Disclaimer: I do not own the series. Period. End of story.
So…once again here I am again. After taking the GRE, surviving grad apps (although there is one more I should work on...but what the hell right?), starting a senior project, and getting through the semester of hell. Here I am back to writing back to work. I am working steadily on this story and hope to update soon! Those of you who have reviewed and are reading have made my day each time I get an update, thank you for being fabulous readers!
~Eb
Dylan walked out of the set, in the early evening. The sun was just starting to sink low over Manhattan, the warm glow never seemed to reach the city. The sky scrapers kept it firmly on the outside. The city was a wash of blue light, cold, cruel and unforgiving. As unfriendly as the dressers, photographer, and other models were.
Whoever said this modeling thing was easy lied.
After a grueling day of being scrutinized by a camera Dylan came to one conclusion, he hated being in front of the camera. He'd rather be back with his Cannon 7D and zoom lens taking money shots as a PI than be a model. This place seemed to treat him like he was a side of beef.
The streets seemed empty even though it was early in the evening. Certainly people should be out and about by now. Dylan checked his watch, yup the city should still be a hub of action. Not a soul passed him on the street.
She was waiting for him at the restaurant at the top of the street. Dylan wasn't sure how he knew she was waiting for him specifically but he knew she was waiting for him alone. It made his heart ache. A physical pain that seemed to take up all the space in his chest; it filled him up leaving little room for himself.
Her red hair had been blown out into soft waves. She looked at him through the window, those green depthless eyes. A simple plea. Please stay. He shouldn't it would be dangerous and not just for his angelic side. She was dangerous, but that look took him back to a time before she changed. When the girl he knew was just a girl and not the host of all evil.
Dylan wanted to go home, he didn't want to deal with all of this just yet. But if not now, when?
He ducked inside. The place was a ghost town. The hostess sent him to the table without another look. Bliss cocked her head to the side and looked intently at him. The lost angel was forced under the veneer of what she had become. And Dylan didn't like the facelift one bit.
"I'm not really interested in changing agencies," he said to start off the conversation. Safe topics. Work, business, modeling. That was it nothing in the realm of angel, Sky, and Silver Bloods.
She smiled. He didn't trust it.
"Who said anything about changing?" She pulled the olive out of her martini glass and looked up at him.
"My agent, every day I see her," he shot back lightly. Keep it cool.
"Well if I can't talk you out of her hands, perhaps I can persuade you to have dinner?" Dylan weighed his chances of walking out the door. They were slim to none and slim was just executed.
He sat down. Dylan decided a head scan would be on the top of his list tomorrow. Her smile grew colder. But for a second outside, Dylan had seen the girl he loved. She was still there fighting to get back to the light.
Dinner was beyond exquisite. But Dylan was tired, so tired he felt it in his bones. A strong ache that settled in for the long haul. It wasn't just the modeling gigs, it was Bliss. Even though her name promised peace being around her was maddening. It killed Dylan to see her so obscured like looking at someone through a dirty mirror. She was there but not clearly, bleary, out of focus. Tonight he crossed that line, between keeping her on the edge and taking her back.
Dylan opened the door and for once Stephen was not in the living space at a canvas. In fact, for the past few days Stephen hadn't touched the supplies. At one point Dylan seemed to be tripping over tubes of color and the end bits of pencils. Now the once detested supplies seemed to be shrinking in number.
Up the stairs, the light in the office was on. Dylan paused outside the door and peered in. Stephen sat on the floor talking in a low voice to woman with raven black hair. She was circling him like a hawk. She was at once familiar and at another completely.
She wore a halter top, and when she passed between the door and Stephen, Dylan got a good look at the wing marks. The twin rows of ink that ran up her back, jagged lines and swooping swirls. Symbols that meant next to nothing if you didn't know the language. Her wings gave away her identity: Sarielle.
"You think I brought you here to do this?" she demanded. The woman lorded over Stephen, and Dylan was ready for a fight.
"You brought me here to take care of someone you don't have the balls to, that's all. How I handle it is my decision." Stephen was as calm as Dylan had ever seen him. The man seemed to have an unending stream of pure calm. What Dylan would have done for an ounce of Stephen's control.
"Let me remind you, your mission was to save her." Sarielle looked like she was ready to behead Stephen.
"And I have." Stephen looked up at the woman, defiance in his eye.
"If she is broken—"
"Then it is your problem, physically she will be fine." Stephen stood up and closed the door. He met Dylan's eyes, the look Dylan got was get lost now or else.
Ara walked out into the crisp air and tugged the edges of her coat up. School was getting easier the longer she kept at it. That was the whole point right? That repetition would make them all smart. Hopefully, if this whole thing worked out than she'd get to be the normal Blue Blood and have a mountain of memories soon. Then school would be a tropical breeze instead of the north pole blizzard it currently was.
Jazz fell into step with her and linked arms with Ara. Ara rested her head on her friend's shoulder. Tonight was the night. Jack was coming to dinner. And he was bringing Cam. Restaurants were one thing. It was just them. There was no mother hanging over her head, there was no greater destiny. It was just easy.
"So I heard from a little bird," Jazz started, "that someone left a mess at the Repository."
Ara kicked at the sidewalk and looked up to the sky. "Are they mad?"
"Naw," Jazz waved Ara's fears away with her free hand. "I had them move each book—keeping it in the same order—to a private room."
"This is why we are best friends."
"I have another meeting." Jazz reached into her bag and pulled out a cell phone. Flicking through her messages.
Ara dropped her friend's hand, and with mock anger demanded, "Is that all I am your meeting?"
