"Anyway," Tallulah continues, "I'm pretty sure that's true. I don't see why I couldn't. I mean, I couldn't have another child anymore, as I'm obviously no spring chicken. Truthfully, I never really had an urge after my first, either. It wasn't an enjoyable time, and the birth was, well, I don't want to talk about the difficulties of it. That said, the glow of having a child was the most beautiful feeling in the world, and I wanted to protect that child with every ounce of my being during those early years. But, as soon as she was old enough and wanted to leave, I let her go without hesitation. Strange, isn't it? It even sounds strange to me when I say it like that."

  "You're talking with a vampire who drinks blood to survive, darling. What is strange?"

  "Fair enough." Tallulah laughs, flushed with comfort and feeling safe once again with Selena nearby. Her green eyes shift to Selena, looking over the classical beauty's face.

  "If the other night with Kofi is a problem, it's not that important to me–"

  "–Hush now, I'm not so selfish and jealous as all of that. Besides, immortality would be terribly boring if we were held to the same standards as those with a regular lifetime. Moreover, I might scheme to steal you from him." Selena tilts her lips upwards in a devilish smile, clearly meant to be joking. "I tease, but no, you needn't worry yourself."

  "Are you older than Kofi?"

  "A hair." She makes a lazy stroke along Tallulah's temple with a finger, not saying a peep more about her age. "Alright, darling. I have only a little more of a question about you for now. What do you want from us? I know Kofi asked you to stay, but you must have had a personal reason for wanting to stay."

  Tallulah doesn't realize how quickly Selena steers the conversation away from herself, but it's possible that she wouldn't even care at this point if she did.

  "At first, I just wanted my village to be safe. There are so many weans, young people, and others, and it seemed like I would be a good choice to stay behind."

  "Admirable."

  "Well, as I said, only at first I felt that way. My feelings have… evolved a little bit, I admit." She gives Selena a little sheepish, if not inebriated, and guilty smile. "I've never been around, well, comforts like this. It's different, and I felt like–"

  "–Like you wanted it, finally."

  "Yes, exactly like that, Selena. I don't know if that's–well, what you said earlier–'indelicate' to say or not. I'm not trained like you seem to be. That wasn't a high priority for being a Wilder fey."

  "Don't worry, my darling, you'll be a professional at it in no time flat. There will be times that we'll need things from you, and you know this. That was the agreement, and I hate to sound so business-like all of the sudden, but you needn't worry or want for a thing so long as our promises to each other remain intertwined."

  "I don't mind using my powers, and you'll probably appreciate that I can use them more effectively at night since that's the time you move around. But I have to be careful; it's very obvious on my face when I use my powers."

  "I'm glad that we're still in harmony, beauty."

  "Again, sorry about my little fit earlier."

  "Already forgotten."

  "I'm sure you have lots more on your docket for tonight, so I should probably let you get to it."

  "If you'd like, you could stay and learn a little more about our kind."

  "I would, but that drink makes it hard to concentrate."

  Selena laughs softly and leans ever so slightly away from Tallulah. She rests her arm on the back of the sofa and then gestures lazily towards the doorway.

  "Have a lovely rest of your evening, dearest one."

  Tallulah lazily slides to her feet and then slowly walks to the door. She steps out into the hallway with busts and artwork, and it's only a few paces before footfalls bring Elijah to her side.

  "Hello, Miss Tallulah. Are you steady?"

  "Oh, hmm, hello Elijah. Yes, I'm fine."

  "I know it's normal for you to be lightheaded and such when you get fed from."

  "What? Oh no, no, she didn't bite me, Elijah. I think I'm just a little drunk. They got me a special drink that's hard to get even in the Wilds, and it's just very potent for me."

  "Oh! Sorry! I didn't mean to assume."

  "Eli–jah, stop, relax, just make sure I don't fall on my face."

  He laughs but makes sure to help her to her room in no uncertain terms. It doesn't take them long, and shortly afterward, Tallulah is alone and relaxing in the jacuzzi tub in her suite as if everything was right in the world again. The concerns she had before seem silly and almost childish now.

  As she allows the warm jets of water to pressure and pulse her body, Tallulah tilts her head, gazing out of the windows with a singular thought–what a lovely view of the valley we have here.

  The next night starts far more comfortably than the previous night. Food is delivered for her right on time, and a small box about the size of a fruit is left on the tray. There is a small card next to the box, which looks like a folded-over blank business card. When Tallulah looks at the inside of the folded card, there's simply a pressed pair of lips in ruby red lipstick and a few handwritten words:

  

  A comforting thing to enjoy.

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  Tallulah smirked at Selena's "signature" of pressed lips and set down the little card. She pops a few bites of food from the tray into her mouth as she works to open the small box–such an ornate box for the "morning." She carefully pulls out the delicate tissue paper wrapped around the item in question and then unveils the secret inside.

  Pulling out the box's interior, Tallulah laughs a little bit softly. She holds a vividly bluish-purple apple-like fruit that faeries call a brookfruit in her hand. She knows the name because you can occasionally find them growing along brooks and streams in the most untamed reaches of the Wilds. She's seen these a couple of times in the Wilds, but usually only in a city and from traders that charge ridiculous prices because of the supposed "quality" they provide. She sets down the fruit on the tray next to the box in which it was delivered to her.

  There was an old scare story that was told to weans about brookfruit and a beautiful pixie maiden, meant to keep them from wanting to taste random fruits in the Wilds and to be wary of wandering off alone in it. In the story, the pixie used brookfruit to keep herself young, and she sacrificed weans in the brook she grew the fruit in, using their blood to mix with the water. Obviously, brookfruit doesn't require murdered faeries to grow, but the choice of fruit is amusing to Tallulah. She absently muses whether Selena knew that story before sending over that fruit or if it was more of a "look at this shiny I got for you" sort of affair. Tallulah assumes the latter.

