Arizona, Summer 1973
William was sitting in his cute corporate office, running through the motions so he could look normal. He smiled at the brainless zombies that filtered in and flirted robotically with his secretary as was expected. Then he shut his door and sighed his relief. Just then the phone rang. Puzzled, William picked it up.
“Lupine, Stag, and Hart. What can I do for you?” he smiled naturally as if he was talking to someone who was in the room with him.
I looked at William, surprised by how his talents had changed. I could hear everything now while before it had been silent and he’d had to translate for me.
“William? It’s Anfanasia.” her voice was worried.
“Oh. What are you calling for?” William asked cheerily. There was violent static on the other side of the phone for a moment.
“Can you meet me at that vampire desert house after you get off work today?” she asked, sounding muffled and distant.
“Yeah, I-” the phone disconnected. William stared at it in his hand. “Okaaay.” he said aloud. Then he set the phone back in its cradle and got back to work.
William’s eyebrows furrowed in real time and the images in front of us fast-forwarded. I watched the needles on the clock spin. Three, four, five…
At super speed William hopped into my car and drove through Mesa and out into the desert. Two hours flashed by and he arrived at a big house, almost a mansion, buried deep in the desert. Time slowed back to normal as William knocked on the door, four fast and three slow. The huge door creaked open and revealed a Sunlighter.
“Hello Thomas.” William nodded politely.
“Welcome William Viguié.” the Sunlighter stepped back to allow William to come inside.
“Thank you. Can you direct me to Ms. Wickam?” William inquired. Thomas took off, working his way down to the vampire levels through a maze of passageways. They found Anfanasia talking to the queen of the vampires, cradling a big leather-bound book to her chest.
“Thank you so much Your Highness. I’ll honor my side of the bargain, I swear.” Anfanasia said eagerly, a bright smile making her pretty features beautiful. It was back in her original body when she had long, flame red hair and deep, jade green eyes; she was average-height and model slim.
“I’ll hold you to that. You know what will happen if you fail.” a dark shadow flickered over the queen’s almost painfully beautiful face. Then she turned to see William and she bounced up. Her smile was vibrant and absolutely stunning. “Well if it isn’t my favorite son-in-law.”
“The one and only.” William hugged her back tightly. Anfanasia watched them with wide eyes.
“Anfanasia, please meet my daughter’s husband William.” Cam, my mother, announced.
“We’ve met. Why didn’t you tell me you’re royalty?” Anfanasia asked casually.
“Oh, I’m not. Just Shadow.” he grinned.
“But you guys can go out in the sun…”
The time started to pass quicker again. I glanced over at William, curious.
“We’re giving her our back story.” he explained softly. I nodded and then directed my attention back to the images as they slowed again, showing William in Anfanasia’s car.
“We need to go somewhere isolated.” she directed from the backseat. Anfanasia was digging around in a duffel bag, pulling out a needle and a bottle. The car jerked to the side and William barely got it back under control before it was able to run off the road.
“What do you think you’re doing?” William asked coldly.
“Relax, it’s not for you.” she huffed, leaning over the backseat. There was a muffled groan and an end to the muffled bumping noises I had barely noticed until they were gone.
“Isolated. As in not near a road or as in dirt road access?”
“Either.” Anfanasia answered off-handedly as she moved around in the backseat again. The car sped up and completed another hour of driving. When time returned to normal William was pulling to a stop on a dirt road.
“Now I need you to not freak out.” Anfanasia told William as he got out.
“Why would I freak out?”
“I made a deal with The Queen to live as long as I protect her daughter. Of course I didn’t know she was talking about Shadow but now I’m kind of anticipating living forever.” William looked at her strangely and she shut up, blushing like she had done something wrong.
“Oh.” William finally said. “So you figured out you have cancer.”
“You knew!”
“We’ve known for a year. Pancreatic cancer. Screws with your body but you don’t worry about it until the final stages, when it’s too late.”
“I can’t die that way.”
I looked at William, startled. “I didn’t know she ever found out.”
“Cam gave me this.” she held up the book. “It has a ritual that will let me live forever, with a few side-effects.”
“Like what?”
“This is what I don’t want you to freak out about.” She pulled open the back door of her car. The limp form of a girl fell out, thin brown hair falling over a face I knew to be plain.
“You kidnapped and drugged a girl?” William asked flatly.
“I have to transfer my energies. She’ll live in my dying body and I’ll live in her perfectly healthy one. She wanted to die anyways. Now she’ll do it in style.” she cooed, trying to convince William.
“So? It doesn’t matter whether she wants to die, we would do it anyways.” William’s grin was a bit evil and completely alluring.
