The Fairy’s jaws snapped shut and opened again as it pursued her around Valek’s office. Pieces of equipment were trashed, important documents flew all over the room, and chunks of countertops and walls were in splinters—smashed by the Fae trying to get to Charlotte. Black saliva dripped from its teeth as it finally cornered Charlotte in a space between two, thick bookshelves. Its snapping jaws only inches from her face.
Valek appeared. Gripping its cranium with his large hands, he snapped the creature’s neck in half with a crunch.
The Fae fell to the floor, its wings thrashing in its final death throes. It became drenched in its own blue-black blood, which oozed from its mouth and soaked the bottom of Charlotte’s shiny, black Mary Janes.
She stood there screaming, watching the monster die. Valek quickly grabbed her into his arms and ran her up to his bedroom, all the while shielding her from the smell now permeating his office. It had been the only time in her life she had ever been welcomed into
his
room.
Valek sat Charlotte on the edge of his bed, her tiny legs dangling over. He knelt in front of her and wiped the tears away from her face. She only stared at him, crying, and screaming as loud as her little lungs possibly could. He wiped the stuff away from her nose with one of his puffy sleeves and hushed her gently.
“Hush, Lottie. Don’t cry,” he whispered.
She sniffled, but the tears continued to fall. He set her on his lap; the ruffles of her little, red dress upped around her knees. He brushed the hair out of her face and flashed the largest smile he could conjure. However, the sight of his fangs did little to calm her.
“Lottie. Little Lottie.” He hummed gently.
Charlotte was eased then by his velvet voice and quieted.
“You see? You are all right. It was just a big bug. I squashed it for you.” He managed to smile slightly less horrifyingly that time.
“S-squashed it?” She rubbed at her eyes. He took her small hands in his and balanced her on his knees.
“Yes. I squashed it,” he said valiantly.
She let out a tiny smile.
“That’s it. Everything is okay now.”
Charlotte nodded at him. He kissed her forehead and explained she really was very different from him and everyone else who lived in the Occult. He explained further how she was special
because
she was different and that was exactly why he loved her so very much.
That
was the first time Charlotte ever fully understood.
She blinked back the memory and rubbed at her eyes as they grew heavy. She decided she would just go to sleep early instead of staying up into the wee hours of the morning. Valek had preoccupied himself for the evening anyway. It had been a while since she had been awake during the day, and she decided tomorrow she would escape for a few hours in the sunlight.
She took one last glance at the following chapter in the volume entitled
The Daily Death of a Vampire
and put the book away on the very top shelf. She didn’t want Valek to find out she had been studying it again. Though, as she did so, she recalled the unnerving information the previous chapter of the book withheld.
Every morning at sunrise, Valek’s body stopped working. His eyes sunken deep into their sockets, his breathing growing more and more staggered, his joints popping and whining as his last breaths rattled from him. The death of any type of person was not something pleasant to watch, but the daily death of a Vampire beat out most. He never wanted Charlotte to see him like that. Normally she locked herself in her own bedroom, shut all the curtains, and tried to muffle out the sound of Valek’s moaning with her pillows until she eventually fell asleep.
“Lottie.”
Valek’s musical voice stopped her halfway up the staircase. She looked down to see him quickly wipe something away from one corner of his mouth. Charlotte appreciated Valek always being careful to never expose her to his feeding habits, though seeing blood barely bothered her anymore.
“Going to sleep early tonight?”
She shuddered, trying to dispel the deathly images of his “sleep” from the book. “Yes. I think I might go for a hike tomorrow…while the sun is out.”
He smiled uncomfortably. “Yes, well...say hello to it for me.”
Charlotte understood his unbridled fascination with the sunlight—like an unrequited romance.
When Valek turned to retreat to his office, she began once more up the stairs.
“Lottie?” He stopped her again.
She turned back again to see he had returned to the same spot, as if he had never moved.
“Be careful tomorrow, please.”
“I’m always careful.”
“I still do not like the fact that you had to go all the way into the city for me tonight.” He sighed and pushed back an unruly lock of dark, brown hair which had fallen into his severe face, the rest tied neatly back with a black ribbon.
Charlotte waited for him to continue.
“I know it must disturb you on some level to have to hunt for me. I simply...do not know how else to handle our unique situation.”
Charlotte’s mouth fell open, but nothing came out. Valek had never addressed his feelings about this before. He rarely revealed his personal feelings at all. She descended a few steps to stand eye-to-eye with him.
“It's okay. I don't mind it, really. I much prefer things this way than what the alternative would be.” She smiled.
“It is not a joke to me, Lottie,” he said seriously. “If anything is ever bothering you or makes you uncomfortable, I expect you to come to me about it.”
“Of course I will. Who else would I go to?”
