XBlood- The Beginning

by Shadow Soft

  “And if LDV catches him,” Nathan appended, “they’re going to have massive numbers, too. It’s not going to be a random vampire on the street. It’s going to be a mob, and they’re going to bring him down without a problem.”

  Vales scowled. It was true, but she didn’t like to think of it. Valx was so vulnerable. He couldn’t die, true, but it wasn’t him dying she was afraid of. She was afraid of losing him. She was afraid of how he would suffer if the humans caught him again. And she was afraid of what the vampires would do to the world if they caught him. Invincibility. A vampire with his blood in its veins would be a god.

  “He’s come a long way,” Erika said, trying to brighten the conversation.

  Vales plucked the head off a swaying foxtail as she walked along the verge of the road. “He has,” she consented with a sigh. She still remembered the first time she saw him, wide-eyed and pale as a sheet, crouching behind that chair as if he thought she were going to eat him.

  “He used to not talk to anyone, remember?” Nathan said.

  “And then when he did talk, it was only to you, Vales.”

  Vales nodded. “And he didn’t come out of his bedroom for weeks. That’s right––remember, it was almost a month before he even let me introduce him to my parents.”

  “He was so scared,” Erika murmured.

  “I would be, too,” Nathan said, kicking a rock along the road. “I’d be scared mad out of my mind.”

  The wind blew Erika’s hair across her face as she nodded. “I can’t believe what they did to him,” she said with dreadful quietness. “I can’t believe people would do that. Couldn’t they see he was human just like them?”

  “They’re monsters,” Vales spat, surprised by the vitriol in her own voice. “I’d lock them up in prison if I got the chance.”

  “Or do to them what they did to him,” Nathan chimed in.

  Vales thought about how satisfying that would be. She hated the scientists who had abused Valx in the name of research and experimentation. But no matter how much she hated them, she knew she could never condone such torture. “Then we’d be just like them, Nathan,” she rebuked quietly. “We could never do that.”

  Nathan fell quiet, and Erika sighed. After a long moment Erika spoke up again. “How long do you think it will take for him to trust us again after we tell him?”

  “A month,” Nathan proposed.

  “No!” Erika disagreed. “At least a year to trust us fully.”

  “To trust us fully?” Vales said sourly, “I don’t know if he ever will, again.”

  “But we’re helping him!” Nathan protested. “He’ll see that, for sure.”

  “That doesn’t change the fact that we’re lying to him,” Vales said with quiet guilt. “I just wish there was a different way of doing this.”

  Erika put her arm comfortingly around Vales’ shoulders. “If there was a different way of doing this,” she said, “we’d have done it. We’re doing the best we can to keep him safe, Vales. The best we can, so don’t get down about it.”

  Vales nodded. She knew her cousin was right. But it was still hard. She cared deeply for Valx, and it hurt her to think about losing his trust.

  Chapter 4

  It was finally here. Summer break. I might have been different from other children in nearly every way, but some things can never be different. My adoration of ice cream exceeded the limits of health, for one. For two . . . . Well, you can guess. Summer break was one of those priceless glories that comes round every year, and every year you’re just as excited as the last. For me, summer break meant two things.

  Let me take that back—it meant more than two. It meant a whole host of important things, like sunshine and free time and the sound of birdsong, which even after three years out of the labs, never ceased to move me. But it meant two things of especial importance.

  One: Vales would spend more time at home. You can imagine how giddy that felt. Vales was my best friend, the sort of best friend who is more than a friend or a sibling could ever be. I knew I didn’t deserve her, and she knew she didn’t deserve me, and so we were happily indebted to each other, and lived our whole lives paying off that debt by looking out for one another, spending time with each other, and—yes, I admit it—occasionally getting into some splendid mischief together.

  Secondly, summer break meant that we would shift into a holiday-themed setting for my lessons on common sense. I always enjoyed this. Even though my lessons were conducted in a simulation room, they were a real presence in my life and influenced my moods in significant ways. When it was sunny in the simulations I felt bright and ready to go frolic around outside. When it was snowing I felt cozy and longed for a cup of hot cider in front of a crackling fireplace.

  You may be wondering the exact purpose of the simulations, so let me explain. Quite obviously, being me, I cannot simply walk into any random store and go shopping like a normal person. Somebody would be there to arrest me within ten minutes, and that’s clearly not a good thing. However, should the circumstance arise in which it is necessary for me to know how to behave like a normal person . . . . Well, that’s just it. I need to know how to behave like a normal person.

  To train me in common etiquette, Victor and Valerie had developed and perfected a series of simulation tests. I would go through each set of tests a certain number of times per year, and Victor or Valerie would watch to gauge my progress based on former results. In some ways it was much like shooting a scene for a film. They reconstructed normal, everyday situations into a simulation, ran me through it, filmed it, then afterwards we would sit and watch my performance. They would point out my mistakes and my successes equally, and I would go away knowing what I needed to improve on next time. Most importantly, however, I got to experience what it was like to interact with real people in real life in real time. So if ever something went wrong and I found myself alone in the real world, I wouldn’t be a complete blunder.

