It was a twenty minute walk towards their campus grounds, often littered with late night joggers or people taking midnight strolls. But tonight it was quiet and damp, following an earlier heavy rain.
Only their footsteps scrunched on the sodden twigs and leaves on the sidewalk.
As they walked, Yarra’s mind began flooding with information.
In her vision, she saw them walking towards the end of the pavement. When they turned the corner, they were attacked by two thugs bigger in size than they were.
She saw how they tackled him to the ground and punched her in the face before running off with her the purse in her hand.
When the vision was over, she gripped his hands tightly. They were due to reach the end of the pathway in twenty or so steps.
“Let’s… let’s go the other way,” Yarra said, stopping in the middle. She was shivering not because of the cold, but the impending danger that awaited them at the turn of the corner.
“Why?” Avice slurred slightly. He had a goofy smile on his face.
“We will take the longer way back. It is more romantic,” Yarra lied horribly.
Avice looked at her strangely.
“Baby, I want you in bed with me as soon as possible,” he pouted.
If it wasn’t for the severity of the situation, Yarra would have found it cute. They were ten steps away from the corner.
She tried to pull him away from the walkway, but his walk became stronger, purposeful and impatient. Again, the same vision repeated itself in her mind confirming the impending dander.
“Yarra, what’s gotten into you?” Avice raised his voice suddenly.
She was too flustered to speak. She could not tell him what she saw in her vision. It was an innate fear that he might label her a freak when her prediction proved to be accurate.
Stopping and pulling at his arm, they were five steps away from the corner of the building. The light from the pavement ended here, and the rest of the way till their campus grounds would be only illuminated by the stars and the crescent moon tonight.
“Yarra, let’s go!” he said.
“No!” she shouted, realizing that they had just revealed their presence to the ambushers.
That did it. Yarra watched her vision come true, albeit slightly differently. Instead of them being attacked when they made a turn at the corner, two big sized men jumped out from the darkness and tried to tackle them.
Avice’s back was turned against the attackers, but he reacted with speedy precision. He pushed Yarra backward and turned to face the two men.
In her vision, she saw one of the men wrestling Avice to the ground. That did not happen. Instead, Avice delivered a deft punch on the man’s jaw.
There was a subtle sound of a crack which echoed through the night. The first attacker, easily almost twice the size of her boyfriend, fell to the floor in a sickening crunch.
The second man was shocked at the force of Avice’s punch. He tried to run away, but he pounced on him like a predator zeroing in on prey. She saw him tackled the man to the ground and deliver repeated punches on the man’s face.
The second attacker was so distraught and in pain, he begged for mercy. Still, Avice continued with his barrages, unrelenting.
“Avice, stop!” Yarra screamed. She rushed towards him, jumping over the first guy. He was cradling his broken jaw.
He did not seem to hear her. His right hand was raised to rain down on the guy’s face when Avice caught it.
The momentum of his blow made her whole body move forward, and Yarra topped on the pavements, rolling a few times. She yelled out in pain.
Seeing her fall forward snapped Avice back into reality.
“Oh, shit! Baby!” Avice exclaimed.
He got up off the man beaten to a pulp, and moved towards Yarra who was groaning on the floor in pain.
“I’m fine,” she said when he came closer. “I’m fine, Avice.”
It was then when she realized the color of his eyes. They were no longer the friendly brown assurance he always had. Instead, his pupils had a rusty maroon discoloration, as though possessed by a strange force. She watched in awe and fright as the maroon faded off and reverted back to its original light tinged brown hue.
“You sure?” he asked again. Only, it wasn’t the voice she was used to, it that honey-tinged sweetness. It was now hoarse, as though the owner of the voice was a completely different person.
All she could do was a nod and let him pull her up. They left the two men on the ground to fend for themselves.
She realized then that there was more to Avice than met the eye.
They did not speak until Avice had showered the spatters of the blood off his face. There was nothing to be done with the red streaks on his shirt.
It lay on the ground in front of her, an inhuman talisman symbolizing Avice’s earlier brute strength. Tantamount to her fears, it had become creepier the way his personality reverted back to the awkward shyness of a young adult who would never hurt a fly.
“Isn’t it weird?” Avice said as he came out of the shower. His tone was innocent, tinged in amazement. “You insisted on taking a different path back home. It was as if the universe was warning you about those two dudes there!”
Yarra passed off a weak laugh and looked away. “Yeah, but it is a good thing you could protect us. I… I didn’t know you could fight like that.”
It was Avice’s turn to be quiet. Out of the corner of her eyes, Yarra saw his left hand trail along his tattoo. His hand settled below the nipple where the red handle was engraved onto his skin, before sliding upwards along the visceral, grey serrated knife. His fingers then pinched at the choker as an anchor.
