Black Blood - 19. Chapter 19

19

She lay down on the stone by the water, wearing her underwear and letting the sun warm her skin a little. She tried telling herself that it was the same as a bikini so she wouldn’t be shy. She wondered why she was intimidated, anyway. Well, maybe it was because Kalan was getting out of the cold water now, also wearing only small shorts, and he was quite tall and athletic. His long reddish brown hair dripped onto his lean muscles. She closed her eyes so she wouldn’t stare, pretending to just relax in the sun without a care in the world.

Nevertheless, that stream water had been wonderfully refreshing. They had cleaned their clothes as well, before tossing them on the shore to dry. The stream was mostly rapids as it ran across the forest, but they had found a place where the water was calm. All around were thick trees with some reddish and gold leaves, making the situation unexpectedly intimate, as if the trees were walls giving them privacy.

“You know,” Kalan said as he came to lie down next to her on the heated rock, “it was weird seeing those dragons. They didn’t seem that bad. I’ve always been afraid of dragons, and now I just feel silly.”

“The big one was pretty scary,” Skylar pointed out. She lay on her stomach and Kalan was on his back, arms folded under his head. She turned to look at him. “How come you were always afraid of them? Are there even dragons in your world?”

He shook his head slightly, looking up at the sheep-like clouds. “They’re extinct on Shisee. But when I was a kid, Mayrin told me that her father was killed by a dragon. So I just always had the reflex of being scared of them.”

“Understandable.”

Kalan shifted slightly, and reached out to push back her hair so he could brush the tattoo at the nape of her neck with the back of his fingers.

“So what’s the story behind this? I’ve explained you mine.”

Skylar looked at the symbol neatly inked on his shoulder. Outsider.

“Impossible love,” she said.

He looked confused. “What?”

“I got my heart broken a few times, and I broke some hearts myself. Both situations are painful. People said not to make a big deal out of it. Because I’m still young and all. But it still sucked. And I still wanted to get the tattoo.”

His warm hand was still touching her neck. It sent a tingling feeling along her spine. She wondered how it was that those same warm hands had changed water into ice. Kalan still seemed perplexed, but he withdrew his hand when he saw that she was staring.

“What does that have to do with—?”

“Blue roses,” she said, “represent impossible love. They don’t exist in a natural state. They have to be created artificially.”

There was a glint in Kalan’s light eyes as he turned to his side completely to face her. There was a tinge of nervousness in his expression, and she could almost feel his heart pounding in his chest.

“I know what flowers to get you to win your heart, then.”

“Oh my, is that flirting I hear?” She put her hand to her lips in feigned shock, pulling herself up onto her elbows.

He laughed, again with that slight nervous edge. “Now you notice?”

This time she made a genuine sound of surprise. “So he has a sense of humor, huh?”

He hid his face in his arm. “I try. Hey, Skylar, I wanted to talk to you about something. Have you noticed you don’t need your lighter anymore?”

“I suppose, yeah.”

“I think you’re amazing. I’m not flirting,” he hurriedly said, “I’m being honest.”

“You’re pretty amazing with water,” she replied, shrugging one shoulder.

He grinned. “Do you want to try some tricks with me?”

“Sure, why not?”

Kalan got up and suddenly seemed to be feeling self-conscious, though he had no reason to. He put his pants back on, and he also grabbed Skylar’s clothes to bring them to her. She took them wordlessly, an amused smile lingering on her lips. After putting the clothes on, which was uncomfortable and clingy since they were still a bit wet, she went to sit next to him on the shore, their feet in the cold water.

He looked deep in thought as he stared at the center of the calm water. Skylar followed his gaze, intrigued. All of a sudden, she saw ripples appearing, disturbing the surface. They got bigger and bigger, becoming almost like waves as they broke against their feet.

Kalan waited for the water to be somewhat sleek again, and then told her to try. She did, focusing her magic, but the problem was that she had no idea where or how exactly. With fire she just sort of felt that warm energy, and easily turned it into flames.

“Can’t I do fire instead?” she asked childishly.

Kalan nudged her. “Come on, just concentrate properly. You have to think that everything’s connected. Water is everywhere; in this river, in the air, in you and me. Everything is the same.”

“Deep stuff.”

