The Touch of Hearts (Clem & Peregrine)

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Anya_x

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Dev stretched out on her bed, grabbing the pieces of paper and pushing them to the side as she began to frantically copy a piece of script from a book. She ran a hand through her brown hair and sat up quickly, holding the paper up. The light of her bedroom glimmered through it and the scratchy handwriting seemed to glow.

She snatched up her bag and ran out the door. She clutched the paper in her hand, crumpling it slightly. She ran as fast as she could. Her heart pounded in her chest and she knew in a few moments, her heart would be beating for a different reason. The small lighthouse sat on the empty beach, shining it's light across the dark waters. The moon hid behind some clouds and overall made the scenery quite eerie.

Dev didn't care and she ran even faster. Her mother took care of the lighthouse so she always had access to it. The top of the lighthouse was the highest place in their town and she figured it would be a perfect spot to do her summoning. Dev was a shy girl, didn't have many friends. She wanted to summon a demon, or anything really that would be willing to trade her something for eternal friendship.

She climbed up the ladder of the lighthouse and shut the hatch on the floor behind her. Windows encased her, letting her see all around. She placed her bag down and began digging through it. She put out three candles, one North, one East and one West. She lit them in order, drawing chalk on the ground in a specific design the book had described. She pulled out her paper and read the lines quietly.

The wind whipped inside the room, the candles flickering as she spoke. She closed her eyes, her mind racing with ideas as to what was to come. She was terrified, yet so excited to see what would happen. She finished speaking and held her breath, waiting for a demon, or some supernatural being to respond to her call.
 
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How long had he been trapped here?

Nomdesedaran had never been one to really bother with measuring time. It was so irrelevant to him most of the time, except for keeping track of things in the human world. And even that was only ever a mild form of entertainment. But, when there was nothing else to do, time was the only thing about which he could think. How long was he going to have to be here before the fail-safe he had put in finally activated?

Nome hated being bored. The only thing that bothered him more was being tied into something. Now he was here, trapped and bored. There was no greater hell.

It would have to happen soon. It just had to. The human world had changed a lot over the years. As things had become driven more and more by technology, people longed to turn back to their old mythologies. Dreams of magic haunted every young person in the world. One of them would have to find the book he had planted with such great care, and decide that there was no harm in performing the spell to summon him.

All things considered, they could do much worse than summoning him. Nome had no real interest in messing with humans. There were far more interesting things to do in his own world, where things were not limited to the restrictions of matter. All he wanted to do was get out of this trap he had been put into.

It was supposed to be an eternal trap, but nothing could hold one who was summoned. As soon as he had realized that Zesesarihan was hunting him, determined to keep him forever trapped, he had planted the book. All he had to do was wait. Someone would summon him eventually. He would make the deal, and then, when he was returned to his own world, he would have a little bit longer to figure out how exactly he could get himself out of this mess.

All he could do in the meantime was drive himself mad with speculation.

Nome knew the moment the summoning began. He could feel it throughout his essence. Someone had set up the ritual, and was speaking the words.

Aese vegressi sum es thikropia frocherg ileque, edrimye Nomdesedaran.

How he hated Americans. They couldn't speak worth a damn, so their blocky language removed all of the elegance from the incantation. Luckily, pronunciation was irrelevant. He was going, going, going. Gone.

The energy dome that kept him trapped even dared to try and hold him in place for a moment, but the instant it became clear that the dome was not going to release him it was shattered by the energy that whisked him away to the material world. A giddy feeling rose up within Nome. Zesari truly had constructed a wonderful thing. It must have taken her a very long time. Now she was going to have to rebuild before she could entrap him again. What a wonderful coincidence. She really should have known better, though. As though any trap would hold Nome forever.

She certainly wasn't the prettiest human he had ever seen, but she wasn't the ugliest either. She was thin, with a square face, full lips, and a straight nose. Her brown hair was artistically feathered into a punk cut.

As soon as he fully emerged into the human world, and only the faintest magical tie bonded him to the world of his birth, he could feel the pressures of the world bearing down on him. They demanded he take a form, for nothing in this world could exist for long without a material form.

