Summers Love
Dedicated to: you
You took my hand and led me from the shadows and
into the morning sun of a warm summer day.
Summer was hot in London and Azealias hadn't gotten a really good sleep last night since she kept thrashing around in the bed, the covers and blankets ending up on the floor twenty minutes after she had just gotten to bed. She wanted to sleep in that day, maybe finish the work her boss Adrien had piled into her arms yesterday morning before she had even been able to step through the S.I.S's doors. But remembering that she could get her ass fired if she didn't go, she woke up.
She turned her head and looking at the clock she realized that it was almost seven o'clock in the morning.
"Crap!" she hissed, before stumbling out of bed and saving her clean clothes from the dirty floor and rushing into the bathroom while brushing her hair.
Azealias made her way through the crowd on the train, struggling to keep her boxes from tumbling out of her arms. She spotted her friend-and partner-sitting down and she made her way over to her, swurving out of the way of the other people standing up.
"Morning," she said as she took a seat by Jess.
"Morning," she replied. "How did you sleep?"
"Horrible."
"Too hot?"
"Too cold."
Jess nodded once at her complaint. "So what do you have on your agenda today?"
Azealias shrugged. "I have no idea."
"Just be prepared to get a hand full of crap today from Adrien."
They got up when the train stopped at their stop.
"Aw, dont worry," Azealias said as she followed Jess to the door, "I mean the worst he could do to me i-"
Azealias's boxes flew out of her arms and onto the floor as she bumbed into someone.
"Aw crap!" she hissed, bending down to pick up her belongings.
The stranger that she bumped into bent down as well.
"I am so sorry," she told him, brushing a strand of her hair out of her eyes and putting it behind her ear. She completly avoided the strangers eyes.
"Oh dont worry," he said.
They both reached for the exact same piece of paper and when Azealias's hand touched his, she atomatically pulled her's away. His hand was ice cold. She looked up into his eyes and froze-eyes that were amazingly sky blue stared back at her. She couldn't breath nor move. Those eyes-she had seen them somewhere before but she couldn't put her finger on it where. They were so familier, so hypnotizing, so-
"Azealias!"
"Huh?" She looked up to see that Jess was waiting-holding the door open for her.
"You coming or what?!"
"Uh," she gathered the rest of her papers up in her arms, stuffed them into her bag and stood up. "Right."
She followed her friend out of the train and into the station, the sky blue eyes burned into her mind.
Azealias opened the door and scowled. "Good morning Adrien."
"Good morning Azealias."
He followed her down the hall to the elevator. "We have some things very important to take care of today and I need you on them."
"Me?! Why me? Get Jess to do 'um."
"Jess? Jess has to many things on her hands right now and-"
"And you think that I don't have my hands full?!"
Adrien narrowed his eyes at her. "Dont get that temper with me Azealias. You know what will happen"
Azealias stopped at the elevator and when the doors opened for her she walked in. "My temper is the only thing that keeps this thing running. You need me."
The elevator doors closed.
Azealias sighed and plopped into her chair at her desk. Her eyes traveled to the papers and folders sitting on her desk that weren't there yesterday-Adrien. Her shoulders slumped. If she had the chance she would so totally tell him off. She looked at her computer-her best friend at the office-without it she would have never finished the things that Adrien thrusts in her arms every morning.
She suddenly remembered the guy on the train when she looked out the window-the one with the familier sky blue eyes and the ice cold hands. She bit her lip. Why was he so familier? She eyed her computer again. If only he had given her his name or something that would have told her who he was.
She grabbed her keyboard and started going through the files of every person they had; demons, witches, angels, and vampires but there was nothing on him-it was like he didn't exist.
Azealias sighed. And then...what if he wasn't a supernatural being? What if they had him in the human files instead? She snatched her keyboard again and looked up the human files. And sure enough, she found him.
Echo Jascha
Human
20
12/13/57
6/10/75
So he died. But then why would he be here, why would she be able to see him? That was unless he was a ghost and she had no idea yet that she could see them.
There was a knock on the door and Azealias quickly turned off her computer. "Come in!" she said.
The door opened and Jess walked into the room. "Can you tell me-cause I have no idea if I can or not-freeze that dumb ass of a boss and kick his ass?!"
