by Andrew Lynch
‘Oh, well, Draugr are the primogenitors of vampires. Think of the meanest, toughest vampire in movies, and Draugr are like that, but with none of the weaknesses. Oh, and right after they feed, for a few seconds, they’re basically like gods. But in those few seconds? Damn.’
Something didn’t seem right here… what was it?
Tom’s grip on my shoulder tightened.
‘Anderton, you didn’t see my daughter attacking your son. My daughter is a good girl. One of your best students. Not a Draugr.’
‘She is a good student.’ I had to admit that. I looked up into Tom’s eyes. They looked odd. A swirling purple with flecks of red. They were amazing. I couldn’t hold his gaze for long, and I looked down to the ground. And I saw the pool of blood that had soaked into my carpet. How had that happened? I mean, Rel wasn’t a Draugr, so maybe I was seeing things. Maybe Richard had cut himself?
This feeling. I knew this feeling. I’d been trained to fight it, hadn’t I? To block it out. ‘One thing I do know, Tom, is that monsters are solitary animals. They’re beasts and they don’t hesitate to kill each other.’ I pushed his hand away. Why had he put it there? ‘So why would a Fiend and a Draugr be in the same place? Do you know?’
Tom backed away, and now that I looked at him again, he was dripping with sweat. His eyes were just a normal blue.
‘I don’t think anything you’re saying is true, Anderton. Monsters? Fiends? Vampires? Ridiculous. You’ve been watching too much bad TV. As her father, I’d know if anything was wrong!’
‘Which begs the question… what are you?’ I asked, pushing myself out of my chair, dragging the pistol along with my sluggish movements.
‘What on earth do you mean?’
‘Monsters are never found together, at least not in my years of hunting them. And I know there’s a Fiend and a Draugr here. So what are you? An innocent bystander that’s been blinded by the power of a Draugr? Or perhaps you’re a zealot, hoping to be turned. Do you help her hunt? Do you lure people into quiet places for her to make her kills? Not that a Draugr would need that, but maybe she’s feeling lazy. I really don’t know, Tom. I don’t know where you fit in all of this.’
I tried to aim my Glock at him, but I couldn’t raise my arm. Tom put a hand out against the wall to steady himself. He almost looked ill now.
His phone buzzed.
‘Listen to me, Anderton. Listen hard. Rel is a good girl who wouldn’t hurt anyone. She is human. I am a loving father to her, nothing more. Monsters don’t exist!’
I dropped the gun. I hadn’t meant to, but why did I need it? Tom was harmless, so it didn’t matter. I rubbed my forehead, a headache erupting behind my eyes.
I heard Tom stagger out of the door. By the time I’d recovered enough to look for him, he was sitting in his car, breathing hard. He looked back at me, and then pulled away.
I slumped against the door. What the hell had that been?
There was a moan from the kitchen.
I would have spun and reacted quickly, but I just didn’t have that in me anymore. I pushed off from the door, and limped towards the kitchen. As I got there, I saw Claire’s legs. She was on the floor. I hurried as much as I could.
She was lying there, passed out. I bent down and checked her breathing. She was breathing fast and shallow. I checked her pulse. It was fast, but strong. Healthy.
I cradled her head and spoke her name.
After a few attempts, her eyes fluttered open. She squeaked out a tiny, ‘Sorry.’
‘Sorry? What happened? Are you all right?’
She shook her head. ‘Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. I just… I don’t know what came over me. I was listening to everything, and then he said something and… I just kind of… had to.’
‘Had to what? I asked, confused.
‘Umm, never mind. I just lost control of myself.’
I ignored her vagueness. ‘That didn’t turn out how I expected. I’m not even sure what to think of Rel now. Maybe I made it all up. I’m not used to the effects of your Lyfe. Maybe I was wrong.’
‘No. I haven’t taken any Lyfe, and I saw Richard. It looked like a bear wound on his neck. You were right.’
I rubbed my eyes, and helped Claire stand up despite her shaky legs.
‘At least Tom seemed normal though,’ she said.
