She’d left with that witch. She’d left a gnome and male fairy in her home; I didn’t like it. She needed to start answering some questions about her life choices. I had stationed myself in front of the elevator doors. I had plotted how I would demand her attention, then begin to woo her swiftly and passionately. I had never failed to get a woman when I wanted her, this would be no different.
Then the stairway door opened and they walked out carrying bags. She was there, and I lost my nerve. I couldn’t demand anything of her, I was helpless to do anything more than stare, to want and stutter out a simple statement. “She brought a gnome into your home.” I sounded like an idiot and it pissed me off.
“Yep.” One word was all she gave me and then disappeared behind her door.
“Dangerous company to keep,” I’d growled as the door shut between us. I stalked to the door, I felt her on the other side, I wanted to rip it down, take her in my arms and demand she open herself to me. I felt her move away from the door, further in and I growled low as my body strained to move with her, to keep her as close as possible. Protect her and love her, that was all I wanted, couldn’t she see that?
The phone ringing in my condo had me stalking back inside. “What?” I growled into the receiver.
“Have you made contact with her?” My father’s voice was calming; I took a breath.
“Yes, I have laid eyes on her, and spoken a word or two. I have felt my soul change direction, and my body yearns for her, but she ignores me, fears me for no reason!”
“Do not worry, she is your soulmate, if you can feel it, so can she.”
His words were reasonable, I could tell he believed them fully but I wasn’t so sure. “So you say, but she doesn’t seem to. Perhaps-perhaps when she died, she lost that part of her…”
“Her soul?”
“Yes, her soul. She is a vampire!” I growled impatiently, saying my worst fear aloud. “I wasn’t prepared for that.”
“Bah! A soul is not something you can lose, it is your essence, it is in every cell of your body. She is a soul absorbed by a body and it recognizes you. Her soul is what Osiris raised from the underworld and she was reborn into a body that is a vampire. She is still the same underneath, her soul and yours are destined to twine.”
“She died?” I gasped. “She has entered the underworld once already?” This was disturbing news, it meant she could be lost to me, she could enter a plane of existence where I would never be with her. A soul got one get out of the underworld free card and hers had been spent. The next time her heart stopped beating, a second death, it was eternal, it would send her essence back to the universe rather than the underworld where she could be eternally united with loved ones. “This is unacceptable, can’t Osiris do something?”
“You are her soulmate, you will do everything in your power to keep her alive, it is what you’ll live for.”
“Of course, I would have done that anyway,” I said with certainty, but this put an extra edge of urgency to it.
“I don’t question her soul, Son, but perhaps she has been denying the part of her that is open to love for so long that you will have to convince her to open herself to you. Go to her, speak sweet words and she will recognize the part of you that belongs to her. If she isn’t looking for love, she may be receiving it with fear. She is not one of your easy conquests,” he said with mirth.
His words were reasonable but were no comfort when I was a few thin walls away from my soulmate and she wanted nothing to do with me. “I will try father, tell Osiris I am watching for danger. So far, the only thing I fear is a gnome in her home, but she seems to be friendly with the nasty thing.”
“I have learned something.” My father’s voice was solemn, and I listened carefully. “Isis is missing, I think she may be in the human world, keep an eye out for her, she will mean the girl harm.”
“I will keep a watch over my lady, have no doubt,” I said firmly, determined now more than ever.
“Good luck son.”
The phone clicked off and I paced my condo, panting and snarling. If Isis were in the world of men, it meant trouble of all sorts was about to rain down on us.
I went into my room to prepare. I put on a black dress with long sleeves and a low back. It ended well above my knees and hugged me too tight for underwear. I slipped on red heeled sandals and fixed my hair so that my ears were showcased in all their glory, something I rarely did. Bright red lipstick and glitter on my eyelids completed my outfit, and I felt ready. As I stood in front of the mirror in my room, I unfurled my grey wings and let them stretch.
