Chapter Six

(A/N:  Sorry for taking so long with this.  I'll try to remember to keep updating.  R/R/E.)

            Jander walked through the forest in a wide circle around Eckerd and Pa'das.  He came across Davie, once or twice, wrapped in a cloak.  Apparently, he hadn't thought to bring a bedroll.  To bad for him!  Jander took pity on him, however, and covered him with a blanket.  He felt really guilty that it was because of him that the young man could not stay.  Of course, he did not know him, so could not pass any judgments.  Yet, he had mixed feelings.  He did not want to have anything to do with anyone from Corostine, and fif not wand Pa'das to have to deal with old bad memories.  He realized he was overprotective – really overprotevtive – of Pa'das, but…

            Dawn came, and Jander found himself standing atop a hill, thinking.  How many potential friends would slip away from Pa'das and Eckerd because of him?  What harm would come to them?  No!  Jander fiercely shook his head.  He would not succumb to this!  Everything was going good for him right now; he had no reason to feel so bad.

            He realized that Pa'das would most likely be worrying, wondering where he was.  In her normal state of mind, she wouldn't have given it a second thought, knowing he was probably just doing something.  Now, however…  He set off for where they were camped at an easy run.

*  *  *  *  *

            Pa'das was, in fact, very worried, but she didn't show it.  She was very worried that Jander had finally realized the truth and left.  He had to wake up some day, and her luck would run out.  Eckerd was there, but fast asleep, as was Soorefina.  She did not wake either of them, although she wondered why Eckerd was back so early.  Korrieana, too, was still asleep.  Pa'das stood, facing east, watching the sun rise.  Jander was always there, standing beside her, watching with her.  She hunched her shoulders, cupping her elbows in her hands.  Where was he?  She knew she as getting all worked up over nothing in a little part of her brain, but that little part was overruled and buried by the rest.

            She did not hear Jander come up next to her, and was too lost in thought to sense his presence, so she jumped when he put and arm around her shoulders and drew her close to him.

            "What's wrong?" he asked.  He couldn't be sure, but the way she sort of clung to him gave him a clue enough, and Jander silently cursed himself for being so thoughtless.

"Nothing," she said in a voice that hid the lie very well.

"Yes there is."

"No there isn't."

Yes there is."

"No there isn't."

"Yes there is."

"Okay!  Fine!  Yes, there is, but I'm not telling you."

"You will at some point," Jander said with perfect conviction, smoothing down her hair which was still mussed with sleep.

"No I won't."

"Yes you will."

"No I won't."

"Oh, I'm quite confident you will."

"What kind of elf are you, to be arguing like a five-year-old?"

"One who is around humans far too much."  Jander regretted the words as soon as he said them and felt Pa'das shrink away a bit.  But he did not let her go, and smoothed over the unintended insult.  "But, to be quite frank, I would not have it any other way."  He felt her relax again and silently stood there, stroking her hair and unknotting it with his fingers.

"Where were you?"  Pa'das asked quietly, moving a bit closer to him.

"In a hill, thinking, not paying attention to what was happening around me.  Otherwise I would have been here."  He could sense her fears, and was easing them with his words.

"I…I thought…" Pa'das stopped, and Jander patiently waited for her to continue.  "I thought you had…had finally realized the truth and left."  She clung to him tighter.

"I do know the truth."  Oo, he was having a bad time with words today.  He felt Pa'das shrink into herself, becoming smaller in his arms.  She felt brittle – like she would break.  Jander hurriedly continued, to ease the hurt he had (again) unintentionally inflicted.  "I know the truth that you are a beautiful, intelligent, kind woman who I wouldn't give up fort he world.  The one thing you need never have fear of is that, my love."  Not the way I must fear you seeing the light, he thought sadly.  He longed to make love to her, and prove that his love would never falter.  But he knew that no one so beautiful and innocent as her should not be violated that way by evil like him, he could not stand the thought.  So he settled for hugging her and holding her and kissing her, reassuring her in the best way he could.

"Look, I really hate to break this moment," apparently, Eckerd had woken up, "but Jander…"  He jerked his head meaningfully towards the woods.

Jander kissed Pa'das again.  "I'll be right back."  He and Eckerd walked towards where Davie was.  "Why do I have to come."

"Davie's extremely stubborn.  You talk more convincingly than me.  If you talk fast enough, hopefully he won't try to follow."

"Why don't I just scare him off."

Eckerd blinked, a bit taken aback.  "If you want to…"

Jander laughed a little.  "Don't worry, I'll try talking first."

Davie was awake, sitting close to a small fire, chewing on some strips of dried meat.  The blanket was folded next to him.  He looked up as Eckerd and Jander came into view.

