It was just past midnight, and I was in one of the places I knew I shouldn’t have been. Seventeen thousand years old and visiting Bournia, one of the many realms based in New York. I am not a demon but a farie, some consider us the watered down versions of lycanthropes and nightchildren. We snarl, bite, and live for eternity. We are not pixie size as everyone likes to think. We kinda look like nightchildren without the fangs and the thirst for blood. I am currently in Ye Old Jerusalan (some of us thought it would be funny to name a demon bar after the human’s sacred “God’s” birthplace.) I’ve met many gods and goddesses personally but I didn’t really like most of them, besides Aphrodite. Adam and Eve were too concerned with nature to have decent social skills.

But back to why I am not supposed to be here in this….ancient bar. This isn’t my realm; I live in the Bronx, the human realm. I know what you must be thinking, why live with the smelly ignorant humans? All they do is rely on some smelly old book telling them what god was like. When God is probably hanging with Zeus and Euphrates instead of listening to their petty problems. These problems by the way could be solved with ten minutes of silence and thinking. Humans aren’t horrible, one my good friends happens to be a human, but she grew up knowing about demons. We call people like her the “smart ones” or the “brains”, because they live human lives but can see past their realm and into ours. They understand it! It’s nice having quote unquote “normal” friends, who aren’t some type of demon.

Bournia, realm of night is specifically for the nightchildren, it doesn’t exclude others but you wouldn’t see any lycanthropes living here. Every species of demon has a realm; we have these so we don’t mix bloodlines. Farie and lycanthrope couples are forbidden, a major taboo. In current times more and more species are intertwining, and the leaders aren’t very fond of this. So more species are starting to live among humans, no one really cares as long as no one finds out about their couple status.

I was about to leave Bournia to go home to my four bedroom and bathroom apartment with all seven roommates. Two per room, I’m bunking with Staci or Anastacia from Romania. She’s my human friend (the brain). As I walked out onto the lush green grass outside the bar I heard a commotion. I looked around to see no one nearby. But I kept hearing a grunt then a slapping sort of sound, like a fist connecting someone’s face. By the time I found out there were two guys fighting in the trees above me they had already fallen to the ground, nearly on top of me. I couldn’t tell who was winning, the dark haired or the red haired one. As soon as the dark haired one fell in agony, I felt my heart lurch. The red hair walked off triumphant as I dropped to my knees in front of the mysterious dark haired guy. He was coughing up blood, I touched his chest and he winced.
“Broken ribs eight and nine, that not good.” He tried to laugh but it came out as a wet cough and a wince of pain.
“I’ve been worse.” He had a thick Russian accent, and he could probably pick up my Irish accent.
“I can heal you but not here.” He didn’t really protest since he was half unconscious, I picked him up and opened a portal back into my apartment. I almost lost my footing as I came in; I went to my room and set him on my bed. He sighed with relief.
“Go into my chest and get the purple book and black bag…also the first aid kit.” I said to Staci as I took off dark hair’s shirt. I was the “healer” of my kind. Seventeen thousand years of medical training, I’m probably one of the best. Staci set my things beside me and stepped back to give me room, she had a horrible look on her face. I wasn’t sure why though, I bring in injuries (injured things) all the time it’s not the first broken vampire she’s seen. I could sense she was reluctant toward Mr. Mystery. He started to go into shock; he was a vampire and had lost a lot of blood. The only way to heal is to replace that blood. Vampire’s can take in any type of blood as long as the entity it’s taking it from requires oxygen to live, which excludes some demons. I did what I could for the ribs at the moment, and tended to his other cuts. He was groaning the whole process, not that I blame him.
I knew I would regret this, as I took out my dagger from the black bag. I slit my wrist, not severing any major bloodlines but enough for him to heal. I tilted his head up and opened his mouth slightly as my shimmering blue blood dripped onto his soft lips. He groaned not in pain but in pleasure, farie blood is like fine wine. The older it gets the better its tastes. He arched upwards his hands tightly grabbing my forearm, bringing my cut to his mouth so he can feed. I have never given my blood to anyone, in my seventeen thousand years of healing not once has someone taken my blood. I’m not sure why but I have this deep feeling that I want to give myself over to him. Every fiber of my being was on end like lightning had struck me, when his lips grazed my skin.
“Stop.” I breathed, I was starting to get light headed and was out of breath, which is hard to do. He reluctantly let go and sighed.

