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Authors: Tate Hallaway

Almost Final Curtain (5 page)

BOOK: Almost Final Curtain
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I’d have to hang out all three tonight. For some reason, Mom was crankier than usual. She completely freaked out over the fact that I’d taken the city bus home. Why didn’t I call her? Did I want to worry her to death?
I tried not to roll my eyes the entire time she talked. Who knew that six minutes later than usual would be such a big deal? Especially since most Wednesdays she worked so late at the university—running one of her women’s spirituality groups—that I was usually asleep when she got home. That was the whole reason I had Elias come by on Wednesdays in the first place.
Mom also despised Elias. It was more than just the protective-lioness thing—my mom was the Queen of Witches. Thanks to that whole former slave/owner thing, vampires and witches didn’t get along. At all.
Next to Nikolai and his dad, Mom was vampire hater number one. She refused Elias entry over the threshold, so when he came courting, he sat in the top branches of the giant spruce outside my window. Vampires liked hanging out in trees for some reason—hell elves, I’m telling you.
Anyway, I couldn’t figure out why mom threw such a snit fit. I’d taken the bus home a bunch of times before. I suspected the real reason for her ballistic mood was the Igors. Mom probably caught sight of them before they disappeared into the underbrush of our neighbor’s garden. The lots were wide here in Crocus Hill, and many people took advantage and planted small forests for privacy. Our neighbor claimed to be green, but I think he was just lazy and didn’t want to mow, and thus, it was a perfect place for the Igors to go to ground. Mom liked to pretend that I didn’t have an “honor guard.”
Let’s get real—Mom liked to imagine I wasn’t a vampire princess at all.
Anytime anything happened that reminded her, snap!—she became Ms. Cranky Pants. Dinner had been frosty. I was just as glad to escape to my room upstairs, doing homework and waiting for Elias.
I glanced out the window. It was warm enough to have the storm windows up. It was too early in the season for crickets, but the birds heralded the sunset with muffled chatter. A woodpecker added a staccato beat to their symphony by pounding noisily on the telephone pole. The breeze held the promise of rain and the delicate scent of the neighbor’s apple blossoms.
I tried to concentrate on my history chapter, but my gaze bounced over the words and flicked instead between the cell and the window. I picked up the phone and tried to will Nikolai to text. Setting it back with a sigh, I peered into the gathering darkness for a sign of Elias.
“Trouble?” he asked, the nearness of his voice startling me. Leaning forward, Elias’s pale form seemed to materialize out of the tangle of branches just beyond my window. His inky black hair was cut short, above the ears. The style always seemed a bit militaristic to me and not very vampy, and when I asked him about it, he said it was a close approximation of what was popular when he was brought across the Veil.
As always when he was using his vampiric powers, Elias’s pupils were bright yellow, and cat-slit. Once he’d settled in, they’d return to their normal color, a captivating stormy gray. I’d never had the courage to ask which was his real eye color.
He pointed to my phone. “Are you expecting news?”
“Probably not,” I said, setting the cell aside. “Nikolai and I might be fighting.”
At the mention of Nik’s name, Elias pulled back into the shadows slightly. I was sure he was trying to hide his expression, but the darkness served only to make him look more sinister. “It would be my deepest pleasure to defend your honor if my rival has besmirched it in any way.”
Elias always talked like that. Sometimes it took me a few minutes to parse out what he was really trying to say. “No, you can’t go beat him up.” I smiled once I had. “And he might not be your rival anymore either.”
“Oh, most unfortunate,” he said. Though he’d pulled back so that his face was now completely hidden, I totally heard his unconscious smile at the thought.
“You’re the worst liar, Elias Constantine.” I flicked off my desk lamp and used my feet to wheel my desk chair over to the window. I leaned my elbows on the sill. From this position and with the lights off, I could see Elias more clearly.
He leaned his back casually against the trunk of the tree, his long, trim legs stretched across the branches like a lounging panther. Though vampires weren’t fond of clothing for some reason, in deference to me he wore a nicely fitting black T-shirt and similarly colored jeans. His feet, however, were bare.
“Aren’t you cold without boots?”
“The Mother is birthing. I tread lightly.”