What form should he take? First impressions were important. They would say a lot about him. He had no desire to scare her, to trick her into making a mistake, unlike many of his brethren throughout human history. He wanted to make her comfortable, and promote this trade quickly.

For that reason, he settled on using a human form. It pulled in around him, until he found a skin with which he would be comfortable for a time.

He was tall, fit and striking, with tawny eyes and dark hair. His skin was richly tanned to a warm bronze. His clothes were loose-fitting and informal, with a white t-shirt, blue jeans and tennis shoes. And he was gorgeous. He knew it, and he knew that his exotic beauty might offset his goal to make her comfortable, but Nome could not help it. He was a showoff. Always had been, always would be.

"It has been a long time since my name has been spoken on this plane," he said, every word carefully articulated in a rich tenor. "Why have you called me?"
 
Dev slowly stood up, watching the being unfold in front of her. She felt her pulse begin to race and her hands begin to sweat. She stood still as he talked, taking in his appearance. She didn't expect him to be so handsome looking. Her cheeks blushed when he spoke to her. His voice like velvet in the quiet space. The electric pulse of magic and supernatural still filtered through the lighthouse.

"I... I need something from you." She fidgeted with her fingers, not knowing what to do or say. "Um.." She looked back up at him, meeting his eyes. "I originally was looking to make a sort of barter, a commitment. I wanted something else but now that I am here I realize that I need something else." The pace of her words quickened. She took a deep breath, looking down.

"I am looking for someone who will love me. Love me forever. Someone who will come when I need them." She looked back up at him, running a hand through her hair nervously. "Is that a trade that you would be willing to make? What would you need to make it happen?" She was scared for this part. She wasn't sure what he would ask for in return for this favor. The commitment, pact, would be one that would live on forever.

She looked down at the candles on the floor, one of them leaking wax. Shit. She thought. She would have to clean that up, make sure that nobody could trace any of this back to her. She looked back up, meeting his gaze again. Each time their eyes met she felt her chest heave. She felt her blood begin to boil. Hopefully he would say yes to this offer, even though she wasn't sure what to offer.
 
To the bitter end, it would seem, his words would always fail to establish even a modicum of certainty. When he had slipped partially into the material world in order to carefully add his summoning spell into a few books he had been remarkably pleased with his effort. He should have known better. It seemed that writing in even remotely archaic terms prevented humans from understanding what was happening. However, had he written it in plain, modern English, no one, not even someone as desperate as her, would have considered it worth attempting.

He should give her a little bit of credit. At least she seemed to have partially grasped the fact that a contract with him required a trade. But she did not seem to have grasped that it was each of them giving something, not each of them receiving something. The trade was complete when each of them considered what they were giving to be equal in worth to what the other person was giving.

"I cannot make someone fall in love with you," he finally replied, once he was certain that his irritation was in check. "This is a bargain between the two of us, and can only relate to the the things the two of us are able to give. Someone else's emotions are beyond my control.

"It is also a trade of one to one. Loving you and coming when you need are two very different things. You only get to pick one thing, and it has to be something I can give."

Love? He had never heard of such a ridiculous thing. It had been a long time since anyone had formed a contract with a human, long enough that Nome could no longer remember whether it was Eduric, who made a deal and wound up bringing a piece of matter back home, only to implode so as to restore the balance, or Gaserin, who brought back wisdom, and went on to rule over nearly a quarter of the world before someone got fed up with his antics and trapped him eternally in one of those bubbles in which Zesari had tried to trap him. As far as Nome knew, Gaserin was still there. But both of them had traded physical things with the humans. Eduric's human had asked for a giant castle, and riches enough to buy himself a private army. Gaserin's human had asked for a magic sword that would allow him to defeat anyone who challenged him. Both of them had wanted power. Money. Control.

But love? What a foolish notion. Love was nothing but pain.

All the same, he saw a spark in this, something that just might be the answer to everything he needed. She wanted someone who would come whenever she needed? Nome would be willing to do that. A human life was not that long, and so long as she kept calling him back to the mortal realm Zesari could never trap him. It would drive her mental, and before long Nome would find a way to use that to his advantage, and get out of this sticky situation. But would she really be foolish enough to try and keep something that her culture had dubbed a demon by her side?

