BlueK Dynasty: The 1st Seven Days (15 page)

Kurma made her way down
the stairs and walked to her apartment’s floor. She listened in the
stairway for any neighbors and heard plenty of commotion. Mrs.
Finnigway was cooking for her husband and five kids—Kurma could
smell the oxtails and spinach. She heard the Martinez couple
arguing across the hall over who had come in later the day before.
She could even hear the people on the floor beneath
her.
  

Kurma’s apartment was at
the other end of the hallway. She would have to get closer if she
wanted to eavesdrop, but she was still in her Raptor form. She
could walk around either with wings or completely in the nude. She
didn’t know which would be worse. Kurma inched her head out of the
stairway and saw that the coast was clear, and then stalked
silently down the hallway, watching her step as she remembered
which parts of the floor would creak under her weight. She neared
her apartment, number 153, home sweet home. Kurma stroked the door
and pressed her ear to it.
  

She wanted to hear her
brother’s voice and see her mom smiling. But she couldn’t risk
their finding out about her. If they did, they would certainly find
out about Santino, and that was whole other can of worms. She
feared if she tried to blend in with the family, then out of
nowhere she would sprout her wings and talons. She just couldn’t
trust herself this early in the game. What if her mother disowned
her? What if her brothers were embarrassed by her? But a sister who
could fly would be cool.
 
If only they were
younger
, Kurma thought.
  

She picked up voice
vibrations in her home and listened intently.
  

“
Mom’s
going to the police to talk to that detective,” said her younger
brother, Allie.
  

“
I don’t
trust Carrboro, and neither should she,” replied Inis, her other
brother.
  

“
Did you
hear he put out a warrant for Santino?” Allie
asked.
  

“
Supposedly Santino attacked and killed a bunch of police
officers. The guy had no choice. I still don’t trust Kurma with
him, though.”
  

“
I say
we go look for her and Santino. You know they’re somewhere
together.”
  

“
They
need to put the city on lockdown. Kurma is probably in trouble. Who
knows what she could be getting into?” said Inis with a worried
tone in his voice.
  

“
If they
didn’t put the city on lockdown for those cops then you know
they’re not doing it for one little
girl.”
  

Kurma’s heart was breaking
and tearing in two at the sound of her brothers’
voices.
  

“
Let’s
just give her a few more days, until the weekend is over. If she
doesn’t show up here or back at school on Monday, then we go to
plan B.”
  

“
What’s
plan B?” asked Inis.
  

“
We get
the news involved, make flyers, go to all our old spots and look
for her. Whatever we need to do. I’m giving her until Monday, and
then it’s an all-out manhunt for Kurma.”
  

“
What
about Santino?”
  

“
He
isn’t our sister. He’s not even related to us. He has his own
family and we have ours. Plus, you heard what Carrboro said—he
attacked Kurma. Even tried to kill her.”
  

“
He
didn’t say Santino tried to kill Kurma,” said
Inis.
  

“
He
might as well have. Did you see our spot when we got in here? Right
now I’m just like,
 
Whatever,
Santino
 
until our sister shows up.”
  

Kurma strained her ears
more. The boys had stopped talking. Then she heard it: her mother’s
voice.
  

“
Boys,
I’m going down to the police station,” said Fae. “If Kurma shows
up, call me immediately.”
  

Kurma backed away from the
door. The first thing her mom would do when she saw her was give
her a big hug and kisses. Kurma could not let that happen. She
didn’t want to risk touching her mother and turning her into what
she was.
  

The stairway door was too
far down the hall to make a clean getaway. Kurma heard the chain
rattling inside her apartment door. She looked to a nearby window
and figured it was her only way out without being seen. She could
hear the doorknob twisting as she lifted the window and threw her
leg out the window and over the sill. The last thing she heard was
her mother saying that she loved the boys.
  

Kurma dropped out of the
window and felt her stomach drop as well. This time though, she was
prepared for the fall. Her wings sprang out painlessly and she
halted in midair; she flapped until she reached the
rooftop.
  

Kurma was confused. She
didn’t know what to do, or who to turn to. She knew she could
depend on her brothers but didn’t want to put them at risk. Maybe
she could let them know she was okay but couldn’t be around anyone
for a while. No, they would think she was crazy and demand she come
back home. The twins wouldn’t understand that she was now a walking
experiment, able to change other people into flying Raptors. If she
did tell her brothers, they would have to promise not to tell their
mother, which would be hard since Fae was heading out to report
Kurma missing.
  

If only someone could show
Kurma how things worked. All she needed was a manual on how to be a
Raptor. She was something, this creature, which she knew nothing
about. Why had this happened to her?
  

As Kurma walked back
across the roof to where she had left the redhead, so many thoughts
bounced around in her brain. There were bad things to being a
Raptor, and definitely perks to being a Raptor. It seemed as if she
was the only one who knew what she was, and knew she could do
things other people could not—well, besides Santino. That made her
special in a way. Kurma liked that. Anyway, Santino was about to be
a wanted man, and he wouldn’t have a say in anything she did. She
didn’t need him to be popular anymore. She could be so much more
without him. Yes, she would miss him and her family, but what Kurma
really wanted was an identity she could shape and form. She didn’t
have to be the uptight sister or the overshadowed daughter. She
could do whatever she wanted, be whomever she wanted. Popular,
special, cool, important, anything she wanted now that she was a
Raptor. And Kurma wanted so badly to be something better than her
old self.
  

