Instrument of Chaos

by Rebecca Hall

“Not after you helped that wave along,” Mitch grumbled, even vampires got blisters wearing wet, sand-filled shoes. Amelie giggled, confirming his suspicions and prompting him to turn around in time to see the freak wave that bowled him over. Mitch coughed up a mouthful of salt water and sent tendrils of ice crawling towards Amelie. If she could make a freak wave with his name on it then he could freeze her feet to the sand. It wasn’t as if anyone else was around to see.

  Another wave clobbered him, threatening to drag him out to sea before he could get his feet under him. By the time he finally staggered out of the surf Amelie had abandoned her attempts to drown him and was making a castle from frozen sand. Mitch scrambled behind it, surely Amelie wouldn’t want to risk her fairytale construct just to get him a little wet.

  “No more compliments then,” Mitch said, dropping to the ground and finally taking off his shoes.

  “You just need to redirect them a little,” Amelie said, sparing him a quick smile.

  “Your sandcastle looks good,” Mitch said, setting his shoes aside and going to work on the castle himself. He didn’t have Amelie’s imagination or dedication to fine detail, parts of the castle would have collapsed without magic, but he could align the ice crystals so they bent the light into different colours.

  Amelie gave him a look and then sighed and dried his clothes. They weren’t completely dry but he’d take slightly damp over dripping any day of the week.

  “Better?” she asked.

  “All I did was compliment your shoes,” Mitch grumbled. “I just wanted a nice stroll along the beach.” Amelie might have dried his clothes but they still looked worse for wear after his brief swim. God only knew how he’d got so much sand through them.

  “You complimented a pair of cunningly disguised torture devices.”

  “You didn’t have to try to drown me,” Mitch said, running a hand through his hair. It felt like straw.

  “Well I can hardly try to drown Nikola for picking them out can I?” Amelie asked. “He’s the one you want for a nice quiet walk.”

  I know, Mitch barely had the presence of mind not to say it out-loud. “He has almost two weeks of class work to catch up on,” Mitch said. Though he suspected that Nikola was actually sleeping. He’d made it to one of their classes that day and it had left him utterly exhausted. At least with the blood purifier and demon’s poison gone from his system they could leave him alone without worrying.

  “So I’m your second choice am I?” Amelie asked, draping herself over his shoulders and whispering in his ear. Her tone was still teasing but there was a hint of bite to her voice.

  “No!” Mitch said quickly.

  “Are you sure?” Amelie purred in his ear.

  “Positive, I wouldn’t ask Nikola out on a date.”

  “Just checking.” Mitch felt her shiver. “You should have told him to pick out a jacket.”

  “I’m the one who got soaked through,” Mitch said, removing his jacket.

  “You’re also the one with muted sensitivity to temperature,” Amelie said, taking his jacket and rolling up the sleeves so she could continue to work on their sandcastle. It was the most impressive sandcastle Mitch had ever seen. It sparkled in the moonlight and featured bridges, minarets and no structural integrity whatsoever. Most of the towers would collapse the second that they stopped using magic to maintain them.

  “Can we take that romantic moonlit stroll yet?” Mitch asked. If he’d been working with pure ice he might have been able to do more but he wasn’t a sand-o-mancer and he was used to fresh water. As it was, his part of the castle was a lot sturdier and less elegant that Amelie’s, though still implausible. At least his was more colourful, not that that was what anyone looked for in a sandcastle.

  “No.”

  “Don’t tell me that you want to add flags and toy soldiers,” Mitch said. He could probably do it with a little sea water but he wasn’t good at that level of detail and the chafing of the salt and sand in his clothes was getting uncomfortable, though Amelie didn’t seem to mind his jacket getting sand all through her dress.

  “I’m considering it.”

  Mitch was considering throwing her in the ocean but Amelie could throw him a hell of a lot further and he’d already had one dunking.

  “I was joking,” Mitch said.

  “Well then I guess the only thing left to do is jump on it.”

  “What?” Mitch asked, looking from her to the castle in horror. He knew that it was only a matter of time before the tide washed the whole thing away but that didn’t mean he wanted to jump on it, particularly not the frozen parts, he doubted that they’d be comfortable to land on.

