I decided that there would be only two major points of view in this story; Dallas’ and this one. I figured it would provide an interesting sort of two-dimension-ness to the plot and there wouldn’t be so much missing later on...

Yes, those are pointless excuses. When you translate that, it comes out as ‘I don’t feel like writing Dallas’ obsessive Emery-is-God POV every chapter. Just every other one.’

So that’s why I made a totally new character. Just for that purpose.

Introducing...Ackerley Belmoore!

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chapter. two:

it’s the way that he makes you feel; it’s the way that he kisses you;

it’s the way that he makes you fall in love

–

“You sure this is the right place, Arley?”

“Yeah, it doesn’t look like it’s very...danger-filled.”

I whipped around, away from the window, and glared at my cohorts–minions–friends. “Of course this is the right place!” I growled. “Do you think I’d screw up something like this?”

“...” They exchanged a look, and nodded unanimously. “Yeah.”

“You are suckish friends,” I informed them, turning back to my window-watching.

In the reflection I could see them; Banning Holleigh, as slender and petite and fair as his name would have you believe; and Fairfax Corder, summertime blond, as rangy and tall as Banning was small. They knew me better than I knew myself, I would bet, and they also happened to know that I would mess up something like this. But I hadn’t, not this time. This was important.

I sighed and turned around, sliding down the wall to sit in the grass. “I didn’t mess it up, for real,” I said, frowning just a bit. “But I’m starting to feel like I did. Where’s the danger?”

The danger I was talking about was supposed to be here; Reeves Regional High School, Reeves City. I was positive I’d heard it right this morning before Fairfax, Banning and I had boarded a plane from sunny coastal California to this snowy hellhole.

I know I’d heard that, and I know I’d heard vampires.

Yes, the mythical bloodsucking creatures that really did exist just as much as I did.

The news had been broken to me by my father, the head of a company I once thought to be dedicated to specialized protection. Now I knew that was a coverup; what my father, Fairfax’s uncle, and Banning’s mother–heads of the company–really did for a living was keep the balance between our kind, vampires, and the occasional Unknown or two. While it didn’t seem like much, it was definitely a high-stress task; no one area was allowed to have more of our kind than vampires or vice-versa, because this gave them grounds to start a fight–something nobody wanted. And heaven knew we couldn’t let a coven of vampires run a single city.

Six of them, at this same school, apparently coexisted in Reeves City–together, as a family–as of yesterday. And, according to my father, that didn’t happen unless something big was going down.

“Maybe we should check inside,” Banning suggested. I raised an eyebrow.

“You know we can’t be officially seen yet.”

“We can fix that,” Banning pointed out. It took me a second to realize what he was talking about, and then it sunk in. Of course.

We could phase.

Phasing wasn’t complicated; it consisted of basically just vibrating in place at speeds too high for human eyes to detect. While being able to phase was one trait we shared with vampires, I was okay with this aspect.

God, I loved being a faerie sometimes.

I grinned, ducking out from under the window so that when I straightened up I wouldn’t be in plain sight. “Then let’s do it!”

“Are you sure?” Fairfax, ever the cautious one, frowned. “If we do see any vamps inside, they’ll be able to see us. You know that.”

Vampires could indeed follow the vibrations in phasing, but... “If they say anything, they’ll be giving themselves away. They can’t act because this place is neutral ground, anyway. Too many humans, and their numbers are matched.”

That was one rule that had been established back when faeries and vampires were on friendly terms; you didn’t do anything to reveal yourself or any other supernatural being to the world. If we were exposed, all non-humans would be inevitably persecuted and we couldn’t have that, either. Secrecy was key. Phasing would be fine, though, because humans were still physically incapable of seeing us.

“Good point.” Fairfax grimaced, but followed me as I went around the side of the building and to the front door.

I tested it; open, as I’d suspected.

I glanced back at Fairfax and Banning and took a deep breath. “Ready?”

“Ready,” they both echoed, a gleeful expression crossing Banning’s face.

I exhaled and phased inside.

