Quick Note: This is the double part of the double update. Enjoy!


Chapter 16

Alice left. I took another nap. I wanted to be in peak shape for tonight. At some point the TV turned on providing me with the white noise, basketball. I think.

At some point I got up to get something to eat. Cleary Bella does all the cooking. The second night Bella was indisposed, the second night there was pizza. My head was feeling worse than it had earlier, whenever earlier was. I wasn't sure what was going to happen tonight, but it's a little late for these doubts. I still have these fantasies about a plan going right.

It's only taken me a few days to realize that I shouldn't really plan anything. All my planning goes out the window the moment Alice's eyes glaze over. I'll let her make the plans, just as long as they don't involve me dead on the floor. I know, I know, I'm paranoid, but I'm used to dealing with faeries that do this kind of shit all the fucking time. They'll act completely natural for as long as they feel like it, and then they'll try and kill you. Nothing rational about it. Vampires, for the most part, aren't much different. I could believe that Alice was different, but I don't know. Whatever she said earlier really unnerved me. Just the thought of it, sent my heart into overdrive.

Seconds painfully ticked into minutes, minutes into hours. It wouldn't have been nearly as bad without having to fake some small talk every once and a while. The pain in my head slowly eased up, replaced with the pain caused from small talk. I was glad that Charlie doesn't do a lot of talking. Time is painful. When you need it, there's never enough, and when you have some to spare there's no way to waste it. I even contemplated doing the homework for a school I didn't really go to. I quickly decided against that and stared out at the rain, that by now was coming down in thick sheets.

Tick

Tock

Tick

Tock

Soon the clock struck ten, metaphorically of course. There aren't many people who still have clocks that strike anything. I was wide awake. Bella never made an appearance today, Charlie went to bed, or went to work sometime around nine. As long as he didn't suspect me of anything I didn't care what he did. I'm pretty sure he felt the same way. I got up from the couch where I'd been watching the rain and got ready for tonight. I opened the window in the living room to make sure she knew I was ready.

I changed into a black long sleeve t-shirt and black fatigue pants. I learned that during the war these two items were the most utilitarian clothes ever produced. I tucked my blasting rod into one of the many pockets in my fatigues. I grabbed my sword bag and put it next to my blue overcoat. This overcoat is one of my few attempts at enchantment (putting magic into regular things.) I tried to make the coat to keep magic in, or well to keep magic from getting out; thus keeping me from frying technology. It works. Not well, but it works.

I'm never repeating my performance from yesterday. Using all my magic for no reason was the worst idea I've ever had. Worse than coming here with a cover story, worse than deciding to go back to high school. I almost two innocents die and damn near got myself killed in the process. If I broke shit because my head was exposed so be it. Fortunately I only have a problem breaking delicate electronics.

As long as Alice still had all my other supplies I was, "Ready?" she stole the words right out of my head.

"Ya. Are you sure that it's your brother that can read minds." I said wrapping myself in the extra large overcoat. "Is this going to work?" I asked as an afterthought.

"Don't know yet. But I'll let you know." She replied. Clearly she doesn't know when to lie.

"Okay let's go." I said grabbing my sword bag.

We both climbed out the window. No reason for anyone, meaning Charlie, to know that I left. Of course I did the typical pillow man, under a blanket. Pixie was smarter than I gave her credit for. She forewent her modern Porsche for a much more sensible Jeep. The rain hadn't really let up; it was going to be a really wet trip. I threw my bag in the back underneath the same tarp that was keeping my boxes from getting wet. Again smarter than she looks.

I was surprised just how fast the Jeep was able to go. We made it to the lighthouse in just less than fifteen minutes; completely smoked through to the bones. She pulled the Jeep up to the door of the lighthouse. I use the word 'door' in the broadest sense possible. It was more like a piece of wood with massive crude hinges. It works as a door, and should have the same properties. I just hope there's a roof, there's no way I could do any kind of spell in this rain. Moving water plus magic equals nothing. I grabbed my black bag and ran to the door.

It took three hard shoves before the ancient hinges gave way. The interior was cold, it was dark, but it was dry. What actually surprised me was how well kept it was. There was a roof, or something like one, I couldn't tell in the darkness. The floor was smooth and swept clean. The walls were much the same.

Shit, shit, shit, fuck! I forgot candles. There wasn't electricity out here, and I couldn't really build a fire bright enough. Well I can't have everything I want, that would be too easy. "You seem to have thought of everything, did you bring any…"

"Candles?" She chirped.

"Candles." I finished a beat too late, "Yes." This was starting to get on my nerves, I like finishing my own sentences.

