by S. M. McCoy
“How do you know if you have the vampire gene?”
“You know because you’re still alive.”
I became hopeful at this revelation and responded in kind, “So I’ll live.” I smiled at that, realizing how much my body was changing, how much farther I could see in the distance.
“Maybe. There is more to the serpent’s kiss than just a bite for a successful transformation, even with the gene. It depends on how strong the gene is, and how fast the venom works through your system. Slow transformations are the riskiest kind—if any part of you transforms fully without other parts being transformed, the remaining parts could die. You could die.”
“Then there is nothing to save.” I got up and as he watched me leave, I didn’t try to hide it anymore. I pulled the letter from behind me and placed it on his desk. I looked back at the closet where my ballroom dance dress hung and shook my head. It didn’t matter anymore. I didn’t even bother to retrieve it. Would it matter if I owed money on a dress when I was dead?
I felt a prick on my arm and the dark angel was holding me up with a needle sticking out of my arm. Wooziness took over and the whole room felt more real, like I could see everything connecting together.
He had done it again.
“Tell me the truth,” I begged, wanting to slam my fists into his chest, but all they did was weakly grab on to his button up shirt.
“There is a war brewing, and I can’t have you getting involved. The vials are my blood—it is the only thing I could do for you to help you transition. It’s up to you to do the rest.”
All the colors in the air, like puffs of powdered smoke intermingling, the energy dancing around. I could see the dark blue aura drifting off of my skin like flames, light fading, see-through flames. The color was so faint compared to the vivid orange burst, condensed to a solid outline along his arm.
“You are the color of a low setting sun, pushing the blue from the sky.” I mumbled what seemed like incoherent babbling about the hallucinations of all the things I saw.
I pulled his face close to mine and whispered in a drugged stupor, “I’ve seen you in my dreams; you were a shadow then. Just a shadow…” I trailed off.
He pressed his nose into my hair and lingered there before he told me, “You can’t be my Grace, I’ve already had one of those, and you’re shaping up to have as short a life as hers. I can’t bear witness to this madness again. I won’t have it.” He seemed hurt by his own words and I pressed him closer against me to still the movement of the energy around us, making me nauseous.
“You told me they had my mother. Is it true?” I saw the shadows around him and in my delirium, I revealed a piece of who I was.
His teeth bit into his lower lip, dripping blood down his chin before he said in a hushed tone, “Yes. There’s nothing you can do for her.”
I covered my face in my hands, wanting to rock myself. I couldn’t hold my skin in place, it crawled like something was trying to escape me. Building up inside me was a storm, and he shouldn’t be there when it broke.
I forgot all about the mountain castle, the colors surrounding me and all I saw was my father. In the back of my head I could hear the dark angel’s voice calling out to me as he dropped me off in the park near my house, “Don’t make me come back here.” It was such a distance voice to me that it didn’t register right away.
“I’m leaving,” I responded to him. I was going to go away, far away from here, far away from him.
“Stay away from the Shifter, and don’t go looking for your mother anymore,” he demanded.
It wasn’t romantic at all despite being in a dream state I couldn’t fully describe, which I actually came to appreciate since it was the most real thing I’d ever felt of my dad in a while. I was set down gently on a wood log bench off the trail in the local state park.
“Will I see you again?” I asked, hopeful. I was still talking to my dad and I could feel my chest tighten up knowing I wouldn’t have access to whatever drug the dark angel was giving me again, possibly for the rest of my life. My dad said I would see him again. Just didn’t think that it would be this way…an illusion in my mind of all my memories.
“I hope not,” he said sharply, as if that whole time I was a burden to him. “You were in danger…and you’re right…you aren’t anymore, at least not from me.”
I scoffed, still teetering between the real world and my mind. “Some angel you are.” I turned away from him, not expecting him to leave so suddenly, but instead to hear one of his witty retorts.
Moments passed by and there was nothing. Just silence and the wind. He was gone.
Again.
Reaching out, I could see my father’s fingertips gradually fade from view and trail away from my own hand. And then so was my father. Gone. Again. It seemed to hit me all over again, like losing him for a second time.
I could feel a burning sensation rise in my belly and the tension worked its way up my muscles and into my tear ducts. My eyes welled up and I let them flow freely. I didn’t sniffle, I didn’t choke them back. Just let them fall and drop down my chin. They sprinkled onto my two-thousand-dollar dress that seemed to be draped over my lap as I sat on a stump in the trails of a nearby park. At least I didn’t have to worry about paying back the sponsor for this dress; no way could I afford this.
The dark angel was making a habit of that, disappearing or hiding in some corner like he was avoiding me. It was beginning to get to me, I wouldn’t lie about that. I felt a connection with him, he made me feel safe and the next thing I knew that safe feeling was gone and so was he. I felt more alone in that moment than I had even in the middle of nowhere, outside of any civilization.
Walking home wasn’t so bad, except for the heels I was wearing. Slipping out of the shoes, I looked at them hanging by their straps from my finger. Something came over me and I tossed them away. One went flying into the bushes and the other got caught in a branch of a tree. Frustration ached in my muscles; they shook and I let out a great big grunt to prove to the non-listening world that this whole thing was stupid.
