“What am I supposed to do with her?”
“Manipulate now. Get her to stop,” she said simply.
“And how will I do that?” asked Olivia, annoyed.
Erika sat back on a bench, the same one that the couple sat on when she and Felicity ravished the town but she didn't want to think about it at all, especially not when a woman was screaming bloody murder and all Olivia could think to do was tear her throat out.
“Just look into her eyes and tell her whatever you want.”
Olivia yanked her around and gripping both sides of her jacket collar she forced the girl to look into her eyes. She said the sentence several times in her head until it sounded right and then said to her, “I am not a vampire and I do not want to eat you.”
The girl's screams forced Olivia backwards. “Please don't eat me!”
Erika stood up from the bench and walked over to them soundlessly. She pushed Olivia away and grabbing the girl by her neck, she forced her to look into her eyes. After saying a few words the girl looked content as she scampered away with a bright smile.
She grabbed Olivia's shirt from the back of the neck and began dragging her. Olivia tried to fight but Erika's grip was too tight leaving her to writhe and wrestle unsuccessfully.
“You failed,” she announced. “No blood for you.”
****
Neon lights illuminated the dark room and sweat drenched bodies moved along to the music. It wasn't the kind of place Troy would have been but his friends insisted. His black dress shirt was tucked into his black slacks and he couldn't help but feel overdressed for the occasion which he wasn't even sure what it was. They texted him nothing more than an address and the words: Look good. He had hoped they weren't insensitive enough to try to set him up on a date just over a week after Alexa's death.
When he stepped inside the first person he met was Devin who gave him a big hug and showed him off to the rest of his old friends just before the club was filled with party-goers who couldn't care less about Troy. It felt good when the club crowd invaded the space because it allowed him to not be the center of attention. He also couldn't help the good feeling of being away from Olivia and Erika who had been mentally stressing him out with all the training. She went on and on about how she was preparing them for an evil so great it couldn't be described in words but never said what that evil was.
He tilted his head back and with his lips pursed around the opening, he sucked the beer bottle dry. His friend had been buying him sympathy drinks to which Troy tried to decline but eventually the bitterness had taken over him and he needed something to wash it away. He thought he would just drink one, rid himself of bad feelings before he went home and faced the bane of his existence but there he was on his third when a man of about twenty two years old slid into the chair next to him.
“I thought you weren't gonna come out tonight,” he said.
“Yeah, well I have nothing else to do...”
“I know you're going through a tough time but don't mope.”
The guy motioned the bartender for two beers as Troy knocked back another one. He thought it was his fourth or fifth one but he wasn't quite feeling the effects. He graciously took the beer from the man and tilted inward in thanks.
“Oh, I'm way beyond moping,” said Troy. “I just have a lot of crap to deal with at home.”
“Your dad?”
Troy shook his head. “My sister's girlfriend.”
The guy's eyes widened.
“I mean my girlfriend's sister,” he shouted over the music that had gotten louder.
His eyes still remained wide. Devin had come up behind the two and placed a hand on Troy's shoulder, “What is this drunken nonsense you're talking about?”
Troy was finally buzzed but he was nowhere near drunk as he turned to her and spoke coherently. “Alexa's sister is living with me.”
“Alexa doesn't have a sister!” Devin yelled despite being right behind him. She turned to the DJ who was eyeing them with distaste. Sure they were being loud but in this tiny space that looked like it was carved out of someone's basement and called a club, did it really matter? She shook her head at him and turned back to Troy.
“You thought so too, huh?” he asked.
Devin prodded for answers but Troy didn't feel like giving up anymore. When she noticed that he was unwilling to divulge any information she went back to the dance floor. Troy had gotten up from his seat with a final beer in hand and waved them a goodbye with that hand. As he made it to the exit, it was pushed open by two kids, a girl and a boy no more than seventeen. They were giggling as they snuck in and bumped past Troy. The girl had gone further into the crowd but the boy turned back in surprise.
