Marcel saw Annabel walking toward him through the partygoers in the compound and suddenly got worried, seeing the look of sadness in her eye. Diego had insisted that if Annabel were the one to break the news to him, he was less likely to flip out. Annabel tried to tell him it would make absolutely no difference, but he seemed to think it would.
"What's wrong?" Marcel asked when she walked up to him.
Cami, who was standing across from Marcel, looked at the young girl she didn't recognize. She was wearing leggings and a Tulane sweatshirt, not seeming to care about the etiquette of the masquerade gala. She leaned in, telling Marcel something Cami couldn't hear. But clearly it was some upsetting news by the way his face changed. He looked at Annabel, then at a man standing nearby.
"Excuse me," he told her, abruptly walking away.
Annabel watched him go, then seeing Nik observing the situation from across the room. "This was your plan?" He just shrugged, his smugness answering her question.
She looked over at Cami, who had been watching her, and raised her eyebrow, wondering exactly why she was being analyzed like a circus animal. "What did he do?" the psychologist asked curiously, gesturing to Thierry.
Following Cami's eyes, Annabel saw Diego nodding his head toward the altercation on the balcony, silently asking her to come up and try to help. And while the psychologist was still awaiting an answer, Annabel was hesitant to give her one. "Don't worry about it," she said in a mutter, passing Cami and heading upstairs.
"I want to hear your side of it," Annabel heard as she walked over.
"Hey, Marcel, come on-"
"Your version, go."
"We were tossing the Cauldron. This guy, some nightwalker, he attacked Katie for no reason."
"His name was Max. I turned him, and as far as reasons go, he doesn't need one. She was a witch. He was a vampire. Now, he's dead."
"I didn't mean for it to happen."
"You broke my most important rule." Marcel sighed, "Damn it, T. How long we been friends? Seventy years? I turned you into something that would never die. I gave you a gift."
"And I have been loyal to you all this time, and I still am. I'm still your friend, Marcel. I swear, that hasn't changed."
Annabel looked at Diego. It was obvious how upset he was by the situation, she just couldn't tell which of his two closest friends he was upset with.
The new vampire, Josh, walked over, handing Marcel an envelope. Annabel looked over when he opened it, seeing the spell for daylight rings. "We found this at his girl's place."
With a glance down to the growing crowd of spectators, Annabel saw Rebekah standing with Cami, the latter looking right back at her.
"Who's that with him?" Cami asked.
"Who? Annabel?"
"Yeah, is she like his kid or something?"
Rebekah looked over at the altercation upstairs. She saw Marcel starting to get angry, then Annabel pulling him away, somehow able to calm him down rather quickly. "You could say that."
⋆⋆⋆
"I still just– I don't understand why he would take the spell," Marcel told Annabel, the both of them sitting on the couch by the fireplace in his bedroom.
"I don't know," she said, looking into the sparkling fire. "It doesn't sound like something he'd do."
Hearing no response, she turned her head to the man sitting next to her, seeing the tears in his eyes. "He was my best friend, Belle. Him and Diego. I don't get it."
Annabel sat back on the couch, leaning her head on his shoulder and taking his hand in hers, "It's gonna be okay, M. You're gonna figure it out. And even if you lost Thierry, you still got me and Diego, and you ain't gonna lose us anytime soon."
Marcel smiled at her words, and then said, "So, you and Diego, huh?"
She looked halfway over to him, but didn't lift her head. "I really like him," she said. "When I see him I just- I don't know. It's something else, something I don't think I've ever felt before. I don't know."
"You've been here for months, Belle, spending all this time with him every day - you know exactly what it is."
"I'm scared," she said, admitting a truth to him she hadn't even admitted to herself.
"You don't gotta be scared of love. You just gotta let it happen, don't push it away. Just enjoy it while it lasts, 'cause nothing lasts forever."
⋆⋆⋆
Annabel walked across the compound to her room an hour later. She opened Diego's door and saw him in the middle of taking off his shirt, about to change into another, "What, y'all don't knock in New York?" he joked, turning around. But just as he did, Annabel was there, right in front of him, pulling him into a kiss as her arms wrapped around the back of his neck.
He dropped the shirt in his hands, his hands reaching her thighs and pulling her up so her legs were wrapped around him, their lips not disconnecting for a moment. He brought her over to the bed and lay her down, ripping off her clothing until she was down to nothing. While he kissed down her neck, his hand traveled lower down. She let out a moan as he touched her, but just after a particularly loud one his actions stopped and his face was suddenly just above hers. "Unless you want a couple vampires coming in here tryna join, you might wanna be a little quieter, baby." She raised her eyebrows, considering the idea, so he sternly said, "No," making her giggle.
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Fanfiction[book two] It had been just over ten years since Annabel called New Orleans home. Back then, her naivety kept her safe, clueless as to all the violence going on around her. But things had changed since then. She had changed. After graduation, Annabe...
