"Absolutely," he said. "We're stronger and faster than normal humans and we each have a unique power, like I said. I wish I knew what yours was so I could prove it to you."
"Well, I don’t feel faster or stronger than a normal human and if I had some power, wouldn't I have known about it by now? Are you sure you didn’t make a mistake about me?"
Felix could hear the uncertainty in my voice and he smiled proudly. He knew I was starting to believe him but I wouldn’t give in that easily. He had to show me more.
"We didn’t make a mistake, as much as I know you wish we did. There’s a Lovac that has the ability to sense where every other Lovac in the world is located. She’s been following you since you were born, but your mother figured out a way to use her psychic abilities to block you from us. Only when your mother’s guards were down would we be able to locate you, but your mother always found a way to escape us."
"You sound like you knew my mom," I said sadly, an ache in my chest forming again. Felix’s talk had distracted me enough to push the memory of my mom’s death out of my mind but it was creeping its way back to the front again.
"I never met her but I heard a lot about her. You were the talk of the school while I was growing up. There hasn’t been a Lovac born in years where the human mother actually survived to take care of the baby. Your mom was kind of a celebrity in our world."
"What do you mean she survived?"
Felix smiled sadly, and looked at his hands resting on the table. "Most humans that give birth to Lovac are killed during the actual birth. Lovac are so genetically different from humans that it’s almost like they’re giving birth to another species. Most mothers are deathly sick during the pregnancy and only survive if they have the enough psychic powers to give them strength. Unfortunately, it’s usually never enough when the Lovac is actually born. The baby unintentionally takes most of the mothers strength with it when it’s born, killing the mother. Your mom must have had incredible psychic powers to be able to survive. It only happens every hundred years or so."
"That’s so horrible," I said, the thought of almost killing my mom as an infant making me sick.
"It is, but there’s no way around it. Usually, we have a group of Lovac on standby in a hospital where a Lovac is being born. There are a few Lovac with mind control abilities that make the doctors believe the baby died right along with the mothers. That way the Lovac can be raised by Nesmyr and go to school with other Lovac to learn about their abilities and train."
"Train?"
"Lovac have a special ability that allows us to be able to sense when Zhulik are near. It gives us a huge advantage to be able to take them on. We’re raised to be able to fight Zhulik when we turn eighteen."
"How do I know you’re not one of these Zhulik?" I knew I was grasping at straws to come up with reasons not to believe him.
Felix tapped the side of his head by his eyes. "Lovac are the only species with purple eyes. Zhulik have deep crimson eyes and Nesmyr have sapphire blue eyes. If Lovac or Nesmyr become Zhulik, their eyes will change color, too."
"What if you’re just wearing contacts?"
Felix leaned across the table and paused mere inches from me. He said, "Does it look like I’m wearing contacts?"
The bright lights in the coffee shop gleamed on his eyes. He was so close I could feel his breath on my neck. I looked deeply at his eyes and felt myself being dragged into the swirl of purple. While his eyes were the same exact color as mine, they were bigger and had a healthier glow to them. I wasn’t sure how I would be able to tell if he was wearing contacts but at that moment I didn’t care. I wanted to stare into his eyes all day.
Felix blinked and pulled himself away. I blushed and hoped there was no way he could read my thoughts. He didn’t question my strange staring and instead stood up.
"Well, if you still don’t trust me, I can always demonstrate our strength. Meet me in the alley behind the shop if you’re still interested. I’ll give you ten minutes and if you don’t come, I’ll assume you don’t want to hear more and leave you alone."
Without letting me have another word, he walked off, weaving his way through the crowd of morning coffee drinkers and left the shop. I sat in my chair and stared at the wall for a minute before I got up to follow him.
Of course I was still interested. If there was some way he could truly prove that I wasn’t entirely human, I had to know. And if there was some way my mom’s killer was a Zhulik, maybe he could help me hunt the woman down. Maybe he would even help me hunt down the man that was supposedly my father, too. If I really did have some kind of super powers, I was going to use them to get revenge for my mother’s death.
Chapter 4
I walked out of the coffee shop, getting a few glares from employees for occupying one of their tables without ordering anything, and turned the corner into the alley. Felix leaned against a large truck, looking bored.
"Alright, prove your strength to me," I said, walking over to him and crossing my arms in front of me. I stayed a few feet away, in case this was some kind of ploy to kidnap me. I was still close enough to the front of the alley that I would be able to run into the public eye if he tried anything.
Without saying anything, Felix turned and placed his hands under the front of the trucks bumper. He pulled up and the truck lifted a good two feet off the ground. Felix didn’t even break a sweat.
I stood in shock for a moment while Felix gently put the truck back on the ground. He turned and gave me a questioning look but I had no words. I looked over my shoulder to see if anyone had witnessed what just happened but we were completely alone.
"You’re turn," Felix said.
"I-I can’t do that," I said, shaking my head.
"Have you ever tried?"
