Vampire Lies (Blood and Snow Season Book 1) (19 page)

“I gather you have an idea about what to do to stop these demura?”
Professor Pops asked.

“Maybe,” I said.

“Are you prepared for the consequences of what may happen to your brothers?” Professor Pops asked, giving Laeddin an inquisitive glance.

I sensed the quickening
of Laeddin’s pulse. He swallowed. It must be so hard for him. Knowing it was his brothers doing so much damage. I felt certain that if at some point they were anything like Laeddin, they would’ve been kind, good men. I finally understood why he hadn’t wanted to show himself to me in the cave. Laeddin had been hiding, not from the world, but from the strange creatures changing his brothers into monsters.

I reached out a placed my hand over his. He
put his other hand over mine. “We—Laeddin and I—are going to find Maleficent and ask her to remove the curse.” It made me sick to think about it. For some strange reason the idea felt wrong. Yet I couldn’t decipher why or think of a better option.

“By removing the curse, the demura will no longer have the power of a genie. It stands to reason they will
simply disappear.” Laeddin’s words were quiet and I suddenly understood something else. Something big. Something I didn’t know if I was ready to deal with. If we got Maleficent to reverse the curse and Laeddin was no longer a genie, would he continue to live? As a man, he would’ve died long ago.

“Laeddin,” I whispered, feeling an ache in my
heart.

He cleared his throat.
“If the sorceress can remove the curse, whatever the consequences, it’ll be worth it.”

No, it wouldn’t be worth it
, my mind screamed. I didn’t want to lose Laeddin. I didn’t want to be without him.

Professor Pops
pulled the book back toward him. “I will tell the chayot what your plan is.” His features softened. “Maybe you should let me tell your mom and dad too? Let them help?”

I shook my head. “No. I—we can do this.” I gave Laeddin a quick look for verification that we could in fact do this. He nodded, so I continued. “I believe Maleficent will reverse the curse and then I can get back to normal.” My shoulders turned in and I bowed my head. My wish to be normal seemed stupid, but I couldn’t change how I felt. I wanted high school? Didn’t I? Or was I just being stubborn? And didn’t want to believe my mom and dad might have been right all along? I blew out my breath.

Professor Pops’ face was grave. I figured as soon as we left he’d tell them. I just hoped Laeddin and I could accomplish our goal before my mom and dad interfered.

“
While the two of you are gone the chayot will make sure your friends are kept safe.” He stood and went to his office door. Opened it.

Laeddin and I went to the door. Professor Pops clamped a hand on Laeddin’s shoulder. “Take care of yourself.”
He turned to me. “And my granddaughter. If anything were to happen to her…” he trailed off. My stoic grandfather was choked up.

Seeing his emotions so close to the surface brought mine up as well.

“I will.” Laeddin tried to smile.

“Please let me know when you’ve returne
d,” Professor Pops said, wrapping me in a hug. “I love you, you know.”

“Love you too, Pops.”

Until that moment I’d never seen him be anything but calm and collected. I could tell by the strength of his embrace that he didn’t want to let me go.

I hugged him tighter. Help from him and my parents probably wouldn’t be so bad, but something inside wouldn’t let me ask. I wanted to do this. I wanted to prove to them that I wasn’t a child. Still, I couldn’t help wondering how my mom would handle the situation is she were me.

“We will,” I said.

Laeddin and I followed Professor Pops to the front door. Someone watched us from upstairs. I glanced up
and saw Troy. When he realized I’d caught him, he backed away.

“Thank you for stopping by.” Professor Pops opened the door and we walked into the chilled night.

Chapter
27

We walked toward the house, but I got the sense Laeddin didn’t intend to take us all the way back.
“What’s the plan?” I asked. The selfish part of me wanted to put off the confrontation with Maleficent for as long as possible. I didn’t want to lose him just like I’d lost Abby.

If Maleficent
even agrees,
my mind whispered. And part of me didn’t want her to. I kept going back to my wishes. I had two left. Couldn’t I just wish the genies were no longer demura? What would happen if I did? Would all of them disappear? Did that include Laeddin? I wasn’t ready to have him be gone.

Before Laeddin could answer, a golden carpet landed at our feet
, shimmering in the moonlight. Laeddin stepped on and held out a hand for me.

“Are you serious?” I asked, holding my ground.
Riding on something was not the same as flying with wings.

Laeddin smiled sadly. “
A magic carpet is one of my favorite ways to travel.”

I glanced around at the houses in our neighborhood. They weren’t close together. Trees, shrubs, flowers, and great expanses of land separated one house from the next. “Won’t we be seen?”

“No,” he whispered. “That’s part of the carpet’s magic.”

I hesitantly climbed on. Flying was my thing, but I hadn’t ever done it without my wings.

“It’s safe, don’t worry.” He wrapped his arms around my waist. As soon as I was on, the carpet took off. I couldn’t help it, I squealed. Laeddin chuckled. “Do you want to sit?”

We zoomed up and out over the trees.
In the distance were the lights of the city of Boston. The higher we went in the sky, the bigger the moon and stars seemed to become. We were flying fast, and the wind should’ve whipped through my hair, but it was as calm as it’d been on the ground.

“This is crazy,” I said as we flew past a tall building.

He pulled me closer. “It is,” he agreed.

“So where are we going?” I leaned over the edge, watching people and cars go by.

“Back to the home of my youth. Maleficent is still there. I want to try to sneak up on her. It’s highly unlikely that’ll happen, but maybe she’ll be asleep.” Laeddin brushed a piece of my hair out of my face.

