by Nina Perez
“They were your friends.” Violet whispered. Dr. Tesla met her eyes. “Yes. They were.”
“Sometimes I hate them.” The words tumbled out of her mouth like runaway marbles. She made no effort to collect them or apologize. Violet didn’t know why she’d said it, but it was out there and it was the truth.
It wasn’t uncommon for children to feel abandoned after the death of a parent, but Dr. Tesla knew that Violet’s feelings were more complicated than that. “You’re angry they didn’t tell you.”
Violet nodded. “I’m angry they didn’t tell me. I’m angry they said yes to begin with. They made this decision about my life before I was even born, and now look where I am.” Violet threw up one hand and let it fall against her thigh, sending a sharp slap into the air. “Look where they are. No offense to you and your cause, but we’d have been better off if we didn’t know about your kind… or any of the others.”
“You’re right. Your life and your parents’ would have been completely different if they hadn’t known. We never actively seek humans that we can share this burden with. Most times, it’s in everyone’s best interest to wipe their memories when they’re exposed to magic, but there was something about your mother...”
She’s sworn she’d never go back, but minutes later Violet found herself in the living room, putting on the glasses. One second she was looking at a busy emergency room on the television screen, and the next she was in the emergency room. Doctors and nurses rushed by, and like the last time she was in a construct, Violet knew the people weren’t real and wouldn’t acknowledge her presence. A moment later she was joined by Dr. Tesla.
“This isn’t Rosemont General in Little City,” Violet said. Every chair in the waiting room was occupied: a young mother held two toddlers in her lap, one screaming furiously, an old man sat with a blood-soaked towel wrapped around his head, blood stained his white t-shirt, and a young couple sat with their heads pressed together, eyes closed. Everyone looked miserable.
“No,” Dr. Tesla said taking a step closer. “We're in midtown Manhattan, nineteen eighty-nine.”
Violet and Dr. Tesla stood against a wall next to a small hallway that led to public restrooms and a bank of pay phones. “Why are we here?”
Dr. Tesla pointed to the double automatic doors a few feet away and said, “Watch.”
The doors opened, briefly allowing entry to wind and cold rain. Two uniformed police officers walked in, each holding the arm of a young man. As they got closer, Violet noticed the man’s clothes were dirty, his face was covered in the beginnings of a beard, and he was mumbling under his breath. A doctor approached the trio.
“What’s his story?” The doctor asked. The officers were having difficulty keeping the man on his feet. The taller, older cop answered, removing his cap and shaking off the rain. “Owners of the diner up the block called complaining this guy was hanging around the entrance, scaring the customers. Think he might be schizo, off his meds.”
The doctor took out a penlight and examined the man’s eyes. “Can you tell us your name, sir?” The man opened his mouth, but instead of giving a name he offered up more mumbling.
“Dark skies… ash… fire.”
“His name was Sam Ryling.” Dr Tesla said, watching the scene with sad eyes. “He’d been undercover for The Alliance, getting close to the Bales and reporting his findings. He was not crazy.”
The younger cop said, “We couldn’t get anything out of him either.”
The doctor shook his head and turned to the admissions desk. “Marianne, can you take this gentleman to exam room four?” A dark-haired nurse sat behind the desk with her back to them. Violet hadn’t noticed her before. She turned and Violet gasped. It was her mother. Her hair was shorter and her face younger, but it was definitely Marianne Ross.
“Of course, doctor.” Marianne came around the desk and gently placed a hand on Sam’s arm. She smiled warmly. “Can you follow me?” The smile remained on her face as she addressed the officers, “Hey Paul, Tommy.”
The younger cop actually blushed. “How ya doing, Marianne?”
Violet smiled, too. Her father hadn’t been exaggerating when he spoke of Marianne’s effect on men in her youth. Violet wanted to run to her, hug her, tell her she was missed. Dr. Tesla leaned closer and said, “Remember, she can’t see you.” Violet knew that, and it hurt.
