Tainted Crimson

by Tarisa Marie

  I race up the stairs to find him already throwing bacon into a pan.

  “Want some this time?” he asks with a smirk. “Last time you said you couldn’t because you’d vomit but you vomited anyways.”

  Embarrassed beyond belief, I pretend like I don’t hear him and run up the stairs to shower.

  As soon as I make contact with the warm water, I feel alive again. I feel like for the first time in days, I can breathe and man, oh man does it ever feel nice.

  I grab some shampoo from the ledge that my dad must’ve thrown in for me and lather it into my hair. The smell of blueberries fills my bathroom. Once I know that I’ve spent far too long in the shower, I jump out and wrap a towel around my wet body.

  I unlock my bathroom door and stroll into my bedroom, thrilled that I no longer have to walk across the hall like I did in our house in Denver.

  I nearly scream when I see figure lying lazily across my bed, bacon in hand.

  “What are you doing in here? Get out!” I shout at D who is killing himself laughing as if he’s hilarious. I curse and throw a candle holder from my new dresser at him. He catches it and places it on the bed beside him.

  “I’m supposed to be babysitting you, remember?” he chuckles.

  “Not while I’m naked!”

  “You’re not naked, even if you were, do you know how many naked females these eyes have seen?”

  “Get out!” I cry again even angrier this time.

  “Okay, okay, I was just bringing you bacon, calm down,” he tries and tosses me a piece through the air.

  “You’re going to get grease on everything!” I scold as it flies through the air. Then suddenly it stops just before hitting the wall beside me.

  “Ha. Ha.” I laugh mockingly. “Out!”

  “I didn’t do that,” D says a little curiously. “You did that, apparently you really didn’t want that bacon to hit the wall.”

  “Nice try, I didn’t do that. I didn’t do anything except envision me killing you. I will eat it though.” I correct him, my mouthwatering. I pluck the bacon from where it floats, shoving it into my mouth.

  “You totally did do that. Maybe you’ll be a natural like I was. Doubtful though, usually those with high tempers have the most difficulty practicing magic,” he teases and rushes from the room before I have the chance hit or kill him.

  I wonder if I really did in fact do that just now. Somehow I feel doubtful, but at the same time I can’t help but hope that I did.

  I can’t say that the whole magic thing doesn’t interest me because it definitely does. My whole life I’ve been this plain Jane girl from Denver, Colorado and now, I’m living in a world full of supernatural creatures and I, myself am supposedly one of them. My life just did a one eighty in a few short days.

  All this being said, I’m also completely shocked and terrified by all of this. You could say that I have extremely mixed emotions about this entire situation.

  I throw on some clothes from the end of the bed and lay down on my mattress. I long for my cellphone but I am aware that I’m probably not about to get it back any time soon. I sigh. I wonder how Mindy is doing.

  She’s probably freaking out because she can’t get ahold of me.

  I also wonder about Nathan. What is he doing? I wonder if he really was working for Marco. Was he the one who warned my dad and ended up saving me from Marco’s grasp? I shudder recalling the dream of mine that Marco had invaded. I pray that it doesn’t happen again. I’ve been so tired the last few times I’ve fell asleep that I was physically and mentally unable to stay awake even though I was completely terrified that he would return to my nightmares.

  I wonder how I will manage to sleep tonight, or tomorrow, or the next day knowing that he can enter my mind at any moment while I’m sleeping. I dread bedtime but also dread daytime because daytime means reality and my reality right now is nearly as screwed up as a paranormal romance novel or actually maybe even more screwed up than that which is really saying something.

  I lay in bed for a moment longer and then I hear the front door open and close. It must be my father and I know that the first second of free time he finds, he will be up here talking to me about this mess. The mess that no matter how hard I try and cover up with my mind, even for a few moments, just won’t go away.

