Avenging Amethyst (Immortal Eyes) (4 page)

"Like I
said, there is a way to survive the darkness. There are people we call
Dimidiums. A Dimidium can be any creature, Nesmyr, demon, fairy, but it is that
one special person that is meant to help a Lovac manage the darkness in them.
They are a Lovac's other half. They balance each other out perfectly."

"So they're
kind of like a soul mate?"

"Exactly.
They--"

"Wait,"
I interrupted. "So demons and fairies really exist?"

"Yes,"
he sighed, irritated I had interrupted him again. "There are also elves,
gargoyles and werewolves. You name it, it probably exists."

I crossed my
arms over my chest and glared at him. "This is getting more and more
unbelievable by the minute. How can I believe all of these things actually
exist? How can I believe I am what you say I am? Is there anything other than
having purple eyes, strange nightmares and pointy teeth that makes someone a
Lovac?" Even though I knew he was telling the truth, I needed more proof.
I didn’t want to accept that I wasn’t completely human. Not yet.

"Absolutely,"
he said. "We're stronger and faster than normal humans and we each have a
unique power, like I said. I wish I knew what yours was so I could prove it to
you."

"Well, I
don’t feel faster or stronger than a normal human and if I had some
power, wouldn't I have known about it by now? Are you sure you didn’t
make a mistake about me?"

Felix could hear
the uncertainty in my voice and he smiled proudly. He knew I was starting to
believe him but I wouldn’t give in that easily. He had to show me more.

"We
didn’t make a mistake, as much as I know you wish we did. There’s a
Lovac that has the ability to sense where every other Lovac in the world is
located. She’s been following you since you were born, but your mother
figured out a way to use her psychic abilities to block you from us. Only when
your mother’s guards were down would we be able to locate you, but your
mother always found a way to escape us."

"You sound
like you knew my mom," I said sadly, an ache in my chest forming again.
Felix’s talk had distracted me enough to push the memory of my
mom’s death out of my mind but it was creeping its way back to the front
again.

"I never
met her but I heard a lot about her. You were the talk of the school while I
was growing up. There hasn’t been a Lovac born in years where the human
mother actually survived to take care of the baby. Your mom was kind of a
celebrity in our world."

"What do
you mean she
survived
?"

Felix smiled
sadly, and looked at his hands resting on the table. "Most humans that
give birth to Lovac are killed during the actual birth. Lovac are so
genetically different from humans that it’s almost like they’re
giving birth to another species. Most mothers are deathly sick during the
pregnancy and only survive if they have the enough psychic powers to give them
strength. Unfortunately, it’s usually never enough when the Lovac is
actually born. The baby unintentionally takes most of the mothers strength with
it when it’s born, killing the mother. Your mom must have had incredible
psychic powers to be able to survive. It only happens every hundred years or
so."

"That’s
so horrible," I said, the thought of almost killing my mom as an infant
making me sick.

"It is,
but there’s no way around it. Usually, we have a group of Lovac on
standby in a hospital where a Lovac is being born. There are a few Lovac with
mind control abilities that make the doctors believe the baby died right along
with the mothers. That way the Lovac can be raised by Nesmyr and go to school
with other Lovac to learn about their abilities and train."

"Train?"

"Lovac
have a special ability that allows us to be able to sense when Zhulik are near.
It gives us a huge advantage to be able to take them on. We’re raised to
be able to fight Zhulik when we turn eighteen."

"How do I
know you’re not one of these Zhulik?" I knew I was grasping at
straws to come up with reasons not to believe him.

Felix tapped the
side of his head by his eyes. "Lovac are the only species with purple
eyes. Zhulik have deep crimson eyes and Nesmyr have sapphire blue eyes. If
Lovac or Nesmyr become Zhulik, their eyes will change color, too."

"What if
you’re just wearing contacts?"

Felix leaned
across the table and paused mere inches from me. He said, "Does it look
like I’m wearing contacts?"

The bright
lights in the coffee shop gleamed on his eyes. He was so close I could feel his
breath on my neck. I looked deeply at his eyes and felt myself being dragged
into the swirl of purple. While his eyes were the same exact color as mine,
they were bigger and had a healthier glow to them. I wasn’t sure how I
would be able to tell if he was wearing contacts but at that moment I
didn’t care. I wanted to stare into his eyes all day.

Felix blinked
and pulled himself away. I blushed and hoped there was no way he could read my
thoughts. He didn’t question my strange staring and instead stood up.

"Well, if
you still don’t trust me, I can always demonstrate our strength. Meet me
in the alley behind the shop if you’re still interested. I’ll give
you ten minutes and if you don’t come, I’ll assume you don’t
want to hear more and leave you alone."

Without letting
me have another word, he walked off, weaving his way through the crowd of morning
coffee drinkers and left the shop. I sat in my chair and stared at the wall for
a minute before I got up to follow him.

Of course I was
still interested. If there was some way he could truly prove that I
wasn’t entirely human, I had to know. And if there was some way my
mom’s killer was a Zhulik, maybe he could help me hunt the woman down.
Maybe he would even help me hunt down the man that was supposedly my father,
too. If I really did have some kind of super powers, I was going to use them to
get revenge for my mother’s death.

I walked out of
the coffee shop, getting a few glares from employees for occupying one of their
tables without ordering anything, and turned the corner into the alley. Felix
leaned against a large truck, looking bored.

"Alright,
prove your strength to me," I said, walking over to him and crossing my
arms in front of me. I stayed a few feet away, in case this was some kind of
ploy to kidnap me. I was still close enough to the front of the alley that I
would be able to run into the public eye if he tried anything.

