by Tijan
Bastion glanced at Roane, both hid their amusement as Christian threw his head back in a snarl. His body flipped in the air, and a werewolf with sleek white fur landed in front of them. He pounced on Saren, ready to hold her captive with his large paws. She reacted before he could grab her and leapt higher in the air. Her knees bent forward and her arms stretched out as she lifted higher and higher in the air.
Christian roughly landed on the ground, but his head reared back, and he was after her in the next second.
“Christian!” Pippa yipped at him.
He looked back, and his werewolf transformed back to his human form. Two of his men ran forward, and he emerged from behind them with clothes on instantly. When he stood in his place beside his sister again, Saren returned to her place.
Roane looked at her. “You are not helping here. Leave.”
She growled.
“Now!”
Pippa shifted on her feet and clasped her hands as the two were locked in a staring battle. After a moment, the girl warned, “I will be back, vampire. You will need my assistance.”
“I’m sure we will. Come back. Later.”
Saren took one step backwards and vanished from their sight.
Pippa’s eyes went wide, and she gasped.
Christian’s eyes narrowed even further. “Who was that?”
Roane sounded weary. “She is an ally. She cares for Davy, as we all do.”
“She knows Davy?” Pippa’s voice squeaked.
“I will not travel with an ally I do not trust.”
Roane studied him a moment. “You don’t trust me, but you will fight for my cause.”
Christian fell silent, studying him in return.
Bastion moved forward a step, closer to his leader.
Roane didn’t look away.
Pippa stepped between them and held up her hands. “I don’t know the history between you two, but I can see now that there is some. But I’m here for Davy. Chris, you know how much I care for her. She’s the only friend I have.”
“You have other friends.”
She sighed. “They aren’t my true friends. They’re nice to me because you’re my brother, because I’m a Christane wolf. Davy liked me even when she thought I was there to hurt her. I respect her, and we need to go help her. She gave us Pete back, Chris. Don’t forget what she’s done for you, too.”
At the reminder, his shoulders relaxed a bit. “My sister is right. We should start. Traveling to the Mori will be long and taxing. We don’t have time to fight amongst ourselves.”
Roane extended his hand.
After a pause, Christian reached for it. They clasped their hands around each other’s wrists and shook once, a firm and final shake. Pippa watched the two and felt something new in the air. It was something powerful, hopeful, inspiring. It filled her with new energy, a new adrenaline rush of excitement. And something told her that she’d see more moments such as this to come, many more.
DAVY
When I opened my eyes, I was still on the floor. Some new food had been placed in a dish beside me, but too many flies buzzed around it. The smell of citrusy garbage made my stomach clench and vomit regurgitated out of me. I hadn’t the energy to move, and so it came out as a cough, then it dribbled down my chin to fall on the floor. I couldn’t move away and I couldn’t stop when another cough shook my body. More vomit came out, then another and another cough. Each time it was slower than the last and each time my body shook harder and harder.
My stomach was violently assaulting my body. I was helpless to stop it. After an hour of it, my eyes started to droop. The unconscious started to beckon me. Slowly, so slowly, I heard my breaths grow shorter, shallower, and then—
“Wake up!” a voice boomed.
My eyes snapped open, and I jerked upright. A scream ripped from my throat from the pain in my limbs. A butcher knife felt like it was embedded in my spine with little knives and razors inside my body, all over. Each ligament felt like they were being cut with each movement I made.
“Who—” I doubled over, and another wave of nausea hit me. Fresh vomit spewed out again.
Then the door opened. When I tried to lift my head, another scream came out of me again. My neck felt paralyzed. I couldn’t move it. A pair of shoes came to my head and they squatted down.
I had expected Lucan, but this was a female. She had long red hair, brown eyes, and white skin. A memory flashed in my head, and I remembered the Mori, when they had followed Bennett to my college. She looked like them. This was one of them.
Her eyes were blank as she watched me, then she reached through the cage and touched my head. It was a gentle touch. If I hadn’t watched her do it, I wouldn’t have felt the touch. But then a surge of heat raced through me. My heart started pumping fast. I gasped as my back arched again, my lungs filled with something warm, and every ligament of my body tingled.
She said softly, “I have given you life now, stand.”
And I could. It was a miracle. Then I remembered. “Magic.”
