“She probably does. If she was at the airport looking for us, she would have known that we are flying off somewhere. There may be only fifty of us in the whole clan, but we are known for our hunting skills,” Avice said grimly. His eyes flashed at the times they had had to pursue their targets from different countries, even different continents. No one escaped from them easily.
Something about his mother being in the airport made him uncomfortable. It had all been too easy. Alicia Selleck was a formidable Scent Sensor. And Tess was known to be able to pick a scent from a mile away.
They should have been detected by one of them. Avice knew that diluting their scent by disseminating their clothes to various points of the airport would have helped, but still, it seemed too easy, as though Alicia had wanted them to escape.
Or did she?
“What if she knows that we are heading for the Oracle’s hometown?” Yarra asked. “Is it possible that your mother will be able to predict that?”
“I wouldn’t put it past her,” Avice replied, biting at his knuckles thoughtfully.
As he did so, Yarra noticed his fangs becoming slightly sharper as it dug underneath his skin. As the white hardness of his teeth pierced the skin, no blood came out. Without realizing it, Avice had transformed into a vampire.
For most humans with poorly discerning eyes, they would assume a transformed vampire was just someone who was pale looking, almost sickly and ill. But Yarra could easily pick out the slight nuances that others couldn’t. She saw the way his canines became sharper, thought quite unlike a sabertooth’s, it could still easily pierce. Their skin, though white, actually glowed more than a tanned person’s standing under the sun. Avice himself looked more alive as a vampire than he did in his human form.
There was also the faded ruby glow in his pupils. The further his transformation intensified, the redder his eyes went.
She nudged him on the arm again. “Don’t do that!” she admonished him with a smile.
Avice gave a start and look at the puncture on his skin. “Oh shit,” he murmured. A quick transition caused the pale skin to fade into something a little human like, and the sharp canines become blunter, resembling Yarra’s.
“I don’t realize it sometimes,” he admitted, looking at the skin slowly healing where he had bitten it.
“Must be fun being a vampire,” Yarra whispered. “I wish I could be one too.”
Her sentence made them both fall silent. Yarra knew that Avice too was thinking of a particular memory. It had happened a month before Alicia ordered Avice to kill Yarra.
*
Chapter-3
The Conversion
One Month Ago…
“But she can be a member, can’t she?” Avice argued. Yarra sat next to him, trying to stay out of the conversation as much as she could. It was proving difficult since it was just the two of them; Alicia and Jared in their home. Dinner had started with Kale juice and beetroot, a particular favorite of Alicia to substitute the alkaline taste of human blood. Yarra looked at the murky cup with distaste.
Alicia, however, had finished sipping hers with enjoyment. Putting the glass on the table, she turned to Avice. “Keepers of the Blade clan members are made up of only vampires,” she said with a softness that still managed to radiate authority.
“This is unfair,” he protested. “Yarra, don’t you want to belong in the clan? For all the service you have rendered for us, you should be one of us!”
“I… I think your mother is right, Avice,” Yarra replied. She did not enjoy three pairs of eyes falling upon her and was keen to change to another topic. But Avice was not having that. His fists were gripped tightly on the table, his body language too tense and rigidly anchored in protestation to consider relaxing so easily.
Avice gave out a sigh of exasperation.
“See? Even Yarra agrees with me,” Alicia replied with a patronizing smile. “Keepers of the Blade are the most elite demi-humans designed to protect humans. We are first and foremost, vampires.”
“Elite?” Yarra raised an eyebrow. “You speak as though vampires are much better than the others out there.”
Jared laughed comfortably. “My dear, that is the truth.”
Yarra bristled at the remark. As an Oracle, she too was a demi-human. Alicia and Jared’s remarks proved offensive. As much as she disliked Alicia’s methods, the woman had come to rely on Yarra’s precognitive abilities. Didn’t that make her, an Oracle, equivocally, if not more important than the vampires?
“If the vampires are much greater, it is ironic that you would seek the help of me, an Oracle, who you deem far beneath you?” Yarra said. This time, it was Avice who was hushed. As much as he was a person who regularly challenged Alicia’s opinions, he did so without crossing the line. His girlfriend, however, clearly had other ideas of what constituted ‘putting a toe out of line.’
Alicia continued smiling, though its magnitude faltered. It was clear that she was smiling for the sake of the company present. “We mean it in the best possible way, my dear. The vampires are much better, in terms of abilities. We are the strongest, the fastest, the most intelligent…”
“Yet you are unable to see the future,” Yarra said. “There always is a higher mountain, one way or another.”
Alicia Selleck’s smile turned into a frown. Choosing to not argue, she turned to Avice. “Yarra will not be made a member, and that is final.”
“But what if we made her into a vampire?” Avice asked silently, looking down on the floor.