Without saying
anything, Felix turned and placed his hands under the front of the trucks
bumper. He pulled up and the truck lifted a good two feet off the ground. Felix
didn’t even break a sweat.

I stood in shock
for a moment while Felix gently put the truck back on the ground. He turned and
gave me a questioning look but I had no words. I looked over my shoulder to see
if anyone had witnessed what just happened but we were completely alone.

"You’re
turn," Felix said.

"I-I
can’t do that," I said, shaking my head.

"Have you
ever tried?"

I opened my
mouth to argue but he was right. I had never tried.  I marched over to the
truck, placed my hands where Felix had and lifted up. I had every intention of
proving to him that I couldn’t do it so that I could go back to believing
I was a normal human. There was one small flaw in that plan.

The truck
actually lifted off of the ground. I had expected it to take all of my energy
to lift the truck but with just a small amount of effort it was a foot off the
ground. I was so shocked that I dropped the truck and jumped away from it. The
truck landed with a thud back on the ground, causing the alarm to go off.

Felix laughed as
he grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the alley.

"Let’s
get out of here before the owner comes after us," he said.

I let Felix drag
me away but I stared at the truck until it was out of view. I couldn’t
believe that I had just lifted a huge truck off of the ground. I’ve seen
men with arms five times the size of mine struggle to lift something that heavy
even an inch off the ground. This explained why I was able to break the tile in
the motel shower, too.

"Come on,
let me walk you back to your motel room," Felix said.

"No
way," I said, pulling my hand away from Felix's. "I want to know
more."

Felix smiled
triumphantly. "So you
do
believe me then?"

"I'm still
not sure but I don't know how to explain what just happened. Besides, I want to
find out why that woman killed my mom and I think you can help me."

"If you're
willing to come back to our headquarters, we can teach you everything we know
and do our best to help find the woman."

I hesitated. I
wasn't sure if I trusted Felix enough to go somewhere with him, but my
instincts were telling me to trust him. My mom always told me my instincts were
better than anyone else's. Maybe that had to do with being a Lovac.

"Okay. I'll
go with you," I finally said.

Felix's eyebrows
rose slightly. "You sure?"

I shrugged.
"I've got nothing better to do. Besides, I came here to find answers and
you're the only one who's given me any."

He nodded.
"Go get your stuff from your motel room and check out. Our headquarters
are a few miles from here in the forests, and you'll probably want to stay
somewhere closer if you're serious about learning more. I'll meet you in the
parking lot of the motel in fifteen minutes."

Before I even
had a chance to nod Felix was already turning away from me and walking in the
opposite direction of my motel. I stood frozen in a place for a moment and
wondered if I was doing the right thing. I wondered if my mom would be proud of
me for going after answers or disappointed in me for risking my life after she
protected me for so long. I told myself she would be proud and walked back to
my motel.

Fifteen minutes
later I was leaning against my car with my mom's trunk safely inside and my
backpack slung around my shoulder. I finished checking out of the motel a few
minutes earlier and I began to wonder if Felix ditched me.

Another five
minutes passed before a sleek black SUV rolled into the parking lot. Felix
rolled down the window as he got close to me. I noticed there was a woman in
the passenger seat and I felt a tiny pang of jealousy that it might be his
girlfriend. I had no right to  be jealous over a guy I barely knew.

"Sorry I'm
a little late. I had to go pick someone up," he said and nodded his head
in the direction of the woman. I stepped a little closer to the window to get a
better look at her.

"Hello,"
the woman said. "I'm Riley."

Her voice was
very soft and I had to strain to hear her. Her eyes looked sad and even though
her smile was genuine, it almost had a sad feel to it, too. Her long brown hair
cascaded down her back in waves and I felt another pang of jealousy. I had always
wanted perfect curly hair. Even from this distance, I could see her bright
purple eyes framed by slightly tanned skin.

"It's
really nice to finally meet you," Riley continued.

"You know
who I am, too?"

"Of course.
Every Lovac knows who you are. You're practically famous in our world."

I shifted
uncomfortably. I didn't like the thought of a whole group of people I never
knew existed spying on me.

"Do you
want to ride with us or follow in your own car?" Felix asked after I
didn't say anything for a moment.

"I'll take
my own car," I said without hesitation. There was no way I going without
some kind of escape available. I didn't want to be stuck with strangers,
especially if they refused to let me leave.

Neither Felix
nor Riley argued and a few minutes later I was following them through the city
of Seattle and off into the nearby forests. Nearly an hour after we left the
main road a large building came into view. From the outside it was boring and
reminded me of how I pictured a jail, only without the barbed wire fences.

I pulled into a
parking space next to Felix's car and hesitated before getting out. Part of me
was excited to learn more about these people and the other part of me was
terrified that I was walking into some kind of trap.

Felix tapped on
my window and I jumped. I would probably be pretty jumpy for a while until I
truly trusted them. I opened my car door and an uneasy feeling settled over me.
I was about to enter a building full of strangers that weren’t human.

"Are you
sure you're ready for this?" Felix asked. His smile held amusement.

"No,"
I said.
But I don't have much of a choice,
I finished in my head.

The sound of a
baby crying caught my attention and I looked around to find the source. Riley
had just pulled a baby out of the backseat of the SUV and she bounced it gently
in her arms to calm it down. I don't know why I was so shocked, there were
plenty of people my age that had children, but Riley just didn't look like the
type to have a kid so young.