by K.N. Lee
The High Arc, however, is born with an untold amount of abilities; almost every High Arc has unlocked a new one. The last High Arc, unlocked the ability to cross universes; really one of the most impressive ability I’ve heard of. All of the abilities once unlocked, are passed on from one High Arc to the next.”
“Passed on how?” Something told me I didn’t really want to know, but I had to ask.
“Through their blood.”
20
“Their blood?” He couldn’t have been talking about blood ceremonies, those creepy rituals you see in movies. That just couldn’t be possible. This guy, the one my heart longed for, he believed he was a magical alien who also performed blood rituals!
He looked at me again in that expectant way. The way that said there should be nothing inside of me that questioned what he was telling me. He seemed let down again when I didn’t react the way he thought I would. Hell, if my body would have listened, I would have been long gone, running down highway 294 all the way to the safety of my house.
“Yes, all of the High Arcs are related, daughters of daughters.” Whew, internal sigh of relief. That made more sense and put a stop to the twisting that was happening in my stomach. When he said it, I felt as if he was still holding something back, something he wasn’t quite ready to tell me. This was becoming an annoying pattern with him. Dropping teasers and making me wait for answers. None of which had been delivered yet.
“So, she did her magic thing and opened up our universe, then what?” I was interested to know but my curiosity was perched on the borderline of terrified.
“The hunts were successful, obviously. They brought back different species of Earth to test, including a few humans. Some of the other species showed promise, but none quite like humans. They were genetically closer to us than anything else, they even shared similar features. This made them a great source, and they could produce their life force for up to 100 years on our planet if rationed and properly cared for. Combine that with their faster reproduction rates and everything was looking good for both the home world and the humans they had taken.
Each human was fitted with a tap and the sources were distributed to the public. Of course, scientists being scientists, as always, could not leave well enough alone. They continued their testing and figured out that by giving the test subjects some of our life force, we could double, and in some cases, triple their life expectancy.
The only down side was that it did have some negative effects on their reproduction rates. So, scouts were sent again and more humans were taken and distributed to villages, some families even received their own personal tap if they were wealthy enough to pay for them.
To combat the loss of offspring, each woman was scheduled to be mated twice before being treated to extend her life. Hormones were used to produce multiple births. The children were raised and bred. This process was set to repeat, making it possible to replenish the source without having to diminish the entire earth of its people.
On paper this was a great plan, but they conducted ever more research. They didn’t want to leave anything to chance. They were determined to make sure that this new source was not sent into extinction like all the others.”
“Okay, I’m still not seeing the problem.” His explanation was a little long winded, but it sounded like things were good. Okay, so it sounded really freaky, taking humans to breed them and feed from them like cattle. Instead of questioning it, I chose to swallow the bile that those thoughts had created in the back of my throat. “Why did they come here if things were working out so well with the humans on their planet?”
“Shortly after the treated sources were handed out, they discovered that by giving them our life force, it changed their own in more ways than sterilization. It made the sources more potent.”
“Potent?” There was a strange feeling in my gut; like I was missing something that should have been painfully obvious, but I was unable to process it. A wall inside my mind was blocking me from understanding it. I did not want to know.
“Yes. It changed the source and whoever drank it changed. They became addicted to it and were unable to control their thirst. A war erupted when the law to ration how much was allowed to be taken was put in place. No one wanted to keep the rations so low. It didn’t take long for chaos to spread, and as a result many lives were lost; both humans and our people.”
“You keep saying ‘our people’, but it’s sounding like we aren’t people at all. I’m starting to think that ‘our people’ were really cannibals, or as silly as it may sound; vampires.” I laughed expecting him to join me, but he didn’t. That is when it clicked. The look on his face told me I had hit the nail right on the head.
That was the link that I had overlooked. I knew that was what he was trying to say. He really believed that we were born from alien vampires! I burst into tiny giggles that quickly erupted into full blown laughter.
“That would be the closest definition,” his jaw tightened. He stared straight ahead with strained effort refusing to look at me, though I could tell he wanted to. I know I would want to see his reaction if it was me who had just dropped a crazy bomb the size of Manhattan.
“You know, I was willing to listen to all of this because you were sounding so much like my grandmother. Maybe that made me a little nostalgic, but the alien vampire thing is totally new.” I couldn’t stop laughing. I fanned my face with my hands to cool off my cheeks from the heat of the blood rushing to my face.
“I really wish you would take this more seriously,” I could tell he was disappointed by my reaction, but what did he honestly expect me to do? Was I supposed to admit to having always had a strange craving for blood and ask to be set up with my very own tap?
“I don’t know how to do that. You have to understand my position here,” I swallowed to stop any more laughter from spewing out. It appeared my brain decided to relay my nerves through a series of snorts and giggles.
“Will you at least listen to the rest of what I have to say?” He finally looked at me. He was showing patience, not seeming at all as irritated as I would have been.
