Ever Dark Academy, Vol. 1

17. Measly Human

MEASLY HUMAN

G rayson looked down at the hand around his wrist. Two things seemed to happen at once. His stomach curdled in that familiar way when a more powerful person wanted to control him or hurt him. But there was also that spurt of adrenaline, a feeling of almost excitement, at getting to use his powers and attack. But could he attack here? This was Ryder’s Master after all.

Ryder…

A glance at the Weryn Vampires showed that they had already rounded the fountain, continuing on with the show. Ryder had no idea that Lawson was doing this.

Clever, sneaky bastard.

But he wasn’t alone here even without Ryder. He was surrounded by people, including his roommates. Eiji’s gaze cut down to Lawson’s grip on Grayson’s wrist and the old man sidled away, disappearing into the crowd, taking Mairead with him. Grayson felt a wave of despair as they left him to face Lawson alone. But then he stuffed that feeling down and straightened up.

So I’m alone. Always alone. So much for belonging. But it doesn’t matter. I can take care of myself.

He slowly lifted his eyes to Lawson’s, hiding everything he felt. He kept his gaze cool and neutral.

“I’m going to watch the parade,” Grayson said and turned his head back towards the road though he was keenly aware of Lawson’s hold on his tightening.

“Are you a child that wishes to see a parade?” Lawson mocked.

“If you want to talk to me, you do it here,” Grayson stated firmly.

He had a mental hand on his powers. He wondered if he would have to use them. And if he did what would happen? He drew in a breath and waited.

“You want to be a Vampire?” Lawson’s voice was soft, but Grayson’s alertness was so high that he could hear him clearly despite the roar of the crowd.

“I’m a student at the academy, aren’t I?” Grayson asked, not lying exactly but letting Lawson draw his own conclusions. Evidently, Ryder hadn’t thought to take Lawson into their secrets so he wasn’t going to either.

“If that’s what you want then being around Ryder is not in your best interests,” Lawson said.

Now let me introduce the Helm Bloodline! Balthazar’s voice boomed in Grayson’s mind.

But the street remained empty or so it seemed. People leaned out from the sides of the road to see the Vampires who must have missed their cue.

Helm? Helm? Are you there? Or are you… invisible! Balthazar laughed.

The crowd gasped as a line of Vampires suddenly appeared directly in front of them out of nothing. They wore pale gray pants with nearly sheer tops, even the men. They flipped back effortlessly from the crowd, disappearing in mid flip, before reappearing back down on the ground, arms outstretched.

They take the meaning of the phrase ‘now you see them, now you don’t’ to a whole new level! Balthazar enthused. And you never do know where they are. Think you’re alone? Think you’re confessing your secrets to the moon and the stars? Better check every inch of your room, because it might not be true.

Suddenly, the Helm Vampires disappeared again. Grayson felt someone tap his shoulder. He turned to see a blonde-haired Helm Vampire appear in an instant, wink at him, and then disappear again.

The Helm used to have it easy when we snuck into people’s rooms to catch a bite to eat, Balthazar said. There were teasing “boos” at his bad joke. What?! It’s true!

Throughout this display, Grayson felt Lawson’s eyes on him. He could feel his breath against his throat. There was the faint reek of whisky and blood. Definitely blood. He’d smelled it enough that night to recognize it now. A chill ran down his spine. What did this conversation look like to others? Eiji had sensed danger and flown. But what about the others? Were they even looking? He didn’t see Seeyr. Didn’t she see the future? Or maybe not everything. And maybe not things she considered important like his fate.

Balthazar was floating above the fountain, doing his commentary thing. He wondered vaguely how he was doing that. But the Eyros Vampire had his hands full, too full to notice what was happening with Grayson. And if Daemon--the literal Vampire King--gave a damn about what Lawson was doing, he wasn’t apparently there. Not yet.

“I know that Weryn isn’t taking fledglings this year,” Grayson finally said.

Was that what the Vampire was worried about? That Grayson thought he could get Ryder to turn him?

Lawson shook his arm sharply. “Or any year!”

Yeah, that was it. The desperation lacing Lawson’s voice was clear. He feared that Ryder would decide to break “tradition” and take a fledgling from this class of the academy. That wasn’t what was going on between him and Ryder. But it looked that way to everyone not in the know. It clearly looked that way to Lawson. He considered telling him that it wasn’t what he thought.

But then Lawson spoke again, “We won’t be taking the leavings of any Eyros or Kaly or Seeyr.”

“Right,” Grayson answered neutrally even as he thought the diss on these other Bloodlines sounded ignorant to the extreme, especially considering his experience with some of them.

