**DISCLAIMER: The concept of the Night World and all related
characters belong to L.J. Smith, not me, much as I may wish otherwise.**
Author's
Notes: FINALLY! I thought I was going to go mad! I get back from traveling and
I'm all ready to post this new installment for all of you, but as I'm sure you
know, ff.net was not working! And then, to top it off, proving to me that
Murphy's Law loves technology, the only computer in the house with internet
connection decides to catch a virus and crash completely. So off it went to be
repaired. Luckily, after a few days it's back at home, and I've pulled myself
back from the brink of insanity (banana, goobldeygook, Paris, soap) Well, sort
of. Anyway, here it is. Enjoy reading!
Rating: PG
*******************
"In love the paradox occurs that two beings become one
and yet remain two."
~Erich
Fromm~
Amulet of
Artemis
by: The Silver Princess
It was marvelous being Xander's girlfriend. Elise soon became accustomed to leaning against his warmth when they sat and his tiny acts of tenderness through the days. He continued to withdraw from her, even as he held her, but she tried to ignore it. She was mostly satisfied with the world, even her unexplained uneasiness pushed aside in light of Leilani's friendship and Xander's love.
"Leilani!"
A cheerleader with blond hair done up in
pigtails hurried over to their table. Even though Leilani hung out with Elise,
some of the kids still deigned to talk to the fire-haired girl, if they really
felt like gossiping.
Leilani gave Elise and Xander an apologetic
glance and turned to the girl. "Brittany, I told you, I don't care who Stacy is
currently dating, and I don't care if you think Kevin is going to win the
football game."
"No, no, no!" the girl protested, in a
high-pitched, ditzy voice. "Someone was attacked! Mr. Hamilton—you know that
guy who runs the movie theater—yeah, well, he was attacked at his house. In
that garden of his I think."
Against her, Xander stiffened, and Elise
noticed that Leilani's shoulder muscles had gone taut and her back rigid.
In an odd voice, Xander asked, "Did they say
what happened to him?"
Eager for a listening audience, Brittany
related," Oh, yeah. It's really weird. Um, let's see. He's all scratched, like
really bad, like a tiger got him or something. Ooo, and he…what did they call
it…arrested. I guess the police are involved. Oh, oh, oh! His heart had some
kind of problem, but the doctors and whatever, they like tested him, and they
say he should be fine. Like, I mean, how stupid, obviously he's not! And he's gone crazy or somethin' 'cause
he keeps, uh what'd they say, oh, raving about eyes and darkness and all that
spooky type of stuff, you know." The girl ran out of steam and waited for their
reaction.
In a tense voice, Leilani said, "Thanks for telling
us."
Crestfallen at their unexcited reaction,
Brittany flounced off to flaunt her knowledge to more important students.
Elise
turned to Xander. "What's the matter? I mean, it's horrible what happened and
all, but you didn't know him or anything did you?"
He took a shaky breath and kissed her. "It's
nothing." But his eyes were still dark, their fire hidden, and he had withdrawn
from her again.
Elise frowned, not satisfied. Leilani
started babbling to cover the sudden silence.
After lunch, Elise delayed him.
"Xander? What's wrong? You seem so, I don't
know, brooding."
He clenched his jaw tightly, jamming his
hands into his pockets. "We—" He broke off tersely. "Elise, you and I—" A muscle
twitched in his cheek as he stopped again. His eyes refused to look at her.
Her chest constricted painfully around her
heart, trying to squeeze it into normal rhythm as it thudded in her ears. She
recognized that look instinctively, unhappily. It couldn't be. "Are you," her
voice caught, "regretting us?" Ribs contracted tightly as she waited for a
response.
"I don't know how to answer that," he
answered almost bitterly.
The thumping in her ears paused, leaving her
with a moment of cool clarity. "I need an answer, Xander," she said quietly.
He walked away from her.
Her calmness deserted her, and she felt as
if she had been plunged into ice water. Her stomach twisted, and her heart
stabbed against her ribs as though impaled by icy spears. She stopped breathing.
