Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume 1 (13 page)

“What do you...” Roy then narrowed his
eyes and noticed the purplish bruise shining on the boy’s neck.

“I suppose it should be no surprise to
me that the girl has got a great grip with her teeth. Being part of
a marching band, she must get plenty of practice biting long hard
objects.”

Roy chortled loudly while Aradia rushed
on, “But somebody better remind her that giving your boyfriend a
hickey is a completely different experience than playing the French
horn.”

Roy’s laughter grew even louder and
seemed to cut clear across the entire backyard. Indeed, it was so
obnoxious that a couple people even turned to stare at them. Aradia
always enjoyed it when people laughed at her jokes, but not when
that laughter earned her annoyed stares. Eager to distract Roy and
his loud laughter, she pointed out another random person. “Who is
he?”

Almost instantly, Roy's laughter died
away. “That’s Tad Levy.”

“What’s so serious about Tad Levy?”

Roy explained, “Nothing, really. It’s
just that he works at Stanley Hardware. Or he worked there, I
guess, for the murder victim.”

Aradia’s eyes widened. “Murder victim...
you don’t mean...?”

“The Vampire Murder,” Roy finished for
her. “Yeah.”

“Hmm,” Aradia replied.

“Hey, you hungry?” Roy asked. He turned
and made for the kitchen. Aradia hurried to catch up with him.

“
You know, everybody in
Salem has been talking about it,” Roy said grimly as he grabbed a
Granny Smith from a bowl and began to chomp on it. “The Vampire
Murder.”

“Yeah,” Aradia replied,
pouring herself a glass of water. “You know, what I find weird is
that everyone is talking about it to each other, but no one is
willing to talk to the authorities.”

“It’s kind of obvious
why,” Roy swallowed the chunk of apple he’d been
chewing.

“Oh? Why’s that,”
Aradia asked.

“Well, according to the
victim’s business partner, I think his name is Dereck Carringock or
Dereck Carrot Top or something like that–”

“Caradoc. Dereck
Caradoc,” Aradia replied. She’d also seen him on the
news.

“Well, he was on TV
saying the business was failing and Mr. Stanley was deeply in debt.
And Tad,” he pointed at Tad Levy, who was now grinding on the dance
floor, “told me once that he suspected Mr. Stanley was involved in
something shady.”

Aradia wasn’t quite
sold on this explanation.

“So, naturally, if
someone talks, then dirty secrets come out and people start to lose
money. No one wants to do that, am I right?”

Aradia raised an
eyebrow. “So you think his murder had something to do with his
business.”

“That’s my guess,” Roy
admitted with a shrug.

“Then why hasn’t anyone
said so?” Aradia pointed out. “People have been murdered for things
like that before, and in more bizarre ways. Yet no one here in
Salem has been willing to say anything to the police. Surely, it
can't be just because they want to avoid losing money.”

Roy didn’t answer her.
He just looked away, trying to avoid her interrogative stare.
Attempting to look casual, he tossed his apple core into the open
trash can set in the center of the kitchen.
He knows more than he’s letting on. Something weird is going
on here
, Aradia thought as she peered
at the boy.
Something really
weird
.

The two quickly changed
the subject after that, and ended up hanging out together in the
kitchen for a while. Even in that room, the music was loud, so
Aradia imagined it must have been positively blaring in the living
room where her fellow students were dancing.

Finishing her water,
she turned to place the glass in the sink and nearly bumped right
into Dax.

“Oh, hi,” Aradia said,
obviously flustered.

“Hello,” Dax
responded.

He only spoke a single
word, but his voice was deep and bold and grabbed hold of Aradia as
if she were hypnotized. She knew from class that he spoke with a
British accent, but he sounded entirely different now that his
amazing voice was directed at her.

