by April White
“Connor’s a science super-freak with an ‘in’ to Shaw. I’m sure he’d be available for tutoring help if you needed it.”
Connor’s grin expanded. “At your service.”
I could tell Olivia was charmed despite herself. She kept the skeptical look on her face though. “You’re what, like, fourteen?”
“Yes, but I’m tall and smart for my age.”
I laughed. “And arrogant and charming and big trouble when you get older. Get in with him now, Liv, before he gets unbearable.” She finally laughed too and we spent the rest of dinner chatting about random, entertaining stuff that had nothing to do with the Families and all their stupid intrigues.
Connor was really adept at avoiding all Family topics of conversation. I’d almost forgotten that Olivia wasn’t a Family Descendent even though I was pretty sure she knew about them.
I thought about Gosford, the fisherman I’d met in 1888. And I wondered if it were possible that his Sanda and Millicent’s housekeeper could actually be related?
“Hey, Liv? Where’s your family from originally?”
“From Wales. A place called Gosefordsich.”
“Any chance Sanda is related to a fisherman named Gosford?”
“She’s my great-aunt actually, and I think her grandfather was a fisherman named Gosford.”
My jaw dropped open and I snapped it shut before anyone noticed my resemblance to a fish. There was no way Sanda was born in 1888. Connor looked at me strangely.
“Liv?”
Olivia was already standing up to clear her plate. “Yeah?”
“Do the people in your family…” How was I going to say this? “…live a long time?”
Shockingly, Olivia just shrugged. “I think it’s a Pict thing.”
Connor stared. “You guys are Picts?”
She rolled her eyes at him. “Not full-blooded, of course. Our family mixed with Gaels after the Romans sacked everything. But there’s apparently enough old blood to keep us in line with Saira’s Family.”
The casual way she mentioned something that sounded like it was out of a fairytale left me practically gasping.
“I have to run. I have a micro-economics test tomorrow and if I get anything less than ninety percent, the Rothbitch will have me ‘removed’ from her class.
Connor leapt to his feet. “Sorry, I can’t help you there. She hates me and the feeling’s mutual.” He bowed to both of us. “Ladies, thank you for the lively conversation.” He grabbed Olivia’s plate before she could clear it herself, and then said with a grin, “I look forward to our next one.”
Olivia looked at me, but sort of included Connor in her gaze. “I’ll see you later.” She grabbed her books and left, but not before I caught her smiling.
I got up to clear my own plate and Connor waited for me. “So, do you think she’s actually a ‘Pixie’?” He cracked up at his own joke, and I looked at him sharply. “You want a chance with Olivia you’ll never joke about her size again.”
To his credit, he sobered instantly. “Do you think she likes me?” The bluntness of his question was surprising, but his honesty was so disarming I didn’t hesitate to answer.
“I think she liked your attention. She’s fifteen though.”
He shrugged. “So? It doesn’t matter that she’s older if I’m confident enough. I learned that from watching Adam.”
“Adam Arman?”
“He got Alex interested and she’s two years older than him.”
Ah hah! “They dated? I didn’t think they could.”
Connor suddenly veered away from a group of Ungee kids standing in the food line. He spoke under his breath as we put our dishes in the bins.
“We can’t. But they did.”
I stared at him, the gears clicking into place in my brain. “What happened?”
“I’m guessing they got caught.”
The color drained out of my face. “And…?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Alex graduated early and Adam suddenly started dating a bunch of girls from town. At least that’s what I heard.” Connor waved at a group of young guys across the room. “I’m not really friends with Adam so I don’t know the details, and Alex moved out that summer after a big fight with my parents. I think she’s like, teaching ballet and waitressing in some dive in the city to support her ballet habit, but she doesn’t really come around anymore so my info is all second-hand.”
I thought I might know that dive where Alexandra Rowen worked. I flashed back to the coffeeshop conversation I’d had with the striking waitress who moved like a dancer.
“Is her mom black?”
