Birthrights

by Butler, Christine M.

  Of course, Caislyn wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, so she took another look behind her and put on the big fake smile she used to always use in awkward social situations,

  “Oh! Hey!” She overemphasized for effect, “I'm so glad I found you out here, this big buffoon here was playing hard to get!” Then she looked back at Gregore with an intimate intensity that he returned in full before he nodded for them to move along inside the door that had finally appeared.

  Gregore cleared his throat before speaking again, “You know the drill Caislyn, oath first, then enter!” Caislyn tapped the new girl to get her to hold the ticket up so that they could read from the oath that had been written on the back, hidden by glyphs.

  “Umm, how am I supposed to read this?”

  “Just focus, look again or repeat after me, whichever works for you,” Caislyn said while eying the new girl suspiciously.

  The short pale, brunette took the card in hand one more time and looked it over.

  “Oh! Wait, that wasn't there a minute ago.”

  “You act like you have never seen a glyph of protection before, Jeesh!” Caislyn looked at her again and then shrugged to Gregore. “Let's just read it so we can get inside.”

  Both girls took the oath and proceeded through the door that Gregore had opened up for them. The door did not lead directly inside to the main area of the building as one might expect. Gregore was the gatekeeper for the side entrance. The girls found themselves walking up a stairwell to get to the next floor. The funny thing about magic, it can be used as a dampener when non-humans decide to throw a party. One will never hear of a non-human getting busted for disturbing the peace or loud music at a party. While outside the building, no one would ever have known that there was a full blown rave going on inside; the building looked like the old abandoned, dark, and silent place that it usually appeared to be.

  “I didn't get your name outside,” Caislyn said as they traversed the stairwell.

  “Well, that would have defeated the purpose out there, now wouldn't it?” Jax looked over at Caislyn with a good natured grin and continued, “Seriously, it's Jax, well Jaxon, but everyone calls me Jax, so...”

  “Well, thanks again for helping me out, Jax.” Caislyn thought for a moment as they continued to climb the stairs, “I really needed to get in here tonight.”

  “Oh really? I just came because I needed a really good party and a really good drink!”

  Caislyn couldn't help but laugh at that, as she would have felt the same if she wasn't trying to track down yet another lead to her missing parents.

  As they stepped out of the stairwell, it became a different world. Darkness was the only thing noticeable when you first entered the building. The non-human world is used to it, though. There is something to being other than human that makes you have an affinity with the night, not just vampires and the whole 'we hate the day because we're allergic to the sun' thing. Witches, Fey, and lycans celebrated the night too, mostly because the night had helped to conceal them for centuries.

  But it wasn't until you came off the stairwell and made the right through the doorway, that you truly noticed anything else. Upon turning into the main room the darkness held its breath and the treat that is laser lights wound and curled its way through an ethereal mist that seemed to grab at your limbs as you moved across the floor. The building had some of the best acoustics in town, which is probably why they chose this location for the rave. You could feel the pulsing, vibrating, radiating music flowing out of the walls, the floor, everywhere. The sounds seemed to assault you from everywhere and nowhere, all at once. The non-humans were all very sensual beings which allowed them to credit themselves with perfecting the art of partying. A rave became a buffet of the senses for them.

  The D.J., who was perched dead center of the old theater stage, was spinning some Marilyn Manson as Caislyn and Jaxon walked in. He was not your typical DJ, he appeared to be a demon of some sort with several arms, which apparently came in handy for operating the turntables, lights, and smoke all at once. Caislyn made a note to remember him for the party she planned on throwing when she found her parents and brought them home.

  “I'm not a big fan of wanna-bes, but Marilyn Manson can sure set a mood with his music,” Caislyn shouted over to Jax.

  Jaxon nodded and smiled, as she spotted a bar off underneath the balcony. “I'm headed for a drink.”