I opened my mouth to argue but he was right. I had never tried. I marched over to the truck, placed my hands where Felix had and lifted up. I had every intention of proving to him that I couldn’t do it so that I could go back to believing I was a normal human. There was one small flaw in that plan.
The truck actually lifted off of the ground. I had expected it to take all of my energy to lift the truck but with just a small amount of effort it was a foot off the ground. I was so shocked that I dropped the truck and jumped away from it. The truck landed with a thud back on the ground, causing the alarm to go off.
Felix laughed as he grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the alley.
"Let’s get out of here before the owner comes after us," he said.
I let Felix drag me away but I stared at the truck until it was out of view. I couldn’t believe that I had just lifted a huge truck off of the ground. I’ve seen men with arms five times the size of mine struggle to lift something that heavy even an inch off the ground. This explained why I was able to break the tile in the motel shower, too.
"Come on, let me walk you back to your motel room," Felix said.
"No way," I said, pulling my hand away from Felix's. "I want to know more."
Felix smiled triumphantly. "So you do believe me then?"
"I'm still not sure but I don't know how to explain what just happened. Besides, I want to find out why that woman killed my mom and I think you can help me."
"If you're willing to come back to our headquarters, we can teach you everything we know and do our best to help find the woman."
I hesitated. I wasn't sure if I trusted Felix enough to go somewhere with him, but my instincts were telling me to trust him. My mom always told me my instincts were better than anyone else's. Maybe that had to do with being a Lovac.
"Okay. I'll go with you," I finally said.
Felix's eyebrows rose slightly. "You sure?"
I shrugged. "I've got nothing better to do. Besides, I came here to find answers and you're the only one who's given me any."
He nodded. "Go get your stuff from your motel room and check out. Our headquarters are a few miles from here in the forests, and you'll probably want to stay somewhere closer if you're serious about
learning more. I'll meet you in the parking lot of the motel in fifteen minutes."
Before I even had a chance to nod Felix was already turning away from me and walking in the opposite direction of my motel. I stood frozen in a place for a moment and wondered if I was doing the right thing. I wondered if my mom would be proud of me for going after answers or disappointed in me for risking my life after she protected me for so long. I told myself she would be proud and walked back to my motel.
Fifteen minutes later I was leaning against my car with my mom's trunk safely inside and my backpack slung around my shoulder. I finished checking out of the motel a few minutes earlier and I began to wonder if Felix ditched me.
Another five minutes passed before a sleek black SUV rolled into the parking lot. Felix rolled down the window as he got close to me. I noticed there was a woman in the passenger seat and I felt a tiny pang of jealousy that it might be his girlfriend. I had no right to be jealous over a guy I barely knew.
"Sorry I'm a little late. I had to go pick someone up," he said and nodded his head in the direction of the woman. I stepped a little closer to the window to get a better look at her.
"Hello," the woman said. "I'm Riley."
Her voice was very soft and I had to strain to hear her. Her eyes looked sad and even though her smile was genuine, it almost had a sad feel to it, too. Her long brown hair cascaded down her back in waves and I felt another pang of jealousy. I had always wanted perfect curly hair. Even from this distance, I could see her bright purple eyes framed by slightly tanned skin.
"It's really nice to finally meet you," Riley continued.
"You know who I am, too?"
"Of course. Every Lovac knows who you are. You're practically famous in our world."
I shifted uncomfortably. I didn't like the thought of a whole group of people I never knew existed spying on me.
"Do you want to ride with us or follow in your own car?" Felix asked after I didn't say anything for a moment.
"I'll take my own car," I said without hesitation. There was no way I going without some kind of escape available. I didn't want to be stuck with strangers, especially if they refused to let me leave.
Neither Felix nor Riley argued and a few minutes later I was following them through the city of Seattle and off into the nearby forests. Nearly an hour after we left the main road a large building came into view. From the outside it was boring and reminded me of how I pictured a jail, only without the barbed wire fences.
I pulled into a parking space next to Felix's car and hesitated before getting out. Part of me was excited to learn more about these people and the other part of me was terrified that I was walking into some kind of trap.
Felix tapped on my window and I jumped. I would probably be pretty jumpy for a while until I truly trusted them. I opened my car door and an uneasy feeling settled over me. I was about to enter a building full of strangers that weren’t human.
"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Felix asked. His smile held amusement.
"No," I said. But I don't have much of a choice, I finished in my head.
The sound of a baby crying caught my attention and I looked around to find the source. Riley had just pulled a baby out of the backseat of the SUV and she bounced it gently in her arms to calm it down. I don't know why I was so shocked, there were plenty of people my age that had children, but Riley just didn't look like the type to have a kid so young.
I opened my mouth to ask about the child but Felix spoke before I could. "That's a Lovac child. He was born only a few hours ago in a hospital near Seattle. Riley was there while we were talking in the coffee shop. She was with a few others but she was anxious to meet you so I picked her up."
"So that means his mother just died, too?" I asked. I turned away from the baby and tried not to think about how horrible it was that most Lovac killed their mother's when they were born.
"Yes," Riley said, giving me a sympathetic look.