  In some ways, I want to go back to how my life was a few days ago before all of this happened, but in other ways, I know that going back would only make me as ignorant and vulnerable as I was then. At least knowing what’s out there gives me some sort of advantage, or at least I sure hope it does.

  How much longer will I have to hide from this psycho Marco? I hope not long because as soon as he’s dealt with, I’m going to Disney World. I know that sounds silly but I have to have something in life to look forward to because right now everything sounds like hell. My future is not looking so well, at least I don’t feel like it is. I am well aware that this Marco guy is strong enough to not only win this fight over me but also destroy my family. I think I might even be crushed if D gets hurt in all of this, although he is definitely annoying and not to mention a complete jerk.

  It’s not long before my assumptions about my dad are brought to reality and there is a small tap on my door. I know it’s my dad and I know exactly why he’s here. He’s here to talk to me about how screwed up my life has gotten in the last few days. Before he says a word I know what he’s here to do. He will apologize more times than any person should for anything and then he will ask me a million times how I am and if I’m okay.

  “Come in.” I mumble.

  Chapter 11

  After an extremely long, awkward, and agonizing talk with my father, I am ready to croak. The reality of all of this has only become more apparent since speaking to him alone over the last few hours. On the plus side of all of this, he’s buying me an entirely new wardrobe and decor for my new bedroom. Another plus to all of this, I might actually be able to wield magic or power as they seem to call it and let’s be real, how totally cool is that? I mean it’s complete freakish, scary and just weird, but still cool.

  After a long debate with my dad I have decided to enroll at the local high school. The school’s entire kindergarten to senior class consists of only 160 students. That is only a fraction of the size of my class alone back in Denver. I am entirely excited to go back to school for the last remaining weeks for some return to normalcy if anything. Of course I won’t be attending school as myself but as Ariella Denver, my father picked out my new identification with my hometown in mind...obviously.

  Unfortunately my father wants me to be registered in the tenth grade at this new school because the younger we say we are, the longer we can stay in this town if all goes well. The fact that he wants me to register in tenth grade makes me wonder if this move isn’t just for the time being but it’s semi-permanent. I pray not but I am too scared to question this further as I’m afraid to hear the answer.

  Another unfortunate tidbit about all this is that my father won’t let me attend school alone because it’s too dangerous, and so, my father has nominated D to attend with me as he is the most qualified for the job of personal security guard. D is unaware of this as of this moment but at any minute I’m sure I will hear him cry out in protest from downstairs. I wonder if he will just get up and leave. What is even keeping him here besides my father? I’m sure he’d rather be back in the mountains with those ‘babes’ he was telling us about.

  Then I hear D shouting from downstairs and know that my father has told him about his new bodyguard status. “Are you joking right now? You’ve got to be joking me, Theenis. This is ridiculous!”

  I race down the stairs to catch the action.

  “You want me to attend high school. I’m a 300 year old warlock. What kind of insanity is this?” he tries again.

  “There’s no arguing about this. Jacob looks far too old to be a sixteen year old as do I. You, by far, look the youngest of the three of us. Plus, you still owe me a favor from rescuing you
from Theenis that last time nearly fifteen years ago. So stop with the whining. It’s done. Here’s your new identification,” my father ends the conversation in an easy tone and I reach the bottom of the stairs, just in time to see him hand D some papers.

  “Daymon Thompson? You couldn’t come up with something cooler? Seriously? What’d you get?” D asks, nodding to me.

  “Ariella Denver,” I answer with a shrug.

  “And you and Jacob?”

  “I’m Tyler Denver, Ariella’s older brother, and Jacob is Jake Denver, Ariella’s other older brother,” my father answers. “Theenis is too distinct of a name to keep. That’s why I got a new first name and no one else did. It would be easier to screw things up if we all had new first names”

  D glares at my father. “Whatever, and if you’re all siblings then who the hell am I supposed to be?”