He looked at me like I should know. “Yeah, she was Jacqueline Rowen, a super-famous ballet dancer.”
Wow. I think I’d met Alex. She’d been generous with me in a way most people aren’t with strangers and I thought I might even owe her one for her help. If that had, in fact, been Adam’s ex-girlfriend, it was interesting to realize she was a Shifter, and probably a really nice person.
Connor grinned before heading off toward his friends. “Thanks for the intro to Olivia. Put in a good word for me, would you?”
He had just given me a lot to think about, and I admired that kid’s confidence. I thought Olivia could do worse than be friends with someone like Connor Edwards. And the next time I got her alone I wanted to find out everything she could tell me about her Family. The hereditary lines in this place were like Gosford’s nets. You couldn’t take a step without tangling with one.
I checked the clock on the wall and realized I needed to run to make it outside to meet Mr. Shaw. I waved to Annie as I bolted through the kitchen and out the back door. If she said anything to me I didn’t catch it before the door closed.
The sun was just going down behind the kitchen garden when I got there and I spun to find Mr. Shaw coming up behind me. “Did you hear me that time?”
“No.”
“You just ‘knew’ I would be there?”
I shook my head. “I told you, I feel it when you approach. I don’t know how else to describe it.”
His tone was still serious. “What else can you do that normal people can’t?” We’d had this conversation before but there was something different about his tone. Something that said I needed to be totally straight with him.
“I can free-run. And see pretty well in the dark.”
“Show me.”
I looked Mr. Shaw in the eyes. “Are you going to teach me how to defeat a Vampire?”
He nodded. “I want to see what I have to work with.”
Fair enough.
Attack
“There’s a barn in the next field over. I’ll meet you there.” I took off running and was almost over the wall when I finally heard Mr. Shaw coming behind me. I scrambled along the top until I could see the barn, then I dropped down and ran straight for the structure, up and over wheelbarrows, haystacks, and low hedges in my path. Mr. Shaw seemed to keep pace with me but I could tell he was going around obstacles instead of over them. By the time I made it to the barn, he was out of breath.
But not much. Being a Bear must have advantages in speed and endurance that someone like Adam, a fit seventeen-year-old guy, didn’t even have. I wondered about the genetics of that. “Do you keep the physical advantages you have as a Bear when you’re in your human shape?”
My question surprised him, but he considered his answer. “Normal strength and endurance genes were super-promoted because of my particular mutation, so yeah, I do.”
I nodded. “That makes sense. So Connor is probably really fast then, huh?”
Mr. Shaw nodded. “He’s also the alpha in his pack.”
“You mean like his friends?”
Mr. Shaw was looking around the inside of the barn as we spoke. He nodded. “It’s a Wolf thing. He’s a very social kid and he’ll always rise to a leadership position within any group because he’s the oldest male in his family.”
“What about his sister?”
Mr. Shaw
scowled. “Alexandra’s mother died when she was born and none of us knew very much about her. I’ve always assumed she was ungifted, but Andrew, their father, didn’t bring her around. Andrew’s mother became a Gazelle and as there’s a gender component to our heredity, Alexandra inherited her animal self from her Grandmother.”
“So, because she’s a girl, she doesn’t become a Wolf?”
Mr. Shaw nodded. “Correct, however Alex also carries some of the Wolf’s physical enhancements, just like I carry some of my mother’s Lynx attributes.”
I thought about all the possible combinations out there. It was sort of mind-boggling. “It seems like Shifter genetics would be a huge science to study all by itself. It must be pretty cool to see what different kids can do based on who their parents are.”
Mr. Shaw nodded. “We’re actually quite fortunate that genetic diversity is allowed with us.”
“Allowed? It seems like a necessity if you don’t want to end up all inbred and weak.”
“It’s an argument that is coming up more and more among those of us who want to see the Families survive.”
