Part 2

"What the hell did you do that for?"

Aidan sighed, trying to ignore the angry note in Darcy Blackthorn's voice. She would
never understand, even if he tried to explain. "My reasons," was all he would say. He
had had his eyes on Sydney Nightingale for some time now. He'd done a spell with
some witch friends a few years back, when magic had been fun to mess with. Him
and his best friend Talon Freeman and the mysterious new girl Arwen Harman.

A silly little fortune telling game to find their soulmates, it had been her idea,
and no one could ever seem to say no to her. It had been the time of his life when
girls were just beginning to look interesting, and you were starting to learn who you
really were.

The piece of candle wax that had dropped in to the bowl had formed a vague
shape of a bird. He seemed to have been the only one to find his, Talon had been
killed by a vampire hunter, and Arwen seemed to have disappeared completely.

"She's /human/," Darcy was going on in disgust. "Waste of time and space.
Unless you're planning on eating her." She smiled a little. "You coming to the club
later?"

Aidan shrugged. "I guess."

Darcy didn't bother saying goodbye. With a snort she half waved before
climbing on a black and purple Yamaha motorcycle and zoomed off. He was left
alone, and needed to think. The typical problem with his kind, of course his one true
love would be human.

And it was the biggest crime he could ever commit, according to his Elders.
His kind had existed along side humans for many thousands of years, only he had
had been born into the modern world, where the supernatural seemed to just blend
in, and not make themselves noticed if they could help it. They had their rules to
terrify their kind, the primary being never tell a human, and the second, never falling
in love with one.

His friends would have a fit if they found out about his feelings for ordinary
human Sydney. She wasn't even anyone popular or important, just ordinary. He
wondered if that was why she appealed to him more than some of the others. He
could have any girl he wanted, but the one he wanted was turning out to be more of a
problem than he had thought.

He paused on a stretch of grass, raised high enough to get a glimpse of the
Pacific ocean, still jewel blue in the distance, even in December. The sun still shone
brightly, sparkling across the waves. At first he had never believed the spell had ever
worked. Now, though, after finding Sydney, there were just too many coincidences.

However much of a problem her humanity presented him with, problems
could generally be solved.

"Are you /sure/ you ant to do this?" Shaine stood beside him, one of the rare
times when she was alone, particularly beautiful in the late afternoon sun with the
breeze blowing just slightly though her midnight locks of hair.

Aidan nodded. He had a vague idea of a plan in mind, and was more than a
little surprised that Shaine had agreed to help him out. Aidan folded his arms,
nodding. "Why'd you agree to this?"

Shaine's red lips curved into a secret smile. "Maybe there's more to me than
just a pretty face."

Aidan was beginning to see that. He had always dismissed her as a bimbo
vampiress with nothing on her mind but money and plenty of humans to feed on. Yet
when he'd been thinking of his plan, apparently she had been the one to ask, and so
far, she had agreed. "So I see."

He wasn't usually one for expressing words and emotions very brilliantly. He
tended to only say what was necessary to get the point across, so thinking of the
right words to get Sydney interested enough to think of him, but without being really
sure what was going on, had been quite a challenge.

Same as not really knowing how to put across his feelings about the spell,
and the possibility that it was now very real. He wasn't sure if he liked it or hated it.

"Did she buy it?" he asked.

Shaine nodded. "She bought it. Leave the next part to me." She walked away
from him. Aidan found himself actually smiling for the third time that day. He was
really on a roll.

* * *

"What'd you think they're up to?" Elenia White asked her friend Adila Weald. Adila
shrugged, trying not to be too obvious about starting at Aidan Noir, thinking how
gorgeous he was. She hadn't really been paying attention to Elenia, she had been
trying to think how she could convince him that being one of the good guys wasn't all
that bad, that not everything supernatural needed to be evil.

She couldn't understand why he'd rather hang out with snotty bitches like
Shaine Krystaline and Darcy Blackthorn.

"He's been obsessed with Sydney Nightingale for quite some time now, and
he actually got round to approaching her today," Elenia went on.

"Who?" The name didn't mean anything to Adila.

"Girl in my bio lab and algebra class," Elenia said, frowning. "Human, not
anyone particularly important. Why else would someone like Aidan be talking to her,
if he wasn't up to something?"

Adila sighed. Elenia seemed to think that Aidan and his vampire friends were
up to something almost all the time. Maybe it was because she had something
against vampires, Adila didn't know, but since it seemed that she and Elenia were the
only witches, and the only Daybreakers, in the school, they tended to stick together,
no matter how annoying Elenia was. There were rumours that there were one or two
werewolves about, but Elenia had never met one.

"Even if something is going on," Adila said with a sigh. "What can we do about
it, anyway? Sydney is human, and it's not necessary for her to know, and it'll
probably be more sensible if you don't arouse her suspicions."

"Fine," Elenia snapped moodily, and stalked off.

Adila's eyes rolled as she walked down the bow empty corridors to her locker,
having not had the chance to go earlier as Elenia had dragged her off to follow Aidan
and Shaine. She was about to turn a corner when she paused, hearing Shaine's
voice. She didn't feel like walking in the middle of them and having them glare, or
generally bitch, and there was no other way to her locker. She sighed with irritation
and waited for them to move along.

"Is everything set?" Shaine was asking.

"Yeah, everything's ready, though I don't really understand what's going on
though," the second voice was that of Carmel Flamael, a nasty but beautiful girl in the
popular clique, though what her speciality was, Adila had never been too sure, and
didn't really want to find out.

Shaine laughed, tinkling and delicate, also kind of disturbing as well. "We're
just having a bit of fun."

"Then why can't we use someone annoying like Jennifer Graham then? That
bitch could do with a good ass-kicking." Carmel didn't sound too pleased with
whatever Shaine was planning.

"Because someone like Jennifer would be missed, that's the fun of playing
with the nobodies." Shaine paused for a second. "Is Zaide on board?"

"Uh-huh, I spoke to him this afternoon. Harmony and Celina are taking care of
Darlene."

"Good. So we're all set."

Adila frowned, wondering what was going on. She had never heard of anyone
named Zaide before. And as much as she hated to admit it, it sounded as if for once,
it looked like Elenia was actually right.

* * *