The Day Human Prince

by B. Kristin McMichael

  Nessa sat on the picnic table in the dark wayside as she waited for Devin to return. It was nighttime and the wind whistled through the trees, but to Nessa it wasn’t scary as most people found it. Nessa loved the trees at night. All the day creatures were asleep, and a whole new world opened up. Nessa listened to the crickets and laid back to see the stars. The wayside stops were the most relaxing part of the stressful trip. This was where she could feel nature again and feel like a real sidhe.

  After being away from home for the first time in her life, and for two months at that, Nessa was excited and scared to return. It was the adventure of a lifetime to be out, and maybe the only adventure she would ever get to take. Most of the sidhe never left the mountains. The real world wasn’t that inviting when you were connected to nature. Devin’s first stop for gas was far enough into the city that she couldn’t wait to get home. All the dead cement and metal was sad for her to see. The world, at one time, was filled with living things everywhere, but now it wasn’t. Day humans came and destroyed it. She had been taught from when she was little about the evils of man and their ways, but now Nessa saw firsthand that it was true. Day humans didn’t respect nature, so the sidhe justification for drinking the blood of day humans was actually more valid than Nessa ever knew before her trip.

  “Need more time?” Devin asked as he sat beside her on the table. His hands were empty of food.

  “Yes,” Nessa replied, finishing the chocolate bar that thankfully had actual peanuts in it. “Doesn’t it ever bother you to be around so much dead stuff?” Nessa pointed to the sidewalks and the shelter he had just returned from.

  “Well, that’s quite the misconception,” Devin replied. “Calling all the night humans around the Randolph estate dead isn’t very nice.” Devin was referring to the common misconception everyone had about the blood-sucking night humans. None of the night humans were actually dead, and Devin had to know that. He didn’t even crack a smile, but Nessa knew he was teasing her.

  Nessa reached over and swatted at him. “I wasn’t taking about me or night humans. We’re very much alive, thank you. I was talking about the roads, the buildings, the cities, and cars. It’s all dead. There’s no living spirit in any of it.”

  “That was what the freak-out at the gas station was about?” Devin replied as if he just had just gotten the clue into what was on her mind.

  “Freak-out?” Nessa asked, sitting up now. It was a bit insulting when Devin said it like that. “Not really a freak-out. I just said I didn’t want to go inside.”

  “Really,” Devin asked, raising his eyebrows. “Then what was all that ranting and squealing about? Get us away from here. What are you doing? If you don’t show me how this thing works, I’ll curse you and all your children,” Devin said in a fake raised voice. “Kind of like a banshee. Oh I get it now. Ban-sidhe. Guess it comes with the family line.”

  “I wasn’t ranting,” she replied, now getting a little upset with his description. “And I’m not a banshee.” Nessa remembered seeing the banshee cult of her tribe once as a child, and she didn’t want to be compared to those women. They found great pleasure in terrifying and dismembering the people they wanted to eat on… something about terror making the blood so much sweeter. Nessa liked to think of herself as better than that. And there was no way Nessa would be caught dying her naturally dark hair the white-blonde color that was part of their initiation into their group.

  “If you have such a problem with cars and buildings, tell me what you do. What do you live in? How do you travel?” Devin countered, challenging her.

  “We live in houses, just natural ones,” Nessa replied. Everything in her world was living. It was nothing like the cement world of the day humans. It wasn’t that much different, but just created differently. There was no way to make a day human understand that. They were all about cutting down trees and making things dead.

  “Sure, natural,” Devin replied, standing up. It was obvious that he didn’t believe her. “And how do you travel if not for a vehicle? By horse I’m guessing.”

  “If it’s a short distance, then yes, by horse,” Nessa said. Devin was mocking her, but she didn’t want to give in. No matter what she said, he wouldn’t understand.

  “And long distances, or do the sidhe never leave home?” Devin was correct in that most sidhe never left the villages, but Nessa wasn’t about to tell him he was correct. He was quite keen for a day human, but she would never admit that, either.

  Nessa controlled her anger as she looked at Devin. He was just as she was told growing up. Day humans were frivolously ignorant beings that really didn’t deserve to be alive. Any regret she may have had for feeding on day humans was quickly vanishing. The way Devin talked like she was the crazy one when wasn’t he crazy for living in a dead box, along with getting from place to place in another dead box on dead pathways?

  “We obviously leave home. I’m here now, aren’t I?” Nessa asked. Devin just shrugged.

  “And you and your brother are the first sidhe I’ve ever seen. And, trust me, I’ve seen a lot of night humans. Randolph made sure of that,” Devin answered. That had to be the truth. Devin was far more trained than even men twice his age. Nessa got the feeling that Lord Randolph was very thorough in teaching Devin. She had seen some of the scars peeking out from his white T-shirt sleeve.

  Nessa hated Devin being right, and hated that he knew he was right. She guessed that Devin had never seen a sidhe night human before. They never fed too far from home, and most found it better to lure day humans to the mountains than to go outside the tribe’s territory. But why did he have to be right about everything? Why did he have to be so perfect? Nessa glared at Devin. And why did he have to be cute while being right?

