War Torn Love

Two weeks to go to the wedding. Two fucking weeks. To say Nicholai was stressed out would be an understatement. He had no reason to be though, he had almost everything organised and planned down to the very last detail. The last thing to get was the musician or musicians for the wedding reception.

Nicholai had been sat in a small private room in the vampiric palace for almost eight hours now with Malachi beside him, both of them trying to decide which musician they liked best. Vampires and werewolves alike had been coming to prove their musical talents, all wanting to show their musical worth and to play for the new king and queen of their lands. Alice was meant to be helping them, but she had conveniently managed to weasel her way out of it by saying she was ‘ill’. In other words, she had gone to the werewolf court to spend time with Greg. Nicholai hardly got to spend time with his twin anymore, she was always off with her new love, and it saddened him.

He sighed as he looked down at the sheet of paper. This appeared to be the last one on their list. AraLynn Donati – vampire - violinist. Brilliant, an instrument that Nicholai hated with a passion to end the day with. You had to be incredibly skilled to play the violin, and even then it usually ended up sounding like a half dead cat trying to claw its way out of a metal box that had been thrown into the river.

“AraLynn Donati” Nicholai called, waiting for the vampire to enter. As she did, Nicholai couldn’t help but be stunned by her, not by her beauty (Nicholai could never look at a woman that way) but by her age. She was incredibly young looking for a vampire. It seemed Malachi on the other hand had no trouble looking at her beauty; in fact leering was probably more appropriate than looking.

“How old are you AraLynn?” Nicholai asked her sceptically.

“I’m 120” she said, trying to sound confident.

“Don’t lie to me. How old are you?” he asked again, unable to stop a snort of laughter.

“76” she said, bowing her head slightly.

“I asked for werewolves at least aged 25, and vampires aged at least 100” Nicholai said, unable to stop from scowling.

“Yes sir I know, but I’m really good, and I can assure you I can meet your standards and play anything you ask of me. Please sir, just give me a chance!” she begged, talking at top speed.

Nicholai remained silent for a moment as he thought. He wanted to know what she could play; he wanted to know how well she could play. But most of all he wanted to smirk and laugh if she wasn’t as good as she claimed she was.

“Let it Be – The Beatles. Go” Nicholai said, leaning back in his chair. He and Alice had fucking loved The Beatles in the sixties. Nicholai had been a doctor back then and was often treating people for perforated ear drums and broken bones from going to Beatles gigs. Alice on the other hand had been one of those he would have been treating if she’d been human. She used to be in the huge hoards of women that used to follow them round. It’s actually how she’d met her Paul.

AraLynn’s face look set as she began to play the slow yet melodic tune. Nicholai actually sat up in his chair, pleasantly surprised. This sounded amazing. He had never heard someone master the violin like that; he had always thought of it as some horrendous sounding instrument, but this girl could play it well. He held his hand up halfway through the song, and AraLynn stopped, biting her lip.

“I would like you to play at my wedding reception” Nicholai smiled, very impressed with the young woman. She was the best they had seen that evening.

“Oh thank you Sire!” AraLynn squealed with happiness “You won’t regret it I promise”

Nicholai smiled and began to pack up his things, glad with how the day had gone. He had turned to speak to his brother, but noticed him heading towards AraLynn already. He rolled his eyes and smirked, deciding to leave them to it.