“The ningen,” says Ellie, curiosity emanating off her in a mirage of energy waves.
Pulling my knees up and holding them, I smile with a tiny burst of pride, “Huge. White as a Beluga whale. Lips like a dugong. Eyes wide apart and black as obsidian.”
Venix wavers into being in the middle of my room, “And like the dugong, they do have the potential for hands. They do have the same structure we have in our hands as bones in their fins.”
Way to go asshole. Thanks for raining on my parade, again.
He ratchets around to glare at me, holding out his hand, “The leaf.”
“What leaf?” I snap with irritation.
“The one you took from the vamporium.”
“You went to a vamporium?” says Ellie, her attention and craving to go out literally carving into me.
“Yes,” I nod to her. “To make sure it was safe for us all to go.”
“And?” she croons, sitting down in a graceful swoop onto my bed.
“It's safe,” smirks Venix, looking at me. “The leaf, Seithe.”
I hate that I have not one shred of privacy in this house.
Sighing my reluctance I open the bedside drawer, handing the jerk the silvery leaf.
He shows it to Jo and Ellie, “This is a special tree. It's part of the protea family which is native to these lands, called a leucodendron tree. The locals call it the silver tree.”
“It's so soft,” gushes Ellie, caressing it against her cheek.
Jo patiently waits for her to hand it over, reflecting light with its satin sheen when she does.
“Appreciate it, it only grows where deep magic pools in the ground. The vamporium here is the strongest portal in the world. Remember that if you ever need to escape to somewhere fast. Remember this leaf and you will immediately transport here.”
Oh, that's interesting.
“Intriguing,” I grumble sarcastically, inflecting he should leave us alone now.
He gets the hint, fading away into another room of the house.
Now that we're alone, I tell them about the ningen.
“She was beautiful, easily the length of two boats, enormous really, with a perfectly round head, unlike any dolphin or whale.”
“I checked it out on Google,” says Jo.
“And?” asks Ellie, swiveling to face him.
“They caught one on camera swimming in the ocean outside Namibia, just up the coast from here, on Google earth imaging. It's so big and white you can see it from a satellite!”
“Dad said they're native to here,” I share.
“Dad said? When?” demands Ellie.
“Before he left, he told me stories. I wasn't sure they were true, but now I believe him.”
“What else did dad say?” asks Jo.
“The only boundaries that exist are in our minds. Anything is possible. Everything and anything. He said we're bigger than our bodies, much, and can control our size if we want to.”
“Cool!” says Jo, examining his puny bicep with hope.
I almost laugh. I've been desperate to be as big as Venix or Arsay but I haven't managed to crack the boundary of my own mind yet.
Leaning across I tap his forehead, “All potential is in here. We were angels once, deep down we still have those capabilities.”
“But we have to find a human to love us to be forgiven,” says Ellie, her tone husky and glum.
I put my arm around her, “You will find him, Ellie.”
She jumps up, bouncing, “We have a party to get ready for.”
“Yup,” I nod, checking the time. “Oh hell, hurry up, we're due there in ten minutes.”
*
Walking into Andi's plush home, we appreciate the swank foyer and tribal beat playing kwaito from the speakers. It morphs to a pop song just as I enter the first lounge, instantly spotting Carrie and Taz.
Kissing Ellie on the forehead, I mumble, “Have fun. Call me if you need me.”
“I won”t need you,” she laughs flirtatiously, making a beeline for the jocks on the other side of the circular bar dominating the middle of the vast open plan entertainment area.
Leaving Jo to migrate to the wave walkers, I head for my girl, wondering what the reception will be like after the weird incident. I don't think this morning counts.
As I step into the sunken part of the lounge, she scoots up, gesturing for me to join her, “Hello handsome!”
Excellent, we're cool.
Sitting next to her, holding her chin and kissing the daylights out of her, I break it just long enough to whisper, “Good evening gorgeous.”