Balthazar was introducing another Bloodline. This time it was the Mirryr Bloodline. Even if Grayson hadn’t known what their power was, he would have now. For every single one of the dozen Vampires looked exactly the same. They were a beautiful Indian woman in dark role colored pants and a cropped shirt edged with gold and flowers. A pink cloth covered their dark hair and blew in the wind. A golden ornament was looped around head and hung from her hair.

She--they--were beautiful, graceful, bewitching. And they moved as one . They danced down the street, hands making intricate patterns in their air, hips gliding right and left and right again, and feet hardly touching the ground.

They spread out and, like the Helm, faced individuals in the crowd. One faced a woman to Grayson’s right. She let out a gasp of shock and delight, one hand lifting to her lips, as the Mirryr Vampire looked just like her . The Mirryr Vampire mimicked her movements.

“How are you doing that?” the student asked.

“How are you doing that?” the Mirryr Vampire repeated perfectly in the same tone and pitch.

“Oh, my God!” the student laughed.

The Mirryr Vampire did the same, but this time there was less of a delay between the subject and the clone. The student shook her head in amazement. This time there was no delay with the Mirryr Vampire not just looking like the student and sounding like her, but anticipating what she would do and say. The student’s eyes widened, as did the Mirryr’s. It was eerie and cool at the same time.

But it wasn’t enough to distract Lawson from his task.

“You act like you don’t believe me. But I’m in charge of the Weryn. I make the rules,” Lawson told him.

Yet you waited to scuttle over here when Ryder was distracted. Yeah, sure you’re in charge, Grayson thought with disdain.

“Okay.” Grayson shrugged.

“So sniffing around Ryder isn’t going to get you what you want,” Lawson told him.

“So you say.”

“I command and Ryder obeys!” Lawson snarled.

And that is the biggest lie you’ve said tonight.

“Then why are you here? Talking to me?” Grayson asked.

Lawson reached up and grasped Grayson’s chin, turning it towards him. The urge to slug the man was strong, but Grayson held his temper. Lawson wasn’t an ugly man. He had a raw, sort of animal magnetism that Grayson bet some loved. There was a sense of wildness about him, but it was the wildness of something not quite right about him. It was violence. Unreasoning violence just simmering beneath the surface.

“Because you have a pretty face and wounded eyes,” Lawson said softly. “And Ryder turns into a knight-in-shining-armor for people like you.”

“But you’re in charge. You’re in command of the Weryn,” Grayson said quietly.

“That’s right.” That smile on Lawson’s lips dimmed.

“So what you’re telling me is that your control, your command, can be broken by a pretty face and wounded eyes?” Grayson challenged, not liking that description of himself at all. He wasn’t some meek flower. He wasn’t a fragile stem.

That smile widened, showing teeth that looked abnormally sharp. They were accentuated by the flash of multi-colored lightning above them and the boom of thunder. The ground shook. People nearly lost their footing. There was more lightning. More thunder. The lights that lined that road dimmed and then winked out so only the lightning lit the night.

Everyone, can you smell the ozone in the air? Can you feel the very earth beneath you shaking? Now that is the power of nature focused and harnessed and made pure! Balthazar announced as the darkness descended once more.

He saw flashes of Lawson’s face as the lightning erupted and dimmed. The bones seemed to be shifting underneath the skin, turning Lawson into someone, not something, else. But the next flash showed them back in place.

This is the power of the Horys Bloodline! They rival the Thunder God of old! Hell, maybe Thor was a Horys! Balthazar laughed.

And in that moment a ball of lightning appeared in the hand of a native American man, one of the indigenous people of North America. He had long dark hair and chiseled features. A strong jaw and a powerful nose. The lightning showed he wore a dark purple shirt that was open to the top of his black tight pants. There were leather chords around his wrists and a pendant hung against his heavily muscled chest.

He raised that lightning filled hand to the sky and a bolt of brilliant light streamed up to the clouds. There was a massive crackle and thrum! Lightning then came down from the sky towards them. The hair on the back of Grayson’s neck stood on end, but not from Lawson. The lightning was caught by dozens of Horys Vampire hands. People yelled in excitement, but that was almost drawn out by the boom of thunder.

Wind rushed among them all and the scent of rain was heavy in the air. People turned their faces up towards the sky as a few cool drops came down and dotted their skin. Then the Horys Vampires were moving, sending lighting up and then catching it every few feet. But Grayson was focused on Lawson despite the show.

“I don’t want people getting the wrong idea. Ryder is loyal to me . He knows our ways. No one--no king or measly human --is going to change that.” Lawson patted Grayson’s cheek. “Just so we’re clear.”

“We’re clear.”

“Good.”

