by Skye Grace
It’s all she can do not to grab him and take him somewhere, anywhere but here, and ask him what the hell is going on, why she feels the way she does, but knows she can’t. Not yet. His soft eyes turn suddenly to a flash of hatred as he gets in character almost instantly, all this anger directed at her, or her character rather, and her skin flushes like she’s caught in a firestorm. She forces herself to focus on being Bianca, anyone but herself at this moment.
She thinks only of Bianca, who happens to be an unbeatable badass pillar of strength, and witch hunter in search of the powerful warlock brothers Brody and Blaise. What she hides from them, and everyone else, is that she herself has powers that she’s been suppressing for years. Aura feels so much in Bianca, in her words, the fear of the unknown, of who you really are and what could be. The other thing she finds in common with Bianca is her undeniable, toe-curling chemistry for Blaise, or Jacksen, rather, in this reality.
“Okay, he’s not here, you can finally be honest,” Jameson starts as Brody. “What the hell do you want with my brother? You could have just killed him, why draw it out like this? So you can get all our family at once? You know it’s really only us two left, right?”
She takes a deep breath as her character, Bianca, and keeps a calm head as she thinks of ways to convince her new love’s brother that her feelings are sincere.
“Blaise told me you’ve got a pretty crowded head, Brody. All the thoughts of everyone you meet, just swarming around in there. With no off button? It must be hard to breathe, some days.”
“Not exactly,” he growls through gritted teeth. “I only hear people if they’re close in proximity,” which he’d clearly never been with Bianca, especially after finding out her occupation. “And only if they’re mortal,” he spits out at her.
She moves closer to him, tentative, and his whole body tenses. Brody goes to put up an arm, maybe even a fist to block her, but stops in his tracks when he hears nothing.
Slowly, she raises up her hand and he allows it to rest gently on his shoulder. Jameson thinks only as Brody, preparing him for the touch that will surely reveal Bianca’s terrible, family-ruining thoughts, but after a few seconds, he lets out a sharp hiss of air.
“What? How?” he demands, needing to know why he can’t hear anything from her. He thought she was a human witch hunter, but now he can’t be so sure. He can’t hear her thoughts.
She lets out a sharp laugh, “Your brother really didn’t tell you? Damn, that boy can keep a secret.”
“You’re telling me,” he scoffs and then becomes stern again. “Now. Explain. You’re getting off on killing witches when you’re not even human?”
Jameson feels so steady, so warm under her palm, and she remembers her character is supposed to take her hand off of him now, but she doesn’t want to, so she doesn’t.
“Brody, I was born into a family of witch-hunters. You should be able to understand what it’s like, being a part of something that runs so deep, you don’t feel like you can get out of it. It was never my choice. You must know what that’s like.” He nods slowly in response, jaw still clenched, and she continues.
“I’d stifled the powers for so long that they started to escape in ways I couldn’t control. An ex- boyfriend’s car up in flames, a college roommate turned enemy’s hair falling out in clumps. I didn’t do any spells, things were just happening and I couldn’t stop them. I definitely couldn’t tell my family that I might be a… like you and your brother. I turned to hunting, just to be close to my family, for support. When they were killed by that coven just north of the Canadian border, I began hunting for real that time. For revenge.”
“Am I supposed to be feeling sympathy for you? Someone who’s killed my kind for years, just for sport? Not to mention the knife you held against my brother’s throat? Did you forget about that one? I’m supposed to forget about all that, just because you’re a witch?”
“Brody, I can’t excuse the lives lost because of me, because of my thirst for revenge or hatred for myself. I don’t deserve to be forgiven, I know I’ll never forgive myself so why would you? I’ll never stop repenting, I just need you to know how grateful I am for you.”
“For me?” His breath hitches and she knows she’s broken him, not just Brody but Jameson, as well.
“How many people you’ve saved, Brody, all the innocent lives, while I thought ignorantly that you were the evil ones when it was me all along. And of all the lives you’ve saved, your brother’s is your greatest accomplishment. Thank you, thank you so much for keeping him alive, he’s told me of all the times, saving his life or bringing him back... I’d be nothing without him, and he’d be nothing without you.”
