DARKNESS LULLABY (part 3) (part 1 is in Novel excerpts: vampries, part 2 is in novel excerpts: fantasy)
"How are things, Nathalie?"
"Just fine, Rikken, what brings you here?" She hadn't looked away from him since she opened the door.
Rikken softly took her hands from his arms and, looking over to me, said, "I found her."
Nathalie looked at me once and for a moment; her face lost its smile, but quickly regained it when she looked at Rikken. "Come with me." She said leading the way. Once I was in the mansion, she shut the door.
"This is Adria." Rikken said as we three stood at the bottom of one of the two staircases.
"Ah. Yes. Adria, why don't you go fetch Benjamin for me? He's bound to be around here somewhere."
"Sure." I said turning a corner. When I did, a guy stopped me and told me to be quiet. "Hmm?"
"Quiet, listen." He repeated. I understood why he did this. Nathalie and Rikken were talking only to where you could hear if you were dead quiet. The person next to me, I presumed to be Benjamin. He had an accent like Nathalie and the same color hair. Through our silence, I could hear their conversation.
"Oh, don't give me that Rikken!"
"It's nothing, I told you."
"Come on! When I saw you look at her, that's what gave it away, you know. I could practically feel the pandemonium erupting inside of you!"
"Give it a rest Nathalie! I'm her guardian and nothing more."
"You can be as tenacious in defense as you want, but I know the truth."
"Really, if you're going to have callowness about this, I'm going to find Adria."
"Rikken! Look," she said, starting to sound exasperated, "it's so obvious. I didn't want to believe it when you talked about her before, but now that I've seen you two togetherand the way you look at her"
"You can't be serious Nat."
"I am, I am. I remember a month ago when we were talking updates. You had this subtle, yet salient to me, tone of voice when you talked of her. It was like you were trying too hard to cover up the fact that you were fond of her."
"Nevertheless, it doesn't matter. My feelings DO NOT matter when it comes to her safety. You know that."
It took some time to let this all sink in. So many questions were stirring in my mind. I couldn't handle any more information, so I took Benjamin by the arm and led him out from around the corner. I announced my presence by saying, "I found him." Both of them turned to face me. I let go of him and went to stand next to Rikken. Benjamin then took it upon himself to break the sudden awkward silence that had engulfed the area around us. "Take it, as I do, assume she be of the prophecy?"
What? Ohkayso I knew Benjamin didn't talk straight English (or much of anything) butwhat? "Yes, Ben." Rikken replied.
"And, partaking the reality, ampie? Turned by whom else? Assuming you. Wrong could I not be? So?"
"Yes, yes."
"Confirmed, more or less. Moreover, prophecy stated! Could the assumed not forcify urges?"
"It wasn't me, I did no wrong. I saved her from Artemis."
"Well, strike a stone! That rat, falter under so! Advantage not so taken, assuming heoh rat!"
"OKBenjamin, Adria and I will be back after while."
Nathalie took me by the wrist and led me up the left staircase. Rikken and her must have discussed my looks before Benjamin and I tuned in. Once on the second story, we turned a corner and went into the first room on the right. Closing the door hind her, she saidsurprisingly friendly"Rikken said you need clothesI agree." She laughed slightly and went to her closet. After a minute or two, she called me to come over. She threw me some black slacks, a red cashmere long-sleeve shirt, and a pair of black boots with three inch heels on them.
I stared at her for a moment and then she told me to try the items on. "Are you kidding?" I asked. "I'll fall and break my ankle in thesethings!"
"Hasn't Rikken told you? Vampires are embedded with grace and poise. You'll be fine."
After her explanation, I went into the bathroom on the opposite side of the hall and changed. I had to admit, I looked pretty goodwell, better I guess. Before I could walk out of the bathroom, Nathalie was in front of me. "Exquisite." She said, eyeing me up and down, "Now, I'll be over either tonight or tomorrow to stock your closet."
"My closet?"
"Yes, the closet in your room at Rikken's house."
"Oh."
"Well, not the one you've been in, that one simply won't do, it's too small. I'll tell him to move you to the room next to his; it's twice the size of your current room."
With this said, we descended the staircase only to see that the boys were nowhere to be found. "Those two! One moment they're here, the next, they're there." Nathalie said heading towards what I presumed to be the direction of the kitchen. Sure enough, there they were. I was taken in by the massive size of the kitchen. It had to be big enough to fit two or three of my parent's houses in.
Both of the guys were sitting at the rectangular table at the side of the stove. From what I heard, Rikken was keeping up well with Benjamin's broken gibberish. "Ah, A." Benjamin said turning towards me in his chair. "Discussing was we the case of particular to a certain."
"Me?" I asked, trying to comprehend what he had just said.
"By great! Interestingly matter of encounterence has you."
I think I understood him. "Just my luck I guess."
"Luck, not. Clouds passing over power more! Saying I guess you could, coincidence."
"Yes, I'm sure that's it." Although my answers were kind of generic, Benjamin didn't seem to mind.
Rikken interjected then, "Nat, I see you fixed Adria up. Thank you. Will you accompany us to help?"
"Sure, I'll grab some clothes and then go shopping before I come over. I should be an hour or so behind you when you set out." Nathalie responded.
"In that case," Rikken said getting up, "we should be going."
I followed as he walked to the car saying goodbye to Nathalie and Benjamin. Once in the carbefore starting itI asked, "Why do we have to leave so soon? We just got here."
Rikken looked at me strangely. "We've been here for hoursDidn't you notice?"
