James just tipped his head and did a slow blink. It was strange to see James take the mature approach. Okay, it was down right spooky.
"It"s just temporary, Caleb, besides it"ll be cool. Maybe it will help mefeel a little better, you know perk me up a bit." I pulled some of my hair out in front of me. It hung all the way to the top of my rear end. I did need a change, nothing permanent though--this was perfect.
Caleb pulled me aside. "Gwen, are you sure you"re feeling all right? I mean I don"t want to take off and come home to find you full of tattoos and pierced from head to toe."
"What, you wouldn"t love me covered in tattoos?" I asked, toying with him. I had no intention on marking my body. People were always saying think before you do it, you have to live with it for the rest of your life. Being a faerie made me immortal, so that"s a really long time to have something stuck on your body. I stood on my tiptoes and kissed him softly on the lips. "Go, you"re late enough already."
He smiled and turned to grab his bags. "Always shoving me out the door aren"t you? You must really want to get rid of me?"
"You bet," I said, kissing him long and soft. He touched that piece of his power that resided in me now and moved it around. I could feel it deep within me. He was showing me that I was his now. I was shocked to find I loved knowing that.
"Guys?" James said, as he made a gagging gesture. I laughed, but Caleb looked ticked.
I bent down and tried to pick up one of his bags. It weighed a ton. I couldn"t even get it off the floor. Caradoc was next to me in an instant, taking the bag from me. He was such a gentleman--an old school vampire.
He didn"t run around dying his hair blue or wear his hair short and spiked. Oh, and he had hair to chop off, it was long, curly, and naturally white-blond. It was gorgeous hair. He kept it pulled back most of the time, but that was fine, it showed off his green eyes. They were nowhere near as dark as Caleb"s but they were vivid nonetheless.
Caradoc looked so serious in his black leather pants, boots, and white puffy shirt. Normally, I would question a man about deciding to wear a puffy white dress shirt, but Caradoc pulled it off without a hitch. It seemed tailor made for him. It was part of who he was.
We followed Caleb out to his truck. Caradoc handed him his bag and he tossed it into the back of his red Explorer. It was then I noticed thecar parked next to it. It was a black Acura, four-door. I knew without asking that it was one of Pallo"s fleet of cars. The man was rich beyond my wildest dreams and owned, at last count, fourteen cars. James was always bringing a different one when they came to visit. They could have just flown to see me, vampires can do that you know, but I didn"t have a car anymore. Mine had been blown up by a s.a.d.i.s.tic b.i.t.c.h"s little h.e.l.lhound flunkies. And I was too cheap to buy another one. So, if we wanted to go anywhere as a group, while visiting, they had to bring a car along.
James came out and saw me looking at Pallo"s car. "You like?"
I shrugged. Pallo"s money didn"t really impress me. I thought he was an arrogant p.r.i.c.k. He was rude, he was crude, and I loved him deeply. I hated myself for that. I hated myself for loving him as much as I loved Caleb, maybe more. Caleb was a good man, he was kind to me, he never lie d to me, and I knew he would gladly spend all eternity with me. Pallo on the other hand was the exact opposite. After we"d had s.e.x, he"d come right out and told me that he wasn"t making love to me, he was just "f.u.c.king" me. Then he punched me across the face. Somehow, his words managed to hurt worse than his fist.
"It"s yours," James said. Unsure of what he was talking about, I looked at him puzzled. "Yeah, Pallo bought it for you. He said you shouldn"t be up here by yourself without a vehicle."
The mention of Pallo"s name grabbed Caleb"s attention. His power rose quickly. Caleb was well aware of the fact that I still had feelings for Pallo and he wasn"t happy about it. "She is not up here all alone and he knows it!" His anger p.r.i.c.kled across my skin and headed directly for James.
James shrugged. "Stuff the magic! I"m just the messenger."
Stepping forward, I put myself between the two of them, afraid that Caleb would lash more power at James. "Hey, it"s all right. I don"t want the d.a.m.n car. I don"t want anything from him. And, how the h.e.l.l would he kno w if I was alone or not? It"s not like he"s shown his face around here." I was angry, Pallo had promised my father he"d look after me and I had not seen him once since we left my father"s castle. That was almost twomonths ago.
