I needed to know more, though. I stacked all of the articles back in the trunk, carefully laying the money on top, pulling a few hundreds out for emergencies and tucking them in the pocket of my jeans. I closed and locked the trunk, stuffed the picture of Lucas in my pocket next to the money, swung my backpack on and picked up the trunk.
It was still early in the morning and I was still sleepy, but I had to find answers. I had to know who the woman who killed my mom was. I had to know why Lucas was after me and my mom and why these people tried to take me away from her for all these years.
Fifteen minutes later, I was checked out of the motel room and starting the engine to my car. I grabbed a map as I was leaving the motel and had it sprawled out on top of the trunk in the passenger’s seat. I was going to Washington to try to hunt down someone with purple eyes.
I knew it would be dangerous and I knew it wasn’t what my mom would want, but I was tired of running and I needed answers. It’s not like I had any family left anyways, so if I got myself killed, it wouldn’t matter.
I drove the whole seventeen hours from Jackson, Wyoming to Seattle, Washington, only stopping for gas and food. By the time I pulled into another cheap motel, I could barely keep my eyes open while I walked to my room. I dragged the trunk with me, dumping it on the floor next to me when I collapsed into the bed, not even bothering to take off my shoes.
I woke up six hours later, terrified from another nightmare but feeling a lot more refreshed. Six hours of sleep was the norm for me, even when I was a baby.
The morning light was shining through the motel window but I wasn’t ready to get out of bed yet. The empty hole in my heart from losing my mom was paralyzing. The tears started flowing again but I didn’t even have the energy to wipe them away.
When the congestion in my nose was so bad I couldn’t breathe anymore I finally pulled myself out of bed and headed for the shower. The steam cleared my sinuses and my thoughts.
What was I doing in a huge city like Seattle, searching for people I knew nothing about? I was only eighteen. I knew nothing about being on my own and I barely had the social skills to talk people into helping me.
How would I even go about finding what I was looking for? Was I just going to start going up to random people, asking them if they know anyone with purple or red eyes? My mom’s letter mentioned something about blue eyed people as well, but blue was a common eye color, so that wouldn’t help me.
I sunk to the bottom of the shower, curling up in a ball while the water washed over me. My anger was starting to overpower my depression. Anger at myself and my life, but mostly at the woman who killed my mom. If I ever found out who she was, I would make her pay.
My skin was crawling from frustration. I half growled, half screamed when I stood up and threw a punch at the tile lining the shower, shattering one of them.
My knuckles were bleeding but otherwise unharmed. I stared at my hand as the water washed away most of the blood, confused at my own strength. I had always been stronger than I looked but this was unbelievable. The tiles had to be cheap and flimsy. That was the only explanation.
I shut the water off, dried myself off and wrapped my still bleeding knuckles in a wash cloth. I walked out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around me and saw a small piece of paper had been pushed under the door to my room and was lying in front of me.
I figured it was just a pamphlet trying to get me to spend money on something the motel was offering, but the words written on the paper made my blood run cold.
I know what you are and what you’re looking for. Meet me at the coffee shop down the street if you want answers.
How? How did this person know anything about me or where to find me? I shouldn’t have come here. I should get back in my car and drive far away from here. Maybe I could take a plane to Alaska and hide out there for a while. There weren’t very many people in Alaska, right?
I sighed and sat on the bed to start digging clean clothes out of my backpack. I knew I couldn’t leave now. I had come this far and these people already knew I was here. If I fled, they would probably follow me. I had to face the truth, whether it killed me or not.
Chapter 3
Ten minutes later I was dressed and locking the door to the motel room. My hair was still damp and the chilly fall air made me regret not blow drying it. I walked to the end of the street and found a coffee shop buzzing with people. The biggest city I had even been to was Cheyenne and I felt like a fish out of water being around so many people. I hoped I was in the right place and I wondered how I would find the note sender in such a busy place.
