Rylan showed up at Juliet’s dorm room after he was done work that Sunday night.
“Hi, my girlfriend,” he said as the door opened. Immediately, he wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her. However, he didn’t let it last long enough for her to black out and pulled away just when she was starting to feel lightheaded.
“You’re good,” Juliet said as she flopped onto her computer chair. “No weird visions. Nothing.”
“Well,” he said as he shrugged out of his coat. “I don’t mind if it’s only a peck. I’m just happy I can kiss you whenever I want and if I can make you a little breathless than that’s all the better.” He dropped a second kiss on her cheek.
“Thanks,” Juliet said, trying to focus on his attentions.
Even though she was doing double duty seeing Rylan and Seth in alternation, she wasn’t going to let it bother her. For the time being, she was Rylan’s girlfriend and technically she hadn’t done anything wrong seeing Seth. Who was she kidding? She was the worst! However, she didn’t know how to weasel her way out. Seth wasn’t such a good choice for a boyfriend and Rylan was, even though her feelings didn’t exactly line up that way. So, until she made up her mind or something happened to choose for her, she would continue this way. Besides, Rylan didn’t suspect a thing and Seth knew that she was with Rylan now. He just didn’t care. He still wanted to bite her.
“What are you doing for dinner tonight?” Rylan suddenly asked.
“I’m going over to Fiona and Halona’s in about an hour,” Juliet said as she consulted the clock on her bedside table.
“Am I invited, too?”
“Huh? I don’t know. I phoned Fiona because I wanted to ask her something and she invited me over for dinner.”
Rylan shook his head and rooted around in his back pockets until he found his cell phone. “You know, you’ve really got to get it into your head that we’re a couple now, so you shouldn’t make plans without me.” He programmed Fiona’s number into his phone. Once it connected, he started talking to her, “Hi, I hear Juliet’s coming over for supper tonight. Mind if I tag along? ... What? … You’ve got to be kidding me? Girls only? Did you invite Taylor? … That’s not all the girls then… What about the witches? Did you invite them, too? … No huh? … … … All right, I get it. I’ll bring her over, okay? Yeah… See ya.” Rylan shut off his phone and buried it in his back pocket.
“Sorry,” Juliet said, cringing.
Rylan rolled his eyes and put his arms around her. “It’s okay. She treated me to a mini lecture about being possessive and giving you space to do your own thing. Possessive? I don’t even know the meaning of that word.”
Chills began inching their way up Juliet’s spine. “What do you mean?”
“I’m always being told that I’m too possessive or protective or something with Taylor. I’m not her dad, so she doesn’t have to check in with me every thirty seconds, but I worry about her. She’s my dear little sister and I don’t want anything bad to happen to her.”
“Does she mind?” Juliet asked curiously. She knew what it was like to have someone constantly checking up on her and she had had her fill of that in the past.
“No,” Rylan said. “She’s never said a word about it. It’s mostly Fiona I hear it from, or… maybe Fiona is the only one I’ll listen to. I think if anyone besides her or Halona even hinted that they thought something was strange in our relationship, I’d just tell them to shut it. I don’t expect other people to understand. They aren’t twins. But I listen to Fiona, because she’s got a twin, too.”
“Fiona thinks your relationship with Taylor is a little too close?” Juliet asked, thinking about how Fiona told her that she and Halona were one soul separated by two different bodies. Those two were extremely intimate and if they thought Rylan and Taylor were too close then Juliet was inclined to think something was off. Weren’t they particularly understanding toward twins?
Rylan scratched the back of his neck. “We’re not. It’s hard to explain. I just don’t want to miss out on her life.”
“Because of the time that you almost died?”
“Yeah,” Rylan said, blinking slightly. “I knew you’d understand perfectly. Only someone who’d almost died could know exactly how scary it is to almost miss out on life.”
He grasped Juliet tighter in his arms, but she didn’t feel right. What he thought about her wasn’t true. He was holding her so warmly, like she was really special, but it was all wrong. She didn’t know what life she was missing out on. In truth, the life she had been living before she tried to kill herself was over. The life she lived now didn’t have anything to do with who she had once been. She wasn’t comforted and instead she felt like she and Rylan didn’t share a common bond after all.
He pulled away slightly and looked into her eyes. “You’re probably the first person who has understood. Thank you, Juliet. You’re a goddess.”
“No, I’m not,” she said a little breathlessly.
“Yes, you are.” And as he said those words his eyes seemed to turn to liquid. They glistened.
