Rose

Chapter 9

"Hi." I jumped. I hadn't realised I wasn't alone, but there at the counter drinking what looked like coffee was a beautiful girl smiling at me. Perfect porcelain skin framed by 'legally blonde' curls; Full lips painted a warm toned pink to match the blush on her cheeks; sparkling eyes that shimmered with the lightest blending of natural eye makeup (very different to the smoky black I preferred of late). This woman could have been a super model or an elegant actress from the 40's. Her perfect manicured hands wrapped tightly around her cup as she sipped the contents. Coffee, it was coffee. I was happy living in denial when I was quite clearly alone in a room with a vampire.

Realising she had spoken and was waiting for a response, I smiled, probably a little strained looking and over the top. "Hi." I gestured a hand up. "I'm... Honey," I finished awkwardly.

"Felicity, but everyone calls me Flic." She took another sip and I tried not to watch in morbid fascination. She looked at me curious as I still stood by the door smiling. "Not used to Vampires?" She asked. I shook my head, a little embarrassed at the way I was reacting. "Are you from New Cape?"

Willow had said her family were from there. It was one of the smaller islands not far from the mainland here and it was occupied by the Witches. I nodded, unsure what exactly to say. We hadn't gone over what I was supposed to say about where I came from and Willow wasn't here to steer me in the right direction.

Flic smiled, seeming to accept my answer as an explanation of my weird behaviour. "Well I can assure you we're not that different from you. Apart from not using magic, and our diets, and maybe our speed... actually, we're very different." She laughed. "So Honey. Tell me all about yourself."

"Umm not much to tell to be honest." I was starting to panic at the thought of not having rehearsed anything. What if I said the wrong thing? I busied myself with the teapot.

"Which coven are you part of?" Flic asked.

"Umm I'm not. I'm just here with my friend Willow." I hoped that was a normal thing and not all witches were in coven's.

"Willow? Isn't her patron The Crone?" I could hear the excitement in her voice.

"Yes that's right." My voice sounded higher than it should be and I hoped Flic couldn't tell I was nervous.

"Have you ever met her?"

"The Crone? Yes. She's very nice." I didn't think there was anyone that could disagree with that statement. My grandmother was one of the nicest and most gentle people I'd ever met.

"I hear she's quite formidable. I heard what's happened to her daughter and granddaughter; I do hope they're OK."

"What have you heard?" I asked not wanting to miss an opportunity to hear from a Vampires perspective on the situation. I tried to keep my voice natural, and not sound as desperate as I really was for information on my mum and Wynne.

"My dad said that The Mother and The Maiden were both taken from the Earth Realm and that the Council were looking into it. He knows a few of the council members and they're all extremely worried. The last thing they want is an all out war with the Witches. Nothing like that has ever happened between our species, but then nothing like this awful situation has ever happened since the time of Ansuradon."

Ansuradon? I had heard that name before. But I had no idea who that was or what he was connected with. "Do you think he had something to do with them going missing?" I asked, leaning back against the counter sipping my tea.

Flic seemed to mull the question over. "I don't know. It is possible I suppose. Nobody has heard from him in sixty odd years, but nobody knows what happened to him either. He was never found by the Council and any of his people that were captured never talked; they were that scared of him some even cut their own tongues out."