Still. I wished that I had used my anti-frizzy curl gel when Emily had chucked it across the room at Kates. Kates had laughed. I had laughed. Emily had stormed off and my gel had been left underneath my bed.
I trekked out of the office and headed towards the roof door. As I started up the sparse stairs, I heard my footsteps echo all the way down to the basement. Each echo made my heart pound. By the time I got to the top, I felt like I was going to explode, like a bomb was ticking underneath my skin.
Then the door was open and I stepped onto the roof.
For a second, just a briefest of moments, I saw Talia on the edge again with her golden hair waving in the air and her white dress billowing from the wind. The same sad acceptance railed against me.
But I blinked and the image was gone. Instead, a different girl was there and this one was a doozy. Red eyes, black and blue sleek hair that fell past her waist, and ivory skin that any vampire would've marveled at. She stood at my height, a little slim with her hipbones sticking out, and a mark covered the entire left side of her face.
I gulped and froze. There was no way I was getting closer.
She snorted, rolled her eyes, and I felt her disgust blast me.
I was safer where I was.
And then in a flash, she was in front of me.
Oh man, those red eyes looked like they were on fire. That mark was an intricate symbol of weaving lines. I wondered if it meant something and then cursed my foolishness. Of course, it meant something. Everything meant something in my insane world.
"You're right. It does mean something, but it's nothing for you to know. Not yet." She was smug as she leaned closer.
I gulped again. The red in her eyes that looked like fire was fire. An actual flame was in her eyes. It moved in perfect rhythm with the wind that swirled around us on the roof.
"What are you?"
She laughed. "I'm not a vampire."
"Are you a werewolf?"
"I'm not a werewolf either. And no, I'm not anything that your precious vampire is going to know either. I'm beyond his knowledge. I'm beyond a lot of people's knowledge."
"Are you a witch?"
The flame glowed brighter for a moment and then settled back down. "Very good, Davy, but as I said I'm not anything that your lover knows. He knows witches."
There was a riddle there, but I retorted, "He's not my lover."
"He was. He will be again. And he's much more than that." As she spoke, her head tilted to the side and smoke swirled in her eyes to cover up the flame.
"You're a fortune teller witch. You see the future, don't you?" I hated fortune tellers. And, even though I've never met a witch, I was pretty sure I didn't like them either.
She laughed again and the smoke vanished with a swift pop. Her fire was back. "I come from a witch, but I'm no longer a witch, Davy. I'm much much more and I'm here to help you."
"Help me with what? The last one who told me that needed me to accept the Immortal inside of me. What's your agenda with me?" They always had agendas.
"The other one annoyed you, yes?"
She already knew the answer to that.
She had a smug smile on her face. "I'm here to piss you off."
I barked out a laugh. "It's not hard to do that—"
"No." she stepped closer. The fire tripled. Her jaw was so strong, so poignant, and it told me that she meant every word she uttered. "Stepianhas annoyed you. She was sent to you to help you accept who you were, but I know her methods. She used riddles. I will not use riddles. I will tell you bluntly and directly. And I will piss you off. I will not annoy you. I will make you angry. I will make you furious and if so be it, all the better."
Okay.
One, Stepianhas? Two, what did she mean by making me furious? And three, I was already pissed off.
"You're already doing a good job. Who the hell is Stepianhas?"
"My name is Saren. Stepianhas was your last messenger. I will not talk further about my sister. My job is to challenge you and help you learn your powers."
Stretching. Learning. Powers. All I could hear was a name. "There was a name to the annoying voice in my head? That was a person? That wasn't me?"
"She was sent to you as I have been sent to you. We are not of your world, but we will help guide you among this world."
"I thought you said no riddles." Dumbass.
She paused, thought, and then smiled sheepishly. "It seems that my attempt at directness has different meaning in your world than mine. I apologize. I believe that I should've said that I am not my sister. I am the one to teach you of your consequences."
"You suck at this job." I was tired of all this Immortal stuff. "Why now? It's been two weeks."
"Uh—" Her mouth gaped open for a second and I saw the thoughts fly through her head. Literally.
I watched them for a moment before it hit me what I was doing. The last one said something about
'She's the Immortal, she will know. She mustn't know. If she shall ever find out, it will be catastrophe. Remember the vampire. It's about the vampire.'
It was like reading words on a page. "What do you mean when you say that it's about the vampire?"
Saren's eyes widened as she saw me inch closer, but she didn't say anything for a moment. "He is important."
"Why?" I wanted intrude on her personal space. It worked on me, it should work on her.
She grinned and lifted a palm in the air. I felt the air being sucked into her hand and knew she was going to use it against me to shoot me away from her. To a normal person, this would've happened in an instant. To me, I felt the air swirl around me and halted the speed. When I saw her slam the force at me, I lifted my own hand and waved it. It bounced off me and shoved her backwards.
She hadn't fallen down, but it pushed her to the edge of the building. She lifted her head in shock. "You are better than I expected."
I lifted my chin. "You can't bully me. I'm the Immortal." As I said it, I knew I shouldn't have. Saren straightened upright and her eyes changed from a flame to a bonfire. The outline disappeared around her eyes. Flames leapt from outside of her eyes and smoldered the air. I smelled the burning in the air. Then she lifted a hand and flames shot at me.
"No!" I held up my hand. Something charged out of my body and met the flames full force. Instead of coming at me, they shot in the air. The entire sky lit up in flame. I looked up and thought three things. It looked pretty, there was no way that was inconspicuous, and holy crap! Sirens sounded in the distance and looked over. Saren was gone.
