The Legend of the Blue Eyes (10 page)

“You really need to go to sleep,” he said,
as he scooped her into his arms and carried her back to her
room.

“But I can’t fall asleep,” she complained,
struggling to get out of his grasp. “It’s still too noisy in this
house.”

“You have to get used to it. Your sense of
hearing has increased now, and it won’t change,” he added.

“But,” she began to complain again.

Devin sat down on the bed beside her.
Arianna stared in shock as he began to unbutton his shirt.

“What are you doing?” she asked, moving away
from him.

“Come here,” he directed in a serious tone.
He patted the bed and patiently waited. She slowly crawled back to
him, sitting on the edge of the bed. Devin took her hand and placed
it on his bare chest. “There’s something a dearg-dul can hear even
better than voices.”

Arianna felt his heart beating beneath her
hand. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on the sound of the blood
rushing through his body. Arianna began to feel the outside world
dimming. She could no longer hear the guests at the party, or the
maid down the hall. Everything was covered up by the gentle
thumping of Devin’s heart. Arianna felt her body being moved, but
she didn’t fight it. The urge to sleep was slowly drawing over her.
Without the distracting noises around her, she could finally
rest.

“Devin,” she asked, as she drifted off to
sleep. “Promise me that you will always take care of me.”

“Of course,” he replied as she drifted
off

Arianna lifted her head slightly and heard a
rush of noises around her. The bird outside chirped loudly, the
maids clicked as they walked down the marble hallways, and the
clanking of dishes told her it was already daytime. Arianna felt
the warmth of her pillow before realizing her pillow had a pulse.
She opened her eyes, in the dim light, and to her surprise, she
found she was lying on Devin’s bare chest. Swiftly, she sat up and
moved away from him to the other side of the bed.

“I knew you were tired, but thirteen hours
is a long time to sleep,” he complained, as he placed the paper he
was reading on the nightstand.

“What…” she began to ask, but fumbled with
her words. Here she was lying in a bed with a half-naked boy with
absolutely no memory of the previous night.

Devin smiled. “You don’t remember last
night?” he asked, knowing it would be fun to tease her a bit
more.

Arianna blushed from head to toe as she
tried to look away from Devin. Arianna’s experience with boys was
rather limited. While many girls her age were allowed to date, Aunt
Lilly and Uncle Dean had told her she would have to wait until she
was older. For the most part, Arianna didn’t care, as she was too
busy helping with the diner. In reality though, she wanted to hang
out with her friends more, and the prospects of dating were quite
scary. Every boy she had ever had a crush on was impossible to talk
to. When she finally liked a boy, she couldn't make complete
sentences when alone with him, even if just in a hallway at
school.

Devin cautiously reached for her hand as she
obviously, for a reason unknown to him, became frightened by the
situation. Arianna moved to stand, but instead felt her legs
weaken, and she ended up back on the bed. Without looking up, her
face continued to glow red. Devin tried to catch her gaze, but she
avoided him.

“Have I done something to offend you?” he
asked as he looked down at himself. Devin buttoned his shirt and
smiled. “Are you feeling okay?”

“My legs feel a little weak,” Arianna
replied, grabbing a pillow to try to hide behind.

Devin moved to try to catch her gaze, but
she still refused to look at him. “That’s because you aren’t
completely transformed yet. You use up your blood too quickly.”

Arianna peeked up at him. “Will it always be
like this?” she asked.

“No. It will get better as you learn to
control things, such as your sensitive hearing. Doing things that
are beyond human ability uses the blood you drink. So the more you
do, the more blood you will need,” he explained.

“How did you make me go to sleep last
night?” she asked. “I tried to sleep, but everything was too
noisy.”

“I read in one of my books that you’d be
drawn to the sound the heart makes. Just by touching my skin, you
can hear it, can’t you?” He waited for her to understand. Arianna
nodded. “It seems that’s enough to block out all other sounds.”

“Does that mean every time
I want to sleep, you have to be there?” she asked, blushing again
as she found herself wanting to add
half
naked
.

“Are you afraid of me?” he replied with a
question. Arianna shook her head no. There was nothing scary about
Devin. He had been kind to her since the first moment she talked to
him. He was very quiet, which made her always wonder what he was
thinking, but he wasn’t scary. “You are doing your best to hide
behind that pillow like I might jump over there and attack you.”
Arianna looked down at the pillow she was still hugging. “Like you
think I’m a monster. Let me reassure you, I’m human. You should be
able to tell.”

“It’s just that this is all a little weird,”
she replied. “I’ve never even dated a boy, and here I wake up in
the same bed with a boy I’ve only known for two days. Aunt Lilly
would kill me if she knew,” Arianna accidentally blurted out before
turning bright red again.

“Oh that’s the problem?” he replied with a
laugh. “Then don’t worry. You’ve known me much longer than two
days. In fact, we met over ten years ago.” Arianna slightly dropped
her defensive pillow. “You don’t remember? You told me that you
would marry me when we got older.” Arianna began to blush.

“But I don’t remember that,” Arianna
replied, trying to remember ever meeting Devin.

“I came here right after my family was
killed. Your grandfather took me in. He felt bad for me because he
was too late to stop my family from dying,” Devin explained.
Arianna concentrated on Devin’s face as he spoke in the dimly-lit
room. She could see the honesty in his crisp blue eyes. “I was only
seven-years-old when I first met you. You were already asleep when
we arrived back here, so your grandfather didn’t want to wake you
to introduce you to me. Instead, he just tucked me into the bed
next to you, and told me to sleep. After losing my family in the
middle of the night, I found comfort in this strange place where
everyone slept during the day. When I woke, it was already evening
again, and I began to panic until I realized I wasn’t alone in the
room. The girl who had been sleeping during the day was now awake,
watching me. I was scared, so you offered to play with me.” Devin
paused as he thought of a childhood that Arianna couldn’t remember.
“You were only there a week because it was your last week living
with us. Your grandfather had been picking up Lilly and Dean to
bring them back to meet you when he saved me. At the end of the
week, you told me that you were going on a long trip, but someday
you would come back and marry me.”

