by Kirah Nyx
Penny and Addie shared a look. Addie repeated, “What if we did what, Ivy?”
Ivy licked her chapped lips nervously. “What if we just … went somewhere? Maybe, we don’t have to go back to the school.”
“Not go back?” asked Penny, just as Addie said, “Are you mad?”
Ivy shrugged. A jolt of pain shot through her shoulder, but she ignored it. “If we go back, we return to our lives. To our fiancés.”
Both Penny and Addie stiffened. Addie’s fiancé was Felix. It was arranged. There was no breaking the contract. Which presented a challenge for the relationship between Penny and Addie.
Penny whispered, “What about our families, our people, our homes?”
Ivy bit her lip and looked at her. “The Academy was blown up. You’ll go back to Ichor, and we’ll be sent somewhere else. That is, if our families even decide that we should go to school while the Rebellion is still out there.”
Penny said, “We’ll be separated. Maybe all three of us.”
“And,” said Addie, “Even if we’re not … Nothing will change.”
“Exactly,” said Ivy. “It will all stay the same. Our engagements, our planned futures … But, we can change that. Right now.”
Penny’s fingers slipped into Addie’s hand. Addie looked up at her. They merely stood there, gazing at each other, hand in hand. Ivy cleared her throat, feeling a little excluded.
Addie said softly, “We can’t survive on our own.”
“I thought that, too,” admitted Ivy. “I thought, when those Shifters were chasing me, that I could only survive if someone rescued me. But then I saw Penny, and I saved her. I saw you, and I saved all of us. I didn’t think I could do that. We’re capable of so much more than what we know.”
“What will we do? How will we live? Without our families, we have no money; without our world, we have no protection from the sun, and we can’t use the Foundling sunscreen—we’d burn, Ivy. Do you want us to live in the shadows forever?”
Ivy sighed heavily and said, “We’re not what our society tells us, Addie. We’re strong, and we’re Vampires. We can do anything. Exiled Vampires and Fae live outside of our world, and I’m sure we’ll find one. They can give us our sunscreen, and we can work. Get jobs, like normal people. That’s the beauty of it, Addie. We’ll be free to make our own decisions.”
Addie looked down at the pebbles sadly and closed her eyes. Penny squeezed her hand gently to comfort her. That gesture alone may have been the very selling point.
“Ok,” agreed Addie. She swallowed and glanced between the others. “Let’s go.”
A small smile swept over Ivy’s face and she turned to look her friend in the eye. Penny held out her free hand. Ivy took it, and they all turned to face the river.
Their hands remained clasped and their fingers entwined as they walked into the water side by side.
The water soon danced around their waists.
Their hands separated before they dove beneath the surface. Together, they swam with the current.
They could swim for hours, or even days, but they knew that they would all swim until they reached land—Foundling land.
They swam towards liberation and to what Ivy craved most.
Freedom.
EPILOGUE
THREE MONTHS LATER
The grimy shack that masqueraded as a bar was tucked away in a rat-infested alley. Out front was a scarcely dressed woman, taunting men who passed her by. Inside, the rats were people. Men with oily hair slicked to the side leered at the waitresses; bikers in leather jackets, despite the damp heat, brawled over snarky remarks; grubby tables were littered with glass shards and greasy frat boys on holiday. But the worst of the lot were at a rickety table in the corner.
Every so often, light shone on a glass and briefly illuminated the piercing eyes of the two shadowy figures.
One wore a cap on her white hair, the other pulled a hood over her sleek white hair. But they both wore the same radiant white eyes that simmered beneath the darkness dousing them. Two untouched pints of privately brewed beer mirrored the mysterious women.
The one in the cap fiddled with the glass at times, and wiped away the dribbles of water that trickled down the sides. But her gaze never strayed from the rowdy patrons on the other side of the bar.
One patron in particular.
He was a frail old man with a toothy grin that he flashed at every female who neared him. A waitress nervously approached him where he sat alone at a table.
She took his empty schooner and asked him for his order.
He groped the waitress’s bum and said, in an oil-coated voice, “Your body.”
The cackle that tore through him sent shudders down the waitress. She stormed away to the bar. The old man got to his feet and snatched a crooked cane from the table.
“Another time, sweetheart?”
The waitress turned her back on him.
He sucked his tongue over his decayed teeth and hobbled out of the bar.
Nobody noticed that the two women weren’t in the corner anymore. They were at the door, shadowing the old man outside.
The stench of the alleyway punched the old man before his cane touched the slimy concrete.
Mexico’s heat had his dewy singlet clinging to his wrinkled skin. He hobbled over to the hooker, a pale, short haired woman against the wall.
She smacked gum against the roof of her mouth. “Hiya, mister,” she said. “Much on for the night?”
His lips curled into a sneer. “What's the matta with yer skin? You an albino, er somethin’?”
She smiled sweetly.
The man raised the cane and slapped it against the wall. “I ain’t payin, and you ain’t gonna do a damn thing ‘bout it.”
“I was hoping you’d say that,” she giggled.
