Requiem for Blood

by Alexandra Hope

  “Now,” he said, holding his neck. “What was the point of this?”

  “Human blood serves as energy and she clearly needs lots of it to do even simple manipulations. So,” she turned to Olivia, “get him to forget.”

  Olivia pushed out a breath and after using her blood to heal Noah, she brought her eyes up to his. She searched his, wondering if she could really empty his mind like she had done to Felicity and after urging from Erika, she did as she was told. Noah blinked a couple of times and his confused expression told her that she had finally done it. Erika congratulated her in her own Erika way and then Olivia explained to Noah what happened who was pleased as well. All were happy except Troy.

  “So, she just needs to slaughter a bunch of people to have one stupid power?” he yelled.

  “I didn't kill him.”

  “Wow, your kill ratio went down by one point, congratulations!” he shouted sarcastically. “You're now point zero one percent less of a monster!”

  Noah had words and a fist for Troy but he restrained himself for Olivia who asked him not to. Troy was leaned against a tree and looking at the lake while Noah and Olivia now sat at the pier. She kicked her feet back and forth in the water, the sound of swishing being the only reminder that her legs were submerged. She leaned back, pressing her palms against the planks and watched Troy in all his sullen glory.

  “So what's tall, not so dark and brooding's problem?”

  “I don't know,” she muttered.

  “You're too modest,” a sultry voice taunted.

  She didn't react to Erika's words but Noah half turned to her. “What?”

  “Your girlfriend here killed his girlfriend who just happened to be her sister.”

  She felt his heart momentarily sink into his stomach as he turned back to Olivia and said in a breathy voice, “Alexa? She was alive?”

  She nodded and then when prompted, she continued on about how she found her and what she had done to put her in a bad position in the first place. She spoke of Nolan and her mother and when she was on her last words, Noah heard the waver in her voice as she recalled what she had done.

  “It wasn't your fault. If anything, the blame should be on her,” he tossed his head back at Erika who had moved away from them, “since she turned you into a vampire.”

  “I craved blood as a human so coming across my sister even then would not have stopped me. This is just who and how I am.”

  “No! That's what the Matriarch wants you to believe...”

  “All the more reason to kill her and get a little humanity back, not to mention protect dear Troy who's blood she's after,” said Erika who had slipped behind them again.

  Olivia was about to speak when she felt a jolt run through her brain, thrashing about on a rampage as she slammed her forehead into her palms. Her eyes shut tightly and she began groaning as images flickered in her brain, of Alexa and Troy. She pulled away from Noah when he placed a hand on her shoulder and watched as the head which held her sister's smiling face was ripped off, a fountain of blood shooting upward. Troy was bathed in the red liquid and turned to her with a smug grin. She saw herself backing away and rubbed up against another body. Noah pulled her out of her wicked thoughts before she could see who it was but not before the hand ripped into her body, long fingernails as if they had been a woman's.

  “Olivia!” he was shouting when she finally looked into his eyes.

  Her head was thrown back and forth as he shook her.

  “What happened?” she asked and glanced at Troy who had started for her but stopped.

  Noah's hands dropped from her shoulders to her arms, stroking them softly. “You were screaming because of something.”

  “Yes, I was...” she said as the memory poured onto her. “My mind, I feel like it is no longer mine and that someone has taken shelter within it.”

  “Huh?” he asked, confused.

  She didn't answer Noah's confusion and instead stood up and walked to Erika who, as Troy had been, was leaned against a tree. “Yeah?” she asked, bored.

  “Was that you? Has that you been you the whole time?”

  Erika rolled her eyes then decided to entertain her questions, “What?”

  “The dreams, the manipulations. I have been having them since I was at home and now, even more frequently.”

  “I've only been in your twisted head once little one,” she said, digging a small stick underneath a nail.

  Olivia turned to Troy who wasn't too far off and asked him the same to which he denied. Noah was on his feet and behind her when he spoke. “What about another kitsune? Someone playing a cruel joke on you?”