“Don’t make fun of me. I’m just trying to help. Just think that you’re a part of it. Move with it.”

Skylar closed her eyes slowly. She felt the cold water licking her feet. Move with it. She sort of pushed her magic, and she started feeling movement in the water. She used to get so frustrated when she was a kid, trying to do this kind of thing in ponds. Now it was easier.

“Open your eyes,” said Kalan.

When she did, he was smiling, teal colored eyes looking at her with complicity like they had known each other forever. There were waves in the water again, breaking against the river bank, climbing up to their calves and knees. And it was caused by an invisible force rather than the wind.

“You did it.” He took her hand and leaned closer, like he wanted to kiss her. But he was so hesitant that it was almost comical, like he was moving in slow motion.

On a whim, Skylar cupped the back of his neck and pulled him into a kiss, if only to end his blatantly obvious inner sufferings. It was clumsy at first, and she wondered if that could possibly be Kalan’s first kiss. But his lips were soft. He placed a hand in her damp hair, wrapping the other around her waist. He pulled away slightly, only to think better of it and kiss her again. She smiled through it, because he was gaining more confidence and it showed.

But it came to an abrupt end as they heard a bloodcurdling scream in the distance. They both looked up with a start. It came from where Viko’s cave was located. And it sounded like Micah. Skylar rushed to her feet. She slipped into her flat boots while Kalan did the same, grabbing his thin yellow shirt at once. They ran, wind whistling in their ears.

They made it to the surroundings of the cave, with the rocky ground circled by blossoming shrubs. Micah was on the ground behind Viko and Pandra. He had an arrow through his shoulder and he was livid with pain. One of the smaller dragons was by his side, breathing smoke out of its nose angrily, scaly tale slapping at the ground and lifting leaves and dirt, like a cat about to jump and attack. The big dragon and the other small one weren’t far behind. Mayrin and Airi had come out of the cave and they stood a few feet away from Viko. All this commotion was because a group of around twenty people—mostly men—stood in line wielding various weapons; crossbows, maces, spears. They all wore long linen tunics and sandals with leather straps wound around their calves. Viko was trying to negotiate with them before they could hurt someone else. From the crease in his brow, Skylar could tell it upset him that Micah had been hurt again. Viko liked to pretend he didn’t care, but he certainly wasn’t fooling her.

From what Skylar understood of the brief conversation, these people were hunters from a small compound living on the outskirts of Payan. They had seen the small dragon and Micah as they searched the forest for deer. They had chased after them because they only had one rule for dragons and people who sympathized with dragons—kill them. And now they were in a bind.

Skylar glanced at the others, but no one seemed to know what to do. These weren’t vampires; they couldn’t just attack humans with magic, could they?

“Is Chrysa okay?” asked Micah in a small voice as he looked up.

Viko looked over his shoulder with lanky brown hair hiding his eyes partly. He glanced down at the blue-scaled dragon crouched next to Micah. “She’s fine. You should worry about yourself more. Why don’t you two make yourselves useful,” Viko gestured with a hand toward Mayrin and Airi, “and give him some blood?”

But there was no time. The huntsmen decided to attack—no more negotiations. They all struck at once, like it was choreographed. Airi caught a short arrow between skilled fingers before it could strike him. Pandra ducked as one flew over her head. One more was aimed at Kalan—he moved swiftly but it still slashed his arm, just below his tattoo. A spear was thrown powerfully toward the big dragon, missing by just one inch. The dragon roared angrily.

Skylar acted impulsively. She put up a wall of bluish fire between them and the huntsmen. She purposefully let the heat of the flames get so intense that the arrows or spears would melt in flight. She heard the villagers behind the wall of fire, crying out in surprise and fear as they backed off.

But the fire was too intense. It was starting to spread. The shrubs were in flames, and so were some of the trees. Pandra and Micah coughed because of the smoke. Mayrin glanced over at Skylar, panicked.

“Stop it! Put it out, now!” ordered Mayrin in a loud voice.

She couldn’t control it anymore, though. It was out of proportion, like that earthquake four years ago. To be reminded of that natural disaster she had created made her lose control even more. She was about to be the cause of a wildfire.

Kalan put his hand on her arm and flinched because her skin was so hot. But he kept his hand there nonetheless.