Arianna giggled. “Did I really say that?”
she asked, mortified at her bold younger self.

“Yes, but I suppose it doesn’t count if you
don’t remember. Oh yeah, not to mention the fact you told two of
the butlers, three maids, and your favorite cook you wanted to
marry them also,” he added before breaking out into laughter.
Arianna smiled as she watched him. Since she had first seen him in
her math class, she had never heard him laugh. He was always so
serious about everything. Even being with him almost constantly for
two days, she had yet to see him honestly smile.

“You’re a lot cuter when you smile,” she
added. It was Devin’s turn to blush.

“I’m not your type,” he replied, trying to
cover up his embarrassment.

“And how would you know who is my type?” she
asked.

“I know everything about you,” he replied,
looking out the nearest window to avoid her gaze.

“What?” Arianna replied. How could someone
who sat in the back of the room know anything about her? They had
only just first talked together two days ago. “Doubt it,” she
added.

“You love chocolate, but only if it’s dark
chocolate. You return home every day at 3:48 to help the cook chop
vegetables for the evening meal. Your prized treasure is a small
bracelet Lilly gave you that she told you came from your mother. On
weekends you change clothes at least twice a day because you
finally have freedom from your school uniform. You love daisies and
hate roses. Should I go on?” he asked as her mouth dropped. He was
correct. He knew her quite well. “Now, I promised you last night to
give you answers after you had time to sleep. Do you have any
questions?”

Arianna stared at him, unable to form a
sentence. How could he know so much? Devin smiled and laughed at
her confused face.

“I can leave then?” he asked as he stood
up.

“No, wait,” she called, reaching over the
bed and grabbing his arm. Devin sat down beside her. “Why do you
know so much about me?”

“It’s my job,” he replied. “Like you
believed about yourself, I have no family. I owe everything in my
life to your grandfather. He took me in, gave me a home, and raised
me. This is the only way I know how to pay him back: taking care of
the most precious person to him in the world, his granddaughter.”
Devin’s sincerity brought back her questions.

“What is a baku?” Arianna asked, remembering
the word Gabriel used the night before. “Gabriel said I’m a
purebred dearg-dul, and a purebred baku.”

“Like dearg-duls, baku are also night
creatures that survive on blood. You met a group of them the first
night I picked you up from Gabriel’s house. Those men with long
white hair and pale skin were all baku,” Devin explained. “There
are four types of night humans you will encounter: dearg-dul,
lycan, baku, and tengu. You have met dearg-duls, as most of the
people here last night were dearg-duls who are loyal to your
grandfather. They are what you would call a vampire. Mixed in with
the guests last night were also lycans, or what you’d picture as
werewolves. Your uncle and cousin are both baku, a night human
that’s like a vampire but can also feed on dreams and feelings.
Tengu are more like lycan because they feed on meat as well as
blood, but instead of being a bit on the furry side, they grow
large wings that can support their body weight and allow them to
fly. There were no baku or tengu at last night’s party. Night
humans don’t get along too well.”

“Were my parents human like you?” Arianna
wondered.

“No, your father was a baku and your mother
a dearg-dul.”

“And that’s why my families don’t like each
other?” Arianna asked.

“For hundreds of years, baku and dearg-duls
have been fighting for control of the night. Lycans and tengu,
which don’t necessarily need blood, but can eat raw meat to feed,
each joined sides of the fight. Lycans allied themselves with
dearg-dul and tengu with the baku, but it’s really just a fight
between both baku and dearg-duls who need human blood to survive.
Your grandfather is the leader of the dearg-duls. He had been
leading the fight since he was a teenager against Gabriel, the
leader of the baku.”

“My parents both came from different sides?
Like Romeo and Juliet?” Arianna asked. Devin nodded. “And you are
human. Do humans get involved in this also?”

“Mostly not by choice,” Devin replied.

“Why would my grandfather take a human child
home to this strange life?” Arianna asked.

“Because my family was murdered by a baku as
they slept. Whether I want to or not, I’m involved in this. Now,
though, I’m here by choice,” Devin replied. “I can leave at any
time if I wished. Your grandfather has told me, time and time
again, he would get me out of here with a new identity and all, but
I want to stay.”

“So, you were raised here amongst night
humans?” Arianna asked.

“Yes, but as you will find, there are almost
as many normal humans as night humans living here at your
grandfather’s estate,” Devin replied.

“Then you
can
tell me about the
blue eye legend,” Arianna deduced.

“All that I’m allowed to say is what you
already know. When a person turns into the dearg-dul form, whether
their eyes are blue, green, or brown, they all turn a reddish brown
color when they transform. Your eyes do not.” Devin explained.
“There’s a legend that goes along with finding a dearg-dul with
blue eyes, but your grandfather has forbid us to tell you it. He
doesn’t want you to feel added pressure to live up to some legend.”
Arianna nodded. She could understand her grandfather’s reasoning,
but she still wanted to know.

“Can you at least tell me the basics of
dearg-duls? Are they like vampires in the movies?” Arianna asked
only to be interrupted by the distinct clicking sound of Molina’s
boots. Arianna turned to the door, and Devin stood to open it.