Midnight Blood
by
Nicole L Yanski
Life is eternal; and love is immortal;
and death is only a horizon;
and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.
Rossiter W. Raymond
MIDNIGHT BLOOD
The Beginning of Forever
Published by Nicole Yanski
Copyright 2012 Nicole Yanski
First edition in the Born Immortal series
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DEDICATED
TO
My mother who is missed every day
and Tim Hoffman, who was always a great friend to me.
And to Luana and Cassandra,
without you two, Born Immortal might not have happened or come this far.
I love you both.
To my husband and children for
their support and input, and
for putting up with me through
the process.
Born Immortal:
Midnight Blood
By: Nicole L Yanski
PROLOGUE
The dull red glow, surrounded by white bright white light, was blinding to Shayna. Her eyes fluttered open, and slowly started to adjust to the light. She looked around, barely able to move her head. Oh my God! She thought. Unbelievably, she was back on the island. This time, instead of roses, there were white candles, burning through out the room. She realized that the candles were the red glow. Everything had gone horribly wrong. Her head was pounding, and she hopelessly wondered, where Aiden was. He was supposed to protect her from Cain, to stop this from happening, and make sure it didn’t happen at all.
A dark figure stepped into the room from the balcony, and walked toward the bed.
“You’re awake,” he said, and sat on the bed beside her.
He put his hand on her thigh, and Shayna trembled with fear. The only thing going through her mind, was that Aiden was supposed to protect her from this. She had trusted that he would do that.
“Don’t be scared Shayna,” he whispered to her.
He leaned down toward her, and with his soft, but deadly, fingers, he gently moved the hair off of her shoulder, exposing her throat. The veins in her neck throbbed with every beat of her heart. Right there. He thought, eyeing the biggest vein of all.
“This won’t hurt much,” he leaned in even closer to her, “If you don’t fight it.”
Shayna closed her eyes tightly.This is it. She thought. This is how I am going to die.
Chapter 1
Melina Verona knocked on her twin sister Shayna’s bedroom door, and huffed,
“Shay, lets go, I don’t want to be late.”
Melina could hear her sister stirring on the other side of the door, and she grew more anxious.
“I’m up,” Shayna groaned.
Shayna didn’t want to wake up. She wanted so badly to go back to sleep, so that she could see him. The mysterious handsome boy, that had been visiting her dreams for the last three years. She doesn’t understand the meaning of this boy in her dreams, but she feels deep inside that he symbolizes her father. When the boy appears he doesn’t ever speak, and he doesn’t really play a role in her dreams, he’s just there. Watching her, standing behind a tree, or walking down the street, sometimes his beautiful face appears in the clouds looking down at her.
She had been closer than ever to him, this time. He was sitting in her favorite coffee shop when she walked in. When she approached him he held out his hand to her with a gorgeous smile, and that was when the knocking began.
Shayna opened her eyes and realized she was awake. Her heart sank to her stomach, she hated that feeling. She had been so close, she didn’t like leaving him, especially not this time.
“I’m up,” she mumbled again.
Sitting up in her bed she looked out the window. It was a nice day, it was winter but it hadn’t been that cold yet. For northern Michigan the winter had been unusually mild.
Shayna rolled out of the bed and went to her bathroom to wash up for the day. She was not looking forward to it. It was the first day back to school after Christmas break, and almost every girl in school was anxiously awaiting their return. During the break a woman and a boy, who appeared to be high school age, moved to Interlochen. The woman came to town to run errands occasionally, but the boy was only seen when people drove past their house, which was two or three miles south of town.
Shayna laughed out loud to herself when she thought of how almost every available girl at the Interlochen Center for the Arts would be doing everything they possibly could, to catch the eye of this new stranger.
So fake. She thought. She pulled a brown hooded cardigan, and an old pair of blue jeans out of her closet. She felt like school had become more of a drama filled fashion show, than it was a learning institution. She couldn’t wait to be in New York in the fall, to start her new life, to be a new Shayna.
She put on the jeans, and pulled the cardigan over the white camisole that she was already wearing. She gave her hair a quick comb over, then pulled the top half loosely back and clipped it, letting the rest of her thick chocolate curls fall over her shoulders.
She was ready, no makeup, no hairspray, just Shayna.
Shayna grabbed her backpack, and opened her bedroom door. Standing there was Melina, arm raised, in a knocking position.
“It’s about time,” Melina barked, “Can we go?”
“Can I eat?”
“No, I have to hurry.”
“Oh puhlease,” Shayna rolled her eyes.
“Grab an apple,” Melina looked at her sister pathetically as they walked down the stairs. “Come on Shay, you know the rules, ‘whoever sees him first’, I have to see him first.”
Shayna sat down to put on her boots, and finally took a good look at what Melina was wearing, and shook her head at the outfit.
“What?” demanded Melina when she noticed.
“If Mom sees you wearing that she’s going to freak,” Shayna said, lacing up a pair of brown, leather boots.
Melina had on a white blouse, a pink floral skirt, that by Shayna’s standards was too short, and a pair of white almost knee high boots.