Sam started to sag between the officers, his legs giving way. “Ash… dead.. eyes… dead sky… fire and ash. Twin deaths. Dead twins. Twins of death. Ash… ash…lyn.” The older cop and Marianne half walked, half carried Sam down the hall, but the younger cop, Tommy, stayed behind.“Hey, Paul, be there in a minute.”
Tommy walked over to the pay phones, inserted a coin into the slot of one and dialed a number. After a few moments he spoke into the receiver, his voice low and rushed. “It’s Tommy Murphy. I’m over at Mercy and there’s a guy here… I think you should send someone. He’s talking crazy, but I’m pretty sure he knows something about the twins. He said her name.”
“Close your eyes,” Dr. Tesla said. Violet did as she was told. He was changing the construct; she could feel it. When she opened her eyes they were in an empty exam room. “Ashlyn could not risk Sam talking. Never one to get her own hands dirty, she sent a vampire.”
Marianne walked into the room carrying a tray of medical supplies. “OK, let’s see if we can’t get those cuts cleaned up, shall we?” She stopped short when she noticed the empty bed. Violet couldn’t get over how young her mother looked. Knowing what was coming next, Violet wanted to call out for Marianne to run, get away, even though it would be useless.
Marianne placed the tray on the bed and looked out into the hall in both directions. She noticed the wet floor with damp leaves in front of an emergency exit. She curiously made her way over to it. Marianne pushed a button on the wall next to the door and it opened. She stepped outside with Violet and Dr. Tesla close behind.
They were at the back of the hospital in a loading area. There were ambulances parked nearby and large trash bins lining a brick wall. The rain wasn’t as heavy as it had been when the cops had arrived, but it was still falling in steady, cold drops. Marianne closed the cardigan she wore over her white uniform and hugged her arms across her midsection. She was about to turn and go back inside when a moan from behind the dumpsters caught her attention.
Violet thought how different their lives would have been if she had just kept going.
Even though they were in no danger of being heard, Dr. Tesla spoke softly. “The vampire was sent to kill Sam, but she got greedy and decided to feed first.” Marianne took small steps toward the row of dumpsters. Violet followed at her side. Dr. Tesla remained behind; he’d seen it before.
Violet and Marianne stopped walking at almost the same time. The vampire was tall with long blonde hair. She had Sam pinned to the brick wall, her face buried in his neck. Marianne gasped and the vampire jerked her head up. Blood covered her fangs, mouth and chin. Marianne looked into the vampire’s glowing red eyes and screamed.
In a flash, the vampire let go of Sam, who sank to the ground, blood pouring from his neck. The vampire slammed Marianne into the side of an ambulance and roughly jerked her head to the side, exposing Marianne’s neck. “No!” Violet screamed. Of course, no one heard this but Dr. Tesla.
He stood behind Violet and placed a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay, Violet.”
Sam moaned again, louder. He lay on a pile of wet cardboard; the rain flushing the blood that poured from his wound causing it to accumulate in a puddle under his head. His moaning seemed to remind the vampire why she was there. With one hand she tossed Marianne across the loading dock. Marianne struck the emergency door, hard.
Within seconds the vampire was on top of Sam, preparing to finish what she’d started. A flash of lightning appeared out of nowhere, striking the vampire in the back. She rolled away from Sam, writhing in pain. At first Violet thought that the lightning had come from the sky, but then a tall black woman
rushed past her and advanced on the vampire. She had short brown hair that stood up in small spikes all over her head. Electric currents pulsated over the woman’s hands. Her fingertips sparked and crackled as she raised them to attack again.
“Mira Locke.” Dr. Tesla whispered. “A witch and skilled Hunter. Her mother had been the assistant to the head of Trust before me.”
The vampire was ready for Mira this time and leapt to her feet. Defying gravity, she vaulted onto the brick wall in a crouch and then launched herself at Mira. Streams of electricity shot from Mira’s hands, but none connected with the vampire before she crashed into Mira and sank her fangs into the witch’s shoulder. She’d meant for the neck, but Mira’s struggles made her miss the mark. Mira cried out, but continued to struggle. The vampire was too busy repositioning herself for another bite to notice that Mira had pulled a wooden stake from a harness strapped to her waist. By the time the vampire realized, the stake was in her chest.