Yarra knew then that she was not crazy. She had not imagined the tattoo on his body. Avice too, knew of its existence. Only, there was an unknown force acting as a barrier to prevent her from speaking of it.
She turned to him, and saw the curls of his still wet hair and water glistening on his lithe body. The shirt was on the floor, still pungent with the blood of their attackers.
Avice picked it up and gave it a little whiff. He expressed disgust at the smell and expressed his desire to throw it. Yarra could only nod. She was still shaken by the incident.
By a stroke of luck, he chose not to pursue the possibility of her clairvoyant abilities.
“I’m going to take a shower,” she said.
Avice nodded. “Gonna pack this shirt up and throw it away.”
Before he did so, he came close to Yarra and picked her right arm. Her wrist was bruised where he had gripped her a little too strongly earlier. She winced.
“I’m sorry. I…, I just lost control of myself.”
Yarra kissed him on the cheek and patted his hand over hers. “You saved both of us. That’s all that matters.”
It was the first time in their relationship that she had felt the need to distance herself from him.
Her vision was beginning to ring into fruition. An earlier perception of his characteristics had to be completely unlearnt. Avice, just like her, harbored a dark secret.
In the shower, she let the hot water wash over her fatigued body. Sounds of fumbling could be heard coming out of the bathroom, but she ignored it.
Avice let out a groan, annoyed at something, which piqued her curiosity. Still, she chose the warmth of the shower over him. Without warning, a flash of visions inundated her mind’s eye.
In it, she saw herself moving, naked and sopping wet, towards the kitchen. The trail of water in her wake was mercurial, proof of her walking.
It was vivid to catch the gleam of the light in Avice’s apartment dorm. Yarra saw the version of herself in the vision peering into the kitchen. Mimicking her doppelganger’s actions, she too leaned in to see that which had piqued her curiosity.
Avice was on the kneeling on the floor with his nose deep in the pungent shirt he had wanted to throw away. He was sniffing at the blood spatters with a euphoric expression on his face.
Slowly, hi
s tongue flicked at the streaks of red, and his lips and teeth sucked at the spot where the blackest red spot was settled. Dissatisfied with the scarcity of the blood, he sucked harder at the threads, wanting to liquefy the already caked blood on his matted shirt.
“A… Avice?” the Yarra in her vision asked.
Avice turned to look at her with a look of shock on his face. Yarra screamed. She did not know which Yarra screamed louder, her in the vision, or her looking in as a third person. Avice had fangs, and his eyes had an unmistakable red ruby glow.
The vision and scream faded into nothingness and Yarra found herself on the floor of the shower.
“It…, it was just a vision, girl.”
She stared at the lucid door of her bathroom. Beyond it, he was doing what she had seen in the vision. The precognition ended before she could see how Avice had reacted.
All he had done was bare his fangs at her. Would he kill her for finding out his darkest secret?
No, he would not kill her today. That was due to happen in six months. That much, Yarra was sure. She had to see this. She had to see Avice in his true form. It would answer so many unfathomable questions.
Leaving the shower to run, she inched the door of her bathroom open and walked out. The smooth marble tiles masked her squelching footsteps as she tiptoed to the kitchen.
There was a fumbling sound, intermingling with a sound of an awkward sucking of one’s teeth. Gulping, she reached the kitchen entrance. Just as the Yarra in her vision had done so, Yarra leaned a head in and peered into the kitchen.
True to her vision, there he was on the floor, sucking the remnants of the blood from his soiled shirt.
“Avice?” Yarra called out.
Her voice startled him. With a panicked grimace, he looked up and bared his fangs at her. Four pointed, sharp canines capable of puncturing through metal with perfect ease if he wanted to.
It seemed to gleam at the pointy apex of his teeth. His eyes, just as she had seen it in the vision, were ruby-red, gleaming in rapturous radiance.
Yarra did not scream like the person in her future vision. Instead, she stepped into the kitchen, water dripping down from her body, alternating with a sudden inundation of nervous sweat.
Heart threatening to burst forth from her chest, she took one small step forward to gauge his reaction. He did not jump at her like he did their attackers. Instead, he snarled and cracked his knuckles.
“What… what are you?” Yarra stammered.
Yarra’s understanding of the universe she once knew had completely vanished. She learned that in so far as supernatural abilities which transcended normal human capabilities went, she was not the only one.
In fact, her power of precognition was only one of the many various forms found in others.
Avice was a vampire. When she found him sucking on the blood of the shirt on the kitchen floor that night, he had broken down in front of her.
She had read off Dracula, living in a Transylvanian castle in a remote village, sleeping in a coffin, unable to be exposed to sunlight and such.
