The Ballad of Aramei (48 page)

“We’re going to miss you!” Beverlee says reaching her arms out wide to me as I come off the last step.

I hug her tight and she kisses me on the temple. Uncle Carl smiles like a dopey little boy and he pulls me into a hug. I work my way carefully between his crutches, trying to avoid knocking him off balance.

“You’ll call us at least once a week?” Uncle Carl asks with some innocent demand tossed in there.

“Of course I will;
twice
a week.”

“And whatever you need,” Beverlee says, “money, food…a ride back.”

I smile at her, knowing what she really means by a ‘ride back’.

“This will always be my number one home,” I say, “You know that.”

Beverlee beams proudly and I notice her eyes watering up.

Isaac knocks on the front door and then let’s himself inside; this is just as much his home as is it mine. Aunt Bev hugs him the moment he steps up, jangling his keys in his hand.

“Isaac, I know you’re responsible,” Beverlee says, looking slightly worried, as usual, “but I just wanted to make sure you checked all your tires, got an oil change; y’know, the basics.”

She always asks this when we drive anywhere more than an hour from home.

Isaac smiles and nods. “Yes ma’am. She’ll be perfectly safe with me on the drive down.”

Uncle Carl and Beverlee exchange glances.

“That, I
do
believe seeing as how you’re a…, well, you know.” Beverlee swallows the word ‘werewolf’ down. She and Uncle Carl still aren’t used to saying it out loud.

Isaac grins.

They know everything now. It was kind of hard to lie about what happened that night Nataša and her pack held my aunt and uncle hostage. I’m really kind of glad that I wasn’t here to witness it myself, but there was no hiding the fact that my boyfriend and just about everyone I know and hang out with, aren’t exactly human. I could’ve asked Harry to help with letting them ‘forget’, but he did explain that a mind can only take so much manipulation and that his power wouldn’t last forever. Eventually, they would start to remember bits and pieces. Genna helped erase their minds of the time I had disappeared when I was going through my transformation and that was enough messing around with their heads. So, I figured why not just tell them the truth about everything?

And so after that night, Isaac and I sat down with them and pretty much turned their quaint little life as humans upside-down with the information. But we spared overwhelming them with anything other than werewolves. They still think Harry is as human as they are and it’s probably better that way.

The story throughout the rest of the town was that a huge gang had come in from somewhere—there’s a lot of rumors flying around about what happened that night—and fights broke out all over the place. Thankfully, no one, not even Nataša’s pack, let themselves Turn in front of the humans. The fighting going on in the streets and in people’s front yards and even on their roofs, was blamed on gang violence. Some of Hallowell’s residents claim they saw some of these ‘gang members’ actually jump onto second-story roofs and others say they saw men leaping from one building to another. A group of students from Hall-Dale—including bitchy Tori and Cecilia, who became best friends, believe it or not—have started rumors about there being ‘vampires’ in Hallowell (because of the black eyes and claws we have when in our mediate form). Of course, no one really believes that, or they’re just not openly admitting it. Harry found Cecilia shortly after the night we trapped Zia and definitely had to use his Praverian powers to manipulate her memories.

But she’s crazy by default and so whatever she says is almost always brushed off as mental illness, anyway.

It could’ve been worse that night Bev and Uncle Carl got the shock of their lives; this whole town could be one big werewolf infection on the map.

“Call as soon as you get there,” Beverlee says, taking me into yet another hug and I’m starting to think she’s going to cave and try to hold
me
hostage inside the house.

“I’ll call you even
before
I get there, I promise!”