  “It’s not that late,” Amelie said, grabbing his wrist and checking his watch. “And it’s a public beach, we can’t leave something like this lying around.”

  “But…” Smart phones were completely useless around magicians but he was going to have to get himself a digital camera, a waterproof digital camera. “It’ll collapse under its own weight anyway,” he finally managed.

  “Only some of it,” Amelie said, climbing to her feet and offering him a hand. “Come on Mitch, jumping on sandcastles is fun.”

  “Not when your brother throws a fit over it,” Mitch said, letting her pull him to his feet. And those had only been little castles of piled up sand with a moat and the occasional bridge, this was a masterpiece.

  “Mine are all too old to do anything like that,” Amelie said. “And too busy. The nearest safe beach was generally in the Other world and they don’t leave Faerie if they don’t have to.”

  “What about Gawain?” Mitch asked, he seemed to leave Faerie all the time.

  “He was busy with Nikola, he didn’t have time to take me to the beach and build sandcastles.”

  “Oh… er…” Mitch floundered, sensing another land-mine. “Want to go first?” Maybe they did have to destroy it but that didn’t mean he had to be the one to do it.

  “We could get you a sandpit,” Amelie offered.

  “No thanks,” Mitch grumbled, he’d already taken over half the backyard with his ice sculptures, he didn’t need a sandpit as well.

  “On three then,” Amelie said. “One, two, three!”

  Mitch jumped and the castle exploded.

  “You’re evil,” Mitch said, spitting out a mouthful of sand and trying to blink more out of his eyes. He looked like some sort of sand monster now.

  “You didn’t really expect me to jump on a pile of ice did you?”

  “It was your idea,” Mitch said, trying to brush off the sand. The taxi driver was not going to be impressed and he was seriously considering having a second more intentional swim.

  “We can go for that walk now,” Amelie said brightly as a freak wave swept away the broken remnants of their castle.

  “Yay,” Mitch muttered, picking up his shoes and tipping out a small mountain of sand.

  “Look on the bright side,” Amelie said, taking his hand and pulling him down the beach.

  “What bright side?” His sand suit chafed everywhere.

  “None of the sand got on your jacket,” she grinned at him. Mitch tried to pull her in and drag her into the ocean but she slipped free and skipped away laughing.

  “You’ll have to try harder than that,” she teased when he lunged for her and she slipped away again, lightly running over the sand.

  Mitch ran after her, he was tossing her in the ocean if it was the last thing he ever did.

  Cullum

  “You’re going to wear out the carpet Mitch,” Nikola said.

  “I am not,” Mitch said, reaching the end of the lounge and turning around.

  “The carpet thinks differently,” Nikola countered and yawned. He’d driven himself hard to get up to date before the Easter break and he was exhausted. Mitch hoped that he’d be able to catch up on his sleep before he made himself sick again.

  “It’s carpet, it doesn’t think at all,” Mitch growled, continuing to pace. The buzzer on the oven went off, perfectly t
imed to punctuate his words with a sound of disapproval. Great, Mitch thought, now the inanimate objects are ganging up on me.

  “I’ll get it,” Amelie said before Nikola could move from the couch that he was sprawled across.

  “Thanks,” Nikola yawned and sank a little deeper into the cushions, raising one hand to brush his hair out of his eyes.

  “He’s your brother Mitch,” Nikola said. “He’s not going to bite you and throw you into a wall.”

  “What if I bite him?” Mitch asked, glaring at Nikola. Although he could recall a couple of occasions when Cullum had bitten him. There was a yelp from the kitchen as Amelie burned herself on the muffin tray before resorting to magic to set the muffins on the cooling rack.

  “Then he’ll scream and I’ll send you to the naughty corner for half an hour after giving you a stern lecture,” Nikola replied. He yawned again and rested his head on his arms, his eyes closing. Mitch looked at Amelie beseechingly.

  “We don’t have a naughty corner,” she said. “We’d have to send you to your room instead.”

  “You’re supposed to be on my side,” Mitch muttered, beginning another circuit. “You wouldn’t be so calm if your siblings were coming to visit.”