‘True. That’s one good thing we can take away from this. Just an innocent bystander.’
Chapter 22
Reliquiae
“What’s he doing out there?” I asked.
My mom made a worried face. “I’ll go and get him.”
She opened the front door and walked out to the car where my dad had been sat for the past few minutes.
He had returned just after I’d had time to swap from my wet clothes into my pyjamas, after my mom had convinced me not to go running over to Mr. Anderton’s house to save my dad. She insisted that I needed rest. I wonder how she would have reacted if she’d known that Mr. Anderton was a hunter.
It was still before midday, and I was already so drained. Maybe I could use a pick me up from Rick?
Wow, Rel, that was dark. Jeez.
I was perched in the window bay and saw mom drag my dad out of the car. They exchanged a few words, and he threw an arm over her shoulder, and she helped him in.
I couldn’t see anything wrong with him. Maybe he looked a bit tired.
They walked into the house, and I ran up to him, “Dad, what happened?”
He chuckled. “Nothing to worry about. Your old man is just a bit out of practice is all.”
“So Mr. Anderton didn’t…?” What had he told him? Would my dad now have to report me to SCIM? Maybe he knew if Rick was still… “Is Rick okay? Is he… alive?”
My mom’s face looked shocked, as she put together what must have happened.
“He’s in the hospital.”
Thank God! I knew I couldn’t do that to him. Not to anyone. I could still turn this around, and make everything okay. Apart from Mr. Anderton who was apparently very insistent on killing every supe he met. Someone would probably have to deal with that minor issue.
“I got the impression he’s… well, he’s definitely still alive. But now, Freya, give Legolas a call.”
“Oh yeah, call him that when he turns up. Great idea, sweetie.”
My dad chuckled at his own joke, and then hobbled over to the couch.
I sat next to him. “Who’s–”
“Lawrence. He’s the head of the town council. He gets to decide if we get SCIM involved or handle this ourselves.”
Oh, Mr. Leland. Johnny’s dad. I’d never met him before.
“Is he… I don’t want to get SCIM involved,” I said.
My dad looked around to make sure my mom was out of the room. “Okay, look. Your mom is a stickler for the rules. Which, as your parent, I agree with, and you should be too. If she hears, in explicit terms, what happened, then she will be honor bound to tell SCIM. Me? Well, I’m a bit of a rebel. Also, I just hope I never have to talk to them, because yeah, they kind of have ways of knowing what you’re thinking about. But I’m willing to take that chance. So we can discuss your issue with Rick, but don’t tell anyone else. Okay?”
I nodded.
“Good. All they need to know is that Mr. Anderton discovered you were a supernatural. How? Whatever, he saw your fangs when you kids stupidly made him think you were attacking him in the park, and as a hunter, he knew what that meant. Simple.”
My mom walked back into the room. “Lawrence was busy, but I told him it was urgent. He’s on his way.”
My dad flashed a smile, seeming more and more like his usual self. “Now, while we wait, I’m going to have a quick shower. I haven’t worked up that kind of sweat using my powers since… well, before we moved to Sanctuary.”
A black Tesla Model S pulled up as my dad finished toweling himself off. Mr. Leland got out of the car, straightened his suit and walked up to the house. Shortly after, Johnny slouched out of the car and followed, l
ooking as sullen as possible. Time to straighten his suit, but no time to wait for his son. That sounded like an Elf to me, yup. Father and son were the spitting image of each other, blonde hair pulled back in a tight ponytail, sunglasses hiding their blue eyes, with their identical high cheekbones, thin lips, and narrow faces. Except Johnny was wearing a tight white t-shirt and sweatpants. Damn.
My mom opened the door, and Mr. Leland walked straight in without a word. He turned into the living room, went straight to the corner seat, and sat down, looking elegant.
“Coffee.” It was a demand.
I was about to say something about politeness, but my dad gave me a look and shook his head.
“Lawrence, thanks so much for coming,” my dad said.
“Thomas.”
Oh lord, he seriously wasn’t even going to remove his sunglasses.
