When it looked like the last family had left the stage, Gladys slowly made her way back up to the microphone. "Thank you all for coming today. I wish we could bless everyone with the joy of a Lovac baby but unfortunately we only have one. The bids have been looked through and it seems like we have a tie. Will the Vancil family and the Kruskal family please be escorted into the meeting room to settle the tie? The rest of you are excused."
"Why are they going somewhere else?" I asked Felix as we stood up to leave.
"Because no one needs to witness what’s going to happen with those families. There is going to be a lot of shouting and fighting and it probably won’t be pretty. There’s hardly ever a tie. Most families bid odd numbers like a million and one in the hopes of avoiding a tie. This is rare but it happens."
"They really bid that much money?" I thought about the money my mom left me in the trunk. I thought that was a lot of money but I couldn’t imagine having over a million to spend.
"Oh yeah." Felix shook his head. "Probably even more. The Nesmyr that are here today are some of the most prestigious families in the Nesmyr community. They own multiple large businesses and are insanely rich. They can afford a couple million dollars."
I watched the two families, Riley and the baby be ushered out of the gym and through a back door opposite of the one everyone else was heading towards. Half of the people on the stage followed them and the other half left the room.
I watched a lot of tearful women and even some tearful men leaving. I wanted to feel sorry for them but I couldn't. They already had children and if they wanted more, they could. I found it ridiculous that these families were so heartbroken over losing the opportunity to have something they already had or could easily have.
We waited until the area cleared out a little more before Felix decided it was safe for us to leave. "We need to take you to meet the Lovac that are on the council. Only the Nesmyr on the council will be helping settle things with the baby."
"Well, well, who do we have here?" a male voice said from behind me. I turned around to see a boy about my height, with shoulder-length red hair and freckles dusting his face smiling at me with a big toothy grin. Most red-haired people had green eyes but his were just as purple as mine.
"This is Axel," Felix said. "Axel, this is Avery. The Missing Lovac."
Axel’s eyes widened in amazement and I groaned inside. I really hoped they didn’t call me The Missing Lovac.
"You finally found her? How?" Axel asked Felix but continued to stare at me. I shifted uncomfortably and looked at Felix and tried to beg him with my eyes to get me out of here. I didn’t want to be the center of attention.
Felix didn’t need to look at me to know what I wanted though. "It’s a long story. We’ll talk about it later." He emphasized the later and Axel nodded in understanding. He gave me one final look over before walking away.
"Sorry about that," Felix said. "Everyone is going to want to meet you. Like I said, you’ve been a hot topic here for a while. Let’s get out of here before anyone else notices you."
Chapter 5
Felix led me out of the gym and back into the hallway where we came in at. He headed to the closest door on the right which opened up to a stairwell. We went up two flights and entered into a large open sitting area with multiple doors leading out of it. Gathered on some couches was a group of five people.
These were the five Lovac council members. There were four women and one man. Their conversation stopped when they saw us enter the room. A tall, boney woman stood up to greet us. Her hair was long and deep brown and she was very exotic looking. She didn’t look a day over thirty and had to be the youngest person on the council.
"Felix, it’s good to see you back. We are all so eager to meet the long lost Lovac," she said, giving me a full look over. She had a slight accent too that I guessed was probably Russian or something similar.
"Rema," Felix greeted, bowing his head a little bit. "This is Avery. Avery this is Rema. She’s the head of the Lovac section of the council."
"It’s nice to meet you," I practically whispered. I wasn’t exactly shy; I just didn’t like being the center of attention. I tried to focus on only Rema, but I could feel the stares of everyone else on me.
My hands were sweating from nerves and I hoped she wouldn’t offer her hand to shake. Luckily, she didn’t. Instead, she stepped up to me and pulled me into a light embrace. I froze completely. I could handle people staring at me, but a stranger hugging me was something I was not prepared for. She stepped back with her hands still on my shoulder and smiled brightly at me.
"Please excuse Rema. She’s very touchy-feely," the male Lovac council member said, with a teasing tone. "Rema, can you not see the horrified look on her face."
Rema gave a guilty nod and stepped back. "I’m sorry. I just want to make sure you feel completely welcome and I’m used to hugging everyone when I greet them. It’s just habit."
The man rose up from the couch and walked over to greet me. He held out his hand and I quickly wiped mine on my pants before offering mine. "My name is Carson," he said. "It is truly an honor to meet you."
Carson looked to be in is mid-sixties. His hair was salt and pepper but it was still thick and long. He had it pulled in a tight ponytail at the back of his neck. His face was starting to become wrinkled and his smile reached all the way up to his eyes.
He turned around and pointed to the remaining three women, introducing them in turn. Sunni was the first one. She was very small and petite and would look almost like a child if it wasn’t for a few wrinkles starting to form around her eyes. Her hair was still blonde but I could see a few glimmers of silver starting to show.
Darcy was next. She looked like the oldest of all of them. Her hair was completely gray and falling out in some spots. Her face was sunken in a little bit and she looked almost skeletal. When she said hello to me her voice was so weak I could barely hear her. I couldn’t understand why she was on a council at her age but I had no right to question anything.