We started working my new makeshift lab. Alice moved all of the boxes from the Jeep to the inside by the time I got back to the car. I wish I had that kind of speed. The first order of business was to set up some wards. I forgot to grab the emergency ward candles I had when I was at my storage unit. Those would probably come in handy soon. It took longer than I thought to set them up. Mainly because of the rain.

Wards can be simple, and they can be complicated. These were the complicated kind. The simple ones are like the emergency wards I have in candle form. They aren't meant to last more than a few hours. These I wanted to last a while, that meant lasting through several dozen dawns. Here's one of the exceptions to the dawn rule. It took the better part of four hours. The candles cast a soft glow over the light house, while we worked. I figured there's no point in having a second set of hands and wasting them. There was a lot of chanting, something I despise; herb burning, which we both hated; and walking in circles, which she definitely didn't like.

By one thirty, though, we were finished with them. Now for the worse part; making a magical set of keys so I didn't blow myself up. Of course I had to make one for Alice, after all this was her lighthouse. It didn't take long to make them, but I had to use some of the silver wire, which I didn't have a lot of. Plus I had to figure out a way to pull out her hair to give her a magical connection. Let my say that pulling a vampires hair is harder than it looks. When we were, correction, I was finished with this I decided a break was in order. Of course the energizer pixie was still at it, doing small things, stacking boxes, thumbing through books. I sat down against the stone walls. The lighthouse was pleasantly warm, the combination of the dozen or so candles, the burnt herbs, and my body heat. It was a far cry from the ice cold walls of the light house I dreamt about.

I closed my eyes, leaning my head against wall. "Party pooper." Alice said sitting next to me.

"This place needs chairs," I added, "or a couch. Something slightly more comfortable than stone."

"Ya, its one thing to have skin as hard as stone, but that doesn't make it comfortable to sit on." She laughed musically. There was silence for a moment. Until I broke it

"Ugh! How did I end up here?" I lamented.

"Simple, I drove you." She laughed again; it never ceased to amaze me just how musical her laugh was, like a soft melody.

"No, I mean how did I end up here in Forks, in Washington. How did I end up being a warden? Well that one I can answer." I trailed off. That's my problem when I'm tired, I tend to ask pointless rhetorical questions.

"How?" She asked. She shifted so that she was leaning her side against wall, facing me.

"That's a long story." I muttered closing my eyes again. I knew that I should start making the casting circle and pentagram. Not because it was hard, or it would take time, because I wanted to get a few hours of sleep before trying to get the web going.

"We do have time." She responded with a hint of child like sarcasm.

"Fine. It was few years ago. It was the last major battle in the war. Harry was off doing something in Faerie, while the rest of us young wizards were at a boot camp." I don't normally like telling war stories, but there was something about the look in her eye that made me want to tell it. "I don't quite get how you didn't know what was going on. We were just over the border into Oregon. We moved the location from Arizona, or New Mexico, someplace out in the desert, after we were attacked by ghouls."

"Captain Luccio said I showed some prowess in combat magic, but I had little control of it. Even less than I do now, which is amazing. But I remember her telling me that I showed a natural ability in planning a battle. I guess it was all the time I spent playing strategy games as a kid." I let out a small laugh, "no one ever beat me in a game of capture the flag. Apparently that translates into actual battle. Anyway, it was night when we were attacked by an overwhelming force. To put this into perspective the Red King and Queen were both there. We didn't really stand a chance, in a fair fight. Thankfully I don't believe in fighting fair. Commander Morgan took charge of the fight, leaving us newbies rather defenseless. The other wizards also went into battle. Being around Harry I had been in a couple of scrapes before. So I knew when it was time to panic and when it was time to duck and wait."

"Now here's the part where things get interesting." She smiled and nodded intently. "I don't really know what happened, but it was like a grandmaster of chess visualizing twenty moves ahead. I could see what people were going to do before they did it. I could see just how the battle would play out. It wasn't going to turn out well for us. I'm sure you know what all this is like. Then I started manipulating the people, what if he moved here, what if she focused on the vampire on her left rather than the one in front. I started being able to see the best way to play it out. I started shouting 'suggestions' to the wizards below. At first they didn't pay any attention to them. Then one person did, a young warden, I don't remember his name. It worked! Everyone started listening to what I was saying. Even Morgan, the most stubborn man I have ever met. In the end he got within twenty feet of the Red King, before the turned and ran. Morgan will never admit he listened to anything I said, but I beg to disagree."

"After the battle, I was promised that as soon as the war ended I would be made a warden. Until then I would serve as Luccio's personal tactical advisor. That meant that my apprenticeship to Harry ended. He gained a new one, that same day. But that's another story entirely. That gift is just that, a gift. There really isn't anything magical about it. That was four years ago. I was seventeen. Two years later, the war officially ended and I got my grey cloak. Another two years go by and here I am." I finished with a grand bow, while still sitting on the floor. Alice applauded.

