by Candy Crum
“I learned a few things. I learned to use the elements to feel where my opponent was without seeing them. I also learned how to put up an energy barrier to protect myself from attackers,” I said with a little enthusiasm. I didn’t expect her to ask me about it or want to know.
“Any attackers, or are you limited to Vampires?” she asked.
“Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve only been able to practice with a Vampire, so it’s hard to say.” She had me a little more than curious.
“Well, maybe I could pretend to attack you. That might help,” she said.
“You’re just using that as an excuse to try to kick my ass,” I said, smiling.
“True! But it would still be fun!” she said with a light laugh.
I rolled my eyes at her and smiled. “Alright, if you’re up for it, then we can. I just don’t know if I’ll be able to do it without water around.”
“Well, then this would be a better test then doing it wherever you guys went,” she said.
“Good point.”
The back yard was completely fenced in with a large privacy fence, and I seriously doubted that anyone could see over it. I decided that would be the best place to practice. Even though I knew Amanda wasn’t in serious danger of me, because she wasn’t a Vampire, I still worried about her. I was terrified that I would hurt her or disappoint her. Once we were in the back, all sorts of bad things starting fluttering through my mind, and I couldn’t help but think we may have been a little rushed and not at all thought everything through.
“Where should I stand?” Amanda asked.
I looked around for a good spot, but had yet to find one.
“Just surprise me. I’m not sure how this is going to work yet. Are you sure you want to do this? I don’t want anything bad to happen to you. I really don’t know if it’ll hurt you or not,” I said.
Buzz.
My cell phone vibrated in my pocket. I took it out and swiped it open to see Aeric’s number. I smiled when I saw it and remembered that I still hadn’t deemed him important enough for the trouble of adding him to my address book. I opened the message anyway.
“Don’t worry about Amanda, you won’t hurt her,” it said.
“Being nosy, I see,” I wrote back.
It wasn’t long before my phone went off again. “I can’t help that you’re both loud enough for me to hear you. Plus, I figured you would get upset if I used telepathy to talk to you. And, since I’m sure you don’t care to see me at the moment, that left the cell phone. I’m curious to see what will happen. Go ahead and practice with her. You’ve been worried about her and if she still accepts you. She wants to help you, let her. ☺” he wrote back. The insufferable smiley face. It angered me.
“Fine, I’ll give this a shot,” I said out loud. I put my phone back in my pocket and took a seat on the ground.
“What are you doing?” Amanda asked.
“I need to concentrate for a minute. It’s the only way I know how to do this,” I said.
“Okay, let me know when you’re ready,” she said.
I nodded, closed my eyes, and felt for the world around me. There was still a light breeze, so I took that in. The ground under me was completely solid from the lack of rain, and I took that in. The sun was bearing down on me from a cloudless sky, so I took that in. All that was missing was water.
“Wow,” I heard Amanda say.
“What?” I shouted at her from across the yard.
“You were glowing! It’s stopped now, but you were glowing!” she said.
So, she can see auras. I doubted that she knew what it was that she was seeing, but I did.
“Let me try again,” I said. Once again, I concentrated on everything around me.
“You’re doing it again!” she shouted excitedly. I slowly stood.
“Okay, I’m ready,” I told her.
Keeping my eyes closed, I used my senses to feel for her. It wasn’t long before I found her location. She walked around my right side quite far away. She was incredibly quiet, but my other senses easily gave away her location. I sensed something else around me: water. It felt like it was everywhere, and I used it to heighten my senses even more.
There was something small moving around closer to the house. It was a squirrel at the base of a Dogwood tree. Everything was going really well, so I concentrated even harder on the water that I felt in the area. I felt Amanda quicken her pace and shift direction again.
She’d made her way directly in front and was headed straight for me at full speed. I couldn’t feel the barrier around me so I knew that if she came at me as hard as she was running at that moment, she would pummel me. There wasn’t as much water around me as other elements, so I concentrated even harder on the water to pull from its energy.
Finally, I felt the energy building in my chest and released it instantly. The air immediately became too dry to breathe. I coughed a little just before I heard a loud crack followed by Amanda’s screams. I immediately opened my eyes to see Amanda curled up on the ground holding her hand and crying.
“Amanda! Are you okay?” I shouted.
As I knelt next to her, something cold jabbed me in the knee. When I reached under me, I pulled a very sharp piece of shattered ice from the ground. Where the hell did the ice come from? What did I do to hurt my sister, who was only trying to help me?
“Amanda, please say something. Are you okay?”
“I broke my hand on the ice!” she shouted.
“What?” I asked.
“You created an ice shield out of the water particles in the air. It collected too late for her to see it, and she smashed her hand into it. It’s severely broken,” Aeric said from behind me.
I looked back, and I could feel the sting of the tears in my eyes.
“You said that I couldn’t hurt her!” I shouted at him.
“I never thought for an instant that you would be able to do that so soon. I’m so sorry,” he said with obvious remorse. “You could barely make a spiritual shield earlier today. I never dreamed you would make one out of the water particles in the air! I’m so sorry.”
