Authors: L.S. Darsic
“U-uh thanks for the offer Brennus but I think for now since this is all so new to us we would like to ride together. How about Anja and I ride with our dogs in one car, Jace and Xander ride together with their dog and the luggage? Will that work out alright? I don’t want you to think we are anit-social or anything I just-“ I am cut off by Brennus smiling and laughing softly
“Alexandra tis quite alright. You donna need to worry, we are not offended and we understand. Your arrangements will work just fine and we will get to know each other better at the castle.”
Well that was easy. Again, why am I the only one who can talk out of our group? Are they all suddenly mute? I look over at Anja and see she is staring at the ground and wringing her hands, ok, so she is super nervous. How weird, she is usually the outgoing one. I thought it was just me who was a nervous weirdo. Then I look over at the twins, yup they are looking at anything but the new people in front of us. Who knew those two idiots would be nervous around anyone. Well, I guess it’s up to me again to get their asses moving.
“Hey, guys…..we have to move into the SUV’s now….” I prod. Well at least the dogs listen as I watch them run over to the cars. Grabbing Anja’s hand I drag her over to our car and push her nervous ass in there. I turn around to make sure the idiot twins get moving as well and behold my luck they finally move! I glare at them and growl at them to hurry their asses up and happen to hear a snicker, I look up to see Finn laughing at me. I paste a bright smile on my face and say “kids!” and shrug my shoulders like it’s an everyday occurrence that I have to do this. I shove my ass into the driver seat while Anja sits in the passenger seat with our dogs in the back looking happy to be moving again. Alright, now I just have to follow the convoy back to where ever they are taking us. Great. Piece of cake.
Oh shit. Mother f-ing buda! I look over to find there a manual gear shifter and not the automatic shifter I am used to. WHY ME? Seriously. Of all the shit luck, I don’t know how to drive one of these. We mostly have automatic cars in America people! Why can’t they have the same here! Great, more embarrassment. With a loud sigh I turn to Anja
“Don’t suppose you know how to drive a stick do you?” She looks up at me with wide eyes and busts up laughing
“Well yes, I know how to drive a
STICK
before but not in a car” she continues laughing. She picks now to wake her ass up and start crackin jokes? What an asshole.
“Thanks for the info An, but since neither of us know how to drive a stick we have to see if the twins know how, cause otherwise we are stuck with the new people” I reply in a snotty voice as I watch the info sink in and she slowly begins to become a mute again. Fuck. So I get out of the car and wave to the twins to roll down their window while the whole rest of the convoy is waiting for us to take off, shit!
“Hey do you guys know how to drive a stick?”
“Well I do but Xan doesn’t so that is why I am driving. You and An don’t know how to do you?” Jace replies. Well shit. Now we are stuck with the new people driving us.
“Can we fit in with you guys?” I plead to him
“I don’t think that would work Alex, not with us plus the big ass dogs we wouldn’t have room” Jace apologetically replies. I blow out a big sigh and feel the hairs on the back of my neck rise
“Can I be of assistance?” I turn so quick I basically run onto Finn’s large chest as he looms over me. Well helloooo there Mr. GQ, way to scare the shit out of me!
“Y-yes, we will have to rearrange transport because we didn’t know the SUV’s were manuals and Anja and I don’t know how to drive manuals. The twins don’t have room for all of us plus the dogs and Xander doesn’t know how to drive a stick. Any ideas?” I stammer out so quick I wonder if he even understood me
“I’d be happy to help, how bout you ride with me, Anja can either ride with the guys here or ride with Alec” Finn says with a genuine smile on his face, well shit, how do you say no to that?
“Hey An, do you want to ride with the guys or –“ before I can even finish she is barreling out the door and into the SUV with the twins. Well that solved that problem.
“Alright” I mutter under my breath and call Egypt over to get in Finn’s SUV. Well this should be fun.
After I rearranged everyone, again, I jumped into the SUV with Finn, boy is this going to be an interesting ride. About ten minutes into the bumpy ride I couldn’t take the silence any longer
“Sooooo how far till we get to the castle?” I ask. Finn turns his head to look at me with that damn smirk firmly in place.
“Was wonderin how long it would take you to start talkin” he replies. Damn him. He must be one of those people who always think they need to be snarky, shoot, I am the same way.
Shaking my head “so you aren’t going to tell me?” another smirk from Mr. GQ model but no response. Well fine, I can not talk as well, jerk! I cross my arms and settle in to wait him out. Another ten minutes of bumps, jeez, does this place not have a road commission? I feel like we are just driving through a dirt two track.
