"No, they eat standing on their heads and scoop up food with their toes." Olivia's flat tone and her mother's stunned expression set off her father's chuckling again.
"Good one, Ollie girl." Julian winked. "I'm glad to know your dry sense of humor hasn't changed after your ordeal."
Do you hear how horrible your words sound, Mom? Can you understand how your dismissive laughter could be interpreted, Dad? I can't wait until after Thanksgiving dinner to tell you my plans. Olivia took a deep breath and gathered her courage before speaking.
"Mom, Dad, I've come to believe it's better to live on a world where you know the why and how you're being discriminated against than to live where it sneaks up on you unaware and levels you in social situations. It's why I'll be returning with my friends to BloodDark at the end of their visit."
Her parents froze in place, shocked into silence. Olivia rose. "Can I go back into the living room and make amends to Hernando, Valori and Annara for your unkindness now?"
Chapter Five
"Your parents were very quiet over dinner. Was it something we said?" Hernando asked.
His earnest tone and sad brown eyes made Olivia feel responsible for ruining everyone's Thanksgiving. "No, no. You guys were fine." She smiled at her friends sitting opposite her in the limousine as they drove to the airport. "You did nothing wrong. It's just having so many people in the house always makes my mom and dad act...stressed."
There wasn't much she could say to make her parents sound any better. Maybe she could have said they acted crazy, but then Valori would have argued she hadn't picked up on any mental instability from either of them, and Olivia just didn't want to go there. She had made up her mind to leave after the holidays anyway. Weeks ago she'd packed her bags, ready for a quick escape. Her mom's attitude today had been the last straw.
Olivia sighed. Yes, she'd done the right thing. It was better for all she departed before the Christmas season got into full swing than to wait out another month in uncomfortable silence. She promised herself she'd return home for a quick visit on Christmas Eve before her final departure for BloodDark.
"I enjoyed meeting your clan very much, Olivia." Annara's positive words broke through her sad musings. "Strong men and brave women. They take child-rearing in stride. Hunting desert game on the sunlight side and taking on the bloodsuckers in battle are safer pursuits by far."
Hernando brushed off his front. "No kidding. Much safer."
They all laughed. Olivia blushed and shook her head. "I'm so sorry about your little incident. My twin cousins are stinkers, aren't they? The cranberry stains should come out of your shirt with dry cleaning. If not, I'll tell the identical walking disasters they can pay for a new one out of their allowance. That'll teach them."
She took in Hernando's disheveled appearance. Tousled hair from the youngest cousins jumping on his back and wrestling with him made him the hit of the party up to and including when one of the twins dropped a half-full dish of Aunt Martha's homemade cranberry jelly into his lap. Hernando took it all in stride and flung some mashed potatoes at Peter's nose, adding a further note of hilarity to the family meal.
Olivia hated to admit it, but she was grateful for her cousins' antics. At least her cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents had welcomed her BloodDark guests with open arms and laid back manners. Her relatives were fascinated to learn more of their ways and world, and they had no trouble treating Hernando and the others like family.
Family. I'm so excited about going back to BloodDark in a few weeks... Shouldn't I be sad at leaving Earth? Shouldn't I hate leaving my family?
"Forgive your parents, child. They have suffered the most from your absence." Valori's words penetrated the darkness of the car and brought Olivia's thoughts back to the present. "It's difficult for parents to watch their children grow up, but it has been even more difficult for your parents because they could not see you growing up while you were separated from them. They've lost a part of your childhood to BloodDark. Is it any wonder they resent it and all it stands for?"
Valori's words pierced Olivia's soul like a sword. She hadn't considered how BloodDark to her parents didn't just represent an alien world, an alien culture, but a thing which had taken—and continued to take—their only child away from them. Tears pooled in the corner of her eyes. How insensitive she'd acted to their suffering. She sniffed in a vain attempt to hold the waterworks back.
