any of you seen William yet? He was supposed to unlock the back gate for us, but we had to climb over a wall instead. It was damned difficult with a whining chit clinging to my leg.”
They all laughed at the image. “I believe Will should have been here by now. He’s always ghastly early to these things. But this is only the first dance,” said Douglas Hale.
“Wonder why he has yet to arrive? The man is never late for anything, even fashionably so,” pondered Tristan as he glanced around the crowded ballroom. William had been his best friend for a number of years. They were both young immortals in a large city with a growing population of both mortals and immortals. Most of the immortals in London were much older than them.
“I hear he’s supposed to debut his sister tonight,” whispered David Benton.
Tristan’s head whipped back to David, eyes narrowed slightly. “His sister?” he asked suspiciously. “What sister? The man is my best friend. If he had a sister, I would know about it.”
“It’s true,” admitted Douglas, looking a tad uncomfortable as he pulled at his necktie. “William told me he was bringing her. They are due to arrive any minute.”
“Why didn’t he tell me he had a sister? We’ve known each other for”—a slight pause as he realized he about slipped up and said something to give away his true age—“several years,” he finished. “Where has she been all this time?” He and William had known each other for almost thirty years. They were around the same age; he was in his nineties and William was around one hundred thirty, which was still very young for an immortal.
“Maybe it slipped his mind,” offered David with a slight grimace on his face. “He only just mentioned her to me last week. He said she just got into town.”
“Slipped his mind?” said Tristan slowly, each word dripping with sarcasm. It seemed as if William had told each of them his sister would be here tonight yet failed to mention her very existence to him.
“Having a sibling is not something one forgets, believe me.” Thinking of his older brother on the continent always put him in a melancholy mood. It had been years since they had seen each other, but they still wrote as frequently as the mail would get the letters across the ocean.
“I meant perhaps he didn’t think you’d be interested.”
“Or possibly he was afraid you would be too interested,” chuckled Douglas as he winked at Tristan.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” growled Tristan. He didn’t like the implication in the other man’s words or the fact that the others seemed to agree with him.
They all stepped away from him slightly. “N-nothing, Tristan,” said Douglas, stuttering slightly. They all knew what that low voice from Tristan signaled, and none of them wanted to anger him. “I only meant that you have a way with the ladies. He might have been trying to protect her or some such thing.”
Tristan considered what Douglas said as he tried to fight the hurt that he felt at the betrayal of his closest friend. Why would William keep this from him? Surely, he didn’t think Tristan so evil he would go for his best friend’s younger sister. He looked around the room and noticed all the women batting their eyes at him. Then again, maybe William was worried about how she would react.
“Speak of the devil,” murmured Harold, looking over Tristan’s shoulder. Tristan turned around and caught sight of William St. James and a woman he couldn’t see clearly. He was helping her off with her cloak. Ah, so this must be the mysterious sister. All he could see of her so far was honey blond hair curled with light blue ribbons. Everything else was still covered by the cloak.
Tristan wondered if something was wrong with her, to keep William from introducing them. Then again, she must be immortal like both of them if she was truly his sister, therefore she must be a beauty. Their kind was typically way above average in looks. They almost never lacked physical beauty; most were just missing the inner kind.
Once the cloak was removed, Tristan could see from behind and slightly to the side, that her body was something that should never be covered, curves that can make a man’s mouth water and legs that went on for miles. Oh, please let her face match the rest of that perfection, prayed Tristan, already forgetting that this was his best friend’s younger sister and he’d said he wasn’t interested. Finally, the crowds parted, and she turned around…and time stopped as her eyes met his from across the ballroom.
*****
Lily
“Don’t make me go tonight, William. I beg you!” pleaded Lily St. James to her older brother. They were seated across from each other in his couch on the way to the Tilden’s ball. She was wearing an ice blue gown, with a semi-low-cut bodice. The material soft and flowing, spreading out all around her on the seat. It had taken hours to get ready for tonight’s ball, her maids working furiously away on her hair and clothing.
All day, she had a feeling that tonight was going to be a very important night. The night that her last few weeks of nervousness and impatience had been leading up to. She wanted to be here more than anything, and it frightened her enough to want to stay home. Something monumental was about to happen, and she didn’t know if she was ready for it.
“You’ve already made us late, Lily. We’ve probably missed the first dance,” grumbled William as he peered out the curtain window at the dark streets of London. “I promised Jane I would save that for her, so I hope you’re happy.”
“Oh, William, you know she’ll forgive you! They always forgive you,” teased Lily. Her brother was a scoundrel when it came to the ladies. They practically flocked to him, what with his sandy brown hair and clear green eyes. He was very popular with women of all ages. Lily knew this from all the tales she had heard over the last two weeks.
“Well, you better hope so,” he said, shutting the curtain and turning back to her. “Because otherwise we’ll have to think of a different way to get her fathers’ support.” As he adjusted his tie, he gave her a knowing look that made her stomach plummet. She knew exactly what different way her brother planned on getting his backing.
“No,” she said, raising her head to look down her nose at him. “I will not allow you to take away that poor man’s freewill over something as silly as one of your new schemes. It isn’t right.”
“First of all,” explained William, “it isn’t a silly scheme. It is a legitimate business proposition that could benefit both of us. Secondly, you need to stop denying who and what you are. Compulsion is one of our many gifts. We’re immortals, Lily! Why deny it?” Both of them had inherited extra powers from their immortal parents, but compulsion was also very strong in their family.
“I know you are still too young to fully understand what being an immortal means, but one day, when a human discovers what you are by accident, what then?” he asked with raised eyebrows. “Are you just going to let them go when you have the ability to stop them?”
“Taking away someone’s freewill is wrong,” she said very quietly, fidgeting with her blue silk gloves. “Because we are stronger and more advanced, we should be able to take the high road, not force someone to do something that he or she clearly didn’t want to do.”
The two of them have had this argument a thousand times it seemed, with neither of them bending on their opinions. William may be young compared to the thousands of others of their kind, but he still thought the same
