Published: March 22, 2020

11

KAYLA

“She sleeps too long,” a voice murmured above her head. “We
should wake her.”

Sleep? She hadn’t slept at all. Fitful unrest hardly qualified as real sleep. Throughout the night, she tossed and turned, but eventually, her body must have given out because she woke to shadows across her face.

“Back away from my daughter,” her father ordered.

“Donovan, he means well,” Marnie said, her voice soft.

Oh no, she dropped into a dream within a dream because none
of the conversation above her head made sense. Sure, her father not liking
Garrick was a given. Marnie siding with a vampire was not. Just the day before,
she treated him like he was the bringer of the apocalypse, now they were
practically pals.

Kayla blinked, her weary gaze clearing to three faces
above her head.

“You’re awake,” Garrick sounded relieved but she
couldn’t understand for the life of her why.

“Are you okay?” Her father scooted toward her from the corner
of her bed equally relieved.

“Yeah, why?”

“You’ve had fever all night,” Garrick sat on the cot
opposite her, worry contorted his face into a slight frown. Her father visibly
scowled at the side of his face, but he didn’t seem to notice.

As she sat up, the bed linens peeled from her skin. The
bed under her back was soaked through. Even the back of her neck near her
hairline was still sweaty. Vertigo made her rock forward slightly; nausea unsettled
her stomach.

“Are you alright?” Her father’s cold hand found hers.

“Your hands are cold,” she ripped her arm away at the
jolt of ice that went through her but her father was putting his hand to her forehead
before pressing them against cheeks then her neck.

“You’re still warm,” he frowned. “Marn, do we have anything.”

Marnie shook her head. “Her magic is the only thing that’ll
help.”

“I’m fine.” She lied pushing his hand away, fighting another
bout of nausea. “I just need some coffee.”

“How about water?” Her father asked reaching to the side
of the bed.

Her forehead wrinkled as she stared at the room’s latest
accessory, then at others. The bunker they’d been in had been redecorated. But
that couldn’t have been true with the sheer amount of muscle and energy it would
have taken to get their medieval panic room into fighting shape.

“Did you move me?” She asked grabbing the glass of water
her father thrust in her direction.

He and Marnie shared a look.

“No,” her father said.

“Looks like different,” she tossed a glance between them.

“What do you see?” Marnie asked wrapping her arms around
her body.

Kayla stole another glance at the room, then carefully described it. Wallpaper stretched across what was previously concrete slabbed walls. Fresh flowers adorned several bedside tables. A small stool was put at the foot of her bed replacing the stack of blankets that had been there the night before. She checked the opposite end to see the antique wood-burning stove still in the same place, only it looked restored from its rusted dilapidated origins.

More relief penetrated her father’s eyes. “Many thanks
to the foremages. Your magic is returning.”

Her back went straight. Her previous nausea became worse.
Alarm blurred her vision. That couldn’t be true. Her magic couldn’t come back.
Not now.

Immediately, she opened her palms. When clean skin met
her gaze, she relaxed. At least they weren’t up to their usual plot for destruction.
For how long she wasn’t sure.

Her father noticed her lack of enthusiasm.

“This is a good thing,” he smiled. “Your fever is your
magic representing itself. It’s mending. You used to get fevers often when you
were little before your magic appeared.”

Yep, and she also set fire to the drapes, shot enough electricity from her fingertips to cause a street-wide blackout that lasted hours, and nearly melted her father’s car. This was not a cause to be relieved over.

She took another sip from her glass grateful the water
hadn’t heated to boiling yet. For now, her magic was in check. Soon, it wouldn’t
be. She had to figure out a way to get to a phone, profusely apologize to Chem,
and get more tonic. Otherwise, there was zero hope of her hands not becoming a
menace to society.

Maybe once they got themselves situated with the council
and they were allowed to lay low until…

Her thoughts stopped dead. Until what?

Her father said the rogue had been after them before she
was even born. And with the way even Marnie, who’d used her magic with ease,
was petrified of the thought of him, they couldn’t face him. How did one even
go after a rogue mage vampire hybrid? They didn’t. They ran and pretended not
to know he existed.

Maybe the council would destroy the rogue and help them
keep the life they had.

“What time do we go to the council?” Kayla asked.

“Immediately,” her father replied. “We were supposed to
go first thing this morning, but—”

“Wait, what time is it now?”

“Sunfall is nearing,” Garrick said, then clarified.

“Almost evening.” Her father groaned in annoyance that
he was talking to her and she had to wonder what transpired in the last twelve
hours that had her father completely annoyed with Garrick speaking in his presence.

“I’m sorry, what? How long have I been sleeping?”