“Thank you.” He whipped his mouth with the back of his hand and fell asleep. Now unconscious I could really work on his ribs. I flipped open my purple book full of healing methods specifically for nightchildren. It called for many things to be ground and mixed together making a grey paste like substance. The nice thing was it was topical, no ingesting needed regardless if it’s internal or external.

A few hours later… Mr. Injury finally woke up; I took off my pounds of concealer so my real skin was visible. It was like crystals, faceted to reflect light my blue blood making my veins look like they were drawn on my skin. I had a special dentist parentally put fake teeth over my real ones so I have straight pearly whites. My auburn curls were kind of crazy from this night’s event. My emerald eyes were wide with…anticipation.

“So what should I call you?” I asked as he sat up in my bed, stretching and moving around feeling no pain.

“Romare Dimitri Sokolov. But I go by Ari.” He held out his hand.

“Siofra…you can call me Sofi.” I smiled, and shook his hand in greeting.

“Thank you for healing me. It was very kind.” He put his grey shirt on and ran his hand through his shoulder length dark mahogany hair.

“Your welcome. I’m sorry to ask this but have we met? I have the strangest sense of déjà vu.” For the first time I realized what color his eyes were. They were the color of my blood bright blue. And every time he spoke my heart seemed to skip a beat. He just looked at me and blinked, trying to refocus, a smile played on his lips. He knew something that I didn’t.

“Siofra…where are we?” Ari looked around my room.

“In my apartment located in the Bronx, the human realm.”

“That’s what I thought, the air… tastes different.” Ari took in a deep breath and nodded.

“I put some healing paste on your ribs that could be what you taste.” But now that he mentioned it the air did seem to feel strange. We looked at each other and electricity seemed to go through us, our gazes held there. My breathing stopped and my heart raced, something strange was going on. I knew what it was deep in my core and it seemed that he did too. I stood up and sat next to him on the bed. We didn’t say anything more; it was like we could sense each other’s emotions. Minutes passed but it seemed like hours, I lost track of time looking into his eyes. They seemed like endless tunnels of blue.

His hand touched my cheek softly, tracing my veins with the tips of his fingers. Ari twisted his fingers in my auburn curls and pulled me closer. Our lips touched and the world spun. He pulled back, his breath lingering on my tongue with a sweet taste.

“This can’t be true, you can’t be Siofra ó Cuilinn the one I was supposed to marry six millennia ago? You’re a farie and I’m a vampire prince how could they set this up so I would fall in love with you and be disgraced by my kind?!” he realized what he had done. He has grown feelings for a different species. With him being royal he would be disowned by his family, if anyone had found out. But six millennia ago was when I had run away from home, so I wouldn’t be forced into marriage. And this was the time before they thought it was wrong for intermixed species.

“I haven’t heard that name since I left home. You’re the Romare? The one father always talked about the reason why I left my home?” I kept looking at him, that is what I felt, my soul mate. I found him, it took seventeen thousand years but I found him. I was in love with him since I was born and I tried to run away from it, only to find it coming back to bite me in the arse. I was shaking my head but I had a smile on my face.

“So I guess I get to live here now?” he looked around the room, then back at me.

“Um…does this mean…” he cut me off, and kissed me again.

“I ngrá leat” I love you he said, in my native tongue. I repeated it back. I never thought I was going to love someone. Now I found my love, my soul mate, we will live and love together for eternity. Staci and the other roommates were shocked when we came out of my room arms around each other. I introduced Ari to everyone but they already knew who he was, they were happy to have him here. Keeping me company, so I wasn’t the only single person in the apartment. My apartment had a vampire and lycanthrope couple, farie and enchanted moor, elf and lycanthrope, and now a vampire and farie couple. Staci had a human girlfriend another brain.

Since Ari is a prince of nightchildren I think we have a little more sway in letting species mix. The heart wants what the heart wants, is our motto. I have seven thousand years on him so he likes to see who knows more so we can figure out or “human” age. Right now he is one hundred and ten and I’m one hundred and eight. He lived in Russia and Romania all his life and in the last thousand years moved to Bournia. So he has different knowledge, but I can beat him whenever it comes to medical terms.

So if you are ever walking down in New York, or anywhere for that matter, and see someone with a shiny forehead don’t assume its sweat, it could be a faire whose concealer is wearing off. Don’t let anyone tell you who you can’t love because one day you’ll find that person and someone might not agree, but as long as the heart wants what the heart wants you’ll be fine.