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Beautiful Creatures. Chapter 38
(Love Is Crazy.)It was a brilliant first night at sea.The sky covered their heads and reminded Opal of a black sheet she sat in bed under as a child and read by flashlight countless novels, when the household had gone to sleep.The light of the moon was close and dusted her face with glowing fingertips, as the flashlight once did.The water cantered, splashed and rolled in waves around the sides of the yacht.Moments later a huge wave curled itself into monstrous shapes, rising up and opening like a paper fan before the boat. Almost like a flick of the hand, the fan snapped closed and the wave relaxed into the ocean.Opal yawned as she held on to the side of the upper deck, she whipped her hair to the side with a dash of her head and from the corners of her eyes, she saw Buttercup walk the back of the yacht. Buttercup had not seen Opal. She stood where the propellers spin the water into a sudsy strip. She transformed, spread her wings and soared.********************** Now it was j
Beautiful Creatures. Chapter 39
(Freedom.)Another day at sea. Hercules put the pack of cigarette back into his shirt pocket and stood beside Doug.It was sunny and the wind smelled like that headless fish that they had in a box within the kitchen.Saltfish it was called.Buttercup was below cooking up a storm and Doug had already told him that Buttercup's cooking was a trap."A good trap or a bad trap?"Hercules had asked him.Doug had smiled."You will taste for yourself."Doug had replied.Hercules had lit a cigarette and watched as Doug walked over to Bruce. Bruce sat in a chair by the side of the boat in jeans shorts, no shirt and a broad hat. He looked every bit like a relaxed tourist.He had a fishing rod in his hands and though he had cast a line hours ago, he had caught nothing."Fish ain't taking the bait?"Hercules heard Doug say.Bruce shook his head to indicate no."Maybe it is not the right bait."Hercules kept on smoking. He watched the sails puffing its white chest out.*******************************
Beautiful Creatures. Chapter 40
(The Antidote.)Jatray flew down the stairs. Sometimes she wondered why they were there, if she never physically climbed them. Yet she loved this old house. She was comfortable here to be herself. Of all her properties, this was the only one, where all her staff were Vampires. Here she kept the old ways, where Vampires stick to their own clan. Here she could be nothing else but a Vampire.She walked over to the shoe stand and laced a blue sneakers to her feet.She decided to take an evening walk.She went out the back door and towards the park.The trees made her think of strip dancers on a pole. They were almost naked as fallen leaves came winding down the bark, settling as discarded clothing on the ground.She came to the open iron gates of the park and sat on a wooden bench, observing a child's birthday party in full swing.Two portable, folding tables were loaded with refreshments and snacks. The cake was shaped like a racing car. Five candles stood in the blue icing top, that slan
Beautiful Creatures. Chapter 41
(Stepping Over The Threshold.) Jatray stood under a tree that glanced over the fence. There was an electrical post beside the tree and it curled its branches around the wire. The tree had green blossoms and colonies of black berries sprouting. A blackbird sat on the electrical wire that ran through the limbs, it pecked at a yellow blossom and dropped it towards Jatray. A gift perhaps, from one blackened soul to the other. Jatray lifted to the sky.She was following a scent. The lure of passion fruit and melon. Jatray had returned to the park twice but Izzy was not there, however her scent had imprinted on Jatray's senses and she wondered if the woman was alright.Now, three days later, the scent had led her to a stone house settled on green pastures. Jatray came down behind a tree and watched Izzy hanging out the last shirt in her laundry basket on a line, with clothespins from her apron pocket. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, picked up the basket and went inside.
Beautiful Creatures. Chapter 42
(Married To The Devil.)The palm trees were close and the leaves weaved over and under each other, like the dry straws used to craft a basket. So were Jatray's thoughts woven in despair, as she lifted Journey from the back seat of her car and the girl's head rolled back and slanted over her elbow.Jatray knew as she carried Journey down the path.Izzy followed behind her and Jatray's sharp ears heard her teeth crunching nervously into each nail.Kimmy opened the door as Jatray approached. "Good evening."She said. There was curiosity hidden behind her eyes.Which was understandable, because she wasn't accustomed to seeing Jatray bringing strangers here. Especially, holding one so close."Good evening Kimmy. Can you put some tea on, something extra sweet to calm the nerves?"She looked at Kimmy and Kimmy nodded."Also get the First Aid Kit and meet me upstairs.""Surely."Kimmy replied.Jatray didn't fly up to the second floor as she did sometimes. It was not a human thing to do. Ins
Beautiful Creatures. Chapter 43
(Colliding Worlds.)(Chapter 43.)They were racing each other, flashing and dashing through the rainfall.Lucinda had drawn a broken heart when she was a teenager after feeling the first crushing spasms of rejection. In that drawing was a scar that had ripped the heart in two. This was a different situation. On both sides of her, were the two men who held pieces of her heart and truly she felt broken in another way entirely. "Keep up!"She heard David's thoughts scream. Lucinda realized she was being held back by her conflicting feelings.She broke free and shot to the front."No, you keep up!"She sent back laughing. "Jesus! She is that fast?"Jimmy asked."The fastest of us all. She is not Leader of the pack for nothing."David relayed to him.David howled and picked up speed. Soon he was at Lucinda's tail, then her hind legs, her waist, but it was too late. Lucinda had reached the boundary post before David did.David heard her laughing and he laughed too."Almost got you."Dav
Beautiful Creatures. Chapter 44
(Cultural Barriers.)"I need to see you."The thought was dropped into Lucinda's head."I can't Jimmy.""I just need to spend some time alone with you.""It is not right for us to be sneaking out at nights and hanging with each other.""It is not like we are sleeping together Lucinda. Why are you making this so difficult all the time? Don't you want to see me?"Lucinda went silent. She didn't know what she wanted. How did it all go so far?She thought.She decided she would go, if only to end with Jimmy, what should not have started."Lucinda?"She hung up the kitchen towel and pulled the window close. She had been thinking about Jimmy to the point where she was driven with the madness to clean an already clean kitchen.She checked the clock on the wall.It was two ten in the morning."Lucinda?""Ok, ok I will be there."Lucinda sent back the thought. Thus, on yet another morning disguised in darkness, while her community slumbers, Lucinda Pitters leaves her family to be with Jimmy
Beautiful Creatures. Chapter 45
(Almost There.)Hercules went above deck and glimpsed an ice-cream cone of land sticking up from the sea. According to his compass, which he placed back into his pocket, he should be looking at their destination. Being so close, he wasn't sure he wanted to get there just yet.Just last night, he had spent hours alone with Buttercup, just sitting under the sky, discussing magic and his books she had read on Doug's laptop. Doug was kind enough to pay for a few of the books with his credit card information and Buttercup had realized, from her reading, that Hercules was a very interesting man.There was an air of mystery in his novels and it appeared that they shared a love for the supernatural. He was very knowledgeable of the world humans didn't see or perhaps chose to ignore."Where do you get your ideas?"She had asked him."Oh, I pick up bits and pieces here and there and like a spider, I spin them into an organized web of adventure.""Your books are wonderful, one almost thought it