Beyond the Prophecy

“I’m going to kill him.”

“Tasha, please try to stay calm. I don’t feel like getting into a car accident today.”

Ava and I were only a few minutes away from reaching the manor. I didn’t want her to accompany me, but after the Pandemonium meeting she refused to take no for an answer. The meeting itself lasted a lot longer than I thought (the sun was already beginning to set) and what I found out towards the end of it was the reason why I was speeding home in a frenzy.

“You may be overreacting about this. Though, you tend to overreact about a lot of things.”

“No. I'm reacting just enough.”

Before I left the meeting, I called the manor and spoke to Kyle. He remarked that Chris was too busy to speak to me. I sent Chris a few text messages myself and didn’t receive a single response. Busy my ass. I figured he already knew what I wanted to talk about and is avoiding me. I felt the need to confront him in person.

“I really don’t think that’s such a good idea,” advised Kyle once I arrived.

“I don’t care. He’s going to talk to me whether he wants to or not.”

“But he’s on an important conference call.”

“A conference call? You mean a three-way call with his friends right?” Ava joked.

“No, it’s strictly business, though I’m not sure which job it’s for.”

All this time, I thought his wealth came from family money. It never occurred to me that he actually worked for a living. “Where is he?” I asked.

“In his office; It’s the room beside his bedroom.”

“Thanks.” As I stormed in that direction, I heard a second set of footsteps echoing my own. Turning back, I saw Ava trailing behind me.

“What?” she said in defense. “I don’t want to miss the fight! Besides, I still haven’t met him, have I?”

“Whatever. It’s better that you stay close to me anyway in case something happens while I’m chewing his head off.”

“You mean, ‘chewing him out’?”

“Right, you know what I mean.”

There were two rooms that his office could’ve possibly been, but only one had a door with a built in window. I peeked inside and immediately spotted him by a desk. I didn’t even bother to knock before walking in.

“We need to talk.”

Before I could even stop walking Chris grabbed my arm and pulled me back to the hallway.

“Let me go.”

“You cannot just barge into a room when I’m in the middle of a conference. Anything you wish to speak to me about will have to wait,” he scolded.

“I’m not going to wait hours for you to finish your meeting to talk. I don’t have that kind of patience.”

“That is for damn certain.” After a deep sigh, he retorted, “Wait here,” before walking back into the room and slamming the door closed.

“Are you kidding me?!”

I ran my fingers through my hair and turned to look at Ava. Her eyes were opened a little wider than normal, but there was a little bit of amusement in them.

“So…that’s Chris, huh,” she stated. “He seems…Yeah…I don’t even know how to finish that sentence.”

“How about, ‘like an asshole’.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” she claimed with a nervous laugh.

“You didn’t have to.”

“Man, you weren’t kidding when you told me you guys don’t get along.” Taking a few steps closer, she smiled and softened the tone of her voice. “But, there’s more to him than meets the eye, isn’t there?”

“…Yeah.”

“And that’s the side of him, the one you said comes out when no one else is around, that you’re attracted to, right?” Her smile grew when I gave her a nod. “Then don’t worry about how he comes across to everyone else.”

That’s when I started to smile too. There aren’t too many people in this world that I can count on, and Ava’s one of the few. If there’s anyone who sees a guy be mean and can still be open minded enough to not judge him instantly, it’s her. It’s why I wanted her to be the first one to meet him. It’s also why she was the first and only person I confessed to about all that’s happened.

“Try to stay calm,” she suggested. “It’s easier to get all the answers you want when the conversation is rational, so you have to be level-headed. I’ll go check out the rest of the place or hang out with Leda in the meantime.”

“Ava, no. I can’t let you roam around by yourself.”

“She doesn’t have to,” said Chris as he stepped out of his office. “Normally I would ask Hatsumi to stand guard, but since there’s still sunlight in the sky, she is still asleep. A friend of mine should be arriving shortly, one that I believe you’ve met. He can look after you until then. His name is Damien.”

“I remember him. He was the guy that came out with us to the club a few days ago, right?”

“One in the same. Forgive me, I haven’t properly introduced myself. My name is Chris Frost. You must be Ava Quinto.”

“Yep. Nice to finally meet you. I’m going to need to talk to you when you’re free. I mean, a girl has to sign off on a guy that her best friend intends to da—”

“Ok, Ava, why don’t you wait for Damien downstairs.”