  Today’s simulation had been a simple shopping trip. Simple. I jest. To you, going shopping might be an ordinary thing. To me, it’s bizarre and confusing and exciting all at once. You wouldn’t believe the sorts of strange things that can happen while you’re shopping. For one, there are so many people! I’ve never been around crowds in my life. Ever. I lived in a lab with a handful of esoteric scientists, then moved into a house with three other people in the tiniest of remote villages. I have never been in big cities—well, I’ve been in them, but stuck inside a lab the whole time—and never among throngs of people milling all about.

  So, mindful of that, you can imagine how perplexing a simple shopping trip can be. All of this in spite of the fact that I’d experienced this very same simulation a several other times over the years. Each time it’s the same as before. I sit and listen, agog, to the narration of all the possible situations that might occur, all the difficulties and chaos that might unfold while you’re trying to buy your groceries. The stories must be exaggerated, I would often think to myself, listening with critical skepticism. Especially that one about Black Friday. That one always gave me cold sweats.

  Today, though, it was out of my mind the second the simulation ended. Today was the first day of summer break. Or would be, as soon as Valeska got home from school. Only then could the holiday gears kick into action.

  To succor my impatience, I distracted myself getting my daily samples taken by Victor. This was routine, so I didn’t even need to announce the purpose of my visit when I walked through the door.

  Victor’s face lit up. “Ah, Valx! I was just about to look for you.” He gestured to the plastic-wrapped dentist’s chair. “Make yourself comfortable.”

  He was hardly done speaking before I was on the chair, wriggling into place. I didn’t want any loitering today. If I could be done as soon as possible, I might have the chance to run and meet Vales on her way home from school. We had so much to talk about. I was anxious to know the activities she had planned for the holidays—the good sort of anxious, you understand. Eager
impatience. Every member of the family instructed me in different areas of study, but Vales’ courses were always my favorite. I suppose that goes without saying by now. She specialized in my artistic instruction: singing, crafts, etc.

  Vales was also responsible for my . . . . well, romantic instruction. This may seem silly to you, but try growing up in a lab, stepping out its doors, and trying to properly court a woman. It can’t be done. You may not realize it, but the ways of romance are ingrained deeply and indelibly in the fabric of society. If I was to function with any semblance of normalcy in my future life, I had to know the punctilios of courtship.

  Now I’ll be honest. Nothing Vales told me on the matter made any sense, especially when she got off into logic and theory. It bewildered me that romance had a logic to it. In any case, though, it never bothered me much. I couldn’t imagine anyone ever falling in love with me––me, the most wanted person on the planet––so usually I listened with one ear to the words she was actually saying, and with the other to the music of her voice.

  “I have something important to tell you,” Victor announced, mid-way through preparing my samples.

  I looked at him from the chair. He was wearing his typical white plastic apron and his face looked more serious than normal, which immediately sent my heart to doing cartwheels in my chest. “About my . . . . condition?” I asked carefully.

  Victor nodded.

  “. . . . Good news?”

  Again, Victor nodded.

  I couldn’t believe it. After three years of waiting, perhaps Victor and Valerie had finally come up with a solution!

  “Well,” Victor appended momentarily, “after a manner of speaking.”

  My spirits dropped somewhat. “Go on . . . .”

  He smiled suddenly, a gentle, paternal smile that softened his entire face. “We’ll discuss it with the family tonight over dinner.”

  “But—!”

  “Tonight.”

  I scowled. “Victor! You have to tell me!”

  “Calm down, Valx! It’s just a few hours.”

  I turned to pleading. “Don’t do this to me, Victor! You can’t let on that you’re going to tell me something, then refuse to say a word––!”

  “Hush, hush. Look—you’ve been waiting for the beginning of summer break for weeks. Once Valeska gets home from school you won’t even remember that I mentioned anything. I just wanted to give you a heads up, is all. Didn’t want it to come as a complete surprise. But don’t you think it’s better that the whole family is together to hear the news?”

  How did he expect me to be calm? He had just hinted that they might have found a solution to the cursed blood in my veins, and now refused to say a word about it! I was dying inside. The good sort of dying—not that I know a bad sort of dying, since I am, well, unable to be killed—but even the good sort of dying can be terribly difficult to endure. Imagine waiting for something forever. Looking forward to the joy of the moment when it finally happens. I may be Subject X, but I’m not the only one who knows what this feels like. If you’re human, you do too. It’s the feeling of anticipation for a moment—that moment—when it finally happens. You meet the person you’ve been waiting for months to finally meet face-to-face. Your sister, who you haven’t seen for three years, flies in and you see her face through the glass at the airport. It’s that moment when every eager cell in your body bursts with an exultation so uncontainable—

  But wait. It hasn’t happened yet. I have to wait for tonight. Imagine someone telling you that tonight, the best thing in your life was going to happen. Now that’s great. That’s fabulous. But you have to wait until tonight, and that hurts.

  Sure, what Victor said was true. Better to wait until the whole family was together, etc etc. Not to mention the fact that I had waited three whole years for this moment—and ten in a lab before that. I was the master of waiting. I knew patience better than the white-washed ceiling of my bedroom at the lab. But waiting without end is easier—surprisingly, yes—than waiting when the end is in sight.