“Skylar stop,” he said more softly than his sister, “please, concentrate. Take control. You can do whatever you want with it, remember?”

She took a deep breath to calm down, closing her eyes. With Kalan’s hand sliding into hers, she tried to force the magic to tone down. She needed to stop the flow, but it simply wasn’t working, as if it were broken like ruined plumbing, and the tap water was overflowing.

Water.

“Kalan,” she said in a shaky voice, squeezing his hand, “I can’t stop it. Let’s drown it together.”

He nodded. Some kind of instinct told her that they could combine their magic and make it twice as strong. From the corner of her eye she saw that Airi was already at it. Clouds gathered and it started raining, large drops drilling onto the fire. But it wasn’t quite enough.

Skylar felt Kalan’s magic pulsing through, pure energy mingling within her. Soon water came in large waves, from the nearby stream, from the particles in the air, from Airi’s rain. It rose high and the flames were subsumed at last.

Panting, Skylar put her free hand to her chest, the other still in Kalan’s hold. It had been so intense, like for a moment they were only one through elemental magic. Kalan sighed, relieved, and he pulled her in a tight embrace, squeezing her shoulders. There was no hesitation in his movements this time. Skylar realized she was trembling.

“I thought I told you not to lose control again, didn’t I?”

“Oh shut up,” she said tiredly.

She pulled away from him but she was grateful and he could tell. The clansmen had scattered a bit. Some of them had actually run off in the woods. Only a few were left; eight young men and one girl, all with golden skin and brown eyes and hair. They had lowered their weapons and they eyed Viko and the others warily. The ground was charred in a line of black ashy land. Smoke lingered heavily in the air. The rain had stopped, gray clouds fading like they had never even been present in the sky. For a moment everything was frozen and dead silent in anxious anticipation.

Then Viko spoke. Skylar cleared her mind and focused on him so she could understand the meaning behind the incomprehensible words.

“We are not the enemy, not the dragons, not the magical people; not any of us. The Nomads are no more, but something more terrifying replaces them.”

“What is he saying?” asked Kalan quietly.

“Nothing much so far. Get to the point, Viko,” Skylar muttered more to herself.

Behind where Viko stood, the small dragon had decided to help Micah. It broke the tip of the arrow with its teeth, so that Micah could pull it out more easily. He did, with a trembling hand. The broken arrow was red all over. Micah’s shoulder was welling blood. Skylar made to go to him but Viko was faster. He cursed loudly as he took off his sleeveless shirt in a rapid motion. Its dark green color was merely visible with all the rips and dried blood. The shirt was only getting stained even more as it was pressed onto Micah’s injury.

“Can’t you give him your damned blood?” Viko glanced over at Mayrin and Airi.

But they seemed reluctant. “We’ve used too much magic,” explained Mayrin.

“We haven’t slept enough, or eaten enough. The fight with the vampires has yet to come. We need to gather what little strength we have left.”

“Unfortunately,” Mayrin added, “we can’t keep healing you guys all the time.”

Skylar narrowed her eyes. This wasn’t right. Mayrin just wouldn’t do it to prove a point; Micah shouldn’t have come here.

While this little argument went on Pandra was carrying on with the speech for the villagers.

“Incidentally, they have become creatures that feed on human blood. We all need to protect ourselves. For the very last time, I am asking you to call a truce on our different views concerning the dragons. They can help us kill the monsters my people have become. This is really bad. You can’t just ignore it.”

Surprisingly, they seemed to be listening to her quite intently. They were exchanging glances with one another, whispering about something. Pandra stepped forward toward them, long wavy locks blown by the wind around her soft features. She was a thin but curvy young woman with a heart-shaped face. Her expression was sincere. Attractive people always have more impact; Skylar could tell some of those men were rapt by her.

“People have come, speaking of such things,” one of them said, “but we just thought they were lunatics.”

Viko looked up while keeping his hands on the blood stained piece of clothing he was trying to tie around Micah’s shoulder. His bare torso revealed the large dragon tattoo on his back, and his claw necklace hung from his neck. “What kind of people? Was it a man and a woman, both pale with dark hair, and wearing fancy clothes?”

“They were like that, yes. They said we would be taken over by a new race. They said our days of freedom were over.”

