“Daz?”
When no reply came, Daniel turned and looked over his shoulder at Darren. He chuckled when he saw that Darren had his nose buried in that Anne Rice novel again.
“Darren...”Daniel called again. Still no answer.
“Darren!” he shouted. The dark head shot up and Darren looked at Daniel with obvious embarrassment.
“Er, yes Dan?” he asked, still a little flustered.
“We’re here.”
“Um, where?” Darren meekly asked, feeling stupid. Daniel merely rolled his eyes.
“MuchMusic. We have an interview, remember?” Daniel replied, only a little sarcastically, as he opened the limousine door. Darren followed suit a few moments later and opened the other door. He shivered as he stepped outside, it felt like he was standing in the middle of a blizzard.
Darren watched the snow swirl around him in wonder, he still wasn’t used to it and the cold. How the Canadians stood it was beyond him, yet there they were; waiting happily all bundled up in a parka-ed, gloved, scarved and booted bunch. Well, not all of them, Darren caught a glimpse of a person clad only in a long dress standing at the back of he crowd.
Gods, she must be freezing the singer thought, but the women didn’t seem uncomfortable.
A hand on his shoulder shook Darren out of his reverie.
“Come on, day-dreamer, we have a lot of talking to do.” Daniel reminded Darren as he turned them both towards the door. Darren tried to catch one last glance of the strange lady but she wasn’t there when he looked again...

...Darren and Daniel lounged comfortably on a couch in the middle of the MuchMusic Environment. Opposite to them sat Sook-yin Lee, her long braids swinging gently as leaned forward slightly in anticipation of Darren’s answer to her question.
“Well, I don’t really feel we deserve all the adoration we’ve been getting,” he replied “we have made only one album. Sure, people enjoy our music and I am aware that they find us physically attractive, but frankly I don’t know why their feelings are so strong.” Darren shrugged slightly and turned his head to the side as he shifted on the couch.
He belated realized he was looking at that strange lady again. She was watching him intently and Darren found his eyes locked with her gray-blue ones. Time seemed to slow down and music seemed to play almost out of hearing in a tantalizing way.
~We Are Watching You~
Darren fought the urge to look over his shoulder, wondering who had said that. Couldn’t have been the strange lady in the deep blue dress, he had been watching her and he lips hadn’t moved...
Suddenly Darren blinked. He realized that both Daniel and Sook-yin were looking expectantly at him but for the life of him he couldn’t recall what was just asked.
“I’m sorry, I drifted off, could you say that again?” Darren asked weakly. Everyone laughed and Daniel rolled his eyes again...

Chapter 2

...Daniel watched Darren with mild curiosity as the dark-haired one put on his long, black leather jacket.
“Going somewhere?” Daniel inquired. Darren shot him a distracted look.
“Uh, yah, I’m gonna go take a walk. I need to think.” Darren replied. Daniel laughed
“I would say so! You seemed to have quite a bit on your mind today.” Darren grimaced slightly at the sally.
“I’ll be back soon.” he said shortly, and left the hotel room...

...Darren pulled his coat collar higher as he walked through deserted, semi-lit alleys.
It’s times like these I wish I’d kept my hair long, he thought wryly my ears and neck were never cold when it was. Darren paced the streets for a time, trying to sort out why he felt so unsettled.
It’s that lady I saw! he realized suddenly. There was something about her that was familiar and a little frightening. She was odd; what person could go without even a light coat in the middle of a Canadian winter? The dress she had been wearing was peculiar, not ugly, just peculiar. In fact, Darren thought it was lovely; a deep blue dress with flowing sleeves. Old-looking, it reminded him of something the Vampire Pandora might wear.
Wait a sec...something the Vampire Pandora might wear...Vampire.... Darren stopped in mid-stride.
No, she couldn’t be a vampire, that’s silly. The singer shook his head violently.
It’s one thing to love Anne Rice novels, it’s quite another to start thinking your fans are vampires He told himself sternly.
But the similarities were eerie. The lady wasn’t affected by the cold, she was very pale and her eyes....Darren shivered suddenly, and not from the cold.
Her eyes were as luminous and wise as a vampire’s could be He finally finished. Darren realized something else.
She’s been following me. he thought with alarm. And it seemed so; he could now remember seeing her a few other places. Never long enough to be noticeable, normally. Just brief flashes and glimpses.
It’s almost like Armand chasing Daniel he thought absently. Then Darren did a mental double-take.
What?!? he bit off an exclamation. He should stop thinking about this, he was getting all worked up.
~Oh, you are no Daniel. More like Lestat. A Brat Prince~
came the thought into his head. But it wasn’t his. It was decidedly female. And amused.
Darren’s mind shrieked in terror and he started stumbling in the direction of the hotel. He moved even faster when he heard musical laughter pouring into his mind...

