Written in the Stars

Chapter Seven

Celeste knew that she should tell Jean and Astrid what had happened as soon as she could, but she just could not bring herself to. Perhaps Izabela's grip on her was just too strong. Or perhaps she was just willing to keep her deals, she had always considered it in the past and maybe now she was having a no time like the present to start moment. Maybe character development was possible for many hundreds of years old vampires too. Who'd have thought? Not her, that's for sure.

The journey back to her house was a slow one as the rush hour traffic had just hit. It unfortunately gave Celeste a lot of time to think and to make herself feel guilty for something she definitely had control over. She knew her actions would have far reaching consequences and yet she couldn't bring herself to go against her word. This was the first time that had ever happened. She knew Izabela was pure evil and yet there was a part of her that just could not avoid her pull. Her allure. She was entrancing, like a spiders web. And much like a spiders web for a fly, she meant no good.

The house was suspiciously quiet when Celeste finally made it home. There was something to be said for climate change and that thing was that it was ruining Celeste's makeup, and patience. Also the planet. But at this point Celeste had been on it for so long that she wouldn't mind being killed by it. After all, it didn't appear that anything else was going to be taking her out anytime soon. At this point she was excited to see who would manage it first. An enemy or the planet. At that moment in time it looked very likely that the earth would be missing her chance and if things panned out correctly, then Astrid may even get in there first. She was counting on Jean loving her too much to kill her. She was thinking that that was likely to be the case for Astrid too, but she knew how angry her sister could get and wasn't going to rule out an anger killing.

Celeste trekked upstairs to her and Jean's shared bedroom to remove the finery she was dripping in. It had been a while since she had last had to dress like this for anyone. It was exhausting. She had no idea how she had done it everyday for so many years, before it was decided that women could wear trousers and not be drowning in jewels.

She knew that her deal with Izabela would be starting sooner than she would like and so that evening Celeste took Jean out on a date and really made sure he knew how much she loved him. He only found it mildly suspicious. Because who wouldn't?

She also made sure that Astrid had all of the help she needed to deal with the repairs on the cavern. It was as if Celeste was dying and getting her final will and testament together. Thankfully she couldn't die, apparently (at least not as easily as everything else on the planet), and so they weren't as suspicious as they should have been.

The weeks continued on in a seemingly normal way. Celeste would slip out of bed early in the morning, careful not to stir Jean, to meet with Izabela and make sure that she was convinced of her love. She would then slip back into bed before Jean awoke so that he wouldn't think anything of her disappearance. After all, she reasoned to herself, what he didn't know couldn't hurt him. And oh how wrong she was.