Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume 1 (24 page)

After a while in
silence, Mr. Dayton finally spoke. His demeanor was such that it
seemed he was merely thinking aloud, but Dax knew it was for his
benefit. “This warrants investigation. I think I can learn what she
is if I get a sample of her blood and confer with my friends at the
hospital. Based on what I’ve seen and heard, I suspect her parents
are too wary to take her there.”

He made a curious,
“Hmm,” noise as he removed the DVD from his computer, then got up
to leave.

“Oh, and Dax, do
consult me if you learn anything else.”

“Of course,
father.”

Mr. Dayton pulled out
his cell phone to make a call as he left the room.

Dax grinned. His father
was pleased.

He rose and made for
the stairs on the way to his room. From behind him, Xan spoke, “I
do hope you don't think that that is the end of it.”

Dax whipped around to
stare at his brother.

“What do you mean,
Xan?”

Xan shrugged and said,
“Sure, Dad can have one of his hematologist buddies look into this
chick, but her blood is not going to be enough to explain
everything about her.”

“You doubt our father’s
judgment?”

“Dax, have you ever
heard the expression ‘news straight from the horse's
mouth’?”

Dax nodded. “Of course.
It’s a bloody stupid one. What are you on about, Xan?”

“My point is, if you
really want to learn about this girl, you’ll need a better source
than her blood.”

Dax played along. “What
better source is there than her blood?”

“Her,” Xan responded
with a wicked grin. “If you really want to know what this girl is
all about, you should ask her.”

Dax snapped his fingers
and said, "Fantastic idea. Tomorrow at school, maybe after English,
I’ll saunter up to her and say, ‘Hello statue girl, would you
please be so kind as to tell me what kind of hidden you are? Nobody
seems to know. How is it you can do all the things I saw you do in
the forest when I was spying on you? Don't forget to trust me and
answer me truthfully!’"

"You’ll just have to
give her a reason to trust you, then I doubt you’ll have
trouble."

Dax raised an
eyebrow.

His brother went on,
"Look, it is obvious she’s interested in you. Give her what she
obviously wants. Spend some time with her. Earn her trust. She's
bound to tell you all kinds of interesting things about herself.
There’s no crime if you’re curious about what she has to say. Girls
want a guy who is interested."

Dax said, "You are
suggesting I betray her trust, trick her."

Xan shrugged. "It's not
trickery if she tells you stuff willingly."

"But I would still be
pretending."

"Would you be? From
what I can tell, you’re just as into her as she is to you. If you
don't learn anything and don’t care to continue seeing her, tell
her straight out that you're not interested. It will be true, and
that will be the end of it."

“Xan, I’ve been
watching her. I doubt she knows what she is.”

“Maybe not, but she
knows at least some of what she can do. Mark my words well, for I
won’t say this often. There is more to this girl than just her
blood.”

Dax scowled and said
sarcastically, "Gee Xan, maybe someday I’ll objectify women as
easily as you."

"It is easy once you
get the hang of it," said Xan smiling.

“You could rationalize
staking our sisters if it suited your purposes.”

“If it suited my
purposes, it would be only rational to do so. Just think on
it.”

Dax’s only response was
to turn back towards the stairs. He was tired, and the sun had worn
on him. He locked and deadbolted his door then climbed into his
coffin. He doubted sleep would come to him so late in the day, but
he needed to replenish his strength regardless.

He bristled at his
brother’s suggestion: seducing a girl to get at her secrets. Xan
was coldhearted, even for a vampire. Still, the idea did indeed
have some merit.

He thought back to the
night of Jayce’s party when he watched Aradia dance with the
werewolf. He remembered watching her long red hair swirling
magically down her shoulders, glowing like molten steel. Her smile
had been as wide and as perfect as an angel's, and her body was so
pink and correctly proportioned. Most of all, he remembered hearing
the music, seeing her body sway with the beat, and wanting her so
badly.

He was no prude. He had
been with many women since he had become a vampire, and he was not
proud of all the circumstances. That was not what had offended him
in Xan’s proposal. Out of all the women he had met in his long
life, Aradia definitely fascinated him in a way no one else ever
had. Dax wanted to believe it was just her secret which enticed
him.

Chapter
Nineteen

Aradia sat in second
period Biology, peering through her microscope, trying desperately
to determine what it was she was supposed to be doing. Much of this
class came easily to her. Yet, although she loved making potions
and could do incredible things with her powers, Aradia was a very
poor student. Aradia was used to earning Cs, and considered herself
lucky to get a B in any class.

Today’s lab was a
veritable nightmare for her. Calvin, her usual lab partner and
straight A student, had been forced to bail on her because of the
flu.

She welcomed the
distraction when she heard the door creak open, and glanced up to
see who was coming in late. She felt her heart flutter when she saw
it was Dax Dayton. He strolled in and handed a note to Ms. Flora,
who barely glanced at it before waving him to take a seat. Aradia
returned to her work knowing that he would probably sit at the
front as he usually did. However, Dax walked right past the first
row of seats, and slowly edged up to the empty spot at Aradia's
table.

He smiled at her in a
way she had never seen before. He was sinfully handsome. "Is this
seat taken?" he asked.

"As a matter of fact,
it is," Aradia snapped before returning to her work.

Dax still smiled as he
sat in the chair. "Taken by me, then."

Aradia rolled her eyes,
but a faint smile of amusement began to curl upon her lips. “You
any good at biology?”

“I have a working
knowledge,” he replied.

“Alright then,” she
ceded. “You can stay.”