“I have heard this much, I don’t see the harm in hearing the rest,” I took another deep breath and steadied myself for more, I had no idea what to expect, but from what he had told me so far, it couldn’t have been much easier to swallow.
“The mixed blood did something to them. People started to go insane. The scientists were urged to do more testing, find out why this was happening and to fix it. It wasn’t long until they realized that people had begun to drink directly from the humans instead of using the taps. The direct intake mixed the blood with the pheromones in the sweat of the humans and made it almost impossible to stop. It led to a lot of humans being drained to their very last drop.
Drinking the last drops of a source had never been a problem in the past, but the mixed blood was different. It was mutated and drinking so much of it at once had an adverse effect. It caused the vampire blood to mutate as well.
They started to change; they became evil, and those who were born with affinities began to use them in unspeakable ways. Instead of improving the world as they usually did, they began to tear it down. They forced their will on anyone who was weaker than they were.
As the numbers of the humans continued to dwindle, people started to demand that more be brought over. The High Arc denied these requests. She refused to cause another source to reach extinction because of the greed of our own people.
Of course, this declaration initiated outrage. The thirst was too much. Eventually they began to attack each other for the remaining humans. When there were no more humans to fight over, they began to feed on each other. It was as if it didn’t matter where the blood came from, as long as it made them stronger.
Feeding on each other was the worst thing imaginable; it changed them in a way that proved irreversible. They became stronger, too strong, and it turned out to be something that couldn’t be controlled. They became evil in the purest form. It ove
rrode their logic, their wants and desires. It turned them into something dark. One by one it just wrapped around their souls, and shredded them to pieces.”
The evil he described reminded me of my dream. The thoughts of that sticky darkness had my entire body covered in goose bumps. That was exactly what I saw and how it felt. The approach of that Darkness, I knew it would devour me, destroy me. He was talking about it figuratively, but it was something literal for me. It had been all around me, moving like it was deliberately coming for me, hungry to rip my flesh from me.
Maybe, I shouldn’t be so quick to judge his story. Once again this was too close to home to be coincidence. I wanted to try to take this more seriously and waited for him to continue. All the while logic and emotion raged a war inside my mind.
“After that, an evil erupted that was so horrible that even the High Arc could not control it. Trying to pull them back from their thirst was like fighting an impossible battle. The council pressured her to make a choice. Eventually she did make a decision. There would be a selection of people who would leave our world behind with hopes to return later when those who were left behind had gone extinct. They would attempt to start over.”
“The council? I thought she had no one to answer to, where does this council come into play?”
“She doesn’t actually. This High Arc was the first to appoint a council. She felt that the people should be able to voice their opinions about the decisions that affected our world. Especially after things started to go dark. She made it clear that she would still have the final say, and all her decisions were final.”
“How did she decide? I mean leaving behind so many people to just slaughter each other seems so heartless and cold. That couldn’t have been an easy decision for her to make.” His answered mattered more than to satisfy my curiosity. I needed to know, my instincts told me that it was important.
“She used one of her abilities, the ability to view auras. It’s like what you were doing before. Everyone emits their own field of energy, it tells you their desires, their personality, and it is their essence. By reading their auras she could see who had been corrupted and who was pure.”
“I was watching your aura?” I squinted trying to find it again, only there was still a block there. It was coming from him. I felt a physical push on my mind and I tried to push back but it proved to be useless effort as I had no idea what I was doing. He blocked me for a reason, He was hiding something.
“Yes, it’s basically a window into the soul. It lets you know what a person is really feeling, what their minds won’t allow them to say; it is very useful in determining whether or not someone is lying to you,” he said, ignoring the strained expression on my face. We both knew he was keeping me out. Was this because he was lying to me? I frowned and gave up; it would all come to light in time.
“Weren’t people mad when they found out what she was doing? I mean, they couldn’t have been happy to know that they were being left behind to rot or be slaughtered.”
“They didn’t know. The entire thing was kept very secret. People only found out after they were recruited and on a ship leaving the planet.”
“Still, it had to have been suspicious. People don’t just leave for no reason, and without word. How long did it take until they started to realize what she was doing?”
“You are very logical, Alexa.” He smiled, almost prideful. “The High Arc was aware of the suspicion this would raise. So, she told her Serve to wait until the last ship was boarded. No one would ever suspect that she would leave him behind. That is exactly why it caused such an upset when she did.”
“Her Serve?” He had to stop throwing out terms as if I understood them.
“Yes. This is what I am to you. Each High Arc has a Serve that is born just for them, to be by their side. It is the Serve’s duty to guide the High Arc and keep her on the right path. It’s also impossible for the High Arc to unlock her full abilities without first bonding with her Serve.” He said it like a checklist, something ingrained in his mind.
“Okay…so, how is it possible that she was able to leave him behind? What about their bond? By the way you described it, he was something of a key for her right?”
