Discovery: Altera Realm Trilogy (11 page)

Scorpina laughed and choked at the same time, making a sickening wet sound. She reached her hand up and slashed Syney's face with her nails. "You think you can hurt me?" she yelled, once her throat was free of Syney's grip.

Syney fell to the floor at Scorpina's scratch and cupped her wounded cheek. She felt blood ooze out of her skin as a white-hot pain erupted in her brain. It was worse than any pain she had ever felt. Syney felt a numbness spread through her body, and her throat tightened and the air in her lungs seemed to disappear, only not to be replenished.
Is this what it feels like to die?
she wondered, as she struggled for any kind of breath.

She rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling, as tears ran down her cheeks. Everything seemed to disappear around her, all sounds dying down to whispers. She heard a muffled fight somewhere near her and a voice speaking. . .to her? She blinked and looked up into the face of her mother and father. She smiled. Of course they weren't gone—they couldn't be dead! Her mother's mouth moved. She was talking, but Syney couldn't hear her.
Pay attention to the lips!
she yelled to herself.
She's trying to tell you something!

Syney peered a little closer. "Stay awake!" her mother mouthed. "Now drink."

Syney didn't understand. "Stay awake," she understood, but "Drink"? She was about to muster all her strength to ask why, when something shoved into her mouth. She nearly choked as a warm, thick liquid invaded her mouth. It tasted wrong. It wasn't something she was supposed to be drinking. It was almost forbidden, but she swallowed anyway. Her mother had insisted, so she had to. Everything started to come into focus after a few swallows and the numbness resided. Syney blinked again, and her parents faded away, replaced by Gabriel. That's when she realized it was the stranger's wrist that was in her mouth and his blood that she was drinking. She started to choke and tried to force his wrist from her mouth.
This is wrong!
That was the only thought she had as she struggled.

"Calm down," Gabriel whispered, moving away from her slowly.

Calm was the last thing Syney was going to be. She shot up from the floor, and the room began to spin. She blinked a few times. Her stomach seemed to be on fire, and it was quickly spreading to her veins. The room picked up speed as she tried to focus.
Find something to focus on
, she thought. She saw Gabriel kneeling on the floor, looking at her. Scorpina's body, or what was left of it, was a bloody mess on the floor. Hunter, as a wolf, blood dripping from his mouth, was the last thing she saw as the room turned dark and the floor fell from underneath her.

Gabriel

Gabriel didn't like Lycins—especially not a pissed-off one who stared at him with thoughts of death running through his mind. At least he wasn't attacking. Lycin bites hurt like hell, and the only thing Gabe hated more than Lycins was pain. The Lycin had been staring Gabe down for at least an hour, since they had checked into the seedy motel a few miles from Syney's house. They had moved in a hurry once Gabe had healed Syney. The wolf had wanted to take off Gabe's head. Gabe had heard as much inside the animal's head, but Gabe had acted quickly, saving the Chosen One's life with his blood. There was still a murderous instinct in the Lycin, but Gabe had picked up Syney's shut-down body and waited for the wolf's next move. Gabe had dealt with many Lycins. They were stubborn but very intelligent. The wolf needed the Vampire's help to move Syney, and he had just proven himself by healing her. The Lycin had thought of an image, of this motel, and the two took off at their own fast speeds to it. Of course Gabe had beat the wolf there. Lycins were fast, but Vampires were much faster, and Gabe loved to run.

Gabe looked down at Syney, who was still knocked out on the bed. He didn't expect her to be so young. She was also beautiful. He wasn't surprised about that. Her mother had been beautiful as well. Her looks weren't shockingly gorgeous like the human models or movie stars, but there was an exotic beauty in her light skin and dark hair.

He looked back at the Lycin. The man was now looking at Syney. Gabe felt a pang of familiarity in the look the Protector gave his charge. It wasn't a look all Protectors gave—only the ones who wanted to be killed.

"How did you get clothes?" Gabe asked. The only thing he liked more than running was needling Lycins.

The wolf looked back at him. For a moment Gabe thought he wasn't going to say anything, but then he spoke, softly yet firmly. "Clothesline. A block from here."

"Interesting choice," Gabe snickered at the too-short sweatpants and tight T-shirt.

The Lycin squinted at him and said nothing.

Gabe shrugged and looked back at Syney. She would be awake soon. He heard her breath picking up its pace.

"Why did you save her?"

Gabe looked back at the wolf. "Does it matter?"

"Maybe. Maybe not."

Gabe looked at Syney. "Do you think she'll make a difference?"

"Yes." There was no hesitation in the wolf's voice.

"Then that's why I did it." Gabe looked back at him.

The Lycin shook his head. "Vampires are selfish. You don't care about the Realm. There's something you want. Just be aware that anything you want from her..." He stood up. "...you'll have to come through me to get."

Gabe smiled. "And all Lycins are bullies who are too pigheaded to see anything other than what their owners tell them to see."

The wolf gave a low growl.

"I guess we'll agree to disagree." Gabe kept his smile up. "She's waking up."

The wolf's face softened as he knelt next to the bed and awaited her consciousness.

This is getting interesting
, Gabe thought, as his mind ran wild adjusting his game plan.

