Hey guys. I'm going to go ahead and post this even though I haven't looked over or edited it AT ALL. But I got in a car accident and murdered my car. I'm soooo mad. Don't worry, I wasn't injured. Traumatized, yes, but not physically injured. Anyway, here's the update. Enjoy!

-------------------------------------------

We spent the remainder of our flight in relative silence. By silence, I mean mostly on Jacobi’s part. I, on the other hand, figured out how to turn on the television and promptly found the nearest sitcom. It happened to be New Girl. I’d never seen it before now and there was a nice marathon of the first season. Now, after figuring out how to rotate my armchair, I was moving back and forth and giggling maniacally at random parts of the program.

I knew I probably should have addressed the Corentine and Adelaide being mates thing more, but Jacobi had shut down physically after disclosing the information I hadn’t been privy to. I didn’t really want to spend the rest of my first flight in awkward, tense silence so there I was- pretending I was alone and enjoying my in-flight entertainment.

“You like comedies,” Jacobi’s voice interrupted a rather funny skit being played out on screen. I glanced at him cautiously. It was strange how he stated things that should probably hold more a question to it. I didn’t know whether he expected an answer or if he was just making an observation.

“I do,” I decided to answer anyway. “That was my life before you came along; sitcoms, oldies music, and poorly paid jobs. It was a wonderful life.” I sighed, missing my mundane existence. If I was home, I’d be in pajamas in my comfortable bed rather than this irritating get-up of dresses, pinned up hair-do, and heels.

“I don’t find these… shows entertaining,” He stated, as if I would care. I was deeply offended.

“What? How does someone not like comedies?” Jacobi only stared at me and for some reason I could easily imagine that he’d be the type of person to not find anything funny. I took it as a new type of challenge. “Knock knock.”

There was an awkward silence.

“I said, knock knock,” I narrowed my eyes carefully, not really wanting to make him mad at me once again but feeling like I could possibly get a smile from him if I told him very cheesy jokes.

“Who’s there?” When he finally answered, I felt nervous suddenly. It was similar to stage fright; I was being put on the spot.

I swallowed anxiously, pushing away my timid nature to say, “Cows go.”

When I expected Jacobi to scoff and wave my stupidity away, he instead said, “Cows go who?”

“No, cows go moo!” I gave a strangled laugh, cutting it off when I noticed he didn’t react in any way. That’s what I got for trying to make a master vampire smile. “You know… moo… oh, it was funnier the first time I heard it…”

“Try again,” He abruptly demanded. I blinked, casting a long glance his direction. He was still seated on that couch only now his legs were spread across the length of the furniture and his eyes were staring up to the ceiling of the jet.

“I… well, okay,” I hesitated, trying to think of another joke. I really wasn’t the best at jokes. “Oh, here’s one. What do you call a cow with no legs?”

“Are all your jokes about cows?”

“Maybe… I like cows. Did you know they can smell things from like six miles away? And that you can lead them up stairs, but they can’t walk downstairs? I know, who cares about cows,” I decided my conversation skills were massively failing and that I should probably focus more on my television programs.

“It’s not abnormal to like cows. They’re protected in Hinduism,” Jacobi informed me randomly. Again, I was startled. I never thought I’d live to see the day when I’d discuss cows with Jacobi Bryant.

“I don’t like them as much as I like doves,” I decided to tell him, glancing at my ankle where my tattoo stood as a reminder of past memories; times before I was snatched from my home. “When I was younger, I went to this wedding with my mother… it was some new friend she had made at work. They had hired these people to allow them to release doves into the air. It was supposed to be romantic or something. And the flower girl was afraid to go near the birds. So I asked if I could try…”

“I… it’s stupid really. I just really thought it was beautiful, the dove I mean. And it waited in my hands patiently or maybe naively. Then I just… let it go. I thought I set it free at the time, that it flew off and lived happily ever after,” I scoffed at myself, “Turns out they’re trained to fly back to their cages until the next time they’re released at some event.” I moved into a thoughtful silence, thinking back to that day when I held that ivory living thing in my small hands just before it launched into the air and disappeared.

My mother had looked beautiful in a dress. She had looked happy to be around so many people. Something about moving around so much drove the both of us into isolation so often that when social situations did occur; it made her shine through and through. I imagined she lived most of her life in the social light before she left my father and took me with her. Or maybe that she had a large family when she was growing up. She never had talked about it before and now she was gone forever.

