Authors: Alivia Anders
headed upstairs. Down the halway I heard Jayson say, "That
means you might as wel sit tight for another half hour." Boys. I bit
my tongue and started up the steps, making a mental note to let
everyone know Jayson stil sings in the shower higher than Michael
Jackson when the time was right.
Stumbling down the steps in the boots and snowsuit I'd
brought before moving to Maine I met Kayden at the bottom of the
steps a couple of minutes later. The original plan had been that I
would hide inside for al the freakish weather. I hadn't actualy
planned on using any of it.
We walked outside, Jayson helping me most of the way so
I didn't slip and rol downhil. Kayden's jet black Hummer sat at
the bottom of our driveway, virtualy brand new. I bet he hadn't
even put on a hundred miles on it yet. Once inside the car Jayson
waved us off as we turned off the road and made our way into
town.
"So, five minutes, eh?" Kayden snickered as he kept his
eyes on the road. I punched him on the shoulder, fire exploding
from the contact. He only sighed and let his arm vanish into nothing
before reforming back to its original form.
"If you couldn't do that smoke-thing I don't think there'd be
anything left of you by now," I said thoughtfuly, staring out the
anything left of you by now," I said thoughtfuly, staring out the
window as he drove slower than a snail down the main road.
Almost everyone was outside helping one another shovel out
doorways and windows. Smal barrels of fire lined down the road
every few feet. A sudden thought dawned upon me and I turned to
Kayden. "We're not realy going to Abigail's, are we?"
He pursed his lips and adjusted his grip on the steering
wheel ever so slightly. "You're realy not going to like me after this."
"Are you kidnapping me?" I asked hesitantly. If he said yes
I had a feeling jumping from the car and running home would leave
me with minor injuries.
Thankfuly he laughed. "Do you think I would have spent
al that time getting to know your brother if I was planning on
kidnapping you? Please." He made a turn and headed down the
road before making a sharp right into the development Leo lived in.
"Don't worry, we won't be alone if that's what you're afraid of."
He brought the car to a stop inside a driveway, came over
to my door and did his best to help me out without touching each
other. With both feet on solid ground I looked up to the mansion in
front of us. The brick-and-mortar build reminded me of a colonial
set decor, from the white shutters to the marble steps and porch
leading to the large dark wood double doors carved with minimal
detailing. It looked oddly whimsical, as if someone didn't want to
leave the past behind.
Kayden and I walked up the steps, thankful someone had
already shoveled off the mass of snow and laid salt down to
prevent any ice. He knocked on the door a few times using the
brass knocker and hung back to wait.
brass knocker and hung back to wait.
One of the doors swung open. Ursula stood in the entrance
in al of her ethereal beauty dressed in a t-shirt and shorts, knee-
length socks running up her toothpick thin legs. Her already narrow
eyes thinned to slits as she pursued her lips. She gave Kayden and
I the most profoundly withering look I'd ever seen anyone do.
"Oh hel no," she finaly said and moved to close the door.
Kayden shoved his foot between the door and the frame.
One arm rested on the polished wood as he leaned inside the
frame to the house. "Be a dol and let us in, won't you?"
Her eyes locked on me over Kayden's shoulder. "And why in
the hel should I do that?"
"Must we go over al these formalities, Ursula?"
She looked from me to Kayden, jaw locked. The tension was
almost too much to bear until she finaly caved. "Fine."
Kayden ushered me inside, pressing a finger to his lips
when our eyes met. I nodded, but I stil had no clue as to why of al
the places he chose to take me to it was Ursula's house. The girl
practicaly wanted me six feet under just for the benefit of dancing
on my grave.
The door shut she spun around stil sporting the withering
look on her face. "My father's going to hear about this."
"Same excuse different day?" Kayden drawled, roling his
eyes as he walked onto their carpet with his dirty shoes. "That
man's your father the way you're the Queen of England."
"I beg your pardon?" She stepped closer, eyes burning
with a look of pure hatred. "Don't you dare insult my father-"
"No way in hel that mortal is your father, Ursula," Kayden
spat right back but his tone remained eerily calm. "Give up the
game. Why else would I be here?"
Her expression turned from hatred to despair in one
heartbeat. "You said never again, Kayden. You swore! Last time
you ousted me I nearly died."
"I told you that was an accident. I hadn't meant to point
you as a witch in the Salem trials, it was supposed to be Annie.
Water under the bridge."
"Don't you mean water over my head? They tried drowning
me you idiot. I had to fake my own death for three days!"
"At least you're pale enough to actualy fake it. Imagine if you
had color in your cheeks like you did in Rome."
"That was blood, not blush. Timothy's blood, to be exact.
That stuff lasted forever bottled."
I watched their exchange with confusion. Ursula wasn't
human, obviously, if she had been alive during the Salem Witch
Trials and stil looked like she was sixteen. "Wait a minute, what
the hel are you?" Kayden and Ursula stopped talking and looked
at me. Apparently I had been forgotten in their reminiscing.
"What is she doing here?" Ursula asked in a low tone.
Kayden shook his head as he removed his snow suit.
"She's fine, trust me. Essie has a few secrets of her own, that's why
we're here."
I didn't feel comfortable with this. My palms began to itch
as I shook my head. "I don't understand, is she a demon too?"
