by Sean Davies
Chloe reached into her pocket for the incendiary grenade that Chaz had given her. “Let’s see if you think this is funny,” she said through gritted teeth as she lifted and pulled the large metal release pin.
The dirt-coated Book Wielder lobbed the grenade towards the Deathscythe tree’s trunk and smiled as it hurtled towards her target. A smaller branch whipped the grenade up into the air at the very last second, and the larger branches batted it around in the air playfully until a scythe whacked it like a baseball bat far into the distance, where it exploded in a shower of flames.
Chloe swore and turned to run as the tree roared with hysteric delight. However, the young Book Wielder wasn’t quite fast enough, and the tip of a long wooden scythe pierced through her stomach.
✽ ✽ ✽
Genevieve was pacing around watching out for trouble, and Chaz was leaning up against a tree smoking a cigarette when Chloe reappeared.
The young girl was lying face down on the ground, with one bloody hand resting on the pages of the magical book. She was covered in dirt and reeked of mould. Her black jacket was torn just beside her spine and soaked in fresh blood.
Genie rushed to her side and Chaz threw his cigarette angrily into the trees.
“Chloe, Chloe? Are you okay?” Genie cried frantically, fearing the young girl was dead.
“It got me,” the girl groaned. “Right through…”
“How much you get?” Chaz asked in a sour tone.
“For fuck’s sake, Chaz, she needs help!” Genevieve screamed furiously.
Genie helped the poor Book Wielder onto her front, sitting her against the old stump, and she gasped nervously when she saw Chloe’s blood-soaked stomach and trousers.
Despite her crippling pain, Chloe reached into her ruined jacket and pulled out a small handful of Deathroot that had survived her narrow escape from the Gloom. She held out the crumbling roots in her shaking, bloodstained hand.
“Useless bitch!” Chaz shouted as he kicked the girl in her outstretched hand.
Genevieve had her Katana free of its Saya and to the Mage’s throat before the fragments of Deathroot hit the floor. The Mage’s purple eyes blazed with fury, but he stepped back nonetheless.
“Don’t even think of bringing her back to the fort for healing,” he said evilly.
“What the actual fuck?” Genevieve said in shock. “She needs proper help, you moron – she could die!”
“Think of it as her punishment for being completely and utterly fucking useless,” Chaz sneered. “Now we can find ourselves a decent Book Wielder,” he added cruelly as he walked off through the woods towards his car.
Genevieve screamed in frustration before looking helplessly at Chloe’s pale and limp form. She remembered that her saliva had healing properties and gently held the girl’s exposed skin together. Chloe winced in agony but allowed Genevieve to seal both sides of her puncture wound without resistance. Afterwards, Genevieve spat out a mouthful of blood curdled with dirt that tasted like pure poison, and lifted Chloe up in her arms. The Book Wielder clutched her book to her breast and closed her tired eyes.
“I’ve stopped the bleeding on the outside,” Genevieve explained as she darted through the forest, “but we’ve still got to get someone to fix the internal damage. Fuck what that prick said, we’ll get you to the fort, I’ll sort it with Seth...”
“I don’t want to go back,” Chloe sobbed in Genie’s arms. “Don’t make me go back, please.”
Genevieve shushed her gently. “We’ll get you fixed up and then figure something out, just stay with me, Chloe.”
The redhead nodded and whimpered in pain. Genie ran to the car as soon as they were clear of the trees and placed Chloe gently across the back seats of her jeep. Genevieve jumped into the front and begun driving to Fort Dominia, hoping that Seth would listen to reason, until she had a clever thought and began heading in the opposite direction.
“I’ve got a plan. I’m going to get you away from all this,” Genie said loudly. “But you’re going to have to hang on in there, okay, Chloe?”
Chloe groaned an acknowledgement and Genie put her pedal down to the metal. Genevieve drove as fast as she could towards Rura’s dividing mountain range, to the Briar’s Edge Hospital, slowing down only for other vehicles that she feared may be MPK patrol cars. Luckily, the drive went smoothly, and Genevieve pulled up outside the entrance, picked up Chloe, and rushed inside.