So far, there hadn"t been any more attempts on my life, but Caleb was cautiously optimistic about that. Caleb had called Pallo the first time he had to take off on business, to keep an eye on me. Pallo refused to come. He sent Caradoc and James in his place. It was for the best, I know, but it still hurt.
"Guys," I said, looking at Caradoc and James. They nodded and walked into the house. The moment we were alone, I went to Caleb and put my hand out to him. "Don"t do this, please. I don"t want his d.a.m.n car. I don"t want anything from him."
Caleb put his head down. "Yeah, if only that were true."
There was no fooling him--he knew I wanted Pallo. I didn"t want cars or gifts. I wanted Pallo. I wanted to have him by my side. I wanted to have both of them next to me. That would never happen.
"So, tell me again what you"re doing this weekend?" I asked, changing the subject.
He must have thought that a change of topic was in order because he answered me. "I"m chasing down an Enchantress. She"s been luring men to her and then controlling their minds. She managed to get several to commit suicide already. I think there"s more to this than we know. I may be gone longer than I thought."
"What about the civies? Are they aware of the problem yet?" Civies was a polite way of discussing humans who didn"t have a clue about the happenings of the world. These people believed that faeries and vampires existed only in books and movies. I wasn"t planning to enlighten them.
And a committee was in place to see to it that they didn"t find out.
That"s how I"d met Ken, my ex. He descended from a long line of witches.
He didn"t practice the craft himself, but it did give him firsthand accounts of the paranormal. After completing law school, he was approached by the committee to work in the supernatural underground as a prosecutor. He accepted, of course, and needed help.
My friend Sharon was the one who"d gotten me a job with him, as hispersonal a.s.sistant. From the ways things were going with Ken lately, I"d be looking in the cla.s.sifieds soon. h.e.l.l, he"d already fired me once today.
"So, let me guess, you got called in to handle the situation before it gets out of hand and leaks out to the public," I said to Caleb as he tossed another one of his bags into his trunk.
"Gwen, you know that"s the way it works. I hunt them down in order to avoid the police having to be involved. They"re looking for a human, not a Siren. They would never dream of looking in the places I look, and most likely wouldn"t know what to do if they happened across anything out of the norm."
Ah, that"s why his bag weighed so much. The places he frequented required a lot of heavy artillery. "Okay, well, be careful, all right? Do you have your cell phone with you?" I leaned up and gave him a kiss. "Graim thu--I love you," I said looking directly into his dark green eyes.
He smiled. Obviously pleased I was at least trying to learn one of the languages I"d spoken two hundred plus years ago. My choice of phrases were a bit dated, but Caleb was four hundred years old, he"d heard it all. "Trust me on this, Gwen I love you more. And, yes, I"ve got my phone," he said, pulling me towards him for another kiss.
I shook my head a little. I never knew if he was being serious or not when he started that, so I didn"t touch it. The last thing I needed was a showdown to prove who loved who more. If I did fall prey to Caleb"s line of questioning, then I"d be opening myself up wide to a verbal onslaught.
No thanks, I"d pa.s.s. I was trying cut back on those.
"What are you going to do about Ken?" he asked.
I hadn"t really given much thought to what I was going to do now. "I don"t know. You heard what he said. He"s revoked his dismissal, but still ... I can"t do it. I can"t cause him problems and have a yo-yo relationship with him. I guess I"ll head into town and clean my office out as soon as I get a chance. Looks like I"ll be job hunting very soon."
He touched my cheek and caressed my skin lightly. "I"d rather you not look for another job. Can"t you just stay home for a while? I"ll handlethings for you."
"Caleb, no, you don"t need to be worried about covering my expenses. I"m fine, you know that."
"Gwen, ta mo chroi istigh ionat--my heart is within you. Everything I have ... everything I am, is yours always, go siorai--forever."
"We"ll discuss it later, sweet talker, get going!" I kissed him once more before shoving him towards his truck. "I love you. Please be careful."