  “Alright, thanks again for getting me in, I gotta go talk to some people about... umm, stuff. See ya around.” Caislyn wandered off in the opposite direction as Jax, but something in her gut told her to keep an eye out for her new friend tonight. There was a rule in partying at raves, even in the non human community, never go out alone. Caislyn was confident in her solitude because she was not there to party, but Jax was definitely there to party and she seemed a little naive about the whole rave scene.

  'Come on Cais, you aren't here to babysit someone you don't even know. Find your answers and get out of here.' Caislyn was talking to herself under her breath when a gorgeous vamp approached her. He sauntered up to Caislyn wearing only black leather pants, doc martens, and a cat who ate the canary smile. He was a little on the thin side for Caislyn’s taste, but still very handsome in a boyishly charming, a little too baby-faced to be completely sexy way.

  “Hey, little witchling, wanna dance, or ...” he left the invitation open, but Caislyn knew exactly to what he was referring. That may have had something to do with his very obvious flash of fangs and the waggle of his eyebrows.

  “What are you, like 12? At first I thought you were pretty yummilicious, that was until you opened your mouth!” She smiled sweetly as she said it, then continued talking as she looked around the room, “I'm not here to party tonight, I have some questions about some missing people,” she realized she had lost her audience when she turned back around to find him gone. “Damn vamps, at least I didn't have to take forever to convince him that the answer was no,” she sighed to herself.

  “Shit! I have to stop talking to myself in public,” Caislyn continued to scan the dance floor. She had noticed on each scan that there was one particular vamp who was checking her out. He was standing off to the side of the stage watching not only her, but her new friend Jaxon as well. He stood there in obviously tailored clothes staring out, intermittently between the two of them. The tailored clothes, while black, still stood out amongst the party crowd. She determined that he didn’t really belong in the midst of the swirling smoke tendrils and laser light beams. There was something about him that put her on edge. She thought it was her cue to go talk to him because he might be the person she needed to question about her family, but first she wanted to warn Jaxon about his interest in the both of them.

  She walked briskly across the dance floor, closer to the bar where Jax had just purchased her drinks. As she approached Jaxon she took note of the two drinks Jax was holding. “When you said you wanted a drink you really meant it, didn't you?”

  Jax laughed, “Yeah, well, I tried the first one and it was really weak. I figured I would grab another to keep from having to line up again at the meat market they call a bar.” She gestured over to the same creepy vamp that had just hit on Caislyn a few minutes ago. “That particular jerk flashed some fangs at me and told me what he’d like to do to me in the back room.”

  “Yea, he hit on me a few minutes ago, too.“ Caislyn told Jaxon what she had said to the vamp and Jax nearly spilled her drinks for laughing so hard. Caislyn spun Jax around so she could see the all too sexy vamp that was way too interested in them and who was still standing near the stage watching. “Some vamp guy has been alternating between checking us out,” she nodded toward the vamp in question.

  “Oh, that's Seth. He's no vamp, he's just my boss' boss. He's the one who gave me the ticket.” Jax rolled her eyes and turned her back towards him, continuing to dance with her two drinks. “He may be cute, but he‘s an arrogant son of a bitch.”

  “Oh, okay, well the way he kept looking over, all
psycho-stalker like, he was creeping me out, so I thought I would check.”

  Jax laughed at Caislyn’s all too appropriate description, "I wish I had an observant friend like you when when I lived in Raleigh. I might not have had such a crappy time!" She held up one of her drinks as an offering to Caislyn and asked, “Hey, you want a drink?”

  Caislyn giggled at Jax, but declined. She looked around, feeling as though they were still being watched. She no longer saw the vamp that had given Jax her ticket, but that prickly sensation on the back of her neck had gone into overdrive. She then noticed others who had began circling the dance floor. They reminded her of sharks circling their prey.

  “Umm, Jax,” Caislyn started to say.

  “I don't feel good about being here anymore.” Jax held up her drink and continued, “What's in these things?”

  “I don't think it's the drinks. Look.”

