by R. M. Getsee
Romans smile widened. “So I finally found one of the gems.”
“One of the what’s?” I could feel my brow furrowing as I took in what I had just heard.
“One of the gems, it’s what you are referred to in the prophecy, after the five stones that your powers come from.” He said.
I wanted to know everything that he could tell me immediately, what were these stones? Which one did my powers come from? Why I was picked? How I could find the others? What really was the Jet?
But there was one question that burned brighter than all of the rest. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” I struggled to keep the heart break out of my voice. “You stood there, watching me struggle to find out the truth about what was happening to me, and you didn’t say anything, why?”
Roman was quiet for a long time, as if he did not want to answer the question.
Eventually he seemed to have mastered the courage to say something. “I didn’t know if you really were one of them or if you just had some impossibly strong powers. And I was unprofessional. I came to this school because it was my job to find the Ruby, and help her unite the other four girls.”
“How were you unprofessional?” I asked.
He looked at me as if I was missing the most obvious thing in the world. “Because instead of finding out for certain, and helping to guide you through discovering your powers, I tried to find anyone else who might have a chance of being the one I was really looking for, I even tried to find a connection that it was Torah instead, anyone but you.”
Now I was even more confused. “I still don’t understand. Why would you try to find someone else when you knew that it was me?”
Why was he so intent on replacing me?
Did he not think that I would be able to fight, or did he just not want me around? Niggling thoughts of self-doubt kept nudging gently at my mind, making me feel self-conscious.
“I was trying to protect out.” He suddenly burst out. “You have no idea what dangers you will have to face, hell, I barely know yet.
“I still don’t have all the information I need. And you would have to leave everyone, you family, your friends, everyone you care about, so you could search for people that might not even exist yet. Can’t you see, I didn’t want you to have to face that, trust me, it sucks.” He was cooling down, running out of the steam that had fueled his rant.
His expression was softening as he looked down at me and I couldn’t help but curse again at how tall he was. “I wanted to protect because I’m falling for you Alex.”
It was as if everything was happening in slow motion as he lowered his head to mine, I held my breath, afraid that if I so much as blinked the moment would be over, he would change his mind, or I would open my eyes and find that I was dreaming or had imagined it all.
It seemed like an eternity before we met, the energy running through me was running wild and when our lips finally touched, a soft whisper, a jolt of electricity shot through me, and straight into him.
He stiffened in shock but did not jump back from the voltage that was now running through him. In fact he held me tighter and deepened the kiss.
We stayed there in that happy bubble of bliss, it could have been seconds, minutes or days before we reluctantly parted, breathing heavily.
“Wow.” I said when I finally caught my breath, though my voice was high pitched and a little squeaky. I wet my lips and I could still taste cinnamon and mint, the combination mixed together in a way that made me crave more, it was completely him.
“Yeah,” he said, also quite breathless. “Wow.”
We looked at each other shyly, and then burst out laughing. I opened my mouth to say something a little more articulate, hoping that now the tension between us had been released I could string more words together, but I was interrupted by the sound of slow clapping.
We quickly turned to see Mr. Carlisle and Athena at the top of the staircase with pleased looks on both of their faces.
“Well, well,” Mr. Carlisle’s voice was deeper, with a gravelly undertone, and he had a manic smile on his face as if Christmas and his birthday had all come at once. “The watcher has been revealed, and the Ruby has awoken.”
Chapter Twenty Three
I stood there in embarrassment as I looked at our teacher, trying not to blush too brightly at being caught in the private moment; it took a few seconds for what he said to sink past the haze of humiliation.
“Wait, what did you say?” I asked in confusion.
Athena sniggered, and I took a moment to wonder why she was here before turning my attention back to Mr. Carlisle.
“I said, the watcher has been revealed and the Ruby awoken.” He said it straight, like it was a completely normal thing that he knew the words of the Ancient who had been visiting Alex’s dreams.
“How do you know those words?” I asked. “What’s going on?”
Mr. Carlisle just laughed manically; it was unnerving to hear the sound come from my usually calm and collected teacher.
“You still haven’t figured it out have you?” He asked. “I would have thought you would have at least thought about it.”
“Thought about what? What’s going on?” The bad feeling that I had been having for the past few days was curdling in my stomach, I thought it was just unease at Romans disappearance but now it felt as if it had once again been a warning that I had once again ignored.
“You’re a little slow to catch on aren’t you?” Athena was smug; as if she knew something I did not, and looked as if she was taking great pleasure in it.
Roman shifted slightly, angling his body defensively in between me and the two suspicious arrivals in a protective position.
“All these weeks of trying to figure out about your power surges, the visions, and why the elementals wanted to capture you, you even came to me asking about the fifth element, but you never really asked yourself why.” Mr. Carlisle too, seemed pretty pleased that I had no idea what the hell he was talking about, or what was going on.
“And you know?” I asked pensively, almost afraid to know the answer.
