Chapter Three

For the next few hours, I was the main attraction and entertainer. I went through all of my favorite looks, brunettes and blondes and redheads, the entire spectrum of the rainbow, relearning social skills that I’d forgotten over the years fairly quickly. Within half an hour I was back to my normal, pre-Crusader self.

The amazing part of this was, Gabriel. Just himself. He made me laugh by doing the most stupid things, things that had any other person attempted, the outcome wouldn’t have been nearly as brilliant. It was astounding in itself that he could make me smile so easily. He was just the kind of person who could walk into a room and draw every eye to him immediately. He must have been quite the charmer as a teenager, probably left a string of broken hearts behind him; and I couldn’t entirely blame him. I could easily imagine falling for this guy. The thought danced in the back of my mind as we talked, demanding my attention, and it took a lot of effort to subdue it.

Enough that it even slipped my mind there were deadly people hunting us down, monsters who wouldn’t hesitate to kill us, who would cackle maniacally over our burning bodies, dance in our ashes. And no, I wasn’t making it up, not exaggerating one detail. I’d seen them do it before. I’d witnessed Crusaders dragging newly changed children to an empty field, crucifying them and then setting them alight.

The worst part was, they did this in the middle of the night, so it didn’t kill them. The only thing guaranteed to kill my kind was direct sunlight. Those children were tortured, screaming and wailing for mercy as their flesh melted from muscle, and muscle from bone. And every time the fires died down, more torches and lighter fluid was thrown at them. I couldn’t help any of them, or I would suffer the same fate- there had to be at least fifty Crusaders in that field, and only four children. Protect my life…At all costs. So I watched from the shadows, hidden in the forest, silently sobbing my heart out. Every cry etched itself into my heart, and then, when the cries stopped, and dawn had rose, those bastards danced on their ashes.

All in the name of God.

By now, it was about noon, and though I’d only been awake for about five hours, it felt like fifty. Most likely because I had little blood in my system and I’d been talking with Gabriel almost nonstop. And I didn’t want to stop, though my body tried to tell me a different story. Floods of fatigue were attacking my head, and he noticed, much to my disappointment.

“Why don’t you get some rest, Velina,” He said softly. “I’ll keep watch.” I sighed in agreement, morphing back to the burgundy colored look he’d found me with. I basically toppled from my sitting position into one more suitable for resting, stretching out on the rock floor.

“Hey, Gabriel.”

“Hmmm?”

“Thanks.”

“What for, exactly?”

“For helping me. You didn’t have to, you know.”

“Oh, believe me,” He laughed, and then, so quiet I could have imagined it,”I really didn’t have a choice.”

A minute later and I was passed out.

I dreamt of random things that night, ancient shows I used to watch when I was little like Invader Zim and CatDog. My great grandfather was a cartoonist, and he had a love for the shows he watched when he was a kid. He took great pride in being a “90’s Kid”. Apparently back then it was a good thing to be born from 1990 to 1999, because they were the last generation with common sense. Considering how the world has gone completely to shit, I guess he was right.

Other random memories popped up from way back when- how I used to ice down my milk whenever I had cookies because it was kept colder that way, and how I always had to have milk in a glass. It’s a habit I picked up from my father. Milk just tastes better in a glass.

Dancing cookies were chasing Zim across the street to a McDonald’s, where the little robot dog thing was wreaking havoc on the place, overriding the computer system so that all the machines making food went haywire. For some reason I was a server there, even though McDonald’s switched to CPU Servers in 2046. And those robots were nowhere to be found, save for the green dog. We had such massive fun burning the place down, giggling madly the whole time.

I think Zim ate the mutant cookie things, I’m not entirely sure.

My dream took a nasty turn, and suddenly, I was in that damned field, crucified to a cross. The stench of gasoline and lighter fluid was overpowering, and I was coughing like mad, trying so hard to get free, but I was so weak… Zim towered over me, a torch in one hand, and a Bible in the other. A crowd of Crusaders was jeering behind him.

