Vala Heritage

by J. F. Jenkins

  “Unless you make nice with your ex and get him to buy you something nice and shiny, or propose, the chances of your getting something like that as a gift are pretty slim,” Zach said with heavy sarcasm. “Take one of your smoother ones you got from the witch doctor and get it set into a piece by a jeweler.”

  Jewl chewed on her lower lip. She didn’t like that option much either. Diamonds were not something she had a lot of, nor did she like using her stones, set aside for magical purposes, often. They were to be used for emergencies only. “I’m sure I can figure something out.”

  “Yeah, you can. You’re smart. I’m never worried about you getting hurt, at least not by minions of Satan or by your family’s political drama. But…” He paused. “I do worry about you emotionally. You should slow down sometimes, rely on someone else for a change. I know you say you’re fine and all. But, I don’t like the idea of your being alone, then clinging to the wrong type of person when you get scared.”

  “I’m—”

  “Fine, yeah, I know. Just had to say it.”

  “Again.”

  “Right, again.”

  He knew her too well. Part of her liked it. He understood her in ways no one ever could. She didn’t have to sit and explain the story of her life, he had already lived it with her. The other half of her found it depressing. Zach was a gorgeous boy and he would have made a gorgeous man had he gotten to live past the age of eighteen.

  She vaguely remembered him having soft dark hair and dark blue eyes. They didn’t sparkle the way Teague’s did, she remembered that much. They were nice all the same. Living in the underworld had made his hair dusty and tinged with red from the sands of the desert and his eyes were pale, gray, and lifeless. She could have easily been attracted to Zach, and he already reciprocated those feelings. He’d said so numerous times before.

  But he was dead. And he wasn’t Anj.

  She couldn’t think about boys anymore. If she could, she would burn them from her mind completely. They were always too much of a distraction. “I have to go.”

  “Did I do something wrong? Because I didn’t mean to offend you. I just worry about you up there. It’s a big scary world. If you saw all the nut cases I meet down here on a regular basis, you’d be worried, too.”

  “No, you didn’t do anything wrong.” She reached out and gave his arm a squeeze. “I told you. I’m—”

  “Fine, I know.” He smirked. “And I’ll never believe it. I need to have something to do down here when I’m not regulating the loonies.”

  She raised an eyebrow at him but didn’t inquire about it further. There were some things she was better off not knowing. The last thing she needed was to worry for someone who had already passed on. The next world was where peace was found for the righteous, not more problems.

  “I’ll stop by again soon,” she said.

  He gently took her hand into his and kissed it. His lips were icy and cold. They felt nice amongst the dull throbbing heat of her burn. “A pleasure, my lady, as always. Be sure to say hi to your sister for me.”

  “Sure thing,” Jewl said with a great deal of forced enthusiasm. She would be sure to pass the message on, if she could ever stomach being in the same room as her younger half-sister, Sonnet, again.

  “I was just being polite. You don’t have to pass my regards on to her. She probably doesn’t remember me anyway.”

  “I haven’t talked with her about it for a long time, so I wouldn’t know. I probably won’t see her unless she enrolls for school, and that’s still another year away. I don’t plan on going home for the holidays this year.”

  He nodded. “Well, give my regards to your dad at least.”

  Jewl swallowed and nodded. She waved, not able to form words anymore. Her father was coming in two days and she wasn’t feeling ready for it. The last time they had physically been together was when he had sent her away from home to go and live with her mother.

  That journey had sealed her fate when her traveling party had been attacked by Aunt Eyde’s armies. There had been pictures, phone calls and gifts shared between her and her father, but that wasn’t the same as actually seeing him in the flesh.

  Clutching her teleportation stone, she whispered the words to unlock its power and send her back home again. She took in a deep breath. The cool dorm air was refreshing compared to the hot dry heat of the underworld, and it immediately cleared her head. It was time to go through her collection to find her stones containing light magic.