She lets a single tear escape and roll down her cheek, a real tear she’d been saving up for this exact moment. The guys in the room start clapping, all the guys, and although there’s a little more in the scene it appears they’ve seen enough, felt enough, and she breathes a sigh of relief. Halfway there.
After their praises have been sung, Ron instructs Jameson to bring Aura to find Jacksen and give them a proper introduction before they read together. As the two of them walk down the dimly lit back hallway of the studio, her heart constricts and her pulse pounds. She doesn’t know why she feels so, well, something surprisingly like lovesick. Around Jameson. She’d always been a Jacksen girl, and yet, for some reason, she just feels like she can trust Jameson. She feels somehow intrinsically connected to him, and remembers the strong mix of unexplained emotions she felt towards him as she watched the series just last week. Not to mention that bowling ball that hit her in the gut just minutes before. What is this?
She eyes him carefully as they come closer to the room where Jacksen is waiting, “Hey Jameson?”
“Yeah Aur? Uh, I mean Aura. Hmm?”
Her breath catches. We’re on a nickname basis? Seriously, how? And how can I ask this without being promptly admitted to a psych ward? Despite the worries, she soldiers on, “Why were the guys… making jokes back there?”
His face is blank and she panics. The thought of her own impending honesty forces her to take in the sharpest breath, and she plunges ahead, “How do we know each other?” Jameson looks at her like some sort of zombie martian hybrid that’s just asked him for a brain martini on the moon rocks.
“Aura?” he questions. “What do you mean how? … You know how.”
She drops her voice to a whisper, silently cursing Inner-Aura for not stepping up here,
“What if I told you that… Not that the last ten years were a blur, but that the last ten years were, well, escaping me. The memories, I, I really, honestly don’t remember them.”
“What?” Jameson whispers, his eyes so sincere that she believes she’s made the right decision to tell him. “I’d say you’re insane. Where’s the punchline?”
“I wish there was one,” she just stares at him for the longest minute. “I can’t, Jameson, I can’t really remember anything. Anyone. Not really.”
“Did you ...have an accident or something?” he asks, racking his brain to recall an old episode of some campy soap opera he’d seen as a kid, where the main character had amnesia, wondering if that actually happens in real life.
“Yes,” she nods, figuring it’s not a complete lie, anyway, and smiles at him sweetly so he’ll hopefully feel more sympathetic than scared of her lunacy. “I haven’t told anyone, really. I just pick out bits and pieces, kinda pretend to remember what I really don’t.” She pouts, “So please, will you tell me? When did we meet before?”
“You really don’t remember our… that one, hot week? We had in New York?” She leaves her face blank so he’ll continue, but she’s a gigantic ball of nerves inside now. Jameson and I? Together? Hot? What will Jacksen think about this? Maybe now he won’t want me because it’s against some sort of bro-code? Because I slept with his best friend? She attempts to ignore the bile she can feel rising in her throat. Why did I have to do this? How? And what about Rowan? God, does Rowan know about this?
<
br /> “The guys found out somehow that we dated, so they just had to razz us,” Jameson gulps.
“That hot summer night in the city,” he recollects, “I was there visiting friends, and you had just started filming ‘The Squad.’ We met at that rooftop party. You really don’t remember?” he asks again, looking hurt in more ways than one. She shakes her head no.
His voice drops and he stoops down to meet her gaze, “You were so excited, your first movie. And you had a friend with you, she was so proud. I couldn’t keep my eyes off you, and it turned out that I didn’t really need to. Yours were on me the second I got there. The only thing I can remember about that party, of that whole week, actually, is you.” It’s dark in the hall but she swears he’s blushing.
“You climbed me like a tree that night, Aura.” She flinches at the familiar euphemism. “We didn’t see our friends for the rest of that week,” he says. Now she’s the one blushing uncontrollably, the rest of her body in total shock. “After that, I had to go back and film Season 6. Our texts, emails, you don’t remember those?” Her throat bone dry now, and all she can do is blink twice for no.
