reflection 01 - the reflective

by Blodgett, Tamara Rose

  “She is killing herself,” the one named William said. His fists were clenched, and anxiety tightened his already stark features.

  “Call him. Ask him what we must do. If she is as important as you hypothesize, it is necessary, no?” Pierce asked.

  Julia lay perfectly still, but they heard a change in her breathing and turned their silvered eyes to her.

  She had just enough energy to lift her forearm and cover her eyes. She would not look at them.

  “Just kill me,” she said listlessly. Without Jason, why go on? She couldn't bear to think of all of it right now. The shards of that nightmare would not be a memory she would look at any time soon, if ever.

  She didn't hear them approach, but an icy hand clamped around her forearm gently and moved it off of her eyes, which ran with tears. Her mind was so beleaguered with grief she could hardly breathe. Why didn't they just kill her?

  After all, that's what they were good at: killing.

  *

  William tapped his cell to hibernate and pocketed it inside his jacket. He breathed an elaborate exhalation. They took a chance implementing this protocol. If they did not follow it to the letter, they would lose her.

  This girl. The Blood Singer from the Book of Blood.

  The Rare One.

  He gave Pierce a full look as they walked together toward the girl.

  *

  Julia watched them come, one dark and one light. Angels. They looked like angels.

  Angels of death.

  Her arms had long ago been released, but she lay there, unable to move a muscle. Only her eyes rolled in their sockets, tracking the approach of the creatures.

  *

  William crouched down, touching the hollow on the underside of her wrist where a thready pulse beat. “She is close, it is a near thing.”

  Pierce nodded. “It must be you. You are the one with Singer heritage coursing through your veins. Maybe you can bring her back.”

  William had hoped that she would come around these past months. But they could tarry here no longer. The Were drew near, circling like sharks in bloody water. This coven grew restless with her presence. Blood Singers were a stick to stir the cauldron of trouble. He had already waited too long. She was weak, compromised.

  Julia looked up at him with eyes of liquid gold, and he breathed through his mouth, hoping the scent of her would not impede what he must do.

  It was a risk he must accept.

  *

  Julia saw William look at her intently and kept her eyes open with effort. Something was building. It thrummed deep in her bones like a call. Julia whimpered. She hated to be weak but knew what they were capable of. She watched as his eyes drank in the sight of her. Then his fangs elongated, escaping his mouth. She opened her own to scream and nothing came out.

  His eyes tightened at her expression, and he tore into the flesh of his own wrist. Black blood began oozing out of his damaged forearm and flowed down, dripping onto her neck. The droplets splattered like hot candle wax on her skin.

  “Drink,” William said, lowering his wrist down to her mouth.

  She shook her head, and with her ebbing strength, she clamped her lips together.

  William's eyes flicked behind her, and he grunted, frustrated.

  “Hold her.” His voice was filled with regret.

  Large hands clamped onto either side of her head, and she was helpless to move in their hold.

  Julia seethed with frustration.

  The poison of his body poured into her mouth in a steady stream and she fought, trying to move her head, but steel bands of flesh held her in position.

  He pressed his forearm onto her mouth, and with his other hand, he pinched her nostrils together. She sucked the blood down into her throat as she began to clamp her teeth around his arm.

  He didn't react they way she thought he would. He dragged her against himself. Pierce released her in surprise. Her mouth on William's arm, Julia bit down with everything she had.

  His eyes dilated, the silver disappearing to be replaced by deep crimson. He pressed her against him, his fangs completely extended.

  “William! Control yourself!” Pierce yelled.

  Julia hung on for dear life as she watched those black eyes look at her with such longing and loneliness. As he reared to strike a fist crashed into the side of his temple.

  Her mouth was torn off his forearm, her body sliding off his lap onto the floor.

  Julia lay in a small heap on her side as a fire burned inside her. It became a delicious roar. She was being consumed by heat. It burned and itched. She melted into the intense warmth, her consciousness narrowing.

  As her mind dimmed, she saw Pierce check on William, whose black eyes were shut.