  Finishing off her meal over the next few minutes, she sets the brookfruit down on a table away from the cart so it isn't accidentally removed later when the small breakfast cart is confiscated from her room. A little while longer, she's freshly showered, dressed, and on her way out of the door. With no Elijah lingering outside, she casually makes her way through the homestead and out of the side entrance, which leads to where her people are being kept.

  She casually walks down the carved stone stairs at a mild pace, then moves towards the barn. She shares a few smiles with some of her people on approach, and though some of them are still apprehensive, there are much fewer of them with hostile appearances this evening. Progress, Tallulah muses. Before too long, she spies Etta crouched over and helping a wean to sew up a hole in the old ratty t-shirt she's wearing. Without compunction, Tallulah makes her way over to the broonie.

  "Hello, Etta."

  "Tallulah! Hello! Sorry I haven't had a chance to come and chat with you lass, but I've been working like a dog since the moment I was released. Lewis was released last night. Did you know it?"

  "I know neither of you will be punished any more than you already have. How is Lewis?"

  "We won't? Well, that's mighty fine work you did, then! Lewis is doing much better; after you had us sent to some doctors, they sewed him up proper and used special medicines to ensure he doesn't get an infection." She pauses, murmuring to the wean to run along once the hole is adequately stitched up.

  Etta turns her plain face towards Tallulah and offers her a bit of an apologetic smile.

  "Sorry for mistreating you. You didn't deserve it."

  "I'm just glad I could help. Everything else will sort itself out."

  "Speaking of sorting itself out, did you hear?"

  "Hear what?"

  "This morning before dawn, those guards that Lewis overheard chatting that worried him so much?"

  Tallulah listens intently, feeling she knows where this is going. She nods in response to Etta, allowing her to continue without interruption.

  "Well, you must have made a stink because they were brought out just over there and whipped like dogs in front of everyone! It was not a light amount either; they were down on their faces by the end, at least fifteen or twenty lashes each. It was quite a sight; we had to keep the weans away. Two guards were taken back to the house, but the other two, well, I don't think those black dogs they keep running about scaring everyone need a meal tonight, if you catch my drift."

  Tallulah raises her eyebrows, genuinely surprised. She did not expect that they would kill two of their guards for Etta and Lewis' flight, even if the entire thing was their fault.

  "Oh, you didn't know, did you, Tallulah?"

  "I spoke with one of the head vampires last night about the situation, but she didn't mention that sort of punishment. She just said she would make sure that the guards were given a good 'dressing down' for making poor jokes and frightening you all."

  "Aye, a dressing down is what they got, and surely it's one they won't ever forget. Maybe in their world, 'jokes' like that are a bit more of a serious thing than we realize."

  Tallulah ponders the sequence of events and the phrasing she can remember Selena using. She shakes her head a little bit, reminding herself that how Selena and the others handle their people is their business. Still, the casual brutality is a bit shocking for Tallulah, especially with how casual Selena sounded during their discussion. Finally, she speaks again.

  "Well, all that aside, I'm glad you're okay. They're having issues finding a fey in the nearby city because, apparently, some vampires are causing trouble, and the vampire they sent to contact a fey was apparently killed. Sounds like a bit of a mess, if you ask me, but they didn't seem too worried, so maybe in a few nights, we'll be getting everyone ready to head back home."

  "Except you, eh lass?"

  "Well, no, that was the price of our agreement."

  "You sure you want to stay here, with these–with them?"

  "They're not as bad as you think, Etta, really. We might have gotten along a lot better under different circumstances."

  "If you say so, Tallulah."

  Etta's tone is dubious, as if she doesn't think that is the case at all. Tallulah knows there's no reason to try to change the broonie's mind; they are notoriously steadfast in whatever belief–right or wrong–they have. It's pretty legendary among the fey, in fact. It's one of the reasons they're so sought after to be hired for a period of time; they're loyal, and when they decide something, it is decided for them.

  "Thanks for getting me up to speed, Etta. And again, I'm sorry this all happened."

  "Well, it's not like you scooped us up and deposited us here against our will, now is it? You've done right by us, and if anything, we all owe you an apology for how much abuse you've taken trying to help us."

  Tallulah's crow's feet at the corners of her eyes and lips crinkle just slightly as she offers Etta a genuine smile.

  "I appreciate you saying that."

  "One more thing before you go, lass, if you don't mind me saying."

  "Of course, go for it."

  "Be real careful of this world and these beautiful fanged things here. I think they have a plan for you, and I don't know why, but I think it isn't a good one."

  "I will, thank you, Etta."

  She nods at Tallulah and then breaks away, almost immediately fussing at a wean that's trying to use a horseshoe they found as a racket to hit rocks with at other weans. Tallulah watches for a few moments, the slightest bit of a smile on her face, but her thoughts are elsewhere. She knows she couldn't convince most of the fey here that the vampires aren't a problem, but maybe a few might be like she is and want to stay. It wouldn't be bad to have some company of her own people. It's not as though faeries don't stay in the human divide for other reasons. Otherwise, there'd be no traders outside of seams and the like. It happens, for sure.

  As her vivid green eyes shift around the barn and the very close nearby grounds, she watches her people milling about and wonders just how many would choose to stay behind if they were offered the chance to. Perhaps, she considers silently, she should bring it up the next time she talks to Kofi or Selena.

  Tallulah starts to drift back towards the gardens, her new favorite place to walk under the moon's light. As she drifts without purpose through the meticulously kept pathways, she thinks about bringing it up in her mind: What's the worst that could happen?

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