Between Shadows

by Joanne Durann

  He turned to Mattis and Carma, “Did that make any sense just now? Michael did you get any of that. I feel like I’m talking in circles.”

  He looked right at Miranda, “You do that to me a lot, actually since the first day I meet you, is there any way I can persuade you to stop that?”

  He was holding her in his arms again and smiling, at least the night would end well.

  Miranda didn’t want a fight before they went to bed so she stopped pushing him about the ceremony. She also didn’t want her father upset that he missed something else in her life, and in the back of her mind she knew there was a lot of information about her new world she needed before she could make any real decisions about anything.

  She fell asleep a little upset but she managed to keep it from Jared, she always felt behind and like she was trying desperately to catch up. She was upset because this world was new and beautiful, and yet completely dangerous, and she didn’t have the first clue that she needed to survive. Next to her lay all of the answers she needed and he was trying not to give them to her too fast. He wanted her to learn slowly so she could understand things completely, but someone or something was after her and she needed the answers faster, why couldn’t he understand that. She slept hoping that tomorrow with the new information he would be quicker with the learning she needed to do.

  In the morning, the sun was up and the birds were chirping. Miranda got up and started breakfast for everyone; she was the first out of the shower and ready to go. They all came for breakfast about an hour later; Jared was the first to start.

  “Now you have our full attention. What gives? What was last night all about?” Everyone looked on eager but worried.

  “First Carma I need you to use that shield thing you were showing me. Can you do it? I need to be sure we can’t be overheard.”

  Carma looked at Jared and then did what Miranda asked her to do, “Ok we have it now, besides I really need to show you how to use this thing.”

  “Yes, actually I do want you to. I may need it sooner then we think. You see it started when my father and I had a little epiphany about me leaving. I wanted to know who to trust with messages that said they came from him. So we came up with a plan for getting messages in case he needed to contact me with information or if someone attacked him.”

  She looked around the table waiting for someone to interrupt, but when they didn’t she went on, “Someone is after me, we both knew that before I left and apparently my father still doesn’t know who it is. That message is to make sure my education of our world goes quickly, while we’re still in the human world. My father needs to be sure I can defend myself once we go back, so we only have the rest of this week.”

  She looked intently at Jared, “That’s what it is you need to do, not take your time. If someone gets through all of you, I have to defend myself.

  “Who in any world do you think is going to get through, Gage, me, Michael, Carma and Mattis? Who is dumb enough and yet powerful enough?” Jared smiled, he was being very cocky.

  “That’s just it isn’t? Who?”

  Carma started pacing, “Who has the physical power, the brains to do it or better yet command someone dumb enough to try it? That’s where we focus her education!”

  She slammed her hand down on the table and smiled, “The leaders of Exire, and Malus, those are the people I would bet my life on it. They command the people foolish enough to do such a thing and they are the leaders who are after Gage’s position on the Concillium!”

  She jumped over the table onto Jared and pushed him down, “You can’t be bound to her, not until she takes over! Her Father needs to give his seat to her first!”

  “I knew something was wrong in my head. Somewhere I knew the binding wasn’t going to be right just yet.”

  He jumped up knocking Carma over, “Last night when you starting in about being bound again, I knew in the back of my head we couldn’t but I didn’t know why, and that’s it. Your father needs to step down and give you the position of you race, and you will also take over as the head of the Concillium, he told you in so many words. That was what was bothering me, that was what he was trying to tell us. I can’t believe I didn’t see it before!”

  Miranda was still confused, “He didn’t tell me anything about the Concillium, what are you talking about?”

  Jared focus on her, “Don’t you remember when you told us your father saw some of your power and said you were stronger than him? That is what he meant. You see you need to listen carefully this is the education your dad wants you to have. The Concillium is made up of a hybrid from each of the six races and the hybrid with the most powers of all of the hybrids heads the Concillium. That is one of the oldest rules in our world, Gage hasn’t been able to step down because the next leader would be either Mical or Emina the leaders of Exire and Malus. That would have sent our world back into the bad times that we had before your dad took over. Your dad though he could never step down because there was no one in his race or no one in any of the other races could match power with Mical and Emina, at least, until you showed up!”

  Jared truly seemed happy he felt like he had figured out who was after Miranda, before Gage or anyone else. His physical powers had been strengthening ever since he met Miranda and now his brain was finally catching up him.

  Carma jumped in, “This means no more fooling around for us. Her education is now a top priority she can’t be bound until Gage steps down and we need to make sure she gets that seat.”

  “What does being bound have to do with my seat? Who cares if I’m married or not and wouldn’t it be smarter to be bound before they can try to be bound to me and take it from me?” Miranda was still confused it was going way to fast.

  “Miranda if you are bound to me or anyone else before you take your families seat you husband gets it. You need to take the seat first or your line could lose their place on the Concillium. Now for the fighting part, if someone decides they want you for themselves they tell the Concillium. The Concillium calls for the woman and the man involved, either a boyfriend or father, to show up at a certain place and time, and then they decide who will fight.” Jared wanted her to think clearly and understand the process.