Aradia stared up at
him, absorbed by his presence. He looked as handsome as Aradia had
ever seen him. He wore a dark gray shirt with three buttons at the
collar and a black leather jacket over it, dark blue jeans, and
low, black boots. Even in the dimly lit kitchen, his wavy hair
shone like gold.

With his golden hair
and pale skin, he looks just like an angel
, Aradia thought.

Aradia was taken from
her reverie by the arrival of a newcomer. Another boy, this one
with a black crew cut and a dark goatee, appeared next to
Dax.

He draped his arm on
the object of Aradia's affection and asked, "Hey Dac, what’s
up?"

Dax responded, "Oh,
nothing. I was just talking to statue girl here."

Aradia's time on cloud
nine seemed to be up.

Her expression hardened
and she snapped, "What do you mean by ‘statue girl’?"

Roy hung back for the
moment, but stayed near.

"When I noticed you
staring at me, my first inclination was ‘stalker girl.’ I thought
'statue girl' seemed a bit more pleasant."

"Staring? No way. I’m
not the one who’s been staring," Aradia protested.

"Well," Dax explained,
"since day one in Algebra you have done nothing but stare at me.
It’s okay. Really, I could do far worse as stalkers go. I felt I
owed you a deservedly unique moniker."

"My name is Aradia,"
she said defensively.

"That’s a lot prettier
than statue girl," Dax admitted. Aradia hoped that her cheeks were
already flushed enough from anger that her blushing was not too
obvious. Dax took a step to his side and the new arrival took his
arm off his shoulders. "Xan, meet Aradia, the statue, or stalker
girl, take your pick. Aradia, this is my dear brother
Xan."

Aradia practically saw
red. She was frustrated that again she had found a complete jerk so
attractive.

Roy stepped up to
Aradia’s side, and she was glad to have a comforting person
involved. Like a dog sensing a predator, his eyes narrowed as he
shot the brothers a venomous glare. Dax and Xan responded in
kind.

They way Roy was
tensed, she suspected he was either barely holding himself back or
about to pounce. She was still angered by Dax’s comment, but
definitely didn’t want a fight to break out, especially over her.
Aradia shouted, feigning excitement, "Oh, I love this song! C'mon
Roy, let's go dance."

She grabbed Roy's hand
and dragged him toward Jayce's living room turned dance
floor.

Xan chuckled and said,
"I think she likes you."

Dax shifted his
shoulders slightly in a shrug and thoughtfully repeated, "I could
do worse."

“Could?” Xan asked
playfully.

Dax grinned his
acknowledgement at having been outplayed. “Have, Xan. I
have.”

Dax broke off the
conversation and turned away from his brother, but began to wish
he’d maintained the verbal sparring when his gaze quickly shifted
back to Aradia. She had succeeded in pulling Roy onto the dance
floor. Dax fought to keep his fangs retracted.

By now Aradia was
hardly even concerned over her staring peers. She felt like they
were being more obvious at this point as well, or maybe she’d just
gotten better at spotting them. Specifically, the
Too Perfectly Freaky
people, as Aradia had decided to call them, watched as she and
Roy started dancing to the early nineties song “Connected" by the
Stereo MC's.

She was dancing with
Roy, but she was still thinking of Dax. She turned her head to the
left and saw him staring as well, and he definitely made no effort
to conceal it. Grinning wickedly, she began to dance more
provocatively with Roy. Roy grinned and danced awkwardly along with
her, not noticing where she was directing her gaze. She watched
with surprising pleasure as Dax mouthed along with the song, “I see
through you.” She got closer to Roy, so close that her body rubbed
against his. Roy, much to his own dismay, blushed. Aradia threw her
head back and laughed.

As they danced, Aradia
grew less and less comfortable. Dax was not the only of the
too-freaky-perfect
people puffing out his chest. Nearly all the freaky boys
stiffened and eyed her and Roy, less like kids at a party and more
like predators calculating a kill. The girls, too, had steel in
their eyes, looking lethal like lionesses defending their
babies.