“Really?”
“Are we going to have to do this every time?”
“No, it’ll be automatic every other time but this one. As soon as one body dies my energies will be transferred to the closest living body.”
“Alright. As long as we’re done soon. It’s me and Shadow’s anniversary.”
“Thank you.”
“Sure, sure.” he patted her back absently.
“Okay. Can you get the bags out of my car?”
The time sped up again. I watched as an intertwining mesh of symbols and pentagrams came together forming three overlapping circles.
William hauled the unconscious girl into one of the circles while Anfanasia took the other. She handed over an old piece of parchment that looked softer than even my skin.
“These are your lines. Just follow the directions to the letter. If you make a mistake just stay in the circle. You’ll be protected, but the girl and I…we’ll die.” Anfanasia said quietly.
“Okay. Let’s get started then!” he clapped his hands together, unaffected. William stepped into the circle gingerly, careful not to disturb the symbol he stood on; it was a relic I knew that meant ‘speaker’. He called out each of the elements in turn. Then he changed the ritual. It would have been the words on the paper, but put into a modern dialect.
“I’ve brought you here to witness and aid the death and rebirth of Anfanasia Wickam. I call upon fire to warm her in her instant of death. Earth, keep her strong. Air, let her spirit be buoyant. Day, light her way. Night, bring darkness to the spirits that seek to impede her journey. In the name of the Cold Queen and her bargain with this witch child, I command you to do your work upon these girls.” William said calmly, power seeping up from the ground and out of the air to halo him. Then, in a blinding burst, it disappeared into the girls on the ground. William pulled a knife from the ground where all three circles met and took its place in the tiny gathering point. Then he drove the knife into each girl’s chest in turn. They died instantly and painlessly. Their energies burst out of their bodies, made visible by the power in the air and seen as tennis ball shaped floating orbs. Anfanasia’s energies were a brilliant forest green shot through with umber brown and dazzlingly bright. The other girl’s energies were a light dove gray, pretty but average.
“By the power of the elements I command you to be reborn!” William shouted. The little balls of energy zipped up and seemed to attack each other. At the last possible second they swerved, just enough to safely pass by. Then each ball dove into the body it hadn’t previously inhabited. The slits in their chests sealed immediately, leaving just the faintest white scars. Both girls came gasping awake, panic widening their eyes. The girl who had been Anfanasia twisted on the ground, still affected by the spirit drug its new energies had been infected with. The new Anfanasia stretched gingerly, trying to become accustomed to her new body.
“Whoa.” she wobbled on her feet as she stood.
“Steady there. You okay?” William asked dispassionately as he gripped her elbow.
“Yeah.” she said wonderingly, staring at the other girl on the ground.
“Then get back in your circle.” he said harshly. Anfanasia took an alarmed step back, removing her foot from the boundary of her temporary prison. She stood in the circle calmly, her aura of confidence strange with the new appearance.
“I accept my contract from the Cold Queen. I swear to protect her daughter and heir. I swear to always be her greatest friend and ally in all areas and times of life.” Anfanasia spoke easily, smiling at the ease of her old voice coming out of the new body. Most of the power William had called up sank into her skin so she glowed.
“The Cold Queen has accepted your contract. If you break it, dire consequences shall follow.” William’s voice was cold fury, concentrated purely on Anfanasia as he knew her failure would most likely mean my death. The other girl began to stir so Anfanasia waved him on.
“You are hereby bound. Each time your body dies your energies are free to possess another. You will never truly die unless it is at your charge’s hands in gratitude.
“I have heard and understood.” Anfanasia bowed her head and clenched her teeth.
“Then you are free to continue. Carry on with your duties.” William finished. Anfanasia dragged the other girl out of the circle as she left then began to slowly dismantle the figures by wiping them away with a thistle broom.
“I bid a grateful farewell to the powers who have aided us this night. Return with my thanks and this offering.” he sliced open his wrist with the same knife he had used to kill the girls. The fat drops of blood never reached the ground, absorbed by the remaining powers.
“The ritual is complete. Depart.” William commanded, voice deep and lethargic. The mini tornado that had been swirling around him died away. He scuffed at the ground with his foot, erasing the speaker rune that tied him to the circle. Then, taking the hawthorn switch Anfanasia tossed to him, he erased his sacred circle methodically.
“Thank you. I’ll take you to your car.” she said. She hugged him swiftly before getting in the car. William grabbed the other girl and shepherded her into the car before getting in himself.
Time went fast again. I saw Anfanasia making futile attempts at conversation while William just sat stonily, staring at the clock.
