by Candy Crum
“One might think so, but listen to what you just asked. You are a very powerful young woman. You have far more power than I could have ever imagined at your extremely young age. But, the fact is that I am much, much older than you and have had over a thousand years to perfect my visions. Immortals can’t see around Death. That means that I can’t see around Death. That means you can’t see around Death. Death also can’t see around us or Vampires to predict a Vampiric murder. So, Death showing you a vision within in your dream couldn’t happen either. Your dream was only that, my love, a dream. I can’t fathom how you would be able to see around him if none of us are able. Not even Khia has been able to see around him, though, believe me, she’s tried. She’s tried to call him to her aid many times, and he despises her, which is why he despises us all. He assumes we are all alike.”
She had a very good point. I was really starting to feel a little bit better about the whole thing. I used to have bad dreams all the time, and they never came true. Besides, my visions have all been while awake. I would be fine. Rachel and I would be fine. Everything would be fine. I just had to trust my grandmother and myself.
“Very well then. I trust you. I’m sorry; I just got a little freaked out. My life is one thing, but Rachel’s is something else. Speaking of Rachel, where is she? And Amanda, too, for that matter.”
“Amanda’s at work. She got called in to work evenings today. Mary and Rachel went out with Khanae and Brett to grab something to eat,” Aeric said. I started to laugh a little, though I attempted to hold it back. Aeric smiled. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing. It’s just a little humorous to picture a couple of Vampires going through a McDonald’s drive-thru for lunch.” I laughed again.
“Touché,” Aeric said with a smile. “If I were in your shoes, I suppose that would be pretty funny.”
“So, do you feel better now?” I asked Aeric.
He smiled and took a step toward me. “I do actually, but I still think that you should consider staying here tonight.”
“Sayen said that it would be fine,” I said.
I suddenly felt a cold chill, and I had a feeling that I knew what caused it, given how close Aeric and I were together. And I definitely had no interest in fighting with her today, or ever again for that matter.
“Well, I’d better go get dressed. Rachel should be back in a few minutes.”
Aeric nodded. “Okay. Just be careful and, uh, have fun.” I knew he was trying, and that meant a lot to me.
I nodded and ran off upstairs. We were going to run back to my house to get ready since we each had more clothes at my house than House Dracul. Rachel stayed at my house enough to keep some extra clothes there, and since she usually stayed because of us going out or having plans, it was pretty cute clothes that she kept there.
I ran upstairs to brush and fix my hair, brush my teeth, and grab a few items that I’d been keeping here. By the time I got back downstairs, Rachel was back and ready. I’d decided to change into my favorite pajamas since they were really comfortable. The pants were neon green with white flowers on them, and the shirt was just a plain, neon-green shirt. Very bright, but comfy. They were a gift from Rachel actually. Why dress up nicely just to go to my house and have to do it all over again?
Rachel laughed as soon as she walked in. “Nice p-jams Kay,” Brett said, beating Rachel to the punch.
“Bite me,” I said with a smile.
“Is that an invite?” he quipped.
“Not sure; would it piss off your brother?” I asked.
“More than likely,” he said, smiling. “Is that a yes?”
I always enjoyed his smiles, they were always so genuine, and when they were at the expense of his brother, they were fantastic.
“Hey! How did I get pulled into this?” Aeric asked.
Everyone laughed and it felt good. I was enjoying the friendship that we all shared. But, as much as I enjoyed it, I knew we had to go.
“You ready to go Rach?” I asked.
She nodded and we headed out. We went to Seymour to get our nails done first. There was a place there that I felt much more comfortable with than in Clarksville because of that dream. With the barrier, I was safer, so I wasn’t really worried. To me, that meant an all clear on my end. I really didn’t care that I was in my pajamas, but Rachel couldn’t keep from laughing at me a few times. I wanted to be completely comfortable, and I still had the decency to put on a white hoodie before I left, even though it wasn’t cold out. It was almost seventy which was great for early spring, but I could definitely wear a hoodie and get away with it. Plus, it made me a little less blinding.