Aradia found the
atmosphere growing tense.

Apparently Roy did too.
He grabbed Aradia's hand and said, "Let’s get out of
here."

Aradia, however,
planted her feet firmly, and despite Roy’s strength, she did not
budge.

"After this song," she
said.

Roy looked back at her
and grinned sheepishly.

They did not leave
after that song. Eventually it was just the two of them on the
dance floor slow dancing to “Smooth Operator” by Sade. Roy's head
was tilted down, and his forehead pressed against
Aradia's.

"So are you having a
good time?" Roy finally asked her.

"Since I started
hanging with you? Yeah," said Aradia, grinning broadly.

Roy smiled back in
response.

Dax stood statuesque at
the entryway to the kitchen. He had not moved from the spot since
Roy and Aradia started dancing, and he had not for a moment
diverted his gaze.

Xan was across the room
flirting with Jayce's girlfriend. He kept most of his attention
focused on his flirting tactics, but he was cognizant enough of his
surroundings to note his brother’s unusual behavior. Xan was
perfectly perplexed by why Dax was acting so strangely.

Aradia was something
exotic, that much was obvious; she was therefore interesting. She
was not, however, to Xan, fascinating. Yet, Xan knew his brother
well enough to know that Dax tended to notice details which others
might miss. Xan decided that as long as Dax was focused on Aradia,
he’d remain focused on his brother.

Chapter
Eleven

“You seem to be
enjoying yourself,” Keon commented.

Saul shrugged and said,
“When in Rome,” before throwing back the last of his
beer.

"Please tell me you
have kept a close watch on the girl," Keon said.

"What does it look
like?" Saul asked sarcastically.

Keon thought of a
thousand things to say, but shook his head after thinking better of
it. Besides, the more his lieutenant looked like a drunken fool,
the better he’d blend at the high school party.

“Report,” Keon
commanded.

“She gets around,” he
replied.

“Around?”

“Socially,” Saul
explained. “Recently she’s been dancing with the dog there for a
while now, and that one,” he nodded in Dax’s direction, “has taken
an interest.”

Keon digested that
information. “What else have you learned?”

“She’s a courageous
one, gotta respect that.”

“Courageous how?” Keon
asked suspiciously.

“I tailed her here,”
Saul replied. “Did my best monster-in-the-woods routine. Thought I
could provoke her into revealing what she was.”

“And you did not engage
her directly, right?”

“Right, just like you
said,” Saul replied defensively. “Just a little growling and
shaking bushes is all. She strode right up to where I was like she
was going to take me on. She seemed to just get more curious, the
scarier I got. She didn’t see me though. She is very
interesting.”

Keon was less than
thrilled at the report. Saul was right though, at least, about
Aradia being of interest.

“Anyway,” he said,
leaning against the wall next to Saul and doing his best to look
like a normal, human teenager. “I reported our findings to our
Sovereign.”

Saul's ears perked up.
“And?” he finally prompted, just as Keon knew he would.

“He wants us to get a
sample from her,” said Keon. He went on to describe the particular
requirements.

“As the Sovereign
commands,” Saul replied with perfect, stilted formality. More
casually, he added, “Though that’s a pretty weird command.” Seeing
his Solo cup empty, Saul grabbed a half-full cup of beer off the
beer pong table. He smirked at the protesting players.

Keon scowled. “Well,
according to the Sovereign's demon Seer, that,” he tipped his head
in Aradia's direction, “scrawny, smelly little girl might actually
be a witch.”

Saul spat his beer
out.

Not bothering to
compose himself, he asked, “What?”

“You heard me,” was all
Keon said in response.

Saul looked from Keon
to Aradia. He let his eyes linger for a while on the girl before
turning them back to his superior.

“Yeah, I heard you,
but… you’re kidding!” Keon did not respond. “A witch? A hidden
witch? That is impossible! They were wiped out centuries
ago.”