Been a while because I have been writing! Here's a sample...(very rough draft)

ok, i don't have a title yet, and this is a very very very rough first draft, but let me know what you think! (I know there are spelling and punctuation errors)

I sat in the back of what I swore was the oldest taxi cab in the world and sulked. I had been feeling sorry for myself for a week now, and I knew I was, but I couldn’t seem to stop. Things had never been what anyone would call good at my home, but it was all I had known. Until now.
I stared out the windows with the rain streaming down them at the canopy of the forest surrounding the old dirt road we were on. The one we had been on since just past noon. I let out another sigh and tested the power on my I-pod again. Nope, still dead. I turned and looked out the other window, but it was exactly the same view. Trees, unending and un-breaking. I hadn’t seen a house, a driveway, a mailbox, or even a power line. Where the heck was this place? I had looked on a map, and even googled it when my dads lawyer had told me the name of the town I was being shipped off to, but I couldn’t find it. It was the town the world forgot, so I named it in my head. I had lost cell phone reception less than twenty minutes after leaving the small air strip near Putnam, and from the looks of things, I wouldn’t be getting it again any time soon.
“How much further?” I asked the old man at the wheel, but he ignored me, like he had the two other times I had asked. I wondered if he was deaf, I know I hadn’t heard him speak at all. He had been at the airport when I got there with a piece of paper with my name scrawled on it. He hadn’t helped me with my things either, just opened the trunk while I loaded them in. Some taxi driver.
With another frustrated sigh, I turned and propped my feet up in the seat and hunkered down. A better position to feel sorry for myself from. I did grant, I had good reason. For as long as I could remember, my dad had made it very clear that he was my only family. My mother, who had died when I was born, had no family and neither did he. Now after all these years, it turns out I did have family alive. My mothers mother. Of course it took him getting arrested and being put in prison for 17 years for embezzlement and fraud to find this out. Now here I was in the middle of backwoods Tennessee, on my way to meet a women who hadn’t known about me until just four days ago, and who I hadn’t known about until two days ago. It was going to be a great family reunion, I could just tell. It occurred to me suddenly, what if I had more family than just her? My dads lawyer had only mentioned my grandmother, but what if more of my moms family was still alive too? Would all of them be in this backwoods hole?
“I have to go to the bathroom,” I said to the old man, not because I had to, but to see if he could hear or talk. He didn’t look up from the road or give any other sign that he had heard and I growled in frustration. If there hadn’t been a metal screen between us, I would have tapped his shoulder, but I was trapped like a prisoner in the backseat and my jailor was at least pretending to be deaf.
I looked down at my bag and slipped the letter out again. This was at least the twentieth time I had considered reading it, but I just held it instead and wondered what it might say. Danny was never eloquent, so I didn’t imagine it might be poetry, or something cheesy like that, but I did wonder. I wonder why he made me swear not to read it till my first night at my new home. The only thing I could imagine, is that these past six years he had been leaving something unsaid, and now that I was gone he had to make sure I knew, he just didn’t have the balls to say it in person. That was something I had figured out a couple years ago when I had started dating. The third time my best friend had found out something horribly wrong about the guy I was dating, I had figured out that he liked me himself and there was nothing at all wrong with who I was dating. The weren’t kleptomaniacs or pathological liars, or anything like that. Poor Danny. I had pretended not to know, but only because I never wanted things messed up between us, and him speaking out would have messed things up. I just didn’t like him in that way, and he was the first to point out that my type seemed to be the opposite of him. I tapped the letter on my leg and stared out the window again, wondering if I would miss Danny more than I missed the city. My dads lawyer, Bruce, had told me this small Tennessee town would be nothing like Chicago and that things were very different in the country. I started missing it as soon as the words were out of his mouth. The sounds, the smells, the excitement, the people, everything. Danny was my friend, but if he hadn’t lived in the apartment across from me since I was two, we would have never spoken at school or on the street. I liked my books, and I was in the kind of clubs at school that he couldn’t have gotten into if he tried. I didn’t fit in with his groups either, with their long hair, skateboards and ‘woe is me’ music. We were so different, having only our location in common, but it was enough. We’d known each other fourteen years and been best friend for six of those years. I blinked at the realization of how long we had known each other. Fourteen years and my father still hadn’t known his name.
“I know you’ll miss you’ll little friend across the hall Zinnia, and I am sorry for that, but there is little I can do now..”
That was the only apology he had offered. Not an ‘I’m sorry I stole millions of dollars’, or ‘I’m sorry I said all your family is dead when they weren’t’. No explanation at all for either. Not that he had ever been a big talker, especially to me. Sometimes weeks would go by when I wouldn’t see him and when I did, all he would offer me was a nod before he would go back to what he was working on. That was our life. It hadn’t really bothered me like it would a lot of kids. I had reasoned it out that men alone weren’t good at raising kids and he was not the exception. I didn’t act out ant try to get him to notice me, what was the point? Instead I concentrated on my own life, getting where I wanted to go and allowed him to be as big a part of my life as I was in his. It had been a great arrangement until a couple months ago when he got arrested. That part still puzzled me. He had plenty of money, and he made a great salary, why steal from his company? He had never struck me as greedy or power hungry. And what had he done with it all? That’s what everyone was demanding, what had happened to it? I had driven myself crazy trying to come up with answers these past months. Bruce had gotten him out on bail within a few hours of his arrest, but the last months had been chaos with his trial, and then sentencing. I thought nothing could shock me more than hearing the word ‘guilty’, like it had all been some huge misunderstanding until that moment. Then suddenly, my father had become a thief. My world had been turned on it’s head, but then Bruce up and announces I have to move to Lateo Tennessee with my grandmother. And right up till that moment I had thought my life couldn’t get worse. I guess that’s what I get for thinking.
I laid my head back and picked up the tail end of my honey colored braid. My father said I looked like my mother when I asked about the color of my hair when his was so black. That was all he’d ever said about her. There were no pictures, and the one time I’d asked, he just said ‘Go look in the mirror Zinnia’. That’s all he ever called me. Since I was little, my friends, his co-workers, my teachers, the house staff, they’d all called me Zin. Not him. Nothing less than complete formality with him. I squeezed my eyes shut, promising myself I would not cry again, and as suddenly as that, I was waking up to the old man opening the door, almost dropping me on the ground. I barely caught myself and glared at the man who made a vague gesture at an old brick building we were sitting in front of. It was empty and the windows were painted white from the inside, the door boarded over with a huge sheet of plywood. My bags were already on the old cracked sidewalk in front of the building and I climbed out to look around at where we were. The old man hardly waited from me to get my bag out of the way before he shut the door and climbed back into his cab.
“Wait!” I yelled taking a step towards the cab as it pulled away. The man didn’t turn or stop, he disappeared around a bend into the trees and I was alone in front of the old building sitting by itself in the middle of the woods. The sidewalk only ran the length of the small building on either side and I sighed as I looked around. I knocked on the plywood that covered the door and tried to peak in the windows, but it was to dark to see and there was certainly no answer. I sat down on my bag and looked up and down the dirt road, wondering if I was supposed to walk somewhere now, or wait for someone. Bruce had just said he had arranged for a cab to pick me up at the airport and take me where I needed to go. Nothing else, no phone number to call or anything. Not that I was getting any cell phone reception at all. I looked up at the sky and wondered how much daylight was left. Probably not much, the days were getting shorter the deeper into fall it got and the evening was already chilly, promising a cold night. I was not spending the night out here. I tried the plywood on the door and when it didn’t give, I decided to check around the side of the building. There wasn’t even a window I discovered as I circled around the back, but I did discover a worn trail in the high grass, leading straight into the forest. That was nice and creepy I decided as I started back around to the front, but just as I reached the corner and looked back, I saw a man coming up the trail. He was an older man, and he looked grim and disturbing as he plodded along the trail. I hid mostly around the corner as I watched him and when he stepped clear of the forest, I noticed he wasn’t alone. There was a boy behind him, maybe my own age, but dressed like the old man in what looked like turn of the century farm clothes. They looked like they’d stepped right out of a movie in their overalls and straw hats and brown leather boots. No shirts. I blinked and wondered what the heck my father had gotten me into when the old man turned slightly and started towards me. He didn’t look up, but the boy did. He looked right at me and eyed me with a mix of curiosity and malice. I started to back away, but he opened his mouth and his words stopped me short.
“Hello cousin. Grim said you’d be here about now.”
“Wh..who?”
“Grim. She sent me and Conn to see if you needed things brought. I’m Connelly too, but they call me Lee. You’re Zinnia, right, Constance’s daughter?”
I blinked again. My father had spoken her name once, ‘Connie’, and every other time he spoke of her it was ‘your mother’. “My mom? Yeah, she was Constance, I think.”
“That all your stuff? Maybe we should have brought Ben too,” he said turning and looking at the older man. The man nodded silently and picked up two of my bags. I was almost hysterical.
“Wait! Wait a minute! Umm, who are you again? And who is Grim?”
“I said I’m Connelly!” the boy practically shouted. “Lee for short, and this is Connelly too, I’m named after him, but they call him Conn for short. Grim, she’s our grandmother, mine and yours. She’s Conn’s sister.”
“You’re my cousin?”
“That’s what Grim says, says you Aunt Constance’s daughter. I never knew her, she left before I was born. She nice?”
“I never knew her either.” I answered as the older man started back down the trail with two of my bags. Lee picked up two more and I was left with the last one and my shoulder bag. “Are we walking?” I asked in shock.
“It aint that far.”
It turned out his version of not that far and my version were two very different things. When I complained, the boy answered, “We’re kinda lucky, Grim lives on this side of town and not the far side.”
“Why couldn’t we just drive?”
“There’s no roads into town.”