  “I like Amelie’s siblings,” Nikola said. Amelie threw an apple at him. “Ow, was that necessary?”

  “It’ll help wake you up,” Amelie said, all innocence. “And we both know you’d be freaking out if your siblings were going to visit.”

  “That’s because mine think that I’m an abomination that never should have existed.”

  Mitch winced, he didn’t think that Nikola had ever met any of his siblings, he didn’t think that Nikola would survive meeting any of his siblings, but the Unseelie Court’s position on Changelings was well known.

  “Now they sound like my parents,” Mitch said. He suspected that they’d quite happily wish him into non-existence rather than try to work out what to do with a vampire son.

  “Fortunately Cullum seems to like you,” Amelie said, “quite a bit if he’s willing to defy your parents to see you.”

  “Unless he’s seeing me to defy our parents.”

  “Relax Mitchell,” Nikola said between bites of apple, “A panic attack will not help.”

  “I know,” Mitch sighed. Panic attacks were just another thing he’d have to worry about with Cullum unless they’d found the holy grail of anti-anxiety meds in the last eight months. Had it really been eight months since he’d last seen his brother? It seemed like a lot longer than it felt. He’d just have to make sure he kept the lights on and didn’t shut him in the closet.

  “Ok,” Mitch said, “no more pacing. Budge up.”

  “There are other chairs,” Nikola grumbled but he sat up anyway and rested his head on Mitch’s shoulder, unsuccessfully trying to blow his hair out of his eyes when it flopped over his face.

  “You should really get that cut,” Amelie said.

  “Never,” Nikola said, giving in and using a hand to tuck his hair behind an ear. Mitch put an arm around him, squeezing a bit tighter than he probably should have been. Having Nikola nearby was comforting.

  “I could cut it for you,” Amelie offered. Nikola shook his head.

  “You never offer to cut mine,” Mitch said.

  “You never let yours get that long,” Amelie replied. Mitch shrugged. It would have driven him up the wall to have his hair as long as Nikola did.

  “He’s your brother Mitch,” Nikola said. “You’ll be fine.” The apple core in his hand vanished and he settled a little more comfortably against Mitch’s side.

  “I don’t think it’ll help anything if you’re asleep on his shoulder when Cullum arrives,” Amelie said. “You should go back to bed.” Nikola yawned.

  “She’s right,” Mitch said, “you should get some sleep.”

  “Will you be okay on your own?” Nikola asked, looking up at him.

  “What am I?” Amelie said, “chopped liver.”

  “I like chopped liver.”

  Mitch made a sound somewhere between a sigh and a laugh before he caught himself.

  “I’ll be fine,” he said, “now go to bed before she turns you into mince meat.” They hugged tightly for a moment and then Nikola disappeared down the hall.

  “It really will be fine,” Amelie said, dropping onto the couch on Mitch’s other side. “We won’t let anything too terrible happen.”

  “Thanks,” Mitch said, choosing not to ask what her definition of ‘too terrible’ was. He glanced up at the clock again. It barely seemed to have moved but Cullum couldn’t be far away, his flight had landed half an hour ago. Surely the airport shuttle would arrive soon. He got up to resume pacing and heard a car pulling up outside as if summoned by his thoughts.

  “Good luck,” Amelie said, making for the hallway rather than the door.

  “Where are you going?” Mitch asked.

  “To do my nails,” she flashed him a smile, “you don’t need me hanging around being a third wheel.”

  “Don’t I get a say in this?” Mitch asked, “what if I want a third wheel?” Amelie laughed and kept going. Someone knocked on the door. It was probably Cullum. Mitch cast one last look down the hall at his traitorous friends and went to open it.

  “Hi Mitch,” Cullum said. Behind him the driver’s door closed and the shuttle took off down the street. Mitch shifted uneasily, now he was stuck with his brother for the week.

  “Hi Cullum,” Mitch said, awkwardly extending a hand. Cullum was taller and bulkier than he remembered and he’d somehow kept Mum from having his light brown hair cut during the summer. It wasn’t as long as Nikola’s but it was still longer than Mitch ever remembered seeing it. Cullum ignored his hand, dropped his bag and hugged him.

