Chapter 15
Julie
She Knows
Christopher Tyng
He had just taken her with him. Was I the only person who thought that was more than just weird? Strange creatures, these Senseque…
Maybe I was just trying to distract myself from the things I’d witnessed in my crazy molecular biology professor’s office this morning.
After I’d seen his black eyes, he’d closed them again, grabbed the back of his chair as if to hold on to something, and when he’d opened them again, the blackness had shifted slightly, letting the peridot-green return. What had remained were the veins on his neck.
With a pounding heart, I had watched him put his shirt and vest back on, gather his things and finally leave his office in human form.
For ten minutes, I had stayed in the closet, trying to process what I’d seen, but my overloaded mind had yet to find an explanation for what had happened there.
I knew that I could only find answers in that room.
But I had just wanted to get out of there. And so, I had left the office, determined to return as soon as I had sorted out my thoughts.
After I’d left the office, my body had started to go crazy, controlled by this strange magic, and before I could suffer another panic attack, I’d used the Salma that Gloria had given me yesterday. It had dulled my emotions, but the memory of Professor Tiberius’ black eyes burned into my mind like a mark.
“Let’s go before we get ourselves into unnecessary trouble,” Amber said, pulling the frozen and white-faced Vivienna with her.
I looked ahead to where Larissa was standing among the Ruisangors, her expression full of confusion. It must have been a harsh shock to find out that you had suddenly become something completely different. The transformation alone must have been painful. Even though I couldn’t imagine anything being more painful than being stuck in my body. Either uncontrollably emotional or empty, like now.
“We should go,” the one with the short black hair grumbled, wearing an expression of steel as always. Adrian.
“In a minute.”
“No, Larissa, you’re coming with us,” he replied, slightly annoyed. “Now.”
Larissa stared at him hostilely. “I won’t let you tell me what to do!”
They didn’t seem to like each other very much.
“Larissa.”
The moment this Miles interfered, she reacted angrily.
“And not from you either!”
“We can’t leave you alone,” Miles continued calmly.
Why couldn’t they leave her alone? She was an adult and didn’t belong to them. But did I actually know much about her? Not really. I realized that the Circle was doing an excellent job of sealing us off from the outside world and the other species as best as they could.
“A few minutes and I’ll be with you!”
You could tell Larissa was making an effort, but she was just bubbling over with anger.
Adrian and Miles exchanged indistinct glances, but then nodded and gave me and Grace one last warning look before turning and strutting off with David.
My inner tension rose, especially after the realization that they might have something to do with the recent events. I thought not only of the sudden appearance of the high-ranking councilor, but also of the death of Ezra Campbell. An animal attack. How creative. Wild animals lived in the woods of Blairville, but they didn’t just come into town to tear people apart.
Last night, I’d overheard Amara on the phone with the police chief, Graham Bardot. Julian’s father and she had made a deal that if anything supernatural happened, he would contact her immediately before it could get to Gloria. Because Gloria was a box of dynamite, and a supernatural death was reason enough for her to start a war.
“You have to help me. I’m in trouble. I have no idea what you know or why you know it, but nothing makes sense right now anyway.”
I looked into Larissa’s widened eyes. She had lowered her voice.
And there she was again. The Larissa I’d sat with at a fucking bar last time. Me... at a club bar. This girl had been able to persuade me to do so much that I would never have dared to do on my own. And now she was a Ruisangor.
“Larissa, we’re not even supposed to talk to you,” Grace began cautiously.
“What? Why? I thought we were friends.”
“You’re one of them now,” my cousin continued. “Sorry.”
The words seemed to hit Larissa. Her eyes radiated pure bewilderment.
“Do you think I chose this?”
Grace sighed. “No, but we can’t help you anymore.”
I could tell my cousin was getting impatient because she was playing with her elbow and looking around the whole time.
I knew that the other Quatura were watching us. They were all sitting under the huge white gazebo, where Vivienna and her two bitchy pets had disappeared to.
“Guys, believe it or not, they’re keeping me prisoner in their fairytale castle while pretending I’m a blood-sucking beast.” She spoke so quietly you’d think someone was eavesdropping. “I’m a prisoner, and you’re the only ones who can help me. Who else?”
She came closer and Grace took a step back. Probably I should be scared of her too, but my fear was just as absent as any other emotion right now, thanks to the Salma, so Grace pulled me back a little indignantly.
