I called Portia to apologize for snapping at her, and really to ask her a favor. I needed her to take me to Ruben's since we had left my Jeep at the bar the night before. She reluctantly agreed as long as I would bite her head off again. I told her that the chances of me doing that were slim, but her doing that to me, the odds were more likely in her favor. She laughed and agreed to come get me.
I love Austin Martin's. They are by far the best made British car there is. Sexy, sleek and powerful. I loved the new DB9 that Portia bought. Seems that being a Vampyre increased her taking more risks. She drove like a maniac, not like she never did before, but now it was scary. I held onto the door for my life and really hoped we never crashed. Though she was look at me and laugh while continuing to tell me that she had super fast reflexes and not to worry, I couldn't help it. I still worried. Plus, it was equally hard for Portia to be out and about, so all her cars were tinted with a super dark tint. I think it stretched into the negative digits they were so dark. Ray blocking tints on her windows, and any cop that pulled her over, she just glamoured him before she even put the window down. So, she could drive me out in the light without worrying about hurting herself.
We pulled into Ruben's parking lot and went around back to the darkest part of the lot that was shaded by trees. Portia put on a jacket with a fur lined hood, not because it was cold, because it wasn't near as cold to need a jacket like she was wearing, but to shield herself from any rays that may be filtered from her car to the back door of Ruben's.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" I asked her before I opened my door. Wondering if she could indeed walk in the shaded areas without burning up like a piece of bacon left on the pan too long.
"I don't have much of a choice. I have to go out of town tonight. I'm heading to Richmond for a while. Seems there is a problem between some Vampyres that are playing mischief with a family who lives out in the woods. They swear they are ghosts, but I know better. It might take me a while to convince them to leave. So, I need to say goodbye now because I won't see Ruben tonight before I go," Portia explained as she put on her over-sized sunglasses and pulled the hood over her head before stepping out of the car.
We both made it in safely, though there was a lingering smell of burning flesh hovering in the air. Portia was waving her hands around as if to fan her face, but I noticed, it wasn't her face she was wafting, it was her hands. Since they were exposed for the small bit of sun, her skin had started to burn. She was blowing on them and waving them around as if to stop the burning.
"Damn, this is even more painful than scalding yourself with a flat iron," Portia commented as she took off her coat and hung it on the rack inside Ruben's office. I put my purse down and went over to the dresser to get out my apron.
"Maybe you should wear gloves before you go back out," I told her as I picked up the black apron in the dresser and tied it around my waist and headed out into the bar.
At least it was quiet today. Not very many people were here for the late afternoon, which made it an ideal time to come in. Though, the downside of it all, I got to reminisce in my thoughts, which I didn't want to do. I'd rather be busy than to worry about my personal problems I have going on currently. I stood behind the bar, one elbow resting on the counter top and my head in my hand, staring off into space thinking just what I didn't want to be thinking. I wish I was normal. I wish I couldn't hear thoughts or see visions when I touched people and things. I wish I could just go back to that fateful day when my parents were killed and just stayed quiet and let them drive, then maybe they would be alive and maybe I wouldn't have been cursed with this awful "gift" as Portia kept calling it.
Looking across the bar I saw a young woman, studying a large book and just keeping to herself. I wanted to be her. I wanted to be the one that didn't have so many cares in the world that I could just come in some place, sit down and not worry about the busy world or the problems I was having. I would sit down and dive into a book and get my mind of anything I chose.
Then there was Ruben and Portia who were quietly talking at the other end of the bar. Glancing my way from time to time, Ruben nodding his head as Portia whispered more nothings into his ear. They both made me sick now. I frowned and turned away, focusing myself on the lonely woman at the table in the back. Maybe she wanted a drink, I noticed her glass was almost empty. I would have to pull up the slack of waiting since we were running short. Most schools started in the fall so all our summer staff had gone. Ruben really needed to hire some more people. A guy for a change would be nice, I thought as I walked up to the girl.
"Hi! Do you need a refill?" I cheerfully asked with a fake smile on my face.
The woman looked up at me with her silver eyes through her thin rimmed glasses, "Yes, please. Tea. No lemon." Her accent was very strong, she sounded like she was Irish or even Scottish. I couldn't tell the difference. They sounded so close alike. I'd never traveled to either, but Tristian was teaching me old Gaelic Irish before I selfishly threw him out and he left.
