126 | THE INEVITABLE

Hale’s out for the day, again working with Mina and the vamp Court to track and find out where the hell the King went. Somehow, they lost the Revenant overnight, and are scrambling to find him. How the hell they can loose something so horrific looking is beyond me - especially in daylight. But I guess I don’t really have any room to speak, seeing as I can’t track it till it’s too late to run.

With Hale gone, I make sure to keep my distance from Blue and just practice the vamp-power. It’s draining, going in and out of the trance that allows me to see and touch the chords. I’m downing my third blood bag of the morning when I sense a presence on the edge of my property. I jump up from the floor of my bedroom and run for the front door, grinning widely as I throw open the front door and come face-to-face with my best friend.

“Hey, this is a surprise.” I comment, opening the door wide to allow Darine into the hall. She wrinkles her nose as she looks between the hall and the thing still clasped in my hand.

“You were, uh, having a snack?” She asks me with a slight tint of disgust coloring her tone. I laugh, wincing a little as I push the half-drained bag behind my back.

“It’s more like fuel.” I reply thoughtlessly, closing the door behind her, then cringing as my words register - my friend stiffening before letting out a too-high-pitched laugh. “I mean-”

“Don’t freak out, Scar, I get it.” Darine reassures me over her shoulder as we walk into the kitchen. “Calories and blood are part of your diet.”

“Yeah…and normally I wouldn’t even be drinking this much, but I’ve been practicing some of my vampire skills and-”

“What like glowing?” Darine asks, wrinkling her nose and looking at me with her usual light of curiosity. I roll my eyes and start sucking down more blood from the tube on the blood bag. I finish drinking before I can answer her, throwing the bag into the trash before turning back to my friend.

“Right, Darine, I *glow*.” I tell her sarcastically, then sigh when her eyes widen a degree. “No, the time-thingy.” I launch into an explanation of what’s been going on since the last time we talked. I feel bad that I’ve been so focused on everything else ad neglecting my relationship with my friend.

“So, can I see?” Darine asks after I finish catching her up on everything. Well, everything that I can tell her. I haven’t explained much on the subject of Death, though I did tell her about Nikki as an Ancient. It’s not lying…just not letting my friend know I’m literally meeting with Death every so often.

“There’s not much to show, Darine,” I sigh. Darine frowns, tilting her head at me as the wheels in her head turn.

“You said you’ve been meditating to call up the power - without hurting yourself.” She states, the glimmer of an idea burning in her blue-green eyes. “Why don’t I attack you or throw stuff at you - make the experience more combat-like? It’s not like you’ll have a few minutes to chill in a real-life situation.”

“Huh,” I hum, nodding as I realize she’s right. I can call the power correctly now by remaining calm and clear-headed, but in reality, things won’t be so easy. I’ll be under pressure and stress. “I guess we can try, but just throw things. I don’t want you to accidentally hurt yourself.” I tell her, recalling the first time I used the power in front of my friend. That had not ended well at all. Back in the beginning of the school-year, I’d had horrible control over my ability and ended up causing more harm than helping.

We move to the back yard. Darine’s eyes go wide when she sees the destruction within my territory. Her mouth opens and closes comically a few times, her faces scrunching and un-scrunching - like she’s not sure how to react to all of it and can’t voice her thoughts for once.

“Just start throwing stuff. I’ll see what I can do.” I tell my friend, taking a few steps away, leaving her closer to the edge of the once-tree line where there’s more debris for her. Darine throws her hands up in exasperation and just as quickly bends down to collect some sticks and bits of smashed wood.

When the debris starts flying at me, I try to summon the vampire-power, hoping multi-tasking is the next step in learning control. Darine’s not particularly frightening, so this should work - in theory. Concentrating while my friend uses her human-strength to hurl objects at my head - with great accuracy, I must admit - isn’t as easy as I first thought. A few minutes of Darine catapulting things at me later and I can finally do it.

The chords hum into sight, shimmering like heat waves and slowly solidifying. Time rolls to a crawl, slowing in such a way that it feels almost seamless from one minute to the next. I gently clasp the chords in my palms, not *pulling* so much as *touching* them. They seem to stick to my skin, not being tugged on, but resting there like they belong. *Progress.*

I move slowly to doge the in coming projectiles as my friend moves sluggishly - or appears to be going at a snail’s pace. I have to carefully move the objects when they get too close to me, meanwhile trying not to pull on the chords or grip them any tighter. It takes a surprising amount of control and mental reminders to use caution. I keep it up for what feels like thirty minutes before gently releasing the chords and letting time slowly speed back up.

I wince as a wave of dizziness hits me, my limbs going leaden and a cascade of spot fluttering into my vision as time settles around me. I drop onto my butt, breathing irregularly as my heart hammers in my chest. Thirst tugs at my now aching lungs and jaws and I let out a groan. Darine stops throwing things and runs to my side. Before she can reach me, I hold up a hand to stop her from getting too close.

“I need a snack,” I tell her, my words edged with a slight lisp as my fangs descend. Darine pales, but nods once, before taking off towards the house. Fatigue has me bracing my arms on my knees as I sit on the ground, sucking in lungfuls of fresh air until my head clears.


“You never did tell me why you came over in the first place,” I tell my friend a few minutes later, after I’ve caught my breath. We’re sitting now, me with a blood bag Darine had to go get for me, and Darine with a steaming mug of tea.

“Yuri was busy today, something about Pack business,” Darine scowls at her tea, but I don’t miss the pink flush tinting her cheeks. “So I thought I’d spend the day with you for once.” She finishes up, flashing me one of her bright smiles. “We haven’t really hung out outside of school on a while.”

“Yeah, sorry ‘bout that.” I nod, tipping my chin up to stare at the sky. The clear blue is so pale at this time of day…it reminds me of Mom’s eyes a little. I swallow the sudden lump in my throat and blink rapidly to disperse the fresh flood of tears. I clear my throat. “Things have been…” My voice goes raspy on the last word so I let the sentence trail off.

“I get it, Scar,” Darine places an arm around my shoulders, giving me a one-sided hug. The gesture is comforting, but it also draws attention to the bright orange t-shirt under her sweater. The ungodly-bright material peeks out from her collar and I lean back away from her as the brightness of the near-neon shade makes my eyes burn.

“What is it with you guys and orange?” I ask my friend. Darine goes bright red, leaning back away from me and almost frantically tucking the collar back out of sight.

“It’s not that bad,” Darine mutters, the red in her cheeks slowly migrating to the rest of her face an tips of her ears.

“C’mon, spill.” I nudge my friend’s shoulder with my own. With a heavy sigh, my friend opens her mouth- but then I catch scent of something. My head whips up as the scent of fresh blood carries on the wind.

*Not now! Please, not now!*

My heart bangs in my chest as Darine seems to notice my reaction and starts to ask what’s wrong. I wave a hand at her sharply to silence her, but keep my focus on the area around us. There’s noting but the felled trees for a good half-mile in each direction, but beyond is the thickness of shadows from the forest. Nothing stirs in the darkness…not at first. Then, right when I think I’m just being paranoid, something detaches from the darkness and blurs into motion - heading right for us.