“What? That’s insane! How does anyone get here?”
“They don’t,” he said over his shoulder as if that were the most obvious thing in the world. “Your mom was the last person to leave, and you’re the first person to come for longer than I can ever remember.”
I stared at him in complete shock.
“You better hurry, it’ll be to dark to see soon.”
I started walking again, adjusting the bag in my other hand. “What about other stuff? There’s other stuff in town, right? Phones, internet, all that stuff?”
“There’s a phone at the town hall. That’s how that man got ahold of Grim. No internet though. We heard about computers and internet at school though.”
“Are you serious? What kind of place IS this?”
“It’s the home of your people,” he answered solemnly.
“Not my home! And I won’t be here long, I can promise you that! As soon as I am eighteen, I’m out of here!”
“Maybe. That’s two years anyways, a long time to change your mind.”
It was almost completely dark and I was stumbling by the time the trees finally broke into a clearing. I could barely see the shapes of houses and buildings, but there were no lights except a few dim ones in windows. What sort of nightmare had I woken up into?
The old man walked right up and into a house as if he had no problem at all seeing in the dark, and lee was right behind him. I followed more slowly, not comfortable with just walking into the house.
“Where she be?” I heard an ancient voice ask.
“She’s here Grim, come on in Zinnia!” lee hollered the last part, and I stepped into the house. It was small and cramped, and there was a single kerosene lamp burning on a table next to a very old woman in a rocking chair. There was only one other seat in the room, a very old and uncomfortable looking bench, and that was all there was room for. The old man pulled a string on the ceiling and a panel fell away with collapsible stairs built into it. He climbed halfway up and put my bags up there, then lee handed him my two bags he was carrying and the man put them up there too. I held onto the bag I was holding for dear life. There was no way I was sleeping in some tiny attic.
The old woman was staring at me and I finally settled my gaze on her when it was clear neither of the boys was going to try and take my bag from me. “Closer,” she rasped, cocking her head slightly. I took two steps closer and stared down at the tiny woman. “You ma’am’s face. You ma’am’s looks all about. Looky. Yaw, yaw. You ma’am inya.” Her speech was so thick with accent I couldn’t understand her.
I looked at Lee who was smiling at the woman. “What?”
“You look like your mom. You have your mom in you.”
“Oh. I didn’t even know her.”
“Blood. Blood need no knowin,” the old woman said with a nod. “Sleep there,” she said motioning to the open attic.
“Up there? Are you nuts? No way!”
“Ma’am’s room.”
“I don’t care who slept up there before, I won’t! No wonder she ran away!”
“Cross me you not!” she snapped, her expression suddenly serious. “Sleep there, sleep dirt!” she made a motion to the door and I looked at the boy for help.
“Don’t make Grim angry!” he said wide eyed.
“You ugly horrible people!” I screamed at all of them. “I hate you all and I hate this horrible place! I want to go home!” I fled out the front door, but it was so dark now I couldn’t see at all, let alone which way the trail might be. I sat down and cried, sobbing into my arms as I curled up into a ball.
“You shouldn’t be out here after dark,” Lee said from the doorway.
“I don’t care!”
“I’m serious Zinnia, there are things in the dark here that you don’t have where you’re from. It’s not safe for you.”
“Oh spare me! I’m not stupid. You want to take me snipe hunting next?”
“It’s not a joke! Just come on back inside and say sorry to Grim. You can’t talk to her that way! Didn’t you’re mom teach you anything?”
“No! No she didn’t! My mom died having me! And till two days ago she didn’t have any family, no one! I had no one but my father and myself! I don’t need her, and I don’t need you, I just want to go home!”
“This is your home now. Come on. Grim is stern, but she’s good. You have to get inside now, come on! Grim can tell you why.”
“Hold your wagging boy,” Conn said angrily as he stepped out of the house and moved off into the night. “Girl, get you in that house ‘fore I bring back something that will.”
“Just try and hurt me! I’ll have child services out here so fast your head will spin! And that’ll be fine with me! It’ll get me out of this nightmare!”
“Zinnia! Zinnia don’t! You don’t understand anything! You’re just a… Ah! Who cares you stupid brat! Sit out here and get eaten, what do I care? I hope Conn comes back with Ben and they lock you in that attic till you rot!”
Lee stomped off into the night and I watched the dark swallow him. The light inside went out and I sat alone in complete darkness, feeling utterly alone and on the verge of terror. Was he serious about things in the dark? What kinds of things? Wolves? Bears? Snakes? I shuddered at the last thought. I hated snakes. I tried to look in every direction at once, but there was nothing to see in the utter blackness. There was also nothing at all to hear. I knew now what the term ‘deafening silence’ meant. I was in it. No cars driving by, or horns or sirens or people fighting in the hallway. Nothing. Not even a cricket or bug noise. I stood and eased back towards the door, my spine crawling with fear. The door was still open, but since there was no light on inside, it was still as dark as outside, and a completely foreign place besides. I shut the door as I stood up and tried to make my way to where I remembered the stairs being. There were still there, down and waiting for me. With a sigh, I climbed them one handed, trying to maneuver my bag as I went. Once my head cleared the opening, I panicked. What might be up here waiting for me?
“Hello?” I called down the stairs. “Hello? Can I have a light or something? Is there one up here? Hello?”
“Shh! Don’t wake Grim!”
It was Lee back. I didn’t think I’d ever be happy to see his homely face again, but when he flicked a lighter to life, I almost smiled at him.
“Go on up, I’ll be right behind,” he said motioning up and moving to the base of the stairs.
I climbed up and got my first look around when he cleared the top with the lighter. There was a small bed and a nightstand with a kerosene lamp on one side of the opening and on the other, a wardrobe and small chest of drawers. There were two windows, one on each end, but they let no light in. Lee stood stooped over as he moved to light the lamp and I stood up straight as I looked around. It was small and cramped, but not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. There was even a scrap of a rug on the floor next to the bed. It had all been aired and cleaned recently and the bed had fresh linens on it.
“There’s another lighter here in the drawer, see?”
“Yeah. Why aren’t there lights?”
“Grim is old fashioned, like some of the others. She has no electricity here, that’s all on the other side of town.”
“What kind of place is this? Are you Amish?”
“What? No…. Grim can talk to you about it whenever she wants.”
“About what? I feel like I’ve gone insane!”
“You have all you need? All your stuff? All right, I’ll see you I the morning, before school then.”
“School? What? Wait! Lee! Wait!”
“What Zinnia?”
“It’s just Zin, school?
“You didn’t go to school in the city?”
“Well yeah, I just didn’t think I’d be going back so soon.”
“Yeah, Grim had my mom talk to them yesterday, you’re all set. See you in the morning.”
“Lee!”
“Yeah?”
“Where’s the bathroom?”
“Through the kitchen, out the back door, about twenty yards straight back.”
“I was afraid you would say that,” I said dismally.
“Night,” he said climbing down the ladder, then folding it up so I was closed in. Looking around the room, I couldn’t help but wonder, Is this really what my life is going to be for the next two years? A tiny attic room with a redneck cousin as my only friend? I went to my biggest bag, opened it and pulled out my laptop lovingly. Little good it would do me here without even an outlet to plug it in to. How was I going to write? How was I going to keep in touch with all my friends? How was I going to do anything? I sighed and started pulling my things out of my bags. Two of them were mostly full of books and journals and sketchpads. The rest had more clothes than I had room for, as I soon found out. I had to improvise and use my bags as drawers and slide them under my bed.
When I was all done, I pulled out the letter from Danny and stared at it a few seconds, wondering if I should open it at all. My curiosity won out over my fear and I opened it, unfolding it and tilting it towards the dim flame so I could read it.
Zin,
Hey. So you’re gone I guess. I kept hoping that something would happen and you would get to stay. Anyways, I just wanted you to know something that I couldn’t ever say to you before, but I couldn’t let you go off and maybe never see you again without knowing that I love you. I have forever, but I couldn’t say it, because what if you didn’t love me too? I couldn’t stand the thought that you didn’t, so I never said it. Plus, what if I told you and you got all weird about it, and then we stopped being friends? I couldn’t stand that either. Anyways, I do love you, and I hope as soon as you can, you’ll come back to Chicago and find me and say you feel the same. That would so rock! Also, maybe you could e-mail me or text me sometime and let me know? Anyways, I have to go, I’m meeting you in a few minutes so you can help me with my algebra. Man, who’s going to help me with it when you’re gone? Maybe you can help me online? Anyways, see you soon!
Love always,
Danny
Pretty much what I had figured. I sighed and tucked it away inside the book I was reading and laid down on my bed. It actually wasn’t uncomfortable. Danny was going to be heartbroken when he didn’t get a text or e-mail from me tonight. He would be heartbroken if he did, but I didn’t want him to think I was just going to ignore him over the whole matter. Maybe I would write him a letter? Did this place have mail? I squeezed my eyes shut and tried not to scream out loud. What kind of place didn’t have a road coming into it? Or electricity? Or plumbing? I felt like I had gone to old west hell. Even this horrid little house looked like something right out of a little house on the prairie show. I would never forgive my father for this, ever.
Another thought suddenly occurred to me, what were the schools like? Did they have an honors program, and an advanced placement program? Could I keep taking my college credit courses? What about my extracurricular clubs, like quiz bowl? Did they have anything like that here? How could they? How could they travel anywhere or have someone travel here to compete? I could just imagine sitting in a classroom with every kid in the whole town ‘figuring sums’ on a slate. I turned over and cried into my pillow as I imagined my whole future going down the toilet in complete ruins because of this horrible place.
