CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Saren was crouched in the corner of the room. I was on the opposite side and we stared at each other, waiting for the other to attack. My eyes were locked on her. I watched every breath she took, every twitch the hairs on her arm made, even how the iris in her eye widened a bit. When the skin at the corner of her mouth stretched out, I flung myself in the air and tucked my feet in to spring off the wall as I flew down to her.
She was ready. She ducked her head down and rolled over till she was on her back. Then her hand came up and zapped me, just as I was about to tackle her.
"Ouch!" I glared as I thrust my body through the air and back to my corner. I rubbed my stomach. "That one hurt."
"You were trying to hurt me."
"I wanted to tackle you."
"You wanted to overtake me." She stood, her body fluid, gliding upwards till she walked towards me. The fire in her eyes had vanished, but two small embers had been ignited. I watched, always amazed, as it built slowly at first until it was a rolling fire. Then she blinked and shook her head. "You can't think about how you're going to sneak up on me. It won't work with me. It won't work with Jacith."
"Why do I have to be the one who fights him? You're better than me. You should do it." I stood and brushed off my pants. The room we had been training in hadn't been cleaned from the animals that had been in there before. Piles of straw were everywhere and they clung to my pants. Not Saren's. Her pants were spotless. "Are you sure there isn't poop in here from before? You said animals were kept in here."
She rolled her eyes and led the way out the door and through a tunnel. "I already told you that it had been cleaned a long time ago. The straw was put in there for the same reason we use that room, training. It's an old castle. There's a lot of history. Knights used to go in there. And no, you're the Immortal. I am not. You are supposed to be better than me."
Just then we passed another hallway where a display of armor was hung on the wall. I could never stop the shivers when I went past it and I felt them again. The place was old. Saren was right, the history hung in the air. It suffocated me at times, but I missed my own history. I missed my old life. "When can I go back?"
Saren pushed open a wooden door with her back and glared at me. "I told you, when you can hide from the Alpha. He came earlier than we anticipated and you were supposed to be further along in your powers."
Sireenia looked up from a counter as she stirred something in a bowl. A bright smile lit her face and she tucked a long braid behind her ear. She left a trail of flour on her cheek. "How's she doing?"
"She's blocking me. She's blocking herself. It's like she doesn't want to progress," Saren grumbled as she hopped on a stool at the counter. "What are you making?"
"Chocolate chip cookies. Davy, you like these, don't you?"
My finger had been raised in the air, ready to swipe some of the batter when I was caught by the look in Sireenia's eyes. The uncertainty and eagerness shook me for a moment. Those were human emotions and I'd grown used to not seeing Saren or Sireenia as human. Magic oozed from them in every word, emotion, or look. They told me that they were once human and it surprised me when I saw moments such as this one that showed their humanity.
I smiled back. "I love these cookies. Kates used to buy the premade batter and that's all we would eat sometimes."
"The batter?" Sireenia paled. "You mean you didn't bake them? I thought you were supposed to bake them?"
Saren swore under her breath. "Don't worry about it, Sire. You're fine. You're being more amicable than she is."
"Hey!" I stole some batter and turned as I tasted it to glare at my trainer. It seemed that was all I did with Saren now. "What's that supposed to mean?" It felt like an insult…
"You know what that means. Why won't you transition? It's like you don't want to be the Immortal. Why don't you want to be the Immortal?" She shot to her feet and rounded the counter. Her body had stiffened, ready for a fight.
I stared at her. "Wha—huh? I don't want to be the Immortal? Why do you say that?"
"Because you don't! You hold back on every training exercise I've put you through. The only thing that you don't hold back is protecting yourself. I've sent missiles at you and you evade them. You've acclimated inside. Your power is complete, but you don't want to admit it. Are you blocking yourself? You must be. I don't understand you. This is why the Immortal should never have ascended into a human being."
"I don't agree with that." Sireenia put down the bowl and spoon. "Saren, please watch what you're saying."
"Why? It's true. We've done so much for her, fought so much, sacrificed, bled for her. And this is the end result? A human who doesn't want it? I lost my humanity for the thread, but—" Saren threw her hands in the air and bolts of fire slammed against the walls. A mural caught fire, but Sireenia waved her hand in the air and it was extinguished immediately.
"The Immortal chose her. Davy is the one who will stop Jacith. She can make everything correct. She
will
change it all."
With narrowed eyes, I watched as Sireenia held Saren's arms and tried to calm her, but Saren shook her head and broke free. As she walked to the door, I realized something that I had never even considered. "You guys had the thread before, didn't you?"
They weren't witches, but they came from witchcraft. Saren had told me before. And they weren't vampires or werewolves or anything else. She said that Roane wouldn't know who they were, but the way they talked about the Immortal, as if they had first-hand knowledge…that meant only one thing. They had been the humans who had held the thread before me and that meant…I gulped. That meant that I could meet Talia at any moment. And the idea sent my heart racing.
Both stopped and looked at me. It was like a blanket had been pulled off and I saw the relief in both of their eyes. Sireenia was the first one to respond. "It changes you, when you've had the thread in you for so long. I had it in the beginning of time. Saren had it in the 1800s. You go through a vortex when it leaves you."
"It feels like you're getting your heart pulled out of you through your throat when the thread jumps out of you."
"Or when it's forced out of you." Sireenia grew quiet as she looked down at her hands.
I saw the pain in her and wondered who had taken the thread from her, but Saren distracted me. "How did you know that? About us?"
How could I not, but then I realized that I wasn't sure how I knew it. "I don't know. It was just a feeling. You both talk about the Immortal as if you've had first-hand experience."