Grayson should have let it go. If he acted cowed now, Lawson would likely give him another smirk and walk away. Point made. And there would be another person in the world who just believed he was a weak boy that they could threaten with no consequences. The fact that Lawson was a Vampire gave him more of an edge than the others Grayson had disavowed of that belief, but he was still a bully, looking to punch down, exert his authority.

And Grayson was sick of Vampires pushing him around.

“What about what Ryder wants?” Grayson challenged.

There was another clap of thunder. So loud that it was deafening and he wasn’t sure if Lawson had heard him except the hand on his wrist, which had been loosening, now it curled tight again. “You think he wants you ?”

The voice held a lilt of laughter as if such a thought was ridiculous!

Grayson slowly smiled. “Actually, you think he does. All this talk of control and command and loyalty. Nobody who really believes they’re in charge says that kind of stuff. Not to some measly human. No matter how pretty or wounded their eyes may be.”

Lawson scowled as lightning cut the sky in two. “You’re walking a dangerous line here, Grayson.”

“Am I?”

Lawson was a little taller than him. Not much. An inch or so. Not Ryder’s mammoth height. He was broader, too. Not as big as Demos. But he was a big man. And someone as lithe, though muscular, as Grayson shouldn’t have really been that big of a threat to him. And, again, being a Vampire made him arrogant. That was just fine. Grayson didn’t mind that.

“You waited until Ryder was out of sight to come to me. You’re acting friendly in case anyone glances our way. You aren’t so sure of yourself even with this measly human,” Grayson pointed out.

“You think you’re special because some Eyros idiot chose your application?” Lawson asked, eyes glowing.

There were veins on the sides of his nose that were darker than the others and reddened his skin, ruddying it in a way. He really did look like he was an alcoholic, but Grayson was pretty sure that Vampires couldn’t be.

“You’re afraid that Ryder thinks I’m special,” Grayson pushed. “You’re afraid that he is slipping the leash that you have on him. But if there ever was a leash, it’s not there anymore. You’re not in charge. You’re not in control. You’re about to lose everything and you know it.”

Lawson moved as fast as the lightning. One of his burly hands fastened onto Grayson’s throat. The other squeezed his wrist until the bones rubbed together. The pain though was good . It focused Grayson. Anger always made the power come. And the match was lit and the fire was burning bright.

“You little shit ! You think you can speak to me--what? What the Hell?” Lawson’s voice went from a snarl to a wail.

Lawson’s eyes went huge. The lightning and thunder was keeping everyone’s attention. They didn’t see Lawson’s hands moving of their own accord off of him, releasing him. Grayson strove not to show his relief to have his throat and hand free.

Let’s see how he likes it, Grayson thought.

He forced Lawson’s hands around his own throat and made them squeeze . He’d never used someone’s own body against them before. But a hand was like a rock. An arm was like a board. He had a feeling that if he really tried, he could use the air alone to do this. It was a ticklish thought at the back of his mind or the tip of his tongue. He could almost know how to do it. Almost remember…

“What--what are you?” Lawson’s eyes were bugged out of his head.

You may wonder how I, Eyros, can be floating here in space. Is there some power I haven’t told you the Eyros have? Balthazar joked, but Grayson thought his eyes cut to them though the street lamps were only slowly coming back on. But no! This is the power of telekinesis. This is the power of the Ashyr Bloodline!

“What the fuck are you?” Lawson gasped out, his face purpling.

And that was when the lights came back on and Grayson saw an Ashyr Vampire dressed in deep green, holding one hand up towards Balthazar, keeping the Eyros Vampire in the air, floating, but her gaze was on him . She saw what he was doing.

She knew what he was doing.

She stared at him, but then her view was cut off as more Ashyr Vampires emerged from the crowd and blocked him from her. They levitated themselves, each other, sent objects spinning through the air, made the water leave the fountain and form water balloons--without the balloons--that they playfully splashed the crowd with. That was all he saw as he brought them into the trees.

“What--what are you?” Lawson asked for the third time.

“Someone you shouldn’t have messed with,” Mairead laughed.

Her voice came from behind him… as did the growl of a bear.

Ryder!

And then a panther appeared at Grayson’s side, teeth bared at Lawson.

Demos!

“I’m sorry it took so long for us to return, Grayson,” Eiji said softly. “It looked like help beyond what we could offer was needed.”

“You didn’t just leave,” Grayson said, not intending to say the words.

Mairead snorted. “No, silly! We wouldn’t leave you with that bully! I wanted to punch his lights out but Eiji said--”

“That it was best to have other people with certain skills handle it,” Eiji finished for her. “Humans are not very good against Vampires.”

“I don’t know about that. Grayson seems to have things in hand,” Mairead said with a frown clouding her face.

