17The red wine slipped past her full red lips, hardly distinguishable from the dark liquid. Dark eyes drank in the people before here; her "court," as some might say. The man standing tall before her was intelligent and she did not miss that fact, but she did not have to listen to him.
"Jerome, I want her now. Bring her to see me."
"Mistress, I cannot. She is not mine to control anymore."
"Well, find a way to then. I do not like to wait; you know that. Now do it." Her expression was too close to anger to argue with her any more that day. Besides, the sun would be up soon and he didn't want to get caught in it. In a graceful movement, as he did all things, Jerome bowed and walked backwards out the large double doors at the far end of the room.
The room was grey with the light color of dawn beginning to creep in through her window drapes and the gentle curtains surrounding her bed. Roan turned over onto her other side and slid her arm under the pillow and stared at the curtains. The evening had been nice, to an extent, and she hoped that Micah was not scared away. The whole thing with Andrew was unfortunate, but inevitable. He always did something like that.
With a sudden thrill of excitement in her stomach, Roan remembered that she had agreed to escort Jeremy to a party for something or other that evening. It was a chance to play dress up without the play part like she had as a kid. She sat up, rolled out of bed, and scrambled to her closet for the ritual pulling on of the lovely blue jeans that were so faded they were nearly white with the holes from somewhere near the top of her thigh to the her ankles with the knees missing except for a few threads and a natural vanilla cotton t-shirt. Ah, comfort at its best.
One of the perks to being one of the only non-dead people in the house was that all of the food in the kitchen she could eat and not worry about someone else eating it for her. So, thankfully, her Coco Crispies and milk were still in their safe location as she pulled them out and began to "cook" breakfast. It was odd having nothing to do. She had planned a vacation at the beach or up in the mountains to ski, but her vacation fund had been drained by last month's car incident when the radiator broke and a new one had to be ordered. Her mechanic must live in a mansion.
Jeremy of course had offered to have it fixed for her, but she was not about to let him do her favors. He had done too much already by giving her a place to live. Upon first meeting Jeremy he had seemed mysterious and interesting, but in no way under the normal category.
Roan remembered their first meeting as she shoveled a spoonful of crackling chocolate cereal and milk into her mouth. She had been in her third semester of university, trying to get a degree in anything that could help her career. The only class that was open that could fill the hours she needed had been anthropology so she had taken it. Night classes were fun, but put caused a problem for when to eat dinner. At eight one night the professor had let them out because he had to get back to his daughters and pay the babysitter
Roan and three of her classmate, had decided to get something to eat at a restaurant on the very edge of campus. It was a small place that served hamburgers in between butter-soaked bread. It was at the same time incredibly bad for you, but really tasty. Thirty minutes later, laying her part of the bill on the table, Roan started her walk to the dorm. It was too expensive to live in one of the apartment buildings. That is, if you were lucky enough to get one. Roan cut through campus, ignoring the cement paths because they took longer than just cutting through the grass. The bag on her back didn't impede her progress too much as it sloshed the books inside of it around.
In the distance she could see the lights of her building, but something was bothering her. Looking around she stopped. Something wasn't quite right about where she was. Then there he was. Like magic a tall gentleman just stepped out form underneath a tree and stared at her. He was breathtaking, if a man could be. His hair had been dark, eyes matching the velvet sky above them. He was tall, over six feet, and broad shouldered. A classic build. He was dressed in a black dress suit that accentuated something different about him every time he made the slightest move. He was very attractive.
Letting out a hand to her, she had taken it. Then it hit her. This guy was a vamp. Shit. Her mother had talked about the fight for vampire rights when they had been discovered to be more than mere myth and legend. Mom had always said, "If you ever meet a vamp, run like hell in the other direction." She was transfixed by his eyes, a big no-no. the number one rule for dealing with the supernatural, especially the undead, was never look them in the eye. That's how you get trapped.
"Hi," he said, shaking her hand. "I'm Jeremy Richards. I' m teaching the new preternatural night class. Do you happen to know where Rose Hall is?"
Startled, Roan realized he was just asking for directions. "Uh, yeah, sure I do. I'll take you there though. If I give you directions you'll be looking for days and you probably don't want to be out when the sun comes out." She clamped a hand over her mouth. He frowned. "I mean, sorry, uh, you might now like the dawn." His frown deepened. "Sorry, I'll shut-up now."