She stood as I did, my eyes parallel to her the entire time until I was able to stand tall again. When I squared my shoulders back, the Mori did the same. When I took a deep breath, the vampire copied again. She was copying everything I did.
“What are you doing?”
“What are you doing?” She stepped closer and wrapped a hand around one of the bars. Her head tilted to the side, all the way until I thought she would turn her head upside down.
“I’m a prisoner. What are you?”
She touched her chest. “I am Jiyama.”
“You are a Mori.”
“I am Jiyama. You are prisoner.”
I frowned. “My name is Davy. Your name is Jiyama—”
“—name.”
“—You are a Mori. I am a human.”
“You are a prisoner.”
“No, I’m a human—”
“Human. Davy. Prisoner.”
“Yes.” I surged forward eagerly. She was getting it.
“I am human, prisoner. Jiyama.”
“No.” She sighed. “You are a vampire.”
Her lips lifted, and fangs appeared.
“Yes, see. You’re a vampire. I’m a human.”
The fangs slipped back in their place, and she closed her mouth. “Davy. Jiyama.”
“Oh God.” This was going to take a while.
The door burst open again, and Lucan stomped in. “Jiyama, what are you doing? Get away from her.”
She turned, but not before I saw her grin. “I am learning English.”
He stopped and frowned at her.
I expected him to rip into her, chastise her, but when he said nothing, her mouth dropped open. Instead he looked at her in confusion, like she was a puzzle that he couldn’t figure out.
When he continued to stare at her, a laugh ripped out of me. “I can’t believe this.”
His eyes grew dark, and he pointed a finger at me. “You shut up. You don’t understand a thing. Jiyama, we need to go.”
She turned back and reached through the bars again. “Davy. Prisoner.”
The same surge of warmth spread through me again. I gasped and my vision blurred this time. She had healed me before, but this time her magic helped me. Life—something took root in me. The Immortal stirred inside of me, wakened once more. I seized the magic and absorbed it eagerly.
“Don’t!” Lucan yelled.
Jiyama jerked away, but I grabbed her hand before she could pull it out. I yanked her back to me.
Jiyama yelped, but I was blind from greed. I needed more of that magic. The Immortal’s power was starting to build again. It was spreading through me. The more Mori magic I felt, the more my power rose. This time I wasn’t afraid of it. I could do something with this magic. The channel could be opened again. If only—
“No.” Lucan caught my hand.
I salivated for more, but crashed against the cage.
Jiyama stared at me. Her face still looked blank, but some
thing was stirring in her eyes. They had turned from brown to red, a dark red. “I gave you a gift. Something you could not have had, you have now.” She looked down. “But you must protect your gift.” She held her hand out, and another burst of magic came from her. It shot through me, sealing something, but The Immortal slammed against me. She wanted to get out. She wanted the Mori.
“Stop!” Lucan pulled her back. “Jiyama, leave. This is not the one you can learn English from. I have others.” He placed a hand between her shoulders and led her to the door.
She went, but looked back over her shoulder. “Others?”
He nodded. “They are below. They are not dangerous. This one is dangerous. Do not come here again.”
She finally nodded and went into the hallway. His shoulders sagged in relief as he shut the door.
I held onto the cage bars. “You are not their leader, are you?”
His shoulders tensed immediately before he swung to face her. Resigned.
I saw his answer. He didn’t have to say a word. A smile came to my face and I couldn’t stop it. I didn’t want to stop it. “You are a guest, aren’t you? They have no idea who I am, who the others are, or that we’re even here. What are you to them?”
Lucan frowned at me, studying me. “The Mori saved me years ago. Lucas nearly killed me once. They found me and took me in. They healed me and became my family when my real family turned on me.”
“You don’t really believe that, do you?” I laughed. “They have no idea who you are, what you’re trying to do.”
“What am I trying to do, Davy?” he asked, softly. A keen look came to him, and he started to advance forward. With each step, he asked, “What is it that you think I’m really trying to do?”
“Kill me. Take ultimate power from me. Rule all the vampires.”
He stopped, but sent me a dark look. “I am trying to better the vampire race. I am trying to make it so that we don’t have to hide anymore. Humans can know that we live among them. We won’t have to worry about a war with the werewolves. We will be safe, once and for all. And yes, that means the Mori, too. They can finally come out of their hiding. They can show the world who they are.”
“You’re mad,” I murmured. “I don’t think you even know anymore what you want.”