"Your starting to remind me a little of Jasper." I took that as a compliment, but I wasn't sure. "You both were born of war, and baptized by fire early. You both carry emotional scars to match the physical ones. If he had to die, I'm glad he was killed by a kindred spirit." This was definitely a compliment, but I wasn't sure I liked it. There were a few uncomfortable moments of silence. "You're nervous." It was much more of a statement than a question.

Without answering I got up and walked to the small stack of books. I looked over them, hoping I brought the one I was looking for. I didn't find it. It was probably still in my suitcase. "I am. I was hoping I could show you why, but I'll have to tell you instead." It was a good thing I had this particular passage memorized. "Vampires of all kinds and types share many common traits. The most dangerous of these involve the idea of mates; if one of a mating pair is killed; than the other will, without a doubt, extract vengeance. Or die trying." I couldn't look at her. It's still a constant struggle to accept that she is still a vampire at heart.

I went back to work without a second thought. I grabbed the small spool of gold wire, and began winding a circle in the middle of the lighthouse. I couldn't look at her, I tried to avoid looking at her, she hadn't moved. I didn't want to hurt her; it was the last thing I wanted. Hadn't I hurt her enough already? I focused back onto the circle, it was a little less than five feet in diameter; smaller than I would have liked. It was hard keeping my mind on what I was doing. I tacked the circle down with some 'as seen on TV' crap I picked up a while ago.

I took the silver wire and tacked the end to the North end of the circle, then followed the same pattern that most teachers use to put a star on a test. I tacked each point of the star down. Alice hadn't moved an inch; she just sat there like a statue. I felt terrible, but I had to let her know. I was starting to like her too much, to lie to her. "You know," she started in an emotionally flat tone, "I've wanted to hate you, I've tried to. I can't. Too much has happened. Maybe I could have hated you if you never talked to me that day." She choked the last words out. She stood up and walked to me, slowly; measuring out each stepped. If I hadn't known better I would have said she was dancing. Her eyes were glistening.

"Alice, I… I… you… they… it." I stammered, looking for the right noun.

"There's nothing you can say. I don't want to kill you; I don't think I ever would. Shadow or no." She was close now, really close. I could feel her breath on my neck. She looked up at me, the tears in her eyes had vanished; there was a small, soft smolder in their place. "From the moment you walked into the dining room, I felt something. If my heart could have it would have raced, my face would have flushed. It was like when I first saw him in my vision." I was speechless, absolutely speechless; that doesn't happen very often. Was she saying what I think she was saying?

"Are you…you're…" I was still speechless. My mouth was dry. My heart was beating out of my chest. My hands were shaking. My mind was racing a million miles a second.

"Falling in love with you, yes. I think so." She quickly qualified.

My world slowed to a stop. Everything I had been feeling seconds before evaporated. I was left in a cold black hole. My mind disconnected from the rest of me, my vision dimmed, sounds were coming across a hundred miles. My stomach lurched up into my throat. I blacked out, I think. I saw this coming, I don't know why. I never believed that she was trying to get revenge on me. I used that as a shield, a barrier to deny what was really going on.

No! I knew what was going on, I felt it too. I just tried to deny everything I saw, everything I felt. There was no rational way to think anything else. If anyone saw this from the outside they would have seen it. I'm supposed to be the perceptive one! I squeezed my eyes shut and tried

You know that feeling you get just before you throw up! Yeah, that's pretty much what I felt like. I'm pretty sure that I bruised my knees going down, but I didn't care. After I finished there was less than nothing in my stomach. It was rank, it was foul, and I was glad when I felt the cold stone against my forehead.

Is it rude to throw up and collapse when someone says they're falling in love with you? "I'm sorry," I mumbled half coherently. Was she still there? Could I really blame her for leaving?

"It's okay, I saw it coming." I blinked my eyes open. The stone floor I was resting against was not a stone floor. It was her hand. Her other was rubbing soft circles on my back.

"Still, that wasn't the right response. Last time I checked the proper response to someone saying anything involving love didn't involve vomiting on said person." I tried to laugh, but it came out as a cough. She did laugh her sweet melodic laugh. Now I know what Horatio was talking about at the end of Hamlet. 'Let flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.'

A wizard who knows Shakespeare. Who knew?

"Okay, I'm going to stand up." I said mostly to myself. I got my feet under me and managed to stand up. Whatever had washed over me was beginning to ebb. My head felt right, I could see, hear, feel, smell, and oh good god could I taste! My mouth tasted like, well like vomit. I squeezed my eyes shut before blinking a few times. The world around me stopped spinning. Everything was right, except for a puddle of my finest work. I felt better? "You thought of everything else; what about…" She cut me off again, surprise, surprise.

