TWINED

by A. L. Collins

  “You’re not going to slap me or something are you?”

  “Just kiss me.”

  I saw his throat swallow nervously. He nodded and his eyes started to close. Honestly I kept mine open right until our lips met. He grabbed my necklace and I felt that sensation flow through my skin and down my spine. It felt like a waterfall was rushing over me as my skin heated while the air around me gave me goose bumps. With the feeling I was experiencing as we kissed, I almost expected my foot to do that little princess thing and daintily kick into the air behind me.

  Albert pulled away. And I, still dazed at the kiss, admitted that unfortunately I still felt nothing majorly different from the other time we tried this.

  “I don’t think it worked,” Albert said slightly out of breath, which made me wonder if he had felt the same sensational feelings as I did. “It was like this last time. The feeling was there and just… nothing.”

  I blinked a few times as my right frame of mind refused to return. “We might need to try again.”

  Vikki grinned to herself.

  “Excuse me?” he said with a wry smile.

  Jaspit however seemed troubled. “What did you feel Avalin? Can you describe it to me?”

  “Well… it was… awesome.”

  Jaspit and Vikki laughed. Albert grinned, rubbing the back of his neck.

  “What is the Marker we’re using?” Jaspit asked.

  “This.” I handed him my necklace and he looked it over. He seemed to be pleased with it. Just as Gray said, it should make a fine Marker… if we can ever get this to work.

  “Sensual stimulation?” Jaspit came over and felt my head. “Slight fever, good.” He grabbed my arm next. “Yep, goose bumps. Good preliminary signs. But I think we should do a more thorough examination. Vikki?”

  Vikki nodded. “Avalin, will you follow me into the back office? This will just take a second, promise.”

  I looked at Albert for approval and he nodded. “Sounds good,” I said as I followed after her.

  “And I’ll check you right here, Al,” I heard Jaspit say behind me. “Vikki, bring me that pendant when you get a chance. It should be in the tattoo room.”

  “Yeah Jas I’ll get it.”

  Vikki decided to take me to the tattoo room. It was filled with images of tattoos and different kinds of piercings and body art. Some of it was really cool. I looked over to see a chair with a whole tray of drills and Petri dishes filled with little black cubes. I guess this is where Vikki did her work.

  “Are those drills?”

  Vikki looked over and laughed as she searched a white cabinet full of her things. “Don’t worry those aren’t for the actual tattoos. It’s for the ink.”

  “What kind of ink needs to be drilled?” I asked.

  She grabbed a small brown box and a necklace. She walked over and cleared a spot on a metal table, propping a chair next to it. “It’s a special kind of ink. I only use it for my tattoos. It comes in little cubes that I need to fill with a certain liquid and let sit.”

  I nodded. “Wow. Why the special ink?”

  “It adds… dimension.”

  “So you have a lot of tattoos?”

  “Not right now, no.”

  The way she worded it confused me. “Ever have any removed?”

  “All the time,” she said. “Close that door, will you?”

  I did as she asked and closed the door behind me. “That’s got to get painful after a while.”

  “Not the way I remove them.”

  I looked at her arms to see if any skin showed, but there were no tattoos I could see. None of them existed on her face or neck either.

  But she caught me staring. “Do you want to see one?”

  “Hell yes.”

  “Cool,” she replied happily. I sat down on the chair near the metal table. She rolled up the sleeve of her thin sweater and I saw an image of a red rose inked into her skin. It was beautifully shaded and colored, a real gorgeous image.

  I gawked at it. “I want one.”

  She laughed. “You’ll really want one after you see this.”

  She put her other hand onto her tattoo. Suddenly the tattoo seemed to suck into her hand. I blinked as she pulled away and the rose was gone. Instead she raised her hand and made a fist. Out of the crack between her thumb and pointer, a red rose grew. It opened up as crimson circles swirled in a rotating fashion, finally forming the delicate layers that made up the rose’s petals.

  The damn tattoo turned real.