The second I opened the door, I knew that wouldn’t be a problem. I froze in the doorway at the sight of a man in the corner, staring back at me with the same amethyst colored eyes as mine. It both terrified and excited me to finally meet someone with the same anomaly.
He looked to be about the same age as me, maybe a year or two older, with shaggy black hair that reached the top of his ears and skin that was slightly on the pale side. Even though he was sitting, I knew he would be at least half a foot taller than me. He was thin, but still muscular and his tight black t-shirt showed off his chest well. Damn, he was hot.
I suddenly felt myself blushing and wanted to retreat but the sound of an impatient cough from behind me made me realize I was still frozen in the doorway, blocking the entrance. I apologized to the irritated man behind me and made my way into the coffee shop, deeply breathing in the scent and hoping it would calm my nerves. The man in the corner made a small gesture with his head, motioning for me to take a seat next to him.
I walked up to his table but didn’t sit down. "Are you the one who left this note for me?" I asked and pulled the note from my pocket and placed it in front of him.
He gave me a cocky smile and nodded slightly. "You can sit down. I’m not going to hurt you."
I slowly took a seat in the chair across from the man, still uneasy by being near him but at least the coffee shop was full of people. He’d be stupid to try to hurt me here.
"My name’s Felix," he said when I was seated.
"Avery," I said, sounding a lot more standoffish than I planned. Felix hadn’t done anything threatening yet and I had no reason to be rude.
He kept the cocky smile on his face, not phased by my attitude one bit. "I know who you are. We’ve had our eyes on you since you were born."
"We?" I fought the urge to look around the shop for more purple eyed people.
"Did your mom ever tell you why you moved around all of the time or why she lived in a constant state of panic?" he said instead of answering my question.
"No," I said through clenched teeth. The last thing I wanted to talk about was my mom. I didn’t want to break down and cry in front of this stranger. "But I trusted my mom. I know she had her reasons. It doesn’t matter now though. She was murdered last night."
Finally, the cocky smile left Felix’s face, replaced by a frown and a look of concern. "I’m really sorry about your mom. I promise we had nothing to do with her death."
"Who is ‘we’?" I asked, frustrated. I wanted answers and I wanted them now. I was sick of not knowing.
Felix let out a loud sigh and ran his hands through his hair. "I’m going to tell you a lot of information but you have to promise you’ll hear me out until the end. I know you’ll have a hard time believing any of it, but you need to keep an open mind."
I hesitated. "I can’t promise anything but I’ll try."
Felix leaned closer to me and lowered his voice before saying, "Do you believe in mythical creatures?"
I couldn’t help myself from laughing. "Of course not. That’s why their mythical. Is this some kind of joke?"
But Felix’s face was completely serious. "Mythical creatures are not mythical because they don't exist. They're mythical because human minds aren't capable of accepting the fact that there might be intelligent creatures other than themselves walking the earth. Mythical creatures are very real. We’re proof of it."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I said, putting my hands up and glancing at the door. I contemplated making a run for it and getting away from this crazy person. Mythical creatures did not exist. "What're you talking about? I'm a human. I'm not mythical at all."
Felix caught me glancing at the door and I could see him tense. "You were raised by a human, who raised you to think you were human. If you were raised like I was, then you would laugh at the thought of being human."
"Then what am I?" I challenged, scooting back in my chair just an inch.
"We’re called Lovac. We're half human."
"Now you’re just making stuff up. I’ve never heard of a Lovac before. Who are you really? And how do you know anything about me?"
Ignoring my questions he continued on with his fairy tale. "We’re born from a human mother and a Zhulik father. I know you haven’t heard of Zhulik either. No one has, because we are all classified as what you call Vampires. There was only ever one original Vampire that descended into two species, the Zhulik and the Nesmyr. From Zhulik and human mating, Lovac were born. All three races are considered Vampires by humans."
