Descendant

by S. M. Gaither

  And there, perched on top of the hill and drenched in bright moonlight, was a log cabin style house overlooking a steep valley.

  It was enormous.

  I don’t know how it even managed to stay balanced on top of that hill. One side of the house’s—no, mansion’s— wraparound porch looked like it was actually hanging over the valley. Hopefully that was some sturdy railing around it, because that would be a long fall to the bottom.

  It reached its tallest point in the very center, where an ‘A’ shaped frame stood out against the mountain background. The entire front was covered in tall windows that reflected an eerie image of swaying trees in the moonlight.

  “Nice place.”

  “We like it okay,” Vanessa said with a smile.

  “Is it just you and Eli?” I asked as we walked the winding stone path to the front porch.

  “No, ‘we’ is the four of us—Eli and myself, and Will and Kael, too.”

  “Seems like an awfully big place for just the four of you.”

  “Well, it used to belong to Eli’s family until...” I glanced sideways and saw that she was frowning. When she noticed my gaze, however, the frown quickly disappeared. “I sort of grew up with Will and Eli,” she continued in a rush, “so when Eli ended up all alone in this big place, Will and I decided to move in with him. Kael had already been staying with them off and on—he was a good friend of Eli’s dad. Now he pretty much stays here all the time, and we have others who stop by every now and then, too, and some of those stay for a while.” She stopped and pointed at two people sitting on a bench on the house’s lower porch. “Like those two, for example.”

  The bright moonlight and a nearby lantern helped me make out their two distinct figures. One of them looked considerably smaller than the other, with long hair that shimmered in the moonlight like Vanessa’s did. The two of them were hunched over in conversation, studying something on the table that I couldn’t see.

  “Jack Lawing and Emily Vaughn,” Vanessa said. “They travel through these parts a lot. They technically live over in a place called Laurel Cove, but they like to roam. And we like visitors, even though that’s kind of weird for our kind, so.”

  “Your kind? What does that mean? And why is that weird?”

  Vanessa didn’t reply; she was too busy waving at those two we were approaching. At the sound of their names, Jack and Emily had both abandoned whatever they were looking at on the table and turned our direction. And I guess I should’ve expected the glowing eyes they stared at us with, since they were just like Kael and Vanessa’s.

  But I still found them incredibly unsettling.

  “Hello Vanessa!” Emily called. She seemed a lot more enthusiastic than her companion, who gave us a wary look as he grabbed something off the table and slid it into his pocket in what I took to be a rather poor attempt at secrecy.

  “Hey Ems,” Vanessa said. She seemed all too happy to be distracted from her conversation with me, I thought, as she smiled warmly at the other young woman, and then at Jack as he slowly made his way over to us.

  Jack avoided eye contact with me as he approached, but I couldn’t help but stare at him; his face was covered in scars, including one that ran all the way from his cheek down the side of his neck and possibly further—I couldn’t tell, since it disappeared underneath his white t-shirt.

  “This the girl Kael was talking about?” Jack said in a gruff voice. His golden eyes, which were poorly complimented by the dark circles underneath them, darted about nervously as he spoke.

  Vanessa didn’t reply. I glanced over at her, but her eyes were locked with Jack’s. They stayed there even when I tapped her on the shoulder after about a minute of silence had passed. An incredibly weird silence—because while every other part of them was quiet and still, their faces would occasionally twist into some sort of expression.

  I endured another minute of this before grabbing Vanessa’s arm and giving her a hard shake.

  “Hello? Earth to Vanessa?”

  She looked over at me, but it wasn’t Vanessa who spoke.

  “The whole thing seems really suspicious,” Emily said.

  I breathed a sigh of relief.

  They hadn’t gone mute on me after all.

  “Guarantee you Valkos has got something to do with this,” Jack said in his rough voice, his eyes continuing their nervous flittering.

  “We don’t know that, Jack,” Vanessa said.

  “Don’t we? Think what you want, but me and Elias were talking about it earlier and—”

  “Oh, that’s right!” said Vanessa. “Sorry Jack, but you’ve just reminded me: Eli will be waiting for us, we should go.” Vanessa grabbed my sleeve and pulled me toward the house.

