Ally's Online Notebook

Okay, so this is REALLY late, but I finally finished the last two pieces for my creative writing group. I used the same world as the last one. This world is slowly taking over my life. If only I actually had time to sit down and write more of it.

Title:  The book
Series: Liam McBane
Warnings: language
Characters/couples: Liam, Zach
Rating: PG

The river sparkled under the moonlit sky. Stars reflected on the inky black water, ripples sending them scattering as silver fish backs broke the surface. Fireflies flitted along the bank, adding their own light to the reflected stars. A warm breeze blew through the leaves of the trees lining the river bank, tugging a few from their branches. Flower petals followed the leaves, twirling to pass over the old stone bridge and settling onto the carvings of cherubic angels.

Another gust lifted the leaves and petals again, sending them spiralling over the heads of the two figures on the bridge. The girl’s light blonde hair shone in the moonlight as it trailed down her back. Pale lashes rested on equally pale skin, her sapphire eyes hidden beneath painted lids. Her dark red lips parted as she let out a breathy moan. One long-fingered hand came up to twine in her partner’s hair. Her partner who was currently latched on to the girl’s throat, nibbling his way up to her ear. He wrapped one arm around her slim waist and pulled her closer, the other hand running up and down her arm.

Liam wasn’t usually one to make out in public. To be honest, he wasn’t usually one to even talk to a girl, let alone talk to her long enough to get her to kiss him. Really, he would normally rather kill someone than even touch them. Something about the French countryside, however, had him allowing random girls he had just met to drape themselves over him and nibble on his lips. Must be something in the air.

The girl (Ami? Adriene? Adela? Something like that.) moaned again and turned her head to capture Liam’s lips. She pulled him closer and set about trying to devour his mouth. Liam smiled into the kiss and pressed her back against the stone bridge. She had just started undoing his pants when a voice called out his name.

“Liam? Liam! It is you!” God. He knew that voice anywhere. That smooth, sweet, annoying voice.

Liam broke the kiss, sighed and closed his eyes. “Excuse me a minute.” He turned around and levelled a glare at the intruder. “What the hell are you doing here Zach?”

The angel, wings currently missing, gave a jolly wave and smiled. “Liam! How good to see you. It’s been far too long.”

“It’s been three days and that doesn’t answer the question.”

“Excuse, mais, who is this?” The girl peered over Liam’s shoulder at the other man.

Zach pulled Liam away from the girl and slid between them. “Why hello my dear.” Liam couldn’t see his face, but he knew the angel’s eyes would be silver, the hypnotic tone in his voice guaranteed it. “Why don’t you head home now, hmm? I think you left the oven on.”

“Oh, mon Dieu!” The girl clasped her hands to her mouth. “I did! Excuse Liam. I must go. Au revoir!” She moved to kiss Liam again, was blocked by Zach, and scurried off the bridge, Liam staring wistfully after.

“What the hell was that?” Liam spun around, grabbed Zach’s collar and pulled him down to eye level. “Why the fuck can’t you just leave me alone?”

Zach just smiled that annoying smile of his. “I’m so sorry to interrupt your little tryst with the tramp, but you’ve been summoned. I’m afraid there’s a book you need to pick up.”

“A book?” Liam dropped his hands. “You hypnotized away the first lay I was gonna have in God knows how long just so I can get a book? Where the hell am I supposed to get a book at this time of night anyway?”

“Now, really. That girl was much too young for you. You need someone with more experience.” Zach leaned in and pressed his lips to Liam’s. The human froze, even as wings materialized around them, and let the angel kiss him. A flash of light later and the wings vanished, leaving stacks of books around them.

Liam pulled back sharply, opened his mouth in shock, and punched Zach across the jaw. “What the fuck? What the hell was that?”

“Why, a kiss of course. I’d think you’d know that, what with the way you were attached to that girl.” Zach gently flapped his wings and rose up to perch on a bookshelf, avoiding another swing from Liam.

“Of course I know what it is! You don’t just go around kissing people! Now get down from there so I can kill you!”

“Well now that wouldn’t be very nice.”

“It’s not supposed to be nice, you overgrown turkey!”

“Please keep your voice down Mr. McBane. We are in a library, and I’m fairly certain that the owners would prefer if you didn’t throw their books around.”

Liam blinked and looked at the book in his hands. He tried to read the title, remembered that he didn’t know French, and carefully placed it back on the shelf. He clenched his fist, to keep from reaching for the sword he wasn’t carrying, and sighed. “Why are we in a library?”

Zach eyed him warily, looking for signs of another attack. Seeing none he smiled. “Why, where else would we get a book? Now,” he hopped down from the shelf and folded his wings. “You’re going to need this.” He tossed a small glass bead, the size of a marble, down to Liam. Blue lights sparkled inside of it, occasionally arching out to scorch the air.

Liam yelped and reached for the bead, cupping it in his hands. He held it up, peering through the blue light. “What the hell am I supposed to do with this?”

“Swallow it.”

“WHAT?” Liam shot his eyes up to Zach and back down to the bead, holding it out as if poisoned. “I’m not going to swallow this thing!”

“You are if you want to find the book. Unless, of course, you’d rather search through every title here.” Zach waved to the bead. “That little charm there will allow you to see the magic binding the book. If you don’t swallow it, I’m afraid you’ll have to search every book, one by one, to find the right one. And I’m fairly certain you won’t be able to do that before the library opens for the day.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Liam glared at the bead before swallowing it, grimacing as it burned down his throat. “Now wha-” He broke off as arcs of blue light spread across his body, moving from his stomach out to his arms and legs. It didn’t hurt, though Liam couldn’t help from wincing as it jumped from finger to finger. “How, exactly, is turning me into the Energizer bunny supposed to help?”

Zach shook his head and smiled. “Just let the magic work.”