Phasing was amazing; the feeling of pure speed stealing through you, your power thrumming as you channeled it through your body, and the delight in mystifying humans yet again. I had to stifle a giggle as I darted silently through the crowded hallway; we’d just come in to the lunchtime rush, and everyone was headed to what I presumed to be the cafeteria. I was headed the same way, but for a different purpose.

Breaking and entering was not nearly as hard as some people made it out to be, I thought, breaking to the left to avoid a gaggle of girls coming my way. But those were probably just the ones who got caught.

“Ackerley!” Banning called, and I paused. Not that it mattered because you could hardly distinguish one voice from another in this roar, but Banning’s voice was vibrating too; though it sounded smooth to my ears. “Turn to your right and look at the group of cheerleader-looking airheads. What do you see?”

I turned to my right, narrowing my eyes..oh, yeah, definitely cheerleader material. They were pretty diverse, from blonde to black, tall to short, tan to death-white...

Ooh, wait, no. I refocused my attention on the last of these. Her skin was white and flawless, her hair a shifting stream of blonde-brown-red that dripped over shoulders, black-rimmed silver eyes fixed on me.

Oh, she was a vampire if I’d ever seen one. She fit the bill perfectly: unnatural beauty, check; silver eyes, check; attracting humans like flies to flypaper, check. From the description we’d been given earlier, before boarding the plane, I’d say she had to be Emery Day. I almost started laughing aloud at the tight, strained expression on her obviously angry face; as it was I was grinning widely. It was clear she wanted nothing more than to ask what the hell we were doing on her stomping grounds–and maybe bash our heads in while she was at it.

“Is that one...what was her name...Emery, I think?” Fairfax stopped beside me. Phasing in place took less concentration then while you were moving; basically, all I had to do was bounce on the balls of my feet and my magic and speed took care of the rest for me.

“Yeah, I think so–because those two have to be the twins, the girl twins,” Banning said, gesturing to my left. I looked; two girls, both bright blonde and pale and silver-violet-eyed, wove deftly through the crowd toward Emery. The cheerleaders dissipated at a word from the vampire; Emery began speaking lowly to them, her gaze flicking to us every once in a while.

The twins looked back at us, said something to Emery, and then glided our way.

“Shit,” Fairfax murmured, not sounding worried at all. “They want to talk, I guess.”

“That’s all they really can do without starting a fight,” Banning pointed out, glancing sideways at me. “Ackerley, you talk to them. You’re a girl, you know how to deal with girls.”

“Oh, and you don’t? I guess that’s why you don’t have a girlfriend,” I remarked, elbowing him to let him know I was just joking. But I stepped forward, crossing my arms, knowing they would see it through the phasing.

The two stopped just before me, turning at an angle so their backs were to the crowd. Up close, they were breathtaking; the violet in their silver eyes intensified as they fixed their gazes on me.

“I assume you’re here to even out the numbers,” the one on the right said, looking over me at Banning and Fairfax. Her hair was shorter than the other’s, and braided as well where her twin’s hung loose.

“Be nice,” the second said, nudging her sister. She stuck out her hand. “I’m Kinsey Arden. This is Victoria. Welcome to Reeves City.”

No one ever said vampires and faeries couldn’t be friends; I wasn’t one of the cautious ones though, and I shook her hand in return. Kinsey seemed nice enough; her eyes were friendly, and eyes didn’t lie. “I’m Ackerley Belmoore,” I said in return, nodding. “This is Banning Holleigh and Fairfax Corder. We’re from California.”

“Nice to meet you,” Kinsey said, smiling. “Look, I’m not here to start a fight or anything, but for a few days you might want to be careful around here. If you’re transferring into this school to keep an eye on things I’d appreciate a little warning–to convey to my siblings, so they are prepared. However–” she spread her hands “–I have no problems with you. Emery might not take such a liking to you, though, so I wouldn’t cross paths with her.”

“Note taken,” I replied, keeping a pleasant smile on my face. The tone in her voice wasn’t implying, she was simply stating facts; I was glad someone was going to introduce us to the rest of the bloodsuckers so we wouldn’t have to do it ourselves. “Just out of curiosity, how many of you are there in this city?”