Elise bit her lip, fighting the imminent tears, as the earth softly rumbled
beneath her. I will not be a baby, she thought resolutely. I can
handle it. I can handle it. She clenched her fists in determination and
decided to figure out exactly what was up with the Morgan twins.
* * *
Xander avoided her eyes and ignored her
overtures of conversation during the walk home. Conversation between the three
was stilted and uncomfortable as Leilani debated the safest course to tread
between her brother and her best friend—now his ex-girlfriend.
Elise was desperately relieved when her home
came into view, promptly ending the attempts at normalcy. She missed the
customary good-bye kiss, but she was determined to be mature. Elise walked
stiffly through the gate to her door.
"I'll call you later, Leilani!" Elise called
jauntily over her shoulder, mustering up a breezy voice, as she let herself
into her house.
She peeked out the window and watched
Leilani and Xander walk out of sight, absorbed in conversation.
Whining, Sonakuta twined his large body
around her long legs. "Hey, sweetie. Miss me? So," she said talking to the dog
as she swung her backpack on the kitchen counter. "It's Friday, and I'm
finished with almost all my homework, and the rest I can do tomorrow. Sooo,
are you up to a little spying mission?" she asked mischievously. I'm not
going to let him get me down, she said to herself, seeking refuge in
over-excitement.
The dhole perked and rubbed his side against
her leg. "Good dog," Elise laughed hollowly.
"I'm
not hungry and you seem perfectly happy with this plan, so we're free to go,"
she said companionably to Sonakuta.
His tail wagged, and Elise set out with the
dog to her friends' house. The lump lodged in her throat threatened to dissolve
into tears. Stop it, she ordered herself fiercely. Just stop it.
Despite the warm sun on her back, Elise
shivered as she walked down the sidewalk. She had been so preoccupied with her
despondency, that she hadn't noticed the heaviness in the air. Her skin
prickled and a lump of dread settled in the pit of her stomach. Sonakuta whined
and walked closer to her.
"So, you feel it too," she mumbled softly to
the dhole. With sudden clarity, she broke into a sprint. Whatever was causing
this, imagined or actual, was definitely unfriendly.
Sona remained at her side, galloping with her.
"Sona!" she yelled suddenly as the dog
streaked without warning from her side to chase after that damn black cat.
Elise swore and sped after the fleeing
dhole. She lowered her head to bring on even more celerity, keeping her eyes
locked on the golden-orange dog. She swore again, even more colorfully, when
the sooty black cat and the pursuing dog veered off the sidewalk into the
forest. Damnit. She hated this forest with its low dark clutching branches.
She crashed through the underbrush and
vegetation, thankful she had worn jeans that day. "Sonakuta," she yelled. I'll
kill that damn dog, she thought fiercely, promptly forgetting every nice
thing she had ever thought about him.
Sonakuta stopped so suddenly that she nearly
tripped over him in her momentum. "Sonakuta . . ." she began and trailed off as
she looked around. They had reached a clearing, and that cat was now just
sitting there in the middle calmly washing itself. But now that Sona had caught
up with his prey, he was trembling and whimpering, huddled against her. She
couldn't blame him. This clearing was the epitome of every fairytale Black
Forest. Low overhanging branches blocked out the sunlight and the foliage
surrounding them was dark and dense. Elise couldn't even tell which way she'd
come from.
Sona whimpered again. She looked at that
troublesome cat. The cursed creature had been following her around—she realized
that now.
She bent down to grab a stone. Unreasonably,
she did not like this cat. She wanted it gone.
Just as she found a good-sized rock, she
glanced up to aim and stared straight into those amber eyes . . .
. .
. And her world fell from under her. Oh, god. It had been stalking her. Oh,
god. It was hunting her, not following her. Oh, god. It wasn't a normal cat.
Oh, god.
Kneeling in the soil, Elise knew she was
being irrational and yet some gut survival instinct could not refute this new
knowledge. Oh, god.
