Black Blood - 12. Chapter 12

12

She heard the sounds of fire truck sirens in the distance. The truck didn’t stop in front of the underground club though. Maybe people had called, but they couldn’t find the address. Or maybe it was a coincidence and the fire truck was headed somewhere else. She didn’t even think people lived upstairs from that club; they were probably condemned apartments, or maybe vampires were crashing there in between sessions of partying.

Skylar had pushed the steel door with effort and now she stood in the service alley, letting the harsh rain wash away the dirt and blood on her body and clothes.

Feeling like she had been run over by a car, she dragged herself to the street. She just wanted to walk away, and get very far from this place. She never wanted to come back here; she’d had enough. As she marched unsteadily on the sidewalk a nice BMW slowed to match her pace. The window lowered.

“Need a ride?” It was none other than Blake behind the wheel, with his ever amused brown eyes, superior smile, and fancy tailored suit.

“Not from you,” said Skylar, her rasped voice clashing with Blake’s velvety smooth tone.

“Look at yourself, Skylar.”

She did. Her reflection stared back at her in the window display of a bakery store. She saw long hair sleeked by the rain, almond shaped green eyes with unusual dark circles under them, cracked lips, blood trickling down the side of her face. She flinched as she saw her bruised neck, the enormous blood stains on her shirt. Also she felt grimy from falling back on those ashes before. She turned and opened the car door, hauling herself on the passenger seat.

Blake’s eyes looked at the road, immaculate black loafer pressing the gas pedal. “How are you feeling?”

“Peachy.”

He chuckled.

“How did you know I would be here?” asked Skylar without looking at him.

“Your friend got away. I had a feeling you wouldn’t do as you were told.”

“You know me so well.” Her voice was laced with sarcasm.

“What happened in there?” asked Blake as he drove through the night.

Skylar looked out the window at they passed various buildings; a liquor store, an apartment complex, a pub, a nail salon, all lit by the yellow glow of street lights. She closed her eyes.

“I killed Jacy.”

“Charisma won’t be too happy about that.”

“I thought she didn’t care about anyone.”

“She does care,” said Blake softly, “about very few people. Quality over quantity. You’re kind of like that too.”

Skylar ignored that. “I’m probably staining your car as we speak,” she said, resting her aching back and head against the comfortable seat.

“It’s stolen.”

“How do you steal so many things, commit so many crimes, and not have the police coming after you?”

“I have no identity. It can’t be easy chasing a man that doesn’t exist. So, where should I take you?”

“Home.”

“Done for the night already? People could die, Skylar,” he mocked her.

“And so could I,” she said, “if I keep at it tonight. I don’t know how Buffy did it, honestly. I just can’t.”

“Who?”

“Just a TV show I used to watch.”

“Right.”

She turned her head so she could look at his profile, his long dark brow, fine boned nose, chiseled jaw.

“How old are you really, Blake?”

He shrugged. “I lost count.” His voice actually sounded honest.

“Whoa. That’s creepy.”

“Probably nearing two centuries now,” he admitted.

“Creepier.”

“Mayrin’s older,” he noted.

“Huh. And you’re dating a seventeen year old girl.”

“It’s not like that with Charisma. She’s like a little sister to me. That much was true. If she told you otherwise she was just messing with you.” His eyes met hers for a brief moment, framed by thin strands of dark hair, before darting back to the road as he drove across midtown.

She was surprised as she realized he had dark circles under his eyes, too. She wondered what made him tired. Maybe evil masterminds could also suffer from insomnia.

“Why are you being nice to me?” asked Skylar. “Aren’t we supposed to be at war?”

“I’m calling a truce for tonight, because you don’t look too well.”

“I’ll be fine. I heal fast.”

“You talk like you’re an Immortal.”

“It seems I’m somewhat similar to them. And you’re a… Malkye? What does that mean in English?”

“Blackblood.”

“Because your blood is poisonous or something?”

