Chapter Fifteen: Aralyn

"Caldric!" She ducked as a reveler spun around and swung his arms out, caught up in the music that, thankfully, did not have the same effect on her after the drink Uncle Burt had given to her.

She dared not think what might have happened if she and Caldric were still caught up in the thrall of the fae band that certainly had The Lonely Tavern rocking.

"Caldric!" she called again, but still the vampire did not turn around, or acknowledge her in any way as he pushed his way through the crowd toward the ominous stairs.

Her hand instinctively went to the stake tucked into her belt and curled around the smooth handle. No matter what she felt for Caldric, if he threatened the people in the tavern, she would put him down. Even if she were the reason he was here.

It was her duty. A duty she had never shied away from.

And one she would uphold today. Even if the fae music was responsible for the sudden change in Caldric, she knew what vampires were capable of. And if for whatever reason, he lost control…

Aralyn cursed under her breath as a group of women, dancing to the hypnotic music, moved closer to Caldric and then encircled him. Around and around they circled him, their smiles wide, their eyes bright, almost maniacally so.

Was this it? Was this when Caldric would snap, grab one of them by the throat, and sink his teeth into their neck?

But the vampire kept on walking as if he didn't see them at all.

"Oh, Caldric."

He broke through the circle of women and continued on toward the stairs.

Without a moment's pause, he placed his foot on the first stair and then continued upward, pushed on by some unseen force, or rather some unheard sound.

She rushed forward, pushing people out of the way as she sprinted after him. If this tavern was truly magic if it were this place of power with its own will… She shook her head at that crazy thought. But the fae music had made her…open to these ideas. It had influenced her in a way she hadn't experienced before.

"Caldric!" she growled his name, her voice taut with frustration and urgency. The vampire's steps did not falter as he reached the landing before the stairs turned out of sight. If he could hear her, he didn't react.

Aralyn surged up the stairs after Caldric. The wooden steps creaked beneath her boots, the sound barely audible over the cacophony of music and foot-stomping that pervaded every inch of The Lonely Tavern. She kept her eyes locked on Caldric's back, determined not to lose sight of him. The music seemed to swell even louder as she ascended, the fae's enchanting notes weaving through her thoughts, making it difficult to concentrate.

The drink Uncle Burt had given her was already wearing off.

She needed to hurry.

As she climbed the stairs, Aralyn barely took notice of the portraits that hung on the walls, but she still felt as though their eyes were on her.

Which was crazy. She pressed her hands to her head, trying to fight off the effects of the music as she reached the landing.

"Caldric!" She finally got close enough to reach out and touch him.

Her fingers brushed against the rough fabric of his coat. Caldric paused for a moment, as if sensing her presence, but did not turn around. Instead, his pace quickened as he surged up the next flight of stairs.

Aralyn kept her hand on his arm as she followed, matching his pace as he crested the stairs. Another landing.

"Do you hear it?" Caldric turned to ask her as if finally realizing she was there.

The fae music had faded, and its hold on her was gone as she stood in the dim, narrow hallway with Caldric. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, and she had the eerie feeling they were… somewhere else .

But that was impossible. They had barely traveled up a story or two, and the sound of The Fable and the merry crowd still thrummed through the walls of the building.

"You can hear it?" Caldric asked again.

Aralyn let out the breath she'd been holding and stilled, listening for whatever Caldric could hear. "Yes."

A different kind of music wove through the air—softer, more solemn. A lone piano whose gentle playing seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.

"You do?" Caldric turned to look at her.

"You look surprised."

"I do?" Caldric asked.

"I mean if you could feel surprised…" She brushed her hair out of her face. This whole thing was crazy! She should have known better than to come here. She should have just kept plugging away at the preparation for the job like she had planned in the first place. Why had she decided Caldric needed to experience her world?

It wasn't as if there was anything special about it.