My father was going to take notice to this message. I gave myself a grim smile and grabbed a pair of scissors out of a drawer then headed into the living room, tucking my wings as I went. I didn’t relish what I had to do, but at least Falcon would recover, at least it wasn’t permanent life altering damage.
“Wow Sis, looking good!” Falcon’s kind words threatened to make me change my mind.
I walked behind him on the couch where he was watching a basketball game and patted his shoulder. “Thanks, let me braid your hair for you.” Blade was stationed on the coffee table watching Falcon closely and I could hear Calin banging around in the kitchen. I had never had so many people in my home, it was unnerving.
Falcon didn’t think my offer was strange, I’d braided his hair a hundred times as I’d grown up. It was his pride, a sign of his station in the fairy community. Only the royal family could grow their hair past their shoulder blades. When I’d left, it had been the first thing I’d changed about my appearance. I’d cut my hair with relish; it had already turned midnight black. My hair had once been this amazing natural color of white that seemed to hold so many other colors, it had once touched my bottom. My father had been so proud of it.
I still kept it short.
I did braid Falcon’s hair and I tied the end up, then I took out my scissors and cut it off at the nap of his neck with one smooth stroke. He didn’t move, he knew what I’d done as soon as it happened and there was no going back. “I’m sorry brother, but I have to get Father’s attention. He must know that I’m serious.”
He turned to me slowly, his eyes were full, and silver tears were running down his face. “You hate me, Vivinity. I can see that now.” He stood and limped to the guest bedroom. Blade appeared in the bedroom seconds before the door closed. I had to admit, he was a good guard.
I frowned at the closed door. I had to, I told myself firmly. This was the way to show my father I was serious. I didn’t care about Falcon’s future, I cared about my own. If I didn’t get my inheritance, I was going to lose everything. I couldn’t live a life bound to another, I needed to be free, to be me and not worry or care about anyone else. It only led to hurt, mine or theirs.
There was a knock on the door and I hurried over, sniffing to be sure before I opened it. Jackie stood there in a saucy pink slip dress with black and pink striped heels. Her hair was loose and flirty, curling up at her chin. She looked like a Barbie doll, not an ounce of menace to her, but I knew she was powerful under that bubbly exterior.
“How do I look?” She posed before coming in the door.
“Gorgeous, now get in,” I pulled her in and looked down the hall just in time to see Sobahn’s door start to open. “What the hell is his deal?”
“Maybe he likes you, but he is afraid to approach you? You give off an air of don’t fuck with me.”
I looked at her silently, sure she had lost all sense of reality.
“No that can’t be it… you are very approachable,” she said sarcastically. “Where’s your sexy brother?”
I rolled my eyes. “Falcon’s in there.” I motioned to the guest room door with my hand that still held his braid.
“Oh my god! What did you do!”
I frowned down at the hair. “It was necessary,” I said quietly, ignoring the stab of guilt.
“I don’t know what you have gotten yourself into, Viv and I’m your friend, I am here to support you, but damn. That was a harsh move.” She turned and walked to the guest bedroom.
I walked out onto the balcony.
I stared out at the dark city and allowed myself to think about why I was doing all this. My mother, Princess Zobeth, had been the start. She’d fallen prey to a vampire, he had planned to turn her, but it hadn’t worked. She’d died in the process as often happened with fairies. My father said when he had found her, he’d known right away what had occurred. He’d vowed then to kill every vampire he could find to avenge her.
I was young then and enchanted by a boy who lived outside our castle walls. The feelings of first love were intensified by grief over my mother’s recent death. I had thought we were in love, even though he’d been a mere human. I snuck out every night to meet with him and trade kisses and secrets. I had never suspected he’d been gaining my trust so that I could be taken by the same vampire who’d killed my mother. He had been mesmerized and it wasn’t his fault, of course that hadn’t stopped me from killing him when I realized he’d betrayed me.