“Let's dance,” she grins, getting up, holding my hand, leading me to a secluded corner of darkness, wrapping her arms around me and leaning her head on my chest.
It's such a submissive gesture, I'm floored. Relishing the trust, the connection, folding her closer and smelling her clean hair.
Chapter 17
Tasmin:
I can't wait for Seithe to get back from the men's room. That last drink didn't agree with me at all. That'll teach me for drinking punch. God alone knows what they put in it.
The music seems to warp around me, becoming distorted. Getting up, nausea hits me so hard I'm afraid to breathe and urgency guides my unsteady lurch to the bathroom.
Bumping off the passage wall, shoving between people, my vision is gnarled with indecipherable swirls.
Afraid I'm about to pass out or throw up, the signals unclear, I slide back down the passage suctioned to the cool wall, away from the queue to use the bathroom, heading precariously down stairs to the lower level using my shoulder on the lacquered paint to keep me upright. I know he has a den down here with an en-suite. I doubt many know about it and I'm praying heart and soul it's not occupied.
Leaving behind the plush carpet, staggering down echoing stone steps I head for the cellar and basement, gripping feverishly to the wall for support, sucking air in shaky waves of furnaced illness.
Bursting into the hidden den which is blessedly free of people, I teeter to the bathroom, collapsing weakly over the basin, running cold water and shoving my face under it.
It runs into my eye, sticking the hair to my face, and I cling to the porcelain, breathing, so weak and shaky I'm afraid I'm in the grips of some kind of seizure.
Crying into the cold blast, I can't seem to calm the quaking, the heaves rising up my body in seismic squeezes.
Slumping, sagging heavily against the cupboard under the basin when my legs give, dark spots plague my sight, an awful loud buzzing hornetting my eardrums.
Water trickles down my face as spirals of hot fever wash over me, the swells getting larger, blotting out all sound, and then my vision.
Shivering violently, a hollow bang blasts another shock wave into me, wiping my consciousness in a brutal moment of convulsive reflex. Hard boots thud a long echo into the concrete cavern, stopping next to me, someone's breath gusting hotly into my face.
Lava spreads fire up and down my spine, constricting my throat, and when a hand slips under my neck to raise my head, a smiling voice, “Never accept drinks you didn't pour,” sucks the last of the blood from my head, blacking me into oblivion.
*
Seithe:
Tasmin's managed to do a vanishing act. I assume I did something to offend her because she left without saying goodbye, and I checked outside and her scooter's gone.
Which blows my mind because I thought everything was better than fantastic. I don't get how chicks think at all.
Now I need to locate Ellindt to both get her advice on the situation and to get us home.
Seeing Jowendrhan, I round him up, stealing him from Kevin, “Spot you guys tomorrow,” I say with a smile to the crowd of surfers, hauling Jo into a corner. “Have you seen Ellie?”
He looks around, “Nope. Last time I saw her she was with a bunch of folks heading upstairs.”
Tension tightens my veins, “What?” Upstairs is never good at a party. Restraining myself from slapping him up the s
ide of the head for not alerting me immediately, I am reminded he's so much younger he still doesn't think like we do.
Damn it!
“C'mon,” I snap under my breath, yanking him with me up the steps, taking them two at a time, stressing. “Ellindt?!” I yell, shoving the first closed door we come to.
“Oi!” yells at us, and I slam the door closed.
Slowing down, focusing my chi, honing in on the energy I can usually sense in her because it's so much like my own, I panther past doors, halting at the wooden door second from the end, making sure the heartbeat behind the door mirrors my own.
Swallowing, powering up my fight response, ready to be the brother who beats the shit out of an asshole, I burst the door open loudly, flicking the light switch on bright, pouncing into the middle of the large bedroom, blinking thrice to check my facts before reacting.
“Seithe, get out!” she screeches.
The guy on top of her nearly wets himself at my sudden appearance. I don't think, slamming my fist into his jaw, swiping him in a violent plummet to the left, pitching him right off the bed.
