Dangerous Lovers

by Becca Vincenza

  I reached up and gently removed her hands from my shoulder, looking her directly in the eyes. “Okay,” I said. “Okay. Blood, you need blood.” I swiped a tear off her face with my sleeve. “Where are we going to get—?”

  The backpacks. I had forgotten about the backpacks. There were four pints of blood in them, and I hadn’t really thought about it, seeing how I was fearing for my life at the time. Or rather, Nelly’s life.

  “Jackson, hand me the blue backpack.”

  He reached behind him into the trunk space of the SUV and passed me the bag. Rummaging through it, I pulled out one of the bags of blood.

  “Here.” I handed it to Nelly.

  “Where did you—? Oh, right… Mom.” She ripped it open and tilted it up. I turned my head and stared straight out the windshield. I couldn’t bring myself to watch this; my stomach was already queasy as it was.

  I pulled out the other three bags of blood and handed them back to Jackson without turning my head. “Put those in the cooler, Jack. They may already be spoiled as it is.”

  “They are,” Nelly said. I snuck a glance at her to see her folding the now empty bag and placing it in the plastic trash bag under her seat. “It’s okay, though it might make my stomach a little queasy”—that made two of us—“but it’s better than nothing.”

  She was looking better already, having regained some color to her cheeks, and her eyes were open and alert. I nodded. “Okay, let’s go.” I checked the GPS. “We still have another six hours before we reach our destination.” The clock told me it was one p.m. “We should make it before sundown if we don’t make any more stops.”

  Silence settled over us once again, leaving me alone with my thoughts. Or rather thought. Something in particular Nelly had said stood out in my mind. You’re… Well, you’re something different. I pushed my foot down a little harder on the accelerator. All that lay between me and my answers was a long stretch of highway.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Five and a half hours later, we parked outside of a small yellow house in a tidy little suburb of Ohio. The house was modest but well kept, and it seemed to have plants sprouting all around it. They hung from the porch, sat on window sills, lined the walkway and sat at the base of a lone tree in the yard. Not exactly what I’d been expecting, but then, I wasn’t sure what I had been expecting.

  Jackson double-checked the address. “You sure this is the right place?” he asked.

  I shrugged. “Guess so.”

  “It’s the right place,” Nelly said.

  I looked over at her and drew a deep breath. “Let’s go find out.”

  We got out of the car and walked up to the front door. Nelly rang the doorbell. I wasn’t sure why, but my heart was racing and I had to wipe my sweaty palms on my jeans. I suddenly felt self-conscious. I was about to discover things that might change the world as I knew it, things about myself that I had never even known.

  Looking down at my attire, I was glad that I had at least been able to change clothes. I hadn’t showered because I hadn’t wanted to spend any longer in my house than I had to. Gathering clothes and supplies had taken long enough. I was now wearing clean jeans and a light purple, long-sleeved shirt. I had pulled my hair back into a loose ponytail and brushed my teeth at a rest stop—could be worse.

  Glancing over at my companions, I saw Jackson wore his usual flannel shirt and jeans, and Nelly looked beautiful, as always. Still, they appeared as nervous as I was. And tired. We all looked tired.

  The door creaked open and a cute little girl poked her head out. If I had to guess, I would say that she was about five, but then, I didn’t really know much about little kids. She had big brown eyes and long, wavy brown hair, and she was wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt. I smiled involuntarily, the first time in the last two days that I had really smiled. She reminded me of a little me.

  She tilted her little head to the side and studied us, concentration covering her adorable features. Her eyes passed over all three of us with the astuteness of an adult. I cleared my throat, feeling a little like I was being examined. “Um, hi. My name is—”

  “Shh.” She interrupted. “I mean, sorry, just need silence for a second, okay?”

  I shut my mouth and tried to hide my smile. I glanced uneasily at the rapidly sinking sun as she studied us for several more seconds. Finally, she nodded and pointed her tiny finger at Jackson. “Jackson Kane,” she proclaimed. “Jackson Kane, Wolf Son.” She swung her finger toward Nelly. “Nelliana, Omnipotent Life-Drinker.” She stumbled on omnipotent and I found myself still smiling, even though this was absolutely strange.

