How exactly I had got into this mess I wasn’t sure, but if the woman, whose bag it was, didn’t stop yelling I was very likely to slap her.  I was sure I had stepped out far enough to have missed the handle on the bag, obviously not, for now the heel on my black suede ankle boot was stuck in it, and no matter how much I tried to free it, it seemed like it would never let go.

            I had been walking along the isle of the bus, needing the toilet after all those WKD’s I had just gulped waiting for the infernal bus to arrive.  And no doubt they would catch up to me tomorrow too.  I had come to a bag, left out in the isle, which for a start was obviously not the right thing to do, and had tried, rather than disturb the old dear whose bag it was, to step over it.  Somehow I had managed to put my foot down right through the strap, and could now not get it out for the life of me.  I pulled my foot up once more; the strap went with it.  Eventually I put myself so low as to squat in the isle and remove my foot from the strap.  The old dear was ranting about kids these days having no manners.  I’d show her no manners, just give me the chance, but no, not in the middle of the bus with so many people turned to see what was going on.

            I strolled back to my seat, suddenly not needing the toilet anyway, and sat down with great bravado.  Just to show that this had not fazed me in the least. 

            I flicked a piece of mahogany hair over my shoulder, that’s what colour my hair is, mahogany, very straight and always in place.  Only it has two copper curls down the side of my face.  I’m very tall and lanky, so some people would say, and half-caste.  I guess that’s what most people would say, only I prefer the term naturally tanned, has a nicer ring to it, don’t you think?  I come from America, although I am in Paris at this moment in time, you see, I excelled in all my classes at school, so much so that mother took me out of school and gave me a private tutor, I passed all my exams two years in advance to everyone else my age and so needed a job.  Well I’d always wanted to go to Paris so when the job was offered I couldn’t refuse.  So it was just a babysitting job, so what, it got me to Paris, and to live not just to visit.  The job was open only to people who would be willing to go and live with the Mrs Pantelon and her two children.  And although French they did speak English and so there was no problem.  It had been settled and I had flown out.

            Thinking about the job made me wonder what the kids would be like.  What if they were bratty and that’s why Mrs Pantelon had to get a sitter, no she had said because of her unpredictable job, it had just become too awkward to always call in a last minute sitter.

            Of course I would loose all my friends and have to start afresh on a relationship but that didn’t bother me.  Most of my friends were only my friends because of the money we just happened to have, and Gary, well he just adored my face and chest, I don’t think he cared for the real me at all.

            The bus driver called out my stop and I scooped up all my cases and hopped off the bus.  The station wasn’t crowded at all, much to my surprise, and that meant I didn’t have to wade through lots of holiday makers with kids and bags that all seemed to be lost.  That put me strangely at ease, which was funny, as I don’t usually mind crowds at all.

            “Shanni,” someone was calling, “Shanni Reid?”

            At first I couldn’t tell where it was coming from.  I spun on my heels in a full three-sixty, but everyone just seemed to be minding their own business.  Whoever it was stopped calling and I stood wondering what to do.

            Someone touched me on the shoulder, “Shanni Reid?”

            “Yes, yes, I’m Shanni,” I told the woman I now faced.

            She had blond frizzy hair and bright blue eyes, she looked in her early thirties, and I gathered that this must be Mrs Pantelon, or someone sent by her.  She looked me up and down and then nodded her head in ascension to something only she could have known.  She reached out her hand shyly and then withdrew it, looking uncertain about what to do next.

            “We should get you home, you have probably had a long journey and are very tired,” she said.

            “Not really,” I told her, “I slept on the plane.”

            “You can get to know your surroundings tonight,” she said, “but tomorrow you will have to start work, I am in a meeting very early, and the children will be up by nine,” she was almost talking to herself now, like a check list, “I have arranged for you to meet my niece on Saturday, I hope you will get on.”

            “What’s her name?” I asked.

            She seemed startled, as if I had just woke her from a dream and she had not yet remembered where she was. 

            “Oh, Carla, but everyone seems to call her Emerald, heaven knows why!” she said after a few seconds.

            Emerald, I liked it.  Everyone was entitled to a nickname if they wanted one anyway, or so I thought.  And who was everyone?  Would she be bringing her friends with her, I hoped not, I would be like an outsider if she did, or a lamb amongst lions, it’s how I always felt when there was a group and I didn’t know anyone.  But surely she would have the good grace to come alone, at least the first time.

            My thoughts were shattered by Mrs Pantelon tapping on my shoulder.

            “Surely you aren’t going to daydream all the time are you?” she asked, “That is not the way to look after young children.”

            “Sorry,” I answered, “I… it just all overwhelmed me a little!”

            “Yes… well,” she seemed at a loss for words and I wondered if I had sounded a bit snappy.

            She opened the car door and took my bags round to the boot herself.  I would have plenty of time to think about new friends once I was fully settled in.  After all she had said Saturday and today was only Tuesday. 

            The car was a crimson Jaguar, one of the finest I had ever seen.  It was a Sovereign, with the squared off headlights.  The interior was of cream leather, with red piping that ran all the way around the edge, and the dashboard and handles were a tortoise shell finish.  It was lovely.  The air conditioning must have been on for a while to get it as luxuriously cool as it was at this time.  I settled in the seat and lay my head against the cool leather.  If this was what I had to get used to it would take me no time at all to fit in.  Mrs Pantelon had just finished loading up the bags and was coming back around the front.

            “If you should have any trouble at all with the kids or anything like that don’t hesitate to…” I realised she had been talking to me for quite some time now.

            I must just be tired I thought.  And it turned out I must have been, for the next thing I knew I was being woken and told to go up to find my new room.  We had decided it would be best for me to actually live with the Pantelons, for I would not have to get up so early to come over that way.

