The Ballad of Aramei

  I didn’t even see until now that Sebastian has lost more than his girlfriend; he has also lost his best friend. Harry, the guy he grew up with, was never even human. It’s not like he really has Harry left to go back to, either. Harry’s life has changed in unimaginable ways.

  My attempts to keep Sebastian here have been thwarted. I know that nothing I can do or say is going to change his mind.

  Rachel steps in front of me and props her hands on her hips. “I say you stay,” she demands.

  Alex and I pass each other a look, both with a raised brow.

  Sebastian smiles, shaking his head. “Thanks, but…I’ve gotta go.”

  He raises two fingers and waves at us as he moves down the hall.

  “Don’t even think about it,” Rachel hisses pointing at Alex with a warning look on her face. “That hot piece of ass is totally mine.”

  Alex and I barely hold in our laughter and we slip back inside Rachel’s room behind her. I shut the door.

  “What?” Rachel says all cock-eyed.

  She plops back down on her bed, crossing her bare feet at the ankles below. Her toenails are painted red and she wears a gold ring on each pinky toe.

  We can’t wipe the smiles off our faces. “Oh, nothing,” we say melodiously at the same time.

  An hour passes in which we spend talking about more human things and I sort of feel a little bit human again. It almost feels like the time Alex and I hung out with her friend, Liz, one night when Brandon was out of town. We gossiped and laughed and did all the normal things teenage girls do. But things are different now. We’re not so much teenagers anymore. And our gossip consists of stuff about how certain girls in the house are still delusional about being with the Alpha—yeah, ummm, he’s taken, thank-you-very-much.

  There’s a rhythmic knock on the door and since I’m closest to it, I look to Rachel first since it’s her room.

  “What?!” she shouts.

  “Are you naked?!” Xavier says on the other side.

  Rachel rolls her eyes.

  Xavier lets himself in, peeking his blond head around the door. “Not like I haven’t seen it before,” he says grinning and steps the rest of the way inside.

  Alex recoils from his presence with aversion and intolerance. I’m proud of her for that. I just want to slap that grin off his face. He is gorgeous; I’ll give him that, but he’s way too much of a slutty douche bag to be talking to my sister. I sneer at him, but he doesn’t even notice me. He walks right over next to Alex and sits down on Rachel’s vanity chair, leaning his back against the wall and splaying his legs out into the floor.

  “Shouldn’t you be in mourning?” Rachel says with a sneer and goes back to inspecting her fingernails.

  Xavier, for a brief second, looks crestfallen, but he quickly wipes away how he’s really feeling and smiles. “So,” he says, folding his hands casually on his lap, “when are you going to go out with me?”

  Alex’s head snaps around. “Umm. Never?”

  Xavier smiles a crooked smile. “How about tomorrow night?”

  Alex’s mouth falls open and cavernous creases take shape in her forehead around her eyebrows. I’m as revolted as she is.

  “How about never?” she says.

  Xavier glances over at Rachel and nods his head toward Alex. “Tell her I’m not so bad—not what she thinks I am, anyway.”

  Rachel puts up her hands. “Don’t drag me into this.”

  “No, I’m sure you’re exactly what I think you are,” Alex interjects. “An uncompassionate sex junkie who uses people and is full of himself.”

  Go Alex!

  Xavier blinks back the stun. Strangely enough, he looks totally taken aback by her opinion of him.

  “A sex junkie, maybe. Full of myself—it’s just my way of hiding my insecurities,” he says, “but baby, I’ve never used anyone in my life.”

  What kind of tactics is he using? Sounds like he’s playing the misunderstood bad-boy card openly. But Alex won’t fall for it.

  I hope not. Surely not….

  Alex rolls her eyes and starts inspecting her long fingernails, too, but it’s an obvious distraction so she doesn’t have to look at him.

  “I haven’t! Tell her, Rach!” His whole face is one big smile and the more I look at him the more I see how much he and Daisy really do look alike.

