Tania and her four friends, full after a trip to the local ice cream parlour, were laughing at one of Jill’s crazy stories as they headed back to campus when they heard a voice calling from behind them.
“Tania!” Aiden shouted as he ran up to them. “Have you seen Alex or Theron today?”
“No,” Tania replied frowning.
“Fuck!”
“Is something wrong? Do you need help with something?”
Aiden ran one of his hands through his red-blond hair. The closer his hair got to the centre of his head the more red was in it. Just like a fire, Tania thought mildly amused. “I hate to bother you but if you’re not busy that’d be great. I just really need at least one other person to help.”
Tania nodded. “Sure,” She said before turning to her friends. “Sorry guys I’ll see you at dinner ok?”
The other girls glanced at Aiden and then at Tania. “Alright. If you’re not there we’ll come and hunt you down,” Chloe promised.
Laughing Tania waved to them as she followed Aiden. He led her through the backstreets that held only houses and student apartments until they came to a lot empty except for dead brown grass, which backed onto the slow-moving creek. Aiden went down the bank first and then helped Tania slide carefully down the muddy slope.
“I really am sorry about this but she won’t come out,” He said indicating the large rusted metal pipe that was sluggishly pouring brown water into the creek. “I’ve tried everything but she won’t listen. I figured either Theron could force her out or Alex could charm her out but…”
“What is she?”
“A pegaeae. A kind of water spirit. I would ask Ilana but the last time she tried to talk to a water spirit it ended in a shouting match. It took Alex, with his charm on full power, an hour to calm the pair of them down and another half-hour to get the naiad out of the fountain.”
Tania flashed a smile at Aiden before squatting down in front of the pipe and looking into its dark depths. “Hello?” she called.
“Go away child of fire,” came the waspish reply.
“Umm, Aiden’s standing over by the tree if you mean him. My name’s Tania.”
Suddenly a pair of blue-green eyes appeared and stared at her. “You smell of the fire one. Be wary of that one. He lies. Claims to be of the Wayde clan. But he does not fool me. He is of fire.”
“Well I don’t know about clans but Wayde is his last name. And Aiden brought me here to help you if you want it. It can’t be at all comfortable in there. If you’re stuck I can try my best to help.”
The pegaeae drew back, eyes disappearing back into the blackness, as she thought it over. “You come with the child of fire and yet you are untouched by fire. How has this come to pass?”
Tania blinked not entirely sure what she was asking. “Uh, Aiden brought me to help you. And, um, he can control himself so he doesn’t burn people?”
The eyes reappeared and stared deeply into Tania’s, almost as if the creature was reading her soul. “You are a human child. That is well. I will gladly accept your aid. Just keep the fire one from me.”
Whole face breaking into a grin, Tania nodded. “Aiden she wants you to keep your distance but she says she’ll let me help her.”
Aiden let out a sigh of relief. “Thanks Tania.”
“No prob,” She told him before turning back to the pegaeae in the pipe. “Now how did you get stuck in there?”
The creature moved forward and Tania found herself staring. It was one thing to be told there were spirits like dryads and nymphs but it was quite another to see one. Especially one so different from a human. Covered in glittering blue scales, her head topped with slick green hair, the pegaeae was strangely cute, at least to Tania’s mind. “It is my tail. It has become caught and I cannot free myself,” the water spirit explained, moving her tail forward so that it too came into view. As with the rest of her body it was covered in shimmering scales but these were shaded more towards the blue-green of her large eyes then the deep blue of the rest of her body. Wrapped tight about the thinnest part of her tail, right before it flared out into multiple fins, was a plastic string of some kind, the other end heading back into the depths of the pipe.
Tania winced. “That has to hurt.”
The pegaeae smiled. “It is not so bad. It will be much less unpleasant once it has been removed.”
Nodding, the girl reached forward and attempted to snap the string by pulling it apart but had no luck. It was too strong. Frowning, she turned back towards Aiden and called “You don’t happen to have scissors or a knife or anything? I can’t break the string.”
Aiden shook his head. “No I don’t. I normally just burn through whatever needs cutting.”
Sighing, Tania turned back to the surprisingly strong string. After several more failed attempts, she gave the pegaeae a stern look. “Now this is getting us nowhere. I can’t break this string no matter how hard I pull. Aiden can burn through it and have you out of here in two seconds flat. I promise you he’s not going to hurt you so will you please let him help?”
“He is a child of fire,” the creature hissed.
“I don’t care. He’s the one who’s been trying to help you the longest. He brought me. Now are you going to let him help you or are you going to spend the rest of your life stuck in a pipe?” Tania asked, hands on hips.
Glancing at Aiden suspiciously from where she sat, the pegaeae replied “I will allow his aid but only on the condition that he not touch me in any way. And you will remain here as well, human child.”
“That’s fine. I just want to get you out of this pipe,” Tania told her before calling out to the elemental again. “Aiden can you come over? She says as long as you don’t touch her you can burn through the string.”
