Authors: Alivia Anders
chairs led to a set of majestic stairs carpeted in traditional red. Low
lighting gave everyone a soft glow to their complexions, making the
diamonds and rubies every woman wore glimmer with a tantalizing
glow.
I checked my coat in and turned around, praying I blended
in. Even though I wasn't the only human in the room I felt my white
dress with the extra layers stand out, the bodice corset with a
sweetheart neckline suddenly too revealing. I brought along smal
white gloves to cover my ring less hands and made sure to double
check my red laced mask was stil in place.
When I turned around to find Kayden for our seats he was
nowhere to be found. Leo was reading a smal pamphlet on the
history of Fae, lost in his own little world.
"Leo, you seen Ursula or Kayden?" I nervously asked,
tugging on the hem of my gloves.
Looking up from his reading he stared around in confusion.
"They were here a second ago." He scratched his head while
frowning, scanning the crowd until he pointed. His face quickly
turned from relief to worry. "There they are, talking to the Queen."
"Judging by your tone I'd say that isn't a good thing."
"Let's just say," Leo quietly muttered, pretending to adjust
his bow tie. "Few are on her good side, and even fewer who were
on her bad lived long to tel about it." He quickly changed the
subject. "Listen, while we have a minute alone, I need to tel you
something."
Smiling I gave him a little shoulder nudge. "Sure. What's
Smiling I gave him a little shoulder nudge. "Sure. What's
up?"
He looked around the room before puling me aside to a
corner of the lobby. "I know we're not supposed to be seeing each
other like this because Ursula thinks we're getting al close and
lovey, but I have to explain something to you." He took a deep
breath. "I think I might be your Watcher."
"Leo." I took his hands and gave him a sad smile. "Don't
listen to what that woman- what Serena had said. She said we'd
have to have matching birthdays right down to the minute."
Stil resolved, he leaned closer. "Tel me your birthday."
"March seventeenth," I said with a little irritability. "Please,
let's not go down this road. We're here to have fun tonight and-"
"My birth date is March seventeenth," he barely said above
a whisper. His hands slipped from my grasp and cupped them
instead. "At 4:35 in the afternoon."
I shook my head and started to speak over his increasing
protests. "I don't even know what time I was born. Listen, Kayden
and Ursula are going to come over here and get the wrong idea."
"What idea would that be?" Ursula snapped from behind
me. Her face looked livid, as if someone had lit a roman candle
under her behind. She reached out past me and took a hold of
Leo's arm, puling him to her side. "That you're flirting with him yet
again? You'd better be damn thankful I don't have anything heavy
to swing at you with tonight, Essalie."
"Would you just get the hel off your high horse?" My voice
grew as I stepped closer, fists clenched tight. One good shot in the
face and she'd never have to worry about any male ever loving her
face and she'd never have to worry about any male ever loving her
again, least not physicaly. "He was sharing an idea with me about
finding my Watcher. You know, that person I'm supposed to bind
to and save my soul from burning alive?"
"Quite frankly," she seethed between her pearly whites. "I
don't give a damn if you find your person and live or burn to a crisp
like a piece of processed fish stick. Let's go, Leo." She puled him
up the steps and out of sight, my last glimpse of Leo being his pitiful
stare as he looked over his shoulder, mouthing something to me.
"Essalie, have a minute?" Kayden came over, his
expression neutral. I wondered if I had pissed him off somehow,
too. "There's someone I'd like to introduce you to."
A tal, thin dark haired woman with skin as fair as
buttermilk came around Kayden, dressed in a long flowing gown of
fabric that reminded me of the midnight sky. Her dark brown
almond shaped eyes matched the perfect pout of her lips and light
blush on the tops of her cheekbones. Black hair spun in a perfectly
slick braid coiled like a tamed snake over her shoulder and down
to her hips. While her body appeared frail and dainty her presence
was one that commanded power without question.
"So you must be the Nephilim, a first in over three hundred
years. What a curious race, one foot in the realm of immortals, one
in the realm of death," the Queen lamented with a kind smile that
didn't touch her eyes. She gave a smal nod and turned swiftly to
head up the stairs, the train of her dress flowing. "The show's about
to start, let us go."
"Come on, let's get to our seats," Kayden took me by the
arm and led us into the fabric just past the stairs. We found
arm and led us into the fabric just past the stairs. We found
ourselves at the top of a staggeringly high set of stadium seating. A
smal space halfway down, two empty chairs, awaited us.
We took our seats just as the lights were dimmed, a single
spotlight trained on the center ring of the circus stage down below.
Trumpets blaring an intimidating opening fel quiet as drums
pounded. A gentleman, the balding man who owned the
Apothecary, stepped out to the sound of rigorous applause and
whistles. His emerald green suit went against the bright red shoes
and checkered print blouse he wore.
"Greetings al to the Circus of Bizarre, an annual tradition
here at Charon! I am the great Ringmaster Rooney here to show
you everything that wil go wrong, sily, and downright
mischievous," he finished with a twist of his mustache. "Be patient
ladies and gentlemen, for a surprise waits behind our door, like our
residential lion ful of roar!"
A light came to life in the far left end, spotlighting a woman
in a nude suit and a fake crest of hair framing her face. She gave a
sultry little pose before morphing into a ful-sized lion. The crowd
started to clap enthusiasticaly as I seemed to be the only one
confused.
Leaning in to Kayden's shoulder I did my best to whisper
as quietly as I could. "They're using shape-shifters instead of real
animals?"