“Mom’s not going to see me, Miss Perfect,” Melina responded, then whispered, “Now lets go, before she wakes up.”
Shayna rolled her eyes again and stood up from the bench that was at their back door, “Lets go.”
They walked to the car, and Shayna knew inside, that the day would be good. She had an odd feeling that something was going to happen. Then she remembered that something was going to happen today. This new boy, no one was quite sure of his name, should be at school today. He would join the few locals that attended the Academy, but she couldn’t figure out why she would feel anxious about that.
On the way to school Melina talked Shayna’s ear off about the new boy. Wondering what he looked like, if he was cute, how old he was, blah, blah, blah. Shayna wanted to hum along with the sound of their Honda Prelude’s motor, and tune her sister out.
“You know, your whole ‘whoever sees him first’ rule is childish,” Shayna finally said to Melina, “You’re interfering with fate.”
“Who is to say we all even like him,” Melina defended, “That rule is just in case more than one of us like a guy, whoever saw him first gets the first shot.”
>
“Obviously,” Shayna glared at her sister.
“Whatever Shayna,” Melina was getting more defensive, “We’re not interfering with anybody’s fate!”
Just his. Shayna thought, and looked out the window. She was silent the rest of the way to school. She wished she was still dreaming.
Melina and Shayna are fraternal twins. They live in a small northern Michigan village with their mother Sarah. Their father, Marcus, died when they were thirteen. They are now half way through their senior year in high school, and will both be going to college in the fall. Melina to Michigan State, and Shayna to New York.
Calling them unidentical twins is an understatement. They are worlds apart. Melina, with fine straight blond hair, brown eyes, thin lips, and a medium build, like their mother, and Shayna with chocolate curly hair, big bright blue eyes, and full kissable lips, like their father. Although no one is quite sure where Shayna got her petite body from. To top it off their personalities are polar opposites. Melina is obsessed with her looks, boys, and material objects, and Shayna likes art, reading, and being in nature. Most people don’t even believe that the girls are sisters, let alone twins.
They pulled into the student parking lot almost a half an hour early.
“I’m going across the street to the coffee shop,” Shayna told Melina when the car was parked. This was the coffee shop in her dream, “Good luck…with your…thing.”
“Okay, see ya,” Melina said over her shoulder, she was already out of the car and on her way.
Shayna got out of the car and took a deep breath. The air was cool and crisp. It felt more like fall than winter. She walked across the street to the coffee shop, inside was a kid that she had gone to school with forever, but could never remember his name. A couple of freshmen cheerleaders, and Evan, an attractive boy from Italy, who was always oddly staring at her, but no dream boy. Shayna knew she was silly for even thinking he would be there for real. She ordered a white chocolate mocha and a banana nut muffin, and walked outside and sat at a table to read. She was reading Utopia by Sir Thomas More. She had found it two years earlier, along with a couple of other valuable and sentimental keepsakes of her father’s, in their attic.
She was just opening the book when she heard the sound of a fast car approaching.
She looked up. Was this the new boy? She watched as the black BMW whipped around the corner, and into the school parking lot. When he was out of the car he was too far away from her, for her to get a good look at him. She could tell he had shoulder length hair that was the same color as hers, and that he was dressed all in black.
“Here we go”, she mumbled to herself.
There was no doubt in Shayna’s mind that Melina would see this boy before Delany and Maria, her two best friends. Maria rode the bus, and Delany refused to get out of bed early for a boy, even if she did live at the school. So as long as he arrived early enough, which he did, Melina was gauranteed to see him first.
The boy approached the doors to the office, and reaching to open them, he stopped and turned around, and looked right at Shayna sitting across the street at the coffee shop. Shayna quickly looked back down at Utopia. She could not see his eyes when he looked at her, but she could feel them. Had he felt her looking at him too? That’s ridiculous. She thought, and peeked back up, he was gone.
Shayna walked into the school, and to her surprise, Melina and Maria were standing by the inside doors to the office, boyless and looking flustered. Shayna smiled to herself, and walked down the hall to the Biology Lab. She would have to ask Melina at lunch what had happened, she found herself interested to know.
The rest of the morning her thoughts were on the new boy. The lunch bell rang and she all but ran to Melina’s locker. She knew Melina would be there, she always went there before meeting her “girls”. She rounded the corner to the hall Melina’s locker was in, and like clockwork there was Melina.
“Well?” she asked, as she approached her sister.
“Don’t even ask,” Melina glared, but proceeded anyway, “When I got to the office, Marie was already there, she had her Host Mom drop her off. After he checked in, we both offered to show him around, and he said ‘No thank you’, can you believe that?”
Shayna laughed, “He rejected you?”
“It’s not funny Shayna,” she glared, this time it was directed at Shayna.
“Sorry, but how many times can your little ‘welcome wagon’ plan work before your friends catch on?” Shayna said, her lips curling into a smile. “It is a little funny.”
“Whatever. I’ll meet you at the car at 3:15,” Melina said, and she stormed off.
After lunch, Shayna had Advanced Art, she left the cafeteria, and headed to the other side of the campus. She walked in the classroom, sat down and pulled her sketch book out of her backpack.