“Haha, what can I say. I just enjoy causing you trouble,” my dad joked. I think it was a joke, anyway. “You know me!”
“As much as I try to forget you, you keep existing.”
My dad shrugged, and smiled. I couldn’t tell if he was actually enjoying this conversation, or if this was just his coping mechanism.
I hadn’t noticed until now, but Johnny was hanging at the back of the room. He was normally such a show off at school, it was weird to see him just… skulking.
My mom came in and handed a cup of coffee to Mr. Leland. He took a sip. His mouth curled. “If it must be filter coffee then at least brew a fresh pot.” He handed the cup back to my mom, who was clearly also used to how this guy acted.
“Normally I’d wait for the coffee to be acceptable, but this all seems a waste of my time. Tell me the issue.” As the longest thing he said, I finally got to hear his accent and it was very distinctly not-from-here. It wasn’t American, but I couldn’t place it. It seemed exotic, yet untraceable. That might just be because I’d never left America though. Either way, it wasn’t American or British.
“Lawrence, I won’t mince words,” my dad began, and I could already see where he was going with this. He couldn’t help himself. “Because this conversation is not about mincing words. Nor mincing meat. Nor is it about mincing as a way some people walk. No, this conversation is about something much greater, and I will tell you what that greatness is… It’s a greatness that–”
“Dad!” Okay, his trolling got to me before Mr. Leland. This was important! Lives were on the line.
I could see my dad considering whether or not to continue trying to crack Mr. Leland’s facade, but eventually he decided to get to business. “There’s a hunter in Sanctuary.”
Mr. Leland’s face remained impassive.
“At the very least they are aware of what my daughter is, and possibly me as well.”
“This hunter,” the Elf interrupted. “They know what a Draugr is?”
I winced as I saw Johnny’s face. I had let him think I was just your run of the mill vampire.
“Yes. He seemed to know more than me.”
Mr. Leland steepled his fingers in front of his face. I still couldn’t see his eyes, but I was sure they were closed as he took this news in. While he was thinking, no one dared to say anything. So I tested myself. I looked at him very closely. He looked so human. I knew his elf ears were there, and that he was using a glamor constantly to cover them up, but I couldn’t see through it. I tried peeking out of the corner of my eye, as peripheral vision is better at picking these things up. Glamour tricks the conscious mind, tells it what to think, so the less you think about it, the harder it is for glamour to work. I tried staring straight at his ears, but nothing. How odd!
Back in the bunker – jeez, was that only four days ago? So much had happened since then it felt like a lifetime – Johnny’s glamour had been much less powerful than Ariel’s voice, and I’d managed to break free of her power. And this guy wasn’t even trying. In fact, he was actively putting all of his attention towards thinking. Did that mean that elves got more powerful than any other supe? Or maybe all adults were infinitely more powerful than any teen? It occurred to me that I’d never actually seen an adult use their power in anger. Outside of the little jokes mom and dad played on each other with it. If I thought about it at all, I had assumed that was because they all had really low power abilities. But maybe they were just so incredibly powerful it went beneath my notice, just like a glamor should.
“We will have to be careful.” Mr. Leland finally broke his silence. “A hunter that knows about Draugr is not like one we’ve had before. They were always just backwater rednecks or conspiracy theorists. I won’t take a chance here. I’ll contact the Supernatural Covert Integration Masquerade and let them know of the situation.”
Of course he didn’t use the acronym. Ugh. But wait, what did that mean for me? Mom said they might want to kill me!? No, no, that was only if they knew I had done something wrong. I was okay. For now.
“I suppose that’s the sensible course of action,” my dad said.
Mr Leland remained impassive as he said, “Children. Leave.”
“No!” I started. “I’m not letting you–”
My dad shot me a glare. “Rel, show Johnny our kitchen,” he snapped. Woah. He’d never spoken to me like that before. “I suspect that Lawrence wants to discuss how the hunter discovered you. A bit of privacy would be appreciated.”
