There he was. Seth Halkias stood in the doorway surveying the membership of the Occult’s Addict. His near-black hair was falling into his eyes and brushing his white cheek. Juliet could not believe her good luck as she stood, hypnotized by him. She could hardly focus, but she wanted to remember everything: the brown khaki pants, the layers of gray and green T-shirts, the red rose in his hand.  He was holding a red rose? Who was that for?

Juliet nearly screamed as his sherry colored eyes settled on her and focused on her green sweater. Then he walked up to her with steady, even strides and extended the rose to her.  

Then, it clicked. Was it possible that Seth Halkias was ReadyEyes808?  

“Hi,” he said easily. “Thanks for agreeing to meet me, though we’ve met before. Your name’s Juliet, right?”

Juliet took the rose and touched its petals with her fingertips. She gulped nervously before responding. “Thank you. Yes, I’m Juliet. I remember you walked me home last week. You’re Seth, the director of Safewalk. So, that explains why you’re allowed to instant message and play video games when you’re at work.”

“Basically.” Seth laughed. “See? I told you. It’s very respectable.”

“Very.”

He put his hands in his pockets, completely ignoring everyone else in the room, even though they were all staring at him. Then a half-smile played upon his lips in self-ridicule. “Yeah, if I’d known Pearl Moon was going to be you, I would not have got you a red rose.”

“Why not?” she asked, slightly affronted.

He smiled weakly before locking eyes with her and saying unabashedly, “I would have gotten you a bouquet of white lilies. Red isn’t really for you.”

“Aren’t lilies for funerals?” Fiona said, interrupting their exchange and making her presence known.

Seth turned his head slightly toward her, “Depends on your culture, doesn’t it? For some of us, they symbolize youth and beauty.” His voice was smooth and completely unruffled by Fiona’s challenge.

“You know about that sort of thing?” Fiona gushed, changing her tune. “You really belong with us tonight. We’re discussing plants and their medicinal properties. Please join us.”

“That was the plan all along,” he said, putting his hand in the small of Juliet’s back and guiding her toward the knot of members in the center of the greenhouse.

Everyone sat together on the floor in a circle on straw mats that the three witches had brought. The witches provided the food. The menu, though small, was delicious. They served mango and pomegranate on large green leaves. When the mango slices reached Seth, Rylan perked up. Juliet knew he was watching carefully to see if Seth would eat the fruit. He wanted to see if he was really a vampire.

Seth declined, saying, “Sorry, I gag on mango.” But he willingly accepted the pomegranate which was served scored and still attached to the rind. He broke off and ate the kernels expertly. Juliet had never seen anyone eat anything so beautifully. There was one moment when a drop of red juice dripped down the side of his chin.

Juliet stared.

“Is there something on my face?” Seth asked, smiling broadly. So broadly in fact that the corners of his mouth spread like a curtain to unveil two very sharp-looking canines.  

“Blood,” Juliet mumbled, completely mesmerized by the red on the powder-white of his flesh.

“What did you say?” Seth asked, leaning forward.

Juliet pulled herself together and said, “You’ve got a little juice on your chin.”

“Really? How crass!” He pulled a handkerchief from one of his cargo pockets and wiped his face. 

But Juliet couldn’t get the vision of his fangs and the red dribble, like blood, out of her mind. Her rational self told her that he probably wasn’t a vampire, especially since he ate fruit with enjoyment, but for the romantic appeal of that picture, he might as well have been. 

The group talked about the different plants in the greenhouse, but Juliet couldn’t focus on their conversation. She saw only Seth. When she wasn’t looking at him, she felt his eyes on her, but she had to push that idea out of her head. There was no way he could be interested in her. He was clearly completely out of her league.

By the end of the meeting, Fiona was working hard to recruit him. She explained how Blanche, Cerise, and Tawnee were witches, and then she told him about her and Halona’s psychic powers. He didn’t look at all surprised or doubtful of the truth of her words, but when she explained about Taylor and Rylan being conjoined twins, he gave a disgusted sigh.

“They’re lying,” he said scornfully.

“Beg your pardon,” Taylor said, popping her head around Tawnee’s back. “What did you just say?”

“You’re lying,” he said without apology, looking directly into her eyes.

Fiona was a little confused at his hostility and shifted her position to back-up Taylor and Rylan. “They have the scars from when they were separated. Do you want to see them? You’re probably just thinking that conjoined twins have to be the same gender. I should warn you, one of them is cross-dressing. It’s a game they like to play.”

Seth didn’t look one iota impressed or deterred. “No. They are lying. Taylor is a woman and that,” he said, pointing to Rylan, “Is male.”

“Prove it,” Halona challenged.  

Seth gave her a funny look like he couldn’t believe what she was requesting.