"I was beginning to think I was hearing the music in my head," Caldric admitted. "That the band downstairs coupled with whatever was in the drink your uncle gave me…" He looked up at the hallway ceiling. "This place. I think it's messing with my head."

"This place. The Lonely Tavern?" Aralyn asked.

"Or maybe it's Morwenna." His eyes widened. "Or someone else."

"Me?" Aralyn asked, her hand inching under her jacket. Was that why he'd come up here, to get her alone? He could kill her there, dump her in one of the unused rooms, hide her body where no one would find her since everyone was scared to come up here in case they never came back down, like Valaky.

Valaky. The vampire she had come to town to find.

Aralyn set her jaw. She might be up here alone with not one, but two vampires, away from any help. She trusted Caldric, but there was still that very deep-seated wariness of being around his kind…if something had gotten into him…

"It makes sense," Caldric replied.

"It makes sense?" Aralyn asked incredulously. "Wait, you think I am responsible for this."

Was he trying to confuse her? Make her think she was the one going crazy.

Caldric's gaze flickered, searching her face for something she couldn't quite place. "No, Aralyn. Not you. I just...think this place is different. Alive, almost."

"Alive?" The word echoed in Aralyn's mind, resonating with the strange music that still haunted the air.

"Yes, that music…" He turned away from her. "The music we hear. It's me ."

" You ?" Aralyn asked.

"It's me playing the piano from before…" Caldric said.

"From before the curse?" Aralyn asked.

"Yes." He walked along the hallway, stopping to listen at each door he passed. "It's like I'm stepping back in time. Each door…it's the same piece. My finest composition. But my playing changes…" Caldric hurried forward, and Aralyn followed close behind him.

She had to listen hard to hear the subtle difference in the music. But they were there.

"Here." He stopped outside a door and reached for the handle. "This is the first time I played it."

"What are you doing?" A chill passed through her as he turned the door handle.

"Going inside." He glanced at her over his shoulder. "Perhaps this is where I connect to that part of me. The part that composed this piece. This is the first time the music spoke to me, and I understood."

"But we don't know what is in there, and Uncle Burt said something about people getting lost up here." She grabbed his shoulder. "And you know what happened to Valaky. He came up here and has never been seen again."

"Would that be so bad?" he whispered hoarsely. "They say that the reason people get lost in the tavern, the reason they stay, is that it offers them what they want. What they need."

"You believe that what you need is behind that door?" Aralyn asked.

"Yes." He nodded. "If you walk through it with me."

"Me?" Aralyn glanced sideways at the door.

"I've spent a long time alone. No matter how hard I had tried to fill my life with anything since my curse, I've felt nothing. Until perhaps now," Caldric said as he stared at the door. "Perhaps this is some strange test put forward by the tavern to see if we're a good match."

"What are you talking about?" Aralyn asked.

"I know you have spent little time in Wishing Moon Bay, but surely you know the stories about this place. Perhaps it was no coincidence that I walked in as you and your uncle were discussing enlisting the help of a vampire."

"I am going to go back down those stairs and ask Uncle Burt exactly what was in the drinks he gave us," Aralyn said, but she didn't take a step back.

"This has nothing to do with what was in the drink," Caldric said. "You know that."

She sucked in a deep, steadying breath as the sound of the piano continued without pause. "All right. Let's open the door."

She reached out and closed her hand over his and pushed the door open.

Aralyn didn't know what she expected to find behind the door, but she was expecting to find something . Or at least some one playing the piano.

But as the door swung open, the playing stopped.

"Huh?" Aralyn's eyes darted across the room, looking for danger, but it looked just like an empty bedroom.

"The tavern lured us here, just as the fae music lured us to the tavern," Caldric said.

"I would never have guessed that you were one for conspiracy theories." Aralyn stepped farther inside the room.

"No piano." Caldric stood close to her, his shoulder brushing against hers.

"I can see that." Aralyn scanned the room.