“Get your clothes on!” I order, grabbing Jo and pushing him forwards, “Help her.” Shove! “Move it!”
Sweeping around the side of the bed, I grip the jerk, lifting him up off the floor and head butting him harder than I've ever inflicted pain on anyone in my life. “Touch my sister again and I'll keep your manhood as a trophy. Got it?”
I don't wait for an answer, I just elbow strike his sternum and use the momentum to heel thrust his nose, getting enormous satisfaction from the loud groan and fetal position he pulls himself into. Blood is spurting, and he's the ass who can clean it up.
Let that be a lesson to you.
“Next time you won't be so lucky,” I hiss, standing and leaping over the bed, gripping her by the hair and rushing all three of us into the bathroom.
I want to kill him, but know I can't show my true strength. He'll at least have a bitching headache for the next three days and word will spread fast, touch my sister and I will come for you.
Moving us in a space hop from the privacy of the bathroom while he's still flirting with a concussion, to the house under Chapman's Peak, I push her into the wall of the passage, “What were you thinking?”
She shoves back, her eyes glowing at me through bitter anger, “Stop messing up my life!”
“Ellindt! What the hell man? That's not how we get redemption, that's how you get plenty of other things - starting with a black reputation, but it sure as heck isn't the arduous road to redemption!”
Yanking her blouse straight, she leers closer to me, “And how would you know? Oh right, you wouldn't!”
Holding her up against the wall again, pinning her with my arm pressed on her chest, I am almost choking with rage, “You are so blind. Think!” To emphasize the point, with my free hand I hammer the point of my finger into the middle of her forehead, “Guys don't respect girls they screw at a party, Ellindt! You're just an out for the night. Get with the program!”
“Seithe,” Jo says, pulling me off her. Wrestling against him, I'm so irate I'm sorely tempted to head butt the innocent face behind mine, but know he's just trying to protect our stupendously stupid sister.
“They'll call you a whore, a slut, an easy lay! Is that what you want?” I shout at her, struggling in Jowendrhan's surprisingly strong arm hold.
Tears fill her eyes, “I want love! Just like you do!”
“Well that's not how you get it! Love holds your hand, it hugs you when you're hurting, it gives! Love is also patient! All you did was throw your class into the gutter. I'm so ashamed to call you my blood!”
She bursts into tears, sprinting down the passage and slamming her door closed.
My chest is heaving, I'm shaking I'm so angry, and I can't abide Jo's straitjacket a second longer, flipping him over me with an old karate trick, the momentum forcing him to lose his hold, sliding off my back into the carpet.
“Don't interfere next time,” I grunt, bolting for the stairs, knowing this needs severe discipline and intervention for her to get the damn message.
Skidding into the lounge, he's already standing in the 'I rule the universe' pose, hands linked behind his back while he gazes sagely out the tiny portal into the night. “What happened?”
“I turned my back for thirty minutes and she was violated by a pompous jock without a condom!” I explain.
Pivoting gracefully for such a big man, he faces me, “What did you do?”
“I punched the sucker's lights out and hauled all of us back here immediately.”
The hint of a smile tugs the corner of his mouth, “And why do you take such offense to your sister's behavior?”
“It's despicable! She's better than that! Damn it... I love her! Whoever gets to that base with my sister has to love her more than I do, or he's not worthy!”
This time he smiles, “Righteous anger is a dangerous concept, Seithe. It comes from the ego, and the ego is not anyone's friend. Maybe it's her body, so it's her choice. Maybe tonight you were the one out of line. Did you ever stop to consider that?”
“I'm not! Venix, come on! Cut me some slack already. She's...” I falter, my chest feeling like someone's grinding gravel in my lungs. My anguish is physically hurting me. “She's precious,” I mumble, the fight deflating out of me as muscular pain takes its place. I feel like someone just took a scimitar to my soul and started slicing pieces off it.
“What makes her precious?” he probes, strolling toward me in lazy steps. “And don't say because she's your sister.”
