Paradox - Progeny Of Innocence (bk2) (Paradox series) (16 page)

"Oh, okay, sure, here you go," Cindy said as she pulled one of the bottles from the bag at her feet and handed it to Lyssa. Lyssa grunted, snatched the bottle, shoved the rear car door open, and climbed out. She unscrewed the cap of the bottle, tossed it on the sand, and poured the crystal clear liquid into her mouth.

Emily stared after her, "Is she really going to drink that straight from the bottle? No orange juice or lemonade, nothing? she asked, sliding out of the car after Damon.

Caleb chuckled. "Oh, our Lyssa prefers to mix her drinks with the blood of virgins. Are you offering yours, Little Flower?" he asked Emily in a mocking tone.

"Leave her alone, Caleb," Damon said, closing the back door.

"Oh, isn’t that gallant? Looks like you have found yourself a knight in shining armor, Little Flower," Caleb said, stepping out of the front seat and pocketing his keys.

Cindy climbed out last with her backpack, and handed the heavy bag to Caleb.

By the time they reached Lyssa, a little way down the beach, she already had a small bonfire. The flames hissed and crackled, devouring twigs, dried leaves and the remnants of a burnt-out log. Lyssa was sitting a little back from the flames and was smoking a joint that she held tightly between her black-painted fingertips. She inhaled, held her breath, and then slowly exhaled a pungent swirl of smoke into the air. She inhaled once more, then offered it to Caleb.

Cindy looked at Caleb, then Lyssa. They were both dark haired, pale skinned. The same yellowish cat-colored eyes. Up close, she noticed that they even had similar mannerisms. "Are you guys related?" she asked, looking from one to the other.

Lyssa smirked. "Cousins," she said, looking directly at Cindy. "We like to keep it in the family."

Cindy just looked at her, and then laughed. "You're just kidding, right, that's funny…"

Lyssa scowled and took another drink from the bottle. "Oh yes," Lyssa replied, "I’m such a comedian..."

"Now, Lyssa, play nice," Caleb said, squinting his eyes and drawing in on the joint.

"I brought a blanket," Emily offered, taking it out of her bag and spreading it out on the sand and sitting down.

"Toke?" Caleb asked through a plume of smoke as he handed the shrinking joint to Cindy.

Emily looked up at her with a pleading frown that said, please don’t. Cindy took the joint and held it between her perfectly French manicured fingernails. She inhaled, held her breath, and then exhaled with a bout of coughing.

Caleb handed her a full bottle of vodka. "Drink," he said, taking the joint from her, "it’ll take the edge off." Cindy gulped a mouthful of the vodka from the bottle. She gasped as it burned her throat and brought salty tears to her eyes. She didn’t know which was worse, the smoke or the liquor. Caleb took another toke of the joint, then offered it to Emily, who had her knees pulled up tight under her chin.

She shook her head and grimaced. "No, thanks," she said, turning away. Caleb smirked, exhaled, and held it out to Damon.

Damon declined, too. "It’s all yours," he said to Caleb, sitting down next to Emily.

"Well does anyone here know how to party? Or is it just me and Lyssa that know how to have fun?" Caleb shouted into the darkness. The new moon overhead offered little in illuminating the night sky.

"I’ll give it another go," Cindy offered, sashaying over to Caleb. He took another pull on the joint, then pressed his lips hard onto Cindy’s mouth and exhaled. She drew in his breath and laughed, then took another drink from the vodka bottle. It didn’t burn as much the second time, so she drank again, and again.

"Cindy..." Emily began.

"Oh, Em," Cindy said, shoving the vodka bottle down into her sister's hand. "You only live once, try living a little…"

Everyone stared at Emily. She felt angry and humiliated. And wished more than ever that she could be as outrageous as her sister was.

Emily blushed and took a sip. She gasped and coughed. "That’s horrible…"

Cindy glared at her, "Em, will you please just try and have some fun for once?"