What a surprise.
I turned towards the exit and wished I knew how to transport myself by snapping my fingers. Some Immortal perks still needed to be learned. When I got to the street, I ducked into an alley as the fire truck braked in front of the Heffler building.
I hated that building. No good came from that building.
I cut across the middle of the campus and was almost to my dorm when I felt the air change. The hairs on my back stood up. There was a shift in the atmosphere. It was like if I'd been walking with a comfy blanket on me and someone ripped it off me. I knew someone was there and I was out in the open. When I heard a slight growl, I reacted without thinking and twisted my body around. I bent backwards.
Bennett leapt at me. His eyes were shocked as he went over me. His dirty blonde locks had grown longer since I'd last seen him, but he dressed in a black leather vest and jeans. His boots clipped my chin and I fell to the ground.
"Ouch!" I snapped up and held my chin. I felt blood against my fingers. "What'd you do that for?"
His eye gleamed with a purple shine. His chest heaved up and down and his hands fisted together as he stood there. "You turned him." Then he charged and caught me. With my back against his chest, he lowered his head to my neck and growled. "Turn him back."
"Bennett, stop that!"
He clamped me tighter against him and his teeth touched my skin. They didn't break the skin or draw blood, but he wanted me to know he could. I was starting to wonder how demented he'd become. Didn't he remember the last time a vampire drank from me? "Bennett, you will become a human if you drink from me."
"You're the Immortal. You can turn him back."
"Turn who?" Then it clicked in place. "You want me to turn Lucan? Are you crazy? I don't even know where he is or if I can do that."
"You're the Immortal. You can do anything."
A part of me puffed up in pride. I was the Immortal. Of course, I could do anything. Then reality set in. "Bennett, I turned into the Immortal two weeks ago. I wouldn't know how to do it."
"Think it and it happens!" he growled and lifted me in the air.
"Oh—" Not good. My feet dangled for a second before he slammed me back down. This time I fell all the way to the ground and laid there. Bennett was on top as he whispered in my ear, "You will change him or I will hurt you."
Then the air changed again. Something was coming and they were coming fast. Before I could look, Bennett was off me. I scrambled up in time to see Roane throw Bennett into the building across the yard. The brick cracked from the force. Before Bennett could fall to the ground, he caught himself and jumped from the building at him.
I sat there with my mouth open as I watched Roane stand in place with his shoulders ready. His knees didn't look like they moved when he caught Bennett, twisted, and slammed him on the ground. Instead of catching his throat to hold him place as I expected, he impaled him to the ground and flicked a lighter on him. Bennett's eyes got wide and he gasped. He started to kick, trying to scramble away, but whatever Roane had impaled him with kept him in place. Before the lighter hit his chest, Roane swept a hand around me and lifted me in the air. I felt myself being carried away, but I tried to watch Bennett. Roane tucked my head into his shoulder. He wouldn't let me look. When he moved past a building, I saw the air light up.
"Block him. Block him now."
I hadn't realized that I'd been trying to feel him when I closed my eyes and did it. Not a second later, Bennett's screams filled the air. I clasped onto Roane tighter and wound my legs around his waist. No matter the circumstances, it was good to feel him again, maybe too good.
CHAPTER THREE
Roane carried me to the roof of a building. When he set me back on my feet, he went to the edge and looked down. A red glow lit the sky from where Bennett had been and I grabbed his hand to help steady myself. My knees were shaking so loudly, I was surprised Roane didn't hush them.
"I want to see who comes." Roane gripped my hand.
Instead of Bennett, a fire burned in his place. "His body's gone?" There was a citrus smell in the air that mixed with the fire. Both odors made my stomach churn.
A small smile flashed over his face, but it was gone quickly. His face contrasted in a myriad of shadows from the glow. The tops of his cheekbones and nose were highlighted, but everything else was dark. It gave him a supernatural look, but then again
,
he was a vampire.
"It burned faster than normal. He drank from someone who'd overdosed on heroin. It speeds everything up."
"That explains the purple eyes." I was about to ask more when Roane touched my shoulder and nodded at the quad below. I didn't see anything, but he spoke in my head,
"Let the Immortal see."
Everything switched.
The fire felt like it was all around me and Roane's inner tension lashed at me like a whip. I could taste the heroin from the human's blood in Bennett. That was the citrusy feel in the air. Wrinkling my nose, I started to share how weird that was, but closed my mouth as I sensed movement from all corners of the quad. They were vampires. They moved at a slow synchronized pace and made sure no one could see them. With my human eye, I wouldn't have. But as the Immortal, I knew what they thought and felt their arrogance. As I closed my eyes, I felt into them. They were used to doing what they wanted. They thought they were above everyone else, including other vampires.
"Who are they?"
Roane gripped my hand and shook his head.
And below us, they froze as one entity. Their black forms, masked from the shadows, melted backwards. They were gone in the next instant.
He expelled a deep breath.
I knew I messed up, but I had no idea how.
"You twitched when you asked me that. Your hand twitched."
"They could see that?"
"They felt it." He sounded disappointed.
"They felt my hand twitch, but they didn't know we were here? How's that possible?"
"They didn't know we were here because as they move in, they blanket their surroundings."
"We're above them."
"Doesn't matter." Roane sat on the edge. He dropped his head in his hands. "They have sonar that sends pulses all around them. They map the ground. One disturbance or change in their 'map' and they go away. It could be as little as a bird or a rock that fell. One movement, a hand twitch, and they leave."
Talk about anal. "They're scared of a bird?"