  “We travel via butterflies,” Nessa spat out, and watched Devin laugh. She calmly whistled three tones and waited as Devin’s laugher slowed. Soon fifteen butterflies landed on Nessa. It was spring, and there shouldn’t have been butterflies, let alone fifteen all landing on her. Devin’s laughter abruptly stopped as he stared at her in awe. Nessa smiled before the giggles got to her. Nessa stood and brushed the butterflies off her gently. She couldn’t hold the farce much longer.

  “You really believed me?” Nessa asked. “You think it’s possible to travel with these? They can barely lift themselves, let alone another being. Sometimes day humans are so gullible.”

  Devin stood and began to walk away once he realized she had been teasing. He didn’t like to be made fun of. Nessa stood and ran to catch up with him. Devin didn’t slow his pace as he went back to the vending machines.

  “Sorry. Really, we travel through the trees,” Nessa offered before Devin decided to leave her behind. He paused only momentarily and she seized the opportunity to jump out ahead of him. He obviously didn’t believe her. “I’m serious. I’ll show you.”

  Nessa pointed to the nearest tree. Devin waited, but didn’t turn to look until she moved. Nessa hurried over and put her hand on the tree. She waited to make sure he was watching her.

  “All the trees are connected. We just tell the tree where we want to go, and we end up there,” Nessa pointed to the next tree about three feet away. Whispering words under her breath, her hand slid into the tree a few inches before she just vanished, only to reappear at the other tree. Devin nodded and continued to walk away. He didn’t seem too impressed with her show. Nessa ran and stopped in front of him again. Devin finally looked at her, his gray-blue eyes as closed off as ever.

  “Then why are we traveling by car?” he asked. That was a good question to ask.

  “Because I’m not sure what it would do to you. Normal day humans, or even other night humans, can’t use the trees to travel. I know my blood flows in you now, but I’m not sure you’d be safe. I didn’t want to chance killing you when we could just travel otherwise.” Nessa watched his face for a response. She could tell Devin was weighing her words. Nessa waited a second more before adding, “And this might be my last trip out of the mountains ever. I
wanted to see more of the world.”

  Devin paused and stared into her eyes like he was assessing what she said. Nessa stood still and stared back at him, unafraid of what he would find in her eyes. Devin was the only person in the world that knew what it felt like to belong, yet not belong. He was the only day human in the night human world around him. He was exactly like she was. Part of it, yet not. Devin reached to touch her face. She waited for him to say something more. It looked like he wanted to, but instead he dropped his hand, nodded, and walked around her, back toward his original destination.

  He shut down the moment that she was connecting with him. Nessa hated when he was closed off. She had seen him do it many times over the past month and a half, mostly around Arianna. He seemed to have a way to not let anything out. Nessa didn’t want to be included in the ones he wasn’t real to.

  Nessa walked back to the table and sat down to wait for him. She didn’t want to be near him, or be back in the car any longer then she needed to be. Devin just could never understand how depressing the car was to her. He may have called it his baby, and treated it like it was alive, but it wasn’t. It was a metal box on wheels. It smelled funny, all cars did, Nessa had discovered after being outside the sidhe villages. She swore that it actually disliked her as well. At times the car doors locked themselves to keep her out, or other times the doors unexpectedly opened, almost spilling her to the ground when they arrived at rest stops. The car seemed to hate her as much as she hated it, but that had to be all in her head. It was a dead metal box.

  She felt the blade pierce her skin only milliseconds after it happened. The suction sound it made as it was pulled from her body was the second thing she felt, after the intense pain from it entering. It was a sidhe blade. Only a sidhe blade could cause the pain she felt. The sword that entered her from behind was retracted, and she stood and spun to face her attacker at the same time. No one was behind her. The sidhe was invisible.

  Nessa said a few words to turn herself invisible as well, and pressed down on the wound from both sides to prevent the trail of flowers that formed from her blood as it hit the ground. All sidhe were attached to nature, and the grass told her attacker where she was. Instead she jumped from table to table to avoid the grass. After a few jumps she was at the cement sidewalk, pausing to catch her breath through the pain. For once she was thankful for the dead walkway as it hid her. The attacker had aimed to kill her with a blow right through the middle. It was a purposefully done in a way to make her feel pain as she died. The person following her didn’t just want her dead, but seemed to want her to suffer.

  A now-visible sidhe assassin dropped on the ground a few feet away from her, and she looked up to see Devin. He was fuzzy-looking, but he was there. Her invisibility spell must have worked on him also, due to the blood bond, but she could still see him through their connection. At least she hoped it was the bond that let her see him, otherwise he would now be the target.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Devin asked inside her head. Nessa didn’t know how to respond. All night humans could communicate silently if they were connected blood to blood, but that meant they had to be touching. Devin was communicating with her without touching her. She had only ever seen Arianna do that.

  Devin didn’t wait for her reply as he scooped her up and set her back down several feet away from the body. Devin was already planning his next move as Nessa still wondered about how he talked to her in her mind.

  ‘Once I draw the other one away, examine the one I killed. We might not get more time to figure out who they are,’ Devin ordered.

