Immortal Souls (The Immortal Souls: Magic & Chaos)

Chapter 46

"I'm Jade," Cleopatra informed Jamie as he followed her up the stairs. "You must be Jamie."

"You know my name?" he asked in surprise. Jade laughed. "It's just, um . . . does that mean that Sam talked about me?"

Jade nodded in reply and knocked on one of the bedroom doors. "We're coming in, so you better have clothes on!"

"I'm in the bathroom!" Sam yelled just as Jade opened the door to the room. Jamie took a hesitant step inside. This is Sam's actual bedroom, he thought as he looked around, memorising every detail, from the cream carpet to the purple walls. I'm in her bedroom!

Jamie carefully seated himself on the edge of Sam's bed. "So what're you dressing up as?" Jade asked.

"What? I have to dress up for this party?"

"Yeah." Jade nodded. "It is a costume party. Do you think I dress like this every day?" Jamie laughed and shook his head. "I'm sure I can find you a costume somewhere."

The door to Sam's bathroom opened and she walked out. Jamie could do nothing but stare. She held her arms out to the side and slowly twirled around, the end of her dress moving with her. Jamie studied her outfit; she was wearing tights with silver spider webs on them, a black long sleeved dress that stopped about eight inches above her knees and a Witch's hat to pull the outfit together.

She stopped twirling and glared at Jade. "Happy now?"

Jade smiled widely. "Ecstatic." Sam pressed her lips together tightly, looking as though she was trying to repress a smile and shook her head. "What about Dracula?" Jamie hadn't realised that Jade was speaking to him until Sam looked at him expectantly.

"What?" Jamie asked and looked at Jade.

"Dracula," she stated. "What about him?"

"I can't be Dracula," he said with an amused smile. "I don't have any Vampire fangs."

"Hmmmmm . . . " Jade pursed her lips and looked at Jamie thoughtfully. "Smile for me." He did as commanded and grinned, flashing all of his teeth. His canines were longer than the average human's, but in their current state they weren't long enough to pass as Vampire fangs.

He was safe.

Jade moved towards him, and before he had any time to make sense of what she was doing or react, she pressed down on his gums with her thumb.

Forcing his canines to extend to their true size.

He heard Sam snort as she tried to suppress her laugher.

Jamie's eyes grew wide. He slapped Jade's hand away and covered his mouth with his hand. "What the hell?" he asked in a muffled voice.

"What?" Jade asked innocently, blinking her eyes as if she hadn't done anything wrong. "You said you needed Vampire fangs and now you have some."

Jamie looked to Sam for an explanation. "Did you tell her?" It wasn't as though he had confessed his secrets to Sam, but she knew, so he had expected her to keep his secrets exactly that.

Secret.

Especially from humans.

Sam rolled her eyes. "I didn't need to," she explained. "Her mother leads the local Witches coven. They knew about you before I did."

Jamie felt himself relax slightly at that. "Oh," he said simply, not overreacting to the word Witches; after a few months of listening to Sam talk about a variety of magical and mythical beings, he found it easier to accept things like 'Witch' being thrown into everyday conversation. Even so, it still freaked him out slightly that they knew of him before he knew of them. It hardly seemed fair that they should be aware of his existence, yet leave him thinking he was alone amongst humans.

Jade scoffed. "More like leader of the local bitches coven." She giggled at her own joke. Sam rolled her eyes and shook her head. Jade turned her attention back to Jamie. "So, are you going as Dracula or not?"

Jamie gave her a look implying that the answer was obvious. " . . . Not."

He wouldn't have minded dressing as Dracula, but after Jade forced his fangs out he felt slightly violated, and was no longer in the mood to play dress up for her amusement.

Jade sighed impatiently. "Then what are you going as? And don't say 'Human' because Sam already tried that one and it didn't fly."

"Do I have to dress up?" he asked, his voice coming out more whiney than he'd intended.

"YES!" she replied aggressively. "It's a costume party. That means you have to dress up. What is with the two of you? First Sam didn't want to dress up, and now you! Do neither of you enjoy having fun?"

Jamie tried not to laugh. "I enjoy having fun," he said. "I just don't enjoy looking ridiculous while doing it."

Jade raised an eyebrow. "Ridiculous?" She placed her hands on her hips. "Are you saying I look ridiculous?"

He shook his head quickly. "No, I—"

"Are you saying Sam looks ridiculous?" Jade interrupted.

"Sam feels ridiculous," Sam interjected.

"Shhhhhhhh!" Jade ordered.

Jamie took a breath. "That's not what I'm saying," he stated calmly. "You look great," he said to Jade, then looked at Sam. "And Sam looks . . . um . . . she looks . . . " He glanced at Jade questioningly when he heard her repress a laugh.

Jade turned to Sam and sang, "I think someone likes you."

Jamie looked at Sam to see what her reaction was. She was watching the door like it was the most interesting thing she had ever seen. The light rose-coloured flush of her cheeks was the only visible response to that statement. "Danny might have some Halloween stuff in his closet," she mumbled as she walked out of the room.

"Who's Danny?" Jamie asked curiously.

Jade looked at him as if he should know the answer to that. "Sam's brother," she said. "Duh."

Jamie had forgotten that Sam had a brother. Which wasn't surprising considering that she never said a word about him. "He's in the army, right?" Jade nodded. "How come Sam never talks about him?"

"Because Sam doesn't like to," Sam said as she walked into her room carrying some clothes hangers with costumes on them.

"Oh, I'm sor—"

"Just drop it." She placed the costumes out on her bed for Jamie to sift through. "You can wear one of those. Change in the bathroom, and then we can all get this over with."