I was trying to concentrate on what he was saying but it was so hard for me to believe that someone was actually telling me that Vampires existed and I was having a hard time following him. I looked around at the people in the coffee shop, wondering if any of them were over-hearing our conversation and thinking the same thing I was. I needed to get away from Felix and go back to finding real answers.
Keep an open mind, I heard repeated in my head when I almost stood up to leave. Along with the voice, came a strange tingling sensation in my head, like I needed to scratch an itch on my brain.
I shook my head and saw that Felix was staring at me intently. Somehow I knew that whatever I was hearing in my head was coming from him. "Do you have some kind of mind-control power?" The tingling sensation was distracting and while it wasn't painful, it was definitely uncomfortable.
"How you can tell I'm doing anything?" he asked, clearly shocked. His gaze broke and the feeling in my head went back to normal.
"You were staring at me weird and I heard a voice in my head along with feeling a weird tingling sensation." After I finished talking, I knew that I sounded like the crazy one. Yet, for some reason, Felix didn’t seem to agree.
"Interesting," he muttered. "But no, I don't have mind control. What I have is the ability to encourage someone to do something. Something they may deep down want to do but don't feel comfortable actually doing."
"So you’re not only crazy, you’re a freak, too?" I asked. I still felt a desire to get up and leave, but my damn instincts were telling me to stay and hear him out. An unsettling feeling sat in my stomach that what he was telling me might actually be true.
Felix only smiled at my words, amusement clear in his eyes, and continued talking. "All Lovac have a unique power. A good friend of mine can see the future, another can control any element. You’ve got a power too, I just couldn’t tell you what it is."
"You must have the wrong person. I don’t have any special powers." I’d never had any visions of the future, never made anything move with just my mind. Besides moving around a lot, nothing strange had ever happened in all my eighteen years of life.
"You may not have noticed anything, but you could still have a power. You said you would hear me out completely, though. Will you listen to everything I have to say or are you going to bolt out of here?"
I glanced at the door once more, but I couldn’t leave. Not yet. I would listen to everything Felix had to say and then I would bolt. "I’ll listen."
"Well then, as I was saying, all three of our races, Lovac, Zhulik and Nesmyr, come from the same bloodline. The original Vampire was Nosferatu. I’m sure you’ve heard of him, though his story was never told right. Humans mess up everything when it comes to mythical creatures." He paused to laugh to himself but when he saw I wasn’t amused, he continued. "He was born from humans but was cursed by a sorceress while still in his mother’s womb to be an abomination. He constantly craved blood and needed to drink it to survive and while he had super speed and strength, all humans were terrified of him. No one is sure of the exact reason he was cursed, but once he was old enough to understand what had happened to him, he pledged his life to serve the sorceress in order to get the curse removed. Unfortunately, the sorceress could not remove the curse. Instead, she agreed to bless him with children but the best the sorceress could do was allow him to have children with demons and fairies. Zhulik were born from his mating with demons. The gene combination made them almost completely evil. And Nesmyr were born from his mating with fairies. Nesmyr aren’t as pure as fairies but they’re angels compared to Zhulik. Any questions so far?"
"Millions," was the only thing I could manage. My mind was swirling with information that I didn't know how to comprehend. I was still trying to keep an open mind, but it went against everything I was ever taught. I couldn’t believe he was telling me demons and fairies existed, too. I wanted to ask questions but I had so many I didn't know where to start. Finally, I blurted out the first one that came to mind when I thought about Vampires. "Do they drink blood?"
"Zhulik and Nesmyr need it to survive. Lovac have enough human genes in them that we can survive on just food though drinking blood will strengthen us. Nesmyr and Zhulik also have fangs but Lovac just have slightly pointier teeth than an average human," he paused to flash a smile and sure enough, his teeth were pointy, just like mine. My mom had wanted me to get them filed at the dentist but I refused, mainly out of fear of the pain.
"So do they kill people when they drink blood?" It was the question I was most curious to ask but I was afraid to hear the answer. I also worried that I was starting to believe him.
