Adult-FanFiction.org : Books

The Seven Deadly Sins	By : gypsybaby21 Category: M through R > Night World Series Views: 4196 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Night World series, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
- 3
Chapter Two: Envy
Should I tell her I'm still a frog, that I'm a long way from becoming her prince? Ash thought, biting his lower lip anxiously.
He rolled his eyes and leaned back against his coach, or very tightly cramped, airplane seat. "What a fucking moron," he mumbled to himself as he lifted his hand and ran it through his wheat blonde hair. Could he sound more pathetic?
"Look buddy—" someone growled beside him.
Ash, still staring straight ahead to the seat in front of him, paused and raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
He slowly turned his head to find himself staring at an elderly looking man dressed in a black suit, with thinning brown hair, and a comb over. Ash slowly licked his teeth, dabbing the tip of his tongue against each one of his fangs. His eyes flashed dangerously…it had been a long time since he'd had human blood and any other girl, aside from Mary-Lynnette, was out of the question.
"What did you say?" Ash repeated.
The man cleared his throat and Ash watched as a piece of ashy skin floated onto his black suit. "Young man I said if you're going to spew obscenities at me—"
Ash smirked, shaking his head. Honestly, he hadn't been looking for a fight, but if the occasion calls for it… "First of all old man I wasn't talking to you."
"That's right, make fun of my age you little prick," he spat out angrily.
Aiming his grin towards the ground Ash slowly leaned forward. "If you want to get technical you're the one who first referred to age by calling me 'young man', but I didn't get offended, however you became offended because I did it back. Why is that? Right when you went in to that 'stop making fun of my age' speech, you ended the sentence with 'little prick,'" Ash informed, emphasizing the two 'T' in 'little', "once again 'symbolically' referring to my age."
The man frowned, an interested gleam flashing in his eyes. "So what are you trying to say?"
Ash paused and shook his head as he heard the words 'test' and 'finally I've got a discussion' coming from the old mans' thoughts. "What I'm trying to say is why is it all right for an older person to belittle a younger person's age, but not okay for a younger person to do it to an older person? Sure you're older, but that doesn't mean that you've actually 'lived' all there is to live?" Ash paused. He had started the conversation with anger and plans of obtaining what he'd been longing for, for almost a year. Now, however, he was just curious.
"I suppose it really isn't fair for it to be okay to call a younger person young and not an older person old. You'd never know whom it would anger. It's probably because it's offending that older person. It isn't because I've necessarily 'lived' all there is to live, it's more on the basis of the fact that you have youth. You have what I had. Aging is hard to deal with, one year goes by and then another, I find myself regretting things. Things I should have done, that girl that I should have gone after. A whole bunch of 'should, could, and would' I suppose."
Ash looking confused, frowned. "How is that my fault? And the fact that you were jumping to conclusions—the 'fucking moron' comment was most certainly directed at myself."
The old man shook his head. "It isn't your fault and I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions."
"Bad day?" Ash offered.
He chuckled, and patted his front pocket as if he was searching for something, but it looked more like a gesture of habit. "Bad year!"
Ash was actually relating to a human that wasn't the love of his life…he'd go throw up later. "Tell me about it!"
"You just have more chances, more choices. You don't have to be as careful as an older person does. That older person knows it too. Take my advice to hold back. I know its cliché, but it couldn't be more of a right saying."
In all Ash's years he couldn't remember the last time he'd talked to a man who actually aged. It was only made vampires, a few stray shifters, or lamia who usually stopped aging around the age of twenty-one. "I don't get it."
"One day you will a lot of its envy, regret, maybe even a little bit of pride. Of course, that's just my opinion," the man paused and flashed Ash a smile. "It's good to find that in this day and age that what could be a misunderstanding turns out to being a good old conversation and eye opener."
Ash didn't know what to say. How odd humans were. It was then that the seatbelt light flashed on and the announcement that they were landing pounded in Ash's ears. The old man had managed to temporarily distract him and Ash was suddenly very grateful for this strange looking human sitting beside him.
His stomach churned with nausea and he scooted lower into his seat. "You said you regretted about not going after that girl?"
The old man raised a bushy eyebrow. "Yes?"
Ash sighed heavily, his heart pounding loudly every time the plane went a little lower. "Well I'm kind of going after the girl."
His grin widened and his eyes sparkled. "Good for you."
"I went away, to take care of some business and become different so that I could be with her, to be better for her. We agreed to meet after a year. The years up and I haven't changed. I think I've been scared to admit that. I can't honestly remember the last time I was scared. It's not something I tell people, but you're a random bloke that caught my interest. It could be because I feel guilty about not changing, or because I feel guilty that I did even worse things after I met her. At one point it was like she'd never even existed."
"It's taken a lot of out of you to admit that hasn't it?"
Ash jerked his head up, making eye contact. "Wh-what makes you say that?"
"Everyone has a little something called Pride. It makes it hard to say sorry, hard to admit you're wrong, hard to admit that you supposedly failed. Did she love you?"
Ash stiffened. "What?"
"Did she love you before?"
Ash frowned. "Y-yes, I think so."
The old man nodded. "Okay then. She didn't fall in love with 'that better you'. She fell in love with you. Now, who was the one that suggested meeting again in a year?"
"Kind of both of us."
"Okay, let me ask you this, was she the one that wanted you to change?"
