Chapter 10 -- Playing Hard to Get

Chapter 10 – Playing Hard To Get

 

“Caleb,” Aarow exclaimed as jumped up from where he was sitting next to me; almost knocking me over as he did so. Frava stood tall to greet Caleb, Alex and the girl they had with them. Her skin was so dark that I couldn’t believe that she was a Vampire.

 

 

“Caleb,” My father’s voice sound questioning as he tumbled the name over his tongue his mind trying to decided if he could trust him just by the way he looked.

 

“What did you want to ask, son?” my father asked the boy I hardly knew.

 

 

“Well, if I asked you what you are all doing here, would you answer my question?” Caleb asked my father and he looked weary and tired but he turned his gaze to me and then looked back to Caleb and the rest of Aarow’s family.

 

 

“You would have to ask Jasmine that and it would be up to her to decide to answer your question.” He replied to Caleb sounding exhausted. Caleb turned to me to ask me but since I had been paying attention to their conversation I stood up to stand up face to face with Caleb.

 

 

“We are starting a war against the Forbidden Kingdom, well not so much as a war but a rebellion. Surely you can’t say you don’t want to get a chance to have your revenge on what Ashley did to you.” His eyes turned as hard as Ice as he thought over what I had told him, he turned his face to Aarow and spoke directly to him, completely ignoring me.

 

 

“Mother and Father are going to hate this you know.” He told Aarow. His facial expression looking as hard and as cold as his eyes did. Aarow looked back to him.

 

 

“I know. I will stand by Jasmine to the death Caleb. Even you would have done that for Sky before she hurt you like she did.” Aarow replied tiredly as well. It seemed that the unexpected arrival of Caleb, Alex and who I presumed to be Pandora tired all of us.

 

 

“Nor will I leave you and Frava to fight in this either.” Caleb whispered to Aarow from where he stood in front of me and yet I felt as if he could still hear it as perfectly as if Caleb had said it out loud.

 

 

“Okay then Jasmine. You have me on your side and I know that Alex and Pandora will want to fight with us too.” Caleb smiled. It was that smile he wore when I first saw him at the gates and he looked so unexpectedly handsome, that Abel’s thought caught me off guard.

 

 

“Isn’t he dreamy? I could just go up over there and well kiss him, to start off with I guess.” I giggled at Able’s unspoken thought and he gave me a look as if to say ‘if you tell anyone about that and your dead’ in that love, hate way. Everyone was getting settled in when my father spoke up above the racket that had started to evolve out of all the single conversations going on.

 

 

“Well It’s getting late we should all go to bed, since Frava and Pandora are married they can share my ex-wife’s bed. Two of you boys can bunk in the guest room. Jasmine will sleep in her room and I will sleep in here. Whoever is left without a bedroom to sleep in will be sleeping in here as well. Now everyone I believe its best off if we all go and get a good night’s rest.” My father went into the kitchen; I think to make himself another cup of coffee. Frava and Pandora headed up towards my mother’s bedroom, the boys scrabbled over which two out of the five of them would share the guest bedroom together, as I made my way to my bedroom as soon as my back was on the bed and my head was on the pillow, I fell into a dreamless sleep.

 

 

....

....

....

 

 

I woke up to the fresh morning air flowing into my bedroom from the open window, bluebird chirpings and the moaning of a pale skin vampire boy who seemed so comfortable with his arm wrapped around my waist, A boy I don’t remember having in my bed when I went to sleep. My high pitch scream fully woke him, with another groan as he sat up in the bed. I tried to move as far away from him, when he sat up but there wasn’t that much distance that I could get away from him in.

 

 

“What are you screaming at?” He asked groggily as his one crimson red eye stared at me, the other, as usual, was covered up by his hair.

 

 

“You!” I wanted to scream at him again but I didn’t. It wasn’t really going to help anyone. He yawned, he didn’t even bother to try and hide it.

 

 

“I had a nightmare, so I came and asked if I could hop into your bed, you said something unintelligible and then I hopped in. You don’t hate me do you?” He slyly smiled to me, using the puppy dog eyes move on me. I didn’t know that vampires could have nightmares but as I looked into his deep crimson eyes, I believed him.

 

 

“No, I don’t hate you. I just wish you wouldn’t do it again.” I told him slowly as I was still sleepy. He smiled softly at me and pulled closer towards me.

 

“What are you looking at? Do I have something on my face?” I demanded of him, his smile grew larger and he shook his head as if to say no.

 

 

“There’s nothing on your face, you look beautiful.” He said so softly that it was barely above a whisper, I knew my hair was a mess and I had morning breath. Yet he still thought me beautiful as if I was looking my best. He pulled closer towards me and cupped my face in his hand. His skin was cool and soft, his crimson eyes shone with a passion.

