Knowing that Devin couldn’t make this promise, Nikki saved him from answering by pulling Jackie into another hug and saying, “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
Chapter 19:
Take Me There
As Devin drove away, Nikki had an odd sense of loss and, when she thought about an unknown future at a Vampire’s side, her stomach churned nervously. When they pulled into the warehouse parking area, they found their fellow residents waiting to help carry her boxes up to Devin’s apartment. When the last box was stacked on the floor and their helpers left, Nikki looked over at Devin and said, “Well it looks like I’m officially all yours.” As she scanned the boxes in front of her, she added, “My entire life so far is summed up by the contents of these few boxes. It’s rather pathetic.”
Feeling her somber mood, he said, “Then I vow to make sure that, while your world is forced to merge with mine, I’ll give you maybe not the best times of your life, but at least the most memorable. And, once you’re freed from both me and the curse, you’ll leave with Lady Bug crammed full of memories.”
Nikki was actually touched by his words, so to lighten the somber mood she’d inadvertently caused, she teased, “Don’t set your sights so high. I’ll be happy if I just leave here in one piece with my purple blood still flowing in my veins.”
He replied with a mock serious expression, “As long as I can tap into that grape juice of yours once in a while, you have a deal.” He gave her a toothy grin, making her snicker. He then picked up the first box and said, “Come on, live-in girlfriend of mine. Let’s get you unpacked.”
As they opened a box while up in the loft, Devin found many items that Nikki had collected from the various cities she had lived in. He sat down on the edge of the bed and held up a thick stack of pictures. While pointing at a scene, he asked, “Will you take me here?”
Nikki asked perplexed, “Take you where?”
“Tell me the stories behind these pictures. I want to walk on every road you’ve traveled down.”
“Why?”
He stared into her wine eyes and replied, “In your short time here, you’ve learned a lot about Vampires, but I still know so little about you and your kind. I may have uncovered a few secret things, such as your reaction to hot showers and your Hello Kitty, but I want to know so much more. Even Grippin knows more about your life than I do.”
Nikki said, “He’s a great listener.”
Devin exclaimed, “Hey! Give this poor Vampire a chance.” He rolled his eyes and said, “Pixie, Human, Vampire...women are all the same. You want men to understand you but, even when we ask, you won’t tell us anything. Despite meeting a few psychics over the years, most men can’t read minds. The curse has allowed me to feel your emotions, but I don’t know why you’re feeling what you’re feeling.” When he saw her continued resistance, he decided to attack the problem from a different angle. “I need to be able to play your boyfriend and, odds are, Jackie is going to quiz me. She scares the hell out of me and, if I want to pass her test, I need to know everything about the girl behind the blue hair and pretty stare. I want to learn what makes you who you are and I don’t want you to leave anything out.”
“Okay. Where do you want to start?”
“Let’s start at the beginning. Take me to where you grew up.”
“Sharing information about the Pixie life to those outside of my kind is forbidden. And you’re Vampire, for goodness sake. Your kind is our most feared enemy and you could use some small fact to hunt my kind down.”
“I know Vampires forced your kind into hiding, but you should know by now that I could never do anything that would risk you or your people. You can trust me. Anything you tell me won’t go beyond this apartment. I just want to learn about you.”
She found that she did trust Devin to keep her secrets and she could see an almost desperate need in his eyes, so she decided to share a few items about herself. She searched through a few boxes until she found a small, locked scrapbook. After sitting on the bed next to him, she said, “First, you should know that my real name is Nepeta. I was named after a small, purple flower that attracts bees and cats. You might know it as catnip.”
Recalling the almost drunken looks in the Human men’s eyes and her bumblebee sounds in the shower, Devin said, “That explains a lot.”
“I took the name Nikki when I left the village—new life, new name.” She looked down at the book in her lap and spun the tumbler until the lock clicked. After opening its pages, several worn pictures fell onto her lap. She said, “My people reject all forms of technology but, just before I left, I broke our laws and got a digital camera from a visiting witch. I secretly took a few pictures of my Pixie home. I don’t own a computer so, once I joined the Human world, I went to a local office store and printed out those I wanted to keep close by. Occasionally I spread out my life on the floor and recall times past.” She picked-up the pictures on her lap and said, “Sorry, these particular pictures are a bit worn. For the first few years I was on my own, I carried them with me wherever I went. They hold special meaning to me.”
She handed one of the pictures to Devin and said, “Here’s the home I grew up in.”
Devin stared at the deep greens and browns of a forest. At first he didn’t see a home but, when he looked closer, he saw tucked into nature the outline of a small structure covered in moss, leaves, and twigs. As he examined the details, Cupcake crawled on his lap so that she could see as well.
As they continued to examine the scene, Nikki explained, “Some of my kind possess special gifts and they use their abilities to enhance our nature made camouflage. With additional help from a few witches that we allowed past our borders, any creature—Human or magical—could walk right by my front door and never know it. We also have magical animals that help guard our home and protect us if needed.”