            As I walked through the door of the immense garage and into the even more immense house, it became clear that these people were very well off.  It had not occurred to me to ask if they had money or not over the phone and now I found myself overwhelmed a little.

            A boy with short blond hair and blue eyes came over to me, apparently Mrs Pantelon’s son.  He smiled at me shyly and said his name was Brent.  A very American name if I did say so myself, which I did.

            “Well I am American dear,” Mrs Pantelon said, “my husband was French, but when he passed away, oh, two years ago now, we decided that it be best if we stayed here.  That is why the children can speak English.  And please call me Annette.”

            She said this almost like an afterthought, as if it had only just occurred to her that she had a first name that could be used.

            “Very well… Annette,” I said trying to sound formal.

            She just gave me an odd sort of look and told Brent to take me up and show me the room I would be inhabiting.  He was a nice boy, well mannered and a little shy.  It did occur to me that I had got the pick of the bunch, but I hadn’t yet met his sister, who could have been a little terror.

            The room was lovely, very big, even bigger than the room at home that I had left.  It was decorated in lilac and a darker purple, which suited each other very much.  The bedspread was something along the lines of satin or velvet, I could never tell the difference, and all of the furniture was wooden with a beeswax finish, which I could smell.  The curtains were a lovely light material, not so light as to see through but not heavy enough to keep out the sounds from the outdoor world.  All the time I had been inspecting the room Brent had been stood there.  He was now joined by a little girl with blond hair and dark green eyes.  She looked younger than he by about two years, but just as sweet.

            “Cleo,” Brent said, by way of introduction, “she’s four, two years younger than me.”

            He said this with a sort of pride, as if he was proud to be the oldest and would look after everything better than I could possibly manage.  Then he shrunk back into himself and became quiet once again.

            “Do you like your room?” Cleo asked, “only I wanted it, and Mummy said if you didn’t like it I could have it.”

            “I love it,” I confessed, “but if you want it that much you should have it.”

            “Oh no.  If you like it you should have it, after all I’ve got my own room,” Cleo said with sweet politeness.

            I nodded my head in thanks.  This was going to be very enjoyable, the kids were angels, the mother was nice, and even if we had a fallout she worked all the time, and I would make a new friend on Saturday, or at least I hoped I would.  ‘If this carries on it shall be better than home,’ I thought.

            Cleo and Brent were adamant that I go and see their rooms next, which I did, and found them to be even larger than my own, with more expensive drapes and bed sheets and hundreds of possessions to fill them.  I couldn’t understand why Cleo would want to change bedrooms and when I pointed this out she agreed with me.  Problem number one solved.

            That night was a mixture of getting to know the house and the kids better for the following day when I would have to run the whole lot single-handedly.  This should not prove to be too hard, if I got stuck on where to find things the kids could fill me in, as they proved, and so it would be very pleasant.

            Annette fussed to make sure I was ready for the day ahead, “I will be gone once you wake up so you should ask any questions now,” she said over and over.

            I just insisted I was fine and would be fine the next day.  If something came up I could phone the contact number she had left me, I reminded her, and everything would be fine.

            As promised the next day when I woke up Annette was gone.  It hit me like a blow to the head, it hadn’t really dawned on me until then that everything would count on what I thought.  The kids would be good enough, I knew, but what if something unforeseen happened, would I be able to cope?  Then I scolded myself, what could possible happen that I couldn’t handle?  Nothing would.

            I threw on jeans and a sweater and went downstairs to make breakfast.  I’m not the best cook in the world but I can hold my own if I have to, and from now on I would have to.  Toast with marmalade and jam would be all they would need for the morning, then we could go to the park and have a walk until dinner.  If they didn’t want to then we could always go to the shops I reasoned.

            As it happened, Cleo and Brent thought going to the park would be a lovely idea.  It hadn’t occurred to me that they wouldn’t get out much, but Brent told me that this Carla or Emerald, whatever she’d rather be called, seemed to have convinced Annette that it would be safer if the children hardly went out.

            “You won’t listen to her, will you?” Cleo asked.

            “No,” I answered, “I don’t know what she said, but it can’t be bad enough to keep you in all the time, not in a well run town like this.”

            “City!” Brent corrected, “Paris is a city!”

            I just nodded, let him have his minute of fame if it keeps him happy, it didn’t matter that I already knew Paris was a city.  In fact I wondered if they had any friends that might be at the park, but when I asked Brent he said that he didn’t really like to be around other kids that much.  It was odd but Cleo and Brent did seem rather content in each other’s company, not needing anyone else.  I would like to meet some new friends though I thought, so it would do me good if not them.

            The park wasn’t a great big field with a baseball diamond and a climbing frame off to one side like in America, and it took me a few moments to realise we were there.  It was a very small area with a slide, roundabout, sea-saw and a set of swings.  Everything looked like it was in dire need of a coat of paint and a good gardener.  I was very surprised at the amount of children that were there, but they all seemed to be enjoying themselves so it couldn’t bother them too much.

            Brent and Cleo seemed quite happy to just play by themselves.  They sat in a sunny little corner in the grass and chattered and played quite happily.  It could have been that they didn’t get out and so didn’t want to play with the other kids.  It didn’t really matter so long as they were happy.

            “Aren’t you hot in jeans?” his voice was very smooth and slid like silk out of his mouth, one of those voices that you can read about in romantic books, but that you never actually think you will hear.

            I shook my head, I wasn’t hot at all.  If anything I was just right.  I didn’t know this person however and that made me a little wary despite the romantic voice.

            “Most people are wearing T-shirts and shorts, you do realise?” he asked.

            “I’m not most people,” I answered.

            “No you certainly are not,” he replied.

            It was only then that it occurred to me that he was speaking in English, “I thought I would have to use my strained French to get along here,” I half queried.