Emily took another sip, fighting the urge to throw up. "It isn’t so bad I guess. Once you get used to the bitter taste."

Caleb led Cindy away from the fire, to where the orange glow began to merge with the dark shadows beyond. Then he pulled her down on the sand beside him, his hands searching out parts of her body that made her cheeks burn and her heart race. He pushed her back so that she lay flat on the sand beneath him. Her eyes, thirsty for pleasure, begged him for more. He was more than happy to oblige.

"Well, I’m going for a swim," Lyssa announced, standing up and pulling her top up over her head. She dropped it on the sand, then stepped out of her long, flowing purple skirt. Clothed only in her black underwear, her pale skin, tattooed with ancient symbols, glistened in the orange glow of the flames. She twisted her hair up on top of her head. "Don’t do anything I wouldn't do," she said, picking up a bottle of vodka and heading toward the dark, unseen ocean.

"But what about the sea wasps?" Emily called after her. "I don’t think there are any stinger nets… How can she even see where she’s going, it’s so dark out there?" she asked, looking at Damon.

"You don’t have to drink that," he said, taking the vodka bottle from Emily’s hand. "And it’s the stingers you should be concerned about, not Lyssa. She’ll be just fine." Damon pushed the vodka bottle into the sand to secure it.

From the shadows came breathless gasps and sighs as Caleb moved his mouth with precision over Cindy’s all but naked torso. Then she giggled. "Caleb, I don’t think-"

"Hush," he said, putting his hand over her mouth to silence her. "Don’t think, just enjoy," he whispered into her ear. However, his brash tone was more a demand than a suggestion.

"Come on," Damon said, standing. He took Emily’s hands and pulled her to her feet. "Let’s go for a walk."

"But Cindy…" Emily began.

"I don’t think your sister will do anything she doesn’t want to do."

Emily smiled. "You are right about that," Emily said, nodding her head. Cindy was correct about Damon. He was nice, and a gentleman, and nothing at all like Caleb. She let herself be led away by him. She could really fall for a guy like Damon Draco. "Hang on a second," Emily said, leaning down to remove her shoes and toss them beside her backpack.

"How are you enjoying school?" Damon asked.

"A lot, actually, I’ve just joined the fund-raising committee. We are holding a Medieval Masquerade Ball at the end of the month to raise money for the Black Saturday Bush Fire survivors. There are still a ton of families without homes. They lost everything."

"Yes, I’ve seen the posters all around school about that. But what does a Medieval Masquerade theme have to do with the Black Saturday Bush fires?"

"It represents another "Black" time in history," Emily said. "The Black Death, the Great Pestilence, the Great Plague, also known as the Bubonic plague. And just think, all those deaths, not from War or deadly weapons, but by a rat and the bite from a tiny flea, the Xenopsylla Cheopis," Emily said, pronouncing the scientific name of the flea correctly.

"Oh, yes," Damon said, looking blindly ahead. "I remember…"

"You remember?" Emily asked staring at his blank expression.

"No, I mean. I know… I have done some research on the period. Millions died… it was devastating." And to himself he thought, I was too late to save her. To Emily he said, "You know a lot about your plagues."

"I want to be a doctor," Emily said proudly.

"Well then," Damon said, "it pays to know such things." Then he added quickly. "You know, it may not have been an actual battle that killed all those souls, but it was most certainly a war that was to blame." He kicked a soft drink can along the beach.

"Really?" Emily asked with growing interest. "How so?"

"It was 1346; during the battle, the Mongol warriors of the Golden Horde, hurled plague-infected bodies of their dead over the walls of the besieged Crimean city of Caffa. They figured that if they infected their enemies with the disease, they would become sick and easily defeated, which, of course, is exactly what happened. What the Mongols didn’t realize, however, was that they were also infecting themselves in the process."