I woke up from a dream where ‘Pa’ was telling me a story in front of the fireplace about how he killed his first bear in the woods when he was just my age to a pounding on my floor. I blinked several times as I lifted my head up and looked around. The light coming in the windows was grey and dim, like it was an ungodly hour in the morning where people were meant to still be sleeping. The pounding came again.
“Awake! I’m awake!”
“C’mon, we’ll be late for school!”
I grumpily dropped the staircase and looked down at Lee. “What? What time does it start?”
“Eight fifteen.”
“What time is it now?”
“Seven thirty.”
“Really? It seemed earlier. I’ll be down in a minute,” I said pulling the stairs back up by their cord. It didn’t take me long to get dressed, it never did. My hair took all of twenty seconds to brush up into a loose ponytail, and I was on my way down the stairs.
“You should knock before you come down,” Lee said getting up from the bench seat.
I glanced over at Grim who was sitting in her rocking chair staring out the window and rocking. “Umm, why? People get dressed down here?”
“No, just usually there’s people in here, and a ladder suddenly dropping on you’re head doesn’t feel good.”
“Oh. Sure, yeah. Umm, ma’am?”
“Aint yo ma’am. Ima Grim.”
“Uh, sorry. Umm, I wanted to say sorry about last night. There was no excuse for the way I acted.”
She nodded and kept rocking, never looking at me. I looked over at Lee as I lifted the stairs back up. He shrugged and grinned, then motioned me out the door. “My ma’am made us breakfast, you can eat with us.”
I followed him out and got my first look at town in the light. It wasn’t anything like I was expecting. All the houses close to Grims, close to this side of the forest, were all small and old. The further you got away though, the newer they got, and the bigger they got. From what I could see on the far side, there were some houses that looked more like mansions. Not only that, but there where other building on that side too, building that were very obviously businesses, and they had power. I could see signs lit up from here.
Lee walked to one of the small houses close to Grims and opened the door, waiting for me. I went in, staring until the town was hidden from view, then turned my attention to the inside of Lee’s house. It was almost an exact replica of Grims house, right down to the cord hanging from the ceiling for the attic room.
“Back here’s the kitchen, ma’am left us biscuits and sausage. She went to work already. Here.”
He handed me a plate and served two sausage patties and two biscuits on it without even asking, then motioned to the small table as he served himself. He served himself a lot. I watched as he piled on a full dozen biscuits and sausages onto his plate, then barely sitting down before he started eating. I watched wide eyed as he stuffed them down his throat, one right after another. He didn’t seem big enough to eat that way, but every last sausage filled biscuit went down his throat before he even paused to pour himself some milk to drink. He grinned at me with his freckled face and I looked down at the biscuit and sausage left on my plate.
“I could only eat one…”
“S’ok, here,” he said grabbing it up as he stood up. He ate it as he headed back towards the front, and I could only follow him. Who eats like that? “Hey, I have your class schedule here somewhere, Miss Davies gave it to me yesterday, yeah, here it is.” He handed me a crinkled piece of paper and I took it with a frown. I wouldn’t be able to pick my own classes?
“Hey Lee?”
“Yeah?”
“What is this, a joke?”
“Huh? No, why?
“World events? American culture? Astronomical Calc? seriously?”
“Yeah. I took American Culture last year, it’s pretty easy. World events is required every year, even if you took it before. What else you got? Oh hey, Social Economics, I have that too, Bias in Modern Lit, that’s a good class. Home Ec. Eh, it’s ok for you girls. Meta. science? That’s a tough one.”
“What is Meta Science?”
“Metaphysical Science.”
“What? I’ve never heard of a class like that? What does that even mean? American culture? Social Economics? Bias in Modern Lit? Where do any of these classes come from? It almost sounds like classes to teach immigrants to act American!”
“Uhh, no, nothing like that. Just normal classes. Hey, come on, there’s someone I want you to meet!”
Lee hurried ahead and I followed him grumpily. He was headed towards a fairly large brick building with wide double doors in the front and not a single window on the whole thing. Above the door was a simple carved sign that said Lateo High. At least it was an actual high-school and not a one room school house I thought dismally, following Lee in. It was odd to me that immediately following the first set of wooden doors was a long foyer, followed by another set of wooden doors.
That wasn’t nearly as interesting as what was inside though. Immediately, the hall ‘t’ed to the left and right. To the right was a sign that read ‘office’, to the left was a long hall with rows of lockers, occasionally broken by a door. The end of the hall turned right, and I assumed it kept going the same as the first hall. The hall had maybe seven or eight students in it, all stone still and staring at me. I blinked and turned to Lee, who was just disappearing into the door marked ‘office’. I quickly followed him, looking back over my shoulder, but no one had moved at all, or stopped staring.
Lee grinned at me again, his freckled face looking pleasant under his nest of brown hair, almost making me feel good. “Miss Davies, this is my cousin Zinnia Mattson.”
“Zin,” I said to the small, dark woman behind the desk. She looked up at me wide eyed for a few moments, then stood and looked at me eye to eye as she looked shakily at Lee, than back at me.
“Well,” she finally said breathlessly. “Well. Zinnia Mattson. You look like Constance, don’t you? Yes, well, I gave Lee your schedule, if you have trouble finding any of your classrooms, they all numbered there, and it’s a small school. Ok then. Have a good day.”
I nodded and followed Lee back outside. “What was that all about?” I whispered to Lee as we started down the hall.
“You’re the first new student we’ve ever had. C’mon, I got you the locker next to mine.”
“Ever? Are you serious?” I might have gone further on that comment, but just then I got close enough to another student to actually see him, and I was struck speechless. He was easily the most beautiful boy I had ever laid eyes on. Tall with dark hair and eyes, a complexion so fair he must be Germanic. He wasn’t in overalls like Lee, in fact he could have stepped right off the front cover of GQ. He watched me walk by with open hostility in his eyes and I realized I was not only staring at him, but my mouth was hanging open to. I turned to Lee and saw over his shoulder a tall girl with the same Germanic complexion, but with bright red hair and large emerald green eyes, perfect, full, bright red lips. She was perfect. I couldn’t see a flaw anywhere. She smiled at me, but it wasn’t a friendly smile at all. It looked more like she was happily planning how she might kill me. I turned again at another boy. Tall and much more muscular than the first boy, be wasn’t nearly as handsome, but still cute in a country boy sort of way in his jeans and flannel shirt. He had a dark tan with his brown hair and blue eyes, and his nostrils flared as he glared at me walking past.
“Lee!?” I whispered anxiously, turning towards him, then was stopped short as someone stepped in front of me.
He was taller even than the first boy and I had to crane my neck to look up at him. I almost swallowed my tongue. The first boy had seemed flawless, but compared to this boy, he was a dulled monumentally. His skin was tanned lightly and flawless as I traced his sculpted cheekbones with my eyes. His blonde hair was spiked, but not in a contrived way, more like he rolled out of bed and it was all exactly as it should be. His brown eyes were piercing as he stared down at me, his jaw set in anger.
“Edan,” Lee said warningly. “You heard Mr. West. Let her pass.”
“She shouldn’t be here,” he said not taking his eyes from me. I couldn’t move my eyes from him if my life depended on it. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw others join him, but I couldn’t look away.
“She’s family. She’s my family.”
“She’ll leave soon, then what?”
“That’s a distant bridge Edan, let her pass.”
“Wh-what’s going on Lee?” I asked, my voice shaking. No one was this beautiful, not even in movies. Who were these people?
“Nothing, they just aren’t used to new people, none of us are. Come on,” he took my arm and started to pull me around the boy, but the boy moved gracefully to intercept me again. “Edan, come on, we’ll all be late for class if you don’t stop.”
He finally took his eyes from me and suddenly I could breathe again. “That is what you worry over? She is among us and you worry over a tardy?”
“What’s going on here?” a deep voice asked and everyone but me turned to the small man in the suit who had stepped up. I could still only stare at Edan.
“We were trying to get to class and,” Lee began.
“Enough. Edan, Griffin, Goldwyn, I’d like you all to see me in my office please. You too Camilla, I see you back there.” I looked around then, at all the others, to perfect to be real, all of them, and then at the little man. His eyes moved behind me. “Lilias, do you need an invitation too?” I turned to see the pretty red head still smiling evilly at me. She smiled at him before she turned and walked away, a sway in her hips that exuded her confidence.
“Lee, see Miss Mattson to her class please, the rest of you move on.”
“He had to be at least seven feet tall!“ I whispered as Lee pulled me quickly away from the group pf people and it took everything in my to not look back at them. There were still more people lining the halls, and most all stared murder at me as I walked by. Almost all of them seemed to perfect, to pretty, like one of those TV shows about a school where everyone was pretty and perfect. I had been to school, and I knew that not even a small percent of them were attractive, let alone most of them. Here, even the unattractive ones were still pleasant to look at. Where was I? What kind of place was this?
I walked past a boy standing with his arm around a girl and he smiled as I went past as she watched me passively. He was attractive, if a bit shorter than most were running so far. His black hair hung to his shoulders framing his pale face and practically black eyes. He looked like a dangerous person, someone to avoid, even if the girl looked sweet with her long curly black hair and blue eyes.
“Lee?” I whispered. “What is going on? What’s wrong with these people?”
He turned to me and leaned in close. “Look, I already told you, these people here in this town like their privacy and they don’t like change, not even a little bit. Just leave people alone, avoid eye contact with everyone, do your schoolwork and leave most of them alone. Our locker’s up here and there’s someone I want you to meet.”
I followed him unhappily to his locker, and mine right next to it as he looked around. “Sara! There you are! Wait, don’t! You heard what Mr. West said…”
I turned and looked at the wide eyed girl who was staring at me like a deer caught in headlights. She was pretty, in a girl next door kind of way, but she was obviously cripplingly shy. She hid her pretty blue eyes with dirty blonde hair and wore a baggy sweater with jeans and old shoes.