“I can’t believe I’m explaining this,” he sighs, composing himself. “I couldn’t wait to see you again. I never expected to fall for someone else on set that season. I mean, how can you predict something like that?”
She feels her heart squeeze again, involuntarily, but can’t find the emotions to go with the physical pang. She pictures all the steamy scenes between Brody and Celeste, his Fae confidant, in Season 6, and the beautiful Italian actress, Gabrielle DeLano, that played her.
“When Gabby and I met, we started off as friends. You and I were talking, all the time. It wasn’t planned…”
Aura’s amazed that Jameson sounds this choked up, years later, and though she may not be a whiz at researching on her phone, she had managed to find out that Jameson and Gabby had gotten married after Season 9. She’d found them all over social media, always together when he wasn’t filming, and they appear to be the most in love she’s ever seen a Hollywood couple be. The most stable and normal, too.
She can’t believe Inner-Aura has nothing to say about this, doesn’t she remember? “I know, it’s okay. I’m so happy for you both. Thank you… thank you for telling me, Jameson.” He takes a deep breath, pulling himself back together after wrenching the memories from the beyond, and Aura wonders if she’s dead inside, because all she can think about is Jacksen.
“Can I ask you something else?”
“Of course, Aur,” he nods.
“Has Jacksen said anything about asking me to come in to read?”
“I, I’m not sure. Why don’t you go ask him, c’mon he’s right in here-” she puts a hand on his bicep, stopping him from turning the doorknob. Don’t think about Jameson’s muscles, don’t even think about it!
“Can you ask? I’m just really nervous.” She bites a fingernail, wondering where the confidence from before had vaporized to.
“You’re- you’re nervous? To meet Jacksen?” he asks, baffled.
“Yes, I… I mean, I’m the one who requested to audition with him, so I was a little confused when my agent said he wanted me to come in. Will you please ask?”
“Uh. Yeah, and I’ll leave out the part about you being a pod person and all.”
“Thank you!” She feels the gratitude coursing through her as she reaches up on her tiptoes, hugging him tightly. She feels him sigh deeply into the top of her head before they let go and he disappears into the other room.
Jameson’s eyes are wide as he enters the small room with only Jacksen inside, who is pretending to be casually playing his guitar. Only Jameson knows him well enough to sense that he’s feeling anything but cool and collected.
“J? The guys suggested you meet Aura before you read together so I brought her down here. Dude, did you ask them to call her in?”
Jacksen sets his guitar down and paces the small space, nervously. Jameson cocks his head, not used to this unsure side of his best friend and brother by proxy not blood.
“She’s outside the door? Right now?” Jacksen sighs, a bit jittery.
“What’s going on man?” Jameson prods, ignoring the fact that he’d never actually told Jacksen she was right outside. “She asked her agent to read for this, but then she said you asked her to come in?”
Jacksen stops pacing and grabs him firmly by the shoulders, “She asked to come in? I asked her to come in. I saw her on the Falco show, man, oh god… I had to see her, Jay. I thought maybe it was just her character on that show, ya know. But it’s not, she’s perfect for this part. Perfect for Blaise… perfect for me.”
Jameson coughs and peels Jacksen’s vice grip off his shoulders. He looks down at him with unmasked surprise. “Perfect for you? J, I don’t know if you’re ready for something serious right now. This girl’s not the kind you use for a rebound.”
“I don’t want her for a rebound,” he tells his on and practically off camera younger brother sternly, turning towards the door and taking a deep breath.
“I think she has a thing for you, man,” Jameson admits reluctantly, making Jacksen jerk his head back towards him.
“No! Yeah?” Jacksen begins pacing again.
Jameson chuckles despite himself, “Yeah,” he replies, rubbing his forehead. “This is unexpected.”
“You’re telling me, man,” Jacksen says, “I didn’t know I was ready for- How? How do you know she’s into me?”
“I just do, now can I let her in?” he requests, deciding not to remind him that Aura was the girl he was so into back when he first met Gabby, figuring that someone would remind him of that awkwardness soon enough. He’ll avoid it while he still can.
