Authors: Alexandra Hope
He shook his head. “Nothing.”
She pulled back and turned to Erika. “How can this be?”
“You're not trying hard enough. You have to believe your words.”
She tried over fifteen more times and Troy grew increasingly irritated with her, walking away while she talked with Erika.
“When was the last time you fed? On a human?” asked Erika.
“Four or five nights ago.”
Erika nodded. “I see, maybe your hipster boyfriend will be of some use. Call him over here.”
“I can hear you!” he yelled back at her. He pulled his legs out of the water, he stood up and walked over to them. “Yeah?”
“Would you be so kind as to offer up your blood for a worthy cause?”
Olivia was deep in protest when Noah shrugged and agreed. She turned to him with worried eyes. “I couldn't feed from you.”
“You have no choice,” he said, unwrapping his scarf. Her cocked his head to the side and exposed his neck to her. She watched the veins in his neck pulsate under her red gaze and then her fangs were in his neck. He winced a couple of times and Troy glanced over then turned away, disgusted. She pulled away, his blood dripping from her fangs.
“Now,” he said, holding his neck. “What was the point of this?”
“Human blood serves as energy and she clearly needs lots of it to do even simple manipulations. So,” she turned to Olivia, “get him to forget.”
Olivia pushed out a breath and after using her blood to heal Noah, she brought her eyes up to his. She searched his, wondering if she could really empty his mind like she had done to Felicity and after urging from Erika, she did as she was told. Noah blinked a couple of times and his confused expression told her that she had finally done it. Erika congratulated her in her own Erika way and then Olivia explained to Noah what happened who was pleased as well. All were happy except Troy.
“So, she just needs to slaughter a bunch of people to have one stupid power?” he yelled.
“I didn't kill him.”
“Wow, your kill ratio went down by one point, congratulations!” he shouted sarcastically. “You're now point zero one percent less of a monster!”
Noah had words and a fist for Troy but he restrained himself for Olivia who asked him not to. Troy was leaned against a tree and looking at the lake while Noah and Olivia now sat at the pier. She kicked her feet back and forth in the water, the sound of swishing being the only reminder that her legs were submerged. She leaned back, pressing her palms against the planks and watched Troy in all his sullen glory.
“So what's tall, not so dark and brooding's problem?”
“I don't know,” she muttered.
“You're too modest,” a sultry voice taunted.
She didn't react to Erika's words but Noah half turned to her. “What?”
“Your girlfriend here killed his girlfriend who just happened to be her sister.”
She felt his heart momentarily sink into his stomach as he turned back to Olivia and said in a breathy voice, “Alexa? She was alive?”
She nodded and then when prompted, she continued on about how she found her and what she had done to put her in a bad position in the first place. She spoke of Nolan and her mother and when she was on her last words, Noah heard the waver in her voice as she recalled what she had done.
“It wasn't your fault. If anything, the blame should be on her,” he tossed his head back at Erika who had moved away from them, “since she turned you into a vampire.”
“I craved blood as a human so coming across my sister even then would not have stopped me. This is just who and how I am.”
“No! That's what the Matriarch wants you to believe...”
“All the more reason to kill her and get a little humanity back, not to mention protect dear Troy who's blood she's after,” said Erika who had slipped behind them again.
Olivia was about to speak when she felt a jolt run through her brain, thrashing about on a rampage as she slammed her forehead into her palms. Her eyes shut tightly and she began groaning as images flickered in her brain, of Alexa and Troy. She pulled away from Noah when he placed a hand on her shoulder and watched as the head which held her sister's smiling face was ripped off, a fountain of blood shooting upward. Troy was bathed in the red liquid and turned to her with a smug grin. She saw herself backing away and rubbed up against another body. Noah pulled her out of her wicked thoughts before she could see who it was but not before the hand ripped into her body, long fingernails as if they had been a woman's.
“Olivia!” he was shouting when she finally looked into his eyes.
Her head was thrown back and forth as he shook her.
“What happened?” she asked and glanced at Troy who had started for her but stopped.
Noah's hands dropped from her shoulders to her arms, stroking them softly. “You were screaming because of something.”
“Yes, I was...” she said as the memory poured onto her. “My mind, I feel like it is no longer mine and that someone has taken shelter within it.”
“Huh?” he asked, confused.
She didn't answer Noah's confusion and instead stood up and walked to Erika who, as Troy had been, was leaned against a tree. “Yeah?” she asked, bored.
“Was that you? Has that you been you the whole time?”
Erika rolled her eyes then decided to entertain her questions, “What?”
“The dreams, the manipulations. I have been having them since I was at home and now, even more frequently.”
“I've only been in your twisted head once little one,” she said, digging a small stick underneath a nail.
Olivia turned to Troy who wasn't too far off and asked him the same to which he denied. Noah was on his feet and behind her when he spoke. “What about another
kitsune
? Someone playing a cruel joke on you?”
Erika shook her head. “Nope, the only other one is Troy's mom and even I don't know where she is. I've heard of places she could be but they're thousands of miles from here.”
“Well,” he said. “What about another vampire?”
Olivia's eyes quickly snapped up and they were on Erika. “You said there were no other vampires.”
“I might've forgotten to mention there is one, but you don't want to meet him.”
Twenty
Despite the nightmares the vampire had been giving her, she knew she had to meet him but Erika wouldn't allow it. She wouldn't give up his name or his whereabouts and insisted that he couldn't teach her how to be a vampire any better than she could. They went back to Troy's house before the sun had a chance to touch Olivia and she buried herself in the covers, awaiting the nightmares. Day after day for five days, she awaited them but they did not come.
