Disclaimed: Nope not mine not now or ever. All belongs to Melissa De La Cruz
A/N: Alright sooo it's like three hours before the 18th and I figured why not. Anyway thanks for hanging in there during my hiatus, and for all who reviewed you made me smile while I studied like crazy! New Chapter, I like it it's funny and I think a little less drama than in the past chappies so enjoy. ;D
While waiting for Ara to show up Madison decided that possibly Cam deserved a chance to talk with her. She hit the call button and waited.
"Hello Cameron you called?"
"Whoa Maddie I didn't know you returned friends' phone calls."
"You know I hate that nick name."
"And that is why I use it."
"Do you have something to ask? Or say?" She said offhandedly studying her drink.
"Yeah did you know that Ara's eyes are green?"
"I think someone needs to see an optometrist," Madison replied studying her nails.
"She's gloming everyone."
"Look I don't think—"
"She's lying, do you know who her parents are?"
"Cam you are a paranoid freak did you know that?"
"Oh yeah. And you don't do you and it's killing you now isn't it?"
"I don't have to answer that."
"I know it's killing you now Madison, you like to be the one with all of the information."
"Cameron I will slowly torture you one of these days, for this."
"Get back to me when you get the answer" Madison's phone went dead and she fumed in silence. That boy always managed to get the best of her curiosity. Drat, she would just have to get the information out of Ara. But here was the real question Madison thought why glom unless there's a reason, like who else has green eyes in this world? The wheels began to turn in Madison's mind, would a Blue Blood really abandon his twin and if so could he have a love child?
Thinking of Ara, where was that girl, opps Madison almost forgot the secret entrance to the joint. She flipped her cell phone open and dialed Ara's number.
Ara wandered into the hotdog joint looking around curiously at all of the tables. Her dreams of sweats pants and TiVo had been dashed when Madison had called her phone insisting that she meet her at this place. This did not seem like the place where Madison Attwater would hang out.
"Umm—" Ara said looking to find the nearest waiter when her phone buzzed.
"Sorry," came Madison's voice, "I forgot to tell you go to the phone booth in the back and I'll buzz you in." The phone went dead leaving Ara more confused than ever. What the heck was this girl on? Ara made her way to the back of the shop where she saw a phone booth. The back popped open and Madison was grinning at her holding a cocktail.
"Party's this way." Madison led her through the tables to one that stood alone in a corner. "I ordered you a drink by the way, hope you don't mind I wasn't sure what you liked." Waiting on the table was the same brightly colored cocktail that Madison had in her hand.
"Anyway thanks for coming Sasha completely bagged on me."
"Not a problem," Ara replied dropping onto the chair. She took a taste of the drink, and hid her disgust she rarely drank the cocktail du jour preferring old favorites to new inventions. Gently she replaced the glass on the table and looked at Madison, what did girls like Madison talk about on a regular basis? At lunch there seemed to be a never ending stream of babble erupting from the girl's mouth now she sat and gently sipped her drink.
"Can I ask you a question?" Madison asked, she looked at Ara in a way that Ara was not sure she liked. Madison set her half finished drink on the table cocked her head at Ara waiting for the answer before she continued.
"Um..okay?" Ara replied toying with her drink.
"Are you going to the Black Tie Affair this Friday?"
"Hmm, oh probably, I guess my mom gets invited to those things all the time."
"You should totally come, it's going to be amazing. Plus boys in suits what is not to love?"
"Yeah except I already have a boyfriend."
"No my dear you have a snack, there's a difference between what you have and what let's say your parents have."
"My dad's a Red Blood."
"Really?" Ara was really missing the mark today, first with Cam and now with Madison why didn't she just plaster a sign in Times Square that told the world she had no clue who her father was, though truth be told ideas were starting to form in her mind.
"Yeah." Well it was too late to stop this line of questioning now.
"No way," Madison said finishing her drink. She set the empty martini glass on the table and stared at her friend like she was a pair of Prada shoes on sale for pennies.
"Way."
"Like your real dad, like the gamete supplier?"
"Well no not in that sense."
"Okay for a second you had me worried, cause girl from what I've heard you got power and no offense but that's gotta come from somewhere and typically you know Blue Bloods, AI and all it's just usually powerful people pick powerful angels. So who is he?"
"He who?"
"You're father biologically speaking of course."