  Her finger landed on me and I couldn’t help but hold my breath, “And Alexa… hmm… well… that’s… interesting.” She stared into my eyes and I got the strange sensation that she was staring straight through to my soul. Once again, I felt a little self-conscious.

  Then, she closed her eyes and lowered her head in what looked like a bow. I shot looks at Jackson and Nelly. They just shrugged, looking just as confused as I was. Good, at least I wasn’t the only one.

  A woman’s voice drifted out from inside the house. “Let them in, Akira. Don’t scare them away.”

  Akira rolled her eyes and swung the door open, then gestured for us to follow her inside. We filed into the house, and she informed us that we could “sit down if we wanted.” We promptly complied. Akira plopped herself down by a large toy box in the corner of the room and began digging through toys and scattering them over the floor. She didn’t say anything else to us, all her attention on the tea party she was setting up for her stuffed animals.

  As we waited, I took note of our surroundings. The front door had opened up into a cozy living room containing a beige couch and matching recliner. There were pictures and more flowers placed strategically around the room, and a tiny piano with a tiny stool sat near the toy box. It was cute and homey. Strangely, it made me miss my mother.

  A few minutes later, an old-as-dirt lady emerged from the hallway connected to the living room. She walked slowly over to the recliner and sat down facing Nelly, Jackson and me on the couch. As she studied us, I studied her.

  Her clothes were typical: dark blue slacks and a floral, blue, button-down shirt. Her shoes followed suit: dark-blue penny loafers with shiny pennies in them. She bore a slightly amused expression on her gravity-dominated face. Though the skin around her eyes was spotted with age, the vessels themselves were sharp as fishhooks. They seemed to snag me in much the same way.

  I cleared my throat, feeling more than mildly uncomfortable. I didn’t know what to say that wouldn’t sound stupid, so I said, “Hi, I’m Alexa, and this is my sister, Nelly, and my friend, Jack. It’s nice to meet you.”

  I’m sure she already knew who we were, so much for not sounding stupid. Maybe I should have just gone with my usual “What’s up?”

  The old lady smiled, long-lost beauty flashing briefly across her face, and sat back in the recliner. “Hello, Alexa.” Her sharp gaze fell on the others and she nodded to them in greeting. Beside me, Jackson shifted. The woman just smiled and then turned her attention back to me.

  I swallowed. “We were hoping you could help us. My mother left your number on a letter.” I had explained this over the phone, but I didn’t know what else to say to fill the silence that seemed to be suffocating me and my companions.

  When she continued simply staring, I opened my mouth to try again, but she beat me to the punch. Her eyes locked on me and I had to work to hold her gaze. “So much pain… You carry so much pain.”

  My tongue felt thick in my throat. It was obvious whom she was talking to.

  “Yet, you don’t show it,” she continued. “That’s the Warrior in you. You carry a fire inside, even though it burns you. You refuse to let it out in fear that it may destroy others.” Her eyes flicked to Nelly, then returned to me. “You fear it may destroy you in doing so because you can’t seem to control it. Still, you try. Why, Alexa? Do you know why?”

  I dropped my gaz
e and studied my hands, a million thoughts flying through my mind. Was this woman crazy? What was she even talking about? But as I replayed her words it occurred to me that maybe she wasn’t really that far off.

  I spoke before I really knew what I was going to say. “Because… if it were up to me, I’d never let her get burned. I’d keep it as close to me as I could.”

  She nodded in understanding, as if she had known what I would say even before I did. I wondered if she was some kind of witch. Honestly, at this point, I wouldn’t have been surprised if there was a unicorn tied up in the back yard.

  “I’ve been called worse,” she said, as if replying to my thoughts. I must have looked shocked and embarrassed, because she waved her hand in dismissal. “But, no, I’m not a witch. I’m just good at Searching people. Not unlike our Nelliana.” She gestured toward Nelly. “Though I’m afraid her gifts surpass my own. I’m Olivia, and I believe you’ve already met my granddaughter, Akira.”

