**DISCLAIMER: The concept of the
Night World and all related characters belong to L.J. Smith, not me.**
Author's Notes: Hi everyone. This
takes place in the Night World universe but there's not going to be much going
on with L.J. Smith's characters. These are all mine. Also, it takes place
before Circle Daybreak is formed and therefore before the Night World books
take place. Please send some feedback or review! Enjoy reading!
*******************
"In love the paradox occurs
that two beings become one and yet remain two."
~Erich Fromm~
Amulet of Artemis
by: The Silver Princess
Something
momentous is going to happen today, Elise Bradley thought as she awoke with
a breathless gasp. Her heart thudded slowly in her chest, a strange
disconnection between the sound and he event. Something's different, she
thought again. She lifted her head a few inches from her pillow and glanced
around to see if she could discern the origin of this irrational feeling;
surely it would be something completely normal and ordinary, like the stopping
of the air conditioning. But, as she peered around her room, the early morning
air seemed unfamiliar and quivery, as if it were waiting for something. The
elusive, blue-gray, almost-dawn light filtered hazily through the slits in her
shutters in thin smoky blue sheets, transforming her familiar room into an
eerie, unreal place.
She wrapped her
crisp, blue-embroidered comforter more tightly around herself and bit her lip
nervously. Since when do I have premonitions? she thought mockingly to herself.
She squeezed her eyes shut and ignored the little voice saying that she'd never
woken up at five in the morning either, and that this had nothing to do with
premonitions, just awareness.
Giving herself a
mental shake, she pulled off her comforter and reluctantly clambered out of her
comfortable bed. It's just nerves, she thought as she stood. Normal,
everyday jitters that everybody gets the first day of school. Elise hated
school, especially first days. She could picture the scene now. Everyone would
be hugging and catching up with friends. Then she would arrive. The crowd of
chatterboxes would fall quiet, and they would draw away from her, parting like
the Red Sea. Boy, am I glutton for punishment, she thought as even
envisioned the glares on the faces of her classmates.
Suddenly, the thoughts of
school vanished as she spun around, feeling eyes boring into her back. She
caught a brief glimpse of an amber-eyed cat, large and soot-black, peeking
through the slits of her shutters before it leapt away. Elise bit her lip and
tried to laugh it off, but in the pit of her stomach, she knew something was
very wrong, very unbalanced. Why had a black cat been at her window? Not doing
anything, just staring?
It's just nerves,
she repeated firmly to herself.
She dawdled over her
morning ritual of preparing for school, taking comfort in its familiarity.
Relaxing in the hot shower, she let the steaming water momentarily wash away
her worries. By the time she was toweled off, she was relaxed—almost in a good
mood. Sighing languorously, she walked over to her closet to get dressed. She
loved going through her closet. When Elise was younger, she'd done everything
possible to keep people from noticing her beauty. But now that she was a
senior, she knew that trying to look plain made no difference in people's
attitudes. This year, she thought, heck, why not take advantage of it?
She rifled through
her outfits, finally choosing sleek black pants and a silky ebony tank top
dusted with subtle twinkles like stardust. She thoroughly brushed her long gold
hair, letting it fall like corn-silk over her shoulders and down her back. I
really ought to get it cut, she thought vaguely. An appraising glance at
the mirror confirmed her suspicions; she looked very much like a femme
fatale witch, a slim gold dagger sheathed in black.
She breezed
through the kitchen, grabbing a bagel from the pantry. As soon as she was out
the door, her apprehension of the start of a new school year returned as
quickly and overwhelmingly as a tidal wave. With a lump in her stomach, she
locked the house behind her. It's not fair, she thought, as she daintily
nibbled the bagel. Beauty should be a blessing not a curse. I should be
popular, not a social leper.
As she approached
the school, her predictions came true. The loud chattering of the crowds of
students suddenly became a dull hostile mutter. The clumps drew apart, making
room for the tall, willowy girl in glittering black to pass.
She held her head high,
trying to look regal and proud and to keep the wetness shining in her cobalt
eyes from spilling onto her cheeks. She tried to ignore the glaring envy and
animosity in the girls' narrowed eyes and the awe and fear in the boys' wide
ones. She made it around the corner away from the gathering before she broke
down, salty tears silently streaking down her face.
*
Elise had first
become aware of her uncanny beauty when she was five years old. Even then, she
had been pretty, showing hints of the awesome beauty to come. She'd started
school and immediately became the class freak. She was too different, too
beautiful to be normal.