The vampire, Demetrious Vondrake, who had tried to turn my mother, had tried again with me. He wanted to keep me as a sort of pet I assumed, lover perhaps. To mold me into his perfect companion. I killed him first, as soon as I awoke from my death sleep. I drove my hand into his chest and pulled out his dark heart. He hadn’t been expecting it, hadn’t done anything to try and stop me. Then I went after the one who’d betrayed me.
Covered in the blood of two men, and crying tears for my lost life, I went home expecting my father to be enraged at the horror done to me, to do anything and everything in his power to help me, to turn me back, there had to be a way!
My father’s eyes went dead when he saw me standing in front of him, covered in my enemy’s blood, and obviously changed. My wings were extended, and they had turned grey, my eyes were blue, my long hair black. Hatred flared in his face as he ordered me away and Falcon just stood in shock behind him. I looked pleadingly to my brother, whom I loved so much, but he said nothing to defend me. They treated me as if I had sought out this terrible thing. As if I had wanted that vampire to turn me. I fled before they could attack. I could see the thoughts in my father’s head as he gripped the sword at his side. He wanted me dead, I was no longer his daughter, I was a monster.
For so many years after that I barely lived. Eventually I made casual acquaintances with other vampires, but I lost so many of them to wars and politics. I learned that the world was cruel to love of any kind. Now all I wanted was to ensure my freedom. For that I needed my inheritance, which would also allow me a bit of vengeance against my father. He would have to acknowledge me, his daughter, a vampire.
“I think he’ll heal.” Jackie had come up behind me. She’d walked loud enough I knew she was approaching, but I didn’t turn to face her. Didn’t want to see the accusation there.
“That’s good, how does his hair look?” I cringed a bit as I asked, hating that I cared.
“It’ll grow,” she said slowly.
It must look really bad. “Great, let’s get this over with.”
We walked back through the living room. Calin was in the kitchen, cooking something in the pots and pans Jackie had brought. I wasn’t happy that my house was going to smell like food. “Leave the windows open so the smell airs out.”
“Will do, Ma’am.”
“Want me to give the fairy a real haircut?” Blade asked from the open guest bedroom door.
“If he wants. Might look nice cut short and human, of course then he can’t hide his ears.” I spoke loud so he could hear me.
He was sitting on the bed with his back to the door, staring out the window. I saw his reflection, and it did something frustrating to my stomach. I hadn’t felt bad about an action in a long time. What I did now was for my own survival, nothing wrong in that.
“Your hair will grow back. I will never not be a vampire.” I spoke softly, but I know he heard me.
His chin lifted and he met my gaze in the reflection. There was a deeper sadness there now, that I didn’t care to think about. I turned and walked to the door. His words followed me into the hallway.
“If Father still doesn’t care, then what have you taken from me for naught?”
I shut the door and closed my eyes, shaking with anxiety. What did he know that made him so sure Father wouldn’t care?
I was angry, confused, and nervous; so when Sobahn’s door opened and the creeper stood there staring at us, I lost it. Jackie pushed the elevator call button, and I stomped halfway to Sobahn’s door and snarled, baring my teeth.
“What the hell is your problem!” I seethed.
He looked surprised by my reaction but recovered quickly and met me glare for glare. “You’ve got males in there. I hear three of them now.”
“That is not any of your business, and I don’t like werewolves, so maybe we just stay out of each other’s way.” I turned and stalked back to the elevator as the doors dinged open.
“Is one of them your lover?” He asked with a hint of restrain in his voice that confused me.
“Ewe! No!” I reacted before realizing it was none of his business.
“I am not a werewolf, I’m a jackal shifter, son of Anubis,” he said, just loud enough for us to hear.
Jackie and I turned to look at each other with surprise. Jackie opened her mouth and I held up a hand. I could not deal with whatever that was right now. I needed to concentrate on the mission ahead of us. Thankfully Jackie took the hint and clammed up.
As the elevator doors slid closed, he came into view, and I gasped. The rush of being close to him had hit me like nothing I’d ever felt before and my whole body was tingling in a way that I could only explain as adrenaline because anything else was severely unacceptable.