  Akira’s head jerked up; she smiled and gave a shy wave. Again, my lips curved up and I waved back. Then, she hopped up off the floor and ran over to me, pulling herself into my lap. I was startled, but I repositioned myself so she could sit on my knees.

  I tilted my head so that I could see Olivia. She was smiling. “I believe you have some questions for me,” she said.

  That was an understatement. I didn’t know where to start. I thought for a moment, and picked the question that had been bothering me since all of this began.

  “What am I?” My voice came out in a whisper, so I was surprised when Olivia answered.

  “You are of ancient blood. A perfect mixture of all the physical strengths of all the races. What we once knew as Warriors. That’s what you are, the last one who carries the physiology to be called a true Warrior.”

  She looked like she thought this was an honor. I wasn’t so sure. “So… there’s no one else like me? I’m the last of a dying race?”

  Olivia seemed to be choosing her words carefully. “Yes and no,” she said. “There are no others who have your unique blood, but at the same time you have a little bit of all the races in you, just not enough of any one race to be categorized as one of them. But yes, you are the last known of your kind.”

  Oh, wonderful, I really was a freak. I guess that explained a lot.

  “Does that mean that I’m part Searcher?” I gestured to Nelly. “Part Wolf?” I glanced at Jackson. “And part… whatever else there is? And if my race is supposed to be great warriors, why am I the only one left?” I was rambling, but really, could you blame me?

  “Because there are those who see your kind as a threat,” Olivia replied. “There is a hierarchy in our world, and those who head this order have never taken kindly to competition. You can see why they would see your kind as competition. Nonetheless, Warriors used to be an abundant race. Your people defended and protected all of us, and most were grateful. However, some were not. When your numbers started increasing, a council of our leaders passed a decree that your kind should be put into slavery for fear the Warriors might betray them. Not surprisingly, your people refused to take this treatment from the people they had so long protected. They revolted… and then they were hunted into near extinction. Some survived—you’re proof of that—but they retreated into hiding, living among the humans. Those who were not found by our kind were hunted by those whom they had once hunted: the Lamia. Your mother among them, but Diana was there when they came and she managed to get you to safety, though she was unable to save her sister-in-law.”

  Diana was my mother’s name, so what Olivia was saying made no sense. Unless…

  “She was my aunt? That’s impossible, she raised me. She was my mother!” My voice shook. My cheeks heated and fists balled. And when my left eye twitched, I dragged a trembling hand across my damp forehead.

  Nelly’s voice cut in, almost inaudible. “It’s true. She’s telling the truth.”

  I whipped my head to the left to face her. Tears streaked her face and for the first time ever, I refused to feel sorry for her.

  “You knew about this? You knew and you never told me?” I couldn’t keep the venom from my voice. I felt instant and utter betrayal.

  “I couldn’t! We just wanted to keep you safe… to let you have a bit of normalcy before you had to face a world that would try to destroy you! You have to trust me, please. Trust me, Alexa. We did what we thought was best.” She was pleading now, tears flowing freely down her cheeks, and normally, I would have forgiven her without any question. But this was not normal.

  I scoffed, and my voice came out a pitch deeper than normal. “Trust you? How can you even ask me that? I’ve always trusted you, and now I find out you’ve been lying to me for my entire life! How can you expect me to trust you? How can you say that about our mother? How can you even pretend that I had some sort of normalcy when I had to train every day of my life to be a killer? And now I find out that that’s what I’m made for—killing! How can you sit there and tell me any of this is okay?”

  I was seeing red. All red. Red-hot lies. Red blood spilled as a result of those lies. And Nelly’s red face as she admitted to those lies. I slammed my eyes shut, trying desperately to envision the color blue. Seeing only red, darkening and darkening into a near black—

  Something warm and soft touched my cheek. A beautiful, glorious rainbow exploded behind my lids. So exquisite and lacking in only one color. I almost raised a hand in attempt to capture it. But as the colors settled over me, so did my right mind. Peeling my eyes open, I looked down to see that Akira was resting her hand on my face. I’d forgotten I was holding her. The possibilities of this fact horrified me so greatly I was almost afraid to draw in air.