Chapter 3

...Daniel stared at Darren in confusion.
“Are you saying you think you’re being stalked by a vampire?” the guitarist made sure.
Darren nodded miserably. Daniel continued to look at him with mixture of confusion and cynicism. Daniel knew Darren believed in a lot of make-believe things but vampires was a new one.
“Uh, so what do you plan to do about this ‘vampire’?”
“I don’t know!” Darren squeaked.
Daniel tried not to laugh but the look on Darren’s face combined with the squeak just undid him. Soon he was rolling on the floor. He tried to stop laughing but the look of consternation on Darren’s face just made him lose it again.
“Oh, you’re no help.” Darren muttered in disgust, but his lips quirked into a small smile...

...He waited and nothing happened. He looked extra hard and never saw her. Darren started feeling silly, thinking perhaps he had made the whole thing up. He did have an over-active imagination sometimes. He was relieved and, perversely, a little disappointed.
Darren sat in a corner of a New York hotel, looking broodingly out the window at the dusk sky.
He couldn’t seem to shake his depression today and Daniel had finally given up, heading off to the bar to get plastered.
Central Park caught Darren’s eye and he looked at it speculatively.
Maybe a walk will cheer me up he thought idly. Darren grabbed his coat and was out the door before he knew it...

...Darren’s steps echoed through the darkened park. There was only a thin layer of snow on the ground, everything seemed to sparkle. Darren’s breath puffed in white clouds as he leisurely strolled along the park’s paths.
He looked up at the glittering trees and smiled as he caught a blue glimmer of a cat’s or owl’s eyes in a tall oak tree. The moon escaped the night clouds’ grasp and a moonbeam shone down right onto the oak with uncanny accuracy. Darren’s smile froze as he realized it was no animal in the tree; the moonbeam illuminated a pale female face, watching him.
Graceful as a panther, the figure in the tree swiftly climbed down to stand before Darren. He blinked in sudden reconization: it was the strange lady.
The singer felt dizzy with emotion as he examined his frightening stalker. The lady was still wearing that deep blue dress, but now Darren could see it had a pattern of overlapping blue leaves, with silver spider webs glittering here and there. Darren found the lady quite beautiful; she had long, straight black hair and glimmering gray-blue eyes. He got the impression of tranquillity and velvet strength.
“Why hello, youngling Daz, what are you up to this fine evening?” came a purely vocal question, startling Darren. A part of him died at the sound of her voice; it was so musical, beautiful, unearthly. Almost inhuman.

Chapter 4

“W-who are you?” Darren stammered. The pale lady cocked her head to the side in thought, looking momentarily like a woodland creature.
She took a step towards him and Darren took an involuntary step back.
“What are you??” he yelped, his mind filled with images of fangs, blood, corpses, darkness. The lady stopped, her eyes widening slightly in surprise and she stared at Darren long enough to make him even more nervous than he already was.
Then she threw her head back and laughed. Laughed, that wonderful musical laugh that he had heard before, in the dark alley. But there was nothing frightening about it this time; it made Darren think of forests, of summer rain, of birds crying. It replaced the dark images in his mind and Darren found his panic and fear fading.
“What am I? Not a vampire!” the lady replied, smiling “I have no fangs, see?” she smiled even wider, revealing white teeth of uniform length.
“And I have no intention of drinking your blood.” she finished with slight distaste.
“What, then, are you, if not a vampire?” Darren asked, his boldness returning as his fears disappeared.
“Something older than vampires. We watched their plight with pity and horror, but we could do nothing to help them.” the lady replied, not arrogantly, but sadly and matter-of-factly.
Darren raised an eyebrow, his unsaitable curiosity getting the better of him.
“We? Are you some sort of representative from a ‘special people’? Is that why you are following me?”
Her Paleness grinned
“No I am not an envoy. And why was I following you?” she shrugged “Blood calls to blood.”
“You sure you’re not a vampire?” Darren said, mock-suspiciously. The lady laughed again, causing Darren to fight the urge to shiver in pleasure.
“I’m quite sure. My name is Lyruna and I am a Sidhe.”
Darren’s brow wrinkled slightly in puzzlement.
“A Shee?” he tried. Lyruna smiled.
“Close. Sidhe. An Elf. More specifically I am an Arboreal Sidhe,” seeing Darren’s puzzlement grow, she continued “A Tree Elf. There are many different races of Sidhe on this planet. We have lived here long before mankind existed.”
Darren’s mind boggled at the concept. Older than mankind? Lyruna didn’t looked old at all. Also, she didn’t look like any elf Darren had ever seen. He thought they were tiny and had pointy ears, like the Rice Krispies elves or Tetley Tea elves.
Lyruna grinned and shook a finger at him.
“That is merely one type of Sidhe, very mutated by human perception.”