  Pierce looked in her direction.

  Julia knew what else he was: a vampire.

  She fell into a deep abyss of grayness, her mind shielding her from what she couldn't handle.

  She floated swiftly down her memory pipeline, grateful for the escape it gave her.

  *

  Last Day

  Jason had his fingers entwined in Julia's. Their last day of school was finally here, and they had plane tickets for Vegas. They were going to do it. She looked up at him and smiled. He looked into the light-gold depths of her gaze and almost stumbled. She always had that affect on him. He'd been drawn to her from the beginning. A small furrow lay between her brows. Julia's hand lifted to her temple and rubbed.

  Jason pulled her over to the side of the hall, the sea of bodies and backpacks jostling past, an excited buzz thrumming around them. He slid his palm underneath her honey-colored hair and wrapped the back of it on her neck, gently kneading the soft skin.

  “Is it the headaches again?”

  Jules had been having these bone-crusher headaches. Jason thought it was the stress at home. Trying to plan a secret elopement could take its toll on a girl. He smirked.

  “Huh, you really care!” she said, giving him a mock-scowl and putting her hands on her hips.

  Her luscious hips.

  “No! Uh… I was just thinking all the super-secret spy moves you're pulling around Lily are getting kinda old.” He cocked an eyebrow.

  She nodded. “Actually…” Julia looked down at her hands, which had found their way to Jason's hips, and she couldn't look away. A blush came over her face.

  Jason put a gentle finger under her chin and raised it until their eyes met. “What is it?”

  She shoved her erotic impulses away and concentrated on his question instead, the blush still staining her cheeks.

  The high color marking her cheekbones a delicate pink made Jason wonder what she'd been thinking about. He opened his mouth to repeat the question, and she interrupted, “It's the dreams. I'm having them again.”

  “Oh,” Jason said, pulling her in against his body. He hadn't liked the dreams. He wasn't going to tell her, but he'd begun having some of his own, and they were goddamn doozies.

  “Get a room!” Kevin yelled, walking by, arm slung around Cynthia. Jason gave Kevin the finger, and Julia grabbed it in the air.

  “Don't,” she hissed, giving him a scowl.

  Jason threw up the other hand and flipped him another bird.

  “You're impossible!” Julia said sternly. Then she smiled.

  She began laughing, and convulsed into a stream of irrepressible giggles.

  “That's so helpful, Jules. You're so on it,” Kevin said.

  Jason was standing there, in full view of the world, giving Kevin the double-finger send off.

  Oh my God. Julia clutched her sides, howling.

  She was bent over until she noticed a pair of hot-pink boots come into her line of sight.

  She grabbed Cyn's sweater and hauled herself up.

  “Hey asswipe—you're not sensing any adults around?” Kevin asked.

  Jason dropped his hands as one of their teachers made his way toward them in a huff of righteous adult indignation.

  Terrell.

  Gr
eat. Instead of calming them down, Terrell's approach had the opposite effect, and Julia continued laughing, tears streaming down her face.

  *

  Terrell lurched up to the group. He dismissed the Wade girl, who was doubled over in fits of hysterical giggling. It was the basketball boys who caught his attention. He didn't care if the Caldwell boy had got an A in his class—there was something fishy about them.

  He got right up in Caldwell's face, momentarily nonplussed that the kid had him by four inches. “Listen here, Caldwell. I don't give a lick about how great you think you are, or that it's your last day here. This isn't the court. You don't own the school, the halls, anything. Act like an adult, and maybe, just maybe, you'll become one someday.”

  *

  Terrell had sobered Julia up, and she didn't like how he was talking to Jason. Big surprise: she didn't like Terrell that much. She and Cyn had their arms crossed, and Kevin loomed over Terrell.

  He didn't seem intimidated, and Julia suddenly remembered a term that Lily had used: little man's syndrome. Maybe he has a dose of that.

  “We clear?” Terrell wasn't really asking. He was commanding. He wanted a certain kind of response.

