by Rue Volley
“Well, I am sure that Theodore… out of all of us can whip up something.”
Theo laughed and shoveled food into his mouth. “Well. I am glad to warrant your trust,” he said.
Josh stood up and took his plate to the sink. He turned back to Theodore.
“Rue pulled us into memory, without a portal,” he said.
Theo dropped his fork and wiped his mouth with his napkin. He leaned back and tapped his fingers on the tabletop as he stared at me.
“Well… you are a bundle of mystery,” he said to me.
I took a bite and looked at him as I shrugged my shoulders at him. I sat up in my chair and laid my fork down. “I don’t know how I did it, so don’t ask me,” I said.
Theo grinned and laid his napkin down, as he looked at Sam. He looked back at Josh and laughed. They all started to laugh.
“What?” I said. Sam reached over and touched my arm.
“No one has ever done that before… not that we know of,” she said. I stood up.
“Well, of course not Sam… I have this uncanny ability to just amaze myself every day.” I started to walk towards the stairs.
“I’m going to take a shower,” I said, as I looked back and saw all of them staring at me. I ran up the stairs.
Theodore looked at Sam and then at Josh.
“She is our own little unicorn, is she not?” he asked them.
Josh grinned and looked at the stairs.
“Yes… yes she is,” he said with a smile.
***
Rue’s cell phone went off and Caine looked at it. ‘BFF’ flashed on the screen. He grinned and pressed the button. He waited as he heard a girl start chatting away. Sara went on for a moment and then paused.
“Rue?” she said. Caine smiled and spoke.
“No, I’m afraid that she lost her phone and I happened to come across it,” he said to her.
“Oh… I’m sorry,” she said to him.
She giggled and then proceeded to talk anyway.
“Well... I didn’t mean to give you an ear full,” she said.
Caine held the phone and kept grinning. “No, I find your voice very attractive,” he said.
Sara cleared her throat and paused. “Well, thank you… I guess,” she said.
Caine sighed and continued on, “So… I waited for this friend of yours to call, you know… to find her phone.”
Sara held her phone to her ear and looked around her room.
“Yea… well, I don’t know where you are, but I guess I could come get it and take it to her.” Caine grinned into the phone.
“Yes, that would be great. I am actually an entertainer here at the carnival… it is called…” Caine looked around and picked up a piece of paper and then continued to speak, “Will and Wonder.” He dropped the paper to the floor and waited for her to respond to him.
“Oh yea, I know that carnival. You are not very far from me. I saw it on a poster at Coffee,” she said. Caine did not know what she meant, but he continued to woo her.
“Well, I won’t lie to you, you sound like a very cute girl,” he said.
Sara smiled and bit her finger. She went into flirt mode. “Yea, I guess I have my moments,” she said.
“Well, how about you come to see me, we will be closer to you in an hour or so. We could meet up and I could give you your friends treasure here.”
Sara looked at the clock on her wall and smiled.
“Yea, okay… I’ll get ready then. Hey what is your name anyway...? I need to know who to ask for when I get there.”
Caine bit his lip. “My name is Jonah,” he said to her.
“Oh… okay Jonah… my name is Sara. I will meet you there.”
Sara hit the button on her phone and looked into her mirror. She smiled and touched her hair.
“He sounded cute,” she said to herself. She jumped into the shower and started to get ready.
Caine stood there with Rue’s phone in his hand. He put it into his pocket and touched his lip. He had bitten into it and he wiped the blood from the inside of his mouth, and sucked on his finger.
“It seems that I have been able to find a way to bring you to me, after all,” he whispered to himself.
Caine stepped out of the tent and looked around. All the other rides and tents were gone. Jonah stepped up to him and grinned.
“Seems to have been moved quickly,” Caine said to him.
“Lily and I are not the only protectors here Caine. This carnival is made up of none other than a gypsy band of rogues,” he said to him. Caine smiled.
“And have you spread the word to them?” Jonah nodded.
“Yes, they are all a buzz with your coming,” he said.
“Well. How have you gone undetected for so long?” Caine asked him.
Jonah stepped up to him. “The rest here go out to feed, they only take energy within the carnival. Lily and I are the only ones who actually eat our prey,” he said.
Caine looked around and clapped his hands together.
“Lovely,” he said. “So, we will rejoin the rest then. I will need to speak to them all.”
Jonah tilted his head. Caine looked at him and held his arms out.
“With you by my side of course,” he added.
“And Lily,” Jonah added. Caine grinned.
“And of course… Lily,” he said.
“So… you are the master here, I take it?” Caine asked him.
“None other,” Jonah said as he bowed and tipped his hat.
“Well then… you must address your servants, as soon as we arrive. You will announce that a new master has come to them.”
Jonah straightened up and looked at him. “And the most notorious of them all, Lord Caine,” Jonah said, as he turned and flashed away from him.
***
Sophia stood alone in the council room. She had called an assembly of all protectors in Valon. These meetings did not happen very often. The last one was called for the preparation of war. She closed her eyes and remembered Caine as a child. The only one she was able to create. Echoes of memory boiled up in her and she quickly opened her eyes when they all started to file in. There was a low murmur in the room. She sighed and held her head up as they all found a place in the great room.