“You wouldn’t dare,” Jared hissed, thunderstruck at his son’s words.
Alicia did not say a thing but stared at her son with a look of disbelief running across her face. “What are you playing at, Avice?” she asked.
Yarra did not understand what was going on. She looked at her boyfriend, puzzled by his question. More than that, she was curious as to its significance, considering the effect it had on his parents’ faces.
“What if… I made Yarra into a vampire?” Avice asked again. “Would you then consider her a part of our clan?”
“Out of the question!” Alicia Selleck roared, getting up from her chair. It was the first time Yarra had seen Avice’s mother lose her composure, disregarding the air of regality she usually embodied for something rather bestial. The force of her movement shattered the glass in front of her out of pure will, causing Yarra to shriek in surprise.
Avice was quick to shield the broken shards from Yarra’s body and face. Some of it was embedded into his hands, which he shook off without too much trouble. His fingers gripped her shoulders in support as she let out frightened sobs. Not even her precognition could have predicted such a reaction.
“Avice, that is forbidden,” she said calmly, though the anger in her eyes was now obvious. “Conversion is only done by the top members of the clan.”
Avice stared at his mother, wanting to argue, but knew then that doing so would put him and Yarra in trouble. Conceding defeat, he nodded.
They never spoke about the incident ever again.
Chapter-4
Would You Give Me A Bite?
“Do you remember the dinner we had with your parents?” Yarra asked. “Why was she mad when you suggested that I be made a vampire? Is it even possible?”
Avice shifted in his chair. Smiling at the attendant who brought them some juice, he sipped at it for a moment. “It is, with just a single bite.”
“So why was Alicia against it?”
“I’m sure you remember how mother spoke of humans and other demi-humans who weren’t vampires. She thinks that everyone else is beneath her. For one to be converted, they would have to prove themselves worthy to her first and foremost. Only then would they even be given a sliver of opportunity to be considered for a conversion.”
“But I helped Alicia to win the war against the Bloodlust Clan.”
“It doesn’t help that you are an Oracle, Yarra. Mom resents your kind of people the most, but she needed your abilities.”
“So what Nainoru said was true then. Alicia thinks that Oracles are things - artifacts - meant to do her bidding.”
Avice nodded. “Plus, it isn’t as easy as just delivering a bite. The conversion process is quite tricky, and hard to get exactly right. When a vampire plunges their fangs into another person, it is usually to feed or to kill. Rarely do they do it for conversion. The entire process is ritualistic, and many things have to be taken into consideration.”
Yarra shifted her body towards Avice, genuinely interested.
“What kind of things?”
Avice smiled and stared into her eyes. “For one, the conversion is usually more successful when the vampire bites his lover, or someone that he or she feels a certain amount of devoutness towards.”
“So they should have some form of significant emotional connection?”
“Correct.”
“Fat chance that Alicia would actually be able to convert anyone then,” Yarra said. She couldn’t imagine a woman like Alicia actually respecting or even loving another human being.
“Well, as hard as it is to believe it, she converted my dad,” Avice replied. “She does have a heart you know!”
Yarra found it hard to embrace Avice’s duality. Here he was escaping with her, going against his mother’s wishes, betraying her trust in every possible way. Yet, he still saw it necessary to defend her actions! She rolled her eyes at his explanation.
“What happens if there isn’t a connection between a vampire and human, and they decide to attempt the conversion?”
“Our fangs are poisonous, baby. If the attempt was a failure, the recipient of the vampire’s bite would die. There is no turning back.”
“Crap,” Yarra muttered.
“Tell me about it. There hasn’t been an attempt in the last three hundred years. That is why the number of vampires in the world is rapidly dwindling. The only other way is for one to be born from a vampire mother. Even then, it is extremely difficult for a vampire to conceive a child. Blame it on genetics,” Avice said, finishing off the last dregs of his juice.
Yarra’s hands returned to her stomach once again. Although she felt nothing but the clothes rubbing against her skin, she knew that a life had now formed within her womb. She loved Avice, and knew that he returned those emotions. But was his love adequate enough to turn her into a vampire? Would she die if he planted his fangs at the side of her neck?
If it failed, she would die along with their baby…
“What if we attempted it, Avice?”=
Avice looked at his lover. The apprehension on her face was real. Her flushed cheeks glowed redder in the almost freezing cabin of the plane, but there was a certain resolution in her eyes that showed she wanted nothing more than to be his equal in every way.
“I don’t dare risk it, Yarra,” Avice said truthfully. “If you died…”
Avice choked slightly, unable to quite finish the sentence.
“But you love me, don’t you?”
Chapter-5
Alicia’s Fear
Tess hated places where the crowds changed rapidly. It introduced too many scents into the equation. She sniffed the air and detected the faintest hint of Avice and that girl, Yarra.
