Black Blood - 14. Chapter 14

14

Skylar was woken up by Florence on Thursday. It was nearly noon. She looked like she had just woken up, too, still wearing her pajama shorts and tank top, her short hair ruffled.

“You’ve got to come see this. It’s on the TV in Josh’s bedroom.”

“I don’t care, let me sleep.” Skylar buried herself under her blankets and pillows.

“Come on! You can go to back to bed after. You’ll want to see this; there are rumors that actual vampires are attacking people in town. How crazy is that?”

Florence bounced back toward Josh’s bedroom. Skylar sprung up to her feet after the information processed in her mind. She threw on the first clothes she could find; a small white tank top and a long, loose green shirt. She rushed over to Josh’s bedroom across the hall, eyes fixed on the television screen. She absently noticed the X-box and video games were missing; Josh was gone for good, then. Florence and Mike sat on the bed.

“Whoa, what happened to you?” Mike asked her. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, just sweat pants. Skylar looked down at herself, hair falling over her shoulders as she remembered she was rather bruised up.

“I fell.”

“Oh. Nasty fall,” he said.

Some news anchor was telling the story about strange crimes and vampire-like individuals attacking a group of five teenagers in Central Park. They showed a brief interview with two of those teens; a girl and a boy. Skylar recognized them from last night, and her heart skipped a beat. She hoped they wouldn’t mention her.

They didn’t. They just said that their friends had become different, and that they had randomly decided to bite them and drink their blood. They showed the injuries on their necks, too. And then there was another story on people bursting into flames in an illegal club in the West Village.

Again, Skylar got anxious, a hand on her chest. She reflexively felt for her mother’s necklace, but it wasn’t there. On the news, they were showing a video. Ah, so some of those people escaping the club last night had been taking out their phone not to call 911, but to record a video. Typical.

On the bed, Florence gasped when the video showed someone catching on fire. It was short though, and the quality was awful. Thankfully, Skylar couldn’t be seen on the video. She was safe, then.

Afterwards they showed an interview with some vampire enthusiasts, who had believed for years that they actually existed. Now they were frantically showing their web pages titled ‘Vampires are real’ or ‘Believers only’ and sharing their opinions.

Skylar went back to her bedroom.

“That’s all fake!” she heard Mike say. “That video was totally faked.”

“Hey, Skylar,” Florence called, “what do you think?”

“Yeah, yeah,” she answered from her bed, “probably fake.”

The television was turned off soon after, and she heard Florence and Mike going in the shower.

Skylar didn’t have time to sleep more, unfortunately. The door to the apartment burst open, and she thought she heard Mayrin’s voice. Great. She growled, rising and walking to the hall again, floor creaking under her bare feet.

“You know,” said Skylar, “around here, we knock before barging inside people’s homes.”

She leaned against the wall with one foot propped up, tilting her head as she looked at Mayrin and her reinforcements. They certainly weren’t the Mayrin look-alike army that she had expected. There were two men standing next to her, one tall and lean with long, dark reddish hair tied behind his neck, and the other one shorter and pale-skinned with blonde hair and blue eyes.

“Skylar, this is my partner Airi,” she indicated the pale blonde man, “and this is my half-brother Kalan.” She pointed at the tall one.

Arching an eyebrow, Skylar repressed what she really wanted to say; she had thought the one with the blonde hair could be her brother.

“And boys, this is Skylar, she is of immortal descent, and she has great power. She’s one of us, really.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” she objected.

But they ignored her.

“Nice to meet you,” Airi said, “Mayrin’s told me all about you.” His accent was stronger, and he had more difficulty speaking English than Mayrin.

Skylar wondered how these people spoke English, anyway. She already knew that Blake, Charisma and Viko had hired a teacher. Another language wouldn’t have mattered to her that much. Skylar could understand someone speaking in another language as long as she could see them, if she concentrated enough, because of her gift of perception. She just needed to look at the gestures and feel what was in their mind a little, and it sort of worked itself out. Then again maybe it wouldn’t work on immortals, since they were immune to magic.