When Juliet studied Rylan’s face, she realized something about him she hadn’t considered before. He loved her. For him, their windswept little romance, that was started by a mere impulse of hers, was serious—far more serious than she had guessed. He thought she was beautiful. He didn’t need to say it. She knew he thought so just by looking at him. He believed that obtaining her was an impossible feat and he was triumphing at his success. No wonder he hadn’t left the morning after, simply lying beside her was pure pleasure to him. Saying she was a goddess was no exaggeration, he believed it. Even standing in her plain, boring dorm room, he was getting excited. He was completely smitten and Juliet had no idea why. She hadn’t done anything to earn it. She wasn’t even sure if she wanted it.
“Oh,” Rylan said, seeming to remember something. “I have a present for you, or rather, a return.”
“What?”
He pulled out his wallet and pulled out five twenty dollar bills. “I’m returning your money, so can I get the vampire out of your room?”
Juliet took the money between two fingers. “Knock yourself out.”
“With pleasure,” he said, heading over to her closet. Carefully, he tugged the white tack off the doors and rolled up the poster.
“What are you going to do with it now?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll find Seth and give it to him. He probably has a girl somewhere who would enjoy it.”
Juliet shuddered at the idea. “Why don’t you just throw it away?”
“Actually, I was thinking of asking him if I could enter it into a photography contest.”
Her stomach turned. “Don’t do that either. Let’s just throw it away.”
“That would be a waste. Like you noticed, that guy isn’t normal. Do you still think he’s a vampire?” Rylan joked.
“No,” Juliet said, poking a rumple in the carpet with her toe. “I don’t.”
Rylan looked thoughtful. “You were so sure earlier. What changed your mind?”
“He’s just a normal guy with an ex-girlfriend with a vampire fetish,” she said bleakly.
“I’m confused. Did you meet her or something? Why are you suddenly on my side when you were fighting me so fiercely before?”
She couldn’t tell Rylan that Seth had told her what he really was. Actually, she had no idea how to answer him, so she kept silent and put her shoes on.
“No, really,” Rylan persisted. “What made you change your mind?”
“Didn’t you tell Fiona that you were going to drive me over? It’s about time we were on our way. Thank you so much for returning my money. I don’t know how I would have lived for the rest of the semester if you hadn’t.”
“Are you having money trouble?”
“I wouldn’t be if I hadn’t fallen for Seth,” she said, thinking of how much money she’d spent since she met him.
“Wait. That bastard didn’t take money from you, did he?”
“No. It’s not like that.”
“What is it like, then?”
He wasn’t going to stop asking until she told him the truth. So, she did. She reminded him of the poster’s cost as well as the other photos she’d bought. Then she told him about how her entire wardrobe needed a makeover as well as her room. If she hadn’t done all that, she would still have money.
“So, as you can see, it’s all my fault. So, don’t blame Seth, kay? He didn’t actually tell me I wasn’t good enough for him. He didn’t even hint it. I just don’t like being told that I’m innocent.”
“He said you were ‘innocent’?” Rylan asked, his face a perfect puzzle.
“Repeatedly.”
“But you’re through with him now, aren’t you?”
“He knows we’re together,” she said, evasively. From what Seth said, he didn’t care two straws if she was with Rylan or not. If Seth couldn’t possibly be faithful to one woman, he had no business expecting fidelity in return. But, she hadn’t decided that she was going to betray Rylan by letting Seth bite her—yet.
“It’s all fine then,” he said, visibly relaxing. “Are you ready?”
“Yep.”
***
Rylan drove Juliet across the river to Fiona and Halona’s place. She was a little surprised when they got there because he pulled up in front of what looked like a run-down art gallery.
She gave Rylan an apprehensive glance. There were downtown parking meters on her side of the door. “Is this really their house?”
“I’ll walk you in,” he said as he opened her door for her.
“You didn’t have to do that,” she said, a little embarrassed.
“Don’t worry about it. That’s not all I would do for you,” he said easily, taking her hand in his as he pressed the buzzer beside an isolated door.
While they waited, Juliet looked at the art displayed in the lighted front window. The tastefulness of the pieces was in heavy contrast to the peeling white paint of the exterior of the shop and neighboring abandoned pawn shops.
“Do they really live here?” Juliet asked hesitantly.
“And you thought your friends from the Occult’s Addict were normal? You, my dear, live in the most sensible accommodations of all of us. The witches live in a castle on the waterfront that was built when the hot commodity in this part of the world was beaver pelts. You should see it sometime. It’s beautifully maintained and the gardens are really well cared for. The ivy is amazing.”
“Where do you live?”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
“What does that mean?”
He chuckled. “It means I live in a hotel.”
“Isn’t that… expensive?”
“Extremely. You didn’t notice the quality of my car, or the quality of my clothes and gadgets?”
“No,” Juliet said, a little aghast. She pulled away from him and tried to look at his clothes more carefully.
“I’m wearing Armani to my socks. My car is an E46 BMW M3.”
Juliet turned to look at it more carefully. It was silver. That was about all she could see about it. She had no idea what E46 meant.