Syney

Syney woke up with the sun shining in her face. She opened her eyes reluctantly and sat up in her bed. And it was her bed. The same pink-and-green sheets were on it that had been there when she had packed up that morning. Or
was
it that morning? The night's events were still fresh in her mind, but something felt wrong...off. The room was exactly the same as she had left it. The same books on the shelf. The same stuffed animals lounging on the window seat. She pulled back the covers and slipped her bare feet into her pink fuzzy slippers. She headed out of the room, slowly. Everything seemed too good to be true as she headed down the stairs. At the bottom she stopped. Voices were coming from the kitchen. She couldn't make out any words or even the owners of the voices, but they felt familiar to her. She looked over to the living room furniture. A flash of her parents' dead and bloodied bodies filled her mind, and she gripped the banister to keep from passing out. But they weren't there. The room looked pristine. No death, no blood.

"Syney?" a voice called from the kitchen.

Taking a deep breath, she continued through the living room. She stopped cold in the doorway of the kitchen.

Her mother turned to her and smiled while laying a hand on her father's arm. They were both smiling as if nothing was wrong. "Syney, honey. You slept late," her mother said.

"What?" Syney asked, slowly stepping forward.

"She's telling you that you're a lazy brat!" Jess said, walking over to the kitchen table, where Syney's parents were sitting. "I poured you some coffee."

Syney nodded and took a seat facing the three. "Thanks."

Worry crossed Syney's mother's face. "Are you OK, dear? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Syney took a sip of coffee and then a deep breath. "Just overwhelmed."

Richard nodded. "I can understand. It is the one-year anniversary."

Jess nodded. "But you've made such great progress."

"Progress?" Syney asked.

"Since the break," Jess said quietly. "Last year, on your eighteenth birthday."

Syney shook her head. This was like walking in a daze, and nothing made sense. "I guess I blocked something."

Joyce nodded. "The doctor said you might. It was all very traumatic."

"Last year you had a psychotic break on your birthday," Richard said in his calming, matter-of-fact voice. "You started hallucinating. Seeing people who turned into wild animals and yelling about werewolves and Vampires. You even believed you had some sort of special powers. You began to hurt yourself and even threatened to hurt others."

"But you got help," Jess said quickly. "And you've been out of the hospital for a whole week."

Syney listened and stayed quiet. This wasn't real. It couldn't be real. All of that stuff really happened. She wasn't crazy. Although isn't that what all crazy people claimed? She took a deep breath. "I guess...I guess it all seemed real."

"I know, honey," Joyce, said pouring some cream into Syney's cup of coffee. "Here. Drink this."

Syney took the coffee mug from her mother and took a sip—only it wasn't coffee that filled her mouth. It tasted familiar. Warm and thick. It took a moment for her to register the taste of blood, the same taste that had filled her mouth in the bedroom. Only this time Syney didn't fight it. She relished the taste, even craving more when the cup was empty.

"That's a good dear. Drink up," Joyce coaxed her daughter. "You'll need all of your strength now."

Syney slammed the mug down on the table, out of breath from her rabid drinking and licking her lips with enjoyment. She wanted more. She looked with wild eyes to Jess who sat next to her and lunged at her throat.

Syney shot up in bed, screaming. She lashed out her arms and came in contact with a very solid body. She gripped it, still not focusing on where she was. Suddenly she became calm, as all of her muscles released their tension. She knew this feeling. She looked at Hunter, who knelt beside her, holding her arms down. She smiled. But then it all came back to her. The attacks. Her parents.
The pain. Her smile faded, and tears stung her eyes. She wasn't sure how long she cried, as loud sobs came from her throat. She gripped onto Hunter with everything she had and was grateful that he held her, all solid and strong.

Finally, once she had shed all of her tears, her sobs slowed, and she released herself from Hunter. She lay back against the headboard and looked around the dingy, poorly lit room. Another motel. She never had stayed at a place like this before, and now she had stayed in two in less than twenty-four hours—or at least she assumed it had been twenty-four hours. She glanced toward the door and found herself staring at the stranger from the house. Gabriel McMann, Vampire. She looked back at Hunter. "What happened?"

"You were attacked."

"Scorpina," Syney said with a nod. "She was living with Jess. A foreign exchange student or something."

"She was a Shifter," Gabe said. "A scorpion."

Syney looked toward him. "But she didn't change like the others did at the store."

He shook his head. "She wouldn't want to. All of the venom a scorpion carries in its tail is concentrated in her nails. So when she scratched you, you were infected and would have died."

Syney stared at him for a moment, not wanting to say what she wanted to say. Finally, her need to know, to understand, won out. "And you saved me. With blood." Her stomach churned as he nodded. She had drunk blood. It was thick and warm and in her mouth. She gagged and put a hand over her lips.

"Vomiting will only upset your system. The blood is no longer in your stomach," Gabe said, sitting down in front of her on the bed. "Would you like to understand what happened?"

Syney swallowed and took some deep breaths. Did she want to understand? She looked at Hunter. He was watching her but was silent. She looked back at Gabe and nodded. If she was going to have to live with these people, she might as well understand what made them tick, or heal, or whatever.

Gabe nodded back at her. "A Vampire's blood has healing qualities. They can heal themselves very quickly when injured with anything other than wood or silver. When any non-Vampire is injured, if they ingest a Vampire's blood, it gets absorbed through the stomach lining and runs into the bloodstream. From there it creates a million times the body's normal white blood cells, which heals anything wrong with the body. It even can regrow parts of the body that were damaged or severed."