Chapter 2
Annabella can’t help her amusement brought on by her son’s attitude, chuckling softly behind a manicured hand. “Jean-Luc, Jackie is right. Might I trouble you for your phone for a moment to call Joseph?”
“It is my pleasure, my lady.” Jean-Luc produces his phone, the number already dialing as he hands it to her.
“Hello, Jean-Luc? What is the trouble now?” A smooth voice with a hint of Australian lilt reaches her ear as Annabella carefully holds the phone.
“I hope our Jackie isn’t causing too much chaos.
He can be such a sore loser in sparring.
Let me guess – he let his magic override him again, didn’t he?
For someone who claims to hate his powers, he sure falls back on them when his temper flares. ”
“Jackie is fine, my love, and so is Jean-Luc. But as always you know our son so well. Your deduction is, as always, perfect.” Annabella smiles into the phone as she hears her husband sputter at the realization.
“Annie, my love! Why are you calling from Jean-Luc’s? Ya lose your phone again? I showed you the ‘Find My Phone’ feature but I swear that castle is an absolute labyrinth.”
Annabella laughs heartily, covering her mouth with a graceful hand in an attempt to stifle it.
“No, Joey, It’s not lost, I just simply don’t have it.
This dress is far too tight for it. Millennium of fashion and I choose a dress with no pockets.
I’m calling to ask you to hurry home, we do have an event tonight we really shouldn’t be late for.
And I would hate to miss the chance to enjoy your company in private before we have to spend the entire evening entertaining. ”
She can hear Joseph sputter and cough at the image she painted in his mind. Over a hundred years together and she still has the power to make that elven husband of hers blush. The blood rush to his cheeks is practically audible over the phone as he shouts to his companion.
“JEAN-CLAUDE, WE NEED TO GET BACK NOW! I will be but a moment, my love. Jean-Claude is getting the portal ready. Talk soon, Love you!”
The disconnect tone fills the air as Annabella hands the phone back to Jean-Luc. “Thank you, Jean-Luc. Now, I need to finish getting ready as well. Escort me back to my room in the eastern wing?” She loops her arm through Jean-Luc’s offered elbow as they begin the walk back.
“It would be my pleasure, Mistress Nocturne. Any way we can serve the Nocturne family is an honor to me and my fellow Jeans.”
The four gentlemen have served the Nocturne family for centuries dating back to Annabella Nocturne’s youth. No one knows for sure if the older men are clones or brothers all made into vampiric thralls by Eloise Nocturne; Jackson’s grandmother.
As Annabella and Jean-Luc arrive at the master bedroom in the eastern wing, glowing yellow energy begins to swirl next to the door. A shimmering portal opens up as man stumbles through, and another calmly walks in behind him. “I’m here, my sweet Annie! I’m not late, am I?”
Joseph Underbush Nocturne, beloved husband of Annabella Nocturne, normally stands a few inches above his wife but now is hunched over, hands on his knees, struggling to catch his breath.
His brown skin slick with sweat and his dark blonde hair sticking to his forehead, eyes of deep forest green slightly glossy from exhaustion look up at the vision that stands before him.
His pointed ears perk at the radiant sight that is his wife.
“Woah! Annie baby, you look ethereal. The sun doesn’t dare shine upon the Winter courts for fear it would be eclipsed by you.”
Annabella chuckles, her lips pulled into a sly smirk, as she pulls her husband in for a quick kiss.
His breath escapes him as her lips part from his.
“Flattery will get you everywhere, Joey. But now I need you stripped and in the shower. If you hurry I may find the time to join you before it’s time.
As good as you look, covered in mud, grass and blood of the beasts you insist on hunting with bare hands; that sight is for me alone to enjoy, not our guests. ”
Joseph is known for finding the meat for meals at the castle himself in the wilds around the estate. Partly insisting it keeps him young and tight for his wife to enjoy, and only slightly because brawling with wild beasts fills his eternal adrenaline lust.
No thoughts form in his head as Annabella gives him a light push into the room, the door to which Jean-Claude had opened without his notice in his love blind state.
Annabella offers him a sly wink before she follows suit, grabbing the door behind her as she looks over her shoulder.
“We won’t be long. I am confident I can leave the final steps and Jackie to you two and the others. ”
Jean-Luc and Jean-Claude offer deep bows before replying in unison, “Of course, Mistress Nocturne.”
