Chapter 22 MAKING DEALS WITH THE DEVIL.

SAME DAY
I liked the way Tia brushed her thumb against my skin but the question was if I actually loved her. I could have fallen in love her and was just deceiving myself that I didn't actually love her, no, the way I felt around Tia could not be compared to the way I felt around Dawn. Dawn made me feel more alive, more real like she brought me from two-dimension to three-dimension. I loved her.
We drove for another boring ten minutes before the minivan finally eased to a stop. Tia was gently stroking my neck with her left hand as I leaned my head on her left shoulder.
"Everyone stay in, Jereum you can come with," Jhan said, before he stepped out and Jereum stepped out as well. And that's how it has always been, Jhan and Jereum, defenders of the undefended. If only Jhan would stop treating me like a child and more like one of them. I was the most powerful after all.
We had stopped a distance in front of a bungalow. Red painted walls as usual and I saw an adjudicator standing at the threshold. Jhan exchanged a few words with the vampire before he rose up the right sleeve of his jacket and I saw the vampire nod in response.
The vampire literally leaped onto the house, before disappearing into the night.
Jhan got back to the minivan. "It is okay, we can go in." He walked to the back of the minivan and opened the boot.
I stepped out and walked towards the house. Jereum and Jhan carried some luggage into the house. I stepped into the parlour. As usual—red walls, light bulbs instead of chandeliers. Three black sofas—all two sitters. And finally, a TV.
A corridor at the back of the room led to the inner rooms. I walked straight through it. There were five doors, two to the left, two to the right and one at the end of the corridor.
I was eager to take the one at the end. Sneaking out through a window from there would be so much easier, I thought. Someone was behind me, I turned around sharply. It was Jhan, I was so lost in my thoughts I didn't even notice him. He held out a cloth box to me. I eyed it carefully before looking back at him.
Box seemed normal to me. I took the black box from him.
"Thank you," I said.
"Get settled in and try to get some rest okay." He had already turned away to leave.
I twisted the knob of the door and it opened obediently. I stepped into a medium sized room, about the size of my attic dungeon. A single bed, wardrobe, bathroom—I was grateful for that, bathing in Jereum's room was becoming tiring.
Closing the door behind me, I took of my boots; wiggling my toes. It was still too early to sneak out. The windows had no protective bars—we didn't need it anyway, so that made it easier.
"Okay Supreme sight, you have to come out now." I sat on the white sheets and closed my eyes, sighing as I prepped myself to go Supreme. I needed to use my Supreme abilities again. I focused on the time that I fought the tyrants, the energy that I felt billowing in my chest.
I stayed completely still, trying to zone out everything around me. I focused as hard as I could but nothing. I groaned in annoyance, sighing and prepping myself again. This time I focused on the time I went hunting with Tia. I used it to see through the bushes. I tried even longer but still, noting. I sighed in defeat, gave up and lay back on the bed. The last thing I saw before I allowed sleep to dissolve me up, was the throbbing veins along the back of my incomplete forearm.
When I woke up, it was because of the connection my brain had made with the fingers of my left arm. I looked at it in disbelief.
"How in the world..."
I was sure it would have had to take at least another week for the hand to grow back its wrist, palm and fingers. I wiggled my fingers quickly, folding and unfolding them and then placed my left palm on top of my right palm, visually comparing the size of it, equal.
Glancing towards the single window, it was dark. This was the best time to sneak out and meet Dawn I could dash to the our former Town I no time and even return unseen. This is a new environment so I guess they would rather stay in, instead of patrol the streets. And with everyone thinking that I was still hurt, they wouldn't want to disturb me.
I ensured that the door was locked before I very slowly pushed open the window and stepped out onto the short grass. Supreme vision would have really been handy now, I would have checked if any of the others had awoken or checked to their locations to ensure it safe for me to move.
I hopped over the picket fence and got on to the streets, quickening my pace to avoid detection. I couldn't see any shadowy figures lolling by random objects. And the streets seemed totally empty, not even a single person up ahead of behind. I walked straight up the road. Keeping to the sides of the street where it was most dark.
