In the Presence of Enemies Ch Three

“So this is your house?”

Corsair nodded to Aaron’s question, which had completely broken the awkward and sudden silence that had filled the group of teens. Yet, she could not help but chuckle somewhat. Seriously, did he expect her to not live in the house? “No, Aaron. You see, my parents live here. I live in the shed out back.” Her voice positively dripped with sarcasm. When she looked over her shoulder, though, she could tell that the sarcasm had been lost on the city-boy. The look on his face caused her to nearly collapse into a fit of hysterics. Hysteric laughter, of course. He seriously believed her! You see, the look on his face displayed the fact that he believed it possible that Corsairs parents hated her so much that they forced her to live in the shed out back. He was in a country-town anyway, well… small city. Not really country. Whatever. But, a look of realization came onto his face in a flash. Why? Because now even Cody was laughing, and Lindsey wore a very small smirk. That Cody guy still made him shudder. Was he gay or not? He couldn’t tell. Seriously, he hung around the two girls really easily, apparently. Just in the ten minute walk? Oh yeah…. Very easily, even once scooping Corsair up and swinging her around. To her protests, of course. ‘You’re slow!’ He had countered as he eased her down. Wow. Another thing made him think; this was a very, very nice house for such a small town place. The driveway had been very long, and there was no snow on it. It extended from the dusty, red road and into dense woods. Snow hung in the towering pines, and across Corsair’s yard as they came to it.

She plainly had no pets, as the snow would have otherwise been broken by paw prints of some sort. Hedges that glistened with both ice and a soft layer of frosty white guarded the sides of the wooden house as it came into view. Two stories tall, with a white front porch, shutters and door. It was not foreboding. No, rather, it was quite welcoming. Aaron could already imagine a warm fire being lit.

Cody seemed to find the expression on Aarons’ face even funnier for some reason. He was laughing quite heartily. Lindsey however, tapped Aarons shoulders. “Ignore her. She is only being-“

“Truthful.” Cody interjected. “I’ve had to stay with her many a time.” He added, tossing his head so as to get his lengthy bangs out of his face. If Corsair had not been too busy digging the key out of her pocket and mounting the stairs to notice, she would have gone into a spasmodic series of twitches; it was her biggest pet peeve, and he abused the privilege of being her best friend by doing so.

“-idio-" Lindsey was still in the process of finishing her previous sentance when she realized tha tCody had interjected. "No! She is not being truthful! Shut up, Cody.” Lindsey was giggling. She was definitely in a hyper mood. Her olive eyes shone with excitement. A great weekend was clearly planned, no?

“Are you guys going to stand there bickering for the rest of the night, or can we go inside? It’s cold.” Corsair was still smirking, but she had her arms folded around herself for warmth. After all, it was about four-ish and the sun would be going down soon.  When she breathed, a light mist came from her mouth.

Whenever Corsair was younger, she used to play games with her parents… her mom would act as though she were a witch and her dad would be the handsome prince to come and rescue her. But, why would you rescue a mist breathing unicorn? Yes, Corsair had always been the mist breathing unicorn, especially in the winter. But of course, they were rare creatures. Rare indeed.

But that was ages past; she no longer even got along with Ariel Celeste and Luke. Ugh.

“Yeah, yeah. We’re coming.” Lindsey was swaying side to side, humming a song. ‘One of a Kind’. Interesting.

“Ignore the mess, Aaron. I wasn’t expecting anyone other than these two fools.”

“It’s no problem. You should see my house.” Not only was it like… a lot smaller, but it had maybe a foot of yard, and then it was his neighbors garage. Interesting, huh?

“Yeah, yeah.” Cody jumped behind the blonde and brunette… giving both of them an encouraging push forward. “Lets gooooo already.”

They entered the house, where Corsair was adjusting the thermostat so that it would be warmer.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The Toyota sat there now, with a light snow giving the bright blue car a coating of frost. No one had bothered with it, after the guys had moved it closer to the shoulder of the road and trees, of course. Why would anyone bother it? It had New York tags, so obviously it was some tourist. Easy pickings, right? That was just it though, anytime some one tried to get within about ten yards of the vehicle, it seemed that they suddenly had other thoughts to preoccupy them, or something else to go and do. They simply forgot that they were going to the car.

The ghost, invisible to those who were, well… not attuned to his kind, sat on the hood of the car. He formed no dents in the hood, nor did the snow fall around him. He would not effect nature too much by being there. But yes, he was waiting. His hair was to his shoulders and black, somewhat stringy. It billowed about his form in a self-centered breeze. His eyes were a bright shade of glowing red that certainly did not seem natural. But what is natural about a tuxedo wearing ghost sitting on top of a broken down car? Well, if it was he who had been messing with the cars system, then there was nothing. Nothing at all.

