Starlight

by Lauren Jade Case

  “A weapon? In a supermarket?”

  “You can buy a whole knife block,” Alex said. Peri gave her a questioning look.

  “I have the only weapon I can wield,” Natalia said, jumping back in. “Everything else I’ve just trained with feels wrong.” Most Creatures specialised with one weapon and her blade was it, the one. “I could do the clothes thing.”

  Peri shoved some packets of nappies into the cart and off they went to the clothes section, as simple as that.

  Alex found some new tops, Peri got herself some comfortable shoes, and Natalia kept eyeing a top that said “Special Bee” on the front in black with a decorative bee beneath it. It was the sort of t-shirt Noah would buy her, but now the word “special” had different connotations attached.

  Each time she read the word, her body shivered. She could hear the Monster calling her special, telling her that she was wanted. She could feel the glass cutting across her skin. It made her flip-flop between angry, weary, and confused.

  I can’t let that moment control me.

  She grabbed the damned t-shirt and threw it into the cart. It was a cute top, connotations aside, and it was only her that was associating the word. Plus, there was also good attached to the word. Jasper had called her special, and special to him, and that overruled everything.

  Alex suddenly popped up in front of her, her hair messier than ever. “What about a date?”

  Peri arrived and put her stump on her heart. “Are you asking me? Because I’m going to have to let you down. I’m dating your brother.”

  “Not me.” Alex waved her hands until they all stood in the dress section. “You’re both lovely, but you’re not exactly my type. Girls yes, but I prefer blondes.”

  “Blondes?” Peri snorted.

  Alex grinned. “Not really. I prefer darker-hair. And that’s not what I meant.” She turned on Natalia. “What about you taking Jasper on a date?”

  Natalia blanched. “What?”

  “Give yourselves a night. No work. No training. Just the two of you.”

  Peri sniffed and wiped under her eyes. “I’m not crying. I’m just pregnant!”

  When Natalia nodded once, it gave them the girls the permission they needed.

  They rifled through racks and racks of clothes, eventually deciding on something that looked way above a grocery store grade dress. Natalia insisted that she had shoes and accessories at home when the girls tried to get her to buy some, so Peri demanded she at least did the make-up when the date was set.

  Natalia kept eyeing her new dress and t-shirt as they went through the checkouts. How her life had changed in a short few months. And there was no turning back. This was the life she was always meant to have, with a few extra parts.

  As the dress tallied, she realised that though she’d dated before, never had it been as exciting as even the idea of this was. Jasper was different. He held a place in her heart and getting to be close to him was something she couldn’t describe, no matter what they were doing. The prospect of a date sent a bubbly energy all over her body.

  So she was special, because she was special to him, as he was special to her. That was all that really mattered.

  The Monster girl sprung to mind again. She tried to shut her out but the thoughts came anyway, uninvited and intrusive, like a tidal wave.

  How am I special? Why would anyone want me? What for?

  It didn’t make sense. Nothing did. Why not go for a different Fairy, one who at least knew how to hold a weapon? And if not a Fairy, then a different Creature entirely if it had to be a Creature at all. And if this someone really did want her, why hadn’t they come back yet?

  A startling thought occurred. Had the beach attack been a distraction formed to collect Natalia, knowing she’d show up? Only, Alex had saved her at the last moment, ending that plan.

  Despite it all making no sense, Natalia knew somehow that there was someone, something, out in the darkness.

  How long would they wait before trying again?

  There were too many open ended questions, so much which was unanswerable. Natalia had a timer counting down inside her chest and was unable to see the clock. All she could do was wait for it to hit zero, if this wasn’t all part of her imagination. She didn’t think it was, which again left her with three questions; Why her; who wanted her; what did they want?

  When her t-shirt was folded into a bag, she saw that one word that both brought joy and tormented her.

  Special.