            “Most people in Paris speak English,” he informed me, “it’s all the tourists and such, we tend to pick it up!”

            “I’m Shanni,” I told him, hoping for an introduction.

            “Are you now?” he mocked.

            “Is that not the way you do introductions in Paris?” I asked.

            “Yes, I’m just strange, you’ll have to excuse me,” he drawled, “speaking of strange, do most people in America stand back to back to have a conversation?”

            “No!” I said flabbergasted at such a strange question, then realised that I hadn’t yet turned round to look who I was talking to.

            He chuckled, “Now we understand each other!”

            I spun round to look at him.  He was gorgeous!  I had never seen a nicer looking lad in my life!  That told me why he was so cocky.  He gave a startlingly sexy grin, and I thought that he seemed a little young to be able to smile like that yet.  That was a smile that a young man gave before he asked his girlfriend to marry him. 

            I blushed.

            He had jet-black hair, very thick, and it looked soft and silky, I just wanted to reach up and touch it.  What!  This wasn’t me; I don’t have very much luck with boys, never mind have erotic thoughts about one.

            “Staring isn’t polite you know,” he mocked.

            I went bright red, “I wasn’t staring, I was just…” words failed me at that point.

            “Having a good look at my ruggedly handsome features?” he hazarded.

            “Yes,” I answered, without thinking, “I mean no!” I threw my hands up in exasperation, “Of course not!”

            “No?” he queried, “then you were doing a pretty good job of pretending!”

            His eyes sparkled with mischief, and it was then that I noticed the colour, dark brown, almost black, and as seductive as ebony.

            “Your girlfriend shall be jealous if she comes down to see you talking to the new girl in town,” I told him, “she’ll think you’re after new quarry.”  For that’s what he reminded me of, a predator on the hunt.

            “What girlfriend would this be?” he asked innocently.

            “Oh come on, you can’t tell me for one minute that you don’t have a girlfriend?” I told him, not thinking there was any possibility that he didn’t.

            “I don’t,” he said rather huskily, with a twinge of regret to his voice.

            “Fine!” I told him, “and I suppose you don’t have a name either?”

            “My name is…” he seemed to ponder this for a while, “ Lanier.  But everyone calls me Sapphire,” he was quick to assure me.

            ‘Strange,’ I thought, ‘does everyone have a nickname that is some sort of stone?’

            Brent and Cleo came up at that exact moment and decided they would butt into the conversation, “Hello Sapph,” Brent said with obvious recognition, “I didn’t think I would see you again for a while.”

            “Hi Brent, Cleo,” Sapphire hazarded back, “I didn’t think that your mother let you come out to the park.”

            “She doesn’t,” Cleo informed him helpfully, “Shanni’s our new minder and she brought us, she said it couldn’t do any harm.  Didn’t you Shanni?”

            I nodded dumbly, wondering what trouble I had just got myself into when Sapphire suddenly said, “Well if you don’t tell I won’t, I think the same way as you do Shanni, we could get along very well.”

            I looked at him sideways, me get along with a boy, especially one as cute as this?  I didn’t think it was a possibility for me.

            “Will you push me on the swing?” Cleo asked Brent.

            He took her hand and seemed very willing to leave the conversation now and go off to play again.

            “You know Annette?” I asked.

            “Yes, but we aren’t really compatible!” he answered me.

            So that’s what Brent meant when he said he didn’t think he’d see you again,” I thought out loud and then dropped to the grass.

            “Yep,” Sapphire answered, dropping to the grass next to me.

            He stretched out lazily, again reminding me of a predator, especially a big cat, and placed his head on my knee, using me as a pillow.  I gasped and again proceeded to turn a scarlet colour.  This was not the type of thing I usually did around a boy, well turn bright red yes, but not have him lounge about on me and act like it was the most normal thing in the world.

            “You’re not used to boys, are you?” he looked up at me, straight into my eyes and I wondered if many girls got lost in those eyes.

            “I had a lot of friends that were boys, yes,” I answered him.

            “I didn’t mean like that,” he told me, flicking his hand in a dismissive gesture, “I meant you’re not used to boys being quite so comfortable with their sexuality around you.”

            “I had a boyfriend I’ll have you know,” I told him with exasperation.

            “You had a boyfriend?” he chuckled, “so you’re free game now, eh?”

            “I am nobodies game!” I yelled, standing so that he had to move his head rather quickly if he didn’t want it to get knocked off.

            “Don’t get so touchy!” he said languidly, “I didn’t mean anythin’ by it and you don’t have many other friends yet so you can’t afford to get in a huff about every little thing otherwise you will find that you get very lonely in the next couple of weeks.”

            “I think I should go now, it is getting on a bit and the children haven’t had any dinner yet,” I quickly thought up the excuse to get out of this annoying conversation with this even more annoying boy.

            He just scoffed at me as I walked away and carried on lying where he was.  I walked over to the children, who seemed to be playing a game of I-Spy in one corner of the park.

            “I think it’s time we went home and got some dinner,” I announced, coming up briskly.

            “I don’t wanna go yet!” Cleo whined.

            “We have to go when Shanni tells us,” Brent put in, “but you will let us come back again won’t you Shanni?”

            “Of course we can come back,” I answered, “but I’m getting very hungry now, aren’t you?”

            The children both nodded their assent to this and got up ready to leave.  I brushed down the back of my jeans and started to head for home.  I couldn’t believe the nerve of that Sapphire, Lanier, whatever his name was, I just couldn’t.  But that was the way boys always acted didn’t they?  I should really get used to it I supposed, I was eighteen now after all.