“Yeah, he was a key for her. Everyone assumed that he was left behind because his aura had been tainted. But it wasn’t until after the gateway was closed that they realized it was for other reasons.” His expression turned from prideful to somber.
“What other reasons?” I could conceive of nothing that could ever make me want to leave Lacal behind. This was ridiculous! The entire concept of what he was telling me should have been reason enough.
“Once here on earth, Rasmiyah changed our people’s appearance. The process was painful because it was done on a genetic level so that their offspring would have the same corrections to their features. There were certain things that needed to be removed, things that were impossible to overlook. Such as elongated ears, eyes without pupils, the coloration of our skin, and our height. A majority of our people grew to more than 8 feet tall.
The High Arc waited for these changes to be made. Then she made an announcement, laws that were to be followed. They were mostly about staying hidden and not giving in to greed. Under no circumstances were humans to be infused with our blood. There would be major consequences to anyone who broke her rules. After she disappeared, it became clear that the reason she left her Serve behind was because she knew that no one would be able to find her without him.”
“That was smart.” The thought of her leaving her Serve behind made me sick. I couldn’t believe she would leave him behind for such a selfish reason. If they were really that connected, wouldn’t he just go with her? There had to be more to the story than that. “Wait, so how did the Serve pass on his blood to make future Serves?”
“Serves are not related. It’s a random event. This way no one can try to eliminate one before he is able to form his bond with his High Arc.”
“I see.” Just then, something occurred to me about his story. The High Arcs were supposed to be daughters of daughters who bonded with their Serve in some mystical way that he had yet to explain. He kept referring to the fact that we were supposed to be making this bond. His earlier statement echoed in my mind. ‘I exist to be by your side’. My stomach turned, and the room began to spin. He couldn’t be saying what I thought he was. I pushed once more with my mind on the wall he placed between us. The space around him, that energy field, lit up and I knew it was true.
21
“You think I’m a High Arc, don’t you?” I filled my lungs with air and held it there. I knew what he was going to say, it was impossible to deny it. My hand burned inside of his and something inside me rippled with excitement.
“Yes, I know you are.” He believed it. His posture changed when he said it to confirm his convictions. He sat up taller, and pushed his shoulders back, head high.
“Okay,” I pulled my hand away from him. “This is crazy. You can’t honestly expect me to believe any of this.”
I got up and walked away from the couch to the other side of the room. The truth was that I had believed every word. At least up to the point where I became some weird alien vampire queen. That was one announcement that I couldn’t accept.
“Why not? It is the truth, Alexa,” he followed me across the room. “You’ve already been experiencing it for yourself. Have you forgotten the party, or the car, or what just happened in the kitchen?” He pointed to the room where I saw the red entangled in gray, the visible proof of his passion for me.
“Okay, so I had a few crazy delusions and lost my self-control once or twice, but that’s all very easily explained.” It really wasn’t, but I could come up with something if I tried hard enough.
“How?” He stared at me, challenging my denial.
“Well, the hallucinations, or whatever they are, were clearly caused by whatever the hell my grandmother gave me, and the self-control…well, it’s been a while since I have been that close to someone so a
ttractive. I’m just out of practice, and I overreacted.” I rushed to make up more reasons, but even as I spit them out I knew he couldn’t believe them. Hell, I didn’t believe any of it myself!
“You don’t consider the fact that your grandmother gave you a potion that magically healed you as evidence?”
“Yes, I do. It’s evidence of magic or science, not evidence that I’m this vampire ‘High Arc’ that you think you are looking for. It all seems more like coincidence. Besides, I told you about all that the other day, why didn’t you tell me all of this then?” I was the one challenging him now.
“I wasn’t sure how to,” he dropped his head. He was failing to convince me, and it was killing him.
“Don’t do that. Please don’t,” I sighed and lifted his head with my finger, the way he had done to me.
“Do what?” He looked at me, trying to figure out what else he had done to let me down and that made me feel even worse.
“Dropping your head, looking so vulnerable; I cann’t handle seeing you like that. I don’t even know why it affects me so much.” I looked away from him avoiding the sad gray clouds that filled the air around us. It hurt to see what he had been hiding, the storm brewing around us.
“I’m sorry, Alexa.” He kept his head up and straightened out his facial expression, but the cloud remained.
“Don’t be.” I turned back to him and placed my hand on his cheek, trying to ease his angst. “I need time, Lacal. This was already too strange to begin with. Then you tell me that I’m basically next in line to be in control of some ‘long hidden’ culture of vampires! It’s not exactly the easiest thing in the world to digest.”
“I really am sorry. I know it’s a lot. I will take you home now if you wish.” He sounded so defeated. It broke my heart to imagine leaving him like that. I didn’t want him to beat himself up over me or my decision to run away. This is exactly what he would have done if I decided to leave now.