"I dunno." Ara shrugged running her finger over the rim of the glass. This was definitely not the way she envisioned this meeting going. Madison was cool, she was what everyone wanted in the pretty popular girl, and plus Ara was ninety nine percent sure that behind that dumb girl façade hid the brain of a master genius.
"You don't KNOW!" Madison exploded, "Oh my god you never wanted to know who your mother you knowed with to have you?"
"It was never important to me. I always had a Dad."
"Okay I am so going to help you figure this out."
"I don't want to know, Madison. I am happy living without that knowledge."
"Why?"
"Because what if I found him and he already has a family and I turned out to be the kid he did not want and my mom turns out to be the women he didn't love?"
"What if he does?"
"Obviously he didn't," her words carried the subtle message that this line of discussion was over. End of story.
"Ara—"
"Don't it is fine just drop it, okay?"
"I just thought—" Madison started again trying to apologize for her lack of tact.
"Madison just drop it and let's change the subject."
"Have you ever considered modeling?"
"Well no not really I did some stuff in London but nothing permanent just something to do after school."
"Cool, you should I do some work on the side, but you could totally work, I mean you're mother and Bliss are like tight right?"
"Uh sure I guess." Ara shrugged, Bliss was a curios subject. She had met the women a few times but rarely said more than a few words to her. She knew Bliss was a member of the Committee like her mother and that she started her own modeling agency after her own career had been such a success.
"Well you totally should consider it," Madison motioned to the waitress to bring her the bill with a quick wave of her hand. "You would be infinitely better than most to work with." The waitress brought the tab which Madison quickly put on her credit card. "Can I ask another question and please if I am being too nosey just tell me I have a nose for gossip and details."
"Shoot," Ara said smiling.
"Are you considering dumping Matt? Cause if you are I suggest doing it before Friday lot's of cute boys at said party."
"I dunno do you think I should?"
"Girl you are speaking to the woman who changes familiars more times than I change shoes."
"Maybe I should you know he's not really my type."
"So you don't like athletic boys?"
"I don't think I have a 'type'"
"Oh come on everyone has a 'type'"
"You are truly impossible."
"I know that's why people love me," Madison finished as the pair made their way out of the hangout. Ara caught a cab back up town to her parent's house while Madison dialed up one of her familiars. That girl really was impossible, Ara laughed to herself and turned around to see Madison having a conversation on her cell phone. Ara turned around and directed the cab home.
Dylan decided not to go into the posh looking bar. It would attract too much attention and that was something that he could not afford when working undercover. So he waited instead in the upscale hot dog restaurant, ordering the latest it thing on the menu, knowing fully that he had no intention of eating it. It was just good manners.
When Dylan disappeared the hardest thing had been to keep his vampiric tendencies quiet. Sure people sometimes wondered at his odd habits of changing girl friends like he changed jeans or why he could move uncontrollably fast, but all in all he had somehow managed to blend in. To this day it was still something that surprised him; that the Blue Blood community which was prevalent in California as it was in New York never even thought he could be Dylan Ward.
The first time he took a case for a fellow Blue Blood he went to the meeting sweating bullets and walked out as cool as a cucumber, they had no idea. It must be Blue Blood Mentality, that if they believed you dead they did not see what was right in front of them. That was, after all, the whole reason they had never seen the Silver Blood attack coming. It was typical behavior to burry your head in the sand when it came to Silver Bloods.
Last Friday had been his first meeting with Schuyler. The meeting had taken place in her office which was a hub of busy working bees. So many people flitted in and out that Dylan barely had time to have the meeting with her. When he'd asked about why she wanted her daughter tailed it was a simple answer: I can't protect her anymore.
Well mother's had to learn sometime that they could not cover a city in bubble wrap to save their child from the cruel world that they inhabited. So he'd taken to following the girl, the days gave him plenty of free time all she did was go to school; she didn't seem like the type to cut class often. But her evenings were spent all over the city, the social butterfly that she was had her going from one club to another with her new set of friends.
His food arrived just as Madison and Ara exited the bar. Well it wasn't like he was going to eat that anyway. Dropping a few bills on the table Dylan followed the pair out of the restaurant.
Cam paced his bed room waiting for Madison to burst through the door with news that he wanted to know. Ara had to know who her real parents were. If she could glom everyone, then her parents had to have some kind of power right? Or she would be a really prominent angel, but to glom the Committee even on such a little thing would take power like his parents. And no one seemed to know who she was, angelically speaking.
