The Chosen Path

Chapter Eleven

When Jake got home that afternoon the house was unusually quiet. Everyone else was still in class, or they disappeared without telling him where they went.

He suspected it had something to do with his and Raven's birthdays as there had been a lot of whispering, and then silences, when he or Raven approached the others.

Jake went up to his room and tossed his backpack in his closet. He sat on his bed and picked up the sketch pad from his nightstand. He opened it up and took out the picture of Aurora and looked at it again.

He studied it in amazement. She was real. Or someone was playing a really dirty trick on him.

Maybe Raven. She was the only one who knew of Aurora. But she wouldn't do that, would she?! He hadn't known Raven very long, and she could be quite the kidder, but no, he didn't think she do something that low.

Besides, she had no idea what Aurora looked like, and the girl in this picture was Aurora. There was no doubt about it. What now? How could he find her?

She obviously wanted him to find her now. She sent him those things. But he had no idea how to go about it.

He put the picture and card back in the drawer of his nightstand, covering them with some random stuff he'd thrown in there.

He took out the pencils and started sketching. He started with Aurora since this was her gift to him. He sketched her cute little braids and her overalls with her little legs sticking out. When he was done with her picture, he turned the page and drew Tony.

He drew him as he now saw him with laughter and kindness in his eyes. But also, with sadness in the depths of his eyes, that Jake was still trying to figure out. Was it because he had killed people in the past? That he had to still drink people's blood? Was it that Emily had broken up with him, and Tony still loved her? Or was it more than that?

Somehow, he thought it was, and he wondered at it, concern for his new friend. Yes, he was considering Tony now to be a friend.

He kept drawing, and drawing, everyone that he knew. His hand was starting to cramp. He looked up as he stretched his arm. Emily stood in his door.

"Hey," he said, smiling up at her.

Jake was always happy when she was around and even happier when she sought him out.

"Hey, watcha doing?" Emily asked, peering inside his room.

"Just sketching some," he answered, sitting up. "Come in," he said. She stepped in.

"What's with everyone hanging out at the doorways?" Jake asked, frowning in confusion.

"Tony," she said simply.

"Huh?" Jake asked.

Emily laughed. "Vampires. They can't come in unless you invite them. At least, on homes that have been guarded by a spell. A regular house they don't need to be invited in, and they can enter with no trouble at all. I guess the myth about them not being able to enter a home without an invitation came from them not being able to enter a witch's home. In any case, since we warded everyone's individual rooms, Tony has to be invited into each bedroom to enter. We re-ward the house every night, so he has to start over again every day. It's just a habit we picked up with him around."

"Oh," Jake said, nodding slowly as he took in this new information.

He didn't realize Emily was practicing magic spells, though he had seen some interesting looking books in her room and around the house.

"Hey, sit down," he said, patting his bed, and scooted over to make room for her

"Can I see?" she asked, gesturing to the sketch book as she sat.