... Perhaps he would simply have to be charming enough to convince her.
 
She stepped closer, squinting slightly as she looked at him. "So you are willing to love someone then?" She raised an eyebrow. "Interesting." She muttered before walking around him slowly. The more she was with him the more she seemed safe, comfortable. This probably wasn't a good thing but it made her not want to crawl into a corner and cower like it had when she first saw him. She stopped her walking, looking up him once.

"I suppose love then. If someone was in love with someone else, they would naturally come when they were needed." She crossed her arms, thinking highly of herself for figuring out a way for herself to get both items. "Does that sound like something you are willing to trade for? And I suppose that would mean in turn I would love you as well?" She questioned, biting the inside of her cheek. She still didn't quite understand all of this. She just wanted someone who would never leave her like everyone else did.

Like her father, her sisters and even her friends. All she had was her mother, but each day her mother grew older. She wouldn't live as long as Dev. She needed someone to be with her once her mother had passed, to help her through her mother's passing. She tried to refocus on the situation at hand, the intense stillness in the lighthouse was making her feel uncomfortable. She looked at the being again. "Should we start somewhere simpler? Giving each other our names?" She finally questioned. She held out her hand and gave him a weak smile.

"Dev."
 
"Naturally," Nome replied, the sarcasm dripping from his voice. Perhaps he should make the deal, just to torment the little fool. Nome knew of love, but he also knew that there was no love in the world that could exceed his love for himself. As soon as the deal was over he would be gone, back to his own realm to try and deal with Zesari in any way he knew how. She would be outraged that he had escaped the inescapable, and her rage might make her far more maleable than usual.

At least she would gain something from the deal. She would learn that love was never what it was cracked up to be, and that it was certainly not a deep and mystical bond. Maybe next time she struck a deal she would have the good, common sense to go for something tangible and beneficial to herself.

But she continued to talk, and Nome found that he couldn't quite bring himself to agree to the deal, and leave her to her torment. Whether he liked it or not, this human girl had saved him from the worst possible fate he could imagine. Sure, it had been his plan, but she had been the one to actually bring it to completion. He might as well try and let her down a little bit more gently than was normally his wont.

"You already know my name," he rebuked gently. "You used it to summon me. And it is not something that should be bandied about. Names have power. By knowing your name, a part of your being now belongs to me.

"I also," he continued, his voice forcibly gentle. There was no reason for her to know how little he truly cared. "cannot honestly trade you my love. While it could be given, there are bonds to my home-world that are stronger than any emotion I could ever feel. I would love you, but I would still have to leave. And the love would quickly fade without a spark to rekindle it."

Another lie, among the many lies that filled his repertoire. But she would never know that, either.

Come on, foolish girl, he scolded silently Make me come to you through the deal. I would trade the length of your lifetime gladly to know that Zesari has no way to trap me.
 
"Fine." She grumbled slightly. "Then I want you to come to me, whenever and wherever I call you. Whether it be for something foolish, or something serious. Deal?" She questioned, her hand still out for him to shake hands with her. Something about this felt wrong but she couldn't think of anything else. She needed someone who wouldn't leave her. By this deal he would be forced to stay with her, not at all times but at least when she needed someone most.

"Do we have a deal, Nomdesedaran?" She spoke his name, giving no regard to his caution about it. "And how exactly am I supposed to call you?" She whispered, knowing that he was already going to take the deal. She wished this would be over, something would change in her life. Something deep down in the pit of her stomach soon made her feel that it wouldn't happen that way.

A light, off the right side of the lighthouse caught her eye. The small flashlight waved lazily back and forth as someone walked along the beach. She hoped that they were just there to look at the view and it wasn't her mother looking for her. She focused her eyes back on the being in front of her. She still didn't even know what to call him, let alone what she was doing. Was this the wrong decision? Was she making a foolish mistake?
 