He busted out laughing and came over to pat my shoulder
He busted out laughing and came over to pat my shoulder
but stopped and puled his hand back slowly. "She only wishes she
was a demon. At least she wouldn't have to eat anyone then.
Ursula's one of the prettier succubi I've had the pleasure of meeting
in my ever-lasting existence."
My eyes widened and I stared at Ursula. It made so much
more sense now why she went through boyfriends like she owned
shoes. But one thing didn't make sense. "Hold up, you said eat. I
don't remember there being any murder investigations or missing
students in our school."
She gave a dainty little shrug with a smal smile. "I don't
have to be dating them to feed on them, honey. Flesh is flesh." She
examined her nails with minimal interest. "I'm trying to reform
myself and not kil the humans I fal in love with. It makes for a
much better relationship down the road."
"Stil wish you could say that with your boy-toy back in the
'20s, don't you?" Kayden laughed darkly. He took Ursula's
outstretched arm and spun her into himself before leaning her back
in a sweeping move you'd see on a balroom dance floor.
Her face briefly flashed to a look of anger. Puling back
from him and brushing her arms she muttered something under her
breath about mistakes and hunger. "Why now Kayden?"
"Long story, trust me," he said. "We need to use your library."
"Down the hal and to the right," Ursula said without pause.
Kayden shook his head. "No, I mean the other library."
She sized him up for a minute, her face twisted between
laughter and surprise. "You can't access that. It's been barred to
others for the last few hundred years."
others for the last few hundred years."
"Right along the time Alexandria was lost to the fire, I
know. We need to see it. There's a chance one of those tombs wil
hold what we need."
"What exactly is it you need, Kayden?"
"Can't tel you that."
His harshness took her back. Ursula's eyebrows slowly
rose and something flickered in her eyes. Her pupils grew until al
color vanished from her eyes, and when she smiled I noticed her
teeth had turned from perfect squares to thin spikes as white as
snow.
She sauntered forward, her hips swaying in a hypnotic
trance I found hard to look away from. "But you can, Kayden."
She cooed with the rhythm of a sweet lulaby. "You can tel me
anything. Don't you want to share your little secret with me?"
I stood there in a trance as she danced closer to his body,
each step thinning the gap between them. She stopped in front of
him and slowly arched her chest into his, curving into him like a
python wrapping around its prey. I watched as she slid her hands
one at a time under his shirt, exposing his bare skin.
A bright blue burst of flames temporarily blinded al three
of us. My hand reached out somewhere just as Ursula let out a
blood-curling scream. As the light faded I found Kayden was
pressed on top of Ursula, shielding her. The skin on her arm had
burns in the pattern of ribbons racing over her arm, the ribbon
effect matching on Kayden's arm as wel. I looked down to my
hands to see the remnants of fire stil resting on my fingertips, as if it
were waiting for a second round.
were waiting for a second round.
He sighed and stood up, folding his arms over his chest.
He looked over to me and shook his head.
"Way to let the cat out of the bag, Essie."
"I didn't mean to," I gasped and shook my hands
vigorously until the flames vanished. "I don't know what happened.
One second she was talking to you and the next the whole room
went white." I turned to Ursula, who remarkably hadn't said a
word. "I am so sorry Ursula, realy I didn't mean to."
Kayden helped Ursula up from the ground. He examined
the burn on her arm, blood pressing through the charred skin as the
remaining skin started to turn red and swel. He leaned in and
whispered into her ear, running his fingers over the wound. The
edges began to grow inward, shrinking the wound until nothing was
left. Her skin looked perfect and untouched.
"Not even a scar," Kayden said aloud, stepping back from
Ursula. "Now, the library?"
Ursula nodded and led the way. We came to a smal study
office where she flipped a light switch to open a wal that led down
a series of steps lined in crimson carpet and fake torches. The
staircase winded down to what looked initialy like a large wine
celar until the lights came on. Bookshelves packed to the brim
lined every wal and filed every nook and cranny. Aisles stretched
on forever, standing bookshelves creating and endless sea of rows
that held no end. Every so often a chair would be randomly placed
in front of the end of an aisle, books clustered around the feet of
the chair and on the cushions.
the chair and on the cushions.
Kayden and Ursula seemed completely unimpressed. I
however couldn't stop staring. It was hard to not appreciate the
mass of the colection that had to have taken them hundreds of
years easily.
"Careful with the ones on the red shelf, they require a
blood payment to read them," Ursula said over her shoulder. A thin
smile stretched on her lips as she touched her neck. I spotted a
smal butterfly shaped scar I had never seen there before. Maybe
she spoke from experience. I wondered how much she had to
sacrifice to get what she wanted in the end.
Kayden walked down the aisles slowly, scanning up and
down. He finaly settled on a smal blue leather-bound book with a
detailed gold leafing. Unlike most of the musty texts around it this
one looked virtualy untouched, as perfect as the day the creator
finished it.
He set the book down on the nearest table and beckoned
us closer. Opening it to the middle he began to flip around through
the pages. Every couple of pages I saw drawings ilustrating people
with wings drawn inside a bal of blue fire.
"Why would you have a library of the supernatural in your
basement?" I looked at Ursula out of the corner of my eyes.
She didn't meet my gaze. "It belonged to my other half."
She sniffed and made a face. "He was the academic out of us both.
First it was just a few books, next thing you knew it was every
book on spels and blood curses and creatures."
"What happened to him?"