Her fangs retracted. Her eyes went from demon red to blue and clouded with confusion. Were it not for the blood around her mouth and the wooden stake sticking out of her chest, Violet thought she looked like a regular woman who’d just received confusing directions. Her skin darkened like she’d been burned and then it began to crack. After a few seconds her entire body turned to ash and fell in a pile around Mira.
Marianne crawled to Mira’s side and applied pressure to the gaping wound on her shoulder. “I have to get help.”
Mira’s breathing was heavy and she struggled to speak. “Sa…Sam. Where’s Sam?”
“Sam? Who’s… oh, you mean…” Marianne looked around, but Sam was gone. “He’s not here. Maybe he went inside. Come on, I have to get you…”
“No. No doctors.” The blood was pouring from the wound quickly. Marianne removed her sweater and pressed it to Mira’s shoulder. “We have to go inside. You’ll bleed to death.”
“How will you explain…?”
Mira lost consciousness before she could finish.
“Violet, perhaps you should…”
Violet didn’t want to take her eyes off of her mother, so young and beautiful, covered in blood. “Just do it,” she said.
Dr. Tesla swiped the air in front of him with his right hand. Images blurred in front of Violet’s eyes and she felt the ground shake beneath her. When her vision cleared she was in the living room of a tiny apartment. Mira was laying on a worn loveseat and Marianne sat at her side. Violet’s father, Brad, was pacing back and forth, running his hands through his hair. Violet’s first thought was, wow, he had hair. Her father was speaking in a loud whisper.
“Well, you have to tell me something, Marianne! You call me away from work; tell me to rush over to the hospital… I help you put a bleeding woman in our car. Don’t worry about what I’ll believe. Just tell me the truth!”
“A little later now,” Dr. Tesla changed the construct. It settled on the same apartment, but it was daytime and they were in the kitchen. Her parents sat around the dining table that was really nothing more than a card table. A younger Dr. Tesla sat between them, speaking quietly.
“Your mother saved Mira’s life that night. At this time, only one prophecy had been revealed and we were still gathering evidence to prosecute the twins. Before I’d been elected head of The Trust, I ran Human Relations. Its function was to work closely with the humans entrusted with our secret. It seems I had a gift for that. When Mira was strong enough, she contacted us and it was decided that it would be best if I met with your parents. My intention was to wipe their memory. Not everyone should be trusted with the secret of our existence. Not only is it a burden, but trusting the wrong people could be disastrous. But before I could perform the spell, your mother began to lay out all the ways she could be of help to us.”
Violet watched as her mother spoke softly, determination on her face, and her long fingers danced through the air giving emphasis to her words.
“Her offer was definitely tempting. Hunters aren’t just supernatural beings; they are humans, too. Like Jack’s grandfathers. We could always use medical personnel capable of tending to wounded Hunters in secret. It’s kind of hard to explain showing up at the hospital with wounds sustained by a vampire or werewolf. But I could see that your father wasn’t as convinced as Marianne. And I was prepared to say no. And then…”
Dr. Tesla nodded towards the table. Violet stepped closer as her mother took her father’s hand and looked Dr. Tesla in the eyes. She said, “I’ve witnessed evil in all forms. I’ve seen babies broken by their own mothers, I’ve seen people murdered by bare hands, and I’ve seen a vampire nearly tear a woman apart. It doesn’t matter where it comes from. Evil is evil and it must be stopped.”
Violet had seen enough. She removed the glasses.
They sat silently in the living room for several minutes. Finally Dr. Tesla said, “They really did save a lot of lives, you know.”
“I know. I just wish they could have saved their own.”
Chapter Ten
Talk About Opportunity
In their new, less formal, sessions Dr. Tesla encouraged Jack to talk about whatever he wanted, but Jack had remained distant and tight-lipped. It killed him to do so – there was much he wanted to ask – but he knew that Dr. Tesla was expecting him to talk about Bobby. Jack feared that opening any communication would lead to just that and then talk of his visions wouldn’t be far behind. After Violet filled Jack in on all that she’d learned about her parents and how they came to join The Alliance, Jack decided he’d take a chance and just ask Dr. Tesla what he wanted to know.