“What’s wrong with you?” Larissa looked confused at Grace’s grip, from which I quickly freed myself.
Grace continued to stare at Larissa as if she could kill us at any moment.
“You don’t understand. If anyone here sees us together any longer, it could have serious consequences for us.”
“Why? What is wrong with you guys?”
“The DeLoughreys and our family are...” Grace’s excuses were getting on my nerves, which was why I interrupted Grace unbidden.
“What Grace is saying is that our species are in conflict with each other.”
“Species?”
Larissa stared back and forth between the two of us.
“We should go now,” I began, trying to get Grace out of here.
“No, Julie...” Larissa grabbed my arm and I instantly felt her coldness.
I looked up, straight into her eyes, and all I could see was despair. To me, she was still Larissa, the best friend of Bayla Adams, who was a little crazy, liked to talk about motorcycles and had wanted to help me find Erik.
I swallowed.
The thought of Erik was the most painful. I repressed it again and again.
Now, I still had mixed feelings about Larissa. I didn’t know what to do, I was powerless, as so often.
Before I could say anything, Grace pulled me back again.
“We can’t help you.”
“But...” Larissa tried to protest, but Grace wouldn’t let her finish.
“And above all, we can’t be friends anymore.”
I realized how this sentence gave Larissa the hardest slap. She stared at Grace in bewilderment, then at me.
I was indeed a bad friend, would never be one of the good ones. It was already hard for me to be there for Grace.
Then my cousin pulled me away, further and further across the campus, until we disappeared around a corner into a corridor and suddenly, we both found ourselves in front of an open Gothic arched window that looked out onto one of the university’s countless courtyards. The corridor was deserted.
Grace didn’t look at me. She inhaled deeply before expelling the air in a gush.
“God, what was that?” Grace laughed with irony, and I had problems interpreting it. “I’ve never spoken to a Ruisangor before. If I’d known she had the gene...”
“You’re exaggerating,” I said dryly, hating myself for the tone. That also came from the Salma. At least I wasn’t shaking like I had been since leaving Moenia.
“What?” Grace looked at me with widened eyes.
“I said you’re overdoing it. She’s still Larissa. We should be glad she survived it.”
“Every Ruisangor is one too many,” she began in a firm voice. “But you don’t care about the Circle anyway, do you? I mean, why else would you hide your powers from your family and blow up your own cousin’s first ceremony?”
Ouch.
“Family...” I laughed, surprised at the confidence in my voice. Maybe I should take a double dose more often. It didn’t seem to do any harm.
If she’d told me that this morning, I probably would have cried, because everything inside me was still in shattered pieces of sharp shards, and every day they dug deeper into me.
“We are your family, Julie. Us and not the Westcodes!”
Grace’s voice was louder now.
I bit my tongue.
Simply that she assumed these people could ever qualify as family to me showed me how well she really knew me. And then a far more uncomfortable question popped into my head. Had Grace ever made me feel like she was family? Did I even know what that felt like, having someone that cared?
“What you did there was so typical of you. If there’s one way to make my day harder, you grab that opportunity.”
I looked at her, stunned. “That’s not true.”
“And how true it is!” There was a green sparkle in her usually brown eyes. She was emotional. Added to that was the rising fall wind sweeping through her corkscrew curls. “One could almost think you were her daughter! Anyway, now it makes sense why you’re so cold sometimes!”
I winced.
This time it had really hit home.
She was comparing me to her. To Gloria Westcode.
“How long have we known each other by now? I can hardly believe we grew up together.” She snorted and turned away from me. Tensely, she leaned on the stone ledge of the window and stared at the statue of an unknown goddess in the courtyard, holding up a scepter. “I’m beginning to feel like I don’t even know my own cousin.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. Grace’s words had hit the mark.
Thunder rumbled in the distance. A storm seemed to be brewing. The sky darkened, and a shadow fell over Grace’s face. It was as if we had made the gods angry. I had made the gods angry.
“I’m waiting for the day you open up to me and the Circle completely,” were Grace’s last words before she shouldered the leather backpack, pulled her dark brown cardigan tighter around her waist, and turned away from me with a disappointed look, hastily disappearing back through the stone entrance toward the campus lawn.
I stared into the courtyard, but then looked to the side as a black raven hopped through the corridor heading in my direction, as if it didn’t know how dangerous I could be to the creatures around me.