These people really all spoke English though. Kalan spoke it fluently, even.

“Nice to meet you Skylar,” he smiled.

Their clothing was a bit unusual – well for Earth anyway, Skylar supposed. Airi wore a tan shirt with leather straps across it, a belt incrusted with gems, and royal blue pants that were cut-off at his knees, with black leather boots. Kalan had the same type of boots, except his were bigger, and he sported black pants – normal length, those, a wide neck yellow shirt with black tribal-like patterns lining the short sleeves and collar. He wore leather arm bracers with inlaid metal. There was a large leather strap across his back and torso, and attached to it was a bow and quiver full of arrows.

“I’m no expert at summoning magic,” he explained, “so I have to carry an actual weapon.”

“Summoning magic can be tricky,” Skylar nodded thoughtfully. She was pretty sure people would stare at him in the streets of New York, though.

Mayrin had gotten changed too, now clad in a fishnet neon blue top that hurt the eyes, and tight gray pants with darker lines on the sides. Those ended at her knees, and she wore high black boots with metallic stripes curling up her calves.

“Cool boots,” said Skylar.

“Thank you,” she beamed. “They’re my designs. All of this.” She gestured toward the two others. “They’re my athletic clothes designs.”

Athletic?

“About those creatures…” Airi shifted his weight from one leg to the other, looking impatient. His pale complexion had the same agelessness as Mayrin’s. His hair wasn’t as light as hers though.

“Right,” said Mayrin, “Skylar, we have to go end this right now. Are you with us?”

“Yeah, of course, um…” She was a bit confused, putting a hand in her hair. “Let me just—”

“Put on some pants?” Kalan finished for her with a grin.

She hated herself for it, but her face flushed, as she realized he was right.

“Oh, yeah. That.”

In her bedroom she slipped on some black leggings, keeping the long green top because it was comfy. Then she made a stop to the bathroom as Mike and Florence were conveniently just finishing up.

“Are those your friends, Skylar?” Florence asked, tightening the towel around her chest. “What’s with the bow and arrows? Are you shooting a film for school or something?”

She ignored her. She just wanted to wash her face, brush her teeth and drink some water. She looked at the injury on her temple in the mirror. It had started healing already, and her hair hid it anyway. Oh well, she didn’t need to look pretty to go kick some vampire ass. Shrugging, she went to join the others.

Before they left the apartment, Skylar pointed at Kalan and noted that he should probably not go around walking in the streets with a bow and quiver full of arrows. Not everyone would think it was for a movie. Some people might think he was a crazy person, and call the cops. Kalan obediently left his weapon in Skylar’s bedroom.

Outside it was sunny and nice, with the slightest refreshing wind. Skylar guided them toward the Upper East Side. She walked next to Kalan, Mayrin and her boyfriend closing the walk.

“How old are you?” asked Kalan.

She looked up at him. He was even taller than Blake, which made him at least 6’3. “Nineteen, you? Are you going to tell me you’re three hundred years old or something like that?”

“No, no!” He smiled. “I’m nineteen as well, actually.”

Skylar raised a brow, surprised. That would mean that either Mayrin’s mother or her father was really old but could still have kids. She supposed it was possible; the race was called immortal for a reason.

“So you have a parent that’s human, or…?”

He nodded. As they passed people on the street, they stared a bit. They were probably jealous of Mayrin’s athletic clothing collection, with its neon blues and yellows. But they got over it and carried on with their lives, as New Yorkers do.

“My father was human.” He looked over his shoulder briefly. “Our mother says I look like him.”

“I figured,” said Skylar more to herself.

“Yeah,” Kalan nudged her, “I know. I’m not all blonde and delicate.”

“I assume you really stand out in Zarien if everybody else looks like these two.”

“You assume correctly.”