He glanced at her. “Mayrin told you everything?”

“Not everything. I’m not too sure what you are exactly. You’re not like a vampire?”

“No.”

“But you started it.”

“No,” he said again, “Charisma did.”

“How?”

“After drinking my blood and surviving she bloomed like a flower; she found her magic, her drive, her taste for life and adventure. We decided to leave Shisee and travel across dimensions, just because she could, and she could take me with her. In the next world we visited we pretended to be nobles and we stayed with the monarchy. But to make the story short we were found out and the king asked his guards to kill us. We killed them instead. One of the guards was Xievon. He was still breathing but he had lost a lot of blood, and so Charisma decided she wanted to try to see if her blood still had healing properties. She made him drink her blood and Xievon became the first of his kind.”

She really didn’t want to ask, but the words slipped her lips. “What about Jacy?”

“That was in the second dimension we visited. You have to understand, every time we shift across dimensions, we end up in the same place. If you take a portal here, you’ll still end up in New York, except it won’t be New York. So I can’t tell you about the worlds in their entirety. I only know about a small parcel of each so far. In this area of Jacy’s world was a city that reminds me of something I read in a book here, about Rome and the gladiators. They were very into having people fight for entertainment. Jacy was one of the best. Again, Charisma took a liking to her.”

Skylar placed her hand across her eyes to hide the fact that they were tearing up. She regretted killing Jacy. She didn’t know what was right or wrong anymore. It hadn’t felt like killing a monster. It had felt like killing a person. She felt the uneasiness of guilt and remorse biting at her chest like a venomous snake.

Blake hadn’t noticed her tears. He rambled on, “I like this world the best though, because you’re so advanced technologically. It’s so much easier to travel, with the planes. I’d really like to see the other continents. Have you ever travelled, Skylar?”

She cleared her throat. “No, not really.”

“Are you all right?”

“I’m not sure.” She tossed at her damp hair, looking out the window.

There was a long silence. When Blake parked his BMW in front of her apartment building on 111^th Street, neither of them moved. Blake killed the engine. He left the music playing softly though. Skylar hadn’t noticed until now, but Blake had plugged his iPod – probably stolen, too – to the car’s music system. It played Death Cab for Cutie’s Soul meets body.

“I like this song,” she said, breaking the silence between them.

It was still raining hard, drops of water drilling at the car all around them. Skylar unbuckled her seat belt and sat more comfortably.

“You know you could still come on my side.”

“What are you going to tell me?” She stared. “Come to the dark side, we have cookies?”

“I’d just hate for you to become a copycat of Mayrin.”

“At least her cause is just. What’s your plan? Take over the world with vampires? Or should I say the worlds?”

“We’re very ambitious,” Blake conceded.

“Why though?” Skylar tilted her head. “Don’t you like the world as it is now?”

He tapped the steering wheel with a finger. “Personally I don’t have a problem with it. Not this one, anyway. Charisma’s the one with the big dreams of being queen.”

“What do you mean not this one?”

A shadow crossed Blake’s eyes. He fumbled with the open buttons at his collar before resting his hand in his lap.

“Sometimes I want to go back to Shisee. Sometimes I feel like there’s nothing for me there. And sometimes I think that if I were to go back with Charisma and her army of vampires, I’d finally be respected, and I could have my revenge.”

“Revenge?” She searched his eyes, but he wasn’t looking at her. He glanced up at the deserted street with the apartment buildings lining both sides and the rain blurring everything.

“The problem when you live for a long time, you come to hate a lot of people.”

“What about love? Do you love many people?”

“Not exactly.

“Do you love Mayrin?”

He looked surprised. “What?”

She shrugged. “You were together in the past, weren’t you?”

“I did love her in the past,” he emphasized the last three words. “Not anymore. There might still be something there, but it’s probably just memories of a better time.”

“It was good then, what you two had?”

He hesitated. “It wasn’t bad. Nothing’s perfect. She didn’t want to admit that she loved me as much as I loved her. She just always told herself it was a terrible mistake, even as it happened.”