It stopped just before me, looked up at me with its head tilted as if it was reconsidering its proximity to me, but hopped even closer and began to peck at my gray leather boot.
I backed away, but the animal followed me. I didn’t want to step on him, so I turned around and disappeared through the corridor, knowing that I would never be able to fully open up to the Circle.
His tail wagging, the little golden puppy pranced toward me as I pulled the door shut behind me with a sigh. I had brought him here this morning and hoped he wouldn’t make a mess. I had hoped wrong.
Shaking my head, I looked at the torn cushion on the floor in front of me. The dog sat on his back paws and tilted his head to the side before plopping to the ground, landing in a pile of polyester and feathers that swirled up immediately.
“Your mutt made a big mess.”
My head snapped up, and I spotted Emely sitting on the countertop next to the stove, where something seemed to be cooking. She herself was sitting there, lowering a fat law tome, looking with raised brows at the puppy running toward her so that she had to pull her legs up to avoid him.
“And he’s annoyingly clingy.”
I had to smile slightly as the little one propped his paws on the cupboard to sniff Emely’s suede boots. A sign that the effects of the Salma were wearing off.
I went to Buddy, picked him up, and his warm little body wriggled. Something inside me tightened. The feeling of holding something so tender and vulnerable in my hands...
When I straightened up, I stood directly in front of Emely, who eyed me suspiciously. Her indigenous features fascinated me as always, because she looked so different from her brother. The two of them were almost nothing alike, except that they both shared that suspicious look.
Her eyes began to glow yellow, which made me flinch.
I kept forgetting that we weren’t on the same side.
“There doesn’t seem to be any peace from you guys in this place.” With these words, she slipped off the worktop and walked around the kitchen island behind me.
I didn’t move. Instead, I looked at the stove. My heart stopped when I saw the blood-red water boiling in the large pot. A huge meaty chunk was floating in it... and then the smell hit my nose.
My stomach did a flip.
“And I actually thought you and your cousin were inseparable.”
My gaze remained fixed on the pot and its contents. I felt sick to my stomach. Emely’s words reached my ears from the background. And her presence suddenly sent an unpleasant tingling sensation over my skin.
“I forgot... You’re’ the one who never talks.”
The dog began to whine and fidget back and forth in my arms, but I couldn’t break out of my stupor.
Whatever Emely was cooking had been alive... and not that long ago.
It smelled awful and the urge to retch came faster than expected. Everything inside me fought against the image before my eyes, and then I couldn’t hold it back any longer.
I hastily put the dog down and sprinted up the stairs to the bathroom. Just in time, I was hanging over the toilet, and then it was already too late.
I threw up.
Vomiting, I bent down even lower because it wouldn’t stop and the image of the bleeding flesh wouldn’t go away from my mind.
When I had finished, I breathed hastily.
I realized that I had probably also regurgitated some of the Salma. Great. That was all I had needed. I didn’t have that many doses left.
I got up and went to the sink, where I washed my mouth. In front of my reflection, I paused. I was used to seeing this pale skin with its cool undertone. My ash-blonde, almost white straight hair had grown so long over the years that I had to wear it up so that it didn’t blow around my nose at this time of year and block my bright aventurine-colored, almost ice-blue eyes. God, I looked fragile, almost elfish.
As I stepped out of the bathroom and hurried down the stairs to deal with the mess Buddy had left behind, two bewildered faces met me.
One was Emely, leaning against the stove with her arms crossed, and her eyebrows raised, looking at me like I was her worst nightmare, and then there was Bayla Adams, watching Emely like she was her worst nightmare.
“What the hell was that, if you don’t mind me asking?” Emely asked.
I could feel the warmth in my cheeks. Another sign that the serum was no longer having an effect.
“What happened?” Bayla asked without taking her eyes off Emely. She was standing in the open doorway and closed it as Buddy tried to scamper past her outside.
“Your little witch friend just threw up when she saw my food.”
“Oh, what is it?” Bayla asked, “It smells so good in here.”
I widened my eyes at her words.
How could she like that disgusting smell?
“Doe heart.”
Bayla paused instantly, and I looked at Emely as if she had lost her mind. But she didn’t correct herself. Then she grinned mischievously and turned back to her food.
“Quatura…” She continued to laugh with a mocking undertone. “Sissies.”
Bayla and I both looked at each other, completely aghast.