“Eight,” she said. “Victoria and I, Emery and Bianca, Keith and Kyle, Damien and Giselle. If there are more, I am not aware of them.”

“Thanks.” Eight? We needed two more people in town to ‘even out the numbers’, as Victoria had put it, and I had a feeling she knew that somehow. “Well, we’re just scouting for now; but we’ll be moving in by tomorrow, at the latest, I believe. I hope that’s not a problem for you, but we’re on a schedule of some sort.”

I felt Fairfax’s accusing glance and winced. That was a little white lie, honestly; we hadn’t been planning to move in for another week yet, but now that we’d been confronted there was no backing down, no ‘next week’. Tomorrow would have to be fine; our forms were all filled out, transportation arranged, schedules set up. I had no doubt that we would be ready for the school; it was the inhabitants there I was worried about.

“Thank you for the warning,” Kinsey said, going blank, nodding mechanically. She turned to leave, walking away, but Victoria stayed.

A maleficent smirk twisted her lips and hardened her eyes. “I wouldn’t touch him if I were you,” she said simply, malevolence underlining her words and providing no clues. “He’s been marked already.”

“Who?” I asked, but she had already turned and was going to catch up with her twin. “Hey! Victoria! Who are you talking about?”

I pivoted to face Fairfax and Banning. “Who is she talking about?” I demanded, frustrated. “Do you know?”

Fairfax shook his head mutely, looking away, and Banning scuffed at the floor with a shoe that didn’t really even touch the surface. “Ackerley, maybe we should go,” he said softly, blond locks obscuring his eyes. I could tell they were hiding something from me, expanding tenfold in my stomach.

“Banning, who is she talking about?” I snapped, narrowing my eyes at him. “You’re doing a damn bad job of hiding whatever it is that you want to hide–”

“Ley, if you figure out who she’s talking about you’re going to want to touch him, anyway, and the shit will hit the fan, okay?” Fairfax attempted to placate me, raising his hands pleadingly. “Let’s just leave, before you get in trouble–”

“Hey, I won’t be the only one getting in tr–” some instinct whirled me around against my will, toward the crowd; Fairfax groaned and Banning muttered something. I, however, was astounded.

I couldn’t quite place what it was about him that had spun me in place, knocked my world off its axis for a second and started it spinning it backward. Maybe it was the snow-blushed paleness of his skin, his slender, lanky form, his dark hair and impractically amber-gold eyes. Maybe it was the sort of glow he gave off as he sifted through the rush. It could’ve been the small, eager-to-please adorable smile that painted itself across his face.

It could’ve been anything.

But it had to be him.

“He’s marked, Ackerley...” Banning was explaining, talking away in the background as Fairfax’s arms wrapped around my torso, my knees, and swept me from the ground. I almost realized I wasn’t moving; somewhere my subconscious was asking for a reason, begging to rationalize, but it wasn’t happening anywhere else. My eyes were riveted on that smile, those dancing golden eyes, that childish awkwardness that was so entrancing. In the background, behind the rushing murmur in my head I could hear Fairfax’s whispers of ‘Hush, Arley, settle down. Come back, now, we’re going home,’ nuisances that only conjured back a ghost of a thought.

‘Home?’ it was, and I blinked sluggishly. The dim yellow lighting gave way to clear dark gray skies above frost-dappled ground, clouds passing just as sloth-like above me as I felt below them.

‘Home, Arley,’ Fairfax’s voice repeated, and I felt the steady humming rhythm of his phasing accelerate. ‘Home, now. We’re going to take you home, and you’re going to wake up and explain to Amanda and Gavin what happened.’

‘Okay.’ That was okay, surely? Already the memory of his face was leaving me on swift feet, fleeting shards of color twinkling behind my eyes the only remnants left. But I would see him again, soon. So soon.

And then it all closed off.

--

Short chapter, I know, but this introduces one of the conflicts. Hopefully it’s not moving too fast; I sort of think it is, and if I don’t like it I may rewrite it.

Ackerley is a girl, just so you know. That may not have been super-clear, but I hope it is now.

Review!