"So," Dax asked,
weaving his hands together and stretching them out until the bones
cracked. “What are we supposed to do?"

Aradia shrugged and
said, "Damned if I know."

Dax seemed surprised.
She hastily added, “I’m a lousy student, okay?"

“It’s nice to learn a
weakness in you,” he said with a shrug. "Even you’re not completely
perfect."

"You got that right,"
Aradia muttered.

Dax grabbed the
microscope and after peering into the lens he said,
"
Lilium
bulbiferum
."

"What?" Aradia asked,
frantically grabbing the microscope back and peering into it
again.

"We are given slides of
plant cells to identify. This particular slide is taken from
a
Lilium bulbiferum
stem."

"Oh!" Aradia nodded
eagerly, finally understanding, and jotting the information down in
her lab worksheet. “You know, lilies are really beautiful plants.
You can find them almost everywhere from Europe to southeastern
Asia, and through most of Canada and the United States. Usually
people just think of them as garden flowers, but some are even
harvested for their edible bulbs.”

Dax was shocked at how
easy it was to get her talking. “So, not much of a
student?”

She blushed slightly.
“I’m not. Sometimes I find stuff interesting, so I research it
myself. I can’t stand following somebody else’s set course plan,
though.”

“You know,” he replied,
switching you the slides and adjusting the magnification, “Einstein
was the same way. He actually failed math in school. He said it
bored him.”

“I think there may have
been a compliment in there,” she replied, and finally returned his
smile.

They made remarkable
progress. Aradia quickly realized that Dax was an even better lab
partner than Calvin.

She was just starting
to get comfortable with the idea that maybe he was more than eye
candy when she noticed a weird sniffing sound. She stiffened and
realized that Dax was smelling her hair.

She whipped her head
around angrily, planning to tell him off in front of their
classmates, but instead her face colliding forehead-to-nose with
his.

“Oh!” she cried as her
hand instinctively went to her mouth. “I’m sorry! Are you
okay?”

Dax raised his own hand
to his nose, but did not seem to be in any pain. He had a wicked
and satisfied grin on his face. “That’s quite alright.”

Right
, Aradia reminded
herself.
Vampire. I wonder if that sort
of thing can hurt him at all.

Realizing he was fine,
and determined to salvage her dignity, Aradia tore her face away
from his and muttered under her breath, "You’re a lot more charming
from a few feet’s distance. You could at least buy me dinner before
you break out the weird freakiness."

Dax chuckled and said,
"No wonder Tristan and Roy are completely besotted with you. You
are positively charming."

Aradia snorted and
looked up at him, already planning an insult, but instead her eyes
locked with his. For a few delicious seconds, the two of them just
sat staring at each other.

Dax finally broke the
hot and heavy silence between them. "But speaking of dinner, would
you like to have it? With me that is?"

Play it cool,
Rai!
Aradia shrugged casually and said,
"I'll think about it."

"Okay then," Dax
responded, still grinning just as wickedly as ever.

For the rest of class
their conversation stayed mostly focused on the work at hand. Too
soon for Aradia’s liking, the bell rang. She found herself hoping
that maybe Calvin would take another day off from school.
To recover from his illness, of
course
, she thought.

Aradia dropped her pen
as she shuffled her books into her rucksack. She set her bag on the
table and turned to get the pen, but Dax was already there. He
raised it towards Aradia's outstretched hand, taking his slow and
careful time, grazing his hand against her pants leg.

It’s a damn
pen,
Aradia reminded herself as her
heart raced at his sensuality.
Settle
down there
. When she finally took the
pen, Dax said softly and seductively, “My Aradia, what long and
beautiful legs you have.”

Aradia swore her heart
stopped a moment as she chuckled nervously. Dax then took her wrist
and raised himself up slowly. He was gazing into her eyes, and
Aradia was staring up at him completely entranced. He still had his
hand on her wrist, and was now rubbing his thumb over it slowly.
Aradia felt tingles all up and down her spine.

"Now," he said, his
voice as soft and silky as a designer scarf. "Have you thought
about it yet?"

"Yeah," Aradia said
slowly.

"So you will have
dinner with me?" he asked, leaning in closer still.

Aradia took a deep
breath and said, "Make it a movie."

The acting was
terrible, the dialogue was horrible, and the plot was stupid in the
movie they picked. It was both Aradia’s and Dax’s second choice.
Aradia had wanted to see a Paul Rudd romantic comedy; Dax’s first
pick was the Salem Film Revival showing of Dracula’s Daughter.
Instead they ended up with a lame remake of a movie which Aradia
thought was originally based on a TV show.

It was enough to make
Aradia want to demand her money back and rob the movie theater
while she was at it. Dax kept his face impassive, as he often did,
but Aradia suspected strongly that he was doing his best not to
throw his soda at the screen. They still managed to sit through the
film, sharing a bucket of popcorn in the process. Aradia had to
admit, although the movie was complete tripe, it was worth it just
to feel Dax’s cool fingertips constantly brush against
hers.

While they and the
other moviegoers were shuffling out, quickly and eagerly, Aradia
voiced her opinions.

"That," she said in a
loud voice that prevented any argument. "Has got to be without a
doubt the biggest load of cinematic pig crap I have ever seen in my
life!"

People stopped and
stared at her in complete awkwardness. Dax, though, was completely
amused.

In fact, he chuckled,
looked to the crowd, and said, "It's not like it isn't
true."

Aradia was already
smiling at the fact that he’d backed her up. Her smile grew when he
intertwined his fingers with her own. She was practically giddy as
they walked hand in hand towards the exit.