“I’m fine, thank you for asking, I felt funny. My heart beat started beating faster, my heart felt like it grew twice its size, my eyes felt like a match had been struck against them setting them on fire, and my body got much colder. I even felt like a current was running through my body. I still don’t know if it went away yet.”
“It went away don’t worry, I wouldn’t be able to stand this close to you. When we were running, I tried several times to get close enough to hold your hand, but it felt like a force was pushing me farther away, that’s when I yelled at you to slow down.”
Everyone started giggling at that remark.
“I knew you were something special all along. Well at least we know not to make you angry. Jess what happened to your arm?” Davie asked.
“Well this is what happens, when you touch Ava, when her powers abrupt.”
“I see, well don’t worry, after you go to sleep it will heal, and when you wake up it will be like it never happened. For you Ava, I will try to get you some answers before we have to test the potion. I can’t promise you anything, but I will do my best.”
“I appreciate it. Jess and I were hoping earlier to be able to learn a few things. Well let’s say, be careful what you wish for. I did learn something new about my abilities, but not quite in the way I’d hoped. So, now I’m just going to go to bed I feel absolutely drained.”
Jess stepped closer to me and put his arm lightly around my shoulders, “I’m sure everyone here is really tired after today’s events. Shall we all get some sleep.”
“Well, we were going to trade out during the day to stay on guard. So tonight we won’t be getting much sleep.”
“Why don’t you just shut the cave’s door? That way everyone can get some sleep. Plus, if anyone was to try to get in we would know it. Did anyone happen to search inside the cave?”
Davie looked at me, “Yes, Misty searched every corner she could think of.”
“Well that’s a relief, if its okay with you Jess and I are going to go catch some shut eye. If you need us just let us know.”
“Okay, but I think I’ll take your advice and shut the cave’s door. At least we know anyone can’t get into the cave from the outside. Once it’s closed you’re only able to open it from the inside, it was made this way to keep out intruders.”
“I’m glad you’re considering my option. Well goodnight everyone, if nothing happens, Jess and I will see you in the “morning”.”
“We’ll do, and Ava if I’ve never told you this I’m proud of you.” Kim walked over to me and hugged me tightly.
“You better stop Kim, you’re going to make me all teary eyed,” I hugged her back just as tight.
Once we pulled away Jess grabbed my hand, “We’ll see you in the morning.” Jess leaned down and picked me up to carry me to our room as usual. What a day this has been I thought to myself.
10
Jess and I really didn’t have much to say to one another. I can only speak for myself when I say I’m absolutely beat, and I say Jess is too. After Jess carried me to our room, all I could think about was lying down next to him and snuggling up against his body. This, I’ll have to say is always my favorite part of the day, I could see his body plainly now, his long firm and lean body silhouetted out on our bed. His hair tousled about in that wind blown sexy way that always gets my attention. I love everything about him. I just hope he isn’t scared of me now. I don’t even know what to make of my new powers. I know this new power isn’t anything from the vampire heritage in me, that just makes me wonder what else is in my family history that no one knows about.
“Jess, do you think we’ll ever go back to Deerneck and visit?”
“I don’t know. Why do you ask?”
“Well, I was hoping that maybe someone there might have the answers I’m searching for. I know my parents aren’t alive, but maybe I have some other relatives that may know something about my heritage.”
“They might be someone there, but you know it would take a while to find someone who’s willing to talk about it.”
“I know it might just be a loss cause, but I just have to try.”
“Well maybe one day we can go back.”
“Even if we don’t get the opportunity, it’s a little nice knowing that the option is there at least.”
“Yeah, I’ll have to agree with you, it would be nice to go back and see how things have changed over the years, but we both know that right now isn’t the best time to go.”
“I know. Well, good night Jess…. I love you.”
“Goodnight Ava, I love you too.”
It’s funny how at times you can be so tired that even holding your eyes open can be a challenge, but once you have the opportunity to close them you become wide awake. Well it seems that, tonight is going to be one of those nights; I’m so tired I can’t sleep. Imagine that. Lately I’ve done so much thinking; I’m beginning to get really tired of it. I keep thinking about what Jess and I had discussed earlier. It would be nice to go back to Deerneck, but even I know that finding someone that would be able to help me is going to be challenging. Even if there’s someone that can help me, there’s no guarantee that he or she will.
After I’ve tossed and turned in the bed half of the, “night” I think I might just be sleepy enough to fall asleep. I take one last look at Jess before I let unconsciousness take over and he looks so peaceful. Sometimes, I wonder how he does it, fall asleep so quickly. I’m surprised I didn’t keep him up as well.
“Ava, come to me.”
“No. Not you again. Who are you?”
“I’m your grandfather. Come to me now!!”
“I don’t have a grandfather.”
“Yes you do, everyone has a grandfather Ava.”
“Well let’s say I do, why should I come to you?”
“Because, I have the answers you’re searching for. I can help you control your new powers; I can help you become stronger in a safe way. Kim and Davie don’t know anything about you, you belong to us, not them.”