“Sara, this is my cousin Zinnia.”
“Zin,” I said offering a smile.
She looked at him, glanced back at me, then smiled shyly.
“Sara, Zin has American Culture second hour, same as you, after World events with me, think you could hang out with her?”
Sara’s face turned bright red, but she finally nodded.
“Lee,” I said worriedly. “Maybe I could stay home for a couple days, get used to things. I have a really bad feeling here.”
“Me too, but it won’t work. Grim likes to spend her days alone. It’ll be fine, just give everyone time to get used to you. Hey! Hache!” Lee called to someone passing by.
I turned as the boy approached, eyeing me with the same curious hostility Lee had eyed me with the day before. He was average height, a good six inches taller than me, and the only real pure Native American I was sure I’d ever seen. His long black hair hung loose to the back of his thighs and his dark skin was offset beautifully with the white tank top he was wearing. Jeans and cowboy boots didn’t look silly on him at all, which was a first for me. His dark brown eyes sized me up in a few brief seconds, the he turned to Lee, ignoring me utterly.
“Hache, this is my cousin Zinnia, Zin, this is my friend Hache-Hi.”
“Hi, Zin, nice to meet you.” I smiled at him, but he barely glanced at me before turning back to Lee.
“I know who she is. Lee, I have heard talk.”
“I know, we’ve been through it already.”
“I am your friend Lee, but I hope you understand that I will not stand with this..”
“Hache!”
“Girl,” he finished, but that wasn’t what he was going to say at first. I wondered why Lee stopped him, it wasn’t as if I didn’t grow up in the city and hadn’t already heard every bad name in the book.
“It’s all right Hache. Edan said the same thing.”
“Edan is smart. There is enough bad blood without adding her.”
“What is so wrong with me? You’ve all judged me before you even know me!”
“You are all the same,” Hache said as he turned and walked away, stalking like a dangerous animal. I watched him go in confusion.
“Does he mean strangers? City people? What?” I asked Lee.
Lee just shrugged miserably as he pulled a book out of his locker. He slipped his hand in Sara’s and motioned with his head for me to follow. The class was only two doors down the second hall, and it’s twenty seats were mostly full. It was dead quiet when we walked in and I could feel every eye on me, so I concentrated hard on looking only at the teacher. She was a very tall slender woman with her bun pulled tight on her head and her old grey dress looked like something off a 1940’s thrift store rack.
“You.” she said eyeing me with disapproval. “Yes. Sit there, that seat near the back,” she said pointing to an empty seat close to the back of the last row. My new neighbors did not look pleased, especially not Edan who was sitting in the seat behind mine. His jaw clenched and unclenched as I made my way back, trying to look at the floor, but unable to keep my eyes from drifting back to him every other step. I sat down, but I could feel not only him, but everyone else staring a hole through me. The teacher fumbled around on a shelf, then finally brought me a book with ‘World events’ across the dark blue cover. No picture, no author, no version number, that was it. I opened the cover and blinked. It was photocopied newspaper clippings. Headlines, short stories, fluff pieces, everything.
“We left off on page forty six,” the teacher announced, “and your assignment was to read about the effect the current American economy was having on the rest of the world. Now..”
I looked around the room at the students busily flipping through their books. Was this for real? It couldn’t be. It was all an elaborate joke. Ashton Kutcher had run out of celebrities to punk, and he’s moved on to rich kids. Something like that.
“Miss Mattson? Is there a problem?”
“No ma’am,” I answered turning back to my book.
“I am not your ma’am,” she said as several kids sniggered. “My name is Mrs. Hardy.”
“Sorry Mrs. Hardy, where I am from, ‘ma’am’ is a respectful term for any lady.”
“I am not interested in how things are where you are from. This is how things are here. Do you understand Miss Mattson?”
“Yes Mrs. Hardy.” I answered, wishing I could bury my face in my book.
“As I was saying. The impact on other countries has been monumental. Hart, can you give me an example?”
“Sure,” answered a soft-spoken sweet voice. I risked a peek at the girl talking over my right shoulder. She was small, like me, and her full lips were perfect as she spoke, the kind of lips movie stars and models paid to get. Her big brown eyes were earnest and sweet, and her long, curly brown hair looked pettably soft. She had a sparkle in her eye like she liked to smile. I wondered if she hated me unaccountably too.
I looked back down at my book and stared through the pictures as I waited for class to end. Was this seriously what I had to learn? News months out of date? It took an eternity for class to end, and I was out of my seat like a shot when the bell finally rang. I started making my way to Lee, but someone slid into my route. I didn’t look up, I just turned the other way to go around. The same person, I knew because it was the same dark grey sweater, cut me off again and backed me right into a corner. I looked up in annoyance, hoping I wasn’t about to be dumbstruck but unnatural beauty again. He was attractive, in a bad boy kind of way. His ice blue eyes leaped out at me as he smirked a half smile. His black hair on his pale complexion gave him a five o’clock shadow, and he had a small stripe of hair down his chin, but it didn’t do a lot to make him look older.
“I have heard talk of you, girl,” he said leaning in close. “Your name is Zinnia Mattson?”
“Zin, uh, yeah. Excuse me please?” I asked trying to slide by, but he moved his arm to block me.
“Zin, small name for a small girl.” He leaned in close enough I could feel his breath on my cheek. “You like it here Zin, or do you wish to go back home?”
“Ramsey, leave her alone!” Lee said angrily, shoving the larger boy aside. He shouldn’t have been able to move him so easily, but he had no problem. Ramsey glared at Lee, then turned back to me, all smiles again.
“Let me know.” Then he spun away and made his way to the door.
“What was that all about?” I asked as Lee started leading me towards the door.
“Nothing, just stay clear of him and don’t talk to him! Sara will walk with you to your next class, right Sara?” The girl nodded at her shoes. “Right, so listen, just avoid everyone, especially Ramsey and his ilk, ok?”
“Sure,” I answered, feeling tension tightening inside of me. Why were things so horrible here? It was one thing to not like strangers, but these people were so hostile, like I had done them all a personal wrong. “Lee?” I began.
“Look, Zin, I can’t answer questions right now, so don’t ask. Ask Grim later, she can tell you.”
“Tell me what? Lee, I need to know what’s going on!”
“I have to go, hurry up or you’ll be late to class. See ya later Sara!” He was gone before I could open my mouth again.
“Sara, do you know what all this is about?” She shrugged at her shoes and kept walking. I looked around at all the hostile glares and menacing smirks. None of it made any sense. Neither did my next class. American Culture was also taught with newspaper clippings, these from trash papers like “The Enquirer”, “The Globe” and similar papers, along with the TV guide and select magazine excerpts. There was no way this could be real! But all the students paid rapt attention to Miss Jean (who was not only younger and prettier than Mrs. Hardy, but much nicer too) as she talked on and on about musical influence in American Culture and what a flighty trend it was. Lee’s friend Hache-Hi was in the class and he was the only one who seemed as uninterested in the subject as I was. He sat staring at a notebook he was sketching in, never lifting his face. The pretty red head that Mr. West had called Lilias was also in the class and she spent it smiling wickedly at me every time I glanced in her direction. The boy behind her, a smallish boy with jaw length blonde hair and dark blue eyes and an overly generous mouth leaned in close whispering to her. Even though he never looked at me, I knew he was talking about me from the way she would smile. I noticed another girl watching me constantly too. She was also small, smaller even than me with shoulder length black hair cut like Betty Page. She was pale with dark eyes and blood red lips. She reminded me of a very Goth Snow White. She didn’t look angry or evil, just curious, and maybe worried.
I tried to stop looking around, but it was hard not to. It wasn’t just curiosity, or worry, it was the way these people looked. I couldn’t place it at all. It wasn’t just that they were almost all inhumanly beautiful, it was something else. The class ended, after an eternity it seemed, and I couldn’t get out of there quick enough. I was halfway to my locker before I realized I had completely forgotten my silent escort. I looked around but she was nowhere to be found. I hurried on to my locker without her but stopped as soon as it came into view. The first boy I had seen that morning was leaning against my locker, staring at me. Not glaring this time, just waiting patiently. His dark eyes regarded me passively as I walked slowly to my locker, my heart trying to thump out of my chest. He stood unmoving, just looking me over as I waited for him to move, or at least speak, since I was rendered completely speechless at the sight of him. He lifted his eyes to mine, and I wasn’t sure how long we stood there staring at each other, though I did become aware of Lee moving up beside me after several long moments. The boy moved suddenly and I gasped as he stepped close to me, leaning in.
“You stink of fear,” he whispered and I stumbled back till my back hit the lockers.
“Sara, go get Mr. West!” Lee hissed and Sara turned to go, but Lilias was there smiling up at her and Sara stopped dead in her tracks.
The boy watched me with his head cocked for a few seconds, then circled closer to me while an audience gathered.
“I have to go to class,” I stammered, realizing suddenly that I was trembling.
“I will escort you,” he said offering his arm with a slight bow.
“N-no thanks,” I managed and he stood up strait.
“You would refuse me?” he asked angrily and I saw Lee shaking his head in wide eyed panic behind him.
“Umm… Umm.., no. Uhh, I have to use the ladies room, excuse me please.”
I darted away, squeezing between the onlookers, practically sprinting to where I had seen the restrooms. I ducked in and locked myself in a stall and tried to stop shaking. I heard the door open and shut and I held my breath, waiting.
“You have left Jett waiting for you, who waits for no one. You have upset him, now Durante will have to speak with you. That will not be pleasant. Durante is never pleasant. Come out now little one,” the girls sing song voice had a disturbing quality as she paced in front of the stall. The door opened and closed again. “You? Why don’t you disappear like a good little girl now Saraphine? You do not need to get involved. You do not wish to be brought to Sacha’s attention again do you?”