  Rachel sighs and drops her hands on the bed. “Xavier is a jackass, yes,” she says and Xavier just keeps smiling, “but he’s telling the truth as far as I know; he’s up front, I’ll give him that.”

  “I don’t care, really,” Alex says. She reaches over to Rachel’s nightstand and takes up a bottle of electric blue nail polish and twists off the top. “You have no chance in hell with me.”

  Xavier’s mouth lifts into a sly, sexy grin.

  “You’re up front, alright,” I say to him. “Telling a girl she’ll be in your bed by the end of the week is not only up front, but extraordinarily pathetic.”

  Xavier makes a face. “Pathetic?” He shakes his head, still smiling. “That’s a low blow, girl.”

  “It’s the truth.”

  Xavier laughs.

  “So what do you say?” He turns back to Alex. “How about something simple, cliché and old fashioned like dinner and a movie?” He leans forward and props his elbows on his knees, letting his hands hang freely between them. “You’d be the first. I promise.”

  Alex laughs. “Yeah, ummm, something tells me with you I wouldn’t be the first anything.”

  Xavier’s chin draws back in a stunned motion. “I’m serious. I’ve never taken a girl to dinner and a movie. Ever.”

  There’s so much eye-rolling going on in here right now I think we might all severely damage our eyesight. Alex gets up from the foot of the bed and marches over to the door, placing her hand on the knob. She smirks across the room at Xavier and says, “No. Now if you don’t mind, we were getting ready to compare our boob sizes and massage each other’s backs after such a stressful event and you shouldn’t be in here when we take off our clothes.” She opens the door and gestures toward the hallway with an artful smile.

  Xavier’s face just sort of freezes until a grin warms it back to life. He gets up from the vanity chair. “Oh, you are so cruel.”

  Alex smirks and waits patiently for him to walk out.

  “You have no idea,” she says as he passes her.

  “So tomorrow night then?” he says right outside the door.

  Alex shuts the door in his face.

  Rachel and I look right at each other and then burst into a fit of laughter.

  “You know you just made it worse for yourself,” Rachel says filing her thumb nail down with a hot pink nail file. She rocks her crossed feet side to side on the end of the bed.

