Chapter 2: The Meeting

Chapter 2

The Meeting

Damn bloodsuckers. Why don’t they ever leave us in peace? Just for once?

 

 

I woke up to see daylight streaming through the windows, blinding me. I groaned and stood up, rubbing my eyes, and looked outside, blue skies, it was going to be another nice day. I pulled a hair-bobble off my wrist and tied up my caramel tresses in a messy ponytail, then walked into the hallway, still half blind from the bright light. Just then, Taylor opened his door, almost knocking me out by hitting me with it, and came out, in the same state of sightlessness as me. But his ears were working well as I cried out, more from shock than from pain.

            ‘! I’m so sorry; I didn’t know you were standing there! Are you ok?’ He exclaimed, putting his hands over his mouth.

            ‘I’m fine; I just wasn’t expecting you to open your door. Now go get ready, I’m making the pancakes. By the way I think I just woke up your mum, sorry.’ I started to shoo him off to the bathroom before stopping a minute.

‘Sugar sticks?’

‘A mixture of sugar, and fiddlesticks,’ Taylor explained as he told me not to worry and to do enough pancakes for three; and slid down the fire pole that was in the corner of the hallway that we used instead of stairs. I laughed, remembering how we begged our mums to put it there when we were about 8, because we wanted to be like all the guys in the police films.

            When I got to the kitchen, I got out all the ingredients and frying pan, and started frying the first of the famous pancakes. Five minutes later, I didn’t hear as Taylor quietly came behind me, intent on turning the pancake, until he decided to scare me by shouting in my ear. I jumped, lifting my arms as I did so, and the pancake batter on the spatula landed straight on his face.

            ‘Aaaahh!!’ cried Taylor, ‘get it off me!’

He scraped at the batter, getting paste all over his hands.

            ‘Oh, I’m so sorry,’ I said, hands over my mouth. ‘Let me help you, take your hands off your face.’

Obediently, he did as I asked for once. I took a corner of the pancake - the part that had already cooked and dried �" and peeled the batter off his skin, probably taking all his hairs off with it. He groaned and washed his hands in cold water before rubbing his sore face with them.

            ‘Oww…’

            ‘Well,’ I said reasonably. ‘If you hadn’t decided to sneak up on me and scare me, then that wouldn’t have happened.’

            He looked up at me from his chair. ‘You always manage to put the blame on me don’t you?’ He asked incredulously.

            ‘Only when it’s your fault,’ I replied. ‘Here comes your mum.’

I sat down as Marisa came in.

            ‘Mmm… What’s that smell? Oh, Alex, hi! You made pancakes? That was so sweet, thank you!’ She said putting them at the table and getting out the ketchup. ‘Do you still like maple syrup?’

            Taylor grimaced at me and got up, asking his mum to serve herself. While she was doing so, he swapped the ketchup for sauce you put on pancakes, not fries.

            ‘So, what lessons do you have today? Do you get home from school early? I thought I might present Gylfi to Alex, she hasn’t met her yet.’

            ‘Err, no sorry. We have a study group, to revise for finals,’ I replied politely.

            ‘Oh, how nice,’ Marisa said, squirting maple syrup on her pancakes. There was a silence broken only by the sound of forks clattering on plates. ‘It’s such a pity. Another time, maybe.’

            There was a silence, broken only by the clatter of forks on plates.

            ‘Well, I have to go,’ she sighed. ‘You know how impatient Esmeralda and Aerial can get.’

            ‘Where are you going?’ Taylor asked anxiously, half rising from his seat.

‘Mum, where are you going?’ He repeated a bit louder when she didn’t reply.

‘Oh, I always meet Esmeralda down by the river, you should know that darling.’ Marisa replied, ‘she doesn’t like coming too near town, people scare her.’ Turning to me, she said, ‘you should come too sometimes, dear. I’m sure you would like them, especially Gylfi, you have so many things in common.’

‘I’ll do that, Mrs. Lawson,’ I said kindly, while shooting a questioning look at her son; how bad could it be?