  “Can’t breathe,” Mitch gasped, awkwardly hugging him back.

  “You don’t even need to breathe,” Cullum retorted, letting go and picking up his bag. “Do you?”

  “I do if I want to stay conscious,” Mitch muttered. “Haven’t they taught you that yet?” Vampires supposedly went into some sort of stasis when they ran out of oxygen but it wasn’t something Mitch was eager to try for himself.

  “Nope,” Cullum said, “I don’t start Teratology until next year remember? I can’t wait to have Miss Bordeaux as a teacher.”

  Mitch sighed, of course he couldn’t.

  “Come on,” he said, “you’re staying in my room. And no tracking mud through the house.”

  Cullum sniggered and kicked his shoes off before following him deeper into the house. “You sound like Mum.”

  “Do not,” he said reflexively. “It’s new carpet,” he added, well, newish now. “Nikola will kill us if we mess it up.” I don’t really sound like Mum do I? Nikola wouldn’t do anything to them if they messed the carpet up but he would spend hours cleaning it.

  “Cool, I wish I had a room this big,” Cullum said, studying Mitch’s with wide eyes. Mitch shook his head slightly, he’d got used to the size but it was probably quite a shock after the Academy’s tiny rooms. He had to actually make an effort to cover the entire floor with clothes now.

  “You get the air bed,” Mitch said, pointing to the corner where a bed had been neatly made up. He supposed that they could have given Cullum the couch, or even his bed, Amelie and Nikola would be happy to share with him, but he would have found either option awkward to explain to his brother.

  “You even got your own fridge,” Cullum said, dropping his bag.

  “Wait–” Mitch began but it was already too late.

  “Do you really drink that?” Cullum asked, closing the fridge even faster than he’d opened it and then closing the wardrobe as well. Mitch probably should have closed it before Cullum had arrived, it wasn’t like he was going through the rest of Mitch’s stuff.

  “I am a vampire, Cullum,” Mitch said, lightly running his tongue across his fangs. He’d finally got the hang of doing so without putting holes through it. “It’s practically part of the definition.” Vampire;
befanged, bloodsucking monster.

  “I want to see them,” Cullum said.

  “See what?”

  “Your fangs moron, come on, show me.”

  Mitch hesitated. His window faced out onto the backyard and it was fenced in well enough that they could practice magic unobserved, but no one was likely to try and stake him for making ice swans. Finally he hit the lights and pulled the curtains.

  “Want me to close the door as well?” Cullum asked.

  “You hate enclosed spaces,” Mitch said, wondering when his brother had become such a smart arse. He couldn’t have changed that much in eight months could he? It wasn’t as if he’d been cursed again.

  “Your room is bigger than the shuttle,” Cullum pointed out, “it’s practically bigger than the plane.” He’d probably taken something before boarding the plane, maybe it was the anti-anxiety meds that were making him act like such an ass. They had side-effects didn’t they? Though Mitch didn’t recall this one.

  “Show me!”

  Say please, Mitch thought but he didn’t say it aloud. He didn’t want to be told that he sounded like Mum again.

  He stared at the glimmering white ring adorning his finger and the Faerie runes that directed its magic. He still couldn’t read them though Nikola had told him what they said.

  His fingers felt thick and heavy as they fumbled with the ring, slipping over its surface until they caught, slipping again when the ring caught on the knuckle and finally slipping it free. Mitch didn’t feel anything as the magic vanished, the only way he ever knew it was working was by looking in the mirror, and he held the ring ready to jam back on his finger as soon as Cullum freaked out. As soon as he realises that I’m a vampire, a monster.

  “Come on Mitch.”

  Mitch forced himself to smile.

  “Can I touch them?”

  “N-No!” Mitch’s mouth snapped shut and his jammed the ring back onto his finger. The last thing he needed was to accidentally perforate his brother’s finger. He knew from personal experience just how easy that was.

  “We have fresh muffins,” Mitch said, hoping that the prospect of food would be enough to distract his brother from becoming food himself. He’d thought that Cullum would be more careful after having a building fall on him.