"Nesmyr don’t. Most Nesmyr own blood donation companies or have a small group of humans they feed off of. The humans are paid, of course, and hardly remember anything about the blood-taking. Zhulik on the other hand, always kill when taking blood. It makes them almost immortal. Nesmyr are much weaker than Zhulik because of this, and if a Nesmyr does kill someone while feeding, then they become a Zhulik. Lovac can become Zhulik if they kill someone while drinking blood, too."
"How does someone become one of these… things?" I wanted to say monsters or abominations but I was trying my best not to be rude, especially if it turned out I really was one of them.
"Nesmyr are usually born into that race. They can turn humans but the process is painful and most of the time kills the human before it’s complete. Zhulik can’t have children and resort to turning humans, or luring Lovac and Nesmyr into joining their ranks. When Zhulik are first turned, they lose control of themselves and tend to rape and kill a lot of women. They can get psychic human women pregnant, which results in Lovac."
Hadn’t my mom said she had psychic powers? Maybe Felix wasn’t quite as crazy as I thought. "How come Zhulik can only have children with psychic humans? If Nesmyr can have children, shouldn't Zhulik be able to, too?"
"Zhulik are only evil because they were born from almost pure darkness. When Zhulik try to have children with other Zhulik the darkness completely destroys the baby before it even has a chance to start developing. Psychic women are strong enough to keep the baby alive until it’s fully developed."
"What exactly is darkness?" I asked. It sounded completely made up, and I was hoping to call him out on it.
"Darkness is an evil manifestation of magic. Fairy magic is good; darkness is what results in bad magic. Demons were created because of it and the magic the sorceress used to create Nosferatu was darkness. It’s also what drives Zhulik into insanity and it lingers in Lovac, since we're part Zhulik."
"What does that mean for Lovac, then?"
"Eventually we go insane," he said, not sugar-coating it for me. "Most Lovac don't live past twenty-five, a rare few make it close to thirty. The darkness starts to take over our minds the day we turn eighteen and most Lovac kill themselves before they can do any damage. There’s only one way to
survive the darkness."
"What exactly does darkness do to Lovac?" I asked, thinking back to the strange things that started happening when I turned eighteen.
"It starts with the nightmares. Darkness has an easier time working its way into our minds while we sleep. It likes to use any recent traumatizing events to torture us. We also start to see shadows where there aren’t any and hear voices in our heads. Eventually, it gets so strong that our mind is not our own anymore."
A chill ran down my back at his words. All I could think about were the crazy nightmares I’ve had every night since my birthday and that they kept getting worse. No normal nightmare should be able to leave me feeling completely terrified during them and for a good time after waking up.
"You’ve been having the nightmares, haven’t you?" Felix asked gently, breaking me out of my thoughts.
All I could do was nod slightly. I didn’t want to believe anything Felix told me, but somehow I knew he hadn’t lied about anything.
"I don’t want to go insane," I said quietly. The thought of not being able to control my own mind was a thousand times more terrifying than the nightmares.
"Like I said, there is a way to survive the darkness. There are people we call Dimidiums. A Dimidium can be any creature, Nesmyr, demon, fairy, but it is that one special person that is meant to help a Lovac manage the darkness in them. They are a Lovac's other half. They balance each other out perfectly."
"So they're kind of like a soul mate?"
"Exactly. They--"
"Wait," I interrupted. "So demons and fairies really exist?"
"Yes," he sighed, irritated I had interrupted him again. "There are also elves, gargoyles and werewolves. You name it, it probably exists."
I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him. "This is getting more and more unbelievable by the minute. How can I believe all of these things actually exist? How can I believe I am what you say I am? Is there anything other than having purple eyes, strange nightmares and pointy teeth that makes someone a Lovac?" Even though I knew he was telling the truth, I needed more proof. I didn’t want to accept that I wasn’t completely human. Not yet.
Avenging Amethyst (Immortal Eyes) Page 2