The last woman was Nia. Her frizzy red hair spilled all over the place and her distinct jaw line gave her a very stern look. She was the least friendly out of all of them and constantly eyed me with suspicion.
Once all of the introductions were complete Felix and I sat down while Rema and Carson returned to their seats.
"You’re all over the age of twenty-five," I said as I sat down. Once the words were out I regretted them. I didn’t want to imply that they looked old and I should have thought up a more tactful way to bring up my curiosity.
"How nice of you to notice," Nia said bitterly.
"I didn’t mean to be offensive," I said. "Felix just mentioned that most Lovac don’t survive past twenty-five because of the darkness."
Rema smiled sweetly and said, "Did Felix also tell you about Dimidiums?"
The word sounded familiar but I only faintly remember Felix talking about it. "Yes, but…" I started to say but Felix interrupted.
"I did, but she was too concerned about demons and fairies existing than the Dimidiums. She could probably use a refresher."
Felix’s tone was part joking and part irritation and I felt bad for not listening to him completely. If he’d been in my position, he’d probably have a hard time believing demons and fairies existed, too.
"Dimidiums are like soul mates," Rema said. "It’s the one person in the world who can balance out the darkness in us and help us control it instead of letting it control us. The only reason the five of us are still sitting here today is because we’ve found our Dimidiums. There’s only a handful of other Lovac in this region who have found their Dimidiums."
"How does a Lovac find a Dimidium?" I asked, more out of curiosity for my own Dimidium than anything else.
"A Dimidium will find you. Since they can be any species other than another Lovac, it’s impossible to go looking for one."
I quickly glanced at Felix and then blushed. I was disappointed that a Dimidium couldn’t be another Lovac.
Even though I barely knew Felix, I was definitely attracted to him and even though is cocky attitude irritated me slightly, he seemed like a great guy. It would’ve been nice to find my Dimidium and not have to worry about the darkness at all.
"Why can’t a Lovac be a Dimidium?" I asked.
Carson answered this one. "Darkness can’t balance out darkness. In theory, two Lovac being together would cause them to go crazy faster. There’s a special light in a Dimidium that helps ease the darkness away."
I sighed quietly and tried not to make my disappointment too obvious. Any feelings that I might have for Felix would just have to be stuffed down. I’d never really had feelings for another guy before, so it couldn’t be that hard to forget about Felix.
"Besides the Dimidium, did Felix fill you in about the rest of our world?" Rema asked, interrupting my thoughts.
"He told me quite a bit," I said. "I doubt it was everything but it was definitely a lot of information."
"You seem to be handling it pretty well." Rema was starting to sound like a psychiatrist.
I shrugged. "I don’t think I can really deny any of it. It sounds crazy but here you all are, with the same purple eyes as mine. You’ve all got weird powers and super strength, too?"
I saw amusement in Rema’s eyes as she nodded. "I wouldn’t call all of our powers weird, but yes, that’s right. Did Felix mention anything about why he wanted you to come here?"
"Just to meet you," I said, starting to feel nervous. Rema sounded so sweet and kind that I couldn’t believe she was some crazed murderer but I started to wonder if I walked right into a trap.
"Well, yes," Carson said, taking over the conversation. "But we could also use your help."
"My help? What can I do?"
"Felix told you about Zhulik right?"
I nodded.
"Well, Lovac are trained to fight Zhulik but we always have a limited number of Lovac. We do a pretty good job of keeping them away from most Nesmyr but we could always use more help. We’d like it if you would be willing to train and join our ranks."
Rema continued, "Lovac are always being hired by Nesmyr to hunt down Zhulik that are invading on their territory, or ones that have kidnapped Nesmyr family members. It seems to be getting worse and we could always use more Lovac to help."
I opened my mouth to respond but nothing came out. I wasn’t expecting this at all. I figured they’d teach me a little bit more about what I am and then send me on my way.
The weird thing was I kind of wanted to learn to fight. It sounded exciting. Even though my life had never been dull with my mom and me moving around all the time, it was never exciting. I was home-schooled and cooped up inside most of the time.
"Someone killed my mother yesterday," I said, my eyes watering up but I blinked the tears away. "And if everything you’ve said is true, then she wasn’t human. She snapped my mom’s neck without any effort and then evaporated into a cloud of smoke the moment she saw me. If I’m going to train to help you out, I want help locating this woman and taking her down. My mom was an amazing person, and I want her murderer to pay."
Rema and Carson both gave each other a look and Felix tensed next to me. I didn’t know if I had offended them or what, but I wasn’t going to help out these strangers without getting something in return.
"We know what happened to your mom," Rema finally said. "We sent a few Nesmyr to clean up at the hospital and try to find you, but you were already gone."
"What do you mean clean up?"
"They erased the memories of some of the staff to forget completely about you and your mom and found any video footage that had you on it and brought it to us. They also brought her body back in case we could find you. If you’d like, we can give her a proper burial in our graveyard."
I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing this time. These people that I barely knew did all of this for me?
"Why would you do all of that?" I asked and wiped the tears from my eyes.
"We’ve been looking out for you since you were born. When your mom refused to accept what you are and let you live with us, we could only help from a distance. It was hard with your mom blocking us out but we managed to keep you safe."