"Morons," Emily said, shaking her head. "How could they not know that was what would happen?" She thought for a moment. "Then I guess you could say, if this account is correct, that the war in Caffa should be recognized as the beginning of biological warfare, with the Black Death as its disastrous consequence."

"Yes," Damon said, giving the soft drink can a swift kick, and sending it flying off into the ocean.

"Good shot," Emily said. "So, what happened next?"

"A year later, fleeing the country, no pun intended," Damon said, "Italian traders, not realizing that they, and their rat-infested cargo, were infected, spread the plague from Caffa to the Mediterranean Basin, spreading the Black Death into Europe. From Italy, the disease spread like wildfire through France, Spain, Portugal, England, Germany, Russia, and Scandinavia." Damon concluded.

"I would hate to have lived during those times, such brutal and uneducated people." Emily shook her head. "So, Damon," she said, changing her thoughts to a lighter, less depressing subject. "Do you have a girlfriend?"

Damon studied Emily’s face for a moment then smiled. She wasn’t as pretty as her sister was, but she was lovely. There was something very wholesome and good about her; she shouldn’t be getting mixed up with the likes of Caleb and Lyssa, or him, for that matter. "Not really," he said eventually.

"Not really?" Emily repeated.

"It’s kind of complicated." He thought about Grace, and how guilty he felt for leaving her like that, with just a scribbled note. But what choice did he have? She would never have understood. Then he turned to Emily. "What about you, do you have a boyfriend?"

"Oh, no," Emily laughed, beaming up into his face. "Not yet…" For a moment she was silenced, lost, mesmerized by the gaze of Damon's catlike eyes. Is this how Cindy felt when she looked into Caleb's eyes, she wondered? Emily felt giddy, elated…. "You're so-"

"I'm sorry," Damon said, turning quickly away, shifting his gaze out over the moons shimmering reflection on the tranquil ocean. "I didn't mean to…"

Emily blushed, and leaned down to pick up a doll's head from the shifting line of flotsam along the water's edge and fidget with it in her hands. She shook her head to free herself from the strange effects of Damon's gaze. She shifted her focus and studied the doll's head in her hands to clear her mind. Someone had drawn black rings around the doll's eyes and painted the mouth with imaginary blood. A big brother, no doubt, she thought, taking revenge on one of his little sister's dolls. Emily thought about her sister.

"I think we should go back. We've walked quite a way, and it's starting to get late." She paused for a moment, tossing the doll's head back and forth in her hands. "You know, if you don’t have any plans tomorrow after school, we are having a meeting for the Masquerade ball at the Coffee Bean. And you know what they say, the more heads the better." She pulled her arm back and tossed the doll’s head into the water. She could just make it out in the glimmer of moonlight on the water, bobbing up and down gracefully on the rise and fall of the black, almost flat, ocean. A few moments later, it quickly filled with salty water and sank, returning to its watery grave.

"I’ll let you know," he said vaguely, thinking about Grace again.

The next morning, Cindy woke feeling dizzy from what she imagined to be the effects of a hangover. She hadn’t really drunk that much, she thought, but what else could it be? And then there were the blackouts. Parts of the evening she couldn’t recall. Apparently, she had stripped off and gone for a swim with Caleb and Lyssa, but she had no memory of that. She stood up slowly, trailing her hand along the bedroom wall to steady herself as she walked. Stepping out of her pajamas, she examined her naked reflection in the mirrored wall. Finger marks and bite marks bruised her arms, her legs, her thighs. She examined her bruised breasts, and was shocked to find two puncture marks between her armpit and her left breast. A tear, quickly followed by more, ran down her cheek. This was not how it was meant to be. This was not how she had thought she would look afterwards. Shouldn’t she look more beautiful, more womanly, and more alive, when she basked in the glorious knowledge that she was no longer a virgin? She wiped her tears away. What was she so worried about, wasn’t everyone’s first time horrible? Any doubts that she had harbored were quickly put to rest by one piece of awe-inspiring fact. That Caleb was hers now, and that was all that mattered. That, and the belief that the next time she gave herself to him would be wonderful. She quickly got dressed, motivated by the desire of seeing him again. She chose her clothing with a different purpose that morning. She put on jeans and a long-sleeved jacket. The bruises and bite marks on her neck she skillfully camouflaged with carefully applied makeup and long tendrils of her fair hair.