If nothing else, she was persistent. Nome had never been able to understand people who folded underneath the pressures of others. At the same time, she was infuriating him. It was as though she hadn't even begun to think about what she was going to say, as if, as soon as she had found the ritual, she had went for it. Now she was trying to make it up as she went along, and was failing because of that. Perhaps he had best blame her youth, but he was starting to wonder at whether or not he should even make a deal with her.

But the threat of imprisonment at the hands of Zesari was still too great for him to ignore. She was cunning, and would certainly be waiting for him to return to his own world the moment the conjuring came to an end. She wouldn't have a permanent entrapment, but she would certainly have one that could stall him long enough for her to get another one.

He had other summoning spells out there, but the chance of one being used so quickly again was slim to none. The fact that he was here right now was due to nothing but dumb luck. He couldn't pass up another chance. That meant, whether he liked it or not, he had to deal with the foolish human girl. Dev. If he was going to have to deal with her for her lifetime, he might as well get into the habit of being polite to her.

"You still have yet to tell me what you will be giving in return," he replied, a trace of irritation entering into his honey-sweet voice. "So, no. No deal. Not yet."
 
"Didn't I mention I would give you love, pretty much be yours forever?" She questioned, thinking back about their conversation. "So you come whenever I need you and in return you get love." She bit the inside of her cheek, hoping that that sounded decent to him. She didn't really have much else to give. She wasn't spectacular at anything and she was't the prettiest thing to ever set foot on the ground. She didn't have many friends or enemies for that matter. That was why she called him in the first place, hoping that he could help with her situation.

"It would bind me to you. Plus then I can call you whenever I need. I think it sounds like a win win." She made a half attempt at a smile. This deal was going sour and she didn't know what else to do to spruce it up. That was the only thing she could give. She set her jaw and met his eyes again, waiting. She slowly counted in her head until he had reached a decision. She told herself that if she got to 25 she would drop the whole thing, send him back to wherever he was from.

Forever. Shoot, did I say forever? But she would die one day and he would be lifted from this. She bit the inside of her cheek again, realizing slowly that maybe this wasn't the best choice. She could wait, find something else. Perhaps after school she would be happier and not need him? She needed him now though, she needed someone until that time. Plus, she could just stop calling him once that time happened. It would only be temporary, or at least that was what she was telling herself.
 
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If Nome had been born into a mortal body, he wouldn't have been able to prevent a gape from forming on his lips. Love? Yes, she had briefly mentioned it, but Nome had not taken it seriously. Under any other circumstances he would not have even considered it, love, after all, was a worthless concept, and therefore certainly not worth his own precious time, but there was an added incentive within him for him to take the deal, the one thing that had driven him to even start this deal in the first place. Capture.

Besides, he mused quietly, seeing on her face that she wasn't going to let this go on much longer, having her love him could be a useful thing. He had seen humans do some truly ridiculous things for the ephemeral concept of "love," and having that as a weapon against her could prove useful. A human life was not that long of a time, and he truly did owe her something. Perhaps he would even try out being a good lover. If nothing else, it would be interesting to see just how far he could tug her heartstrings.

Briefly he considered having them both rephrase exactly what they were giving, make the terms clear for the sake of the bargain, but he was easily able to see that he had pushed her just about as far as was possible. Mortals could never take any sort of abuse. He would have to be content with the rather vague terms that had already been laid down.

"Very well," he said quietly. "The terms of the deal have been set, and I accept." Immediately a light enveloped the spell circle that contained him, erasing the lines. At the same time, Nome felt a sensation he had never before experienced, a bonding that would not relinquish him. He knew where Dev was, could feel it to the very core of his being. Even if he left her presence, he would still know exactly where she was.

The spell circle was broken, and now he could feel the connection to his own world strongly again. He could leave whenever he pleased. But he knew if he left now Zesari would get him, and when Dev called him back his one advantage would be revealed. He would stay. For now.

"Come on," he said gently, stretching out a hand to her. "Lets get all this cleaned up, and you out of the cold."
 
She felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. She looked at him hesitantly, confused at why he had even taken the deal in the first place. She hadn't given him anything worth while. She looked at his hand, still confused at what exactly just happened. Instead of taking his hand she scooped up her bag and began piling the things back into it. She creaked open a side window of the lighthouse and poured the candle wax outside so she could safely put the candles back into her bag.