“They said that new race would replace our gods, and drive us into submission,” added the girl, stepping closer and looking at Pandra defiantly. “But why can’t we just ignore them? They were clearly fools believing in some obsolete religion.”

“They might be fools,” Pandra replied, arching a dark eyebrow, “but they are dangerous. Do not underestimate them. The new race might not be god-like, but they can certainly kill all of you if they want to. We have to come together as one to fight back.”

They seemed uncertain.

“Where are they now?” asked Mayrin, surprising everyone as she spoke in the same language as them. She stepped slightly closer to Pandra, just steps away from the charred piece of land. Some ashes and dust sifted in the wind.

“Payan,” said the girl with the crossbow. She was being cooperative, but she still eyed the three dragons suspiciously.

“Where in Payan?” Viko insisted.

“We don’t know!” barked one of the men. “Listen, we don’t want to get involved with you people anymore. Leave us be, and we won’t come after your dragons anymore, I swear it.”

He didn’t mean a word of that. Skylar could tell, and she knew Viko was aware of it, too. But he said nothing. He just kept his hands pressed on Micah’s wound to make sure the bleeding was stopped for good.

“Deal,” Pandra said. “You can go now. Make sure you never trust them; they might look human but they aren’t. Use fire. Protect yourselves.”

They didn’t even thank her for the advice. They just left, disappearing through the woods, taking their stupid crossbows, anger management issues and shameless lies with them. Skylar just plain hated them because they had hurt Micah for no reason. And now Mayrin and Airi couldn’t even be bothered to heal him.

“We need to go right now,” stated Mayrin in a steely voice. Her gray blue eyes were tired but unyielding. She had tied her light hair in a long braid that fell on one shoulder.

Airi looked at the sky, studying the emplacement of the sun. “We have six hours before it starts getting dark. So that could give us a good advance on the vampires. It shouldn’t rain or get clouded, so they’ll have to stay in the ground until nightfall.” Airi the weather man. Skylar glared at him and thought he looked kind of ridiculous; he still wore Josh’s jeans and t-shirt that were two sizes too big for him.

Then she thought about Josh, wondering if he was still faithful to Charisma.

They gathered their things. Skylar found her backpack and hauled it on her shoulders. Pandra, Kalan and Airi carried animal skin backpacks with some provisions in them. Pandra stated she would lead the way to Payan. She started up through the forest, following no specific path. Her legs were used to stepping on uneven ground, among shrubs, plants and tree roots. She walked with confidence. Mayrin and Airi eagerly lined up behind her. Skylar’s sixth sense never really worked on them, but she felt like they were doing this out of duty, and they couldn’t wait for it to end, like office workers on a Friday afternoon glancing at the clock every five minutes.

Kalan frowned uneasily as he glanced at Micah, who was being helped up by Viko.

“I’ll talk to my sister again,” he told Skylar and then went after the others.

“What did they say?” asked Micah. “And what did you say to them? It’s not fair. I want to know.”

“Nothing important, really. Charisma and Blake are in Payan, as I thought,” said Viko.

Micah was barely conscious. He was surprisingly still able to walk, but he ended up stuck in between Viko and Skylar, as they both held him. They progressed slowly but managed to keep the others in their field of vision. The small dragons were following them, their taloned paws scraping the ground, sometimes running off to play, and sometimes flying for a bit. Skylar was getting used to them. Their amber eyes and gleaming bluish scales were nice; she wouldn’t mind having blank paper and pencils to sketch them, as Viko had probably done before getting his tattoo. They were interesting subjects, with their crested heads and pointed ears, white scaled chests, thin bodies ending in a long sharp edged tail, and of course wide spread wings flapping at the air. Their loud cawing was irritating though; she wouldn’t want to have one as a pet.

The big one with the red and blue scales flew over their heads in the sky for a bit. Then he disappeared, leaving his kids in the care of Viko and Pandra, she supposed.

Viko followed her gaze. “He’s going to warn the other dragons,” he said. “We might need them soon. They’ll be there for us if we do.”

There was a silence as the three of them progressed with difficulty, wriggling between some small trees. Micah’s legs were stumbling more than walking.

“All right,” said Viko, “get on my back.”

“But are you gonna be okay?” Micah inquired.