“Why do you keep saying I belong to you. I don’t know you. I don’t know that I can trust you.”
“You can trust me.”
“Why, because you say I can?”
“Yes. I’m family Ava, don’t you want to get to know your family.”
“My family’s dead.”
“No their not Ava, your parents are alive. Come join your mother and father.”
“If their alive, then why don’t they come to me?”
…………
“Hello, are you still there?”
I wake up and look around the room to only find Jess still peacefully sleeping. I don’t know who this man is, but one thing for sure, he’s weird and persistent. Well I guess I should be proud, at least I didn’t allow him to control me this time. I’d like to know why exactly he chooses to pick my brain when I’m asleep. Now it’s going to take me even longer to get back to sleep. I might just strangle him, if I ever cross his path.
11
I wake up to find the other side of the bed empty. I’ve never woken up to find Jess not beside me. I sling the covers off of me and climb out of the bed. I find some clothes quickly to change into and hurry out to the meeting area. If the others aren’t here, then I know they didn’t bother to wake me up once we were attacked, but luckily when I entered the room everyone was gathered around in a circle having a meeting. A meeting without me can only mean one thing, it’s about me.
“Hey guys, what’s going on?”
Everyone turned towards me startled, I guess with their intent focus they didn’t hear me approach.
Jess walked up to me and put his arm around my shoulders “Hey sweetness, how are you feeling this morning?” and then he kissed me on the forehead.
“I’m okay. Why do you ask?”
“Well you didn’t seem to sleep that well last night, and then you slept in two hours past nightfall. I just assumed that you were overly tired after using most of your energy last nig
ht.”
“I was really tired last night, yes. It took me a while to get to sleep and then some man entered my head and I communicated back to him. I told him to leave me alone. He still insists that I come with him, and he still says that my family is alive. I told him that if they were alive, they would come to me their selves. After that it was pure silence. So, I really don’t know anything else from that. What’s with the secret meeting?”
“Oh, well we didn’t want to wake you, we thought we would just catch you up to speed once you woke up.”
“Well I’m here, so now you can catch me up.”
“Oh, its not that big of a deal, there’s really no need in you to worry.”
“Either it is or it isn’t a big deal, and either way it involves me. So, I suggest you start filling me in on the big secret.”
“We were just going over what we should do about the intruders.”
“What about them, I think we should leave it well enough alone, until one of them invades us, and besides what exactly happened to the friendly watchmen?”
“I don’t know that’s the weird thing. We haven’t heard anything from them in a positive or negative way,” Davie said.
“Besides Ava, what do you suggest we do about feeding?” Kim asked.
“Well we can go in shifts always pairing up. For example, Jess and I can go together, and while Jess is eating I can watch and vise versa.”
“Well that’s not a bad idea, but what if there are more than two people?” Kim asked.
“Well why don’t we all go and watch each others backs. So all in all, I’m trying to say, don’t anyone go out in the woods alone.”
“That makes perfect sense,” Misty said.
“Is that all you guys were talking about. If so, I don’t see why that would be something to huddle over.”
“Well that’s pretty much it.”
“Okay. Kim-Davie, I was hoping that Jess and I could practice on our vampire skills. Considering, I’ve developed new powers, I would like to learn how to control it.”
“We can work on the telepathy skills if you like, but we don’t really know that much about your new developing powers. We don’t know how to make it start, let along how to control it,” Davie said.
“Well all I can say is we were under attack when the emotions started, and then that man came charging towards Jess and that’s when I lost control.”
“Okay, if we have time we can work on it, but I can’t promise you we’ll get anywhere with it,” Kim said.
“That sounds good to me, when should we get started?”
“Well we need to go eat first, before everyone splits up and goes about their daily activities,” Davie said.
My stomach started rumbling acknowledging his suggestion. Everyone heard it with their sensitive hearing and let out little giggles. I guess everyone has learned how to control their bodily sounds by now, but I’ve still to learn… a lot.
Everyone gathered up into pairs and went outside. I was beside Jess in the center of everyone. I guess they just wanted to protect me, but my question is, from whom? I’ve never had any problems until now; this just makes me wonder why. I guess if I wanted the answers that badly I would have to confront the man in my dreams, but I have a feeling that with all of the body guards that’s not going to happen.
The night feels calm, there’s no wind, the air is mellow and the temperature is perfect. The moon hangs big and bright above us, and the nightlife sounds are calm as well. Tonight gives me the feeling that a storm is about to break out. Hopefully we get to feed before that happens.
Davie stops in front of us and extends his head to the left. You can tell he’s trying to hear something, but I couldn’t help but to ask anyway,
“Davie, what is it? What do you hear?”
“Shhh…Ava, I’m trying to listen,” Davie said.
Everyone remained calm trying to figure out exactly what it is that Davie hears, that’s when a man came walking out of the woods. Jess let out a hiss. Davie threw his hand up signaling that everything’s okay. He apparently knows the man, but I’ve never seen him before.
“Trevor, what are you doing here?” Davie asked.
“We’ve seen some strange people here, and the others and myself have been laying low trying to figure out if they mean harm or not.”