"She told me to look at my life, to see if there were—er certain things that I wanted to give up," Ash paused.
"She wanted you to give up things for her?" The old man looked slightly startled.
"Um-dangerous things."
"Oh—you're not a serial killer are you?" The old man asked, cautiously leaning back.
Ash raised an eyebrow and paused long enough for the man to pull away further. "Not exactly."
The old man nodded, seemingly taking that as a good enough answer. "Anyhow, as I was saying, did she specifically ask for you to change things?"
"No, but I'd have to change them if I wanted to be with her. It would be too dangerous if I didn't."
"Ah," the man nodded. "You made the promises. Let me guess 'I'll slay dragons for you', 'I'll pull the stars out of the sky for you' 'bout right?"
Ash blinked. This guy is good. "Yeah that's about right."
"You want her to be proud of you possibly because you love her, or you love her and you've never had anyone you loved be proud of you. So you thought you needed to change."
"Damn—you're good," Ash said, clucking his tongue on the roof of his mouth. He had almost added in there 'for a human' too.
"Here," the man said, handing him a small rectangular card with silver lettering.
Ash stared at the card. "You Maxwell?"
"That's me."
"And you're a Psychologist?"
Maxwell nodded, giving him a small, sheepish looking grin. "Yes."
Ash sighed as he caught wind of Maxwell's thoughts. "So this conversation started on you trying to test a theory?"
"Very good, but don't let that stop you from talking. If you ever need me, just call that number."
"I don't need a Psychologist," Ash snapped, his ever-changing eyes flashing.
The man raised an eyebrow. "Did I say you needed one?"
"Well-no."
"As an older friend, I'm here to talk," Maxwell smiled gently. "I'm retiring soon, but I'll still be willing to talk to you if you need me too. Thanks for helping me win a thousand dollars too."
Ash shook his head and blinked. He hadn't seen that one coming. "Pardon?"
"I made a tiny bet with some of my 'older' co-workers about teenagers. You passed so don't worry about the details."
"I'm not normal; maybe you should do it on someone else."
Maxwell sighed, while reaching into his pocket. "No, you'll do." He pulled out a pen, clicked it, and began writing.
"What are you writing?"
"A check. For you…one thousand dollars."
"Excuse me?" Ash's eyes widened.
"Use it for whatever you want; it's more a thank you than a prize. I'm just a man merging into his sixties. A man who should have and could have retired ages ago, with a fortune I don't know what to do with and undeserving children. So please take it, it's more like pocket money to me and I can honestly say you've made my trip to Oregon very entertaining," he said, tearing the check out of his booklet and handing it to Ash.
"If you're so rich, why in the hell are you riding coach?"
"I like coach people more than I like first class people, friendlier and less into themselves."
For the first time in over a year Ash laughed. "I'm sure not all of them are like that."
Maxwell smiled. "You say you aren't a very good boy and you were right, your not. I just met you a little over half an hour ago and I've come to the conclusion that you're a good man."
Ash snorted and shook his head, laughing. "Thank you."
"Call me Max."
"Ash-Ash Redfern."
Where is she? Ash thought frantically. Please don't let her have changed her mind. I want to see her. I need to see her.
His eyes hurriedly searched the massive crowds of people. He had been searching for over twenty minutes. He'd gotten off the plane wanting her face to be the first thing he saw, but it hadn't been, and he was beginning to think she didn't want to see him. He'd been searching for over ten minutes.
She had probably forgotten he should have known he wasn't important enough-it was then that he saw her speaking into a cell phone, her cheeks rosy with excited or fearful anticipation, her eyes sparkling, her dark hair curling and cupping around her face.
Hmm, her hair was longer and her body…
God, she's beautiful. Ash thought, shuddering inwardly as he started walking towards her.
Her head was down as she spoke into her silver phone, her petite hand holding to her ear, her body was slightly turned, as if she was actually talking to the person right in front of her.
Who on earth could she be talking too? He found himself wondering.
Rowan.
"What if he doesn't like the way I look? I've changed. It's been a year Rowan. A year! I've gained weight, I grew out my hair."
"You have not gained weight Mary-Lynnette. It's called filling out. I wish I had half of the curves you do. When he sees you he's going to wonder why he left in the first place. Trust me. You wore that dress I told you to get didn't you, the short black, backless one?"
Obviously she hadn't. Ash chuckled, cocking his head to the side, anticipating her answer.
"Oh-um I chickened out."
"Oh, you didn't Mare! What are you wearing then?"
"Blue jeans and a black cashmere sweater," she chuckled sheepishly.
Rowan sighed heavily, sounding defeated. "Ugh-well you can surprise him later."
Ash smiled down at her when he finally reached her. That short black, backless dress sounded sexy, but even in jeans she was still perfect. "Hey Mare," he spoke softly, restraining himself from reaching a hand out to smooth a stray curl behind her ear.
Ash nearly growled as he heard her heart quicken and her gasp for breath.
"Ro, he's here," she cried out softly, flipping her phone shut, not waiting for a goodbye. She was still slightly turned away from him as she slowly lifted her head up. "Ash," she spoke breathlessly.
To Be Continued…
Why did I decide to make this Envy?
This one could probably be pride as well, but I mainly based the decision on the 'old and young' conversation between Max and Ash—there will be a future reason for the appearance of Max.
- 1
- 2
- 3
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

The Seven Deadly Sins