Liam scowled but bit his tongue. He didn’t have to wait long. The light jumped from his body onto the floor, zig-zaging down the aisles of books. It hit a shelf, backed up, paused as if stunned (if light could get stunned) and continued around a corner.

Liam raised an eyebrow. “And what am I supposed to do now? Chase after light?”

Zach shrugged. “Unless you’d rather wait for the librarian to come find us.”

Liam sneered at the angel and turned to follow the lightning on the floor, Zach’s soft steps following.

The lightning arched down the aisles, sparking off one book before jumping to the next. It was really quite beautiful, if Liam was prone to think like that. His actually thoughts at the moment ran more along the lines of ‘dear God I’m going to kill that angel when this is all over – and I guess the lights are pretty’.

Finally, after climbing two stories, running down endless aisles, and twisting around countless corners, the lightning stopped. It plunged into the old worn cover of thick, leather-bound book. Liam skid to a stop and pulled the book from the shelf. He glanced at the title, but whatever language it was written in wasn’t one that he knew. Hell, the alphabet wasn’t even the same.

“Is that the one?” Zach rested his head on Liam’s shoulder to look at the book. 

Liam shrugged the angel off and held the book over his shoulder. “It better be. Take it.” He turned around to watch Zach flip through the book. “What is it anyway?”

“Hmm?” Zach looked up from the pages and raised an eyebrow. “Oh, it’s nothing.” He smiled at the scowl Liam shot him. “Your master–”

“Don’t call him that!”

“–was hoping to make his mother a nice dinner, but I’m afraid he couldn’t remember the recipe.”

“...a cookbook?” Liam stared blankly at Zach. “You ambushed me on my date, scared away a good lay, and dragged me to a library in the middle of the night...for a cookbook?”

Zach shrugged. “When the Master calls, I obey.”

“Oh, fuck that.” Liam took a swing at the angel, missing as Zach unfurled his wings and leapt into the air. “Get back here!”

“I’m sorry, my dear Liam. I’m afraid I’ll have to leave you for now. The Master was quite insistent that this was urgent. I do hope you can find your own way out.”

Zach blinked away, leaving Liam clenching his fists and glancing around the quiet library. His eyes flitted from side to side, looking for the angel to appear again and take him back to the river. Instead of hearing that annoying laugh, however, Liam was greeted with the sound of the doors of the library opening and someone whistling as they set about opening up for the day.

“Well, fuck.”

Title:  The trip
Series: Liam McBane
Warnings: none
Characters/couples:  Liam, Jess
Rating: G

“Liam! Liam!” The girl’s voice rang out from the front desk. Heads popped up from behind cubical walls and glanced around curiously. The girl waved at them and continued bouncing next to the receptionist’s desk. The receptionist, an older woman with large cat eye glasses, raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips. The girl just gave her a brilliant smile and kept bouncing.  “LIAM!!!”

Liam sighed in his cubical. He could hear his coworkers muttering around him. Better get this over with then. He locked his computer and stood, eyes closed, rubbing at the oncoming headache. He looked over to the girl calling him and gave a lacklustre wave. Picking up his briefcase he weaved through the maze of cubicles, ignoring the stares from his coworkers, and smiled at the receptionist. “Sorry Lisa. I’ll take care of this.” He grabbed the girl’s arm and dragged her out of the office.

“Sweet monkey fritters, Liam! No need to be so rough.” The girl pulled her arm free and sat down at the cafeteria table.

“What are you doing here Jess.” Liam sat and buried his head in his hands. “And what did you do to your hair?”

“You like?” Jess twirled a violet strand around her fingers. “Mom totally flipped when she saw it, but it was so worth it. I can’t wait to see her face when she sees this.” She lifted up her top, exposing a dragonfly tattooed just under the gold stud in her bellybutton.

Liam winced. “You mother is going to kill you. No, wait. She’s going to kill me.”

“You worry too much.” Jess laughed.

“Everyone needs a hobby.”

“You already have one.” Jess pulled a stack of papers out of her shoulder bag. “And speaking of your hobby. I have found us the perfect vacation!” She spread the papers out on the table.  

Liam looked down at the photo of a circle of jagged stones. “What’s this?”

“Callanish Standing Stones.” Jess said with a smile. “Like Stonehenge, but Scottish. I figure we can go there this summer.”

“And why would we be going to Scotland?”

“Duh. My grad present? Hello?” Jess rapped her knuckles on Liam’s forehead. “You promised that you’d take me on a vacation if I passed all my classes.”

Liam wearily swatted the offending hand away. “Marks aren’t in yet.”

Jess sighed. “You know as well as I do that I passed everything. I’m not stupid you know.”

“Just lazy.” Another sigh. “Fine. When are we going?”

Jess beamed. “I knew you’d see it my way!” She pulled a sheet out from under the pile of photos. “We leave on the 5^th.  Zach’s going to meet us there and we can go to all the mystical landmarks and then we’re going to go into London for some shopping!”

“Wait, what?” Liam’s head shot up. “Zach is not going with us. I refuse to travel with that annoyance.”

Jess pouted. “But, he’s lived there before. He’s going to show us around. Besides,” she smiled and tossed her hair out of her eyes. “He’s headed over for work anyway and you know that that means he’s just going to track us down when he’s done. You might as well accept that he’s going to travel with us and get over it.”

Liam gave her a half hearted glare and stood. “I may accept it, but I don’t have to like it.” He turned and started back up to the office. “By the way,” he paused and looked over his shoulder at the high school student still seated at the table. “What hobby are you talking about that would take us to Scotland?”

Jess laughed. “Meeting hot guys at mystical sites, of course. I have to get my eye candy somewhere.”

So there we go. Two more stories from the life of Liam McBane. I think he's starting to hate me.