            ‘Please, call me Marisa, dear.’ And with that, she almost floated out of the door in the direction of the park. I quietly closed the door behind her, and then turned to face Taylor, dazed.

            ‘I see what you mean by it being worse; are Aerial and Esmeralda the faeries?’

            He nodded, put the plates into the dishwasher, and sat down at the table.

            ‘That’s not half as bad as it was, trust me your mum must have magic powers or something. But enough about that, what’s so bad about Chaos this time?’

            I sighed, then pulled up a chair and joined him.

‘You know how he comes every year, don’t you? Well, he’s always tougher to beat each winter, and I think that he might have finally managed to come fully into the world. Or, the weather might freeze over suddenly, and he could choose that moment of weakness to come in summer. Either way, I’m scared there won’t be enough of us this time or something like that. He’s already too strong for the small amount of time he’s been here. So, I won’t be in class today.’ I explained.

‘Recruiting the troops,’ remarked Taylor sarcastically.

I looked at him as coldly as I could.

            ‘Ok, count me in, I wasn’t really going to abandon you this time,’ he said at last. ‘As if I really had the choice, seeing as you’re my best friend.’ He whispered under his breath.

            ‘That makes two of us,’ I replied as a gust of wind came through the open window, bringing with it the smell of the oak forest that was just a couple of miles away from Taylor’s house.

            ‘Ha, it never misses does it?’ stated Taylor, taking a deep breath. ‘But I’m not going to complain, I like the forest’s smell.”

            ‘Of course you do,’ I answered; the forest wasn’t a very friendly place for him, but for us, it was a sanctuary.

            Oak leaves were the best weapons against vampires you could find; they were “allergic” to them. There was a fresh wave of the scent every time a Protector renews their promise to drive the vampires back to their own hellish dimension every year. I wondered why we couldn’t just get rid of them at first, but I realised that Chaos was too powerful. Some years, other Protectors would come help us, and our numbers were too few. I smiled as I remembered the first time I smelt it, I thought I had just spent too much time in the forest, where Taylor and I liked to go after school sometimes.

            ‘Oh my gosh, is that the time? We gotta go or you’ll be late!’ I exclaimed.

            ‘’You’re starting to sound like my mother already,’ Taylor muttered, as he slung his bag onto his back, and grabbed one last pancake.

*************

 

            When we got to school, Selene and Kaylee were chatting just in front of the gates. Selene still looked as pale as usual, maybe even more, seeing as the sun had barely come up, reflecting a strange light over her face. She already knew him from last time; I shuddered, thinking about what she had said when she explained, in detail, what he did to her.

            ‘Catch you later,’ I said to Taylor, walking over to the girls.

            ‘At lunch,’ He replied, going through the gates to… wherever he was going.

            ‘Hey Kaylee, Selene,’ I said coming up to them.

            ‘Heya! How are you?’ Kaylee hugged me. Selene waved, biting her cheeks and forgetting to breathe. She’s never going to get used to it, I thought, suppressing the rush of anger that always came when I saw her.

            ‘I’ve got to talk to you,’ I said taking a deep breath without taking my eyes off Selene. She quickly understood and started breathing again.

            ‘It’s not your volunteer work again, is it?’ asked Kaylee. ‘Do we have to cancel our cinema on Friday?’

            ‘Sorry,’ I said sadly. ‘Duty calls.’

            ‘But what do you have to do? It’s not as if it’s going to snow soon, so you don’t have to make sure we don’t get snowed in, and the wolves don’t come until winter.’

            The school pretended that my uncle had shown me how to take care of forest wolves, and that they always came with the frost. The reason why some children weren’t there was because they were helping me set traps, or so they thought. That was the excuse for my absence of lessons, and for the camp out.

 Most of the teachers believed it too, and that the wolves came to the school first because the scent of so many children in one place drew them there. The “normal” people believed it wasn’t safe for people to come out until they had gone. I shook my head, if only they knew the truth; which wasn’t that far off.