  Once we were inside, she let go, shaking her head. “Jack will talk to you forever if you’re not careful,” she said. “Crazy old guy. I mean, a nice crazy old guy, but still. Good thing we had an excuse to get away.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed distractedly.

  “Eli is waiting for us; I think he’s in the study,” Vanessa looked thoughtful for a second before continuing. “Yeah. This way,” she said, walking towards a flight of spiraling stairs and heading up them.

  I followed slowly, throwing an occasional glance back toward the front door. Maybe my mind was playing tricks on me? I was really tired, so maybe that weird silence hadn’t really lasted that long. But then again…

  “That was an uncomfortable silence a minute ago, wasn’t it?” I ventured.

  “Huh?”

  “With Jack and Emily? I mean, were you guys having a staring contest or something?”

  Vanessa looked confused for a moment, but then her cheeks turned a bright shade of red. “Oh! That. Yeah, I’m sorry Alex—I wasn’t trying to ignore you, I was just catching them up on everything that’s happened.”

  “Only… you didn’t actually say anything.”

  She nodded. “Right, because we’re kind of in a hurry. And I can think much faster than I can talk.”

  I stared at her for a moment, until a crazy hypothesis came to mind: “You mean they heard what you were thinking?”

  “Of course.”

  “So all of your thoughts…?”

  “Oh no—no they only hear the ones I want them to hear,” she said. “And thank God for that,” she added with a smile as she steered me around a corner and down a long corridor. “I forget humans can’t do that sometimes—which is a shame, because it’s rather useful, especially for long-distance communication. Much more convenient than a cell-phone. Anyway, you should’ve hit me or something. Sometimes I get caught up in a conversation and get kind of oblivious to what’s going on around me.”

  It still seemed crazy. Impossible. Until I realized—it apparently wasn’t that impossible, because I’d already experienced this once, hadn’t I?

  “Now that you mention it,” I thought aloud, “I think I might have experienced this that day by the lake. I think I heard a conversation between you guys and that…thing you were fighting.”

  “You did?” She looked so startled that it made me hesitant to reply in the affirmative.

  But I nodded slowly.

  “That’s…well, not all that strange I don’t suppose. You healed unusually quickly, too. Just something about you, I guess. Nothing to worry about, I’m sure…um, no, definitely nothing to worry about…”

  Her words were not exactly convincing.

  A fresh shiver of doubt skittered down my spine and slowed me down for a few steps. But I continued on, with her still rambling—more to herself than me, really—and trying to rationalize things.

  I was still listening, but all the paintings and sculptures lining the hall soon pulled my gaze away from Vanessa. It was like we’d taken a detour and ended up in a museum. Everything around us—from the giant floor vases, to the oil-paintings that would’ve taken up an entire wall of my room—looked ancient and priceless. There were even suits of armor spaced out along the hall.

  “Eli’s mother collected
all this stuff. His parents traveled a lot in the years before they ended up here,” Vanessa explained.

  “These paintings and everything…they must’ve cost a fortune,” I said as I paused to admire a painting of Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night”.

  “All together, I guess it is probably worth a fortune now. But stuff like that Van Gogh painting you were looking at? They got it before he died—before he was famous, you know.”

  I was nodding along until the meaning behind her words hit me. “Wait. Didn’t he die in like the 1800’s?” I asked, trying to remember back to the art class I’d taken last year.

  “Yeah, 1890-something,” Vanessa said offhand. “Shot himself, I think.”

  “I thought you said Eli’s parents died recently?”

  “Five years ago,” she said quietly. “They were scientists, kind of, and they went on a research trip to Ireland and never came back.”

  I didn’t want to keep talking about them, since the topic was obviously upsetting for her. But what she was saying just didn’t make any sense. “They would have been over a hundred, and if they bought it before 1890, then…”

  “They were way past a hundred,” she said. Before I could say anything to this, we reached a tall door. She gave it three heavy knocks.