  Please don't get nailed on the last day, Julia thought, seeing Jason's fists clench and loosen. She watched him notch down his anger at Terrell, and her shoulders relaxed. It looked like things were going to settle down.

  Then Terrell looked at her. Really looked at her, starting at her head and ending at her feet, sweeping over her private parts with a lingering look.

  Gross!

  “Hey perv!” Cyn squeaked. “Why don't you go die somewhere?”

  But it was Jason who knotted his teacher's collar in his fist and dragged him close. “Don't you look at her,” he said in a low voice, violence swirling beneath the surface.

  Kevin was prying his fingers off of Terrell. “Don't. He deserves it, but don't. He's pushinʼ ya.”

  Their eyes met, and Jason released Terrell, pulling Julia behind him protectively.

  Terrell looked smug. “I knew you'd mess up. This is all I needed to get you where I want you.”

  *

  Jason was confused. He'd seen the perv look at Julia and some of the other girls, but what did it have to do with today? Why had he been so overt with Julia? His eyes narrowed on the teacher.

  Jason planted his legs apart, hands on his hips, looking around once to make sure Julia was behind him and safe. This guy had lost it.

  Kevin hit him in the arm, and Jason's face whipped back toward Terrell as Cyn gasped. Jason focused on the gun that was naked in Terrell’s hand.

  What the hell is this? Jason retreated, Julia a warm presence at his back.

  She wasn't laughing anymore. Kids around them, who had just been gloating how much trouble Jason was going to be in, scattered like beetles out of a jar, screaming as they ran down the hall.

  *

  Julia's headache slammed into her uncontrollably, spearing into her temple at a fever pitch. But it was the frenzied gaze of the teacher that she couldn’t look away from. His beady hazel eyes shifted between the three kids, seeking.

  Finally, he looked at Julia behind Jason and said, “It's you. If you were not here, then I could… stop having this pain. The pain would stop.” He brandished his gun. Kids slammed themselves onto the hallway floor.

  Julia felt something integral fall into place as the pain slipped away and became a burning mass.

  “Hey, whack job!” Kevin said, going for the gun at the same time that Jason did. It wasn't choreographed, and as their bodies moved, a gap opened, and Terrell pointed the barrel—at Julia.

  An intense focus and a warm liquid pain that she'd buried came to her in a sliding push. With nothing but raw emotion, she looked at the black hole of the gun and mentally shoved as the hammer pulled back.

  It clicked.

  Time slowed down, Jason batting the gun away even as the bullet rushed toward Julia, Cyn screaming in the background and Kevin landing on Terrell, their bodies crashing to the floor.

  Julia moved as the bullet entered the curtain of her hair instead of the fragile bones of her face, its course veering at the last moment and she fell sideways away from the trajectory. Hitting Cyn, they both stumbled into the lockers.

  “Julia!” Jason hollered, sprinting to her side, kicking the gun away as he came. His eyes frantically took in her body, checking for damage. He looked relieved.

  She was unscathed—miraculously.

  As sirens wailed in the background, Jason turned around, leaving Julia in Cyn's arms, and grabbed a fistful of Terrell's hair. Using the teacher's head like the dull side of a hammer, he picked it up and slammed it into the floor again and again.

  Cops came and pulled him off, but the damage was done. Terrell lay in a pool of his own blood, which spread into the soles of all who had gathered.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “Julia,” a voice whispered to her as if through a tunnel. She came awake in stages, still feeling as if she were in the school hallway, watching Jason beat Terrell's head into the floor until it split open like an egg.

  She opened an eye and looked into silvered, reflective ones.

  Julia flinched to see her captors.

  The vampires.

  Once she'd thought the existence of such creatures was a myth, but now, through hard evidence and even harder experience, she believed in them.

  Even as his eyes clenched at her reaction of revulsion, the vampire's expression showed cautious relief, and he stroked a wisp of hair away from her temple.

  Julia found her voice. “Don't touch me.”