"You want us to turn around?" Hernando took her hands in his and gazed into her misty eyes. "It's not too late. We can return after the winter holidays and take you with us to BloodDark then."
"No, Annara and I have plans to work on while touring with you this month, and I promised Valori to show her all the latest dress styles and fashions." Olivia straightened in her seat and put on her brave face. "Besides, I've never been to Times Square for the New Year's Eve celebrations. I don't want to miss seeing you drop the big crystal ball at midnight."
"It's a great honor, I'm told." Hernando grinned and squeezed her hands. "You will call your parents once we're on the plane, right?"
"I will." She laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes with a sigh. Who knew I'd ever feel so safe and loved beside someone other than my mom and dad?
"You have children, don't you, Valori?" Annara asked her seat mate. Olivia realized how different her two friends were and how they didn't know very much about each other. This trip might enlighten them both to how the different castes of BloodDark lived. "I ask because you seem to know so much about children. To me they're noisy little interruptions in adults' conversations."
Valori shook her head. "No, I never was allowed the joy of having my own family. My partner died young, and I didn't take another lover. I helped to raise my mistress's children, however."
Annara slunk back against the seat. "You took care of Pure Blood brats?" Her dark brown eyes flashed suspicion. "I would have murdered their offspring in their sleep if given the opportunity."
Valori nodded. "Many would, but I found them to be like any child—human, Quadsang, Overseer or Pure Blood—if not perhaps more delicate in constitution. Of the five babies my mistress gave birth to, only two survived childhood after they had the necessary... transfusions."
"You mean our blood." Annara snorted. "The decadent bloodsuckers are a generation away from being wiped out if we refuse them our precious life force. I, for one, think it's time we let the bloodsuckers go the way of Earth's dinosaurs."
"What do you know of Earth's dinosaurs, Annara?" Hernando raised a mocking eyebrow. "You weren't abducted long, long ago, were you?"
Annara smirked. "Very funny. I was quite young when I was taken from Earth with my mother, but I knew about dinosaurs then and from what I've been reading of Earth history. Olivia has sent me literature of all kinds."
He tilted his head and considered his fellow warrior. "Oh?"
Olivia winked at her friend. She had become a regular at the local used bookstore searching for titles Annara had requested. "Annara is a voracious reader as my mother would say. All sorts of topics in history, politics, warfare and tactics... Not so much on contemporary subjects. Those I send to you, Mr. Ambassador."
"I like to keep up with things—especially the sports." He laughed. "Amazing how easy it is to talk to strangers when you begin the conversation with, 'How about those Yankees?' or similar words."
"Empty-minded chatter." Annara waved a hand in dismissal. "Our world needs places of higher education, and Olivia's father's textbooks are quite enlightening. We have much to learn from the Earthers."
"I think we're called Earthlings or Terrans," Olivia pointed out. "Either way, our history is your history, humanity's history. 'There are many good lessons to be learned from the past,' my dad always says. He should know since he's studied and taught it for years."
Hernando looked thoughtful. "Olivia, would your father consider helping to establish a history faculty on BloodDark?"
"Uh..." The thought of her father traveling through the Portal t
o live amid the strangeness of that world left her speechless for a few moments. "I think he'd be happy to help you from Earth, but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't want to do more than visit BloodDark, perhaps. Dad's getting too far up there in years to want to move, and I know my Mom won't consider it for an instant." Olivia realized her words sounded harsh so she sought to mollify things. "I'm pretty sure there are other history professors who'd jump at the chance, though—especially if you offer them tenure."
Annara's eyes brightened. "Then we shall recruit them. We will learn from history and not make the same mistakes Earthers—Terrans have made."
Annara's confident tone gave Olivia hope that the current troubles on BloodDark were just teething pains soon to vanish in the dawn of a great civilization. The call to travel to a new frontier and create a better world for humanity spoke to her and many others. Humankind was bursting at the seams for just such a challenge, a fresh start to begin again, a place where history's lessons had been learned and learned well and the bad ones were not to be repeated.
