Blue Ridge: Vol. 1 - The New Boy (3 page)

The rest of the day was filled with
long walks through beautiful trails, hands stuck together, and their laughter sporadically sending birds flying and squirrels running. Nadia was sorry when he dropped her off, but a promise of a call before bed and another promise of a visit the following day was all it took to send her happily indoors.

Foster enjoyed the ride to his house in the deepening twilight. His car held the lingering scent of Nadia. It filled his head and caused a nervousness to spread through his belly. Something wasn’t right at home. He could sense it as he drove the long driveway and saw the house come into view. It was ablaze with artificial light, which meant only one thing; his father was home. Foster looked towards the barn and saw the familiar black SUV looming like a dark shadow. He sighed and cut the car off, waiting for the nervousness to pass. Tapping his car key on the dash, he stared decidedly at the front door and got out of the car. “Fear is acceptable as long as it doesn’t stop you from anything.” It was the first rule his father had taught them. He taught it as soon as they could speak and repeat it. “No mercy” was the other lesson.

As soon as he stepped into the house, all eyes turned towards him. The floor plan was normally fantastic. The bottom of the house was almost completely open. A triple size fire place was on the left and center in the living room, which extended from there and circled until it met with the kitchen and dining area on his right. The far side of the room held windows as tall as he was and large glass doors that opened to the woods beyond. Upstairs were five bedrooms, four of which had huge windows. The fifth bedroom was the room his parents slept in when his father was home. It had no windows. The house, on a good day, made Foster feel glad to be home. The traditional rustic log cabin on a much grander scale had amused him. Today, eyes of varying emotion looked directly at him, boring into him, and he wanted to be anywhere else. He focused on Walt for a moment, sitting on the hearth. He had his elbows resting on his knees and his hands were clasped. He barley lifted his eyes to Foster. And a look of pain was in them.

“Where have you been?” his father’s voice broke the silence, with calm, punctuated words.

“I went to Luray today.” Foster dared not look directly at him, but he already knew what he would see; a bigger, more intimidating version of Darren.

“Did you go alone?”

Foster hesitated. “No, Sir, I took a girl with me.”

His father was on him in lightning fast speed. The slap to his face was an instant shock and nearly took him off his feet. “
Fool!
” His father spat before walking away. Foster could feel the massive handprint forming on his burning face.

“Please, Robert, he just wants to live.” His mother’s voice wafted across the room. Foster dared a glance at her. She was standing beside Walt. Her voice was its usual silk and her statuesque frame was graceful without meaning to be. She gave Foster a quick look of pity.

“Live, you say?” he glared at her. “Like one of
them
?”

“In whatever manner he chooses.” She calmly replied.

“He is nearly 21, Julia! He will need to choose soon.”

“So let him choose.”

“You know what I mean!” he yelled, his dark eyes flashing like fire. “You said his taking a few courses for fun at the college wouldn’t hurt. You said it was his last year to do it.” His father threw this long arms open wide. “So, I let him. Now there’s a girl!
A mortal!
”

Julia moved her hand in a dismissive gesture and took a seat beside Walt. “We are all mortal. Some just meet their mortality a bit quicker. He took two classes last year and nothing happened.”

With that, Robert turned and glared at his son. “Did you meet this
girl
last year?”

“No, Sir, we met yesterday.”

“
Yesterday?
And what, now you’re in
love
?”

“Yes, Sir.”

Robert’s eyes widened with shock before he looked at his wife, who shot a pointed gaze back at Foster. “Now you have another one that’s as crazy as your people!”

He didn’t get a response, other than Julia’s impassive eyes watching him.

“Damn the Fae!
” he screamed and left the house with Darren right on his heels.  Darren made sure he let Foster know how he felt and pushed him off his feet before leaving the house. The door slammed so hard that a picture of lilies and roses fell to the floor. Walt winced and stood to cross the room to pick it up. He placed it gently back on the wall, and bent to squeeze Foster’s shoulder reassuringly.

“Foster, come walk with me.” His mother said, walking gracefully to the back doors. Foster followed rubbing his throbbing face.

They walked in silence until they reached the meadow. None of them ever needed extra light at night in the woods. They could see just fine. The meadow was glowing with the silver light of a full moon. Foster closed his eyes and let his other senses enjoy the night around him. His ears could hear insects and small animals scurrying here and there, looking for food or running from the danger of becoming food. Beyond that, he could hear and feel the faint hum that was the earth itself, forever alive; always changing.

“Foster, do you understand why I have been insistent on giving you and your brothers’ free will to choose your own paths?”

“No, Mam.”

