Chapter 29
Bayla
Studying was okay, but it became too monotonous if you didn't have a counterbalance.
Larissa hadn’t been in touch, neither had Julie, and Julian was on campus. I was pretty much alone here, and I was starting to need a change. I could read and write all day, but inside I was starting to get restless.
I felt extreme cravings for that sweet smell, like there was a dish somewhere in the house that my mum had baked, and I couldn’t find it. And the worst thing was that Mum smelled the strongest.
I rolled through bed and got up to take the book to the shelf... and immediately I was standing in front of the shelf.
A little stunned, I held on to it and tried to understand where this speed had come from. Had I just flown across the room? Something was wrong with me, and I wasn’t sure if it had something to do with the wolf inside me that wanted out. All I knew was that the herbal teas had helped. But the herbs had run out.
I nervously played with the blue crystal pendant on my necklace.
Actually, I was pretty much screwed. What if I turned here, in this house?
I realized how it started to work inside me at the mere thought, and I looked down at my arms. Black veins.
No, no, no, not now…
However, the rustling of curtains successfully distracted me, as it wasn’t coming from my room. It was coming from next door. The room where Julian and I had closed the window last time.
I was sure, really sure, that Mum was gone. I’d heard her leave. A car had driven away, and she’d told me she had to see Amara again quickly. It was already midnight, but that didn’t matter. The Circle apparently had priority. And this wild smell had finally disappeared with her.
I wondered if she had baked cake for Amara and didn’t want me to eat it. Possible when it came to Mum.
But that still didn’t answer the question of where the noises from next door were coming from.
Wake Talks
Petri Alanko, Alan Wake
A strange rattling noise finally made me leave the room quietly and pause in front of the door to the next room. This time I wouldn’t wait. I yanked the door open.
As expected, it had been the curtains, which I had – strangely enough – heard all the way over to the other room, that were rustling in the wind. The room seemed deserted, empty. No one was here.
Goosebumps spread all over my body. First on my arms, then down my legs.
I quickly ran my fingers along the wall. I tried to switch on the light, but it wouldn’t come on. The light switch seemed to be broken.
At least I could see enough. It seemed as if the nights here had become brighter. Maybe because the endless storm clouds had temporarily disappeared? Strange island…
Alarmed, I walked across the room to the window and leaned out to see if anyone or anything was up to mischief. I had probably already become paranoid. Well, I wouldn’t be surprised.
It was dark outside. The last leaves of the oaks and ash trees were rubbing against each other, making a creepy crackling sound. The wind had picked up.
I quickly closed the window. Then I turned around and… slammed straight into something. Or rather, into someone.
I shrieked, but the person pressed a cold hand over my mouth in time so that no sound escaped.
“Be quiet,” a deep male voice murmured and pulled me away from the window. “And calm down.”
My heart raced.
A man. A tall man.
I had my eyes wide open and tried to hit the person, to struggle free, but his grip was too tight. I had no chance of freeing myself.
“Bayla, please.”
The person knew me…
And I couldn’t say anything until he finally let go of me, causing me to stagger back and crash into the closet. It rumbled loudly, and we both flinched.
“Damn it!” the man exclaimed.
I wanted to say so much, but not a word came out. It was only when the large shadow moved towards me that I managed to pull myself out of my shock.
“Who are you, and what are you doing in my mother’s house? I’m calling the...”
“You’re not going to call the police, believe me.”
The intruder spoke with such confidence, as if it was normal to just break into a stranger’s house in the middle of the night.
And then I realized who was standing in front of me.
“You...” It was one of the men who had been out with the DeLoughrey guys. Bastien.
“Stay away from me...”
I’d only survived one of those bites. And when I thought back to the pain, I definitely didn’t want to feel it again. Even if the pain had been much more intense during the Quatura’s rite of Passage ceremony.
A Ruisangor stood in front of me. A bloodsucker. And there was no reason why he was here except to kill me.