“You, accursed hellspawn, are damned to die in the hellfire from which you were born. It’s time to meet your Maker. May God have mercy on your soul,” Zim preached. The crowd behind him cheered. And then, I was burning.

The pain, the pain… It was like nothing else I had ever experienced. Complete agony. The flames licked their way up my legs, so hot I almost couldn’t feel it. I screamed for what seemed like infinity, while the Crusaders laughed, endless screeching that made my throat bleed. Such horrible pain, utter anguish, burning hotter and hotter with an intensity I didn’t even know existed. My screams were so loud I couldn’t hear them anymore. I cried out for death, begged them to kill me, because I honestly didn’t care at all anymore…

I woke up to find Gabriel gone.

Chapter Two

“Feeling better?” Gabriel asks, looking me over for any more injuries.

“Yes,” I reply. The cracking in my voice has stopped, thankfully, and now I sound pretty normal. As close to normal as I can be anyway. “Thank you. The name’s Velina, by the way- Velina Chelle.”

“Well, Velina,” he says, “It’s a pleasure to meet you. And save your ass and all, that was quite fun, watching you fight. You’re really good.”

Unbelievably, I feel my pale cheeks color with what little blood I have left in my system. Not even ten minutes into meeting a guy, and I’m blushing. Can I get more pathetic? It’s just a compliment, it doesn’t matter that the first guy you’ve seen in years is admittedly very good looking. The first thing on my list should be getting more blood so I can fend off a Crusaders attack. Which is most certainly on the horizon.

“You mentioned it was close to dawn. Where are we going to go? Heading outside is the worst possible choice we could make right now, because there’s no guarantee we’d find a good hideout before dawn…” I trail off at the smirk on Gabriel’s face. He obviously has something up his sleeve.

“Who said we’re even going outside?” Abruptly, I was enveloped in his arms. Of course, my first instinct was to fight, escape, get away from confinement. But even Healed, I was extremely weak, and it was evident Gabriel was not only stronger, but had eaten recently, which is like a super energy booster to the Fallen. There was absolutely no way I could break free.

But then, before I knew it, we weren’t in the stone enclosure anymore. My eyes adjusted to the slightly brighter light, and the new perfume of pine, rock, dirt.. With an old scent of Gabriel. Nobody else was here, or I would have scented them immediately. So I was safe, for now. It was a different version of the place we had just left, and a little bit north, because the air was bitingly cold.

Gabriel was a Jumper, too, it seemed. Jumpers can basically teleport from place to place, the only restriction being they had to have been to the place before Jumping there. For example, if he’d never been to New York, he couldn’t Jump there. It’s another coveted gift.

I gathered all of this information in about two seconds, and was still struggling futilely to free myself, despite the warmth that was flowing through my skin again like liquid heat. I actually quite liked this sensation- I’d never experienced such a warm Healer before. To my satisfaction, and a tiny bit of disappointment, Gabriel let go.

“Calm down, Lina Bina,” He teased, an open grin on his face now. Fury bubbled up in my chest to hear that accursed nickname from elementary school- so many tormentors had teased me with it… I advanced on him, snarling the whole way,

“You. Do. Not. Ever. Call. Me. That. Name,” I hissed, taking a step with each word, driving him back into a stone wall. “The only name you are to use in reference to myself is Velina. No exceptions. Are we clear?”

“Crystal,” He said, doing a very bad job at keeping a straight face. Great, I was stuck with a comedian. What fun. This kid had the air of someone carefree and reckless, the kind of person who’d be wasted at a party with eleven blondes all over him, fighting for his attention like jackals. How he could ever have survived this long in hiding was boggling my mind. Either he was just plain lucky as hell, or a lot smarter than he looked. For his sake I hoped it was the latter, because if he was a big enough liability to get me caught, Gabriel would have to be ditched at the first opportunity. Protect my life at all costs, I reminded myself. Even at the cost of his.

