CHAPTER SIXTEEN:

"Shall we talk about what happened tonight?" Edythe asked.

"Huh?"

"Your near-death experience? Or did you already forget?"

"Oh." Actually, I had.

She frowned. "How do you feel?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Are you cold, dizzy, nauseas...?" The way she listed the words reminded me of a doctor's exam. And I didn't feel cold or sick– or dizzy in a medical way.

"Should I?"

She laughed. "I'm wondering if you're going to go into shock," she admitted. "I've seen it happen with less provocation."

"Oh. No, I'm pretty sure I'll be fine, thanks." Honestly, almost being murdered by a couple of muggles, while very disturbing, wasn't exactly terrifying. And having my wand in my pocket again, a familiar and comforting weight at my side, had been enough to chase off any lingering shakiness. So had, if I was being honest, Edythe herself.

"Just the same, I'll feel better when you have some food in you." The vampire before me decided.

Practically on cue, the waiter appeared with our drinks and a basket of breadsticks. He stood with his back to me while he placed them on the table, then handed Edythe a menu. She didn't so much as look at him this time, just pushed the menu across the table to me.

He cleared his throat nervously. "There are a few specials. Um, we have a mushroom ravioli and—"

"Sounds great," I interrupted; I didn't care what I got. "I'll have that." I spoke a little louder than necessary, but I wasn't sure he really knew I was sitting here. He finally threw a surprised glance my way, and then his attention was back to her.

"And for you...?"

"That's all we need. Thank you."

He waited for a second, hoping for another smile, I thought. A glutton for punishment. When Edythe kept her eyes on me, he gave up and walked away.

"Drink," Edythe said. It sounded like an order and I took a sip obediently, then another bigger gulp, surprised to find that I was actually pretty thirsty. I'd sucked down the entire glass before I knew it, and she slid her glass toward me.

"No, I'm fine," I told her.

"I'm not going to drink it," she said, and her tone added the duh.

"Right," I said, a bit embarrassed because that was actually pretty obvious, and I was thirsty enough that I downed hers, too.

"Thanks," I said and she smiled again.

"Anything for my friend," she said, and the way she seemed to emphasise the last word confused me slightly, and when I didn't say anything she looked like she was going to roll her eyes. "You know, despite being friends, I don't know an awful lot about you," she said. "Tell me about yourself, Beau."

I raised an eyebrow. "You realise that that goes both ways in a friendship, right?" I asked. "Equal exchanges of information and all that."

Edythe looked... actually quite enthralled by the idea. It hit me then that she'd probably never had a friend before, at least not since she'd been Turned. Coven mates, sure; brothers and sisters and parental figures, but not a friend the way I had friends. In a way, being a vampire must be very isolating.

"I can't promise to answer all your questions," she warned.

"Me either. But there's no need to worry about the heavy stuff. Just... tell me about something that makes you happy." I suggested. Her golden eyes were curious but they also contained some other emotion I couldn't name.

"The piano," she said, finally. "When I was young– and still human– Edna, my birth mother, used to force me to do piano lessons. I hated the strict Parisian governess she saddled me with. The woman also taught me French, etiquette and the violin, and started me on dance lessons– mother was so insistent on all of them– but piano was the only one I really enjoyed."

She smiled then, presumably at my wide-eyed expression. I hadn't been expecting her to be so honest, and I could just picture a young Edythe in a dress trimmed with embroidery and lace, styled with a fitted bodice and long full skirt, with her tousled, curly hair bound by ribbons, or possibly even a bonnet, depending on just how long ago she'd been Turned, sitting on a piano stool, trying to reach all the keys with her tiny fingers.

"Your turn, Beau," Edythe prompted, full pink lips curling into a playful smile. "Tell me what makes you happy."

My breath hitched slightly, catching in my throat as my heart clenched painfully, because the thing in my life that made me happiest was my magic. It was because of my magic that I had my friends, my family and my home– and Hogwarts would always be my home, no matter what they did, the Death Eaters and the Dark Lady couldn't take that from me. It was the place I'd always remember being happiest.

And that's what I tell Edythe. "Home," I said, in a voice that I wasn't ashamed cracked.

"And where is home?" She asked gently. I closed my eyes and thought about thousands of floating candles and grand feasts, of a tower full of books, a library larger then Charlize's entire house, professors wearing long robes and cloaks that swished and billowed as they moved around, and classrooms full of students wearing ties and scarves coloured blue and bronze, black and yellow, red and gold, even green and silver. I thought of the gently swaying Whomping Willow beside the still, dark waters of the Black Lake that seemed to turn to crystal during the heat of the summer, and the wildness of the Forbidden Forest, dappled in shades of green and brown where spiders bigger then cars spun their webs, unicorns danced between the ancient trees and somewhere a colony of centaurs had made their home.

