Rainey looked at Ariana as she said this last part to gauge her reaction. Abe would die if the girl found him repulsive because he had fangs or had to drink blood to live. She may think it scary, and that was to be expected, but if she didn’t want to be around the vampires because of their lifestyle, Abe would have a serious problem. The look on her face didn’t seem to be of disgust, another good sign. Rainey smiled to herself, wishing she could tell Ariana that the most powerful vampire on Eternal Island was madly in love with her. All in due time Rainey, soon, very soon.
“Oh no. Bad timing. Really bad timing. Ariana, I need you to do me a huge favor. Please?”
“What?”
“I feel a vision coming on and I really need to see what it is. I won’t be able to fly the plane and see the vision, too, but if you will…”
“Are you serious?”
“As a heart attack.”
“No! Absolutely not! I don’t know the first thing about flying. I am scared to death of heights, and that’s when I have solid ground under my feet.”
“Ariana…”
“Please don’t make me, Rainey. I can’t. I’m sorry.”
“It’s either that or crash. Now, I don’t want you to be frightened, okay? There really is nothing to flying. All you have to do is keep an eye on the controls, anyway. I’ve got it set on auto-pilot. Don’t touch anything. Just watch this panel. If that light there turns red, shake me out of my trance. Are you comfortable? You’re flying.”
“I’m flying? I’m flying!”
“You’re flying,” Rainey repeated, matter-of-factly. “You’re the one in charge now. It will only take me a couple of minutes, I hope. If you need me just punch me in the arm and I will come out of it. Not too hard or I’ll hit you back,” Rainey joked, trying to ease Ariana’s tension.
It didn’t seem to have worked. Ariana’s teeth were clenched and her eyes were glued to the control panel. She looked completely unable – or unwilling – to blink.
“Okay. Just hurry, please.”
Rainey leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. The vision slammed into her frontal lobe. Julia planning something, but what was it? It wasn’t clear. Abe, Julia, Max, Jonah and herself were there and she sensed… Ariana was in trouble. What was Jonah doing there? It was a double-sided vision. One whose outcome is controlled by a choice that is made by the person the vision is intended for. But who was it for? There were so many people in that vision. This can’t be right, she thought. Rainey continued to pick at the abstract thoughts in her head. Abe looked pissed and he was crying. And Julia was smiling. Something was definitely wrong. The last vision she’d had on the island was of Ariana’s arrival, and how it would all work out for the better. Why was Abe so upset?
I’ve got to get out of this vision and call him right now, Rainey thought.
CHAPTER 5
Rainey opened her eyes to find she was hyperventilating. She couldn’t remember the last time a vision made her do that, in fact it hadn’t ever happened. I’ve got to calm myself down or I’ll be the one passing out, and this plane is as good as crashed if that happens, Rainey thought to herself.
“Please tell me that is normal,” Ariana said. Her eyes were darting from the plane’s control panels to take in Rainey’s expression and back again, tension radiating from her every limb.
Rainey glanced at the controls before she answered. “Actually… no, it isn’t, but it wasn’t a normal vision, either. No need to worry. Yet. I think. I just need to…” She trailed off, thinking hard. “You seem well in control to me, so I’ll just go make a quick phone call.” How the hell am I supposed to have a majorly important conversation with Abe when Ariana’s right beside me, hearing things I’m not supposed to tell her? Damn! If I’d just kept the vision of Ariana to myself none of this would be happening. She wouldn’t be here, Abe would be his usual annoying vampire self, and everything would stay perfectly normal.
“Wait! What do you mean – I seem well in control? I’m not. I’m really not. Some machine is in control of my life right now and you’re asking me to trust it, as if being in a witch-controlled plane wasn’t bad enough. Then you tell me to keep an eye on it, as if I had the faintest idea what to do if something did go wrong. And you look like you’ve just met death face to face. You look scared, I’m scared, so it can’t get any worse. Spill it. What was that vision about?”
Rainey snapped her eyes shut and prayed for divine inspiration, or the last half hour’s travel to become one minute, or a modestly good idea to pass her mind, at least. This girl was much too clever to fob off with soothing words.