“I.. Lee asked me to see if his cousin is all right. Zin?”
“I’m here Sara, hold on,” I said unlocking the door and coming out. The girl was the one I had seen with the long haired boy earlier and she looked younger up close. She smiled and her blue eyes sparkled, she looked like someone’s doll.
“Durante will be looking for you soon, you should hurry. Jett is waiting.”
“Who is Durante? Who are you?”
“You remember Durante from earlier don’t you? I know you remember me. I’m Haven.”
“Ahh, you mean the boy you were with earlier? Umm, ok, bye.” I couldn’t really think of what else to say to her as I slipped out the door. She was very right, Jett was waiting and he didn’t look pleased. The hall was empty except him, myself, Lee and Sara. Haven slipped out of the bathroom and after a small smile at Jett, moved down the hall. Lee was licking his lips nervously.
Jett offered his arm again, this time he looked as angry as he had earlier. I looked at Lee who nodded slightly, still looking nervous. I took his arm apprehensively and he spun and started down the hall. Lee and Sara watched with worried faces for a few seconds, then turned and went the other way. I watched them go with mounting fear. The bell rang and he didn’t speed up his step, or even appear to have heard. He kept his slow pace down the hall as if we had all the time in the world. He stopped outside the classroom door and turned to me again. The anger seemed to have evaporated as he looked me over again.
“You still stink of fear,” he said softly.
“I.. I don’t really know.. Umm, thanks for walking me to class,” I started to reach for the handle, but he intercepted me, catching my wrist in his hand. He turned it over in his hand, looking at it as if he’d never seen a hand before. I tugged lightly, but he didn’t let go. His eyes moved back to mine and I froze again.
“Why are you here, human?” he asked cocking his head.
“W..what?”
“Why are you here?”
“I.. my father…, my moms mom lives here, I came to stay with her until my dad…, until I can legally move out on my own.”
“You are not of us, even if you’re blood once was.”
“I.. I don’t understand. I need to go to class.”
“You are not wanted here, your kind.”
“My kind?”
“Humans.”
“Umm… you’re not human?”
He cocked his head again and looked at me like he was trying to tell if I were serious. Wow, this place was chocked full of nut jobs, that was all I could think. It occurred to me now what this place was. Not just a looney bin, but a whole looney town. They were all freaking nuts and they hated me because I wasn’t. It even explained the insane classes.
“The fear smell is gone,” he said softly, leaning in close. “You are angry now, and.. You presume to pity me? Have pity only for yourself!”
He moved as if he were going to hit me and I ducked, but the blow didn’t come. I looked up and the sweet looking girl named Hart was standing there and they were staring at each other. She glanced once at me, then back at him.
“It is an act of cowardice to prey upon something so much weaker than yourself,” she spat at him disdainfully.
“Oh, my dear,” he said with a mocking smile. “How sweet you smell. Like a meal.” He looked over at me. “At least you do not stink of fear and humanity.”
“You heard West’s orders!”
“Will you tell my dear?” He moved in close to her, making her back away. As soon as he moved, I lunged for the door and shoved it open. The whole class turned to the scene in the hallway.
The boy literally, I kid you not, hissed at me. I backed into the room wide eyed as the girl disappeared down the hall.
“Jett?” the man at the desk asked standing up. “What is going on here?”
“She needed the ladies room, we are late.” Jett answered, his face passive again as he came in and took a seat near the front.
“Yes, well, here’s your textbook Miss Mattson, take a seat over there.”
I was still trembling I realized as I sat down. I could see Jett turn and look at me from the corner of my eye, but I stared hard at my book the whole class as I tried to figure out what was going on.
“These people are crazy!” I announced to Lee at the door when the class ended.
“Shh, yeah, I know.”
“You know? Why didn’t you tell me? What the heck is going on here, and why am I here?”
“Look, Zin, I can’t explain it right now, I can’t. Awe no. Crap!” I looked up at what he was looking at and saw the long haired boy that Haven had called Durante closing the distance between us. Haven was with him, smiling sweetly as she walked along beside him. “Durante.” he said in cautious greeting.
“Lee. You and yours will join me for lunch. You do not feel the need to make the rules clear, so me and mine will.”
“You heard Mr. West, the rules don’t apply to her.”
“I think they do. Will you contradict me Lee?”
“I will. This…. girl, has no part in this,” Edan stepping up to Durante. My breathe stopped when I looked at him.
“I say she does. She is here, within it, she cannot stand outside of it.”
“What do you hope to gain from this? She can offer you nothing.”
“Are you so sure? I think you don’t see the whole picture.”
“Enough. It has been forbidden.”
“By an old man who will do nothing. We both know it is beyond even him now. The old ones have no part in this.”
“Grim has demanded that she alone tells her, will you go against Grim?” Lee asked angrily.
“Grim will never tell her. She’s afraid of her daughter happening all over again. I’m hoping for it,” he said with a smile.
“That’s your angle. You want her to run, you want word to get out,” Edan said angrily.
“Now you see her value?”
“She’d tell nothing dead,” Hache-Hi said moving foreword from the crown of onlookers.
“Hache!” Lee said in shock.
“I am only saying what everyone else is thinking!”
“Anyone even thinks of laying a hand on her and I’ll squeeze your guts out through your ears!”
I blinked at that threat. I was from the inner city and had heard every kind of threat from lame to silly to deadly, but never anything like that. More odd was that everyone took him at his word as they eyed him warily, even Hache-Hi.
“Your teeth are not made of iron,” Lilias said sliding in close rubbing against Edan who jerked away in disgust. “So slither away little snake and let the big girls talk now.”
Big? She was smaller than I was!
She turned to me and smiled. “I think you are right Durante, we should set her free. You’d like to go home, right little flower?”
The bell rang and everyone there ignored it. I was sure the whole school was in the hallway clustered around me, watching.
“We’re late.. for class. Lee?”
Lee looked around nervously, but we were completely blocked in.
Durante smiled a lazy smile and leaned close to Lilias. “She still has no clue. I saw her transcripts you know, said she was smart. I’m not really seeing it.”
“No, poor thing. Think we should just tell her?”
“What is the meaning of all this? Why aren’t you kids in class? All of you, every one of you, get to class now! Go on, move!”
I didn’t think I would ever be glad to hear Mrs. Hardy, but I could have hugged her just then as everyone began clearing away.
Durante and Edan were last. Durante somehow managed to look at Edan like he wasn’t a full foot taller than he was, and Edan stared down at Durante with anger that looked ages old. They had been enemies a long time, that was very plain to see.
Once I started paying attention, I saw that trend through the whole school. They all disliked me, but they all seemed to dislike each other too. At least some of them. There was a pattern and I was trying to figure it out as I walked with Lee to the cafeteria after my fourth period class.
“Lee?”
“What?” he asked miserably.
“I know you keep saying you can’t tell me anything, but can you answer some other questions?”
“Like what?”
“Why do Durante and Edan hate each other?”
“They are kind of from different places, and they believe different things.”
“And the whole division in the school, does it center on them?”
“You could say that. You pick up on some things quick. Others, not so much.”
“What do you mean? You mean the crazy thing? You trying to say I’m crazy to and I don’t know it? That’s why I’m here? I’m beginning to think I am.”
“You aren’t crazy,” he said with a sigh.
“So it’s just everyone else.”
“And if I told you everyone here was sane?”
“Then I’d say you were crazy too.”
“Hypothetically, everyone is sane. What would your next conclusion be?”
“You know, you don’t always talk like a redneck.”
“I know. So?”
“Well, I guess, hypothetically, I’d think this was a place where aliens were learning to be human. Except me. I am human. At least I think I am. At least half human.”
“Ok, say hypothetically, we aren’t aliens. Then what?”
“Well, I don’t know. Can I get a hint?”
He sighed and shook his head. “Never mind. Come on, Sara and I normally sit over here, don’t be offended of the table clears when you sit down.”
I followed him to a table where Hache-Hi and what looked like his two brothers and sister were sitting, along with the boy in the flannel that I’d seen earlier. They looked up with dark expressions, but didn’t move when I sat down.
“Hey guys. So, this is my cousin Zinnia. You met Hache-Hi, this is his cousin Chula, her boyfriend Honani and his brother Honan. That’s Hunter, which means Mira will be here soon, so you’ll know her when she gets here.”
“Hi,” I said with as congenial a smile as I could manage. “I hope there’s not a test later, I think I’m on name overload at this point.”
No one smiled, or even looked at me. Lee gave me an apologetic look. “Hey Chula, I saw your dad in the woods yesterday, felling that big hedge by the river fork. You finally getting your hope chest?”
She nodded at him with a sideways look at Honani who smiled around a mouthful of corn. I couldn’t touch my food. She grinned to, then caught me looking at her and the smile disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. What was wrong with these people?
“What time do they pass out the meds?” I asked Lee under my breath as a tall pretty girl with long brown hair sat down. She eyed me curiously as she snuggled close to Hunter who patted her leg before going back to shoveling food in his mouth.
“You think that is clever?” Hache-Hi said looking up from his plate. “Insinuating that we are crazy?”
“Aren’t you?” I shot right back, tired of all the word games.
“Zin..”
“No, Lee, enough! This is insane the way all these people are treating me, like I did something wrong! The only thing I’ve done is somehow make the mistake of actually being related to one of you people! Not that I ever even knew till a few days ago! I’m sick of it! Who do you people think you are?”
“Not people!” Hache said standing up and leaning over the table to yell in my face. “Not people! We are better than people! You humans and your stinking cowardice of anything different! It is YOUR fault we have to hide away in this stinking hole, unable to run free!”
