Chapter 20
Without thinking, she shoved the person as hard as she could and said sharply, "Watch where you're going!"
She watched in amazement as the boy dropped to one knee amid the scattered papers he had been carrying and murmured in a barely audible voice, "My deepest apologies, milady. It shall not happen again."
He was looking not at her but at the ground, and his broad shoulders were hunched over and tensed, as if waiting for a strike to befall them.
When she neither moved nor said anything, he slowly and cautiously looked up at her, revealing a handsome face creased with worry, and warm cinnamon eyes. He dropped his gaze once more when he saw that she was looking at him closely, hiding behind a curtain of soft-looking, mussed-up, reddish-brown curls.
Frowning, Alex dropped to her knees and started gathering the papers that had been dropped. The boy, who appeared to be about her age, perhaps a year or so older, looked up at her questioningly.
She handed him the papers in a neat pile and held out her hand. "I'm Alex."
His gaze darted suspiciously between her eyes and her outstretched hand before he tentatively placed his hand in her own and shook it once before dropping it and standing up. Alex got to her feet and realized that he was not too much taller than she was, only an inch or two over her height, at most .
"I am called Elijah." He paused, still not meeting her eyes. Alex hated people who never made eye contact, so she stepped closer to him and put her hand under his chin, which was so bowed it was practically touching his chest, and lifted his face up so that he was looking into her eyes.
"Rule number one, Elijah, always make eye contact. Lack of doing so will announce the level of your very low self esteem."
He smiled wryly, "I am afraid we were taught different sets of rules, milady."
"And quit it with the whole 'milady' deal. As gentlemanly as I'm sure many would find it, I don't like it. Whoever taught you those rules obviously must've had a few screws loose, if you know what I mean."
Elijah looked around nervously, then whispered fearfully, "Don't say such things, mi-" he caught himself at the last second. "Miss Alex. If you are overheard, there will be trouble. Surely a sound beating will follow."
"What?"
Elijah ignored her question and instead took a light hold of her arm and started to walk back the direction that he had come from, pulling her with him.
"What are you doing? Where are you taking me?" Alex asked mainly out of curiosity.
"Back to your room. You stayed the night, I presume?"
"Yeah, part of it," she answered truthfully, wondering where he was going with this. "How do you know which room is mine?"
Elijah turned to look at her without stopping. "Master Adham has...guests often, and they always stay in the same room, until he is done with them."
Alex shifted her weight so she was leaning backward, causing Elijah to halt unexpectedly; she didn't like the sound of this. "What do you mean, 'until he's done with them'? But, wait a second, who is this 'Master Adham' dude? Doesn't exactly sound like a class A character if you ask me."
The young man turned to regard her with an intense stare. "You are not Master Adham's guest?"
"Uh, no," Alex replied slowly. "I guess you could call me Kieran's guest, if anything."
Wide brown eyes looked at her with an alarmed expression. "Kieran? You're Master Kieran's guest?"
"Yeah, do you have a problem with that?"
"I-well, no, but...I've heard that Master Kieran has eyes only for a seductive, cunning witch of late..."
"Hey," Alex protested as she jabbed him in the chest with her finger. "She has not seduced him; he's in love with her, got it, buddy?"
"If he is truly in love with her, why would he do this to her?"
"Ok, we're on two completely different pages here. What you are saying is not making logical sense. What do you think I am, because you obviously have more of an idea about it than I do."
"You aren't a...vampire," Elijah stated slowly, as if reluctant to say the word.
"Why not? What makes you think that?"
His hand came up in a quick movement and Alex automatically stepped out of the way. Instead of striking her he brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Your eyes. They aren't blank. There are emotions that show. Vampires don't have emotions; at least, they don't show it as much. Their eyes are empty, vacant."
"Yeah, go on..."
"And you certainly don't live here; I would recognize you if you did. If you are not a vampire, then you must be human, and the only human females that come...visiting...are those that come to be paid for doing certain deeds."
Alex's mouth dropped. Silence was slowly replaced by laughter. Elijah looked on in bewilderment as Alex laughed so hard that she had to lean against the wall for support.
When she finally regained her composure, she said, "You mean you think that I'm a- a- a prostitute?" She started laughing all over again.
"You are not a...lady of the night?" God, he had trouble saying that word, too.
"No, I'm not. I thought this outfit was a bit racy, for me at least, but not that bad. Now that I know what you were talking about, it makes sense."
"Do you forgive me for thinking that you were...not what you are?" A small, hopeful smile inched across his lips.
"Sure. But tell me, vampires actually call for prostitutes also?"
"Master Adham does." Elijah shrugged, again refusing to meet her eyes.
"Really? I mean, I realize how despicable what I'm about to say is, but couldn't he just mess with some of the humans' minds around here? Wouldn't that be a whole hell of a lot easier?"