I didn’t care how bad he felt. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I did, or Amanda. My God she must hate me.
“Okay, well, we need to get her to the hospital,” I said quickly.
“No!” Amanda said. “I don’t want to go to a hospital.”
“You’re in the medical field, just like I am. You know this is serious. Let me see your hand,” I said.
She slowly sat up, using her good arm to stabilize herself. She lifted her hand and rested it in my palm so I could inspect it. Aeric was right, it was completely smashed. It was already turning black and some of the bones looked like they nearly broke the skin. There were several open areas on her knuckles where she was cut by the ice shards.
How could that have happened? I’d never felt so bad about anything in my entire life. There was no choice.
“You have to go to the hospital Amanda,” I said.
“If she goes to the hospital, I can guarantee you she’ll need surgery to repair it, and even then, she more than likely won’t have full use of it,” Aeric said.
“Not to mention the months of therapy. You’re a nurse; you know I’m right.”
I sighed in defeat. “Can your blood heal her?” I asked.
“Possibly, but there may be side effects. Though she doesn’t have the amount of active Immortal blood in her that you do, I could kill her if I gave her my blood. That’s why I can never give you my blood either. For whatever reason, Vampires can drink Immortal blood, but Immortals can’t drink Vampire blood. Sayen and Khanae are gone. You have to do this yourself.”
“What do I have to do?” I asked.
“If you can pull water out of already dry air and freeze it, then you can use your power to heal her. Just focus your energy around her hand,” he instructed.
He smiled and nodded in reassurance. I nodded and turned to face my sister. She looked so pitiful. I hated seeing her in
pain of any kind, but that was unbearable. All she wanted was to help me. She put her trust in me not to hurt her, and I did. Maybe if she can find enough trust left in her heart to let me try to heal her, I can. I just hoped it turned out for the best.
“He’s right. I have no doubt that you can do it,” she said as she forced a smile.
I placed my right hand gently on top of hers. Closing my eyes, I focused all the energy that I could find. Tears rolled down my face, and my chest ached with the guilt of what I’d done to her. I pictured the wounds on her hand that I could see on the surface and felt the coil of energy rising in my chest as I focused to push it toward my hands.
They quickly grew warm just before Amanda cried out as one of her bones snapped back into place. My eyes opened to see her trying to hold back her cries.
“Don’t stop, its working,” Aeric said.
I nodded and closed my eyes again to focus. Amanda began grinding her teeth against the pain as more of her bones realigned. It only took a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity. Her fingers twitched in my palm, and I gently pulled my hand away from hers so that I could see what had been done. Her hand was completely smooth and even the bruising was gone. I couldn’t believe that I was able to do it, but I was so happy that I could figure it out.
“Thank you,” she said as she sniffed a couple of times.
I dove at her and squeezed her tight. “I’m so sorry!” I cried into her long hair. “I’m so sorry!” I cried out again.
“I’m fine, unless you’re trying to go for a concussion this time,” she said with a laugh.
“That’s not funny! I hurt you! I promise that it will never happen again!” I said as I wiped the tears off my face.
“It will happen again. That’s just the way it works. You didn’t know that you were able to do that, and yet, you did it. Someone got hurt. That’s just going to happen until you figure yourself out completely. That’s why I made you heal her yourself. If you know how to do that, then minimal damage will be managed,” Aeric said.
“Minimal damage?” I asked.
“As far as I know, you’re only able to heal minimal wounds. Smaller broken bones, such as those in the hands, feet, wrists, and ankles can be healed by you. Some of the smaller bones in the face can be healed. Scratches, cuts, scrapes, and first degree burns can be healed. Larger cuts and second degree burns may or may not scar. Larger bones in the arms and legs, ribs, sternum, and skull are harder to heal, if not impossible. Also, deep wounds such as stab wounds or third degree burns over large areas cannot be healed by you either,” Aeric explained. “When you get older, you will get better, and your healing will become stronger. You can even bring someone back from the point of death, as long as they haven’t yet crossed over. But for now, you’re limited.”
“What about you? Could you heal the things that I can’t?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Our blood is very potent. The older and stronger the Vampire, the more they are able to heal with their blood. Some Vampires have increased healing abilities in their blood and saliva—like Grace,” he said her name with a grimace. “Her blood is extremely potent. But for the rest of us, we can’t heal much other than minor breaks, cuts, scrapes, and burns; kind of like you.”
“Thank you for the help, Aeric,” Amanda said, breaking me from my thoughts.
Once I helped her up, she started back inside. I turned back to Aeric who had a smug look on his face. I could tell that he was enjoying the fact that after that fight, he had to bail me out of trouble—again. I didn’t plan on letting him have the satisfaction.
“I appreciate what you did. But don’t dare think for a second that it makes me forget the fact that I’ve remembered exactly how much I despise you,” I said.
“Did you remember that before… or after you asked me to bite you?” he asked.
Anger flowed through me, and I started toward the house. What an arrogant ass.
“You know, I’d tell you to go fuck yourself, but as much as you love yourself I’m sure that wouldn’t be much of an inconvenience,” I said as I slammed the door behind me.
I turned and walked away as the sound of his laughter filtered through the thin glass behind me.
Chapter Nine
A couple of days passed, and it was finally the day that I was going out on my date with Sam. I was really nervous, but at least I had Rachel to help me through up until I left. She and I decided to spend the early part of the day pampering ourselves, since she also had a special night ahead of her. Brett asked Rachel out for the evening, and she was ecstatic. This would be their first real date. I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but I knew how happy she was, so I tried to put it aside. Neither one of them deserved my negativity, and it was supposed to be a fun day.
We were lucky the place that we usually went wasn’t busy, and we were able to get right in. It was just a little hole in the wall nail salon in the mall in Clarksville, but they were absolutely amazing. I loved going there. Amanda took me here once for my birthday, and it was great.
We walked in and picked out what we wanted before sitting down. A woman with auburn hair tied back in a ponytail sat down and greeted me. “Hi there. What can I do for you today?” she asked with a smile.
“I would like to ha…”
The world around me seemed to shift a little, and I looked down at my hands and realized that the French tips that I’d planned on asking for was already done. She was finishing them off with the clear top coat.
“How?”
“What dear?” she asked. “Is something wrong?”
Everything waved around me again, and I realized that I must still be asleep. A cold chill settled in my body. It was a familiar and threatening chill. It was something that I’d only felt once before and prayed that I’d never feel again. I immediately felt sick as I looked over my left shoulder and saw Death standing against the back wall. The slits in his face that served as eyes narrowed as he pointed to the woman that had been doing my nails.
When I looked back, I screamed as I desperately tried to back away from the chair. Her throat had been torn open, and it was obvious that her neck had been snapped. It hung lifelessly, drooping down her back. I looked over to Rachel, and she wore a look of absolute horror as she looked at the dead woman.
I was used to seeing a lot of hideous things because of working as an ER tech. I’d also seen my best friend nearly die. Though it horrified me in many ways, the sight of that woman didn’t actually bother me. It occurred to me that Rachel was standing alone, and I began searching the room for the missing manicurist.
“Kailah!” Rachel screamed.
My head snapped back in her direction, and I found her being held by her manicurist. He smiled gravely at me, bearing his fangs. His teeth mirrored those of Aeric’s, not Jeff’s, and I recognized him as a day-walking Vampire and not a Rogue. That meant we weren’t only in danger at night like we’d thought. That was the only reason why we’d planned on leaving alone during the day. We thought that we would be safe.
I lunged after him, but he was a lot faster than me. Before I even closed half the distance, the sickening sound of the crack of Rachel’s neck sounded across the room, and I drowned every other noise out with the sounds of my screams.
“Kailah,” I heard a frantic and familiar voice say. “Kailah, wake up. You’re having a nightmare.”
I took a sharp breath as I woke up, violently swinging. Aeric quickly captured my flailing arms and pinned them to the bed as he leaned over me. I stopped fighting when I realized that it was him. He wore a concerned expression and the familiarity of his features served to slow my racing heart. I suddenly felt safe. I knew that Rachel was safe in the other room, and I was safe in this one.
Aeric saved me from my horrible dream. Tears welled up in my eyes, and he loosened his grip on my wrists. In an instant, my arms were wrapped around his neck as I cried into him. He shifted a little and pulled me tight against him. His fingers softly ran through my hair as he made calm
ing noises in my ear.
I felt completely safe in his arms, and I immediately regretted everything that I’d said and done to him since meeting him. I’d been horrible to him, and he’d only helped me. Sure, he’d picked on me, too, but I think that was his way of dealing with how horrible I was to him. He’d never once said anything mean, only playful or teasing. I just always took it too far and became angry for no reason.
“Aeric, I’m so sorry,” I said.
“Shh,” he soothed. “You have nothing to be sorry for. You never have.”
“I’ve been terrible to you. I have everything to be sorry for,” I said.
He backed away from me so he could look into my eyes. He lightly brushed a few loose strands of hair out of my eyes and smiled softly.
“No, you don’t. I always thought there was another reason besides the obvious why you hated me so badly. Rachel talked to me the other night, after our fight, and she explained your issue with men. You constantly watching your mom being beaten by the random boyfriends that she had, your best friend being beaten and eventually almost killed by her boyfriend, and the two guys that you tried to date before. You’ve only been used and seen abuse. If you add that to the transition going on inside you, and the fact that you were quite literally born to hate what I am, you have a pretty volatile situation. I’ve never blamed you, even before I knew the rest. I simply attributed it to the transition.” His words were soft and smooth. His eyes never moved from mine.
“Then how do you explain my fondness of Brett?” I asked. I couldn’t help the smile that tried to form. I couldn’t even help but torment him then in that comfortable moment.
He laughed lightly. “When Rachel introduced us, it was obvious that she had plans on taking Brett for herself. She was trying to force me on you, and that is why you instantly hated me. Not to mention, you were already powerful enough to sense me through Sayen’s shield, though you were still unable to identify me. I’m not one hundred percent sure that’s it, but I’m pretty certain. Had we met under normal circumstances, I think we would have gotten along better.”
