The Need

by Bilinda Ni Siodacain

  The Need

  By Bilinda Ní Siodacaín

  Copyright 2012 by Bilinda Ní Siodacaín

  Kindle Edition

  Chapter One

  I can remember the very first day my power started to make itself known. The weather that year was so hot the ground practically baked beneath our feet. Weather that hot is virtually non-existent in Ireland, but not that year.

  We spent our days out in the sunshine and with my auburn hair and freckles I went up like a box of matches. Life was so easy then. Not like now. Now everything is cold and dank and even if the sun shines I don’t feel its heat. Nothing touches me anymore, not since then. Not since that day. Nothing touches me but you.

  I can remember the feeling of the first tingles as they ran through my legs and then into my arms. You were nearby only I didn’t know you then. Not like I know you now. I could feel you and it frightened me, I was twelve and I thought I was having a fit. The sun scorched along my skin and poured itself in through the top of my head. I don’t remember how I hit the ground, I must have fallen. And then everything shifted the world and my perception changed direction like a compass going in the opposite direction. You were there, watching me over the garden fence. Your eyes bore an intensity I had never known until that moment through my chest. Then I don’t remember anything else until my mother crouched over me in the garden begging me to drink water.

  They were the days she cared about me, when she thought I was still her daughter. Well at least until she decided that you and I were bad for each other. What I have grown into would terrify her, well if she knew the full extent of it. I’m hoping she never finds out.

  The day my power recognised you was the day you moved in next door. Sometimes I wonder did you find me. Was it deliberate on your behalf to get close to me and set the chain in motion or would they have appeared even without you being near?

  It doesn’t matter now anyway I have you and you have me and that is all I know. It is all I care about.

  I know people find it strange that we write letters to each other even though we are together all the time. I don’t care. I love it. I love writing you the letters, it feels right and I know it lets you a little further inside my head where you live anyway.

  I can’t believe it has been almost six whole years since you moved in next door. And I can’t believe that next week I’ll be twenty-one. Do you think my powers will spike the way yours did? On one hand I hope they don’t. If I’m honest they frighten me. What if I hurt someone? What if we hurt someone? Anyway I’ll see you in a few minutes to give you this letter... I bet you’ll be waiting for me...

  Love xxx

  Replacing the pen on the desk I folded the letter gently and tucked it safely into my pocket. Standing I pulled my hoodie over my head and made my way out the door. Following the sound of saucepans and plates being moved in the kitchen I poked my head around the door.

  “I’m meeting Jon for a while I’ll be back later.”

  “Fine, don’t be late.”

  Swiftly moving from the door I didn’t bother answering her. There was no point anymore, we simply didn’t see eye to eye on anything anymore.

  She didn’t approve of Jon, believed he was a bad influence on me and that if only I would let him go things would get better. She just didn’t understand. We loved each other. I knew without a shade of doubt that Jon was my perfect match. The one person in this world who could make me whole and I wouldn’t give him up. Not for anything.

  Stepping out the front door I hurried down the path. The cool autumn air chilled my skin and I pulled the hoodie I wore tight around my body. He should have been here.

  I stood waiting at the bottom of the garden but nothing stirred in the twilight. Glancing around nervously I made for the fence that separated Jon’s house from mine. I was forbidden from going to his house. My mother didn’t approve of Jon but his parents hated me. I think they viewed me as some sort of threat but I couldn’t be sure. Nothing had ever been said to me, but Jon had told me that I was never welcome at his house.

  Peering through the fence I looked up at Jon’s window. From my vantage point I could see someone standing in his room but I wasn’t sure if it was him or not. Pressing closer to the fence I stared harder, trying to get a better view of him.

  Turning suddenly the man in Jon’s room seemed to look straight at me but it wasn’t Jon. Stumbling back from the fence I tripped on a branch and fell.

  “What are you doing on the ground?”

  His voice instantly calmed me and I turned to see him sprinting across the wet grass to where I sat.

  “I was looking to see if I could spot you in your room. I know I’m not welcome at your door.”

  His face turned dark for a moment as he registered my words but the look was gone in an instant and he reached his hand out towards me. Pulling me to my feet we found our faces mere inches from each other. I could feel his warm breath tickling against my lips and without thinking I wrapped my arms around his neck pulling him closer.

  Our kiss sent my mind reeling and the only coherent thought I could form in my mind was that I wanted more. Breaking away from each other as the familiar tingle of electricity began to run up and down our arms and bodies we stood facing each other. My breath was as ragged as his and I knew that the effect he had on me was equally mirrored in the effect I had on him.

  “God I love you.”

  He moved in towards me once again but I held my hand up to his chest. The tingling of electricity ran down my arm and into his body with a jolt that stopped him dead. The look on his face said it all. We both wanted the same thing but yet we had never been able to get any further than kissing. The feeling of electricity that ran through us got worse if we kissed for too long.

  The one time we had tried to work through it had resulted in me passing out and walking up with blood pouring from my nose and the corners of my eyes. Jon had suffered a similar experience but he hadn’t passed out. It had scared us both enough to know that we shouldn’t push it.

