One sixth and kicking it; Eric's next surprise unveiled.

So, here we are on the 5th of the month and that puts us...1/6 of the way to December!

That seems a little sad being excited by being 1/6 of the way through something, but what it really means is we are powering along through NaNo!

Seem like an easy feat? Well...this year it's been relatively so thus far, so I guess so, but usually it can get to be a big struggle sometimes. It's both easier and harder than you think to write 50,000 words in 30 days. 

But patience is a virtue and perseverance is the what makes miracles happen...sometimes. 

So, basically I'm just celebrating that I'm 1/6 of the way and I'm still keeping it up. You can't get 6/6 without getting 1/6 first. 

Wish me luck!

Mara

P.S here's another little scene for you.

What's happening: Daphne returns to the present and finds out what Eric's surprise is. 

Current NaNo Word Count: 8,343

“Alright then, so what is this surprise you have in store for me?” I asked as Central Park flowed past my cab window.

            “Daphne, are you unfamiliar with the concept of a surprise? That you don’t know what it is until we get there, and you are thus surprised?”

            I rolled my eyes and continued to stare out the window as the cab rolled past the city down Fifth Avenue. From what I could tell we were rolling down towards the Wall Street and the financial district, and I wondered if that meant we were bound for the Empire State Building after all.

            I cast a sidelong glance at Eric to my left, to see he was absentmindedly stroking his chin and his eyes held a kind of dreamy, far off look that I couldn’t help but wonder as to the meaning of. It had been a while since I’d simply taken the time to study Eric.

            When we’d first met I’d been too determined to dislike him; I’d found him ridiculous and arrogant, a so-called prodigy who thought himself that way, and especially after what happened with my ex-fiancé, Julian, I hadn’t been particularly ready to let go of the notion that men were rarely good.

            But I did and Eric won me over, but in the time since then things had been so fast-paced and crazy. Even in those few months over Christmas and New Year before the crap in Paris went down, Eric and I had had so much happening around us with the Valley Project and the aftermath of Kieran McMahon’s arrest.

            Then there was Paris itself and the hullabaloo around Adarian’s attempt to kill me, and I’d hardly seen much of him since then.  He’d packed a bag and come back to New York to work at the Met that had been about six months ago. Now the weather was starting to grow colder again powering towards Christmas and it had been Easter the last time I’d gotten a good look at him.

            A had a sudden pang as I realised that in the time we’d been apart I’d missed his birthday, and hadn’t even known. I suddenly felt terrible, wondering why Eric was so determined to wait for me when he probably could meet someone else he liked...

            That thought was like cold water to the face and I shook my head, trying to tamp down on the jealousy that threatened to bubble up.

            I was determined not to be with him, but the thought of him being with any other girl made me crazy with jealous? That was the kind of attitude that made men think women were insane. I was such a bad name to feminists everywhere.

            I was going to have to sit down and think about this sometime soon, this see-saw of emotions simply couldn’t go on! I thought I’d come up with the solution to both of our problems, but I wasn’t so sure anymore.

            The cab pulled to a stop in front of an unassuming dark building and I couldn’t even tell what it was except that it more than likely wasn’t the Empire State Building.

            “Where are we?” I asked in genuine confusion this time.

            Eric shook his head. “Nah uh, surprise, darlin’, remember?”

            I smothered a groan and let Eric take my hand to help me out of the car from his side. I scanned the area searching for clues as Eric passed the cab driver a twenty, and came to the conclusion that this man was very good.

            “Shall we?”

            He led me around the corner and down a flight of stairs before I realised that we were actually now on Wall Street. The Wall Street Bull glinted in the moonlight a couple of metres away, and I was back to being confused.

            “Ok, Eric, we’re on Wall Street. Why are we on Wall Street?”

            He chuckled and continued to walk forward. “This is just on the way to where we’re going, I just thought it might be fun to get a quick shot with the Bull. To keep our tradition going, like we had at Trafalgar.”

            Of course, the photo shoot we’d had with Roy at Trafalgar square. I could still the words of Roy’s text in my mind. He will always love you.

            I hadn’t looked at that picture since he’d sent it to me. I hadn’t been able to.

            “Ok, darlin’, now climb up on that bull and give me a pretty smile.”

            I was almost startled to see that Eric wasn’t kidding as he motioned me to hop on with a SLR camera I hadn’t noticed he had.

            I was wearing a dress over opaque tights and ankle boots, and was about to refuse to preserve at least some modesty when he grinned.

            “I couldn’t even see your panties through those tights even if I wanted to, Daph, just get on the bull and let me take some artsy pictures.”

            “You are the weirdest man, like, ever, South boy.” I informed him, as I raised my dress a bit to climb onto the back at the bull with as much skill as I could muster.

            “South boy? That’s a new one.”

            I paused with one thigh raised to the bull to look over and stick my tongue out at him.

            “Real cute, Daph, get on the bull.”

            When I finally managed to get onto the statue and not slip off – again – and drape my dress over my thighs though that I was relatively decent, Eric bearely gave me a second to brush the hair out of my eyes before snapping some shots.

            “Hey!”

            He took a bunch of me in various states of telling him off, before commanding me to smile and look happy. I barely made it through that one as well before Eric heaved himself up onto the bull behind me and holding the camera in front of us snapped some more.