She finished and threw the bag over her shoulder, looking over at him. "Are you going to disappear now? Or..." She trailed off, still feeling odd. She could get used to him though, a small piece of her chest felt different. It couldn't have been her heart but she wished deeply that it was. Something was different, the air felt warmer even though she was up in the lighthouse.

Maybe this was for the best. "I have to get home now." She whispered, going down the ladder, stairs and entering onto the ground. She turned around, looking for him briefly before beginning to walk back home.
 
He let her go without a word, even though he fully intended to remain on the material world for a while. At this point he could have begun to antagonize her once more, she no longer had the threat of refusing to complete the deal in her hand, but Nome saw no true purpose in the action. She would love him for the rest of her life, and she could not change that now, but hatred and love often danced together. There was no need for him to push her away just yet.

"Very well," he said quietly to her retreating back. His form shivered and shrunk, until a coal-black raven was sitting on the floor where the spell circle used to be. The bird tilted its head to the side, before fluttering up to the window and flying away. But it did not go far. Nome came to rest on the roof, talons clicking gently against the roof, his dark form almost completely hidden by the night sky. This was in part to watch Dev leave, but was more so that he could take a moment to contemplate his new reality.

As long as he maintained a constant material form, his own world could barely touching. When he changed, there was more of a pull, but the fact that his deal with Dev would not be "complete" until she died meant that he would not return unless he wanted to go back, or something pulled him back. It was entirely possible that he could still, albeit very briefly, enter into his fully ethereal form in the material world without being sucked away, as that would be the quickest way to reach Dev should she feel she needed him.

Nome's feathers puffed up slightly, and he shifted from foot to foot. Material forms were such a pain. But such were the faults of this reality.

Dev was getting further away. Making his decision quickly, Nome took to the air, his wings pumping strongly. He caught up to her quickly, and began to silently circle far above her head.
 
Dev felt the odd feeling of someone watching her and quickly turned around. Seeing nothing she continued walking. The feeling still clung to the air and she looked up, spotting a bird. "So you are a bird now?" She called out, not even thinking about the time. "How convenient." She muttered, digging in the side pocket of her bag. She pulled out her cell phone and checked the time.

"Damnit." She whispered, her pace quickening. It was much later than she had thought it would be. Had it really been an hour and a half dealing with... what was she to call him again? She shook the thought. Her house was a few blocks away. A bar, grocery store and gas station stood between the lighthouse and her house. Leaving the lighthouse the trees thinned out and more houses dotted the street.

She pulled her hoodie up, covering her face. She slouched slightly, trying to make herself invisible. As she walked past the bar she heard whoops and calls. Her heart beat quicker and she moved faster, trying to get away from the calls of older men. She could feel herself begin to freak out but soon the noises of the men wore off and she was in the clear.

She peeked up to see if the bird was still there but she didn't notice him. Shrugging she went into the gas station. Walking around and catching her breath. Once she regained a normal pulse she grabbed a soda and paid. Going back onto the road she popped the top and gulped down most of it. This made her walk back home easier. Once she reached her house she stopped, turning around.

"So um... This is my house... you can come in if you want." She muttered. "I'll leave the window open." She whispered before ducking into her house. She went into her room, looking at her mom's closed bedroom door. She went into her own bedroom and plopped down on the bed, laying down and looking at the ceiling.

"What the hell just happened?" She whispered.
 
Nome followed the girl on high all the way to her home, as much so that he could know where it was and what surrounded it, as because he actually cared about her well-being. he had peered sporadically into the human world over the past twenty years, and it had somehow always managed to astonish him how quickly the entire human world could accomplish a complete overhaul of everything they had once known. This was almost the exact opposite of Nome's own world, which remained mostly the same. There were great ages that had come and passed, changes in leaders and rules, but they took thousands of years to accomplish. In a world populated by creatures that could not die there was no hurry to create change unless there was something that greatly needed change. Change for change's sake did not exist.