Kurma found the redhead
and smiled to herself. The girl would be her first guinea pig. She
would have to believe everything Kurma said; she would have no
choice once she realized she too was a Raptor. Kurma would take out
little bits and pieces of the bad parts and add more favorable
details.
  

Kurma bent down and shook
the girl gently. “Wake up,” she whispered. She felt the girl move
around a bit and heard her groan. The redhead rolled over and
squinted up.
  

Kurma stood and smoothed
her hair back. She wanted to make a good first
impression. 
 

15.

Lineage
  

Both girls crouched naked
in front of one another, trying to block out the wind with their
bodies.
  

Kurma squinted at the
redhead with her human eyes. The girl was rather pretty, with
freckles, dirt smudges on her narrow nose, and thin, pink
lips.
  

“
What’s
your name?” asked Kurma. “I’ve been calling
you
 
redhead
 
for about an hour.”
  

“
Rimselda, but everyone calls me
Rimy.”
  

“
Who is
everyone? Do you have a family?”
  

“
No, not
a family. More like distant cousins.” Rimselda laughed
uncomfortably. She didn’t have a family anymore since she’d run
away from Dublin Estates.
 
The family she had left back
in the Estates was worse than her enemies. She had friends,
though—friends who had looked out for her and who were probably
wondering where she was at the moment.
  

“
What’s
your name?” she asked Kurma.
  

“
Karmenia, but everyone calls me Kurma for short,” she said
softly. “My brothers couldn’t pronounce my name when we were young,
and it kind of stuck.” Kurma didn’t want to think about her baby
brothers at the moment. “You’re probably wondering why you’re on a
high-rise, naked and cold.”
  

Rimselda nodded her head
and looked lost. She scanned the rooftop and remembered trying to
make a run for the door, but then a monster had stopped her. It had
talons for hands and a scaly face with a severe nose; its lips were
bright orange as if painted on, and there were huge wings. She
tried to shake the image off.
  

“
Well, I
don’t know how to tell you this,” Kurma
started.
  

“
Wait.”
Rimselda repositioned herself. She felt she would need to be
sitting for this.
  

Kurma continued. “I think
I’m a rare species. In fact I’m the only one of my kind. I’m half
human, half Raptor. I can hear things at great distances, I can
smell things, I can see faraway objects clearly, and I can
fly—probably the most important part of being a
Raptor.”
  

Rimselda took in
everything Kurma said, and it went in one ear and out the
other.
  

“
I’ve
done an extraordinary thing for you, though at the moment it may
come as a shock. In retrospect I’ve found it can be very lonesome
at the top, and by some rare chance I have passed my lineage on to
you,” Kurma lied. It hadn’t been by chance that she’d touched
Rimselda but by accident; however, she didn’t think Rimselda needed
to know that part. “I don’t know you, true, but I will get to know
you, and you will get to know me. We can become like a team.” The
last part was true: she did want a team, a friend who wouldn’t try
to stab her in the back or have her own agenda, like Kurma’s friend
Eliza had. The only person who had an agenda here was Kurma, and
that was how she liked it.
  

16.

Daggers, Scales, Claws,
and All
  

Rimselda looked at Kurma.
She didn’t seem crazy, and didn’t look crazy either. For the most
part, Kurma looked sane, healthy, and normal. So why was she was
saying such ludicrous things?
  

Rimselda had forgotten she
was in her birthday suit. She stood up, placed her hands on her
tiny hips, and said, “That’s a whole lot of story you got
there.”
  

“
It’s
the truth,” Kurma lied again.
  

“
What
was it you’re calling yourself?”
  

“
A
Raptor,” answered Kurma.
  

“
So
you’re telling me you’re human and can change into a Raptor, and
that I am now a Raptor too?”
  

“
Correct,” Kurma said. “You can change into a Raptor on
command, or whenever your body feels as if it’s in
danger.”
  

Rimselda nodded her head
in disbelief. “You’re nuts, girl. Straight up walnuts,
peanuts—hell, even coconuts.” She danced around in a circle
singing.
  

Kurma breathed in deeply
through her nostrils. “You don’t believe me?”
  

Rimselda stopped dancing
and said with a straight face, “No.”
  

Kurma stood up. “Alright…
But you will see that I am telling the truth.”
  

She knew this moment had
to be perfect. If she wanted her followers to be believers then she
had to show and prove. The best way to do that was to turn. “Watch
and learn,” she said with a smirk on her face. In an instant she
had transformed into her Raptor state—colored fur, claws, shocking
gray eyes, and all.
  

Rimselda lurched forward
and then back away. She felt sick. She couldn’t take her eyes off
of Kurma, or the Raptor, or both for that
matter.
  

Kurma had tripled her
normal body size. She looked down at Rimselda, who looked scared
yet in awe. Kurma felt as if she had her first admirer. She could
only imagine how she looked from Rimselda’s point of
view.
 
Probably beautiful and beastly
, she
thought.