“Troy Evans?” he called, his voice lit up with shock. He walked back over to him and spoke in an animated voice. “They said you had turned into a hermit or something! Can't believe you're out. Sucks that Alexa was attacked like that but at least you get to go to uni, you know, with no baby and all! See ya dude.”
“Yeah,” was all Troy said.
Troy pushed the door open and noticed all the lights were off just as he had left them. He sighed, relieved that Erika and the vampire hadn't returned. He went into the kitchen to throw the beer into the refrigerator but when he pulled it open he noticed a blood bag sitting on the shelf. He only spared a half a second of thought before he slammed the door and ran through the hallway to a now vacant room. A pregnant couple had come and picked up the crib, so he decided to store Alexa's casket in there. He briefly contemplated it the first time Erika showed her to him but now it was clearer and he knew that he could do this. Troy broke the bottom of the beer bottle against the wall and ran the jagged glass across his wrist. The blood welled up and he tilted his wrist inward over Alexa's lips as Erika's words danced in his head. The blood of a kitsune can only bring back a blood drinking human. He reasoned with himself that Alexa had been a blood drinker, even if it was a little, and therefore could be brought back as a vampire.
Before the drop could meet her lips, Olivia was behind him and pulled him away from Alexa. Once she had tossed him to the ground, she shut the casket and turned to him. Gripping his wrist and wincing from the collision with floor, Troy stood up and shouted.
“Why—”
“That is not what my sister would have wanted.”
“You don't know what she would've wanted! But I can tell you she would have wanted a second chance at life!”
Olivia made three long gashes on her arm with her nails and held it outward forcing Troy to watch as they healed themselves. “This is not life. This is the absence of life, the absence of feeling. I bleed but I do not feel. You will touch Alexa but she will not feel it and you will die one day and she will be forced to continue her endless death. Is that what you want for her?”
Troy had been temporarily dumbfounded by her words but it only took him another couple of seconds to think of a counter argument and then he began. He shouted at her about how she could not determine what eternal life meant to Alexa but Olivia was resolute and did not let him near the casket no matter how many times he tried. He rose from the floor after being pushed back again but this time sparks flew from his hands as he came toward her. Olivia's eyes widened at the small flames and was going to move but Erika caught her attention.
“That's not a good idea,” she said as she leaned against the frame of the door.
“What?” he asked through gritted teeth.
“It's not a good idea to turn her....”
Troy balled his fist and flames had burst on them and crawled up his arms. Erika smirked at the sight of the fire and nodded her head. “Now that's interesting.”
The flames went out and Troy's racing heart had went back to normal as he stomped away, giving up. Olivia forced her thirst down as she collected the broken glass and turned the light off. Troy was in the shower while Erika and Olivia sat in the living room. She had barely been able to walk from not being allowed to feed and was suffering even more
after ignorantly draining herself to prove a point to Troy. She was weakened to the point that she couldn't get more than a few words out but she had to know something.
“Why did you side with me?”
“Because even I knew Alexa would rather be infinitely dead than a vampire. Besides, she would've been a lousy one anyway.”
Olivia knew she was holding some of the truth back but she was too drained to press any further and accepted her words.
Fifteen
“Again!” Erika shouted.
Troy once again held his palms out willing fire to light in them but still nothing. He was standing on his front lawn, his eyes tightly shut and the veins in his wrist bulging as his arms shook. Erika was just a few yards away, standing at the edge of the forest in front of his house, rolling her eyes.
“This is pathetic! You are pathetic!” she yelled.
Troy dropped his hands to his side and yelled back in anger, “First off you aren't really teaching me anything! Second, the last time I made fire I did it myself! And third, you suck as a teacher!”
Erika sighed and nodded her head as she took everything he said in. She walked slowly toward him wearing her usual black body suit like she had no other clothes or maybe it was just her favorite outfit. Her dark brown eyes were sparkling with something Troy couldn't quite recognize and her lips curled up into a genuine smile as she nodded once more. “You're absolutely right Troy. I realize my method has been quite sucky,” she put her hand on her chest, “allow me to be a little more hands on.”