The sun was setting, sinking below the horizon with a last feeble wave. It kissed the earth goodnight for the day… and was finally gone. “Lyian, you did well.” The voice that came from the darkness caused the ghost to raise his head expectantly. Lyian, apparently was his name. “Thank you sir. Are the others here?”

“Yes.” The speaker, his voice was very, very feminine, stepped out of the shadows of the trees. Not only was his voice feminine, but so was his figure. His face was angular, and his almond shaped, silver eyes had long lashes that touched his cheek when he looked down. His long black hair, down to his buttocks, was tied off in a loose tail that bulged until his neck, and then flowed down in a tight rope of hair. His clothing was very eighteenth century English-style, an emerald frock with a laced collar, and laced cuffs. The lace at his hands covered his delicate fingers. The tails of his coat fell over black pants, and his boots were covered in snow. He was the one who had kept the humans from nearing the car; he was powerful in the ways of influencing a creatures mind. Be it mortal, immortal…. Or in many cases, ghost. Many cases here in this haunted town.

Behind him, a few other immortal creatures followed him out near the car, forming a sort of gathering. All of them were quite aware of the ghosts that all came and joined them. Lyian, obviously, was the most trusted of these spirits.

“Lawrence, darling.” A voice chimed from the other side of the car. A woman of exquisite beauty stepped around the vehicle, smiling. Her skin was the palest of shades, even paler than his. Her hair was as long as his, but it fell straight down her back in a long ivory cascade. Lavender eyes twinkled, red rimmed.  Her embrace was only for the head of this congregation. Lawrence, the male with the long hair. She smiled at him, showing her teeth. Her pointed teeth. He returned the favor.

Both of them.

Vampires.

Lawrence, with the woman on his arm nodded to the congregation of about fifteen vampires, and twenty some odd ghosts. Not everyone was there yet.

But not everyone was needed yet.

“Greeting my brethren. Our time for reign has come at last. Lord Thargetinsaard** has finally called us together for this.”

At the foreign name, every creature there murmured thanks to the Lord of Shadows, to the Lord of the Night. Ah yes, the serpentine ruler of the Shadow Realm.

Suddenly, and quite unexpected b Lawrence, a kind of grey-ish haze filled the clearing. Like a mist, but denser. Not quite a smoke. It was flat at first, but then rose into a column that faded away.

In it’s place stood another male, a teenager by the looks of it. Oh, but how wrong that assumption was. With eyes much the same as Lyians, glowing red, the guy was drop dead gorgeous. Hot, to be more precise. His hair was black, short in the back with bangs that covered both eyes, and were tipped in white. His clothing consisted of a black shirt with an orange Godsmack sun on it, and baggy black pants. A Black band hugged his upper left arm, and his lips were pierced with twin snake-bites. A kind of derisive smirk lit his features. “Sorry that I’m late. The Dark One just informed me of what was going on.”

“Ah, ‘ol Satan sent you here to join up with us then?” Lawrence muttered. He was not the only one. Hushed whisperings were going on through out the congregation at this demon that stood in their midst.

“Yes, he did. He wanted me to see how I could help your cause.”

“Thargetinsaard’s cause, I believe you mean.” The woman corrected.

“Now, now, Lidia. Be patient with him. After all, he is just a demon.” Lawrence looked at the teen. “The name is Lawrence. And you are?”

“My true name is Daenelet…. But here I am called Jay-C.”

“And you have come to aide our killing spree?”

“Yes. The joy of it all.”

Lawrence pressed his fingers to his lips in thought. “Well, the first person to die… must be the first person. Thargetinsaard has some age old grudge against the family line or something. Either way, a girl who is about eighteen… Charlotte Blade… she must be the first. You look like the type of guy that she might like. Why don’t we give you a big part of this? Woo her. Gain her trust. In three days time, bring her to me. I will tell you later where I will be. But bring her to me, we will kill her… and then you may have free reign with the rest of these vampires over Larietta. Deal?”

Jay-C smirked even wider, the two rings in his lower lips glittering. He had the chance to get with a girl, and then lead her to her death? Of course. Hopefully she was hot. “Deal.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“So, what is so special about Larietta anyway?” Aaron inquired over his steaming mug of hot chocolate. He sat on the floor with the other three with his back against the couch.

“Why, it’s haunted of course.” Lindsey said.

“You don’t really believe that, do you?”

“Why wouldn’t we? There have been all kinds of bizarre disappearances and murders here. Unexplained for the most part.” Cody commented. He had lain down, with his head in Corsairs lap. She was fiddling with his hair absently, determined not to contradict her two friends and put in her opinion.

“No way.” Aarons blue eyes were wide.

“Yeah. It’s totally true.”

Maybe that was what the eerie feeling about this place was…. Interesting.