by TM Watkins
“Of course, dear. Go through that door there to the sickbay, lay on the bed and I’ll give him a call.”
Brad wasn’t going to believe a single moment of this unless I did the unthinkable. I’d embarrass him and then he’d stop asking questions, and he’d leave me alone.
I laid on the bed, wondering how many germs were on it. How long did a germ live for? I could hear the soft murmur coming through the wall, the conversation that would be short and filled with disbelief.
Within ten minutes, the door was opened, and Brad was frowning at me.
“Are you lying?” He hissed softly as he leaned down to pick up my bag.
“Women’s problems. You know how much pain it causes.”
“Believe it or not, Evelyn,” He whispered. “I know when you’re on. You eat all the damned sweet food that you can lay your hands on, robbing me of my doughnuts.”
I followed him out of the sick room, through the office where he gave the woman a begrudging smile and goodbye, then out of the school. We were in the car before he said anything.
“You have also eaten sugar packets in a desperate attempt to get the sugar hit. I know what you are like and what you need and the good uncle that I am, buy extra sweet things for you to eat. I also hide my doughnuts.”
Brad backed out of the parking spot and began to drive through the car park. Momentarily he glanced at me, the slight anger softened.
“Come on, Evie, we had a deal. Just one year and you’re done. Why can’t you do that? What’s going on?”
“I just need time to adjust. We’ve been here a week. You know the last place I had a whole month to roam around, get to know the locals. I knew what the score was before I walked into that place.”
“Alright, you want time to adjust, we can deal with that. I want your grades to be reasonable, and if you do that for me, then we can chill it for a few days here and there. Okay?”
“Sure.”
Once I deal with the vampire problem.
Chapter 14
Niko was asleep when I walked up the stairs to the attic. Brad was in the backyard. He’d lamented that we now had to buy a lawnmower or pay someone to mow the lawns. He was trying to figure out what was the cheapest and if he could make his employer pay for it. Brad’s reasoning was that he would have picked an apartment like the last place we lived in except Hades didn’t have any. It was houses with land, lots of lawn to mow and gardens to maintain.
“Evelyn,” Niko said sleepily. “You’re home early.”
“Yeah, I faked being sick to make Brad come and get me.”
“Then something is wrong. Sit and tell me what you have learned that troubles you.”
Even though he was clearly tired, Niko rose from his camp bed and moved to our chairs. When he was settled, he waited for me to join him and then offered a reassuring smile.
“Okay, so, I was at my locker, and I heard the mean girls talking.”
“Mean girls? Were they horrible to you?”
“No, it’s a term that people use to describe girl bullies. They’re usually a part of a clique and target, well, people like me.”
Niko opened his mouth, no doubt to offer something enriching like I was beautiful and they were jealous. I raised my hand to stop him, avoiding the dramatical rolling of my eyes.
“Don’t go there.”
“Don’t go where?”
I stared, wondering how long it would take to bring him up to speed on the current phrases and trends.
“It doesn’t matter. One of the girls is the daughter of the builder, she was talking about what happened after he left here.”
“He is a vampire?”
“No, I think he’s like a wannabe familiar, but all he’s gotten is a little monopolisation thanks to the local vampire leader.”
“I see,” Niko murmured, frowning slightly.
“The girl said that her father told her that the master is not happy and that he was at a job on the east side of town with a crack in the wall. Told the master and he went off his tree at the underlings around him. I’m assuming she meant the followers?”
Niko nodded wordlessly. The frown was still the same, but Niko sighed as he stretched back into his seat.
“This was to be expected though I did not think that the source of the issue would be right before me. Had I known that there was an agent of the leader in this house, I would have taken another path in the past twenty-four hours. Regardless, it is done, and it cannot be changed. All we can do is prepare for the future. With that thought in mind, I want you to give you something.”
Reaching into the waistcoat, Niko pulled a pendant necklace out of the tiny pocket. As he stood, Niko gestured to me to do the same. With a twirl of his fingers, I turned and waited for him to put it on me.
“Wear it always. This is a sign of our allegiance; it will show those who cross your path that you and I are one. United as master and familiar.”
I turned to Niko, running my fingers over the cold metal. There wasn’t much time to see it, but I knew the stone inside the filigree frame was green. I could assume it was jade but I had no idea because I never bothered to learn what stones were. My life was lacking in money so pretty gems and necklaces were always beyond my reach.
Niko gripped the edges of my shoulder, looking at me with a warm smile.
“Those who know nothing of this world, they will be oblivious and think that it is just a necklace. Those mean girls, they won’t understand. Some may try to take it from you, but it will burn their skin. Only a familiar can wear it after their master has gifted it to them. This will protect you from the other vampires, Evelyn. If they cause problems, ensure it is easily seen and it will be enough to send them away.”
“They’re coming for you, aren’t they?” I whispered.
“It’s okay, my dear child. They can come after me again and again. I will always fight them. Now, we should discuss lore and protections in more depth.”