He squeezed the bottom of her chin affectionately. They regarded each other for the last time that evening and retreated to their own corners of the house.
Charlotte thought about her five-year-old self against the Fairy again as she crawled into her bed and pulled the covers around her shoulders. She smiled when she thought of Valek’s horrifying grin that day, but the memory of how he’d bounced her on his knee, like a daughter, stung insatiably. The Fairy’s long jagged teeth were much scarier than Valek’s fangs.
She gripped the covers tighter around her neck and closed her eyes. The image of Valek wiping the blood away from his mouth flashed in her mind.
Blood
, from a human just like her. Frowning, she turned over and thought of Evangeline again. Charlotte noticed Valek’s eyes brighten when she told him about the Witch’s plans to stop by tomorrow. Her heart sank a little deeper in her chest and she flipped over again, staring at the ceiling.
Charlotte recalled Valek’s smile after Evangeline hugged him as a “thank you” for fixing her. If he’d been physically able to blush, he probably would have. Flesh wounds never took Valek very long to sew up, but he gave so much attention to Evangeline’s that night, taking a longer amount of time to ensure that the gash would scar as little as possible.
Nothing
would ruin Evangeline’s perfection.
The Witch
was
beautiful, with the brightest eyes that always seemed to pop against her tanned skin and dark hair—Moravian. Nothing like Charlotte’s spiraled, red curls and pallid skin. Evangeline was tall, like the models advertised on the sides of the building walls in Prague. If she were human, she’d probably be plastered there with the rest of them.
To Charlotte’s surprise, she felt her eyes well up with stinging tears. She squeezed the bottom of her own chin, replaying in her mind Valek’s action from just a few moments ago—how parental it felt. Valek would never see her as anything other than a child. She couldn’t remember what the catalyst was that caused her feelings for him to change, but Charlotte needed to live with the fact, as his adopted daughter, she could never be anything else to him
A single tear rolled down the side of Charlotte’s face. She needed to guard these embarrassing, miserable thoughts from him at all costs. He would never understand the way she felt.
She turned on her side again, and let herself drift to sleep.
Chapter Two
Stripped
Charlotte’s torturous thoughts from last night resurfaced in her mind the instant she opened her eyes the next morning. But she couldn’t think of him anymore. It was daytime. He was resting. And she was leaving.
The day was much cooler than the night before, the air crisp, smelling like burnt cinnamon and baked red apples as it drifted through Charlotte's window. It was her most favorite time of year, and that was what she would decidedly focus on today.
She got dressed in a hurry and skipped to her vanity, carefully running a beaded comb through her tousled, dark red curls. Why couldn’t she have hair that was fine and straight, like Evangeline’s? Men’s eyes always lingered when Evangeline ran her slender fingers through it.
She grasped her canvas satchel, swung it over her shoulder, and skipped to the second story landing of the staircase, but Valek's bolted bedroom caught the corner of her eye. Its ornately gothic doors were shut tight, letting no pinch of light enter between the thin crevices as it stared back at her down the long hallway. She frowned at it, feeling badly he had to be trapped there during the beautiful, warm daylight. She pushed one curl behind her ear before she started again downstairs.
Quickly, she grabbed a loaf of sourdough and jam from the ice chest in the dark, empty kitchen, before rushing through the foyer to the front door.
Once outside, Charlotte sucked in the clean air and let the sun heat her skin. Valek had warned her about her lack of vitamin D since she was kept pale by her nocturnal life. He demanded she at least go out weekly during the daytime to stay healthy. It worried him, though, that she would be out on her own, beyond the reach of his protection.
The streets of the Bohemian Occult were abandoned of all but the Elves and a few non-nocturnal Phasers, creatures who looked human but were able to shape-shift. Charlotte had grown up playing with a lot of the Elven children, as they were closer to human than the others. They ate normal food, though most were vegetarian, and they were mortal, except they aged much slower than human beings.
Near the end of the town square, next to an Elven church, across from the pub the Witches liked to frequent, there was Broucka General Store. It was the shop she went to every time she was out for the day because it sold everything from fresh meats and fruits, to specialty potions and knick-knacks laced with psychic energy—things she might need for a night of hunting.
“Edwin?” Charlotte called to her favorite clerk, pushing through the noisy curtain of stones that rained down from the front doors. Enchanted, red clay birds twittered around Charlotte's head as a welcome before disappearing to the wooden rafters of the shop ceiling.
“Hello there, Charlotte!” A small demon poked his head out from behind a tall oak shelf of crystal potion bottles. “I’ll be with you in five minutes.” He went back with his rag to finish polishing. The purple stained glass of the bottle he dusted distorted his burlap face into a funny jug shape that forced Charlotte to smile. Edwin was the strangest creature she had come across in her lifetime so far—something like a living scarecrow, with potato-sack skin and button eyes.