There was a bell overhead, short and soft. I looked back at Jacobi who had his eyes already focused on my form for who knew how long at this point. He was seated properly once again, though now he was pulling out a small device from a pocket and looking at it. It was a cellphone. I felt a strange twinge at seeing one so close to me, but I wasn’t sure why I would even care being that there was no way I was going to be able to steal a cellphone from Jacobi’s grasp anytime soon. And then do what? Call Liv? It wasn’t a typical case of oh, I was sleepwalking, and can you come pick me up?

“How are things on your end?” Jacobi’s voice interrupted my wishful thinking. When I moved my eyes from his cellphone to his face, he was watching me with his head tilted as though he knew exactly what I had been thinking about. I swallowed with difficulty and looked down at my hands.

“Master McElroy has… accepted our gifts. Perhaps you should send Elysia back…,” Aveline’s voice sounded immensely uncomfortable through the speaker, though I didn’t know why. I felt a bit anxious, wondering if I would be sent back to New Jersey after all to be by myself for a while.

“I would be too bored without my new companion, Evelyn. She’s proven quite useful. Tastes much better than I expected for a Monet,” I glanced at him in surprise to see him smirking knowingly. He definitely knew she meant me to change his mind about his sentence on me.

“What?! You didn’t… she’s not there to feed you, Seamus,” Aveline screeched through the speaker. I blinked, wondering why she called him Seamus. I understood why he had called her Evelyn; after all, that was her name when he met her. “Is she okay?! I can’t believe you!”

“You didn’t feel her fear through your claim?” Jacobi continued to tease. There was a silence on the other end of the phone.

“You’re lying. I didn’t feel anything. You’re an ass. Hurry up and get here, Noland is ready to greet you.” She hung up abruptly. I frowned, wondering if she was telling the truth that she hadn’t felt anything. I was very much afraid earlier; surely she would have felt that. But perhaps she had known I didn’t get harmed then…

“We’re landing,” Jacobi told me lazily. Sure enough, the jet was lowering in the air at a slow rate. I clung to the arm rests again, but excitedly. Surely landing was just as fun as taking off. The in-between was what didn’t interest me.

“Why’d she call you Seamus?” I dared to ask him as we waited for the jet to land.

“It’s none of your business,” He responded shortly. It was fair enough. I didn’t expect him to divulge much information in the first place, so I didn’t pry further. After a moment of silence, I was surprised by him following up with, “It was one of my names.”

Now I tilted my head in his direction, curious. “I’d never pin you as a Seamus,” I answered simply.

“Seamus Brion,” He said, his voice dark though I wasn’t sure why. “James Brien. Jacob Bryan. Jacobi Bryant. Now you know, curious Elysia.” Though I was stunned that he listed his previous names, I was equally stunned by how many he had. Exactly how old was he? Or rather, how many times do you feel the need to change your name?

“Just Elysia for me,” I gave a small smile and a shrug, “Some called me Lysa.” I yelped when the jet touched the ground, having been distracted by the conversation. It slowed to a stop and Jacobi abruptly stood, moving in front of me. My heart dropped suddenly, fear rising quickly at his proximity, but he only held out his hand for me to take. I hesitated, reaching for that strong hand, but pulled away partially before allowing myself to finally take his grip in mine. I stood carefully, but he didn’t move away. Instead, he moved my hand to press against his chest with his hand keeping it captured and lightly gripped my other arm.

“I need you to listen carefully,” Jacobi told me, his tone serious and grave. I looked to his eyes openly, giving him my rapt attention. He was far too close. It made my flesh heated and my heart fluttered, whether it was fear or not, I couldn’t tell any longer. “Noland McElroy has been a Master for a while, but he is still a newer Master. He’ll want to show off his power, in order to make up for his inexperience. This means he’ll be difficult to please and any offense won’t be forgiven. You need to stay quiet and stay close. Do you understand?”

I nodded slowly and repeated, “Stay close.”

“Stay close to me,” He said to me quietly, “I’ll protect you.”

He’ll protect you for now. How long until his hands took my life away? I looked down at my hand against his chest, under his much larger hand. I could feel his solid muscle under his shirt. How long would he wait after Darsana gave him the go ahead before he killed me? How would he do it? Would he snap my neck? Strangle me? Rip into my flesh with his fangs? How long would I have to struggle under his grip before I was tossed into that eternal darkness? That darkness which I feared most: death.