“Thank you.” Anfanasia said again as William got out of her car. William nodded tersely and wrenched open the door of my car, angrily revving the engine and almost doubling the speed limit as he raced home.
Time skipped to our argument. It slowed down just enough for me to see clearly. William’s arm slid around me so he was holding me as my apparition gathered her things and walked out. Then time jumped way forward to that day in the White House that year.
William climbed inn through the window. Startled, Anfanasia wiped the tears from her eyes while the doors closed behind me and Lisa.
“What the hell?” Anfanasia leaped up with a fistful of flames ready. When she saw William the color drained from her face and I could see in her eyes that she blamed him for how I treated her. The flames died.
“Please, don’t freak out.” William held his hands up harmlessly, his mouth a thin line.
“I’m here to beg you to tell Shadow the truth.” he said, closing in on her smoothly. He was already missing his shirt and there were quickly healing scratches all over his chest and back.
“The truth about what?” Anfanasia asked flatly.
“You know what I’m talking about Anfanasia. I know you reneged on your deal with Cam and I know the consequences. I know what you’re going through. Maybe if you tell her she’ll-” William broke off as the glass in Anfanasia’s hand smashed on his head. The glass fell to the floor in tiny splinters but the water soaked his hair.
“You have no idea what I’m going through.” she growled, shaking electricity from her hands as her anger grew.
“Anfanasia! If you tell her, she’ll help you.” William grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her gently. The strap of her nightgown slid down but his eyes never left her eyes.
“I can’t.”
“Come on Anfanasia.”
I touched William’s arm gently. He jumped, finally directing his gaze away from the dazzling vision he had created for me. The image froze but didn’t disappear.
“I know what happens next. What were the scratches from?” I asked quietly, running my hand through my now tangled hair to get the knots out. He blinked slowly and ran a finger along my jawline before turning back to the frozen image before us. His fingers tightened around mine as the picture jumped back in time maybe an hour, judging by the position of the sun.
William was sitting in Eric’s clearing, his feet dangling in the chilly water. He was fully clothed but the buttons on his shirt were undone to accommodate for temperatures that were almost uncomfortably warm for us but perfect for humans. He trailed his fingers along the surface of the clear surface of the water, staring off into the trees absently.
“Well if it’s not the elusive William Viguié. Oh wait, I forgot. Wolfe again now isn’t it?” an oily voice sneered from behind him. He jumped up to face the newcomer and shock showed on his face.
“What do you want Jacob?” William finally asked, resigned. Jacob smiled, his red eyes flicking around as he surveyed his surroundings.
“I want to know if you’ve been keeping tabs on our girl. You know her deadline is coming up soon.” he said airily and waved a hand through the air casually.
“I hardly think that really matters, not with Alexander making his bid for the throne.” William said coldly, ready to turn into the forest when Jacob moved to block him.
“You know fully well that it’s my entire life now. If I don’t get her to come back…” Jacob broke off and tried to shake the fear that showed so clearly on his bland face.
“I fail to see how that’s my problem.” William answered slowly, making his way toward the road.
“If she doesn’t come, they’ll kill her and anyone else who gets in their way, including Shadow’s human playmates.” Jacob finally sighed. William froze, his normally warm face taking on a deathly pallor. He tried to shake it off and mostly succeeded.
“Her people will protect her.” it sounded as if William were trying to convince himself more than Jacob.
“She doesn’t know yet, but our Sunlighters have infiltrated her little organization.
They stand poised to attack on the final day if Shadow refuses us. And if Shadow refuses, they’ll kill her and her pets. Then they’ll hunt us down and kill us.”
“Nobody is going to touch my wife!”
“Your wife? You’ve been apart for centuries. The only reason you’re not divorced is because your marriage certificate is dated from the 1600s!”
“That’s not true!”
“Whether it is or not, if she doesn’t agree to become queen she’ll die. Hopefully before she takes out too many of us. Maybe I’ll be able to kill her! They won’t kill me if I’m the one who finished off Shadow the Invincible.”
“You are going to kill her?” William started to laugh.
“What?”
“Please. Your eyes are almost brown! They’re even darker than Carla’s!”
“Who’s Carla?” I asked quietly as William’s image laughed even harder at Jacob’s apparent affront.
“A lady of the court. From the Grace line. Her eyes are actually just a shade shy of brown.” he answered. Then we turned back to the image as Jacob finally spoke over William’s hilarity.
“Shadow’s eyes are black!”
