Fighting Destiny (Central Coven) (11 page)

Anita smiled in relief, and continued with her story. “Okay, so there I was really wasted, at a random college party, and I couldn’t find my friends anywhere.  I was standing in the corner, feeling sorry for myself, until I met this gorgeous college guy, or at least I thought he was in college.  He was mesmerizing, tall, with dark blonde hair and golden brown eyes. 

I’m not really sure why, but when he asked me to leave with him, I did.  I’ve never done anything like that before. Other stupid things yes, but leaving with a stranger…no nothing that stupid. I wish I hadn’t that night. That is all it takes though, one mistake, one bad decision.  I try not to hold myself responsible for what happened next, logically I know it wasn’t my
fault,
but it was completely avoidable.

It didn’t take long to realize he wasn’t
interested in me romantically. I figured
that
out as soon as we got inside his place and he knocked me out.  Anyway, I woke up chained to a wall.  I’m not even sure how many days I was kept prisoner.  Every night he bit me, forced me to drink his blood, tortured me, and then left. 

At first I didn’t want to believe what he was.  I mean what ordinary human would believe there really are vampires?  Not me.  I thought I was going crazy.  When I started to change, I realized the true horror of my situation.  He wasn’t just going to kill me he was going to make me undead. 

By the second or third day the sun started to sting my eyes.  I could hear people talking outside of the building.  I could smell everything.  I could see in the dark.  My teeth were growing.  I wanted to die then. I did not want to become one of them…the same as him. I began to wish more for my death than my freedom.  I heard the people, humans, come into their…I guess you would call it a lair.  I could hear their screams, and I could hear when their hearts stopped beating.  I prayed, but I didn’t think God would listen to me anymore.

Four days later, Grey came and broke the chains free from wall.  He helped me escape from the house, and stayed with me until I could control myself again.  He kept in touch with me to help me with the transition.  With his help I learned to live with what I am.

The vampire that abducted me was Alexander.  He is a master of seduction.  He can lure any person away and make them feel like it was their idea.  When I was held prisoner I learned a few things about him.  For example, he wants to increase the population of vampires to keep pace with the other supernatural races.  Since they cannot breed they have to add to their ranks by taking strong and intelligent members of the human race.  I suspect this is his motivation for taking students.  I am beginning to worry he is working with the necromancers to accomplish his own goals.”

“I suppose it is possible, but it doesn’t explain why one of the vampires I saw was under the spell of the necromancers.  We need to ask Grey what he thinks,” I said.  “Certainly, lets ask the dead guy,” Finn mumbled.  “He has been helping us.  Do you have a problem with that?”  “Of course he is helping us, so he can help himself to you,” Finn answered snidely.  “That is none of your business. You made your feelings quite clear.”  “Like you even waited to find out.”  “Yeah, you were really broken up about it. Is that why you surrounded yourself with blondes? No, it couldn’t be that because that happened first.”  Finn’s jaw dropped, and he didn’t reply.  “That’s what I thought.”

I reached into my purse and grabbed some cash and tossed it on the table.  “Sorry guys, I have a few hours before class, I’m going to go clear my head,” I said to Dean and Anita.  I stormed out of the door and headed the mile and a half back towards campus.  I vaguely noticed Finn get up to follow me.

“Chloë, would you stop please?” Finn begged.  “Finn, I don’t know what you want from me.  For the last week you have barely acknowledged my existence.  And for someone who doesn’t want to recognize they are an elf, you are certainly enjoying all of the amorous attention it has been bringing you.”  “I guess I deserve that.  Are you really going to date the vampire?”

I laughed nervously. “It’s funny because you needed time to figure things out, and now I do.  I just don’t know if I can deal with all this drama right now.  I mean you totally blew me off, and we are going to go through a lot worse before this is all over.  If I am going to be with someone, I want someone who isn’t going to flake out on me when things get too stressful.”