  Her assortment of jewels would have made any geologist impressed. It was not limited to precious gems, but stones of all types. Some were common with basic spells inside them. The general rule of thumb was the more rare the materials, the more powerful the magic it contained and the more of her energy needed to be used. She was not looking forward to the last part.

  A spell of light magic was, in most cases, intense. It would incapacitate her for the rest of the evening and possibly a good portion of the next day. She could not afford to lose a day or more of time. Jewl was not a strong summoner. After all, she could only summon the magic of stones. The whole Earth was filled with potential magical playthings. Most summoners could perform spells from trees, flowers and even water. She envied the students who could do magic off of any natural material and hardly felt anything from it.

  Nervously, her hand went to her phone and she dialed the number for Denver Collins’s room.

  “What?” he snapped in his usual greeting.

  “Don’t what me,” she snapped back, keeping up with their routine.

  “Oh… it’s you. What do you want?”

  “The same thing I always need. Do I ever call just to chat? You know our relationship is strictly business.”

  “Again? Didn’t we just go through this a week or two ago?”

  “Yes, again.”

  He grumbled on the other end for a few minutes. She would wait until he was finished with his tantrum. There was no rush. The sooner she was healed, however, the less questions she would have to answer later. The pain from her burn was becoming unbearable.

  “What’s in it for me if I give you my blood?” he asked her at last.

  “Let’s see.” She thought for a moment. “I have more shinnies for you. I can write that Lit. paper you have coming up. What kind of a present do you want?”

  “Well, if you’re going to take some of my blood, I want some back in return.”

  “Doesn’t it defeat the purpose of—”

  “Not yours. But I do love the taste of the Divine. Especially those nymphy ones.”

  A deep sigh escaped her lips. “I can’t promise you access to Cheyenne so you can suck her dry again. I can just give you the means to get in undetected and—” Cheyenne and Denver had multiple past encounters involving him drinking her blood. That was how the two had met, and also one of the reasons the girl had transferred to the school in the first place. The version of the story Jewl heard was they had been at a club, and he seduced her into letting him bite her.

  “You know it’s good enough for me.” The guy had an infatuation with Cheyenne. That seemed to be a common trait in many of the boys at the school, though. There was certainly an intriguing factor about her. She was new and hardly anyone knew anything about her. There were not a lot of nymphs at the school and being Divine made her even more fascinating.

  For being there for just over a month and a half, she had already had interesting adventures circulating through the halls. They painted her as a brave hero, which added even more fuel to the fire. On top of that, she had instantly been welcomed into the twins’ circle of friends with no questions asked. Jewl didn’t get it. Jewl also had a suspicion that Denver’s infatuation was reciprocated. Poor Zes. She couldn't say anything. Neither of the twins would believe her, Cheyenne would deny it and he had to make his own decisions and mistakes. All she could do at that point was watch and see what happened.

  “Get over here then, and soon. Preferably while there are still visitation hours,” sh
e said before hanging up the phone.

  He better be on time if he knows what's good for him. It's bad enough he's even coming over. She hated to rely on him for anything and he would never let her live it down. While she waited, she took the time to clean. She was getting stir crazy but ready to get everything over and done with.

  Denver didn’t knock on her door. He walked in as if he owned the place, immediately making himself comfortable on her couch. It annoyed her. But since he was doing her a favor, she didn’t feel it would have been right to complain.

  “Well, babe, you ready to do this?”

  Don’t call me babe. She kept the commentary to herself. If she made him angry, he'd leave. “I need to do my thing first before you can do yours.”

  “Duh,” he crossed his legs. “But are you ready for it? Or do you still need to mentally prepare yourself so you don’t have a meltdown?”

  “I don’t have meltdowns. And yes I’m ready.”

  “What are you doing anyway?” he asked.

  With a roll of her eyes, she unraveled the bandage on her hand to show him the burn. “This. I had an attack from the Dark. I guess it was demonic, or that’s the theory. I want to have it taken care of before one of the teachers sees it and meddles around. They tend to overreact a lot and I don't want to be bothered.”