“All right, but this conversation isn’t over. Oh wait, Damien used some kinda power to pretend he was you at the club right?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh cool, I’m going to ask him how he did that!”

Watching her rush down the hall and towards the staircase like a child on Christmas morning made me chuckle, but it faded when I turned to Chris.

“I hope you know what you’re doing. Telling her the truth about everything is a tremendous risk.”

“Let me worry about that.”

“And because of you,” he stated harshly, “I had to postpone a very important meeting. This had better be important.” He reentered his office and headed straight to his desk, while I walked in slowly and looked around.

Though it wasn’t as large as his bedroom, it was still a big room, especially for an office. It was just as contemporary as his bedroom, except that the color theme here was a sort of sky blue and white instead. In addition to the metal and glass office desk and light blue office chair, the room also contained a white leather sectional, a metal and glass coffee table, two windows (one of which was four times as big as the other) and a flat screen television, just to name a few. What caught my eye the most was the art piece that hung on the wall behind his desk.

It was painted to look as if the viewer was in the cockpit of a war aircraft, maybe from the 1940s, with the pilot sitting directly in front of them. The plane headed straight down into the city below as if its flight direction was on purpose. I thought it was absolutely beautiful. Classic, yet modern at the same time.

“Tullio Crali’s Incuneandosi nell’abitato. It’s a replica, but the original is safely stored elsewhere and belongs to my family. Now if you’re quite finished with your gawking, then have a seat. I still have work to do.”

I fought not to glare at him as I sat in one of the armchairs in front of his desk. “You have some nerve hiring my band for your entertainment.”

Smirking, he reclined in his chair. “So that’s what this is about.”

“Yeah. Siren’s new agent, Caleb, or Mr. Pearce, or whatever we’re supposed to call him, mentioned that we got a gig playing for some wealthy entrepreneur that lives in—wait for it—Manursing Island. The very same island that coincidentally belongs to you.”

“It’s anything but coincidental—”

“Are you out of your fucking mind? You’re risking their lives and risking exposure by bringing them here! There’s no telling what those forest beasts will do to them if they come here. You told me they’d be safe if I moved into the manor.”

“I only insinuated that they’d be safe from me. Protection from other threats was never guaranteed.”

Enraged, I shot out of my chair and slammed my hands on the table, leaning in as close as I could towards him without losing my balance.

“Now you listen to me, dipshit, we’re not going to perform for you. And don’t you ever go behind my back like this again. You may give me a few moments of nervous fright but I’m not afraid to stand up to you, especially when it concerns them. They’re like family to me and I’ll be damned if I let you put them in harm’s way.”

Silence fell. His face was completely unreadable while he stared directly at me without a single blink of an eye. He’s trying to show me that I don’t scare him. I get it. He’s probably trying to come up with the best comment to piss me off further too.

“Are you finished, or would you like to throw more idle threats in my direction?”

That did it. “Oh I’ll give you idle threats—”

“Before you continue you should sit down, keep your mouth shut and listen to what I have to say. You wanted to know why I hired your band, then give me a chance to explain.”

“Make it fast. I want to get back to Ava.”

“She’ll be fine. Damien will keep her entertained. Hatsumi will awaken in a moment, and I instructed the other servants to remain on the same floor as Ava.”

His posture went from relaxed to upright, with his hands folded and resting atop the desk, showing that he was getting down to business.

“Two weeks from Friday is the anniversary of my parents’ coronation. The celebration was originally going to be held at an extravagant ballroom but I received a phone call from my parents earlier today requesting that the event be more intimate this year. In other words, they want it held here and they want me to oversee all of the plans until they arrive.

“I employed an orchestra for the entire night, but my parents also requested a few songs performed by Siren. They wanted the guests to see something that my girlfriend was passionate about.”

At the mention of the word girlfriend my eyes opened more. He had never called me that. We’d never even been on a date.

“Get used to the title now. Regardless of whether or not it’s true, I’ll have to call you that the entire night.”

I nodded and relaxed into the chair. “If this is just to honor your parents’ request, why didn’t you talk to me about first?”

“There was no time. Their phone call came in just a few minutes after your departure to the city. I only have two weeks to prepare and host the event. With the wide range of preternatural species attending, I have to locate the appropriate food they’ll need, not to mention—”

“You’re joking, right? What kind of species? And how many?”

“There will be at least ten different types, some of which are also monarchs from across the globe.”

