by Nadia Heaton
Julio shook his head frantically, more butterflies flying from his mouth.
Ariana squeezed his shoulder again. “Don’t worry, we’ll protect you.” She turned back to Rashid, a bit miffed by the impression that she was being scolded like a child. “Thank you for your concern, Rashid,” she said coldly. “We will remain indoors or on the property for now.”
Without another word, Ariana took Julio’s hand and led him back through the chateau, back to their room.
The moment they entered, Julio went for the pad and started writing her a message.
I didn’t see anything. I heard voices, but they were speaking in another language – I couldn’t tell you what the words were if I wanted to. I came closer, and I’d just seen a circle of women with robes when one of them turned around. She shot some kind of light at me. It hurt, and I ran. I only figured out later that I couldn’t speak.
Ariana felt her anger rising. They had cursed Julio before even trying to check if he’d seen anything that could harm them if he repeated it. “They never should have done that to you,” she growled. “Witches are usually better behaved with humans, but as far as I’m concerned, you can never trust witch ethics. Besides, whatever ritual they were doing, it’s not like vampires couldn’t find out about it by asking Lisette. She’d know way more about witch rituals than any passing person who happened to glimpse one. They did this to you for nothing.”
Julio nodded sadly. They won’t believe me, though. They didn’t even give me a chance to explain.
Ariana pulled him into a hug. “I know. Don’t worry, we’ll sort this out.”
She was still angry with Rashid for treating her like a child. Ariana had never figured out why it was Rashid who seemed in charge of her upbringing, and no one she had asked could tell her. Regardless, she was no longer a child, nor was she foolish or reckless, as Rashid appeared to think she was, given his recent lecture.
“I’m going to bed. You should probably get some rest too. If you’re going to be keeping a vampire schedule, you’ll need it.”
Julio nodded and smiled at her. Ariana went to the small fridge in the corner of the room and pulled out a bag of blood. She glanced at Julio, but he seemed at ease, so she drank it, carefully wiping her mouth afterward. Another glance showed him settling into the big bed in the middle of the room.
He smiled at her again, making Ariana’s insides warm. She remembered how distasteful he’d found it the first time he saw her feed. Clearly, he was getting used to it, accepting her as she was. Perhaps it was simply that a blood bag was less gruesome than sucking blood from dead fish, but she thought it might be something more.
Ariana closed herself in the sarcophagus, trying not to dwell on her irritation with Rashid. That wouldn’t help her get to sleep, and the last thing she wanted was to be up in the daytime. They may be confined to the chateau’s grounds, but Rashid had large gardens that she and Julio could enjoy without taking the risk of going out onto land that may be host to witches.
She closed her eyes, waiting for sleep to take her. Tomorrow, if Rashid didn’t loosen up, she’d talk to him. They didn’t know how long Lisette would take to get back to them. A few days was one thing, but Ariana would go crazy if she had to stay cooped up here for weeks on end. If she wanted to risk an outing, it would be her choice, not Rashid’s. His privileges as a host only took him so far.
Ariana wondered if Julio would also want to take that risk. She found she didn’t like that thought. Maybe Rashid had a point… but she cared deeply about Julio, despite only having known him for a short time. Rashid may have arranged her upbringing, but they’d never been especially close. She probably knew him best out of all the vampires she’d met over her life, but theirs had always been primarily a functional relationship.
It seemed particularly stark when she compared it to her relationship with Julio. Ariana had only known him for a few days, and already, she couldn’t envision her life without him.
She tossed and turned, worrying about the dangers of a vampire falling in love with a mortal, but when she finally fell asleep, her dreams were peaceful.
9
Julio lay down in bed, strangely downcast. He couldn’t deny that he had quickly become enamored with Ariana, and he was sad to have her beautiful face out of sight. He wasn’t used to sleeping during the day. The sun was just starting to appear, and his body was telling him that it was time to wake up and start the day.
He tossed and turned for a while, but eventually gave up on sleep, at least for now. The paints and canvases Ariana had brought him where right where he’d left them. Julio didn’t often have time to paint. Now, he had an abundance of time before him, with nothing to do for the foreseeable future but hunker down and wait for Lisette to contact him and Ariana.
Julio sat down in front of the painting he’d started, the one of Ariana. He was a good painter, but this painting wasn’t merely good; it was spectacular. Julio knew that had little to do with his skills and much more to do with the stunning woman the painting depicted.
For a while, he simply stared at the picture of Ariana. It still needed some detail, but when it was done, it would be perfect. She had told him that vampires couldn’t see themselves in mirrors, so he planned to offer this to her as a gift when he was done. She’d seemed so fascinated to see her own face. Julio couldn’t imagine what it would be like, not even knowing what his own face looked like.
Ariana wasn’t awake to model for him now, and he couldn’t finish the painting without her, so Julio put it aside for later. He took a fresh canvas and used a pencil to start tracing butterflies onto it. When it came to adding detail with paint, he had no shortage of references. He simply tried to say something, and butterflies came out of his mouth.