  “Look at what?” Jax took a look around the dance floor and noticed the sharks circling too. Panic nearly set in, until she remembered she had a blade or two hidden on her. Then she simply looked back at Caislyn.

  Caislyn noticed Seth coming through the crowd towards them and saw him mouth something to her, but she couldn’t hear it.

  “Run?” Jaxon questioned, “who said to run?” Jax asked Caislyn.

  “Oh shit! Let's go. Come on, I saw some back stairs over by the bar.” Caislyn and Jax made their way through the dance floor over to the back stairwell. As they ran into the stairwell, they noticed a commotion coming up the stairs from the lower floors. The girls ran up the stairs toward the roof access. Once on the roof, Caislyn felt like she has seen this image before. She realized too late that this was the scene from the sketches she had been making over the past couple of months. “Shit, I should have known better than to go up!”

  “Yeah, cause unless you can fly, we're trapped. So now what?” Jaxon thought about the knives she had hidden and realized they wouldn’t really help with the vampires that had chased them up to the roof. All they would do was piss a vamp off.

  The two of them backed themselves up to the ledge of the building looking to see if there was a safe place to jump down, a fire escape, something.

  Jaxon looked down the building, noted there wasn‘t an escape route then she looked back at Caislyn, “Uh Uh! There's no way I can make that jump, do you see these heels? Besides, it‘s way too high and I don‘t fancy another trip to the hospital.” Jax pointed to her boots and then looked back up accusingly at Caislyn, “What do they want anyway? What have you done?”

  “Nothing,” Caislyn began as the roof top door burst open and out flowed an angry looking clan of vampires.

  The vamp in the black leather pants and doc marten's stepped forward, "How do you like 12 now, bitch?"

  “Shit!” Caislyn grabbed hold of Jaxon's arm and looked over the edge of the building to the alley beneath them wishing there was a way down. No sooner than she thought about needing a way down than she blinked her eyes open and Jaxon and Caislyn were standing in the alley.

  “You can fly!" Jaxon looked wide-eyed towards Caislyn, “What was in those damn drinks? Damn, I always choose red. Couldn't choose the blue drink and wake up in my own bed could I?”

  “What the hell?” Caislyn looked at Jax wondering what she was talking about.

  “You know, like in that movie?” Jax attempted to explain.

  “No, I meant how the hell did we get down here?” Caislyn was questioning whether Jaxon had something to do with the unusual form of transportation that had just placed them in the alley. “Never mind, let's worry about the details later. We need to get out of here.”

  Caislyn lead Jax through the alley and out to the street. They turned right and began to head to Caislyn's apartment over the Hidden Dimensions Book Store when Jax chimed in, “But my apartment is the other way.”

  “Trust me we will be safer at my place.”

  “Uh, I hope it's not much further because they are right on our ass!”

  Caislyn turned to see how many vampires were following behind when she saw two of them snatched into the air and thrown like rag dolls back towards the alley. She also noted two vamps going down, looking as if they had been tripped. Caislyn remembered that was the entrance Gregore was working and she smiled inside knowing he tried to help.

  “Just run,” she yelled at Jax as they both pick up there speed.

  The girls approached the book store and Caislyn mumbled a spell that automatically opened the shop doors for them. They immediately ran through and Caislyn slammed the door shut behind them. “Keep going to the back of the store. The stairs to my apartment are back there.” Caislyn turned momentarily at the door and looked back out at the street. She didn’t see anyone out there, but she felt an odd compulsion to go back to the rave for some reason. She resisted it and turned to follow Jax upstairs to the apartment.

  ***

  Picturing the Future

  Jax didn't question her new friend's command and continued to run toward the stairs. The girls found their way up to the third floor apartment, breathlessly closing the door behind them as they entered.

  “What if they get in, we have to hide!” Jax panted.

  “It's okay, we are safe in here.”

  “But there’s no lock, they can get in.”