But the short pace of human lives did not allow for such a thing to be true. Everyone wanted their lives to be perfect, and they had only a brief stretch of time in which to try and find that perfection. It was for that very reason that Dev had rushed into the deal with him, not wondering what it would mean. Nome did not mind, as he had set up this situation some time ago, but if he had not he would have gladly taken advantage of her ignorance to create a deal that was ultimately more beneficial to him. Horror stories of humans who had been tricked by "demons" ran throughout human history, and almost all of them were based in deals that had gone wrong with his own people.

Dev made it home safely, but Nome chose to ignore her quietly whispered invitation. He had no desire to watch her sleep, and he would not need an open window to enter into her house should he wish to enter. Instead he turned aside, heavy black wings beating against the still night air, until he rose far, far above the city, much higher than any normal raven could fly. To the west the lights of countless cities broke through the darkness, even this late in the night, but to the east it was perfectly dark, as though someone had drawn a line in the lights to prevent them from spreading any farther. The ocean rolled onwards.

Father above him still, the great roar of an airplane jostled him from his musings. He shook himself mentally, before gliding lower once more. Tonight he would be cautious in his explorations of the human world, and keep himself to an entirely material form. Zesari would have certainly discovered his escape by now, and she would know that the only way he could have gotten out was to be summoned. She would be scouring the earth form him at this moment, looking for the faintest tremors of energy that would reveal a being that did not truly belong on this plane. When she did find him, she would wait until he released his material form and became closer to a being of energy, before grabbing him and forcably hauling him back to their world. And, for now, Nome wanted to do everything in his power to avoid that.

Of course, it was inevitable that she would get him at some point, and when that came to pass he would have to rely on this single human's selfish needs to get him out of entrapment once more. It disgusted him, this reliance on another, but there were times when even he could not do everything on his own. He would have to rely upon the consciousness which bound these two equal but opposite universes together, and which made sure that a deal struck could never be broken. And that meant he would have to rely on a human. So be it.

Tonight he would familiarize himself with the city from the eyes of a bird. Tomorrow he would come to learn what exactly Dev was expecting from this bonding of theirs. After that... well, he would see what was to come.
 
Dev soon fell into a fitful sleep. Her dreams swirled around her, trying to figure out if what had just happened was real or not. The images in her dreams made her feel uneasy. The feeling of dread, of love, of even security went through her. She wished that this was going to be a right decision but perhaps it was?

She found herself in an empty field. All she could see was bright blue sky, long grass beneath her feet. She ran, trying to get away from this place but nothing helped. She was trapped in some odd place. She stopped and slid down to her knees, picking at the grass beneath her. A figure appeared, a blurry, black figure that slightly resembled a human. She got up, running toward it. Slowly the figure got closer. It was a human, a male.

"Hello? Why are we here?" She questioned, reaching out for the being. She touched his shoulder and a shock went through her body. She fell back and landed in the soft grass. The image filtered and disappeared. "Why?" She yelled. "Why? Why! Why!"

"Why?" She muttered, slowly coming out of her sleep. She gasped and looked around at her room, taking deep breaths. "God, what a friggen nightmare." She grumbled and rubbed her eyes. Looking lazily over at her alarm clock she fell back into the bed, pulling the covers up and over her head. "I don't want to get up. Ever." She groaned. After a few minutes she finally got up and began her day.

She did all the normal things of waking up, taking a shower, brushing her teeth and so on. Throwing her hair up and pulling on jeans and a sweatshirt she grabbed her bag and went out the door.
 
Classes rolled on and she felt herself wishing she had someone to talk to. She looked out the window, hoping to see the bird there but there was none. She hung her head and began writing notes. English, one of her favorite classes. They were reading Romeo and Juliet, which she had read thousands of times. It was so boring yet every English teacher had to teach it.

She began scribbling her own notes, notes about what had happened the day before and what she wished would happen. The teacher smiled and waved his hands as it was the end of class. She grabbed her things and went for the door.

"Dev, can I talk to you?" He questioned, grabbing her arm and pulling her to the side. She awkwardly moved her bag on her shoulder and looked at him. Once the rest of the class had left he gave her a small smile. "You copied your report from Bridget. I should flunk you for the class. You need to rewrite it."

