2.

~ Mr. Darcy showed up an hour later.

My familiar was the most disagreeable cat I've ever had the displeasure to know. I could tell by the dew on his coat and the smell of his breath he had been cavorting in the back alleyways. The cat no doubt sensing the vampire, Arthur, had been here and decided to make himself scarce.

"Good evening, Mr. Darcy. You're looking dapper as always." I told him as I gave him a saucer of milk.

Mr. Darcy mewed at me and gave me his haughty look. As if the milk wasn't good enough for him.

"Sorry, Mr. Darcy. Beggars can't be choosers." I told him.

I removed a white handkerchief from a drawer and put it over the Arthur's business card.

I didn't want to touch it. Knew if I touched it, it would invoke him.

I knew my sister Artemis would call. I could sense my older sister's moods ever since we were little. She was much more free spirited then me.

It was still a shock to everyone, myself included, that I was the one who left home to study in Paris. I had left our family home and my Coven of about 30 witches. Most of whom had known myself and Artemis since childhood. I had come to Paris to be around witches so different from me.

I came to study the witch's chronicles. France was in possession of the rarest, most treasured volumes of our craft. They were not the oldest however. I would have had to wade deep into Greece for that. I knew that would most likely be my next stop in my studies.

Like all witches, I loved learning. Especially about our history. Our culture. In the forgotten libraries of Paris, I could spend hours reading over various books of shadows. Kept by witches who had lived and died so long ago. Who had been persecuted and had to flee from the ignorance and jealous nature of humans.

It made me feel closer to my craft as I leaned on the histories of my sisters.

I picked up my phone before it rang. Sensing Artemis was calling.

"Ari, are you alright?" Her voice came over the line. "I just had the worst dream and I woke up tasting old paper."

"I'm fine." I lied.

"Don't lie to me!" She snapped. "What happened? I taste old paper and your hiding something under a white handkerchief. It must be bad."

"It's nothing. Just... a vampire was here, that's all." I told her.

In any Coven, it's best to never lie to one another. The truth falls out of our lips without effort. We can't conceal things from each other no matter how hard we try.

"Oh dear. Did he try to seduce you?" Artemis asked.

"Arti!" I laughed.

"It happens!" My sister said defensively. "Vampires have been witch's consorts for centuries. A witch was safe around the little blood suckers because they don't like the taste of us. Dark witches used to help the vamps lure victims in. Sick if you ask me. Don't let that vamp get into your head."

"He's not in my head." I lied again.

"Hmm." My sister fumed.

"He needed help." I told her. "I'm not going to actually do it."

"Good. Don't think he wouldn't kill you if he had the chance, Ari." My sister said. "Although, legend has it, they do make excellent lovers. Probably all those centuries perfecting the art of pleasuring a woman." She said dreamily.

"Artemis." A said feel heat rush to my face.

I could see her, see her in the bedroom that was hers since childhood. Her lover, Tom sleeping soundly in their bed. My sister standing naked in the dark room, her belly already large with her first child.

"How is the pregnancy?" I asked. A strange sensation growing inside me since Arthur's accusation of entering the fourth moon.

"Good." Artemis said. "Tom's excited. He's been redoing Granny's old room as the nursery."

I smiled at that.

The family home was massive by any standard. It was a fine old New England home that sat on several acres of secluded farm land. My family had lived there since colonial times. When the fever of witch burnings had died down and they could live in peace.

The matriarchal nature of my kind, meant that it's woman ran things. We married, but our husbands would live with us and our female relatives in the family home.

It was certainly large enough. Ten bedrooms and five bathrooms. The paint never peeled, the pipes never cracked. The windows never broke and the glass was now wavy with age.

How I missed home right now.

"Your in the fourth moon." Artemis proclaimed.

"What? No, I'm not!" I said feeling defensive.
"Ariadne, I can see you. Your face. It's just... it's blooming!" She laughed.

Blooming. That was the word Arthur used.

"I'll have to think on this." Artemis laughed.

"I'm not in the fourth moon." I told her.

"Whatever you say, Fourth Moon-er!" She teased.

I could see her, pulling out her tarot cards and setting them up.

"That market place. Go to the market place and follow the leaves." She said after a few moments.

"Leaves?" I laughed. Her fortune telling was notoriously inaccurate.

"That's where you'll find your consort. Your lover. Oh, Ari, he has the most beautiful eyes. They look like deep water!" She said excitedly. "Our family needs babies with eyes that color!"

"I'm hanging up now." I told her.

"Okay, love you, Fourth Moon-er!" My sister sang. "Go to the market and stay away from that vampire. I wish I could see him. Turn a few mirrors on him. You know this baby is making my powers so much stronger. I would love something to unleash it on."

I laughed and we said our good-bye.

I couldn't be in fourth moon. I'm only 24. That's far too young to start having babies. My mother didn't enter her fourth moon till she was in her thirties. Still, Artemis was only a year older then me and she was in her fourth moon.