  My mouth was indeed hanging open. “Oh my God!”

  “Go on. Touch it.”

  I reached forward gently and stroked the rose. It felt like an honest to goodness flower. But as I rubbed my two fingers together, I saw a bit of red ink and felt moisture. It felt like a flower, but had the properties of a thick liquid. That was insane. How could something feel like a solid and liquid at the same time?

  “Your gift?” I assumed, nearly speechless.

  “If that’s what you want to call it. I prefer to call it my talent.” She opened her fist and the flower dispersed into red dust from the stem up.

  I shook my head. “Twined are just amazing.”

  “We can be,” Vikki admitted. “But some of us, the ones who feel entitled I mean, can really use their powers for the wrong reason.” She opened the brown box she had gotten out. “A lot of Twined have what I like to call the X-Men complex.”

  Suddenly there was a knock on the door. “Do you know how wrong everything sounded from out here?” Jaspit’s voice rang from the other side.

  “What?” Vikki asked.

  “Do you want to see my tattoo? Go on, touch it? What exactly are you two doing in there?”

  Vikki and I couldn’t help but laugh. Jaspit was turning out to be a little pervert. Awesome.

  “Get your mind out of the damn gutter Jas. Go help Al and let us be or I’m tattooing another dick on your face while you sleep.”

  “Fine, fine,” we heard him grumble.

  “You’ll have to excuse Jas. He’s not exactly what we would classify as mature.”

  “All my friends are mature. It’s a nice change of pace,” I said with a laugh.

  Vikki took out a gold amulet and wrapped it around her hand. It was very intriguing looking. There were no mystical symbols on it or anything but it felt like there was an air about it, like it exuded its own energy. I watched what she was doing with great interest, but she decided to start conversation. “So… how did you two meet?”

  “Albert and I? We met… well we actually met when I was being attacked.”

  Her eyes widened. “You were attacked?”

  I nodded. “By a Twined. Great way to start a relationship. You wouldn’t believe how amazing terror is as an icebreaker.”

  “What breed of Twined?”

  “Shadow Lynx.”

  “What the hell, what for?”

  “That is precisely what we’re trying to figure out.”

  “Ah, and you can’t go after this attacker until you’re Joined, too dangerous otherwise. Things are starting to make sense.”

  “Well I don’t know about going after her. But it’ll definitely be reassuring if we ever need to fend off another ambush.”

  “Another ambush?”

  “We’ve been attacked by her, and friends of hers, a few times now.”

  Vikki asked for my hand and I placed it on the cold metal table, palm up. “I don’t know Avalin. I mean one day you gotta stop getting stung by the bees and go after the nest, you know?”

  “Go after the queen huh?”

  “Yeah. I mean this bitch is just going to keep after you until someone puts her down for good.”

  I shrugged. “This whole bloodthirsty battle lifestyle is still a lot t
o get used to.”

  “I feel you. But you’ve definitely seemed to adjust better than most people.” Vikki grinned. “Kind of like you’re a natural at this.”

  “Dealing with Twined? I hardly think so.”

  “Ah give yourself some credit. You’ve come into contact with a Shadow Lynx and you haven’t crapped your pants or cried uncontrollably in the past five minutes. That’s better than most people I know.”

  I couldn’t help laughing. “My God, I’m a prodigy.”

  She laughed back. Albert was right. She was exactly like me.

  “All right. No reaction.” She took the amulet and placed it back into the box. “Looks like you’re not already Joined with any Twined.”

  I paused for a second. “I could have told you I’ve never Joined, if you’d asked.”

  Vikki crossed her arms. “Well don’t get crept out by this. But sometimes Twined who can’t find a partner turn to… other methods to Join. Without the human knowing, I mean.”

  “I thought Joining is a willing ritual between humans and Twined.” I emphasized the willing part.

  “Well not every Twined is as charming as Albert,” Vikki said. “Sometimes Twined who can’t get partners and fall into the danger years find other ways to Join, tricking humans into performing the ritual. They’re like leeches, they really are.”