If BloodDark's former rulers would allow it, that is.
*****
"I didn't recognize your driver. Is he new?"
Hernando waited for the limousine to pull away from the curb before answering Olivia's question. "He's a substitute for T. J. I told T. J. it was okay for him to spend Thanksgiving week with his family." He took a step closer to her and whispered, "I don't trust this new guy. The agency swore he's one of their best, but I feel there's more to the man than meets the eye."
Olivia frowned but said nothing as they walked from the curb toward the terminal. Hernando and Annara each took one of Olivia's suitcases, and Valori carried her laptop bag for her.
"Has this new guy done or said anything suspicious?" Even as he shook his head, Olivia realized Hernando as a diplomat could be a target for any number of groups or individuals who felt threatened by BloodDark and its peoples.
"It's not how he's acted this week. It's just a sense I have." Hernando lowered his voice and picked up the pace as they entered the building and headed toward the gate. "He's not to be trusted, but he's coming back with us on the flight after he returns the car anyway. Company policy, he says."
Olivia frowned at her boyfriend. "Remember what I told you earlier about employing a professional body guard? I'm sure if you ask the BloodDark governing council, they will send you a dozen or more warriors. It'll be acceptable. All the US Embassies are guarded by Marines. You shouldn't have to rely on private agencies here on Earth to be your escorts or drivers. You shouldn't try to blend in like you're a normal person."
"Why not? I am normal—well, at least I'd like to think I am."
She gestured toward her teeth. "Only until you smile."
"You're right." He sighed. "I forget how different I appear. If a handful of BloodDark diplomats make Terrans nervous, could you imagine the anxiety a dozen of our warriors would create? Besides, no one here on Earth has given me any reason to keep myself separated from my admirers by armed guards. No one except..." His voice trailed off. "We won't speak about those people in a public place."
Olivia cringed. Hernando never said much about his ordeal at the hands of the U.N. and American officials, but she sensed he didn't receive treatment worthy of a diplomat—or even a human being. The nameless faces made certain Hernando would never forget he was considered a threat, a risk by government and non-government agencies alike.
Scarier still, the corporate power brokers behind the scenes had their own agendas. Olivia realized the peoples of BloodDark might prove a threat to them, and they wanted BloodDark's first ambassador to know his place. No rocking the boat allowed. Hernando took the high road. He was advertised as a cultural representative and nothing more. Trade policies and economic ties between the two worlds were still being worked out by the paper pushers and would take years, or so most governments informed the press.
However, ordinary people of Earth considered Hernando a celebrity, an oddity, a trending Twitter hashtag topic. They loved him like a rock star. Photos were snapped and strangers waved as they passed into the terminal. At the commuter plane gate, Olivia checked in her luggage and arranged her ticket. They were flying back to Hernando's U.N. office in New York first before embarking on a holiday world tour of sorts.
"Can I put it on the embassy's credit card?" She grinned at her boyfriend, batted her eyelashes and extended her hand.
He laughed and passed it to her. "Of course. That's what the sale of a few pieces of BloodDark artwork to the Louvre can do—finance our embassy for the next hundred or so Earth years."
"The people are more than willing to liberate a few more pretty pieces from the bloodsuckers if needed," Annara said under her breath to Olivia after they collected their boarding passes and passed through security. "We just need to get the dinosaurs out of our way."
"I must see these dyno-sewers you speak of, Annara." Valori's eyes grew wide as they traveled throughout the airport hallways taking in the electronic billboards and other neon lit signage advertising the latest in electronics, real estate deals and financial investments. "Such strange and wondrous things to be found on this world. Already the computerized sewing machine is making my life easier. I see now why Earth attracted the ancient Pure Bloods. They couldn't help but be dazzled."