“It’s a BMW,” he reiterated with great patience. “But that particular one had to be imported.”
“Crap Rylan! How rich are you?”
“Disgustingly.”
“So why were you and Taylor so ecstatic about selling me a poster for a hundred bucks when it would be easy for you to cover the cost of all our club meetings yourselves?”
“Good question. Taylor doesn’t like to do it that way. She never pays for anything for another person just because she’s rich. She has had a really hard time with hangers-on in the past. Anyone who might be with us because of our money is absolute trash to her. So, we don’t pay for much, but we did pay for our Halloween party.”
He turned and rang the buzzer again.
“So, what’s your weekend part-time job? I’m very curious now.”
“It’s more like an obligation. My father is a very successful stock broker and if I don’t spend at least two days a week working with him, he gets very foul. So I have to make the sacrifice no matter where I spend the night.” His arms came around her and she found her back pressed into his chest.
For the briefest of moments, Juliet saw the reflection of Rylan and herself in the glass door. His eyes were closed and he was curling his head in toward her like she was the greatest of treasures. It would have been picturesque, if only her eyes hadn’t looked so frightened.
They were interrupted when Fiona flung open the door. “Oh, I’m glad you’re still here. We had a little emergency with the food, but the crisis has been averted. Don’t just stand there. Come in.”
Rylan kissed Juliet on the head and stroked her back with his free hand. “I’ll take you home when you’re ready. Just give me a call, okay?”
“Okay,” Juliet said weakly.
Then he let her go and Fiona pulled her into the studio. “Thanks Ry. We’ll see you later. Thanks for being so understanding. Bye-bye.”
Then she slammed the door shut.
Turning to face Juliet, she said, “Halona and I are so glad you called us. We’ve wanted to talk to you since Friday. That was quite the change of heart you had.”
“W-What?” Juliet stuttered.
Fiona grabbed her upper arm and pulled her through the canvas-lined, paint-splattered studio to a decaying staircase. Marching her up, Juliet hardly got a chance to look at anything, but she soon found herself in the homiest room she had ever been in.
The twin’s kitchen was painted yellow with blue flowers adorning every spare spot. Their table was done up like the pages of a home decorating magazine with blue and white china. The napkins were folded perfectly and there was even a vase with real blue roses.
Halona stood at the stove, stirring something passionately. “You’ve caught us on a pasta night.”
“Thanks for inviting me,” Juliet said as she sat down in the chair Fiona pulled out for her.
“Get the salad out,” Halona commanded as Fiona fiddled around the kitchen, arranging the last details.
Soon they were all sitting at the table with fresh greens on their plates. Juliet had one bite of the salad and thought she was in heaven. She had been eating cafeteria food for too long already and it was only early November.
“Okay,” Fiona said, taking her water glass in hand and looking directly at Juliet. “Time we got down to business. Neither of us think you should date Rylan.”
“Why?”
“I thought he was a girl,” Halona said directly. “All those years he and Taylor played that game and I thought he was a girl.”
“I was never sure,” Fiona admitted. Juliet remembered her saying something like that the first night she came to the club meeting.
“And that wasn’t just what I wanted to believe. There were hints that convinced me,” Halona continued. “He wasn’t interested in girls, and he took such downright ravishing photographs of Seth. He was never remotely moved, no matter how many times he saw us all in our underwear or bathing suits. Nothing. And he has devoted entirely too much time to Taylor. Before, I thought they were simply two sisters who were never going to have men in their lives, but now… I don’t know what to think.”
Juliet twitched. “You make it sound like he’s bi and has an incestuous relationship going on with his sister,” she said coldly.
“No. No. That’s not what she meant,” Fiona said, rushing to the rescue. “She was merely pointing to the signs that made her think Rylan was a girl. For starters, I would like to say that I didn’t think the way Rylan photographed Seth was the least bit sexual. Honestly, I think he hates Seth, and I think he hated him long before they met at that club meeting. Not for one second do I think Rylan likes guys. Halona’s just annoyed that he was so good at playing the part. She doesn’t like being fooled. In her defense, there’s nothing wrong with desiring honesty in your close friends.”
“Hmph,” Halona said, crossing her arms.
“As for his relationship with Taylor, it’s a little weird. He keeps very close tabs on her, but she also keeps very close tabs on him. He only agreed to go along with her mad story because she begged him to. She didn’t want him to find a girlfriend at university and forget all about her. And he did a very good job keeping his bargain with her. Not once did he hint that he was a guy until Seth outright accused him.”
Juliet took a deep breath and asked, “So, why don’t you want me to date him?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” They chimed, “Because of Seth.”
Juliet winced. “Actually, it’s kind of because of Seth that I wanted to talk to you tonight.”
“Why?”
She looked at Fiona. “I was under the impression that you know his older brother, Chas, and I wanted to know what you could tell me about him and his blood drinking.”