“And she’s more powerful than any other vampire I’ve ever seen. She can go out in the sun. She can wear a cross. She could eat garlic if her stomach wasn’t liquid based. She doesn’t have to kill people to survive. And that’s not mentioning she’s the only vampire born child in history, or that her parents had clear eyes and were vampire royalty. Oops, I think I just did!”
“Then why does she work for vermin?”
“They. Aren’t. Vermin!”
“They are, and you might as well be one.”
“I’d rather be like them than like you.”
“You’d rather be vermin?” Jacob sounded incredulous. That was the last straw. William burst into action, diving straight at him. Jacob was too slow to move out of William’s way so William was able to tackle Jacob to the ground. A startled yelp came from Jacob as he realized he was on the ground. Then he set his jaw and pushed back. William was thrown off, twisting in mid-air to land delicately and almost perfectly on his feet. He snarled at Jacob, the color draining out of his eyes. He flung himself at the other vampire again. They fought in blurs that were a there and gone in a second. As suddenly as it had started it was over. Jacob was left panting on the ground. William was crouched on his chest, teeth bared in a silent snarl. Jacob looked up at him with frightened eyes. For the first time his fangs were hidden. He tipped his head back. In battle that was a sign of defeat. William touched his mouth to Jacob’s neck but his nose was wrinkled with disgust as he followed the customs of my people. He stepped away quickly and finally realized he was bleeding in multiple paces from the ground and Jacob’s sharp nails. But Jacob, with a final howl, fled into the dense forest in the blink of an eye.
“That’s right, punk.” William couldn’t quite bring himself to smile. With an air of determination he turned and ran in the direction of the White House.
The image slowly faded away until it was completely gone, leaving us back in the hotel room. I couldn’t help the little proud smile that had formed when William had won the battle.
“So that’s what really happened.” he said plainly, leaning back onto the bed and putting his hands behind his head. I curled up next to him, putting one of my hands on his chest.
“I never thought…” I started, but he silenced me just by looking at me with those strange eyes, the gold seeming to blaze like the stars in that deep velvety black.
“I know.” he said. I gave him a wan smile and we laid there in silence for a while.
“What’s happening to Anfanasia?” I finally asked, breathing in the sweet but spicy scent of his blood.
“She’s dying. She’s only going to get a year in each body now. And she’ll die in a painful, irreversible way.”
“What is it?”
“She has cancer again, the same.”
“Why? What did she do?”
“It’s not so much what she did as what she didn’t do.”
“Alright. What didn’t she do?”
“She was supposed to stay with you at all times and protect you.”
“I don’t understand.”
“She technically failed you twice, though with the second there was no way she could have stopped it.”
“What was the first?”
“When she left to find out if Cam was really dead, she forgot she wasn’t supposed to be out of the country. Well, she always has to be in the same country you are.” William corrected. He turned on his side to face me, putting a surprisingly rough hand on my waist. I bit my lip and concentrated on his words rather than the perfectly human warmth travelling through me at his touch.
“And the second?”
“That one was… right after the play.” his voice hitched. I knew we were both thinking of flames and deaths, and the beam that had nearly killed me. He took a deep breath and continued. “When you died for those three minutes, the curse set in. She was supposed to protect you and the curse wasn’t fine-tuned enough to disable itself, even temporarily, when Lunnette brought you back to life. Now she has to deal with the consequences of her inaction. She won’t have to worry as much as she would’ve a couple of years ago, though.”
“Why is that?”
“Cam was the one who gave her the spell and told her to put your name in it. She traded eternal life for servitude. Though I wonder who the spell was really linked to. If it was Cam the spell would have died with her. But anyways, Cam threatened Anfanasia with some very specialized- for lack of a better word- torture. Anfanasia doesn’t have to worry about that now.”
“I don’t know whether to be sad because my mother’s dead or happy because it saves Anfanasia from being tortured for eternity.”
“Maybe a little of both.” William buried his face in my hair and we were quiet again, breathing in peaceful symphony. We laid there for hours, until the clock showed midnight. Then I had to get up and get another bottle as my head began to throb. I had to down three before the pain subsided again. William watched me with worried eyes. I glanced at him questioningly. He waved his hands through the air around his body. He had never liked to talk about the mist, so that was how he did it. I looked in the mirror and scowled at my figure ensconced in swirling black.
“Dang.” I said softly. The mist struggled harder than ever to stay out, sinking back into my skin only sluggishly.
“How long has it been doing that?” William asked, getting up again to stand next to me.
“Since just now. It was getting a little difficult before now, but when I asked Night for help it got better.”
“What else happened when she helped?”
“Well, that was when she tamped down my feelings for me.” I shifted my eyes down guiltily.
