Monster

by Yolanda Olson

  “You’re speed bumps are gone,” I called to him as one last leg flew past my head.

  “Figures,” he said with a wicked grin. He unstrapped himself from the ride and stood in the seat steadying himself. On the next circle toward the control stand, he gracefully leapt off and nonchalantly flipped off the ride. Winking at me he walked past me I watched as headed off toward a group of fledglings that were fighting Kaeden.

  I took a deep breath and shot off toward the gaming booths to check on Ryker. He seemed to be fine though; all I saw were fledgling parts lying around him.

  Remy was there with him and they both gave me a nod as they headed off toward the center of the melee.

  Wow, this is going faster than I thought.

  My next stop was the concession stands to check on Drake and Chase. I got there in time to see Chase viciously rip a fledgling off of Drake’s back and tear it in half. He threw the pieces aside and they both looked over at me and grinned, taking off after two vampires who were trying to run for their lives.

  I walked back to the middle of the carnival picking my way over body parts and dead vampires. It looked like almost all of them were dead now except for the two that Drake and Chase had taken after. Which mean there would only be one more.

  Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder as a pair of sharp teeth sunk into my skin. At first I thought nothing of it and turned to see who had bitten me and I came face to face with a lone fledgling.

  “You know,” I started casually. “If you were old enough, that might’ve actually worked.” Then I reared back and punched a hole through his chest. Pulling him close to me I smiled as the color drained from his eyes and then I pulled away and let his body fall limp to the ground.

  I grabbed my shoulder and rolled it a couple of times to get the pain to stop. If anything I at least knew that I was going to be stuck with a couple of battle scars.

  “Finn, get over here!” I heard Kaeden yell.

  I ran over to the newly formed battle lines and saw Ava smiling at the six of my friends. As I jogged over to them I felt my left leg go numb on my causing me to fall face first onto the ground.

  “What the hell?” I said out loud.

  Remy turned to look at me, then gripped Ryker’s arm. I went to push myself off the ground but found that my right leg had gone numb as well. I felt like a snake slithering across the ground, my legs weren’t working which meant that the vampire that bit me was older than it lead on.

  Helplessly I looked at Kaeden who started toward me, but Ava beat him to where I was. She crouched on my back and held my head up with her hands.

  “Now. Who wants to watch the pretty girl die?” she said with deranged glee.

  “Ava, if you value your life, you’ll let her go,” Kae said softly. I couldn’t help but become angry, this was not the time to be talking to his murderous pyromaniac like she was a bad kid. Especially not when she was holding my life literally in her hands.

  Remy took out her whip and cracked it once as a warning to her to let me go.

  Ava just grinned and pulled on my head a little harder. I grunted as she did which made her giggle with delight.

  My body went limp under her. All of my motor skills had been paralyzed. I was going to be royally screwed if no one decided to act soon. I knew that Remy wanted to help me but Ava would kill me before she had a chance to take more than two steps.

  That left my immortals.

  And none of them looked like they were going to help. Kaeden stood there sternly staring at Ava. Drake was looking at Kaeden as if he were waiting for permission. Chase was looking at me with wild terrified eyes. Cody was – wait.

  Where did Cody go?

  “I don’t think so.” I heard someone say from behind us.

  That’s when I felt Ava being lifted off of me and I heard her cry out as she was thrown fifty feet into the distance.

  Cody turned me over and crouched over me, “You sure do get yourself into a lot of crap don’t you?” He picked me up and carried me over to the group of waiting fighters.

  “Thanks,” I said to him. “And thanks to you too Remy.”

  She colored slightly and nodded a ‘you’re welcome’ to me. I turned my attention to Kaeden who was looking at me indifferently.

  “She’s been bit boss,” Drake said to him.

  “I see that,” he said in a neutral tone.

  “So you plan on helping her out here? She’s going to need the ability to walk again someday,” Cody said his voice giving way to anger.

  Kaeden let his eyes slowly travel from me to him and he held his gaze for a moment, then he shrugged. “Unfortunately it’s not in my power to do anything. I would if I could though.”

  Cody stared at him in disgust and looked down the line. By this point my vocal chords had been paralyzed and I wasn’t able to speak.

  “What about you, Red? You should be able to do something besides give me headaches all day,” he said staring at Remy.

  “I can help her,” she said looking at Ryker. He smiled at her and nodded as if to give her the okay. “I will need Shimulo blood though.”

  “Alright well how do you get that?” Cody asked.

  “One of them must allow me to take blood from them,” she said letting her eyes wander to my three vamps.

  “Easy enough,” he said handing me off to Ryker. With one swift movement, he grabbed Kaeden by the arm, and cut him deeply until his arm was flowing a blue liquid substance.

  Kae looked at him with shock and anger, but Cody didn’t seem to care. Instead he walked back over to Ryker and grabbed me out of his arms again and nodded at

  Remy.

  “There ya go. Go get your Shim-whatever blood and let’s get this little lady back on her feet.”

  She walked quickly over to Kaeden and looked around. She spotted a plastic cup from the concessions and quickly wiped it clean with her waist scarf, then held Kae’s arm over it. She looked inside and when she was satisfied that he had enough blood, she used her scarf to make a tourniquet above his gash.

  The fire in the distance was still raging. I only knew because Remy was standing there seemingly judging the distance. She then looked at Cody.

  “I need to boil this and add something. Can you get us to the fire?”

  “No problemo,” he said flinging me over his shoulder and grabbing Remy by her arm. Once he had her safely tucked in his arm, he called out, “Hang on tight,” and ran at inhuman speed to the raging inferno.

  Jumping over and dodging dead fledglings, he got us quickly to the stables. Probably faster than I could’ve run there. He set her down and readjusted me back into his arms. Remy ran over to the trees and looked at some of the leaves. One of the other gypsy women seeing what she was doing grabbed a horse trough and started to drag it toward her. Together they grabbed branches and lit them on fire tossing them into the trough that for some reason wouldn’t burn. I’ll have to ask her about that when I can talk again.

  As I watched the woman grabbed a bowl made of some kind of metal and took it over to Remy who poured Kaeden’s blood into then mixed it with leaves I’d never seen before.

  “Hawthorn leaves,” she said noticing the curiosity on my face. “Step back,” she instructed Cody and the woman.

  Then she held her hands over the bowl and started to speak in their native tongue. I didn’t understand a word she was saying, but the way she was moving her hands was pretty. It made me think of interpretive dancing.

  As the mix boiled she spoke louder and louder. Then she came over to me cut the underside of my arm open. I would’ve hit her if my limbs were working. That was definitely going to leave a scar and with Ken being MIA, I had no idea how I was going to fix the tattoo. Sighing impatiently I waited for her to collect her ‘sample’ and finish her dance. Instead she had Cody lay me on the ground face down, and poured the boiling mixture into the wound that she had made. I wondered if anyone had noticed that I didn’t bleed.

  Probably, I thought dryly to myse
lf.

  The potion or whatever it was burned like holy hell. I grit my teeth to keep from screaming out. But even though I felt like I was being tortured I felt the feeling slowly starting to make its way down my body.

  “What the hell is that?” I asked in pain.

  “A Shimulo bit you, to combat their venom I needed to put the blood of one in you. The hawthorn leaves will close the wound when the healing is done,” she said pouring out the mix and covering it with dirt.

  I flexed my arms back and forth and slowly got to my feet. Cody bent down to look at me holding one hand on my back and one hand in front of me to catch me in case I became unsteady. After a couple of moments the pain subsided and I walked over to Remy and extended my hand in gratitude. She took it and shook it firmly.

  “Alright,” I said straightening myself out. “I’m sick of this crazy burned vampire. It’s time to finish this. One of us is going down today.”

  I jogged off into the distance where Cody had thrown her and followed her footsteps into the darkness. This was the night that someone was going to die.

  9. The Demon Principle

  (Day Ten)

  I can't believe it.

  I've been asleep for four damn days.

  Remy's potion was a lot stronger than she thought and it knocked me out as soon as I walked into the woods.

  So much for going for the glory.

  I could've had her!

  Now I've got a different problem.

  Cody.

  I know he likes me because he kissed me but I haven't seen him since I passed out. At least I don't think I have.

  I can't remember anything.

  I was still lying in bed when I wrote my entry. I had turned onto my side and jotted down everything that Kaeden told me when I had woken up. He had been sitting by my bed all four nights, I had to practically scream at him to get him to go feed. I mean I felt bad but he looked like raging hell.

  I tossed the book next to my mattress and looked out through the boards on my window. The moon was shining beautifully and I knew it would be a nice night to be outside. Especially since I was so fully rested. Oddly enough I felt full too which was weird because I thought I'd be ravenous when I woke up.

  Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath. When I opened them again I jumped. I saw a pair of stunning blue eyes peeking through the boards, and by the way the crinkled when they smiled I knew who it was.

  I got up and ran over and he slid his hands in through the gaps grasping onto it.

  “Hey kid,” Cody said.

  I reached up and put my hand on his and he grinned, “Hey,” I said with a smile.

  “Let me in,” he said laughing.

  Grabbing hold of the boards I started to rip them off one by one, until nothing was left but the shell of where a window once stood. I moved back so he could hop through. He landed cleanly in and grabbed me by the waist, then he spun me once and grinned. I smiled in anticipation as he leaned down and kissed me gently on my lips again. This time I felt a shock of electricity go through me as his lips lingered for a moment on mine.

  I stood there on my tiptoes with my eyes closed for a moment. Then he pulled back and kissed me on my forehead. I smiled at him and he smiled back. As he walked past me he let out his breath plopping down on my mattress. Crossing his arms behind his head as well as crossing his legs he looked up at the ceiling of my room in silence. I walked over to my desk and sat down.

  “Did you know that the vampire with the glasses wouldn’t let me in here?” he asked turning on his side to face me.

  “Kaeden? Really?” I asked surprised.

  “That’s the one. The Shil-whatever,” he said rolling onto his back again.

  Weird. I wonder why?

  “Want to hear my theory on it?”

  “Sure,” I said still trying to figure out why Kaeden would do that.

  “He’s jealous,” he said with a chuckle.

  “Jealous of what?” I asked doubtfully.

  “Me I would imagine. He likes you. I know you didn’t know that but that’s part of the theory. Being half angel that’s something I can feel out pretty quickly. And being half demon lets me pick out envy really quickly. Seven Heavenly Virtues and Seven Deadly Sins. My body reacts to all of them when they show up,” he said with a grin.

  “No offense, Cody but from what I’ve seen in a day you’re more demon than angel.”

  Clapping his hands together he laughed loudly. “Yeah, you noticed huh? The funny thing about that is that I spent most of my time trying to be angelic. My mom of all people wanted me to be a ‘kind soul’. I spent most of my time in a rain forest in Brazil because angels like it there. Apparently it reminds them of Eden, whoever that is. Anyway doing the same thing every day gets boring, you know? Praise this and save that, and hallelujah!” He said shaking his hands at the sky. “I’m sure my parents could tell I was getting bored. Especially the day I came home smelling like sulfur. Oh man did I hear about that,” he said with a grin.

  “You went to hell?”

  “Nah. I’m pretty sure I would’ve burned since I’ve never been the tanning type,” he said rolling up a sleeve to show me a pale arm. “I actually decided to visit Pompeii one day out of boredom and I got to talking to this one guy who smelled like sulfur. It reminded me of my mom when she lost her temper, so I was pretty sure I had him pegged right, ya know? Anyway we walked through the city’s streets that night and he took me to the top of a volcano there. Can’t remember the name of it,” he said scratching his head. I opened my mouth to tell him and he pushed on,

  “We went into a cavern at the top of it and hung out. He was telling me crazy stories about things he’d seen and done, you know, down there. I guess he could tell that I was getting bored, because he asked me if I wanted to do something cool.

  If I had any common sense my ‘you’re so going to get into trouble for this’ radar would’ve went off in my head. But instead I told him that I would and he showed me how to make that lava stuff boil over. I, being a hotheaded kid at the time, decided I wanted to try it too. Something in me went haywire because instead of just making it boil, I cause some kind of explosion and that stuff went flying out in a cloud of smoke. So I shoved my hands in my pockets and walked down the side of the volcano hoping no one would notice me. Anyway I decided Pompeii wasn’t the place for me anymore.”

  Well, yeah. If a place doesn’t exist anymore why would you stay? I wonder if he sunk Atlantis too, I thought with a slightly amused look on my face.

  “You want to know something else?” He rolled on his side again with a sly grin on his face.

  “Um, sure,” I said.

  “That vampire with the ginchy eyes likes you too.”

  “What does that even mean?”

  “Sorry, let me try that again. That vampire with the super duper cool eyes likes you too,” he laughed when I threw my brush at him.

  I sat there racking my brain trying to figure out who would have ‘ginchy’ eyes that I knew. No one seemed to come to mind.

  “The purple eyed one,” he said in exasperation.

  “Max?” I asked in shock.

  He nodded, “Didn’t you notice something vaguely familiar about that picture of that girl he drew? The way he stood outside of your place when you guys passed it? Come on Finn you can’t be that dense!” he said with a laugh.

  “Wait, that doesn’t make sense, though. Ken said that Max had a girlfriend that disappeared. I never dated him.”

  “Yeah you did,” Cody said sitting up and folding his legs underneath him.

  “Problem is that the acid in you is starting to eat away your human memories. The unwanted ones anyway, but it’s funny in a way. I mean now that you are what you are, he’s lost interest. He was in love with the human you.”

  “Good thing I’m not into vampires otherwise I might be offended,” I said leaning back in the chair.

  He laughed again which was cut short by a knock at the door.

  “Who is
it?” I called out. My voice cracked a little.

  “It’s Drake.”

  “Should I vamoose for this?” Cody asked standing up.

  I shook my head at him and went over to the door. I pulled it open and Drake walked through. He looked at Cody and nodded at him then back at me.

  “Um. Am I interrupting something?”

  “What? No. Why would you think that?”

  “Because you’re standing in your underwear, and he’s on the mattress. I mean I’ll leave if you need me too,” he said wiggling his eyebrows at me.

  Underwear? I looked down. Oh good grief! I hadn’t notice that Kaeden had stripped me down to my bra and boy shorts before putting me to bed. I mean that was how I slept so I was used to being like this but I didn’t realize that’s how I was at the moment.

  Cody laughed so hard that he was lying on his back holding onto his stomach.

  Drake was grinning from ear to ear. I ran over to the door and closed it quickly. The last thing I wanted was for Kae to hear the commotion and come downstairs to catch Cody here. He’d probably think the same thing that Drake did.

  “What’s up,” I asked walking back to my chair. I saw Drake was standing by the window looking out into the night.

  “I wanted to tell you something important. Something Kaeden doesn’t want you to know,” he said uncomfortably.

  “What is it?” I asked walking over to him.

  He let out a sigh and looked down at me. I could tell he had been fighting with himself for a while about this. I heard Cody’s footsteps as he came over to us.

  Putting a hand on my shoulder he looked at him curiously.

  “Look I just ... I know how badly you want to get this all over with. And I know that you want to leave Devils Lake. It’s just with the new problem with Ava coming out of left field and all those damn fledglings. Kae didn’t think you’d deal well with what we found out.”

  “What is it Drake?”

  Taking a deep breath he looked me right in the eye, “Paige and Kendall ...”

  “Wait, wait, wait!” Cody said cutting him off. Then he motioned for Drake to follow him. I stood there staring at them caught in a heated whispered conversation. It reminded me of Ryker and Remy a few days ago. Only Cody had a finger in Drake’s face.