            Upon reaching the house I made the children and myself something to eat and let them go and play in the playroom whilst I went to the dining room and adopted a position on the floor with my back pressed to the corner between two of the walls and my vision across the whole room.  I proceeded to think about everything that had just happened and what it meant, eventually coming to the conclusion that it meant absolutely nothing as far as anyone was concerned and it was just a really cute boy using his looks to play a cheap trick on the new girl in town.

            About fifteen minutes into these extremely comforting revelations there was a knock on the front door.  It was far too early for Annette to be even thinking of coming home and so I went to investigate whom it could possible be.

            Upon opening the door I was met be the face I had expected never to see again.  It was Sapphire stood calmly in the doorway, a cap slapped at a jaunty angle on his head and a knowing grin on his face.

            “What do you want?” I sighed, “Annette isn’t back yet and you can’t possible want to see the kids.”

            “You missed one person out,” he informed me.

            “Oh I did, did I? And who would that be?” I asked in an almost challenging manner.

            “You, you dozy woman!” he exclaimed, “come on, you don’t think very highly of yourself do you?”

            I made a ‘me’ gesture with my hand and then stood back to let him walk in through the door.  My heart was starting to pound and I wondered if this was such a good idea.  I didn’t know what he wanted to see me about but it couldn’t be a good thing, it just couldn’t.

            I led him through to the dining room, adopted my former position, and gestured to offer him a seat wherever he deemed it best to sit.  He chose the floor next to me, of all the places, and I cursed him silently for making my heart race again.

            “I just thought that we couldn’t end the conversation there and I did give you enough time to have some dinner first, didn’t I?” he babbled.

            “Yes I’ve had some dinner, but why couldn’t we leave the conversation there?  It’s not as if you’re ever going to want to see me again after today and so there was no point in getting my hopes up,” oops I hadn’t meant to say that last part.

            “Your hopes for what?” he questioned, “now we are getting somewhere.”

            “N nothing,” I stammered, “it was just a figure of speech, nothing was meant by it, what gave you the idea that something was meant by it?”

            “Well the way you just babbled all that out for one thing,” he was far too observant.

            I looked down at the floor and refused to look up at him until he grabbed my chin between his fore finger and thumb and forced me to look up, straight into his eyes.  I gasped aloud and tried to turn my head away, but he held fast to my chin and gave me no leeway to even look in another direction with my eyes.

            “You don’t have to be afraid of me you know,” he said, his voice slightly husky with something I couldn’t quite place and his eyes a little misted over.

            “I I I I’m not afraid of you,” I managed to stammer out.

            “No?” he asked, “then I don’t have to worry, do I?”

            He dropped his head and I thought he was going to kiss me, but instead he pressed his lips to my neck and started to nibble daintily at my skin.  A shudder passed through me and right down my spine and my head fell back a little to allow him better access to my neck.  I felt his hand press to the small of my back and his fingers start to stroke gently where they where placed.  A whoosh of air escaped from my mouth as I lent in towards him.  Then I suddenly had a thought, and pushed him away from me.  He looked up at me dazedly, his eyes just beginning to unmist themselves now.  I realised I could still feel the power of his arousal pressed against my upper leg, had been able to since he moved forward, although, for the life of me I couldn’t recall when that was.  Where I would have been shy and withdrawn before though, it didn’t seem to matter now.

            “What did you do that for?” he asked, his voice hung low and heavy on the air.

            “The kids,” I answered, “they’re still upstairs, remember?”

            “Saturday then,” he announced, standing up to leave, he seemed to have regained control of himself much more quickly than I was able to.

            “Saturday?” I asked, but he had already left the room, leaving behind an emptiness and silence that I didn’t understand, not just in the room but also in me.

            And then it hit me, hadn’t Annette said that her niece, who was coming round on Saturday, liked to be called Emerald?  What if these two were part of some sort of club or gang who all had a nickname which was some sort of stone?  And if that was the case then why?  I pondered this for a few more minutes then, coming to no conclusions decided I would just have to wait until Saturday came. 

            It wasn’t so hard to keep myself busy around the house.  The children were always easy to please and Annette did seem like a very nice woman even if she did have some strange notions about how to bring up children.

The rest of the week flew past and very soon it was Saturday.  I had been so busy that I had completely forgotten all of the questions that I had not had the answer to earlier in the week and I was quite looking forward to meeting Emerald.  From the information I had managed to glean from Brent she was quite a pleasant girl who usually stuck to herself but could be very good company when it was needed.

            Annette took the children off to visit their grandmother early in the morning and left me in on my own waiting patiently to meet Emerald.  About ten thirty there was a knock at the door and when I went to open it there was a girl stood there.  She was not at all like I had expected her to be. 

            She had long brown hair and green eyes, she was very tall for a girl, about five foot ten inches.  She was wearing a short red dress that didn’t even reach down to her knees and was leaning lightly against post outside the door when I came to it.

            “Hello,” she chirped, “you must be the new child minder Aunty Annette was telling me about?  She said you had no friends, being new in the neighbourhood and all so I was to come round and keep you company for a while.”

            “That’s very kind of you,” I answered her, “I did make a friend but I haven’t seen him since Tuesday and I am very pleased for any company.”

            She smiled down at me and walked in through the door, “So what were they like, this friend of yours, maybe I know them?”

            “His name was Lanier,” I told her, “but he seemed to like to be called Sapphire.”

            “Sapph?” she half asked, “yes I do know him, but he isn’t for you my dear, he is a trouble maker and you had better steer clear of him if you possibly can.”

            “He seemed very nice to me,” I told her, “and anyway, who are you to tell me whom I can and can not be friends with?”

            “I am very sorry if I came over as being too authorative, but I had to warn you, everyone deserves a warning whether you listen or not is your own judgment but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

            I began to wonder if there was something seriously wrong with the people around here, first Annette won’t let Cleo and Brent out of the house, then I meet a very strange boy who I could quite easily get infatuated with, and now Emerald was giving me a very heartfelt warning about going near that same boy.  No it must just be my imagination going on overdrive.