  “Wait, wait, wait,” I waved my hand. “Won’t somebody recognize when a Twined is Joining with them? How can you trick them? I mean it’s not exactly something you can pull over on someone.”

  “It’s actually relatively easy. Some Twined go out, get someone drunk and then… I mean let’s face it, Joining feels like a pretty awesome orgasm.”

  I laughed, embarrassed. Yes. That it did, actually.

  “I can’t believe it’s that easy.”

  Vikki shrugged. “Hey, it’s what some people have gotta do. I mean it’s not the classiest thing in the world, but I’ve seen worse.” Vikki put the box back into the closet. “All right, let’s go see if Jaspit had any luck with Al.”

  We went over to open the door, but as soon as I had begun to push it open it quickly slammed in my face. I shook the knob but it only rattled. I think something was pushing against it.

  “What’s going on?” Vikki asked.

  That’s when I heard talking outside. I heard a voice, a male voice. It was unfamiliar and harsh. Then I heard Jaspit talking, then Albert. I didn’t like what I heard.

  I raised my finger to Vikki and she got the message quickly.

  “That’s not what I asked,” I heard the male voice say. “I want to know where she is.”

  My blood ran cold.

  “I’m not exactly sure who you mean,” Jaspit said through the wood of the door.

  “We know who you are Mr. Huntington. We know you’ve been associating with the Marsh girl.”

  “She’s not with me,” Albert interjected.

  “Al, don’t,” I heard Jaspit whisper.

  The male mystery voice laughed. “Ah, now that’s much better. Work with us here. We only want to know where she is.”

  There was a moment of silence. But it quickly passed.

  “She’s not with me, I said.”

  “But you know her. You know of her. And… you know where she is.”

  I felt my panic rising. There was someone in the bar looking for me. And it didn’t take a brain to know who they were associated with. Which means Albert was in danger and there wasn’t time to hesitate.

  “Vikki, remember that Shadow Lynx I told you about?” I asked. But I was answered with silence. “Vikki?”

  She was already gone. I saw that she had run through the other door in the tattoo room. I thought that maybe there was a way out into the bar from there. So I followed after her. It took me through a couple places. A kitchen, some guy’s room that I presumed was Jaspit’s, and a storage room. I just kept going through the doors that were open. Suddenly I ended up in a sort of dark area with Vikki standing in front of a door.

  She turned around when she heard me coming. “Maybe you should wait in the kitchen. If these guys are hostile then a human will be a big target for them.”

  “I need to see who these people are,” I said. “I bet you anything they’re with the Shadow Lynx that wants to kill me.”

  “Storming a bar full of Twined? Is she really that ballsy?”

  “She sent an Illusionist to shank me while I was in school. Balls aren’t something she lacks.” I looked at the door.

  I seemed to have convinced Vikki just what kind of people we’re dealing with. We carefully opened the door and peeked out of the crack. I saw two people standing in the doorway, pointing a gun at Albert and Jaspit. One was a beautiful woman with long black hair. She was tan and slender, dressed in some kind of leather uniform. It wasn’t Jessica, thank God, but she was the one holding a gun.

  The other one was a bald man dressed in a suit and a blue tie. He had sunglasses on and his arms crossed. He looked smug, like he was getting exactly what he wanted. I wasn’t sure if he always looked like that or if he had some sort of plan. Best assume the latter, unfortunately.

  “We have to do something,” I whispered.

  “Agreed. But I don’t know what.”

  I looked down at Vikki’s back. A bit of her sweater was hanging loose off her shoulder and I saw these pale white lines all down her arm. They seemed almost alive on her skin. With closer inspection I saw that they weren’t just lines. They were tails.

  “Are those snakes?” I asked.

  Vikki looked down at her own shoulder. She smiled to me and nodded. I think she knew what I was getting at.

  “Please tell me that’s a magic tattoo.”

  “I mean it’s a new tattoo, I’ve never actually used it before. But hey, I like new things.”