  One thing was different now though. Ever since Jon had turned twenty-one a couple of months before now he didn’t suffer the painful electricity tingling the way I did. It was as though he had simply grown out of it. He described it more as a buzz that thrilled through him. It wasn’t painful or uncomfortable in fact he thought it had the ability to become quite pleasurable if allowed to continue. The only problem with all of this was that I hadn’t grown out of my painful experiences yet. But my birthday was just one week away and I had hope.

  “I’m sorry Aisling; I know I shouldn’t push it. I should have thought. But you know what I think about you. I have this need to be close to you.”

  Smiling I pushed my hand against him harder as I spoke. “A need ‘eh? I’ve heard guys say that to girls before.”

  His laugh filled me with warmth and longing as he caught my hand in his and pulled me into his embrace.

  “Oh you have you now? And how many have said it to you?”

  Tapping my fingers against my lips I pretended to ponder on an exact number.

  “Out of curiosity was it just your clumsiness that made you fall?”

  His question surprised me and brought back to me exactly what I had seen in his room. A shiver of cold dread curled down my spine.

  “I saw someone in your room. I thought maybe at first it was you... but when it turned and looked at me... Jon I don’t know who it was but their eyes... they were...”

  Jon stared hard at me as though waiting for me to tell him it was all just a joke. When I didn’t his face grew serious.

  “Ais, I need to know exactly what they looked like...”

  “There was only one that I could tell. His face was drawn, gaunt almost and so pale but his eyes Jon... They seemed t
o glow a sort of yellow and I know it wasn’t a reflection from the light but... Wait Jon what is it?”

  My eyes drank in the frightened look on his face. Something about the way he held himself and the haunted look in his eyes let me know he hadn’t told me everything he knew. My gut clenched as I realised that Jon knew about whomever it was had been in his room but he hadn’t told me.

  “Jon, who was he!”

  “I’m not allowed to say, they made me promise not to tell you. Ais they said they would kill you if I told you.”

  Fear knotted in my stomach and a cold weight settled in my chest.

  “Jon who told you that... I think at this stage if they threatened to kill me I have a right to know!”

  Grabbing my arm roughly he dragged me towards the gap in the fence at the bottom of my garden.

  “Jon you’re hurting me let go!” My plea didn’t deter him and he simply held me tighter and ploughed through the long grass and bushes that led to the forest that ran behind the houses.

  “Jon where are we going? I don’t want to go in the woods you know how I hate it in there it frightens me. I have a bad feeling about in there, as though I’ve lost something vitally important.”

  He stopped abruptly and spun me around to face him. “Do you trust me? Do you love me?”

  “Jon you know that answer to those questions... you know I trust and love you, why are you asking me this?”

  “The man you saw in my room is known as a hunter. It’s their job to hunt down people of our kind and get rid of us. They see us as a threat. I met him the night I turned twenty-one...”

  “And you didn’t tell me!”

  “Aisling he saw us at the party together he said if I ever mentioned him to you that he would see to it you wouldn’t live to see morning... what could I do? I can’t lose you!”

  Staring into his soft grey eyes I could see the despair that lurked just below the surface and without thinking I reached out and wrapped my arms around him.

  “You said they kill our sort... why didn’t he kill you then? Or even now since he already seems to know where you are?”

  “I don’t know... he just said he wanted to meet me... That’s all I know Aisling I swear!”

  Hugging me back we stayed like that for a moment or two before I pulled away from him. Running my hand up over his cheek I leaned into him and pressed my lips gently against his and whispered.

  “Perhaps we should go back... pay him a little surprise visit seeing as he is sneaking around your room...”

  “Aisling no we can’t I don’t want him to find out about your gifts.”

  “Jon, we’ll be fine. Does he have gifts that could possible match yours or even mine?”

  “Aisling I don’t know what he can do. I just know that when I met him I was so glad to be out of his presence. He is dangerous and I’m not risking you like that not for anything.”

  Pulling out of his grip I walked away from him back towards my own house whilst running my hands through my long auburn hair. Surely he didn’t just expect me to forget about the man I had seen in his room? Even if he didn’t want to face him, I wasn’t one to run away from what scared me. The fact he had threatened Jon made it worse and I could feel my own power beginning to bubble to the surface of my skin.

  I began to run.

  My feet thudded the ground as I flew back through the bushes, slipping easily through them. The sound of his breathing and the steady pace of his feet behind me spurred me on. I wouldn’t just let this thing take Jon from me.

  I never even seen the thin wire pulled tight between two low branches and as my feet tangled in it I fell with a strangled scream. The ground rose quickly up to meet my face and the last thought I had was I hoped Jon knew I loved him.

  Chapter Two

  He watched helplessly unable to reach her as she fell. He felt the crack her head made against the rock more than seeing it. They were connected, the pain she felt he felt. When she was afraid at night during a storm he could feel it as he lay in his own bed. There had been a few nights he had even found himself sneaking through the fence and tossing pebbles up at her window until she let him in.