“Romantic.”

“Indeed.” He chuckled, and she wasn’t sure if he was being serious or not. He glanced at her sideways through sleek dark hair. “Why so many questions?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s distracting me from something I don’t want to think about.” She swallowed her guilt as she thought of Jacy with her fiery eyes and sorrowful voice. She thought of what Emily had told her after photography class. She definitely wouldn’t want a picture of her fighting Jacy. Already she feared it would be impossible to forget. “Was there someone else after Mayrin then?”

He ran his fingers through his hair. “There were many. One in particular, she…”

“What?”

He was darting his eyes again. “She got pregnant.”

“You have a kid?” She leaned closer to him without realizing, as if he was whispering and she couldn’t hear properly.

“I had one. I wasn’t a very good father, though. He died when he was six.”

“How?”

Blake’s jaw tightened. “Let’s just leave it at that.”

“Well, what was his name?” asked Skylar softly.

She didn’t want to stop talking to him. She didn’t want him to leave, because she feared being alone with her nightmares, though she knew she desperately needed the rest.

“Mylani.”

“And his mother?” she tried hesitantly.

His lips twitched and formed a wry smile as he slowly looked at her. “She killed herself.”

“Oh.”

“You asked.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“What about your past loves, Skylar? Anything worth mentioning?”

“Not really. I’m only nineteen, remember?”

“You act older.”

“Is that a compliment?” she crossed her arms against her blood stained shirt.

“Have you seen the other kids your age around here? Of course it’s a compliment.”

“You sound like a grumpy old man. What’s wrong with the kids my age? They’re just trying their hardest.”

“They’re idiots. All they want is party, and they think everything’s always gonna be easy.”

“No, they don’t. They party because they know it’s not always gonna be easy. They’re just trying to have a good time. Make memories.”

He studied her features. “While you spend your nights chasing monsters.”

“Well it’s a pretty recent thing. I might still quit, give my two weeks notice to Mayrin, you know.”

“Where is she anyway? Aren’t you girls always together?”

She narrowed her eyes. “I’m not telling you that.”

He smiled. The shadows were gone. That mischievous glint was back in his dark eyes. He leaned closer to her, placing his hand on her seat next to her thigh.

“What are you doing?” she whispered.

“Making memories?”

Their faces were close. Soft pop rock still played quietly. Her eyes lidded, she felt a tingly fluttering in her stomach, and she almost let him kiss her. Their lips brushed. But she turned her head.

“Why don’t you come on my side?” she asked, staring out the window at the rain. “You could still change your mind. You could help me destroy the vampires that are hurting people. We could let Xievon live, and Josh, and a few others, if they don’t hurt anyone. Josh drank from me earlier and I’m still here, so it’s possible. We can compromise. And Charisma, well, as long as she stops creating them, we can let her live, I suppose…”

“You kill Charisma,” Blake said, “you kill me.”

“What?” she whipped around.

“We’re connected by blood. She survived the poison, but now it is the one thing keeping her alive, as it is connected to me. One dies, the other dies too.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” she glanced down, her eyebrows drawing near together.

“That’s how it works. We’re all connected. There’s no going back.”

“Well like I said, Charisma doesn’t have to die, as long as she stops…” She already knew what Blake was going to say.

“She won’t stop.”

“Truce over then?” Skylar sighed.

“Go get some rest. Drink water. Eat chocolate or something.”

She smiled weakly. “Still playing nice, huh?”

“Always.”

“That’s not true. You hurt Micah.” She had her hand on the handle.

“Barely. He was being overdramatic about it.”

“And now I hate you again.” She opened the door, some rain slipping inside the vehicle and onto the passenger seat.

“Good night Skylar,” he said.

She just slammed the car door and rushed over to her apartment, where she drank loads of water, showered, ate chocolate, and went to find solace beneath her navy comforter in the darkness of her room.