"For the most part. Chang and Ping are cleaning the old place up for Feng Lu right now."

I know they're not, but I don't say anything. "So the new place is ready for me to see?"

His gaze snaps from the road to me. "You've never seen it?"

"Do you know how many properties my dad owns?" He shakes his head then rambles off the directions. When he's done I ask, "And Juan?"

"He's agreed to live with Rosa. He's actually excited to start school next week."

"I'm jealous. I'd love to live with Rosa."

"You and your dad seem better."

"We are. He'll never know how to be a true parent but...that's okay. He's still so ostentatious though." I whip around a corner.

"I haven't heard you complain about the car selection."

Okay, so I like fast cars. "There are some bonuses that come with living with my dad."

He shakes his head as I change lanes and whiz through a yellow, well yellow turning red, light. I turn on the radio and tap my fingers on the steering wheel. Nervous tension bubbles inside me the closer we get to his apartment. By the time we pull in front of a refurbished five-storied building across from a pretty park, I'm nervous to the point of feeling sick, but I smile and say, "This is nice."

"As long as you're not comparing it to your place."

I roll my eyes as we cross the snow covered sidewalk together. On a green neon leash, Chilly rambles ahead and races through the door Jai holds open. Even though Chilly's already halfway up the wood steps, I pause in the small hall.

Jai brows rise. "You nervous or something?"

I search for an excuse. "No, just overwhelmed."

"You? What about me? I suddenly have a legitimate job, a real apartment, and," he looks at me with a horrified expression, "a girlfriend."

I laugh and he pulls me up the stairs. I almost flee when his hand grasps the knob. Instead, I plaster an even look on my face. He swings it open and gestures for me to go in first. My palms almost drip with sweat as I cross the threshold.

Across the room, Chang, Ping, and Song have tight faces too, but the woman in front of them appears the most nervous. There is also joy in her eyes. Small with fine bones, she doesn't look her age, doesn't look like she's been slaving away for years on end.

Jai almost trips behind me and stops. His eyes round on the woman. "Mother?"

She smiles while tears well in her shinning eyes. Jai looks between us obviously trying to figure out how she's here. She only has eyes for him.

The room is tense with silence.

I scoop up the ball of fur rushing to everyone for a pat and move to the side. The stillness is nearing heartbreaking until Jai steps forward and she rushes into his arms. A collective sigh travels through the room as they hug. When they pull apart and stare at one another in wonder, I feel like an intruder.

I tip my head toward the door. "Why don't we go pick up some dinner?"

"We bought groceries," Chang says. "We actually have a real kitchen now."

With a shake of her head, Song pulls him toward the door by the ear. "I'm not in the mood to cook."

I glance back one last time before I shut the door. With arms wrapped together, they're staring at each other.

Mother and son.

The hole in my heart constricts as I step into the hall. It's still there, but it's getting smaller each day. Each day that I face the past. I made an appointment with my therapist for next week. I went on Facebook last night and sent messages to my friends in Cleveland. I even pulled out old photo books. I haven't looked through them yet. When I do, it will be a tearful reunion, but I'm not scared anymore. After that one long beautiful second with my mother, keeping her memory alive is so worth living with the heartache. And to think I was almost gone, after treating her like that...

I'm starting to realize holding in her memory was just as painful as embracing it.

No one wanted Chinese takeout, which wasn't surprising. My taste buds were quite happy when they decided on pizza. When my mother's voice came into my head, don't forget your greens, Nivi. I smiled to myself and added a large wop salad to appease her.

While we eat, Chang and Ping fill the silence with their usual stupid banter. None of us complains. Chilly sits at my feet waiting for scraps. Song agues a bit with the buttheads. Jai's mother appears happy but stays quiet. Jai appears content but distant, which has me nervous again.

Song and Li, Jai's mother, wave me away when I offer to help with the dishes. I argue until Jai's hand wraps around my waist. "You still haven't got the tour."

I smile up at him. "Alright, show me around."

He spins me around in a circle. "This is the dining, living, and kitchen room combo."

Since I've been in the room for an hour, I laugh. The furnished apartment is plain in creams and browns with sturdy woods and leathers to last. "I like it. It doesn't look like my father's designer has been here." I point to the far wall. "The fish tank looks familiar."

Jai grins. "I had to do a little of my own decorating. Let me show you the best room." He pulls me down the hallway. The little traitor, who's usually glued to me, stays in the kitchen and waits for dropping crumbs.

Jai's room is large with the same plain furniture as the rest of the apartment. From the large window on the other side of the bed, I can see the lights of the park. "Nice view," I say while my eyes avoid the bed.

He slams the door.

I spin around.

