Replacement

by Wojciech Cram

  wanted to hear her say it again. He'd missed hearing his full name; his proper name.

  "I felt you when you walked by our room. I thought you were coming to check up on us, but you kept going… and then I realized that there was only one other person you'd be here

  to see. It's Michael, isn't it? He's here too. You brought him back here because you thought I'd hate you if you let them die."

  "Yes."

  Her mouth was a tight line. "You're an idiot, then." She stepped closer to him, speaking in a furious, hissing whisper to keep from yelling at him. The scent of her blood still clung to

  her body, and it made him feel guilty and aroused at the same time. It was hard for him to resist leaning down and smelling her hair, knowing that Kotori wasn't around to spy on

  them. He tried to focus on her words instead. "I may be younger than you, but I'm not stupid, Cain. I'm aware of what Michael and his friends were trying to do to Kotori and I. I

  didn't stop you from killing them. I stopped you from exposing yourself to Kotori. She doesn't know what you are, Cain. She thinks you're just a shifter, the same way all the other

  Night Worlders in our school do. And Mike is a Night Worlder too. You didn't have to go back and get him. He wouldn't have died. He's a vampire.

  "Cain," she said softly, placing her hand on his arm. He didn't move an inch, feeling captured by this strange, childlike creature in front of him. He was awed by the sudden

  ruthlessness of her eyes and the unfamiliar closeness of her body. Her hand slowly slid down his arm, towards the exposed skin of his hand. "I want to show you something."

  Their skin touched. Her shields were down again and his mind was suddenly pulled into hers. He blinked, finding it odd to process that he could see Bethany in front of him in the

  hallway at the same time that he could see her in the thoughtforest of her mind. There, in that place, was the animalBethany. He understood that this was the shape her mind

  took when she was distraught. The mountain lion didn't have to deal with morality or emotion.

  She led him deeper into the forest. He brushed thoughts, catching tastes or sounds of tantalizing memories. Cain was happy in that mind. There were so many thoughts and memories he could lose himself in that jungle and spend his whole life exploring it. She kept leading him further into her mind, until he become so lost he knew he'd never find his

  way out himself. There, buried in the centre of that maze, was a tree. It was so twisted almost beyond recognition of a tree.

  "What is this?"

  There was a movie I watched when I was little. It was called Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest. In that movie, there was a tree in the middle of the forest that kept an evil force

  trapped. That's where I got the shape from. This is my evil tree. It holds all of my doubts and hate. This is my evil side. I can't stand you thinking I'm this… dogooder,

  understand the need to kill. I may not be able to take this shape in reality, Cain, but I still have the instincts of an animal. I want you to touch this tree. That branch, she indicated,

  gesturing with a nod of her head. It's that branch you want.

  "Are you certain?"

  Beth nodded. Just don't think less of me for what you see. I'm trying hard not to be a hypocrite. I'm trying hard to take pride in myself. Her voice became heavier with sadness.

  just a little harder some days…

  He accepted it. He tried to give her as much acceptance as he would before he reached out to touch the tree. Bethany's thoughts flooded into his mind. He was surprised how deep

  and far the roots went. The tree was no taller than he was at the thinnest branch but the roots were spread throughout the rest of the forest.

  She hated herself. There were some days when she cursed herself in the mirror. There were days when she was so frustrated with her body and her failure to change her shape

  that she wished Eliza had never saved her from being killed child as a child. She wished she would just drop dead to put an end to her misery. And from that selfloathing she had

  turned it around into righteous fury on the head of her father.

  She hated the genes he gave her. She hated that because she had his blood she couldn't shapeshift. She hated him for raping her mother. She hated him for being weak. She hated

  her mother for not having fought back against him because of the stupid rules. From there, she started to hate humans. She hated them for being blind and stupid; for never

  thinking, blindly following the people around them. She hated them for their wars and their laws and their narrow, fearful views.

  Sometimes, she wished that they'd all die. But, then, there were equally days when she wished all teachers would drop dead, or her fellow students, or Eliza, or government

  officials, or her bosses… it was just part of being a teenager. What wasn't excusable, what wasn't healthy, was the never ending rage.

  Then there was the righteous fury. The same hatred that fueled the anger she felt for her father was turned towards men like him. She could recall when a black girl in her school

  had been raped and she had spent the day thinking of the perfect revenge on the man who had assaulted her. She couldn't stand rapists.

  Cain probed that line of thought further, following it back to a new plant, only recently formed. It was a seedling in a patch of plants all relating somehow to her memories of

  Kotori. It hummed with a strange power, the connection. It was beautiful, whatever it was, bound up in loyalty. She'd been willing to die to protect Kotori, and the bubbling instincts

  she had spoken of to him before had been screaming for Michael's blood.

  She still was screaming for it.

  He'd seen enough. Cain pulled away from the tree to stare at Beth with new respect. No, he couldn't forget this aspect of Bethany. He'd become too attached to the idea that

  Bethany was a sweet, innocent girl… and she was. But in other aspects she had also seen far too much for a girl her age. She understood the reasons behind her instincts and she

  embraced them willingly.