  “Come in,” a voice called.

  Vanessa opened the door and stepped inside, and I followed, pushing stubbornly through the doubts and fears that tried to claw me back.

  The room was well lit thanks to the towering floor lamps in each corner and a crackling fire burning in the stone fireplace on the far side of the room. Beside this fireplace there were several armchairs, and in one of them sat a boy who stood up as soon as we stepped into the room.

  He held a book, which he placed on the glass-topped table beside him before swiftly crossing the room to meet us. His features were unyielding, especially his grayish-blue eyes which sat in the shadow of thin-rimmed glasses. A few feet in front of me he stopped, and my first-impression upon seeing him close up was that he must have been several years younger than me; he was taller, but his features were still young and boyish. He had wavy, shoulder-length black hair and wore a gray Pink Floyd t-shirt and baggy jeans so long they almost entirely covered his bare feet.

  He extended a hand to me. “My name is Elias—although most everyone prefers to shorten it to Eli.” He articulated every syllable, giving his voice a proper sound that made him seem much older than he looked. His serious gaze continued to hold mine, and for a moment I started to feel uncomfortable. But then he grinned an impish little grin, and, relieved, I smiled back. “It is so nice to finally meet you,” he said.

  I took Eli’s hand and shook it as he continued to scrutinize me from behind his glasses. When I released his hand, his grin faded and he put both hands behind his back and began to pace.

  Every now and then he would pause, look my direction, then shake his head and resume pacing.

  He kept this up for a couple minutes, and soon I found myself fighting the urge to laugh at the absurdity of everything. I was about to lose that battle when, thankfully, somebody cleared his throat loudly. My head jerked up. Kael and Will were both near the door.

  “C’mon Eli—none of us are getting any younger here,” Kael said, leaning against the door’s frame. “Do you really have to make everything so dramatic?” Beside him, Will laughed, then moved from the door and made his way toward us.

  Eli threw them both a disgruntled look. “Oh good, all of us are here,” he said placidly. Then he turned and stepped directly in front of me, and went back to studying. I shifted awkwardly under his gaze. Thankfully, it wasn’t long before he spoke again: “I don’t sense much fear.”

  It’s because I’m a crazy person, I wanted to shout. More worried about answers than fear.

  “Should I be afraid?” I asked.

  Eli didn’t reply right away. Then, slowly, he shook his head. “No. And it’s better if your mind is unclouded by trepidation, because we have a lot to tell you, and we need you to listen carefully.”

  7

  poisoned

  The room was so quiet it made my breathing seem unnaturally loud. Or maybe it really was that loud—because I think I was finally starting to panic.

  “How have you been feeling today?” Eli asked softly.

  “Are you really asking about my health right now? Can we not just get to the point?”

  Eli frowned at my outburst, and I quickly added an apology.

  “I’m sorry. But I was hoping you were going to have some answers for me. Everybody,” I shot a meaningful glance at Kael, “seems to enjoy changing the subject whenever I start asking questions.”

  “I am trying to get to the point, actually. Which is why I was asking—and I will ask again—how have you been feeling today?”

  “Not the greatest,” I said. “But what does that have to do with anything?”

  “It has everything to do with the situation you’re facing,” Eli said, matter-of-factly. “Because it is a symptom.”

  “A symptom?”

  Eli nodded. “Alexandra—”

  “Alex,” I corrected automatically.

  “…Alex, I was told that, after you were attacked by that creature at the lake the other day, you made an incredibly quick recovery. Is this correct?”

  I nodded slowly.

  “And your arm, which should have been damaged beyond repair, is perfectly healthy today?”

  I nodded again.

  “May I see that arm, please?”

  I gave him a curious look, but I held out my left arm to him. He took it gently by the wrist and examined it, then closed his eyes and murmured some words I couldn’t understand.

  A burning sensation swept up my arm.

  I followed his example and shut my eyes tightly. The burning was unsettling at first, but it wasn’t altogether unpleasant; it just felt like I’d stuck my arm in bathwater that was a bit too hot. The heat faded quickly, and it was replaced by a tingling sensation which was strongest just below my shoulder.