“Like what kind? Are any of them vampires?”

“Some are, yes. There are also necromancers, demons, shape shifters, and therianthropes, such as werewolves or werecoyotes, to name a few.”

“Sorry? You’re going to have my friends come here, at night, to a ballroom full of creatures that eat people like us for breakfast? No. Hell no.”

“They won’t be in danger, trust me. The monarchs aren’t allowed to seek out their own food without permission from the ruling king and queen of the area they’re visiting. It is the duty of the ruling family, mine in this instance, to provide plenty of meals for them. They will not be allowed to touch your friends, and they are especially not allowed to touch you.”

“But you said only some are monarchs. What about those that aren’t?”

“It’s a sovereign event. They won’t be allowed to search for their own food either. Any monarch and commoner alike that does will be severely punished. The supernatural laws don’t discriminate between the social ranks.”

“Punished, how?”

“You don’t want to know. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to prepare for another meeting.”

“Before I go, is there any chance that you can throw that party of yours on a different date?”

“Unfortunately, it isn’t possible. November 4th is the date they were first coroneted.”

“It’s just that, that day also happens to be my birthday. I was hoping to…well, I had other things in mind that I wanted to do that day.”

“The only other possible day I could hold it is on the 5th, but—”

“No, not the 5th. That’s even worse. Fine, the 4th works for me.”

“Understood. If that’s all you wanted to say, then please step out so that my next meeting can begin.”

“That’s fine. I want to get back to Ava anyway.” As I made my way towards the door I announced, “There are still a few things I need to talk to you about.”

“I know. We’ll discuss them later.”

I turned and shot him a glare to let him know that I didn’t believe him.

“You have my word.”

“I’ll hold you to it.”

My search for Ava led me to a room I didn’t even know existed: the ballroom. But then I thought, of course there’s a ballroom. Where else in this manor would the celebration be held?

The moment I entered I found myself on a balcony with a large staircase on each side. Looking around, I felt as if I had suddenly arrived in the 1930s. Though the colors throughout this room were simply various shades of white and gold, what truly enhanced its opulence was the lighting. On the wall between the many windows were cylinder sconces in an antique gold that radiated a warm light. The arched windows spanned from floor to ceiling, covered with gold velvet curtains. Two small crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling with a much larger, circular chandelier in between them. The largest one must have contained at least one-thousand crystals.

Despite the beauty of the decor, my eyes focused on the wooden piano I spotted on my way down the stairs. That’s when I remembered that Chris once mentioned that he used to play it. Maybe he can help me with a song I’ve put off finishing for a long time.

“It’s not going to happen,” responded Damien when I asked him about it. “He gave up playing the piano for a reason.”

“Why?” asked Ava. “Did he lose interest?”

“Not at all. If you guys really want to know then you’ll have to ask him. I swore I’d never mention it to anyone.”

I wanted to pry the information out of him anyway, but Michael walked in and called out to us before I could. “Dinner’s ready,” he said. “If anyone’s hungry, the food will be waiting in the dining room.”

“Michael,” started Damien, “when you get the chance I need to talk—”

“No,” he spat with a glare, just before exiting.

“What a sweetheart,” remarked Ava sarcastically.

“He’s usually friendly. What the hell was that about?”

Damien sighed. “When I drove you to the club a few days ago, I mentioned that I had a crush on someone.”

“Right, you mentioned their name was—wait, that’s the Michael you were talking about?”

“One in the same.”

“You’re gay?” exclaimed Ava.

“Bisexual, actually.”

“Why was he nasty to ya?” I asked.

“Because the last time I spoke to him, I attempted to kiss him.”

Ava’s jaw dropped while I broke into laughter. “You’ve got some balls, I’ll tell ya that. If someone ever tried that with me I would’ve pucked them in their langer.”

“Their what?”

“She means his member,” explained Ava. “Don’t worry Damien; stick around long enough, and you’ll get the hang of her Irish slanglish.”

“Gee, thanks,” I stated.

Chris and Hatsumi were the only ones that didn’t join us at the table. It’s not surprising really, since their food options were limited. Everyone had a great time eating food, talking nonsense, drinking and so on, but there was a tension between Michael and Damien so heavy that the rest of us took notice immediately. Michael wouldn’t even look at him, except to throw him an occasional glare whenever Damien tried to address him. I’m not liking this situation at all. I didn’t think that anyone had ever tried to talk to them about it.