“Okay.” I gulped down a knot of pain. “
If this is going to take a while, I may sit.” I kneeled down, pulling Laeddin down too. His aqua eyes held mine. There was so much I didn’t know about him; so much I still wanted to know. “What if I wished the world and everything but us just froze?”

Laeddin sat and crossed his legs. “What would be the purpose of that wish?” he asked, gently.

“We could have more time together,” I said simply.

“That’s not a bad wish. It’s very sweet actually.” He took my hands, weaving my fingertips with his. “But then what? We’d be together in a world held frozen in time until…”

“I know.” I sighed, un
derstanding the wish was greedy and completely irrational.

“No, I’m serious. It’s probably obvious I have feelings for you. I’ve tried to keep them
in check. When you grazed me with your teeth, it took every ounce of effort I possessed not to kiss you right then and there.”

I blinked. “I thought you were
angry.”

“I was.” He gave a wry smile. “Jasmine, I’
m an old, old man and I was pretending to be your parental guardian. It felt like if I gave in I’d be taking advantage of you, of your youth and your innocence.” As he spoke, his thumb caressed the inside of one of my hands. It was distracting.

“I’m not that young and innocent,” I said, trying not to sound too upset. I wasn’t a child for goodness sake.

“You are, Jasmine—”

I started to interrupt but he put a finger over my lips.

“The truth is, I wouldn’t mind spending several eternities with you.”

“Really?” I smiled. That was the sweetest thing I’d ever heard.

Then Laeddin did something so completely unexpected. He leaned in and kissed me.

I didn’t
dare breathe, thinking he’d remember that it was me he kissed, or he’d change his mind, but he didn’t. His lips softened, caressing mine.

Flames of desire and need and hunger arose
in me with abandon. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back with fervor.

His lips moved against mine, matching my need. Laeddin pulled me onto his lap and I wrapped my legs around him.

“Jasmine.” He said my name but I didn’t know how. His lips never left mine. They demanded more. His tongue pressed my lips apart, exploring, tangling with mine.

When our lips finally parted, we both were breathing heavily.

It was my first real kiss.

“That,” he began, taking my face in his hands, “was amazing.”

I nodded, unable to speak. I wanted to do it again. But I wanted to taste him even more. I wanted his blood in my mouth, on my tongue, in my body. I wanted him.

He seemed to recognize
my need.

“After,” he said with a smile.

Immediately I knew he meant if we got out of this situation, if he didn’t turn to dust, and we were able to be together, he’d let me drink from him. That alone increased my determination to somehow make sure he wouldn’t die.

Suddenly the world around us shimmered and we shot through
a hole in the sky. The darkness seemed to open up and swallow us and then spit us out again. I closed my eyes for the briefest moment, fighting dizziness. When I opened them again, we were in a totally new land.

“We’re here,”
Laeddin breathed.

I untangled myself from him and stood. “Where’s here?” The landscape was different than the human realm and that of Sharra. The colors seemed more vibrant. 

The carpet landed in a deep green meadow. Laeddin took my hand and we stepped off the carpet together.

“
This is the home of my youth. Welcome to Debania.”

“It’s breathtaking
,” I said, not sure where to look first.

Green ivy covere
d what I guessed had been a dwelling of some kind. It had crumbled with time and age. Colorful flowers bloomed everywhere on trees, bushes, and ground cover. The air seemed to cling to my skin, like the spray of perfume. It was heavy with spicy fragrance.

I walked over to a tree and plucked a fruit. The color
was reminiscent of an orange. I peeled back the skin and sniffed. “What kind of fruit is this?”

“May I?”

I handed the fruit over. He finished peeling it, separated one of the sections and popped it in his mouth. After he swallowed he said, “It’s an orange palm.”

“What does it taste like?” I’d never tried human food and up until that moment hadn’t ever wanted to. But the smell was amazing. I thought that if I were ever to eat human food an orange palm would be what I would want.

Laeddin smiled. It was large and full of joy. “It tastes like an orange and a pomegranate combined.”

“Mmmmm,” I said even though I didn’t know what either tasted like.

Laeddin ate another piece as he walked forward. “That used to be the main house.” He pointed at the building covered in ivy. “This was our fruit grove.” He jogged past the building. I followed. “See there?”

“Yes.” Another crumbled building was covered in more ivy.

“That was the servants’ quarters. Behind that were the stables.” He continued on.

I kept after him, enjoying his boyish excitement
, knowing he was putting off our unavoidable meeting between Maleficent. If she did reverse the curse, it would mean Laeddin would be gone and I would be alone again.

“If we were to keep going another mile or so, we’d find an incredible group of waterfalls.” He glanced at me and then in the direction of the falls. “Want to see them?”

I did. Terribly. It was wonderful seeing this side of him. “Are they close to where Maleficent lives?” I didn’t want to bring it up, but I couldn’t help myself. It was the reason we were here.

Some of the happiness left his face. “It is, actually.” Laeddin took my hand.
“That’s why we’re walking. If I don’t use my magic, we will hopefully be able to sneak up on her, and maybe just maybe that surprise will be enough to convince her to reverse the curse.” He’d said the words, but they weren’t convincing. I guessed she probably already knew we were here. But he wasn’t ready to face her yet and neither was I.

After a short time, it became a
pparent we had an audience. The creatures had dark brown fur covering their bodies. Closer to the head, the color changed a golden color. Their faces were a robin’s egg blue in color. When the sunlight struck the blue color just right, their faces looked like skulls.

They
lined the trees, covering the branches and scaring away the birds. Like soldiers standing at attention, waiting for orders.

“What are they?” I whispered.