"What's going to happen to him?"
"There's going to be an adoption today, where any interested Nesmyr can place a bid for him," Felix said casually and started walking towards the building. Riley didn't hesitate to follow but I stood frozen for a moment.
I jogged a few feet to catch up once I decided I wasn't ready to leave yet and said, "You mean Lovac are bid on like some kind of prized cow?"
Felix and Riley shared a look. Neither of them seemed to want to answer but Riley was the one to talk first. "I know it sounds awful but all of the Nesmyr families are screened prior to the adoption ceremony to make sure they'll make good parents. Lovac are just born so rarely that dozens of families are always on a list to adopt. Nesmyr are greedy so the council decided that whoever will offer the most money gets to adopt the child. We all grow up in loving homes and are provided with everything we need."
Felix laughed humorlessly and rolled his eyes. I raised my eyebrows in question but Felix didn't say anything. I turned to Riley who just shook her head. "Felix seems to think he grew up with a horrible family."
"They're not horrible," Felix said. "Nesmyr just treat Lovac differently than they do other Nesmyr."
"What do you mean?" I asked. We were almost to the doors to the building now but there were few windows and they were all darkly tinted so I couldn't see anything inside.
"Since Nesmyr can have children too most Lovac are adopted into families with other Nesmyr children. The parents usually treat the Nesmyr children just slightly better than the Lovac. Even though I know my parents care about me, I don't think they ever loved me as much as their own flesh and blood."
Riley was the one to laugh and roll her eyes this time. "I grew up with six Nesmyr brothers and sisters and I never felt like my parents loved me any less."
"Well then, you got lucky," Felix said and opened the doors for us.
Riley didn't continue the conversation once we were inside and as soon as I stepped into the building I had no desire to continue it either.
The doors opened into a long hallway that had several doors leading off of it from either side with two large doors at the end of the hallway. The decor inside the building was such a contrast to the outside that I was speechless. The floor was polished wood, with a fancy embroidered rug running down the middle. The walls were decorated with countless pieces of framed art and the chandeliers hanging from the tall ceiling sparkled.
I felt like I just stepped into a mansion.
"Nesmyr really like their money," Felix said quietly to me. He really wasn’t joking.
"The adoption is happening today. You can sit in and watch if you’d like," Riley said. "I’m sure the Lovac council members are eagerly waiting to meet you but they’ll probably be busy until after the adoption is over."
"She’s right," Felix said. "I can show you around the facility until the adoption is over if you want."
I still didn’t trust Felix and I didn’t want to be completely alone with him. I was a little curious about the adoption so I decided that it was the safer route.
Felix didn’t seem to mind either way. He escorted me and Riley to the end of the hallway where two tall doors were. He opened one of the doors and a rush of noise met my ears. I stepped into a large room that closely resembled a high school gym. Along the walls were bleachers filled with hundreds of people who were all talking excitedly. Along the back wall was a stage where ten people were sitting and shifting impatiently.
When Riley entered the room, everyone went quiet. One of the people on the stage, an older woman with graying hair and wrinkles starting to form near her eyes, stood up and walked up to the microphone in the center of the stage.
Felix led me to a row of chairs near the front of the stage where other purple-eyed people were standing. Riley walked right up to the stage and up the stairs to stand next to the woman.
"Welcome everyone!" the older woman announced into the microphone. I could see her better from this angle and saw that her eyes were an inhuman blue. She was a Nesmyr.
"
That’s Gladys. She’s the oldest Nesmyr in North America and head of the council," Felix muttered. He stood so close that I could smell his cologne and it made my heart flutter uncomfortably.
"We all know why we’re gathered here," Gladys said. "Another Lovac has been born and Riley has been kind enough to bring him safely to us. Now it is time to choose which lucky family will get the joy of raising him."
Felix tensed next me. Now I felt bad for not agreeing to let him give me a tour. Since he was so bitter about his own family, of course he wouldn’t want to watch another Lovac possibly go to the same fate.
"We will call families up one by one to meet the baby," Gladys continued. "And you will be able to place your bid. The family with the highest bid will get to take him home."
Everyone sat down then and the process began. Nesmyr families of all shapes and sizes were called up to the stage one by one. Most of the families already had children with them which I thought was wrong. Adopting a child was supposed to be for someone who couldn't have children. Too bad I didn't get an opinion here.
Some of the families held the baby and some didn’t. I saw one lady get thrown up on and I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from laughing. Most families would tell one of the men sitting on the stage a number but I did see a few families decide against bidding. Maybe they wanted to hold out for girl or decided they didn’t really have enough to bid for him.
The process took well over an hour and it was all I could do to stay still in my seat. I wanted to stand up and stretch, and maybe even walk around a little bit but I didn’t know if I was allowed to. Felix and the other Lovac sitting near me all sat perfectly still in their seats and I noticed they were watching every family very intently. I wondered if they were here as a type of body guard in case someone tried to steal the baby.
Avenging Amethyst (Immortal Eyes) Page 3