He laughed again cruelly; his voice was once again deeper, more gravelly.
The closer I looked, the more I noticed was out of place with my once neat and perfect teacher.
He was now disheveled, there were dark circles under his eyes and his skin had a pallor that was unnatural, even for a vampire. His clothes were wrinkled and riddled with stains, as he drew closer I could smell that he hadn’t taken a shower in quite a period of time either.
“Yes I do.” He said. “Do you remember what we discussed in my office that day? We talked about the mythology of an immortal creature that was supposedly the first vampire in existence, the one who fathered our race. Do you remember?”
“Yes.” I breathed, afraid that he would stop telling his story, yet terrified of what I would find out.
“Well it wasn’t a myth. That creature was real; he was one of the first six supernatural beings to roam this earth, the Ancients.”
Athena grinned at the gesture grotesque on her unnaturally beautiful face. “You’re going to love this next bit.” she said smugly. “It’s my favourite part.”
“What do you even have to do with this?” I asked her, and Athena growled at me, making a move to attack, but was stopped by her comrade.
Mr. Carlisle chuckled endearingly at her, “Yes, my young apprentice is a little eager.” He said. “But first, the rest of the story. You see when the Elementals grew tired of trying to unlock the power of the first vampire, the power of the Ruby, they realized that they were looking to a false god. Our father would not come back and help us; they came upon the discovery that the power of the Ruby was not in fact the strongest. They found solace, and the power they craved, in a new master.”
I felt a coming sense of dread for what I had a feeling would be at the end of the story when he paused for a moment, as if to make sure that everyone was listening to him, before continuing.
“Th
is master was imprisoned, locked away where no one could reach him and he could reach no one in turn. So he waited as they tried every ritual they came across, and one day they finally did it, they opened a crack in his prison, not enough for him to escape, but enough for him to allow some of his essence to bleed out, and merge with people who were worthy of the power. I was one of those people.”
My knees went weak as he said what I had feared. I gripped the railing as I tried to understand all the new information that had been thrown at me this evening.
“So why?” I asked him. “If you have so much power, then why would you bother becoming a school teacher? Why pretend to help me when I came to you?”
“Because,” Mr. Carlisle studied me with an almost psychotic gaze. “I needed to see how far your powerful you had become. The attack at the mall was just a test; you didn’t have enough power at that time, that’s why I called off any more attempts until I was sure you had come into your powers. Because in order for my master to be free your powers had to be strong enough to kick start his release. My master, the Jet, he whispers to me. Through his loaned essence, he told me that there was a way to release him sooner, a key of sorts.”
“And what is the key?” I asked nervously.
“You.” Roman finally spoke, his voice was cold but there was almost a fierce protectiveness in the undertone as he stepped a little closer to me. “A power surge, like the one that would happen if the power of one of the Gems were released just as the power had fully connected with its vessel, is what it would take to weaken the prison dimension that the Jet is trapped in.”
“Prison dimension? Wait what does that mean?”
“You are one of the vessels for the power Alex. It means they want to kill you.” Roman said.
His face was dark, shadowed in a knowledge that he obviously did not want.
“They want to kill me?” Shock and information overload was what I was blaming on why it was taking me so long to process what was happening.
It was like the events had to fight through pools of molasses or quicksand to get to the parts of my brain that were capable of processing them.
These pools quickly evaporated as Athena, who had been standing quietly in the background for most of the encounter, produced a long, wickedly sharp looking knife from behind her, athame, I mentally corrected myself.
My mind involuntarily flickering through all the boring history classes I had sat through in the last few weeks until I remembered that an athame was a ceremonial knife that Elementals used in sacrificial rituals which humans had always mistaken for witchcraft.
I jolted myself back to reality when I remembered that I was about to be turned into a sacrificial ritual myself.
Athena looked back to Mr. Carlisle with almost pleading eyes. “Now?” she asked him.
“I suppose it is getting to the time.” He said and turned back to me.
“It really is a shame, if your death was not detrimental to the freedom of my master I would have offered you a place by my side, you would have been quite an asset if you were to join us. Such a shame, you had so much potential my dear Alex.”
Athena scowled, obviously not liking the fact that I was getting praise and attention from her mentor even though they were about to kill me. She started to advance on us, brandishing the knife in front of her, making it shine softly on the moonlight.
I looked around desperately, frantically looking for an exit strategy. Roman grabbed my hand and squeezed it tightly.
“Alex.” He said, not taking his eyes off the advancing pair. “Do you trust me?”
“Of course.” I said without any hesitation.
“Then jump.” He jolted into action, grabbing the iron railing and pulling himself over, dragging me along with him.
I let out a small scream as I was pulled down, the air whistling around me, until I let out a blast of power, creating a gust of wind that enveloped us and slowed our decent.
I breathed a sigh of relief as our feet touched the ground safely over fifteen feet below the balcony.