She stood silent and proud in the middle. No one had ever questioned her loyalty to their race, even after the creation of her son. She held her hands together and rested at the front of her long white dress. Silver beads draped across her forehead and loosely wrapped at her wrists. She held her hands up to signal that the council was about to convene. The chattering stopped and she scanned the crowd slowly. She raised her hands and took one step forward.
“I am thankful for your attention,” she said.
No one responded to her. She looked up at the open skylight and then back out at everyone. She had already made up her mind as to how so would try to calm any suspicions. She grinned.
“Rue Valon is no longer living,” she said.
A murmur rose up.
“Now, I know that there have been doubts, but the Valon blood line has come to a sorrowful end. The loss of one of the original nine is a stark reminder to all of us that we should stand vigilant in our quest for preservation. That is why I propose that we resume the ability to create.”
A boy, by the name of Thomas, stepped forward. He looked at Sophia and then turned to the crowd.
“There have been rumors of war and deceit, what of this do you know?” he turned to Sophia. “Sophia Graph,” he added. Sophia stepped forward and placed her hand on his shoulder.
The boy lowered his eyes from hers.
“You need to calm your paranoia Thomas.” She looked out to the crowd.
“All of you need to settle your fears. We have existed for so long I fear that we allow ourselves to get disturbed by lies. I assure you all that no war looms. The apparent self-destruction of one of our own has simply caused a ripple among you all.”
Thomas looked up at her and turned to the crow
d.
“I believe that Sophia has all power now, seeing that she is the oldest among us to survive, her family was second in line. With the apparent destruction of Rue Valon, Sophia is now first family, seeing that none of the Valon bloodline still exist.”
Sophia grinned and raised her hands to all of them.
“I ask that you all take my proposal and think it through. We are now down to two bloodlines, Graph and Barrington, and seeing that the Barringtons have abandoned their will to live among us, I consider it to be solely Graph. I ask that I be given power to see to the will of our people.”
The murmur welled up in the crowd and Thomas looked at Sophia and then turned to all of them.
“Consider her wisdom; many families have branched off from the original nine. She is correct in her lineage. She would appear to be the last among us who would know how to lift the binding to create.”
Everyone started to disperse. Sophia raised her hands.
“Consider the possibility that we now stare into the face of time, an end to our mortality. I ask that we take three days to decide how we will handle this. We will reconvene at that time and I will have two of nine in my hand. If I am given power, I will read from its pages. I will lift the binding spell and we will move forward as a race and not simply fade into the fabric of time.”
Sophia watched as they all left her alone in the council room. She looked up at the skylight and watched birds fly overhead. She glanced out at the fifteen guards walking towards her and looked at the girl that had brought her the news of Rue’s survival earlier. She waved a hand at them and they all stepped into the circle with her. She looked at them and grinned. Her hands started to glow and a bright flash hit them all. The guards stumbled for a moment and then they all regained their footing. Sophia opened her eyes up and looked at all of them.
“I sent you all to track Johnathan down, of what news do you bring?” she asked them.
This being purely a test, to ensure that she had taken their memory of what they saw.
The girl stepped forward and bowed to her.
“We did not find him,” she said. Sophia smiled and waved a hand at them.
The guards left her alone and she smiled. She started to talk to herself.
“I think it best that the memory of what you saw was wiped clean from, as opposed to stirring more confusion,” she whispered.
What a problem it would be for any here to realize that Valon, their beloved home, could be infiltrated and glamoured? Oh what a travesty that would be! She stopped and looked at her hands.
“Caine, my son. We will soon be together again.”
She turned and walked to the mirror and waved her hand over it. It rolled like water and she stepped through it.
***
I don’t know why I bother. I stood in the shower and heard a voice. I let the water wash the soap off my face and reached down and turned it water off.
“What?” I said.
I wasn’t not mad… I just thought that sometime soon, I was going to remove all the doors in the house…we appeared to not need them anyway.
I peeked around my shower curtain and grinned. Josh stood there and smiled back at me.
“And you need to talk to me in the shower… why?” I asked him.
I said it softer than I would of a few months ago. I feel that I am getting used to the fact that nudity is simply nothing to a protector.
“Theodore wants to know if you will look at a book,” he said.
“I don’t understand why it wasn’t mentioned when I sat at the table… eating,” I said to him.
Josh laughed. “I don’t know, he asked me and I came up here and asked.”
I whipped the curtain open and Josh turned in a flash. I found it funny how he suddenly didn’t want to see me naked. I reached for the towel and started to dry off.
“You act like your modest now,” I said to him.
He kept his back to me. “No, it isn’t modesty,” he said.
I stepped up behind him and leaned my head on his back. I felt a humming against my cheek. He let me stay there for a moment.
He cleared his throat, it sounded like a rumble since my ear was pressed against his back.
“I want to maintain my sanity,” he said.
I looked up at his back and wanted to run my hands up the back of his shirt. It was getting harder and harder to not give him a reason to throw me down. I raised my hand and let it hover close to his back and he shrugged his shoulders and stepped away from me. He laughed.