“Please tell me about it, Rainey. Please. I won’t faint, I promise.” Ariana waited to gauge the witch’s reaction. The determination and tightly clamped lips had given way to a resigned look and shallow breathing. Seizing her chance, Ariana pressed again. “Didn’t you know? A problem shared is a problem halved. I’m here and I can listen. You want to talk about it?” She really wasn’t sure she could handle it, but she was going to damn well try.
“Do I want to talk about it? More than you know, princess. I do appreciate your offer and I would gladly talk, under different circumstances. But, this time, I can’t. I swore I wouldn’t say a word.”
A moment’s silence filled the cabin. Ariana’s eyes were staring, unseeing, at the controls. Rainey’s gaze was totally unfocused, though inspiration, good ideas and further visions remained infuriatingly out of reach. Time dragged just as frustratingly slow as expected.
“We still have a good fifteen minutes to kill, so what shall we talk about? What kind of music do you like?”
“I don’t know. All kinds, I guess.” Ariana took a deep breath and blurted out. “What’s so bad about this vision, that you won’t tell me? Was it about me? Am I going to die?”
“I told you, I can’t tell you. Stop pestering.”
“Why? Don’t you trust me? I can keep a secret, you know? I mean, we’re friends now, right? I wouldn’t have set foot on a plane, comatose or not, if I didn’t think of you as a friend already.”
Good luck with this one, Abe, Rainey thought wryly. The girl has a discipline problem and selective hearing. If I find it hard to refuse her pleas, what chance does a love-sick male vampire stand? She smiled to herself. This should be fun to watch.
“I think of you as a friend, too, Ariana, but you have to understand that I can’t tell you the content of my visions. If I do, something might change, in another vision perhaps. Life is in constant flux and I cannot interfere in the normal flow of things. Upcoming events are too joyful, too auspicious to mess them up by revealing what I’ve seen.”
“Upcoming events? In another vision? Can you tell me about that one, at least?”
Ariana was determined to ease the nervousness that still had her on edge since she’d heard Rainey scream for that Abe guy to stop, deep in the throes of her vision. Would eavesdropping on a vision be considered an interference, too? This was all way too scary for her. Hell, she’d been in a nice and peaceful coma for weeks, and now, within a few hours of her awakening, life had become a terrifying rollercoaster. She wasn’t sure if she’d made the right decision accepting Rainey’s offer.
“All I’m saying is that it was about you, and that is why you are sitting beside me now,” Rainey’s voice broke into Ariana’s thoughts.
It was about me, Ariana gasped. Her intuition had been spot on, as if Rainey’s psychic abilities were rubbing off on her already. Ariana really didn’t like the idea of her and Abe sharing visions in a witch’s bizarre mind. That was a really scary concept. Plus, this Abe guy was a vampire – double scary. Definitely have to stay away from anything with fangs, she concluded. And planes.
Rainey was watching every play of emotion on Ariana’s face. She was incredibly sharp, for a human girl. Intuitive. This secret won’t stay a secret for much longer, Rainey mused.
“Listen, I’ll have to call Abe and get him to organize a room for you. I wasn’t sure you would come, so I didn’t
do anything about that before I left. I need a quick chat with him – which will also give you enough time to freshen up – and then I’ll pick you up and take you to a restaurant for something to eat.
“Good, I’m starving, and I have to pee.”
“You have to pee? How do you have to pee? You haven’t drunk anything in weeks.”
“When I’m nervous… I just feel this knot in my stomach and it makes me want to pee. Sorry,” Ariana explained hastily, cheeks flaming with embarrassment.
“I’ll have you in your own room in fifteen minutes. Can you wait that long? If you can’t there is a toilet at the back of the plane, but we are about to land.”
“I think I can wait.”
Rainey pulled out her cell and called Abe. There was only half a ring when he answered the phone.
“Where the hell are you, Rainey?”
“I will be there in less than fifteen minutes. I need to talk to you – another vision, don’t ask. Oh, and Ariana needs a room.” She held her breath. Would he get her cryptic message?