The park was somewhere I visited quite often before to sit and watch people. I listened to them and watched from a distance, but when I needed anybody to listen to me, no one was there.
Barefoot I made my way back home. I crawled into bed, my own bed, for the first time in what was apparently weeks and didn’t even think to tell anyone I was back.
Part of me didn’t want to tell anyone, just disappear again. Going back to work didn’t appeal to me and I still had so many unanswered questions I had to search for.
“Hello?” Aislin asked confused as she stood in the doorway.
“Hello.” I answered back, it was automatic.
She slowly approached the bed then clamped her hands around my face to make sure I was real. Her eyes widened in realization that I wasn’t a figment of her imagination and she pulled me into her tightly.
“I scried for you everywhere!” she sobbed.
“Scried?” I repeated her strange word and still felt a haze of grogginess that layered over everything. I didn’t care if she said anything. I didn’t even register that I was asking a question.
“I used my crystals and a map and I looked everywhere for you. Don’t ever do that to me again!”
“I’ll try not to get myself kidnapped again.” I yawned into her neck.
“You were being blocked by something. Where ever you were it was heavily protected. So, either you were safe, which is what I hoped for, or you were seriously in some deep shit.” Aislin squeezed me more tightly and pressed her lips to my head.
“I feel like I’m going to be in deep shit if you don’t let me go from your vice grip of death,” I choked.
“Oh, yah…right.” She only eased up a little bit, still squeezing me as close as she could.
“You can’t tell anybody that I’m here,” I cautioned.
“Victor has been asking about you, he’s very worried. So is the whole studio, and the cops are lo
oking all over for you, but they aren’t the ‘real’ cops Chrys—this is deep shit, they were definitely from the Council. We need to disappear you super quick. We can’t stay here.”
“I know,” I confessed. Well, I knew about the Council thing, but not that they had cops on their side. I knew I felt fine now, but after what the dark angel said I wasn’t long for this world. What about a week from now, would I still feel strong? Would I need to track him down to get a shot of blood uppers to stabilize myself? I needed answers. I needed long-term solutions.
And at the very least I’d like to die like a cat, away from everyone I cared about. I didn’t want anyone to go through losing me if I was going to die; they could think I was traveling the world and having adventures.
She nodded. “I’m coming with you.”
“If you went, we wouldn’t have a house to come home to.”
“But I would have you, wouldn’t I?” Aislin cooed as she pet my hair. She did always have a tendency for spur-of-the-moment decisions. She was a free spirit kind of woman who always believed that the spirits had a plan and it was her duty to follow it. How she knew what their plan or what was a sign, I had yet to actually decipher.
“This isn’t a sign,” I reminded her. She couldn’t be dragged into this. This wasn’t her battle.
“It would be like a sign to say it wasn’t one.” She giggled. “Signs like to be all mysterious like that. I won’t take ‘no’ for an answer; I’m going with you. Plus, you hate driving.”
She was right…I hated driving.
“I don’t even know where to start. Except some things my dad used to say to me.” I admitted I was basically going off my hallucinogenic dreams of my father. He was trying to tell me something.
“Well we could go back to Seattle, go to the storage unit your dad left.” Aislin smiled weakly. An heirloom, I remembered my dad saying something about it, that I would need to come back for it.
Seattle was a long way to go. We couldn’t drive there, it would take way too long. My name was being searched for…flying would bring attention to me.
“How would we get there?”
“Magic.” She pressed her lips together like she’d been keeping a secret from me this whole time.
“Magic…?” My head flew back into the pillows and I pulled the cotton covers over my head, which smelled stale from being left here the whole time, untouched.
“Uh, yah. Through astral projection we can make it there, then we can corporealize ourselves once we’ve made it. I told you earlier that we needed to talk.” Aislin sounded so sure of herself.
“Even if I did believe you…doesn’t that kind of magic require a great deal of energy, or I don’t know, like a high priestess or something?” I mumbled into the pillow.
“I don’t have a coven or anything, but I’ve been meaning to tell you that I’m not just a Wiccan…”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I tossed the sheets aside and lay there staring at her expecting answers.
“I’m actually your guardian White Witch. But we like to say Diviner. I’ve been protecting your family line since before you were born.” Aislin sighed. “On your mom’s side.”
“So, you couldn’t protect my dad?” I growled at her unexpectedly. Even I was surprised by how guttural I sounded.
“I couldn’t see into your dad’s illness, and Chrys, he wasn’t homin. It wasn’t my place, or my right to interfere with your parent’s decisions.” She bowed her head to me like she’d served me wrong by not saving him.
“So, dance…?”
“Was just a way for me to introduce myself into your life. I’d been watching you for a while, but it’s easier to watch when you know me,” she said matter of fact.
I pointed to her hair and raised an eyebrow. It was stark black, except for her white bangs, which I had thought was a bleach job. Then she laughed.