  “No, it's really okay, I have wards up. They are better than locks any day.” Caislyn told her bluntly.

  “Oh we have something like that at work, I think.” Jaxon didn't seem to sure of herself and Caislyn looked at her wondering what she was. Certainly, she couldn't be a witch or any other magical being if she didn't know about wards.

  Jaxon stared at Caislyn and said, “You're a witch! That's how you got us down from the roof, but wait, I thought you needed a broom for that. Did I miss the broom?”

  “Did you what?” Caislyn looked at Jaxon and said, “I didn't get us down from the roof, I thought you did. And yes, I am a witch, aren't you?”

  “Umm, no! No, I'm not and no, I definitely didn't!” Jax looked at Caislyn again, waiting for an explanation.

  “Well what are you then?”

  “Duh, I'm human!” Jax rolled her eyes at Caislyn then started to wander around the apartment nervously.

  Caislyn followed slightly behind her and continued the questioning, “Wait, but you can't be human, otherwise, you couldn't have gotten into the rave. Only non-humans could get the tickets.” Caislyn continued to follow Jax through her apartment, “I've never seen a vampire get so pissed because he got turned down, but they totally ruined my chances to question anyone about my parents.”

  “I was given the ticket by that guy from work and why would you go to rave to ask questions about your parents?” Jax gave Caislyn a screwy look and then continued to look around the apartment. She was drawn to some sketches that were hanging on the far wall. As she got closer to the sketches, she took note that they were very well drawn.

  “My parents disappeared a year ago. I had a lead that someone at the rave knew something. I guess now I will never know.”

  “Who took your parents? And why didn't you just tell the police about the lead?” Jax looked at Caislyn again, “Maybe they were trying to take you too? That's probably why Mr. 12 Year Old Vamp got his buddies to chase us, they wanted to get you.”

  “Long story short? The police didn't help before. They stopped about two weeks after my parents disappeared.”

  “I'm not surprised.” Jaxon interjected. At the look she got from Caislyn she added, “Sorry, I'm a bit jaded when it comes to law enforcement actually helping the victims.”

  “Me too! I've always thought the government was involved in some way, or something. That vamp wasn't bad enough to take my parents, he needed to get his buddies involved with us over a bruised ego. You know men and their insecurities. They follow you into un-death too I suppose. Did you recognize any of them?” Caislyn questioned, still wondering what Jax was.

  Jax raised an eyebrow as she looked back at Caislyn “Why would I k
now any vampires? Oh, wait! You can't possible think that I'm a vampire. Just because I'm pale doesn't make me want to drink blood! I mean really, eww!”

  “Well, we got off that rooftop somehow. I just figured you, I don't know, jumped.” Caislyn replied.

  “Hello! What part of ‘human’ do you not understand? I know being a witch makes you special and all, but I would think you of all people would know that humans could not jump like that! Besides – you were the one that flew us off the roof.”

  “Well I know being ‘human’ might make you ignorant, but witches do not “fly” off roofs!” Caislyn's frustration began to seep out, making her pace back and forth.

  Jaxon shook her head a bit and turned back toward the wall of sketches. They were all done in charcoals or pencils, each having a different scene. The pictures looked so real that Jax was drawn to each of them, wondering who the artist was and what inspired such emotion.

  She stopped suddenly, a particular one near the bottom catching her eye.“Wait,” Jax touched the penciled sketch lightly with a trembling finger, “this is me, us, on that roof top.”

  Caislyn walked over to the wall to see what sketch Jax was talking about and realized that it was the one that she had drawn on the full moon.

  “It was you. You were the reason I was supposed to be at that rave tonight.”

  “Say what? Me? Huh?” Jax blinked her confusion. “How do you have a sketch of me, when we just met?”

  “I did that sketch on the full moon. Look at the date. After I did the ritual.” Caislyn explained.

  “Whoa. Ritual? Okay, now I'm feeling a little squeamish.” Jaxon had begun backing away from Caislyn.