“We’ve been worried about you guys, we’ve also tried to contact you several times, why haven’t you sent someone sooner to let us know that you all are okay?”
“We didn’t want to risk being seen by them. There are several of them, stronger than us, and we didn’t think we could fight them off. We knew that if they found us, they would kill us to get to her. Angela read their minds as they were passing through. They felt her presence, but couldn’t detect where it was coming from. That’s when we realized just how strong they were.”
“I see, so your loyalty to us after all doesn’t mean squat, am I correct.”
“No, that’s not true at all.”
Davie walked up to the man and placed one hand on each side of his face and growled. Then Davie twisted Trevor’s head off of his shoulders and punted it like a football into the woods, I gasped at the cruelty. That was cruel even if the man was deceitful, he didn’t deserve to die, at least not on my behalf.
“Why did you do that? From what I could tell he was just scared that if he approached whoever’s after me, he would die.”
Davie twirled around swiftly to face me “Ava, I know from the looks of it that’s the way it seems, but I could see in his mind, and he wasn’t just scared of them, he joined them. In our kind if someone betrays you, the punishment is death.”
I took a step back, once I realized that Davie was angry, not the kind of angry that you could just shake off. No this was a savage anger; I’ve never seen him this way. I took my arm and entwined it around Jess’s; we both took another step back from Davie. Once Davie realized he was putting us on edge, he turned around and led us through the woods to feed.
The first to feed were Davie, John and Edwin, we came across three deer in the clearing around the stream of water. For some reason, this is a good place to hunt. All of the little creatures come out to drink and graze the small field around it. This place also gives me the creeps, it’s out of the protection perimeter and this is the first place I felt the intruders presence. After the three men devoured the deer we roamed farther into the woods so the rest of us can feed. After all we are out in the middle of nowhere I’m sure there’s plenty of food left, we just have to find it, but to be honest I’m really not feeling the hunt tonight. A girl’s got to eat.
I’ve never ventured past the clearing, I’m kind of looking forward in seeing what else is out here, but on the other hand I want to stay as close to the cave as possible. Old man peters found a squirrel to quench his thirst, after all he is very old for a vampire, and I’m sure even he gets tired. Misty, Kim, Jess and I tackled a herd of Elk that were from the looks of it making their way to the stream of water. The experience was the same as before, exhilarating in a way, but also terrifying for me, all the creature has to do is ram a horn into my heart and I would be finished. After all I am half human, or am I? I’m still trying to figure out just who I am; maybe soon I’ll have the answers I seek.
Everyone is still on edge, waiting for our intruders to attack, we managed to feed and make it back to the cave safely. I don’t know what’s worse waiting to be attacked, and wondering why we haven’t been attacked yet. Whichever, I just wished it would end. If I’m to go with the man who calls himself my grandfather then so be it. Then I know that the others will be safe without me here jeopardizing their lives. After all it is because of me that we’re all being hunted, but why am I so important, why not Kim or Davie? See it’s exactly these thoughts that are driving me crazy. I need to get away and very soon.
“So Ava, are you ready to learn some new skills?” Davie asked.
“Yes, I’m ready; this lesson has been long overdue. Are you ready Jess?”
<
br /> “I’m not going to participate tonight.”
“What’s wrong Jess, I thought you’ve wanted to learn this for as long as I have.”
“I’m just not in the mood that’s all.”
“What are you up to Jess? What is it that you’re not telling me?”
“Nothing Ava, just because I don’t want to do something doesn’t mean that something is wrong. You’re just going to have to learn to leave things well enough alone.”
“Fine, I’ll learn by myself then. Don’t you want to stay and watch?”
“No, I’m going to go lie down for a while. I’d like some time to myself.”
“Okay, I’ll be out here if you need me.”
Jess just looked at me with his big pansy eyes and smiled. It was a wry smile at the least. I know something is bothering him, but if he doesn’t want to talk about it, then I can’t quite make him, now can I?
“Okay, Davie what’s the first lesson.”
“I need you to clear your mind, stretch it out like you’re searching for something. Then tell me what you see.”
“I see all of you.”
“No, Ava you’re not focusing, you need to close your eyes, clear your mind and search for the unknown. Now what do you see, or hear?”
“I see peacefulness, two kids playing in the backyard as these eyes watch them. The presence is a man, no doubt, and he’s smiling on the inside. These kids are special to him, he wants to protect them. Uh, oh, now he’s angry. He doesn’t see the kids anymore; he’s lonely, tired, and sad.”
“That’s very good Ava, now can you tell me who the man is?”
“How do I do that?”
“Search his mind for memories. See who he is.”
“There’s a memory of us, all of us, not us in the cave, but my family. Even you and Kim are there. He’s hugging my mother and kissing her on the cheek. It seems like he’s saying goodbye. Then he hugs me, I see an image of my face imbedded into his mind. He sees me for who I was, not what I am now. He’s remembering me saying goodbye grandpa, be careful, but I can’t find his name; he’s pushing me out of his mind.”
The Night Life: Exodus of Evil Page 7