We sat back down; I took a quick glance at the pendant. It kind of looked like those jade ornaments sold at the market stalls. The stone was flat, marked as if something had once sat on the centre of the pendant.
“There is little that we can do in preparation for the inevitable. I have not seen a witch in several hundred years, and I doubt that they exist now, at least, the kind of witch that I would require if I were to utilise black magic. Of course, that is dangerous and if we ever venture down that path, we will discuss it again as it can corrupt the soul. It would have to be a dire situation for me to consider that. Aside from dark magic, we can try the standard weapons but that only drags out the melee.”
“So, how do you kill a vampire? I’m assuming that the standard folklore is wrong.”
“Generally, yes. Aversion to sunlight is a created lie, a stake to the heart is lacking in information, garlic is gross, but that is a personal opinion, holy water is dependent on the source. We’ve already covered the sunlight, so we’ll go to the stake. Yes, it is an issue but we can self-heal quite well. To make it effective, the stake has to remain in the body and the head must be removed. Many forget the latter, thinking that the former is enough. That is another one of those created lies, you will find that many of these folklores are altered to suit our own needs.”
Yeah, that made sense. Create a lie, and if slayers or townsfolk toting torches and pitchforks ever became a problem, they’d be doing a terrible job at trying to get rid of their vampire problem.
“We cannot consume food, but if someone were to hold out garlic, it would mean nothing to us. Cram it down our throat, sure, that’s a problem. And, holy water. The standard priest that preaches to his flock once a week is hardly a problem for the likes of my kind. Those found in the suburban church are churned out with information about how to keep the parishioners in his church, how to rake in the donations and ensure that everyone believes in the Almighty but they are not taught how to deal with real evil.”
“Do you consider yourself evil?”
“I
take lives, I kill humans Evelyn. I have no remorse for what I do, and I never will. I will not stop and there is nothing that anyone can say to alter that.”
“You don’t seem evil to me.”
“Thank you for that. They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I suppose it could be applied to this as well. As for using holy water against a vampire, it needs to come from higher up in the chain. The higher, the better.”
“Can you enter holy ground?”
“Vampires are not limited to any place. We do not need permission to enter a home, we can frolic through the holiest of grounds if we desire. You will find that particular lore came from a vampire that had set up home in an old church and lured people in with the false belief that it would be enough to save them from him.”
Charming.
Chapter 15
I was tired. Walking through the corridors at school, it felt like I bumped into every single person in the entire building. Of course, I knew it wasn’t the case. If it were, I’d have Audrey Hartley glaring at me, snapping her fork tongue with acidic words of hate.
Scrubbing my eyes, I yawned and turned to my lonesome corridor of darkness. Only I wasn’t alone. It was the purple eyed boy and it looked like he was waiting for me.
His eyes were definitely purple. There was no mistaking them for blue.
“They’re coming for you.” He said softly.
“Who are?”
“Who are what?”
I gasped, turning around to see Audrey behind me. The other girls were not with her.
“I was,”
Turning back, the boy was gone.
“Nothing,” I murmured.
The wise me said to be wary of looking like a lunatic by asking if she’d seen the boy with purple eyes that had disappeared into thin air. This place was clearly more than just a boring town.
“You’re Evelyn, right?”
“Yeah, everyone calls me Evie.”
Except for Niko but I couldn’t exactly say that.
Audrey smiled as if it was beneath her to offer the gesture to me. Almost like she was being forced into this by a certain master or a father desperate for attention from the very same master.
“I’m Audrey. You’re new to Hades.”
“Yeah, arrived just over a week ago.”
Gritting that forced smile, Audrey clutched her books to her chest as if they were the only thing that could save her. She was picture perfect, looking as if she’d spent a long time deciding on the right cashmere sweater to match the school skirt. It wasn’t the school’s official jumper, yet it seemed as if no one cared.
The blond curls were artfully placed either side of her neck with pink barrettes clipped to the side. Everything was coordinated. Being this close to someone who was the complete opposite must be incredibly difficult.
“Well, that’s good, I guess. So, I heard you’re living on the east side.”
In the house with a crack in the basement wall? Why yes, Audrey, you are right.
“Yeah, we found a cute house the other day.”
“You know it’s haunted, don’t you?”
“That’s what the removalists said, but the builder that fixed the wall said it was rubbish. I wonder who is telling the truth.”
I pretended that I was shocked when I gasped.
“Maybe it was the builder. After all, he’s working for the real estate, and if we leave because of it, then the real estate will have to pay to move us into another house. They didn’t tell us it was haunted, isn’t that illegal?”
“Well, I don’t,”
“Gosh Audrey, maybe the builder was being paid off to keep us there.”
“No, I don’t think,”
“You are so right. I’m glad that you brought this to my attention. My uncle is not going to be happy at all. If we have to move because of it,”
I shook my head, putting my hands on my hips.
