by Neha Yazmin
“Hah!” Mum’s voice startled me out of my reverie. “In the last half-century, some have gone on to say that Lydia and Christian are The System, its European division, anyway. Mac hardly does anything these days.”
“Who’s Mac?”
“Edward Macmillan,” mum informed me. “Likes to be known as Mac. He’s the head of The System’s European operations. Lydia’s been his right-hand man since he created her. Christian’s been her right-hand man since she made him. What I want to know is how they found out about you. Lydia couldn’t have seen you - she only sees vampires’ futures.”
It just kept coming. Christian had held back a lot from me. But then, so had my own mother and it got the human in me killed. She was still hiding a little from me now. Or perhaps I should have asked her my next question earlier.
“Who are the they, them, and everyone, you’ve been referring to, mum?” These people, whoever they were, had been a big part of my life. And my mother’s. I’d guessed they were the Slayers’ equivalent of The System.
I was right.
“A select group of people who know the secret,” she said informatively. “The Slayer works for them, and they work for her. It’s a team, really, charged with the mission to protect humans from the blood-suckers, as well as keep the secret. They helped hide you when you were born, protected and watched us when we came out of hiding, and will be so pleased to learn that you’re still alive.”
“They won’t have a problem with the fact that I’m a vampire?”
“One or two might have difficulty dealing with it,” she said wearily. “But no one can deny you the right to assume the role you were destined for. You are the Slayer. They thought they lost you but you have come back and when you meet them tomorrow-”
“Mum!” I protested. “I don’t know if I’m ready to meet my… bosses so soon.”
“We can’t waste any time, Ellie,” she warned me, getting to her feet. I rose too. “Lydia’s probably already seen you coming here. She might be planning her attack right now,” she panicked. “A plan might already be in place for when you come home… she might be implementing it as we speak. We’ll have to meet the others as soon as Heather and Jake leave the house tomorrow morning. This house is safe so we’ll stay put till then. I’ll leave you alone in your room tonight - you probably need the space.”
And that was it. Two seconds later, she was tucking me in my bed, kissing my forehead, and assuring me that everything would work out fine.
“Don’t worry, they’ll love you,” she told me as she shut my door and left my room.
Oh yes, she finally told me the name of my employers/employees… my team…
The Council.
Chapter 11: Human
Mum suspects there’s a mole within The Council. That’s how the vampires knew the next Slayer was still alive. “I aired my suspicions only once,” she explains, sitting on my bed as I get ready to meet my bosses. “But this theory was discarded along with all my hunches about what happened to you. Only the upper-level members knew about you and me, and those involved in protecting us. One of these people however, has betrayed me.”
“And we’re going to meet them because?” I ask, staring at the mirror.
I can’t believe she’s making me wear a knee-length satin dress, brown in colour and not me at all. Just to annoy her, I’m pairing it with thick black leggings and black leather ankle boots. I do like the fitted brown-leather coat she’s given me. Fanning out slightly from the waist and falling just past my knees, it hangs perfectly over my shoulders. If mum hadn’t said it was hers, that she used to wear it when she was the Slayer, I would have thought the coat was tailor-made for me.
Mum however, is sporting a pair of comfortable joggers, trainers, and a plain white T-shirt. “I need to be comfortable,” she explains when I eye her casual attire through the mirror’s reflection, “in case there’s an attack on the way.”
“And I don’t need the same comfort when I fight?”
“You’re not fighting,” she says strictly. “Though you’re strong, quick, and rather brilliant at fighting despite no training, you’d be no match for The System’s strongest warriors.”
I glare at her.
Getting up from the bed, she comes and smoothes down my wavy brown hair though it needs no tending. It used to bug me when she did that. “You’ll get your chance to fight them once you’re all trained up.”
“And you’d have a better chance at beating them than me?”
“Yes,” she insists. “I have years of training, experience, and skill. I know how they work, what to expect. I’m strong and quick enough to hold them off so you can escape.”