Azealias leaned back in her chair. "I dont know yet but tell me when you found out and we'll do it together. So what he do this time?"
Jess grabbed the amythest crystal off of Azealias' desk and started to toss it up in the air. "He made me take a case i dont want to take."
"Oh really? And this case is bad or something?"
"It involves someone that I haven't seen in years."
"And that would be?"
"My ex."
Azealias frowned. "Oh. Did he um tell you anything to tell me?"
Jess stopped tossing the ball and looked at her friend. "Yea, he told me that you have a case today. He needs you and section 1 to find and kill some human or something named Echo..."
Azealias froze. "W-what?"
"Yea, he told me to tell you. But that is the last time I'm being his delivery owl."
Azealias boarded the train, hoping that she would be able to see Echo again but he wasn't there when she got on. When she got home, she threw her jacket on the couch and froze when the doorbell rang. She furrowed her eyebrows-who could be visiting at this hour of the night?
She walked to the door and looked through the peep hole-she saw no one. Maybe it was a little girl scout selling cookies and that maybe she was so small that she couldn't see her. She opened the door and instead of finding a girl scout, she found Echo standing before her. She was so shocked to see him standing there in the door that she couldn't move or breath.
"Um what are you uh doing here?" she stuttered.
"I came to see you," he answered her.
She narrowed her eyes at him. "Why? You dont even know me."
"Of course I do," he addmited. "I've seen you before a bunch of times."
"When," Azealias asked him.
"In the crowd at the clubs-when you're dancing-you're hips swaying to and fro like a swinging bell. And on the trains and busses."
"Have you been stalking me?"
He shrugged. "It wasn't stalking because you knew I was there, watching you as you were watching me."
Azealias closed the door but Echo stopped it from closing all the way by putting his foot there. Azealias let go of the door handle and stepped back as Echo pushed open the door.
"What do you want?" she asked him, reaching into her jacket for her dagger.
"I just want to talk is all."
She didn't know why she wasn't attacking him when he was right there in front of her. She had orders to kill him. She glared at him. What the hell was he up to? What plans of torture did he have for her when he captures her?
"I dont have any," he told her, reading her mind."I just came here to talk is all. Believe me."
She got a weird feeling that he was telling the truth. She released the dagger. "What is it that you want to talk about?"
"You. Me. Everyone."
Azealias raised an eyebrow. "What about me?"
He took a step towards her-she didn't move, her eyes were fixed on his. When he took another step and she didn't move and he made sure of it, he suddenly appeared in the back of her and grabbed her arms. She stiffened like an ironing board. She hadn't even seen him move. She struggled to get out of his grasp but he was strong. Very strong.
"What is it that you want?!" she hissed.
"You should know," he said in her ear. "You can feel it can't you?"
"What are you talking about?" she lied. She knew exactly what he was talking about. She could feel a weird feeling in her body, in her veins. A feeling that she hadn't felt in a long time. She knew what it was though-it was love.
"You can feel it can't you." It wasn't a question. "You can feel it running through your veins."
Azealias, avoiding the feeling in her body, quickly threw back her head, allowing her chin to hit his. He released her shoulders and stumbled back. She kicked him in the stomach and then did a round-house kick that sent him flying backwards into the wall behind him. He landed with a loud "thud" on the floor. She quickly snatched her dagger from her coat pocket and appeared next to him, the tip of the dagger touching his chest.
"Hold on a sec.!" he screamed.
"How can I?! You came bursting into my house and held me captive! How can I hold on?"
"By holding on," he said sarcastically.
Azealias rolled her eyes. "Dont give me that attitude," she snapped.
"Look, I just want to talk."
"You had your time to talk."
"Orders from Adrien are pretty hard to obey when they're about me, aren't they?"
"How did you-"
"It's pretty easy reading your mind and all."
"But you're human."
"No. I just dont have a vampire file in your computers yet is all."
"So you're a vampire?"
"Took you a long time to notice."
"I knew all a long," she admitted. "Just never came to mind. So why do you want to talk to me?"
"It's about us."
"And what's about us?"
"This."
"And whats this?"
"Do you even know who I am?"