Cupcake tapped a corner of the picture. Devin studied where the cat pointed and spotted a familiar furry face tucked among the greenery. He announced as he scratched the cat on the head, “There you are, Cupcake. Now I know why you protect Nikki so ferociously. You’re a village warrior.”
Cupcake glanced up at Devin and gave him a big grin.
Nikki then handed Devin the second picture. He took it and stared at the profile of a beautiful green winged Pixie female. Devin guessed, “Is this your mother?”
Nikki nodded and said, “Her name is Lily.”
Devin replied, “She’s stunning. Although she doesn’t have your spots, I can see a lot of your features in her. She just seems to be made from a different color palette. Her mix of greens, yellows, and browns makes her almost disappear into her surroundings.”
Nikki handed him the next picture and instructed, “Tell me what you see in this picture.”
Devin examined the content and, once his eyes unlocked the visual puzzle, he said, “I’m assuming that I’m looking at part of your Pixie village. It blends into the forest so seamlessly it’s hard for even my Vampire eyes to identify the structures.”
“Look closer and tell me how many Pixies are in the picture.”
He looked harder. Initially he didn’t see any but, after calling on his hunter senses, his eyes focused even more intently. Suddenly he spotted one Pixie. With his eyes trained on what to look for, he began to whisper a growing count.
Once he reached a dozen, Nikki interrupted him and said, “Look at me.” After he looked up at Nikki and she knew he had her features locked in his mind, she said, “Now look at the picture again but, this time, add my image to the mix.”
While staring at the picture, he smiled and said, “I can definitely see you sitting on a branch. You would stand out like a beautiful exotic blue and purple parrot.”
Nikki replied, “And there’s precisely the issue.”
Hearing the emotion in her voice, he glanced back up at Nikki and asked, “What do you mean?”
“Pixie villages survive based on their ability to hide. Their lives depend on it. I’m like the subject of a child’s
game that asks, ‘Which one of these doesn’t belong?’ My mother told me that I’ve inherited a very rare and unique glowing trait from an ancient Faye race that runs through my family line, but it doesn’t explain my spots or my unusual color palette. I’m a beacon and, since I can’t dematerialize, my presence puts the village in danger of being discovered. To make sure both the village and myself stayed a secret, we moved locations regularly. But since I can’t dematerialize, a small group had to stay by my side to manually get me to our new home. After several situations that cost the lives of several from my village, they started discussing alternative options. It was dangerous for them to stay in one place for too long so, and with me, it was dangerous to move. I became the village anchor. I would rather die than risk exposing my home and family so, when I was old enough and was ready, I decided to free my village and go out on my own.”
“What did your mother and others from the village think of you leaving?”
“Whenever I brought up my concerns, they brushed them off, but I heard the whispers. In the end, I knew they would never agree to my plan, so I wrote them a note and snuck out in the middle of the night while everyone slept.”
“Have you contacted them since you left?”
“No. They would’ve moved the village a long time ago, so I wouldn’t be able to find them even if I tried.”
“Don’t you miss them?”
She replied, “I miss them all so much that it hurts, but I don’t belong there. I’m just one Pixie in thousands and the needs of the village must come first. They’re better off without me.”
Devin’s instincts were telling him that her village was most likely counting the days until their lost one returned home. When he saw that Nikki was holding two more pictures, he waited for her to hand one to him but, when she took back those he was holding instead, he said, “Wait. You didn’t show me the last few.”
Nikki shrugged her shoulders and said, “They’re nothing. They’re just more pictures from my village.”
He suddenly felt another shift in her emotions. It wasn’t sadness, but he couldn’t quite read what it was. He held out his hand to her and said, “If it’s about you, I want to see it.” When she shook her head with her cheeks flushed, he decided he had to know what image was causing her reaction.
Before Nikki could move toward the scrapbook to lock the pictures away, Devin used his gift of speed like a snake strike and had the stack of pictures back in his hands. While Nikki futilely protested, he found one of the pictures in question. To his surprise, he stared down into the face of a male Pixie. Like Nikki’s mother, this Pixie also had a nature made color palette, but in shades of brown.
Nikki and her mother were both soft and delicate looking, so he expected this trait to carry over into the males. His assumption was completely wrong. Although this male had the Pixie telltale wings, pointed ears, and shimmering skin, he was far from delicate. His wings were smaller and thicker...almost armor like. He was carrying a large log across his shoulders revealing a chest and arms bulging with muscles. Although he guessed that he would be shorter than an average Human, his dark, intense eyes informed him that this Pixie was a formidable warrior for their race. And given a large scar that striped across his chest, he knew this warrior had seen battle.
“Who is he?” Devin asked and then hoped that Nikki would say that this was her brother.
Nikki replied, “This is Yarrow. He’s a guardian for my village. When I was young and we moved the village, he was one of those that stayed behind and helped get me to our new location. Once I was old enough to understand, I insisted that only one person risk their life traveling with me. Yarrow always volunteered. He’s our village’s strongest warrior.”
Nikki took the picture back and, as she looked into her warrior’s eyes, Devin watched her spots start to change color and she projected a now familiar sensation. It was the same warmth he felt whenever she saw him naked. While holding back the sudden need to growl, he asked, “So you and he spent a lot of time together, alone, traveling across the country?”