The sweet smell of the Oracle’s body was enough to send a sublime rage coursing through her body. That was the girl who stole Avice’s heart. The very same girl who made Avice betray his own clan. Her scent riled Tess, and she looked down at a group of people in the airport. Her eyes scanned the crowd, falling upon a girl with maroon hair and a thick jacket.
‘Looks a bit like her,’ Tess thought to herself. But this girl was holding a man’s hand, and it didn’t smell like Avice. But, then again, the man next to her gave out a familiar scent. Tess was resolved to watching the two of them as they followed the crowd into another section of the airport.
Just as she was determined to keep her eyes on the two of them, Yarra’s scent suddenly broke off in multiple directions. Tess cursed. It was enough to tell her that Avice was in the vicinity of the airport. He knew the best way to outsmart the Scent Sensors.
She walked over to where Alicia was standing. It was off to a disappointing day. Lufie, the Tracker had managed to follow Avice and Yarra in the bus. But his stupidity had allowed them to escape from the convenience store. Idiot, trying to prove that he was a macho hunter! Alicia had tasked Mark and Domlen to follow Lufie, to try and subdue Avice again, but there had been no news of them.
When Tess approached Alicia, her leader was the picture of the calm before the storm. Nothing about the matter niggled at the soft features of her face.
“Yes?” Alicia said distractedly, looking at her cellphone.
“I have their scent in the airport, but it is too weak to follow. Plus, Avice broke off the girl’s scent into different places to throw us off,” Tess said. “It will take hours to chase each scent down.”
Alicia nodded. She had expected nothing less from her son. Part of her was furious at the prospect of her son running off with another girl on the grounds that he loved her. Another part of her was distinctly proud. This was a man who had managed to avoid detection. All she of the time ad effort she had put into him had paid off.
The pride vanished almost as instantly as it had arrived. There would be no redemption to be had for him. The punishment for betrayal to the clan was death. It was the written law, as old as the clan itself.
“Mark and Domlen aren’t responding either,” Alicia said.
The two ladies shared a grim silence. If Avice and Yarra were in the airport, it would mean that they had vanquished Mark, Domlen and Lufie.
Alicia sighed. It had been quite a shock for them when Avice had chosen Yarra instead of his clan. Everyone had called for punishment to be doled out to Avice, and Alicia had to concede to their demands. It did not help that she was the leader. The law of the clan had to be upheld.
“It will be almost impossible to find them in this crowd,” Alicia said.
Tess nodded. She looked at her leader, who though beautiful, had a slight fatigued weariness in her eyes. The betrayal of her son had taken a toll on her. It would not be easy for Alicia to handle the delicate situation. Especially when family members were involved.
“What should we do now?”
The leader sighed. She tucked a little curl of her hair behind the ear and considered her options. If Avice had indeed come to this particular region, he would have been looking for Nainoru. There were rumors that her old friend had run away to hide somewhere here. But years of searching had not been successful. Nainoru was a good ‘Vanisher.’ She would only make herself known when she wanted to.
But then again, all Vanishers had one weakness.
Precognition.
What if… just what if, Avice had Yarra use her capabilities to find Nainoru?
And if they had managed to find her, she would have told them about the original war. And about how Alicia had tasked Nainoru to kill the last Oracle. About Great Yarmouth.
“Alicia?” Tess asked, surprised at the dazed wonder glazing over Alicia’s eyes.
“Gather all of our members, Tess,” Alicia said, when she gathered her wits. “We are heading for Great Yarmouth!”
Born fifty years ago, Tess had vampire parents who were both sworn members of the Keepers of the Blade. She had only heard of Great Yarmouth from her parents, who had come from England originally. It was the birthplace of her clan, and the place where the vampires had their last great civil war.
Nodding excitedly, Tess walked away, leaving Alicia to her own thoughts.
Alicia became nervous. If Yarra and Avice were headed to Great Yarmouth, they might soon unearth the secrets Alicia had laid to rest there. Time was running out.
Chapter-6
Great Yarmouth
A coastal town with filled with many tourist attractions, carnival rides and long stretches of beaches laden with families on vacation, Great Yarmouth did not look once like the place that Avice described to her.
>
Two hundred years ago, an immense and extraordinary battle had taken place. Vampires fought against werewolves, were-bears, magicians, sorceress, Magis and ogres in a bid to claim their power over the humans. Of course, there were small factions even within the vampires. Alicia Selleck had been the very wedge who had driven the vampires apart, conceiving the ‘Keepers of the Blade.’
With the help of the then Oracle, she had marched her clan into victory over the other demi-humans. But at what cost?
“Are there any demi-humans like werewolves, ogres and magicians, left on this earth? Or has Alicia rid us of them completely?” Yarra asked, sipping her soda. They had arrived in Great Yarmouth from London by way of a three hour bus ride.
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