Chapter 5

“How can you read my thoughts?!” Darren demanded, feeling a little flustered. Was nothing sacred? Lyruna gave him a sympathetic look.
“Darren, I can hear the trees whisper and the earth murmur. Compared to that, human thoughts are like a flock of rambunctious crows. Though yours are more like a nightingales,” she paused, then teasingly added “a loud nightingale.”
Darren felt his cheeks start to burn as he blushed. He could be pretty noisy sometimes.
Lyruna’s smile widened.
“Tcha,” she admonished gently “ don’t be embarrassed. We have all enjoyed listening to your voice. It is always a pleasure to hear kin sing.”
Darren continued to blush and then his jaw dropped as what she said sank in.
“Kin? What do you mean? Am I an Elf??” Darren tried to wrap his mind around the concept but he was still having problems with thinking of Lyruna as an Elf. He started to feel a little faint.
Darren had often imagined himself a vampire but an Elf was something completely foreign.
Lyruna chuckled.
“No, you are not a full-blooded Elf. But you do have some of our blood in your veins. And you can tell, just look in a mirror. You have a fey look to you.”
It’s true Darren thought. He looked at Lyruna and saw he had a faint resemblance to her, or her to him.
“But your Elven blood is apparent in another, more obvious way: your voice,” Darren blinked in surprise but Lyruna continued in calm voice “yes, that surprises you, but not really. Your subconscious can hear the faint echo of the faerie in your voice. How else would you know how to use it to your advantage?”
Darren blinked again and realized that Lyruna was standing right in front of him now. She was actually a little taller than him and when Darren breathed in, he found himself intoxicated with the scent of cool forests and sweet roses.
Lyruna caught his eyes again in her hypnotic gaze and started talking again, he voice now almost a husky whisper.
“And you wonder why your fans are so devoted. How can they not be?”
Lyruna’s face was now an inch from Darren, who seemed frozen in place, his heart pounding in his ears. He watched in confusion as she leaned forward and kissed him.
As their lips touched, Darren’s mind was flooded with mind-numbingly beautiful music. He recognized some of it, for it was eerily similar to his own. The music was a part of his soul and the singer was filled with longing, awe and a sublime bliss.
If this is what our fans feel, Darren thought dazedly no wonder they are so loyal. No wonder the go insane at our concerts! Understanding hit him like a tidal wave, mixing with the music and overwhelming Darren’s senses.
He felt his knees go weak and he slowly slid to the ground, ending the powerful, divine kiss. Echoes of it still sang in his blood and Darren put his head in his hands, completely oblivious to the snow under him.

Chapter 6

He wanted to cry. He wanted to sing. He didn’t know what he wanted.
Darren slowly became aware that Lyruna was kneeling beside him.
“Are you alright? I’m sorry but I had to do that. You needed to know” she spoke quietly but her voice still resonated with the music humming in Darren’s veins. It threatened to overwhelm him again and Darren whimpered in confusion, curling into a ball.
Lyruna immediately put her arms around him and comforted him.
“Shhh....shhhh...” she whispered, rocking him gently “it’s alright. I think that was too much, you need some rest. Sleep now...sleep...”Darren felt Lyruna trace some symbol onto his forehead. His eyelids grew heavy and then he slid into the welcome, peaceful oblivion of sleep....

...Darren woke with the sun in his eyes. He groaned and turned over, trying to fall back asleep. But it was useless and eventually Darren sat up and rubbed his eyes.
“What a crazy dream I had.” he muttered, vaguely remembering something about Central Park , an Elven lady following him and a remarkable kiss...
Darren shook his head
“Yeah, that’s right, and I’m also part Elf.” he chuckled. Then he looked out the window and the chuckle died.
There was a large bird sitting on the rail of the hotel room balcony. A large, black bird. It looked like a crow except for one thing: it had blue eyes.
Eyes just like the lady in my dream. Lyruna. Darren shivered. The bird was looking right at him. And it had something in it’s beak. Just as Darren noticed this, it dropped whatever it had and suddenly took off in a flurry of black feathers.
After a moment, Darren got up and opened the balcony door. He picked up what the bird had dropped and looked at it.
It was a rose. The most beautiful rose Darren had ever seen. It had black petals hiding a deep magenta center. He gingerly smelled it; the scent of roses and mint met his nose. When he tilted it, he saw that the black petals glittered faintly in the sun.
Darren noticed there was a note of black paper attached to the rose. He turned it over and read the lovely silver script: