Outcast, page 14
His tale was quite impressive. Leif couldn’t argue with that.
“My goals are always lofty, but I ensure they are always attainable. Of that, you can place your trust in.”
Leif nodded. He didn’t need any more convincing.
“And with that, we really should find some appropriate shelter,” Beatrice interjected. “I don’t know about you two, but I really don’t want to burn to a crisp out here.”
Biting his lip, Leif said, “About that… I have another ability I haven’t informed you both about, but it might come in handy. Especially with all of this big picture talk.”
Draven cocked an eyebrow. “Another ability? Beyond your standard vampire enhancements?”
Leif nodded once, still hesitating about whether or not he should disclose his secret.
His mind was pulled from the trees, traveling through a blur of memories and placing him back into his bed at the boarding house.
Daylight hid behind the layered fabric that was placed over the window, and still it was too bright. Gemma had done her best, and even Camilla had come in and added her own bedsheets. Just a few days before, Gemma’s attempt at casting a shielding enchantment that would protect him from the sun’s rays had backfired, making him more sensitive to light. Any kind of light.
On top of his latest weakness to bright lights, he was still recovering from being turned by Beatrice, although the bite marks she’d left in the skin of his neck were now healed over. Not even scars remained.
A knock came at his door and he replied with a groan.
The hinges creaked, mimicking how he felt with its grating sound.
“Leif, it is just me,” Gemma said softly, sweeping into the room and shutting the door quickly.
The instant of light streaming in from the hallway felt blindingly painful, even though his eyelids were shut. Leif writhed on the bed and clutched a pillow to his face, which muted his cry.
“Apologies, Leif,” she said, rushing to his bedside. “I am so sorry I made things worse. But I come bringing good news! I believe I have found a way to not only reverse your adverse reactions to light, but to shield you from the sun’s lethality entirely.”
Slowly, Leif pulled the pillow away from his face.
“I cannot imagine any more spells you conjure can make me worse than I am now,” he replied, instantly regretting his words. He didn’t mean to add such a cold edge to them. But the light, and he couldn’t help it. “Forgive me, dear Gemma. I… I have not felt like myself for some time now.”
“I understand,” Gemma said. “But take comfort, for I feel particularly confident that this new spell will work flawlessly.”
Leif sat up, keeping his back to the covered window. “I swear, the sunlight knows how to penetrate even the tiniest weavings of thread.”
Gemma looked at the window in confusion. “But it is evening, Leif. It is moonlight you are seeing.”
Leif cupped his face with his hands and rubbed his eyes with his fingers. “Believe me when I say that I have high hopes your spell works this time.”
The confidence she spoke of was evident in her emerald eyes. “It will.” Gemma had a burlap sack thrown over her should that she gently placed on the floor. She opened and rummaged through it, then carefully pulled out a few random objects.
“What are those?” he asked.
“Items we should have used when we tried a few days ago,” she said softly, laying them out on the wooden floorboards. “Fresh moonflower roots and petals, picked right after the flower blooms, and the seeds of sunflowers.”
Leif narrowed his eyes at the floor. “And what? Do you sprinkle them on me as part of your enchantment?”
Gemma giggled. “Of course not. You will have to ingest them.”
The mere thought of eating the items lying on the ground made him queasy.
“What you are experiencing is something physical,” Gemma explained. “To counteract that, we need to use something else that is physical. But sunflowers not only look like the sun, they stick up straight and full when the sun is out. The seeds have been open to sunlight. You, too, will be soon enough.
“And as for the moonflowers, they thrive in the night. Their flowers stay open until the sun rises.” Gemma grinned. “Does that not sound familiar?”
Leif nodded. “It sounds just like me.”
“Precisely,” she said. “Together, the equal parts of sunflower and the moonflower will open the physical gates and allow the spell to bring about the physical changes.”
Breathing deeply, Leif said, “So I eat these, and then what?”
“Then I will utter the spell.” Gemma pulled one more thing out of the sack — her family’s grimoire. “It’s a complex spell, but I have it all written down so I won’t miss anything important.”