While Olivia lay asleep, Noah caught up with Troy who was headed to the gym.
“Hey, I need to talk to you!” he called just as Troy was pulling the door open. Sunlight spilled on half his face, making his glare harsh on Noah.
“Yeah?”
“You might as well come inside 'cause I've got a lot to say.”
Troy groaned and slammed the door. He dropped his gym bag and kicked off his shoes before making his way to the living room with Noah trailing behind him. He sat down on the couch while Noah sat on the bricked panel of the fireplace.
“So....”
“First off, I never thanked for letting me stay here so I guess I should do that now. Thanks,” he said as he ran his index fingers through the spaces of the bricks. “Second, I wish you would stop being a jerk to Olivia. I know what she did and I see how much it's killing her. You can't see her for what she really is and how she really is because of your bias!”
“And what about you?” asked Troy calmly. “You have a bias towards her 'cause you're in love with her.”
Troy could see that the boy's dark eye brows had furrowed together but he couldn't see the eyes that were hidden behind his Ray-Ban's. Noah ran a frustrated hand through his hair, pulling his beanie off in the process. “You couldn't begin to fathom our friendship. The fact is she is my best friend and I do love her and you could accuse me of loving her more than I love my own mom, but being in love with her....no guy, you are wrong.”
“You guys have to be the most confusing bunch of people I've ever met.”
“Because we love differently from you? Do you not know how much Alexa was like us? She will always love Olivia more than she'll ever love you so even if you did make her into a vampire—which Olivia did tell me about—she wouldn't hesitate to forgive her the moment she saw her. She definitely wouldn't try to stake her!”
Troy winced at the memory of how unsuccessful he had been and being berated by a boy younger than him just seemed to make it worse. He swung his legs over the arm of the couch and sunk deep into it while he immersed himself deep within his thoughts. Noah's words had been swirling in his head when he unleashed another wave of words onto him.
“You don't realize how much it's killing Olivia....” he said in a strained voice, “knowing what she did, not only to her sister but to
you
.”
Noah thought on the day before, how he exiled the cold tears that streamed down her face as he consoled her. His body tensed as images of her slipped into his consciousness even after forcing them away. He refused to acknowledge his best friend like that but they were the only things that would come to mind as he spoke. Troy had remembered that particular day, listening in to her weeps as he sat outside her door. It was something about the sound of her sobs and sniffles that filled him with a sense of contentment, as if realizing that she too could feel. And now, here was someone telling him that she felt bad for hurting him? It was like being lit on fire after being slapped in the face and possibly ran over by a truck. Everything that he felt discharged from himself, all the hatred he felt and he was left reeling from his words.
Bear had wandered into the living room, his claws pricking at the carpet as he cautiously walked in. He had grown accustomed to Olivia and longed for her but made due with Noah when she wasn't around. He moved from his spot at the fireplace and with Bear following behind him, grabbed some food out of the refrigerator. The dog barked appreciatively and began tearing through his food.
“So you've known Olivia and Alexa all their lives?” asked Troy who was now situated against the frame of the kitchen entrance.
Noah nodded. “Olivia was born just a couple of weeks before me, and Alexa—a whole two years. She was obsessed with the outside world and would teach Olivia everything she found out about it. Olivia had been so excited back then,” he took a sip of water, “and so we came up with this plan for all of us to leave and well, to say that plan royally failed is an understatement. Still, Olivia had hope and had inscribed our initials on her pocket knife as a symbol of our bond.”
Troy thought back on the pocket knife he found and the words he couldn't make out. Now they had been clear: AON.
He wanted to continue speaking but Noah had spoke up before him. “So, who's that on your mantle?”
“My mom and me...” said Troy.
Noah's eyes widened. “Your mom is Asian?”
“Yeah, Japanese.”
His eyes were still wide as he found it hard to believe that Troy would be even a quarter Japanese. “You don't look anything like her,” he said slowly.
“Yeah, I get that a lot.”
“Your White half
really
took over. I imagine you look like your dad just spit you out, like your mom did nothing,” he went on.
“Yeah, I get that a lot too,” said Troy, irritated. He tried to change the subject. “So is Olivia and Alexa's mom really as evil as Erika makes her out to be?”
Noah had stuffed his hands into his pants pocket and glanced down at the floor as he deliberated. He couldn't help but thrust the tip of his shoe into the tile, creating skid marks as he did.
“The Matriarch is a lot of things and to me, that includes evil
and creepy
but I don't know if she's
as
evil as Erika has been saying.”
“You grew up around her, didn't you?”
“Yeah, but you don't understand. The Matriarch rarely shows any emotions so it's kinda hard to say if every move she's making is really evil. I think she's a misguided kind of evil actually. Maybe even a little psychotic...” he said and sighed. “It doesn't matter what I think though...it's all Olivia and what she feels.”
His voice fell so low that when he uttered his next words, Troy barely picked up on it.
“What did you say?”
“All I said was a name: Felicity. I was thinking about her.”
“OK, who's that? Your girlfriend?”
Noah tried hard to keep the bile down as he briefly thought about him and Felicity....together. “Dude, what is with you trying to force girls on me? Guys and girls can be just friends!”
“Well, I don't know anything about this Felicity girl,” replied Troy. He folded his arms across his chest, “Why is she important?”
Troy hadn't noticed that Noah's other hand was on a small book on the counter, his fingertips running across the flap. He wrapped his hand around it and held it up for Troy to see clearly. It was light and held no more than fifty pages but it had been bound in leather and it's contents were hidden behind a small lock.