In the hospital, people were waiting patiently by the main desk or on rows of chairs, watching a cheesy soap opera that was playing on a large flickering television, or reading out-of-date newspapers and magazines to pass the time.
“My friend needs help,” Genie began as she cut in line at the reception desk. “She’s been in an accident,” she explained vaguely.
The young female receptionist looked up from her desk as the other patients muttered comments or complained about the smell. The woman eyed the filthy girl in Genie’s arms appraisingly and started to say something, when she caught Genevieve’s eyes. The receptionist turned as white as a sheet, and Genevieve knew that she could see them for their true crimson colour.
“Go right through… take a room on the left…” the receptionist babbled nervously. “I’ll send someone through… right away!”
Genevieve nodded in thanks, entered the main section of the hospital, and found an empty room. She laid Chloe down on the hospital bed, told the fading girl that everything was going to be okay, and paced around nervously until someone arrived.
Finally, a scruffy looking doctor with thinning grey hair walked into the room, holding a metal case in one hand and a syringe of silvery fluid in the other.
“You have cash, I take it?” he asked, looking over the top of his gold-rimmed spectacles.
“Yes,” Genevieve answered impatiently. “She had an accident, I think there’s internal bleeding.”
“An accident, hmm?” he smirked. “Gloom troubles, I take it. There’s no need to beat around the bush; I know what both of you are.”
“She was impaled through the stomach,” Genevieve explained. “I sealed the wound to stop the bleeding…”
“Five-hundred Credits and she’ll be as good as new. It will get rid of that recent damage, too,” he said nonchalantly as he gestured to Chloe’s bandaged arm. “My Alchemist contacts are very good at their craft. I also have blood packs for sale, a hundred Credits a piece. Who are you with?”
Genevieve hesitated, not wanting to reveal their affiliation, but the doctor looked at her insistently. “The Golden Fangs…” she sighed. “But only reluctantly.”
The doctor smiled. “Then I’ll have to reluctantly ask for another twenty-five percent on top of your total.”
Genie groaned. “Fine, give me two blood packs and make it an even thousand.”
She forked out the money with a newfound gratitude to Seth and Gaius’ generosity when it came to her wages, and looked on in anticipation as the doctor uncapped the syringe’s needle. He injected the Book Wielder in her undamaged arm, and within a few minutes the colour had returned to Chloe’s filthy skin and she slowly sat upright.
“Wow, thank you,” Chloe said, astonished. “I thought I was done for!”
“Yes, well…” The doctor trailed off in a bored voice as he handed Genevieve two blood packs from the silver case. “You can clean yourselves up a bit before you leave, there’s an adjoining bathroom and a cupboard full of towels and the like. Help yourselves, and leave them in a pile by the bins. Pleasure doing business with you,” he grinned greedily before leaving them in the room.
Genevieve went to help Chloe off the bed, but the Book Wielder quickly leapt to her feet, threw her ruined jacket at the bins, and pranced into the bathroom.
“I feel better than ever!” she shouted over the running sink.
“I’m glad, I was so worried.” Genevieve sighed with relief as she grabbed some towels, dusted herself off, and drained one of the blood packs dry.
“I’ll find some way to
pay you back for all this, I promise!” Chloe called. “I’m dreading going back, though.”
Genevieve brought two towels into the bathroom and passed one to Chloe. “Don’t worry, you’re not going back.”
“But how… what about my parents? And the gang?!” She stuttered in surprise.
“I’ve got a contact in the Trinity,” Genie explained as she wiped the worst of the filth from Chloe’s ripped t-shirt. “I reckon he’ll help.”
“What if he doesn’t?” the redhead asked nervously as she dried her face.
“We’ll figure it out,” Genevieve said firmly. She had no intention of failing the Book Wielder. “Where do your parents live?”
“A little village outside of Woodsholme called Colne Tranquillia,” Chloe replied.
“Then I guess we’re heading back to Woodsholme way,” Genevieve said with a confident smile.
The two girls dropped the dirty towels by the bins, grabbed their things, and quickly left the hospital, ignoring the looks of the bewildered people in the lobby who had seen Chloe just moments before on death’s door.