My sense of calm was cut short as Roman pulled me along, through the bushes they came through the first time in the direction of the stairwell inside the building.
I allowed him to almost drag me through the underbrush, moving quickly, not stopping to take notice of my scalp stinging as twigs caught on my hair, pulling clumps from my head, or to silently mourn my dress at thorns tore at it to gain more access and slice into my bare flesh.
Finally we managed to detangle ourselves from the overgrown path and were out in the open of the rooftop, free of the garden. The sight of the door almost brought tears to my eyes as we increased our speed, escape in sight.
Meer feet from our freedom Mr. Carlisle appeared in front of the door and Athena swung it closed. My heart dropped as I heard the click as it locked itself, as it only opened from the inside.
“Did you really think it was going to be that easy?” She asked almost mockingly, she looked as if she was really enjoying the game of cat and mouse and she ran her finger slowly along the blade.
“I have been planning this since the first day your powers appeared.” Mr. Carlisle’s voice was different once again.
I realized with icy shock that it was changing, so deep that it was now almost a growl. His feature were also changing, Athena’s too, their skin was rippling, hair undulating softly.
Their presence had become far more menacing and thunder cracked from above as they began to channel their borrowed powers.
I could feel the energy radiating off them and I felt a deep sense of dread as I felt a familiarity with it. I looked down and my suspicions were confirmed as I saw that parts of their shadows had begun to detach, climbing up their legs until they were slowly being enveloped by them.
“The shadows,” I breathed, horrified. “That’s the essence that escaped through the cracks?”
“Yes.” Athena and Mr. Carlisle spoke together, but this time it was no trace of their voices left, the shadows had completely taken over their bodies and I had only realized what was happening when it had been too late to help them. There was nothing I could do now though, Athena and Mr. Carlisle were no longer present in their bodies, even if I gave everything I had, I wouldn’t be able to help them.
Chapter Twenty Four
“Don’t look so sad.” They said in unison, their eyes were now blank, pupils growing to black out their iris’s. “They gave themselves willingly, they craved power and we gave it to them.”
“And did they know what they had to sacrifice in return?” I spat in disgust.
“They knew that there is a price for power, there always is.” It was really starting to bug me when they spoke like some rip off horror story.
“What are you?” Roman stared at them with horror and shock in his eyes, as if he had never seen anything like this before.
“Ah, the Watcher.” They shifted their focus to him as if only just noticing his presence. They threw back their heads in unison and laughed.
“The protector and prophet of the gems and prophecy, he who was meant to be born human. That is why it took you so long to discover who you are, you know. Your sire fell for the secret he was supposed to guard. That is why you do not know the full history yet, how you will never succeed in your destiny.”
“You didn’t answer my question.” He said, his fists clenched, obviously they had stuck a nerve with him.
“Very well, we are power, pieces of the Jet he cut from his own flesh, his children, though still pure, untainted by the mortal scum that roam this plane. We escaped through the cracks, the flaws in the boundaries of the dimensions, and bound ourselves with vessels, guiding them to help our master.”
“Why do you need vessels?” I asked them, trying to keep them talking for as long as I could before they remembered the knife in what used to be Athena’s hand.
“We have no physical form; we are manifestations of the Jets power.”
“So your just shadows then, like I sa
w in my visions? Nothing but ghosts of the real thing.”
They were quiet for a moment, I was not sure if it was such a good idea that I had just poked the angry bear, but I could not turn back time.
To my surprise and irritation they just laughed again.
“He could have saved you, you know.” They said, turning back to Roman. “You knew what she was the moment you saw her powers, the very first day you met, but you lied to yourself, and her.”
“He did it to protect me.” I said in his defence.
“He did it because he was selfish, he did not want to find you because he knew that when he did it would become real. He knew who you were when he saw you buying the book that his ancestor wrote which held the prophecy, he knew who you were when he followed you the night that you were attacked at the party, he stood outside the door and listened to that oaf squeeze the life out of you, just to see if he could feel when your power activated.
“He could have saved you all this time when the uncertainty and unknowing brought you to tears, when the visions and knight mares deprived you of your sleep and almost your sanity, he could have saved you from involving your family and friends, and of having to watch them get slaughtered for knowing too much.”
I stared at them in shock, how could they know about the nightmares that I had been having recently, I thought, I’d never told anyone, I wouldn’t even admit it to myself half the time.
And I was sure that he would never have listened to me being hurt and not have tried to help me, it was impossible. I looked at Roman, ready to defend him when I saw his expression, there was guilt, yes, but there was no shock.
“Their lying, aren’t they,” I asked him, almost desperate, my eyes prickling. “Tell me their lying.”
“Alex, I’m sorry.” He whispered in defeat.
Tears welled in my eyes and I turned away, unable to look at him any longer, my newly repaired heart breaking a little a little more.
The door squealed a little as it was flung open; I felt a spark of hope as I saw Jared, Emi, Rhea, Torah, Liam and Aiden come flying through.
