“Kit, its Stacy.” Levi said, his hand gently brushing hers. She turned away, feeling very bad for doing so.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “What do we do now?” It was something that had laid on her mind for quite a while and she wasn’t too sure about what to do next.
He shrugged for both of her suggestions. “I’m not sure Kit, knowing you though; I guess you’re going to have to figure it out on your own.” He turned his head towards the door, the cries of Stacy erupting through.
Kit supressed the need to snigger at his comment, “look Levi, I’m really sorry about before but- “
She was cut off from whatever she was about to say, because the nurse burst through the doors. “Please!” She cried, “The girl needs help.” She set her lips into a thin line, watching the two with an urgent look. “Please.” She tried again.
It took Kit only a few seconds to react, when she did though, she had already burst through the doors of the infirmary and was by Stacy’s crouched figure.
“Stacy!” Kit said, her hand going to the girl’s freezing white hand. Stacy shook her head and almost growled at her. But she couldn’t – Stacy was clearly in too much pain – her back was arched high and she was sweating hard and breaking raggedly.
. Levi stood still, his entire posture turned rigid. “What do we do Kit?” He asked with just as much urgency as the nurse.
Kit turned towards him; her eyes were rimmed red with stress. “I. Don’t. Know!” She whimpered, stepping away from Stacy, who cried once more. Kit’s eyes grew hazy and cloudy. The puddle of tears that poured down Stacy’s face looked like blood, suddenly everything turned into her worst nightmare. It was like watching some type of horror movie right before her eyes.
“Help me!” Stacy managed to say as she bent over and was lurched into an awkward position, holding her arms which started to shake far too much to be real. The most incredibly frightening thing happened just then… Stacy’s eyes turned black. Not the type of black you saw at midnight, but the type that you’d only be able to see from one other thing – Claudius – she was obviously becoming what he was. A hybrid.
The sudden realization started to sink in, and Kit did the only thing she could. “Levi! She’s turning into a hybrid. Don’t you see, a simple scratch from him towards our kind turns us into what he is?” Kit said, laying a curse afterwards.
Levi smacked himself in the forehead. “Of course. Oh Kit… what about the teachers and everyone else? What happens if they get killed, or scratched, there will be none of us left?”
Kit stared at him, mouth gaping in a straight line, “we have to kill that race before it spreads. If Stacy does turn, then we must… “She couldn’t finish the sentence and in turn yelled and kicked the metal wall.
“We can’t do that Kit! What would we be if we did? If we killed her then we’ll just be doing everything we told ourselves, we weren’t. We’ll become what the Academy wants us to become.”
Kit knew he was right. The whole time she’d known Levi, she had told him that she never wanted to be a murderer that she was never going to do this type of harm. “Yes, I’m so sorry.”
Levi walked over to her, a look of understanding crossing his flawless features. “I’m sorry as well Kit.” He drew her into a hug, placing his head atop hers. She closed her eyes, loving the way that he breathed, so steadily. It made her feel alive again, like something she would never truly find with anyone else.
“I- I really do love you.” She said shakily, craning her head to look into those two familiar eyes. “I don’t need, or want, anything else.” She whispered.
“Shush Kit, say no more at all. “He said and brought his lips to hers. Finally, something had awakened her; something was finally bringing her out of that dark state, that place where she was lost. She could almost feel the sun when she was with him, and it was so light, so free and so… right.
When he drew back, that connection broke and she was left with a slight electric feel bouncing up her arms.
“Let’s get Stacy out of here.” He raised his eyebrows, wanting to smile but thinking that now wasn’t the time.
“Great idea.” She said as they both crouched low. Levi ended up hauling Stacy over his shoulder rather effortlessly and Kit was left wandering how he did it so easily.
“Kit, you may want to keep up during this point.’ Levi said, half grinning at her. She nodded, pulling herself out of the daze.