  Erika shook her head. “Nope, the only other one is Troy's mom and even I don't know where she is. I've heard of places she could be but they're thousands of miles from here.”

  “Well,” he said. “What about another vampire?”

  Olivia's eyes quickly snapped up and they were on Erika. “You said there were no other vampires.”

  “I might've forgotten to mention there is one, but you don't want to meet him.”

  Twenty

  Despite the nightmares the vampire had been giving her, she knew she had to meet him but Erika wouldn't allow it. She wouldn't give up his name or his whereabouts and insisted that he couldn't teach her how to be a vampire any better than she could. They went back to Troy's house before the sun had a chance to touch Olivia and she buried herself in the covers, awaiting the nightmares. Day after day for five days, she awaited them but they did not come.

  While Olivia lay asleep, Noah caught up with Troy who was headed to the gym.

  “Hey, I need to talk to you!” he called just as Troy was pulling the door open. Sunlight spilled on half his face, making his glare harsh on Noah.

  “Yeah?”

  “You might as well come inside 'cause I've got a lot to say.”

  Troy groaned and slammed the door. He dropped his gym bag and kicked off his shoes before making his way to the living room with Noah trailing behind him. He sat down on the couch while Noah sat on the bricked panel of the fireplace.

  “So....”

  “First off, I never thanked for letting me stay here so I guess I should do that now. Thanks,” he said as he ran his index fingers through the spaces of the bricks. “Second, I wish you would stop being a jerk to Olivia. I know what she did and I see how much it's killing her. You can't see her for what she really is and how she really is because of your bias!”

  “And what about you?” asked Troy calmly. “You have a bias towards her 'cause you're in love with her.”

  Troy could see that the boy's dark eye brows had furrowed together but he couldn't see the eyes that were hidden behind his Ray-Ban's. Noah ran a frustrated hand through his hair, pulling his beanie off in the process. “You couldn't begin to fathom our friendship. The fact is she is my best friend and I do love her and you could accuse me of loving her more than I love my own mom, but being in love with her....no guy, you are wrong.”

  “You guys have to be the most confusing bunch of people I've ever met.”

  “Because we love differently from you? Do you not know how much Alexa was like us? She will always love Olivia more than she'll ever love you so even if you did make her into a vampire—which Olivia did tell me about—she wouldn't hesitate to forgive her the moment she saw her. She definitely wouldn't try to stake her!”

  Troy winced at the memory of how unsuccessful he had been and being berated by a boy younger than him just seemed to make it worse. He swung his legs over the arm of the couch and sunk deep into it while he immersed himself deep within his thoughts. Noah's words had been swirling in his head when he unleashed another wave of words onto him.

  “You don't realize how much it's killing Olivia....” he said in a strained voice, “knowing what she did, not only to her sister but to you.”

  Noah thought on the day before, how he exiled the cold tears that streamed down her face as he consoled her. His body tensed as images of her slipped int
o his consciousness even after forcing them away. He refused to acknowledge his best friend like that but they were the only things that would come to mind as he spoke. Troy had remembered that particular day, listening in to her weeps as he sat outside her door. It was something about the sound of her sobs and sniffles that filled him with a sense of contentment, as if realizing that she too could feel. And now, here was someone telling him that she felt bad for hurting him? It was like being lit on fire after being slapped in the face and possibly ran over by a truck. Everything that he felt discharged from himself, all the hatred he felt and he was left reeling from his words.

  Bear had wandered into the living room, his claws pricking at the carpet as he cautiously walked in. He had grown accustomed to Olivia and longed for her but made due with Noah when she wasn't around. He moved from his spot at the fireplace and with Bear following behind him, grabbed some food out of the refrigerator. The dog barked appreciatively and began tearing through his food.

  “So you've known Olivia and Alexa all their lives?” asked Troy who was now situated against the frame of the kitchen entrance.