I turned my back on him and continued to walk toward campus.  Finn made an irritated sound and continued after me.  I could feel his mood darkening, literally.  The sky was clouding over, a rumble of thunder bellowed from the sky, and the wind began to gust.  I stopped in my tracks and turned around.  “Finn calm down.  Don’t you see what you are doing? You have to learn to control your powers.  Really, look at the sky it was sunny a moment ago.” Finn caught up to me, and I reached out and grabbed his hand.  Suddenly the clouds dissipated, and the winds died down. 

“I can control the weather?” Finn asked amazed.  “It would seem so.”  “Are my powers connected to the way I am feeling?” “That is usually how it works, with me at least.”

Finn pulled me to a stop with the hand he was still holding.  “Can we be friends?” “Sure, I don’t see why we can’t try at least. But, that is all I can offer you for now.”  “For now?” Finn asked curiously.  I smiled. “Finn, my mother says when you live forever you should never close doors you might want to reopen.” “Do you think you might want to reopen this door?”  I laughed. “We’ll see.” “I can live with that,” he answered.  “Walk me back to campus?” He laced his fingers with mine, “Yeah, I’ll take what I can get.” 

I narrowed my eyes at him, and he smirked at me.  “You didn’t say I couldn’t make you want to re-open that door sooner.”  I shook my head in amusement.  “I can see how this friendship is going to be.  You, Finn Christiansen are going to be a pain in the ass aren’t you?”  “An adorable pain in the ass, irresistible even,” he teased.  “Mhhm, we shall see.”

“Chloë, what are we going to do?  We always seem to be one-step behind these, uh,
necromancers
.  Is that the right word?” Finn asked.  “Yes that is the right word, and I agree we are always one step behind.  Truthfully, I don’t know a lot about them yet.  I was still learning about my own powers and working on getting stronger.  I only learned a little about the other supernatural races.” “I was thinking, Dean said something about all of us being from the strongest families of our race,” Finn began.  “Yeah, that is true.”  “Alright, so someday the four of us might be the strongest of our kind.  If you were going to stage an uprising, you don’t want to wait until the strongest take over.  You strike when you have the best advantage, when there is chaos, confusion, and weak leadership,” Finn reasoned.

“That is exactly what I was thinking. Except I wouldn’t say leadership is weak in the
Council
,” I argued.  “What if the
Council
was dealing with missing members?” “I can see your point, that would weaken leadership. We are going to have a lot of work to do, Finn.  We have to keep up with our classes, rapidly learn to use our own powers, and find out about necromancers.  Are you up for this?” 

“Do I have a choice?” Finn asked.  I looked him in his dark blue eyes, and shook my head.  “They will come for you anyway, but we could try and stop them. I don’t want to make you fight this battle.  I would do that for you if that is what you wanted.”  “No this is my fight too.  I can’t let girls fight in my place, even if you are both frightening to mess with,” he said with a wicked grin.  “And you are only guessing, you have no idea what Anita and I are capable of,” I said with a wink.  “That sounds like an invitation.”

“That isn’t something you want to be on the other end of trust me, or ask Grey,” I said, reminding him we were only friends.  “Egh, I would like to forget about him.  Did you really kick his ass?”  “Yes, I did.  Sorry I didn’t mean to remind you.  Uh, maybe I did, but it isn’t like he is my
boyfriend
.  I’m not really sure what I want right now is all.”  “Well at least he has gotten on your bad side too.  I guess that is reassuring.”

“We are going to have to keep out of the attention of the police while we are checking into these missing students.  I wonder what they think about the guy who went missing last night,” Finn said changing subjects.  “Hmm, good point.  Let’s see…” I said as we neared a convenience stor
e.  “I’ll go in for a paper.”

The front page of the
Yakima Herald
had a story about the two missing students from Central Washington University. It was rare when Ellensburg made the paper, especially the front page.  The young man who went missing from the library, Steven McCall, was a college junior.  He had arrived at the library, before the “flasher” as the newspaper called him (although he was more colorfully known as the “masturbator” on campus), and disappeared around the same time the “flasher was seen by two freshmen females (wow, that would be Anita and myself).  The picture of Steven McCall could match the “masturbator”, he was pale and not very muscular.  I might even have thought it was him, except for the fact I knew he was taken off the roof of the library by a vampire.  The newspaper did not exactly say the police considered him a suspect, but it was implied. 