“I wouldn’t leave you mum!” If she thinks I’ll just let her fight a bunch of vamps by herself while I slip away, she’s got another thing coming. How can she think she’ll be able to cope with more than one at a time? And she says she used to be a vampire killer!
“You have to save yourself, Ellie. You’re the Slayer - your life is more important than mine.”
“No it’s not!” I cry out. “And are you sure I’m still the Slayer?”
As a human, I never felt stronger or faster or smarter than the next person. I didn’t have the advanced abilities mum said she always had. Sure, I think I’m faster than the average vampire, perhaps even stronger, but I don’t feel like the uber-vampire I ought to be.
“Of course, I’m sure, and-”
“But I never felt like I was… more, you know?”
“That’s because you didn’t know who you were,” she tells me, seemingly dusting off non-existent dandruff from my shoulders. “I always knew about my powers, and I embraced them. Honed them-”
“But-”
“Let me enlighten you on something,” she pleads. “You’ve always complained that the stairs make creaking and snapping sounds-”
“Dad can’t be bothered to fix them so he says he can’t hear it.”
“Heather doesn’t hear it either. I hear it…”
It sinks in. The creaking and snapping sound of the staircase isn’t audible to human ears and what I detected all my life was actually the tiniest of sounds. The pressure of feet on wood.
“But now that I’m a vampire,” I persist, “couldn’t that mean I’m not the Slayer after all? I wasn’t human when it was time for me to assume the official role, when the powers were supposed to manifest. What if they didn’t?”
“Your powers have always been within you. In your heart, your mind, your soul. Your bones, your skin. It’s who you are.”
“My blood is gone though…”
“I’m still a Poison Blood-”
“I thought the poison bloodline ended with me?” I gasp, bewildered.
“It did,” mum sighs sadly. “It can’t be passed down because it only gets inherited by the first daughter, something you’ll never have. The mother’s blood however, doesn’t change. Yes, most of my Slayer powers skipped down to you the moment you were born, latent and waiting for your 18th birthday, but my blood wasn’t drained of its poison.”
“Thank god,” I breathe, relieved. She’ll have some form of protection. The vampires won’t try to bite her. “Why didn’t you clarify this before?”
“Like I said,” she shrugs, “I never gave much importance to my blood. I forgot about it until some vampire called me a Poison Blood. I reckon we still retain the special quality to our blood and some of our powers after we give birth to a Slayer so we can protect her when she’s young. And to have a way of killing vampires in the interim. It’s not the same as having a full-strength Slayer, but it means we kill more of them than if we didn’t have the poison.”
I pick up on the term full-strength. “This means you’re not strong enough to fight more than one vampire at a time,” I panic. “In fact, I was going easy on you last night. Lydia’s warriors won’t be so generous.” I think I start hyperventilating.
“Calm down Ellie,” she says, hugging me to her. This time, her warmth comforts me. �
��I have a few other tricks up my sleeve. I won’t let anything happen to you before you meet The Council. And it’s imperative you meet them as soon as possible.”
The Council is based in London and we will take the train there. Once mum finishes writing a note to dad and Heather saying she is visiting her brother, uncle Roger (it’s not a lie - he’s a council member too), she informs me of a little pit-stop we will make on our way to the train station.
“When we couldn’t find you, all our bodyguards returned to London,” mum says as we glide into her car, eyes vigilant. “No one believed that The System had learned the truth and therefore the three of us didn’t need the heavy protection anymore. Since they were only here to protect the future Slayer, who they believed was dead, they had bigger problems to deal with. There would never be another Slayer, and so it would be up to The Council and them alone to hunt vampires.
“There was much to do, much to prepare. Recruit more fighters, source them from those outside our circle. They wanted me to go with them, but I had to stay where you’d be able to find me. I knew you’d come back, Ellie.”
“I’m glad I did.”
“Yes, and I’m glad there were two others who chose not to return to London with the rest,” she said, parking outside the house where those two individuals lived.