In reality, there were a small number of people who had complete faith in me and offered to help, even when they knew that it was extremely dangerous. Those few became Protectors when they absolutely wanted to help for the sake of helping, not for glory or popularity or for showing off.

            ‘The over-sized dogs have come early,’ I pretended. ‘I guess they just couldn’t wait this year.’

            ‘Well, I want to come and help you,’ stated Kaylee.

            ‘No! It’s too dangerous!’ practically shouted Selene.

            ‘You don’t know what you’re saying,’ I agreed more calmly than the non-human who was staring at Kaylee without breathing again. I put a hand on her cold arm and she started at my warm touch, inhaling sharply as she did so. She shot me a grateful look.

            ‘Well, I’ve got to know you a lot better this past year. I suppose it's partly because of Selene; and partly because we’re in the same class.’ Kaylee said. ‘And I think you’re a really nice person, who runs all sorts of risks for others. Besides, the more we are, the less likely the wolves will be dangerous. Security in numbers.’

            ‘You don’t know half the danger you’re going to risk,’ I said defensively in a low voice. Selene looked like the reincarnation of nervousness itself; she knew exactly what was happening and she was extremely close to Kaylee, considered her practically like the sister she never had.

            ‘So, enlighten me,’ Kaylee replied, arms crossed across her stomach.

            I looked up as a light breeze picked up our hair, messing it all up. With it came the aroma of fresh oak. Selene wrinkled up her nose in disgust and sneezed. I sighed, and told them both to sit down, that it might come as a shock to Kaylee, and began to explain.

*************

 

            The three of us walked across the court that separated the two working buildings from the cafeteria. The atmosphere was brimming with an unnatural feel. I looked around with the enhanced vision I got every time he came around. I heard Kaylee gasp as she looked around amazed, her short violet hair swinging round her head.

            ‘Better get used to it,’ mocked Selene. ‘Your strength and speed depend on your vision starting tomorrow.’

            ‘But it’s fascinating! Can you see like me? It’s great!’ exclaimed the newcomer.

            ‘Not exactly,’ replied the concerned.

            I laughed mirthlessly, “not exactly” didn’t quite explain Selene’s vision. She saw in various shades of blue and white and was blinded in bright sunlight. There were white circles around her eyes to help reflect light into her eyes at night. Contrary to human’s, vampires saw best when it was dark,  for - being nocturnal - they had night vision, Being what she was, it must be awful having to stay around us. Whenever there was a new Protector, a wave of oak could be smelt all around us for the rest of the day. And let’s just say that Selene was something a bit different. So for her, oak smelt just as bad as cabbage and rotten eggs smell for humans.

            Suddenly, a movement happened on the other side of the playground, ripping me from my thoughts. It all happened too fast for me to see exactly what was happening, but the wave of coldness that overwhelmed my senses was enough. He was here, and this time, he was not alone.

            ‘Run!’ I yelled to the other two. ‘To the library!’

            To the eyes of a normal human, we disappeared, and then reappeared in front of the library door. I tried the handle, locked. Apparently, on Tuesday mornings our only sanctuary was shut, according to the notice on the door. I could have burst open the door, because he couldn’t enter, but the sound would attract people, and the last thing I wanted was defenceless people running outside, completely exposing themselves as open prey for him.

            I turned around, to find myself face to face with the one I had just been thinking about.

            ‘Chaos,’ I greeted him tersely, nodding my head towards the two others flanking him.

            Alex,’ He said politely while scrutinizing Kaylee. ‘I would like to introduce you to my family. This is Evangeline, my daughter.’

            The girl next to him stared at me with her glittering onyx eyes. I looked back at her, levelly meeting her gaze.

            ‘Excuse her, she has no manners yet. This is my son, Stryker.’

            The boy on the other side of him, who looked around our age, said hello, eyes like midnight.

            ‘Ah, I see that Selene is here. Such a shame that you decided to abandon me, perhaps…?’

