Eye of the Vampire: A New Adult Urban Fantasy Novel (Fated by Magic) (Volume 0)

by Taylor Fray

  "Are you two getting paid for every person here or what?" Emily said looking around at the sea of young hormone crazed people.

  "No, but that's a good point. We should be getting paid,” Gianni thought out loud. “Hey Nicole, let's be party planners!"

  "That's an awesome idea!" The two seemed genuinely excited, though a bit of it was probably the alcohol talking.

  "Hey in a few days we’ll officially be sophomores. It went by fast didn't?" Gianni asked.

  "Yeah,” Nicole said. "So much has happened. But especially for you Emily. Who knew you would end up… hot?”

  Emily nodded. "Hey… working out and some makeup never hurt anyone." She took a long drink. She rather would not have been reminded of the whole thing. It was beginning to drag for her, the whole being considered hot thing. It was like that was her identity now. And yet if they only knew… And even Dominic as much a she liked him as much as they generally seemed to be working, how much of it was her looks, the looks that weren’t even really her own?

  "Seriously, whatever you did, Emily, you should like, market that!” Gianni said, almost spilling her drink in the excitement. “Do you know how much you would make if you had like a website or whatever, for girls to get ,you know whatever you want call it, like a makeover?"

  "Yeah you could call it ‘Emily's Transformations’,” Nicole added, “you know or something less cheesy, but something like that."

  "Thanks guys. You never know, I'll have to keep that idea my back pocket. I’m going to grab something to drink.” With that excuse, she tugged at Dominic's arm who gave the nod to the two besties and tagged along as she walked through the crowd. She really had to squirm around party people to make it to where the alcohol was being served, a foldout table that was layered with aluminum cans and glass bottles. She poured herself some wine to give herself something to do. She would probably sip on half a cup for the rest of the night so she could blend in and pretend she drank like everyone else. Dominic followed suit, though he popped a beer and began swigging hard.

  "Hey don't let it get you down,” he said to her. “Take it as a compliment."

  "What do you mean?"

  "People talking to you about your looks. I know it bothers you. It would probably bother anyone. Well unless you’re one of those people whose life goal is to get on TMZ."

  “Thanks. Yeah, you're probably right. It's just strange how much people care. I guess I knew people did. Well I care too or else I wouldn't…"

  "Hey don't get down on yourself. Can’t blame a girl for wanting to look good. Plus look at it as a selfless act. Making a lot of people happy." He grinned and began kissing her again. She kissed him a little but cut him off. She wasn't really in the mood. She just looked around the room hoping something would distract her. But nothing did. Outside of Dominic and her two friends most people stayed away from her. Why? She could only theorize. Perhaps being the it girl was actually a little alienating, a little lonely in its own way.

  She made small talk with a few people here and there and Dominic drank a couple more beers so that he started talking loudly with some guys in the corner about some sports team or other. Emily went back to Gianni who was checking something on her phone.

  “Hey, where’s Nicole?” Emily asked, knowing that the two were practically never apart and needing some small talk to take her mind off things.

  “Oh, she went upstairs with Steve, I guess someone was getting a little rowdy and they just wanted to check on things.”

  "Emily!” Nicole shouted from the doorway leading out to the hall. “You have to come quick! Dominic, you too!! Tori is freaking out! She's asking for you!"

  Emily rolled her eyes. Not again. She just had a week left. Just a week of avoiding her and she would never have to deal with her for the rest of her life.

  "I'm serious, Emily!” Nicole insisted. “She's saying she's going to kill herself!" She's on the roof!” A lump caught in Emily’s throat. Nicole wasn't someone to kid around about something like that. Emily rushed through the door and into the hall. Nicole, Dominic and Gianni followed her as she cut through the crowd. There was confusion running the party goers. Some were alarmed, some oblivious, others incredulous.

  “What happened?" Emily asked Nicole as they frantically walked toward the stairs.

  "She came along with some people. We didn’t have the heart to keep her out of the party. She seemed fine. She was totally laughing and you know, being Tori.”

  “Have you called the cops?” Dominic asked.

  "Campus security, they're on their way.”

  “You should have called the cops not security,” Dominic said, whipping out his phone. The group’s footsteps were clattering on the stairs.

  “We were going to, but she started screaming, saying that if we didn't get you or Emily up there she was going to jump any minute.”

  "God damn, I don't know what I ever saw in her—“

  "—This isn't the time, Dominic!” Emily shouted, surprising herself. There was an urgency inside her not just to save a life, but an urgency that was building up from the frustration, the alienation she began to feel from… normal people, non-magical people, from Mundanes.

  “You're right,” Dominic said under his breath.

  The cold air of the fourth floor rooftop brushed along her bare legs. This smooth beige surface reflected the moonlight. Carefully kept trees and hedged garden surrounded the building. A crowd of onlookers was gathered around Tori, who was barefoot in a small red dress, her hair undone, standing on a ledge with the full moon glowing right behind her.

  Emily shuddered at the despair she saw on Tori’s face. Dominic shook his head.

  “Tori, get down from there and stop being stupid!” he said as he rushed to her.

  “Ah!” Tori screamed, crouching in preparation to jump.

  "Don’t!" Emily said reaching for him.

  “Stop!" one of the students on the roof said as he practically tackled Dominic. He was a black guy in a red t-shirt. “You crazy, man? She's not messing around.”

  Another student tried to get near Tori.

  “I told you to stay away, or I'm jumping!”

  “Tori, please, I'm here,” Emily pleaded. “Whatever you want, I'll do it. Just please calm down and talk to me.”

  “I'm glad you're here—I'm so glad you're here. Because before I go. I want everyone to know about you." Emily's mouth parted, words failing her confusion. “I want everyone to know what the hottest girl really is. A witch, " she said it with a half crazed glee. "That's the only way you could steal my boyfriend.”