Jazz looked up from her phone a smile plastered on her face. "Oh no not a meeting, and I wouldn't leave if I didn't have a fabulous replacement."
Madison appeared from the thin air. She looked perfect, her strawberry blonde hair pulled back messily in contrast to her freshly pressed clothing. Ara was more interested in Madison's accessory. Cam stood next to Madison, in the same position that Ara was in. They were being set up. Again.
"Ready?" Madison said to Jazz. Cam was released. Jazz smiled and nudged Ara. Her eyes said have fun.
Ara crossed her arms and watched their best friends walk off. This was so wrong on so many levels. Didn't they get the message that she and Cam were on speaking terms? That they did not need matchmakers. Jazz looked over her shoulder and winked.
Maybe they needed a matchmaker, but only a little bit.
"Do you think they're tired of us almost fighting?" Cam asked a smile in his voice.
"We have been rather good as of late," Ara countered.
"True, we have been. One could almost say we are friends. But seriously they keep dumping us."
"I think they just like each other better," Ara joked. She flicked her bangs out of her eyes and switched her bag to the other shoulder so it stood between her and Cam.
"We have dinner tonight."
"We do have dinner tonight."
"Want some help in the library?" Cam asked hoping that the quick change in subject would make Ara drop her guards.
Ara looked down the road at the grey streets filled with life. She looked at him for a long moment.
"Why?'
"I thought we could hand you can sort some more and I can look through some other stuff. You know there is a murder plot mixed in there somewhere." Cam smiled cheekily and Ara rolled her eyes. There was no murder plot and there never was.
"You are making something out of nothing."
"People who keep popping up keep dying."
Ara looked at him a question written over her face.
"So I took a look at the books, and the notes you made. If they pop up they die, someone or something is killing them. Ere go you need my goods."
"I am not even going to touch that phrase," Ara replied heading off in the direction of the Repository. When Cam did not chase after her she looked over her shoulder, "Are you coming?"
"Ask nicely."
Ara smiled.
Cam shoved his hands into his pockets and followed a smile worked just fine for him.
It was just dinner. That was all, Schuyler reminded herself this for the nine millionth time as she smoothed her short hair back. Her nerves were frayed so much that she could hardly concentrate on anything for a prolonged period of time. It started with the meeting with Jack earlier that week and had only gotten worse. She had tried feeding but it wasn't helping. She felt cramped in her own skin. Sky had picked up the phone at least half a dozen times to call Kingsley, but she was too afraid of what would come from that call.
Abomination.
She'd already been lumped into that category more than once, and Sky was in no hurry to get back there. Pressing two fingers to her temples Schuyler willed her mind to put itself back together for one night.
Ara was not home yet, though Oliver had called her half a dozen times threatening pain of revoking shopping privileges if she did not show up on time. If anything Sky was sure that Oliver was going to be absent for dinner. He had changed however, there seemed to be a lightness in his spirit that she had never seen before. Oliver still smiled and played along like it was any other family dinner, and not one where his wife's former lover was going to be eating across the table.
Sky attempted a smile at Oliver as he tossed pasta in a bowl. The knot that had steadily been growing all day in her stomach doubled—then tripled. This was going to be bad. Oliver looked up and chuckled.
"I promise I cook better than that look suggests."
Sky forced her face into something she hopped looked normal. "I'm just—is this awkward for you?"
Oliver looked at Sky for a long moment as if he was looking at a fun house mirror. The shapes were all there he was just trying to figure out what was real. He set aside the pasta and spread his arms on the counter. She was getting Oliver the Conduit who would spit out the fabulous cookie answer the one she wanted to hear, but would still weigh down her soul.
"I think you want me to say no and be upset about it, but I knew what I was signing up for and I'm not sorry that he's coming over."
"Why?" Sky had to ask. Shouldn't he be fighting, throwing things around making a scene? Wasn't that what was supposed to happen if you were in love? Fight to the end, never give up?
"Because." He gave her a small smile. Something to just boost her confidence. He was hiding something under this perfect persona, he had to be. There was no time to consider what exactly Oliver was hiding as Ara dashed into the room followed by Cam.
"Sorry we got held up, do not cancel my credit cards," Ara said breathing harshly. Oliver's innocent smile morphed into a wicked grin.
"Do I know how to get the girl home or what?"
"I'm not in trouble?" Ara asked.
"I wouldn't dream of taking anything away from you right now," her father agreed. Ara headed for the door, "Where do you two think you are going there is a table that needs to be set. Hop to it." Ara and Cam exchanged confused glances. "Don't make me ask again or I'll reconsider—"
"Good china?" Ara asked heading for the cabinets.
"No it's casual," she responded.
"So the suit is a little much?" Jack asked from the doorway. The room's supply of oxygen seemed to vanish, which was a good thing because the slightest spark would have set off a fire.
Xo-tink-xo: awww you are too sweet and you never fail to make me smile. Perhaps some day my books will be published they are just crazy right now. As always thanks a million for the review!
Maiqu: So glad you are enjoying it all, thanks for the review!
Like-vines-we-intertwine: There is a sequel and it's sort of crazy. Here is more and I am writing more I promise tomorrow I am getting back into my writing groove. Thanks so much for the reveiw!
Erica: Thank you for the wonderful compliments! I am so glad you are enjoying it, I do try to give something interesting to the tale. I promise there is more and I am going sit down and sort through it all. Thanks for the review and I hope this lives up to your expectations.
Nicole: That seems to be the consensus that there must be more and more there shall be! Thanks for the review!
NewZealandIsAwesome: Aww you are fabulous! Thanks a ton for the review!