They are brother and sister, Amber and Aiden, the most loyal of guards who’d been protecting me from a distance. Before we exit the car, the door to the house opens and out comes a girl, same age as me, with hair so fair it’s almost silver. She runs up to us and throws her thin arms around mum as soon as she gets out of the car.
“Kim!” Amber cries with joy. “I didn’t believe it when I saw you coming but its true. You were right. I’m so relieved. I’m so…” she trails off as she lets go of mum and her eyes move over me.
Her face is pretty, round like a child’s, yet wise and serious. It seems to lose all colour when I smile at her. Is it scary to a human, a vampire’s smile? Christian’s smile had looked beautiful to me. Of course, I didn’t know he was a vampire back then. Amber knows what I am.
I take a step back so she knows I mean her no harm. This makes her frown though. Her pale blue eyes, big and round like an infant’s, yet mature beyond her years, plummet to the floor. She doesn’t like me at all. She can’t even look at me.
“Let’s go inside, Amber,” mum says quietly. “I don’t want the neighbours to get a proper look at Ellie.”
We rush inside, mum in the lead and Amber last, her feet dragging. Keeping as much distance from me as possible. Mum did say a few members of The Council would be wary about a vampire being the Slayer, but I hadn’t expected any disapproval from these two. If the most loyal of mum’s colleagues reacted like this, what kind of reception will I get from the senior people of the organisation?
“Great, Aiden, there you are,” mum exclaims as we enter the lounge. I don’t look at him, not ready for further backlash. I wish I was wearing my hoodie! Keeping my head down, eyes on my boots, I just bob my head a little as mum says, “Ellie this is Aiden. Aiden, you already know Ellie. Keep her company while Amber and I get our things.”
And she’s out in a flash, Amber jogging to keep up with her. The girl can’t wait to get away from me.
At least she trusts me not to eat her brother.
Since becoming an immortal, I’ve been close to humans, loads of them, but never alone in a room with one. A room saturated with his scent. He smells nicer than most humans, and I’m not talking about his aftershave or the washing powder fragrance wafting out of his clothes, but his actual, natural scent. The aroma of his blood. It’s much sweeter than any human I’ve been near, and to the average vampire, I imagine he would smell particularly delicious.
He smells delicious to me.
Not in the way that I want to feed on him, but the way I found Christian’s cinnamon smell irresistible and inviting when I was still human. I wonder why Aiden smells so good. What’s so special about him? Mum said he’s just really, really clever.
The silence in the room, disturbed only by his ragged breathing, his heart hammering inside his chest because he’s terrified of being in a room with a blood-sucker, becomes charged with his scent and I feel intoxicated by it.
It makes me thirsty.
I begin to wonder what his luscious-smelling blood tastes like when he clears his throat. Thank heavens he made that sound and disturbed my train of thought. He’s going to speak, finally mustering up enough courage to converse with a vampire. It should distract me from thinking about the warmth radiating off his body. Wondering about the feel of his skin under my hands. More than anything, the flavour of him. I realise it’s not his blood I want to taste, it’s him.
And I don’t even know what he looks like yet.
“Hi Ellie,” he says eventually, nervously.
Damn, his voice is stunning. Even as he fears for his life, his heartbeat going into overdrive at the fact that he’s talking to a demon, he sounds wonderful. I know he’s Amber’s older brother, but his voice tells me he is much older than I’d been expecting after seeing his teenaged sister. At least 25, I’d guess.
I hear him swallow before saying, “It’s nice to finally meet you.”
Then he walks in front of me and my head lifts on its own accord to see his face.
He is the most beautiful human I have ever seen.
If my heart hadn’t literally turned to stone, I imagine it would have started thrumming like a hummingbird’s. My stomach would have lurched and churned before dissolving completely. Fiery heat would have crept all over my skin, set my soul alight. Mouth would have dried into a desert. Knees weak. Breathless.