“No problem. I’m just going to browse.” Charlotte peered into the cases of rotating quartz pyramids and evil eyes that blinked back at her. On top of one counter sat lightning in a bottle, jumping around on the wooden surface.
“Uh...Edwin?” she called nervously as she watched the lightning bottle skitter closer to the counter’s edge.
The bottle leapt over, and was caught at once by two small stitched hands.
“Got it!” Edwin smiled at Charlotte through thick bottle-cap spectacles. “I don't know why the boss even wants this on display. I don't see how anyone would want to buy it.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “It's…interesting.” She was only recently acquainted with Edwin when he began working there, but they’d become fast friends.
“What can I do for you today?”
“I am going out for the day. Have anything fresh?” She grinned.
Edwin placed both hands atop the counter and leaned in close to her, whispering, “You're leaving the Occult city again, Charlotte?”
She nodded.
“That is a bad idea. A very bad idea.” He started to sputter. “Bad, bad, bad.” His fists twisted in the material of his coat, a habit when Edwin sensed danger. But Charlotte didn’t like to let Edwin’s little episodes bother her. They rarely came to fruition. She only rolled her eyes at him.
“No…no, I don't think you should. I definitely d-don't….”
The lightning bottle leapt off the countertop again, but this time Edwin was too distracted to catch it. The glass shattered on the ground. The electricity zapped, breaking the other glass bottles, tearing chunks of wood from the walls. Owls and bats screeched in their cages, and Charlotte and Edwin were completely knocked off their feet.
She slowly lifted herself up and dusted off, looking around to see the spotless store was now in utter chaos. A few of the black rats had even escaped and were scurrying for a hiding spot.
Edwin gripped the edge of the countertop and pulled himself up as well. Charlotte laughed when he coughed out a puff of smoke, beams of electricity zapping off the ends of his spiky, black hair.
“No offense, but leaving the Occult seems a lot safer than staying here,” she said smugly, and put out a small flame flickering at the point of one hair spike.
“I really doubt it, Charlotte. It’s one thing to leave at night when
they
don't keep watch as much....” Edwin wiped the soot from the material of his face.
“Edwin, I'll be fine. I do it every night when I’m hunting for Valek. And anyway, it’s
because
I am human their stupid magical laws don’t apply to me. Remember?”
“That just makes it all the more d-dangerous. They will find out you live here. You are not only putting yourself in danger, but Valek, too. Can you not see that?”
“Who’s going to catch me, Edwin? I'm telling you, it’s fine. And I’m going.” Charlotte walked to the large barrels of produce and sifted through apples. “I’ve gotten away with living here my whole life. I don’t see how anything has changed.”
Edwin hobbled behind her, wringing his hands nervously in the washrag. “N-no. I-I r-really think t-that you should j-just stay—”
Charlotte placed a hand on his shoulder. “What do I owe you for the apple?”
Edwin mumbled something undecipherable and waved his hand at her as if to say she owed him nothing. She smiled affectionately, placed two hellers in his hand, kissed his cheek, and left his shop.
She made her way into the suburban district of the village where groups of Elven children were on their way to school. She recognized a few of her old friends and waved, instantly missing the times when they used to play together. She hadn’t the time to be around them for a while now with her responsibilities of hunting for Valek. She sighed.
One of the Elven boys called out from a small group. “Charlotte!”
Aiden Price, a woodland Elf with feathered, auburn hair and bright green eyes.
She’d kept her schoolgirl crush between herself and her sketchbook since she was thirteen; the sight of him still made her heart beat a little quicker.
“Hi, Aiden!”
He ran to her, lifting her a few feet off the ground in an enormous hug. He had been her very best friend until she stopped coming out in the daylight.
“How’s Mom doing?” Charlotte asked. She always adored, Meredith, who had been her caretaker when she was too little to care for herself, and when Valek wasn’t available.
“She’s great! And Valek?” he asked, adjusting the books in his arms.
“He’s doing really well. Busy too, though.” She smiled.
She hated the awkward pause that settled over them. Their hours of deep conversation about mutual had been reduced to meaningless small talk.
Charlotte blushed, not knowing what else to say. One of the other Elves called Aiden’s name. She exhaled, relieved, and also a little sad.
“Well, I better be getting to school. You’re so lucky you had Valek growing up.” He laughed. “No teachers.”
“Right! Valek is just as strict as any teacher of yours! Trust me.” She rolled her eyes. When Aiden chuckled and tucked a stray curl behind one of her ears, she blushed an even deeper shade.
The other Elven boys waiting for Aiden had already begun to start again without him. Noticing this, he said, “Well, it was nice seeing you, finally.”