“Look at this,” I said and handed Finn the paper.  He quickly scanned the article, and then handed it back to me.  “This is a load of shit!  So the police are looking for this Steve as the ‘masturbator’ not as a missing student?”  “The worst part is this flasher is going to keep getting away with what he is doing since they are looking for the wrong guy.  And this flasher might be dangerous too.  What are they going to do if they do come across Steven McCall?  I’m pretty sure the missing students have been turned, so they would be in incredible danger if they do find him.  How is the
Council
going to hide police being drained by the campus ‘masturbator’?”  

“Let’s just get through today, and we’ll figure out something,” Finn reassured.  I stared off in the distance; tears were welling up in my eyes.  “I feel like everyone is looking to me to stop them, and I just don’t know how,” I admitted.  Finn placed his arm around my shoulders, and pulled me to him.  “You aren’t alone in this, we are with you, and we will figure this out together,” he soothed.  “Thank you,” I whispered.

“Okay, Finn, I think this friend thing might work after all.  So now it is my turn, there is something you want to ask me isn’t there?”  “I don’t want to cause you more stress, but…well… I was caught off guard when you told me I’m an elf. My parents take trips all the time, at first I just didn’t really believe they could be missing, but they have always answered my messages. Now, I think they are missing.  Has your mom heard anything yet?”  

“I haven’t heard anything. I’m sorry.  Don’t worry though; my mother doesn’t keep in touch very well.  How about you? Are you close to your parents?”   “My parents are hard to get close to.  They are very reserved, and private, even from me.  It always seemed they never planned to have a child, and just went about their lives as if nothing much had changed.  I suppose they were keeping a lot more from me than I realized.”

“Do you know how old they are?” I asked.  “I think they are in their early forties.  Weird, now that I think about it they don’t really look older than their mid twenties, but they have to be older than that.  How do I not know how old my parents are?  What am I saying, until last week I thought they were human, so not knowing how old they are is probably not a huge thing,” Finn laughed humorlessly.  “I can sympathize with what you described.  My mother is over five hundred years old. Of course, she only looks twenty-five too.  Unlike you, I have always known I was a witch, even before I had my powers. 

My mother and I aren’t close at all.  I am a trinket, a novelty, only brought out for special occasions as an ornament for her personal glory, the crown jewel of her dynasty.  Any other time and I am shipped off to wherever is most convenient for her.  I lived with my brother for a while, but he is a lot like my mother, three hundred years old and completely self-absorbed.  Most of the time I went to stay with my sister, she has a young family and we get along well enough.  We don’t have the same father, and I’m not even sure she likes me, but she tolerates me better than my mother does. That is actually how I ended up in Washington, because my sister lives in Bellingham.”

“That sounds difficult,” Finn sympathized.  “I didn’t know any different.  My fear is I will turn out like them the longer I live.”  “Like
them
.  I take it your father is the same way.  You didn’t mention him.  You do know who he is right?”  “There isn’t much to mention.  My parents had an on-again off-again romance for a long time, like centuries, but it pretty much died out when I was ten.  I haven’t seen much of him since.  I visited him a few times when I moved in with my sister, but only short very impersonal meetings.”

“Is that what it’s like to be one of us?”   “I don’t know.  My mother always told me I was special.  She kept me away from most of her friends.  She never wanted anyone to know what I was capable of.  I guess she was protecting me, but it always felt like isolation,” I admitted.  “I refuse to believe it has to be this way.  I see it has been for both of us, but it can be different.” “I hope you are right.”

We walked the rest of the way back to campus in silence.   We got back to the dorm, an hour before class.  One of the girls that had been vying for Finn’s attention saw us come in together and scowled at me.  “Looks like the witch is back,” she mocked.  I laughed hard, and had to fight hysterics.  I looked at her and smiled brightly.  Finn reached out and reclaimed my hand, and pulled me toward the stairs.