Two years later, she'd lost
her temper. A little boy had just run up and touched her hair for a dare, and
she'd exploded. With crimson flushed cheeks and a bloodcurdling war cry, she
had pounced on the boy. He'd had to go to the nurse and, after that, the
childish habit of teasing matured into a searing resentment and tremendous fear
of the unnatural girl.
When Elise had
finally realized that her looks were driving her classmates away, she'd tried
to do something about it. She'd come to school wearing an old red sheet
stitched together to form a lumpy dress. She'd tangled her hair and stuck
leaves and sticks and dirt in it. She'd smeared her face with clay and mud.
However, rather than looking less beautiful, she had shown up at school looking
like a mysterious huntress from the savage jungle, emerging for the first time
in all her fierce, primal beauty.
Now it was finally
her last year of school. In one year, she would be starting college. Maybe
there among all those thousands of strangers she could fit in, somehow. Maybe,
she thought hopelessly.
*
Xander Morgan knew that it
was foolish to be worried. They had taken care of everything, every detail had
been examined and checked twice over; he and his twin sister, Leilani, would
fit in perfectly well, and there was no reason for their relatives—he frowned
at the thought—to come after them. They were glad to be rid of them after all.
But still his feelings kept picking at him.
"Leilani, where're
those candles we brought?" he asked as he finally yielded to the feelings. He looked
bewilderedly around at the precarious pillars of still unpacked cardboard boxes.
Leilani glided
into the doorway, paused, and then bounded the rest of the way in, appearing as
if a solemn sage with burning emerald eyes had just turned into a flame-haired
comet. She crouched down, opening the lower cupboard. "Why," she asked, "are
you going to doing a Seeing? I'm not getting anything." She paused, head tilted
in brief thought.
Xander considered
the feeling thoughtfully. It was like a glimmer on the ocean, able to be seen
out of the corner of the eye, but it dissolved when looked at directly. He
thought and answered carefully, "It's not an actual premonition, just a kind of
vague feeling that something's going to happen. Nothing concrete, and normally
it wouldn't even bother me, but we can't be too careful."
Leilani instantly
reverted to seriousness. "Yes," she replied softly. "I'd almost forgotten how
careful we have to be. But still," she said with a glimmer of attitude, "Anything's
better than staying with those old stuck-in-the-past biddies." She gestured and
fire flared up from the drooping wick of the cloudy candle. "I'll go get our
stuff while you See."
Leilani watched as
her brother gazed into the flame. His blazing emerald eyes, identical to her
own, drained of expression and his face muscles went slack and impassive, even
as his mouth formed the words of the incantation to summon his Sight. With a
half smile, she affectionately ruffled his dark ruddy-brown hair and left the
room to get their things ready.
Absently giving
their dhole, Sonakuta, a pat on his shaggy head, Leilani gathered their books
and folders, stuffing one of each into their backpacks. After an indecisive
moment of hesitation, Leilani also concealed a small bundle of dried leaves in
the pocket of her backpack as her brother's words, having ruptured her fragile
bubble of independence, rattled distressingly in her head. We can't be too careful.
She returned just
as he was rousing from his trance. He gave her a bleary-eyed glance and then
said hazily as he extinguished the candle, "I was right about that feeling:
something is going to happen. It's too vague to even say what, though. But it
has something to do with . . . it . . . well, it involves this
Leilani arched her
eyebrow elegantly and gave him a lewd glance. He blushed, as she knew he would.
He stumbled hurriedly over his explanation. "No, I mean, uh, she's . . . oh, I
don't know. It just, well, I didn't See her exactly, but I could feel her
essence. And it was strong. Stronger than any human's should be."
"Are you positive
she's human then?"
He nodded. "It was
a human essence, but it was inhumanly strong."
Leilani pondered
this thought soberly, chewing on her thumbnail. She and Xander had planned to
escape all areas of the Craft, but even she had been able to sense something
about this town when they first arrived. Xander had practically collapsed. Was
this strange girl the cause of this 'something' or just an indication? They sat
for a minute in silence, lost in similar thoughts.
"Goddess!" Leilani swore, all thoughts on their strange new home fleeing from her mind like mice from an opened cage. "Come, on! We're going to be late!" She seized her backpack by its straps, not even bothering to deposit it correctly on her shoulders, and flew out the door, her twin following at her heels. Neither one even noticed the black cat hissing by their doorstep.