  Noah nodded. “Olivia was born just a couple of weeks before me, and Alexa—a whole two years. She was obsessed with the outside world and would teach Olivia everything she found out about it. Olivia had been so excited back then,” he took a sip of water, “and so we came up with this plan for all of us to leave and well, to say that plan royally failed is an understatement. Still, Olivia had hope and had inscribed our initials on her pocket knife as a symbol of our bond.”

  Troy thought back on the pocket knife he found and the words he couldn't make out. Now they had been clear: AON.

  He wanted to continue speaking but Noah had spoke up before him. “So, who's that on your mantle?”

  “My mom and me...” said Troy.

  Noah's eyes widened. “Your mom is Asian?”

  “Yeah, Japanese.”

  His eyes were still wide as he found it hard to believe that Troy would be even a quarter Japanese. “You don't look anything like her,” he said slowly.

  “Yeah, I get that a lot.”

  “Your White half really took over. I imagine you look like your dad just spit you out, like your mom did nothing,” he went on.

  “Yeah, I get that a lot too,” said Troy, irritated. He tried to change the subject. “So is Olivia and Alexa's mom really as evil as Erika makes her out to be?”

  Noah had stuffed his hands into his pants pocket and glanced down at the floor as he deliberated. He couldn't help but thrust the tip of his shoe into the tile, creating skid marks as he did.

  “The Matriarch is a lot of things and to me, that includes evil and creepy but I don't know if she's as evil as Erika has been saying.”

  “You grew up around her, didn't you?”

  “Yeah, but you don't understand. The Matriarch rarely shows any emotions so it's kinda hard to say if every move she's making is really evil. I think she's a misguided kind of evil actually. Maybe even a little psychotic...” he said and sighed. “It doesn't matter what I think though...it's all Olivia and what she feels.”

  His voice fell so low that when he uttered his next words, Troy barely picked up on it.

  “What did you say?”

  “All I said was a name: Felicity. I was thinking about her.”

  “OK, who's that? Your girlfriend?”

  Noah tried hard to keep the bile down as he briefly thought about him and Felicity....together. “Dude, what is with you trying to force girls on me? Guys and girls can be just friends!”

  “Well, I don't know anything about this Felicity girl,” replied Troy. He folded his arms across his chest, “Why is she important?”

  Troy hadn't noticed that Noah's other hand was on a small book on the counter, his fingertips running across the flap. He wrapped his hand around it and held it up for Troy to see clearly. It was light and held no more than fifty pages but it had been bound in leather and it's contents were hidden behind a small lock.

  “Whatevers in your diary, I probably don't care about,” said Troy as he pushed himself off the wall.

  “It's not my diary, you idiot! It's Felicity's. She's a nineteen year old girl with a crazy appetite for human blood and would kill anyone to get it. Platinum blonde hair, cold blue eyes....maybe you've seen her, cause she's definitely seen you.”

  “What?” There was a blankness in Troy's voice as he started for Noah. Noah met him before he could take more than a few steps and handed the diary to him. Troy didn't bother asking for the key as he tore away the tiny lock and flipped through the pages. Numbers and dates were scrawled across each page in red ink, faded to near oblivion but Troy was able to see them clearly.

  “What is this?”

  “I don't know what the first couple of pages are, but if you wanted my honest opinion, I would say her number of kills and the days when they happened. She didn't just hurt people for their blood, she was a true killer.”

  Troy continued to flip through the pages with urgency. “And what did you say she looked like?”

  “Platinum blonde,” was all Noah managed to get out before Troy turned away and began pacing back and forth. His eyes were studying the words and his eyebrows were pulled in as he got deeper into the book.

  I think it's those eyes. I feel like I've seen them before.

  “The girl from the blood drive...has been tracking me?”

  “She's been tracking Alexa. Apparently, she loved her or at least that's what it seems like...I never knew,” he said with a shrug.

  Troy had been almost overwhelmed by the amount of detail she had on him and the number of times she had visited his house and his father's. Each date and every minute detail was explicitly written along with notes on how she had been feeling day after day and kill after kill. She had briefly lamented the deaths of those she killed and seemed to seek reprieve from Alexa, writing down how close she had come to talking to her before running back into the shadows when Troy showed up.