“It’s dyed black; I don’t have any color.” She proceeded to poke her eyeballs with a finger to remove her contacts, revealing red eyes. “I have no pigmentation; it’s been that way since I can remember.” She shied away after showing me.
I sat up and touched my hand to her cheek. “You’re full of surprises.” I smiled solemnly. “So, you’re my guardian witch or something. How did that all start?” I thought that maybe asking her about herself would help delay the conversation about me dying, and that she would be free from her guardian duties soon enough. I didn’t know what to say that wouldn’t upset her. Just give her a night of some semblance of peace before that bombshell.
“Diviner, but I’m only supposed to reveal myself to you when your life is in danger, or if you’ve accepted your place in your family’s line of work to hunt out the serpents—modernly called vampires—who’ve broken the rules set by their forefathers.” She posed like a silent film freeze frame holding an invisible stake and an intense fighter face.
“So, I’m supposed to fight demons and you’re supposed to protect me?”
“No, we’re supposed to fight them together.” She put out her fist in a lame attempt to bond our fighter spirits.
“I don’t have any powers.” I sighed.
“Eh…” Her lips pressed together like she was about to tell me the secret that makes or breaks the deal.
“I do?” I watched her eyes get big like I was right and I couldn’t help but try to think of what type of power I had. Maybe I could fly? Had invisibility powers? Could manipulate vampires into a lulled sleepy state while she witches their ass with magic? I was a horrible singer, though. Plus, not sure how this would all work since the whole dying thing, and well, even if I survived, I’d be what we hunted.
“Kind of…” She took in a deep breath like she was going to elaborate.
I waited.
“Well…?” I asked, anxious to know what type of awesome power I had.
“Well…” She trailed off.
“Well what?” I pressed more loudly than I intended. She was driving me more crazy than I already was.
“Well, you’re kind of like a serpent magnet… They find everything about you from your smell, even if you smell like rancid feet, to the way you move, look, speak, and even your aura energy to be absolutely irresistible.”
“So I’m the bait?” I shrieked.
“No, of course not…” She tried to calm me down. “You’re a sight seer of sorts. How do I explain this… Uhhh, your body is connected to all energy around you, making your energy more powerful than any other Diviner energy out there. Being connected like you are, melding into the energy around you is what makes being around serpents very dangerous for you.”
“How am I supposed to do anything when all I got is that I look and smell like a fresh lamb chop hanging in the wind?” Just hanging there for a wolf on the prowl to gnaw and nibble on. No wonder I was in the situation I was in now, I just lured them to me and then was so tasty that I got the serpent’s kiss of death.
“How am I supposed to defend myself, let alone go on the offensive to track the unruly ones down? And track them down for who, Aislin? For who? And all the while I’m lingering around like a delightful sin waiting to happen for any of the yet to be identified unruly ones!” Yes, I was in full freak out mode…not because Aislin was telling me I was supposed to hunt down serpents and demons, but because I didn’t even have the chance to do all of those things. Plus, what kind of lame power was that anyway?
“It’s not like that. You have me.” Aislin held me to her chest and pet my hair again. “Chrys, you are not a lamb chop as long as you can control the energy around you, manipulate it to serve you.
“You are in more danger now, not knowing how to control it, because a serpent doesn’t even differentiate your core energy from the energy around you. Being connected is both a powerful tool and an equally powerful liability without defending yourself.”
“I’m not hunting down anything. I already got kidnapped once already.” Some good having a guardian White Witch did me when I was kidnapped to God-knows-where m
ountain loft. Where the air was thin and I hadn’t eaten any solid foods for weeks. I realized after I said it that Aislin’s face sunk down and sagged like a wounded puppy.
It wasn’t her fault that I’d been gone for a while, but it also didn’t make me feel too confident that I was going to survive this newfound job long, even if I was surviving this transformation, plus who were we working for?
“I won’t let it happen again. But you’re not going to be without your own defenses, because your allure to them is also a defense. None of them would want to kill you on purpose; you’d be like a drug to them. Plus, any attention you give them can be manipulated to your advantage, not theirs. You have to master how each thing you do affects them, each on an individual basis.”
“So, I could lure them knowingly instead of accidentally.”
“Exactly, plus you need to keep that necklace on whenever you don’t want to be noticed. It protects you, but also blocks your influences on them.”
“I don’t know where it is…I lost it at the charity event.”
“I know. The ‘police’ found it on the balcony. They still have it. We’ll make a new one.”
“No,” I said. I was not accepting this job without more details.
“No?”
“No,” I repeated. “Tell me why we are responsible for hunting anything.”
“Chrys, there is a whole universe out there, and a war on who’s supposed to rule it, and how everyone is supposed to live in it. There are monsters trying to close up the portals, and others trying to keep them open. There are beings you never knew existed that suffer in servitude, and others still who are outcast without a home and struggling to define themselves in a realm without good leadership.
“We don’t work for anyone, we are people with the means to help turn the tides in a better direction. Your mother understood that, and she did everything in her power to forge a better society, while also protecting you. Don’t you want to finish what she started?”