“Enough!” Mr. West yelled, hurrying to our table. “Hache-Hi! I very specifically told you what could and could not be discussed in front of our new student! Did you consider why you should listen?”
“I understand better than you do old man! But if it weren’t me, it would have been another, before they scared her away with stories to tell. Tell him Durante!”
Durante smiled from two tables over. “I have no idea what you are talking about puppy. All I hear is barking. Or is it howling? All I asked of her is to dine with me. I see she has refused my offer. No matter, we will rectify these small matters soon enough.”
“Hache-Hi, I’d like to see you in my office. Miss Mattson, if anyone gives you any problems, come and see me right away.”
I nodded, but all I could really think was that if someone were giving me problems in this place, they weren’t just going to let me go get him.
He left and Hache-Hi followed him, glaring murder at me.
“Was he for real?” I asked Lee. “He really thinks he’s not human?”
Lee sighed. “Grim is going to kill me. He isn’t human Zin, none of us are.”
I laughed and looked around the table, but they all stared back at me in either anger or in solemn silence. “Right. What are you then? Ghosts? Vampires?”
“Not ghosts, and not all of us are vampires, only some of them, like Durante.”
I stopped smiling. “And what are you exactly then?”
“Me, or all of us at this table?”
“Both.”
“We’re Lycanthrope. All of us.”
“What?”
“Lycanthrope. Honan, he’s a werebear. Honani is a werebadger. Hunter is a werebear too, Mira is a wereserpent like me, but I’m a werepython. Chula is a werefox.”
“Werepython?” I asked with a smirk, but suddenly his comment earlier made sense. “What about all the werewolves? And the Vampires? OH!! Wait wait wait, I know what this is, it’s one of those live action role-playing games, right? I’ve seen those at the park!”
“Werewolves are actually fairly uncommon. Hache-Hi is the only one I have ever known. No, it’s not a game Zin, it’s very real, and you have to understand this. Everyone here hates you because you’re human. Humans have slaughtered our kind, captured, tortured and enslaved our kind for centuries. We managed to hide in obscure little places like this until your kind thought we were stories, myths, but we have never forgotten.”
“That’s insane Lee! My mom is from here, she had to have been human too!”
“Aunt Constance was a weredear, just like Hart. She had a human child with a human man when she ran away, and it killed her to do it.”
“Lee, this is just silly! I told you before I’m not stupid!”
“You name him a liar, but you fear it’s the truth,” Jett said from just over my shoulder. “You still stink of fear little flower.”
I jumped when he spoke and leaned away from him. “What do you want?”
“I came only to confirm your cousins story. We wanted you to know,” he said motioning to Durante, who lifted his glass at me with another smirk. Now that I looked at them, they looked like cheesy movie versions of teenage vampires.
“Nice try but Halloween is still a few weeks off.”
“You do not believe us? We could offer proof..”
Lee stood then, and Jett stepped away, his hands in the air. He mocked a bow at Lee, then turned with a smile and went back to Durante’s table. I noticed as I watched him go that Edan was watching our table too, along with everyone else at his table. When I scanned the room, everyone was watching us.
“Ok, so this table is were-things, that one is vampires, what about the others?”
“They aren’t all vampires. See that girl with Jett? She’s Fey.”
“Lilias? What’s Fey?”
“Fey, faiery.”
“Faiery? Where’s her wings?” I asked with a giggle.
“Don’t be an idiot. Not all fey have wings, and most who do don’t keep them out. Besides, she’s using glamour on you so you can’t see what she is. Even if she had wings, you wouldn’t see them, just like you don’t see her ears. That boy on the other side of her, the little blonde with the big mouth? He’s fey too, Benoit. The rest of them are at that table over there.”
I looked where he was pointing and there was a table full of hostile eyes watching me. The only one not looking was the snow white girl, she was staring at a book and twirling her hair.
“Over there, Edan’s table, they’re all the elven.”
“Elven? What, like in Lord of the Rings?”
“No, and don’t let him hear you say that.”
“Him, Edan?”
“Yeah, keep your voice down.”
“She could whisper and he’d still hear her, you know that,” Chula said, her voice thick with disdain.
Lee sighed and avoided looking at Edan’s table, but I couldn’t help but look again. Edan stared back at me, his face blank.
“Ok, so, a school at the back end of nowhere, to teach Vampires, Faieries, and were animals to what, pass as human?”
“No. We are in your world, but not of it. And that’s not all of us. Over there, they are beastmasters and the other Lycans.”
“Beastmasters?”
“They can talk to animals, control them sometimes.”
“Even you?”
“No, only true animals. Right next to them are the shapeshifters.”
“Like you?”
“No, We can only turn into one animal, they can turn into any animal they want, even a humanoid. At the far end there is Gustaw, he’s a Phage, like my Sara here.”
“What’s that?”
“Phages can phase in and out of existence.”
“Disappear?”
“No, not be there at all. If you shot a gun at someone who was just invisible, they would still get shot, a Phage wouldn’t, because they wouldn’t be there. The can walk through walls, phase through anything really. On that side, over on the other side of Durante, that table is a bit of a mix. Vampires, demons, that girl on the end is a doppelganger, and those six boys there, with the one I told you to stay away from, they’re Djinn.”
“Ok, what? Doppler? Djinn?”
“A doppelganger is someone who can become anyone else, only humanoids though. Djinn, everyone knows what they are. Scary assholes who get off on making everyone around them miserable. It isn’t a wonder so many of them were imprisoned for so long.”
I looked at the boys who were all watching me with malicious smirks. Ramsey tipped an imaginary hat at me. I shuddered. “Djinn, like genies? Like make a wish in a bottle genies?”
“That’s how humans know them, yeah. You’ve read the monkeys paw?”
“Sure, we read it in school.”
“It’s more like that. That table back there, with all those pretty girls? They are the Elementals. Three of each, always a set of twelve. Earth, Air, Fire Water. They…., I would stay away from them if I were you. They are…”
“Uncaring.” Sara finished for him.
“Exactly.”
I stared at Lee, trying to determine if he was messing with me or if he really was crazy. He stared back, and I knew, he at least, believed what he was saying. I looked around the table, around the room. They all believed it. Great. Just freaking great.
“Ok, well, now that we have that mystery all cleared up, I think I’m going to head back to Grims. I’ve had as much of this as I can stomach in one day.
“I told you, Grim likes her privacy during the day.”
“Yeah. Right. So what is she exactly? Is everyone in this town something? Our teachers?”
“You are the only human to ever enter Lateo. Ever. If Grim weren’t who she was, you wouldn’t have been allowed at all.”
“She won’t keep you safe though. The time of the old ones is fast leaving us. Soon our day is here.” Durante propped his foot up on the bench seat and toyed with Haven’s hair as he watched me with his sneer.
“You should show respect for those who have made you all you are, instead of your cold disdain,” Edan said standing, those around him following his lead. Half the room stood when he did, including Lee and everyone at her table. Well that certainly helped in making the sides clear. I wondered if I was expected to stand too since Lee was my cousin? Was I serious? Taking sides in a Vampire/Elven war? I wondered if I was running a temperature. Maybe it was post traumatic stress? Dehydrated? It had to be something.
“This again Edan? Don’t you ever get tired of it. Me and mine sleep in comfort at night, soft beds, lights when we want them, luxuries, hot baths, the modern world at our fingertips. Where do you sleep at night? The cold ground with no blanket?”
“The stars are my comfort, the moon my luxury.”
My heart leapt a little when he said that, it sounded terribly romantic.
“Of course. I can smell the envy on some of yours, but not on you, so I will take you at your word. It does seem strange to me though, what I smell when so many of you look at the human. You look at her one way, but feel something different. Even my own are not immune to this,” he said looking around his table.
“You are not alone in smelling emotion,” one of the boys next to Ramsey said. “And you are among those ranks.”
“I do not deny it. The human is… interesting.”
“Be careful of him,” Lee said softly. “That whole thing was all a show for your benefit. I can taste the lies in their words, even if what they said isn’t completely false.”
“Oh Connelly, you really should learn to mind yourself,” Durante said in a ‘tut-tut’ fashion as he stood. The rest of the room stood with him. Lee swallowed hard as I tried to figure out how Durante had heard him from across the room.
There was an electric feel to the air now and my hair was trying to stand on end as I looked around. I could almost reach out and touch the tension, it was so palpable. The bell rang and I jumped. I was the only one. Everyone else was still standing just on the brink of hostilities towards each other and I decided I would rather be somewhere else when they did it. I picked up my things and headed towards the door and Durante’s laugh echoed through the room. As suddenly as that, everyone started moving, some still eying each other maliciously as the moved away in groups, but everyone moving. I didn’t wait for Lee, I hurried to my locker and debated on actually going to my next class or leaving for the day. I didn’t have to go back to Grims, I could walk around the town. I hesitated to long.
A hand, firm and cold, took hold of my arm and turned me around. “Our next class is the same, you will walk with me,” Durante said moving a stray strand of hair off my face with his free hand.
“I don’t think so,” I said trying to pull my arm out of his grasp. He didn’t release me and his smile looked forced.
“I insist.”
“Let go, you’re hurting me.”
“Not yet, but I can arrange it.”
He was so utterly serious that I had to pause and try and gauge whether he was lying or not. I didn’t think he was. “I’ll scream if you don’t let me go.”
“I think that might excite me,” he said as if he were wondering if it might be true.
“Look, I get that you’re all having fun in the land of Oz, even the costumes are great, but I really don’t want any part of it.”
“Not even if I promised you the ruby slippers?”
He was mocking me and it was making me angry. “LEE!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.