“So is all your family this talkative? I feel like you all should be the ones talking my ear off and telling me everything there is to see and do around here. But nooooo, I have to keep up the conversation. Between you all and now my family doing nothing but staring, I might as well talk to walls” I bite out angrily. And cue the laughing hot guy sitting next to me
“I think you talk enough for all of us lassie” Finn laughs out at me.
“Lassie! I am not some dog.” I hiss at him in mock horror, as he looks over at me with a perplexed look on his face
“Dog? I dinna call you a dog” Finn replies looking very confused. Shoot! I forgot they probably wouldn’t know the reference to that TV show over here.
“Never mind” I mumble back. God I am so embarrassed.
“So Alexandra, where are ye from? See! I can make conversation as well” snarky Finn points out, I wonder if he ever is serious? I look over at him and huff, well fine, I will talk to him but it’s only to fill the gaps of silence that is slowly driving me insane.
“First of all, please call me Alex. Alexandra is way too formal for me. Second, I am from the United States of America, ever heard of it?” I admit, being snarky is fun and he deserves to get what he gives right back, of course he starts laughing again.
“You are going to be so much fun to have around….ALEX” well I suppose this is more fun than sitting in the other SUV with my family who can do nothing but stare
Sigh “alright, fine. I am from Chicago, it’s a decent sized city. What about you? Do you live in the castle with your family?” see, I can be polite and non-snarky!
“I know where Chicago is, in fact I have been there once. Too many people for my taste though. I do live in the castle with my family most of the time, however I do own an apartment Edinburgh for when I need some time to myself or we want to go to the city. Do you not live with your family?” Finn politely asks, wow, look at us, being civilized people!
“My family lives about an hour from where I live. I wanted to move to a larger city on my own”
“Aye, I did the same when I was your age” Finn says like he is some old man
“When you were MY age? It’s like not I am a child” alright, so I take offense. He isn’t THAT much older than me. Of course Finn’s only response is to smirk. He must have practiced that smirk because he is so good at it.
“Alright, fine. You are OLDER and kind of gross, there, happy?”
“Gross?!? Me?” Finn looks at me like I grew another head. Ha, take that ego! Obviously he can’t handle a joke, well I am not going to let him know I think he is drop dead gorgeous.
You know how in elementary school you were told that if boys are mean to you that it means they like you? Well same goes for 25 year old women such as myself, or maybe it just is me. Whatever. My style of flirting is being an asshole to someone. If I ignore you and barely talk then better look out cause I don’t like you. Really it’s pretty simple to figure out, I'm like a first grader.
“Sooooo, can you tell me about where we are going?” maybe he will tell me more than what his father said
“What would you like to know?”
“I don’t know, the history? How many people live there? How far is the town from the castle? Is there wifi? Do you have running water? I don’t know, the basics I guess?” So much for me not being a sarcastic asshole
“Well, there isn't enough time to tell you the history, you will have to see for yourself how many folks. The town is surrounding and within the castle walls and yes, there is wifi and at times there is running water” Finn smirks at me, again.
An eye roll is the only response I give Finn as I turn my head to look out the window. It’s still dark out so I have no idea what it really looks like here or even where we are going, awesome. This doesn’t make me feel safe at all. Poor Egypt is strung so tight she looks like someone shoved a metal rod up her ass.
“Relax E, we're alright” I reach back to pet her in hopes to chill her out
“Your wee beastie is just on alert and keepin her guard up until she feels more comfortable with where you are goin” Finn says gently. Well isn’t that nice, maybe he feels bad for us.
“Wee? Beastie? She is a Doberman…and weighs over 150 pounds…I would hardly say she is “wee” don’t you think?”
Finn laughs “aye, I would say she is “wee” but she is a good size for her breed and seems to care a great deal for you”
Jeez, if he thinks she is “wee” I can’t imagine the size of the dogs he has seen. I consider her a horse compared to dogs I’ve seen.
“Yes, Egypt and I are very close. She is a great dog.” Egypt seems to agree as she nudges my hand to keep on petting her, she is an attention whore.
“Finn, I really need to pee soon….any chance we will be there soon?” I feel like I have been nonstop traveling for weeks rather than just 10 hours, I probably look awesome as well. Travel hair, wrinkled clothes and I probably smell, awesome. Way to make an impression.
“We have about fifteen more minutes to go but I can pull over so you can pee in the field if you like” Finn answers seriously. Yeah, like I am going to pee in a field, in a strange place, with strange people. I only do that when I'm drunk, which I'm not, sadly.
“Ahhh, no thanks, I will hold it” Hopefully Egypt feels the same way cause I don’t want to stop.