Did that make sense? I guess it did to a witch, at least metaphorically speaking. The earth was pregnant with new life in spring, so he walked gently. Respect for nature was one thing that vampires and witches had in common; they were both Goddess worshippers. But this was the first time I’d heard real evidence of the vampire side of it.
“Ostara is my favorite time of year,” I remarked, referencing the Wiccan celebration of spring equinox, which had just passed. My mom would never call herself a Wiccan because her brand of witchcraft was much older, but to blend, we followed a lot of their customs.
Elias nodded. “Soon everything will be in bloom.”
We fell into a silence and I tried, in vain, not to glance at the spot on my desk where my phone sat.
“You seem very agitated, Ana,” Elias said when I returned my attention to him. He sat up straighter, swinging his feet around so that they dangled off the branch. “What did you and the hunter’s apprentice fight about?”
I tried to shrug it off like it was no big deal, but I found I couldn’t look him in the eye as I said, “Oh, you know, the same old—the honor guard, the fact that I’m a freaky half vampire, and all that.”
Though he said nothing for a long time, I could feel the heat of his eyes on me. Finally, I looked up. He was staring intently. His eyes had gone all catty again, and his lips pressed into a thin, serious line. “I would hold you if I could.”
With a graceful leap, he was on the roof. His footfalls were so soft, they sounded no louder than the rattle of a strong wind. I craned my neck, trying to figure out what he was up to.
All of a sudden, he hung upside down in front of me. I gasped in surprise to see him like that. With a deft movement, the screen snapped off its runners. There was a magical echo, like when a sudden shift in altitude makes your ears pop. I only hoped that my mom didn’t sense the slight breach in her defenses.
After stashing the screen somewhere above, Elias reappeared with his arms outstretched. “Come,” he said. “I can lift you.”
I looked down at the ground and the two-story drop. I knew vampires were stronger than your average bear, but he was in an awkward position hanging over the edge of the sloping roof; what if we slid?
“The stars are out,” Elias said, his fingers wagging impatiently. “Please, Highness, join me on the roof.”
Steeling myself, I reached out the window and took his hands. His skin was warm against mine, and I felt a slight magical tingle at his nearness. I got up on my knees, with much of me hanging out the window. I felt myself waver, but his grip was strong and firm. He directed me to twist around. Then his hands were under my arms and I was airborne. I felt a momentary dizziness, but it was just a short boost, and he released me to stand beside him on the rooftop.
I lost my breath in the excitement, and it came back in a rush at the view of the carpet of stars above and my neighborhood spread out below. From this vantage point, I could see the dark ribbon of the Mississippi River in the valley and the cluster of bright downtown lights.
The air cocooned me in damp coldness, but instead of shivering, I felt exhilarated. “It’s beautiful.”
Elias said nothing, just held me. He was much taller than me, and my head nestled perfectly under his arm. Tentatively, I slipped my hand around his slender, taut waist. Heat exuded from his body, and I snuggled closer. Bare, silhouetted treetops, dotted with buds, lay like a lattice in front of everything. Across the river, traffic was a line of flashing lights, which we watched in companionable silence.
“I’m sorry for your pain,” he said quietly, once we’d settled to lie back against the roof tiles to stare up at the specks of stars in the night sky. “But I’m not sorry that you’re who you are. If you weren’t the princess, we would never have met.”
Our fingers entwined and he gave my palm a reassuring squeeze. My body was hyperfocused on Elias’s nearness. I felt the slight touch of his legs against mine, the rough calluses on his palms, and the heat of his skin.
My mouth twisted as I tried to find words. I should agree with Elias’s sentiment, at least. I really
liked
Elias. But my life had been so much simpler before I knew about my dad and vampires. “Uh, yeah,” I said finally.
“You don’t sound convinced, my lady.”
I loved it when he called me that. It was so old-fashioned and sweet. “It’s not that,” I assured him. “It’s all this other stuff.”
Wisps of clouds threaded in front of the thin silver crescent of the moon. The shingles on the roof pinched my back slightly, but the feeling of being high above everything eclipsed any physical discomfort.
“Other stuff?” he prompted.