“Oh.” I nodded, hopped off the window sill, and went towards the kitchen. What was my dad going to say? He’d promised he wouldn’t tell like mom might. Mom wasn’t there brewing up a fresh pot like I thought she would be. I could hear footsteps upstairs though. I guess she ran away, knowing what was coming. And if she wasn’t around to hear the question, then she wouldn’t need to answer. I leaned on the counter and sighed.
“Alone at last,” Johnny whispered in my ear.
I jumped. “Damnit. I was trying to brood. What are you doing here?”
He looked annoyed. “Right. Good to know how being alone with me affects you, I guess. I’m here because I was told to follow you.”
“Always do what daddy says, huh?”
“As much as you do, apparently.”
Oh yeah. He got me there. “Your dad is… kinda serious?”
“Yeah, he’s real dad of the year material, but no, no, no. Let’s talk about you being a Draugr.”
Oh great. “There’s nothing to say, really. That’s like me saying ‘let’s talk about you being an elf’. Pointless! Apart from your ears of course!” I giggled at my own joke. Oh dear.
“Yeah, that would be pointless, ‘cos everyone knows what elves are like. The difference is, I’ve never heard of a Draugr before. What is it, and why does my dad think you’re worth getting SCIM involved?”
I walked over to the stale pot of coffee, and offered it to Johnny. He shook his head. “That stuff’s terrible for you.”
I shrugged and poured myself a cup.
“Well, come on, what are you?”
“Jeez, Johnny, chill out. I don’t know, okay.”
“You don’t know what you are?”
“No! I’m like… a super vampire, or something.”
Johnny waved my answer away thinking I was being silly. “Yeah, so don’t tell me then. Bet a Draugr is just a weird succubus and…” he trailed off, clearly running out of ideas. In an attempt to cover up his lack of imagination, he changed the subject. “Hey, did you hear about Rick?”
I froze, the coffee about to touch my lips. I put the cup on the counter. “No. What’s up?”
“He’s in the hospital. The whole football team got a text about it. Something happened last night.”
“Do you know what?”
“Nah. I think he fell and hit his head. Dunno. Anyway, I’ve gotten to know him a bit since he joined the team and I was going to head to the hospital and say hi. Wanna come?”
Did I want to go and see the boy I was pretty sure I was eternally in love with but had almost killed? The boy whose dad turned out to be a supe hunter who fired a shotgun at me point blank in my
face? No, surely only an idiot would do that.
I picked up the coffee and swallowed a gulp. Oh my God that was a terrible idea! I started coughing. It was so bitter and… I couldn’t even describe it! Lesson learned, don’t ever drink coffee, and if you for some reason want to poison yourself that way, start with a sip, not a mouth full.
Once I’d recovered from my near fatal encounter with bean juice, I slammed the cup down and said, “Let’s go!”
Chapter 23
Reliquiae
The hospital smelled exactly like you’d expect it to smell. I’d never been in one before, but if a hospital was going to smell like something, then this is what I’d have guessed. Antiseptic and disinfectant everywhere. I wondered if I came here enough I could start telling the different antiseptic brands apart. Would I have a favorite acetone?
“Where do we go?” I asked, as me and Johnny stared at the signs, baffled. They were supposed to be directing us to places like ‘Cardiology’ or ‘Intensive Care’ but there were so many signs, with so many different colored lines to follow that it was practically a minotaur’s labyrinth. Wait, was that a real thing?
“I’ve never been here before. No idea.”
“Yeah. I guess supes don’t end up in hospital much.” I gave up trying to figure out which line to follow. “Let’s just ask someone.”
“No, no, we can figure this out.”
“We’ve wasted enough time.”
He sighed an agreement. “Yeah okay, go ask at the desk.”
“I don’t want to. You go ask.”
He gave me a look. “It was your idea to ask someone. But you don’t want to ask someone yourself?”
“Basically, yeah.” I pushed him in the direction of the reception desk.
He returned and we followed the blue line up three floors before arriving at the student in-patients wing. The nurse there told us that was where just about everyone ended up, as it was a teaching hospital, and so it could be free. The downside was you got someone barely older than I was prodding you with a stethoscope every few minutes.