  Alex goes back to her spot next to Rachel’s feet and plops down. “Whatever. The guy’s delusional.”

  ~~~

  I spend about an hour more with my sister in Rachel’s room, which apparently is now also Alex’s room, too. At first I wanted her to myself so that we could catch up and be together like we always were when we were growing up, but I found myself enjoying Rachel’s company and didn’t mind so much that she was with us. She and Alex are so much alike, especially considering Ashe, and it just makes me happy to see Alex fitting in so fast. But I never felt left out in that time I spent with them. So strange how things turn out. My worst enemy became my sister’s best friend and one of my best friends became my worst enemy.

  I don’t think I’ll ever forget Zia and the girl she was before I knew the real her. And despite everything that she did, I can’t help but feel sorry for her. Maybe I could’ve turned out like her if I thought my sister’s death was caused by someone. Zia became Dark because of a traumatic event in her life and while that is never a justifiable excuse to kill someone, deep down I know too that we are all capable of it.

  I had set out to find Isaac, but in passing Zia’s bedroom door on the way to his, I just have to stop. I push the door the rest of
the way open with the palm of my hand and step inside. Everything looks the same. The strategically placed pyramid of empty soda cans by her bedside clock, the sloppy stack of CD’s and the pile of paperback books piled against the wall and the black and red mosaic lamp beside her bed. The room had always smelled strongly of incense and tonight is no different.

  I fold one arm across my stomach and rest my forehead in the other hand and just sigh deeply, feeling my stomach harden as I try to force down the tears.

  And then I walk out, slamming the door behind me.

  Isaac is lying across his bed when I go inside, his hands propped behind his head against the headboard and his feet crossed below.

  I don’t say anything when I sit down next to him. I feel like asking him if he’s okay when I know he’s not is just stupid. And without looking at me, he reaches out one arm and pulls me toward him. I lay my head on his stomach and he brushes his fingers through my hair as he stares off at the wall, his free hand still propped behind his head.

  “Remember when we first met on that gravel road?” he says.

  “Of course I do.” It’s one of the top five things I’ll never forget for as long as I live.

  “Shortly before that,” he says, “when we were watching out for you in the parking lot at the skate park, Zia said something to me that always struck me as strange, but I never really understood it until now.”

  “What did she say?”

  He continues to comb his fingers through my hair.

  “She said, ‘you’ll just kill her, too’, because I said we should follow you to make sure you got home safely.”

  I lean my head back a little to see him. “Come on, baby, don’t do that blaming yourself stuff.”

  “I’m not,” he says, finally looking down at me, “I know I couldn’t have known what or who she was; it’s just that now that I know, all kinds of things she said and did over time makes complete sense.”

  “Well, you did put her on the list,” I say, “right before we left for Providence. You had a feeling all along.”

  He nods absently and stares out in front of him again; the motion of his fingers on my scalp is causing my eyes to tingle.

  “I want this all to be over with,” he says. “I’m tired of…well, I’m tired of everything.”

  “But it is over. Zia’s gone. Everybody’s safe.”

  “No…it’s far from over,” he says though he appears lost in some deep, dark reflection. “This thing with Aramei and my father—I fear this situation is far worse than the one with Zia ever was.”

  I lift my head from his stomach and hold up my weight over his lap with my elbow pressed into the mattress. “What makes you say that?”

  He doesn’t speak for a moment and he still rarely looks back at me. And then just like his reason for putting Zia on The List, he says quietly, “Just another gut feeling,” and slowly I lay my head back on his stomach without saying another word.

  Because the truth is that I feel it, too. And I no longer believe in coincidence.

  Chapter 24

  Balkan Mountains – Eastern Serbia – Summer 1762

  THE CRACKLING AND POPPING of flames licking the hay-covered roof wake Aramei from her sleep. In a split second, the haze from her semi-conscious mind pulls away, allowing her to see that this is not a dream. The tiny cottage is engulfed in flames. Aramei flies out of bed, tossing her worn cotton blanket onto the floor on her way across the smoke-filled room. She bursts through the bedroom door and out into the short hallway to see the flames spreading fast in the front room, crawling and licking their way up along the walls and consuming the four wooden beams holding the roof overhead.

  She chokes on the smoke filling her lungs and pushes her way toward Filipa’s room with one hand covering her mouth and nose, though it does little good to shield her face from the thick, suffocating smoke. A loud pop resonates through the space and just as Aramei passes the threshold and makes it into Filipa’s room one of the beams holding the roof comes crashing down, collapsing the entire back section of the cottage.

  There is no other way out now except through the window in Filipa’s bedroom.

  “Filipa!” Aramei screams through the smoke, her lungs burning. “Filipa! It’s on fire!”

  She pushes Filipa out of the bed and Filipa lands on the floor with a thud. But Aramei, realizing there is no time for Filipa’s usual five-long-minute way of waking up no matter the dire situation, grabs her by her long, brown hair and drags her across the bedroom floor toward the open window where smoke billows out thickly.