They truly were beautiful. Some were bright oranges with splashes of red and black. Others were a turquoise that merged into purple with delicate lines running along the wings. Julio’s wrist started to ache as he painted quickly, trying it get everything down. The butterflies moved fast, so he had to record the glimpses of their wings before they were replaced in his mind by the endless stream of data he was getting from them.
He put all of his frustration and helplessness into the painting. Yes, the butterflies were stunning, but they were also a mark of his imprisonment. Julio may not be physically confined, but having his voice cut off put up a wall between him and the rest of the world.
In a way, it would almost be better if he was permanently mute. Then he could learn sign language, adapt to his new life and move on. It would be difficult, but possible. It was this strange in-between that was driving him mad. His life was on pause while he waited for Lisette to come back with a cure.
If it wasn’t for Ariana, he would probably feel like this time wasn’t real, like he wasn’t really living. Julio was grateful beyond words for her, not just her practical help with Lisette, but her company, her understanding, the way she took his hand when she wanted to show him something.
The butterflies changed to softer pinks and reds as he thought about her. Julio filled the canvas with hundreds of butterflies, overlapping each other, each going in a different direction.
When it became hard to see between the fluttering butterflies, Julio threw open the door to the balcony. They streamed out into the sky. Julio returned to his painting, creating a few more butterflies to add the collection on the canvas.
When he’d finally chased the last of the butterflies from the room, he closed the balcony doors and drew the curtains, remembering that Ariana struggled with the light. He didn’t want her to get up to go to the bathroom or something and get blasted with sunlight.
The paint still glistened slightly, but it would dry quickly enough. At the very least, when he got home, he’d have a few good paintings to show for his time under a witch’s curse. The thought of going home and back to his own life wasn’t as appealing as it should have been. He missed Janet, but Julio would be perfectly happy to retrieve her and continue to spend all of his
time with Ariana.
He still couldn’t get a read on how she felt about him. There had been an intense moment earlier, in the lavender field, but she had seemed to get scared and ran away.
Julio didn’t spend much more time ruminating on it. He finally seemed to have exhausted himself. This time, when Julio lay down, sleep came quickly.
* * *
A couple of miles away, Mirabelle stared into her scrying pool. She was searching the area for vampires. They were gathering, and the witches had to be prepared.
She was distracted by a blue and purple butterfly landing on her staff. The staff was glowing slightly, adding its own power to hers so that Mirabelle could maintain the scrying spell for longer periods of time.
Now, more than ever, it was important to have a clear view of what was going on. Not only did she need to spy on vampires, but her own family. Mirabelle had escaped from her brother’s custody, and hadn’t come into contact with him since.
Fleur and Tristan were against her – Lisette was long lost, turned to a being of darkness – and the rest of the coven was in confusion. Fleur had been Mirabelle’s second, close to taking over, and many of the coven members didn’t know who to follow.
Other covens seemed similarly confused. Mirabelle had tried to unite them. What they needed right now was to face the vampires together. Once those unnatural beings were exterminated, they could work on sorting out their own internal struggles.
Unfortunately, many of them were listening to Fleur’s line of reasoning – that war would be catastrophic for everyone involved, and the only true way forward was to find a way to bring peace between them. As if there could ever have been true peace. The uneasy truce between them was only ever going to last until one side learned how to protect their own power source, and thus remove the other side’s leverage over them.
Mirabelle didn’t know what would happen if the two witch sides fought each other, and she didn’t want to find out. For now, she was staying clear of the crazy witches who thought vampires could be their friends, or worse, their lovers.
The butterfly fluttered off the staff and landed on Mirabelle’s desk. She tore her eyes away from the scrying pool as something about it caught her eye. That wasn’t an ordinary butterfly; it was one conjured with magic. She touched it, letting the trace of magic it still held absorb into her.
Her eyes went wide. So, Rashid had taken in the man she’d cursed, had he? Mirabelle recognized her own magic and could easily use it to pick up the signal of where the butterfly had been.
Of course, Rashid had to get himself involved this. He could never keep his nose out of other people’s business. Mirabelle figured she may as well try, and spoke the words to move the scrying spell. As she’d expected, it got to the border of Rashid’s property, then stopped. He had his place warded against witch magic.
No matter, she knew where the human man was. Mirabelle regretted cursing him – she should have killed him outright. She didn’t know how much he’d seen or heard before he was discovered, but it didn’t matter. Nothing of their sacred rituals could leave the ritual circle, and by leaving the man alive, that left open the possibility that he would find a way to remove the curse.
Of course, he could still write, but the curse wouldn’t let him reveal any secrets he had seen, regardless of whether he was trying to write, mime or sign the message. Just to be safe, Mirabelle had taken his voice entirely, but if she truly wanted to be safe, she knew what she had to do. She had to kill him.
Deciding that this was more important than scrying for the moment, she shut down the spell. The surface of the pool shimmered slightly before returning to its normal state, reflecting the dull roof above her.
Mirabelle didn’t like leaving loose ends, and this was one loose end that was just begging to be cut off. She held the butterfly in her hand, trying to get as much information as possible. Julio, the man’s name was Julio. The butterfly held only the barest traces of any other useful information; it was of no more use to her.