The look on his face, narrowed eyes and skin tight across his cheekbones, has me stumbling back until my feet hit the wall. He comes at me and pins me against the cool surface with his hands sprayed at both sides of my head. Caught between his arms, inside his anger, I stutter, "W-what-"

"How much did you pay them?" he asks through his teeth.

My stomach lurches to a halt. So that's what this is about. "One hundred thousand," I say in an even tone.

His body tenses. "Your father gave you the money?" I shake my head. "Your inheritance from your mother?"

"No, from Mali," I say in a steely tone. His pride is really pissing me off.

"Mali?" he echoes.

"My bank account grew while I was away. There's over twenty million in it." Astonishment etches his face. "That's just the tip of the iceberg. In seven years when missing becomes deceased, I'll inherit stocks, her company, and properties all over the world. Right now, the net worth is over a hundred million."

His eyes now bulge.

"However, except for your mother, I'm not touching any of it. Every cent will be donated to various organizations. Girls like me and their families paid for her wealth and power with their souls and bodies. My mother... paid with her life." My hands clench at my sides and I stare at his black t-shirt covered chest. "So I'm trying to pick things like schools for girls in Rwanda. Or medical help for the teenagers with AIDS in South Africa. Chinese girls brought here to brothels. Or even abused girls here in the US." I lift my head. "Things that will honor their sacrifice ..." I stop at his look.

He rests his forehead on mine. "Thank you, Nivi, for the gift of my mother. Sometimes it's hard to believe I'm with someone so amazing." His hands come up and hold my jaw and my heartbeat picks up. "I remember watching you. You'd come and go, walk your dog, smile at the doorman... you looked so alone, so lost, so sad that I wanted to reach out to you." He lets out a demeaning laugh. "Though I knew it was impossible, knew it was wrong, I was pretty sure I was falling for you even then." My breath catches. "Now," his lips come near mine, "I know I'm in love with you."

Um...Wow. The thudding of my heart goes into overdrive. My throat tightens and I can almost feel that word, love, between us as we stare at each other in the muted light.

Though I'm speechless, I close the centimeter between our lips and kiss him hard. I pour the elation his words cause into the kiss. He presses me against the wall. I clutch at his neck and taste tea and lemon on his breath. Taste the words he said on his tongue.

He pulls away with a gasp. "I need to get you home. You have school tomorrow."

I let out the tightness in my throat. "I'm pretty sure I'm in love with you too."

His arms and weight crush me for a moment. "I had hoped," he says against my collarbone. "Even though I don't deserve it." The words burn into my skin.

My fingers tighten around his neck. "Don't deserve it? Without you I wouldn't be here."

He shakes his head and holds me even tighter. A sigh of contentment escapes me as we stand there amid the elation and relief of our declarations. It may take me a while to get him to believe that he's honorable, but I have my whole life now don't I?

Jai steps back and breaks the spell. His eyes shine in the light from the streetlight outside the window. "I have something for you."

"What?" I ask, almost laughing at the idea of him shopping.

From the top drawer of a dresser, he hands me a mirror with a small frame that twists and twirls in artistic loops of gold and silver. I stare at the glass that should have housed my soul. If not for him, my home for eternity. I catch my reflection. Ugh. I look like crap. Besides the fact that my light skin doesn't go well with bleached hair, the bags under my eyes are mauve. After my ordeal, I look tired, haggard, and so not good. I look different on the outside, but my inside is even more different. I haven't gone back to the happy-go-lucky-girl I once wished so fervently for, rather someone stronger, someone ready to embrace world with all it has to offer good and bad.

I smile and tuck the mirror under my arm. "You ready?" I ask not caring what I look like. Jai said he's in love with me. Who cares what I look like? I grab the door and glance over my shoulder. "Come on. The sooner we're in front of my building, the sooner I get another kiss."

Other Titles by Jean Haus Under a Blood Moon Sleeping Handsome* a novelette After Midnight Turn the page for a sample of After Midnight Visit Jean Haus at Website: http://jeanhaus.com/jeanh/ Facebook: JeanHaus Twitter: JeanHaus After Midnight Dustan Reid has just received his own personal fairy. Straight out of an enchanted forest.

He just doesn't know it.

Instead, he thinks Harmony is the most annoying, pushy girl he's ever met. Not that Dustan meets or much less talks to girls. He's too busy trying to keep his grades up and working at his step-dad's motorcycle garage-while his stepbrothers work at the art of hanging out. But the freedom graduation will finally bring isn't too far off.

Harmony's determined to find true love for Dustan, with or without his consent. He may be a little rough around the edges, but she can totally see the killer looks lurking behind the shaggy hair and thick glasses. So she sets her matchmaking sights on the most popular girl in school. Hardworking Dustan only deserves like the best. Besides, with magic up her pink sleeve, this job should be way easy.

But nothing comes without a price.

Especially true love.

