by J. J. McAvoy
Placing my palms on the titled floor, I started to push up when Theseus grabbed me.
“Are you alright?”
“Am I all right?” I repeated. “Are you all right?” I lifted his arm, so he could see the four bites in his skin. It wasn’t healing but rather oozing a dark-purplish color that reeked of decaying flesh.
“I’m fine,” he replied and brushed my hair from my face; I hadn’t even realized my hair tie had broken, unleashing my curls. “I apologize for throwing you; I did not realize I used that much force.”
“That’s what you’re worried about? I’m fine, not these.” I looked at the pure-white snake slithering on the lab floor, the heads frozen. Vampire, human, witch, or whatever the hell it was—I hated snakes with a passion.
“The witch was strong enough to create them, but they are not forming new heads or rising again.”
I looked back to him with eyes wide. “New heads? Rising again?”
“The tendency of bewitched animals.” He nodded. Gripping his arm, he twisted his head left and right, wincing once he did.
“We need to get the poison out,” I said quickly.
“As much as I enjoy the thought of your teeth on me, we don’t know how poisonous this snake is yet,” he replied, picking up the cellphone with his other hand.
“So, it’s all right for you to be poisoned but not me?”
“Yes.” He hit one button and held it up to his ear before I got a chance to really look at the screen. “Forget whatever you are doing, and come to Druella’s work. Bring whomever you can with you. Witches just tried to attack us, and I feel at least one full circle of witches here already.”
I glanced up at the white lights above me, and I had to strain to hear people walking, but other that, there were no sounds but us.
“She’s worked here just fine, and no witch has bothered her—”
I knew that voice…
“It’s not your place to question me,” he sneered; his whole demander changed even his eyes seemed to darken.
“Is that Mrs. Ming?” I reached up for the phone, and when I touched it, I saw the caller ID. Sure enough, the name Lucy Ming appeared on the screen.
“We’ll be there in five minutes,” she said.
“You have two,” he snapped before turning off the phone.
“What was that? How do you know Mrs. Ming? And why the hell would you speak to her—” Mid-interrogation the lights above us flickered.
“We need to go.” He grabbed my hand, but I yanked my back.
“What the hell is going on?” For the first time, I didn’t truly trust him.
He looked wounded that I had done so, but I didn’t understand. He flexed his rejected hand a bit and stood straighter, meeting my gaze. “I understand that you are confused. As am I, but I assure you, I cannot explain to you what I am trying to piece together. I made a mistake by not telling you when you asked, but right now is not the time to talk about it. We are pinned down in here.”
He stretched out his hand, and I could see the bite marks—the ones he got pushing me out of the way—were now turning black, and I took his hand.
The moment they touched, he kissed them before he pulled me on along and started to run toward the elevator. Inside we were held captive by the machine, waiting for it to rise. There were six floors, and for some reason, the elevator was crawling today. His grip on my hand tensed as he put me behind him slightly.
“This would be a good time to tell me a little bit.” Only then did we get to the fifth floor.
“They are slowing it down, trying to trap us, but that should be easy for them, why?” he spoke mostly to himself.
“Who are the witches? I need you to talk to me, not yourself. I’ve gotten this far alone, and I don’t need someone trying to coddle me now.”
“My intent is not to coddle…I…” He paused to think. “I merely wished it was finally my long-awaited good fortune, which had led me to you. That, instead of a slipper falling from the sky, leading to you, that I, myself, had fallen, and I would be able to spend my time simply in your company.”
I had this eerie feeling in the pit of my stomach as he spoke. “So, I’m guessing it not your long-awaited good fortune?”
“Meeting you is good fortune no matter the cause,” he said as we got to the fourth floor.
“But?”
“But,” he glared at the number pad for a moment and took a step beside me, looking into my eyes. “In my centuries of life, I have learned many things, and the greatest of them all is that nothing is by chance. For a moment, I hoped we were the exception, but now it is clear to me that there is something at work here. Some mystery which explains why it is I awoke in Great Falls Park at the same time you and witches were in that very park. And it explains why I have lost my memory, and why the most potent memories I have were sent to your work. Why the woman who now oversees it and you, fought my influence…something only a witch can do.”
His eyes drifted to the levels again; we were now on the third floor.
The woman who oversees it and me?
“Simone? You think she’s a witch?” I shook my head. “I’ve known her since I was a kid. You said witches smell of nature. She smells like…” I paused and tried to think of her scent, but no one thing came to mind.
“She smells of everything she comes in contact with,” he said to me. “However, she has no true scent of her own. Unlike Dr. Lovell, he smells of aged sandalwood. Witches do smell of nature always unless for some reason their magic has been bound. She is a witch, but she is one that cannot access her magic any longer. Which is why she, unlike Dr. Lovell, knew something was amiss. She tried to fight it off, to see through what I had influenced her to see. She could not, but she was aware she could not.”
I still couldn’t believe it. “Witches hate vampires and vice versa. I’ve worked beside her for a year. If she was what you say, why hasn’t she or her coven come after me?”
We were now on the second floor…we both noticed.