“Nikolai, you know, and—” But I trailed off because I didn’t know how to explain what it was like to be half vampire, half witch, but not enough of either to really fit anywhere properly.
Before I could say something more articulate, Elias pulled his hand away. “You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”
“It doesn’t matter. It would never work.”
The instant it was out of my mouth, I knew I’d said the exact wrong thing. I should have denied being in love with Nik; had I really just agreed that I was? At any rate, Elias sat up, steepling his hands on his knees. His entire posture was agitated; if he were a cat, his back muscles would have rippled.
I pulled myself upright too. I thought about touching his shoulders, but decided I didn’t want to see him flinch away from me. “I mean—that is, what I meant to say was I don’t know how I feel about Nik. It’s so complicated.”
“I see.” His tone was cold, distant.
A smarter person would have stopped talking, but I didn’t know how to close the rift I sensed opening between us and I desperately wanted to fix it. I didn’t want to lose both Elias and Nik in one day! “I feel the same way about you. Not the complicated part—well, actually, you are complicated—but what I’m saying is ... uh, I like you.”
I thought it was a pretty intense admission, but the hot glance he shot me implied he thought I was full of shit.
“No, really, Elias. I do.” I tried to infuse my words with the weight of everything I couldn’t say. “Why do you think things are complicated with Nikolai?”
This softened his gaze a bit. “Are you saying you fought about me?”
“Well, no. It was more about the vampire thing as a whole, and the honor guard in specific, but you’re a big part of that.”
“Ah.” He sounded distant again.
When was I going to learn how to talk to guys without completely messing everything up? “Let me try this again,” I offered.
From his reluctant smile, I think Elias would have let me make another attempt, but of course, at that very moment Nikolai’s Toyota pulled up in front of my house.
We both recognized the car immediately.
He was early! I opened my mouth to offer an explanation, but the look on Elias’s face stopped me.
“What is
he
doing here tonight? This is supposed to be our night.”
“Um,” I started, but how could I explain in a way that didn’t end up with me duplicitously planning two dates in one night? Anyway, Elias was having none of it. He stood up. With inhuman bounds, he leaped the distance of the roof. In seconds, he was standing next to the tower’s cap, one hand resting against its peaked, conical roof. Elias stared down at the car, as if still hoping it belonged to someone else.
Below, I could hear Nikolai’s car door slam shut. In the quiet of the night, the sound of his bootheels on the sidewalk reverberated loudly.
“It is him,” Elias confirmed through clenched teeth. “Perhaps we should test this junior hunter’s skill.”
“Wait!” I shouted to Elias, but it was too late. He launched himself into the air. Like some unholy bird, he stretched out his arms, as though they could slow his descent. In midair, he flipped over and tucked himself into a tight ball. He landed in a predatory crouch in front of Nikolai. I swear I could hear his snarl from this distance.
For his part, Nik shouted in surprise and anger. He stumbled back, plastering himself against his car.
Elias uncurled himself slowly, deliberately. “You intrude on my territory, apprentice.”
“Your ‘territory’? I don’t think so,” Nikolai growled. “You don’t belong here. Not with Ana, not on earth. Make one move, demon, and I’ll send you straight back to the hell that spawned you.”
Like a stab to my own heart, I felt Nikolai’s blade surge into life. I could almost see its orange flame flickering around his fist.
Elias had the good sense to stand perfectly still.
I held my breath. I had to stop them somehow.
Before I could call out, the front door slammed open on its hinges. I nearly leaped from the roof in surprise. Mom stuck her head out. “What’s going on out here?” Her power shot up, cold and hard, when she recognized who stood on her sidewalk. “Vampire,” she hissed. “Strike him dead, Kirov.”
“No!” I shouted. “Don’t you dare!”
Heads swiveled in my direction. Just as I’d hoped, Elias took advantage of the resulting confusion. With speed too fast for a human eye to track, he dashed from sight. Not being human, however, I noticed his slight hesitation. Before he disappeared, our eyes met, and without words, I knew how much it disturbed Elias to leave a fight—to leave me.
“Ana?” Nik said at the same time as Mom’s confused, “What are you doing on the roof, honey?”
BOOK: Almost Final Curtain
11.19Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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