  Where her hand touched my face, I felt a seeping cold sensation, much like medication through an IV, and all red thoughts disappeared. Incredible calmness washed over me. Finally deciding I could move without risk of breaking her, I brought my hand up to cover hers with my own.

  “Akira,” Olivia chastised, “don’t—”

  “She needs it, Gram,” Akira interrupted, then looked back at me. “Let me take some of it away.”

  I was still staring in stupefied wonder at the strange girl in my lap, but I assumed Olivia agreed to whatever Akira was going to do because she didn’t remove her hand from my face.

  Let it go, Alexa. It was Akira’s voice in my head, and my mind felt too muddled to truly consider it. My eyes seemed involuntarily locked with hers. Let me take it. Let it go and let me take it.

  I felt a cold, pulling sensation on my mind that seemed to reach all the way down to my core, like exhaling, exhaling all the way through to my soul.

  I clasped her hand and removed it from my cheek. She gave me a look that said she didn’t approve, but didn’t fight me.

  “No.” My voice was much stronger than I’d expected.

  She smiled that adorable smile and tugged my hair so that my ear was close to her lips. “Sometimes you have to allow others to hold onto that for you,” she whispered. “You’ll be no good to anyone if you refuse to let it out when it comes so close to breaking you.”

  Akira hopped off my lap and walked stiff-backed over to where a small vase of flowers rested on the window sill. She grabbed the vase and spun around in a circle, launching it at the wall. The vase shattered into pieces. Marching over to the remains, she stomped and stomped and stomped on the helpless plant until it was beyond revival or recognition. Then she returned to her toys.

  I turned to look at Olivia, hoping she wouldn’t punish the little girl. As weird as it was, I felt like I understood why she’d thrown the vase. Hell, a few seconds ago, smashing a vase wouldn’t have seemed like a bad idea.

  Olivia looked as if she’d been expecting this. “Feeling better?” she asked.

  I nodded. “Akira?” She jerked her head up, an angry expression on her face. Then, she took a deep breath and relaxed her face.

  “Yes?”

  “What—what did you do? What are you?”
/>   She giggled. “I’m a Searcher, and I took it away from you. There was too much for you… too much for even a Warrior to carry alone.”

  I didn’t have to ask what it was. I knew. She’d taken away the effects that the events of the last couple of days had had upon me. She’d taken away the hurt and pain and anger I always worked so hard to keep hidden. She’d seen into my soul. I felt oddly vulnerable and… grateful.

  “Thank you.”

  She winked at me and returned her attention to her toys. I was starting to fall in love with this child.

  Beside me, Nelly and Jackson were silent. No doubt they were confused, and I felt no need to explain things. It was petty, but I felt smug about the fact that, for once, I wasn’t the one in the dark.

  Olivia was waiting for me to continue, so I took a deep breath, deciding to ask the only question that really mattered. “Okay, so the Lamia found us. They’re probably still hunting us… What do we do now?”

  “Now, you rest. You look like you haven’t slept for days and you will need your strength for what is to come. Tomorrow, you head for New Jersey,” said Olivia.

  “What’s in New Jersey?”

  It was Jackson who answered me, the first time he’d spoken since our arrival.

  “Two Rivers… Two Rivers is in New Jersey.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Olivia gave me and Nelly the spare bedroom and provided Jackson with a pillow and blankets to sleep on the couch. I got to take a shower, and it was the best thing I had felt in days. Returning to the bedroom, I found Nelly waiting for me. I was hoping that she would have fallen asleep already. It was part of the reason I’d taken so long with my shower.

  I pulled the towel off my head, grabbed a hairbrush from my overnight bag and began running it through my hair, pretending not to notice Nelly staring at me.

  “Can… Can we talk?” she asked after a few moments.

  I blew out my breath and went to sit by her on the bed. “Yes. I mean, I’m still mad at you, but I think we should talk.”