 

 

“Jasmine,” He whispered and I could taste his breath on my tongue, its taste was indescribable. He looked into my eyes and he just sat there with my face cupped in his hand, staring deeply into my eyes as if we had all of eternity together. His lips were mere centimetre’s away from mine when the door was swung open and Able stood in the door way.

 

 

“Geez guys get up, we need to plan.” Aarow moved away from me, when he saw Abel staring at us with wide eyes. Able looked a bit disgusted that Aarow was in my bed.

 

 

“Sorry Abel.” I murmured as I got off of the bed. When both of their eyes grew wider, I realized that I should have just stayed on the bed. I had forgotten I was wearing my short silk black nightgown.

 

 

“Get out!!!” I literally screamed at the perving boys, throwing a deodorant can at them. Now, I was going to be embarrassed to be around them all day, They tried to divert their eyes as they exited my bedroom but they failed at keeping their eyes away from me. Ugh boys!!! I waited until they had left the room and closed the door behind them to lock the door; I didn’t need any other boys entering in on me while I got changed into my usual outfit, a pair of gray skinny jeans, a long white undershirt and a black short sleeved shirt on top along with my neon green chucks. As soon as I was fully dressed I went downstairs to the kitchen to fix myself a hot mug of blood. The Boys and Pandora were all drinking whatever they wanted to drink, while my father drank a coffee while reading the morning paper. He peeked up over the top of the newspaper and looked at me.

 

 

“Good morning, did you sleep well?” He asked as I took a sip from my coffee cup, which was filled with warm blood.

 

 

“Uh, oh yea It was okay I guess.” From the corner of my eye I saw that Aarow’s lips curved upwards as if almost smiling at my comment.

 

 

“It looked like she slept better then okay.” Able’s spiteful comment hurt just a bit but I tried to make it seem as if I didn’t even hear it.

 

 

“Well okay then. We are going to strategize who is going to go where to collect more volunteers to help us out soon. So if you are ready do you think you could go and wait in the living room?” Darrius asked me. I was ready; I just needed to finish with this blood I had warmed up.

 

 

“Sure Dad.” I replied as I left the kitchen to go and sit in the living room. Darrius had cleaned up all the beds and there was a projector in the middle of the room and a wide white screen just a few meters away from it which was next to the flat screen. I sat down on one of the one seater chairs and watch everyone file in slowly. When Aarow saw that there was no room to sit next to me he looked gloomy and decided he would go and sit next to his brother Alex, who gave me an odd look. Darrius was the last one to come in and seeing that everyone but Pandora (who was upstairs resting) was sitting he turned on the projector and picked up the stick that was next to the projector, I knew he was going to use it as a pointer. On the screen showed a map of the immortal realms. You could see all the different kingdoms, the barren realm and the Forbidden Kingdom. In the heart of the map was the Vampire kingdom and above the Vampire kingdom was the Angel kingdom. The werewolf kingdom was to the west, the fairy kingdom was to the east, the mermaid kingdom was to the north and the Element’s kingdom was to the south. Past the werewolf kingdom there was the Forbidden kingdom and past the fairy kingdom was the barren realm.

 

 

“Okay so as you can all see, there is the map of the Immortal realms. I am going to need you guys to tell me what area’s you are going to cover.” Darrius told everyone, I thought we had gone through this before but because there was so many of us I guess we had to revise over this plan.

 

 

“I will cover the Angel kingdom Darrius.” Able told Darrius with a perfectly clear voice.

 

 

“Yes, I think that would be best able. Since no-one else can get to that area besides, Jasmine, you and myself. Thank you for volunteering.” My father told him as he wrote down that Able would cover the angel kingdom.

 

 

“I will cover the Vampire kingdom and I think Alex will help me.” Caleb told Darrius, Alex nodded his head in agreement and my father wrote down what they were going to do.

 

 

“I will cover the werewolf kingdom.” Announced Jared knowing that he was the only one out of us that they would listen to.

 

 

“I am going to be covering the Element Kingdom.” Darrius told everyone and made a note of it just in case if he forgot.

 

 

“I will cover the Barren Realm, Darrius.” I told my father and nodded his head in acknowledgement as he made a note of it. That left Frava, Aarow and Pandora to cover the fairy realm and the mermaid realm.

 

“I will choose the mermaid realm since I know Pandora will want to cover the fairy realm.” Frava announced choosing for himself and his wife. That left Aarow to choose a realm to help someone in.