There was still to much I wanted to do with my life. I didn't want to find some nice guy with deep blue eyes to take care of me and have babies with. I wasn't ready.

I stripped naked and took a shower.

I didn't bother with clothes after I got out. Witches are not cursed with modesty. It's a defining trait. One of the ways people could sense our differences. We felt our magic was stronger when we were free of clothing.

Only humans felt the shame of nudity. Not witches.

My body felt beautiful and powerful as I went to bed. I kept my lights off and didn't have to touch my bedding to get it to unfold and cover me up.

I was asleep and knew nothing more till I awoke and Arthur was beside me.

~ He had probably been standing there for hours. Watching me sleep.

My magic surged out of me and, before I could stop it, he was pinned to the wall.

He struggled to escape the invisible hold that kept him restrained there.

"Release me!" He ordered.

"Arthur, is it?" I asked him as I left my bed. My hair had magically grown longer in my sleep and hung over my breasts. I didn't bother to cover myself with a robe. I didn't even own one.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I came to try and talk you into helping me." He said as my powers kept him pinned to the wall. His graceful feet not even able to touch the floor.

"I told you my answer." I said.

My powers tuning him upside down against the wall.

"The situation has changed!" He growled.

That creature part of him waking up. I could see his features change. His face becoming corpse like. His eyes glowing red and angry.

"You're in the fourth moon. Cobb has two young children. A girl named Phillipa..." He paused and composed himself. "And a son."

I dropped him. The shock of this news made my powers loosen.

Boys were almost unheard of. A witch hardly ever gave birth to a son. It was always daughters who were born. A male witch, a wizard, was prized for their powers and ability to pass them down. For keeping our race alive, but a wizard could also be dangerous.

Wizards were charming men. They lied easily and drew people into their spells. They were politicians and CEO's. They were both good and evil. History is littered, unfortunately, with the more evil wizards. Some of whom rose to incredible power. The good ones, lead armies to stop them.

"A boy?" I croaked. "Does he... can he?" I tried to think.

Arthur stood.

"Yes, Ariadne. He has powers. He seems to have remarkable control over them to."

My own name sounded so different on his voice. He pronounced it so carefully I felt an odd ripple go through my body and for the first time in my life, I felt odd being naked in front of another person.

Arthur seemed to be thinking the same thing.

"Can you put some clothes on, please?" He asked.

"Dose the female body disturb you? That's just the part of you that still remains human. That still is tainted with original sin." I told him. "You might want to work on that."

I felt the rush of power my nakedness gave me. Like a rouge wave rising up.

"Madam, can you please put clothes on?" He asked politely.

~ The vampire sat on my small kitchen table. I had relented and dawned an overly large T-shirt at his request. It felt too heavy and was making me too hot. I longed to be back in my own skin again.

"How old is the boy?" I asked.

"Three. He can already surpass his older sister in things. He can move things without touching them. He can even dream walk."

"Amazing." I breathed.

"I introduced Cobb to his late wife. I had known her Coven for decades. They were wiped out last year in a fire." Arthur said.

"How did that happen?" I asked.
"Not sure exactly. We think it was paladins. Religious nuts." Arthur said. His long fingers tracing patterns on my little table.

"And you think that because I'm entering fourth moon, I can take them home with me? I can bring them into my own Coven. Become their mother." I concluded.

"I thought you weren't entering fourth moon." He said not looking at me.
"Dose Cobb know? What you are?" I asked him.

A ghost of a smile flickered on the vampires face.

"No. He doesn't he didn't know Mal was a witch either." He said.

He looked at me.

"Do any of your consorts know what you are?" He asked.

"My consorts are none of your affair, sir." I told him curtly.

"You are correct in that regard." He said standing as if gravity didn't apply to him. His movements so light, he looked like his feet didn't even touch the ground. The door swung open by itself as he made his leave.

"I believe you will know where to meet myself and Mr. Cobb." He said.

I nodded. I could see the workshop the Vampire called home. See where it was exactly.

"I should warn you, there will be others there. Don't be alarmed. They won't hurt you." He said before leaving me. The door closing on itself.

~ Just saw TDKR. Christopher Nolan never stops making me love him. LOVE THAT MAN! This movie was so epic I can't even describe it. Go out and see it! NOW!

Haters had no right to hate Anne Hathaway as cat woman cuz she killed it as cat woman. Best cat woman ever.

JGL. (Sigh) Joe, why do you do this to me? Why do you do these movies that makes us love you even more? You're no Arthur this movie, and we love Arthur, but we can learn to love John Blake.

I WILL write a fan-fic about John Blake very soon. No worries. No spoilers, I promise.

My heart goes out to the families of the Colorado shootings. The actions of one person who decided to glamorize himself by hurting and taking the lives of so many innocent people is disgusting.

To my international followers, readers and friends; Americans are not like this. This was one man who decided to make a name for himself. Who decided to commit this horrible act purely so we would remember him.

I'll forget him, and remember the people he hurt.