Or maybe none of those things would have happened if I was still human. Aiden was probably just a guy I’d think was cute, someone I fancied a little bit. But because all our emotions and sensations are magnified in this new life, it feels epic to me now.
As I curve my lips into a smile, one which I hope is much friendlier than the one that upset Amber earlier, I put everything into perspective.
No, this guy is not the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen. Doesn’t have the most melodic of voices. And no, I’m not crazy about him. I just think he’s attractive, that’s all. Everything’s just getting blown out of proportion.
Inflating.
Returning my smile, Aiden says, “I’m so, so relieved you’re okay, Ellie. I can’t explain how happy I am that you found your way back to us.”
Because his words seem heartfelt, I ask, “Really?”
He nods solemnly. “Amber especially.”
“Huh?” The girl who can’t bear to look at me?
He seems to read my mind. “She’s never managed to get over the guilt,” he explains in a low voice. “She was watching you that night. Well, she was always watching you, that was her main responsibility, and she lost you.”
By always watching me, he means watching my future. Mum explained when she told me we’d be coming here to collect the siblings, that Amber is psychic. If she concentrates, she can pretty much track your every movement in the coming minutes and hours. She sees the consequences of the decisions we will make.
But she can’t see vampires, so unfortunately, she can’t tell us what the enemy is up to. Once a vampire becomes a part of your future, it becomes very hard for Amber to monitor it. I’d disappeared off her radar completely after Christian turned me.
“It was on her watch - and mine as well - that you went missing,” Aiden continues glumly, guilt shadowing his pretty face. “We’ll never forgive ourselves for-”
“It wasn’t either of your faults,” I assure him vehemently. “Beating yourselves up over it won’t change what’s happened.”
“Is that what you told yourself after you changed?” he asks curiously.
“I didn’t accept what I’d become. But I knew I had to get on with it, and so I did.”
“Wow.” He looks pretty impressed with me and I feel giddy. I smile at him and he smiles back.
>
I think we have a moment. Well, I have a moment, gazing into his baby blue eyes, his oblong, milky-skinned face, and straw-coloured hair. He’s not that much taller than me. I wouldn’t have to stretch too much to kiss him. What? Am I thinking about kissing him?
Yes, yes I am. So stupid! What’s stupider is that I think he’s thinking about kissing me, when clearly he isn’t. Right? Why would he - I’m the un-dead remember? A monstrous blood-drinker. He’s been brought up to hunt and kill my kind. Probably finds me disgusting - I would if I were him. So I shouldn’t make myself believe that he’s leaning…
Or maybe he really is leaning? I have no idea. I can’t concentrate… I think I’m losing control of myself and the situation.
The moment I am 95 percent sure that Aiden and I are leaning towards each other, mum returns to the room. Its funny how I knew she was coming, heard her footsteps and Amber’s brisk walk behind her, and yet I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Aiden’s. Funny how her entrance startles us both and we turn to look at her at the same time. He straightens up. This proves he was leaning too… right?
Questioning myself, all insecure and nervous around a mere mortal, who probably isn’t half as good-looking as I think he is - what’s happening to me? I’m a bloody vampire, damn it!
He shouldn’t make me feel so…
Human.
Chapter 12: They’re waiting for me
The main reason we’re taking public transport and travelling in broad daylight is because the light of day is safer than the cover offered by darkness. The crowds and commuters create an additional barrier between us and the enemy. The System won’t risk exposure by coming at us head-on, attacking us in front of witnesses. This means they’ll be forced to play more cunning games, utilise trickery, and that in itself is a frightening prospect.
But at least they won’t pick a fight on the train.
Still, mum is being extra careful. As well as carrying a rucksack full of special weapons, she has arranged for The Council’s best fighters to pick us up from London. She called one of her bosses last night, Marcus, the one responsible for the vampire hunters, asking for back-up to wait for us on the platforms. Grudgingly, she’d admitted that it was because I was back - Marcus didn’t agree to deploy so many of his soldiers, as he liked to call them, until he got the truth out of her.