"Water, toothbrush, toothpaste? I saw it both ways so…"

"You brought both." I added as fast as I could. It felt really, really good to cut her off for a change. She smiled and nodded.

"They're in the glove box." She added with a quick smile.

The rain was cold and uncomfortable. It came down in sheets as I went to get the toothbrush from the Jeep. The rain may have sucked, but the fresh air was nice; it gave me a silent kick in the ass. The night was pitch dark, no moon, no stars, no street lights. I willed energy into my ring and followed the soft red glow.

I took a big swig of water, swished, gargled, spat. That dislodged the remaining bits of god knows what. I grabbed the toothbrush and toothpaste and went to work trying to get the taste of old pizza, Chinese food, and a hot dog I had when I was seven out of my mouth. I might have brushed for an hour, or a minute. In the dark can you really tell the difference?

When I walked back to the door I was soaked to the bone. The cold, the wet, they didn't bother me like they would normal people; so when I felt a slight shiver creep down my spine when I got back to the door, I knew it wasn't the weather. I paused, looking around. I stretched my sight into the inky black; I did the same with my hearing. Nothing.

I shoved the door open, thanking to whatever god I pray to that I didn't blow myself back to 1892. Why 1892? I don't know, but it seems like a good year. Looks like my wards are holding well, and the keys work. I pulled the heavy 'door' closed before I noticed that the two dozen candles that had softly illuminated the lighthouse were all out. Except for five. One on each point of the pentagram. The other surprising sight was that my puke was cleaned up. Cleaning up after someone hails the porcelain god, now that's love.

I stepped in the middle of the pentacle (that's a five pointed star wrapped in a circle for those playing the home game) and gently traced over the circle with my hand, sending a small effort of will to close it. I knew immediately that I had managed to do this right. I could hear, or rather feel a magical hum all around me. It was soothing, like a mother humming a child to sleep, or the snore of the drunk sitting next to you on the two A.M. bus.

This circle will, hopefully, be able to enhance my ability to pick up on the magic detected by the clay, and then focus it on the map of the school so I can see wherever the not-warlock is going. Then I can not so magically break into the school and look through the class schedules and find the magic person.

This might actually work! I'm not used to a plan coming together and working so quickly. It was only yesterday that I realized that something would have to be done to stop someone from getting killed.

I closed my eyes and listened to the hum. Yes I wondered where Alice had gone too, but this was the first time I've been one hundred percent comfortable and peaceful in a long, long time. It felt like hours later when the circled was broken. The magic of the circle was released with a short, soft popping noise.

I hadn't broken the circle, so that means only one other person could have. I didn't open my eyes; I just concentrated in front of me. I could feel her more than anything else. I felt her sit down. She sat close to me; I could feel her cold breath on my face. I didn't move; I didn't want to. I don't think I could even if I wanted too. I was way too comfortable, too relaxed, and too interested to see how far she was going to take it.

As it turns out not much further. I opened an eye a crack not enough to see clearly. It looked like she was trying to close a circle. Finally she gave up and turned back towards me. I quickly closed my eye again. I heard her give a little huff of frustration. I opened my left eye and cocked my eyebrow.

Her arms were crossed over her chest, her shoulders were slumped, and her lower lip was extended. It was a pout if I ever saw one. "What's wrong?" I asked softly as I reached out and stroked her cheek.

She quickly looked down, severing contact with my hand, "You looked relaxed in here; I wanted to join you." She was adorable (yes I said adorable) when she pouted.

I cupped her face in both hands bringing her eyes to mine, "Ok, I'll show you." I said as I stood up. I repeated the process, tracing my finger around the circle, summoning more will into it again. The circle closed again and the soft humming of magic was back. I slipped by Alice, careful to avoid breaking the circle. This is one of the few times there isn't a danger in breaking the circle.

I sat back down in front of her. She smiled, but said nothing. I closed my eyes again, her words replaying themselves in my mind over and over and over again. Falling in love with you, yes. They made me feel something, but what exactly? I didn't know. I wasn't sure it was love. In fact I was almost positive it wasn't. Love should be unconditional, but I found one glaring condition. She was a vampire! For right now it didn't matter.

As I was thinking Alice crawled into my lap and leaned her head in the crook of my neck, her arms wrapping around me. She was soft (hard); she was cold; she was comfortable; she was something. I wrapped my arms around her, my right around her waist, my left gently stroking her hair. Morning was a few hours off and it would come all too quickly.