Madison blew into his room, her Channel bag swinging from her arm and summer aviators still in place but even through the shades he could tell she was glaring at him. Cam cracked a smile, Madison's chilly demeanor could mean only one thing she had answers.
"Why Maddie, so good for you to stop by," he said making a grand gesture with his hand.
"Call me that one more time Cameron and I'll show you a new meaning of pain," she said plucking off her sun glasses.
"That coming from the angel of pleasing really Madison I thought your knowledge lay elsewhere."
"You wanna repeat that?" she asked glaring at him, Cam backed away from his friend holding his hands up in defeat, really he could toy with Madison but clearly he had over stepped his boundaries. You never wanted to cross a girl who wore four inch heels on a regular basis. "Why do I put up with you?"
"Because I am just too hard to quit I'm like a drug really."
"Uh-huh, I see, well then." She tossed her purse on the chair. "I think we need to set some ground rules and I need to know what you know before I share my info with you." She took a seat in his chair, propping her elbows on the arms and looking a lot like a God Father.
"Like?" he asked skeptically raising one eyebrow.
"Like why do you want to know this?" she asked cocking her head to one side.
"Why wouldn't I?" Cam replied relaxing on his bed. Of all the questions she could have asked this was by far the easiest one to answer.
"Cause no one else is asking these questions, just you. Are you at all interested in Ara or are you just going to toy with her?"
"Madison—"
"Cause I wanna know right now, I may be able to with stand your unending charm for more than one lifetime Orias, but I won't have you picking with other angels' feelings. You are not going to pick her up and toss her aside like the others." Madison stared questioningly at Cam.
Yes, they were never meant to be lovers but that didn't mean a thing. Both of them were wondering angels, that is they were angels without Twins. Madison as her angelic title suggested simply never took a twin it was just not like her she was one of only a handful. Cam on the other hand at some point had one; just no one knew who that was. Through the years they had been friends and a couple on more than one occasion, but Madison had put that to an end in their last life, because Cam had this undending need to toy with people and their emotions.
"You are very territorial."
"Just looking out for both of my friends. I like to keep them occasionally."
"You consider her a friend?"
"Yes, now why are you interested?"
"Have you ever just felt that something was missing like from everything?"
"Cam it's called we're not twenty-one and we're missing most of our memories."
"No, I mean like something was just not there?"
"No I haven't."
"She fills that void, it's like with her everything makes sense. Like it starts to make sense."
"She doesn't know anything Cam."
"What?"
"Cam she doesn't want to know about her past, about who her parents are and I can't blame her for not wanting to know."
"You're volunteering this?"
"Surprisingly yes, why? Who knows. I guess I am going soft, but I care about her. So you mess with her feelings and I will mess with your face."
"So you'll help me?"
"Cam I think I already agreed to take you on, or do you need a demonstration of you being like broccoli?"
"No, so what's the plan?"
"Well Matt's a dud, yeah I know tragic." She rolled her eyes and Cam's happy expression, "But here's the thing I think you need to do two things, one Black Tie Affair on Friday don't go and two, I think you need to get back into modeling."
"And I am not going to the Black Tie event because?"
"Well you said she was all into you then not at all? Well if you're not there then I can judge if your assessment was correct."
"And the modeling you know I haven't done that since my mother let me out of it at age six?"
"Well I have this idea you'll just have to stick around to find that one out," She smiled mischievously and grabbed her bag and sauntered out of the room. Oh sometimes life was just too perfect.
Like-Vines-We-Intertwine: Thanks for the review and I am glad you're enjoying the tale. Hopefully you're still interested.
lalalucy: Sorry I had too, my finals and projects were killing me. I hope this gave you some idea of where Jack and Ara are "going" all thanks to Maddie.
Dark Melody: sorry? is it a good thing or bad thing? But I hope this answers somethings and puts your mind back together.
SilverBullet: Heart of Darkness was my FAVORITE book from English Comp and Lit, I am looking forward to going home because that is where my copy is. Could it be? hmmm....how verey observent you are...... I know I am evil plus I loose valuable marketing tips but that's the way the story goes I guess. Thanks for the review hope you liked it.
Jenny2779: your review made me smile for days, thanks for the compliment and I hope you enjoy the latest instalment.
Josie: Madison angel question answered I think...Anyway thanks for the review and I hope you loved it.