“Yeah, sorry, will do.” She trailed after Levi, kind of slowly but at a good pace for having basically spent a long time doing a big errand – not to mention being tortured by Claudius the night before. “Where are we going?”
She shook his head at that, turning on an angle that he could see her. “We have to lock Stacy up for the time being. Do you have… ah… wolfs-bane?” He said, his cheeks turning slightly pink.
Kit blinked, “wolfs what?”
He rolled his eyes. “Of course,” he mumbled ironically to himself. “Wolfs-bane is a type of plant that werewolves or hybrids cannot stand. Believe me when I say it hurts – well, I’ve never tried it but still.” He shrugged. “Mind running as quick as possible down the too alchemy lab?”
She smiled, “of course.” She said, and then after a slight pause added, “I’m not sure what it looks like though.” A quizzical look played across her face.
He laughed, “Seriously Kit, just ask someone. I have to go, meet me in the cellar – the place where we keep the prisoners.” He said with a wink and dashed off in the direction.
Kit ran down a flight of stone stairs, having only a slightly distinct idea where she was going. Her eyes seemed to dilate as everything grew slightly darker. The door to the alchemy lab was already open, weird…
She cleared her throat in the doorway, the smell of plants bursting towards her. “Excuse me someone.” She said, tapping against the wood of the door.
There came no reply. What a waste being here if no one could tell her what wolfs-bane was. Kit was about to turn and leave when a voice urged her forwards.
“Wait, Kitara!” She knew that voice, she swore she did.
“Miss Marla?” She whispered, stepping inside. It took a while for her eyes to properly adjust; even she was having trouble seeing.
“Yes, please come over here.” Said Miss Marla, her voice withered and small. She thought Miss Marla was with the other teachers battling that wrenched beast.
She followed her voice though until she almost tripped over a bench where Miss Marla was sprawled upon, her head was bleeding with quite a large scale of blood dripping down the woman’s pale forehead.
Kit gasped, “What happened? Was there an attack? Are the other teachers dead- “?
“We were fighting it – Claudius – he is beyond horrible and he got us all off guard. We fought as hard and fast as we could, but he threw me against the wall, I woke up here, not sure by whom.” Her look became far off. “A professor was treating me earlier, placing the plants on my head, giving me potions. It actually worked.”
Kit was glad to hear one good thing; however, the mystery about what happened to the other teachers has a very illogical explanation that Kit summoned in her mind. “What happened to the other, where any attacked?”
Miss Marla paused a moment, thinking. “Ah, yes, Mr Sand was, uh, scratched across the face I think. If you ask me, Claudius was trying to do it on purpose – almost as if scratching us with his claws was going to make him succeed in something and- “
“Oh no,” Kit whispered drastically, running her hands through her now tattered brown hair. “Miss Marla, he was doing it on purpose. Don’t you see, by him clawing our kind, he turns us into a hybrid. Stacy is turning, she was clawed.”
There wasn’t anything to describe what Miss Marla’s expression turned into, but the closest thing Kit could sum up was pure, depthless horror. “What?” She whispered so softly that it was barely audible.
“I think he’s creating an army, not just any army though, he wants to rid the wo
rld of its inhabitants – either that or he wants out entire race gone.” Kit said, her words dissolving into the suspenseful darkness that surrounded her.
Miss Marla sighed, sitting up straight, a look of pain crossing her face. “Look, what did you come here to get? I’ll get whatever you need for you; after all, I did use to teach alchemy.”
Kit nodded with a small smile. “I need wolfs-bane and lots of it.”
Miss Marla nodded in understanding. “I have kept quite a lot of it in that cupboard there.” She aimed her finger, which was shaking a lot, towards an old wooden cupboard. “I used to collect samples, took a bloody long time to get,” she shook her head and lay back against the counter.
“Thanks so much, I promise it will come good.” Kit said, smiling sadly. Perhaps the greatest tragedy had just happened, right during the Academy, everything like this happened – after all – under the shade of the moon.