"I did not say that he does not do that," Elijah said softly in a sad tone. "But he does not like to kill the humans around here. He likes a clean house, and it is they who keep it so."
"So you're saying that he kills the women afterward?"
"When he tires of them, yes; he drains their blood. I've often been the one to carry their bodies out."
"Out where?" Alex was nervous; she didn't like to think of this sweet, curly-haired boy having to touch the dead bodies of courtesans.
"To the woods, where they are burned." His voice was tonelessly flat, but Alex saw pain in his eyes.
"This Adham sounds like a real dynamite individual." Alex said weakly. "Why don't you run away?"
"It's no use, he will find me." Elijah looked so lost and forlorn that Alex wanted to take him in her arms and comfort him.
Try to break the mood, Alex said, "So, what is there to do around this place? I might be staying here for a little while."
Elijah frowned at her. "This is no vacation resort. If you have a choice, go away. This isn't the type of place that a human would want to hang around. There are too many risks."
"I have the feeling that I'll be fine for the short while that I'm here, but something about this place..." Alex broke off with a shake of her head and a half-smile. "Nah, I'm just being ridiculous."
"What about this house?"
"Promise you won't laugh?" Elijah nodded slowly. "Well, something about this house is, I dunno, dark. Something's not normal."
"Alex, there are vampires in this manor; of course there's something dark."
"No, I mean more than that. Something's...wrong. I don't know how else to explain it, but there's more tension here. Something big is going to happen, something bad. I don't know what it is, but I don't want to be around when it does." Looking around, Alex realized exactly how ridiculous her statement was. The hallway was warmly lighted and comfortable, far from the type of house books had always depicted vampires living in.
Suddenly wincing, Elijah's hand went to his head and he began massaging his temple. "You must return to your room."
"Why? What's wrong? And anyway, I wasn't really given a room."
Elijah took hold of her arm once more and began to lead her back the way from which they had come.
"Where did you spend the night?"
"Kala's room. She's the witch that you claim seduced your master."
"I know-" his features contorted with pain and he kneaded his temple harder, finishing through clenched teeth, "-who she is."
Alex looked at him questioningly. "What's up? Why are you doing that?"
He shook his head as if there was no answer. His grip tightened on Alex's arm until it seemed he was cutting off the blood flow.
"Hey, ease up, there, buddy. I'd like to retain the use of my arm."
Elijah grunted in acknowledgement and loosened his grip, which only began tightening a moment later.
"What's the deal with the whole Jekyll and Hyde thing? You were acting perfectly pleasant a moment ago," Alex stated, trying to pry her arm out of his grip, which was really starting to hurt.
Almost instantly, Elijah dropped her arm and fell against the wall, his breathing heavy and ragged, as if he was in great pain.
Alex was getting nervous. A second before he had been perfectly fine, and now he looked as if he were about to collapse. What was wrong with him?
She touched his arm lightly, murmuring, "What's wrong? Is there anything I can do?"
He turned slightly to face her. His face had gone remarkably pale; the light dusting of freckles that he had stood out like ink against his pasty skin. Beads of sweat had popped out all over his face, and his eyes were unfocused, the pupils dilated. He shook his head slightly.
Alex laid her hand on his forehead gently; he was cold and clammy. He leaned into her comforting touch, his eyes closing slightly. Even when Alex wasn't intentionally using her gift, her magic was laced over her skin, providing a cool, soothing sensation to anything she touched.
He jerked back, his eyes snapping open as she tried to slowly ease into his mind to figure out what was bothering him. He turned sharply and backed away from her, stumbling into the wall and sagging against it when another spasm of pain hit him.
He opened his mouth and emitted a croaking sound instead of intelligible words. He swallowed and tried again.
"Follow this hallway to the end. The door on your right should open up to flights of stairs; go up two floors and then turn left into the hallway. Take the first left that you come to, then the second right. Go down the next hallway on your right and her room should be the second to last on the left. Go, now."
Without waiting for her reply, he started to walk unsteadily away, one arm trailing along the wall for support.
"Wait!" Alex called after him. "Where are you going?"
He didn't turn as he said, "I must go; I'm being called."
"By whom?"
"My master needs me. I must return to him." He broke into a clumsy run, disappearing from Alex's sight when he turned a corner.
She stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do. Curiosity nagged at her; she wanted to know where he was going, but something warned her against it. For once following the sensible part of herself, she started back down the hallway toward Kala's room.
A/N: I've gotten a buncha people saying that they want kala back...so, I apologize for not bringing her into this chapter, but she'll be in the next one, I promise 8^D this chapter is important b/c I needed to get alex to meet someone, b/c that'll come into play later...heh heh heh, a bit of foreshadowing for ya there...oh yeah, and sorry it took so long to get this chapter out, ya know, w/ school and everything it's been hard to find time to write and go on-line...