“I had,” admitted Calista, “and so did Kyle. But the moment we mention Damien he covers his ears and storms out the room shouting, ‘I don’t want to hear it!’ or something similar.”

“Michael was so mean to him,” Ava pointed out. “I kind of feel bad for Damien, even if he was sort of wrong for trying to kiss him. They should just sit down and talk it out.”

“Heh, you know guys don’t like to talk about their feelings, or ‘mushy shit’ as they call it,” I pointed out while slouching in my armchair.

The three of us came to my room after dinner to talk about their situation in private. Ava and I sat in the armchairs by my bay window, while Calista opted to sit on the carpeted floor so she can play with Leda.

“There’s a first for everything,” said Calista. “If they can’t resolve this now then they never will. I want to help them, but in reality it’s none of our business.”

“Well, I’m going to make it my business.”

“Oh no,” said Ava, “you’re plotting something already, aren’t you? Tasha, maybe just this once you should let others fix things on their own.”

“Clearly it’s not going anyway. The fellas need my help, whether they asked for it or not.”

“Oh brother.”

“And in this situation, I can draw from my own personal experience.”

“Personal experience?” Calista said, focusing her full attention to me instead of Leda. “Are you a bisexual?”

I laughed. “No, not at all. I’ve just had…an experience, with a girl who fancied me. But it was just once, and it didn’t go far.”

“Speaking of fancy,” began Ava, “there was something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.”

She clutched a few strands of hair and brushed them with her fingertips, and at the same time she kept her eyes on the ground. I knew immediately that whatever she was going to say was making her nervous.

“Go on. What do ya need to tell me?”

“See, I thought I told you this already, but since you told me that Damien was pretending to be you half the time when we were at Escape, well…I ended up telling the fake you about it. Did he ever speak to you about that night?”

I shook my head. “Things have been too crazy here for me to socialize much.”

“I figured as much.”

“Um, if you guys want to talk in private, then I can head out for a bit. It’s not a big deal.” Calista suggested.

“No,” Ava decided. “No, you can stay. It’s all right.”

She shrugged and said, “Okay,” before going back to teasing Leda with one of her toys.

“Come on, out with it already,” I insisted. “What did you want to say?”

“Evan asked me out,” she blurted in one breath.

“Oh.” With all that had happened lately, Evan having a crush on Ava was the last thing on my mind, and only a week had passed since he made that confession to me. “What did you tell him?”

“That I have to think about it.”

“Do you really? I mean, do you like Evan like that?”

She bit her lower lip. “…Honestly, yeah. I have for a while but I kept it to myself since you like him too.”

I smiled. Typical Ava. She always puts everyone else before herself. I do that too on occasion, but I’ll admit that sometimes the person I look after the most is me. “The next time you speak to him, tell him you’d love to go out with him. If you both have the hots for each other then I won’t get in the way.”

Calista chuckled.

“Are you sure? Even though you liked him but were starting to like Chris at the same time, I still think—”

“You what?!” shouted Calista with a gleam in her eyes. “You’re crushing on Master Chris!?”

“Master Chris?” inquired Ava.

“Yea. That’s what we have to call him.” Turning back to me, she slid closer, grinning the entire time. “So is it true?”

The instant that I glared at Ava her eyebrows arched and she covered her mouth with her hands. When she moved them she mouthed the words “I’m sorry,” and covered her face in shame. I sighed and faced Calista once more.

“Unfortunately, it is true—”

Before I could finish talking Calista rose and stomped in place with screams of glee. “Oh my God this is so freaking exciting!” she admitted in one breath before hugging me tightly.

“Why are ya so happy about it?” I asked with a chuckle.

“Because it’s one step closer to the prophecy finally coming true! I’m a sap when it comes to these things.”

“Clearly.”

She laughed. “And despite all the hatred you guys have had towards each other, I still wanted a relationship, a healthy one, to build between you too. I’m too curious about it for my own good. The guys were completely doubtful about it, but I never was. Okay wait, maybe I was a little but now that doubt is completely gone.” With a gasp, she exclaimed, “You should tell him!”

“Hell no.”

“Come on, you should! That way you guys can get together sooner!”

“Or he’ll laugh in my face. I can’t tell him.”

“Why not? Nothing’s going to happen if you keep it to yourself.”