"She appears on a dark moonless night…" A group of students gathered eagerly around Jackson Green in the assembly area as he began to narrate his version of the legend. Some had never heard of the legend, and sat leaning in with shoulders hunched, listening intently to every word. Others stood around nodding in agreement. "It’s true… I've heard that… I knew this guy… he was never the same after…" they interjected at random times throughout Jackson's rendition.

"I heard she was
this hot Asian chick," Jackson said, smiling. His girlfriend, Amber Maddison, glared at him as she flicked her shoulder-length auburn hair over her shoulder. Jackson shrugged. "What? That’s the way the legend goes. I’m not saying I thought she was hot," he said, slipping his arm around Amber's shoulders, making her smile.

"Keep going," resounded the eager demands from the expanding assembly of students.

Sonndra, a softly spoken girl with satiny brown skin and a mop of long spiral curls, joined in. "Apparently she was gang raped by Japanese fishermen at East Point, and became so freaked out by the whole horrible ordeal that she hung herself."

"No," Andrew Fellows chimed in. "I heard it was Australian soldiers…"

"Quiet, Andrew... Let Jackson tell it, his family has lived here longer than yours," Sonndra said, easing her way through the crowd to stand in front of Andrew's tall frame.

Andrew wrapped his arms around Sonndra's waist and continued. "Then why would she haunt an Australian
World War Two military museum if they were Japanese guys that raped her? It doesn’t make sense."

"I don't know, just let Jackson tell it. He tells it better than you do," Sonndra insisted.

Jackson nodded. "Thanks, anyway, the legend goes that she hung herself, not just because she was raped, but because she found out she was pregnant... And that’s how they found her, hanging from a Poinciana tree."

Amber joined in. "Just like Mr
Munroe," she whispered. "He was hanging from a Poinciana tree, too. Do you think it could have been her, the "Poinciana Woman"? Do you think she is actually real?"

"It’s just a stupid story," Eric Faulkner said, biting into a meat pie held firmly between his beefy fingers. Blood-red tomato sauce oozed out from under the pastry lid and ran down his hand and onto the skull of his Grateful Dead t-shirt.

Sonndra watched as the sauce dribbled down his shirt, and screwed up her nose. "Shut up, Eric, you don’t know anything," she said, before continuing. "Anyway, now she goes around at night stalking and killing guys, getting her revenge... on all men."
She let her penetrating gaze linger on Eric.

"Yeah," Jackson added. "She entices men like a siren wearing this beautiful white robe, with her long black hair flowing down her back and-"

"It better be see-through, this robe," Eric added, "or I’m not interested…" Andrew and Tony Faulkner, Eric's younger brothers, snickered and slapped Eric on the back in full agreement.

Jackson ignored them, much to the approval of Amber, he noted. He leaned forward, drawing the crowd further in. "Then, when she gets them, she magically transforms herself into this hideous, crazy old witch with warts and long talons and yellow eyes and-"

Tony crept up silently behind Amber, clapped his hands together, and growled at the same time, propelling Amber off her seat and onto Jackson’s lap.

The boys, including Jackson, collapsed into howls of laughter, which was met with an angry glare from Amber. Soon enough though, everyone was laughing, including Amber.

"Don’t you want to know what she does with her unfortunate victims?" Jackson continued in a low voice.

"Yes," everyone said in unison, including Amber and Sonndra.