  That was of course without her mother’s permission. From the first moment she laid eyes on him she had taken an instant dislike to him and neither he nor Aisling could put their fingers on why. Although the same thing applied for Aisling and his parents. For some reason the parentals really could not find it in themselves to accept their children’s choices. Not that he cared, as long as Aisling loved him then forever he would be hers no matter what.

  Reaching her side he knelt on the ground and gently rolled her into his arms. Dark blood trickled from the gash on the side of her face and her skin was ashen. Pulling the light jacket he was wearing off he pressed it against the wound.

  “Aisling, love please can you hear me. Wake up; you have to wake-up!”

  His voice was low and frantic as he cradled her gently in his grip. The sound of a twig cracking underfoot brought his attention back to the trees surrounding them.

  “Who’s there?”

  He watched him step from the trees and Jon could feel his stomach knot in panic. His feet barely made a sound over the bracken and Jon knew the only reason he had heard the twig crack was because he had wanted him to. The black clad figure stopped a few feet from where Jon sat cradling Aisling’s body. The smile he gave him froze the blood in his veins.

  “What do you want?”

  “How much have you told her Jonathon?”

  The man’s voice rasped past his lips as though he had an injury to his throat. Not that Jon could tell, his coat buttoned to his chin and his dark hair hung limply against the collar hiding all view of his neck. The only skin that was exposed was that of his pale face, even his hands were encased in black leather gloves.

  “I told her you were a hunter and that you’d kill her if she knew more.”

  “Ah.”

  His face grew thoughtful as he watched Jon holding her as though she were the most precious thing on earth. He could feel the terror that filled his body and it brought him pleasure.

  “What does ah mean? What are you going to do? You can’t kill her, I haven’t told her anything! She is innocent!”

  “Innocent! She is with a creature like you Jonathon, which are not the actions of someone innocent. Does she know what you are? Has she realised how evil you truly are? Does she know your destiny is to be with the one who destroys the earth?”

  “She doesn’t know anything.” Jon did his best to keep his voice low and even. If this man got even the slightest inclination that Aisling was like him then he would finish them both. As it was he was only allowed to live because the man hoped Jon would lead him to the one who would help him destroy the earth, or whatever kind of crap he had dreamed up.

  When had first learned what this man thought he was capable of, he had feared the man knew about Aisling. But as time had gone on, he had come to realise that he believed her to be simply mortal. Aisling’s gift protected her from his ability to sense power but would it remain that way when she turned eighteen?

  “I don’t believe you are telling me the whole truth Jonathon... It’s why I brought someone with me... a sniffer dog if you will, but one who senses power and lies. I have a feeling it is going to come in very useful where you are concerned Jonathon.”

  The fear multiplied in Jon’s body and a fine sheen of sweat coated his skin. Aisling stirred softly in his arms drawing his attention back to her. He had to do something drastic to stop the hunter from finding out about her.

  “It looks like your little girlfriend is waking up. Perhaps I should ask her some questions while I’m at it. You know the usual; perhaps she knows more than you think... And I’m sure I would find a way to persuade whatever information she does have out of her.”

  “Just leave her out of this. Whatever little plan you have for me, fine but if you touch one hair on her head I will kill you.”

  “She means that much
to you that you would attempt to take me on?”

  “Not only would I attempt but I would succeed.”

  Jon stood and carefully lifted Aisling up into his arms. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to even really be able to do any damage to the man stood before him but he couldn’t let him hurt her.

  “Silas, bring the bitch here.”

  The sound of more branches cracking and feet moving through the woods surrounding him caused Jon to stiffen in fear. How many more were there, and what were they bringing with them? A sobbing woman emerged from the trees and behind her Jon caught sight of what he presumed was Silas. The man stood more than six feet tall and towered above the man with the yellow eyes standing before him. He shared the same yellow eyes and his hair glinted a dirty straw like blonde in the moonlight. In his hands he clasped a leather leash attached to a collar around the woman’s small delicate neck. She couldn’t have been any more than in her early twenties Jon guessed. Her black hair was grimy and filled with leaves and twigs, the white dress she wore was ripped and dirtied and Jon could see bloody scratch marks covering her arms and legs.

  Each time Silas jerked her leash she whimpered in pain and Jon could make out the purple bruising covering her neck. Jon met her eyes and the look he saw in them filled him with despair, terror and pain. Would they do the same thing to Aisling if they found out?

  With one easy movement Silas tugged the leash backwards and she stumbled back against him. His hands sliding down across her body in a possessive movement that turned Jon’s stomach sick. From the leery grin on his face Jon had no doubt as to exactly what she had been subjected to at the hands of these monsters.

  “I was wondering when you’d need us. He not telling you everything you need to know?”

  Silas’s voice was gravely as he continued to paw at the girl’s body, his hand stroked upwards and he pinched her breast hard causing her to cry out sharply in pain.

  “You want Natty here to help you?”

  Anger filled Jon’s mind and Aisling stirred once more in his arms moaning softly. He looked down at her soft and gentle face and fear mixed with the anger caused his power to tremble down through his body and into the ground at his feet.