She wondered if it was looked down upon for an immortal to hook up with a human in Mayrin’s world. Probably.

They were taking a shortcut across Central Park to get to Fifth Avenue faster. Skylar looked behind her shoulder. Mayrin and Airi were keeping some distance, like they were doing it on purpose so Kalan could get better acquainted with Skylar. Letting the kids become friends, perhaps.

“I noticed you look injured,” he said, eyeing her neck. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.”

She tugged at her curly locks so they would hide her wounds. She cleared her throat, and they walked in silence for a bit.

At some point, she asked, “So how come you speak English so well?”

“This isn’t my first time coming here.” He looked toward the leafy trees, gazing in the distance like he was remembering something. “Mayrin took me as a kid. And I liked it so much I came back a few years ago, and I stayed for months. I got myself a fake id and I went to Europe, Russia and Japan. It was amazing. Then I came back to New York and got this tattoo.” He pulled up his sleeve, showing her a symbol that looked similar to Chinese ones. It spread across his shoulder and looked quite nice. “This is the symbol for ‘outsider’ in ancient Farensi. I thought it would be appropriate.”

“Cool. So you can open portals? I thought you said you couldn’t do summons.”

“I can’t open them but I can use them,” he smiled mischievously. “I knew my sister had left one open in her house, so I used that one.”

“Was that bad?” Skylar couldn’t help but return his smile.

“Kind of. She had to come get me back because I couldn’t find one here so I couldn’t get back by myself. Oh, I didn’t mind. I think I could live in New York forever.” He breathed in the green scents of Central Park as if to back up his words. “But yeah she was angry. I had missed a lot of school; had to start an entire semester over. But it was so worth it.”

There was a long silence as they walked briskly, the wind rustling the trees and shrubs, and the pavement crunching slightly under their flat boots.

“We’re almost there,” Skylar announced.

After travelling down the East Drive, the same trajectory she had taken with Josh the night before, she brought them to a halt near the corner of 5^th Avenue and 60^th Street.

“What’s the plan exactly?” she asked, raising her voice to be heard over the cab honks and bus engines.

All three just stared at her for a moment, then at each other. It was almost comical.

She found herself thinking that Airi looked like a boy band heartthrob with his blonde hair and blue eyes; although she knew that he was much older than the average boy band member. He answered her in his thick accent. “We kill them all of course.”

Skylar cringed, remembering Jacy.

“Are you okay?” asked Kalan.

“I just think,” Skylar said, “we should try negotiating.”

“Are you afraid? Because you shouldn’t be,” Airi reasoned. “Mayrin is very strong. She can use elemental magic, but mostly she excels at summoning. Kalan is a skilled, trained fighter, and he has a rare talent for archery. And I possess strong magic and skill for fighting as well, and finally Mayrin bragged about your powers largely, so I don’t think there should be a problem.”

Skylar politely waited for him to finish talking. But she wasn’t afraid. That wasn’t the problem. She was thinking of Blake’s words. You kill Charisma, you kill me.

“What about Charisma?”

Mayrin glanced at her sharply. “Did she turn your friend or not?”

She meant Micah. “No, but—”

“Then I don’t see the problem.” Mayrin’s tone accepted no replies. It was almost as aggressive as the neon blue of her shirt.

The four of them crossed the street, and walked to the front of the luxurious residence building. They still couldn’t get in just like that. There was security. Whatever they tried, the way they were dressed wouldn’t add to their credibility.

“We need a distraction,” said Mayrin. “Skylar, would you?”

Her first reflex was to use wind, like she had done to save those teenagers in the park. She closed her eyes and frowned, but she felt nothing. Blood ran cold in her veins as she realized she felt completely drained. There was no energy there, no magic thriving in her. It was gone. She tried to hide her panic by clearing her throat and lowering her gaze.

“I’m not really, um, inspired right now. Could anyone else…?”

“I’ll do it,” said Airi hastily.