"Thank you to whoever left the blanket," he said, a little in awe of the elf standing before him.

Jander nodded once.  "You're welcome."

Davie offered the two some meat.  Jander politely declined, but Eckerd took some, taking a big bite.  He immediately spit it out, making a horrible face.

"How can you eat that?  It tastes like horse shit!"

"You've tasted horse manure before?" Jander asked dryly.

Eckerd and Davie laughed.  "It's good," Davie said, calmly chewing on the meat.  "So…?"

"Can't come," Eckerd shook his head.  "You have to go back home."

"Pa'das decided this?" Davie asked with a wounded look.

"No," Jander said.  He did not want any more bad feelings to go back to Corostine about Pa'das.  "Neither of us told her.  It was my decision."

"Well, why not?  What have I ever done to you?"

"Nothing directly."

"Well, I'm not going back."

"Yes you are," Eckerd said patiently.

"No, I'm not.  You can't make me.  I'll just follow behind you."

"No you won't.  You'll go back right now."

"I'm not going back."

Jander and Eckerd patiently tried to reason with him.  It didn't work.  Davie was growing more and more distraught.  Finally, Eckerd and Jander glanced at each other, and Jander slightly nodded.  The lad was beyond reason.

"There is no question that you are going back,"

Jander said.  He hissed at Davie, his eyes going feral, his lips drawing back, fully revealing his fangs.  Davie flinched back, and Jander could smell the sickly sweet scent of fear rolling off him in waves.  "Would you really want to travel with me?" he hissed to the boy.  "Really?"

Eckerd stared at Jander.  He had never seen him like this.  "Impressive," he said softly.

Jander paid no attention to him.  He stared intensely at Davie.  "Well?  Would you?"

Davie squared his shoulders, staring defiantly right back at Jander.  The smell of fear slowly diminished to almost nothing.  "I don't care.  I'm not going back."

"You're not afraid at all?  You don't care that I'm a vampire?  That doesn't bother you?"

Davie opened his mouth to say something, but no sound came out.

"Oops," Eckerd laughed.  "I forgot to dispel the truth spell.  At least now we know he's been telling the truth so far.  Carry on, carry on.  I'm not taking it off now."

Davie glared at him, and answered Jander's questions.  "Aye, it bothers me a little bit - a very little bit.  Who wouldn't be a bit freaked out?"

"Me," said Eckerd, "and Pa'das."

"Just to be fair, you were a little wary of me for a while."

"I was not!"

Jander nodded.  "Yes you were.  I could smell the fear every time I saw you for another tenday or so.  OF course, you probably didn't even notice it, it was so minuscule."

"See.  Therefore it didn't count.  What about Pa'das?"

"Nothing.  She had complete and utter confidence in me."

"Hello?  Remember me?"  Davie waved his hand to get their attention.  "Well?  Not that that issue is cleared up, can I stay?"

Jander could still smell the fear, not very strong, but definitely there.  "What did they do to you in that town to make you so eager to come with us?" he asked with great pity in his voice.

"None of your business.  So…?"

"I'll go talk to Pa'das."  Jander glided off through the trees, graceful as a deer and silent as a shadow.

Davie waited for a little bit, until he thought the vampire was out of hearing, then said, "A vampire?"

"Yes, a vampire with very good hearing.  If you have a problem with that, then leave now."

Jander stopped to listen, interested in what might come next.  There was silence for a little bit, then he head Eckerd say, "He should be out of hearing by now.  You listen to me, boy, and mark my words carefully.  If you are allowed to join our merry troupe, and you do anything to slight either of my friends, I will personally kill you with my bare hands.  If you don't think you can be civil and friendly to them, especially if you don't think you can be civil to Jander, I suggest you leave now.  Understood?"

"Crystal clear."

Jander moved on again.  So… he was not the only overprotective one…  There was no doubt in his mind that Eckerd was dead serious.  He had certainly sounded as though he would do it without a second thought.  Jander hoped Davie got that impression, too.

Jander moved with speed and grace through the trees, making up for lost time.  It wouldn't do to raise any sort of suspicions.  When he got back to Pa'das, she was feeding Korrieana a bottle.  Where the bottle had come from, Jander had no idea.  Sometimes he wondered if she had her own extra-dimensional bag.  Jander supposed 'feeding' was not the right word, either.  She was holding Korrieana while the baby drank the bottle herself.  Jander sat down next to them, and Pa'das leaned into his side as he put an arm around her shoulder.  Soorefina was still asleep, and would most likely stay that way until they started to move again.

"What was that all about?"