“Are you serious?” Aiden asked as he approached slowly. “She’s not going to freak out and shoot water at me again is she?”
Tania raised an eyebrow at the creature which currently had one arm wrapped about her neck, the scales feeling oddly smooth and cool against her skin. “You shot water at him?”
“He is a child of fire and worse, a liar. It was just.”
“I didn’t lie,” Aiden retorted, squatting down beside Tania and looking into the pipe, carefully leaning away from the pegaeae as he did so.
“Clan Wayde is of water,” the creature snapped.
“I am well aware of that,” Aiden replied, reaching into the pipe and touching the taut string with one finger. “That’s my family you’re talking about.” His finger seemed to light on fire for a moment and then the string snapped, accompanied by the unpleasant odour of burnt plastic.
“You did it Aiden!” Tania cried happily.
Aiden smiled back at her. “I have my uses.”
“So it appears you do, child of fire,” The pegaeae added.
“Here let me get the rest of the string off your tail,” Tania said.
The water spirit pulled herself out of the pipe, both arms now around Tania’s neck as she slid her tail into the girl’s lap. Moving carefully so she wouldn’t hurt the creature, Tania unravelled the string, stuffing it into her pocket so she could throw it out later. Finished, she carried the pegaeae to the edge of the creek and gently set her down at the edge. The little creature smiled up at her. “Your name, human child, pray tell what is it?”
The black-haired girl smiled. “Tania Davies. Tania Rylie Kim Davies if you want my full name.”
“You have my thanks Tania of clan Davies. And you as well, child of fire. Fare thee well,” she said before jumping into the water and disappearing.
“I have to admit to being impressed,” Aiden remarked as they climbed back up the bank.
“About what?”
“That you actually got her to let me help her. She wouldn’t let me come near the pipe before but you got her to let me actually burn through the string.”
Tania laughed. “That wasn’t impressive. She didn’t want to be stuck in that pipe any longer. I think she was just nervous. Having someone else there to help just got her to relax is all.”
Aiden shook his head but let the conversation drop. “I owe you one.”
Grinning Tania shook her own head. “Nope. No debts between friends,” she told him before running ahead.
Laughing, Aiden followed.
“Hey Tania! Got a minute?”
Tania turned and smiled at Ilana who was standing over by the flowerbed that spelled out their university’s name and waving. “Sure,” she called back, hurrying over.
The dryad smiled as she approached. “I just wanted to thank you for helping Aiden yesterday. Dealing with that type of spirit is never easy.”
Laughing, Tania shook her head. “She was nice enough. Just a little confused about, and wary of Aiden. She really just wanted out of there.”
Ilana smiled. “I’m sure she did and I’m serious about it not being easy. I…we’ve had problems dealing with water spirits before. They hate Aiden, are afraid of Theron and think they’re superior to me. Alex and Kayne they’ll deal with if they have to but they don’t like to. They don’t actually like anyone outside their own set. I just want you to know what an amazing job you did.”
“It really wasn’t anything.”
This time Ilana laughed. “It was. Especially since you only recently found out about the existence of things not human. We don’t mean to drag you into our problems but your help was much appreciated.”
“If you guys need help just ask. I’ll do whatever I can, though I don’t think I’ll be of that much use. I’m just ordinary.”
“You don’t know how badly some of us just want to be ordinary. Anyway I just really wanted to thank you, on behalf of the nature spirits as well as myself.”
“Uh, you’re welcome though I really didn’t do much. I’ll see you later,” Tania told her before running off. I just talked her into letting Aiden help her. It was no big deal, she thought as she headed back to her residence.
“Nice job with the pegaeae,” Alex said, as he fell into step beside Tania.
“Gah! Did Aiden tell everyone?”
“No. Just us. See it’d be a bit of a problem if he told everyone being as how…”
Tania cut him off by punching him the shoulder. “You know damn well what I meant.”
Alex laughed. “Maybe I didn’t. Maybe you overloaded my poor fragile mind.”
“You are many things, arrogant, annoying and stubborn to name a few but fragile you are not,” Tania retorted.
“Maybe that’s all just an act to protect how weak and soft I really am.”
“You’re soft like a rock.”
“Hey rocks are soft if they’re really really small. Like sand. Sand can be soft.”
“You’re such an idiot.”
“I’ll have you know my average last year was ninety-four.”
“How many times had you taken the courses?”
Alex grinned. “You’re starting to know me. I’d only taken Intro to Psych twice.”
Tania rolled her eyes. “Only twice.”
“Come on I’ve spent the last, oh around four hundred years attending universities, working for a couple of years and then repeating the process. Having a course I’ve only taken twice is impressive.”
“It’s cheating.”
“Well what am I supposed to do? I need the diploma to get a job I can stand. I really have to come to university. People do notice the fact I don’t age eventually, so I have to restart every decade or two. It’s no joke, let me tell you. Though I am pro at making fake ids and stuff now.”