She wrapped her hands around his wrists and her palms went from warm to scorching against his skin. He pulled back in pain as he felt the blood beneath the surface boil. Erika had taken pieces of his skin with her and all that remained were pools of red in the shape of a palm print wrapped around his wrist. He saw bubbles form and his skin stretched to meet, slowly closing the wounds. When he looked from his wrists to Erika he only had a second to react, diving to the ground as small fire balls shot from her hands and set fire to the small tree he had been standing next to.
“Not this again.”
“Oh yes, this again,” she said, grinning.
Troy rolled away from the burning tree and got back to his feet while Olivia watched on from the steps. She had been dressed in her sister's shirt, a pink silk blouse, but at least she was able to wear her own jeans though it didn't make her any less uncomfortable. Her sister had certainly worn a lot of pink and the color itself made her want to throw up but it was really just the fact that she wore what used to be her sister's as if it were her own. It disgusted her and she knew it disgusted Troy as well. The sky was overcast allowing her to come out before night had hit but she remained close to the door in case the sun made a brief appearance. Her face glowed an orange-gold as the sparks that ignited in Erika's hand were tossed in the air, popping like fireworks, the residual flames falling down. She shied away and moved closer to the door but stopped when she watched Troy hastily try to evade the flames. He managed to dodge them all but another set were in the air and falling down. One small flame fell on the sleeve of his shirt and burned his arm before he pulled the shirt off.
Unfamiliar marks were scrawled across the top half of his right arm and Olivia cocked her head to the side as she tried to figure them out, her mind briefly going back to when she had first seen him. Dark red ink bled down the inside of his biceps in a way that looked like someone was drawing and was hesitant to lift the pen. He had moved and she was unable to continue studying them as he darted into the wooded area with Erika pressing her palms against the trees and igniting them with a single touch. Wooden chips crackled as a flame engulfed tree tilted toward Troy. He snaked through fiery forest and when he found a tree that had yet to be burned he scaled it and swung onto the highest branch. He pushed and pulled in the air, gaining enough momentum to propel himself onto another branch in front of him. He caught onto it and swung to another. Dangling on the branch he ran his legs up the tree and swung them over so that he was sitting on the branch and now pulling himself to stand on it. Olivia watched his every move, fluid and almost superhuman as he balanced on the thick branch and crouched, pulling his arms back and thrusting himself forward with enough force that he jumped and made it to another branch. She had never been in awe as much as she had been now, watching him leap through the forest like he knew it's every nook and cranny.
Erika looked back at her and grinned. “Don't be too surprised, it's just a little parkour but I can burn flying monkeys too.”
Her arms were at her side and her fingertips were barely curled in. Olivia could see small droplets of water suspended in the air, tiny orbs of blue rolling around and reflecting white light off of each other. She watched as the clouds went from a pale silver to a gray tinged black as if they had been drained of all life. The grass beneath Erika's feet shriveled up and fell limply to the side, blanched of their brilliant green. Olivia reached up and waved her hands through the water misted in the air but they just went right through like they weren't really there. The rippling surface of the droplets had smoothed into tiny marbles floating around her and in a split second they were emitting warmth as they hissed and she was shrouded in a cloud of smoke. She put her hand up once again, stretching it through the smoking pebbles of water suspended in the air and this time she felt hot liquid burn her skin. She watched in wonderment as Erika manipulated every ounce of water around them and turned them into scalding pellets that loomed in the air. Erika lifted her arms up and spun them around in front of her intricately. The water followed her movements and when she forced her hands forward, the hot pellets flew toward the trees, poised to burn the boy who was still in them. The water cut through the trees like a sharpened blade and they began tumbling down despite their massive size.