Without thinking, she shoved the person as hard as she could and said sharply, "Watch where you're going!"
She watched in amazement as the boy dropped to one knee amid the scattered papers he had been carrying and murmured in a barely audible voice, "My deepest apologies, milady. It shall not happen again."
He was looking not at her but at the ground, and his broad shoulders were hunched over and tensed, as if waiting for a strike to befall them.
When she neither moved nor said anything, he slowly and cautiously looked up at her, revealing a handsome face creased with worry, and warm cinnamon eyes. He dropped his gaze once more when he saw that she was looking at him closely, hiding behind a curtain of soft-looking, mussed-up, reddish-brown curls.
Frowning, Alex dropped to her knees and started gathering the papers that had been dropped. The boy, who appeared to be about her age, perhaps a year or so older, looked up at her questioningly.
She handed him the papers in a neat pile and held out her hand. "I'm Alex."
His gaze darted suspiciously between her eyes and her outstretched hand before he tentatively placed his hand in her own and shook it once before dropping it and standing up. Alex got to her feet and realized that he was not too much taller than she was, only an inch or two over her height, at most .
"I am called Elijah." He paused, still not meeting her eyes. Alex hated people who never made eye contact, so she stepped closer to him and put her hand under his chin, which was so bowed it was practically touching his chest, and lifted his face up so that he was looking into her eyes.
"Rule number one, Elijah, always make eye contact. Lack of doing so will announce the level of your very low self esteem."
He smiled wryly, "I am afraid we were taught different sets of rules, milady."
"And quit it with the whole 'milady' deal. As gentlemanly as I'm sure many would find it, I don't like it. Whoever taught you those rules obviously must've had a few screws loose, if you know what I mean."
Elijah looked around nervously, then whispered fearfully, "Don't say such things, mi-" he caught himself at the last second. "Miss Alex. If you are overheard, there will be trouble. Surely a sound beating will follow."
"What?"
Elijah ignored her question and instead took a light hold of her arm and started to walk back the direction that he had come from, pulling her with him.
"What are you doing? Where are you taking me?" Alex asked mainly out of curiosity.
"Back to your room. You stayed the night, I presume?"
"Yeah, part of it," she answered truthfully, wondering where he was going with this. "How do you know which room is mine?"
Elijah turned to look at her without stopping. "Master Adham has...guests often, and they always stay in the same room, until he is done with them."
Alex shifted her weight so she was leaning backward, causing Elijah to halt unexpectedly; she didn't like the sound of this. "What do you mean, 'until he's done with them'? But, wait a second, who is this 'Master Adham' dude? Doesn't exactly sound like a class A character if you ask me."
The young man turned to regard her with an intense stare. "You are not Master Adham's guest?"
"Uh, no," Alex replied slowly. "I guess you could call me Kieran's guest, if anything."
Wide brown eyes looked at her with an alarmed expression. "Kieran? You're Master Kieran's guest?"
"Yeah, do you have a problem with that?"
"I-well, no, but...I've heard that Master Kieran has eyes only for a seductive, cunning witch of late..."
"Hey," Alex protested as she jabbed him in the chest with her finger. "She has not seduced him; he's in love with her, got it, buddy?"
"If he is truly in love with her, why would he do this to her?"
"Ok, we're on two completely different pages here. What you are saying is not making logical sense. What do you think I am, because you obviously have more of an idea about it than I do."
"You aren't a...vampire," Elijah stated slowly, as if reluctant to say the word.
"Why not? What makes you think that?"
His hand came up in a quick movement and Alex automatically stepped out of the way. Instead of striking her he brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Your eyes. They aren't blank. There are emotions that show. Vampires don't have emotions; at least, they don't show it as much. Their eyes are empty, vacant."
"Yeah, go on..."
"And you certainly don't live here; I would recognize you if you did. If you are not a vampire, then you must be human, and the only human females that come...visiting...are those that come to be paid for doing certain deeds."
Alex's mouth dropped. Silence was slowly replaced by laughter. Elijah looked on in bewilderment as Alex laughed so hard that she had to lean against the wall for support.
When she finally regained her composure, she said, "You mean you think that I'm a- a- a prostitute?" She started laughing all over again.
"You are not a...lady of the night?" God, he had trouble saying that word, too.
"No, I'm not. I thought this outfit was a bit racy, for me at least, but not that bad. Now that I know what you were talking about, it makes sense."
"Do you forgive me for thinking that you were...not what you are?" A small, hopeful smile inched across his lips.
"Sure. But tell me, vampires actually call for prostitutes also?"
"Master Adham does." Elijah shrugged, again refusing to meet her eyes.
"Really? I mean, I realize how despicable what I'm about to say is, but couldn't he just mess with some of the humans' minds around here? Wouldn't that be a whole hell of a lot easier?"
