A/N: Sorryyyy! I know I said I would update once a week and I will. I can't let down the lovely people who reviewed! Just stick with me, it's been crazy with signing up for the new semester for school and with my internship, they switched my schedule so I'm all over the place at the moment still trying to make school and the internship work out somehow, but I won't forget to update even if its a little late.
Before I forget; THANK YOU! THANKS for reviewing I was so happy to see that I had gotten reviews the first two came on a really crappy day and they completely made up for everything that had gone wrong so again thanks!
Chapter two:
It hadn't taken Julian long to help Jenny heal her wounds with his magic, of course and he'd answered all her questions, as little Jenny easily took an interest in the exotic looking boy who had saved her-or so she thought. Little Jenny's curiosity had gotten the best of her and she asked Julian how old he was. He'd told her that for all intense and purposes he was seven years old and he in return had been impressed by Jenny, she really was extremely small for a five year old which only made Julian want to take care of her more and it angered him that the others had wanted to take her as food, she was just a little girl. It hadn't been obvious for Julian to realize what exactly had taken over him the moment he'd claimed Jenny, at the time he hadn't understood what had pushed him to do so but the more he talked to her the more he understood that she was his opposite. He understood more of what he'd never seen before.
That little girl was the light that he'd never seen in his already long life. Even though he appeared no more than seven years old it was only because he'd chosen to stay that way. After all a shadow man Julian changed how old he looked at will, he usually switched between a seventeen year old and a seven year old form, he'd always found it fitting that as seeing he was the youngest of the shadow men, why not take advantage of that to get his food faster? Not to mention with much less of a fight. Humans were so gullible and would never question a kid in 'trouble' and it also made it much easier for Julian to play with his food at his own will.
But now that he had Jenny he didn't want to just change into what he looked like as a seventeen year old, it would be weird and she wouldn't trust him. There wouldn't be a bond between them, or at least not in the way that Julian wanted. Julian needed for Jenny to want to stay with him of her own free will. He wanted her trust, for that purpose Julian decided he would grow up along with her always about two years older than Jenny until he reached seventeen again and then simply stay that way with her. Julian bowed to himself to take care of her. He'd even gone into her mind to know what to change in the mansion that he'd always lived in, to make her feel comfortable.
"Julian, so you don't have parents?" It had been a few hours-at least according to earth standards since in the shadow world there really wasn't much to base time off; Julian and Jenny were jumping up and down in a moon bounce that he'd placed into what he'd designated as the game room, it had every single toy that Jenny knew and even some that she didn't. They had both been sorting through it for hours and Jenny's excitement had kept Julian entertained the whole time. Every now and then Jenny would stop playing and ask Julian a question or two.
"Nope. It's just me." Jenny stopped jumping and she looked back up at him as he soared higher, she was shocked still from his answer.
"But don't you have like grandparents or a brother or a sister or a cousin?" Jenny was now looking at him intently with worry in her eyes as she examined his face, Julian on the other hand jumped higher and higher each time.
"No." He looked down at her and realized that answer was not going to keep Jenny from asking questions, on the contrary it was fueling her and more and more questions would come. Julian sighed as he realized he needed to give her a better explanation, so he stopped jumping and walked over to where she stood still in the moon bounce. "Jenny, the thing is. We're not the same. I don't have any other person to take care of me. It'll always be me, just me." He shrugged as if it was nothing, but Jenny's face was sad. It was like if he'd killed someone right there in front of her.
"Not anymore." She reached out with her little hand and grabbed his, Julian looked at her shocked and instead of backing away Jenny hugged him. "You won't be alone because I'm here with you." Little Jenny pulled away a little to look up at his face to find a smile playing on his lips, one that really reached his eyes and she saw that impossible blue become an even prettier color as she found a shine that took over them, a shine of hope.
"Well, we're not entirely alone you know," Julian finally broke the silence and he pulled her after him towards the small exit from the moon bounce.
"I thought you said it was just you?" Jenny questioned her eyebrows furrowed, a confused shine in her green eyes as she followed him still holding his hand.
"I have pets." Julian's smile changed into the one he'd had earlier, it was a wolfy smile, not one that reached his eyes, more mischief than anything but a smile nonetheless.
"What kind of pets?" Jenny asked curious.
"Lurker! Creeper!" Julian called out and in a flash a small wolf was at his side along with a snake that seemed to appear on his arm out of thin air, Jenny couldn't help it but scream at the sight of the snake and Julian quickly let her hand go as Creeper hissed and Lurker growled, obviously not fond of her yelling. "Stop! You will both be nice to Jenny!" Julian declared in a voice that sounded like it had more power than it let on and that alone gave Jenny goosebumps.
"Put it down Julian! It'll bite you!" Jenny warned with her eyes still glued to the snake that was moving from his arm and making its way around his shoulder to reach his neck. An image of the snake trying to strangle Julian filled her mind and her eyes almost filled up threatening to spill over. Both Lurker and Creeper had stopped making threatening noises at least.