I watched Caleb climb in his truck and pull away slowly. Seeing him go was always hard. The fear of him never returning was very real and very warranted. I"d already thought I"d lost him once and it was too terrible to describe. I couldn"t go through that again. There was no way I"d come out of it sane.
"You plannin" on standin" out here all night freezin" your alans off or are you going to come in?" James asked from the porch.
"Dare I ask what my alans are?"
James snickered softly. "Alans ... you know, knickers, skivvies, smalls, your underwear. Americans!"
"Americans? It"s not my fault you can"t seem to learn to speak English.
You"ve been here long enough. h.e.l.l, you might have been one of the founding fathers for all I know. You"re like what, a billion?" I laughed softy and shot him a half smile.
"Sure, I"ve lived here for the greater part of a hundred years, but I"ve been speakin" English longer than you"ve been alive, that"s the truth. I like to think of myself as a nice little blend. Besides, I"ve got you beat either way you look at it ... across the pond or not."
My eyebrows rose slightly. "Which life would you be talking about, this one or my last, James?"
"You ... always with the drama!"
I let out a loud laugh. "Yeah, Mr. Blue Hair!"Stopping the witty banter, I looked down the lane and watched as Caleb"s taillights disappeared. The cool October wind hit me in the face and a shiver ran through me. I tightened my arms around my body and headed bac k into the warmth of the house.
"He"ll be fine," James said as I walked past him. I hoped he was right.
Chapter 3.
James and I immediately headed for the upstairs bathroom to begin my transformation to a pink punk rocker. Caradoc thought we were nuts and decided to go for a walk. I"m sure the real reason he took off was to avoid being considered an accessory to my downfall--I couldn"t blame him.
He answered to a very scary judge--Pallo.
James brought a chair up from the kitchen and set it in the center of the bathroom. He then proceeded to display his little shop of pink horror.
Two bottles of dye and a couple of packets of cream later, and we were just about ready.
"We need towels. I"ll fetch us some." He left the boxes sitting on the edge of the sink while he ran down the hall to get some towels, leaving me to read the instructions--just like a man. It didn"t matter that he"d been alive ten times longer than me, he still bailed on the directions.
Typical.
The girl on the cover of the box was really cute in a she"s s.e.xy but not overly s.e.xy kind of way. What I liked most about her was her short haircut. It was only about three inches long on the top and was closer than that in the back. My hair had hung to my b.u.t.t ever since I couldremember. There were pictures of me in the hallway at age two with long black hair. I can"t be sure but I think I came out that way. It sure felt like it at least.
Glancing at the box cover, I was a bit envious of her. I had much the same problem as the vampires in my life. I was timeless. As wonderful as that was, it left little room for change. The proof in that was how long it was taking Caleb to grow facial hair. He actually had to concentrate on it. We were created to be one way, eternally young. Everyone likes a change sometimes. Even me. Pink and short would definitely be a change. I closed my eyes and shook my head. Silly, I knew I"d never cut it off. It would only grow back two days later. I"d be lucky if the dye held.
The bathroom door opened and I heard James enter. "Gwen?"
"Yeah?" I asked, turning towards him. His blue eyes were wide and his eyebrows were raised. "Did someone just declare you the winner of a clearinghouse sweepstakes? Oooh ... let me see the check!"
"Huh?" He blinked, shaking his head slightly. "What did you do?" He walked closer to me and reached his hand out towards my head.
I hadn"t done anything. I stood up to look in the mirror. It took a minute for my brain to register what I was seeing. My hair was identical to the girl on the cover of the box. All of my long black hair was gone, leaving me with a head of dark pink hair that was short--shorter than James" spiked hair. I had to admit it looked pretty good on me. It made the navy in my eyes stand out and it was fitting for my light complexion, but my hair, it was all gone. Closing my eyes, I shook my head in disbelief. What the h.e.l.l had I done?
"Ballocks, Gwen, look!" I opened my eyes and saw my hair was back to normal. "Do it again."