When we got to the salon, I felt a little nervous going in. I imagined that it was due to the fact that my dream was still bothering me. As we walked in, I froze up at first when I saw that there were two manicurists working, one was a male and one a female, just like in my dream. Once I looked closer, I realized that neither one of them were wearing the same thing or even remotely looked the same. The whole scenery was different, and I relaxed before reminding myself that I was being completely paranoid.
“Hello, ladies,” the man said. I couldn’t help but notice that he kept staring at me. I chalked it up to the green pajamas. “How can I help you?”
“Uh, give us just a sec,” Rachel said. He nodded and smiled before stepping away. “That guy is creeping me out, the way he keeps looking at you. So, you go to the chick, and I’ll take him,” she said. That was a friend right there. Offering to take the creeper to save a girl-bro.
Another strange feeling rolled through me, and I felt momentarily uneasy. She nudged me toward the woman and I shrugged. “Okay then.”
“What can I do for you today?” the manicurist asked.
Despite the fact that French tips were what I chose in my horrible dream, I decided to pick them anyway. I really liked them, and I figured they would look nicer than regular polish. Besides, choosing French tips wasn’t going to fate the world to end.
“Square cut, French tips please,” I said.
She smiled and got to work. She was a very pleasant woman with a lot to say. She was highly talented, and I saw photos of some of the decals that she did by hand. I was amazed. We spoke about how she decided to go into this and how long she’d been doing it. She was a very interesting woman, and I was really enjoying my time talking with her. Rachel was on the other side of the room getting hers done as well, so I couldn’t really talk to her. She was too far away, and I didn’t want to yell.
“Okay, all finished. Go ahead through that curtain there and wash your hands with soap and water. When you come back, I’ll do the top coat for you,” she said with a smile.
I thanked her and stood to walk over to the purple curtain hanging from the door frame. The room wasn’t very big, but held about three sinks. It was certainly big enough to serve its purpose. When I got there, Rachel was shortly behind me. I guess he was just as fast as my manicurist had been.
“Yay! We’re almost done! I’m so excited,” Rachel said as she started washing her hands.
“I know, I am, too. It’s hard to believe. Something must be completely off in the universe if both of us have a date,” I said.
We both laughed as we dried our hands. I turned and my breath caught in my throat. The cold chill ran through to my bones at the same moment that I saw him. He must have shown up pretty fast that time. Death stood in front of me. I looked to my right at Rachel to see if there was any implication at all that she could see him, but she was frozen in mid-step. She wasn’t even breathing.
“Please tell me that what I dreamed isn’t about to happen,” I said.
He slowly shook his head as his smoky eyes narrowed.
“I can see you in my visions. Sayen told me that Immortals can’t. Am I different?” I asked.
He nodded.
“Can you keep the place frozen long enough for me to get her out of here?” I asked.
His eyes narrowed even more, and he shook his head again
. I could feel something come off of him, and it felt like disappointment. Was he disappointed that I would ask that?
“Why me? Why have you chosen me? I don’t understand.”
I started to panic a little. Any second, a blood-thirsty Vampire was going to break the neck of my best friend unless I figured something out. Death raised his hand, and I scooted back, but didn’t make it far. I backed into the sink, and he stepped toward me. His long, demonic index finger extended as he placed it against the center of my chest. It burned terribly, but it didn’t do what I figured it would—kill me.
When he touched me, his knowledge flowed through me. He had a difficult time communicating with the living. That was the easiest way for him to make me see. Death was not a cheery fellow by any means, but something about me interested him. I was different than other Immortals that he’d met, and I was certainly different than the other immortal beings of the world.
He saw that I was a means to stop the unplanned deaths in the world, and I was one of the few that planned to stop it. I was one of the few who had the power to stop it. He was putting a lot more faith in me with that last one than I would have. I didn’t have much power yet, and he seemed to know that, but he certainly thought that I would.