"What? I didn't copy! She must have copied me! I worked on that forever!" Anger flustered inside her, her cheeks began to turn red. "Why don't you ever believe me?"

"She turned hers in first, I can only imagine that she did it first. This isn't the first time this has happened, Dev. You really need to get new material." He slammed her report on the desk. "Get me a new report in two days or I will flunk you from this course.

"Fuck you." She muttered and stormed from the room. She went outside, trying to hold in her emotions.

The college she was currently attending was a small college, it only had 50 degrees one could graduate with. She was going for Art History but always felt that she should go for something else. She worked hard on her classes yet people were stealing her work, turning it in as theirs. This had happened before and she knew that she would have to figure something out to stop it. She walked from the bigger building to the field that lay in between the two smaller buildings. It was an old rundown playground with only a set of swings left on it. She plopped her bag down and sat in the swing, pumping furiously until she was high in the sky.

Her emotions twirled inside of her. Anger, hurt, everything that she was thinking mixed into one. She soon found herself speaking his name, calling him to come to her.

"Nomdesedaran."
 
Last Night, darkblue
Nome had to fly high into the sky before he was able to determine to where exactly he had been drawn. The coastline continued to unfurl beneath him, the lights of the city clinging to the coast before fading away into a scattered luminescence. Although there was noone there to see it this late in the night, Nome's eyes began to glow faintly, and slowly details began to emerge from the dark. As he flew higher, the shape of the coast line began to look familiar.

It took him a few more thousand feet before he was able to recognize the coastline of Maine. The geography of the material world had never been one of his interests, but occasionally he had entertained himself by playing games with others in relation to geography. The barrier between his world and the material world grew more hazy as the elevation continued to rise. He could feel his world tugging at his feathers, longing to dissolve them and draw him back into his own world. For a moment he felt a brief stab of pain, a desperate desire to oblige its request. But instead the bird tucked in its wings and plummeted from the sky faster than seemed possible. He could not answer its Siren's Song yet. Maybe soon.


He felt her call inside his very essence. It was as though the world tilted in her direction, and no matter what he tried to do he had to fall until he answered its call. There was no resisting it.

For a moment Nome felt a brief burst of fear. He knew that the bonds of a contract were an unbreakable force, but he had not truly understood what that meant until that moment. It was almost a feeling of powerlessness. His material form melted away, and he was for one moment pure energy, traveling through the world in a way it was impossible for anything material to comprehend. The pull of his own world was so strong that for one moment Nome thought he would be drawn back, that he had somehow escaped the bonds of the contract, but the pull of Dev was far, far stronger. He was ripped away, drawn unavoidably to her side.

Nome had just long enough to decide what he was going to do before the pull of her call ceased, and he was forced t once more inhabit a material body. He took a glimpse at her, reminded himself of the situation and the debt he had to her about which she could possibly know, and made a decision.

Nome might be a free spirit, but he was not a traitor or a bastard. She wanted love, someone who came willingly and joyfully to her side. He could honor their deal far more than he was required to.

The tawny-eyed man materialized at her side, as politely as possible. She may still flinch, but at least she wouldn't freak out. "Yes?"
 
She looked over at him, anger seething on her face. She didn't even know quite why she called him. Perhaps she wanted to talk with him, perhaps she just wanted someone to listen to her. Her eyes dropped and she looked at the ground beneath her.

"I just... " She was at a loss for words. The wind whipped around them and she wished she could just run away. She wanted to go home but she had another class soon. Talking with him might make her emotions dissolve within her. "I'm just having a really bad day." She whispered before looking up at him again. "What did you do last night?" She asked, trying to change the subject. Who wanted to hear about her terrible day anyway?

She pulled out her notebook from her tattered black bag. She pulled the pen out from the spiral binding and began to scribble things down, waiting for his response. Soon the cold wind whipped around her harder, making her writing seem to flow from her quicker. Soon her essay was finished and she shoved the notebook back into her bag, reminding herself to turn it in before that stupid girl ruined her essay again.