  ◆◆◆

  Archie stole Peri’s hand, and his eyes looked down at her, not at her face, but at her stomach. It had been growing by the day. For Creatures, pregnancy was different than it was for Humans. No Human test could tell a Creature the good or bad news and not many of their equipment pieces could tell them if the baby, if they were pregnant, was healthy or not.

  To say he was scared was an understatement. As they landed in front of the New York apartment that Gold had given them the address for, his heart-rate rocketed. His nerves hummed close to the surface until his hands shook.

  Peri knocked on the door while Archie cursed at himself to get a grip.

  For as long as he could remember, he’d wanted a family. When Jasper had been born, he’d cried nearly all night – so their mother said – but he did enjoy having a brother. Then Alex had arrived. She’d been a spur of the moment thing, one no one regretted. Their Mum couldn’t leave her in Atlantis to go through life alone, and Archie had always wanted a sister, so the decision had been simple.

  This wasn’t that. This was to be his family, his passing of genetics and love. Archie had sworn he’d go to his grave before any harm came to his little fish. He already loved this baby with all his heart and he knew Peri did too.

  The door swung open. Gold, wearing his monocle as usual, looked them over and moved aside so they could slip through. Gold slammed the door and slid a bolt across the frame.

  “Evangeline?” the Vampire called.

  For some reason that name sounded familiar. When a woman appeared, she looked familiar too. Archie just couldn’t tell why.

  Her long brown hair was swept back out of her face, revealing freckled cheeks. She had blue eyes and a smile that reached them. She was taller than Peri and held her back straighter, allowing the room to almost seem insignificant to her. The light made her appear young, no older than possibly twenty, but the measured look on her face said she was older.

  “Peri,” the woman addressed. Her eyes then switched to Archie. “And you must be Archie.”

  Archie couldn’t help himself. “You are…?”

  The woman, who Gold had named Evangeline, didn’t blink. “Evangeline Morgan.”

  “Evangeline…” That name, this woman, it all seemed so familiar.

  “I was a friend of the family,” she said quickly, “A long time ago.” Her eyes darted to Gold and then back and Archie suspected there was more, but that wasn’t his business to know.

  Peri stepped forwards then. “Can I ask something?”

  The woman politely said, “Yes.”

  Peri put a hand to her stump, rubbing circles. “Are you a Vampire?”

  On cue, fangs descended from Evangeline’s top jaw. They seemed shorter than most Vampire fangs. As if hearing his thoughts, she held up a hand and clicked her fingers. Purple smoke and the tiniest of flames lit on her fingertips.

  “Yes,” she hissed, not unkindly, but because of the fangs. “And no. It’s a long and difficult story. Maybe one day you shall hear it.” Her voice sounded musical, like vocal magic. She stopped her flames and then her fangs receded. “Let’s get back to you, shall we?”

  Evangeline steered Peri to the sofa. They said nothing and Archie was left to watch on, unsure of what had just happened, the knots in his stomach returning.

  ◆◆◆

  “Order! Blueberry and chocolate muffins!” Noah half-yelled. A woman wearing a stupidly fluffy pink hat collected the bag of muffins and left.

  Coming from the back, Kathe
rine sidled up to him and said, “It’s time you took a break.”

  “I’ll wait until it’s died a little,” he insisted, going on to serve the next customer.

  Twenty-six minutes later, Noah had been counting, he managed to get his break. He slumped onto the wooden stool, glad to finally be off his feet, and nibbled at the edge of a cherry muffin, his second favourite flavour.

  Natalia flitted about in his wake, finishing bakes or starting new ones, and occasionally serving in the café, but when it went quiet she jumped onto the counter to sit. Even Katherine managed to escape for a cookie.

  “Noah?” He peered up at Katherine, finding her looking over the calendar. “Could you pick up a couple of extra shifts next week? Or extend some?”

  “Sure,” he answered easily.

  The bell out front dinged and Noah stood with a sigh.

  Waiting patiently out front was a small gathering. They all seemed to be together, chitting or laughing about something. Noah started to take the order when they noticed him, relaying the information back to Katherine through the doorway.