I did and each time it changed from short and pink to long and black. I turned and looked at James with wide eyes, unsure what was going on. I glanced down at my shoulder in the mirror and visualized a sun tattooed on it. Suddenly it appeared. James gasped and clapped his hands together sounding remarkably like he was five years old.
"Cool," he said, making me drop his age to about three, but he was right it was cool. "You"re a freakin" shifter."A shifter--I"d read about those, they were creatures of magic that could change their appearance at will. I knew all elves and faeries possessed some degree of this magic, but I didn"t realize I had this much. Saying that this was cool didn"t quite cover it because this kicked a.s.s.
James and I stood in the bathroom trying to see what all I could do. We came to the conclusion that I could make myself look any way I could dream up. I even managed to make my hair appear to be live snakes. The Medusa thing was too freaky for me. James thought it was funny. He would.
The only drawback seemed to be the amount of energy it took for me to hold the illusion. My head had a steady, dull ache by the time we"d tried around twenty different looks, but we carried on with our experiments. We played in the bathroom until we heard Caradoc coming in downstairs. We looked at each other and squealed. Oh, this was going to be good. I made myself look completely bald.
"Oh, that"s perfect!" James said, laughing hysterically.
"Shh!" I had to keep him quiet so Caradoc wouldn"t hear. Heading out of the bathroom, I touched my head. It didn"t feel bald to me. "Hey, did it go away?"
James touched it. "Nope, feels smooth--real."
"Are you sure? It still feels like my normal hair to me?"
"Gwen, do ya" really think I"d lie about your head feelin" bald? It"s actually a bit unnerving to see."
"Good point."
Caradoc was at the base of the stairs with his back to us bringing in their blue ice cooler. They had to bring a cooler full of blood when they came, since I wasn"t volunteering to feed them. "Caradoc, look what James did to me!" I ran down the stairs towards him. He set the cooler down and turned to me.
The look on his face was priceless. It was one of those moments when you wished you"d thought to bring a camera. His green eyes were wide. Helooked horrified. No words came from his mouth. Never before had I seen this refined man look so lost. I couldn"t do it to him anymore. The joke had been fun while it lasted. I shook my head and his eyes widened more.
I turned to James. "It didn"t work?"
"No, it worked, it"s back to normal," he said, glancing at Caradoc and laughing. "I don"t think that was any less of a shock to his system."
Caradoc walked up to me and put his long arm out to touch my hair. He let his fingers run through it--tugging on it gently, almost caressing it.
He"d never stood this close to me before and I never realized just how tall he was. He suddenly seemed a lot more dangerous than I thought he was. Funny how you don"t respect a person physically one moment, but as soon as you figure out they could take you in two seconds or less, you suddenly do.
I waited for him to yell at me for scaring him like that. He didn"t. "Do it again," he said, and James laughed.
I repeated my performance for Caradoc, showing him everything that James and I had tried in the bathroom. An hour later, he stood before me silently. "A penny for your thoughts," I said fearing the worst.
He closed his eyes, sighing softly. "Gwyneth, you have no idea how powerful you are, do you?"
He must be joking. I was the mutt-faerie in the Si world. I hadn"t been raised by anyone of magical descent. Two of the most caring humans ever been put on this earth had raised me, but they were never able to teach me how to use my magic. Growing up, I tried to read as much as I could about faeries, but that didn"t help me much. I always saw myself as a second rate elf. Could I have been wrong?
Chapter 4.
James and I curled up under a blanket on the couch together. He lay at one end, while I laid at the other. I was surprised to see that Caradoc had joined us. He sat quietly in the chair with his feet propped up reading a book. I did a double take when I read the t.i.tle--Bram Stoker"s Dracula.
"He"s kidding right?" I asked James as I nodded towards Caradoc.
James shrugged. "Ahh, that one"s a clever-d.i.c.k. He could most likely recite the d.a.m.n thing to us, verbatim, by now--he"s read it so much.
Don"t know why, though ... it"s not like he isn"t livin" it."
The phrase been there, done that came to my mind. Having nothing more to offer, directed my attention to the television screen.
"Didn"t we watch this one last week?"