  “Open your eyes,” Eli said.

  I did. And there was a strange indention in the skin just above my elbow. It was tear-shaped, with rough, jagged edges that were glowing with a brilliant red light.

  “What is that? What is that?”

  “You have been marked, to put it simply. And that is the reason you have not been feeling well today. You were bitten, and it took the toxin some time, but at this point it is likely evenly distributed throughout your blood. As such, you’re starting to show signs of—”

  “That thing poisoned me?”

  “Much to its dismay, yes,” Eli said patiently. “That thing—a werewolf—”

  I inhaled sharply at the word ‘werewolf’.

  But I couldn’t refute it. After all, I’d seen enough horror movies and heard enough stories to know that all the signs had been there.

  What else could that creature at the lake have been?

  I’d been trying to convince myself that this whole thing was some horrible nightmare I was eventually going to wake up from, mostly by repeatedly reminding myself that all those stories and stuff were just that: stories.

  Werewolves didn’t exist.

  They. Didn’t. Exist.

  And yet… that strange mark on my arm existed.

  That awful sickness I’d been fighting all day existed, too. And so did Kael and Vanessa, whose inhuman strength and speed and weird mind-speaking suddenly had an explanation.

  An explanation that made me want to vomit, yes, but that was also right there in front of me and impossible to look away from.

  “From what I have been told about the incident,” Eli continued, while I did my best to focus on what he was saying, “this particular wolf seemed more like it was out to kill than infect. Lucky for you, it succeeded only in infecting.”

  I stifled a bitter laugh. “Oh yes, I definitely feel like the luckiest person in the world right now.”

  “You could be dead,” Kael said
with a shrug.

  “Right,” I said, turning to him. “And being kidnapped by a bunch of werewolves is a much better alternative.” My voice was on the verge of cracking.

  “Firstly,” Eli said as he removed his glasses and wiped them with the corner of his shirt, “I wish you would not refer to this as a ‘kidnapping’—it’s more of an intervention. And for your benefit, no less.” He replaced his glasses, frowning. “And secondly, you misunderstand. The creature that attacked you was, in fact, a werewolf. But we are not werewolves. We are lycans. Though, in your defense, I would not expect a human to know the difference.”

  “But it’s generally not a good idea to mix up the two in conversation,” Will put in.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Because both sides have a tendency to take offense when referred to by the wrong name,” Vanessa said. “The thing is, most werewolves and lycans don’t get along very well.” She looked like she wanted to say more, but at that moment Eli spoke again.

  “Kind of silly, really,” he said. He stared silently at Vanessa for several seconds, and it occurred to me that they were probably doing the thoughtspeech thing Vanessa had done earlier. Whatever Eli was saying, however, he kept short.

  “Well what is the difference between them?” I asked, trying to redirect the conversation toward actual speech.

  “How to put this in terms you can grasp…” Eli wondered aloud, turning back to me. After another moment of thought, he cleared his throat and said, “Very briefly, ‘werewolf’ is a term you humans are probably more familiar with; it’s one name your kind have given to the vicious, blood-thirsty shapeshifters that have terrorized the human-race over the past few centuries. We lycans, on the other hand, are bound by an ancient pact that would not allow us to harm a single hair on your head, even if we wanted to…” He trailed off into his thoughts again.

  “Okay,” I began, slowly, “so let me get this straight: you guys are…friendly werewolves, basically?”

  “Let me finish, Alex?” Eli replied. “Aggression toward humans aside, there is another major difference between a lycan and a werewolf—and that is the fact that one is born, while the other is created. We,” Eli paused and placed a hand on his chest, then gestured to Will and Vanessa, “and all other lycans are born with the spirit and the blood of both the human and the wolf within us. So we are equally at home in either form. Werewolves, on the other hand, are an unnatural mutation. They are often a danger to humans, and even their own kind, when in their unnatural beast forms. This is especially true during the full-moon, when transformations become involuntary for many werewolves—much like suggested by the folktales and myths of humankind.”