            I was just about to go into the living room when there was another knock on the door.  Upon opening it I was amazed to see that Sapphire was stood there.

            He must have seen the look of shock on my face because he said, “Well I told you I would come over didn’t I?”

            “Y yes you did but I didn’t think…” I stammered.

            “You didn’t think that I actually meant it?” he finished, “well you’ll soon come to know me better!”

            “Sapphire!” Emerald said from behind me, “fancy seeing you here!”

            Her whole demeanour had changed from the girl who had given me the warning about a minute ago.  She was smiling up at him as if he was her best friend and there had been nothing in her voice to indicate otherwise.  Sapph gave her an odd sort of look, it was certainly not friendly but I didn’t quite know if I could place it as a warning or just an unhappy look at the thought of being in her company.  He brushed one hand through that jet-black hair of his, in such a way that that could have almost been called cocky.

            ‘Does this boy have no end to his self-confidence?’ I thought, but unlike I would have thought earlier, this did not seem to bother me at all.

            “Don’t you dare!” Sapph spat acidly at Emerald.

            “Don’t I dare what?” Emerald asked sounding the pinnacle of virtue.

            “You know very well what I’m talking about so don’t you dare try to play innocent with me either!” he told her huffily, “she isn’t any of your business and if you do then I’m afraid you will force me to take more drastic measures than, apparently, you think I am capable of.”

            “Time out!” I stared at both of them whilst making the T symbol with my hands, “what are you two going on about?”

            “Nothing that need concern you,” Sapph said sweetly.

            ‘Nothing that need concern me?’ I thought, ‘but it sounds like you are arguing over me.  Oh well, can’t get blood from a stone and I know Sapph isn’t gonna give if he’s set his mind on it.’

            His eyes looked black at the time, almost as if they had never known what colour was, but that had to be a trick of the light because I knew his eyes were brown the other day at the park and peoples eyes didn’t change colour just because thy were in a mad mood.  I had to break the tension some how so I offered everyone a cup of coffee.

            Once we all had our drinks and things seemed to be back on normal wavelength, we went into the dinning room and sat at the table.

            “How about going out tonight?” Sapph asked, and although he didn’t say, I got the impression that the invitation was only open to me.

            “Sure,” I answered, “anywhere in mind?”

            “Don’t worry, I know just the place,” he assured me.

            Well Annette had said that I would get the weekends off because there was no way I was going to be able to go out on week nights and she had to spend some time with the children too.

            The rest of the day passed slowly.  There were no more unusual scenes, although the tension between the two grew steadily all day until Emerald gave the excuse that her mother would be wondering where she had got to and left.

            “So, what was that all about this afternoon?” I asked Sapph later on as we walked to wherever it was he was taking me.

            “It was… I can’t tell you,” he answered, he looked decidedly uncomfortable, and it occurred to me that this might be something personal because he never lost his composure.

            I didn’t suppose it really mattered all that much, what could it possibly mean anyway?  So I decided to leave it at that, there was no point in pushing the matter if it was going to make him uncomfortable.          

            The sign over the door of the club, which was what it seemed to be, read ‘Crash’ in big blood red letters.  The sign glowed and looked rather ominous against the background of black which was the wall.  Upon stepping inside I could see a bar along one of the walls and tables dotted around the rest of the club, each with four or six chairs around it.  Everything was done in mahogany wood except for the bar top and the carpet, which were again blood red.  There was a small dance floor in front of the tables but I got the impression that nobody here danced all that often anyway.

            “Can I show you something?” Sapph asked.

            “Sure,” I answered.

            He led me to the wall across the other side of the dance floor and pointed to it.  At first I didn’t see anything but after a while, once my eyes got accustomed to the light, I could vaguely make out the words of a poem, it read:

‘A smile on your face,

 At the sight of a mahogany branch,

Is a kiss to the wind,

But nay a kiss to your partner, for that has to be done deliberately.’

I smiled at him as I turned round, “That’s very sweet.”

            “Yes I suppose it is,” he seemed to ponder this.

            “Did you write it?” I asked.

            “Yeah,” he answered, but then seemed to want to say no more on the subject, because he turned away quickly then asked if I wanted a drink.

            We had been seated for a while when a boy came over to us, he seemed to know Sapph for they smiled at each other and talked about this and that for a few minutes.  After that he turned to me and stared rather blatantly for a good few minutes.

            “Does she know the answer to the riddle?” he asked Sapphire.

            “I haven’t asked her,” Sapph answered.

            “Are you any good with riddles?” he asked me.

            “I like to think that I can solve quite a fair few,” I answered.

            “Answer this then,” he said and recited:

“I am just two and two.  I am hot.  I am cold.

I am the parent of numbers that cannot be told.

I’m a gift beyond measure, a matter of course,

And I’m yielded with pleasure – when taken by force.”

            Sapphire looked at me as if I didn’t have a hope in hell of ever working it out.  I had to think, if I could prove the two of them wrong it could be really funny and besides, I deserved a moment of triumph once in a blue moon.  But hard as I did think the answer seemed way too aloof for me to ever get it.

            “Can’t do it?” Sapphire’s friend asked.

            “I will just give me time,” I told them; I would get it if it took me till next year! 

            A few people had stared to come into the club and I guessed that the business was about to pick up.  Sapphire’s friend walked off to talk to someone else who he apparently knew and Sapphire and I were left alone again.

            “Do you want to know the answer yet?” he asked.

            “No!” I answered, “I will work it out on my own thank you.”

            “You can be quite a stubborn little thing when you want to be can’t you?” he asked me.

            “So can you!” I told him, “and anyway I have a right to be able to try and figure out a riddle on my own if I want to don’t I?”