“Oh, is she with you? What has she said? What do you think she’s thinking? How much did you tell her? Does she know about… me?” Abe blurted, then he cleared his throat and continued in a more composed tone of voice. “I mean, I’ll call Lydia to get her a room and I will meet you in your lair in twenty five minutes.”
“See you in twenty-five, Abe.” Rainey hit the end button on her cell as she rolled her eyes. Puppy love, she thought.
“Do you see that, Ariana?” Rainey nodded, looking through the front window at the ocean below them.
Ariana followed her gaze. “See what? I see a lot of water, which really isn’t making me very comfortable at this precise moment. Why?”
It always entertained Rainey to watch the faces of the new arrivals when they watched the island appear out of nowhere. She smiled and lifted the illusion so the young woman could see it. “La-ca-de-man-ce-lono.”
Ariana inhaled sharply. “Oh my God, Rainey! How did you do that? I know, I know – you’re a witch. I got that. But it’s amazing. The island looks so pretty.”
Rainey let her look out for a minute and busied herself with the controls.
“This witchy stuff,” Ariana asked, turning her back on the window; the plane was losing altitude fast now, and her stomach felt like it had decided to move house somewhere higher up her esophagus. “Is it something you learn, or something you’re born with? Can you teach me?”
Well, at least she wasn’t opposed to the supernatural. “Easy, Blondie, slow down. Geez, do you ever ask one thing at a time? If you don’t have any witch blood in you, I won’t be able to teach you a thing, but if you do, it will be easy. We can look into that, if you like. Once you’re settled,” she stressed the last word. Provided you have enough patience to do even that, she mumbled to herself.
“What?”
“I was just thinking aloud – I’ll need some information about your family lineage, and we’ll have to test your brain waves and a few other things with some instruments I made. They’re all in my lair. We can try the spell first, but I don’t know if it’ll work. I haven’t ever tried it before. That would be the easy way. If it works, that is.”
“You’re going to try a new, untested thing on me? A spell you’ve never tried before? Great! Thanks. I see my decision of coming here was a brilliant idea.”
“Relax. You’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”
“Trust me, you don’t want me to relax one muscle. Not until I’ve been to the bathroom. And what the hell is a lair?”
“Every witch has a lair. And not just witches, even you have one. It just means a place where one retreats, a den or place of rest. Witches protect their den with spells and…”
“I bet you soundproof yours,” Ariana interrupted.
“Har, har. I haven’t made anyone scream yet, though I’ll admit I have been tempted once or twice. Like when people talk too much, for example.” Ariana closed her mouth and crossed her arms tightly, her retort dying on her lips. “I’ll continue, then,” Rainey said, smiling. “I do most of my work in my lair. Spells, readings, research, you know? {{And whilst it may not be soundproofed,}} no one can enter my lair without my permission. I have a wicked sense of humor.”
“I’ll say,” Ariana mumbled softly under her breath.
The plane touched down on the island’s airstrip and the two girls walked towards the sweetest car Ariana had ever seen up close in her life. It was black with blacked out windows, and rims so shiny she could see her reflection enough to know just how bad she was in need of a shower and a hairbrush.
“What kind of car is this?”
“You like it? It’s a Lotus. I’m thinking of trading it off, though. I’ve had it for eight months now. I might just give it to you, as a moving gift. You wanna give it a test drive and see what you think?”
“Are you freaking serious? Hell, yeah, I wanna drive.”
Ariana started the engine and more horses than she could count galloped under the hood. A tear came to her eye as she remembered the love her daddy used to have for sooped-up cars. His face would light up every time he got a new issue of Car and Driver in the mail. He used to dream of him and her building a car together. Ariana wasn’t interested in the cars, she just loved seeing the look on his face. Now she wished she had cared a little bit more.
“Are you okay? We’ve been sitting here for a good five minutes and Abe is waiting on me. Don’t you need to pee anymore?”
Ariana put the car in gear. “No, I’m alright now, thanks. I was just daydreaming. Which way do I go?”
