Another two days and the sickening feeling of killing was gone. Jessica was a little more that ecstatic. So she insisted that we go to Las Noches. And who am I to fight with a place that gives away free alcohol.
It was only after we got there that I saw a small flaw in this. Behind the bar was a shorter female with black hair, eyes and chocolate skin. She and Aubrey were deep in a fight. Jessica stops in the door and her face goes blank.
"Who is that," I ask and she looks back at me for a second before looking at the fight.
"Fala," She says, complete and utter hate dripping from the girl's name. Jessica steps once and then recomposes herself before walking straight to the bar. I lean next to the door and cross my arms. The fact that there were no other vampires in the room was not encouraging. I could feel her energy mingle with Aubrey's and could see the girl called Fala, fly against the bar twice before she stayed there. Jessica jumps over the bar after she had stopped fighting and secured her hand around Fala's neck. Only then did I gauge the situation to be as contained as it was going to be with all three in the room. I sit down next to Aubrey who was pretty much void to the fight now as the sound of a windpipe snapping echoed around us.
I get out a bottle of something and take a drink. The taste wasn't one I was familiar with but good none the less. I drink through the bottle before Fala was given enough of a break to leave the area. Jessica leans on the other side of the bar and huffs. She looks at Aubrey.
"What the hell was she doing here?" He takes a drink of his glass and shakes his head.
"She was here when I got here." Jessica shakes her head.
"You think she'd learn." Aubrey nods in agreement and continues to drink. I look at Jessica and nod to the empty bottle. She smirks and pulls another one out from the supply.
"I just wish she was dead." Aubrey looks at her over his glass and shakes his head downing the rest of it.
"She is dead, Jessica." Jessica rolls her eyes and looks at me as I take a drink of the bottle she had handed me. I shrug and lay my head down on the bar. She leans on it and looks at Aubrey.
"What are you doing tonight?" He shakes his head.
"Nothing out of the ordinary. Why?" She shakes her head.
"When's that stupid bash?" He smirks.
"You still have tonight and tomorrow night to come up with a way to kill me doll."
"Don't call me doll." He nods and takes another drink.
"Isn't Nikolas in your circuit," I wasn't looking at either of them, but I knew they were now looking at me. Jessica looks at Aubrey and he looks at her.
"Well, yeah," She looks at me again, "You ok with that?" I nod and stand up.
"Thanks for the drinks, but I think I'm gonna go home." She nods and watches me until I had disappeared from Las Noches.
But to me the house in New Mayhem would never be home. I never had a home really. So I walk down the street of the town that I had lived in with Adianna and Dominique.
I walk passed the house I had lived in. The shades were drawn and the lights were out. They still lived there. There were no cars in the driveway or in the garage. I walk into the living room and sit down on the recliner. I walk into the kitchen after looking out the dark window was boring. I open the fridge and smirk, pulling out the carton of milk. I then get the cookies out of the cabinet and walk back into the living room. I sit down in front of the coffee table and eat the remaining cookies. I drink down the carton of milk so there was enough to make Dominique mad and put it back in the fridge. I leave the empty cookie tray on the coffee table.
I then walk up the stairs and stop in front of where I knew my bedroom door had been. But now there was nothing. Only a continuation of the wall that went down the hall. There was a small family picture on the wall. I take it off and look at it for a second. Then I move myself in the room and look around the untouched surfaces. They hadn't moved a thing. It wasn't like I died, it was like I never existed. I walk over to my bed slowly and flop down on it. I look up at the ceiling and smirk. They were just trying to act like I never existed.
I sit up after a minute and walk over to my small work desk. I move the papers and look at the scribbled word on it. They were written in Latin. I look around the room again and walk over to where all my clothes and jewelry were. I pick up the ball chain that had all my rings strung on it. I slip it into one of the numerous pockets and then my necklaces. I grab the jewelry box and look around the room again. It was pointless to take anything else. They would know I had been here as it was.
I move myself back to the house in New Mayhem and set the box up with all the rings and necklaces in it, then slip it under the bed. Then I leave the house to go hunt.