"Safe from what, though? If my mom wasn’t running from you all these years, what was she running from?"
"Zhulik. For some reason, a certain Zhulik has been chasing after you since you were born."
That’s when I remembered the picture in my pocket of the man I assumed was my father. He had the glowing red eyes to indicate he was a Zhulik but I didn’t understand why he was coming after me. I pulled the picture from my pocket and handed it to Rema.
"Is this the Zhulik?"
Her eyes widened at the picture and looked up at me to nod. "Where did you get this?"
"My mom had it. She left it with a letter for me. She said this man attacked her and left her pregnant with me. He’s the reason I’m a Lovac, isn’t he?"
"Yes. His name is Lucas. He’s one of the most powerful Zhulik in the world. He’s been alive for centuries."
"Centuries? How long do Zhulik live?"
"As long as they want," Rema said simply. "The more people Zhulik kill, the longer they live. They steal a person’s life force with every kill. Nesmyr only live to be a couple hundred years old and Lovac with Dimidiums live as long as their Dimidium does."
"Why is this Lucas coming after me though?"
"We have no idea. He was old enough to know what happens if he let a woman he raped live. Maybe he wasn’t thinking clearly the night you were conceived, let your mother live and realized his mistake later. Zhulik know that Lovac are the only ones strong enough to kill them so they try not to make any. Young Zhulik can’t seem to help themselves though."
"Does he have anything to do with the woman who killed my mom?"
"It’s possible. From the security tapes we got from the hospital, it looks like she’s a demon. Zhulik usually don’t work with any other species, but when they do, it’s always demons."
"A demon? Don’t they have horns and red skin?" The woman from the hospital looked too normal to be a demon.
Rema laughed. "Horns, yes. Since she’s female, they’re so small you can barely see them through her hair. Demons don’t have red skin though. And fairies don’t have wings and aren’t a few inches tall. There are lots of misconceptions about mythical creatures."
"How am I supposed to find this demon?"
"We’re trying to get in contact with a demon that we are allied with to see if he has any information on who she is. Until then, there’s no way of finding her. If you really want to take her down, then I suggest accepting our offer to train you to fight. If we find her, you won’t stand a chance against her unless you train."
I shrugged. "Fine. I'll train." Now that my mom was gone and there was still the possibility that a Zhulik was after me, I didn't have anything better to do. I didn't know how to live on my own and I wanted to go to college but if I was always on the run I wouldn't be able to. My mom's money would last me a while but not forever. I needed to take care of Lucas and the demon and hopefully be able to have a normal life.
"Excellent," Carson said. "Felix will show you to your room and he'll start training you tomorrow."
"What?" Felix and I asked at the same time. I wasn’t expecting to stay here and I definitely wasn’t expecting to start so soon. I opened my mouth to argue, but Felix beat me to it.
"Why do I have to train her?" he asked. The irritation in his voice surprised me and I wondered what I did to make him not want to train me. "What about the regular trainers?"
Rema sighed. "Our trainer numbers are dwindling. Daryn took a turn for the worse yesterday and we don't know if he'll recover. Ashli isn't doing very well either. The rest of the trainers are booked full of classes right now. We have nowhere to put her. She's your responsibility from now on. Riley and Axel can help when they have time."
Felix didn't argue back. He just nodded his head and looked irritated. I made a m
ental note to ask him why it was such a big deal that he had to train me and then brought up my argument.
"I didn't know I would have to stay here. I thought I would just stay at a nearby motel and only come when I was needed." Even though I didn't think these people were murderers or kidnappers, they still made me nervous and I didn't know if I would be comfortable sleeping so close to them.
All of the council members looked shocked, except for Nia, who still had a sour look on her face.
"Well, you can stay at a motel if you feel more comfortable," Rema said. "But the closest motel is an hour away. There's plenty of space here. You'll have your own room, with a lock and personal bathroom. We just thought it would be more convenient. Besides, if Lucas or the demon decide to come after you, you'll be protected here."
I hadn't thought about that. I assumed I would have some way of knowing if they were coming for me like my mom had but I wasn't psychic like she was. I wouldn't have time to run if I was alone. These strangers were definitely the lesser of two evils.
"I can leave at any time if I decide to stay?"
"Absolutely. You're our guest, not our prisoner."
Chapter 6
Ten minutes later Felix was leading me to my room on the floor assigned to Lovac, which was one level beneath the council member’s floor. Riley met us halfway down the stairs.
"Hey, I was just coming to find you. How did everything go?" she asked.
"Not bad," Felix asked. "She's going to start training to help us out."
"As long as I get help finding that demon," I added. I wanted to make it clear that I wasn't going to do this for free.
"Demon?" Riley asked, looking from me to Felix and back again.
"A demon apparently killed my mother."
When Riley still looked confused, Felix added, "They got the security tapes from the hospital where it happened. The woman turned to smoke."
Riley’s eyes widened in understanding. "I’m so sorry about your mom."
All I could do was nod. The lump in my throat prevented me from talking.
Avenging Amethyst (Immortal Eyes) Page 4