  “They’re good at that,” he said, sounding far away from her as he stared at her hand. “It would probably be better for you if you, I don’t know, didn’t touch things that looked like they could be of the Dark and demonic with your bare hands. Isn’t that part of ‘Duh, 101’ or something? Sometimes I’m surprised you humans even still exist on this planet, because you all are so dumb. Actually, I’m pretty sure if breeding wasn’t so fun, you’d all be dead.”

  “I guess you would know that better than I would,” she said, ignoring everything he said. Pulling out one of her small diamonds, she hoped it would do what she needed. Still, she didn’t want to strip it of all of its splendor. When the spell finished, it would be dull and worthless. “Remember not to—”

  “Transfuse anywhere people can see. Yeah, I remember. I’m a man of my word.”

  She took in a deep breath and closed her eyes, so she could focus as much of her energy as possible on the stone. It didn’t take as long as she thought it would to invoke the power inside of it. Despite the small size, the diamond she had chosen was potent, a lot more than she had expected.

  There was a sharp burning in her hand as the magic poured over the burn and seared away the darkness. That hurt more than what had happened from the Dark. It not only stung the flesh on her hand but it went in her blood and throughout her body. The infection was much deeper than she had originally thought.

  I hope I didn’t just bite off more than I can chew, was her last thought before she hit the floor of her den. Denver didn’t waste any time. She was vaguely aware of him moving over her and going toward her bare feet, placing a hand over the heel of her foot. There was a small puncture, but the pain was nothing compared to the cleansing, powerful, burning sensation coursing through her veins.

  He clasped her foot with both of his hands as his blood pumped into her. Her strength returned quickly. There was something special about his blood. It was related to his species - whatever he was. He needed to drink the blood of others to survive. That need earned him the title of ‘vampire’. Hardly anyone knew where he came from.

  “I can’t do too much more. So you better have enough to get whatever you need done, cause anymore of this and I'm going to pass out,” he grunted.

  “I think I’m okay now. Thank you. I’ll get you what you need,” she whispered, still burning inside, but she'd make it through.

  Did Jewl feel bad about betraying Cheyenne, allowing Denver to prey on her? Slightly. But Jewl had a sneaking suspicion the girl didn’t mind being one of Denver’s “victims”. Which is why she felt no regret in handing over a small bag of magical contents. All of them were tools to help him gain access to Cheyenne’s room and maneuver around the wards. It wasn’t the first time Jewl had helped him do it since Cheyenne’s arrival, and it probably wouldn’t be the last.

  Denver stared inside his goodie bag and almost squealed with delight. “You’re too kind, Jewl.”

  “Just don’t let that get around.” There was a soft knock on her door. She recognized right away who it belonged to. Zes had a shy knock. He hated to intrude on anyone. “Why can’t people leave me alone?” she fumed as she hobbled over, mindful to avoid spilling blood on her floor and carpet. Opening the door, she stared up at him. “What do you want? Actually, what does he want that he had to send you over here to do it?”

  Zes’s words caught in his throat. “Well, I… see… just, ya know, came back from dropping off the towel. Anj was worried so he wanted me to make sure you were okay. I guess the towel did have some kind of dark magic on it. He wanted to make sure someone was coming to help you and-” he caught sight of Denver and stopped rambling, which was typical code that Zes was nervous. “What’s he doing here?”

  “Tutoring,” Jewl said. He'd buy it, but Denver was also well known for lacking in his academic abilities. It wasn’t a hard lie to sell, even if she wasn't a top student either. “And you can tell your brother I’m not interested in his concern. He isn’t allowed to care about someone he wants nothing to do with, as he so obviously stated earlier today.”

  “I’m worried too. Is everything okay? And I’m not just talking about your hand.” He watched Denver out of the corner of his eyes.