He nodded enthusiasticaly as he kept his eyes glued to the
circus floor. "That's our version of a circus. In case you haven't
noticed, we don't realy folow a standard protocol."
noticed, we don't realy folow a standard protocol."
I sat back in my seat, frowning. A circus was supposed to
be about animals doing tricks, knowing that at any given moment
they could snap and eat the ringmaster or go insane and stampede
through the crowd. But who was I to judge? It had been obvious
from the start that nothing ran like it did in the mortal half of the
world. It was only fitting a circus would be as perversely weird and
as unusualy different than anything else in the world.
The acts continued one by one, each animal starting off as
a beautiful woman dressed in a nude suit with a piece of their
animal to decorate with. Lions, tigers, rhinos, even elephants al
came to life on the stage, each performing a couple of tricks before
returning to the dark shadows of the floor.
After several displays of boa constrictors speling words in
the ground, the ringmaster spoke as loud as he could over the wild
applause. "And now, for the grand finale I give you the beautiful
Cassandra and her half-demon lover Chase as our entangling
trapeze duo!"
I felt my blood turn to a cold sludge and thunder in my
ears. Immediately I started shaking Kayden violently and searching
for the nearest exit. "We have to leave right now. If Cassie's here
that means she's going to see me and her and Chase wil kil me
and- Kayden?"
Kayden hadn't moved an inch despite everything I had
said. His eyes looked permanently frozen in a gleeful stare to the
center of the circus stage. One look around confirmed it; hundreds
of faces al had the same cheerful smile and dol-eyed wide eyes
focused on the floor down below.
focused on the floor down below.
"Pity, isn't it? That your little precious boy toy is unable to
help you need it most," a catty voice sounded from above. Cassie
sat on one of the trapeze swings as it gently rocked back and forth.
"I can't imagine what that could be like. Oh, wait."
I stood up from my seat, taking in more frozen faces.
"You're supposed to be dead. Kayden kiled the two of you that
night in the apartment, I saw it!"
"Please." She jumped off the swing and landed soundlessly
onto a couple of steps below. "You watched Chase die, we both
did. He never kiled me."
She looked nothing like the Cassie I had remembered from
our days of sharing secrets in class, of sleepovers and shopping
excursions. Her uncut knee-length black hair had been traded in
for a short violet bob. Patches of colors randomly appeared on her
skin, making her look bruised one minute and colored in with a
sharpie the next. This wasn't my Cassie, not any more. The Cassie
I knew had long since been swalowed alive and offered like
fodder to her inner turmoil to look forever young.
"Must be so proud, being a necromancer and al," I said
slowly, caling my inner fire to every inch of my body. Like
Kayden, if she touched me she'd be engulfed in flames in a matter
of seconds. "How is Chase?"
"Why don't you ask him for yourself? I'm sure he'd love to
chat before ripping out your heart like that demon did to him," she
hissed but stayed in place. "Are you surprised to see us? Shame
we had to catch you off guard like that, but it's realy al for Chase
over there. You see, he loves the taste of fear in blood."
over there. You see, he loves the taste of fear in blood."
Taking another step backward I nodded, encouraging her
to keep talking. I could feel the sensation of my fire just under the
fingertips of my skin, ready for action. "How did you know where
to find me? Charon isn't exactly a high-traffic area."
"But it is for supernaturals like yourself," she skittered
closer, closing the gap I'd been creating between us. "You needed
to find your caling, a little place to cal home. Chase said it would
only be a matter of time before you showed yourself asking about
what you were." She shook her head and laughed. "Such a sily
little freak."
The pendant around my neck began to glow in spurts and
flash like a warning signal. Cassie looked down for the smalest
second, taking her eyes off of me. My arm jerked up as fire burst
in a violent stream in her chest. She toppled backwards, shrieking
as the flames covered her chest and arms, spreading faster than I'd
ever seen it.
"Now
that
was a truly stupid move, Essie," Chase's voice
loomed overhead. I looked up into the pitch black top of the tent in
shock as dozens of demons dropped down from the ceiling, each
one exactly like the one I had seen in my dream. "You made me go
and use my new little pet on you."
"Come out and show your face!" I screamed as the
demons charged for me claws extended. I ran over to Kayden's
frozen form and did the first thing that came to mind. Shoving my
hand onto his face, I set him on fire too.
The effect was instant. Kayden screamed, exploding into
The effect was instant. Kayden screamed, exploding into
smoke. The second he re-formed he started to swear at me until he
saw the others heading our way. I didn't need to tel him that if they
took a hold of me, everything would be over.
Kayden opened his mouth and exploded again into black
smoke, trailing through the whole room. People started to stir,
instantly recoiling and screaming in horror as they took in the sight
of a burning corpse and demons scrambling about.
A figure blocked my sight of the demons and smoke,
Chase's newly mangled form even more grotesque than when he'd
been alive. He gave me his best dagger-toothed smile before
reaching out and wrapping his hands around my throat.
"Let her go!" A familiar voice soared from above. Abigail
swung her feet into Chase's face, sending him flying into a crowd of
screaming people. She landed with grace and puled out four sharp
ninja stars from thin air, flinging them straight for Chase. "Essalie,
get out of here now!"
I didn't need to be told twice. Scrambling up the steps I
got halfway there when someone grabbed the back of my dress
and punched the back of my spine, hard. Cassie's voice whispered