Chapter 29: Memory

Chapter 29: Memory

I trudged out into the sunshine. The afternoon sun lit the street. People passed. Weird things passed. I was still seeing the crazy. Or the unknown. I wasn't sure which side of the fence I was on yet. I walked a long ways, trying to get away from it all. I wasn't going to jump off a bridge this time. Wait, I remembered that. My head stung with pain. Why were things so complicated? I just wanted a straightforward answer. I felt like so many things were being kept from me.

I walked on. I could go back. Maybe Matei had some answers. Maybe we could work all this out. But, no. I was too angry. He knew. He knew the whole time. I didn't need a liar like that in my life right now. Maybe never. I wasn't ready to let him in. I kept seeing shadows under the trees. The little ember blinked in and out of my peripheral vision. I wasn't in the mood. I avoided the shade. I didn't want to talk to that liar either. I knew he'd just smile at me and I would forget all my anger.

I took the path down to the river. I sat on the grass away from the shade of the trees. The water was calm, but moved along at a rapid pace. I let my mind process the anger, the lies, the crazy.

"How long are you going to sit out here?" Remi's voice drifted in from somewhere behind me.

"I thought you were allergic to sunlight?" I asked.

"No, just avoidant of it."

I threw a pebble in the water then watched the circular ripples spread out from its sinking point.

"Why are things so complicated?" I asked.

"Life is complicated. You may not understand the decisions your parents made, but if you were in their position, you may have made the same choices."

"Were you there watching them the whole time?" I threw another pebble. This one went farther.

"No, not the whole time. Only when I was assigned as your guardian, even then, I have more charges than just you."

"I just wish I could see what happened back then." I threw another pebble. When it hit the water, it bounced off the surface. My eyebrows drew together. "Wha-?"

The water rose. From beneath it a large serpentine creature rose up like a wave itself. The water rushed off its blue scaled skin as it towered before me. The sunlight streamed around its edges as I was cast in its shadow. I rose to my feet as the great dragon grew tall before me. I wished for a fleeting moment I had taken that knife with me. I wasn't sure why that would have made much of a difference versus this huge dragon, but it still popped into my mind.

"Is that your wish?" The dragon asked in a deep melodic boom.

"I... I...?" Words caught in my throat. "What the hell?" I stammered.

"I am not from hell, little one. I am a creature of the earth."

My mouth gaped. My eyes bugged out of my head. I couldn't look away.

Remi was by my side bowing deeply. "Forgive us, Great One, she did not mean to summon you for such a trivial matter."

The dragon's huge golden eyes squinted as he looked down at us. "What a waste of power, but I shall grant your wish. It is easy enough." His tail rose from the water and wrapped around us. The tip stopped in front of me. The very tip was a flat diamond about the size of my hand

I stared at it. "Umm...."

"You need to give him power," Remi whispered.

I had no idea what was going on. How did I give him power? What wish was he even granting? I reached out with a flat hand like a high five. The dragon's tale met my hand. I felt a rush of tiredness over take me, like the life force had been sucked from me. My knees shook before giving out completely. Everything went dark.

I woke standing in a bar. Men in leather biker jackets filled the room. The voices in the bar were so loud, I couldn't hear myself think. Then I saw him. I saw Matei. He stood behind the bar serving drinks to some attractive looking women. His smile to them was pure charm. They ogled him and giggled amongst themselves. He even drew the attention of several men around the bar. People shouted greetings to him as he jumped from customer to customer.

The bell on the door clinked as the door opened. The bar grew silent as a dark haired woman with grey blue eyes walked through the door. Her dark curly locks framed her face and fell all the way to her waist.

I would have known my mother anywhere. She was young. Her belly was rounded, but she moved gracefully. Remi appeared leaning against the wall to her side. He looked different. It was still him, but he was younger. He still wore the same sort of clothes, but his leather jacket looked a little big on him.

"Remi," I said, but he did not turn my way.

"Remi!" I shouted. No one turned. No one seemed to hear me.

My mother walked towards the back room. Matei excused himself and followed her. Remi disappeared. Everyone in the bar stared at the closed door.