* * * * * *
With two bags filled with wolfs-bane, Kit found managed to find Levi watching an unconscious Stacy. His eyes were big and sad. She crept up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist soothingly. He jumped under touch, though the moment she recognized it was her, he sighed.
“She should be out for a while.” He whispered, probably worried that Stacy would wake, an ugly shade of thick black eyes staring at the two. Kit shuddered at the thought.
“Yeah, how horrible it would be, I mean, she’s going through so much pain.” Kit said, recounting the look of pure pain that had appeared upon Stacy’s face not that long again. Although Kit hadn’t really liked Stacy, she felt extremely bad for her.
Levi nodded as Kit sling the bags onto the floor at his feet. “The wolfs-bane is in case she gets out of control. Did anyone help you find it?”
“Yes, Miss Marla showed me.” Said Kit and suddenly she launched into the story about what Miss Marla said happened to the teachers. She told him about Mr Sand being attacked by Claudius.
“What?” Levi didn’t say it as a question, more as a statement, but his look of surprise and horror was identical to Miss Marla’s when Kit shared the news.
“I’m serious! We can’t let him build his army, have you any idea what will happen?” Kit snapped, her voice rising with all the pressure. He laid a firm hand on her back.
“I don’t want to imagine what will happen. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like. I’m completely with you on this, but Claudius and his little minion hags won’t be at it for long.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so agitated, but the way that Stacy was screaming was almost too much to take for Kit. Slowly, Stacy’s eyes began to turn golden, and she watched as a thick coat of sweat poured down the girl’s body like a shower of rain.
Levi looked away, Sally was right up against the metal cage, staring at Stacy’s cuffed hands and chained feet with such a horrified look.
“I can’t take this!” Kit threw her hands up, knowing she wasn’t usually the one to give up so easily, but the weight of all the problems was beginning to blur her mind and thoughts into a billion different pieces, like glass shattering.
Without a word, Levi followed her out the door, his face looked grim and pale, she knew he had had enough as well.
“I can’t stand seeing her like this,” Kit said after a moment of silence. “She’s going to turn very soon, and I was looking it up in a book, apparently they are nearly indestructible beneath the full moon.” Kit looked away from Levi, feeling a sudden need to be close to him but also feeling guilty about Stacy.
For a moment, he didn’t answer, just stared straight over the balcony they were sitting on, his eyes remained secured on that golden orb known as the moon. “To think she must be going through it almost…” he trailed off, momentarily wordless.
“Impossible,” Kit finished for him.
“Yeah that,” he pulled Kit towards him until she was sitting on his lap, his hands gently weaving their way through a rich tunnel of her perfect dark brown curls. “Kit, I need you there with me, but I don’t want you to get hurt,” he whispered softly, and she shivered from his breath.
“That’s why I’m going to fight no matter what Levi,” she told him, promised him rather. “Because I want to be there with you, we are to never leave each other, I will never leave you.”
He sighed, “I’ll take care of you Kitty, and we will take care of each other because we will always stay by each other’s side.”
Kit almost laughed, but it came out as a small croak, her cheeks turned crimson and she looked at Levi whilst biting her lip. “You are the most- “
“Handsome guy on the planet, you need not tell me each day,” he countered and brought his lips to hers. Now had they been human, they’d have fallen off the balcony and probably died, but she knew that if she was in his arms that everything would be fine.
A moment later she pulled back, Kit didn’t want to, she had to because of the scream. It was a scream like a thousand souls were being ripped apart, indulging the harmonic rhythms of the windless skies about them, drumming to the beat of the non-senseless mind of Kit.
“What the hell was that?” Kit asked, standing up off the edge of the balcony. Her cheeks were scarlet, and she felt flushed. Nothing prevented her from running inside, not even Levi’s harsh protests for her not to.