CHAPTER 6
Once through the gates of Eternal Palace, Rainey told Ariana to turn left. Bright ceiling lights glowed like mini-suns the whole two hundred feet of the tunnel down to the enormous underground garage. There were at least a hundred cars parked there, including trucks and sport utility vehicles, all neatly lined up in rows.
“Is this where everyone parks?”
“It is one of five garages. Park over there, next to the Hummer. Hurry up, I’m late and I have made him wait for me a lot, lately. He likes people to be punctual.”
“Just tell him I drove and I was slow because I didn’t know the way.”
“He will buy that, too,” she mumbled, then looked at Ariana and spoke louder. “You get settled and I’ll pick you up in thirty minutes or so.”
“Rainey?”
“Yes.”
“Are you intimate with him? With Abe, I mean. You seem to really want to make him happy.”
Rainey burst into laughter. “Me, with Abe? My God, that’s a new one. No, Abe isn’t interested in me, nor I in him. He was quite the player for a while, but now he only has eyes for one special woman.”
“Who is she?”
Said too much! Shit, said too much, Rainey scolded herself. Of course she would be interested. “We’ll talk about it later, okay? Over dinner, maybe. We’ve really gotta get going now.”
One of the elevators had a note with Rainey’s name on it stuck on the call button. They stepped into the elevator and Rainey quickly scanned Abe’s neat writing to see where he suggested Ariana’s living quarters to be. Surprised, she hit the button for the second floor. Rainey honestly expected him to say Ariana would be staying in his personal bedchambers. The King was listening to her advice without arguing. That must have been a first.
When the doors opened, Ariana almost choked in awe. The curved staircase led up and down, and in all directions there were hallways and doors. It was like a massive museum with all the statues and paintings on the walls, and everything shining brightly. Polished marble and glass glimmered everywhere. The floors and stairs were white marble and glistened as if they were wet.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
All Ariana could do was nod. They walked down a hallway; Rainey stopped in front of a door and knocked, hoping its lodger had been notified of her imminent arrival. A few seconds later a petite girl with platinum blond hair cut a little abov
e her shoulders, and a very pretty smile, opened the door.
“OMG, Rainey, where have you been? I’ve got this new spell I need to try out but I thought I’d pass it by you first. Who’s your friend?”
“Becky, this is Ariana. Ariana, this is Becky Smith. Ariana is your new roommate. Will you help her get settled, please? I’ll come back for you in about thirty minutes. I’ve got to run; Abe probably has blue hair by now.”
“Did you change your booby trap again?” Becky asked with a sly smirk.
“Yeah, and I can’t wait to see how many blue-headed people are running around here.”
“They should know better than try to enter your lair uninvited.”
“Bye, Ariana. See you in a bit,” Rainey said over her shoulder as she sprinted back the way they’d come.
Becky looked at Ariana and smiled from ear to ear. “Well, come on in, roomie.”
“Thank you, Becky. Are you a witch, too?”
“Becky Smith, trainee witch at your service. So, who are you?”
“Ariana Lochalan.”
“Nice to meet you. No, what I mean is – you must be pretty important. Who… are… you?”
“I’m not important at all. I’m just human. My husband was killed in a work accident a while back and, apparently, I went into shock when I found out and slipped into a coma. They couldn’t get me to wake up, but there wasn’t anything else wrong with me so they put me in this mental hospital and… that’s where I was when Rainey found me and woke me up.”
Becky’s eyes were bright and incredulous. “Right. Well, Rainey doesn’t just go find anybody just like that, with no good reason. There’s got to be more to it. Are you a witch or something?”
“I don’t think so, though it would be nice. I’d love to be a witch – the things I’ve seen Rainey do since I met her were amazing. She said she would do some tests and check my family history. Or try some new spell on me.” Ariana frowned and thought she needed to pee again. She pushed the need to the back of her mind, sat in the nearest sofa and crossed her legs tightly. Becky sat next to her. “I really wish I could be a witch. It would be so depressing just being human, watching everyone else do tricks and stuff… What’s it like living with all the witches and vampires around you every day? Is it… I mean… Are they scary… the vampires, in particular?”
Eternal Island (Book 1 in the Eternal Series) Page 3