I shrugged and followed after. My hand went through the door knob as I tried to open it. I tried again. This time my hand went through the door. I think I finally figured out what was going on. I walked through the closed door.

Remi stood against the wall. My mother sat in a chair. Matei stood facing her.

"Isabell, I can't. I'm sorry. I have Mila now."

"I'm not expecting you to step up. I just need a little power. I can't do it with just my own. You can at least give me that."

"You weren't supposed to get pregnant. I don't even know how you did. You're not even my kind."

"Well, it happened and if I'm going to survive this birth, then I need power. If I don't, they will sap me and kill me."

Matei looked angry.

"It's not like you can't just have a hook up tonight and get your energy back."

"Fine." He stepped forward.

She held out both hands. His hands met with hers.

"I freely give you my power," he stated. His face grew pale. "Wait, no. Stop. Not that much."

Isabell's eyes sparkled. Her face grew more vibrant with life.

"No," Matei croaked. He fell to the floor in a heap.

Isabell stood. "Thanks." She said simply and walked out the door. Remi followed after, his face that same stony he always gave me.

I followed them. I flinched as the door closed and went through me. It was a very strange sensation. Isabell and Remi left through the front door. Two men rushed through the door I stood in and right through me. One knelt down next to him. He had pointed ears and grey scaly skin. Tusks protruded upward from his bottom jaw. I stepped back as I tried to decide if he was a good or bad creature.

"Brother, come on, wake up. What happened?"

Matei came to. "She took it. Go after her. She took it all," he rasped.

The other man ran back out of the room. Shouts and yells followed then revving of motorcycle engines as the gang followed after Isabell.

The remaining man helped Matei to a chair. "Betsy!" He shouted over his shoulder.

A blonde woman walked into the room. "Matei needs you."

She sat next to him. Matei wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her to him. He kissed her on the mouth like he was devouring her. She pulled back, confused. "What's going on?"

"Matei?" The man asked.

"I can't... I can't feed. That bitch sucked me dry!"

"How is that possible? She's not even a succubus," he said.

My vision darkened. I lost sight of Matei and the rest of the room. I came to back on the shore of the river with the sunlight warming my skin.

I sat up. The river dragon was gone. Remi sat leaning over me, stroking my hair.

"There she is," he whispered, as if reassuring himself. The firefly buzzed around his shoulder.

I batted Remi's hand away. "You were there!"

"Where?" Remi asked.

"My mom. She stole Matei's power. He's like a succubus or something."

"Incubus."

"Incu? Whatever. Fuck. Was that real? Did that actually happen?"

Remi nodded slightly.

"What does that make me?"

Remi just stared at me.

"God damn it. You're not going to help me, are you?"

He shook his head. "I can't, sorry."

"So, my father is an incubus, and my mother is... something that can steal power from them and apparently have children with them, but she's not a succubus. Unless they're all lying." I put my head in my hands. None of this was making sense. I had even more questions now.

"What are you going to do about Mila?" Remi asked quietly.

"Mila? Mila?! How can I even think about Mila right now? What about me? What the hell am I?"

"But Mila is possessed by the darkness. Don't you want to help her?"

I rubbed my temples. "I guess. We somehow happened to get Matei's blood. So I guess you're supposed to tell me what to do next?"

Remi nodded. He produced a paper from his pocket. "You'll need to find a nexus point, draw this, then bring Mila to it and say the words." His eyes sparkled. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Was it excitement, maybe?

I narrowed my eyes at him. "This seems too easy."

"Easy?"

"How is it that everything is just falling into place like this?"

Remi looked away and shrugged. "I guess fate is working in your favor this time."

"That's never happened to me before."

My mind thought through all the circumstances that had to happen to make this go right. The broken car had to work. My mother who was locked up in a mental hospital had to give me her blood. My father, my real father who was actually an incubus had to give me his blood. All of this, even the sparkle in Remi's eyes, seemed way too convenient. If I was a smarter girl, I would think that someone or something out there was helping me make this happen, because never in my life had anything I wanted ever been this easy.

I gritted my teeth and looked down at the paper. At least it looked like I would be getting Mila back after all.