“Exactly.” He nodded and frowned. “You two are not close?
I flinched at his question. “I think we were friends as kids. Her parents were killed. She was an orphan. My father’s work made him travel a lot, so I often felt like an orphan, so we bonded. Until high school, where for some reason, we seemed to fight with each other. By the time we both came back from college, we were more enemies than friends. When I started working here, she was even more standoffish. It was fine. It’s not like I would force her to be my friend again. But a year ago, she became even more of a bitch to me.”
“Around the time of your rebirth?”
I froze, thinking back on it. I couldn’t remember exactly, but that was right. I had wondered then if she knew, but I shook it off as being paranoid. “She knew?”
“She must have. But why has she simply let you be?”
The first floor.
“Maybe because we’ve known each—”
“We are abominations to them,” he snapped with coldness. “I have seen the Wiccan hunt and kill their own children to prevent them from becoming as we are, Druella. Her coven must know, and if not, she knows, so why has she not struck at you yet? You are alone, with no knowledge of our kind, or even your full strength, they could kill you with ease.”
I didn’t have an answer, nor did I have time to think about it.
“Main floor.” The automatic voice spoke as the doors opened.
“I do not know the answer to these questions yet; nevertheless, should they try to hurt you again, I will kill them all without mercy.” His voice was like ice, and his grip on me tightened more. “Stay close behind me.”
He stepped out first. But the whole floor was empty. Like pieces of art ourselves, we stood still, neither breathing or blinking, checking every corner. The art started to blur together as I quickly checked left t
o right.
“I know you are there,” Theseus spoke aloud.
“Are you leaving already, Mr. de Apollo?” Simone’s raspy voice arose from the left of me, and I turned to see her standing in front of a Paul Delaroche painting, The Execution of Lady Jane Grey, within the deep ruby painted halls of the new exhibit for the weekend. Simone’s brown hair rose off her shoulders as if the wind had caught it, and the tips of her brown fingers sparked blue lighting like an electrical line had been snapped, and raw power came from forth.
“Hello, Witch.” The vampire who had refused to release my wrist sneered at her.
“You mean witches,” she countered, showing her perfect white teeth as one by one, witches of all different races, shapes, and sizes stepped into the ruby hall behind her. Some stood with wooden stakes in their hands, the bases were dipped in sliver for them to use like daggers.
Theseus chuckled, and the sound sent a chill down my spine and not at all like they had before. It was dark and heavy with a warning. “And here I thought I had something to be concerned with; the witches I killed in the forest were much more intimidating. Stakes? Honestly?”
“That was you?” A red-headed woman with freckles that spread across her face, wearing rip jeans and green blouse that matched her green eyes, screamed out, coming forward.
Theseus nodded. “Yes, were they friends of yours?”
The woman’s eyes were filled with tears. “You goddamn son of a bitch!”
“You…” Simone snapped her eyes on me. “I knew we should have gotten rid of you the moment you turned into…this. Do you know how sickening it was to have to talk to you? You should hate being like this, Dru.”
“Do not speak to her so,” Theseus growled at Simone. “If you wish to blame anyone for the deaths of your companions, then blame them. I warned them to be on their way, but they chose to pick a fight and lost as you all are foolishly doing as well. I am not of the breed you all are used to. I do not wish to harm—”
“Come to our city and kill our loved ones, and now you don’t want to fight?” A black man with a painful-looking scar in the shape of an X running from the top of his right eye down to his cheek questioned, tilting his head to the side, his grip on the stake shaking. “Who the hell do you think you are?”
“You really do not want to know.” I knew the voice, but when turned to look at Mrs. Ming, she wasn’t the Mrs. Ming I knew.
I had to breathe, so I could smell the familiar scent of cherry blossoms and saltwater to make sure I wasn’t just seeing it.
Old Mrs. Ming was no longer old, though. Her once white hair was now jet black. The old-Hollywood style was the same, but her skin was smooth and flawless, not even the slightest wrinkle anymore. Her body was that of a twenty-year-old and petite. Her eyes looked at me, and she nodded, acknowledging that she saw me. I was so focused on her that I didn’t notice others that walked inside, and at the sound of a whistle, I glanced up to see vampires on the upper floors, grinning down on the witches.
An Asian man, dressed in a three-piece, pin-striped suit, with shoulder-length hair that he kept half up and down spoke as he stepped inside, and it didn’t escape me that everyone stepped out of his way. He walked up beside Mrs. Ming and offered her a slight smile and nodded. She glanced up briefly and took a step behind him.
“Ms. Ward, are you sure you want to cause your circle to be the reason behind the destruction of every coven on this coast tonight?”
“Taelon Swine, I mean Swan.” Simone gritted her teeth. “It seems you all have forgotten that you do not rule America, only the vampires within it. We are not vampires. These two killed members of our coven. We demand justice per the treaty.”
“You didn’t know he killed your coven when you got here and sent your damn snakes,” I muttered back, which they all heard perfectly, proving that for some unknown reason, I couldn’t help myself self when it came to her. Why did she annoy me so much?