Leif found himself shaking. Could this really work? Had Gemma studied it out well enough? Would his weaknesses finally be broken?
He brought his gaze back up to Gemma’s porcelain face, and his anxiety flooded away. He found no fear there — only that happy confidence she’d carried into his room.
“Are you ready?” she asked.
Leif nodded, then kneeled down in front of Gemma with the sunflower seeds and moonflower roots and petals lined between them. She opened the grimoire and placed it next to her knees.
“You are a wonder, Gemma MacLugh,” he said.
Again, she laughed. “We will soon see, won’t we?” She reached down and collected the handful of sunflower seeds and extended her small, cupped hands out to him. He cupped his own hands and placed them under hers. Feeling her warmth caused his heart to leap with joy, and she let the small seeds trickle into his hands.
“No chewing,” she counseled. “You have to swallow them whole, or else you will remove their potency.”
Leif looked at the seeds with revulsion. Even as a normal human, swallowing sunflower seeds whole would be a challenge.
“Go on,” urged Gemma.
And he started, putting three in at a time, then swallowing them. On the first try, he gagged, but managed to finally get them down, and as he went through the handful, it got easier. He noticed a significant increase in his thirst, and had a sudden desire to drink to help wash down the first bit of nastiness.
“Excellent work,” Gemma said, clapping her hands. “You will need to eat the moonflower roots next. They have a lemony scent to them. They are known to be poisonous to humans. But you should be quite all right, I believe.”
Leif hesitated before accepting the roots from Gemma.
“Are you sure these are safe for me to eat?” he asked, eyeing them suspiciously.
“The only known poison to vampires is copper,” replied Gemma. “If it is harmful to you, your body should reject it and heal itself.”
The roots were white and wispy, like thin, little worms. Leif closed his eyes and shook his head in an attempt to force the image away, then slipped the straggly roots into his mouth. They might have smelled like lemons, but that was not how they tasted. The earthy, grassy flavor had a spice to it, and Leif nearly spat the roots out. Somehow, he forced them down, but the aftertaste was even worse than he anticipated.
“You are fortunate I love you as much as I do,” he said, shuddering.
Her eyebrows raised as she said, “And you are fortunate that I love you as much as I do. Otherwise, you’d be on your own dealing with… all of this.” She spread her arms wide, gesturing to the darkness they were sitting in.
Leif chuckled. “I have said it once, and I will say it again. You are a wonder, Gemma MacLugh.”
“Thank you,” she replied, scooping up the moonflower petals. “Now eat these.”
Holding out his hand, he accepted the delicate white petals. Leif’s stomach was already beginning to contest his choice of eating such nastiness, so he popped the entire handful in his mouth and swallowed it down.
“I cannot describe how disgusting all of that was,” he said as he grimaced.
“I can imagine,” Gemma said, smiling. She reached out with her palms up. “Here, take my hands.”
She didn’t need to ask him twice. Leif grabbed onto them, closing his eyes as their skin touched each other, embracing the tingling sparks it lit within him.
Gemma cleared her throat. “And now for the spell.”
Leif opened his eyes and watched as she looked down at the open grimoire next to her.
Her voice deepened as the words spilled out of her, “Vampír, créatúrnal ghealaís, glachadha leissana noíche, nábíodha eaglortír ansalágh.” Gemma stopped and took a few breaths, and Leif had to close his eyes again due to a light forming between their hands, illuminating his pale skin. Gemma continued on, and Leif could feel her mental exertion by her quaking hands. “Bhithina chúpúla, deú solaras noíche. Choinanonn echlipsée andúlray tú chábháliteh. B’fhélidira i mbeah séi gcónascí.”
The nauseous feeling that sat in the pit of Leif’s stomach burned away like dry leaves in a forest fire. It wasn’t accompanied by heat, but by a welcome chill. It was like the first frost after a long summer, and he gasped with relief.
Opening his eyes, he saw the light gleaming between their intertwined fingers, and it didn’t cause him to recoil in pain. A moment later, a grin spread across his face, and he looked into Gemma’s hopeful face.
