Chapter Four: The New World Gets Old School
I paled. The blood left my face and drained into the floor. I tried not to show the fact that the world had just turned into an even viler place than before on my face. It was as if a harsh light was glaring into my eyes and someone was calling, "Ma'am? Wake up. This is the real world." I looked at Sky. "No. That's impossible. Rowen couldn't be so careless."
"Yeah, well, it's happening," Sky replied to me."And he wasn't careless. He was, well... hungry. So he went out a day ago at about eleven o' clock. Past curfew for minors, you know. Of course, he's, what, eleven hundred and three-"
"Twelve hundred and six. My age-ish." //Oh my God. Could I sound more juvenile if I even tried?//
Sky sighed. "Yeah, sorry. Anyway, he really didn't think about the curfew, and he went up to a sleeping homeless person. And that is when the police cars pulled into the park." I moaned. //Rowen and his morals. Look where they got him...// "He still had blood on his fangs, and apparently human blood is hard to get off?"
"Extremely," I whispered. "It eventually can stain your teeth if you're not careful."
"Right. So he tried to walk away nonchalantly." I chuckled in spite of the situation-that sounded like Rowen. "The cop stopped him and asked him why he was out after curfew-that's when he saw his teeth. Turns out Sheriff What-The-Hell is a hunter. He wasn't wearing his fake teeth or his contacts, so he had fangs and his eyes were that weird maroon shade. Not exactly normal. Blood on his fangs was pretty much fat on the meat. The cop tried to knock Rowen out... luckily Rowen got first punch. The cop stumbled back and Rowen just started running. He was at his house and packing up before the guy got in his BMW. Then his mother called my parents to ask if they'd house-sit and explained the situation."
I groaned. //Damn hunters. First Ireland, now the world! Willing to kill the innocent because they're "tainted". You just couldn't leave this war between you and us. And you say we're impure? How... ironic.//
"Any idea where they could be going?"
I nodded without thinking. "Probably to the Blackwater clan's shelter. God, I wish Rowen's family was in my clan-then I could actually keep in contact with him."
Sky frowned. "You mean you know where he is, but you can't go there?"
Slightly angry, I replied, "Not unless I'm invited. I'm a Bloodletter, remember?"
"Well, it's hard to forget, it is your last name-"
"Precisely." //Well, at least those hunters are dense. My last name practically screams "vampire" and they don't even scope out my house. That is kind of pitiful. What do they do all day, sit their asses on the carpet and try to color in the lines?// "I'm from another clan. Going over to his clan shelter would be intrusion. And then I'd get Maghelda mad at me. That is not really something I want to do as long as I live. She puts the 'pain' in 'painful consequences'."
"Thank God we're loners. We don't have all these complicated relationships to worry about." Sky's face was pale and drawn in worry. I, almost subconsciously, put a hand in my pocket to withdraw my "symbol-on-a-string", as Sky liked to call it. I swung it in the air-playing with it gives me a sense of happiness and distracts me from the world around me. //I could use that right now,// I thought, flicking it with my fingertip. My heart thudded in time with its metallic clicks. I let my cocoa brown bangs-alright, more like a shaggy fringe of hair that had escaped the tyranny of my hair tie-from my face and tried to concentrate. //Alright, I need to get in contact with him. And why? Because he's my best friend. Well, aside from Sky. How am I going to do that without Elder Maghelda killing me? Well, if I knew that I wouldn't be here asking myself stupid questions. Come on, Stel. This is the age of computers the age of the magical box, the age of cell phones, the age of TV dinners! I should be able to fig-
Cell phones. That's it. I'll call Rowen's cell phone. Why the hell didn't I think of that before?//
Sky, who had been watching me wallow in my sorrows on a blue couch, sat straight up. Her keen eyes seemed to detect some glitter of hope in mine. "Stella?"
"Sky, let me use the phone!" Sky raised an eyebrow, but got up, took it from its perch on a wooden table nearbye, and tossed it to me. "Knock yourself out."