“He’ll be so behind in his work. Then there will be a delay in getting better coverage in this area.”
“Coverage?”
Audrey’s frown deepened.
“Yeah, my uncle works for a company that has a government contract for the communications towers. We move around and so that he can do the pre-setup works before they start the digging and building. I guess a few more months without cell phone coverage won’t matter much.”
Her eyes widened. Like everyone in this town, she had the little rectangle permanently attached to her hand, and like everyone else, she complained that the reception was awful. I know because it’s all I ever heard. Brad will be labelled as a hero, I’m sure of it.
“You know, I think it’s fine. There’s no such thing as ghosts, right?”
“Yeah, I know.”
Her smile seemed less of an effort now. In fact, she seemed to shift with restrained excitement.
“So, we’re getting better coverage in this town?”
“Well, this is the beginning. My uncle will scope out a few good places, discuss it with his boss, and approach the necessary people. It’s all preliminary at the moment. You’d be surprised at how many people protest at having a tower near them. They want great coverage, but they don't want the towers. Can’t have one without the other.”
Audrey was nearly frothing at the mouth. I think that if I said that she could apply to have the tower in her yard, she’d believe me and happily skip off home to start the process.
“Yeah, it’s a bummer but necessary.”
When I looked at Audrey, I could see someone that despite her best intentions, would reveal the game far too early if left to her own devices. The question that I had was if she went home and told her father of this conversation, would he pick up on it or would he be oblivious as well? It could go either way so it was best to keep the questions limited and mixed.
“How long have you lived in Hades?”
“All my life,” She said, beaming her smile. “I just love the place. It’s so pretty.”
“That’s cool.”
It wasn’t. Boring was a better choice of word.
“What’s the place like? It seems pretty laid back.”
“Oh yeah,” She said. I noted a distinct hesitation in her tone.
“The builder was acting like there are some freaky people in this town. I’m not allowed to walk to or from school. Crazy, right?”
Audrey stared at me.
“Yeah,” She said softly, slowly drawing out the word.
“Do your parents let you walk around with your friends?”
“Only in a group. We leave from one house together.”
So, her father is besties with the head honcho vampire, and he still can’t trust them not to attack his kid. That was interesting.
Niko was right when he said that I’d see that he was different from the others. We’d been in the same room as each other several times, for several hours as well. He’d fed from me and I wasn’t dead. We slept in the same house as each other. Yes, it would seem that Niko was vastly different from the other vampires in this town. It certainly explained a lot.
Chapter 16
Niko mused over the information, there was a studious look on his face.
“I think,”
“Yeah?”
“I think I like the way that you find the facts without alerting those around you as to what you’re up to.”
I sighed, rolling my eyes.
“Thank you, Niko. You are, as always, a gentleman. It’s not the time for it, though.”
“Would you rather I was rude?”
“No, but,”
“But nothing, Evelyn. We have a symbiotic relationship, and I wish to keep things pleasant. I also appreciate the efforts that you go to without any prompting on my part. It shows me that not only do you care but you strive to be an ideal familiar. You make me realise that my choice in you was extremely wise.”
“Okay, sorry.”
Setting the book aside, Niko crossed his leg and thought about it some more. I was on edge. I need
ed to know what was going to happen, what he thought they’d do.
“I saw the kid with purple eyes again.”
Niko stopped thinking and gave me a hard look.
“What do you mean again?”
“Didn’t I tell you?”
“No. Tell me about both times please.”
“The first time was at the enrolment interview. He was sitting in the reception area, bag at his feet. He looked at me but didn’t say anything. This morning he was waiting for me when I turned the corner to my locker. He said they’re coming for you, as in me. I tried to ask him what he meant but Audrey turned up, and the kid was gone. Who or what is he?”
Niko sighed, getting up from the seat. He crossed the room to look out the dormer window. It was a view of the forest, and Niko liked the view. He said he used to spend a lot of time up here when this house officially belonged to him. Now he considered himself a houseguest and nothing more. It was not his house; it hadn’t been that way for a long time.
“Nephilim, a creation of an unholy union between a fallen angel and a demon. There are only a few in existence as it is rare for an angel to become fallen and even rarer for them to associate with a demon. The creation grows rapidly, gaining what would be a year of our lives in a mere month. After ten months, they stop ageing, but they do not always appear as a child. Because they are both angel and demon, they can alter their appearance, move quickly and without being seen. It is beyond comprehension what they can do and I find it surprising that one is here. Did your uncle see him the other day?”
I nodded which seemed to surprise Niko.
“That would be because the Nephilim wanted that and no other reason. They only show themselves to people of their choosing. It is curious. Though I think it is not worth taking seriously at the moment. What is more intriguing is his determination to find you and deliver his message. I don’t see this being about the vampires. Once you are no longer associated with me, they will have no interest in you other than feeding. I can lure them away from you by pre-empting their attack and leaving the house. No, this is something else entirely. Who? Who would come for you, Evelyn?”