“Must… live,” he said in that guttural, raking voice he had.
I looked at him with a puzzled look at first and then fear, as well as pain, washed over me as he shoved his entire hand into my chest. I tried to scream, but no sound came. With his massive hand inside my chest, I couldn’t even breathe. He had his hand wrapped around my heart, and it felt like he was squeezing. It felt like ice ran through my veins as his icy touch cooled my blood.
With my perception of time at that moment, a whole eternity could have passed, but in reality, as soon as it began, it was over. Death disappeared in that creepy implosion of his, and time began again. My arm instantly shot out in front of Rachel to keep her from walking out of the purple curtain. She looked at me once and knew something was wrong.
I looked into her eyes, and I mouthed the word “run” to her. I felt her tremble against me as she nodded once.
I quickly flipped open the curtain and expected to make a quick run, but Rachel screamed and froze up. I looked to my left, and the woman that had been doing my nails was being fed on. We were just in time to hear her neck break as the Vampire crushed it, finishing her off.
“Rachel, go now!” I shouted.
She took off, and I saw that he was about to go for her, so I quickly went for him. As long as I could get his attention and make myself look like the bigger threat, I knew that she would be safe and would be able to get out. In the quick moments that it took for me to cross the room to get in between him and Rachel, I began to feel that tangle of energy in my chest waiting to explode. I didn’t hesitate and let it go. When I did, I heard a sharp whine and a loud pop followed by a pained growl from the Vampire. A pain shot through my stomach, but I ignored it. There were other things to worry about.
“Oh, my God, Kailah!” I heard Rachel say.
I first looked to the Vampire and saw that he was on the ground, with several small spikes of ice sticking out of his chest. The noise that I heard had been the water pipes behind me in that little room busting. That must have been what Analynn was talking about: water being drawn to me. It came to my aide without my asking for it.
Two other things I noticed very quickly was one, I had a barrier up around the two of us. Hopefully, it was one that he couldn’t get through. And two, the reason why Rachel screamed was because one of the ice shards first went through my body to get to him. That was the sharp pain that I felt when I heard the noise. Apparently, water wasn’t too picky about hurting me to save me, but I didn’t care.
“Kailah, your hurt!” Rachel shrieked.
“I’m fine! Let’s go!” I shouted.
Rachel and I ran as fast as we could out of the salon. I almost tripped several times getting to the car as the pain radiated through me. Rachel jumped in the driver’s seat, and I crawled into the passenger side. She started the car and sped out of the parking lot. I nervously looked back and saw the front door to the salon open, though I didn’t see anyone come out. What I did see, was a vehicle starting. He’d used his Vampiric speed, and I didn’t see him actually exit. He was going to run us down.
“Uh, flooring it would be good,” I said.
“Oh, my God, is he following us?” she asked.
“Yep. Step on it.”
She did as I told her to, and she began weaving through traffic. I prayed with everything that I had that the lights would stay green and possibly go red on him. Though I doubted that he would follow traffic signals at that point, I was hoping the people in front of him would and stall him.
When we reached the intersection on the opposite side of town, I knew there would be a road to the right that led to the bottoms way back in a less populated area. It was dangerous to go back there because those roads are lonely, and if he caught us, it would be over. But I also knew that if he was willing to attack and kill his co-worker in broad daylight, and in a public place, that he probably wasn’t going to hold back on us in all the traffic. It was important we got him away from innocents.
“Turn here!” I said.
Rachel did as I asked and shoved the gas in. I watched the mirrors as she watched the road. He was hot on our tail, and he was in a newer and faster car than we were. It didn’t take long at all for him to catch up. He tailgated us for a quarter mile or so before he rammed the rear end of Rachel’s car.
“Don’t you have some kind of an elemental power that will kick his ass?” Rachel asked, clearly panicked.
“It doesn’t work like that! I have no idea what I’m capable of. The water thing was an accident. A helpful one, but that doesn’t change that it was just an accident.”