She heard a rustle, and then a man and a
woman emerged from the vegetation opposite her. Oh, god. The man was the same
one who attacked her. Oh, god. The woman was just as eerily immaculate and
crazed. Oh, god. She was like bottled smoke with curling black hair and smoky
gray eyes. Oh, god. These three are dangerous, Elise thought stupidly, still
kneeling in the loam. Oh, god. Oh, god. Oh, god.
The woman smiled cruelly and said, "So you
are Elise."
"OH
GOD!" The scream ripped from throat.
"Clever girl."
Panting hard from panic, Elise screamed again
and dove into the thick forest.
She ran from those people, not knowing where
she was running. She just ran. Her feet, pounding against the dry ground, kept
time, as her brain kept chanting, "Oh, god, oh, god, oh, god, oh, god."
Emerging from the portentous forest, Elise
sobbed as she fell to the ground. Sonakuta stumbled out beside her, tongue
lolling. She looked up and saw with relief that she had come out in the
Morgans' backyard.
She stood and ran to their door. She saw
them picking up things that must have fallen during the earthquake that had
started when she was running. She'd hardly noticed it when it had struck, but
apparently, it had done more harm than she had realized. She saw their shocked
faces when they noticed her, but it didn't seem to register. In the bright
sunshine, everything normal seemed unreal. Only the unreality of what had just
happened seemed authentic. Then she was in Xander's safe arms.
He held her safe in the warm gold mist,
breaking up forgotten. His hands brushed over her hair, and he whispered
nonsensical soothing words until she calmed. With a kiss on her forehead,
Xander led her to a chair and she sat. Xander sat next to her, arm still draped
soothingly over her still shaky shoulders.
Leilani took her hand reassuringly and asked
gently, "What happened, Elise?"
Haltingly, Elise poured out her story. She
reddened, knowing how ludicrous she sounded. Just telling the tale seemed to
purge her fear from her. Her limbs stopped shuddering, and her rational mind
rose to the forefront again, wiping all the strangeness away. She felt utterly
foolish now.
She finished and looked at them not
understanding their expressions. They were naturally worried about her—probably
thought her insane—but there seemed to be a deeper concern lurking in their
identical fire-green eyes.
"Elise," Xander said carefully, helping her
to her feet. "Why don't we get you home? You need to rest."
And then as quickly as that, she suddenly
understood. Her rational mind recoiled and then wrapped itself around her
newfound understanding. "You guys know something. Tell me what you know." They
looked at her silently.
"Come on, I know you know something," she
insisted. She turned away and began to pace, fitting the pieces that she had
discounted as impossible together. "This all has something to do with you," she
stated with certainty. "All these strange things have happened since you two
turned up." She began ticking them off on her fingers. "A black cat following
me. The blond guy attacking us. Even Mr. Hamilton's attack. You know something.
Tell me. Tell me." She whirled on Xander. "How did you know to come help
me when I was attacked, and Leilani," she continued, turning to her, "how did
you know to bring that balm? I mean, the balm itself! How could you have made
that?" Elise paused for breath, wondering how to phrase her next point. "There
was lightning around you Xander," she added more calmly. "When you fought that
blond man. I know I saw it." Closed expressions met her words. "Please, I don't
understand anything that's going on. So please, just tell me."
Xander flicked his eyes towards Leilani and
then looked straight at Elise, his green eyes locking with her blue ones.
"Elise, come on, you need to get some rest."
Elise wanted to say no, wanted to demand an
explanation; she was on a roll and excited by this coming-together puzzle. But
she suddenly couldn't look away from those eyes. There was no fire in them;
they were still and peaceful, two smooth, calm viridian ponds. She vaguely
heard Xander say, "Just rest." Her energy drained out of her even while her
excitement raged without abatement. She closed her eyes and thought, There's
another strange thing to add to my list. You can put people to sleep with your
eyes.
She slept.
**Feedback, people. I thrive on it like sugar. See you soon!**