  “What do you mean who will fight? Who gets the opportunity to fight just the man? Or can my father?” Miranda was very interested.

  “Miranda, any of us can fight and if you don’t have a father a family friend can do it for you. The only problem is it is usually a fight to the death, and the winner takes the prize.” Jared looked at her as if she was the prize.

  “Unless the prize tries to kick your ass, and that has happened.” Mattis was trying to interrupt Jared, “Jared, I’m telling her no matter what you say; her father said she needs to know everything.”

  Mattis looked at Miranda, “But remember your father also said not to show your powers to anyone too. Anyway, say Mical and Jared are fighting and it’s not going well for Jared, you can jump in and kill Mical yourself, now it has to be you. Your dad, Carma, Michael and I can’t, once it’s between Jared and him you are the only one who can jump in. It’s kind of because it’s you’re the one they are fighting for, however you can also be killed and that may be what Mical is after.”

  “Carma I guess we better get started on my shield then.” Miranda noticed that Mattis, Michael and Jared weren’t to up to date, “by the way I have one of those too, I just don’t know how to use it yet.”

  “Miranda got scared the night that we were laughing at her, I mean the first night we were laughing at, we do it so much now,” Carma noticed that Miranda wasn’t looking too pleased, “oh honey, you’re just so easy. OK, when I went into her room to see her, I notice the glow of the shield. It was shaped real weird but it was strong and definitely there. I told her I would show her how to use it someday. I guess today is that day.”

  “On with the lessons first, I need more information, about the other races and their leaders. First tell me about Mical and his race, then Emina and her race,
and finally their powers. What is it that I have to defeat?”

  Jared didn’t look too pleased, “Hold on now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t know or that you shouldn’t be trained, but you aren’t fighting anyone. It’s a trap and you would be walking right into it. They are fishing for power; right now they are only worried about my power and Gage’s. They probably want to know if Gage figured out how to transfer power to me or if my powers have grown much.”

  Carma butted in, “Yeah, and if they try to fight they’ll send someone else they wouldn’t do it themselves. Jared, who would you send to fight if you were Mical or Emina? Who would be the perfect adversary that might win and would definitely get all of your powers moving?”

  “If it was me, I’d pick Celbris.” Jared smiled “and I can beat him. Since I met Miranda my powers have grown two fold, and I almost beat him within an inch of his life last time he pissed me off. I wonder if he has had the same boost in power or if he is still the same.”

  Mattis looked at all of them, “On with her education, there is too much we need to work on, even if it is him. Let’s go, first Emina. Your father has made her mad just by being around. It all started when are days and nights weren’t the best, remember we said there was a time when there was constant war and things were bad?”

  Miranda shook her head. “Well, Emina’s father was the most powerful being on the Concillium; he liked the chaos and death that came with all that mess, even though the rest of the us hated it. Anyway he knew his daughter’s powers were unmatchable by anyone on the Concillium so he decided he was ready to step down and let his daughter reign for a while. One problem, your grandfather also knew his son’s powers and that he may be able to take over, so on the same day only minutes after Emina step up to take her father’s place, Gage simultaneously step up and took his father’s spot.”

  “So how did they decided who was the most powerful? Did they have to fight or something?” Miranda wanted to be sure she understood the whole process if she was going to be stepping through the same door.

  “It’s the table. The table is made of the oldest of wood, and no one knows quite were it even came from, the table moves the seats and the makes the decision. It has a mind of its own and unfortunately only one person ever crossed it, and he’s dead.” Mattis went on, “at the end of it all Gage was at the head and Emina wasn’t. Her father cursed the table and it killed him, he went flying across the room out of nowhere and was killed instantly and he was immortal he’s wasn’t suppose to die. Emina hated the table and it makes her sit back a few feet, and she had been after that head spot ever since.”

  “So that’s why my father can’t leave his spot. I could tell he wanted to leave the Concillium but he wouldn’t say why or anything about it at all.”

  Miranda felt bad, if her father left and she wasn’t around to take over, her new world would fall.

  Carma picked up from there, “Now about Emina herself, she is the most powerful of her race, but she not as powerful as your father or you I guess. She had several powers but it’s her cunning that you need to watch. She quick and always has a plan that she’s not involved in, you see in this world if you get caught doing something, your whole family line could be destroyed. So she is really careful not to show what her hands are in, but I think with your gift of knowledge you can head her off before she gets too far.”

  Jared looked over at Miranda, “As for her active physical powers, she does have quite a few. First she can grow in strength or restore her power through pain, it’s what she feeds on, and like the rest of us here she lusts for blood. She also has one of your gifts, she knows your death by looking into your eyes, and she has an amazing amount of strength. However, the one thing about her power I think is a downfall is that she needs to do harm. It drives her crazy if she can’t and I think we can use that to our advantage.”