He just laughed dryly and came closer. As always, he was wearing one of those fancy suits. And he was very good-looking, like all the DeLoughreys. Maybe he was in his early thirties. Anyway, he was tall and scared the hell out of me.
“Don’t come any closer,” I warned him in a shaky voice as he took another step toward me. He stopped, and his eyes began to glow. Dark red and dangerous.
“You’re a mystery to me.”
What? Had he seriously just said that?
“You are Diana Adam’s daughter, therefore a Quatura. So how can it be that you survived the bite?”
“What do you mean?” I didn’t even know what to do. My body just stiffened. I had to buy time. “And how do you know my mother? God, why are you even in this room?”
I lost control and, clenching my hands into trembling fists, prepared to defend myself.
“Mr. DeLoughrey, please…”
“Call me Bastien. I hate being called Mr. DeLoughrey by children.”
“Excuse me?”
Had he just called me a child? And besides, how dare he?
He didn’t make a face. He had meant it.
“Fine, then, Bastien,” I began with frustration, “You know that I’m a Quatura, and that your kind and mine are enemies,” I began, as everyone else in this town did.
“You might be wearing one of these crystals,” I instinctively reached for my necklace, which had nothing to do with all the mumbo jumbo in this town. “But you don’t smell like Quatura.” I had forgotten all about that. “Believe me, I know exactly what your kind smells like.”
That sentence wasn’t unsettling at all.
“But the strange thing is that you don’t smell supernatural, or like a human at all, not even like us. Even though you’re one of us now.”
“What?!” I jumped back and crashed into the closet wall, which collapsed further. At least from the inside, because the loud cracking sound followed by a crash was impossible to ignore.
Bastien skillfully ignored it.
“You survived the bite.”
“Because I’m a Quatura. They said I was strong, and...”
I tried, but it was pointless. Bastien knew I wasn’t a Quatura. Which didn’t mean I was a Ruisangor. Did it? No, never... I was a Senseque. Alarik had said so. I had seen it.
Bastien came closer, and I had no room to dodge backward.
“You’re not a Quatura. No matter what they say. They’re lying to you, or they don’t know.” He sounded thoughtful. “Tell me, do you feel that hunger? A sweet smell that follows you everywhere when you’re around people?”
I widened my eyes.
How did he know about that?
“Do you smell it now?” I heard the crack of a cap being twisted open. Then I smelled the scent and began to suck in the air until I couldn’t stand it any longer. “You smell it, and you feel desire, don’t you?” I looked up at Bastien. His eyes were glowing red. “And that’s because you’re hungry.”
Hungry? I’ve been very hungry lately. So hungry that I had even eaten Emely’s cooked meat when I hadn’t been able to find anything better in the fridge.
“Bayla. You are one of us. You’re a Ruisangor.”
I shook my head violently. “No. You’re wrong.”
And suddenly, a small plastic bag filled with dark liquid dangled in front of my nose. That was the point at which I completely lost it, snatched the bag out of Bastien’s hand and brought it to my mouth.
I sucked on the opening and felt the sweet syrup flow down my throat. It was somehow satisfying and intoxicating at the same time, like he was drugging me. The thought was intense, but my craving was greater until I realized the bag was empty, and I stared down at the plastic.
Two letters devastated me. Destroyed my mental stability within a second.
AB.
“Do you believe me now?”
Bewilderment rose up inside me. I had just drunk blood.
I suddenly felt sick, nauseous. My body began to tremble, and then I looked back at Bastien, who finally took the bag from my hand.
“I must be dreaming. None of this makes any sense.” I fumbled for the cupboard behind me and moved further away from Bastien, toward the door. “This is all a dream. Of course…” I laughed nervously. “Because my head is trying to explain the chaos in this town. My mother’s cult, the professor, and then Larissa… I’m going crazy!”
Before I had even reached the door, Bastien blocked my escape route. He wouldn’t let me go until he had what he wanted. He looked like a man who knew what he wanted. And like a Ruisangor with whom it was better not to play games.
“You’re not dreaming. Everything you experience in this town is real.”
Plot twist.