"Well, just before she strings up her victims by the throat, she cuts them open with her razor-sharp talons and feeds on their guts." He paused for a moment, to build anticipation, and then said slowly. "While they’re still alive…"

"No way," Eric said with the last of his pie garbling his words. "How could one little Asian chick hold down a guy, cut him open and eat his guts while he’s still alive?" He wiped his hands down his jeans and sucked the last of the sauce off his fingers.

"Easy," Jackson said, running his hands over the shaved crop of hair on his head. "She paralyzes them with just a look. This bitch is like evil, man... She's an undead, an immortal with kick-arse superpowers. All the undead have superpowers, it’s a given."

Another entered the arena and in a louder, more powerful voice said, "Well how about we go see if this evil bitch is for real? Who’s with me?”

The crowd grew silent, searching for the owner of the voice.

"Or are you all too chicken shit?" Caleb asked, circling the group as it lapsed into complete silence. "Cat got your tongues?"

Another joined in, Lyssa this time. "She has a distinguishing shrill, you know, like a cursed, black crow," Lyssa said as she hovered amongst the noiseless crowd. Then she wedged herself in between Jackson and the disgruntled Amber, separating them, and sat down. She stared directly into Jackson’s eyes, holding his gaze, and continued. "On a moonless night, if you hold your arms out and spin around and around three times calling out her name, you can summon her...
"Poinciana Woman, Poinciana Woman, Poinciana-"

"That is some freaky shit," Eric said, interrupting Lyssa. She turned her face slowly to stare disdainfully at the tall well-built boy.

She got up and stalked over to him. "Eric, isn’t it?" she asked running a fingernail across his lips to scoop up the blob of tomato sauce from the corner of his mouth to examine it.

"Yeah," he blurted, "I’m Eric." And then with a cocky tone, "who’s asking, bitch?" he said, looking her up and down with a smirk on his face. The crowd gasped and held their breaths.

Lyssa stared at him for a moment then shoved her finger roughly into his mouth. "You’re a pig!" Then she spun around, leaving the boy gawking at her, and looked at the others. "Who wants to go on a fun excursion to East Point tomorrow night to meet a friend of mine? Who knows, maybe Adam, our sadly missed gym teacher, will turn up, too? Now wouldn’t that be fun..." Lyssa said, looking from one face to another, gazing at them fixedly with her yellowish eyes as, one by one, they either turned away or lowered their heads. Her gaze settled on Eric, who was wiping the rest of the sauce off his mouth.

"To hell with you," he said, as a trickle of blood began to run from his nose down his top lip.

"Hey, Bro," Tony said pointing. "Your friggin nose is bleeding… you got a bloody nose." Everyone turned and stared at Eric. Tiny drops of blood dripped from his nose, then more, until a stream was running down his chin and pooled on the grey tiled floor at his feet. Everyone began whispering and staring at Lyssa, confused by the malevolent smile on her face.

Eric pulled a gym towel from his sports bag and held it up to his bloody nose.

"You better get to the sickroom," Sonndra said, taking his arm. "Come on, I’ll take you…"

Eric shot her an angry look, shrugging her off. "I don’t need to go to the sick-"

"Man, you really do," Tony said, guiding his brother down the hall and leaving a trail of bloodied footprints in their wake.

"Come on babe," Caleb said, leading Lyssa away with his arm wrapped around her waist. "They’re all a pack of gutless wonders." He tilted his head, listening; he heard Cindy’s thoughts in his mind. "Incoming," he muttered to no one in particular.

"We’ll be there," Tony called back over his shoulder. "Ten-thirty Saturday night. Then we’ll see who’s a chicken shit..."

"I’m going, too," said Jackson excitedly to a handful of other guys who nodded in agreement.

"No you are not!" Amber said, pushing herself along the bench to fill the spot that Lyssa had vacated.

"The hell I’m not!" He looked into Amber’s dejected eyes. "I’m sorry, but this is too good an opportunity to pass up. Safety in numbers and all that…"

"You can count me in." It was Clair Aldridge, Jackson’s ex-girlfriend. "I’m not afraid to go…"

Amber scowled at her. "I’m not afraid to go, either; it just isn’t a good idea, that’s all."