“Did it work?” she asked.
Leif licked his lips, then got to his feet, pulling her up with him. Begrudgingly, he let go of one of her hands and pulled down the sheets that had been covering his window, causing the silvery moonlight to stream in.
No agitation or annoyance came, and he peered back at Gemma. The brightness of the moon shimmered on the porcelain skin of her face.
“I think it did,” he whispered in amazement. With awed appreciation, he stared into her green eyes. Like magnets, they drew his head closer to hers. Leif could feel her warm breath touch his lips, and he placed his free hand on her waist, pulling her against him.
He leaned in…
“Leif! Wake up, Leif!”
The voice was definitely not Gemma’s, and Leif started, causing his eyes to fling open. Beatrice was shaking him like a child shaking a tree in an attempt to force fruit to fall.
He leapt to his feet, disoriented from the shift from memory to his present state. If only Beatrice could have waited a few more minutes; he’d been pulled out of the memory right at the best part.
“Impeccable timing to lose control to a memory,” Draven said, standing nearby. “The sun’s nearly up. We were about to leave you to sizzle in the morning light.”
Leif wrenched himself away from Beatrice as he got to his feet.
“You should have left me,” he growled grumpily.
“Beatrice would never have forgiven me if we’d done that,” Draven said. “Her investment in you is stronger than steel.”
“Fools,” he said. “The sun can’t hurt me.”
“What?” Beatrice demanded. “What do you mean the sun can’t hurt you?”
Leif hesitated. He’d spilled his secret without thinking clearly. His head was still reeling from the memory of Gemma — of when she’d made him—
“A daywalker?” Draven said with wonder. The vampire leader grabbed Leif by both wrists and inspected his fingers, then his arms. “Vampire legends speak of enchanted rings and bracelets that protect its wearers from the rays of the sun, but I don’t see you wearing anything like that.”
“He has a trinket in his pocket, though,” Beatrice said as jealously flooded her tone. “He nearly lost it to the group of hunters I rescued him from. It comes from your long, lost love, doesn’t it, Leif?”
He pulled away from Draven and placed his hand on the pin hidden inside his pants pocket.
“The brooch doesn’t grant me any abilities,” Leif said quickly. “But yes, it belonged to Gemma. It’s one of the last things I still have that was hers.”
Draven’s gaze hardened, and he stared Leif in the eyes. “Give it to me.”
Leif pointed at the horizon just beyond the trees to the east. “Dawn is approaching. We need to get you both to safety. Now.”
“Hand over the brooch, Leif,” Draven said, grabbing onto one of his wrists again and squeezing it with a vice grip. “I’ll determine whether it holds magic or not.”
He had no other choice. Leif inserted his hand into his pocket and withdrew the pretty clasp that had long ago hung so majestically from Gemma’s clothing. Draven ripped it out of Leif’s hand, causing him to cry out. Leif held out his hand, feeling worry exude from his heart and out to his extremities.
Draven held the brooch in front of his eyes and studied it. “My, this is a pretty thing. Surely your little Gemma was a pretty thing, too.”
Leif gritted his teeth, wanting nothing more than to snatch the jewelry back and stow it away safely. He watched in confusion as Draven lifted the brooch to his nose and sniffed deeply at it.
The vampire’s eyebrows lifted with surprise, and his eyes lit up as he spoke. “There is magic bound to the pendant, but it is oddly muted and discreet. Like the remnants of perfume after a woman has worn it for a day.”
“Please, Draven,” Leif said, his hand shaking now. “Return it to me.”
Between two fingers and his thumb, Draven held the brooch up one last time, observing the face set in the middle of it. Leif found his hand clenched tightly, his fingers curled into his palms. But relief overwhelmed him as Draven handed it back to him.
“Hold on to it,” said Draven. “Something tells me it will come in handy someday.”
Leif shoved it into his pocket, not wanting to go another moment without feeling it against his leg.
“Thank you,” Leif said, sighing with relief.
