Page 18 of Of Spindles and Nightfall
And the world around her grew fuzzy and then faded.
Aryana held the bundle of red tulip flowers out to Terrance, the young human man that had captured her heart. She’d spent last evening gathering them from a distant field.
The lanterns in the small cabin glinted off his pale hair. His gentle blue eyes lit up as he took the blossoms in his grasp. “Thanks Aryana, you’re a lifesaver.”
She forced a smile.
His sister, Joy, clasped her hands together at her side. “They’re so beautiful. Oh, Ella will love them.”
Terrance rose from the rickety wooden bench next to the old dining table. He straightened his clothes. On this occasion, he had combed his wavy blonde hair away from his face, and his dark brown suit was immaculately pressed.
“Well, I’m off.” He winked at Aryana and his sister. “Wish me luck.”
“Wait,” Joy said, and she stepped close and adjusted his collar, making sure the tiny teeth marks in the skin by his neckremained hidden. She cuffed him on the shoulder. “Can’t let her think the wrong thing. Not on an occasion such as this.”
“Thanks, sister.” He turned his bright smile on Aryana. “Thanks again for the flowers.”
She could only nod, her heart beginning to shatter. And with that, he turned and stepped out the entrance to the cabin where the three of them lived with Terrance and Joy’s parents.
Joy gripped her arm. “Let’s follow and watch from a distance,” she whispered conspiratorially.
Aryana didn’t want to watch. But she would anyway, because a part of her needed to see. So they walked out into the night, headed down the road toward the village.
The light of the moon shone above, and torches lit the path on the way into town while firelight bugs danced below the boughs of the trees, giving the very air itself a romantic feel.
Terrance and Joy had found Aryana a week after running from her uncle. She’d holed up in their barn, weak, nearly unconscious. She’d had a run in with a giant in the woods who’d strayed into their kingdom and had left her body broken and bruised. Not knowing what she was, Terrance and Joy had taken pity on her and tended to her wounds. When her thirst was no longer endurable, revealing her vampire nature, Terrance and Joy again took pity on her and let her drink their blood until she recovered. They still permitted her to partake from them when her hunger became unbearable.
She’d never experienced compassion such as that from anyone. They’d brought her in and treated her like family. She owed them her life.
And somewhere in the process, she’d ended up falling for Terrance’s kind smile and thoughtful manner.
“Look,” Joy said. “Ella’s meeting him on the road. Oh, they are going into the forest. Let’s go after them… discreetly.”
Aryana held in a snort. She didn’t think Joy had ever done anything discreetly in her life. But she followed the human girl through the brush. Her friend was the twin image of her brother. Long pale hair and bright blue eyes that were always sparking with excitement. Joy was well named.
Her friend’s fingernails dug into Aryana’s skin. “Watch.”
The scent of Joy’s elation flooded her nostrils. Every emotion gave off a scent and vampires were as adept as any demon at discerning the shift in every emotional state, though human scents washed over her like relentless waves in the ocean. The heightened emotions, the racing heart that beat in her friend’s chest, the scent of her life force as it flowed faster through her veins.
Aryana redirected her attention back to the two other quickening hearts nearby. Terrance was on one knee and offering the tulips and a ring to Ella. The woman’s eyes grew large and a grin spread across her face.
“Isn’t it exciting?” Joy said quietly.
Despite the pain crashing over her, she couldn’t tear her eyes away, watching with helpless longing.
“I wish that were me,” she whispered.
Joy gasped. “What? You’re in love with…” She paled, looking at her brother, but then disbelief entered her expression. “Surely, you know that’s impossible.”
The words hit Aryana like a slap in the face.
“I mean, what would your children be? Can vampires even have children?”
Aryana stared at Terrance. Hearing Joy say the very things she had expected didn’t make them any easier to accept.
“Yes,” she said quietly.
Not as easily as humans, though. Aryana had been a conceived vampire as opposed to a turned one. There were only certain times a year that a vampire could possibly conceive, but none of that mattered. She wasn’t marriage material. Not for a human.