            By the time he planted a surprise kiss on my lips and flashed the camera for the last time, I felt like a whirlwind of thunder and lightning at just erupted around my head and I all but fell straight into Eric’s arms as he helped me off the bull.

            “Wasn’t that fun?” He asked, cheeky grin on his face.

            “Wha-what?”

            Then he just burst out laughing and hugged me. “You hated it, didn’t you?”

            “What was with the crazy photo shoot?” I practically demanded, trying to dislodge his grip on me.

            “Daphne,” he began, wiping a tear from his eye and trying to contain his laughter. “The photo shoot wasn’t about just the photos. I was just trying to get you off guard and capture your smile – just like the time in Trafalgar square.”

            “By camera mobbing me?”

            He chuckled again. “I may have gotten a bit carried away with the flash mode, but I’m sure we got some great pictures.”

            With a harrumph, I snatched the camera from his ready grip and began to flick through the pictures he’d just taken.

            The breath caught in my throat at one in particular; it was when he’d swung himself up onto the bull behind me and had gripped me under the breasts to steady himself. I was flushed and embarrassed whilst he was smiling brightly. We looked like we had just been caught in some sort of compromising position.

            But what really caught my eye was a slight blur in the background. A glint of gold amongst the shadows.

            Camera clutched to my chest I swung around to see if I could catch sight of what had made the image, and noticed a shadow creeping away behind the buildings further down the street. I felt a fission of cold fear suddenly snake down my spine and I spun back to grab Eric’s hand.

            “There’s someone here,” I hissed, and began to drag him in the opposite direction. “Something that means us harm – I saw a shadow.” Deliberately keeping my voice down I led Eric away, waiting until we had rounded a corner out of sight before passing him the camera to see the blurred figure for himself.

            The boyish grin that he’d had only moments ago vanished to be replaced by determination and bravado. “Come on. I’m done with Wall Street for tonight anyway.”

            A couple of blocks later, he turned back to me, murmuring for only me to here, “Was it the Organization?”

            I shook my head, keeping my gaze straight ahead. “I don’t know,” I admitted, shivering. “But it could be.”

            “What do you mean?”

            I took a deep breath and decided to come clean by telling Eric that Adarian was in New York and that I had run into him at the Met, lurking within the Greco-Roman artefact centre.

            I felt him go tense, angry that I had kept this from him. Adarian Leveaux was more than a symbol of danger to Eric – he represented that I was vulnerable in Paris and Eric hadn’t been able to stop him.

            “Why didn’t you tell me,” he asked quietly, letting my hand drop.

            “I didn’t know what to say.”

            And it was true – Mim had been livid when he’d found out, threatening to jepordise the whole trip in order to keep Adarian away from me. Admitting that he was a threat was one thing, but running away forever was entirely another.

            “Does Mim know?”

            I bit my lip and nodded. “I told him.”

            Eric stopped walking and ran a hand through his hair. No one was around, so I hardly protested when he pivoted towards me and backed me up against the window of a closed, dark office building. I looked up into his face for a moment, pained to see that Eric was looking away from me, gritting his teeth and trembling with some emotion I couldn’t pin point.

            “Eric...look at me.”

            He ignored me, and instead continued to keep his gaze away from me although his arms were stretched beside my shoulders, bracketing me in.

            “Eric, please.”

            His gaze suddenly snapped back to mine and I gasped in horror. His pupils had thinned to slits and his emerald irises had morphed to paranormal golden-green colour. His lips even parted and I could see that his canines had extended slighty to a sharp point, like tiny fangs. But that wasn’t the part that scared me.

            What frightened me was that for the first time he looked like an ancient warrior.

            A Jackal.

            “Eric!”

            A low growl emitted from his throat and I began to panic. I didn’t know what to do, afraid that I had never seen Eric like this, and concerned that he was becoming more and more like Danukaric than ever before. Just like I had been afraid of.

            “Eric, stop it!”

            He growled louder, leaning in closer and curling the arms beside me into fists.

            I suddenly had an idea, based on what I’d read in vampire romances over the years and thought might work to calm Eric down. Twining my arms around his neck slowly so I didn’t startle him, I titled my face up and gradually drew closer until I could press my lips against his.

            At first he remained aloft and rigid, arms fisted against the window, but after a few moments I began to feel him tremble and start to soften. Soon his lips became mobile beneath mine and began to kiss me back, and his arms relaxed behind me.

            I gripped him tighter, throwing everything into the kiss and barely waited for him to accept me before pushing past his lips to tangle my tongue with his. It wasn’t long before Eric took over, bossing my tongue around and massaging it with his, pressing me backwards against the window and lifting one palm to my hair to twine his fingers through.

            It wasn’t long before the kiss because more furious, the two of us clinging to each other like our lives depended on it; kissing like the other was oxygen and we were deprived of air. I felt a tear escape from my eye as I held on tightly, kissing him for all he was worth and my lips started to feel bruised and swollen.

            Some time later the heavens opened up and it started to rain, sending rivulets of liquid down upon us in the darkness.

            Finally we broke away to stare at each other like it was the first time.

            “I love you,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

            Eric’s eyes had resumed their normal vibrant green colour and his teeth had shrunk back to their usual shape.

            He flicked his eyes across my face and nodded so slightly I almost didn’t see it. Then he lowered his lips back to mine and we just stood there in the rain kissing, letting our clothes get soaked through.

            And neither of us could even care.