"No. Why should I care though?"
"Because I am yours."
There was a pause for awhile and then Azealias said, "Bullshit. You aren't mine. And I'm not yours. You haven't even marked me. No vampire has."
"Are you sure about that?"
Azealias furrowed her eyebrows at him.
"Eight years ago, when you were ten your parents were attacked by a creature. One with golden eyes and glowing skin. You saw him. You remember him like it was yesterday. He bit you-to claim him as his own and to make sure that no other vampires hurt you. Now he has come to make sure that you were alright. That vampire is me."
Azealias withdrew that dagger, and straightening up, she backed away from him. "That cant be."
"And why the hell not?" he asked her, still staring into her eyes as she stared into his.
"I-I-I dont know," she said.
"Well it's true," he said to her. "It's all true. I killed your parents and I marked you. I tasted your blood and I felt it run through my veins like adreniline."
She spat at him and he wipped it off.
Before she could even move, he was behind her again, holding her shoulders in a tight grasp. She tried to struggle free but he was strong-hadn't she already establish that?
"Let go of me!" she said through clenched teeth.
"Naw," he said.
She could feel his mouth on her neck.
"I want to make you mine again."
He licked her neck. She knew that he was going to bite her.
And then-
Azealias grabbed his arms, bent back and then quickly leaned forward, throwing him over her shoulder and onto the floor. She ran to where her sword was, grabbed it and then pointed it at Echo.
"Get out!" she ordered. "Leave me alone! Just go!!!!"
Echo climbed to his feet and looked at her. "Fine. But I'll be back."
He walked to the door, as if not caring that she had a sword pointed at him. He opened the door and Azealias quickly closed it behind him. She slumped to the floor and the sword clattered to the floor next to her. Her vision got blurry and she leaned her head back against the door. Closing her eyes, she rested until there was a knock on the door.
"Who is it?!" she asked.
"U.P.S!" a man called from the other side.
Dragging herself to her feet, she got up, peered through the peep hole and saw a brown hat. Maybe he was the U.P.S man and maybe he wasn't. She sighed. There was only one way to find out...
She cracked the door open a little and before she knew it, the guy had thrown open the door and she stumbled back. She regained her balance and looked up at the stranger. He had turned into a blurry brown figure.
"Azealias Carmelo," he said. "By the Powers that be, I have orders to kill you."
"For what violation?" she asked him.
"Interacting with a vampire. You have broken thirteen out of twenty-five rules of conduct of the S.I.S. I h\now have orders to kill you."
He stepped towards her and when he pulled out a dagger from his pocket, she heard the door slam open, someone growl, and saw the stranger go flying.
Azealias fell backwards onto the floor and leaned against the wall. She closed her eyes as she heard growling and snarling coming from somewhere in the room. Echo. He had come to save her. She hated being so helpless, so damn weak. She was part of the S.I.S, she was suppose to be strong but instead...
She drifted in and out of consisneous. But before darkness finally over took her, she heard a loud "crack" of something being broken.
Azealias woke up with a gasp. She panted until she calmed down after a minute, then, sitting up she looked around the room. She saw red drapes on the window, a night stand, a dresser and Echo sittinf\g in the corner of the room.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, eyes narrowed.
"What am I doing here? This is my home," he told her.
"What happened?
"The S.I.S sent one of their people to kill you."
"Kill me?"
"For interacting with a vampire."
"Crap. I gotta go back. I gotta fix this."
When she threw back the covers to get out of the bed, Echo suddenly appeared in front of her. He grabbed her by her shoulders and held her down.
"Stop! Let. Me. Go!" she growled.
"You can't leave. I'm not going to let you just walk into the S.I.S and let yourself get killed. They probably have guards there waiting for you to return. Once you do, they'll shoot you! You can't go!"
"And why the fuck not?!"
Suddenly his lips touched hers and colors exploded in front of her eyes and her blood turned warm. He lifted his head after a minute and starred down at her.
"Because you are mine and I love you."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "That's a lot of bullshit."
"And why is that?"
"You're a vampire. Vampires don't have a soul. How could you possibly have human feelings? You're lying so leave me-" She lifted her leg up between them and kicked him off. "-alone!"