            “I suppose you do,” he answered.

            “And the rest is silence,” I said with a little flick of my hair.

            He gave me a strange sideways glance and smiled at me with his lips pressed together and his head almost on one side.  He was wearing all black and against his black hair and dark eyes it made his skin look very pale.

            “You could look almost evil dressed like that, you know?” I told him.

            “Almost?” he asked, “oh, that is very disappointing I shall have to try harder next time.”

            I chuckled and elbowed him in the side, at which point he grabbed my arm and spun me towards him.  I looked him up and down; there was something very sinister about him tonight.  It could just have been my imagination but there was that twinkle in his eyes and the way his lids were half lowered, again I thought of the predator on the prowl.

            “Don’t look at me like that,” he drawled languidly.

            “Like what?” I asked innocently.

            “Like you’re studying me and trying to work out if I’m dangerous or not,” he answered me.

            Was my face that easy to read or was he just very good at telling what people were thinking, it was as if he could read minds.

            I glanced at my watch and was rather shocked at what time it was, “We had better go,” I told him, “I’m supposed to be back by twelve.”

            He nodded and rose to his feet, I stood up beside him and we began to walk home.

            “We should give you a nickname too.”

            “Why? I’m quite happy the way I am thank you.”

 “I think we should call you diamond,” he stared at me, “yes diamond.”

‘Fine,’ I thought, ‘if he wants me as part of his little group that much!’

But then it occurred to me that it wasn’t a little club.  Something weird was going on, first Emerald gave me a warning about him and then Sapph came and gave Emerald a warning about going near me.  Now he wanted to give me a nickname like the two of them had, and yet there was no link that I could find that the two of them had.

“Why is it that you and Emerald both have nicknames that are stones and yet you don’t seem to get along at all?” I queried.

“Well we were once the best of friends,” he told me, “but something happened and now we don’t always see eye-to-eye.  It’s nothing really just that the names stuck.”

I supposed that that did make sense if you thought about it.  There was still the warnings thing, but I wasn’t going to ask about that, it might be a touchy subject and after all what could it really mean anyway, if I was in any danger I was sure Sapph would tell me.

Sapph suddenly grabbed me and pulled me into a side alley.  He pushed me against the wall and told me to be quiet.  What was the matter with him all of a sudden?  Why did it seem that we were hiding from someone?  He peered round the corner and searched the street then came back around.

“What’s going on?” I said.

“Nothing,” he answered, “don’t worry about it.”

“Don’t you dare!” I shouted, “I’ve put up with a lot from you and I’ve been a good little girl, I haven’t asked about anything but now you’re going to explain because I’ve had it up to here and I have a right to know!”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” he said, his face was suddenly very set and grim, I had never seen him look that way before, there was none of his usual smile or the giddiness that always seemed to be there.

“You have no idea how much I would believe,” I said softly, “but if you don’t tell me then I may just have to go ask Emerald about it.  I want to know everything, what the threats were the other day, why you didn’t want Emerald around me, why you have these hot and cold flushes, and don’t give me that look you surely remember that first time you came round to the house, heaven knows I haven’t forgotten it.”

“Do you believe in vampires?” he asked.

“Yes,” I answered.

He looked very stunned and taken aback, “well me and Emerald we’re… that’s what we are.  The threats, well, she wants you to become one of us so she warned you against going near me because I could protect you and I was just warning her not to bite you.  You see, I’m her fledgling, that means she was the one who made me, and we got along great at first, but she wanted someone who would obey her every wish but I was a little too cocky for that, I was going to be no ones slave, and so we split.”

I nodded to show that I understood and took all of that in bit by bit.

“You took that awfully well,” he said, he looked at the ground and started to mess with a stone by his foot, “I supposed you would either run or laugh once you found out.”

“I always did believe in vampires,” I said, “it was no surprise to me to hear someone tell me that they are real.  I must say I did think something was going on that you weren’t letting me in on.”

“You should go home,” he said, “you’re going to be late, and besides, I’m getting hungry.”

I gulped and turned away, I was going to be late and I didn’t fancy getting bitten just now.  I trudged home pondering everything I had just heard, vampires?  Both of them?  Nothing like that had occurred to me I must admit.  If I was in danger then did that mean that I wouldn’t be able to see Sapphire any more, was Emerald Annette’s real niece, because if so then she couldn’t be a particularly old vampire.  Why had Sapphire just dragged me into that alley?  He had never explained that one.  I had too many questions floating round in my head and no answers, plus the fact that when I got answers it just seemed to make ten times more questions than I had originally had.  If I went on like this I would go mad, best just to forget it right now.

I kicked a stone out of my path and took a leaf from a tree that was overhead.  Then tore it up in a rage and crushed it underfoot.  What was I supposed to do now?  Never see Sapphire again?  That couldn’t happen, it just couldn’t!  It couldn’t happen because…  I couldn’t admit it because if I did that made it true and I couldn’t handle the implications of that right now.

If I had wanted to get enthralled by a boy then why couldn’t it have been by a normal boy?  I supposed that that devilish twinkle in his eye, that would normally have turned me away, had somehow attracted me this time.  He had looked so lost when he had been explaining, as if he needed someone too, well of course he did!  Just because he was a vampire that didn’t mean that he didn’t need company, didn’t have feelings!

I was at the house in a lot shorter time than I had expected I would be and now I just seemed to need some sleep, my head had started to pound from all of the thinking and my knee hurt for some reason I couldn’t comprehend.  I crawled into bed, safe with the knowledge that I could at least have a lie in because it was Sunday the next day and I wasn’t needed.

When I awoke the sun was already blazing in through the window, I must have forgotten to close the curtains the night before.  I did feel a lot better and I started to wonder if it had all been a strange dream, at night it had all sounded really plausible, but in the light of day nothing made sense.

