“Angela?” I perked up a bit, turning and placing my hand on the steel tubing that comprised the rail of the wooden bridge. I saw the girl, her jet black hair coursing with the flow of the wind, her wedge heels clipping the uneven planks. She looked just like any other girl really, apart from the paleness and the deep blue eyes.

“Yes, I am, you must be Meghan,” I extended a hand, which instead of taking, she looked at warily and then glanced out, off the bridge and out to the river beyond. We’d agreed to meet at Frog Island Park as soon as I’d figured out where she was and had in fact confirmed that she still lived in the area.

“I’m sorry,” She said, shaking her head. “I don’t feel that comfortable being around you, you’re a Fae, I’m a vampire. We all know how these things usually go.”

“Are you afraid of me?” I smirked a little. Damn right she was, she should be.

“You said you have information about my brother,” She said stonily. “He disappeared when he was eighteen, right after he graduated from school. I cried for months. If you know where he is, I need to know, right now.”

“I’m going to be honest with you,” I sighed. “He…hasn’t had a great life since he disappeared. I…made a mistake.”

“What kind of mistake?” She demanded. I could see her anger rising, but I wasn’t too worried. In the daylight, vampires are about as strong as the average human. At night, it’s a completely different story. “Where is my brother? Tell me, now.”

“Okay,” I tightened my grip on the handrail. “I’m going to need you to calm down, first of all, your brother had a bad habit of asking women to dominate him, did you know that?”

“Uh, yeah,” She stifled a laugh. “He asked ME once.”

“What? Okay anyway, he asked me, a lot, and I always said no. One day, I got fed up with it so…I well, I gave him a very basic order to clean my house, over, and over, and over. I expected him to snap out of it within like a week, but…he didn’t.”

“How…long…did he clean for?” Meghan raised an eyebrow. “Please tell me it wasn’t for more than a few days.”

“Nine years and twenty-four months,” I said, blurting the words out as quickly as I could. “I promise you, he probably doesn’t remember most of it.”

“Eleven YEARS?!” Her expression changed from one of skepticism to pure rage. Without warning, she threw herself at me, wrapping her arms around me waist and dragging me to the ground. As soon my back slammed into the planks, she reared back, hissing as she raised a hand in the air, preparing to bring her hand down. I reached out and grasped her wrist before she could dig her nails into my throat. The moment I did, she attempted to bring her other hand down, which I easily grabbed as well. “Get off of me! Where the fuck is my brother?!”

“Calm down!” I hissed angrily as I lifted her off of me like a rag doll and planted her firmly on the deck while I towered over her. She was no match for me. “Your brother is fine, he’s alive, he’s been living in my house.”

“What, as your slave?! You still have him scrubbing your floors? I’ll kill you!”

“You are not going to kill me,” I said sternly, easily maintaining control of her as I held tightly to her wrists. “You are going to sit there and you are going to listen to me. I need to talk to you about your brother-“

“Let me go you cunt!” She shouted, thrusting her body forward and headbutting my leg. I sighed and lifted up on her wrists, flinging her as hard as I could from the bridge and watching her tumble into he water below. The current immediately seized her, dragging her downriver.

“Outstanding,” I muttered as I turned to my right and made my way toward the end of the bridge. Emerging into the parking lot, I crossed the blacktop quickly and made a beeline for the bathroom, a simple brick structure with a few stalls, and of course, mirrors. “I hope I don’t get randomly attacked in here.”

For a moment, I stared into the mirror and ensured that my makeup was still acceptable – it seemed to be okay. I shrugged and placed my hand to the mirror, using my mind to concentrate on the other bathroom that I knew was on the trail, about half a mile down the river. Within seconds I was standing inside that bathroom instead, and while the layout was exactly the same, it was thoroughly trashed with candy wrappers on the floor, graffiti on the walls, and what I was pretty certain was fresh urine near one of the stalls. I immediately walked toward the exit, emerging onto the trail and walking through the trees. There was a slight embankment, and then, just as I predicted, I found Meghan lying on the shore, gasping for breath and choking her lungs out as she tried to stand upright.

“Again,” I said to her. “I need to talk to you about your brother. Did he ever…act different?”

Meghan stopped choking for a moment and glared up at me. I raised an eyebrow.

“I…guess…he always acted a little bit feminine. He asked to try on one of my tops once,” Meghan brushed herself off as she stood upright and sort of snarled. “I thought it was a joke but later I noticed a lot of my stuff was…hung up…wrong.”

“That makes sense,” I nodded. “There’s something I really need to tell you. First of all, I want you to know that we’re training him, in everything. We’re teaching him to stand up for himself, we’re teaching him to fight, and we’re teaching him about the world he’s living in now. We’re not just going to leave him hanging, you understand?”

She nodded and stepped closer to me.

“There’s something else, isn’t there?” She asked. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“Your brother he’s…a Fae now. Not intentionally, but it happened, and there’s no going back, you understand?” Her expression changed, it was a mixture of confusion and relief. “And…he’s…he’s your sister now.”

“Excuse me?”

“Your brother was always a girl, her name is Jasmine now and…”

“I…actually that makes sense,” She interrupted me. “But…you’re taking care of hi- her, right? You’re taking care of her? That’s one thing that was always missing. Our parents…they treated her so horribly. They put so much emphasis on religion and…I remember them locking her in the bathroom and forcing her to pray for hours at a time…I remember…they did so many things to her. They…they just weren’t good parents, I…wish she’d had parents, or at least a mother, I really do. Please tell me you’ll take care of her.”

“Meghan,” I said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “I have named myself her mother. You know well that it’s a real connection between two Fae. It isn’t just words. Her and I are connected now, forever. Her fate is my fate.”

“Thank you…” Meghan said, suddenly leaping forward and giving me a hug. “Thank you so much.”