  Every atom in my body burned to know. “Victor please . . . .”

  “Valx.”

  All he said was my name, then he set about taking my samples. I closed my eyes and raged silently inside. In the span of two minutes I thought a million different thoughts and had a million different wonderings. So much suddenly seemed so near . . . . A future I had never known or hoped for, only dreamed of in my most desperate dreams. This future was suddenly close. Close.

  The impatience came bubbling up in me again. “What about––”

  Before I could finish a sweet, clarion voice rang through the doorway. “Valx? Valx! Where are you?”

  Vales. My impatience melted away. Well—not all the way. That would have been impossible, you understand. But it melted down to containable levels, so when Victor looked down at me and patted my back I didn’t bite his hand off in exasperation. “Go on,” he said, “dinner will come soon enough. Distract yourself discussing holiday plans with Valeska, eh?”

  I treated him to a long, lugubrious groan as I trailed from the room. “Coming, Vales.”

  “Hurry up! We have a whole summer’s worth of planning to do!”

  We sat in our favorite tree, sunlight dappling the leaves around us and a summer breeze, pleasantly warm, playing through the branches. It flickered Valeska’s pink hair across her face. Her deep eyes watched me intently as I relayed what her father had told me earlier.

  “. . . . so now my stomach’s eating my liver which is eating my kidney which is eating my brain as I’m forced to wait until tonight!” I put extra stress on the word, in case it wasn’t clear enough to her already that the matter was a tragedy.

  “That’s . . . . great,” Vales said, smiling wanly.

  “I know! It’s killing me that I have to wait until tonight—but it’s happening! It’s finally . . . .” I trailed off as I registered Vales’ reaction for the first time. Nothing about her was radiantly ecstatic. No beaming, no laughter, no reckless hug that would have us both on the grass at the base of the tree before we could breathe. Her eyes were darker than usual, her face slightly downcast. A host of misgivings spawned inside me. “. . . . Vales?”

  “Hm?” She seemed to start, then a dazzling smile burst across her face. “Oh!” She laughed. “Valx I’m so sorry! I was completely in a brown study. Thinking about something else––” She fluttered a hand dismissively in the air. “It was nothing. That’s fantastic, Valx! Oh my goodness, I can’t believe this is finally . . . .” It was her turn to trail off, looking at my expression. “What?”

  “It doesn’t seem like it was nothing.”

  “Oh––”

  My eyes narrowed as I saw the scattered, scrambling look go into hers. “Tell me the truth, Vales—what was it?”

  “It’s just––” She bit her lip, cutting off the rest of her sentence.

  “Just . . . . what?” I prodded gently.

  She looked down, a veil of hair falling across her face. “I just think about . . . . after,” she said so softly the breeze almost stole the words away.

  After. I frowned, not understanding. “After . . . ?”

  “After your . . . . problem is solved. I was thinking about what it would be like . . . . if you would . . . .” Her lip trembled. “If you would leave us to live your own life.”

  At first I was so incredulous I didn’t know how to respond. Live my own life? I hardly even knew what that meant. “Vales,” I said earnestly, “I have no life without you. My life is with you.”

  A spark went into Valeska’s eyes and she tilted her head, a sun ray slanting through her hair to illuminate her face as she peered out at me. Doubt still clouded her mind, though—I could see it behind the soft-stirring hope of her expression. After three years I knew Vales better than anyone else, and to me the doubt was not hidden.

  But what more could I say? What could I do? I knew sure as stone I wouldn’t be leaving her and her family, but until time proved that I meant what
I said . . . .

  Vales stirred on the branch next to me. Leaning closer, she slipped her arms around me. “Good,” she said close to my ear. “I’ll believe you.”

  Relief blossomed in my chest.

  “Besides,” she went on with quiet amusement, “we have all sorts of things to talk about . . . .”

  That was the wonderful thing about Valeska—she was quick to move past things. Doubt and fear couldn’t cling to her for long; somehow, she always managed to shake them off like a reptile shedding its skin.

  Swinging herself down off the branch we were sitting on, Valeska crouched next to her backpack where it sat in the grass at the base of the tree. I followed her somewhat less lithely. “Here,” she said, withdrawing a sheet of paper. “Take a look at this and tell me what you think. It’s the schedule of lessons I drummed up for the next two weeks.” She handed me the piece of paper, then proceeded to list everything off before I even had the chance to look at it. “It’ll be swimming, yoga, drawing, drama, tanning, and clay sculpture for week one.” She ticked them off on her fingers as she went.

  I glanced down at the paper, scanning the list she had written.

  “Well?”

  “Um . . . . tanning, Vales?” I asked a bit incredulously. I wasn’t sure about that. Tanning seemed to be more of a . . . . well, female pastime. I hadn’t seen Blake sprawled out relaxing in the sun.

  “Oh, come on, Valx! Basically it’s an excuse to doze on a sleepy summer afternoon.”

  I resigned myself and decided not to argue. “Is it going to be in that particular order?”

  “Well . . . .” she shrugged. “Depends on the weather, obviously. Don’t worry—I won’t make you sunbathe in the rain.”

  “And for the second week?”