“It’s good to see everyone,” Ms. Olson said greeting the class, after the bell had rang.
Ms. Olson was the epitomy of ‘Hippie’, and very cool. Shayna thought she smoked marijuana, but wasn’t sure. She was wearing a tie dye skirt, a purple blouse, and Birkenstock sandals.
“Welcome back. Today we’re going t…” she began, but was interrupted by the door opening, and a boy dressed all in black walked in. He walked to Ms.Olson and gave her his enrollment slip for the office. This was the new boy. Shayna could not believe how handsome he was. Dark and handsome.
“You must be Cain,” Ms. Olson said, reaching for the slip. He nodded his head, not taking his eyes off of the woman. “ You may take a seat in the back next to Shayna,” she said after a second.
Shayna looked up as Ms. Olson pointed in her direction, and she and this boy, Cain, made eye contact. It was a good thing she was sitting down, because her knees went weak when he looked at her. Thoughts raced through her mind, she tried to figure out why she was feeling this way, all she knew, was that she couldn’t take her eyes off of him. He was absolutly gorgeous, he had shoulder length wavy dark hair, a tall broad build and the most beautiful green eyes she had ever seen. He looked like a model for a men’s magazine. No wonder he didn’t accept Melina and Maria’s gesture, he was way out of their league. He seemed too sophisticated and mature, for most of the girls at the Center for the Arts.
Their eyes stayed locked as he sauntered down the aisle towards her. He smiled as he sat down, and outstretched his hand to her.
“Cain,” he said, hand open to shake hers.
Shayna flashed him a smile and waved his hand away, “Shayna,” she replied.
“Okay, guys,” Ms.Olson said over the whispering, which no doubt was about Cain. “I know how much everyone likes Still Lifes drawings, so I thought that we would start the New Year off with one.” She gestured to a table that had a variety of items on it, like, wine bottles, vases with flowers, old cigar boxes, even the skull of a bull. “If everyone would choose a place around the table, and take a seat, we can begin.”
The students got up, and found where they would sit. Cain was sitting behind Shayna and to her right. As she drew she felt the same feeling of his eyes on her, as she had when he had looked at her from across the street. Why did she blow him off like that? She could have at least shaken his hand.
She couldn’t stop thinking about his eyes, as she drew. Maybe that is why she thought he was staring at her. She finally got the courage to look over her shoulder at him. He was staring at her! She quickly looked back to her sketch book. Why was he looking at her? She thought. And why so intently?
This went on throughout the rest of the class she would sneak casual peaks at him, out of the corner of her eye, and most of the time he was watching her. What is going on? she thought
Ms. Olson dismissed the class, and Shayna gathered her things and headed for the door, but stopped in her steps when she heard a soft, musical voice say her name, her knees weakened a little. She turned to face him.
“Yes?” she tried to act casually, although her heart was pounding in her chest. What was going on with her, she couldn’t help but
wonder.
“Can you help me find my next class?” he asked, with a smile that made his green eyes more beautiful.
Are you serious? She thought.
“Sure,” she tried the casual thing again, this boy had refused the ‘welcome wagon’ of one of the most beautiful girls in school, her twin sister, and he was asking Shayna for help. “What is your next class?”
“World History, with Mr. Duncan,” he answered.
“Okay” she said, and they walked out of the art room together. “You’re going to go down the hall, take a left and go all the way down, last door on the right.”
He looked at her and smiled, “Thank you Shayna,” and he turned and walked away.
Hearing him say her name again, gave her chills, and she began to feel dizzy. Shayna watched him walk away. He turned the corner, and looked back and smiled at her again. Like he knew she was watching him. She didn’t move until another student bumped into her from behind. She was kind of in shock. Her mind was racing with thoughts about this new boy. Thoughts she refused to let herself think about the other boys she went to school with. She wondered why he had asked her for directions. He could have asked any of the other kids in the class, but he chose, probably, the only girl who didn’t throw herself at his feet, and she wouldn’t even shake his hand. What is wrong with you? She asked herself.
Maybe that was it, he saw through all their hairdye and makeup, and saw what was underneath. Maybe she should be flattered. Then she thought of Melina. Melina was after this boy, so she would have to keep any thoughts she had about him to herself. That wouldn’t be hard to do, Shayna kept a lot of things from her twin. She has never told Melina about the boy she dreams about, Melina would just laugh at her, and tell her to get a boyfriend. She also hasn’t told Melina what she found in the attic two years earlier.
When the final bell rang at 3:10. Shayna felt like she couldn’t get out of the school building fast enough. She just wanted to go home. She got to the Honda, and Melina wasn’t there yet. Big surprise, Shayna thought. She reached in her bag for her set of keys but came up empty. Melina and Shanya share the Honda Prelude, but Melina drives mostly. Shayna remembered that her keys were sitting on her dresser at home. She leaned against the car and began thinking about Cain. She couldn’t stop thinking about his eyes. They were so alluring, and so green. She had never seen eyes that color of green before, they were the color of emeralds, bright sparkling green.
Midnight Blood (Born Immortal) Page 1