  “You were going to be another sibling but then I saw something about an international student program on the school’s website. Now you’re our international student from the United Kingdom.” My father chuckles. “It would be weird if one of us had an accent and the rest didn’t and we were supposedly siblings. People would ask questions.”

  D’s glare deepens.

  I join in my father’s laughter.

  “The story is that our parents died in a car accident four years ago and I decided to take guardianship of Ariella and Jacob, though Jacob and you are now both over eighteen, we still live together. We moved to Taverd to take a break from the city and because Jacob found a job up here working with the oil industry. Which he actually has. If none of us have a job it might look suspicious. I am posing as a web developer so I work at home,” my father continues explaining. “You two start school on Monday for the remaining four weeks.”

  Monday? That’s in three days and I have no school supplies.

  “Can I have a new cell phone under my new name?” I ask hopefully.

  “Yes, but you can’t talk about anything supernatural related using it in case someone picks up our signal. Also Daymon, is that protection spell strong enough to keep Marco out of Ariella’s dreams? Because I don’t know how she is going to sleep knowing he can hop into her head at any moment during the night.”

  “Yeah, should be,” D answers with a shrug and I nearly jump for joy. Oh, thank god.

  My father nods in approval and then leaves the room. I’m left in the kitchen with D.

  “I liked you better wearing that towel.” He eyes me and winks.

  My jaw nearly drops to the floor. Is he hitting on me? God no, he’s older than my father. Although he looks totally not old...at all...I shake my head trying to free myself from my impure thoughts. Sure he’s smoking hot, but he’s also over 300 years old, Ariella. Seriously, girl, you need to shake these thoughts, it’s gross.

  He follows my father out the door without another glance.

  Chapter 12

  The next day after work out I manage to tell my dad that I’m feeling a little strange just like D instructed yesterday. My father immediately begins staring at me as if he’s searching me for something and then he smiles, grabs D, and sends him and me downstairs to work on my control.

  The two of us spend nearly four hours cross legged on the floor as he instructs me on how to move a feather, one that he found outside, which turns out to be ten times harder than it looks. I can’t even get it to budge. To my disappointment I realize that I definitely did not stop that bacon from hitting the wall yesterday.

  By the end of the four hours, both of us are exhausted and in need of some fresh air. We decide to take a walk down to the grocery store and pick up something for supper.

  “I can’t believe we’re in Canada,” I murmur as I glance around. I expected it to be so much colder. Where are all the mooses and geese?

  “I’ve lived a lot of my life in Canada actually. It’s one of my favorite countries,” D replies.

  “What do you like about it?” I wonder.

  “Well it's quiet. The population is much smaller than that of America. It’s peaceful. Especially in small towns like this one. It reminds me of what my home was like in England. For the first 48 years of my life, I lived in rural England as a farmer with my mother, father, my sisters Marie, Rose, and Catherine, and my brother Edward. It was such a different time. We left and came to America after Rose and Catherine were murdered one night in our own home."

  "Murdered? By whom?!" I demand.

  "To this day I really I don't know. My other sister Marie didn't make it through the journey to America. She was bearing child and something went very wrong. Not even her lineage could save her life. My mother, father, Edward, and I made it here in one piece. Edward was caught by Marco about sixty years ago and murdered. A few years ago, I went to visit our old homestead. I knew it'd be gone but I was heartbroken to see that it now has a shopping mall on top of it. It used to be in the middle of miles and miles of empty land. Amazing how time changes things.”

  "You've lost your entire family," I state as if it isn't obvious.

  "Nearly, your father and Jacob are all I have left. I've been off doing my own thing, traveling the world and thinking all was well with Theenis and Jacob. heads. I mean...I didn’t really have a reason to stick around so I thought I’d have some me time. Now that there’s reason to stick around, now that there's a little hybrid girl that needs protecting, I’m back," he snickers. “Them two would never admit it but they missed me in my absence.”

  I punch his shoulder playfully.