  As he pressed the total on the till, he felt someone come to his side, the air rushing up his arms. He turned wearily. Natalia was as pale as ice, and she glided around the corner toward the group as if she’d seen a ghost.

  “Kiva?” Natalia whispered with a voice that didn’t sound like hers.

  A young girl twirled. Her hair was in two braids and she had glitter down the parting. The smile on her face was unmissable, right before she leapt at Natalia. Noah wondered where Natalia had met such a girl, and then he remembered Atlantis, the city of Creatures.

  Atlantis had been weird. It had been the place where he’d first, truly, discovered that supernatural Creatures from stories were real. Everything had spiralled from there. Creatures, Noah could wrap his head around, but Monsters? It seemed even the Creatures didn’t know the extent of them. Noah had tried not to think about it too much; it unsettled his stomach until he wanted to cut holes in everything he owned just to allow him some control over something.

  Noah overheard Natalia ask, “What are you doing here?”

  The girl, Kiva, responded, “There was a trip.”

  Natalia seemed to look at the rest of the group. “Family?”

  “My parents are over there, but no. Mostly other Creature families we’ve connected with from Atlantis!” Kiva beamed. “They wanted to travel before the new school slash training year started. Half of them wanted somewhere warm, half wanted somewhere cold, and then there were those that overlapped that wanted something to see. So, they found here. It has the sea, which most people want. And it’s not too cold! We went for a swim in it this morning.”

  The rest of the conversation was a blur. Noah served Kiva’s family quietly and they sporadically went and sat at a table, taking up half the space in the café. When they were all there, Natalia re-joined him, and he asked, “And that was?”

  A hard look fixed onto Natalia’s face. “Kiva,” she answered. “She’s a Werewolf. A recently turn- made,” she corrected, “one. I met her in Atlantis.” She turned her body to him and there was strain in her eyes, like she was flashing back to a time he couldn’t begin to imagine. “I met her down in the Council prisons.”

  “Princess?” His voice was soft, calm.

  “When that Calefaction,” she must’ve seen his blank look because she changed her wording, “that polar bear Monster,” he nodded, “attacked, we were locked up. The whole ceiling nearly caved in. I got us out because the Council saw us as expendable and weren’t about help us. And then I went on to save their sorry arses.” Anger flashed across her face.

  Noah remembered the ground shaking, him throwing up, and then being told parts of what had happened in the City, but never from Natalia. He took her hand. “You got out of there, and with her. That’s what’s more important.”

  Natalia seemed not to hear. “Kiva’s here on a trip with her parents. There are a few other Atlantis families here too. Venderly is now a holiday destination for Creatures apparently.”

  Noah supposed birds flew in different directions; what one destination was to someone was different from what it was to the next.

  “Do you know any of them?” he asked lower.

  Natalia’s face grew pale again. “They were at my trial. The whole room was a blur at the time, but somehow I know they were in the crowd.”

  “Just goes to show that the brain pays attention, even when we think it doesn’t. Now that you’re not trapped in that moment with those barrels of emotion, your brain can sort through everything systematically for you.”

  She smiled up at him and brushed his stubble – he’d been meaning to shave for weeks now. It was such a simple gesture Noah could almost forget they’d been talking about Creatures and Monsters.

  The door dinged, the little bell chiming. Natalia withdrew her hand as the reflected light from the door caught her face, painting it in rainbow. When she blinked, it was gone, and in Noah’s eye-line instead. He shuffled sideways and bumped into Katherine; she’d come from the back silently.

  Two people were approaching the counter and Noah looked at Natalia in question. Why are they here? For a nice cup of coffee and a treat?

  Natalia was grimacing.

  ◆◆◆

  “The Council wants an update in a couple of days,” James stated. His usually slicked-back hair had a thick untucked strand on the right.

  “On what?” Natalia asked.

  “You.”

  “Me?”