Her feet pummelled across the stone walkway until she glided past the mass of students who had stopped mid-track to listen to where the scream came from.
She rushed past them, hearing Levi on her heels, a mass of triumphant cries coming from the room she was just in. She barged through the metal doors, running towards Stacy’s cell – but nothing was in there.
Sally stood crouching in a corner, just under a stone statue of an angel. Her hands covered her head, she was whimpering little prayers repeatedly and when Kit crouched down beside her and placed her hands on her shoulder, Sally screamed.
“Sally! It’s me, it’s Kit!” She said defensively.
A moment later, tears began streaming down the other girl’s face, unrolling into a mass of almost waterfalls. Her heart had officially broken, Kit thought mentally. She wrapped her arm around her shoulder and helped her up.
Shakily, Sally stood her legs and hands trembling. It was then Kit realized that the window had been smashed through, almost as if someone or something had glided through it, erupting the mass into a pile of shattered pieces.
“Stacy…” Kit breathed, hearing Levi’s sharp intake of breath beside her.
“Where do you think she’s gone?” Levi knew he didn’t want the answer, it was obvious, and Kit didn’t want to answer him.
“To Claudius.”
* * * * * *
“We have to get there before she does!” Kit ordered frantically, checking her gear to make sure there were no holes or anything in it. When it was clarified that there wasn’t anything, she gently slipped outside into the cold weather, where a thick patch of rain came pouring all over her.
Levi joined her outside a moment later, checking his watch as he did. “Do you know how dangerous it could be Kit?” he asked, already shaking his head. “I won’t let you go, if you die…” he trailed off, not even wanting to finish the sentence.
“Death is our nature,” she finished for him, cupping his cool cheeks as she did.
He closed his eyes at the feel of her slender fingers, when he opened his eyes, he nodded. “Alright, but if I say we fall back, then you must run!” He whispered.
Kit nodded, “of course.”
* * * * *
They went through the exact same forest they had been many times. It was dark, and Kit was immediately aware that it was dangerous. She jumped every time a bird flew from a nearby branch, it cut into her thoughts about everything good.
Thanks to go though, she wasn’t alone and had Levi with her.
“You know, if we don’t make it…” She trailed off, shuddering at the image that came up in her over active mind.
/> He stopped walking beside her, and stood facing her, a blank look on his face. “We will make it out Kit, and remember, right now, we are not fighting, we are just… spying.” His mouth coiled from a look of hurt, to a secretive smirk.
She nodded slowly, placing her hands on his shoulders so she could look him in the eye, “sometimes, I really worry about you. You’re just… never afraid of anything at all… it actually scares me!”
A look of awe passed over his fine features and he grinned. “You don’t need to worry about me! If I have you, I’m all good.”
“I’ll always worry,” she smiled and pulled him towards her rather precariously.
His arms wrapped around her small frame and he set his head atop hers, smiling to himself as he did. Levi loved how well Kit fit against him, loved the way she seemed to innocent when she was worried about him.
When she pulled away and continued walking, her boots soundlessly stepping against the muddied ground, she was glad that if this were to be her final moment that they were together.
“How about we go around it, so that we can look over Claudius’s cave, seeing whether anything comes in or comes out,” she shrugged, turning around to face Levi.
He made a face at her, opening his mouth to say something, then he closed it when a figure dashed out from the dark. It was so sudden that he couldn’t help but do anything, so he took out his sword, having next to know time before it stopped in front of them.
From then on, no one was sure what happened, because they were facing to face with Claudius, the most dangerous Hybrid in the world.
“Sorry, I am afraid there will be no ‘spying’ tonight.” Claudius made a rather wolfish grin, and then something grabbed Kit by the hair, hauling her into the night.
* * * * * *
“Hey! Quit pulling at my hair!” Kit snapped, trying to whack away one of the hags reaching hands. The hag tried to pull her hair back as far as Kit could go, twisting her into a harsh position.
The Night Walkers Page 17