“12 hours 9 minutes,” Garrick answered again. Her father sulked.

Did he just say twelve hours? As in half-a-day? She’d
barely needed to sleep more than six on a good night, four if she needed to
push herself to study for an exam.

“You should drink more water,” her father encouraged
before cutting his gaze over to Marnie and ground out, “I don’t see why he’s
still here.”

“He is the reason the other vampires haven’t come
tearing down my door looking for you,” she reminded.

Kayla’s gaze shot over to Garrick. “The other vampires?”

“Don’t worry about them. They can’t travel in the sun
anyhow.” Marnie said, but there was something in her tone that left out and
you won’t be staying long. Instead, she grabbed what looked like a pile of folded
clothing from the bottom of her stairs and tossed a batch to Garrick then to
her. “These should fit you two.”

In her hands lay a complete outfit that included underwear.
Before she had the chance to scrunch her face in disgust at the possibility of
wear­ing someone else’s unmentionables, purchase tags dan­gled from them.

“You bought these for us? Thank you.” She unfolded the black
tank top and cutoff jeans.

Then, she looked down at her father. He’d already been
dressed in different clothes than what he’d had on the night before.

“Alright, enough hovering,” Marnie said to the two men. “Breakfast
will be ready for you when you come upstairs. Vampire, you can stay down here,
since my house is full of windows. I don’t have any blood to give so I hope you’ll
be fine without it.”

Garrick nodded. “I have no need of blood at present. But
I do wish to join you upstairs.”

“I don’t draw the shades in my house.”

“As you wish,” Garrick shrugged uncaringly.

“I think what Marnie means to say is that the sun is
out,” Kayla offered when it didn’t seem like Garrick got the hint.

“I am not like the vampires here. I will be fine.”

A sound that was a cross between a snort and a grunt
came from the back of Marnie’s throat as if to say okay, you stupid fool, but
she continued with a shrug, “Breakfast will be on the go. The Council doesn’t
like to be kept waiting.”

Kayla nodded and her father checked for her temperature
again. “Dad, I’m fine. Really.”

She forced his hand away from her face until he rose
from the corner of her bed. “I’ll meet you upstairs.”

“Yeah, sure,” she said, but her mouth had gone slack,
her gaze trained on the vampire behind him.

At that precise moment, Garrick decided to peel his shirt off causing his muscles to ripple and her breath to catch. He was definitely a warrior and built like one too. The vampire had abs for days. Even more mesmerizing was the intricate pattern of tattoos he had racing down his arms.

Unfortunately, her father followed her gaze to the very nude
chest of the vampire warrior behind him. A flush crept up her cheeks that she’d
been caught staring. Foremages, she was acting like a horndog in front of her dad.

“What the hell are you doing?” Her father sputtered.

 “I am switching clothes,”
Garrick said plainly.

Her father moved to block her view, but she leaned to the
side catching a glimpse of him behind her father unable to peel her eyes away.
All this time she thought Brian from ECON 301 was beautiful. Please, he was a
lanky stick bug compared to the ripped god in front of her. Their eyes met and his
fangs drew down.

Another flush went through her.

Her father whipped around and she quickly pretended to study
her fingernails. Her father’s face went blisteringly red, veins appeared in his
forehead as he turned back to the vampire behind her.

“You cannot change in front of her.”

“Is she not used to the sight of flesh?”

The air stilled and for a second, she could see her father
trying to answer that question for himself as he stared her down. She was his only
child and off to college for the first time. She’d never brought a boyfriend
home. Hell, she never even spoke of boys with him. Ever since he’d given her
that disastrous birds and bees speech, she vowed to never discuss that
side of her life with him again. So no, her father didn’t know she’d seen a few
boys in the flesh before even though none of them prepared her for the glory
that was Garrick.

So, she did the only thing that came to her mind. Shook
her head no. Her father turned back to Garrick with a glare.

“It’s common courtesy not to get naked in front of
people. Or does your kind not have any manners?”

Garrick’s nostrils flared and she popped off the bed
before this could get any worse.

“It’s okay. I’ll go upstairs and change.” Her heart
raced when they both looked at her. Redness coated her cheeks and disappeared into
her hairline. This couldn’t have been any more awkward if she’d tried. She didn’t
wait for anyone to respond, she bolted up Marnie’s stairs and into the sitting
room.

“You look like the devil’s after you,” Marnie said when
she entered the kitchen with a chuckle. “Those two have been at each other all
night. The vampire’s taken to you, wouldn’t move from your side all night.”

Really? Before she could ask for Marnie to explain, someone
was coming up the stairs a few rooms away. Her heart thumped hard. “Uh… Do you
have someplace I can change?”