“And?”
“And… oh! The bruise!”
“We don’t bruise.” William protested, confused.
“Apparently I do.” I said in a softer, shocked voice as I looked down at my wrist. It was braceleted in mist that was slowly taking over my hand as well. The bruise showed where my pulse beat. It had gotten darker than ever and the shapes were finally recognizable.
Two delicately filigreed swords crossed as if they were in the middle of a duel. They were jewel encrusted but still only in varying shades of black and white. Behind them was a roaring fire that was fed by wood that looked like bones. The fire was the only thing that wasn’t black or white; it was a red so deep it was almost violet. Encircling these symbols was a vine bristling with thorns and dripping opalescent blood. It was my family crest. It was smooth and not bumpy like a bruise or a tattoo; instead it was like it was a birthmark, perfectly integrated into my skin. But it pulsed under my fingers, twice as warm as the surrounding skin.
“Wow. No way.” William took my wrist gently in one hand, carefully avoiding the black mist that lapped at my skin almost playfully.
“You’ve seen this before?” I asked, watching the black mist from elegant swirls that disintegrated into the shape of flames.
“You have to, on someone very close to you.” he answered. I thought hard but drew a blank, feeling weird that he knew more about my culture now than I did.
“Where?”
“Cam had it.” as he said it, the images came back to me. It had been on her left wrist, the one she didn’t write with, just like mine. But it had none of my funky black mist and the flames had no color.
“But mine is different.”
“They say every queen’s is different and that the most powerful queens had crests with sharper contrasts. They’ve never seen a colored one before. But there’s a prophecy about a queen with a colored crest. She would rule from her crowning until the end of the world.”
“That’s a lot to live up to.”
“I know you can do it.”
“I’m not so sure, William. I can’t be queen, especially not that long! You guys think I’m perfect, but I’ve made so many mistakes.”
“I think you’re perfect… perfectly flawed. It wouldn’t be right for you to be so beautiful and not have someone that’s immune to it every once in a while. You’re genius smart- but sometimes it keeps you from seeing the easy solution. And you’re sweet and protective- not to mention fierce- but it makes you do things you’re not proud of to protect the ones you love. Don’t you see Shadow? It’s all the things that make you flawed that make you perfect! And every single one of those things, good or bad, makes me love you more.” his last, gentle words struck me to the core. He cleaved away all my doubts and fears. I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him senseless.
“I love you.” I said over and over again between kisses. William wrapped his arms around me, gently enough to keep from hurting me but tight enough to make me believe he wasn’t in any more control than I was. I was becoming increasingly aware that all that stood between us was his silk boxers and the tiny ruff of silk I wore that modern women called a thong. I pulled at the waistband of his boxers and in moments there was nothing between us at all. He backed me up until my knees hit the bed. We fell onto it, twining together gracefully.
Girls always want to lose their virginity on the night of their senior prom. It was a lot of high schoolers’ dreams when they started out. It had never been mine. Here I was though. It might not have been my first senior prom, but it would definitely be my last. And I was living for all those other girls.
Afterwards we lay together. One of my legs was thrown over his and his arms were still wrapped around me. He was nuzzling at my neck when some realization hit him. I muttered an unintelligible protest. Smiling he kissed me on the forehead and got up anyways. He went over and picked up his pants, taking something out of his pocket. Then he came back over to me and knelt in front of me with a dazzling smile and his heart in his eyes. My heart thumped wildly in my chest.
“Shadow Couer Viguié. My love. My life. I know we’ve been through a lot together, both good and bad. And though we did hit a rough spot that lasted a couple hundred years, I think we’re made for each other. Before I met you, I heard the word soulmate and scoffed. Now I can’t think of any better word for us. I love you, ma Noir. You are my dark heart. I can’t live without you. Please, will you renew your vows with me?” he looked up at me with those gold-streaked eyes as tears fell onto my lap.
“Yes!” I finally choked out. “Yes!” I pressed my lips together, overcome by both joy and an unusual and extremely strong sense of betrayal as William slipped my diamond ring back onto my finger. He couldn’t hide the joy in his eyes when he looked up at me. When we kisses again, I kept my eyes open. I didn’t want to miss a single moment as the ruins of his heart were healed and my estranged husband found comfort and love in my arms.
And even as that sense of betrayal locked away a huge part of my heart and I closed my eyes to keep back the tears, I couldn’t help but feel a little hopeful. All of the lies I had been keeping up for just over a week fell away. For the first time in a long time, I actually believed everything might turn out well, and I wouldn’t have to deal with any more bloodshed and anger. But as always, I was proven wrong.
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