"So, where did the music come from?" Caldric asked. "If it's not magic."

"I didn't say it wasn't magic," Aralyn said. "But it could be a simple spell. So simple, anyone with an ounce of magic in them could cast it."

"But why?" Caldric stepped into the room, headed for the closet, and pulled it open. "Empty."

"But why?" Aralyn asked, her senses heightened as she walked around the side of the bed toward the window. "That is a good question. Perhaps to tempt us here."

"Tempt us here?" Caldric asked.

"Some sort of trap?" She turned to face him. "Everyone says that the upstairs of this place is dangerous."

"I don't think so," Caldric said. "It doesn't seem malevolent in nature."

"I don't know if I can tell what is anymore." Aralyn pursed her lips. "I'd have never considered spending this much time alone with a vampire before."

"Do you truly believe I could hurt you?" Caldric closed the closet door and turned to meet her gaze.

"No. I don't know…" She rubbed the back of her neck.

Caldric's eyes narrowed. "You don't know?" He closed the distance between them.

"No. My whole life has been spent fighting your kind."

"And yet, we've been alone this whole time with no such conflict." Caldric arched an eyebrow.

"Yet…" Aralyn gave him a sideways glance. "Though you have led me up into this dangerous part of a mysterious tavern, alone, where no one could help me if I needed."

"That's not what's happened," Caldric stated.

"Then why are we here?" Aralyn gestured at the room with its plush armchairs and four-poster bed, draped in white sheets, along with the noticeable lack of any form of instrument. "What was with the music?"

"The music was for me," Caldric told her. "You wouldn't have gotten its meaning if I hadn't been here."

Aralyn folded her arms. "And what is the meaning?"

"You live your whole life looking for…" Caldric shrugged. "The bad."

"The bad," she scoffed.

"Yes." He raised his hand and went to touch her, but then flexed his fingers and dropped his hand back to his side. "But maybe this isn't bad. Maybe this is what we need. Time together away from…"

"Away from reality?" Aralyn shook her head and then chuckled. "I get the feeling The Lonely Tavern is about as far away from reality as you can get."

"Now you are beginning to understand," Caldric said. "This is a chance for us both to step out of our reality. Of who we are and be something else, if even for a short while."

"I don't know who to be except for…me," Aralyn replied.

"Whoever you want to be. In this room, you can be whoever you want to be." Caldric stepped away from her and closed the door. "That was the meaning of the piano playing. Trust me on this."

Aralyn looked down, thinking for a moment as the silence fell between them. A deep silence.

Wait .

She rushed to the door and yanked it open again, afraid that the hallway might have disappeared, and they would be lost in here just like Valaky.

But as the door opened, the distant strains of The Fable playing downstairs could be heard.

Aralyn paused, her hand on the door, as she listened to the jaunty melody. The music wove itself through the dimly lit corridor, wrapping around her, trying to pull her back down, this time more like a lifeline. She turned back to Caldric, her expression softening as she closed the door once more.

"What if…" she started, her voice barely above a whisper, "What if stepping away from reality means stepping closer to danger?"

"Aralyn." Caldric placed his hand on her shoulder. "Maybe we should be stepping closer to each other."

"Isn't that the same thing?" Aralyn's eyes widened. "A vampire and a vampire hunter? Surely there's a reason why that wouldn't be possible. We'd be outcasts, the both of us."

Every instinct told her she should get out of there, she should put some distance between herself and Caldric.

Falling for him felt like a betrayal of everything she had ever been taught. Yet these last few days with him had made her feel as if she was something more than simply a vampire killing machine.

The sad fact was, this was the closest thing to companionship, let alone a relationship she'd had in a long time. It might have started off as fake, but he'd made her laugh, he'd made her dance, and he understood her on a deeper level than anyone else ever had.

"I know you feel it."

"Feel what?" she asked, brushing off his question.

"Is that the game we're going to play?" Caldric asked.