He never got an answer. Viko didn’t leave him a choice, anyway. He placed himself in front of Micah and bent over a little so that he could climb on his back. Viko walked rapidly after that, his booted feet skillfully finding safe places to step just like Pandra as she walked farther ahead. Skylar had to push herself a bit to keep up.

Micah was fighting to remain conscious as he wrapped his good arm around Viko’s neck. “You’ve been distant lately.”

Trapped in a life threatening situation, Micah apparently chose to bring up his relationship problems. Skylar rolled her eyes as she walked behind them, thrusting her hands up in the air to fend off whipping branches and flying insects trying to bite her skin. The small dragons were still doing their cawing and growling thing as they chased after each other, sometimes running, and sometimes flying clumsily across the forest. Skylar just hoped they wouldn’t be found by more of those huntsmen.

“Distant? I’m carrying you on my back.” She couldn’t see him, but she was pretty sure Viko was rolling his eyes, too.

Micah buried his face in Viko’s dark brown hair. “I just… feel like… you don’t want me with you anymore.” He was breathing with difficulty. Maybe he was having asthma because of that smoke earlier. Now Skylar felt bad. She went to walk closer to him so she could find his inhaler in his jeans pocket. Even covered with dirt, Micah’s pants were surprisingly flashy.

“Eh, thanks,” he said quietly when she gave him the inhaler. “I had forgotten I had it.”

“You’re so silly.” She ruffled his hair.

“I think I’m dying,” he replied matter-of-factly. He was probably trying to be funny, but he was so livid that Skylar didn’t feel like laughing.

She glanced over at Kalan. He was still speaking with his sister.

“Working on that,” she muttered, more for herself.

“Answer my question,” Micah insisted, addressing Viko.

“We just can’t be the way we were back in your world. This is my world. It is abnormal for two men to be intimate together. It just can’t exist. Men and women have to be with each other only.”

“Jeez, you sound like my grandpa,” said Skylar, but they ignored her.

“But, why?” asked Micah miserably.

“Reproduction,” Viko said.

“Oh, that. Okay. Why did you date me then, if you knew you were just gonna come back here and move on with your life?”

“Because Blake asked me to.”

Skylar was furious. Viko wasn’t being honest. He was pretending like he didn’t care, again, and while Micah was hurt too. This was humiliating for him. Couldn’t Viko realize that?

“If this were a movie I’d be so angry at you for getting with me because of a reason like that. And then you’d have to work really hard to get me back, all the way to the ending with the cheesy music.” Micah was trying to turn it into a joke, but Skylar could hear sorrow in his voice, laced with the pain he was enduring.

Micah trusted too easily, and he was also easily broken-hearted, though with the years his shell had hardened, and he didn’t let it show too much.

“Who says I’d want to get you back?”

“Now,” Skylar interjected, “do you believe me when I say that he’s a complete jerk?”

“Yeah,” said Micah, his raspy voice not much louder than a whisper. “You’re a jerk, Vik. What about that crap you pulled off with my parents, what was that all about?”

“Improvising. I just did the same thing I did with Pandra’s father a while back.”

“So she’s your girlfriend.”

He hesitated. “It’s complicated. But we do belong together.”

Skylar walked faster so she could be next to Viko. She studied his face a bit. His jaw tightened, and his eyes narrowed.

“Stop staring at me,” he said.

“No,” she snapped at him.

“Let’s try something,” Micah said tiredly. “So you really don’t want me anymore then, Vik?”

“I don’t.”

Micah tilted his head toward Skylar. “Is he lying?”

“Yes.”

“Mind your own business you creepy witch,” Viko hissed, glaring at her sideways.

“Fine.”

She remained quiet for a while after that, some dry leaves and twigs crunching under her boots as they reached a flatter patch of land. Micah had closed his eyes, and he was in and out of consciousness. The dragons were never very far.

Kalan stopped walking at some point, waiting for Skylar to catch up so he could walk next to her, at the end of their little convoy.

“I tried, I really tried, but she won’t budge,” he said sadly.

“Thanks for trying. I’ll go talk to her then. We could take turns until she changes her mind; annoy her so much until she just gives in.” She knew this was what Micah would have done for her if the situation was reversed.

Kalan gave a long sigh. “Good luck.”