“What can you tell me about my grandfathers?”
Dr. Tesla leaned back in his chair and tented his fingers in front of him. “What do you want to know?”
Jack stood by the window, running his finger along the sill. He shrugged before answering. “Well, everything. How’d they become Hunters? How did they die?”
“It’s a bit complicated. May I ask why now?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that you haven’t wanted to talk about much of anything lately. Why the change?”
Jack eyes went dark, like a curtain falling on a stage, and Dr. Tesla knew he’d gone too far. He should have answered and let Jack talk about whatever he wanted. He had forgotten he was in therapist mode, not guardian. And now, Jack had shut down. Show’s over, folks. Nothing left to see here. Move on.
“How come you showed Violet all that stuff about her parents?” Jack asked, pushing off the wall and walking over to the bookshelf. He tilted his head, nonchalantly looking at the titles on the book spines.
“Because Violet was ready.”
“And how come you don’t make her do this?” Jack pointed at his index finger back and forth between himself and Dr. Tesla.
“You were seeing me before the accident. Violet wasn’t. If Violet needs to talk about anything, she knows I’m here. Besides, she’s been meeting with Kalina.”
Jack let out a short, loud, bark of a laugh. “Getting tutored in algebra and history is not really the same thing as having your head probed.”
“Of course not, but as I said, you required sessions before. Your parents thought it might help if you had someone to talk to about what happened to Bobby. And I do think you need to deal with that before we get into anything else.”
Jack shrugged. He’d had months to get the mannerisms of an indifferent teenager down cold. It had served him well; shutting down conversations he didn’t want to have and, more importantly, preventing people from physically touching him. If Dr. Tesla didn’t want to tell him about his grandfathers, so be it. He wasn’t going to let him use the information to coerce him into talking about Bobby, or anything else for that matter.
Truth be told, Jack didn’t care if Violet had sessions or not. He took an immature pleasure in knowing something Dr. Tesla didn’t. If he knew how she was spending her spare time, Jack thought, he might be a little more concerned about her state of mind.
Jack had
stumbled upon Violet’s secret innocently enough. They’d been having lunch at school, pretending they didn’t notice the sidelong, curious glances of their classmates. The bell rang and Jack reached to hand Violet her backpack, grabbing it by a strap. Images filled his head suddenly, like lost memories rushing to the surface. He saw Violet sitting on the brick front steps of a two-story house, watching another house across the street. Then, like a film reel missing frames, the image jumped and changed. Violet was now entering the home of a woman, but the vision ended before he could see the woman’s face.
“What in the world is wrong with you?” Violet asked.
“Nothing. Here, you’re gonna be late for class.”
Jack didn’t tell Dr. Tesla about it because he would have had to explain how he knew and he still wasn’t ready to talk about his visions. It was the first time he’d received one from touching an object and not a person, and the visions were also a lot clearer than they’d ever been. He thought that learning more about Lincoln might help to understand what was happening to him, but Dr. Tesla refused to talk about the Bales, too.
In their next session, while Violet studied upstairs with Kalina, Dr. Tesla asked, “Are we going to talk about Bobby today?”
Jack sighed. He sometimes thought Violet got the better deal, spending time with a vampire.
“No. We are not.”
“You know, we’ll have to talk about what happened to him sooner or later.”
“Yeah, let’s go with later.”
But it was to be a lot sooner than Jack thought.
Upstairs, Violet and Kalina were having a more successful give-and-take. Kalina still made Violet nervous, but she had questions; especially after everything she’d witnessed the night her mother saved Mira’s life. Despite her fears, Violet was curious - she wanted to know what made Kalina tick. Kalina, however, remained as hard to crack as she had before Violet knew she was a vampire. If Violet wasn’t studying Kalina like a maze she had to navigate, she was jumping every time Kalina got too close to her. So, they’d come to an agreement: for every milestone of schoolwork reached, Kalina would answer Violet’s questions. Kalina hoped this would both put Violet at ease and keep her from flunking her classes.