 

 

“I will help Jasmine in the Barren realm.” Aarow told Darrius giving me a quick glance most likely to see how it made me react. My father also gave me a quick glance and wrote what Aarow had said down as well.

 

 

“Okay, thanks guys in the next couple of days we are going to depart and venture into our chosen realms. Be prepared so that we can leave on Thursday.” My father told everyone before he turned off the projector and everyone left the room, except for Aarow who came over to me. Today was Monday so that gave me three days before I was alone with Aarow for quite a bit of time.

 

 

“Jasmine,” Aarow said as he looked down at me from where he was standing next to me. I stood up so that I could talk to him face to face.

 

 

“Yes?” I asked he rubbed his arm nervously and smiled a crooked smile at me.

 

 

“I’m sorry about this morning. I didn’t mean to look...” He started saying but he stopped when he saw my facial expression, I didn’t even know what I was looking like.

 

 

“Look, I accept your apology but that can’t make it okay. It was embarrassing, having you and able perv at me just because I was in a nightdress.” He looked away as if he was the one who had been perved on.

 

 

“I know like I said, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to...” I wanted to pull him towards me and kiss him but I didn’t, I had to behave myself. I was going to make the boy suffer for making me embarrassed and that punishment was for him not to get anything from me. I think he caught onto what I was thinking and didn’t bother finishing his sentence he just walked off making me feel bad for what I didn’t do. Jared entered into the room just as Aarow was leaving receiving a cold look from Aarow for no apparent reason.

 

 

“Hey Jazz.” Jared called as he walked over to me; he was smiling softly, his black eyes shining like the night.

 

 

“Hey Jared,” I replied smiling back at him. He walked up a little bit closer so that we were only a few centimetres away.

 

 

“I was going to go to the black market to find some weapons and I was wondering if you wanted to come?” He asked me sweetly, I had never been to the black market before and I had only vaguely heard of it.

 

 

“Sure, I’d love to go.” I told him, I knew it would be fun and it would make Aarow jealous, I had the plan down. The boy wanted war; he was going to get it.

 

 

“Okay well just get you’re things together and then we should be on our way.” Jared told me, I noticed the bulge in his back pocket it obviously was his wallet. I went to find Darrius to inform him of my plans, I knew he would be okay with it; I just needed to tell him where I was planning to go. As soon as I walked into the kitchen I found Aarow, Frava and Alex sitting at the table playing a game of cards, I didn’t know what they were playing exactly nor did I care, I also found Darrius drinking another cup of coffee. Darrius looked up to me as I approached him.

 

 

“Father, Jared and I are going to the black markets to go weapon shopping.” Darrius smiled around the coffee cup and he quickly glanced at Aarow before he turned back to me. Aarow must have been listening in our conversation, which was what I actually was hoping for.

 

 

“Okay, just be careful. There can be some really crazy one’s down at the market.” He replied before drinking some of the coffee out of the cup. He nodded at someone that was standing in the doorway, I turned to go and find Jared but found that he was the one in the kitchen doorway.

 

 

“Come on Jared let’s go!!” I exclaimed excitedly as I grabbed his hand making sure that Aarow saw it all. I could tell that he was fuming but his face remained distant and cold. Jared led me out of the house and towards his silver sport car, taking the drivers wheel into his hands and speeding off into the north obviously driving towards the black market. Well this was going to be fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bonus Scene – Aarow’s P.O.V

I can’t believe she just did that. She just held the hand of a YOUNG WEREWOLF and RAN OUT THE DOOR WITH HIM. How could she do that to me. I could feel myself getting all hot over what she just did to me. I just wanted to bite off the head of the nearest mortal and suck them dry. I looked into Frava’s eyes and he just smiled back, he went through the same kind of thing with Pandora before they got engaged and married. He knew what it was like. We were play spoons and there were two spoons in the middle of the table, so far Able was losing, I was coming second and Frava was coming first. We were all focused on the game, when I screamed out at the anger I was feeling inside of me because of her.

 

 

“Chill Aarow, It happens to all of us.” Frava told me as Alex slapped me on the back.

 

“Yea just chill, what are you so mad about anyways?” Alex joking said as he laughed out loud.

 

 

“I’m mad at that ‘princess’,” I said the word mockingly, the way she was acting wasn’t much like a princess at all.

 

 

“But why?” Alex continued to question me.

 

 

“She’s playing hard to get because she woke up finding me in her bed.” I said as coldly as possible. Alex just laughed even harder.

 

 

“Well if she is playing hard to get, why don’t you just show her what she is missing out on. Stop being a softie and play hard ball.” He told me, still laughing. Maybe he is right, if she wants to play hard to get, then baby I am I going to play hard ball. If she wants a war she is going to get it.