She turned to face him in the moonlit meadow. Foster was able to see her in pure form. No Glamour needed. She was Fae. More importantly she was also Sidhe. The most regal and beautiful of the Fae and Elvish races combined. Her skin was pale and her hair looked like white fire in this light. “I wanted you all to be able to choose without the complications your father and I faced.”

“He’s not allowing me to choose, Mother.”

Her sigh was sad and distant. “Your father has lost the vision he started with. His kind is not meant to love. If they feel love it must benefit them in some way and then be discarded as soon as it ceases to be useful.” She turned her head to smile at him. “But my kind,
our
kind, loves because it is the purest of feelings. We love the earth, we love each other, and some even choose to love God.”

“I am half my father.”

“Yes, biologically speaking, but not in your heart. Your heart determines who you are. I am half Sidhe, whom are known for coldness and sometimes cruelty. I am capable of such things but I choose in my heart to not indulge in them. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” She said, moving into the meadow with her arms lightly outstretched at her sides to brush the top of the tall grasses as she walked. “Come, Foster, and tell me about this girl.”

They talked for an hour, circling the field and back again. Foster told his mother everything; how they met, how she looks, how she makes him fell. And then Foster told her about Nadia’s names on her shirt. His mother frowned momentarily.

“Surely, the child was cleaned up and given clean clothes at the hospital.”

“Yes, she was, I asked her after she woke up. The police wrote the names down, and eventually Nadia’s parents were told about them.”

“Most people would not recognize them as Fae names.”

“I know. Her mother certainly didn’t.”

“Your father has a council meeting tonight.”

“Already? I thought he just had one.”

Her eyes regarded him, the pale green shimmering momentarily. “You were seen in town last night with the girl.”

Foster cringed inwardly remembering the car and the two figures watching him. “So, I was followed?”

She nodded. “Darren is concerned about our exposure.”

“
Our
exposure? He beds every whore he can get his hands on!”

She held up a slender hand. “I do not condone your brother’s philandering ways. It is dangerous, and he only did that locally once. Your father took care of the matter.”

“Why do I have to choose someone of my own bloodline from either side?”

“It is how we protect ourselves, Foster, you know this.”

“But you and Dad….”

“Were very lucky.” She replied sharply. “Your father was just recognized again after twenty one long years.  Darren’s impending ceremony has something to do with it, I think, as well as the fact that we have lived modestly and discreetly all these years.”

“If Nadia knew, she would never tell.”

“How can you be so certain?”

Foster looked back at the meadow with longing. They were re-entering the woods and all he wanted was to be out there and feel the night around him. “I can’t explain it, but I just know.”

His mother nodded. “Be careful, Foster. There are consequences you cannot imagine. Your twenty-first is less than a year away. Could you leave this life so easily just for a girl?”

“Did you ask yourself that when you married Father?”

Wistfully she replied, “I wish someone had of asked me.”

****

Nadia waited impatiently for Foster to show up.
She had a nagging feeling that the previous two days were only a dream; an impossible dream that would never truly happen to her. Her parents were full of questions when she came home from her last date, and her mother followed her around for at least twenty minutes begging for ‘the details’. Nadia told them enough to send them to bed hopeful that she wouldn’t die an old maid, and her missing church didn’t seem to bother them either, once they found out Foster was coming back the very next day. It amused her on one level and irritated her on another. She was only nineteen. Did they honestly think she would
never
find the right guy? Her mother had been seventeen when she married, and her father had been twenty two. So, by her mother’s standards the clock was running out.

Nadia ran to the bathroom to check her face one last time when she heard the light knock on the door. For a change she had actually applied a small amount of eyeliner and mascara.

She opened the door with a wide grin. It faded a little when she saw Foster. He looked like he hadn’t slept all night.

“Hey, are you okay?” Nadia noticed the right side of his face looked pinkish and slightly swollen. “What happened to your face?”

“Oh yeah.” He said stepping through the door. “I walked into a wall and didn’t sleep very well afterwards.”

“Oh. Do you want to go back home?”

He shook his head solemnly and pulled her to him. “Not a chance.” He whispered into her hair.

Nadia smiled but could feel an uneasiness coming off him. “Would you like some breakfast?”

“Sure, and some coffee too.”

“Make yourself at home. The remote’s on the table.”

Ten minutes later, Nadia brought a plate of scrambled eggs and toast to him and a steaming cup of coffee. She paused and watched his sleeping form slouched on the couch. He was an impossibly beautiful man. Not just handsome, but beautiful. She had tried to tell Kristen that the night before when she had called to get ‘all the details’, but she had only laughed and told her that she had read too many English romances.

She set the food and coffee down on the coffee table and tried to sit down beside him as quietly as possible. He nuzzled closer to her and she decided to nap as well. Eggs and toast could be reheated.

****