind jumbled. At first, she didn’t know where she was, her eyes blinking up at the ceiling, her mind trying to sort memory from dream.
One by one her memories of the night before returned until, at last, she could recall the hazy moment Rowan held her as she died. She had died. She tried to bring her hands up to cover her face to hide from reality but a weight seemed to be inhibiting her movements.
Sophie glanced down to see an arm lying across her chest. Surprise filled her when she followed the arm over to Rowan, who was fast asleep beside her. Matthias would have been expected, but Rowan’s presence took Sophie off guard.
Perhaps it was her new enhanced vision, but he looked very different when he slept. Almost younger. Not that he appeared any older than thirty anyway, but there was a sort of soft innocence in his refined features. His lips parted slightly, the silver of his lip ring clearly visible to her new sight.
Sophie allowed a tear to escape her and slip down her cheek. This wasn’t what she wanted. Not that she had her life figured out, but she felt as if any aspirations she might have had were disappearing like ghosts into fog. What would she do now? What about her sister or her mother? Nothing would be the same again. Sophie closed her eyes tight against her tears but was unable to stop them.
“Sophie?” Rowan whispered groggily.
“I’m fine,” she breathed, wiping away her own tears. She would grieve later. Alone.
“You know, I’ve been around for a long time. I know that when a lady says she’s fine, she usually is not,” Rowan said, raising himself up on his elbow.
Sophie’s lip quivered, and she looked away from him, knowing she might break down at any moment.
“No one is expecting you to be all right, Sophie,” he said. “I’m sorry that it came to this.”
“It’s not your fault. It was an accident.”
“As I told Matthias, I can’t deny my role in the past month’s events. I didn’t kill Rachel nor did I have a direct hand in Turning you, but if I had been more attentive to my Pupils, this never would have happened.”
“You can’t blame yourself, Rowan.”
“If I had only done something about Yvette sooner or taken more of an interest in Matthias, she might not have allowed her darkness to consume her and he wouldn’t have turned to drugs to drown his troubles.”
“Stop,” Sophie demanded, cupping his chin in her hand, making him look her in the eye. “You can’t blame yourself for their choices. No, maybe you weren’t the best Mentor to them, but when given the opportunity to sink or swim, they drowned themselves.”
“Perhaps,” he said, taking her hand in his own and absently kissing her fingertips. Sophie stared at him intensely, his lip ring clicking against her nails as each kiss released a flurry of butterflies in her stomach. He must have realized what he was doing because he stopped and curled her fingers into her palm. “I know that things are going to be very different for you from now on, but I want you to know that you’ll have a place here with me for as long as you like.”
Sophie remained quiet, considering her options. A large part of her wanted nothing more than to go home with Rowan and stay with him, forever by his side in the house on the far side of the French Quarter. But there was a cloud over the city. A dark blot on New Orleans that she didn’t feel she was prepared to face. When she closed her eyes, she could still see bodies lying in the streets, blood pooling in the potholes. Those memories tainted her view of New Orleans as a whole.
“I can’t,” Sophie shook her head slowly. “With everything that’s happened, I think I need to leave the city for a while.”
“Very well. If you wish, I’ll arrange for you to study with Horus. His methods are a bit odd sometimes but he’s a wonderful Mentor. I’m sure he’ll guide you well. And as a top tier Elder he travels a lot, so you’ll get to see everything you desire.” Rowan forced a small smile as he sat up to leave but Sophie didn’t want him to leave. She took hold of the back of his shirt tightly, prompting him to look back at her.
“No. I don’t want Horus as my Mentor. I told you before that I wanted it to be you. Is there no way that can happen?”
“Well, traditionally it’s the one who trains you who is your Mentor. I’ll go speak with Horus about it if you’re that set on me being listed as your Mentor.”
“Thank you. Can you stay? Just a little longer?”
“If that’s what you want,” he said, sinking back onto the bed with her. He slid an arm under her head, allowing her to rest on his chest. Her fingers twisted a lock of his hair and he rested his hand on her wrist.
“Why don’t you and Matthias come, too? Come with us and travel for a while?” Sophie asked.
“I’m sure Matthias will take you up on that offer, but I can’t leave the Quarter. My pre
sence is needed here now more than ever. I can’t abandon those loyal to me.”
“I understand,” Sophie murmured, her eyes focused sorrowfully on the silky black hair she had twisted around her finger. There was a sort of sadness she couldn’t shake and although she was upset, she knew there was a difference between her own emotions and what she was sensing. She wondered if it was normal for the Turned or if it was a talent like Artashir’s. She would have to wait until her training with Horus began before she would get any answers.
“Samiell said something last night that confused me,” she said.
“And what would that be?”
“He said that he thought you expected me to accept being Turned when you offered it to me the first time and he seemed surprised that you declined when I asked myself.”
“He’s right. I did think you would accept and I did want you with me. However, when you told me why you didn’t’ want this life, I understood, and I changed my mind.”
“What made you change your mind?”
“Well, when I met Horus, I was in a bad place in my life. I’d lost my family, my home, my wealth. I had nothing and for a long time I wanted a way out. A permanent way out. I contemplated my death on several occasions, but Horus found me before I could act on my desires. He saw potential in me, for whatever reason, and persuaded me to change my mind. Become his Pupil and travel the world. It was a decision I made for myself. It was my escape. I’m not sure when this life shifted from being my escape to being my burden. Sometimes it seems to have happened overnight. When I saw you around the city, your love for it, I knew that you were meant to enjoy it as a temporary being...as I should have been.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know how tired I feel sometimes. World-weary. Lonely. I didn’t, and still don’t, want that for you.”
“I see…If I already felt that way, I’d only get worse after a while.”
“This was not a life intended for you, Sophie, but I can assure you, you will be taken care of. You’ll never want for anything, if I have any say in the matter.”
“As much as I appreciate that, it’s not my biggest concern.”
Rowan leaned his cheek against her head. “You should return home, Sophie. Be with your family until autumn. Tell them you’ve been accepted to study abroad. It’s not entirely untrue. You’ll need to begin learning the ways of our kind as soon as possible, but I see no reason for you to be separated from your family just yet.”
“Why are you doing all of this for me?”
“I told Matthias I would do better. Be better. You can come here on the weekends and we can get some of the basics out of the way. I’ll teach you how to hunt and such but Horus will have to take care of the rest.”
Sophie felt he was hiding something from her. There was a sense of longing emanating from him, drawing her in. There was something else he wanted to say and Sophie was tired of the game they had been playing. She had kept her feelings for him secret for too long and never again did she want to go through what she had with him and Yvette. She didn’t want to see him in the arms of another when she could express to him how she felt.
Without giving herself a second to think about her actions, she kissed him. Her fingertips grazed his jaw, weaving into his hair as she pressed her lips to his.
At first Rowan froze, eyes wide in surprise, but then he closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around her, deepening their kiss. Sophie breathed him in, tasting the cool metal of his lip ring in a playful nip, smiling when he inhaled sharply.
“Don’t do that,” he growled a warning, kissing her forehead.
She laughed into his throat. “Fine.”
“Come. I think I hear the others. They’ll be awaiting you, newly born into our way of life.” He stood, offering a hand to Sophie, who took it without hesitation.
“You have to rename me, don’t you?”
“It is customary for a Mentor to give their Pupil a new name,” Rowan said, lacing his fingers into hers.
“So...what’s it going to be?”
“I thought I’d just call you Sophie.