Legal Stuff: None of these characters are mine; I'm just borrowing them for a bit. I'll put them back the way they were when I'm finished.
Souled Out
Chapter One: Hurt
The church was so peaceful tonight. Where is everybody, I thought? I didn't hear a peep or squeal from a pixy and then I sighed as I remembered; Jenks's kids were mostly gone, all but the three youngest and Jumoke who, being dark haired, could not leave and would probably never find a mate. Like me, a bit, I guess. I sighed, feeling very melancholy for some reason tonight.
Glancing at the top of the fridge, I saw the gouge marks from where Bis would sleep atop it, but my little 'goyle was nearing his 51's birthday and had grown a bit. He stays outside more and more these days; rarely coming in except to the belfry. Ivy was out visiting her mother tonight, having a family dinner with Rynn at her side. The two vamps had been seeing each other exclusively for a while, and as long as he kept to the understanding that Ivy didn't want to be anyone's scion, I was fine with that. He treated her and I very well. Even if he did creep me out.
The coffeemaker gurgled its last and I grabbed my chipped Vampiric Charms mug, filling it to the brim, when the farm-bell that served as a doorbell gonged.
"Crap!" I exclaimed, with hot coffee dripping down my arm and all over the floor. "HOLD ON A MINUTE!" I yelled, not wanting them to pull the bell again and wake the dead; possibly literally, if not the neighborhood, at the least.
I was struck by an incredibly nervous twinge at the door. I still hadn't invested in a peephole. With a small grunt I pulled the heavy wooden door open, surprised to see Rynn and captain Edden standing on my stoop.
"Edden," I began, when my brain shifted over a notch."Rynn? Aren't you supposed to be having dinner with Ivy?" I saw the somber look on the dead vampire's face and the glistening moisture in Edden's eyes. Shit, shit shit! No, NO! I started tosink to the floor. There was only one reason these two would be together, at this hour, alone on my stoop.
"Rachel-" Edden began. I held a hand up to stop the words; whatever he said could never, ever be unsaid. Please, God, PLEASE! I'll be good, I'll do whatever you want, join a convent or anything, just-please?
I looked up at the two of them, not able to stand. "Ivy?" I asked. My voice coming out small and childlike. Edden leaned down to give me a hug, I think. Rynn only shook his head.
"Rachel, I'm so sorry, so very sorry-" Edden started again. I cut him off and shoved him away from me. I didn't want to hurt him. I knew I would. I stood slowly and yelled at the top of my lungs; "JE-E-E-ENKS!" coming out as a banshee's wail, it was less than two seconds before the hum of pixie wings came zipping faster than before through the sanctuary.
"Rache! What by the Turn is going on?" he shouted in alarm as he came to a halt inches from Edden. It didn't take Jenks as long as me to figure it out. The Pixie's wings dusted to dismal blue and then black before going out and he dropped like a stone from the air. I caught him on my hand, where he straightened himself. His face was pinched in grief—again. Features white as snow. I looked into his leaf-green eyes and gave an almost imperceptible nod before we both lost it. The last thing I remembered was Jenks singing about blood and daisies in the moonlight.
Ch. 1 Soundtracks:
Joanna: Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Hurt: Johnny Cash (as written by Trent Reznor)