  "The witches and warlocks aren't like your Hollywood movies portray them. The white witches, well they are cowards. They had to create a race in order to protect them because they were too afraid to fight. Of course they're not all like that but the majority are. They stick together in covens and hide together like little babies. Only some of us leave the covens and do our own thing. They calls us rogues. My parents left the coven when they married. Turning your back on a coven is like turning your back on their protection. You're on your own. My parents left because they wanted to be free. I tried the coven thing once. It was boring and I decided that I wanted to do more with my life than sit around. I've always enjoyed battle. I've fought in a few wars in my lifetime. I was one of the few actual witches who fought alongside the immortals against the black witches and vampires after the holocaust. I fought alongside your father actually, he’d just been turned into an immortal. The black witches aren't quite the cowards the white are but they are weaker because their power is hard to gain which is why Marco created the vampires. They are mostly power hungry, selfish creatures. Both breeds have one thing in common for sure. Dishonesty. Neither can be trusted. Ever."

  "So I shouldn't trust you?" I ask.

  He smirks. "I'm not like any of them. And hey, have I lied to you yet?"

  "Not that I'm aware of..." I answer skeptically.

  D reaches for the store's door and pulls it open for me. I step in and take in the small grocery store. It's the size of the produce aisle in the store I usually shopped at in Denver.

  "Good day," the shopkeeper greets us from behind the cash register.

  "Good day, sir," D greets him in return, tipping his hat.

  I raise an eyebrow at him.

  "What?" he asks looking offended.

  "It's the 21st century. We don't tip our hats," I explain.

  He shrugs. "Some habits die hard. I wish there there were as much chivalry as there was years ago."

  "What are we looking for?" I ask, while scanning the aisles not sure which to choose first.

  "I don't know but I really like those chicken nugget shaped things with the macaroni inside," he suggests completely serious.

  I stop and gawk at him like he has three heads.

  "What?" he asks again looking more offended this time.

  "Those are for little kids," I answer harshly.

  "Have you ever had them?"

  "No."

  "Then you can't possibly understand. We're getting some. You're trying them. The
y're amazing," he argues and begins scanning one of the freezers.

  I roll my eyes.

  After a few seconds he opens the freezer and pulls out a blue box. I know he's found them by his expression of pure excitement. Just like a little kid.

  I grab a few bundles of fruit and a package of my favorite crackers.

  "Ready?" I ask, while heading to pay.

  We pile all of our delicious finds onto the conveyer belt and I slap down some of cash my father gave me.

  "Hey are you the people that moved in down the street?" the clerk asks. He's the same guy that greeted us upon arriving.

  "Yeah, I'm Ariella. This is Daymon. He's the international student staying with us," I answer sharing a big grin with the man.

  "Oh how lovely. Nice to meet you. I'm Mark. My father owns this place. How old are you guys?" the man asks. He looks to be young maybe even younger than me. He has a pasty white face and dangly arms and legs. He's uber skinny and his face is covered in acne scars.

  "Sixteen," D answers, before I can spout out my real age by accident. D then grabs our full bags off the counter.

  "Oh, wow. You look older. I'm eighteen, I graduated last year. Welcome to Taverd," the man says and hands me a receipt. “I like your jacket, man, where’d you get it?” The boy adds, looking at D.

  D completely ignores him and is suddenly out the door.

  "Thank you!" I call while shooting the boy an apologetic look and chasing D out the door.

  "What was that?" I scold once the door shuts behind us.

  "What?" he asks.

  "That was rude! You could've said thank you and answered his question What the heck?"

  "He's a human," he stares blankly at me as if it makes some sort of difference.

  "And?" I shout louder than I mean to.

  "Need I say more?"

  Just when I thought I might be starting to like this jerk.

  "That makes it okay for you to be rude?" I spit at him.

  "If I wasn't a rogue I would be second in command of the witches. I'm the second most powerful witch in existence. Humans are irrelevant. Humans are to me as you would see a bumble bee."