She crushed it in her fist. Mirabelle strode out of the motel room she was renting, since she couldn’t return to her own home. Her family believed she had gone completely off the rails, when in reality it was the other way around. Mirabelle would deal with them, but she’d end the vampire threat first.
Ending the vampires couldn’t happen yet, not until she’d brought more witches into her cause. For now, she could take care of an unfinished job that could potentially give the vampires information Mirabelle couldn’t afford for them to have.
Of course, Lisette could have already given them that information. A number of witches had made that point to her, disapproving of her cursing Julio. Mirabelle had brushed them off. Her niece was no more, replaced with an undead monster. What would that thing know of witch rituals?
No, it was Julio who really needed dealing with. Mirabelle locked the door behind herself and stalked out.
10
Ariana awoke to the comforting darkness of her sarcophagus. Few of the vampire families she’d stayed with slept in this manner, and she always looked forward to coming back to what she thought of as her own bed when she returned to Rashid.
She got out quietly, finding Julio still fast asleep. Dusk had just fallen, bathing the room in the last dim rays of sunlight. It seemed that Julio hadn’t been idle. The painting of her was put carefully aside, and another one occupied the stand.
This one was of butterflies. Ariana recognized them at once as the butterflies that came out of Julio's mouth when he opened it to speak. She looked sadly at the painting. The butterflies were beautiful, but their movements as portrayed on the canvas seemed frantic.
Julio was coping very well, considering everything going on, but this painting brought home once more to Ariana how trapped he must feel without his voice, in a world of people who still had theirs.
She glanced at his sleeping form. He was curled slightly on his side, the blankets up to his waist. Ariana longed to curl up next to him and offer him some kind of comfort, but she didn’t dare. Her feelings for Julio were already spiraling out of control, and giving in to her desire to lie down with him would surely only make things worse.
Perhaps she could raise his spirits a bit, even if they were trapped inside the house. Ariana quietly exited the room and headed down to Rashid’s kitchen. It was a little dusty from misuse. Vampires were a lot more tolerant to raw food than humans, and often didn’t bother cooking their meals unless in the presence of humans.
Some developed a taste for cooked food, but most weren’t fussy either way. They didn’t get sick, so they didn’t need to worry about any bacteria uncooked food might be carrying. Ariana rummaged around in the cupboards, wondering what Julio would like. Rashid seldom hosted humans, though he kept the kitchen fully stocked, just in case.
At the café, Julio had ordered a muffin and coffee, but Ariana was fairly sure she wasn’t up to making a muffin, at least not without burning the house down. She’d had next to no experience with human cooking. None of the families she’d stayed with had deemed it an important skill.
Eventually, she managed to figure out the instructions on a packet of oats to add milk and warm them. Ariana managed to produce unburned toast on her second try, and laid down the meal with a distinct feeling of pride.
Just then, Rashid stepped into the room. He’d been so quiet in his approach that Ariana hadn’t heard him – or perhaps she’d merely been too distracted by the toast to listen. She could usually hear a vampire’s soft footsteps, even though no human would pick them up.
“You frightened me!” She tossed a dirty dish towel at him, which Rashid caught with a chuckle, placing it in the wash.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. You just looked busy, and I didn’t want to disturb you. Is that for Julio?”
“Yes. I’ve never cooked human food before. Did I do it right?”
Rashid carefully examined the toast and oats. “Yes, that looks good, though you’ll want to wake him up bef
ore it gets cold. They mostly prefer their food warm.”
Ariana nodded and started loading the stuff onto a tray. She knew that Rashid must have more to say to her.
It didn’t take long for him to broach the subject. “Look, I’m sorry if I was overbearing yesterday. I just need you to know how serious things are. I should never have called you home from Russia.”
“Of course, you should have. I’m a powerful vampire in my own right, and you need me. As Lisette said, we’re all going to have to work together if we want to find a way out of this.”
Rashid nodded, suddenly looking melancholy, which was an expression Ariana had seldom seen on him. “You are powerful, Ariana, just as powerful as our new queen.”
That didn’t make any sense to her. Lisette was powerful because she had both vampire and witch powers. Ariana was just a standard vampire, and a young one at that. She hadn’t spent centuries training in combat like some others had. No, if she had to pick the most powerful vampires apart from Lisette, she wouldn’t even be on the list.
“What do you mean?”
Rashid shrugged moodily. “Nothing. Just ignore me. You should get to Julio, give him his food while it’s still hot.”
If Rashid wanted to be cryptic and moody, it was probably best that Ariana left him to it. She certainly didn’t know how to cheer him up. He may seldom be melancholic, but Rashid was fond of talking in riddles, at least to her. Perhaps it amused him. Ariana had long ago given up trying to figure it out. It was frustrating and ended nowhere.
Ariana’s thoughts returned to Lisette. Had she made any progress on the counter curse for Julio yet? The queen’s mate had been handing out communication stones toward the end of the meeting – devices imbued with a simple magic that allowed them to act similarly to cell phones. The advantage was that they didn’t break when underwater, which was important when you spent half your time as a manta ray.