  Mackenzie had been wrong. He'd explained Daybreakers to Cain. It had only contributed to Cain's image of Bethany as a sweet and sensitive little girl. Cain thought that

  Daybreakers didn't believe in violence. He thought they didn't understand the need to sometimes retaliate with a heavy hand. Apparently—thankfully, to Cain, Beth did understand

  that. And, through her memories, he knew that they rest of the Daybreakers she knew understood it as well.

  Sometimes you had to kill.

  I won't hate you for this, she told him. I hate the fact that you and I are playing judge, jury, and executioner, but you and I agree on this. If all you ever eat, Cain, are sexual

  predators, I think you'd be making the world a better place.

  Beth shut her mind, forcing him back into his body. He glanced around quickly. Seeing no one in sight and hearing no one approaching, he leaned down to kiss her lips swiftly. He

  didn't even have time to wrap his arms around her. It was not the first kiss he wanted to have with her, but he was overcome with the urge to just do it. Her body tensed, waiting

  for their minds to meet. It was so quick that they could feel their thoughts swirling together, but never mingling.

  Her body went still. He could taste her blood on her lips. She wasted wonderful. The coppery hint to it went straight to his stomach and he realized how hungry he was for human

  flesh. Yet there was a strange otherness to it; a delicious otherness that made his knees weak, overcome by the flavor.

  Just as soon as he tasted her, he was pulling away, fearing that stranger hunger her blood elicited in him. Cain stared her eye to eye. She wasn't breathing, still processing that she

  had been kissed. He raised his hand to stroke her cheek. He could feel their minds trying to connect, but their shields held, and they remained in their own bodies.

  °He'll ne
ver hurt you or Kotori again." Her held breath broke in a sob. "Go back to your room, Bethany. You don't want to be implicated in this."

  Beth ran back to her room. Her eyes were bloodshot when she came back. Kotori and Nick were too busy talking to notice the redness in her eyes. She climbed back into bed and

  shut her eyes, forcing herself into a fretful night of sleep.

  Michael Richmond woke up when someone slapped his face. He snarled, cursing when he found himself bound in a chair. Someone grabbed his jaw, silencing his oaths and lifting his

  face. An overhead light blinded him, but gradually his eyes adjusted. Two men stood over him. One was an older Native man with shoulderlength hair and the body of a

  professional football player. The other was only halfNative, a little on the scrawny side compared to the first man. Neither of them looked particularly kind at the moment.

  The older man turned to the vampire. He smelled, to Michael, like a shifter, but he couldn't exactly pinpoint what family he belonged to. It kept shifting. "You're certain this room is

  sound proof?

  The nurses in the hospital thought that it was some kind of a miracle. When they inspected Beth the next morning, they found that all the internal damage had been healed. All that

  remained outside was a nastylooking scab. They were going to keep her for some further observations—and, Beth sneered, no doubt to prod her with needles and things to figure

  out how she had healed so fast—but she kept fighting to return to school. She had already missed a week, and she feared that if she missed more, she'd never be able to catch up.

  After some initial hesitation, the nurses allowed her to return to school. Kotori as well. They both showed up during their third period, and Beth was a little surprised to see that

  Cain wasn't there. She also found that she was a little disappointed. Even though she hadn't admitted it to herself, she had been looking forward to seeing him as much as he had

  her.

  It was on their lunch break that she felt him approaching the school. Beth's head at once shot up, her green eyes shining. Then she felt his emotions through their connection and

  felt simply terrible. Something was wrong. She could feel his sadness. It was almost overwhelming. Beth excused herself from the lunch table and headed outside to meet him.

  He was in the forest beyond the track field. She knew that he was waiting for her, and she was actually worried why. Coupled with the sadness she felt emanating from him, she

  was seized by the most incongruous theories. What if something had happened to Mac? She knew that she shouldn't care, but she did.

  She found him sitting on a rock. He was in the body that he wore for school, but he didn't seem to fit into it well. His shirt wasn't buttoned properly and his jeans were ripped. He

  looked like a punk—and one who didn't seem to mind the faint chill in the air. Bethany finished pulling on her thin mittens to keep the cool fall air from stealing the warmth in her

  fingertips.

  Kaneonuskatew looked like crap. There were bags under his eyes and a pale, thin line around his lips. His eyes were bloodshot. It came as a surprise to Beth that Cain was even

  possible of looking like crap. From the moment he'd woken up he'd always looked so confident, and heldtogether, and perfect. He slowly uncurled from the rock, moving with the

  same gracefulness that she'd always seen in him. He was aware of every muscle in his body, it seemed, and how to use it to make his movements look like art in motion.

  Surprisingly, it made her feel at ease. At least some things were consistent with Cain.

  "What's the matter?"

  He took a deep breath and then his words seemed to fail. He paused considerately. "I couldn't sleep last night. I finished reading the textbook. It was not enough information. I

  gathered more books and used the computer Mac and Emile showed me how to use. I was awake until the dawn reading, and even then I failed to understand. I do not think I will

  ever be able to understand it… the Holocaust. There is so much hatred in this world, all simply based upon skin color or religion. It doesn't even take into account if they are human,

  or vampire, or witch, or other. And this is the kind of war that Mackenzie would have me start. I do not want this war."