            ‘Forget it Chaos.’ Replied the concerned without masking her contempt for the blue-skinned demon. ‘Over my dead body; I’d never join you.’

            ‘Technically you’re already dead…’ Chaos tantalized her. In response Selene tensed, trying not to jump at his throat.

‘So you have children now? Huh, I didn’t know that a monster could breed.’ I snorted, changing the subject, maybe if he forgets about Kaylee she can sneak off? After all she hardly knows anything about vampires. For that’s what Chaos was, a vampire.

            ‘Don’t try to change the subject. It won’t work,’ Chaos smirked.

Damn, I thought, feeling helpless, something that I never got used to.

 He had pale blue skin, from not enough sun. He was a born vampire and so could freeze a normal human with his touch. He had black orbs instead of irises and pupils, which were tinged with red around the sides, because he had drunk so much fresh human blood. The bloodsucker had a hairstyle that looked like it was inspired by Dracula. His blue black hair was slicked back into a ponytail with I don’t know what, and I certainly don’t want to know. It was frozen, like everything around him, and so at the back the ends looked like a spiky death trap. I don’t know where Hollywood gets its ideas from, but know this: a vampire’s canines are not enormous fangs!  His pointed teeth in their fake smile looked exactly even if you concentrated on one tooth and its neighbours, but they were actually a little bit longer at the front and sharper at the back. They were also hinted with an orangey red at the bottom for the same reason as his pupils. Coldness emanated from him, and the ground at his feet was already covered in a thin layer of frost. He was as strong as he would have been normally after a week of being on earth.

The girl next to him, Evangeline, looked almost exactly like him, they even had the same sort of killing lust glinting in their pupil less eyes when they set eyes on an appetizing prey. I shifted my posture a bit, unconsciously moving closer to Kaylee. The only real difference from her father - for that’s what I was sure Chaos was: her father �" was her mass of almost scarlet red hair falling down her back in a cascade of waves. She smiled at me, showing her newly sharpened fangs.

            My gaze quickly shifted to Stryker, who looked like he was the most recent in the family. His eyes hadn’t got the redness of a bloodless murderer; they were in fact a deep blue, though his skin was still the pale blue of an ordinary vampire and his eyes were pupil-less. Despite the fact that he had his father’s exact hair (hairdo included, if a little shorter); his facial traits weren’t so strong, more angular than anything else. I noticed Selene staring at him like he was the only water fountain in the middle of the desert. Purr-lease! Or maybe it was just my imagination. I suppose that Selene didn’t see much of her kind, so now were the only moments to get a good gawp at them. Or at him, I smiled to myself.

Selene, who looked at odds with the others, didn’t seem at all like a creature bred solely for killing; she bought her blood from the doctor’s and diluted it in orange juice or something like that; our librarian - who was well informed - pretended it was medicine, and presented the nurse with a fake doctor’s certificate. Her eyes were a muddy blue, but within a few years they would look like they were before she got bitten, but with a red streak in them, because she would still need to drink blood. Luckily for her she hadn’t drunk blood from a living being yet, so she still had pupils. Her skin had paled from being exposed to the sun, and was now white. She wore sunglasses in spring, and last summer was spent up in Alaska for her. Vampires and sunlight weren’t exactly the best of friends and Selene still shied away from any form of sunlight on a day that wasn’t cloudy.

            As if he knew what I was thinking, Chaos slowly shook his head, still staring at Kaylee.

            ‘Sorry wolfie, the time for fresh blood has come. There’s no stopping me today and you know it. I’ve got to get my delicious titbit before starting lunch and you’ve just provided it to me.’

            His words jerked Selene and Stryker out of whatever mental conversation they were having and both ripped their eyes back to the fight that was about to come.

            I took Kaylee’s hand and ran to the other side of the building, faintly wondering why he called me “wolfie”, only to have the four vampires jump after me with ease.

‘I got your back,’ Selene said as she came up next to me.