Prolong The darkness of this world hides enchantment from the human eye, except for the few unfortunate souls who lose their way in the dark. Sucked into shadow they are forgotten by the rest of mankind. In one such shrouded place, a silent figure glides through the faint moonlight piercing the canopy of trees. Fog swirls as he floats. The figure, a twisting mound of curling leaves, hovers at an ancient cypress. Hands like twigs reach out. An owl screeches in the distance while the tear and snap of bark echoes in the night. Shavings pile on the gnarled roots twisting over the dry ground until the leafy figure glides back into the shadows and waits. He does not relish this task, it utterly irritates him, but duty demands he performs it.

As he hovers in the gloomy forest, a green mist slowly spills from the newly torn hollow of the tree. Soft jade light swells and billows and mixes with the dense fog in the air. Stretching and stabbing the eerie light breaks into the night. Lovely and graceful it releases into this world and wafts downward. Between the bark and the forest floor, flesh is formed and she lands with a thud and an, "Ouch!"

"It never fails," the figure says, floating above her.

The re-born girl rubs her bruised forehead. "Then why don't you ever help me out."

"After your last debacle, you're lucky to be out."

The girl lets out a huff. Her eyes shift from the twisty shadows of the other trees and the slight glow each one holds. Others banished for crimes against her will. She pushes herself from the dry ground and straightens the leaves growing from her skin. "Even after all this time she needs me."

"Yes, like a hole in her aura." The shape of dripping leaves floats away.

Dust billows as the girl stomps in the dirt after him. "I bet no one has equaled me in my absence."

"Ah yes, but then no one attempted metamorphosis."

The girl stops, arms straight at her sides. "That was never proven! He wanted to make a declaration."

The leafed body stops in a beam of moonlight. Wooden lips twist in a scowl. "Since when is proof needed. You spend too much time in the human world when you are let out." He moves under the shadow of a tree and becomes invisible. "She's our law, court, and judge."

Sharp cackles sound as the girl kicks leaves with each step forward. "Her power isn't limitless."

"It never would have worked," the green mass says, gliding ahead.

"You don't know that!"

"When are you going to learn?" A malicious chuckle sounds in the darkness. "No one falls in love with cupid, stupid."

The girl's green eyes flash with anger. Their glow brightens the darkness. Though she knows he's too fast, she bends then hurls a rock. He rises without glancing back and the stone bounces off a tree. The breeze catches his snicker as he glides away. Resisting the urge to grab another rock, she chases him eager to escape the loneliness hanging like humidity in the air around the glowing trees.

They proceed through the night far away from the Garden of the Banished. Him hovering. Her stomping. Through thick foliage and tall grasses and swamp water reaching her knees.

Ahead the forest glows crimson.

The girl stops with a hand to her cheek. "Whoa, like she really does need me."

"Why else would you be released?" The figure drifts under massive trees that form a cave made of branches and leaves. The girl cautiously follows. Fear and anticipation shiver on her re-formed skin.

Under long tendrils of moss, she sits on her living throne. Leaves shift, branches twine together, and glossy black insects sprawl in a cascade as she raises a hand and gestures the girl forward. Red colored moss hangs from her form. Skin once alabaster has a scarlet twinge. Full lips once pink are dark burgundy. Eyes once green appear murderous. Crimson radiates from her, yet the shimmer cannot conceal her wondrous beauty. Through all the ages no human has ever, in paint or marble or ink, guessed the perfection of human form blended with nature in such a way that power, terrifying and awe striking, pulses from her.

Now engulfed in rage, she needs the strength of love to balance her power.

Behind the throne, the leafy figure hovers with a lowered head, respectful in the presence of her dominance. Other creatures created from her power kneel at the base of her mountainous throne with heads bowed.

The girl treads slowly until she bows before her queen. Eye level with a huge, hairy spider, watching her from a crevice in the throne, the girl waits for the command to rise.

"It is evident I am in need of your services." The queen's voice booms. Its cadence beats with the power of nature. "Nonetheless be aware if you cross my purpose again, your prison will be your home for eternity. You will remain in the Garden of the Banished forever." The spider raises its front legs, opens its glistening fangs. The queen shifts forward in her seat. The moss of her dress whispers into the silence of the night. "Will you serve me?"

The girl doesn't raise her head. "I will."

The spider begins to spin a web.

"Then rise!"

The girl stands.

The web grows and shimmers.

"Behold the quarry I have chosen." The queen waves her hand across the netting and an image appears on the spun silk. The girl bends closer to watch the boy in the mist of the web. His life, his drudgery, and his loneliness are pictured on the silken screen in fast moving images. Once the web grows misty, she straightens and smiles in the pulse of red radiance give off by her queen.

This one ought to be way easy, she thinks as her queen reaches for her. With the touch of red hued hands, the power of the forest fills the girl.

Part One: In His World