As the door closes in front of them, they immediately go their separate ways down the castle halls to finish preparations for tonight. From the master bedroom giggling can be heard along with the running of a shower. “Oh, Annie!” The singsong voice of Joseph fills their room.
Annabella replies melodically, “Coming, Joey. It’s time to clean up, you filthy boy.”
* * *
Jackson rounds the corner with Jean-Pierre. “Jackie, my boy! Don’t we look like a couple of heart breakers, eh?” His father playfully nudges his shoulder and offers a fatherly chuckle.
“My boys, you both look stunning.” His mother presses a quick kiss to his cheek, then grants his father a brief, affectionate peck.
Joseph and Jackson have similar outfits, they would be identical if not for his fathers dark skin against his pale white complexion.
They share the same forest green eyes and pointed elven ears.
His father stands a good four inches taller than Jackson’s six feet, and even sports a broader frame.
His mother wears the same dress from earlier now accompanied by a pair of red bottomed black stiletto heels.
The half foot of height they give has her towering over him.
Her hair is fashioned into a single long braid, not a hair out of place as it cascades down her back.
Standing to his mothers right, with his father offering her his elbow to her left, the three of them wait to be let in by the Jeans. His mother goes through a final check with the four loyal servants. “Jean-Luc, Security?”
“Handled, guards positioned at all entry and exit points, Ma’am.”
“Jean-Claude, Guests?”
“All arriving comfortably by our carriages so they may indulge as they see fit, Ma’am.”
“Jean-Paul, Catering?”
“Food to feed nations, all of gourmet standards. Pairings of wines, liquors, spirits and even blood for our traditional guests have all been prepared.”
“Excellent. Jean-Pierre, decor seems all well and good. How has my mother settled for the evening?”
“Lady Eloise has been settled in her quarters with refreshments and inappropriate romance novels on audio tape. Far away from, and I do apologize for my language, Ma’am; ‘all the brown nosing fuckers who wanna wreck my solstice with their sneaky political agendas and money hungry mitts they couldn’t sink into your wallet’, Ma’am. ”
Jackson and Joseph have to stifle a laugh at the image conjured. Annabella clears her throat to command their attention but can’t hide the smirk growing at her lips. “Well then, gentlemen. Let’s have a party.”
The door to the grand ballroom opens as they are announced to their guests. The Nocturne family`s yearly winter solstice charity gala begins in earnest.
* * *
After a night of dancing with the offspring of family friends, political allies and business partners, a few stolen drunk kisses in the dark shadows on the balcony attached to the halls, and a half decent rendezvous that had Jackson sandwiched between a vampire nobleman from the other side of the Winter realm and his very pretty lady friend; Jackson is ready for this long night to come to a close.
As he sways to the phantom rhythm of the band, humming along terribly to the beat of one their songs, he finds his mother standing outside of his room, nursing a flute of sparkling wine, leaning against his door.
“Hoping to catch me in some degenerate act, mommy dearest?” Jackson slurs his words a little as he slides down the door onto the floor next to her. “Sorry to disappoint, but I have been a perfect gentleman this evening.”
A rogue hiccup ruins his point, but from the chuckle escaping from his mother, his sarcasm doesn’t go unappreciated.
“No, Jackie, as ruffled as you look right now, I know you’re not foolish enough to ruin the image of this family, even on your worst days.
” Annabella slides down to sit next to her son, heels discarded to her side.
“You were lovely tonight. A little more debauchery than I assumed you cared for, but we can blame that on the alcohol, your father’s genetics aren’t as resistant as mine. ”
It’s true the evening was pleasant enough, but Jackson didn’t see the point in one night stands.
They can’t fill that hollow part of him, attractive men and women who didn’t care too much for the man beneath the glamour as they did the carnal pleasure they sought.
But a few drinks too many to pass the time and he didn’t stop to think about the empty feeling that always follows flings of passion.
“I came here in hopes to catch you before bed.” Annabella produces a set of keys on a key ring that carries the symbol of an eight point starburst. Jackson recognizes it as keys to an apartment in Alexandria Heights. The building lives in the heart of Solomon City in the Magical Realm.
“After Brenda passed, her apartment was willed to you, Jackie.”
The apartment?! Jackson rubs a hand across his face, gaze avoiding his mother’s.