Clearly he liked to show off. But he didn’t end up using wind. Instead, they felt the earth tremble beneath their feet. It became intense in a matter of seconds, cars stopping, people screaming and some falling on the quivering sidewalk.

Skylar closed her eyes, because she didn’t like this. She could see trees falling, even though it wasn’t actually happening. Airi’s magic was making her relive the traumatic experience she had gone through four years ago. The earthquake got stronger and her eyes snapped open as she tried to keep her balance. She almost fell, but Kalan steadied her.

At the entrance of the fancy complex, security guards were helping residents to stay on their feet. People were actually gathering together, shouting in confusion, looking at each other in the hopes that maybe someone had heard about this and knew what was going on. As people were panicking, Mayrin led them through the entrance, and they walked across the lobby to the elevator, unbothered. Frames were falling to the floor with a clatter of broken glass.

“Stop it,” Skylar said to Airi weakly, “that’s enough.”

She couldn’t stand the trembling of the earth anymore. He did stop it, and they got inside the elevator. Regaining her composure, Skylar recalled what Micah had told her, and pressed the seventeenth floor button. The four of them stood rather awkwardly as it climbed up the building.

It turned out this was all for nothing. They found the seventeenth floor residence completely deprived of any life form. Well except for a snake in what Skylar assumed was Viko’s bedroom, according to Micah’s descriptions. The view really was amazing from here; Josh hadn’t been kidding. Down there most people were back on their feet and walking like the earthquake had never happened, because their busy lives went on.

The place showed signs of hasty departure; clothes thrown out of dressers in messy piles, lights still on, open bottle of red wine in the dining room. The wine had spilled during the brief earthquake, staining the tablecloth.

“I can feel a strong summoning magic lingering in the air,” Mayrin mused, lifting her hands and brushing the walls and renaissance paintings that had resisted the quake and were still hanging. “A portal was created here. But she took the time to close it after her…”

“So we wouldn’t follow,” Skylar finished for her. She stood in the foyer, glancing down at the polished wood tiles beneath her flat ankle boots. She felt that uneasiness in her chest again, that remorse biting away at her soul. Charisma had left because of what had happened to Jacy.

“Nafi did?” Kalan sounded incredulous.

Skylar glanced at him sideways. “You knew her?”

Kalan said nothing, but Skylar supposed he did know her, as he was clearly thinking about her right now, disbelief plain in his blue eyes.

“What do we do now?” asked Airi, sounding somewhat bored.

Maybe he had expected more adventure right from the start. She remembered what Kalan had said earlier, about Mayrin taking him with her to another dimension when he was a little boy. Something popped up in her head, like a slogan that could be a commercial for Immortals. This year, take your kids to Earth for the family vacations. They’ll love it.

“Now,” Mayrin said slowly, but steadily, “we slay all the vampires they’ve left behind.”

A silence followed that declaration, interrupted only by the sound of Skylar’s growling stomach. She was starving.

“I think we should go get bagels,” she said, “before saving the world. Anyone?”

***

Skylar skipped that part, actually, and got to live a normal New Yorker student life for a few days. Kind of like Tobey Maguire when he loses his powers in the second Spiderman movie, starts wearing his glasses again, and smiles like a dork all the time with a happy music in the background. And all because Mayrin had seen right through her, and knew that she couldn’t use magic right now.

“You forced it, didn’t you? You pushed it, pumping everything out,” Mayrin had said with an accusatory look in her eyes.

Skylar had admitted it, forced to tell the truth about what had happened with Jacy.

So she got to catch up on sleep, assignments, and studying. She even started reading her father’s latest historical fiction novel; it was amazing, of course. That reminded her she still had to write the screenplay for the short film project, so she got to that.