Before I finished talking, Saren zapped me. The bolt of power hurdled through the air, but I looked up and everything slowed in that instant. I saw it coming, but at a snail's pace. I deflected it and sent it into a wall. Then I looked up again and saw Saren in the air, soaring at me. Her hands were outstretched and ready to let loose two more bolts of power at me. I sidestepped her too. When she landed on the floor, her bolts shattered the floor beneath her, and I grabbed her collar. The floor crumbled underneath her while I lifted her in the air and kicked off the ground. I sent us both through the air to land in the opposite corner.
Sireenia watched where we had been. Her mouth hung open and her hands had lifted to her cheeks. Then it all stopped. Everything snapped back in place. They were no longer in slow motion and Saren stumbled backwards as she fell to the ground.
"Oh my goddess." Sireenia rushed to Saren's side. Both of them looked at me.
I grimaced as I saw the questions and shock in their eyes. Then I saw their mysticism and knew they had never thought I would transition, not completely. I swallowed that back. Their lack of faith in me shouldn't have been surprising.
"You
have
transitioned!" Saren shot to her feet. "When? How? Have you been like this the whole time? Has this been a waste of our time?"
Sireenia grew quiet.
"Are you kidding me?" How could she even think those things? "I didn't know until now. I had no idea when whatever happened. I just knew that something clicked in me and I knew both of you had been thread-holders. That was it and then you're throwing yourself at me. What am I supposed to do? I thought you wanted me to defend myself."
"Can you control it?" Saren stood with her hands ready at her side.
Sireenia stood beside her and tightened her robe. She glanced from Saren to me. Then she stepped forward. "Davy, it is very important to tell us, can you control your powers?"
"You mean: can I do this stuff at will? Not really, but sometimes. Sometimes I can do it and sometimes I can't." I shrugged. "When I really want something to happen, it happens. I wouldn't bank on it, though."
"Why could you stop me now and you couldn't before? I've been training you for three months. I've been hitting you with my powers for that long and you've been taking it?"
"They didn't really hurt." Even though they had and my body had been swollen the entire time. "I don't know, maybe I was just tired of it. Maybe I was distracted by something else. I have no idea."
"What were you thinking before Saren tried to attack you? I saw a look on your face. What was it?" Sireenia stepped forward. Her gaze was intent on me.
"I have no idea. I thought about you guys, what you were, and then I looked up and Saren's coming at me. That's all I remember."
"No, you had a different look. When you thought about us, you were surprised. When Saren attacked you, you were annoyed. She distracted you from a thought. What was it? What were you thinking between those two things? Think, Davy."
"I wasn't. Really. You guys were talking about vortexes and the thread being taken out of you. Then," I shrugged. "I have no idea."
"I felt pain from you." Sireenia tilted her head to the side. "I can feel emotions, not as well as you, but I felt sadness from you. Then panic. What were you scared of?"
"Or who."
"Who are you scared of you?"
Both of them watched me. I wondered if they could hear thoughts too.
I shrugged again. "I have no idea. I just know that I haven't felt normal for awhile, not since…" Not since the last time I had seen Roane when we had talked in the library and he left me.
"There! What are you thinking right now?" Sireenia surged towards me and her hands grabbed my arms.
The moment her hands touched me, a surge of memories rushed through me. The first time I saw Roane in the library, when I saw him in my dorm. Then he stood behind me when Sheila asked if he was my date. A rush of adrenalin went through me as I remembered our first kiss, when I slammed my mouth against his. And then I remembered when we made love. I'd never felt such a desperate fever before him.
"Oh dear." Sireenia wrapped me in her arms before she turned towards Saren. "It's him. It's the vampire."
I tensed and expected a biting comment from her, but it never came. Instead, I heard the door close a second later and felt Saren's absence more than I'd ever felt her presence. I pulled away from Sireenia. "What was it? Is she upset?"
"No, she's not. She's feeling her own memories." She moved to hold my face in both of her hands and then she closed her eyes.
Warmth started to pulsate through me. It spread from her fingertips into my skin, down my neck, arms, waist, and all the way to my toes. She was taking away my pain and giving me a different emotion, one of fondness. It felt good and I closed my eyes before I pulled away. "No. That's not real. It's not right that I take that from you."
"You do it all the time. You take away others' pain so I'm taking yours."
"You can't have my pain. You have enough of your own."
"I don't take it into me. Watch."
As I did, Sireenia moved back and held out her arms. She smiled and then closed her eyes. A moment later a coat transformed over her skin. It was a second layer of skin, but white. As soon as it was done growing over her it cemented to her skin and she opened her eyes with that same smile. Then she shook her body. The white skin fell away and left behind her normal skin with a rosy glow over it.
"See?" she asked. "I have some tricks up my sleeve too."
"I don't even know what I would look like if I could do that. I'd be like a quilt or something."
"I was empathic when I was human. My ability has progressed since I held the thread in me and since I lost the thread."
"What happened to you when the thread left you? Roane told me that every person dies once the thread leaves them."
"I did die, but I didn't. The human soul died, as it should, but we passed on to a different realm. There's a part in us, all of us, that connected with the Immortal and the essence of it gave us a different life. This is where we all go. This is where you will go too, I suppose."
"How many are there of you?"
"The older threads, what I call myself, have developed ourselves into these bodies. I chose this body to look like this, the way Saren also looks how she wants to. We don't have real bodies. You can touch us and see us, but no one else can; only someone who is connected to the Immortal thread can. The magic is unparalleled. It is unimaginable, but we do know certain rules and one of them is that the Alpha werewolf cannot know who you are. You must be able to hide yourself to him."