  “I have to agree, also the idea of her trying to see my death, if she looks into my eyes, I get all of her too.” they looked at Miranda as if she was crazy, “Guys she may knew the way I am to die, but I get all of her, early life, her current plan, what she is going to plan, and more importantly I get her death too.”

  “I don’t want her to have that advantage over you, Miranda; she’ll use your death against you. How can you change that?” Jared rubbed his face and looked at the floor.

  “I have a shield she can’t see, remember the part of my brain with the wall, my own death is locked up in there. I have seen it.”

  Miranda was finally telling them her biggest secret, one she never told anyone else, she knew when she would die.

  “When I was young and looked into a mirror I was stuck looking at my own death every time. So I finally learn how to close it off, so try as she may, Emina will never see my death. By the way, a death change with life, your death yesterday is not your death today, and your death tomorrow may be different.”

  Mattis asked, “How did you learn all of this with no one to teach you? You have an incredible ability for someone who never really knew who they were. It amazes me how you have gotten so far with no help and yet you’re still sane.”

  “It’s because everyone told me I was crazy, so I started to believe them, as a child I lived in my own little world. I made up my own rules and if they worked I kept them, the wall fit, so I kept it. My life wasn’t awful it just sucked sometimes because I had no one who could really understand me.”

  Miranda was not ready to go back there, the past in her mind, was the past and she just learned to let it go

  Jared looked around, “I guess we better move on to her partner in crime, Mical. He head Malus and he hates everyone accept Emina, but he also wants to head the Concillium for the very same reason. Along with an incredible lust for blood, he has an insatiable desire to hurt anybody or anything, and that restores him to full power. He also knows all your most deep, evil thoughts, the way you know what people are going to do good or bad, he only knows the bad. He has cunning beyond belief and his race is one of the fastest around, there are only a few of us that can beat their race and your looking right at them. He loves Emina, if you can call it love, and would move anything for her. The only thing I’m not sure of is if he would give up that seat for her.”

  “We might be able to use that to our advantage. I’ll need to keep that in mind if we end up against the both of them. One question, can either of their races, go into your mind like I do?” Miranda felt that was good information to know.

  “No there are only a few select people within certain race that can do that and none of them can do what you do. That’s why the Council of Vampires were so scared, that power is all you, up until that day no one even knew it could be done, your dad didn’t know about it. ”

  Jared wanted her to keep that information between them, “and I wouldn’t go spreading that little gem around to anyone, I’m not sure we should even know, but it’s a little late now.”

  “Ok, that’s agreed. Now tell me about your race, tell me what the Council of Vampire is and what powers you have. I have just a few reasons for knowing that.” Miranda laughed she was trying to lightening the mood.

  “How about we leave the best for last? There isn’t a person in my race that would dare cross Jared” Mattis wanted her to know that his race respected Jared in many ways, “I would rather give you a formal education on the others first.”

  “Ok, ok, start with Season, what is it you called them?” Miranda was getting tired and things were starting to run together.

  “The high order of the Seasons and you look beat. Maybe we should take a break what do you guys think?”

  Jared was looking at everyone, they all looked tired. They all agreed a walk into town or just some time off at the house would be ok, as long as someone was on guard with Miranda even though Jared of course wouldn’t let her out of his sight.

  Chapter 13

  Miranda wanted to show them a little of her regular day to day routine, she thought of a great idea, “Let’s go to lunch first I kne
w the perfect place to go, and it’s close to where I work. After that I’ll go into the office and take that time off of my job, just as they wanted, and I’ll let everyone to meet you. They need to start thinking about me moving on because I’m going to quit for good when I get back there in three months. How do you think that’s going to work for you guys?”

  “I think we need to be careful, and I think they should only meet Jared.” Michael was trying to be smart, “If they see too many of us at once they may get scared and try to talk you out of things, Miranda.”

  Michael knew what it could look like when that many vampires introduced themselves to humans even if they would be hiding their identity. It’s in a human’s subconscious nature to be afraid around them.

  “Remember what we are, no matter how hard we try to hid it, their senses will tell them something is wrong and that they need to get far away from us.”

  Carma added to his theories, “Miranda if you meet four vampires all at once, whether you knew what we are or not, your brain knows something’s wrong. I think that’s why your mother keeps coming here, honestly her brain is telling her something’s up, she’s just not willing to admit it. She’s so afraid you will find out the truth about your real father that she’s not willing to even remotely entertain the possibility because you may starting asking questions she’s not willing to answer.”

  Miranda knew they were right, “So do I go in all alone? I’m not sure being alone right now is very safe especially with at least one attack already on my life. How do you think we should work this, I want the people work with to start getting the idea that I might be leaving without the shock value that will make them suspicious. Any clue of what I should even say? I was against this leave of absences thing pretty strongly before, how in the world are they going to believe in the course of one weekend in the woods, that I am so ready to leave now? How can I even sell something like that?”