Olivia didn't have the heart to tell her friend most of the items displayed on the billboards had only been invented or thought of in the last few decades. The ancient Pure Bloods had first arrived on Earth one to two thousand years ago, according to the latest theory put forth by anthropologists. More than likely they'd encountered plague, wars and famine rather than smartphones, condominiums and 401Ks.
After a brief wait at the gate, they boarded the plane and settled into their seats toward the front. Olivia sat beside Valori so she could share a fashion magazine she'd purchased last week with her friend in mind. The tiny commuter jet would take them to a regional hub airport and then on to New York. Olivia had taken the flight before so she was familiar with the procedures of boarding and take off, and the stewardess walked back to the jet-way and de-planed after the mandatory safety lecture.
Odd, but it's a short flight and they're probably short of help? Within a few minutes they were taxiing to the runway. Olivia opened her magazine to show Valori some eye-popping photographs of the latest designer evening gowns, but the stewardess's unusual behavior nagged at the back of her mind. Something wasn't quite right. It was quiet aboard the small aircraft. Too quiet. A cold shiver of dread tingled up her spine. She glanced around.
Leaning across the narrow aisle, she whispered to Hernando, "Where are all the families? This is a holiday weekend, so you'd expect there would be more people than just us, your driver and those big beefy guys in the black suits and ties in the back... Oh, no."
Annara rotated in her seat and rose up slightly on one knee to gain a better view of their fellow passengers. "I wish they hadn't made me pack my bow and arrows."
Hernando frowned. "How many of them are there?"
"Counting your driver, six," Annara replied, returning to face forward. "These tight spaces will make it difficult to defend ourselves, especially if they have weapons."
"Don't forget we're in an airplane. Chances are they won't have guns. There's too much risk of shooting a hole through the fuselage which will endanger us all." Olivia swallowed a large lump in her throat and tried hard not to sound frightened. "The pilot is either one of them, or this is a hijacking."
"What is a hijacking?" Annara asked. "Does this mean they can make this aircraft go to where they want it to go without our say so?"
Olivia nodded. "Kidnapping ambassadors isn't unknown. You'd think all this extra security the government puts people through at airports would prevent something like this."
"Unless they are working for the government. It explains a lot." Hernando's grim tone didn't inspire confidence. Olivia reached out, took his hand and squeezed it. His expression grew darker. "We're at their mercy," he
continued under his breath. "Should we announce ourselves? Or should we pretend we're oblivious to their plans?"
"The longer they don't suspect we're onto them, the greater the element of surprise when we turn on them," Annara suggested. Smiling, she stood up and turned around, pretending to re-arrange the seat pillow behind her back. "They're watching us. We should wait until we've landed to make our move. That way, we won't have to worry about dropping out of the sky."
"The soaring lizards of the deserts soar so high on BloodDark," Valori whispered, "and many years ago in the days of my youth the great ships lifted by hot air and the fiery gas..."
Olivia startled and turned to her seat mate. Valori stood, her petite height allowing her to turn about in her seat area and not hit her head on the overhead bin. Olivia had thought her friend was engrossed in reading the fashion magazine, unaware of what was happening. Was I ever wrong. How do you keep secrets from a psychic?
"They are working for an Earth organization friendly with Clan Alpha," Valori explained in a calm and reassuring tone. "I sense their loyalty is more to the money they are promised if they bring you to their employer unharmed, however, and not the honor of the clan or their organization."
"Valori, sit down, please." Olivia took her friend's hand and tried to pull her into her seat, but the older woman resisted.
"Their lack of honor will be their undoing. They're going to sleep now for a very long time." Valori closed her eyes and concentrated, her brow wrinkling.
What on Earth is she doing? Can she use her mind as a weapon? Olivia and the others stole quick glances at the rear of the plane and were surprised to see the men in black slumping in their seats. A couple of them began to snore.
The limo driver, sitting several rows behind them, stood up. He looked at the sleeping men in astonishment. A nervous sheen of sweat dotted his brow.
Olivia's Return Page 5