  “You should already know the answer,” she said, lifting up her hand to show the results of her magic. Her skin, which had once been charred, red and brittle, was smooth, as it had ever been. “And this is all better. If you wanted, I could try what I did on myself on you and—”

  “It’s getting better on its own.”

  She was pretty sure he was lying, but didn't want to press the issue. “How’s the new kid? He still freaking out?”

  “No, he’s back at his place. He’s… interesting.”

  That was one word to describe Teague. “Okay, good. Glad he’s okay.” She raised an eyebrow at Zes when she noticed he was frowning. “What? I’m not allowed to care?”

  “No,” Denver said from the floor, releasing a laugh then groaning.

  “It’s not that. It’s just new. It’s not your usual thing,” Zes said.

  Jewl shrugged. “He forced himself on me and dragged me into his mess. I kind of have to care now, don’t I?”

  “I guess. You know…” He paused then stared at Denver a moment longer before shaking his head. “You know if you need to, you can talk to me, right? I know him better than anyone and just because he’s my brother doesn’t mean you can’t be my friend.”

  She shook her head. “I know. All right? There’s nothing to talk about. Go pass on your message and leave me alone. It’s been a long day, I’m tired and I’m done with people. The last thing I want to do is discuss the million ways your brother is a jerk.”

  Zes nodded and waved, then took his leave. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought he was actually mad at her. Had he finally grown a backbone?

  “Whatever.” She turned toward Denver, her arms folded across her chest. “That goes for you too.”

  “I’m working on it. I’m trying to regain feeling in my legs.”

  “You’re such a big baby.”

  He picked himself up from the floor and glared, clutching his pay to his chest. “Who’d want to stay with you anyway?”

  As soon as he was gone, she locked the door and screamed in frustration. “Worst. Day. Ever!”

  A rush of blood went to her head forcing her to lie down on the couch. She took in, slow, deep breaths to calm her building anger. The more she thought, however, the angrier she became, making her sicker.

  I hate them, she thought. I hate them all.

  At least the pain from the light cleansing her body was dulled to a small tingle by then. That gave her one less thing to
worry about. The clock said it was still too early to sleep. Her body begged her to anyway.

  One power nap for an hour.

  One nap turned into her nightly rest and resulted in her missing an important phone call from her father.

  Chapter Seven

  “I guess I called at a bad time. You must be either sleeping or not around. I wish I could have given you a more definite timing because I would have liked to talk with you. I miss hearing your voice, but that’s all right. I can be patient until I see you tomorrow. We can meet outside of your dorm at around nine. I’d be there sooner, but I keep running into problems. Nothing to worry about, of course. They’re just stopping me from getting there earlier. I was hoping to take you to dinner, but I’m pretty sure you’ll have already eaten by then. Try saving some room for dessert for me though, and I’ll see you soon. I should go before the message cuts me off. I love you.”

  It took her until halfway through the message to recognize her father's voice. Had it been that long since she'd last heard it? How could she have not known it was him? Nothing about him had changed. The tone and pitch were still the same. She knew it wasn't safe, but she saved the message so she could keep it for when they were apart again, especially if he was coming with bad news.

  Jewl closed her eyes and listened to it one more time. She had over-slept, missing her first class for the morning as well as breakfast. Skipping for the entire day was tempting. But then a staff member would call her to check in, making sure she never left her room again until she 'felt better'.

  It didn’t take her long to find out where Zes had taken the rag. Though she didn’t have any classes with him, Mr. Thantos eyed her even more suspiciously than usual. He was the professor the twins trusted the most. Or Anj did and Zes followed his brother’s lead in everything. Besides, he was the most knowledgeable about demons and all things related to their ways.

  He always knew so much more than anyone could imagine. Even though he had a reputation of being heartless and self-centered, Mr. Thantos was protective over all of his students. He also hated the Divine and he wasn’t afraid to let everyone know it. Under his tutorship, Anj had taken on a lot of the same beliefs Mr. Thantos held, practically worshiping the fallen angel.