"Britain." I whispered aloud, still not opening my eyes. "A castle by a lake and a forest, near the mountains. No houses for as far as the eye can see. Extraordinary wildlife. Even more extraordinary people."

"That sounds... it sounds truly magical." Edythe murmured.

A wet laugh escaped me. "Oh you have no idea. It's the most magical place in Europe." I opened my eyes to look at her. Edythe was leaning forwards, her face soft and open. She looked honestly enthralled by my weak description of Hogwarts and I smiled sadly, resting my hands on the table and looking down at them.

"I'm not doing it justice," I said, quietly, as I thought of towers and turrets, of a wild, dark forest and a deep lake, of countless suits of armour and ancient paintings on stone walls, of rolling green grass and snow as deep as my waist. "I'm not doing it justice, even by a long shot."

A small, slim hand reached out to mine and icy fingers intertwined with my own, squeezing gently. My heart almost tripled in speed in my chest, but Edythe didn't comment on that. Instead when I looked up at her in shock, she was smiling at me, some unexplainable emotion burning in her dark gold eyes and, after a moment, I smiled back hesitantly.

Of course that's when the waiter arrived with my pasta and Edythe had to let go of my hand so he could place it in front of me.

I'm sure it was delicious, but I barely tasted the food– my attention was too hopelessly preoccupied on one of the most amazing people I'd ever met. There was just something... breathtaking about Edythe, and I wasn't even referring to her beauty, though that was breathtaking too– she was so unlike anyone I'd ever met before, and she was amazing.

She had questions, too– lots of them. I answered the best I could, though some I just couldn't, like when she asked about my friends. I wanted to tell her all about Lyric, my best friend in the entire universe, as well as Gordy and Neve and Harri, Ronda and Hermes, but my throat got too choked– I barely even managed to say their names out loud. It was easier to talk about Charlize, and a bit about all the moving around I'd done when I was younger, before Reese had settled in Phoenix. I even told her about my first kiss when she asked, which had been with Neve, just before the battle at the Department of Mysteries.

Of course, I asked her questions too. She was hesitant to discuss her coven with me, but seemed more then happy to tell me about her human family. She'd also finally confirmed when it was she'd been born– 1901. It actually shocked me a little, but mostly because I was surprised by just how accurate my guess had been, not because she was over a century old.

At some point, I wasn't sure when, one of her hands had moved to cover one of mine again. It made me very glad that I'd chosen the ravioli– it meant I only needed one hand to hold a fork to spear the pasta squares and lift them to my mouth. My fingers were starting to feel numb, but I didn't care. If she didn't object, I'd never move again.

Still, I hadn't been lying when I said I wasn't hungry, and it didn't take long for me to stop eating, focusing my attention on the vampire across from me instead.

The waiter showed up after I hadn't touched my plate for nearly ten minutes.

"How are you do—" he started to ask. Edythe cut him off.

"Are you going to eat anything else, Beau?" she asked me. I blinked at my food.

"No, I'm good."

Edythe's attention switched back to the waiter in a flash. "We're finished, thank you very much, that ought to cover it, no change, thanks."

She was already out of her seat.

I fumbled for my wallet. "Um, let me— you didn't even get anything—"

"My treat, Beau."

"But—"

"Try not to get caught up in antiquated gender roles."

She walked away, and I rushed to follow, leaving the stunned waiter behind me with what looked like a hundred-dollar bill on the table in front of him.

I passed her, hurrying again to get the door, ignoring what she'd said about antiquated roles. I knew she was faster than I could probably imagine, but the half-filled room of watching people forced her to act like she was one of them. She gave me a strange look when I held the door open— like she was kind of touched by the gesture, but also annoyed by it at the same time. I decided to overlook the annoyed part, and I stubbornly marched past her to hold the car door, too. It opened easily— she'd never locked it. Her expression was more amused than anything at this point, so I took that as a good sign.

"You are so strange," she said, once we were both buckled in– I'd given her a pointed look until she'd put on her seatbelt; it was a cop's kid thing. "And I get the feeling I still don't know the half of it," she added, with a slight sigh.

"I don't really get called strange anymore," I said, the realisation surprising me. "Not since I became joined at the hip with Lyric– next to him I seem normal."

"Am I offending you?" Edythe asked. She looked more curious then worried.

"No. It's actually sort of refreshing." I admitted. "And it reminds me of Lyric."

