Elemental: Chapter Nine, Part 4

Halloween sprang upon us like a black cat possessed. The kids were ecstatic with the annual party the vampires threw for them: costumes, candy, apples, and haunted house included. I reveled in watching Nick jump at a murderer popping from behind a wall or Freddie laughing eerily through a cardboard boiler room. He complained it wasn’t fair I knew what was coming and didn’t share. I thought it was plenty fair, telling him so before he’d kiss me to stop the words. I wonder if he realized that was just more incentive.

After the children slipped into whatever dreams awaited them, Nick and I slipped away into the forest, determined to explore new, unoccupied haunts.

“Nick?” I called out, losing sight of him among the trees. He had been there one moment and not the next.

When he didn’t reappear, smiling to assure me he wasn’t far off, I continued on in the direction in which I last saw him go. The branches bounced harmlessly away from me, almost as though they were leading me. To what, I wasn’t sure.

Opening up my senses—easy now as I had been practicing—I could hear someone just ahead. I froze when voices drifted through the greenery.

“—have tried, Valetta,” Drei’s voice sang out, distressed. “Every day and there is no chance.”

“Stop trying so hard, Drei,” Valetta scolded, and I wondered what exactly was so taxing.

“It is not as easy as you make it out to be. There are times and places for these things,” Drei asserted, and I realized he was losing this disagreement. Already his voice had a defensive edge to it.

“Do yourself a favor, Drei, and stop thinking through every little thing,” she whispered harshly. I couldn’t remember a time she had ever been so angry, especially with Drei. “Just say it already.”

“I—”

“If he asked her to leave tonight, she would be gone forever and you would be more miserable than you are now. Is that what you want?”

“Leave, Valetta,” Drei sneered. “You have no right to bother me here.”

“Oh, right; it is your garden. Your secret place that was supposed to help you remove the hate and fear in your—”

“Go!” Drei barked, his voice cracking.

I ran, terrified and curious and ashamed. Valetta had said no one stood up to Drei, but there she was doing just that. And what was wrong with Drei? On top of that, why hadn’t I thought about whose garden it was? I mean, it should have been obvious as it smelled just like him. No wonder he was so livid that night. We had disturbed him where he was supposed to have peace, or semblance of it.

“Hey,” Nick said as I plowed into him, both of us tumbling to the ground. “Where are you going so fast?”

“Trying to find you,” I lied, but feeling somewhat better now that he was by me. “Don’t lose me again.” I hit his chest lightly with the back of my fingers.

“Not a chance.” He helped me up but didn’t let go of my hand. “Come on. I’ve found a place even better than the garden.”

A few minutes later he turned to me. “It’s right past those pine trees.”

“You want me to go first?”

“Not afraid are you?” His eyes gleamed in the dark.

“It’s not some steep cliff you want me to step off of, is it?”

“You aren’t that lucky.”

“I guess I’ll just have to trust you,” I said, starting away cautiously. Just beyond I could hear running water and the excited buzz of lightening bugs.

“Go on,” he encouraged, a pace behind me. “If a cliff has managed to appear, I’ll catch you.”

Pushing aside the tree limbs, I saw what he had meant. Though I wasn’t so tickled about the babbling brook—now that I knew what water meant for me—it fit gorgeously in with the open field. I imagined deer running through with their fawns during summer and perhaps cubs frolicking in springtime. I doubted there were any bears or deer around though. I hadn’t seen any in the year I had been there, but you never know.

“Knew it,” Nick said, standing beside me again. “You watch too many chick flicks and now you can’t help but love scenery like this.”

“What’s wrong with that? You are the one who keeps bringing me to these places.”

“If I had known…” He shook his head, wearing that crooked smile of his.

“But see, you did,” I teased, smiling and tapping a finger against the center of his chest.

“There’s an amazing view tonight,” Nick said, changing the subject as he pulled me closer to the brook. “The moon is beautiful;” he stopped and wrapped his arms around me.

“It is;” my arms wound their way around Nick, my head resting on his shoulder. I wondered if Drei was also watching the moon. “A shooting star,” I whispered, following the streak through the sky.

“Make a wish.”

Closing my eyes, I made my wish, praying it would come true.

“What did you wish for?” I questioned without thinking.

“Even I know not to ask that,” Nick said, laughing. His jade eyes glowed as he looked down at me. “You’re beautiful.”

“You always tell me that;” I rested my head on his shoulder again, not wanting to kiss him. I couldn’t explain why, but I didn’t feel like we needed to.

“Abriel,” he gasped, my name barely even a breath.

“Yes?”

“I thought I saw a witch fly by the moon,” he said slowly, as if he was unsure of what he had seen and second guessed himself as he spoke.

“Do you really believe in those tales?”

He smiled down at me, a secret in his eyes. I knew he did, and I half-heartedly believed it as well. It was hard not to believe in a bit of all of that after so much had happened. But lesson one with Nick: never pass up an opportunity to tease. It always kept things interesting and humorous.

“Maybe one day you’ll fly across the moon and blow a kiss down to me,” he suggested, breezing past my remark. “Or you could take me with you.”

“I’ll never fly,” I told him, shaking my head. If only he knew…but I couldn’t just tell him. I didn’t know if he would tell someone else, or even how he would react. “You have to have a light heart to fly,” I reasoned, ignoring his questions as to what I meant. That answer was just too complex.