He smiled then. "Thank you for your concern, but I know better than to be out around then. Now, show me where this hall is. I'm sure my class has already given up on my showing up tonight, but I may be wrong and I'll need to know where it is for the next one."
It was about a ten minute walk from where they where to Rose Hall. She found it easy to talk to him for some odd reason. He was old, born in the days of the Elizabethan Age. That would explain the trace of an accent in his otherwise untraceable speech. When she finished depositing him at the building in questions, he had handed her a business card and told her to call him if she ever needed a place to stay.
It was good thing he had given her the card too, as her dorm building became infected with some kind of disgusting little bug that was destroying the structure of the building and all of the inhabitants were thrown out until the problem could be fixed. She had called him and been rewarded with the room she occupied now. It took the rest of the semester and into the spring and summer to fix the building. Roan had moved back into her dorm when given the okay, but at the end of her four-year college stay had once again been in need of a place to live. Luckily her temporary room with Jeremy had not been occupied yet and she has moved back in for a more permanent residence.
The cereal popped particularly loudly and Roan looked at it curiously, wondering why breakfast food yelled so much. Jeremy had said the party was at nine so she would have to get ready at around 7:30. She did not relish the thought. Sure, big parties were fun and all, but the work that went into being absolutely gorgeous was far too time consuming. Finishing off her breakfast, Roan washed the bowl and spoon under warm water and out both in the newly fixed dishwasher. She jogged up the back staircase and nearly tripped over the tiny tabby cat that had adopted the household as her new owners. Cursing the animal, she smiled at it and shooed it off the stairs with a wave of her hand.
The door to her closet was ajar, which meant the cat must have gotten stuck there the night before and fallen asleep. When she wanted, the whiskered animal was capable of doing anything it put its mind to. The dress she was looking to air out was in the near back of the closet. It wasn't old, barely a week actually, but the back of the closet was the only space made to accommodate long things. She found the plastic covered parcel and brought it out to hand on the knob holding her French windows shut. Roan pulled and tugged until the plastic came away and she was left looking at the elegant bit of high fashion in her hands. There was very little left to the imagination, but that was what she wanted it for. Jeremy had requested something appropriate for old, chic vampiric company. She couldn't help but oblige him. The floor length dress was metal in scheme. The black background was sheer on the side to show off the shape of the sides in a long oval shape. The neck went up to her actual neck in a semi-Chinese fashion. This left her shoulders bare to the air. From the collar to the very top of her hips in the back, there was nothing, but skin. There was something sexy about the back. Two tall slits ran up the side of her legs, ending about mid-thigh to allow her to keep her dignity, not flash anyone, and be able to walk in the skirt that would have otherwise been too straight to move in. Small stones glimmered in a few places as if the designer had stood at a distance and let a very few shiny pieces fall onto the fabric and sewn them in place where they had landed. In the light from the window, the coal color of the fabric shined with its own luster, making it look as sophisticated as it was sexy.
Smiling, Roan opened the window a crack and the fresh air from the newly dried world flooded into the room, making it smell fresh and clean. The dress fluttered for a few moments and then settled down as the wind cut off. At least, since she was going, Jeremy could have something to wow over. It was actually turning into a beautiful day. The sun outside was finally up, burning away the last traces of early morning. A clouds dancing across the deep blue of the sky seemed to grin at her as if to say, "Today if your kind of day." Breathing in the warm, clean air made her body rejuvenate in an instance and Roan suddenly felt like dancing. So, feet bare and in a pink Pluto the dog shirt and a pair of loose jogging shorts, she ran down the stairs and flung open the glass door to the garden. Spinning in a circle, she entered the green expanse before the flowers, she moved in circles, arms out wide, until she was so dizzy, she landed on her back in the grass trying to keep the world from tossing her off.
It was times like these, lying on the new morning turf that she thought she would feel the world rotating on its axis ever so slowly. A sensation that everyone should experience at some point. It was intoxicating on a day like this.
A/N:
Just a quick note. It's been a while so here's an unchecked version. I'll go through and read and correct later, but it's been an awful week, so be happy with what's here. This is my outlet for my feelings, even though those expressed here are not the ones felt at the moment.