Draven smiled and nodded. “Of course. But this new information you have revealed about being a daywalker changes things.” The vampire wagged a finger at him. “You’ve just become exponentially more valuable to me.”
Leif was afraid of that.
“And at some point soon, I want you to tell me how you obtained such an ability, but for now, we must return to our plane and get out of here.”
Like a child, Beatrice groaned in complaint. “But I thought we were going to teach the merfolk a lesson or two.”
Draven chuckled wickedly. “Oh, we will. But not today. With Leif’s daywalking abilities, we’re going to find that elusive shifter school. And once we’ve found it, we’ll crush it and eliminate the threat once and for all.
Beatrice raised a fist in the air and shouted in praising agreement.
The two other vampires retraced their steps and left the cover of the trees, making for the airport once more.
Leif looked on for a few moments, wondering what he’d gotten himself into. But the night had shown him that shifters were vicious and bloodthirsty — maybe more so than vampires. The mer had killed Florian, and when they thought they had succeeded in capturing Draven and Beatrice, their leader had scoffed at how they’d already killed Florian’s group of vampires. It seemed peace was impossible between vampires and merfolk. Could the same be said for all shifters?
It seemed that traps were everywhere, and if Leif wasn’t careful, he’d find himself dead, too.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“AS YOU ALREADY know, they call it The Island,” Draven said. They were back at Heritage Prep, and Leif was glad that he, Draven, and Beatrice weren’t meeting in the trophy room. Instead, they were in a conference room of sorts that sat right in the middle of the second level of the dark citadel. They sat around a large table, poring over several marked-up maps.
Off to the side, a skinny vampire Leif had never seen before sat at a desk facing a large CRT monitor, his fingers clacking rapidly at a mouse and keyboard. It sounded like the pitter-patter of mechanical rain — unnatural. Almost as unnatural as the way the vampire’s nose hooked.
Over the years, Leif had seen such devices during his stealth raids on hospitals and clinics collecting blood bags, but he knew little about them. The man was wearing a t-shirt that was two sizes too big, and pair of baggy jeans. He had blond hair in a buzz cut that formed a high-angled widows peak.
Leif ignored the noise as he raised an eyebrow. “That’s what you discovered when you raided that shifter farm in Vancouver, BC, right? It was in that acceptance letter you found?” Leif pointed at the piece of folded parchment sitting among the maps.
“That’s right,” Beatrice said. Her normally straight hair had been worked on, and it held symmetrical waves that ran down just past her shoulders. Although she was wearing her standard black hoodie, the hood was back. In stark contrast to the pale skin of her face, her lips were a dark crimson that shimmered as candlelight reflected off them. She wasn’t Gemma, for sure, but he couldn’t deny how pretty Beatrice looked.
I can see why you courted her before I met you, Gemma whispered in his mind, instantly pouring guilt into his soul. She is a beautiful woman.
Her beauty is only skin-deep, my love, Leif replied. But your beauty is like the horizon: never-ending and all-encompassing.
Even in death? asked Gemma.
Always. Leif slipped his hand into his pocket and caressed the cool brooch as he pictured Gemma’s face.
“I’d thought that was where we needed to focus our attention — specifically Vancouver Island,” Draven said, slamming a red marker on a large green circle on one of the maps, then made a bold X over it. Leif frowned at being pulled away from his thought-conversation with Gemma. “It seemed like the most likely location. As you well know, Leif, the first school that was destroyed at the beginning of the 1900s was located in another Vancouver.” Draven’s other hand moved to the southwest corner of Washington.
Leif furrowed his forehead as he looked at his old hometown. Why was the vampire leader telling him all of this? Draven had already crossed his bloody X on the map.
“Tell us what your brilliant mind deducts,” Draven said, looking up at him. “Can you tell us why Vancouver BC is not the hiding place of The Island?”
Leif shook shrugged. “It’s too close, and too easy to put together. The connection is too forced and weak. To believe that the shifters are hiding there — it doesn’t give them enough credit. They’re not a bunch of idiots. They’re strategists and survivalists. They wouldn’t stay close to Vancouver, or anywhere in the Great Northwest.”