It was then that I actually looked out the windshield and saw that the sun was very high in the sky and leaning a little more west than east. I was shocked. How could I have not noticed before? (I was slow sometimes, but not this slowusually) "Probably just caught up in everything." I said starting up the engine.
"Maybe because you are the time stopper, time moves slower for you."
"Maybe."
On the drive, Rikken again whispered directions to me, but since I had a clearer picture of where I was driving, I could pay more attention to him and his flawless voice.
Once we had reached Rikken's housewhich now seemed terribly small compared to Nathalie and Benjamin's mega-mansionwe went into the music room. "Can I play you something?" He asked sitting at the grand piano. Nodding, I took a seat next to him He placed his hands on the keys and began. Starting off, it was light and airy, gently climbing and descending notes. In the middle, the pace picked up and the notes got sharper. But, alas, towards the end, the melody returned to that in the beginning and slowly faded out.
"Your thoughts?" Rikken asked.
"Beautiful." I managed to whisper.
"Nat and Ben seemed to like it when they first heard it." He said sliding a finger slowly across the keys, "Nathalie said that it sounded like midnight wind. Since it didn't have a title, I took her suggestion."
There was a foreign emotion that was building up inside of me that I was afraid would start oozing out of me. It felt kind of nice, actually. It was easy to see the cause of it; it was his gentle, seducing voice. It took a hold of me and was hard to break away from. "Midnight Windit definitely fits." I said, now noticing that we were sitting as close as physically possible to each other. It was yet another one of those unavoidable moments in which our eyes met and an invisible force was pulling us together. And just like the other moments, the only thing that happened was our glancing into one another's eyes (even though it was obvious that both parties wanted something more).
"Can I ask you something?" I said, breaking the silence.
"Of course."
"I thought vampires didn't sleep. Why do I?"
"It's a lingering human habit. Don't fret, beautiful, it'll pass in due time."
(He called me beautifulEEP!) (Did I just eep?) I smiled and looked at the ground hoping he wouldn't notice. "So," I said snapping out of my embarrassment, "where's the room Nathalie promised?" When I looked up, Rikken's grin sent a wave of warmth through my body. He stood up, took my hand, and led me out of the music room. Coming to the entryway below the stairs, Rikken stopped. His smile was nowhere to be found as he dropped my hand.
"Rikken, what's wrong?"
"Nothing, Adria, nothing at all." He shook his head.
"Well, obviously!"
"Sorry. I apologize for upsetting you. It's justnothing, please, let's go to your room."
"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on with you. One minute you're caught up in me and the next, you'relike this!"
"We will talk of this later, I promise."
There was no point in arguing any further so I followed him up the stairs. Turning left we walked to the end of the long hallway. To the right was his room and to the left was mine. When we walked into my room, I was stunned. The room itself was twice the size of the music room with walls painted electric blue. The ceiling had beautiful black stars painted on it. Perfectly in the center of the room was a double king-sized bed dressed in black satin to match the stars. Posts at the corners came up to the ceiling. Sheer black fabric was draped over the top. It looked like a bed that a princess would sleep inwell, a gothic princessbut still.
Framed hand-painted masterpieces hung delicately on the walls. Below a rectangular painting on the far right wall was an intricately carved dresser. To the side of the dresser was a door. I walked over, opened it, and went inside. Closet isn't the word for it. Mini-mansion was a better fit. It was the opposite of the room. The closet walls were black with electric blue stars painted on the ceiling.
"To your liking?" Rikken asked quietly.
I jumped, not realized he had come up behind me. "I guess, but which one is the room?"
We both smiled and went to go sit on my princess bed. Once we were both situated, I grabbed his hand and asked, "Will you tell me now?"
He cleared his throat and took his hand away. "Maybe later."
"What's wrong with now?" I asked, grabbing his hand again, this time holding it tighter.
"You don't understand. Adria, you can't be close to me like this." He retracted his hand from my grasp.
"Why not? Tell me so I can understand." I said getting closer to him.
"Adria"
I got closer.
"Adria, please, don't."
"Why not? I know you want to be close to me."
"I can't."
Before I could get any closer, Rikken disappeared. Half a second later, he appeared right next to the open door. He wasn't composed like usual. For that moment, he looked terrified, like a purely innocent, frightened young boy. It was then that I realized that he wasscared of me. (Well, not so much me, but being close to me.) Was I, like, radioactive or something? That's how he looked at me; like I was some toxic bomb waiting to explode. His intent was to be cautious, but I clearly didn't care at all about that. It seemed to be completely stupid to ignore such strongand obviousfeelings.
"Adria," He said gloriously with his accent, "just trust me. I'm dangerousfor you."
He stared at the floor, purposely avoiding my glance. His concern was not only all over his face, but it spread throughout his entire posture. "Come on, Rikken, I need more information than that."
Resting his hand on the door frame, he said, "The whole truth is something that isn't easily accepted among our kind. Even Nathalie and Benjamin had trouble dealing with itand you've seen how close we are."
I got up from the bed and slowly made my way up next to him. "Rikken," I said gently pushing his head up to look into his eyes. And then, something semi-incredible happened. My stomach twirled in nervousness. New feelings rushed through me that suddenly made this intense stare-off different from the others. I suddenly felt like I was in the middle of a million mushy pop love songs all at once. I felt like chemicals were reacting, like I could die right now and somehow that would be alright, like this was some sort of infamous love story. "nothing you say is going to scare me away if that's what you're afraid of."
For a moment, it appeared that he had become breathless. "I will tell youlater. Justnot now. Please."
The way he begged and pleaded made me realize that whatever he was keeping from me was crushing him. I couldn't stand to see him like that. "Okay." I said giving in.