Grayson closed his eyes and felt a welling of pain and joy and hope. Had Seeyr been right? Had he found a place to belong? That was such a foolish thought. Yet he had it.

The bear--Ryder--lumbered around his side and roared at Lawson. His big body rested against Grayson’s side protectively. People shot around, all turning to look. Grayson released his hold on Lawson. The Weryn Vampire coughed and touched his throat but then drew down his hands as if they burned his skin. He was likely afraid that Grayson would cause them to strangle him again.

How many people saw that other than the Ashyr Vampire? Or more like, how many people saw and understood what I was doing?

Yet he didn’t regret it.

Not one damned bit.

Lawson’s gaze though was not on him, but flickering between Ryder and Demos in their animal forms. The panther growled. The bear started to get up on his hind legs making him stand over eight feet tall and almost as wide.

Lawson’s nostrils flared. His skin was the color of day-old cream. Those prominent veins looked like track marks in his skin. He breathed heavily. Betrayal was stamped across his features.

They didn’t betray you, you bastard. You betrayed them, Grayson thought.

Yes, he did, a voice said, dark and deep and somehow familiar. And you did well.

Grayson’s head shot towards the trees behind them. That was where the mind voice had come from, not from the opposite direction where Balthazar still hung in the air like some huge ornament. For a moment, Grayson thought he saw two glowing red eyes disappear from sight, but he wasn’t sure if they were real.

Is everything all right over there? It was Balthazar’s voice this time.

Grayson looked back. He met the Eyros Vampire’s eyes.

You knew what he was doing, Grayson realized.

Of course, Balthazar answered, narrowing the thought just to him, he understood.

And you were… watching?

We didn’t leave you, Grayson, Balthazar said gently. You’re not alone.

Grayson blinked. Suddenly, hot tears filled his eyes. He could not cry in front of everyone. This was ridiculous! He was fine on his own! He didn’t need anyone!

It’s not about need. It’s something deeper than that, Balthazar said. Now… shall we go on? Or…

Grayson jerked his head up. You’re letting me decide if the parade goes on?

The crowd was shifting uncomfortably. People were murmuring to each other. They were also looking over at him and the strange tableau they must have made. He looked up at the bear who was gazing down at him. If this went badly it would reflect on the Weryn. It was in his hands to decide. Lawson had struck first. He lightly brushed his fingers through fur that was terribly soft.

Don’t stop the show, Grayson said. Don’t stop it for Lawson. He’s not that important.

Balthazar grinned and flung his arms wide. And see what having a Weryn friend or two can do for you! I wonder if they’ll all let us pet them!

The crowd started laughing, unsure what was happening, but suddenly--inexplicably--losing interest in them.

The Eyros power at work, Grayson realized.

But of course! Balthazar laughed.

A lioness stalked over to them. Her eyes were shadowed. She was looking at Lawson as if he had broken her heart. Lawson’s jaw worked as if he might spit out some words, but he didn’t. He turned on his heel and stalked away. The lioness gave Ryder and Demos a final look before loping off after him.

It was only then that Ryder and Demos shifted out of their animal forms and into their Vampire ones. Ryder gently cupped Grayson’s jaw, turning his head right and left at the bruises that Lawson must have made. He gently caught Grayson’s injured hand too.

“You’re not all right,” Ryder’s voice sounded thick with pain.

“I’m fine,” Grayson said, and tried to put meaning into those words.

“I wasn’t here,” Ryder whispered. “I wasn’t here and he--”

“Doesn’t matter. He’ll be gone tomorrow and I’m fine,” Grayson repeated. He had, after all, allowed the painful grip to last as long as it had to fuel his fire, which was now surprisingly banked but ready to burst to life if he needed it.

“He’s leaving tomorrow,” Demos said with a silent snarl as if still in his sleek panther form.

“He’s leaving tonight ,” Ryder growled.

“No,” Grayson said and held onto Ryder’s hands. “Don’t run after him. Don’t ruin this night because of him. He’s not worth it.”

“He hurt you and--”

“He hurt himself . You’ve got to believe me that I really am fine,” Grayson said, even as his throat was sore.

“You don’t want to be alone. No, you shouldn’t be. I can’t leave you again while he’s still here,” Ryder said, misunderstanding Grayson’s desire for him to stay as a desire to be kept safe.

Grayson let out a breath. If it kept Ryder here and Demos out of trouble for a while that was good. They needed cooler heads when they dealt with Lawson. He urged the two of them to join Eiji and Mairead, who were desperately pretending not to listen to every word, but they had earned that. They hadn’t really left. And, more importantly, they’d come back.

“Let’s watch the rest of this parade,” Grayson said. “It’s already been quite a show.”