  Nessa nodded. It was clear that even though they were invisible they could see each other, and until she figured out how to talk in his mind, she could just nod. It was also clear that Devin knew there were more assassins around.

  There wasn’t time for a witty remark or even a debate. They had to work together to get away from whatever was sent after them. Nessa glanced down at the sidhe assassin only feet away. It was a secondary assassin. They were trained after everyone finished school, and most families boasted one assassin or more. The colors the assassin wore were black, and she would never know who sent him without a clan affiliation. All families had one, and some even worked for hire. If this one was hired, she would never know by whom. She walked a little closer and looked at the bare neck. There was no family mark, just the black assassin bird. This person was unknown and hidden. She wanted to pull the mask off, but most assassins were set up with spells to hurt anyone who did so. She would never know who the person was. But she already knew one thing: someone wasn’t happy about her homecoming.

  CHAPTER 2

  Devin ran across the grass to attract the invisible foe since he had seen Nessa avoid the grass to do the opposite. When he was sure that he had been followed, he jumped onto the tables and began to hop between them and the cement, being sure to touch the grass every now and then to keep the assassin following him. Devin paused and looked back behind him. He saw the faint outline of movement, the assassin. There was only one. Devin moved to an area which would be optimal to fight in and waited. The assassin wasn’t too far behind, yet wasn’t following him as well when he didn’t leave a trail.

  Devin looked across the rest stop and saw that Nessa was examining the body. Devin needed to keep the assassin’s focus on him in order to allow Nessa the time she needed so that she could at least get some idea of who was sent after them.

  Devin reached down to the table he was now perched on and rubbed some of Nessa’s blood he had on his hand from carrying her onto the table. She had only been sitting two tables away when she was struck, and now the table he was on also had small flowers trying to root into the wood table and grow. It worked just as he had suspected. Nessa’s blood somehow could make things grow. It attracted the assassin’s attention immediately. The assassin honed directly onto the growing plants.

  Devin was ready and met the first swing head on. Devin’s own blade clanged against the invisible metal. It wasn’t unusual for Devin to travel with at least several weapons on himself. He had grown accustomed to needing them over the years in the night human world. It was far different than the day human world he had been raised in as a child where it was a crime to kill someone. The night human world didn’t see death as a crime, but as a way of life.

  Devin countered a few more of the moves of the assassin before starting his own offensive. He only had to take a few swings to gain an advantage, and the assassin had trouble keeping up. While trained well, Devin found his opponent lacking in combat skills against an invisible foe, and he began to gain the upper hand. Devin made a few more swings of his weapon before finding the opportunity to pin the assassin to the ground.

  “Don’t touch him,” Nessa warned from the sidewalk. “He’s covered in spells.”

  Devin saw a green haze around the assassin. It looked faintly like the way radioactive glow was portrayed in cartoons. Devin now knew that meant that he saw the magic.

  “Who sent you?” Devin asked.

  The man was no longer invisible, but flickering back and forth. Devin stared at the eyes of the man, who turned toward his voice from where he had been staring at Nessa. The assassin’s body was covered all in black, as was his face, but his eyes were visible. Devin stared at the piercing blue eyes that stared hatefully back at him. The assassin didn’t reply.

  Devin jumped back off the table suddenly as a spell exploded where the man had been. The glow had intensified, and Devin could guess what was coming. He didn’t wait to watch the man disappear. Instead, he ran across the yard to Nessa.

  “Time to go, princess,” he said, scooping her back into his arms and racing to his car. There had been only one left, but he didn’t want to wait around to find out that the assassin had called for back-up.

  Devin opened the driver’s side of the GTO and tossed Nessa into the passenger seat without much thought or effort. He slammed his door shut and turned to dig in the seats behind them rather than starting up the car to dri
ve away. Devin pulled out a towel and handed it to Nessa.

  “Why are you still bleeding?” he asked. “Did he hit an organ?”

  “I don’t think so,” Nessa replied, taking the towel and pressing it to the wound. The blood continued to come out. Devin was concerned about the amount of blood and didn’t want to see flowers sprouting in his car.

  “Let me see,” Devin ordered, pulling at the towel and her hand pressed to the wound. Devin used the bond to see into her train of thought.

  Nessa wanted to protest. She never had anyone else look at her wounds before. She was a warrior. She was tough. When people fought with blades, people got hurt. It wasn’t the first time she had been cut by a sidhe blade. She had never been stabbed from behind by a sidhe assassin, though. That was a first.

  Devin waited while she warred in her own head and pulled back out of her mind without her knowing. He hadn’t jumped into her thoughts on purpose, but the bond was stronger the closer they were. Nessa finally let go of the towel and turned sideways so that Devin could view the wound from the back. He touched around it tenderly, and allowed the towel to soak up more blood. It wasn’t closing quickly. Devin couldn’t understand why. That was one thing all night humans had in common; they all healed efficiently. The closing of the wound and the stopping the blood flow should have happened in minutes if it really missed any organs.

  Nessa jumped as something came flying at her car window, and then she yelped as Devin touched the wound. Devin didn’t even flinch at the sound. The car was safe.