"I did not say that he does not do that," Elijah said softly in a sad tone. "But he does not like to kill the humans around here. He likes a clean house, and it is they who keep it so."
"So you're saying that he kills the women afterward?"
"When he tires of them, yes; he drains their blood. I've often been the one to carry their bodies out."
"Out where?" Alex was nervous; she didn't like to think of this sweet, curly-haired boy having to touch the dead bodies of courtesans.
"To the woods, where they are burned." His voice was tonelessly flat, but Alex saw pain in his eyes.
"This Adham sounds like a real dynamite individual." Alex said weakly. "Why don't you run away?"
"It's no use, he will find me." Elijah looked so lost and forlorn that Alex wanted to take him in her arms and comfort him.
Try to break the mood, Alex said, "So, what is there to do around this place? I might be staying here for a little while."
Elijah frowned at her. "This is no vacation resort. If you have a choice, go away. This isn't the type of place that a human would want to hang around. There are too many risks."
"I have the feeling that I'll be fine for the short while that I'm here, but something about this place..." Alex broke off with a shake of her head and a half-smile. "Nah, I'm just being ridiculous."
"What about this house?"
"Promise you won't laugh?" Elijah nodded slowly. "Well, something about this house is, I dunno, dark. Something's not normal."
"Alex, there are vampires in this manor; of course there's something dark."
"No, I mean more than that. Something's...wrong. I don't know how else to explain it, but there's more tension here. Something big is going to happen, something bad. I don't know what it is, but I don't want to be around when it does." Looking around, Alex realized exactly how ridiculous her statement was. The hallway was warmly lighted and comfortable, far from the type of house books had always depicted vampires living in.
Suddenly wincing, Elijah's hand went to his head and he began massaging his temple. "You must return to your room."
"Why? What's wrong? And anyway, I wasn't really given a room."
Elijah took hold of her arm once more and began to lead her back the way from which they had come.
"Where did you spend the night?"
"Kala's room. She's the witch that you claim seduced your master."
"I know-" his features contorted with pain and he kneaded his temple harder, finishing through clenched teeth, "-who she is."
Alex looked at him questioningly. "What's up? Why are you doing that?"
He shook his head as if there was no answer. His grip tightened on Alex's arm until it seemed he was cutting off the blood flow.
"Hey, ease up, there, buddy. I'd like to retain the use of my arm."
Elijah grunted in acknowledgement and loosened his grip, which only began tightening a moment later.
"What's the deal with the whole Jekyll and Hyde thing? You were acting perfectly pleasant a moment ago," Alex stated, trying to pry her arm out of his grip, which was really starting to hurt.
Almost instantly, Elijah dropped her arm and fell against the wall, his breathing heavy and ragged, as if he was in great pain.
Alex was getting nervous. A second before he had been perfectly fine, and now he looked as if he were about to collapse. What was wrong with him?
She touched his arm lightly, murmuring, "What's wrong? Is there anything I can do?"
He turned slightly to face her. His face had gone remarkably pale; the light dusting of freckles that he had stood out like ink against his pasty skin. Beads of sweat had popped out all over his face, and his eyes were unfocused, the pupils dilated. He shook his head slightly.
Alex laid her hand on his forehead gently; he was cold and clammy. He leaned into her comforting touch, his eyes closing slightly. Even when Alex wasn't intentionally using her gift, her magic was laced over her skin, providing a cool, soothing sensation to anything she touched.
He jerked back, his eyes snapping open as she tried to slowly ease into his mind to figure out what was bothering him. He turned sharply and backed away from her, stumbling into the wall and sagging against it when another spasm of pain hit him.
He opened his mouth and emitted a croaking sound instead of intelligible words. He swallowed and tried again.
"Follow this hallway to the end. The door on your right should open up to flights of stairs; go up two floors and then turn left into the hallway. Take the first left that you come to, then the second right. Go down the next hallway on your right and her room should be the second to last on the left. Go, now."
Without waiting for her reply, he started to walk unsteadily away, one arm trailing along the wall for support.
"Wait!" Alex called after him. "Where are you going?"
He didn't turn as he said, "I must go; I'm being called."
"By whom?"
"My master needs me. I must return to him." He broke into a clumsy run, disappearing from Alex's sight when he turned a corner.
She stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do. Curiosity nagged at her; she wanted to know where he was going, but something warned her against it. For once following the sensible part of herself, she started back down the hallway toward Kala's room.
A/N: I've gotten a buncha people saying that they want kala back...so, I apologize for not bringing her into this chapter, but she'll be in the next one, I promise 8^D this chapter is important b/c I needed to get alex to meet someone, b/c that'll come into play later...heh heh heh, a bit of foreshadowing for ya there...oh yeah, and sorry it took so long to get this chapter out, ya know, w/ school and everything it's been hard to find time to write and go on-line...