  She cupped her hand on her shoulder and I swear I heard a hiss. Like an honest to goodness snake hiss. Before I knew it I saw several pale snake tattoos slithering down her arm. As they crawled off her fingers, they gained dimension and slid onto the floor, crawling to life. I watched in anticipation and, I admit excitement, as they zigzagged silently through the chairs and tables.

  Hopefully these things were tiny and quiet enough to take these people by surprise. I was certainly surprised about how fast the little buggers moved.

  I heard Albert’s voice resonate in my head. “Where are you?”

  I concentrated, “Secret side door, by the Jukebox.”

  He didn’t look in my direction or give our position away. Damn he was good.

  “These are Jessica’s thugs, you and Vikki stay inside. Jaspit and I will deal with them.”

  “They’re pointing guns at you.”

  “Jaspit’s a bound Twined. We can handle this.”

  “You don’t really expect us to leave you alone, do you?”

  “That’s exactly what I expect. They can’t know you’re here.”

  I sighed quietly in frustration. “He said we shouldn’t make a move.”

  “Jaspit told me the same thing,” Vikki replied with a shrug. “Too late now.”

  The bald man began talking again, “So… the daughter of the famous Abigail Sweeney is following in her mother’s footsteps.”

  I swallowed spit. I heard what the man said. “They’re… talking about my mother.”

  Vikki looked at me. “Why?”

  “Sweeney was her maiden name.” They said she was famous. Famous how? Known by whom?

  What in the world had my mother done?

  “And who does Ms. Avalin choose to bond with? None other than the last of the equally famous Huntingtons,” bald man continued. “It is no doubt you two will make an excellent couple. It is very sad I’m not going to give you the chance.”

  “Let me shoot them,
Harris,” the woman said calmly in a Spanish accent. “Do it and let’s be done with them. Don’t toy with the victims.”

  “Hanabell, be patient will you? I’m not toying this time. We need to find out where our dear companion is being held, understand?”

  I heard the woman grumble something that I couldn’t quite make out.

  “They’re looking for the Illusionist.”

  “I heard. They really are with Jessica then. Al, be careful.”

  “Listen I just came here for a drink,” Albert lied. “I don’t want any trouble.”

  Harris, which I assume was the bald man’s name, took off his sunglasses and wiped them off. “You’re making some very powerful enemies Mr. Huntington. However these enemies are willing to listen to reason should the right information be given.” He laughed to himself. “Why don’t you take a little drive with us, hmm? We can discuss some things in private.”

  “You’ll leave this bar alone?” Albert asked.

  “Albert, don’t God damn it,” Jaspit said forcefully.

  “We’re not monsters, honey. Come with us and tell us what we need to know. We won’t hurt anyone. We need your help,” Hanabell said softly.

  “Interesting words for someone holding me at gunpoint.”

  Harris and Hanabell looked at each other. With a quick nod between them Harris put his glasses back on and Hanabell lowered her weapon. Her trigger finger, however, was still hot on the pull.

  Albert seemed to relax. But I only knew that because I felt his emotion. “What do you want with Avalin?”

  “Uh, it’s not us telling you what you want to know. Other way around my friend,” Harris replied.

  “You want information, you come with us,” Hanabell said. I watched the pale little snakes slither quietly behind her and her partner. They began to hover all around her. My hands balled into fists until my knuckles turned white. I prayed they didn’t see the tattoos.

  Albert and Jaspit glanced to each other, both of them surprised. They didn’t show it much in their appearance, but Vikki and I could tell they were freaking out. But in a moment the snakes had completely surrounded the back of both the intruders.

  And then Vikki clenched her hands tight. The snakes wrapped around the arms and legs of both Harris and Hanabell. The woman gasped in horror as they slithered around her neck, her waist, her wrist. She dropped her gun in surprise as Harris tried to beat them off, cussing all the while. But the snakes had a strange solidity to them. They left pale white ink stains all along their black uniforms as they danced with their captives held tight.