Part 2
"What do you see in her? I just don't get it."
Paris sighed, ignoring the voice of his sister Paige as she hovered in the doorway of his room. No one seemed to understand what he saw in Jean. Now at 17, they had been dating for the past six years. They were inseparable, almost to the point where he didn't know where he ended and she began. Tonight though, he was alone.
Jean had an exam in the morning. Out his bedroom window, he could see her sat on her bed, books spread around her as she studied.
"Oh, wipe that lovey-dovey look off your face. It's sickening, dumbass." Paige snorted, shaking her head in disgust, twirling her long blonde braid around her fingers. Paris frowned at her. Why was she still here? Paige made her dislike for Jean clear. She, Crystal Redfern and the others never shook their opinion of Jean being a freak. It was petty and incredibly childish.
"Don't you have somewhere else you can be?" Paris snapped at his sister.
His attraction to Jean made him an outcast to the other Night People. Even the humans in the local high school new to avoid him. Thanks to Crystal and her gang. No one crossed her. The last girl who had had the guys to stand up to Crystal had mysteriously disappeared.
There were always rumours about other innocents Crystal had dealt with, but nothing had ever been proven. Besides, this town was a Daybreak haven. The adults were all firm believers in the Daybreak principles, as were most of the kids, and would never hear anything bad about anyone. Besides, Crystal and her friends weren't all skin tight leather, chains and lace like might be expected from a Night World gang. They were fashion plates, all beautiful girls with respected families.
"Jesus, sue me for giving a damn," Paige snapped back at him.
"Jean is the love of my life and nothing will change that," Paris said softly. "Why can't you understand that?"
Paige's eyes rolled and she left the room. Paris closed the bedroom door behind her, sighing. In all the time they'd known each other, he and Jean had never been able to identify exactly what she was. She knew more definite things about herself now. She could control the element of wind, sometimes she could work with rain, She could work some simple magic with his guidance. She could also change her shape – into a golden lioness, and a blackbird too. Neither of them could find any references to creatures with similar powers, in Night World history or any other for that matter.
Jean had become discouraged and now convinced she was the only one of her kind. Paris wasn't so sure, he still believed there were others out there, people with answers for what she was. They just weren't looking in the right places.
He glanced out his window again, but Jean's blinds were down, obscuring her from his view.
Loving a nameless creature will come with a curse.
His own mother had said those words to him. But he refused to believe that. Nothing would ever stop him from loving Jean. Nothing.