“Without stripping them,” she amended after an awkward moment passed. “Explain why you think they’re lying.”

Seth took a deep breath and began. “I admit that both Taylor and Rylan each have a sort of androgynous quality to them. Rylan doesn’t have facial hair and Taylor isn’t curvy, however, there’s a lot about them to prove they’re not faking their genders.” He lifted his hands and started counting his reasons on his fingers. “If they were conjoined twins they would need to be identical. They’re not. I know a lot of identical twins don’t look exactly alike even though they’re supposed to, but Taylor and Rylan have too many differences in their features. Rylan’s mouth is wider; his earlobes are detached while hers are attached. Most obvious of all, they have different eye colors.”

“He’s wearing contacts,” Halona countered.

“No, he isn’t,” Seth contradicted. “His eyes are red. Ask him to take out his contacts.”

Everyone’s attention switched to Rylan. He was stretched out on one of the mats, flipping through a book of photographs.

A muscle around his mouth twitched while everyone waited for his response. “Since it doesn’t constitute dropping my pants, I’ll do it once he’s finished. I want to hear the rest.”

Seth shrugged his shoulders and said, “You want me to go on? The rest might be too embarrassing.”

“Yes,” Rylan said confidently. “Finish.”

“Fine,” Seth said, continuing. “Taylor can’t be pretending to be a girl. She has to be a real one. She turned bright pink when I came in.”

“What does that prove?” Taylor squeaked, blushing furiously.

“A guy pretending to be a girl would never be able to turn that color. At least, his cheeks wouldn’t. If you were a guy your ears would have turned pink while your face would have stayed white as a sheet. Like Rylan here, who had a reaction to my entrance, but not like yours.”

“Are you saying I’m attracted to you?” Taylor flared.

“Are you saying you’re not?”

She bit her lip. “Yeah.”

“I realize I’m teasing you publicly and you don’t like it, but your sweet brother did ask me to continue. So, with that said, what about me is unattractive—besides the way I’m speaking right now?”

Taylor’s head drooped. “Nothing, I guess.”

“Thanks,” Seth said nicely.

“And what was Rylan’s reaction to your entrance?” Fiona asked, making sure she was still part of the conversation.

“He took one look at me and turned his back. He doesn’t like me. It’s just my hypothesis, but he seems to think I’m up to something.”

“Are you?” Fiona questioned with her eyebrows in the air.

“Not really. I came here to meet my favorite blogger and have a look at her student group. That’s about it.”

“Are you going to join our club?” Tawnee asked shyly, flicking her long blonde hair with her fingers.

The entire group perked up at Tawnee’s question and the challenge for Rylan to take out his contact lenses was completely forgotten.  

Seth smiled at her and shook his head. “I can’t. I’m the director of Safewalk. I can’t join a club that meets every Friday night at midnight. I have work to do. I skipped out tonight and that’s fine, but I can’t miss work all the time.”

“Ah, that’s too bad,” Tawnee moaned, real disappointment flashing through her eyes.

“And I really should be ducking out now. I have to stop by the office. Juliet?” he asked, turning toward her. “Can I walk you back to your dorms now, or were you planning on staying here longer?”

“No. Please walk me. We haven’t had much time to talk.”

“That’s true,” Seth agreed as he got to his feet. Then he spoke specifically to Fiona, “Thanks so much for letting me visit, and thanks for the pomegranate. It was delicious.”

“Our pleasure,” Fiona said.  

Juliet picked up her jacket and followed Seth.  

“Juliet!” Rylan suddenly interrupted. “Are you really going to leave now? I was going to show you my photo album. Remember?”

Juliet shifted her eyes around the room as if she was looking for a way out, or at the very least, a polite way to refuse Rylan, but no plausible excuse came to mind.

After she had stalled about ten seconds, Rylan gave a disgusted sigh. “Never mind,” he said briskly. “If you get bored and decide you’re interested in my pictures, come by the clubroom this week.” Then he turned away from her.

Juliet felt awkward holding her coat and staring at Rylan’s contorted shoulder blades when Seth abruptly took her coat from her and helped her put it on. He helped her with each arm and then he rested his hands briefly on her shoulders before he pulled away. Juliet felt her heart race as Seth stole her attention from Rylan. She was breathless. She had never had a man help her with her coat before. Not only that, but she could hardly remember the last time a guy had done anything to treat her like a lady.

“Good night,” Seth said softly to the crowd before he pushed the glass door open. “After you,” he whispered into Juliet’s ear.

She stepped through the door, but his warm breath close to her ear was doing irrational things to her system. With his breath down the back of her neck, she was getting so hot that she wanted to take her coat off, but she didn’t dare remove it when he had put it on her so carefully. 

Then they were alone in the dark hallway, with only the sound of their footfalls on the tile floor.