I climbed up a hay stack and perched myself in the rafters of the barn. I think I needed a little distance from him to ask the questions that had been burning holes in my brain. “Miss Simpson said they take ‘medical steps’ to keep people from different Family branches from mixing their genes.” From my perch high above him, I could see the muscles in the Bear’s shoulder bunch with tension. He looked up to face me and I could see worry etched around his eyes.
“Are you in love with Arman?”
I wasn’t expecting that question, at least not from him. “No. But I think he must have been in love with Alex.”
Mr. Shaw closed his eyes as if to block out that thought. “I haven’t seen her since she left school. You remind me of her a bit. It’s probably what attracts him to you.”
“Adam and I are just friends. I don’t know why everyone’s so freaked out about that.”
Mr. Shaw sat down on a hay bale and rubbed his fingers through his shaggy hair. “This whole thing about mixing bloodlines and cross-Family mating is coming to a head right now. The leaders among the Families come from old blood. They’re jealous of their power and will do whatever it takes to keep it pure and uncomplicated.”
I shuddered. “That sounds like Aryan race crap.”
He gave a rueful smile. “It is. The problem is that everyone looks at the mixing up of Families as ‘dilution’ instead of what it really is which is ‘survival.’ I mean look at your family. No one even knows if there’s anyone left who can travel through time besides you and your mother. If you don’t have children, that skill could very well be lost.”
I grimaced. “No pressure.”
“Indeed. And here’s the rub. Because there are no Clocker boys your age, and possibly no Clocker men left at all, any kids you have will only have half your Clocker blood.”
“Can we please stop talking about my hypothetical kids? It’s really weirding me out. I’m about as far from having kids right now as a person can get.”
“Sadly, Miss Elian, you and I are not the only people having this conversation.”
I don’t know which made me more uncomfortable, the Bear calling me ‘Miss Elian’ or the idea that other people could be discussing anything about me.
I got up from my perch and walked the upper beams of the barn like a tightrope. It took my mind off Mr. Shaw and gave me something to concentrate on. He must have needed a change of subject too. “As for Vampires, they do have a couple of vulnerabilities.” I dropped down out of the rafters and it startled him. Good.
“Tell me.”
“As we touched on briefly after class, the mutant strain of porphyria, supercharged by a Family neuregulin 1 type 6 gene, is what halts their cell growth and creates a sort of suspended animation for all organs and tissue in their bodies. Obviously other skills are enhanced by the neuregulin 1 protein promoters—“
“—Like what?”
“I guess you haven’t had a lot of one-on-one experience with Vampires.”
I held my tongue. Explaining my very complicated relationship with Archer was not something I was prepared to do just yet, or maybe ever.
“Well, they’re stronger and faster than an average human. I could go into why, but it doesn’t really matter unless you’re a scientist. They need concentrated protein to exist, and the hematocrits in human blood are the best way to stave off the painful symptoms of the porphyria. Animal blood will work too, but there are apparently conversion issues there. And whatever skills they might have inherited from their Family bloodlines are also present, so there’s a wild card to dealing with a Vampire.”
“In other words, if he comes from the Seers he could have sight, or he could have animal skills if he comes from Shifters?” A fascinating and terrifying idea.
“But a Vampire would never be a true shifter. There’s an incompatibility between the porphyria and a full change. He might have latent skills though.”
“What about if he’s part Monger?”
Mr. Shaw looked me directly in the eye. “Then he’s just a very bad dude.” Somehow I thought that fit the bill perfectly with what I was up against. I nodded.
“Okay, how are they vulnerable?”
“It’s all about blood with Vampires.” I rolled my eyes, but Mr. Shaw continued. “Porphyria is a blood-borne disease. Drain the blood and the cell-stasis can be reversed.” He could tell I was struggling with that one and he smiled ruefully. “It’s the suspended animation of the body’s cells that cause a Vampire’s ‘immortality.’ They’re not truly immortal, but until their cell-death cycle can be kick-started again, they might as well be. So, by draining a Vampire’s blood, the cell-stasis has nothing to sustain it anymore and the body’s cells will start to die. Then it’s just a matter of dealing what would be a ‘normally’ fatal wound.”