She looked back up at Nome, wondering about his past and what he was. She thought it rude to say anything but wished that he would tell her. He probably wouldn't simply because he still didn't want anything to do with her, right? She shook the thought and tucked her hair behind her ear.
 
"I flew, mostly," he replied, following her whim naturally, and putting his hands deep into the pockets of the duster coat he wore now. It wasn't cold to him, temperature had hardly any relevance to him, but he had seen the humans bundle up that morning, and most of them now still wore long sleeves and sweaters. He would look out of place with nothing but a t-shirt. "I didn't know where I was, so I had to go find out." They sat down on a metal park bench as Dev began to write on a piece of paper. For a moment Nome remained silent, but he saw the way her writing changed when he stopped talking. Not particularly desiring to prolong this encounter at the moment, it was still going to take him a lot of time to get used to the new duties placed on him, as well as the pressures of the material plane itself, he quickly began talking again.

For the most part, his words were just general pleasantries. He talked about his impressions of the water and the weather, of the people who went by, and the material world as a whole. His words and sentences flowed together smoothly, almost lyrically, so it was very easy to focus on how he was saying, rather than what he was saying. After all, Nome's impressions of this world were about as far from typical as it was possible to get. As a being used to nothing but pure energy, he picked up on things humans did that seemed perfectly normal to them, but were very unusual to him. Facial expressions was a big one, as was the obsession with eating.

As Nome talked, many oft he people walking by cast surprised looks in his direction. He could understand their confusion. He was still almost heart-stoppingly gorgeous, and boys like that didn't escape attention. By the end of the night, it was very possible that rumors of him would have spread from dorm room to dorm room, all across the campus. People were going to ask questions, and he was going to have to make sure that there were some answers. Already a plan was starting to form in his mind. Campus was clearly going to be a running theme with Dev, so he might as well make sure that being on campus would not be a strange place for him to be.

Unfortunately, he knew almost nothing about college life. He would need to find some way to make a plan that was believable and realistic, and, most importantly, could be accomplished before the end of the night.

"Feeling better?"
 
"Yeah, actually." She turned and met his gaze. "Thank you." She looked quickly at her watch and grumbled. "I have to get going, next class. I am sure they are going to ask me about you." She sighed. She had noticed the people watching them too. What would she say? Why would she have been sitting with a guy as gorgeous as him? She would just shrug the questions off, she decided.

"I will see you later, maybe?" She questioned. She got up and slung the bag over her shoulder before slumping off back to campus. She sat down in the back of her next class, Creative Writing. At least this class her and her teacher knew each other. This teacher never thought that she had cheated. She smiled at Ms McLay an pulled her notebook out, making sure that the essay was still there before looking up at the whiteboard.

Class finished quickly. She had an essay about a supernatural being she had to write. Ironic, she thought. She knew that Nome wouldn't tell her anything and figure she would just have to look up something. She pulled her bag over her shoulder but Ms McLay stopped her, pulling her aside.

"So, rumors already. Who is he?" She smiled. Ms McLay was around Dev's age, a few years older but they got along quite well. She sometimes acted like a college kid, getting into all the know how and rumors. She was slightly taller than Dev, raven black hair that fell around her shoulders and dark brown eyes.

"Who is who?" Dev began walking and Ms McLay followed her, a stack of papers in her hand.

"That guy you were with! People are telling me all about him." She snickered. Dev shook her head and continued walking.

"A guy, I can't meet a guy? Geez." Dev whispered.

"Well I mean if you don't want him, I will take him." Ms McLay giggled.

"Bye." Dev laughed and took off down the hall. She left the campus and made her way to her house. Fall was coming quickly and soon it would be winter. She despised winter with every fiber in her being. Winter made her want to move, to leave and go to Hawaii or something with no snow. Soon she was home, throwing her bag into her room and sitting down at her computer. The essay nagged in her brain and she just wished she could talk to Nome.

"So..." She said out loud. "I can only assume you can hear me. I know you probably hate that I did this to you and you wish you could back out cause I am so needy, but if you ever want to talk you can talk to me." She sighed and looked at the computer screen, the blank internet page on her monitor. "But I think you should talk to me, tell me about yourself."
 
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