Genevieve took instructions from Chloe on the quickest way to her home village, and in-between the Book Wielder described her latest experience within the Gloom in terrifying detail. Genie spotted a red telephone box opposite an old rustic pub and pulled the car over.
“I’m going to call my contact,” Genie said as she scraped some loose change out of her drink holders. “Stay here, I’ll be right back.”
“Okay, cool,” Chloe said turning on the interior light, and then began flicking through her book casually, absorbing knowledge about magical force spells.
Genevieve dug the contact card Jonathan had given her out from her purse, inserted the change and dialled the number, all the while keeping one eye on the jeep in case of unforeseen trouble.
“Hello, who is it?” Jonathan asked politely from the other end after a long, distorted crackling sound.
“It’s Genevieve Jameson,” she began.
“Ah, good to hear from you. Have you decided to take us up on our offer?” he asked eagerly.
Genie scrunched her face up. “Not quite. I was hoping you could do me a favour…”
“That depends what the favour is,” he chuckled.
“I’ve got a friend and she needs protection. Her parents, too,” Genie explained.
“You found Annabelle?!” he asked in shock.
Genie flinched from the mention of her name but was also slightly impressed that he remembered. “No, a different friend.”
“Well, these things take a lot of time,” Jonathan hedged. “I’ll see what I can do, but it might take a while to get clearance-”
“She’s a Book Wielder,” Genie interrupted, hoping that Chloe’s status would fast-track her access into the Trinity of Old.
“Oh!” Jonathan beamed. “In that case I should be able to get them access by tomorrow, if the checks come through okay, that is. What are their names?”
Genevieve smiled in triumph. “The Book Wielder is called Chloe O’Kelly. She’s only young but she’s the toughest teenager I’ve ever met. I’m not sure about her parents’ names, though.”
“That’s fine, I can work with that,” he replied happily. “I take it she’s another reluctant Golden Fang? I’ve got to ask; why is she choosing to defect now?”
“She almost died tonight, at the bladed hands of some killer tree-thing,” Genevieve began. “One of the gang’s high-ups tried kicking the shit out of her instead of helping. They regularly put her in harm’s way, and refuse her treatment when she doesn’t perform as well as her more experienced syringe-headed predecessor…”
“That really doesn’t surprise me,” Jonathan cut in with an aggravated sigh. “Why aren’t you defecting? After what you just said…”
‘Revenge against the Morriganigh’, Genevieve almost said, but would’ve felt childish for saying so and quickly stopped herself from uttering the words.
“Hello? Genie, are you still there?” Jonathan said, clearly wondering if she’d hung up.
“Yeah, sorry, I’m at a payphone and my credit is almost out,” she lied. “Where shall we meet you tomorrow?”
“Can you get to the Capital Library?” he answered quickly, afraid that the call would end.
“Sure, no worries,” she replied. “Tomorrow at the Capital Library it is, then. Thanks, Jonathan.”
“No, thank you,” he said gratefully, and then hung up.
Genevieve returned to the car and gave Chloe a wide grin. “You’re all in. We’re meeting them tomorrow in the Capital!”
“Really?!” Chloe dropped her book and hugged Genie hard. “You are the best! Oh, but what about my art? And what about you? How are you going to deal with Goldfang and his cronies?!”
“I’ll collect your art and take it back to my place, and get it to you whenever I can, I promise,” Genie replied cheerfully. “And best friends keep their promises.”
“Cheers,” Chloe sighed with relief. “But still… what about you?!”
“I’m going to tell them that you died back in that hospital, and that it was all Chaz’s fault.” Genevieve’s face went sour and tears poured down her face. “Annabelle taught me how to turn on the waterworks when we were five,” Genie sobbed violently.
“Wow, you’re good.” Chloe nodded appreciatively.
Genevieve laughed and wiped away her tears. “Let’s go grab your parents.”
The rest of the short drive to Chloe’s house was cheerful, until the young Book Wielder realised that she needed to catch her parents up on everything from the Supernatural secret society to the Gloom, and convince them to abandon their house on top of it all.