I rolled my eyes big that time. “Oh sure, just make sure he’s drained before you bop him on the head. And for those of us without homicidal inclinations?”
“In this game, it’s kill or be turned. Because if a Vampire gets his teeth on you, Saira, your blood will mutate and the porphyria will take hold. You will become a Vampire too.”
I shuddered. “Big stakes.”
“The biggest.” He circled around and sized me up. “You’re tall, but you have no size to back you up in a fight.”
“My physical strengths are agility and speed.”
“What else?”
“I’m not sure. Night vision?”
“What else could you rely on if you were attacking or being attacked?” He was still circling me as if looking for a weakness.
I thought about that for a moment. “A very strong self-preservation instinct?”
“Let’s see.” Mr. Shaw lunged forward and grabbed me.
I hadn’t seen it coming and was instantly trapped in strong hands. I tried to spin away but I couldn’t move. Tried to kick him. Missed. I even tried to use my head to break his nose but I only connected with his chest. I screamed in frustration! Rage and impotence boiled in me like poison as I tried to get free.
Then, a blur of movement from the shadows.
The heavy sound of impact.
I was being pulled down. Everything felt like slow motion. I knew I would hit the ground hard and it would hurt.
Hands let go of me. Pushed me away.
The thud of a big body. A grunt of pain.
I hit a bale of hay and all the breath whooshed out of my body. I had to see what happened. I tried to open my eyes. They were open. My vision cleared. In the dim light I could see a figure huddled over another on the floor.
Archer. And Mr. Shaw.
“NOOOOOO!”
The scream was mine and it jolted Archer out of whatever had possessed him. There was rage and fear and something else etched on his face. He turned to me. His hands were like claws and he looked feral.
Suddenly, an enormous brown Bear rose up behind
Archer, towering over him with full, menacing size. The Bear growled in rage. It was a sound that froze the blood in my veins. This animal meant to kill.
“Mr. Shaw!” I screamed his name hoping that sheer volume would be enough to get through to the Bear. He took a step forward, toward Archer who was still focused on me, not the two thousand pound Bear that was about to maul him.
These two creatures would slay each other without a second thought. I darted forward, between them. Archer screamed my name, but I barely heard him, so intent on reaching the man inside the massive Bear. I had to keep them apart, these two men I cared for. My eyes were locked on the brown Bear’s golden ones. I held my hand out to him and begged.
“Mr. Shaw, it’s me, Saira. Change back Mr. Shaw. He won’t hurt me. He’s my friend. Please come back!”
I could feel Archer ready to leap at the Bear’s slightest move. But I kept my eyes locked on the huge beast in front of me and slowly I felt the rage slip out of his glare.
With a deep “hhrrummmph” the Bear dropped to all four legs and after a final growl at Archer, he turned and ambled slowly from the barn.
I started to sag in relief until I remembered I wasn’t alone. I spun angrily. “What the hell were you doing? You just attacked a teacher!”
The concern on his face instantly flashed to anger. “What the hell were you doing grappling with him in a dark barn? I thought I was saving your life!”
“Throw me my jeans, Vampire. They’re on the floor behind you.” Mr. Shaw’s voice boomed menacingly from the deep shadows of the barn.
To his credit, Archer retrieved the jeans and tossed them toward the voice. After a moment Mr. Shaw emerged from the shadows, shirtless, barefoot and scowling.
“Why are you here, Vampire?”
I’d never heard a voice so scary and fierce. If I was Archer I probably would have run, and as it was, I still might.
Archer held his ground. “For Saira.”
Mr. Shaw’s eyes narrowed. “Her blood does you no good.”
That made no sense to me, but apparently it did to Archer. “I won’t let them have it.”
“So you’ll destroy what you can’t have?”
They were growling in riddles and I didn’t like being the subject of their argument.