The woman snatched his shirt and tugged him closer. Her sheer white eyes dragged to look over his shoulder. Two figures moved out of the shadows, one in a cap, another in a cloak. The man followed the hooker’s gaze.
“What you lasses want? Get—”
He gurgled. Blood spurted from his wrinkled lips. The three women had pounced. Their hands dragged him down to the soiled ground, their teeth sunken into his grey skin, black nails imbedded in his limbs.
The old man’s gurgles were drowned out by the greedy gulps and guzzles of the pale girls. Until, slowly, he stopped moving. His legs twitched no more, his lips stilled and poured blood, his eyes glassed over and gazed up at the moon. The cane rolled away.
The three girls stood and disappeared.
The streets of Iztapalapa, Mexico were ridden with trash and cockroaches. Slums were stacked up on the hills, drooping under the sweaty heat. Ivy pulled off her cap and embraced the light breeze that brushed through her hair. She tucked paper notes into her pocket.
“He didn’t have much on him,” she said. “Only a few hundred pesos.”
“Fabulous,” said Addie. “I suppose we are to sleep in the sewers again.”
“I hate killing them,” said Penny. She took Addie’s cloak and fastened it around her body.
“We can’t let them go,” said Addie regrettably. “Not after they realise what we are.”
“Besides,” added Ivy preppily. “He was a creep. We didn’t choose this place for nothing, you know. It has the highest crime rate against women in Mexico.”
“Don’t you feel bad?” asked Penny. “He was an old man.”
“He was a pervert,” corrected Ivy. “He assaulted the waitress, and tried to do the same to you. Would you rather we fed on innocent people?”
“No,” bit Penny.
“It’s not like anyone’s going to miss him,” said Addie. “Think of it like this—We’re cleaning up the trash.”
“Think of it however you like,” said Ivy, skipping over a scurrying rat. “We need blood to live, and there are plenty of bad people here to feed on.”
“We have to be more careful,” said Penny. “He was our fourth kill this week.”
<
br /> Ivy shrugged. “I was hungry.”
“We all were,” said Penny. “But the Shifters can track us if we keep killing like that.”
Ivy raised her brow and stifled a laugh. “How else should we kill? With kindness?”
Addie said, “She’s got a point, Ivy. The Shifters will come out of their animal forms soon. The three months are almost up. Once they can turn back into their original forms, they can communicate with each other. They can organise, and hunt us.”
“If they find out that there were twenty murders here in the last six weeks,” added Penny, “They’ll come looking. It’s not like we’re being discreet. The papers are calling them animal attacks, but the Shifters will know better.”
“So, what do you wanna do, then?”
“I was thinking about how we got blood in our world,” said Penny. “The Committee ran blood banks in the Foundling world. What if we can access the blood banks?”
Ivy hummed thoughtfully as Addie asked, “How?”
“A watcher.”
Ivy and Addie stopped.
Penny sighed and pleaded with them, “Look, I know we’ve avoided finding one, but they’re out there. Watchers have everything we need. Money, blood, magic, and sunscreen.”
“Ah,” said Addie. “This isn’t about us killing, is it? You just miss the daylight.”
“Of course I miss the daylight,” snapped Penny. “For three months, all I’ve seen are night skies, moons, and grubby night dwellers. I want to see the sun, and I want to go out in it without burning alive.”
“Watchers are dangerous,” said Ivy. “They’re Arcane who’ve been banished from the cloaked world. The Committee don’t just exile anyone, you know.”
Penny clenched her hands into fists. “I can’t do this anymore! I’m sick of wandering the streets at night, and sleeping wherever we can during the days. When we’re lucky enough to steal money off corpse’s, we can only afford train tickets or some damp motel room to stay in. I want more.” She pointed her sharp fingernail at an affronted Ivy. “You promised us more.”
“I promised nothing,” she sniffed. “I only said that we can make our own lives.”
“Enough,” interrupted Addie tiredly. “The Shifters will be looking for us soon. Maybe even in a few days. If we’re going to see a watcher, we need to do is soon. Before the Shifters awake.”
“Good,” said Penny happily. “Then it’s decided. We should leave now—the sun comes up in a few hours.”
Ivy scowled at Addie. Addie dared not meet her glowering gaze.
Penny turned on her heels and pranced down the slimy pavement. The girls followed.
Only, as Ivy trudged moodily behind her friends, her fingers raised to her neck. It was there that a white gold necklace was fastened with a lilac ruby. A gift from Domenic.
Gently, her fingertips pinched the stone and her thoughts travelled to the Shifter, wondering when he would awake, and if she would ever see him again.
Never would be too soon.
Ivy released the pendant and followed Penny into a cab.
The End.
Note from Kirah Nyx
So as you can tell, I’m new on the scene and would very much loveee it if you gave me a follow or left a review with your thoughts :)
I hope to have the sequel (and the last in the duology) out later this year. Stay tuned and follow me on Goodreads to stay updated!
I also have an R-rated (New Adult, explicit scenes) murder mystery on the way—think classical whodunnit in modern times.
Stay tuned.
Kirah Nyx