“Ah!” we both screamed as he rear-ended us again.
I looked around us and the back road that we were on was straight and very flat up ahead of us. There were empty fields on both sides of us. I knew things weren’t going to be good.
“I feel it Rachel, this next one’s it,” I said.
I saw her hesitate for only a second, but she nodded once. Only a few moments passed before he rammed us again, and the car began to spin. The front right tire went off road and pulled us halfway off into the rough terrain. I felt Rachel hit the brakes, but it was too late. She swerved to get back on the road but the Vamp behind us had other plans. He rammed the back end of the car again, and with Rachel’s foot on the brake and the awkward position of her Cruze, it sent us into a tumble. The car rolled side over side, and landed right side up. I wasn’t sure how, but I managed to remain uninjured.
“You okay?” I asked Rachel.
She moaned and nodded. “Yeah.”
“Stay in the car,” I said.
“Not a problem,” she said with another nod before passing out.
I would have to worry about that later. She was alive and that was all that mattered. Hopefully, when it was finished, provided we survived, I could heal her. I quickly jumped out when I saw that he’d stopped his car and was also climbing out. I figured that he would use his speed to get to us, but he didn’t. He wore a large smile and took his sweet time. It was obviously a game to him, and he was in no hurry for it to end.
“You really are a lot stronger than you look. You know, I was supposed to keep you alive, but that blood of yours smells absolutely amazing, and I’ve never felt anything like it. I got a little feel of it when the ice passed through you and into me,” he said with a large grin.
“How wonderful for you,” I said flatly.
He could talk all he wanted. Honestly, I liked that. The more he talked, the more time I had to focus. I had no idea if I was going to be able to do anything, but I was certainly going to try. I had to, for Rachel.
“Who sent you after me?” I asked.
“Oh, now, I’m not supposed to say.”
“Well you’re going to kill me a
nyway, so you may as well tell me,” I said, trying to convince him that I actually believed he was going to kill me.
“I guess… Since you put it that way—Khia.”
As soon as he said her name my blood boiled. “Khia?”
“Yeah. I’m not exactly what one would consider “pure of heart” so, there was no way that you wouldn’t have sensed me as soon as you walked through the door. I was being cloaked by Khia.”
“How did you both know I would be there?” I asked. “We had plans to go to Clarksville.”
“Just because Khia can’t find your location doesn’t mean that she doesn’t know your mind. That little barrier your relative put up may keep Khia from seeing what you see, but it doesn’t keep her from planting things. She planted that dream. She may not be able to see locations, but she can see other things. Like a date or something like that. The problem is that you’re simply too strong for that barrier to work on properly, so Khia was able to break through a little. She chased you this way, knowing you would be paranoid for the girl’s safety and pick a different location from wherever you were going before, one more familiar. The she sent me to pick you up.”
Khia was able to break through? That terrified me. She was so strong. How were we supposed to beat her? How was I supposed to beat her? It would be impossible! Death somehow broke through, too. Sayen must have underestimated him. Khia couldn’t possibly know about him yet, or she would have been prepared.
“So, where were we? Ah yes, I was going to drain you dry,” he said with a large smile.
He made no attempt to hide what he was, and I couldn’t find it in my emotional reserve to care. I knew what he was. The only thing that I cared about was how to save Rachel. Movement caught in the corner of my eye, and I saw him come from my left side. I let a barrier explode out of me, and he slammed into it with a growl. The barrier disintegrated after one hit. They were strong enough to ward off attacks, but apparently not more than one strong blow.
He came after me again, only that time he swung at my head. He wasn’t using his increased speed, but I knew his unnatural strength would be behind that swing. I ducked out of instinct and slammed my hands into his chest. It wasn’t much, but I nearly laughed when I watched his shirt go up. As I stood back up, I began to feel dizzy. My head was spinning a little, and I felt exhausted. Blood loss was not treating me well.