"Well then, you just stay home looking pretty and paint your nails, then," Clair said sarcastically.

"Caleb", Cindy called out, with Emily grudgingly following closely behind her. "Wait up, I’ve been looking everywhere for you…"

Lyssa rolled her eyes. "Pathetic, one good fu-"

"Shut it, can I help it if I’m
that
good?" Caleb said, cutting Lyssa off as Cindy drew up alongside him. Caleb wrapped his free arm around her. "My two favorite ladies," he said smugly.

Lyssa squirmed out of his grasp. "Piss off, you dick," she said as she strode away while Caleb laughed.

"What’s up with her?" Cindy asked, not really caring.

He shrugged. "She has her moments. Moody bitch when she gets hungry."

"Where’s Damon today?" Emily asked.

Caleb looked at Emily with a sly grin. "Well, my Little Flower, what did you and our Damon get up to last night?" He looked at Cindy, and leaned in and planted an uncaring kiss on her waiting lips. "And here I was thinking that you were the only sister that got lucky last night."

Cindy frowned, feeling hurt by his insensitive words. She had given him her virginity last night; shouldn’t he be thinking that he had been the lucky one? Didn’t he appreciate the
gift
she had given him at all?

He heard her thoughts. He didn’t care. In his mind, it was he who had given a
gift
that he knew no human male could match.

"It wasn’t like that," Emily spat defensively. "Damon isn’t like that, he’s a gentleman."

"Oh, marvelous, so a wallflower you remain. Not like your eager-to-please sister here," he said, pulling Cindy closer. "She’s a tigress-"

"Caleb," Cindy said, pulling away from him. "Why are you being such an arse?" She grabbed Emily’s arm. "Come on, Em, let’s go."

"Cindy, come on babe, I was just kidding, lighten up…you loved it." He laughed as the girls quickly walked away, heading for the closest girls’ bathroom. Cindy’s tears stung her eyes, then quickly spilled over and ran down her cheek.

Theria stalked up alongside him. "Still breaking hearts, I see, Caleb."

"What can I tell you?" he said unashamedly, shrugging. "By the time she gets home she’ll be breaking her neck to call me. She’s already aching for me. I can feel it. You know what they say. Once you go angel, you can never go back."

"You drank from her?" Theria asked. "I hope you were careful?”

"Of course, I took enough so as not to raise any suspicions. Poor girl thinks she had a hangover when she got up this morning. She doesn’t remember much. Well, only what I want her to remember."

"And her soul?" Theria pressed.

"A little…" Caleb replied, annoyed with Theria's barrage of questions.

"You take too much and you'll have nothing but a blubbering idiot on your hands. Blood is one thing, but the soul… you'll leave her brainless, crazy, or both, and then you'll-"

"I know what I'm doing, Theria, I only take enough to make her forget," Caleb snapped. "Anyway, shouldn't you be having this conversation with Siena? The whole school is talking about Adam. Why didn't she get rid of the body? Why leave it strung up on a tree, for God's sake? It was only a matter of time before someone would find it."

Theria shook her head. "Siena didn't do it. Sure, she had been drinking from him for nearly a week, and feeding a little on his soul. But she never took enough to send him crazy. By the time she realized something was wrong, he'd gone and hung himself. The rest you know."

Caleb frowned. "The more I think about it, the more this whole thing doesn't make sense."

Theria nodded. "I agree. There has to be another explanation."

"You think someone else was feeding on him?" Caleb asked.

"I do, there really isn't any other explanation," Theria said. "And after this conversation, I know it wasn't you."

"Are you serious?" Caleb said. Astounded that Theria could think such a thing. "I would never tap someone else's supply without invitation... Besides, I am more than capable of sourcing my own meal ticket."