Fiona practically slid out of her seat. “As long as Chas doesn’t murder me, I’ll never give him up.”
“Like he could kill you,” Halona snorted.
Fiona shook her head like she was shaking off Halona’s comment. “I’ll have to wait for Chas, but one day, he’ll definitely be mine. You see, he has a woman who lives on the third floor of his building. They have a child together.”
“Right. Nixie.”
“Yeah. Anyway, it’s been over between the two of them for ages, but she won’t let Chas go, so Nixie has a deal with him. As long as he doesn’t break his promise with her mother, she’ll live with him. But something’s got to crack soon, and you better believe that I’ll be there when it does.”
“You’re a home wrecker?” Juliet asked in disbelief.
“It’s not much of a home when he lives on an entirely different floor, now is it? And I’m not a home wrecker. That woman can’t live forever and I can, so it’s not such a big deal.”
“What are you talking about?” Juliet sputtered.
Fiona stared at her with wide eyes. “Didn’t I tell you we were the Gemini?”
“Yes, but what does that mean?”
“Welcome to the world of myths and legends,” Halona said with a wicked smirk. “It means that even though we’re twins, we have different fathers. Her father was an immortal being, while my father was an average man, who gave me the ability to die.”
“You make it sound like I rub it in your face,” Fiona said, looking pitiful.
“You don’t. Actually, you don’t even make it sound good when your greatest ambition is to become the only woman Chas ever bites. Living forever just to be the food for that cursed bastard. You can have your immortality.”
“You don’t like Chas?” Juliet asked, wondering what Halona could possibly see amiss in him. He looked good to her.
Halona slumped in her chair like Juliet had let all the air out of her tires. “I’ve never met him, so I guess it’s not fair for me to talk like that. I’m just jealous that she has someone she wants. I’ve never met a guy worth the gunpowder to blow him to hell. And I don’t want to meet Chas. What if I fell for him, too? What kind of a disaster would that be?” She took a deep breath and then said potently, “But I’m not jealous about her immortality. I never want her to suffer and an immortal body is nearly impervious to pain. Maybe that’s why I don’t understand Rylan and Taylor. My Fiona is always safe. No one could ever hurt her. But Rylan and Taylor are both human, so maybe that’s why they’re so fearful for the others’ safety.”
Juliet sat quietly for a moment and thought about what Halona said before she finally spoke. “Seth doesn’t think Rylan is human. Actually, he’s not sure what he is.”
Fiona twitched. “Seth said that? He must be right. I don’t think he would say something like that without good reason. Sirens have certain abilities. Maybe he can tell something just by looking at Rylan. Who knows?”
“What sort of powers do you think Seth has, Fiona?”
“I don’t know. The only thing I know for sure is that the power of a siren’s song is not to be taken lightly. It’s potent all by itself. Have you heard Chas or Seth sing?”
“No.”
“It’s really wonderful—perfect pitch, perfect control... absolutely perfect. But, what’s really special is the bite. That’s how I learned that I was immortal. Chas drank my blood and I had a vision of my true father and Halona’s. It’s exactly the way the old legend of the Gemini goes. Chas knew it, too. He pulled away from me and did the most amazing thing.”
“What?” Juliet asked, on the edge of anticipation.
Fiona put a hand to her throat and the next words that came out of her mouth seemed guarded, yet sincere. “He knelt down in front of me and told me I was the daughter of a demigod. Then he showed me that the wounds he put in my throat were already healed. It was really a beautiful experience. He’s cursed, so to touch me is a blessing for him. He never refuses me when I want to see him. He can’t.”
Juliet cleared her throat. “Seth invited me... or rather he asked… if he could bite me.”
Fiona’s eyes widened. “You should do it!”
“Why? Aren’t I with Rylan now? Crap, I’m so confused.”
“It’s not cheating. It’s like giving blood. Actually, it can be entirely like giving blood if you want. When I go, they pump out two hundred and fifty milliliters for Seth to drink. Of course Chas has to bite my wrist to break my skin, because the needles don’t work well on me. He sings for me and afterwards, he drains the last two hundred and fifty with a really good bite on the throat. It’s completely satisfying after his song. The whole thing is really special and who knows, you might be able to find out something new about yourself.”
“Actually, I already had visions from when Seth kissed me,” Juliet admitted with a frog in her throat.
“Really?” the twins blurted, staring at her with gigantic eyes.
“Yes.”
“What have you seen? You have to tell us.”
“Well, it wasn’t exactly how you described your vision. I didn’t learn anything new about myself like that. I had four of them. In the first one, I saw Seth bleeding and dying on the floor in front of me and I began drinking his blood.”
Fiona and Halona’s mouths fell slack as they stared at Juliet in horror.
“That’s not what I expected,” Fiona said, breaking eye-contact with Juli