I trudged down the stairs only to be confronted by Annette, “Do you feel better now dear?”

“Yes much better thank you,” I answered, and then thought about it, “did I tell you I wasn’t feeling well when I came in last night?”

“No dear,” she told me, “Sapphire told me when he brought you back.  It was a shame you had to come back early because you weren’t well.”

Come back early?  But hadn’t I been late?  Had I come back early and dreamt the whole thing?  But I didn’t remember coming back with Sapph at all just by myself in that dazed state and going straight to my room.  It did sound more plausible that I had dreamt it.  Vampires!  How could I even have entertained the idea, not here anyway?

“Lanier is in the parlour waiting for you,” Annette interrupted, “he is very worried.”

I wandered through to the parlour and there he was, just sat on the sofa looking out of the window with a distracted look in his eyes.  He couldn’t be a vampire, he looked too sweet to hurt a mouse at the moment, sure he had his sinister moments, but that didn’t mean he was a killer.  He turned to face me and winked as he saw me come in.

“I was worried,” he said, “you didn’t half get ill last night.”

“I’m all right now,” I answered, “I did have a very strange dream last night though.”

“Oh?” he looked up at me, more intent now, “do tell.”

“Well,” I began carefully, “I dreamt that we stayed out for ages last night, past the time I was supposed to.  I asked you a few things and it turned up that you and Emerald were both vampires and she was the one that had made you, you were her fledgling in effect.”

I studied his face for any sign that it was true and everyone was trying to cover up.  Any little flinch or twinge, but he just started to laugh hysterically, as if the notion to him was quite absurd and nothing of the sort could ever be true.

“And you… believed it was true?”

“No I just thought I would tell you about it that was all,” I said rather sheepishly.

I guess it was just a dream then.  There was nothing to say it was true and if I was that ill then maybe I would have had a strange dream.  Something wasn’t quite right though.  The ‘dream’ had seemed too real, I remembered every detail, every sound, and how I had felt.  If it had been a dream then that still didn’t explain the warnings off the pair and the strange way everyone was acting.  No, it was too real…

“Hey, Diamond,” Sapph was staring at me, “are you okay?”

“Yeah, fine,” I answered coming out of my thoughts.

I decided I would stop thinking about it and that way if something happened, it did, and if not then I wouldn’t be looking for it all the time.

“Have you figured out the riddle yet?” Sapph asked, and silently I thanked him for giving me something else to think about.

‘I am the parent of numbers that can never be told.’  That was it, what was the parent of numbers so high that they could not be counted, besides sex, which obviously wasn’t yielding with pleasure when taken by force there was only one thing.  A kiss.  It wasn’t exactly that I would want someone to kiss me by force, in fact I wouldn’t, but some people might.

“A kiss?” I asked.

“Well done!” Sapphire exclaimed, “I didn’t expect that you would get it.”

I shrugged; it had just come to me, as things often do when you are not thinking of them anymore.  I didn’t know exactly what significance it had to anything, in fact it seemed to have none at all, but I had done it.  At least it proved that I wasn’t going mad. 

“You want to go for a walk?” he asked.

“Sure,” I answered, “I don’t see why not.”

As we wandered out through the front gate of the garden I stared to notice all of the flowers around the area.  It had never occurred to me before, but for such a built up area this place did have rather a lot of flowers and trees.  It was pleasant to walk along and look at all of the flowers, trying to name each one as we passed it.  Poppy… chrysanthemum… honeysuckle… rhododendron… crinodendron…   feuerwerk…

“Hey?!” Sapph had grabbed my arm and was looking at me intently, “have you heard a word I just said?”

“Oh… sorry, I was looking at all of the flowers and seeing how many I could name.”

“And how many can you name?” he asked with a little lift of the corner of his mouth.

“All except that one,” I pointed out a scattering of little flowers, a rich purple in colour, the stood upright reaching for the sky on long green stems which looked as if they should break under the weight of such an enormous load.

“They’re phlox paniculatas,” he pleasantly informed me, “nice hardy little flowers, they’ll grow in practically any little nook or cranny they can find… and come in all colours too,” he added as an after thought.

Come in all colours?  So did vampires and just because he looked sweet didn’t mean he was.  Besides some vampires didn’t kill, just drank from many victims in one night and left all alive.  Why was I thinking of this again?  It had to be more than just my imagination, didn’t it?  I turned to look at him, he was pale but that could be the effect of having dark hair.  He reached out and took my hand at that moment and his was ice cold, something was definitely going on.

“Are you cold?” I asked.

“Not at all,” he drawled, “now what made you ask that?  Are you sure you’re feeling better?”

“Your hands are like ice,” I bit back, snapping harder than I had meant to, this was all getting so confusing and I didn’t know who to believe anymore.

“Geez, you don’t have to bite my head off!” he looked a little upset.

“Sorry its just I’m so confused, you are a vampire aren’t you?”

He looked at me quizzically, “Is this what this is all about?  I think you’re going a little overboard with this dream of yours, but why on earth are you so hell bent that I am one?”

“Are you telling me honestly that you’re not?” I looked at him with as much detachment as I could muster, and it must have worked for he gazed back in utter bewilderment.

“Is that what you want?” he sputtered in disbelief, “for me to admit it?”

“If its true then yes!” I groaned, “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you all along.”

“Well okay then,” he moistened his lips nervously, “if you truly believe that then look for yourself.”

He opened his mouth wide enough for me to see that his canine teeth were regular size, certainly not that of a vampires.  I wasn’t convinced though, I knew better than that.  I reached up and touched the roof of his mouth just behind his canine teeth.  Two sharp, little needle teeth dropped down from their sheaves giving him a sinister look that he hadn’t had before.