  Filipa screams out in pain as she’s dragged, but things are happening too quickly for her to protest. Aramei pulls her sister from the floor when they make it to the window, allowing her to stand on her own. “Hurry!” she shouts over the roar of the flames getting closer every second.

  Filipa doesn’t hesitate and still dressed in her nightgown, she climbs quickly over the windowsill and falls onto the ground below.

  Aramei crawls out next and drops to her feet next to Filipa who now takes the lead and grabs a hold of Aramei’s arm and drags her farther away from the collapsing cottage.

  “Father!” Aramei screams. “We have to save Father!”

  “He’s dead!” Filipa says, pulling her along, “The house is gone!”

  They run out into the village square to find that they aren’t the only ones out in their night clothes and bare feet, nor is their cottage the only one on fire. The entire village has gone up in flames. The villagers are running through the dirt-covered street screaming, crying and calling out to lost loved ones.

  Aramei and Filipa run away from the flames of a nearby cottage and toward the people.

  “My son!” one woman cries her face blackened by soot. “Where is my son?”

  Just as Aramei goes to grab the woman and pull her away with her and Filipa, her son comes bursting through the front door of their burning cottage carrying a makeshift bag of their belongings he had saved from the fire. He rushes over and takes his mother’s arm, dragging her away with him. “They’re here! The Black Beasts!” he shouts to Filipa. “Get your sister out of here! Now!”

  Aramei looks at Filipa with panic in her eyes. Filipa, equally panicked, grabs Aramei by the arm again and they take off running towards the forest. Only seconds in and they find themselves barricaded by a mass of black fur and gnashing teeth. They stop so abruptly that Aramei crashes into Filipa’s back and they both fall over. Filipa scrambles for Aramei’s arm, or hand, or whatever body part she can grasp onto. She can’t take her eyes off the beasts standing before them so tall and terrifying that her entire body trembles uncontrollably.

  Aramei stands up first and brings Filipa with her, pushing her behind her as they begin to step backward toward the trees. Aramei's face drips with sweat where streaks of black from the soot on the air trail down her face, making her look all the more primal in the faces of these beasts; those that look the same as the one she mended in the barn just six months ago. But these beasts are not like that one and Aramei knows it.

  Filipa tries to take off running back into the burning village, but when Aramei won’t move to follow, Filipa stops. Tears stream from her face. “What are you doing, sissa? We have to run!”

  The biggest beast in the front rears up and comes crashing back down swiping its massive claws at the air toward them. Aramei and Filipa stumble backward into the brush and Filipa falls. The beast roars, blood dripping thickly from its teeth, but another beast comes in behind it and thrusts out its hairy arm, knocking it through the trees.

  Aramei, staying on her feet, shouts at Filipa, "Run! Go, Filipa, now!"

  "Not without you!" Filipa shouts, pulling herself back to her feet.

  "I said, GO!" Aramei's voice is strident, but she never takes her eyes off the beasts blocking her path.

  Reluctantly, Filipa takes off running through the woods, leaving Aramei behind. Aramei's eyes dart all around her, searching for anything she might be able to use to defend h
erself, but the cold, hard reality is that there's not much in the way of a weapon when all one is surrounded by are trees and brush.

  She can hear the screams of the villagers piercing through the darkness in every direction, and the howls and the echo of structures collapsing under the weight and intensity of the fires. In her peripheral vision, Aramei catches a glimpse of dozens of these beasts darting through the darkness, some running on all fours while others hammer their way into the village on two legs, slashing down figures as they try to flee.

  The beast standing tall in front of her is the only thing keeping the other seven at bay. They want her. Their gnashing teeth and guttural, demonic growls send terror through every loft of her body.

  The beast pulls back its giant arms and cranes its neck, letting out the most menacing howl of them all and the other seven cower away, slipping into the trees and out of sight.

  It’s just Aramei and the one beast now as it stares down at her small, frail form. Aramei’s body shakes and trembles. Her knees knock together beneath her thin, soot-stained gown. “Please…,” she says, putting up her hands and slowly backing away. “Please just…spare my sister….” Tears choke her; she can hardly breathe anymore.

  The beast then begins to change. His tall height shrinks as his hind-like legs become more human-like. His great snout sinks backward into the skull. He raises his arms above his head and wails into the night. The bones breaking and growing throughout his body are audible even to Aramei’s human ears as they set themselves back in place, his ribs growing outward first and then falling inward into a cage. All the while the rubbery, hard skin fades from black to a more human-like complexion. His wiry black fur disappears into the follicles of his flesh.

  Aramei had fallen to the ground at some point, but she can’t recall when. She sits with her arms propped beside her, staring up at the man who was also a beast. Her eyes are wide and terrified; her mouth hangs open, her lips trembling.

  “Viktor?” she forces the word from her lips as if it’s the hardest word she’s ever had to say and it literally leaves her breathless.