I stared at Bastien. It was all I could do. I tried to process the fact that I had just drunk blood. Then I went into shock. The nausea in my stomach was enormous by now.
“I almost bit my mother…”
My fingers slid to my mouth and I felt for my teeth. Sharp canines grazed my finger and I realized I was cutting myself. I looked at my finger, from which a pearl of blood dripped onto the carpet beneath me.
“That’s why you should come with me.”
“What? No... No, I can’t...” I stared at Bastien, bewildered. “Where to, anyway?”
“To our estate. To Larissa and the others. You belong at the Receptum. I can find out what’s wrong with you there.”
The thought of going to stay with Larissa seemed tempting for a moment, but it was the same thing as with the pack. I didn’t belong there. This was my home. And I didn’t want a Ruisangor experimenting on me.
I was sure there was an explanation for all of this.
“I’m staying here!”
Bastien’s face darkened. “You’re going to kill people.”
“I won’t.”
“You’re awake for twenty-four hours, you’ll get hungry.”
“I’m not awake for twenty-four hours. I slept for eight hours straight last night.”
He stared at me. “That is not possible. Have you been drinking alcohol?”
Confused and still disturbed at the same time, I shook my head.
How could I be a Ruisangor? Bastien was wrong. Even the sweet aftertaste on my tongue had disappeared, and what remained was the nausea.
When I finally got out of this town, I would need a therapist.
“My mother is alive. I can’t be one of you,” I thought out loud. “And a Quatura can’t be turned... I know that.”
He stared at me intently. “Whoever your father is, your mother survived it, and even though I’m dying to know how she did it, I’ve already risked enough by coming here.”
His own fault. No one had invited him. I wouldn’t say that out loud, of course, because I still wanted to live a little longer. Even if that should preferably happen far away from Blairville.
“Either you come with me, and we’ll train you, or I’ll be forced to kill you.”
“What?!”
“You’re endangering the existence of our clan.”
“No, I don’t, I promise... I didn’t even know until now.”
“You know nothing about yourself. You need training.”
“Train me,” I slipped out far too quickly. “Please. Anything, but don’t separate me from my mother. She’s all the family I have.”
“You’re dangerous.” Impatience mingled with his words. And out of my growing anxiety, I got a rare smart thought.
“What do you think will happen if you take me with you, just like that, or even better, kill me? The Quatura are just looking for a reason to start a war against your family and drive you out of their city.”
His eyebrows furrowed.
I seemed to have said something he didn’t like. Maybe I was just saving my life.
“Train me, on campus, wherever, but not there at any cost. I’m staying here.” Bastien seemed to consider my words. “And I promise, in return, that no one will find out about this.”
Of course, I wasn’t in a position to make demands. Not at all. He was a full-grown man, a Ruisangor on top of that. All it would take was one move from him and I would be dead.
My heart was still pounding.
“You’re making a lot of demands.”
I bit my tongue.
He stared at me in silence. Not aggressively, no, even worse. You couldn’t read any emotion from his face. Nothing. Just as well as he could kill me right now, he would surely be able to smile and invite me to have some tea. But Ruisangors certainly didn’t do that.
And I was an idiot trying to negotiate with a Ruisangor. The very idea was absurd.
You have a death wish, Bayla.
“I’ll expect you on campus the day after tomorrow in the last courtyard of the East Wing. Ten o’clock in the evening and not a minute later.”
Relief spread through me and I nodded, unsettled, because I had just saved my life. Bastien DeLoughrey could have killed me...
I heard a car come to a halt in front of the house. It had to be Mum.
“Drink this if the smell gets too strong. If anything, that isn’t of human or animal nature and can only be traced back to you, is happening in this town, you’ll be dead before you can blink.”
And then he simply disappeared through the open window. Just as I had found it.
Five minutes later, I was hanging over the toilet seat, vomiting the blood I had drunk. And it was another ten minutes before I was able to flush.
I washed my mouth and brushed my teeth for at least another ten minutes while my nausea disappeared. And all that remained was a stinging sensation between my breasts.