After fifteen more minutes of tense silence we start to see street lights and homes. Well, this was not expected. Here I thought they would live in little straw huts and have no indoor plumbing and use candles for light, how modern of them! Alright, so I am stupid and not well traveled, I get it. I guess in my mind I thought they would still be living in the dark ages since they live in a castle and all.
“S-so do these homes belong to humans? We never usually live this close to them” I stammer. Well that just sounded stupid and stuck up. Great.
Finn looks over at me with a surprised face “we don't live by humans, these houses belong to the “others” or nephilim. There is a protective spell around the town to keep humans out. Do you not have that where you live?”
Huh, weird. Protective spell? I wonder who did that? And living with the “others” around? What the hell? We stay clear of the “others” and keep to ourselves as much as possible. This is just bizarre!
“Ah, n-no we basically keep to ourselves but we don’t have any spells around where we live that I know of.” I’m so confused.
“Well, I suppose everything is done differently in other places” Finn responds seemingly a bit confused himself
Finally we pull through the open gates. Holy shit balls. This castle is amazing! The whole thing is lit up like they could care less about the electric bill.
Whoa, it’s huge! Yes, I could insert a dirty joke or say “that’s what she said” but I am above that kind of humor. I am a lady! HA! Who are we kidding. I am just too amazed by this big ass castle to be clever enough to come up with something funny.
We drive for what seems like a mile through the castle grounds and more houses until we pull up right in front of the castle. I feel like I just went to Disney Land except instead of all white and pretty, this place is medieval style with dark bricks and ivy climbing the walls. There are so many windows and lights on in every one of them that makes the courtyard almost seem like its day time. The castle extends farther than I can see on each side, this place must have over 100 rooms. It’s bigger than a luxury resort! Stepping out of the SUV I can only manage to stare at the castle like I am some sort of simpleton.
“Big huh?” Someone says quietly by my ear which scares the bejesus out of me and makes me stumble forward and fall into Finn’s back. I turn around and find Finn's brother Ian, with a big grin on his face and so close to laughing. What is with these guys? Do they enjoy sneaking up on me?
“Y-yes, this castle is huge! Its far bigger than our home. I feel like I am at a dark Disney Land except minus the cartoon characters” oh shit, I am word vomiting again.
Finn turns around and laughs “come on princess, I will take you to your kingdom” Oh Mr. Snarky is back. Finn goes to reach for my hand and suddenly Egypt is in his way and looking like she is about to take his arm off. Finn throws his hands up like he is the victim of a stick up and smiles down at Egypt “settle down wee beastie, I willna hurt your mistress” to which Egypt’s response is to not move and continue to glare at him.
Sighing “come on E, let’s go with Finn and see the new digs”
Walking up to the castle I see people starting to file out of it, holy shit. There are even more nephilim! How did they get so many and we never knew? Oh right, the family doesn’t tell us shit.
“There are close to 200 nephilim between our two clans” Brennus says as he steps up to my side.
“Wow, we had no idea!” I am even more overwhelmed now. Looking back I see the mute twins and Anja are standing back by the cars staring, again.
“Hey guys, how about we go in?” I say as I walk back to them. “An, what is the matter? Why are the three of you so quiet!?!” I whisper in her ear
“We’re just nervous and not used to all of our kind. I guess I just froze up. Why aren’t you nervous?” Anja whispers back at me
“I am nervous but someone had to talk and since none of you were, that left me to do it. I even had to ride with the stranger! Thanks for that by the way.”
“Well you are the leader now so no point in me stepping up with you are doing such a bang up job!” Anja chirps back. Oh, now she decides to talk?
Rolling my eyes and shaking my head is the only response I can muster up for her. Looking over at Jace and Xander I see they are staring likes cats after a canary, as I follow their line of sight, I see they have zeroed in on female twins! Beautiful, bright blonde hair twins, well lookie there, not the only set of nephilim twins anymore! I wonder if they are as pervy as my cousins are. Suddenly Jace and Xander make a b-line right to them and start talking. Again, why are they now just talking. It’s like their mute buttons suddenly turned off. Turning back to Ajna I see several good looking guys in courtyard looking between An and I. Well, well, where do I begin? It’s like a nephilim mixer!
A throat clearing catches my attention and I turn back to see Finn and Alec standing side by side glaring at the other guys around us.
“Ah, yes?” not knowing what else to say
“I will show you to your room. I am sure you are weary from traveling. Alec here, can show Anja to her room” Finn states gruffly
“Alright, good idea. I could use a shower, maybe some food and a comfy bed? You do have beds here, right? I don't have to sleep on straw or something do I?” welcome back to snark-fest
Finn laughs at my comment “ah Alex, you and I will get along just fine” and walks through the castle doors.