  “Yes, dear,” Sarah said. She sipped at her caramel coffee, her freckles visible as her cheeks pinked at the heat. “They want to know how your training is going.”

  “What? Why?”

  “They want to know if you’ve progressed.”

  Natalia’s grip on her mug tightened. “Do they want to hear it from me?”

  James nodded slightly, making his loose bit of hair bounce. “They’ll want to hear your opinion on how you think you’re doing, and then they’ll want ours as your guardians.”

  Sarah added, “Your time off because of your injury will be included.”

  Natalia looked between them both anxiously. “Is that good or bad?”

  Sarah used her hands as indicators on the table. “If they think you should be at point eight, and you’re at point six, telling them of your injuries and recovery will give you some leniency, because the point you should be at will be dropped as it’s taken into consideration.”

  They’d been sat at table off to the side for about ten minutes now, long enough for Sarah and James to explain the basics. They’d been to Atlantis for business and had been approached by Council representatives afterwards. A surprise review had been sprung on them with only a few days to prepare.

  Natalia respected that Sarah and James would have to be honest, but she couldn’t help worrying about what they had to say. Personally, she didn’t think she was any better now compared to when she’d started. She could command her blade, and her balance and grace had improved, years of ballet paying off, but her dust aiming, healing, and the ability to sense lies weren’t where she’d thought they’d be.

  “Will I have to go to Atlantis?” Natalia asked.

  James shook his head. “They’ll simply call over the phone, but magic will be laced into the call so you cannot lie or cheat, not that you will, but others have tried to mock the system before.”

  Natalia drank and lowered the mug in time to see Peri and Archie walk into the store. She immediately rose from her seat and forced Peri into it, which received a grateful smile from Archie, and protests from Peri.

  “And?” Sarah asked, looking between her son and his girlfriend.

  Peri was practically bursting with excitement. She put a hand to her bump. “We’re having a—”

  Glass smashed behind them.

  Natalia raced to the back of the shop. Noah and Katherine stood staring at where the window had been. The space was still there, but the protective glass w
as in pieces on the floor.

  “What the hell happened?” she asked incredulously.

  “You mean what in the Seven Hells,” Katherine corrected, sounding like it was for her own benefit. “There was a Shadow.”

  Natalia glanced at Noah, who appeared equally as lost. What the hell was a Shadow? Shadows were attached to beings, caused by obstructed light, things that couldn’t exist alone, right? She didn’t know if she was missing the point, but how could a Shadow do this?

  When the screaming started in the other room, the three of them ran.

  What Katherine had meant by a Shadow and what Natalia had in mind were two very different things. Katherine had been talking about a pure and solid black being that took the silhouette and shape of an average Human or Creature. It wasn’t see-through and had glowing red eyes that looked like they could peer into souls.

  Four were chasing unwilling Humans and Creature alike around the café in a wicked game of cat and mouse. Katherine immediately picked up a broom and charged, making the best use of what she had to hand –Natalia understood then what Jasper had been doing by training her with bamboo sticks, because anything and everything could become a weapon.

  Natalia turned to Noah, finding him already watching her. The reflection in his dark eyes was of her face and it looked stoic, not portraying how rattled she was. “Stay here,” she said lowly. “Hide, if you have too.” Noah nodded, clearly in no mood to argue.

  With no plan, Natalia left him.

  Sarah and James ushered everyone they could out onto the street. Natalia couldn’t see Kiva or her family, or any of those who’d been with them, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Hopefully not seeing them meant they were out of the way.

  A Shadow floated up to Natalia in the time it took her to blink. She nearly screamed as a mouth snapped open on it but swallowed it down. Unlike the fiery redness of a Calefaction, this mouth looked like blood had pooled inside of it. It smelled like it too. Its eyes stared hollowly at her.

  Natalia drew her blade and lunged. Her hand went through the Shadow as if the Monster had suddenly unsolidified. She pulled it back out, gaping. Without facial features, it was hard to tell if the Shadow was grinning or snarling.