  "I don't want a war either, Cain," she said softly, a little uncertain of where he was going.

  Slowly, a smile pulled at his lips. "I know you do not. That is why I came to you. I… I no longer wish to be with Mackenzie and his friends. I don't want to be a part of their group if

  it means a war like the ones I read about. I refuse to make myself into the next Adolf Hitler."

  Her heart leapt in her chest. She tried her best to remain rational. "What about Fala? She won't like that news."

  "I will deal with Fala when the time comes. Fala is irrational and mad. She needs to be put down quickly and quietly." His hands tightened. "Bethany… talk to the Daybreakers, will

  you? You and Mac have made it clear that they consider me their enemy. I no longer wish to be their enemy. I wish to be their ally, although I think I am still too unfamiliar with

  the world to want to be one of them. Please, speak to them on my behalf. If they still wish for me to be put to sleep, I will run away."

  The pounding of joyous heart suddenly turned into a panic. She couldn't imagine him running away—oh! Damn this connection between them. She rushed to him, placing a hand on

  his shoulder. "Don't run. I'll talk to them, I will! I'll make them understand, Cain."

  "Fear not, Bethany. If I did run, I would hide, but I would always be close to you. Perhaps I would remain in this body, and grow up with you. You could teach me more about this

  world, and I would always be here to protect you."

  "I'm not scared," she lied. It was hard to lie with the relief flooding through her. Slowly, her other arm snaked up so that she could hug him. She pressed herself against him, trying

  to comfort him, wanting to share her joy with him… joy she was scared of showing that to him. Brave, stoic Cain! Could he even handle her smiling or laughing or hanging off of him

  like this? His arms slowly wrapped back around her. Yes, yes, apparently he could deal with her hugging him.

  "You're not a bad person. You're not a killer, not like that," she said, her voice muffled by his shirt. She felt his nose in her hair, his breath sinking between the thin strands to warm

  her neck. He held her closer. He would fool himself into thinking that she was right simply because she believed it.

  Both of them were so busy trying to understand and contend with the sudden unbalancing change in their relationship they never noticed when Kotori's face paled in hurt and she

  turned away, back to the school, Beth's forgotten lunch bag still in her hand… or when Fala turned in the other direction, leaving a halfconsumed body in her wake.

  Beth walked back to the cafeteria a short while later. She'd decided with Cain that it would be best if he stayed at home that day. Already she was trying to figure out how to tell

  Daybreak that they had a goddamn dragon that wanted to defect to their side. She was sure it would be easy as pie…

  Yes, Nicolas. My blood woke him up. Then we found out he was my Soulmate. Then he slowly developed this tiny bit of a crush on me—why? No, I never thought to ask why. It's the

  same why I began to care for him no matter how hard I thought of him as my enemy. I saw some qualities in him that I liked. Anyway, he wants to defect to Daybreak because he's

  afraid of becoming the next Hitler. May we invite him to our next tea and crumpets meeting so he can learn about our organization? Eating humans?... Um… yeah. About that…

  His diet was probably the only thing that would come between Cain and Daybreak. That was one hurdle that she didn't know how to get around. She saw Kotori look up from their

  table. Their eyes met across the caf and Kotori suddenly look
ed away, heading quickly to the washroom. Concerned, Beth picked up speed and followed her. She burst through the

  bathroom door with such speed that the blue metal door bounced off the opposite wall.

  "Kotori!" Turning the corner, Beth found the washroom thankfully deserted with the exception of Kotori leaning over one of the sinks. Tears rolled down her best friend's cheeks.

  Beth ran to put her arms around her friend. "Kotori what's…"

  SLAP!

  It took Bethany a moment to realize what had just happened. Kotori had hit her. Kotori had never hit Bethany, not since the very first day they had met. Just the knowledge that

  Kotori had done it made tears start to form in Beth's eyes. The slap had hurt, yes, but it was the principal behind it that had hurt more. She was staring in the mirror. She could see

  Kotori's handprint on her cheek. And in the reflection of the bathroom mirror, she could see Kotori trying to dry her cheeks from her tears.

  "I'm so sorry, Beth, I'm so sorry," she wept.

  "What did you do that for?"

  She sniffled loudly, turning around to face her friend again. Kotori's broken arm was still in a sling, but her free hand was still rubbing her cheeks. "You didn't tell me… why didn't

  you tell me? You're my best friend! I feel so stupid! There I was, pouring my heart out to you, telling you all my problems, and you didn't even have the decency to say that you

  were in the same boat… that you had found your Soulmate, too."

  For a split second Beth could have sworn that her heart had stopped beating. She went very still. "How… how did you know?"

  "I saw you and Cain hugging out in the woods. I should have seen it earlier, I suppose. You never would have let a boy get that close to you without good reason. And the way that

  he looked at you… God! I was such an idiot. There I was making a fool of myself and telling you how you two should hook up and all the time you knew what he was to you, but you

  just let me carry on… I laid my heart bare for you and all I asked was that you do the same! That's what friend do, Bethany!"