I took the woman's glass, refilled it and set it back on the table for her.
"Thank ye," she said and returned to her book. I looked over her shoulder and tried to see what she was reading. It script was in some sort of foreign language, one I had never seen before other than on Runes.
"Excuse me, I don't mean to be rude, but, what are you studying?" I asked curiously, looking at the scripts she ran her finger down and then across.
She took her glasses off her face and looked up at me, "They are de Ancient Runes of Gaul."
"Gaul?" I asked
"Iye. An Ancient land which is now Modern France or Belgium and parts of Germany," the woman explained before she turned back to her book.
"What is it that you're studying for?" I asked, interesting the scripture that she was so focused on.
"You wish to know secrets that you can not read?" she laughed, her silky, dark black hair fell down in her face. "Iye, such a lass as thee should look up the meanings of the runes and find for ye self."
"But I don't know how to read them," I said, and honestly a little offended.
"Then learn to read them," she took a sip of her tea, then started to cough. This was a rough coughing as if she was choking. She doubled over in her chair with her hand on her mouth. I then ran to the bar to get her a glass of water.
"Are you okay?" I asked her, worried she was actually choking or not.
"Was. There. Lemon. In. Tea?" she managed to speak out, but continued to cough.
"I didn't add any lemon, no," I thought for a minute, the tea was actually a pre-blend that we got from Lipton. "Damnit, there might have been lemon in the pre-mix. I'm sorry. Do you want me to get you anything?" I asked.
"My. Bag." she coughed, her skin was started to burn and the coughing turned violent. At this stage people around us were staring and starting to get up from their seats as if they were being poisoned. The woman started to convulse as she slipped from her chair and onto the floor. I rummaged through her bag and found a small eppi pen, one for people who are allergic to certain things, though, this stuff didn't look like a clear antibiotic, this was a thick silver color. "In. Neck." she instructed as she continued to cough, this time, blood was coming up with air in her throat. If I didn't stick her now, she would choke on her own blood.
From what I noticed though, her blood was not a normal dark red in color. It was blue. I took the syringe and stuck her in the throat as she instructed and pressed down on the tube so that all the antibiotics, if that was what was in the syringe, got into her system. The woman lied there on the ground for a few seconds. Ruben was ready to call 9-1-1 if necessary, waiting for the woman to do anything, or get a signal from me to do something. Suddenly, her eyes flew open, the bright silver irises looked around and then finally set on my face as she gulped in a large dose of air. I put my arm around her back and sat her up, being sure to block myself from any unwanted images first.
"Are you okay? I'm so sorry. I didn't realize it had lemon in it. You must be very allergic to it, aren't you?" I asked, scared to hear what she might say.
The woman looked at me, her hand reached up and touched my face and smiled. Oh good, she wasn't going to yell at me, yet. I hadn't even heard her talk. Then, as if I dreamt her kind eyes and her face, she smacked me hard across the face. "You almost killed me!"
I sat there in shock as the woman continued to berate me in front of the entire bar, my hand still on my cheek, mouth agape as I looked on in horror. Ruben came behind me and put his hands on my shoulders and pulled me to my feet. Apologizing to the woman over and over as he moved me towards the bar.
"Any idea what that was about?" he asked me.
"She asked for tea with no lemon. I got some tea and I didn't put a lemon in it. I didn't know the mix had lemon already in it. She must be allergic. It was an honest mistake." I pleaded, my eyes welling up with tears.
"It's okay, don't worry about it. At least the woman will be alright," Ruben shrugged and walked back to Portia who was standing there, tapping her foot and looking at the woman with a strange glint in her eyes, as if studying her.
I glanced back where the woman was collecting her things, I was truly sorry. I wouldn't want to give someone something to eat or drink that might have killed them, however, I've never heard of an aversion to lemon's before. It was odd to be allergic to them, plus the injection was strange. I'd seen Eppi pens before, and they did not look like what that woman had. Maybe she was something different as well. Had I noticed anything else that had a blue blood before? Not that I was aware of.
I saw as the woman collected her things and began to walk out of the bar. You know the saying, Curiosity killed the Cat, well, it was about to kill me because I ran after her into the parking lot. "Excuse me!"
