“Aefre!” CK cries, pulling me away lest I set myself on fire or something equally as destructive.
“I’m okay,” I say, brushing him off me. “I just…err…”
Oh, the gods take pity on me! I am so embarrassed I just want this World to swallow me up and deliver me right on to the next one.
“Just what?” he says anxiously, hovering his hand protectively over my belly.
“I can’t pick it up,” I mutter. “It’s too heavy.”
“Oh,” he says, relieved, but then stares at me as if I have fallen off the top of a Christmas tree. “Too heavy?” he sneers at me and I can feel my cheeks flame with mortification.
I shrug and turn my back, not wanting to show him how his attitude has hurt me. He can be so insensitive at times. Not only have I lost my Vampire in recent times, I am now also cruising without my Dragon. This couldn’t be more upsetting unless someone swooped in and took my Faerie away from me as well, leaving me but a hapless human. I look quickly around to make sure that there isn’t anyone here to do precisely that and CK puts his arms around me.
“Sorry,” he whispers in my ear. “I didn’t think it had affected you that badly. You are still Faerie, no?”
“Half Faerie,” I correct him. “The other
half is human, remember.”
He bites the inside of his cheek and for once doesn’t know what to say. Or at least he does, he just doesn’t want to say it to my face.
“What?” I snap at him. “Just say it.”
“How is this going to, um, affect your, err, immortality?” he stammers out, looking at his shoes.
Really? That is the only thing he worries about, that I am going to start aging? If I weren’t suddenly so worried about it myself, I would have punched him in his eternally youthful face and relished the pain of my fist breaking in the process. I bring my hand to my face, expecting to be all old and wrinkly already, and he takes it and squeezes it.
“Do not be so vain,” he chides me gently. “And do not ever think that would bother me. I am only concerned that I will not get to live eternity with you and our child. It would break my heart.”
“Well,” I huff out at him. “Who knows? I guess we will have to wait and see.”
“I’d rather we figure out a way to get your Dragon back. I don’t like you being so vulnerable without it,” he says.
“Me either,” I say and look back to the sword. “I guess this is going to be up to you.” I say this with the worst case of sour grapes. I wanted to be the one to drive that sword through my mother’s cold, dead heart.
“Sorry, but I can’t let either of you keep this,” a voice says from behind the glass case.
Towering over it, is none other than Dracul, my Dragon half-brother.
CK advances forward, ready to strike and keep the sword in our possession, but I hold him back.
“Dracul?” I ask. “What are you doing here?”
“Dracul?” CK repeats and then drops his offensive position.
“Sister,” Dracul says with a broad smile. “I had hoped to see you again soon. This is even more fortunate.” He indicates the sword.
“What do you want with it?” I ask.
“Same thing as you,” he says, lifting it out of the case as easily as if he were picking up a matchstick. “It has been most difficult to find,” he adds with a frown.
“How do you know what we want with it?” CK asks, ever suspicious.
“It is the slayer of Dragons. It’s not a reach,” Dracul says dryly.
“Wait,” I say, putting my hand up. “You knew about this sword and you know what it is rumored to do?”
“Not rumored, my dear sister,” he says, hefting it in his hand, testing the weight.