Tania frowned. “I never thought about it. It must be really hard leaving behind your friends, your home, your job, everything.”
Alex shrugged. “It’s not that bad. You get used to it. Besides most of my friends tend to be of the non-human/psychic variety so they know I have to go. I keep in contact with some of them. It just gets weird once they have kids. Especially when the kids get near my age. Well the age I was when I was bitten.”
“But it still must be hard! Especially when you just start. You won’t know anyone and you’ll be all by yourself and…”
Putting a hand on her shoulder, Alex stopped her. “It’s fine Tania. In case you hadn’t noticed I make friends easily. And people often go out of their way to meet me, especially if they’re from our community.”
“Why?”
Alex grinned. “Because I’m famous.”
Tania groaned and then said “Is this about the rule-breaking thing Ilana mentioned?”
“Partly. The council hates me and I make no effort to hide my disgust with the council. One of the reasons I break the rules in the first place. And it also might have something to do with me being one of, if not the, strongest vampires alive. The only one I can think of, who might be stronger is the Eldest but I only met him once and that was a long long time ago so I don’t know.”
“The Eldest?”
“Oldest vamp. He’s nearly a thousand years old.”
“You’re joking,” Tania gasped, shocked.
“Nope. He really is that old,” Alex replied and then smiled. “Goodnight Tania.”
Tania looked up. They’d reached her residence and she hadn’t noticed. “Goodnight Alexander,” She called after him before heading inside.
“Whatcha doing?”
Tania shoved Alex’s arms off her head. “Well I’m trying to eat, but someone hasn’t yet figured out I’m not his personal armrest and so is interfering with my ability to do so.”
Alex laughed and took the chair beside her. “Far be it for me to deprive you of your sustenance,” he told her before turning to her friends. “I don’t believe we’ve been properly introduced yet. I’m, as I think you all know already, Alex Donovan.”
“Sarah Gilbert,” The blue-eyed girl said, tossing her head coquettishly.
“Chloe MacKay,” The blond announced, head held high.
“Jill White,” The girl told him grin flashing white below her green-brown eyes.
“Madison Cleary,” The tawny haired girl said smiling softly.
“Well it’s a pleasure to finally know all your names,” Alex replied, flashing them a winning smile.
Tania made a gagging noise beside him.
“What’s the matter? Isn’t your breakfast any good?” He asked.
“Watching you trying to be charming is sickening,” Tania retorted.
“Trying? I’m not trying to be charming. I am charming,” Alex told her, grinning.
Tania rolled her eyes and then turned to her friends. “Do you see what I have to put up with?” She complained.
The others laughed and it wasn’t long before Alex and Tania joined in as well.
“So what movie are we watching tonight?” Tania asked Alex as they walked through the darkened campus.
“Some weird old ghost movie Kayne found. He says it’s funny,” Alex replied, waving to several people as they approached the archway that marked the edge of campus.
“Funny? Is it a comedy?”
“No it’s a horror. It’s apparently so bad it’s funny. Especially since it’s supposed to be scary.”
The girl grinned. “Well you lot would be the experts on what’s scary and what’s not.”
Alex laughed. “You bet we are. We’re the things that go bump in the night.”
“You know I can’t think of a single instance where I’ve seen you bump into something. Are you sure that’s what you should be calling yourself?”
The vampire ruffled her hair. “Don’t be smart,” he told her.
Tania slapped his hand away and glared at him. “Don’t mess my hair up.”
“You started it.”
“You do worse on a regular basis,” She shot back
“But I’m charming.”
“The hell you are.”
Grinning, Alex led the way up the stairs to the apartment, holding the door open for Tania with an overly elaborate bow, making her laugh.
“Hello Tania,” Ilana welcomed her before switching her gaze to Alex, “Shut the door. It’s cold out.”
“What I don’t get a greeting?”
“No.”
“Someone thinks highly of themselves especially since this is my apartment.”
“Will you just sit down?” Theron grumbled. “I want to see this movie.”
Alex made a show of moving as slowly as he could across the room, earning himself several hurled pillows. Laughing he flopped down beside Tania. The positions they’d had last week seemed to be permanent as everyone was in the same places. Feeling a nudge on the back of her head, Tania turned and came face to face with a pop can. Staring for a moment in surprise, she grabbed and then smiled at Kayne. “Thanks,” she told him.
“No problem,” He called back before starting the movie.
From the get go the movie was terrible. It was some forty years old so the picture was sketchy but the actual plot of the movie was even worse. Tania wasn’t entirely sure what was going on other then this ghost was apparently trying to kill four men but the whole thing was so far from scary it really was funny. The others seemed to think the movie spoke for itself because they weren’t making comments, they just kept laughing every time the ghost appeared. Theron had taken to saying boo every time it showed up.
The ghost had just managed to kill the second man when there was a knock at the door and everyone froze, Kayne pausing the movie as all their heads turned towards the door.