“You’ll be okay,” Genie said reassuringly as they pulled up outside the large, semi-detached house. “Just be sure to instil a sense of urgency into them; this village is on the Shadow Circle and Triumvir side of the map, after all.”
Chloe nodded slowly, took a long breath, and then stayed in the car.
“It can’t be as hard as facing the Gloom, right?” Genie said persuasively.
“Yeah, you’re right.” The redhead sighed again, but looked back as she left the jeep. “Do you think I could take a quick shower, though? I reek like death.”
Genevieve surveyed her tranquil surroundings and sighed. “A quick one. I’ll watch your house. Oh, could you bring something to wipe down the back seats when you’re done? Your blood is still smothered all over them,” Genie giggled.
“You got it,” Chloe replied. “Wish me luck!” she called back as she jogged to the front of the old house.
Genevieve got out of her jeep and leant against its cold chassis as she waited. Under the faint white light of Mydia’s twin moons, Genevieve quickly grew tired and rummaged around her glove compartment for a packet of cigarettes. She rarely smoked tobacco without a sprinkling of Dreamleaf, but liked to have something to do when she was forced to wait for long periods of time.
Eventually, Genie saw a middle-aged man and woman slinging black bin bags and suitcases out onto the front driveway. Not long after the lights in the house went out, a freshly dressed Chloe led her parents to Genevieve.
“Mum, Dad – this is Genevieve,” she said politely. “Genevieve, this is Kaitlyn and Brian.”
“Nice to meet you,” Genevieve said kindly, shaking their hands.
“So… she’s a Vampire?” Brian asked Chloe nervously as he retracted his hand from Genie’s cold grip.
“Dad, don’t be rude!” Chloe scolded.
“Sorry,” Brian said, first to Chloe and then again to Genevieve.
“It’s cool,” Genevieve replied. “I’m pretty new to all this stuff myself.”
“Thank you for helping our daughter,” Kaitlyn said gratefully. She was the spitting image of Chloe, but older.
“It’s no trouble,” Genevieve replied earnestly. “I’m in a similar position myself. Now let’s get loaded up, we’ve got a long night of driving ahead,” she said in a firm t
one, and Genevieve smiled inwardly at the fact that she was giving orders to her elders.
“You’ve still got the Sunshield potions, right?” Chloe asked as they loaded up the trunk.
“Yeah, thankfully,” Genie replied. “Otherwise you’d be throwing me in the trunk along with these bags,” she joked.
Chloe suddenly grabbed Genevieve, wrapped her arms around her tightly, and wept. Genie smiled and stroked the girl’s damp hair softly.
“It’s okay,” Genevieve whispered gently. “It’s all going to be okay from now on.”
Genevieve felt as though she had gained a little sister, and although she was glad to have the young Book Wielder out of harm’s way, Genie would miss her terribly.
“I’m sorry,” Chloe said through the tears. “I don’t normally get like this…”
Genevieve chuckled. “It’s understandable considering the night you’ve had.”
“Do you think they’ll let me visit you?” Chloe asked sadly.
“I’m not sure, it will probably be difficult,” Genie answered honestly. “But we’ll find some way of meeting up again, I promise.”
“And best friends keep their promises,” Chloe said with a smile.
Genevieve chuckled. “That’s right. Now, we really should get going in case you almost die again,” she said jokingly.
“Yeah, I try and limit myself to one near-death experience a night,” Chloe laughed, and continued with the hasty packing.
Once their most precious possessions were loaded, Chloe and her parents climbed into the back of Genie’s jeep, which had been wiped clean long before Brian and Kaitlyn could catch a glimpse of their daughter’s dried blood. They put on their seatbelts and said goodbye to their house as Genevieve pulled away.
Chapter 10
The Capital: Imperia City
After a lengthy question and answer session regarding the Supernatural world, the O’Kelly family had finally fallen asleep together on the back seat of the jeep. As the humans slept soundly, Genevieve had driven all through the night, and drank her remaining blood pack along with a vial of Sunshield potion as the sun began to rise. The roads grew wider and more congested, and Genevieve joined a slow-moving queue of cars headed for the Capital City.