She nodded and said, “He was my protector.”
Hearing the genuine affection in her voice, Devin knew that Yarrow had been much more than just her traveling guard. The thought caused the hair on the back of his neck to stand on end and his muscles tensed as if he was about to protect what was his. The mere idea of Nikki’s body being locked in an intimate embrace with another man cut him like a knife. He had been with many women throughout his adult life and Nikki was a beautiful, grown woman. He had no right to judge her for behaving as any normal adult would, but this was Nikki. She wasn’t just any woman. Although she was trapped at his side against her will, she was temporarily his and, in that role, no man was allowed to touch her.
In an attempt to distract his mind to something less intimate, he asked, “Did he get that scar protecting you?”
“Yes. It was during the last village move I participated in and he almost died, but he delivered me to the target destination unharmed.”
When he looked at the last picture in the stack, he asked, “Who’s this girl?”
“Her name is Poppy and she and Callen were my best childhood friends.”
Seeing no other pictures in the stack, he asked, “Do you have a picture of Callen?”
“I wish I did, but he died on my fourteenth birthday. All I have of him are memories.”
Devin hated to pry, but he needed to know so he asked, “How did he die?”
Nikki wanted to share her pain with someone so she replied, “He was an innocent victim of my insatiable curiosity about the creatures of the world. On my birthday, I shared my obsession with my friends and led them both into the woods. It turned out to be a trap.”
Devin swallowed hard and hesitantly asked what he was fearing, “Was it Vampires?”
Nikki replied, “No. Vampires may rule the night, but other creatures roam by day and I had been observing a pack of wolf shifters. Although Poppy lived, several other protectors were severely injured in the battle. But the damage was done. Callen was dead and Poppy never looked at me the same way again.”
“Is that when you received the injury you hide under your tattoo?”
She nodded and said, “I also injured a wing.” Although she wouldn’t let him examine her backside closer, she did turn and spread her wing. She revealed a section she always had carefully tucked under, so others wouldn’t notice the scar.
While Devin caressed the healed over tear, he knew this was one of the sources of the pain she carried inside her. Wanting to take away that ache, he said, “I know reliving that moment might be hard for you, but please tell me how it happened.”
Nikki hadn’t shared details of that day with anyone, but looking into Devin’s eyes, she decided that maybe it was time to open up with someone. She took back Poppy’s picture and, and while staring at her face, Nikki began to tell her story.
Devin sat quietly and let her talk. When she got to the part where she was injured, his fists clenched. Staring at Nikki now, he saw only a beautiful, loving, and innocent creature. He wished that he knew where the woods were that these shifters called home, because he desperately wanted to hunt down the pack and teach them exactly why Vampires ruled the night.
Nikki was looking away and didn’t see the growing expression on Devin’s face. Instead, she ended her tale with, “I know that people at Mistyx question why I turned my back on the magical world, but my so-called pretty packaging comes with too heavy of a price. I made a vow to never let anyone else be hurt or killed because of me. If living alone among Humans is the price I must pay, then so be it.”
Devin was still speechless and his body shaking. Unsure how to handle the tangle of emotions welling in him, he pulled Nikki into his arms and held on to her so tightly that she found it difficult to breathe.
When he finally released her and Nikki started to lock the pictures back in the scrapbook, the Vampire tooth she had since a child fell out from between the pages. Devin pick
ed it up and asked, “I’m assuming this isn’t from one of the shifters?”
Nikki shook her head and said, “I wish, but it’s Vampire. I was given this when I was a little girl and still thought all Vampires were as blood-thirsty and uncivilized as those shifters. Knowing this could’ve been ripped from someone like you makes me ill.”
He was shocked to see disgust in her eyes. When he thought about his own race hunting Pixie’s down and using their fangs to kill, he was filled with an overwhelming guilt that made his stomach churn painfully.
When he handed the fang back to her, she gagged and pushed it away, saying “Please throw it away. I never want to see it again.”
After Devin tucked the item in his pocket, his body remained tensed with the emotions swirling in his mind. Cupcake decided to help change the mood by retrieving a small item from Nikki’s box. She patted one of Devin’s clenched fists and, when he opened his hand, she dropped a charm of the Brooklyn Bridge into his upturned palm. He said a silent thank you to her for the distraction.
He said with his voice still slightly strained, “Tell me about when you were in the Big Apple. I haven’t traveled much outside of San Francisco, so I want to hear about every city you’ve lived in.”
For the next few hours, Nikki told Devin about her miserable experiences in New York and the many other cities she had temporarily called home. He was relentless in his questions and didn’t tuck her into bed until he was convinced that he knew more about Nikki than anyone else on the planet.
After he had her covered up, he sat next to her for a moment and whispered, “Sleep tightly knowing that all of your secrets are safe with me. Your life hasn’t been easy, but I’m thrilled to be a part of your journey. I hope that, when our paths ultimately lead us in separate directions, thoughts of our times together makes you smile a little. I know they will for me.”
Mistyx Sonata (Mistyx Series Book 1) Page 23