Troy had just caught sight of the hot water coming toward him when he jumped down from the tree. He was still in harm’s way on the ground and had nowhere to go, sure that he was going to be burned. He felt cold fingertips on his shoulders and watched the girl's eyes shut tightly as she suffered the blunt of the attack. She suppressed the urge to scream as it only burned for a minute and then her skin was regenerating.
“What are you doing?” he asked and tried to push her to the side. He wasn't ready to be hit with scalding water but he didn't want to be anymore indebted to a girl he could barely stand the sight of. Troy had managed to slip out of her grasp and saw another wave of water drops headed toward him but Olivia had been in front of him again and this time pushed him back, pinning him to the ground.
“I don't need your help!”
Shut up, was what she wanted to say but she didn't have enough time to get the words out as she was darting away from small balls of fire. Erika had walked into the forest and was chasing them with her two fingers out, pointed at them. Troy had gone in another direction but she just took her other hand and used one for each of them.
“Will you cut it out!” Troy yelled as he tried to evade the flames. “I'm done with your senseless lessons.”
“That's enough.”
It was David. No one had noticed that he drove to the house and had parked his car in the garage and was now standing on the steps. Erika was the first one out of the forest, unscathed as usual and regarded David with a pleased expression.
“How wonderful to see you David.”
“Nice to see you as well Erika....it'd be even nicer to see you if you weren't torturing my son.”
“Oh c'mon, he's a big boy, he hardly needs you around.”
Troy had gone upstairs to take a shower while Olivia stood stoically against the kitchen wall. After several nights without blood she was surprised she could still concentrate and had enough strength to save Troy. It felt strange to care so little about his life and to also yearn to save him when he was in trouble. She felt it, every time he was just narrowly escaping death as if her heart had beat for the sole purpose of stopping when she felt he was in danger. She cringed at the thought.
Her body was s
haking as she watched David unload grocery from the bags into the cabinet and refrigerator. She didn't feel any water on her skin until her fingers traced along her arms and her fingertips met the sweat steadily rolling down. She wiped it away and shifted uncomfortably when David turned and acknowledged her.
“I brought you something,” he said.
Her eyebrows piqued with interest. “Yes?”
“I went to the Korean farmer's market,” he said, rummaging through a bag, “and bought soondae.”
“I don't know what that is.”
David peeled back the clear plastic lid that had fogged up and Olivia caught the smell quickly.
“It's blood pudding, a type of sausage made from blood. I also got blood tofu, apparently you can put it in soup...its pigs blood but you know...” he went on without stopping.
“I only drink human blood,” she said softly.
He sucked in a breath. “I'm sorry I just...”
“Thought she was one of those progressive vampires who feed off of animals? She's a monster through and through.”
They turned to the voice. Troy was walking in the kitchen while sticking his head through a clean shirt allowing Olivia to get another glimpse of his markings before they disappeared. She watched as Troy walked through the kitchen toward the counter and fished through a bag. “Got anything a simple human would enjoy?”
Olivia had muttered something so quietly that David almost didn't hear it but even through the rummaging of plastic bags he heard her say, “That was thoughtful.”
When he turned around she had vanished. She was pressing her palm against the wall of the living room, her body shaking. She placed her free hand on her stomach that would have growled in anticipation of blood but since she had no working organs she just looked down at it as it remained silent.
“Oh, you look like death,” said Erika from the couch. She had certainly made herself comfortable in Troy's home and Olivia wondered why he allowed it. Maybe it was that he was used to people pushing him over or maybe he was like her and just didn't have the emotional strength to fight back. She didn't want Erika's comment to distract her from asking her about what had been plaguing her since Troy opened his mouth. He said something of progressive vampires but she was hardly concerned with changing her way of life. Human blood was all she consumed and there was no changing that, but for him to say vampires, plural, now that was something of concern. Had there really been more people like her? With the key to immortality in front of her and practically at her disposal, she knew she had to ask and maybe it would help her to understand her mother a little more. Erika had to be over several thousand years old, how could she have not gone all those years without creating one?
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