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Amherst, Massachusetts - 1862
"Sherry?" Emily offered with a smile.
"You know I shan't drink it!"
"Take it, nonetheless. Quickly, before I stain my dress."
Eve placed the glass on the windowsill.
"It's the color of your hair. Like chestnuts."
Emily reached for the stack of paper.
"May I borrow the idea?"
Eve inclined her head.
"You know that I live to lie palely upon your bed and make such silly pronouncements for your edification."
"And I write them here, that I may remember them the better when you are gone. When shall I see you again?"
"Child, I have only just this hour arrived! Where are your manners?"
Emily withdrew her eager glance at once, and cast her eyes down to her grubby slippers.
"I am sorry, Emily. I did not mean to cast doubt on your upbringing. I merely meant that we should dwell in the present, and not in the future or the past."
Emily sniffed unattractively. Eve offered her handkerchief.
"I've been writing more lately," Emily pronounced when she had composed herself.
"Good. That's good. You have such talent for words. When will you share it with the world?"
"Never!" she exclaimed.
Eve heard the approaching footsteps long before her charge.
"Emily, are you well? Is someone there?"
Emily whirled around in panic. Her sister could not be allowed to discover Eve!
She need not have worried. By some mysterious means, Eve was gone.
#
Fall River, Massachusetts - 1892
"Ava, what have you done?"
Her little sister grinned through blood and gore, the dark liquid caught in her hair and soaking her pinafore.
"It was Lizzie. She wanted them dead. I merely helped a little, when her courage failed."
Eve grabbed her and shook her, hard.
"We have to leave now, right now. Leave everything behind. And while we travel, you must consider how your help might cost Lizzie her life."
Ava wrinkled her face.
"But my Lizzie! She must come with us."
"No, Ava. We will go alone, as always. You know that."
The following months would be trying. Eve would keep a constant watch over Ava, since her sister had a tendency to ignore all advice when it came to handling humans. Turning Lizzie Borden wasn't something Eve wanted on her conscience; even vicariously.
#
Sydmonton, Hampshire, England - 2009
"That's... That's quite something."
Adam stood before the tumbling tower of angels.
"Turn on the light!"
"You're a vampire, you don't need a light," Mitchell protested. He would not admit that it was actually quite hard to make out some of the detail. Trust the wretched Burne-Jones to defeat their vampire night vision.
"I need to look at this properly! "
Mitchell sighed.
"If we put a light on, we'll be found. So no."
"Well there's no point staying if I can't see it properly. Let's go."
Adam turned to leave.
*crash*
Mitchell felt a sharp pain in his left ankle.
"Now you're just being silly." Mitchell grinned. He waited by the light switch. "All right, I'll turn on the light for 20 seconds, then we're leaving. Are you ready?"
He flicked the switch and watched, scowling, as Adam stood transfixed by the painting. He meanly counted twelve seconds and flipped it off again, ignoring the inevitably-screeching alarm and the sighing, black-clad figure behind him.
They reconvened in the nearby Carnarvon arms, slouching in a corner by the fire. Mitchell had to push it by drinking from his hipflask rather than his obviously-untouched pint, and Adam pulled him out of the pub before they were pushed. Marco-Pierre was glowering at them, and Adam didn't fancy a confrontation.
"Are you insane? He was about to get the bouncers to come over."
"No. Just bored."
"Call yourself Louis de Pointe du Lac and have done with it, then. Nobody's allowed to be more bored than me."
"Why not go bury yourself in the ground for a decade or two, then. You've got a long way to go to outdo the real diva."
Adam turned away. Normally he hated talking about The Others, but there was something about Mitchell that brought out the worst in him.
Of course he couldn't leave it at that.
"So, have you seen anyone else lately?"
"Just the Bristol crowd. And they're quite enough. Adam, I wish you'd help."
"Nothing I can do. And you don't need me anyway. I'm going now - give Herrick a kick from me."
Adam was gone. Mitchell would have followed, but he knew from bitter experience that Adam might not speak to him again for days.
#
Los Angeles, California - 2021
Nadia leaned over the corner of the balcony at the heaving venue. She wasn't surprised to catch the scent of Others in the crowd. The apocalypse may have been and gone, but as sure as the certainty that her kind would survive was that they'd come to hear Zal's music in person.
Zeyn would be there, studiously avoiding Adam. Maybe Adam would bring Eve, if they were together at the moment. Nadia had hoped that Ava would stay away, but she was drawn back to Los Angeles like a moth to a flame. She'd be around somewhere. Nadia could only hope to avoid another confrontation. Ava was horribly jealous; a five year old in the body of a young woman.
Nadia felt like a crone in the body of a teenager. She'd perfected the art of hiding it with draped garments, which weren't so bad, but she hated that she had to copy the Others and wear sunglasses indoors. Being a vampire was all about pretension, it seemed. And Nadia hated pretension.
She wondered whether Zeyn would make contact with her. She could only hope. But their brief encounter in Tangier, their last few moments alive, didn't guarantee any kind of connection. This distance made Adam sad, therefore Nadia was sad too.
She wondered what her life, and Zeyn's, would have been like if they hadn't been happened upon by the vampires. One night together probably, then going their separate ways. She back to the mountains, he to his privileged life in the city. But it was no use dreaming like that. Nadia was happy to have saved Adam. The world needed more of the tortured genius, even if it never knew it had him. He'd lost so many people; he deserved to gain some here and there. And Eve was her saviour, in so many ways. The saviour with the awful sister.
The crowd was growing restless, the background 20th century rock beginning to be drowned out by shouts and spontaneous applause. Nadia thought she spotted Zeyn in the moshpit, and wished luck on the humans there. Between the vampires, elves and the cyborg girl, they were going to find it tough tonight. And that was without mentioning what else might be present. She lost sight of Zeyn again in moments.
With a blaze of guitar, the band ran onto the darkened stage. As the violent purple lights went up, the audience gasped. So that was what a rock star elf looked like.