Still smiling as brightly as ever, a few tears finally roll down Beverlee’s rose-colored cheeks. She lets go of me and I say goodbye for now. I’ll be back sometime on break.

~~~

Six hours later and Isaac is helping me carry my bags up to the third floor to my college dorm room in Hudson Valley. I didn’t have to fill out paperwork and I got to bypass all the basics of getting in. It was like one night Isaac asked me if I wanted to go to college and when I said yes, everything was prepared for me in just a few days’ time. All I had to do was show up today.

I guess it helped too that Isaac is who he is; I’m sure that sped things up a lot. This isn’t your average college; at least not our section of it anyway. There is only one requirement: you can’t be 100% human. Of course, there are humans in this school, but they’re oblivious to what we are.

Isaac and I walk down a short stretch of hallway toward my dorm room and already I feel eyes at my back. It feels a lot like it did when I first stepped foot inside the Mayfair house as the new girl, except there’s something more comforting about this.

A blond-haired girl wearing a pair of black skinny jeans and bright red lipstick walks up barefooted and smiles mesmerizingly at Isaac. She bows awkwardly, first and then says, “Ooooh my God…you’re the Sovereign.” She looks exactly like an obsessed fan-girl of any new lame boy band, minus the grabby hands, tears and screaming:
I love you!

Isaac nods, but doesn’t give her any more attention than that for fear of instigating her.

She eyes me now and her giddy smile turns into a scary, hopeful look that I’m already beginning to recoil from.

“And you must be Adria,” she says, hardly able to contain herself.

We keep shuffling down the hallway toward my room, but she keeps up pace right beside me. By now, more heads are poking out of the doorways as we pass. Most of them wearing the same awed faces as the blond girl.

“Yes, I’m Adria,” I say, “And your name is?”

She looks blankly at me for a second as though so awestruck by us that she didn’t understand the question. I notice she can’t seem to stop sneaking a drooling glimpse at Isaac, too.

“Oh!” she says, finally realizing, “I’m Nora Cunningham, your roommate.”

My face falls, but I suppress the full strength of it before she notices and takes offense. I roll my shoulder so that my duffle bag strap will slide back in place and then I stop to reach out my hand. Nora shakes it vigorously, still smiling.

“Next room up,” she says pointing and then she moves out ahead of us to escort us the rest of the way.

“Oh my God,” she hisses a whisper to a girl standing in the doorway of the room next to ours. “It’s Isaac Mayfair. I’m roomin’ with his
mate
!” She jerks her head back around to face us, her cheeks flared up with color and she can’t seem to stand still.

Why couldn’t I get the typical bitchy roommate that could care less who I was and only wanted to be sure I never touched her stuff?

We slip inside the spacious room and I see that the rest of my stuff is already here—we shipped it ahead.

“I’ll uhhh…leave you two alone for a minute,” she says with a carnal grin spread across her tanned face. She ducks out and slips out the door, shutting it behind her.

Isaac drops the two suitcases he carried up and stands in the center of the room checking out the place, his hands buried in his pockets.

I immediately start to unpack.

“I’m glad you’re doing this, babe.”

I reach into a box sitting on the floor beside my twin bed and start to pull out a few of my favorite things which always help me feel more at home no matter where I happen to be living.

“Me too,” I say, looking over at him once. “And it’ll be good for me to be here learning what I can about all this werewolf stuff—.” I point at him momentarily. “—I don’t just want to be ‘the girl with the Sovereign’, Isaac. I want to earn my place and learn everything about the politics and…whatever else.”

I catch a faint smile tug one corner of his delicious mouth.

Diving back into the box, I tug out my small cork bulletin board I like to tack photos to and move toward my desk to mount it to the wall.

“You’re already more than just the girl with the Sovereign,” he says. “And you don’t have anything to earn or to prove. You know that, right?”

I push the tack in with my thumb and lean away from the wall, turning at the waist to smile across at him.

“Yeah, I know, but just the same, I want to learn everything because it will make me feel better to know.”

I go back to the box and as I reach into it to pull out my roll of posters, I feel Isaac come up behind me and he slips his hands around my waist. I lean up and take in the scent of him, closing my eyes and savoring the moment…because it’ll be the last for a little while.

“You’re avoiding me,” he says, frowning, but he knows the reason why.