Echo flew back across the room, hitting the wall. Azealias scrambled out of the bed and grabbed the dagger that was laying on the nightstand. Once in her hand, she turned to kill Echo.
Before she had the chance to kill him, Echo had moved and was beside her. He waved his hand in front of her face and her legs gave way. He caught her just in time.
Azealias looked up at him. "What the hell did you do to me?!"
"I did what I had to do. I couldn't let you kill me."
"It wasn't like I could," she told him.
"My feelings for you would have allowed you to do so. I can't hurt you."
"Vampires don't have feelings!" she hissed.
"Then I guess I'm not an ordinary vampire." He lifted her up in his arms and carried her over to the bed where he placed her. "I'm going to leave now," he informed her. "I have to go do some things in town. I'll be back."
When he left, closing the door behind him, Azealias regained the feeling in her body again and she threw the dagger at the door, screaming. Snatching the blanket, she flung it over her head, letting her mind go back into darkness.
Tick-tock
Tick-tock
She looked at the clock sitting on the kitchen table. The tile was extremly cool under her feet, and the silence around her was very unsettling. It gave her an odd feeling in the pit of her stomach. She found a note sitting in the kitchen table and picking it up, she read it aloud.
"Azealias," she read, rolling her eyes at his neat cursive writing. It was very elagant and pretty. She read the rest of the note in silence.
Azealias,
I hope that bringing you here away from your home would not have upsetted you-it appears that it has. Anyways, please excuse my absence. I got a call early this afternoon informing me that I was needed at work. If it was anything less than an emergency, I would have quickly refused. However, it appears that that is not the case.
I will be back shortly. If you have any problems, please do not hesitate to call me.
Nobody knows that you are here. But just in case, please stay in the house until I get back to reassure you and me of your safety.
-Echo
Azealias placed the note down and looked at its companions resting on the glossy counter. A black leather wallet and a black small cellphone starred back at her. She opened the wallet to find each pocket full of credit cards, each from different banks in the city.
She glanced at the clock again. It was only six and the sun had already gone down over the horizon and she needed to call Jess to tell her where she was and to come and get her. She couldn't really stay here in this mansion forever-even though it was nice and even though she had always dreamed of living in one.
She grabbed the cell phone and opened it-there was no reception. She tried it in the rest of the house and still...nothing. She looked outside the window of the room that she was in at the japanese garden. Maybe she could get reception there.
It was cold outside and dark and when she reached the garden there was still nothing. She went farther, on the black top where all the nice imported cars and the halicopter was parked. She moved her arm and sighing when she got three bars, she was about to put the phone up to her ears when she was tackled from behind.
She bent forward from the force of the person's body on her. She grabbed their arm that was around her throat and threw them over her shoulder. Her attacker landed on the pavement and quickly jumped to their feet. Azealias had no weapon and in her condition-she was still weak from her anemia attack-she didn't have enough strength to fight. She couldn't fight hand to hand combat and she could barely even move. As she backed away, she tripped and fell to the ground and she raised her eyes to her attacker-silver eyes starred back at her with lust and hunger-a vampire.
"You smell so sweet," he hissed. "I can hear your heart racing."
When he made a move to grab her and pick her up, she kicked him with both legs and as he stumbled back, Azealias turned and scurried as fast as she could away from him. When he went after her, she heard something in the darkness growl with anger. She turned and propped herself up against one of the cars to see that Echo had come to rescue once again. He had attacked the vampire with his claws and fangs, which flashed white in the light of the moon.
Azealias-anemia kicking in quite quickly-went in and out of concisness. With all her strength she tried to stay above the black water that she was drowning in. She fought with all her might to stay afloat. Her heart was pounding and her body was getting extremly cold very fast.
She heard roaring as the vampires fought. She could only get glimpses of Echo fighting her attacker. Finally she heard a loud crack and looked up, forcing her vision to become better. And when her vision became clear, she froze and her heart skipped a beat. Lapis-luza colored eyes starred back at her-eyes of the monster that had murdered her family was looking at her and in his hands was the other vampires' head, blood dripping from it's neck.
Azealias-scarred out of her mind-picked herself up and ran. Ran into the forest until she got lost. Ran until she couldn't breath.