"Well, my love, here's the story.  Eckerd's cousin wants to come along with us."  Jander felt Pa'das stiffen against his arm.  "I'm supposed to be finding out if that's okay with you.  The kid's name is Davie.  Supposedly, he wasn't all that bad to you.  Eckerd cast a truth spell, so I guess what he said is true."

"Sure.  Fine with me."  Her tone and her posture belied her words.

Jander swung around so they were face to face, holding Pa'das by the shoulders.  "No, what do you want?  Not what you think Eckerd or I want, what are your feelings?"

"What about you?"

"Already dealt with that.  Apparently, he'd rather be traveling with a vampire than go back."

"It's your decision.  You two, as men - males - have the right of making all the decisions."

"No, we don't," Jander said gently.  This was not the Pa'das he had known, the one who had almost railed him out for not asking if Eckerd could join their duo, making it a trio.  "Nothing is anybody's right because of what sex they are.  If anything, everything would be your right.  Without females, there would be no children."

"How do you figure that?"  Pa'das looked frankly skeptical.

"Children don't come from males.  A female would never come from a male, but both come from females."

"But…  Without a guy…"

"All you need is sperm.  After that…"  Jander spread his golden hands.  "You did fine, didn't you?"  Jander realized what he was saying, that she didn't need him (of course, he was kind of useless on that point, anyways…) at all.  He hoped and prayed she would not decide to go independent woman again.

"No, I don't want anyone from that town with us."

A slow smile spread across Jander's face.  "Me neither."

Pa'das looked at him curiously.  "Why not?"  She set Korrieana, who was done with her bottle, on the ground to crawl around, keeping one eye on her.

"The three of us - four of us," he nodded toward the sleeping cat, "travel together so well, I'm concerned that another will disrupt the harmony."

"That's it?"

"No.  The kid is far too handsome by human standards for me not to worry."

"What?  The elf is jealous?"  Pa'das grinned.

This was the Pa'das Jander knew.  Admittedly, he could smell a burst of fear after she had said it, and she flinched back as if expecting to be struck, but it was still a small step up.

Jander laughed.  "Yes, the elf is jealous.  Now, please excuse me.  I have to go break the news to Davie so we can be on our way soon."  He kissed her lightly on the cheek, cold lips brushing warm skin, then glided away, a shadow in daylight.

"So different," Pa'das whispered as she watched him go.  "So different."


*  *  *  *  *

"I don't give a shit!  You can't make me!"

Jander gritted his teeth and looked at Eckerd.  They had been arguing with Davie for the better part of an hour.  A long time ago - in fact, after the first five minutes - it had become more of a battle of wills than anything else.  Who would give in first?  Jander would have walked away a long time ago, but Eckerd had assured him that, unless they could make him agree to go back, Davie would indeed follow.

Jander and Eckerd shared a look.  They needed no words to understand the plan.  Eckerd feigned a yawn.  At least, Jander thought it was feigned.

"Know what?  I did not get much sleep last night.  I am in no mood to argue with you for the next three hours.  Jander - good luck and have fun if you have to resort to drastic measures."  Eckerd winked and grinned evilly at Jander.  Jander grinned wolfishly back.  "I'm going to get what sleep I can."

He walked through the trees, back to Pa'das.  If their plans were the same - and Jander knew the were, they thought too much alike for there to be much variation - Eckerd and Pa'das would break camp and leave.  Jander would stall Davie until they were far enough away to make tracking difficult, then catch up with them.

Jander continued arguing and threatening for another two hours or so.  When he thought Pa'das and Eckerd were far enough away, he gave up.

"Why don't you just agree to go back and follow anyway?"  This had been bugging Jander for a while.

Davie shrugged.  "I have a think about keeping promises.  But if I just argue until you give up…  You're not going to resort to drastic measures now, are you?"

"No, I'm giving up," Jander sighed.  He was trying to get out of this without violence.  Davie smiled superiorly.  Jander wished he could wipe the smile off his face, but he had resolved not to use any physical violence.  So, he did it verbally.  "Oh, you haven't won.  They are long gone by now.  I just stayed behind to stall you."  Jander grinned superiorly, and Davie glared.

"Why do you care so much for one human girl?"

Jander looked at him disdainfully.  "Because people like you made her life a living hell."

"She's just a girl, and if she's your girl, then she's your property."

The boy did not realize how bad of a mistake he was making.  Jander quickly enlightened him by landing a right hook on his chin, sending him flying.  As Jander walked away, he sighed.  Before he had met Pa'das, he would have handled things much more tactfully.  Or would he have?  Was his elven side so lost to him…  Jander shook his head.  No, that was not it.  He was just letting his pent-up anger get the best of him.  That was it, right?