  “Tori, I didn’t steal your boyfriend”

  “Yes you did! She shrieked at the top of her lungs.

  “Alright, right it's true!” Emily was so panicked she was willing to say anything. She just desperately wanted her to come off the ledge. “I did, Tori, I did. I took him away from you. I'll do whatever you want, Dominic and I will break up—I’ll do anything, please just come down.” Emily herself was losing control. She had never practiced for anything like this, had never studied anything like this, she didn't know how to deal with this at all. All she could do now was stall and hope that someone would show up who did.

  “I know you'll do whatever I say. This is the only way. This is the only way to expose you. You think I don't know, Emily? You think I’m stupid? Just a dumb blonde to you. But I figured it out. You'd think I wouldn’t?” She straightened out the crumpled paper in her hands. Look!" She showed the torn pages from Emily's spell book to everyone gathered there. "Look at these, these are her spells." Most of the crowd just looked at Tori with pity, a look that said she was completely insane.

  “Don't you all get it? How do you think she transformed herself?” Disgust crept onto some of their faces along with irritation and panic. “They don't believe me, Emily. But they won’t have to believe, because you’re going to show us.”

  Emily just shook her head, her throat completely parched. Inwardly she was begging Tori not to do it. All kin
ds of scenarios were rushing through her mind. With each passing second she could see more clearly what Tori was about to do. The panic was beating her chest like a bell tower.

  “You think I’m a dumb bitch, well this bitch just outsmarted you." She raised her hands out and they swayed in the breeze, the cold black sky behind them. Her heels teetered off the ledge. “Show us who you are, Emily. Show us what you are because otherwise what happens to me is on your hands.”

  “No,” Emily muttered. “Don’t ,Tori! Even if I cast a spell, I can’t—”

  In the moment Tori jumped, she became everything to Emily. She was her mother, she was her father, she was her sister and brother, she was her child, she was herself, every fiber of her being wanted to save her, felt responsible for her. A rush of thoughts so vast swept over her that it was paralyzing. In a blinding amount of adrenaline she choked out the words “Anuvinath!” her hands lashing out at Tori like a whip. Yellow and blue magic flames burst around her and encircled Tori’s falling body.

  She had no time to think, no time to plan, no time to practice, no time to properly enunciate, no time to properly pronounce, no time for whatever words stumbled out of her mouth. Tori’s body hung in the air, falling, for a tenth of a second, then a blinding flash of light enveloped her.

  The flash of light reflected off the astounded crowd’s faces. For an instant, not a single muscle, not a single nerve in any of the crowd twitched and then as the flashing light vanished all hell broke loose. Tori had completely disappeared, along with the light. Screams mingled with hands pressing against temples running through hair. Cries of despair, cries of shock, language barely intelligible as people went insane at what they had just seen.

  Emily looked around at what was happening, completely in shock. What spell had she cast? In her panic she half thought she had cast the movement spell but now she was worried she might have cast disappearance— they were so similar. Even the slightest mispronunciation, even the slightest change in the thought changed the spell. She hadn't practiced, she wasn't prepared for—what had she done? She looked around trying to come up with a spell to reverse what she had done, her mind could barely think coherent thought as the adrenaline kept burning inside her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Nicole and someone else in the crowd began bleeding from the nose as they stuttered in panic. Everyone around her was bleeding from the nose. And she felt a strange sensation in her body as well. Half her face began twitching, her left arm was trembling uncontrollably her left leg seemed to be going limp, contorting like it was being electrocuted. A burning pain shot all through her body but was especially drawn to her left side as if she were holding a magnet there.

  “Argh!” She screamed out in pain. Backlash. With the part of her mind that was still coherent, she realized what was happening. Backlash. She thought back to that day when Dee had told her never to perform vulgar magic.

  Her mind fought through the pain as she tried to come up with a spell that would bring Tori back from wherever she was. The pain had grown so intense in the left side of her body that she was on her knees now. She forced the burning nerves in her arm to point at the spot from where Tori had vanished. “Anuvinaz!” she chortled out, trying to bring back Tori like she had brought back the pencil she had dematerialized. A gust of wind so strong fell on the tree just behind the building that it snapped branches off. Emily felt even more pain seared through her. Even more panic ran through her mind as she caught sight of her hand. The flesh was bursting in boils. It was as if her skin were a fungal growth still the color of skin but in the shape of disease and fungus. The sudden sight coupled with the pain muddled her mind. She just didn't know the right spells. She couldn't think straight.

  The people on the roof who were not bleeding and crumpled in pain came to her. Nicole was among them. "Emily? Emily?” she was saying her name, panic stricken. Each time saying it with more desperation, more and more confusion. “Emily? What's going on? What's happening to you? What—ah!!!”

  Her scream was directed at something she caught sight of on Emily's face. Summoning the last of her strength, Emily realized what was happening. The Backlash was coming on full-blown. She had to get out of there. She heard sirens somewhere in the distance. Pumping even more adrenaline through her veins she stood and began running with hobbled steps.

  She made her way down the stairs to the hall, shoving aside drunken partygoers whose faces went white when they caught sight of her. “Oh God, no, no, no,” she mumbled to herself as she hobbled down each flight of stairs. She could hear the commotion building behind her as people tried to make sense of what had happened up on the roof. She just had to get away. She made it out through the front door of the dorm. Out into the streets. She hobbled, her body still twitching. She stayed out of the streetlights and under the shadows of trees as best she could. At that moment it took everything she had to not seek death herself. She kept hobbling, her consciousness beginning to blur at the edges as she struggled not to give in to sheer hysteria. She kept shambling like a wounded creature into the night.

  TO BE CONTINUED…