I turned it on, then pressed the speaker button. Well, what I thought was the speaker button. A mechanical male voice intoned, "If you would like to make a call-" //Not that one.// I pressed another one. "Zero new messages. Five old-"
Sky sighed and took the phone from me. She pressed a button at the bottom-right corner of the slim wireless phone, and handed it back to me. "I think you wanted speaker."
I bit my lip. //Wow. You can wield a sword, but not a wireless phone. And Mamo's old-fashioned.// "Yeah. Thanks." I dialed Rowen's number, 555-7134, and waited.
On the fifth ring, someone picked up. A nervous male voice answered, "Hello?"
"Rowen!" I exclaimed. That voice, I'd know anywhere-even through static and terrible reception. "That you?"
Relief seemed to seep from the phone like blood from a punctured vein. "Oh! Stella! God, you scared me."
"Hi Rowen."
Pause. "Sky?"
"Yeah, we're on speaker." Sky grinned slightly.
"Rowen, you're okay? And your mom? Your brother?" I had no great love for Rowen's elder brother, who was rather... selectively vile, shall we say. He'd make a great hunter, if it weren't for the small but significant fact that all hunters were hell-bent on destroying him. However, I asked anyway.
"Yes, we're fine-are you two?"
"Yeah," Sky sighed. "Sort of."
"Except for the fact that you almost got killed, támé go maith." ...I'm doing alright. There was a pause on the end of the phone. I frowned. "Rowen?"
There was a muffled sound as if a hand had fallen over the phone. "No.... None of your business. I can talk to them if I want to!... Look-Ian, just back off!... "
The phone clattered. A bass, obnoxious male voice rasped into the phone. "Who is this?"
"Give the phone back to Rowen, Ian," Sky replied coolly. I was rather angered at his insolence. //Who died and made him God? We can call whoever we want, and say whatever we want, as long as they don't have caller ID!//
"I'm not sure my clan would approve of this," Ian replied suavely. I growled angrily.
"Go n-ithe an cat thú is go n-ithe an diabhal an cat!" (May the cat eat you and the cat then be eaten by the devil.)
"Gurab amhlaidh duit," spat Ian. (You, too.) Sky groaned. She was Italian and thus had no idea what we were saying, but by the poisonous expression on my face, I'm sure she got the gist. "Ian, let us talk to Rowen."
"I'm afraid I'll have to ask you not to call my brother again," Ian replied. "If the hunters are tapping into your phone, you could have just caused the downfall of our entire clan."
"You're paranoid," I spat. "Like J. Edgar Hoover! Why the hell would the hunters be tapping into Sky's phone? More importantly, how?" Sky slapped me on the arm. I hissed at her, then glared at the phone like it was my worst enemy. Or George Bush. Same thing. There was a sound of tussling in the background.
"Give him back the phone!" Sky demanded. Her feral eyes glinted angrily, and I winced as her hands tightened into fists.
"Thank you for calling, Sky. Good-bye, Stella."
"Burn in hell!" I spat. Then, from the background: "Rowen-Rowen, don't you dare-"
"Stella Bloodletter, I invite you and your allies to visit the Blackwater haven!" Then, "Ha! What now, bloodless?" "Bloodless" is an insult akin to "b*stard" or... well, you get the idea. I couldn't help laughing. That was typical Rowen: get the best of someone, then rub it in their face. //In a gentlemanly sort of way, of course,// I thought sarcastically to myself. I burst into laughter. Sky looked at me with a "why do I bother with you?" glare. Then, as I gestured helplessly, the lycan began to laugh herself.
"You little-" The connection was abruptly cut off.
However, as I inhaled to recover from my fit of laughter, I stopped and jolted. Then, I sniffed the air. Sky inhaled deeply, and looked at me with wide eyes.
Smoke.
Someone had cut the phone lines. And now, they were trying to burn us out of the house. |
Submission Name: Chapter IV