The woman spun around quickly, quicker than I'd ever seen even Silas move before and he was a Vampyre. "What do you want?" her voice was seething with anger.
"I'm sorry. I really didn't know it had lemon in it," I tried to apologise and stuck out my hand, "Please, forgive me. I didn't mean to cause harm."
The woman looked down at my hand and then back up into my eyes as she shifted her belonging into her other arm and extended her right hand to shake mine. I had let my guard down at the point in time, I wanted to know what she was, and hopefully I would be able to see it. The moment she touched my hand I saw a figure, hands straight out at the moon, naked and bathed in the darkness. The figure had long, black hair that stretched down her back and over her bottom. As she turned, her eyes gleamed like the stars.
The woman's hand ripped from mine and she looked at me with wide eyes. "What are ye trying to do?"
Afraid that maybe she had picked up my otherness, I lied, "Just trying to extend a courtesy, to say I was sorry. That is all."
Her eyes narrowed, "Again, ye seek to know things which ye won't understand. Go now. Leave me be. Maybe we will meet again."
It was as if she just disappeared, turned to smoke and flew away because there wasn't even time to respond before she was gone. I just stood there, with my hand outstretched with black scorch marks on my skin that resembled fingers. I must be getting good with weird because it didn't even phase me as I went back into the bar and back into the same grind.
The rest of the afternoon and into the evening went by very slowly. Not very many people came into the bar and most of them left after the insident with the woman earlier that day. I was still stuck wondering who or what she was. To leave burn marks on my hand, which were still there. Even Portia was a bit agast but promised to look into it when she came back from Richmond. The woman certainly knew what I was looking at, or even that I could to begin with. And why the Runes? That's what had me really confused. Maybe she was some ancient god or demon or something. Who knew. Maybe Silas would know, or even Julius.
"Excuse me," a dark voice interrupted me inner thoughts as I looked up to see two very large men, bulky and overly muscular. Their hair was saved all around their smooth head except for a small bulb in the back that was pulled up into a high ponytail. It reminded me much of what men's hair looked like in Egyptian books. Their skin was very dark and they wore combat gear. The one thing that marked them as different was the intricate tattoo's on their faces. It looked like some sort of indigenous tattoo that came from the temple on the right side of their face and up into what formed a claw just over the brow of their eye. On the cheek was a swirl that looked like ocean waves that curled up and onto the tips of their noses and down along their chin. Inside the lines of the tattoos were bones and skulls, bodies and blood. And the tattoo wasn't some ordinary tattoo ink either. The tattoo looked as if it moved and screamed at you while you watched it.
"Yes? Would you like something to drink?" I asked, my voice shaking, wondering who these men were and what they wanted.
"Are you the fairy Halfling bonded to the Vampyre?" the man on the right asked bluntly. His voice wasn't as deep as the first, but they looked as though they could be twins.
"Who wants to know?" I asked.
"The Queen would request audience with you. You are to come with us." the man on the left said in his very deep voice.
"I'm not going anywhere, I have to work," I said sternly.
"Our Queen hates to wait. She asked us to fetch you, and you are going to be fetched," the man on the right said, leaning closer to me from across the bar. I felt as though he was a loose cannon, about to explode.
"I'm not a dog that plays games. If the Queen would like me to visit, she can ask politely."
The man on the left gruffed as the man on the right began to move forward, "No, Seti, the Queen wants this one alive."
"Yes, so do I. I'd very much like to stay alive," I murmured. I was actually getting quiet tired of people wanting me and wanting to take my life. It was really starting to piss me off. I guess these guys just looked big enough to take it, so I let it all unleash. "I don't appreciate you coming into my work place, demanding me to go with you somewhere to see some "Queen"," as I used actually air quotations,"that don't rule over me! I'm not a dog and will not play fetch for your maker. So go along, tell her I wouldn't come and have her come back and ask me politely next time!"
"Setakht, please, let me kill the bitch who slanders our Queen's name!" Seti yelled as he tried to get past Setakht's grip.
"No, Seti, we shall leave." Setakht said as he turned his could be twin around. "We will be back, please reconsider your answer, as the Queen is not a patient one."
Ugh!