Marnie showed her a two-piece bathroom she squeezed
inside before she had to face the waring pair again. There was just enough elbow
room to slide into her new digs. Surprisingly, everything fit like she’d gone
shopping with Marnie herself to pick them out.

She nearly jumped from her skin when she looked at herself in the mirror. Makeup smeared to death, hair in a jumble all over her head, she looked like a wild woman. Embarrassment flushed her cheeks again. To think, she’d been ogling Garrick looking like she’d just spent the night partying in the jungle. She washed what remained of her makeup off, taking great care to clean up around her eyes where her mascara made her look like a raccoon. Then turned to her hair.

For a preposterous minute, she wondered if fugitives
used combs while they were on the run. She decided on a finger comb and French braid
instead of asking Marnie for one. She’d already been kind enough to them as it
was.

Emerging from the bathroom and into the kitchen, she
felt fresh and a lot less embarrassed to be seen in the world.

“Ready?” she said to a frozen kitchen.

Marnie held a thick iron skillet in her hands, ready to
put fried eggs on a couple of pieces of toast for a breakfast sandwich, but didn’t
move when Garrick strolled into her kitchen.

“What in the hell?” Marnie’s jaw went slack.

Kayla stared at Garrick too. He was basking in the glow
of the sunlight, the afternoon rays bouncing off his face.

“Who allows you to walk in the sun, vampire?” Marnie
asked, looking ready to throw the pan of grease at Garrick.

“I walk on my own.”

“Whose power allows it?” Then her eyes cut to her. “Did
you do this?”

“What, me? No. I don’t even know how. I don’t even have
magic,” the words came rushing again. If she was ever going to get anyone to
believe anything she said, she was going to have to learn how to speak without
sounding guilty.

Marnie turned back the vampire monopolizing a fair bit
of space in her kitchen doorway. “Then, how are you in the sun? Vampires can’t
walk in the daylight.”

“I am not like the vampires here,” he shrugged. “I was born
able to walk in the sun.”

Both Marnie and her father choked.

Marnie gasped. “What do you mean, born?”

“To a mother and father. I’m sure the mechanics are similar
to humans.”

“Say that again?” Marnie’s voice pinched.

“My mother and father coupled and was able to produce me,
therefore I was born. Is that not how mages come to be?”

“But you’re all made,” Marnie pressed, trying to get Garrick to agree to her assumptions about vampires. Kayla glanced between the two of them, then her gaze settled on her father who’d risen a current of magic behind his back.

“Some of my kind can, yes.”

Marnie dropped the skillet on her table, marring the
delicate fabric print with the charred underside.

“How many of you are out there?”

“There is an entire—” Garrick stopped short of finishing,
detecting the climate in the air had changed. Marnie’s red magic raced up her
body and settled into her hands.

“I see that I have stayed on your favor too long,”
Garrick reached for a sandwich from the table and started to leave.

“And you eat?” Marnie asked.

He didn’t answer instead, he said, “May many rising suns
meet you well. I must be leaving.”

Garrick crossed the kitchen in three strides, but a
flash of red spread across the doorway blocking him in. “What are you doing, mage?”

“You’re not going anywhere, vampire. You’re coming with us to the council.”

Marnie’s magic slid from the bottom of the doorway and curled
up Garrick’s legs, binding him in place. A similar sensation, like a boa
constrictor slithering up her legs, coiled tightly around her knees. She looked
down at her sneakers. There was no magic to be found but her legs felt like
they’d been shackled into place alongside his. A knot formed in her throat.

“You will make me your prisoner although I have not
caused you harm.”

Garrick fought against the binds of Marnie’s magic, but
she held onto him firm. She squeezed tighter around him. The pressure of it dug
into her own legs. Her knees buckled. What was happening to her? It was as everything
Marnie did to Garrick also happened to her.

“What are you doing?” she sputtered clutching at her legs.
“Stop,” she looked up at her father. “Make her stop.”

“No, not until we determine whether he’s a threat.”

“Look at him, does he look like he’s threatening anyone?”
Kayla urged, trying to force her limbs free.

“If what he speaks is true, his very existence is a
threat,” Marnie replied and squeezed the magical binds tighter onto Garrick.
She squirmed in pain.

“I have already said, I am not here to cause you harm. I
am only passing through.”

“We’ll see about that. Donovan, take us to the council.”

For a second, they each paused in place as her father’s
magic wrapped around each of them then whisked them away.

Chapter 12 Coming March 23

Author’s Note: This is another dual chapter sort of week! I’m kinda stoked. I’m finalizing it today and it will be posted tomorrow along with the voting!

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