His eyes turned to chips of jet, “How did you know that?” he barked out.

I squared my shoulders and refused to let him intimidate me, “I guess you could say that I’m more of an expert on vampires than you had originally thought.”

“Yes you could say that,” he drawled, “but how do you know that I’m not going to kill you for the knowledge you now have?”

“Because I don’t believe you do kill anyone, I mean correct me if I’m wrong, but I bet that you feed off more than one person so that you don’t have to kill anyone.  In fact, I bet that’s why you frequent that bar, people don’t remember if they were drunk in the first place.”

“Do you have to be the expert on everything then?” he implored me, “first the flowers and now the vampires, and all right maybe I don’t kill, but how do you know I won’t bite you and then you’ll turn into a vampire?”

“For one thing, if you bit me I may lose some blood but I wouldn’t turn into a vampire, that only happens if the person also drinks the vampires blood, and another thing, I think that’s what you and Emerald were arguing over, whether or not you turned me.”

            He clapped slowly and deliberately and looked down at me as if I was someone who certainly knew too much and perhaps needed to be eliminated because of that knowledge.  Well if he was trying to scare me he wasn’t doing a very good job, certainly the gaze he had turned on me elicited a reaction, but it wasn’t fear, no, rather excitement.  I wasn’t even sure what it was excitement about, it was just a tingling feeling that maybe I had just found what I had been after, or perhaps it was just the knowledge of the power that all this knowledge gave me.

            “So what if you got me wrong?” he asked silkily, “what if I will kill you?”

            “You won’t,” I gazed back at him, my voice so steady I was proud of myself, “if you had meant to do that then you would have done it already.”

            “You aren’t one of those vampire addicts who travels around the world looking for vampires who are as of yet undiscovered, are you?” he asked with a little cock of his head, “because you could cause us a lot of trouble if you are.”

            “No,” I chuckled, “I’m not.”

            He spun on his heals, “Well you do know a lot more than you should and I’ll have to go and see Emerald about what exactly we need to do about that.  Meet me down the back alley of Crash tonight at eleven thirty,” he turned to go, “oh, and Diamond… do make sure you show up won’t you?”

            His last parting shot, I knew, was meant to scare me into being punctual, but frankly I wouldn’t have missed it for the world anyway and if he thought he was about to make me anxious by leaving threats then he had another thing coming.

            If the way I was dressed that night wasn’t described as ‘dressed to kill’ then I don’t know what was.  I had tied my unruly curls back with a black lace ribbon and wore a knee-high black lace dress.  Down the left side of the box was a silver Chinese dragon, which snaked round as if it were actually clinging to me rather than a design on the dress.  The garment itself was very tight fitting and showed off all my curves to their best advantage.  To top it off I was wearing black lace pumps, which had been my mothers a long time ago.

            Upon reaching the alley I was fully prepared to have to argue for my cause and stand rigidly by what I believed and knew.  As I turned the corner what met my eyes stopped me in my tracks.  There was no one there.  I wasn’t all that early and with the threat that Sapph had left me with I highly doubted that they were going to be tardy.

            I was pondering upon the subject when a heard a very sinister laugh from somewhere off in the shadows at the end of the alley.  If it was Sapph he sure had changed his voice and I was sure it was a female laugh anyway.  As I realised this Emerald sauntered out of the shadows and prowled over to me.

            “My, my aren’t we dressed very sassily tonight?” she purred as she stalked around me in an ever reducing circle.

            “Where’s Sapphire?” I asked with a lilt of nonchalance to my voice.

            “Sapphire?” she asked all too innocently, “He needn’t be here for what we have to discuss tonight.”

            That rang a warning bell somewhere in my head.  What exactly was she up to?  And why had she sent Sapph away whilst she did it, because I had a funny feeling he wouldn’t have just left me with her had he had a choice.

            “I won’t let you!” a masculine voice intoned.

            Emerald turned with a little chuckle, “Now I thought I had told you to stay out of this?” she asked, “perhaps I wasn’t as clear as I thought I was?”

            “I won’t let you,” he repeated, “I won’t just sit back like I always have and let you have your way, not this time, I think it’s about time I had a say in something and I say that you leave her alone.”

            “Why?  Took a fancy to her yourself have you?” she ran an appraising eye over him, “well I don’t believe I asked for your opinion.”

            He stepped forward at that moment and I took a step back, I got the feeling this was about to get a lot more ugly and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be in the middle of it. 

            Suddenly Emerald lunged for him and caught at his throat.  If he had been a moment slower, I got the distinct impression that she would have snapped his neck right then and there, but he wasn’t and he managed to dodge and fling her around so that her shoulder collided with the nearest wall.  I retreated to one of the corners in the alley and sank down against the wall, if this turned into a fight to the death I didn’t want to be in the middle of it.

            Emerald, after a while, caught Sapph by his jacket and threw him so that his head collided with a dumpster and he was momentarily disoriented.  If he had been a day younger it would have all ended there.

            He relied on his strength, which had accumulated through the years, and tipping his head back, flicked Emerald up and over one of his shoulders, then, using his speed, he grabbed at a piece if corrugated iron lying against the wall and slashed out.  He caught her head, and in one easy swoop there was only the two of us left in the alleyway.

            He fell in a heap at my feet, and lifted his head a little to stare at me.

            “She wanted to kill you,” he almost begged, “I just wanted a taste.”

            I watched as blood trickled from the gash in his forehead and ran down his right cheek.

            “I don’t mind,” I answered.

            “You don’t!” he was shocked.

            “No,” I smiled innocently up at him.

            I twisted my head and bared my neck; as he sunk his fangs bared my own and sunk them twice as deep into his.  They had both been fledglings compared to me and now I had dominance and things were about to change.