“You attacked them?” Taelon snapped. His calmness was gone as he looked at Theseus, looking him over and his eyes landing on his now black arm. “Please tell me you were not stupid enough to attack a Noble blood vampire without figuring out who he was? Did Axel approve this?”
“Enough of the squabbling.” Theseus glared at Taelon and then back at Simone. “The Swan family had nothing to do with my actions. If you wish for retribution, you will you have to take that up with the Thorbørn family, and I pray for your circle and your coven that you aren’t that foolish.”
At the mention of his surname, it was as if someone stuck a rod up everyone’s butt. They all stood straighter, and for the first time since we came up the damn elevator, Simone dropped her sparking hands. Fear flashed through the eyes of not only the witches but all the vampires.
Simone shook her head. “You said your name was Christian de Apollo?”
“It is.” It looked like he almost wanted to roll his eyes. “It just is not my full name. Now, whatever poison you have inflected, remove it before I become annoyed.”
And for a moment, for the first ever actually, it looked like Simone was going to back down.
The black man turned his back to whisper to her. “We cannot fight with them.”
And she just nodded, walking forward. “Just because I’m healing you do does not mean we are even, Thorbørn.”
“I would not expect it,” he replied, carefully lifting his now fully black arm for her. But something was wrong. I knew Simone. I may not have known she was witch, but personalities didn’t change that much. When she was outnumbered or outmatched, she lied or tricked her way into getting what she wanted.
“Do not play games with me, witch.” Theseus told her, and it made me relax. He was older, and he wouldn’t just believe her.
“I could just leave the poison and let it kill you,” she barked back, her hand glowing a strange green. It smelled like moss, and I tensed when she touched his skin.
Theseus glanced over his shoulder at me, the corners of his lips turned up. “You looked worried, Druella. One would think you were my mate,” he teased.
“You’re not funny,” I muttered, crossing my arms but still watching as the poison began to rise and pour out of the bites from his arm and fall to the ground with a hiss and crackle. Seeing the black fade from his fingertips, I moved closer.
“Always the curious one, Druella.” Simone’s eyes met mine before smiling and gripping Theseus’s hand. “Faye! Jericho!”
The hands of the redhead, Faye, I guessed, didn’t spark blue with electrical power like Simone’s; instead, it was normal fire, red and orange, crackling with rage and waves of heat that came together. She brought her hands together, and as if she were pulling back on a bow, she lifted it and pointed directly toward me. In the blink of a human eye, Theseus snapped Simone’s neck, and just like that, all hell broke out in the Gallery of America’s fine art.
Theseus rushed toward the bolt of fire, scorching his back as he stood in front of me. As if it didn’t hurt, as if he didn’t even care that smoke rose from his back. He put his hand on my cheek, leaned in, and kissed my forehead. “Don’t interfere; stay where I can see you.”
His voice lingered before he disappeared. Lunging toward Jericho, the black man held a long, curved sword made of white snakes to which he held up. At the ready, one of them bit his shoulder. Another snake rose toward me when Taelon ran, ripping off its head.
Taelon sprinted forward toward Jericho. In one moment, Lucy was beside me, and in the next, she rushed, and for the first time, I saw the true form of a Lesser blood. Her back hunched, her nails grew twice as long just as her fangs—she was slower than Theseus and Taelon but much faster than witches as her nails drew blood. My eyes shifted to Theseus as he shook off one snake, ripping it to shreds, trying to get to the black wizard, Jericho who just kept muttering curses. White-scaled, red-eyed snakes now came out of the hilt of the silver spike he gripped
.
I wanted to move. I wanted to do something. To stop them.
He can’t take much more. I panicked as he hissed out in pain, stomping on the head of the snake at his feet. It was in that split second that I saw another rising from the stake.
“Theseus—”
“Your mate told you to stay here, didn’t he?” A hoarse voice spoke from behind me, a thin white hand wrapped around my neck, and I felt his nails pressed against my skin, holding me in place.
Theseus because I’d called, because I’d moved, had already turned to me, and his grey eyes narrowed at the hand around my neck. He snarled so loudly that all the other vampires paused to see what had happened.
“Behind you—” I tried to warn him about the snake flying toward his head but couldn’t let it out as the grip on my neck got tighter. Theseus caught it one hand and squeezed it so hard its blood pooled onto his hand.
“Jason, release her, now.”
I heard Taelon’s voice, but I couldn’t look away from Theseus. The snakes were now attacking him from every direction, and he no longer cared about them biting him.
He stood unbothered by them, unmoving, just watching me, and I didn’t know what to say.
“Release my Adelaide.”
I wasn’t sure who he was talking about because I didn’t dare look from Theseus.
He mouthed slowly as a snake slithered around his neck. “You are going to be okay.”
Was he going to though?
How was this happening?
We were fine.
Ten minutes ago, we were fine, laughing. Now I was a damsel in distress. What happened?
My eyes shifted to Simone’s now broken body. She just laid there, staring at me with her eyes wide, but empty. We had always had issues. But I never wished her dead. I thought of her fiancé; she had been all alone for so long. She had been so excited to get that giant rock on her finger.