Avice Selleck was a direct descendant of the first vampire. As far as lineages go, he was royalty.
The common myths surrounding vampires was quashed. They could bask in the sunlight and survive without blood.
“The early vampires could not take much sunlight. It is an evolutionary process taking thousands of years, where we adapted to make living in current times bearable, even comfortable.”
“How many thousands of years are we talking about?”
“My lineage started five thousand years ago,” Avice said. “I’m the 42nd generation of Selleck.”
“How old are you actually? Like a hundred?”
He laughed. “I wish I could lie. I am a hundred and two.”
“So, do you drink blood from humans all the time?” Yarra asked, panicking slightly.
“Only if they want to. It is the only life force able to sustain a vampire’s life.”
Yarra backed away, making Avice laugh.
“I am not that type of vampire. In fact, we are against it. When blood is out of its external source, like the ones on this shirt, it is merely a taste. And I satisfy myself with this. Nothing more.”
Yarra learnt then that Avice’s mother was a descendant of the Selleck lineage. Instead of killing her father, she converted him to becoming a vampire too.
It was a simple process of reverse blood-letting. Instead of puncturing her teeth into his body and sucking the blood out, she transfused her own essence into Avice’s father.
Even amongst the Selleck lineages, there were factions. Some believed humans to be the equivalence of cattle; body bags of meat and blood to be consumed.
Avice came from a tribe who had fought for the protection of human lives.
“Ever since I was born, I already knew my destiny. It is to protect humans. It is to protect you from those who wish harm upon you. We are the ‘Difsa Er Zaksjio’ which translates to the ‘Keepers of the Blade.”
“Is that why you had a blade tattooed on your chest all this time?” Yarra asked. The words slipped out effortlessly, unlike those times she had been struggling to acknowledge it. This time, it came out, the words loud on fluid.
Avice seemed surprised by this revelation. He was even more shocked when Yarra exclaimed, “I did it! I managed to talk about your tattoo! God, for months, I could not say anything about it, as though there was a block in my tongue and brain, refusing to take part in it! I thought I was going crazy!”
As though trying to prove a point, she reached a hand out and traced her finger along the outline of the tattoo, this time not missing a mark.
When she made one loop, from the tip of the blade to the base of the handle, back to the pointed edge, she let out a sigh of relief.
“It really does exist,” she said happily.
Avice however, was beside himself with astonishment. He held Yarra’s naked shoulders and pushed her to a distance to look at her face as a whole.
“You could see my tattoo?” His face was furrowed in worry.
Yarra nodded. “Yeah. Ever since I met you! But I just could not bring it up. Only now that you have talked about it, as you have acknowledged your lineage and identity, it is as if that barrier has vanished.”
Avice’s apprehension caught her by surprise. He bit at his lower lip and looked away.
“What…, what powers do you have Yarra?” She took a deep breath, and told him.
At first, he had reacted with quiet astonishment, before letting out a weak laugh.
“What are the odds?” he said, shaking his head. “My girlfriend is an Oracle.”
“A what?” Yarra asked. She had heard the term used for those who could see the future, in fantasy novels and games=. But she had never thought to use the term to refer to herself.
“An Oracle. You have the ability of Sight. To see all that will happen in the future,” he replied. Avice rubbed his hands in excitement. “That is how you knew about those two thugs waiting at the corner.”
Yarra nodded at this. She watched as her boyfriend sucked out the little remaining blood from the matted shirt before tossing it in the bin.
His tongue was long and sharp when it licked along the flesh of his lower lip. Once her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could appreciate the pallid whiteness of his skin. Ruby red eyes, intelligent and ruminating, he scratched at the slight fuzz of hair on his chin.
“How long have you known of your powers?”
“All my life,” Yarra replied.
Avice listened as Yarra explained the limitations and accuracy of her powers. He laughed when she told him of the time when she predicted that a meatball landed on her head, even though there was no food in the vicinity of the church.
“Turns out, someone had smuggled in some food. I ignored my vision, because it seemed ludicrous to have meatballs…, Meatballs! Land on your head. But it happened in the middle of the sermon. That idiot lady let her fork slip, and it flew in a
n arc before landing on me.”
“Amazingly accurate,” Avice laughed.
“Are we normal then? All my life, I never knew there were people like me…, even people like you. Imagine, vampires!”
She leaned in and kissed him on the lips. It felt odd to kiss him in his vampiric form. The skin was cold to the touch, like marble left out on a wintry night. Clammy and cold, she shuddered, trying to suffuse some of her warmth into his body.
Love Beyond the wall (A Rizer Pack Shifter Series Book 1) Page 41