"Jenny, it's my pet." He explained quickly, "they both are in fact." Jenny looked down at the wolf and couldn't help but want to pet its fluffy fur, "go ahead. Lurker won't bite you. Really, Creeper wouldn't either." Julian said it with an edge and his eyes filled with ice as he glared at Creeper, then quickly he shrugged and it was as if Creeper got the memo as he looked at Jenny expectantly, she took a step forward stretching out her hand towards Lurker who's nose immediately began to sniff at her hand and he slowly got closer to Jenny until she was holding the wolf in her small arms. Julian watched amused with her as she easily took in the wolf into her arms as if it was the most innocent animal in the world and Lurker quickly began to rub his head against her as if he were a harmless puppy and not the pet of a shadow man.
Eventually even Creeper had slithered his way down to the floor and slowly made his way up Jenny's leg, she'd been frightened at first completely freezing in place as she felt the cold skin of the snake on her bare legs. But in no moment had she been frightened enough to do something crazy after all she trusted Julian and he quickly realized this. To Jenny they were already friends and so she looked up at the boy with incredibly blue eyes as he was carefully watching her and his two pets, she couldn't read his expression and didn't think too much about it. Instead she looked back at Lurker and Creeper, he'd been right they were just his pets, her parents had been wrong to tell her that animals like these could harm her, they were just a little different Jenny concluded.
Julian on the other hand was watching her amazed, she really was incredible. Jenny was simply good, there wasn't a bone in her body that would harm anyone or anything and that was what had drawn him towards her he was more and more convinced of this every second he watched her. Even Creeper who seemed to sometimes not even liked Julian himself seemed to begin liking Jenny as she smiled and took him into her small hands to pet his head. He was still pretty small, Julian hadn't had them for too long but he knew they would both grow to be even bigger than a regular snake or wolf the same breed as his, after all they were with a shadow man.
"Julian." The voice sounded far away even though Jenny was only a few feet away from him and he'd been looking straight at her but in reality he might as well have been in another world with his jumbled thoughts. "Juliaann." The little voice sang again.
"Yeaah." He finally realized that little Jenny was calling his name.
"When are we going home?" Her green eyes, so vibrant, so clear, so innocent stared up at him questioning, full of hope.
"Jenny." Julian sighed, how did he explain to her that she wasn't going any where? "We are home." Her eyebrows scrunched together and her lower lip immediately jutted out in a pout that made her emotions very clear, she didn't like that answer.
"But, but what about my mom? And my dad? And Zach! Oh no, Zach is probably still waiting for grandpa and I to go get ice cream. And how can we get to grandpa?" The questions came out firing one after another without a chance for Julian to answer. "But you can come with us." Jenny smiled brilliantly up at him as he shook his head, he didn't want to explain to her.
"No, Jenny. We aren't going anywhere." The look that crossed Jenny's once expectant features broke Julian's heart but there was nothing that he could do, he wasn't going to let Jenny go home. He didn't want to be alone again. Not ever again.
"They'll be worried about me." Jenny whispered looking down at Creeper who was around her arm and even he looked back at Julian expectantly.
"Don't worry about them Jenny. They will be okay."
"But Zach—" Julian had had it with that Zach kid, he didn't want anyone else around his Jenny. If she needed anything he would give it to her, if she wanted to play he would play with her. She didn't need her parents, that Zach kid or even that idiot that her grandpa had been; after all he'd been the one to get her in this mess and he was the reason Jenny was now with Julian.
"Jenny, this is home. You have Creeper, Lurker and me. You don't need anyone else." Her pout only grew bigger and her eyes were accusingly staring at Julian just as the first tears began to spill. Great, only a few hours and he'd already managed to make her cry. It was making Julian really upset to see her that way. "I-I." His words failed him, what was he supposed to say that would make her feel better and stop the waterworks? His thoughts were interrupted by a loud hitting sound in the big ceiling to floor window on the far wall of the game room.
Nothing like that had ever happened before and it startled Julian more than it startled Jenny because it meant someone was trying to get in his personal space. Jenny's tears were starting to dry up and only whimpers came out of her mouth as she looked distractedly around the room trying to find the source of the noise. But Julian who had a better eyesight than a human and who was used to the darkness that loomed outside could see perfectly what it was. There was a snow storm right outside the window, more like a tornado that was desperately trying to get in. Hitting the window again and again with futile attempts to break the window.
"Creeper, Lurker stay with Jenny and watch over her. If anyone tries to get to her you know what to do." Julian looked at the confused and hiccuping Jenny as he walked away hurriedly towards the window. He was fuming, who could have dared tried to get into his space?
Who ever it was, a head was going to roll.
Julian knew it wouldn't be his.
A/N: So what did you guys think? This was more of an explanation chapter as to why Julian decided to stay seven years old and it gets the story going! If you have any more questions, REVIEW! (:
