by Unknown
Lara was dressed in blue jeans and a pink tee with a sparkling Hello Kitty face across the front. She looked like your average teenager. I was shocked. Even her shoes were hot pink canvas high tops. “No!” She flung herself at Damien, her arms wrapped around his waist. Only I knew how tight she really held. “Brother, stop!”
Paul staggered to his feet. As he took a step forward, he walked right into Phoenix. “You need to leave. Now.” He all but snarled at Paul.
Paul’s black eyes were bulging, his face was flushed a bright red. “Who the hell are you?” His chest puffed up as he got right in Phoenix face.
Idiot! I sat up, but Lara twisted behind Damien and in front of me, grabbing me by the arm before I could move another inch. She had her work cut out for her. Both Damien and I wanted to kill the man.
Licking my lips, I yelled at Phoenix desperately. “He’s not worth it. Paul, just go home!” If they hurt him anymore, Lara wouldn’t be able to hold me back.
Paul shoved Phoenix hard with his shoulder as he pushed past him. The entire time he rambled incoherently about freaks and slurred enough profanities to make a sailor blush.
At least he had enough sense to know when he was out numbered. He really had no clue how close he’d come to death that day.
Lara was struggling to hold Damien and me in place. She nearly lost Damien when Paul spit at Damien as he walked past to get to his car.
Damien swung his arm back, but Phoenix had grabbed him just in time. Luckily Paul had his back to Phoenix and hadn’t seen him move as fast as a bullet.
Paul paused at his open door, turning back to Damien pointedly. “You know, let me just ask you this. She ever tell you she loves you? I mean straight up say the words?” No one spoke. No one moved. “Heh. Didn’t think so.”
A moment later and Paul’s door slammed shut. Turning his car around in a sharp U turn, he peeled out with an ear splitting screech of his tires as he drove away.
Once Paul was out of sight, Lara let Damien and me go. But only because Phoenix was standing with his hand on Damien’s shoulder, just in case. “I know, man. I get it, really. But it will only bring more trouble. Just let him go.” Damien’s eyes clinched shut, still utterly furious.
“Are you okay, Anna?” Lara knelt down to me. Her hand rose to brush my cheek.
Too harshly, my hand came up and swatted her away. “Just get away from me. Please. Just go away.” I buried my face into my knees. My hand flung out again as she reached for me once more. She only wanted to help I know but I just couldn’t take it.
“Leave her be, Lara. Come on. You too Damien. Go back to the house.” Damien snarled low, ready to argue. “I’m serious, Damien, get out of here,” Phoenix always sounded angry. Rarely did anyone argue. “You need to calm down and she needs to be left alone. I won’t leave her. She’ll be fine, I promise. Now go.”
Lara stood and took a firm hold on Damien’s hand. He didn’t push her away as I had. The two left without another word.
“Leave me alone, Phoenix,” I whispered low, unable to stand anyone right then. But he didn’t say a word. He just sat down there on the pavement beside me. Reaching out he took my arms in his hands, forcing me to lay them down in my lap.
“This is going to hurt. Don’t scream or they’ll come back.” Holding my wrist, he took ahold of my hand with his other and began to reset the bones again. Sucking in a sharp breath, I doubled over, biting down and cringing through the pain.
Once he was finally done, we sat there for an hour in silence. His hand rested on my shoulder as I lay crumpled to the ground beside him.
Phoenix continued his silence as we walked back to the house at a sluggish pace. He stayed off to my side. Never too close. Never too far. Just there.
Of course Lara was standing in the foyer waiting for me. “I’m sorry for putting you through that, Anna. I should have tried to warn you better. Will you forgive me?” She smiled up at me hopefully.
“There’s nothing to forgive. I’m sorry I slapped you.” My brow arched slightly. My lips twitched faintly at the dark comedy that was my life.
“There’s nothing to forgive.” With a soft smile on her lips she took my hand and pulled me into the living room where everyone was waiting.
No they weren’t healed, but I didn’t dare flinch. All I wanted to do was go feed. So much for that option. I should have gone straight for the woods, but for some reason my feet drug me back here.
Hendrick leaned against the banister of the winding stairwell. Phoenix took a seat awkwardly in one of the great wingbacks out of his normal grace, leaned forward elbows on his knees his chin in his right hand.
The fingers of Phoenix’s left hand wiggled slow and slight. Below his hand a small crystal hovered, rolling through the air. It sparkled as brilliantly as a diamond. Perhaps even more so. It was perfectly round and smooth like a large glass marble.
Lara left me at the edge of the living room, returning to Jezabell and curling up with her on the couch. They were the only two that matched this house.
Damien sat in his usual seat. I curled up in a ball on the floor between him and Phoenix.
“So, Paul then. He knows where Lianna is at and therefor where to find us. Demetrius is closer than ever. I believe I saw Demetrius in New York by Stone bridge,” Lara confirmed for us.
What she was trying to say was along the same roads that Paul would be driving. Right on state border. Demetrius was close. Great, just great. “What are we supposed to do now?” I asked as casually as my anxiety could muster.
Lara closed her eyes to concentrate. “There’s a girl. Plump, pretty. Soft features. She’s upset. Curly brown hair. Green eyes. It keeps coming and going. I don’t know anything else yet.”
“The girl doesn’t matter. Our confrontation with the others is unavoidable. We have to be ready for it. We must avoid it coming to this House at all costs.” Jezabell was still furious.
“Lara, any idea what’s coming in the next couple days?” Damien sounded desperate.
“Oh yes. Paul will be back. The girl will be with him this time. He makes it very hard to see around his actions. What he thinks will happen is not going to come to pass. Because of these things it’s hard to see the reactions. However now that I’ve met him I think I will know when he decides to return,” she sounded hopeful. That’s why she came.
Damien glanced to each person, eagerly absorbing their thoughts. Randomly he would answer people that had said nothing at all. The most amusing was with Hendrick.
“No, Hendrick.” Hendrick looked up disgruntled and huffed a bit under his breath. He never moved from his post.
Damien rolled his eyes and shrugged. “You’re probably right, my friend, but let’s not cross those boundaries. Remember, if he suddenly disappears then someone is bound to come here asking questions. Or believe me he’d be dead already.”
“He’d be a good snack though,” Hendrick mumbled. Hah!
“Melody…” Lara whispered in trance. “That’s her name. Terrible darkness surrounds this girl.”
“Melody? Melody Harper? Paul and I went to school with her. We’ve known their family for years. What’s she have to do with this?” No one answered me. Silence lay heavy in the room. The saying “you could cut the tension with a knife” had nothing on this House.
My mind continued to drift over these series of events. Paul’s intentions disturbed me a great deal though I tried not to think about it. It sickened me to know Phoenix had already seen everything. I shuddered hard once.
Phoenix sneered audibly. He could hear me rethinking what had happened before as I was mortal as well what had happened outside just a few hours ago. It made us both disgusted. Damien hadn’t been focused on me as intently or he just didn’t react.
“What is it? You two seem disturbed over something,” Hendrick asked with that brotherly concern as he stared at me hard.
“It’s nothing, Hendrick.” I looked down to my feet, hoping the topic would swiftly pass.
; “Paul’s intentions for Lianna are less than friendly. And more intimate than anyone would like them to be,” Damien explained rather casually.
“Thanks, Damien,” I snarled, loaded with sarcasm. “Intimate is such a mild and polite term.” The entire room fell quiet.
Phoenix stiffened. The clear marble stopped midair and paused for a second or two before dropping to the floor just as gravity originally intended. He and I stared down at the rolling marble which landed against my bare toe.
My emotion was not well controlled. My feelings were one chaotic rollercoaster. Damien and I were at an impasse. It was difficult remembering Paul this way. Not to mention the thirst.
The pain. The pain of thirst. My hunger was a living thing at that moment. My eyes were still blue but no one seemed too bothered by it anymore. The wild New Blood has a few quirks, I guess is how they looked at it.
Reaching down I picked up the marble, rolling it back and forth in my palm. Truly the small glass ball was remarkably beautiful. It glittered with more colors than I could ever name or had even fathomed before.
Phoenix stood up. Twisting to stand in front of me, he held his hand out. When I held the marble up to him he grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me up to stand. Without a word, he turned me so my back was to him, his hand replacing to my shoulder walking me to the door.
Damien didn’t say a word. He didn’t follow. He didn’t even look at me as I walked past him.
“You want the marble back?” I asked as he shut the door behind us.
Shaking his head he walked past me. Naturally I followed. “Oh yay, a souvenir,” I grumbled softly. I hadn’t intended to be rude, but I was grumpy.
We were just past the tree line when he abruptly stopped and turned, directly facing me. Stupidly I hadn’t watched where I was going so like a complete buffoon I crashed into him. My eyes widened as I steadied myself.
“Give it back then.” His brow lift as I struggled to get back into my comfort zone without falling on my butt. His lip twitched as he watched me. His way of laughing without really laughing I had learned.
“What?” My brow furrowed as my hand wrapped around the marble snugly, and childishly held it behind my back.
“Hm. Later then.” He said nothing else before doing a complete about face and moved so fast I struggled to keep up.
We hunted for a few hours. Neither of us said a word. It was sort of awkward. Phoenix fed a little but it didn’t take much to satisfy him so he let me finish off his cougar.
Once again I was a complete mess and Phoenix showed his amusement with a smug smirk as he had stayed perfectly clean. Sighing, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. “This is getting really embarrassing.”
“Don’t be embarrassed,” he said with a grin as he came to sit on the rock next to me. His grin faded as he looked at me for a long quiet moment.
I sat playing with the large marble. “What is this thing? Where did you get it?”
“Ah, I found that in a Thracian village… The day before I was turned. It wasn’t always round. It’s a form of stroniumtitanate. Those stones don’t break easily so over time I have turned it into a nearly perfect sphere.” A subtle smile tugged at his mouth.
All I could do was stare at the stone in shock. I nearly dropped it. Now in the Romanian area, Thracians came from ancient Carpathian tribes. Quickly I did the math. Between thirty-five-hundred B.C and sixty-five-hundred B.C. He found this then, the day before he was turned. I looked to him with wide eyes.
“Yes, you’re correct on the math.” He smirked at watching my facial expressions change through shock, disbelief and finally to awe.
“I thought Lara was older than everyone here?” I finally asked, not sure what else to say.
He snickered lightly and shook his head. “No, that would be me. I make everyone else here look like pups.”
“And I thought Damien was old when I first found out. That’s- wow…” Phoenix laughed again. “So that means there are Vampires even older than that?” I shuddered to think of how old the first Vampire must be and wondered if they were even still around.
“Yes, there are.” His eyes narrowed slightly as he looked away from me. Again a cutoff point. People hated sharing secrets with me no matter how much they had all learned about me. Especially Damien and Phoenix. It was so frustrating!
“Don’t worry. When the time comes, I’ll tell you more.” He looked at me for a long quiet moment. “Right now there’s something else I want to teach you. It’s incredibly important, but I don’t know how difficult it will be to learn. I’ve never taught anyone before.”
“What is it?” I sat playing with the marble as I watched him.
“You need to learn to shield yourself mentally.” His eyes watched me closely as I sat toying with the large sparkling sphere.
“This is about what Damien did, isn’t it?” Phoenix nodded solemnly. Of course he knew. I wondered how much he knew.
“I know how you feel about Damien, but you need to know how to stop it, and keep it from happening in the first place.” My brow lifted as I stopped playing with the marble and stared at Phoenix who boldly stared back.
“You know how to do what he did, don’t you?” Phoenix seemed surprised but he nodded after a moment. “But no one else knows what you’re capable of to the full extent do they?” He shook his head. “It’s okay. I won’t tell anyone.”
“I know you won’t.”
We sat there quietly for a minute while I stared down at the sphere. “It felt like someone was tearing me apart physically from the inside out.” He sighed, looking down finally. “It’s okay. I can do stuff like that too now. Well sort of.”
His brow lifted as he looked back at me. “Explain.”
“I don’t mean like you guys. I’m different,” my voice had turned mocking and bitter. Freak amongst freaks.
Phoenix gave a stern glare. I shook my head and continued. First reminding him about the strange event with the mountain lion. “I did it with Damien, too. He seemed pretty upset at the end though. I mean I didn’t just read his mind it was different. With Damien it was like I was a part of him. I could control him.”
“You controlled a Vampire?” Phoenix whispered. I nodded, still ignorant to the meaning of that. “How? What did you make him do?”
“Well I wasn’t really sure if I could. But when I controlled his memories I got a little carried away.” I chewed idly on my lower lip remembering it.
“What did you make him do?” The memory of Damien’s hands wrapped around my own. The last memory of him fighting with someone. Then all of the bones in my hands breaking. Each bone had nearly exploded from the pressure.
“So that’s how your hands got broken so badly.” Phoenix shuddered visibly as he stared down at my hands. “But you can’t hear all thoughts.” He stated it not as a question so I just shook my head. He looked at me. “You can’t hear me now, can you?” Another head shake no. “Are you even trying?” he mocked.
Shooting a glare at him, I shoved him back with my hand. “Don’t be mean! I do try.”
Laughing it off he steered us back to the conversation. “What was it like?”
“It was like I almost became a part of them. I took a hold of their will completely. But it’s not the same thing Damien did.”
“That’s very impressive.” He seemed thoughtful but he wasn’t about to share. “Why didn’t you try it with Paul?”
My brows lift in confusion. “It is? Didn’t seem like I did very well to me. And I just didn’t have the energy left after Damien.”
“Practice makes perfect.” He smiled slightly, eyeing my hands as his brow pinched together. “Things have been hard on you it seems. Today more than most. How do they feel now? They seem better.”
I shrugged carelessly. My hands flexed and clinched carefully. The blood had done the job. They were fully healed. “Thanks for taking me out. I know it’s a pain how much I have to feed.”
“Not at all.” He looked back up to me
with that small smile. He meant it. “Thought it might be time I switch over to rabbits, so you don’t run out of game,” he teased. Smiling almost shyly, I looked away.
I wondered what had changed to make him hate me so much that first day to being such a close friend to me now. I really couldn’t imagine being here without him. “I never hated you, Anna.” Damned mind readers! He chuckled.
“Well anyway. I want to show you a few techniques that should help you learn how to block people out. Then you don’t have to worry so much about us damned mind readers.” The comment was meant to be casual and joking but somehow it didn’t seem that way. “Come on, let’s begin. When we’re done, there’s something more I think you need to know about.”
Phoenix finally returned with Lianna nearly a day later. No one had said a word to either of them as they arrived back to the house.
Jezabell had spent probably an hour herself pacing outside of Phoenix’s bedroom waiting to get the gumption to go in. Eventually the door swung open. He glared down at her knowingly. “Well are you going to come in or not?”
Certainly there was no reason to hide why she was there. He knew. Maybe not in detail though. It was hard to say with Phoenix. Not even Jezabell knew what all he was capable of despite how long she had known him.
So why was she stalling? Because she loved him and when you love someone so dearly it’s hard to ask them to risk their life for your own convenience. Which is what this was really, and they both knew it.
Walking into the room slowly behind him, she looked around curiously. “You should really let Lara and I redecorate this room.” Idle chit chat seemed to make this much worse.
Phoenix’s brow rose as he eyed her with a look of un-amused contempt. Okay fine. Get on with it, Jezabell thought to herself. “So you know why I’m here then... Of course you do why do I bother asking anymore?”
She sighed, looking to the floor for a time as she gathered her strength to continue. He had hardly spoken two words since she had come to his room to speak with him.