“You too, Aiden!”
“Let me know the next time you decide to be normal. Maybe we can get together or something,” he offered as he started to walk backward to catch up with his group.
“Sure! You got it.” She bit her lower lip and made her way in the other direction.
The canopied pathway extending past the Elven houses remained dark in spite of the bright day. Charlotte lifted her gaze to see the dense covering of mangled vines and branches that blocked out the sunlight almost completely. The tunnel was so void of light and life, the sound of birds singing wasn’t even present like it would be in a normal forest.
Traveling this pathway during the dark hours for Valek was much scarier. At night, it was impossible to see through the blackness between the trees and bushes. If Charlotte really
were
being followed last night, she’d never know until whomever it was caught up with her. She shivered.
The roads leading beyond the Occult were completely abandoned. None of the creatures ever dared to cross the borders anymore, which made her feel a little dangerous. The inhabitants were too afraid even to travel to the other secret cities since the wizard Vladislov had taken power and smothered his people with laws. But Charlotte had done this a thousand times before, and no old wizard was going to stop her now. Technically, she wasn’t among the
magical
, so technically she didn’t have to abide by magical law. At least, that was
her
logic.
She casually crossed under the old iron gate that disguised the outer edges of the Occult city to look like a cemetery. That was the façade anyway, with the seemingly ancient, unmarked tombstones plotted over the overgrown, grassy field. Even if a normal human being
did
stumble upon this gate, it was a long way past the tombs and mausoleums, through the forested, canopied path to her village. The minute another human crossed the Occult border was the minute they were Valek’s supper, though it was rare.
Charlotte adjusted the strap of the satchel slung over her shoulder, as she walked down the dirt road, passing fields of wildflowers and crops.
The glorious sun beat down on the greenness of the grass, causing her entire world to explode with colors that contrasted with her normal night habits. Her eyes stung, but she realized how much she missed it. There were a few farmers harvesting in one of the fields and they nodded at her as she passed. She smiled back politely, but dared not utter a single word. It was always best for her to remain as invisible as possible.
She often thought about what it would be like to be normal, like them—to go to school with kids her age, to have parents. But every time she thought about this, she thought about a life without Valek, and instantly remembered it wasn’t worth it.
Looking up, Charlotte let the warmth of the day soak her face. It had been such a long time since she felt natural warmth on her skin. Her world always seemed to be cool and quiet. She didn’t complain, but a change was nice every now and again.
A little ways down the road, a small car slowly puttered past her as the people inside smiled at the day outside. A family outing. Charlotte looked down at the dirt as she walked and thought of Valek again.
Finally, she reached the familiar spot where the road rambled all the way to Prague and a rickety, old, wooden sign pointed solemnly toward a clump of trees. The beginning of a dense forest that was home to the quietest, most peaceful place Charlotte could think of. She peered around, making sure she had no followers, and disappeared into the thick blades of grass that grew all the way to the top of her head. Swimming through a sea of overwhelming green, she came out on the other side into the clearing, where the tall blades ended and the evergreen forest began.
She’d made this trek periodically since she was around ten or so, and she knew exactly which trees marked the trail. The first time she had done it, she tied little pieces of red ribbon on branches to find her way back. There were still a few pieces hanging ragged among the winding twigs, claiming this trail was still hers.
She grabbed onto the low-growing branches to steady herself over the boulders and surprising dips in the earth. It wasn’t so much a clear path, as it was a winding maze of twigs and leaves she carefully had to push her way through. But there was no threat of falling—she knew this forest too well. She eyed the break in the overgrowth a few feet ahead.
Once she finally reached her favorite clearing, by a waterfall she’d lovingly adopted as her own personal hideaway, she sat down on the large, flat boulder face that loomed like a shelf over the pond surface. She took off her shoes and carefully slipped her feet in the cool water. Reaching deep into her satchel, she pulled out the shiny, red apple and bit into its ruby skin. The juices exploded over her lips and dripped in rivulets down her chin.
The forest was a symphony that day. The breeze through the nooks of rock faces and tree branches were the woodwinds, the birdsong high above in the canopy, the strings, and the water plummeting into the pond, the percussion. Charlotte listened contently as she took another bite of her apple and swung her feet around, causing ripples in the water’s surface.
Muggy warmth entrapped under the forest canopy made her eyes heavy. She looked at her watch. It was only two o’clock. This happened every time she decided to stay awake for the day. But she fought falling asleep here, where she could be caught by some wondering human or rogue monster. As she leaned back against a thick tree trunk, the heat and the lullaby of the woods made napping seem more and more appealing. An enormous yawn unleashed itself as she stretched her arms wide. She couldn’t help it; her eyes began to close.