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It was another sleepless day for me that the next day. I was sitting in the study, around two, the painting of Nikolas and Christopher on the easel. They were haunting me now.
I replace the painting at the base of the bookcase and put up one of the clean ones. There was already a picture in my mind. I paint the back round a deep midnight blue and watch it as it dries this time. It was nearly thirty minutes later but when it was done I had the complete picture in my mind.
I paint the figure of a young woman. She was facing the looker, her head down. I mentally map out the hair and paint it with the map still in my mind. It travels over her pale shoulders and down her back. I paint a red top on her and detail her face. Blood red lips parted slightly and coal black eyes that with her face tilted down, she looked at you. Straight ahead. Then I detail the black and white skirt she was wearing. Her right hand had it clutched up on her hip, thus causing her elbow to tuck behind her back a little. Her right hand was resting sprawled against her thigh.
I do the same thing to this one as the last, moving the stool and sitting on the table to look at her. The 'her' was undoubtedly Nissa. She had that look in her undead eyes was the Nissa to the core. The red shirt was proof of her connection to Kaleo. The skirt was her connection to her brothers. But the deep blue, almost black back round was all her.
If these people were colors, to me, Nikolas would be black, Christopher would be white, and Nissa, would be midnight blue. Jessica would be her emerald green, and Aubrey would be burgundy that was always able to complement her. Risika would be a tiger orange, in a class all her own. Then there was my past. Caryn, would be mustard yellow. Mother would be a dark indigo, like the back round of her picture, and Adianna would be a lighter turquoise. And that with how I will always paint them.
I walk down stairs and into the kitchen after I was done. I get out a glass of OJ and sit down at the table. About twenty minutes later Jessica walks down the stairs. She had a smile on her face. She walks over to the cabinet and gets down a bottle of rum. She walks over next to me and smiles. "So when are you going to paint me Van Gogh?" I smirk and shake my head.
"When I can figure out a way too." She smiles again and quickly spikes my OJ before walking out of the kitchen and up the stairs. I watch her and then look back down at my OJ. "My orange juice," I mumble in a sad, slightly childish way.
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That night I left the house in New Mayhem and moved myself to the area where Nikolas lived. As I stopped at the end of the sidewalk to the door of the white house. I couldn't move. He was plainly at home I could feel him since I arrived in the area. Any vampire within a block would know where he was.
I slowly slip out of the void state and walk slowly up to the side window. The fact that I hadn't eaten tonight helped to hide my energy from them. And there was a 'them'. I look through the window being sure to stay out of sight.
They looked happy, but there was a forced 'look' to it. Nissa's smile kept slipping and Christopher would fall into a daze every now and then. Nikolas was either unaffected by what they were feeling or was hiding it well.
Nissa was sitting on one of the white leather chairs in the corner, her legs bent under her. Nikolas and Christopher were sitting on the couch on the other side of the room. Nikolas was sitting on the arm of the piece of furniture and Christopher had his right leg bent out on the couch next to him. His hands were behind his head and his eyes closed for most of the time I watched him.
"Does it matter that we're doing nothing, really," Nissa was asking in a playful way, the question was aimed at Nikolas. He looks at her from the glass of what looked like scotch and smiles.
"Well, I kind of makes me feel like a bum," he says back and Nissa shakes her head. Christopher opens one eye and looks at his brother. "I mean we should be doing something. Not just sitting here…" Christopher laughs at him this time.
"Nikolas, you are a bum. And who cares if we're doing anything or not, other than you? I for one am just fine sitting on my rump." Nikolas glares at him while Nissa was trying to suppress a bout of laughter. Christopher smiles back, there was a mix of a challenge and playful banter in the smiles edges.
I move away from the window and walk back to the sidewalk. It was going to be a long night, and a longer day still, before I would see Nikolas tomorrow. But I was going to make it just fine. It wasn't going to be to much longer until I could go back.
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Aubrey was in Las Noches when I walked in a few hours later. He looks at me once as I sit down and doesn't say a thing. I grab a bottle from the other side of the counter and take a drink.