Clenching my hands into fists, tensing my jaw, I am angry that he doesn't see this as I do. It's vital, it's life changing, it's degrading.
“She's a lady, she should be treated like one. She deserves a guy who'll open car doors for her, who knows what a good thing he has and can wait, getting to know her first. If it was me, I'd test her boundaries, I'd look inside her mind, I'd weigh her words against her actions, tread carefully around her heart, and make sure she's the kind of girl who can handle the truth about me. She needs to love me, need me, crave me before I'll show her who I am. I wouldn't simply plunder the treasure chest because I can! And that's what happened tonight. Some dirtbag saw how desperately Ellie wants love. He saw her vulnerability and fed on it like a thief! He took something he didn't earn!”
Pausing next to me, he pats my shoulder with a heavy thump, “Well said. You are becoming a good man, Seithe. And in case you doubted me, I agree with you. Ellindt will be dealt with accordingly.”
Instantly fear whips my soul and I wonder if telling him was the right thing for me to do.
He hasn't got a compassionate bone in his body. He may be unduly cruel to her and I don't think she can handle that on top of the humiliation she just suffered because her twin went berserk when he saw a player with his hands on the lady in the family.
*
Ellindt:
“Ellindt, get into the lounge immediately!” booms through the house.
I'm pulled forcefully by his indomitable will, out of my sanctuary and down the steps, into the lounge.
There stands wrath, filling the room in all his vengeful glory with rage pouring blinding light out his eyes.
“Ellindt,” he says, stepping menacingly closer.
“What?” I snap, dread chasing my courage into hiding.
“I've been informed of your indiscretion this evening, and I am bitterly disappointed you do not respect the sanctity of your own soul, that you're so eager to defile it with human scum.”
Glaring at my uncle, I'm flummoxed.
“What are you freaking out at me for? I'm not the only girl in the world to do it you know! Everyone's doing it!”
“Just because 'everyone's' doing it, doesn't mean you should be! I don't know what to do with you! How do you manage to get into trouble while out with three chaperones? You're like an eel!” uncle Venix bellows at me, brilliance pouring out of his silvered irises, doing his best to i
ntimidate me.
“Three? Two!”
“Your older brother was there, I sent him.”
“You're archaic! I shouldn't even be raised by you, a girl needs a female influence in her life! You will never ever understand what it's like to be in my shoes, in this world, in my skin!” I scream.
“There, you are absolutely right. Go and pack your things. You're banished to your aunt until you learn some sense!”
“Aaaaaaargh!” I yell, stomping from the lounge, up the stairs, and into my bedroom, slamming the door as loud as I can.
Four seconds later it opens and I'm staring at two faces, Jo and Seithe. “Just go away.”
“Ellie...” soothes Seithe, and I round on him.
“Don't Ellie me! You told him! You got me into all this trouble! I'm seventeen, not twelve! Everyone my age is doing it so why can't I?”
Anger sparks in his eyes and he shoves me hard up against the closet, growling at me, “I'll tell you why. We are here for love. The first step of love is respect. Putting out is just going to make you a jack off vessel. I love you too much to watch some little human asshole treat my sister that way. He must respect you Ellindt, or he will never love you. You aren't some cheap piece of ass, so don't behave like one!”
Jo pounces onto my bed, jumping up and down on it, thumping the ceiling with each bounce, “It's true. If he is into you there's no hurry. Only jerks just want a lay and you are too good for that, Ellie.”
Seithe slowly releases me, his build three times stronger than mine. “Ellindt, first you cast the foundation, and you build on that. You need to be someone's sun that their whole world revolves around, the person they can't stop thinking about, only then will you know you have the right type of human to offer redemption. When they find out the truth it's going to flip them out. Only love can keep them tied to you even when the secret's out. You are not human so stop trying to fit in. You are better than that and you need a man who is committed for the long haul, not for a quick romp up your skirt.”
Indigo Vamporium Page 10