He smirked as everyone passing by ignored me utterly. Of my cousin there was no sign. He backed me against my locker and leaned close enough that his hair was framing my face. “You know something interesting Zinnia? When a vampire bites you, you can never hide from him, or her, again.” He leaned in closer, his mouth brushing my neck. My stomach clenched as I began trembling all over again. “You can’t even phase out enough to hide. That was Sara’s mistake, and Connelly’s problem now. So keep calling, but your Lee can’t help you where I am concerned. Now, shall we move past these niceties? Shall I escort you?”
“Why do you want to? I’m not going to run away and tell anyone about this place, this insane asylum for the century challenged. I’m not going to take your side in this stupid dispute that sounds like you got it right out of a video game. Just leave off!”
“You must be difficult? As you will then.” He spun away as he released me and strolled away. I had to catch myself on the wall and hold myself up as I watched him walk away. Edan was standing a few feet down the hall, watching me like I was some sort of enigma. I went from trembling slightly to actually shuddering uncontrollably.
“It’s your adrenaline,” he stated watching me hug myself. “Calm yourself and it will stop.”
“No shit? What do you care anyways? You get accosted by a lunatic who thinks he’s the king of the teenage vampires and see how calm you can make yourself.” I spun away from him and stalked down the hall. I had rounded the corner when I realized I didn’t have my class sheet with me and I had no idea what class I had next. I turned around and headed back to my locker and was shocked when Edan handed me the sheet as he walked by. He said nothing, just kept walking, and I watched him walk with a mix of trepidation and admiration. Why did they have to be such pretty nut jobs?
I looked at my class number and headed down the hall, very unsurprised that it was the same class he had gone into. The teacher had her back to the class writing on the board, so I stood and waited for her. She jerked when she turned around like I had scared her, then scowled at me. “Sit down!” she demanded angrily and I rolled my eyes as I sat in the closest of the two empty seats. Hache-Hi glared at me as I sat from the seat behind me and I considered moving to the other for a moment, then decided he and his grudge could go to hell. I was done playing their game.
“You’re assignment was to read chapters eight and nine, and be ready to summarize in fifty words or less they way the author misinterprets The Faiery Courts. Elwen, yes, go ahead.”
My eyes jerked to the small girl with the tightly curled golden locks and bright blue eyes. She began reading from a notepad a list of several discrepancies between the actual faiery court and what the author wrote. I began laughing hysterically. Everyone looked at me as if I had just gone mad, but it was all just to much.
“Very freaking funny, all of you, but this is over the top, don’t you think? Where’s a phone in this stinking town, I’m getting the hell out of here.”
“Sit down!” the teacher shrieked and I stopped laughing and blinked at her. She wasn’t kidding around, he face bright red with anger. “Who are you to mock our ways? To belittle them? You ignorant human! I should..”
“Mrs. Turner,” Hache-Hi said standing up, “I’ll take her to Mr. West.”
“Fine, get her out of here before I do something I’ll regret.”
Hache-Hi wasn’t gentle about grabbing my arm and pulling me out of the room.
“I can walk myself,” I said sulkily, trying to pull away, but he didn’t let go or slow down. He walked me past the office and right out the front door before I could register what was going on through the shock enough to worry. He was the one who had suggested killing me! I tugged harder but he didn’t let go. He spun me to face him several yards in front of the school, and I noticed in a disconnected abstract way that his silken hair looked stunning in the sunlight.
“Where are your people from? Not here, your dads people?”
“Uh, east Illinois?”
“Where did your ancestors come from?”
“Oh, Sweden, my grandfather was Swedish.”
“So if I were to say Swedish law was a joke, something to be disdained, how would you feel?”
“Why do I care what you think?”
“Ok, hypothetically, if you were Jewish, and a German came along saying Hitler was right, and the holocaust a joke to be laughed at, would you be angry?”
“Sure, what are you getting at? I know you aren’t comparing Faiery Court to the Holocaust.”
“If your people were mistreated by a people, and those people came along and laughed at you, you would be angry. Like Mrs. Turner is angry that a human would laugh at her heritage. You need to understand that we are not joking about this thing. None of us. So pay careful attention, because I shall not perform for you again.” He stepped back and I rubbed my arm angrily, wondering if there would be a bruise.
He stared hard at me until I looked at him and he had my complete attention, then he dropped suddenly to his hands and as quick as a blink, black fur rolled out of his back and completely enveloped him, and a wolf with bright golden eyes looked up at me.
My jaw dropped, then I did, my head bouncing off the pavement with a crack.
I dreamed of a huge black wolf circling me, asking me for my blood to drink as he traveled to the moon in luxury. My head swam and I felt sick suddenly. Someone turned my head as I vomited and I heard voices.
“You should have brought her to me!”
“I had to show her first, where is Edan?”
“What if he won’t heal her?” Lee asked anxiously.
“I would not refuse anyone healing.” Edan’s voice was a balm on my head and stomach, the pain just washed away, and with it, my nausea. I opened my eyes and stared up at him and his perfect face. His eyebrow furrowed, but not in anger this time. I opened my mouth, but didn’t speak, words weren’t there. His huge hand was on my face I realized when he moved it just slightly, and it was so warm and comforting. Durante’s had had been so cold and absent of life, Edan’s was the opposite. He was full of life and warmth.
“Do you really sleep outside with the stars?” I asked finally and his mouth twitched like he wanted to smile. He nodded slightly and I saw suddenly what I couldn’t see before. His ears had points. Not the cheesy Spock ears you could get at a novelty store, but real life pointy ears. “Where did those come from? They weren’t like that before.”
“You just couldn’t see them before. I healed you, shared part of myself with you, it will take time till I can hide anything from you again.”
“Will you?”
“No.”
I nodded and looked over at Lee who still looked worried, then at Hache-Hi who looked nervous and exhausted. “He was a wolf!” I remembered out loud. “Or was that a dream?”
“I was a wolf,” he agreed with a scowl. “And you dropped like a ton of bricks.”
“Not a ton,” I said grumpily. A ghost of a smile passed his face and Lee laughed out loud.
“I think she’s ok, Don’t you Mr. West?”
“Yeah, you boys go back to class, I want to talk to Miss Mattson.”
I sighed when Edan pulled his hand away and sat up as they filed out of the little nurses office that was plainly attached to the office. It felt like half my energy left when he took his hand away.
“So, despite my best efforts, the student body managed to tell you about Lateo. Your’s is an unfortunate situation Miss Mattson, because here’s the thing. If you had never found out about us, you could have left here in a few days with the foster family we had your fathers lawyer setting up for you, but now that you have, well, leaving isn’t an option.”
“Till I’m eighteen?”
“Ever. Hold on, now, settle down, I tried to prevent it, but your fellow students were adamant that you find out for some reason. I know there’s tension between the students, a lot of it, and I even know what it’s about. You being here, I think you can ease a lot of that if you take the right approach to things. First off, stop being so judgmental. Don’t assume you know all there is to know about the world. It’s not wrong just because you’ve never seen it before. Also, don’t be so quick to pick sides. Step back, take a good long look, don’t let anything blind you. Be impartial. See what I’m getting at?”
“Yeah, you want me to stop the dispute between Durante and Edan. Who’s the Jets and who’s the Sharks?”
“Sarcasm is a defense mechanism Miss Mattson.”
“I have a right to be defensive. Vampires want me for dinner, werewolves hate me, and god knows what all else you have here, and they all hate humans, and I’m the only human any one of them can get their hands on. Lucky me. Excuse me if I make myself a sword out of sarcasm.”
His mouth quirked like he wanted to smile. “All right Miss Mattson, you can go to class now. I suggest you apologize to Mrs. Turner.”
“Yes sir.”
“I’m not your sir.”
“Yeah, right, Mr. West, got it.”
I left his office and considered just walking out the front door. My mind was going into overdrive as I tried to actually think about everything I had been exposed to in the past several minutes. Werewolves. Vampires. Elves. Seriously? I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to clear my mind, trying to get past the sane part of me screaming that it wasn’t real. No part of this move had been sane, so why should it get easier? Instead of panicking over whether these things were actually real, I tried to actually think about what it was I was dealing with. What did I know about vampires? Bloodsucking, murderous day sleepers who hate sunlight. But wait, it was daylight now, and they obviously weren’t sleeping in coffins somewhere. Maybe I’d ask Lee.
That brought up werewolves, and other were-things. All I really knew was they change in a full moon and silver kills them. Obviously they could change on a whim, and not just on a full moon though.
Elven. I didn’t know much about them, or Faiery. Weren’t they pretty much the same thing? And Phages? Not a single clue. Djinn I had heard of, and all I could think of was I Dream of Genie and Aladdin, which begs the question, where‘s their bottles? Elementals seems sort of self explanatory, like the doppelganger did. Demons. I wondered what that was all about? Weren’t demons supposedly trapped in hell or something? Maybe it was another kind of demon. That they were aligned with the vampires, while unsurprising, was bothersome. I wondered what the whole dispute was over? I stood in front of my locker, arranging and re-arranging my books while I tried to reason it all out, lost completely in my own thoughts.
“You shouldn’t be out here alone human.”
I turned to look at Lilias, who was smiling wickedly, quite pleased with herself. “I’m not afraid of you.”
“You should be. Grim is one of the old ones, one keeping us here. She won’t be around to keep you safe much longer.”
“If you don’t want to be here, leave, I’m not stopping you. Heck, I’ll spring for your bus ticket.”
She moved closer and I refused to back away even though she towered over me. “You will be taken care of soon human, I will see to it myself.”
“Lilias. You aren’t giving the human a hard time are you?”
Both of us turned to the new voice. Jett was glowering at Lilias and she gave him a charming smile. “I was telling her how I was going to enjoy eating her still beating heart in the very near future.”
“Durante sent me for you. I do not think he will be pleased.”