Jacksen looks at him for a second, puzzled, and then shouts, “Hold on, hold on!” He throws himself back on the black leather loveseat, which faces another one that’s identical. He assumes his faux-casual slouchy, seated pose and grabs his guitar.
He begins playing and gives Jameson a nod, who rolls his eyes in response and goes to open the door to let Aura in. She instead yanks all 6’4 and ½” of Jameson back out into the hallway.
“So?” she whispers harshly, hand still on his elbow.
“Yeah, he asked for you to audition for Bianca, he thinks you’re perfect to play her. I think you are, too,” he smiles and she hugs him tightly around the neck.
“Thank you! Thank you!” she squeaks, and Jameson pulls her into the room with only a curt nod.
“Jacksen, this is Aura. Aura, this is Jacksen.”
The last few notes of Wild Horses fall from his strings before he quickly stands up, setting the guitar down on the couch and outstretching his thinly veiled shaking hand to her. Eight years her senior and generally quite composed, he attempts to hide the giddy, kid in a candy store expression on his face because what he feels is much, much more than that. Like every piece of him is being put back together in this instant.
She feels that sensation again, falling without fear. Falling deeper, tumbling into another new life; a life with Jacksen. She can get that all from one look. The little crinkles that converge at the corners of his impossibly gorgeous green eyes, the ones that weren’t there at the beginning of her long-ago forged crush, somehow make him even more handsome. The jaw line that could cut glass with the perfectly placed stubble and immaculately styled hair, the color of Malibu sand at sunset, were no match for his smile. His pink lips turn up as he looks at her, and she knows it’s nothing if not true reflection of her feelings for him. They’re returned in just one smile.
Her knees wobble and she locks them, her spine sags and she straightens it, the air of confidence returns, if forced, and shimmers almost believably around her as she locks eyes with him and smiles. He is more beautiful than the camera could have possibly conveyed.
Her hand clasps his and a small gasp escapes her lips as she feels a cascade of electric tingles rush through his fingers into hers. The pulses of electricity continue, traveling up her arm
and all through her body. Their eyes are transfixed on one another, and she knows in this instant that she hasn’t felt this connection with anyone else ever before.
Jameson’s jaw drops open as he watches the two of them stare at each other, fingers still entwined. He has half the sense to pull them apart, as they appear to be frozen in time, but instead he clears his throat loudly. No response.
“Uh, I’m gonna give you guys a minute,” he announces to dead airspace, leaving the door open a crack as he wanders aimlessly back and forth around the hallway, unsure of how to proceed. This wasn’t supposed to take so long.
She wants to ask Jacksen if he can feel what she feels, but doesn’t want to sound as crazy as she knows she is. Not yet, anyway.
“It’s so nice to meet you, finally,” Aura manages to get out, noticing now that they’re still locked in their handshake, unmoving.
“It’s so nice to meet you, Aura,” Jacksen replies after a beat, “Is it lame to say I’m a fan?”
“Lame? No, I just don’t know if I’d believe it!” she exclaims with a laugh that surprises even her.
“Well, believe it,” he grins. “I visited my sister for a week and we spent a whole weekend watching Girl Gang and I just… Can I say that you’re my favorite?”
She hopes the layers of bronzer on her cheeks can hide the real blush underneath, “Maybe not to the other girls, but to me? Yes, anytime!”
“Honestly, I thought that British accent was real until I saw you on Falco. Where’d you come up with that?”
The answer comes out on autopilot, so rehearsed it’s ingrained, “I was just goofing around on set, I love doing accents. Whit decided she loved it and spontaneously wanted, no, NEEDED, her character’s best friend to be from London and I’ve been faking it ever since!”
“You’re not afraid to be goofy, I like that.” He smiles, his deep voice with that very slight southern tinge making her melt. “But you’re also so smart, and a lot of girls around here are afraid to show that.”
Their chemistry is somehow as magnetic as she’d imagined, and when their hands slide away from each other, she feels an almost instant emptiness. She wants to tell him exactly how long she’d been a fan of his work, but decides against it.