"You must really love him," Edythe said, softly, her golden eyes both understanding and sad. I had to look away from her face, trying to gather my thoughts into words, and my eyes wandered across the dashboard... stopping at the speedometer.

"Merlin's balls!" I shouted.

"What's wrong?" Edythe asked, looking right and left, rather than straight ahead where she should be looking. The car didn't decelerate.

"You're doing one-ten!" I was still shouting.

I shot a panicked glance out the window, but it was too dark for my human eyes to see much. The road was only visible in the long patch of bluish brightness from the headlights. The forest along both sides of the road was like a black wall— as hard as a wall of steel if we veered off the road at this speed.

"Relax, Beau." Edythe rolled her eyes, still not slowing.

"Are you trying to kill us?" I demanded. "By which I mean 'kill me' because we both know who's going to get up and walk away if this car crashes!"

"We're not going to crash."

I carefully modulated my voice. "Why are we in such a hurry, Edythe?"

"I always drive like this." She turned to flash a smile at me.

"Keep your eyes on the road!"

"I've never been in an accident, Beau— I've never even gotten a ticket." She grinned and tapped her forehead. "Built-in radar detector."

"Hands on the wheel, Edythe!" I said, too panicked to give any thought to what she meant by that. She sighed, and I watched with relief as the needle gradually drifted toward eighty.

"Happy?"

"Almost."

"I hate driving slow," she muttered.

"This is slow?" I asked, incredulously.

"Enough commentary on my driving," she snapped.

I very carefully held back the comments I wanted to make in response to that.

If I thought McKayla driving up to Port Olympia had been fast, that was nothing on Edythe. It felt like barely fifteen minutes had passed before she was turning into my driveway– Charlize's cruiser wasn't even back yet.

"Thank you for the lift," I told Edythe as the Volvo idled in the driveway. "And for, you know, probably saving my life tonight." Edythe didn't say anything, just looked back at me, her eyes seeming focused somewhat unnervingly on my mouth, and I paused, lifting a hand to brush against my lips. "Do I have something in my teeth?" I asked nervously, cringing at the thought.

"I thought I told you not to be stupid," Edythe sighed, looking somewhat frustrated.

"Um," I said, confused, and Edythe rolled her eyes.

"For god's sake, Beau," she muttered, before leaning forwards swiftly, closing the distance between us until our faces were only inches apart. For a heart-stopping second I could see the agony of indecision in her honey-coloured eyes and then it was gone and she was pressing her lips to mine.

Edythe's lips were firm and icy-cold rather than soft like Hermes' had been after the Slug Club Christmas Party, or chapped like Neve's had been in those frantic, hurried minutes we shared before the Department of Mysteries. And neither of those kisses had made me feel even a fraction as much as this one did. Neither of them had held even a glimmer of the passion that had me pressing into Edythe.

She tasted sharp and sweet all at once, and she was numbingly cold to touch but my blood was boiling under my skin, burning my lips, and it was perfect. As Edythe pulled back slowly, parting with a last, soft, chaste press of lips, I saw her eyes had gone from honey to amber.

"Well," I said, and it came out huskier than I'd intended.

"Well," she agreed, and there was a degree of throatiness present in her voice too, as well as faint wonder. I couldn't turn away from her, from her perfect, burning eyes, until the sudden light of headlights turning onto the street had me blinking, breaking the spell.

"I have to go," Edythe said, moving back to her seat in a swift, graceful movement.

"Huh?"

"That's Charlize," she said, full pink lips curving up slightly. "I'm in her way."

"Oh," I realised, cheeks heating up slightly. "Um, well, I'll see you on Monday?"

As soon as I said that I wished I'd asked to see her earlier, over the weekend, but she was already starting the engine, absently tugging her seatbelt on.

"I'll see you on Monday," she agreed and I swallowed, opening the car door and sliding out, not brave enough to lean forward and kiss her goodbye.

The Volvo was reversing out of the driveway practically the second I closed the door, but it had barely zipped up the street before I felt my cellphone buzz in my pocket. Fumbling slightly, I pulled it out to see a new message on the screen, from a new number.

Goodnight Beau xx

I felt my cheeks heat up again and barely registered Charlize stepping out of the cruiser, now parked in the driveway. My mother cleared her throat and I jumped, my cheeks heating further at the look on her face. She was smiling, obviously very amused.

"'It's not like that', right?" She said and I groaned, cringing. Charlize laughed as she passed, patting my shoulder as she went. "Just tell me if I need to add condoms to the shopping list," she called over her shoulder and I almost died right then and there.