  The Matriarch wants me to kill Alexa, but I couldn't possibly... was the last thing written before it ended.

  “There's nothing else??” asked Troy, finally looking up from the pages.

  “Nothing.”

  “Does Olivia know about this?”

  “No, and I'd rather she not, so keep it to yourself,” he said. “I thought it might be of some help for you to understand the kind of life we were made to live. Felicity is what Olivia could've been.” He shuttered. “She's what any of us could've been if we didn't have someone to care about us. She freely admitted to killing tons of people after Alexa left and since me and Olivia pushed Alexa to leave, I'm pretty sure she blames us both and hates our guts and would probably dismember us in cruel ways if we weren't who we are in the colony.”

  “And who are you in the colony?”

  “The Matriarch's second in command's son. My mom stole the blood from hospitals, the clothes from stores, money from banks....everything to give us this kind of life. Felicity's mom is the lawyer who keeps our secrets and her dad is an architect. We have a whole functioning society and we take Vampire equivalent classes...”

  Noah went on and then spoke some more of Felicity to give Troy some solace despite being shaken by what he discovered. Troy understood loving someone that you couldn't have and inwardly hating the other person, but to put that person in danger, now that was something else. He asked more about Felicity and realized that's who Alexa had been talking about when he spoke of his recklessness. Hours passed and they found themselves drifting onto another topic as Troy relaxed and Noah sipped some water.

  “Let me ask you a question. If Olivia chose to fight her mom, would you be there with her? Would you protect her?” asked Noah. He then added, “Without Erika forcing you.”

  After a small moment of hesitation, he spoke up. “Yeah, I guess I would.”

  “Would you seriously? After she killed Alexa?”

  Troy's abdomen tightened at the words, but still he nodded. “Y
eah.”

  There was a brief silence between the two guys and from it came an unfamiliar sound. They hadn't heard Olivia's footsteps when she came down the stairs or heard Bear scamper off at her arrival but when the sound of laughter rang in their ears Troy turned to it and Noah dropped his glass of water.

  “Crap,” he muttered as he fell to the ground to pick up the shards.

  There was a pause in the laughter and then it continued. Troy was already out of the kitchen, walking through the dining room and across the foyer to the living room. His feet slid across the floor as if he had been tethered to the cheerful sound that escaped her mouth, entranced by it. When he reached the living room, he perched himself against the frame of the entryway and was astounded by the sight before him. Olivia had sat back on the arm of the couch and held the puppy at arm's length as it barked happily and rolled his tongue out. His long tongue swept across the insides of her wrist, dampening her skin and her face was lit up like Christmas morning each time she felt the jolt travel through her veins. He could barely see the color of her eyes through the now tiny slits but he thought he saw, if even for a moment, Alexa lying back in giggles. She looked carefree as if in a matter of weeks she had shed her cold exterior and became something more, but to Noah she had just devolved and was once again what she had always been: Human.

  It took a few raps at the door to pull Olivia away from what held her attention but she didn't rise to answer it. She raised her head ever so slightly and caught sight of Noah standing there with wide eyes and Troy turning away. He pulled the door open and his father stepped in, giving a quick nod to him and then spoke to Noah.

  “You must be Noah Anderson?”

  He was smoothing out his red and blue tie with one hand while he awaited a response.

  “Another kitsune?” asked Noah with no harshness in his voice, only curiosity.

  David shook his head. “I'm only human.”

  Noah couldn't tell if there was pride behind those words or a stab of sadness at the realization of how ordinary he was. That made him think about his own plight, of being just a human around a vampire and powerful, fire wielding fox beings. Still, there was an air about this man, that really did look exactly like Troy, that made him easier to like—certainly a lot more than Erika. There was something about him that made Noah gravitate towards him, especially since he had bags of food in hand, which Troy always seemed to be in short supply of.