It was cold out here and silent as well. I walked fast but gently, keeping my head low and my hands in my pants pockets. I got to the corner of the street and turned a left. The street here was even less illuminated. Good. I took a few steps and that's when I heard a strange sound.
It sounded like the whooshing of a cloth through the air. It came from above me. I stopped dead on my tracks. Glancing up furtively at the roofs of the houses around me, nobody. I tried tuning into my dialed up hearing but it didn't work. Once my dialed up hearing was activated I could place distance of objects and if they were moving just by listening to how far away the sounds the made were.
I heard the muffled sound of someone or something drop behind me. I turned my head to the side slowly, peering over my shoulders; I saw a large black mass and two deathly yellow eyes. I reeled around to look at it. We had about ten feet of distance between us.
'If I break into a run now, I should be able to outrun it.' I thought.
"What do you want?" I asked, trying to make my voice as steady and as bold as possible, but at same time keeping my voice low.
'Just want to talk... I'm sorry about the arm. I see you followed your instincts.'
Then it dawned on me, that voice that was in my head was real... It was it.
"So you were the one in my head... How can you do that?" I asked.
The creature sat like a dog, the only difference being the deathly gaze to its eyes.
'It's how we communicate; we cannot physical talk whilst in this form so we have a psychic link between the members of our pack... It is still unknown why we can share this connection with certain vampires as you. And also with vampires who possess a certain ability called the mind's-eye.'
It got up and started to circling around me, it was careful to keep to the areas of nigh total darkness. I kept my gaze fixed on its front paws so if it made a jump, I would be ready.
"What do you want? 'I asked it.
'Let us help ourselves devil—"
"I'm not a devil," I said firmly.
'Sharing this link does not only grant us psychic speech, oh no, I can also feel your emotions, your fear, your urges and also your doubts."
It was still circling around me but I was not going to take my eyes off its paws.
'Now, I am ready to be called a beast. It is but what I am. But are you ready to accept the fact that you are a demon... A devil?'
I didn't answer to its question, "What do you want!?" I asked again.
'I need your help Kaldar, ‘we' need your help.'
"Who is ‘we'?" I asked it, 'And what makes you think I'll ever help you?"
‘Oh, because I think you have no choice… You see, Kaldar there are things on this earth that are bigger than you—despite how powerful you are. There are also things that are far more powerful than I am. And these things… are even more powerful than us put together.'
There was something about its tone, a serene seriousness that was tinged with horror and fear.
‘My specie faces extinction Kaldar, and despite how traitorous this may sound—my species faces extinction from a greater pack of wolves, called the ‘Black Wolves'
There was something to the way it said the name, as if the name was a sacred word not to be spoken about but to be said in fear.
'So? How does this have to affect us vampires?" I asked it, if the Black Wolves, or whatever it had called them, were only out to kill her pack then we vampires had nothing to worry about.
‘They won't stop there… You know what Kaldar? On that roof,"—and it turned its head toward a particular duplex at the other side of the street"—you'll find something that may interest you, a little motivation, may I call it—"
It stopped dead; I saw its ears twist to face forward. And then I heard the sound of a car's engine a distance away. I dashed to the buildings, hiding behind a stand. The car indeed zoomed past; the driver had probably not noticed me. I peered to either side of the road, no car or person in sight.
I stepped out, back into the road. It was gone, the creature was gone. I looked at the building it had pointed out to me; the building was about thirty feet high. I contracted my leg muscles and leapt as high as I could. I threw myself about fifty meters into the air.
I fell onto the buildings top. Looking around desperately I saw a small flat object. Curious, I picked it up. It was an office folder. I opened the folder, inside were hospital records, and a passport photograph of me. I scanned through it faster. These were my hospital records. My heart skipped a beat.
'I can help you figure out more about yourself...'
I looked around. I couldn't see the wolf beast.
'Meet me here, same time in four days... Maybe we can help ourselves... Deal?"
I didn't even have to think about it twice… or I just didn't want to.
"Deal!"
"Oh, and demon, watch your back. You'll never know who is really who in this town