All thoughts of bizarre vampire sayings disappeared from my mind as I adopted a defensive position. Selene growled in frustration as we three stood back to back circled by the three hungry frosted beings. I decided that the girl, Evangeline, looked the thirstiest, and from my experience from several years of vampires, was therefore the most dangerous for the moment.

            I ran at her suddenly, catching her off guard, and hit her shoulder, hard. I heard it click as it was dislocated, and I span round to face the she-demon. The latter graced me with a grimace before pulling it back into place, with a sound like a thunder clap. I was stupefied; they had never been able to do that before. I had heard of it in the legends about vampires, but that’s what I thought it was, a legend. However even in the myths, the damn bloodsuckers weren’t supposed to be able to but bones back into place until they were almost fully in the human world. And when they were in, it was hard getting them out. A simple wooden stake wouldn’t be enough.

The millisecond that passed as I thought of this was enough time for Evangeline to put herself back together and gather the strength to come at me with her teeth, fast as lightning. I had just enough time to sidestep the poisonous fangs, but then the nails came up against my face, scratching the whole of my cheek, from eye bone to jaw. I felt the blood trickle down my face as the disgusting being that faced me breathed in deeply, as if she could smell something delicious. I had no doubt in my mind what she was about to do. I risked a glance at Kaylee and Selene.

Selene was fighting Chaos, both of them snarling at each other and spinning a circle too fast for the human eye to see. If anyone looked outside, they might see a glimpse of blue, but they would think that they had dreamed it. I could practically feel the venom between them. Kaylee was looking on with eyes round as saucers, in contrast to the boy, Stryker, who was watching all of this looking slightly amused.

Then the wind picked up; big mistake. I reeked of blood, and the wind was flowing in the direction of Stryker. In a flash, I knew what was about to happen. Stryker’s eyes flashed red �" a sign that he was thirsting for blood �" and he called Chaos. I ran full pelt into Evangeline, and shouted for Selene. Together, we pinned her down with the couple of stakes that I had with me. All this happened in less than a minute, but I knew even before I turned around that it was too late.

            It was ironic, both parties having been hurt, Chaos, Selene, Stryker and I passed one another; without even caring that we could have ripped the others heart out if we weren’t occupied with what was before our eyes.

            I knelt down and gathered Kaylee in my arms. In the time that Selene and I had pinned the parched bloodsucker to the ground, Chaos had gotten his hands on our new friend. Kaylee’s eyes - once as green as new spring grass - were pupil less white globes and she was as rigid as if she had been frozen…which she was. She was cased in a block of ice that reached from the tip of her head to about two centimetres below her feet. Her hair that was usually dark brown, short and smooth was frozen white and looked like a crown around her head, an expression of astonishment etched onto her glazed face.

 I looked back at the monstrosity that should have been almost weak as a human for two days after his arrival. He and his son were frantically pulling all the stakes out of their relative’s body, while the latter was moaning pitifully on the ground, occasionally crying out or twisting herself in pain. Stupefied, I stared at the little family, that much wood in her body should have destroyed her.

            Then Selene shook me out of my torpor, saying quietly that we should run while we could. I heaved the now dead body of my friend and ran silently to the nearest building where the science teacher should have been giving a lecture. Once inside the building, I paused for breath and glanced at Selene.

Her teeth, which she had carefully trimmed to look human, had grown at the smell of blood, and were now razor sharp fangs. Her eyes had darkened at the sight of blood during the brief combat, and wouldn’t dull for hours. On top of that, her long blond hair had fallen out of its usual elegant bun and was currently everywhere, making her looks like a madwoman.

            ‘Go to the bathroom,’ I said, giving her the silver backed hairbrush that I always carried round with me, after a quick brushing of my own hair. ‘Try and look normal please.’

            Selene nodded, not commenting on the rudeness of my voice. She looked on the brink of tears, even though that was impossible for her, given her species. She turned on her heel and disappeared of to the corridor to the left.

            Gently placing the block of ice on the floor, I took a deep breath and checked the window. They had gone. I gulped, wondering what would happen next. This was only the beginning.

Author's Note

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