Everything changed in that instant. His shoulders stood upright. His smirk came back, and he gave me a radiant smile. “I want The Immortal thread. And I won’t stop before I get it, Davy. One way or another, I will figure out how to rip it out of you. When I do, you will die slowly, painfully, and I will enjoy watching it.”
There was no sound, no change in the air. I didn’t smell anything new, and the hairs on the back of my neck didn’t stand up, but when I lifted my head, I knew who I would see. And I was right.
Jiyama stood in front of the cage. There was a determined look in her eyes, and she squared her jaw as she reached through the cage to me.
I stood from my sitting position and stepped close.
The Immortal slammed inside of me. She wanted the Mori. She was salivating like a newborn vampire for blood.
I held her back. “What are you doing?”
Everything in me wanted to go closer, to grab her hands, and take what I could. The Immortal was snarling, an angry tornado, but I stood firm. What would happen if I took those hands? The Immortal wanted it so bad, I wasn’t sure I could control myself. And that was when I realized I was scared. Not of myself or the situation, I was scared when The Immortal would take over, and in the next second, I admitted a second truth to myself. The Immortal would take over. I didn’t know when, I didn’t know how, but she would.
She was too strong, and she was no longer a part of me. She had separated from me.
Her eyes flashed, and she jerked forward. Her hands caught mine, and before I could react to pull away, The Immortal surged inside of me. She burst through our connection, and I saw the Mori’s head get thrown back. Her mouth opened wide, and a bright light burst from her. Her eyeballs were like flashlights, and even her fingertips burst forth with light. It was a blinding white light.
“Your magic and mine are sister threads.”
I frowned. It was the Mori. She was in my head, and her English was perfect.
“It’s our connection. I have obtained everything from you, as you have taken from me.”
Images flew at me, of Jiyama as a child. The first time she found a dead body, but it wasn’t dead. It was Lucan. She poked it and kicked at his foot. He rolled over and her heart stopped. Then she yelled for her father and his men picked up the weird man’s body and took him home with them. There was another image when she was older, twelve maybe. She sat at a bonfire and was trying to stitch something together. Lucan sat beside and showed her how to do it. He was gentle, patient, and kind.
He wasn’t the Lucan that I knew.
Then she grew older. Lucan was always with them. He taught her many things about the other world, how to read in other languages except for one. English. He showed her books, and as she read them every night, they were from the human world. He told her nothing of the other vampire species. And then he was gone.
My last image was when she stood and watched him go. He gave her a gentle smile and kissed her cheek. Jiyama wrapped both her arms around him and lifted high on her tiptoes. She pressed against him and told him in their language that she loved him. He swept back her hair and promised he’d come back. Then he kissed her on the mouth.
As I hurled around inside of her, I couldn’t believe this was the Lucan I knew. If he’d been like that with me, I might’ve fallen in love, too.
Okay—reality check. I shuddered. That would’ve never happened.
“He is not the monster you feel he is.”
I jerked my eyes back to her. Our hands were still clasped together. The Immortal was back inside of me and purring like a cat that had gotten the cream, and Jiyama’s eyes had a white rim around them now. They’d been so dark before.
“You don’t know how I know him.” My eyes were darting all over. Did she know? Could she read my mind now? I didn’t like this one bit.
Her mouth tightened. “You have an incredible power inside of you. Our magic comes from the earth. Yours come from the life itself. It is a new power, no one is aware it exists.”
“Except for all the thread-holders before me.”
She tilted her head to the side and chewed on a lip. “What are you concerned for?”
“You want a quick answer or the real one?”
“You fear Lucan.”
“He’s not good, Jiyama.”
She stepped back. When our hands let go, the connection was gone. It was instant, and I reeled inside from it. The Immortal blared again, angry once more. She wanted the connection back.
“He’s good to me and my family.”
I grew silent. She didn’t want to hear about the real Lucan and from what I saw inside of her, what I felt—she was in love with him. It was powerful and it gripped her so tightly. Then the door burst open and Lucan strode inside.
“What are you doing in here, Jiyama?”
She turned and gave him a faint smile. “You shouldn’t have kept her from us.”
He drew up short and watched her warily.
“You want to know what he’s doing?”
“Davy—”
“He’s trying to kill me.”
Jiyama turned to me with intent eyes.