“You don’t have to touch me for me to feel it Rue,” he said.
“Sorry,” I whispered.
He stood there and rubbed his neck. I knew that I could have flustered him more if I wanted too, but I stopped. Josh was actually acting like he wanted more with us, and I wanted more too. I really do.
“Okay… tell him I’ll look at the book,” I said.
Josh grinned and started to leave. He suddenly flashed to me and I stumbled a little. He looked down at me and raised his hand to my face. He didn’t touch me but kept his hand close to my skin. I closed my eyes and he slowly moved his hand from my face to my neck, then over my shoulder. I laughed and opened my eyes up. He smiled at me.
“See,” he said. I nodded.
It totally felt like he was gently touching me. It felt a little more intense than him actually making contact with my skin. I bit my lip, being careful not to break my skin. He lingered for a moment and made a noise.
“Oh… you will regret all the teasing, I can assure you,” he whispered.
“Why are you waiting?” I asked him as I looked up at him.
He raised his hand to me and then clinched his fist.
“You are driving me crazy, I swear to god,” he said. He turned and left my room.
I turned to the mirror and watched the blue mist rolling on my skin. I smiled and dried off, thinking about how I didn’t know how much longer I could allow him to not get into my bed. I was nervous, but I wanted him… more than anything. It was getting harder and harder to not just try to get him to a point where he couldn’t stop.
I held up my hands and ran them over my hair. It dried quickly. Not having to use a blow dryer was a huge bonus, especially because my hair was back being long. I grabbed a t-shirt out of my closet and looked at it. It read… ’I hate you too.’ I grinned as I remembered being in the woods with Josh and we had declared our ‘hate’ for each other. I pulled it over my head and pulled on my skinny jeans. I pulled on my white boots, laced them up then put my hair into two loose balls at the back of my head. Once again I caught my reflection in the mirror. I actually think that you get hotter when you get dumped. Thank you Johnathan.
I ran downstairs and walked into a conversation as usual. Josh glanced at me and smiled, as he looked me up and down. I think he got the inside joke on my shirt… or he just stared at my boobies too long. Either way it’s cool. I glanced at Johnathan and he was staring at me again. Maybe he thought the shirt was for his benefit. I didn’t care if he did. Theo stood up with a familiar looking book in his hand.
“Ahhh, here we are, looking so… British punk,” he said as he grinned at me.
I smiled back and took a bow. I stood up and Josh stared at me. Maybe I just reminded him of Jonah, that wasn’t my intention. He didn’t say anything so I walked to Theo and took the book from his hand. I traced my fingers across the cover and the front door opened. Elin walked in and grinned at me.
My eyes met hers for a moment and then I looked at Josh. He ignored her completely.
“What are you doing here?” I asked her. She raised her eyebrows and looked at Theo.
“He asked me to come, trust me I didn’t like it either,” she said.
I walked to the couch and sat down with the book in my hand. I opened it up and the words looked jumbled.
I looked up at Theo. “Which book is this?” I asked him.
Elin walked over and plopped down next to me. She jolted me as she dropped down. I roll
ed my eyes and tried to move over a little. Truth was, I knew I’d said that Josh and I would never talk about her again… I said it, but in my heart I just wanted to grab her head and slam it into my knee. I bit my lip and a little blood welled up. Elin leaned over to me and tried to wipe it from my mouth. I didn’t even look at her when my hand flashed at the speed of light and bent her wrist back a little too far.
“Don’t touch me,” I muttered. I heard Josh laugh under his breath. My eyes kept to the book. Elin sighed.
“Well, this is three of nine. It is the Barrington book,” she said to me.
I looked at the pages as words came and went in front of my eyes.
“Who did you sleep with to get it?” I asked, almost regretting the answer. Elin cleared her throat and looked at Josh. I stood up and dropped it on the table.
“Okay then… well it all looks like gobbeldy gook to me,” I said.
I walked to the kitchen and opened the cabinet. I opened the fridge and filled my glass with O.J.
I took a drink and looked up. They all stared at me.
“What?” I said as I lowered my glass.
Theo walked towards me. “You can read it, I assure you,” he said.
I looked at everyone and raised my hands. “I just said that it looks like a bunch of nothing.”
Josh pushed himself from the chair and Elin winked at him. He rubbed his hand over his hair and looked at me.
“Rue… Elin is here because if you cut her and taste her blood… the words will appear to you.”
I dropped my glass and Josh flashed to it and caught it before it hit the floor and shattered.
He rose up slowly and looked at me. I had my hands on my hips and stared a hole into him.
“I have to do what, with who?” I said to him.
He cleared his throat again. He set the glass down on the table and raised his hands to me. I didn’t like the feeling that was welling up in my stomach.
“Elin is the only one here that has tasted all nine bloodlines,” he said to me.
“And?” I said. Josh looked back at her and then at me.
“Well, Theo thinks that if you share your blood with her you will be able to read the book. All the books have a binding spell on them. No one has been able to read them in a long time.”