“But it’ll also keep things from getting worse. If he’s aware of how I feel, he’ll take advantage of it. He’ll think that I’d be willing to do anything and everything just to impress him or make him happy.”

“Aren’t relationships about making the other person happy though?”

“Not if he’s never willing to do the same for me.” When her smile faded as she sat back down, I let out another sigh. “Calista, you’ve known him a lot longer than I have. Do you honestly think he wouldn’t take advantage of how I feel?”

She was silent for a moment and then shrugged. “I don’t know. For the most part, it’s not in his nature to have facts about someone and not use it to his advantage. But I’ve never seen what he’s like when someone likes him beyond the physical. I’ve been here for almost two years and haven’t seen him in a relationship. Lots of one night stands, but not a relationship. He might handle how you feel in a completely different manner.”

“Maybe.”

“I have to ask though,” she began with a smile, “when did you realize that you started to like him? And it’s not just a physical thing, right?”

“No, it’s more than just a physical attraction. I think I realized it after the whole incubus ordeal.” I told her about the kiss that wasn’t a kiss between Chris and me after returning here from Aciago’s grotto, which renewed her excitement. “Calm down love, it doesn’t even really count as a kiss. Chris said so himself.”

“When?”

“After I asked him this morning, around the same time he started flirting with me.”

“He flirted with you!?”

I immediately buried my face in my hands with a groan.

“You just had to open up that can of worms again, didn’t you,” Ava joked.

“Come on, you have to tell me how it went. Don’t leave a thing out.”

“There wasn’t much to it. I asked him about the kiss and then he said that if it really counted as a kiss then I wouldn’t be questioning it. Granted, he was only a few inches away from me and brushing his fingers across my lips when he was saying it, but that’s all there is to it.”

“Awe!” she practically squealed. “But he was flirting! Did you flirt back?”

“…Yeah. I told him if there was a difference between a fake one and a real one then he should show me. After some time he walked away, but I could tell that he struggled to keep himself from kissing me. He also said that I should think of it as a complement that he was tempted.”

She pointed at me, beaming, and yelled, “A-ha! He fought it and walked away.”

“Yeah, so?”

“Not once have I ever seen or heard of him struggling not to kiss someone, unless he was clearly not attracted to them. If he was attracted, even a little, and a woman wanted to kiss him or wanted him to kiss her, he’d do it without hesitating.”

“So what you’re saying is that he’s not attracted to me?”

She laughed. “No. It’s the complete opposite. Plus, on the night that the big ass group of vampires attacked us here I noticed that he was going to feed from you but chose to feed from me instead. He stopped to think about it first. He hesitated to turn from you, even though it kind of seemed like he really didn’t want to.”

“I remember. He flat out rejected me, that bastard.” I smiled when Ava giggled.

“No, it wasn’t rejection. How can I explain this better…Oh! Okay, so you know that he has a lot of cars right?”

“I do, but I’ve only seen a few.”

“I’ve only seen one,” said Ava, “but man that’s impressive enough.”

“Uh-huh, it’s impressive to an outsider looking in. See, if you line them up all together then it’s a large collection of beautiful cars. But there are very little that he considers irreplaceable. Remember when the interior of the Porsche 911 got scratched up by Leda?”

“Leda scratched up a Porsche?” Ava said before whistling.

“Yeah she got antsy on our way here. Chris said that he was going to replace the whole car as a result.”

“Exactly. As beautiful and valuable as the Porsche is, he didn’t care enough about it to replace just the seat itself. But if there was even so much as a scratch on his 2007 Shelby GT500 for example, then he’d be pissed.”

“What’s your point?”

“I get it,” stated Ava. “While most girls are just a Porsche, Natasha’s a Shelby.”

“Exactly!”

“I still don’t understand.”

Calista sat on the round table beside my seat and placed her hands on my shoulders. “Because he loves that car so much, he’s overprotective of it. It’s irreplaceable. He wouldn’t let any harm come to it, even if he was racing with it, and it’s the car he prefers to drive overall no matter where he’s going. But if any of the other cars were damaged in any way then he wouldn’t hesitate to toss them aside and get a new one. They’re just objects compared to the Shelby. So what I’m saying is, if he showed any sign that he wanted to kiss you but didn’t, or any sign that he wanted to drink some of your blood and refused it, then it might mean more. That means that to him, you’re not just a Porsche he would toss aside. You’re a Shelby he would treasure.”