It was nice, not having to worry about vampires. Other people were doing the work for a change. Actually she really needed the break, so it was for the best. Kalan, Airi and Mayrin chased them every night after reading the local papers and watching the news on Josh’s television. They even went to some police stations to ask questions and get some more clues. For a few hours of the day, Kalan rested in Skylar’s bedroom while she attended her classes at Columbia, and the glamorous blonde couple occupied Josh’s room.

Mayrin told her that her magic was now like a sore muscle. She needed to wait a bit before using it again; it was normal.

One week later, day for day, Mayrin informed her that tonight was the night. They had killed all the vampires they could possibly find, and now they were leaving to another dimension to carry on with their quest. And Skylar was coming with them.

“What?” Skylar couldn’t quite register the information.

She slipped off her shoes and walked in her bedroom, dropping her messenger bag onto the messy bed. She had just been walking back from school in the nice late afternoon sunlight, with the leaves in the trees starting to turn yellow and red. She had been enjoying the freedom of being a normal student, worrying about naught but assignments.

“We’re leaving tonight,” Mayrin repeated.

She had gone back to stealing from Skylar’s wardrobe, wearing a sleeveless violet top with black shorts. While walking home, she had just been thinking of complaining to Mayrin that she should really start helping with the laundry. But now that was the last thing on her mind.

“I can’t just leave this world,” Skylar argued, crossing her arms as she sat on the bed.

They heard a grumpy sound coming from under the covers and Skylar realized that her bed wasn’t just messy – it had someone sleeping under the navy comforter. She also moved because she realized she had sat on Kalan’s feet. Ruffled copper hair came out of the covers, framing wide blue eyes and high cheekbones.

“Good morning,” said Skylar even though it was almost 5 p.m.

“Hi. How was school?”

“It was great, actually.” She smiled and folded her legs on the bed. “I skipped this afternoon’s class so I could do my photography assignment inside. It’s okay, cause it wasn’t really important, and photography is—”

“Skylar,” Mayrin cut her sharply, “stop ignoring me.”

“Ah, but ignoring you is so much fun.” She blinked innocently.

Kalan laughed but it died in his throat when his sister shot him an unforgiving glare. Kalan wrapped himself in the blue sheets, rising to his feet. He didn’t seem to be wearing anything underneath those sheets.

“I’m gonna go shower,” he mumbled as he left the room.

Skylar couldn’t believe it. She grabbed a pillow and threw it at him. “Making yourself comfortable much? Don’t sleep naked in my bed you jerk!” Unfortunately her aim wasn’t really good and the pillow missed his head. She heard him trotting quickly to the bathroom.

Mayrin was about to speak up again, but Skylar put up a hand to stop her. “All right, all right, I got it. We’re leaving tonight. I know what you’re going to say, Mayrin. And you don’t have to say it.” Skylar looked at the pictures of her family on her dresser, more particularly her dad, smiling and holding her shoulder like a proud father on the family portrait. “We had a deal. I’m in this with you. I’m calling Micah,” she added, taking her phone out of her bag.

Micah had been attending school like normal and living the dream life with Viko lately. Since his parents were out of town for business again, the boys were living together in the nice condo, just the two of them with Micah’s Bengal cats, like a happy family. His arm was still in a cast. Skylar had asked Mayrin if she could be nice enough to go visit him and give him blood so he could heal quickly. Mayrin had declined, stating that she had no time for that and that she couldn’t just go around healing anybody. She was so mean sometimes.

Something was troubling Micah’s dreamy life lately though, or so he had told Skylar. Apparently Viko kept being all nervous and shaky, rambling about finding some way to go back home.

“Hey Micah,” she said when he picked up. She walked to the window, showing her back to Mayrin to give herself the illusion of privacy. She looked at the apartment buildings lining the street, and wondered how different it would be in another dimension. ‘You’ll still end up in New York, except it won’t be New York.’

“What’s up?” Micah asked in the phone, bringing her out of her reverie.

Skylar sighed, closing her eyes. “I think you’re gonna want to come over tonight. Make sure you bring Viko.”