Enchanted By: Mariah Soleta

Chapter 9-Alex

   For most of the ride, we ride in an uncomfortable silence.  This has to be one of the most awkward situations in my life.  Finally, Lizzie tries to break the silence by clearing her throat quietly and asking, "Alex, do you know what I am?"  

   I turn my body to face her then shake my head no.  She nods her head slowly then tells me,"We have much to talk about later."  

   I nod my head then turn back to face the front of the truck.  I can tell that this is going to take a while.

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   After an amount of small time that feels like an hour, we FINALLY pull into my driveway.  I climb out of the vehicle after gathering my things and I all but slam the door shut.  Lizzie climbs out but she does it way more gracefully then I do and she follows me to my front porch.  

   I open the door and wait for her to come in, but she never does.  I look at her strangely and ask, "Well, don't you want to come in or not?  You said you had to talk to me."  She stares at me with wide eyes, a sure sign she is surprised and I roll mine, a sure sign I'm annoyed.  I am very  annoyed at the fact that she is acting like a stranger when we are still best friends.  She looks at me warily but comes in anyways.  

  We walk to my room and set our things on my bed.  We then walk outside to the back porch and sit on the old steps.  

   "Well, what do you want to talk to me about," I ask her.

   She looks at me with excitement in her eyes but she has a hesitant expression on her face.  She takes a deep breath and says, "Alex, I am a witch."  She waits for my reaction but I shrug and she continues, bewildered.  "Okay, so as you know Adam is my cousin and he is a vampire."  I nod, I already knew this yesterday but one thing does have me confused.  

   "Wait, if you're a witch and he is a vampire, how are you guys cousins?  In most stories, you hear of the witches having an ancient feud with the vampires or something."

    "Well that's all they are, Alex, is stories.  All of the witches get along with vampires, in fact.  Well, most witches, anyway.  There are a few that don't though, these witches think that the vampires are bloodsucking monsters and they want to destroy them, but other than that, we all get along fairly well."  I look at her, waiting for more.  "Anyways, a long time ago,  our grandma, she was a witch, was living in Germany at the time of World War 2.  Our grandfather, who was of course a vampire, was an American soldier fighting for his country.  He was keeping watch near his Army base and he suddenly spotted "the most beautiful woman he had ever laid his eyes upon."  He stopped her and they started talking to each other, they immediately fell in love.  They got married, but at that time, witch and vampire marriages weren't illegal, but they were frowned upon." 

    I must look confused and I have a million questions on my mind, but I really only want the answer to one.  I interuppt her and ask, "If one was a vampire and the other a witch, how did they have children that were seperate....species."  I try looking for a more sensitive word but my overworked brain comes up with nothing.  

   She looks thoughtful for a moment then says, "I don't really know, it's one of the biggest mysteries of life, well for us at least.  It works like this as far as we know, if you have two children, one ends up being full vampire and one ends up being full witch.  It's just how it works."  I nod my head and cram that in to my already overstuffed mind.

   I take a look outside my window and Lizzie continues, "Our Grandfather was also king of the vampires, so it was especially hard on him the most.  They did even go to trial once, but since it wasn't illegal to marry her, then the "allegations" were dropped."  I snap my head to her so fast, my head rushes for a moment and she looks at me curiously, "What do you want to ask, Alex?"

   I shrug and ask with all of the words rushing out, "Why was it so frowned upon?  Could vampires marry humans?  Is that frowned upon?"  She looks at me wide eyed for the millionth time and I wait for her answer.

   "Well, for the answer to your first question, it was frowned upon because back then, the whole Royal Court thought that they would make a half-breed that was more powerful than they were.  That is all they cared about back then, power.  The stronger you were, the higher rank you had, but it isn't like that anymore.  Things have changed greatly over the years." 

   I look at her expectantly and ask after a while,"What about my other questions?"

   She looks at me hesitantly and answers in the same way, "Well, a vampire marrying a human is very uncommon, you see very few marriages between them actually work."  My palms start sweating, a sign I am getting nervous but she continues anyways, "They aren't illegal but those are more frowned upon than the witch-vampire marriages were.  No one knows why, though."  She takes one glance at my scared face and quickly says, "I am not trying to scare you, though.  I'm just saying when you and Adam get marrie....I mean, if you guys would ever get married, there would be a lot of controversy."

   I calm down a bit and think about what she said, "What you said "when we get married", what is that supposed to mean?"

   She looks at me strangely but says, "It's nothing, I'm just hoping you guys get married, that's all."

   She starts getting fidgety but I don't notice, my heart is too busy swelling at the thought of me and Adam ever getting married.  Only when Lizzie gets up, do I notice that she is even there. 

   "Lizzie, you don't have to leave."  My eyes must be pleading because it looks like she's having a battle with herself, whether to stay or leave.  She chooses the latter, though.  She gathers her things and walks out of the door.

   I follow suite close behind her and she stops at my front door, she turns to look at me and says, "Alex I really missed this."

   Before I could answer, she walked out of the door and I am left there saying, "I did too, Lizzie, I did too."