I stop what I’m doing and step up to him. “I don’t know if I can go without seeing you for three months. I’ve been dreading this day, to be honest.”

I feel the tears trying to push their way to the surface, but I hold them down the best I can. Gah! I hate this!

Isaac pulls me toward him with his hands on my hips. He leans over and presses his forehead to mine. “I’ve been dreading it, too, but the first place I’ll visit when I get back from Romania will be here with you.”

I smile and a tear escapes down my cheek. He wipes it away with the pad of his thumb and smiles in at me. “And you’ve already made a friend,” he says, grinning.

I pull away and scrunch my nose playfully at him, sniffling away my tears. “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” I say, focusing on the positive things about our separation. And then I turn back around to my posters and start unrolling them.

Isaac is still standing in the same spot behind me and I know he’s not finished with the things he wants to say, but I’m still trying to delay the inevitable. I don’t want him to leave.

“Baby, you know I didn’t mean now or soon when I brought it up…I was just curious about your reaction.”

My whole body locks up and I suck in a quiet breath.

I turn around to face him with one poster, still rolled up tight, hanging from my fingertips.

He’s trying so hard not to smile, but he’s not exactly making fun of me, either. He’s talking about the day he mentioned light-heartedly about me ‘giving him an heir’. He tried to make it sound like a joke by saying the word ‘heir’ instead of ‘baby’, but I know deep down he really meant it. In
both
senses.

Isaac leans in and kisses me softly on the lips. “You’ve got a lot to do: college, having fun, marrying me—you know, stuff like that.”

I think I stopped breathing altogether, but I can’t tell. I never saw that coming. Really. I’ve pictured it, being married to Isaac, I mean like with a ring and a pretty vintage-style dress bought at a second-hand store, but I think hearing him say those words out loud make my simple thoughts of it actually come to life.

My heart is beating so fast I feel it in my knee-caps.

But I’m not ready for that, either. I love him and would say hell yes if he ever actually asked me to marry him, but right now I’m so nervous I feel like I’m going to be sick. I’m just not ready….

“I heard that,” he says, grinning.

I didn’t even think to close my mind off to him. My cheeks flare up with warmth.

He cups his hands around my upper arms and peers in at me with a devoted, beautiful smile. “At least I know in advance that you’re going to say yes when I ask you.” He kisses my forehead and leans up, letting his fingers trail down my arms as his hands slide away. “But I’ll give you some time.” He looks down at his pretend watch and then purses his lips. “You’ll never know when it’s gonna be—it could be after you leave this school, or three months from now when I come back to see you, but at least you have a warning.”

His grin just gets deeper.

I fail miserably at keeping a straight face. I’m blushing and smiling and still trying to hold in laughter
and
tears all at the same time!

Finally, I just let the tears pour from my eyes, but they are happy tears and as huge as my smile is right about now, no one could mistake them for sadness.

Isaac pulls me into his arms and holds me tight, pressing his lips into my hair. I never want to leave these arms, but I better get used to it and so I kiss him deeply once and reluctantly move away from him. He understands my need to get this over with and I think he probably needs to do the same thing.

I move over to the head of my bed and unroll my
Supernatural
poster—which I’ve had hanging on my wall since before I moved to Hallowell—and I smooth it out against the wall.

“Babe,
really
?” Isaac says with a hint of humor in his voice. “You’ve got
me
now; why do you need posters like that looming over your bed?” He’s totally playing with me; he can’t stop grinning.

I let the poster fall to my side and I put my free hand on my hip. “Baby, I love you, but it’s
Sam and Dean Winchester
?” I say as if I can’t possibly grasp any reason for why he doesn’t understand that.

He smiles and says, “Well, they can keep you company while I’m gone I guess, but when I get back…,” he points his index finger upward and shakes his head slowly in warning, “…they’ll have to go; they can’t be looking down at me when I’m having my way with you in here.”

“Understood,” I say, grinning.

~~~

I watch Isaac from my window as he walks down the sidewalk and away from the building. He hops in a cab at the end of the parking lot. The Jeep is mine now. And then I watch him pull away as a few tears stream down my smiling face. Three minutes without him sometimes feels long, so I can only imagine how long three months will be. I’m going to miss waking up curled up next to him and the way I always laid my head on his bare chest and listened to his heartbeat while he was sleeping.