  His hand paused, then finished the movement. He stood and Julia looked around, taking in the room for the first time. She'd never allowed herself to care about her surroundings. The one named Pierce loomed into view and she shrank back.

  “We will not harm you—”

  “Right, you guys are so harmless,” Julia said in a voice husky with disuse.

  William and Pierce looked at each other. Finally, William said, “We did—I did what I had to in order to pull you out of your dreamscapes. If I had not done that”—he shrugged impossibly broad shoulders—“you would have buried your psyche there forever, until there was no feeding you or hydrating you…”

  “Until you ceased to exist,” Pierce finished for him.

  Julia tried to sit up and succeeded, barely. She felt better, actually. Who were they to play God anyway? Maybe she didn't want to exist. Had they thought about that?

  They watched her warily. She swung her legs off the bed she'd been lying on. She tentatively put her feet on the rough wooden surface and stood. The blood rushed to her head, and her vision swam in streamers of dull colors before her eyes.

  She commanded her legs to hold her even as they folded.

  A cloud of gray reached her, and she was swooped up in the arms of the hateful vampire, William.

  “You're too weak to walk,” he said in a voice that reverberated through her breastbone, melodic and low. It affected her. She didn't know why, but his nearness frightened her, and she saw the reflection of that fear etched on his face. He looked pained.

  “Let me down,” she whispered.

  “Pierce, get Susan again.”

  In her peripheral vision, she saw a blur of color and heard a far-off door open then shut.

  Julia stared at the vampire.

  “Why am I here?” she asked, resisting the deep pull that emanated from her body to his. She didn't know what it was, but it was organic.

  Needy.

  Liquid fingers sank into her, through her skin, deep in her marrow, clinging to her consciousness like cobwebs.

  She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. When she opened them, William gave her his steady regard. “You are safe within this coven.”

  “I am not safe with you. I will never be safe again.”

  *

  William flinched, knowing that she could not separate their acquisition of her with the violence that
had surrounded it. She was lumping the groups together, the Were and Vampire. Now was not the time to correct her misapprehension—not when the Were's rancid breath was upon their doorstep and when the whole coven was in a chasm of blood lust from her months with them. The fragrance of her rarity permeated every nook and cranny that the haven provided. Even the most immune amongst them, of Blood Singer descent themselves, were itching with need. The time was ripe for William to make haste to his home kiss—the coven where he had always been.

  Just thinking of the city and what lay underneath it made his sluggish heart beat faster, primal adrenaline surging through his limbs.

  Julia responded to his physicality, taking a sharp inhalation, her body tingling in reaction to his thoughts.

  “It's the blood share. It will pass,” he said.

  “Put me down.”

  William gently put her on her feet, his hand gripping her bony elbow, which had become like a twig since they had taken her.

  *

  Julia longed to tear it away from him but knew that she could hardly stand. She fumed, trying not to think about the blood she'd drunk from her husband's murderers.

  The memory encroached on her mind ruthlessly, and she shut it down like all the others she didn't want to see, biting the inside of her cheek. Blood welled inside her mouth like sour copper, and she made a slight noise. William looked at her sharply, sucking in his breath, and began to breathe through his mouth.

  Julia smiled genuinely for the first time since her ordeal had begun. A terrible idea took shape in her mind.

  She knew how to escape.

  Just when she thought she'd press her advantage, a large woman burst through the door, and Julia's heart skipped a beat, racing inside her rib cage. She swayed, and William pulled her gently against him.

  She didn't resist. There was no use. But she would soon permanently resist.

  Oh, so permanently.

  *

  Caregiver

  Susan looked at the Blood Singer that the runners had acquired some months past. It was the first time that the girl hadn't been half-unconscious throughout the countless bowls of soup, water poured down her throat, sponge baths, and dressings she'd shared with the girl.

  But the Blood Singer looked at Susan as a stranger—for she was. The trauma surrounding the acquisition had been so overwhelming the girl had yet to recover. When she was finally dying, William had been beside himself with worry, and been given the green light to save her.