“He does not own me!”
“I will let him know how you feel.”
“You will keep quiet!” she snapped angrily then turned back to me. “I will see to you later!” She spun away and Jett watched her glide down the hall. I watched Jett warily, wondering why he didn’t follow.
He turned to me when she was gone and stared at me, his head cocked slightly. “He is not pleased with you either you know.”
“And I care because….?”
“You should care. You need to be careful these next few days. Things are happening here that you should just stay out of.”
“Oh thanks for that! Now you want me to stay out of it, now that it’s to late for me to leave!”
“To late for you to leave? Why?”
“My dad was getting me out of here, until y’all opened your big mouths! Now I can’t leave!”
“Regardless, you should keep your own council for a while. Do not let your cousin or his friends persuade you to join them in their futile endeavors.”
“Are you afraid of me?”
He laughed then. “The arrogance of a human. I was simply doing as I was asked. Make what you will of it.”
“Why does Durante care what I do?”
He smiled then, a dark and sinister smile. “He has always like his dinner aesthetically pleasing.”
I swallowed and couldn’t come up with a clever comeback. He turned and left while I was still trying to think of something to say. The bell rang and I jumped, then braced myself as I quickly turned back to my locker. I only had to make it through two more classes, I could do that.
I felt someone move in close behind me and I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to come up with something clever to say to Durante. Arms moved around me and hands planted themselves on both the lockers next to me, and I recognized that dark grey sweater. I turned and pressed myself against the locker, looking up at Ramsey. “What do you want?”
“That’s what I would ask you,” he said with a smirk. He leaned in close. “Listen, human, I will keep Lilias happy at all cost, even if it means seeing you dead. Do not anger her again.”
“I haven’t done anything to her!”
He smiled again, and I was getting really tired of these beautiful people and their evil smiles. “You could ask me to send you away,” he said softly.
“And end up in a giant furnace a continent away? No thanks. Move.”
“Ramsey leave her alone!”
Lee’s voice made me feel a million times better and I stood up taller. Ramsey stood up straight too, moving his arms but not looking away from me. I looked at Lee and Sara and smiled, deciding that ignoring him would be better than giving him the attention he wanted.
“Where is my next room?” I asked brightly, trying to project confidence and failing miserably.
“It’s the same as ours, hold on, we’ll walk with you.”
“Great,” I said still trying to ignore the six foot three Djinn standing in front of me.
“Get lost Ramsey,” Lee said warningly and his mouth began to change shape, elongating slightly was two giant fangs began extending from the top. I was staring wide eyed with my mouth open, which may have ruined the effect somewhat, but it seemed to work as Ramsey took several steps back before turning and disappearing down the hall. When Lee turned back to his locker, his face was normal.
“How did you do that?” I whispered hoarsely.
“I can partial change, it’s not common, but a few of us can do it.”
“Wow,” was all I could think of to say. “Hey, I have a bunch of questions.”
“Not now, come on.”
I followed him to class, feeling a little put off that I wouldn’t have my curiosity sated right away. The room we walked into had six islands on it, and each island had a stove and a sink along with some counter space and drawers and cupboards. Refrigerators lined the back wall, and two large pantries were opposite them on the front wall next to the door. Dried herbs and vegetables hung from the ceiling everywhere. It was much more homey than the sterile environment I was used to, but it seemed comfortable. I followed Lee to an island on the far side of the room, second from the back with Sara, and tried to ignore everyone watching us. Hart came in and smiled in our direction as she joined us, and Hache-Hi looked grumpy as he dropped his book on the counter next to Lee’s. The room was filling up fast and I began wondering if the whole school was taking this one class. Hunter wandered in and leaned in close to Hart as he set his things down. He either kissed her cheek or whispered something, either way, she smiled at him and she had a smile that made you want to smile with her.
Another girl came in and set her things at our island. She was almost as short as me with shoulder length brown hair caught up in a ponytail and pale skin with freckles and smiling blue eyes. She looked sweet, even though she avoided looking at me like I carried the plague.
“Zin, this is Angelique, we call her Angel, Angel, this is Zinnia.”
“Zin, hi.”
Angelique looked away like no one had spoken to her and Hache-Hi snorted. I frowned at him, but decided to keep my mouth shut.
Two more boys came in with a group at the last minute and made their way to our island. The once large room was now very crowded and there was no place to sit. Like I needed help feeling short.
“This is Lucas and Sebastian, they’re brothers. Luke, Bastian, this is my cousin Zin.”
“Yeah we’ve seen her around. Hey Lee, you still coming tonight?”
“Umm,” Lee said glancing at me, “I’m not sure.”
“Oh come on! She’s ruined so much already, don’t let her ruin this too!”
“She’s family,” Lee said with a scowl at the smaller boy, and the boy nodded soberly.
“If you have something to do Lee, don’t change your plans on my account. I have plenty to do at Grims,” I lied.
“Sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Great! We’ll see you there then?” the smaller boy said.
“Yeah Luke, I’ll be there. Hunter?”
“We’ll be there,” he answered, his arm around Hart.
“Hache? You and your cousin?”
“Chula may not be able to come, but Honan and Honani will be there, as well as Kele.”
“I talked to Rain earlier, him and Mira are both coming, but Jake said he didn’t know.”
“And the others?”
“We’ll see. Hache, did you..?”
“All right class, quiet down. We were talking yesterday about the ingredients we would need to make clover-dandelion preserves. Today we’re going to go ahead and start making all the preparation, so if you will open to page eighty-six, the instruction for preparations are right there. Oh yes, I was told we have a new student, hello Miss Mattson, you are fine with that group. Everyone go ahead and begin.”
I watched Sara and Angelique begin getting things out as everyone else put their heads together to whisper. The whole class, all they did was talk, while the two girls ignored them utterly and worked. The teacher, once she sat down at her desk, never looked up from her book, and as I looked around, I noticed the same was happening at many of the tables. One or two people were working while everyone else talked. Some whispered, some talked openly, and some moved from their own islands to talk in other groups. The small boy named Lucas did that, slipping over to the table behind us. I watched him with curiosity, then looked at the group. Edan stared back at me, answering Lucas’s whisperings without ever looking away from me. I shivered slightly and forced myself to turn around, to discover that Hache-Hi was watching me.
“What does your name mean?” I asked moving down the counter so I could hear what they were all whispering about.
“Wolf.”
“That’s it? I guess your parents had a premonition.”
“It became my name after I turned.”
“What was your name before?”
“I didn’t have one. All of my people are born nameless, they do not exist until they have changed.”
“You are from a tribe of were-animals?”
“We of animal flesh are from all tribes and none. If a woman from any of the old tribes births one of animal flesh, they are sent to us.”
“How do they know?”
“Mothers know.”
“So, are all of you named after what you are?”
“Yes.”
“What do their names mean, all your people?”
“Chula is Fox. Honan Bear, Honani Badger. Kele Hawk. These are ones you know, that come here into this building, to learn.”
“Are there many more of you who don’t come to school?”
“Many more. More who don’t come than do. We who come, did not come to learn of your human world, but to make allies against our enemies.”
“Who are your enemies?”
“The Vampires.”
“Why?”
“It has always been so. Our blood is poison to them, like their bite is venom to us.”
“If a black widow bit me, I would die, but that doesn’t mean that I will make it my mortal enemy.”
“It is more than our natural repellants to each other. They seek to set themselves up as gods, rule this world as gods.”
“Now do be fair,” Durante said, suddenly leaning over my shoulder. I leaned away, but couldn’t move away from him without trying to move Hache-Hi out of the way, who had stepped closer with a low grown in his throat as soon as Durante appeared. Between them and the counter, I was trapped. “Tell her everything now. We do want to leave this place, come out of hiding. If humans happen to have a fascination with us, well, we are surely not adverse to a few new ‘friends’. There are large groups of humans who no longer consider us the threat we once were. Unlike you, my furry friends. What happened to your sister? Ahh yes, the CDC still has her I believe.”
Hache-Hi snarled and only Edans arm on his shoulder kept him from going for Durante’s throat with his elongated canines and ragged teeth.
“And here is the other set of cowards. Not afraid of being hunted down and trapped like the dog here, but afraid of humans coming in to meddle in the forests, take pictures, point. Tell me Zinnia. If you knew a community of gods most beautiful creatures lived in a local forest, would you want to go have a look for yourself? Wouldn’t the whole world want to come have a look? Drive out the animals, destroy the plants, cut down the precious trees. That is their fear. Unfounded. They put to much stock in themselves. Me and mine can leave, do as we please and leave them to rot in this hole. Will they let us? No, the old ones keep us here, all of us who do not wish to be here, even you.”
“Durante, do not anger me,” Edan said softly, and Durante left, going back to his own table with a chuckle.
“He is a liar,” Lee said to me. “He thinks because vampires are so well accepted in American pop culture, that they will be well received. Maybe they will, but they won’t leave us alone. There is enmity to old there. They will set humankind on us like rabid dogs.”
“So why not go someplace else? Hide somewhere they can’t find you?”
“This place is old, It holds a special magic. There are no places like that in America. There’s one in Ireland, but the things that live there now will not welcome us. There is one in Russia, but it would be to hard to move all of us there. The one in Australia is easiest for us to get to, but they know about it.”
“So why haven’t you destroyed them yet? They talk openly of destroying all of you.”
“We cannot, just as they can’t either. The magic in this place keeps us from killing each other.”
“How?”
“We don’t know, only the old ones know.”
“Is that why they say they are going to kill the old ones?”
“Idle threats,” Edan said. “The old ones cannot be killed.”
There was laughter from Durante’s table and the teacher looked up then. “Everyone keep busy now. Make sure everything is ready, tomorrow we’ll be making the preserves.”