"Long night," he asks. I nod but don't reply. "Do you know here Jessica is?" I shake my head. He looks at me for a longer period of time than I think he had since I came to New Mayhem. "You know," he says after a minute or so, "I feel sorry for the poor fool who changed you."
"Why's that?"
"'Cause he obviously isn't here right now." I smirk. He looks at me again before taking a drink from his glass. "What's up really?" I shake my head looking at the contents of the bottle.
"It's just a little home sickness I guess. Missing 'that poor fool' and company." He laughs a little.
"Are you really gonna call him 'that poor fool' now?" I shrug and look at the broken mirror on the other side of the bar.
"I guess I could," I say still looking at the void glass. "Why are you always here, Aubrey?" He laughs again.
"Jessica scares me sometimes when she's mad." I nod. You could see that by looking at her, she was a mean mad. "Why you here now?"
"I don't have anywhere else to go." He looks at me.
"I don't believe that." I smirk.
"I wish I didn't have to." I couldn't go to my old home, and other than that I had no where. The only people I have are Christopher, Nikolas, and Nissa and they seemed just fine with out me. Aubrey shakes his head.
"Well if nothing else, you can always come here, right?" I nod with a smirk and look at him. He had his glass held up to his face and in the light his skin looked red.
"You know Aubrey," he looks at me, "You're not that bad of a guy." He shrugs.
"Two years ago and I would have fought you on that." He shrugs again. "But now, I know it's true. And it's all Jessica's fault." I smirk and stand up, taking the bottle with me of course.
"Thanks for the pep talk Aubrey," I say, "See ya later." He nods and I leave Las Noches.
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That talk with Aubrey had prompted me to paint Jessica. But not just her. Because Jessica, wasn't Jessica without Aubrey.
The back round was a dark violet. Jessica was painted with her whole body shown. There was a tight short black skirt on her hips and combat boots that climbed her calves. She had leather armsocks on her wrists and a tight emerald halter-top that griped her tightly. Aubrey was standing behind her and what you could see were the black jeans that covered his legs and the sleeves of a burgundy t-shirt he was painted into. His hands were locked in front of her and her hands were in his hair above her head. Her lips were lined with black and her eyes were closed showing a dark gray eyeshadow. Aubrey's head was on her shoulder, his lips turned into a smirk.
I was sitting on the table again when she came home. How she always seems to get around just when I finish something was baffling. She walks through every room on the lower level of the house before stomping up the stairs. She stops in the study door and looks at me. I had to smirk at her face.
"Have I mentioned I hate Bashes?" I smirk and nod once.
"Yes, I believe you have." She smirks and walks over next to me. As she turns around to the painting I smile at the look on her face. She falls into the chair next to me and gives one haughty laugh.
"My manna." I smirk.
"So you like it?" She looks at me a little shock in her eyes.
"Like it, no." I tilt my head. "I friggin' love it!" I laugh. "You are a friggin' god, Cera." I nod as she hugs me.
"Ok Jessica you can let go now." She nods and lets go and turns back to the picture in one motion. She walks over to it and looks at the small details again.
"How long did it take you?" I shrug and look at the clock on her desk.
"About five hours," I say simply and she nods. She leans closer to it and laughs.
"You got every flippin' detail, I swear." I smirk.
"Those damn tattoos," She laughs a little, "By the time I was done with them, I wanted to cut them off for him." She laughs a little harder.
"But you do realize, now I wanna keep this." I smirk and shake my head.
"How 'bout this. I'll keep this one and paint you a different one, of whatever you want." She smirks.
"Whatever I want?" I sigh once a little scared and nod solemnly. "Risika." I look at her like she was nuts.
"Why? Aubrey hates her." Jessica smiles and stands up. She walks to the door and nods.
"I know." I watch the door where she had been and slowly smile.
"Jessica, you little devil." I look back at the painting and smile. The ones of Nissa and the boys were in clear view on the floor in front of the bookcases. I smile at them and then look at the one of Jessica and Aubrey. I did have to hand it to myself, I was pretty good.