It was a little bright in here, enough that my eyes dully reflected the light- I could see green orbs directly across from me, flashing in the space whenever I looked at a particular spot of wall with stones in it. Probably quartz, or something else of that luster. I wasn’t really a rock kind of person.

“Is it going to get any brighter in here?” I asked irritably. My anger has boiled down to a low simmer, and the semi-blazing sunlight wasn’t helping my mood. It wasn’t direct, so I wouldn’t burn, but it still made me nervous. Not to mention it was beginning to hurt my eyes and make my head ache.

“Just a bit. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it quickly.”

“I know, but it still hurts. Quite a bit.”

“Just think of it as conditioning, okay, Lina? It’ll help you in case you’re in a fight close to dawn. Your eyes should adapt in about a week anyway.” Gabriel was referring to how our kind could adapt very quickly to changing environments, excepting direct sunlight. The damage being done to my eyes now would heal overnight, and in the morning it wouldn’t hurt as much to be surrounded by indirect sunlight.

“Three days, maximum. I’m one of the later, more efficient drug babies. And if you call me Lina again, I swear I will snap your neck without even trying. It’s Velina, for the last time.”

“Snapping my neck won’t kill me, dummy.” He sauntered- sauntered, I kid you not- over to where I was standing, looking utterly unafraid at my threat.

“No, but it’ll slow you down.”

“Not nearly enough.” Gabriel teased, grinning madly.

“No, not in my current state… But I can assure you that I am perfectly lethal when at full strength.” I sank down to the ground, which was delightfully cool to the touch, though not as cold as it should have been. Adapting to the temperatures, adjusting to the light, to most any situation was what I was born to do. My body temperature was dropping just enough so that I wouldn’t waste energy trying to keep myself warm. Gabriel slid down across from me, sitting in the style my kindergarten teacher would have called criss cross apple sauce.

“So.” He said, breaking the momentary silence. “Do you have any particular talents I should know about? I only have the two I revealed earlier.”

After a brief internal debate, I decided that it couldn’t really hurt to tell him some of my more useful genetic advantages, since he didn’t seem to have any that would counteract mine.

“I have telekinesis,” I said carefully. “Only, it isn’t limited to certain elements like most others. It isn’t limited at all. I wasn’t kidding when I said I could snap your neck with little effort.”

“Prove it.”

“Okay.” My sight settled on his neck, concentrating on that one point, applying pressure with my mind and visualizing just how it would break…

His eyes widened momentarily, before he let out a small laugh. “I mean, not the whole snapping my neck thing, I meant the supposedly unlimited telekinesis.”

“Oh.” I stopped, feeling a bit embarrassed. ‘Give me an object and tell me what to do with it. I’ll do my best.”

“Any object? Really, now…”

Smack.

“Any appropriate object, mind you. Sorry to ruin your fun.” I sighed, trying to ignore the sting in my right palm. Gabriel had a satisfyingly bright red mark across his left cheek, which to my disappointment faded as he cradled his hand to it. Stupid Healer abilities.

“Fine then. Let’s see… Can you crack that stone over there? Not obliterate it, just a tiny dent please; I don’t want the whole place coming down on us.” He pointed to the wall with the quartz-like rock in it. I stared at it, focusing on one part I wanted to break off. Unconsciously, I ran my fingers against the stone below me, sending the right energy through it, and just like that, there was a small pop as a fissure appeared in the rock. A round of applause came from my enthusiastic audience.

“Brilliant! Can you do anything else?”

“Yes, but I don’t believe you’ve seen it before. It’s quite unusual, though very useful at times.”

“Show me, c’mon Velinaaaaaa, show me show me show me!” He crowed, taking on the attitude of an excited little kid. I couldn’t help but smile a bit at his antics.

“All right. Watch carefully.” I closed my eyes, envisioning my current appearance- pale, unblemished skin, even, pretty features. Long and wavy burgundy hair, vivid green eyes- This was one of my favorite looks. I imagined my hair a bit shorter, about shoulder length, and straight as an arrow. What color? I quickly debated but then settled on a bright blonde, darkening my alabaster skin a bit and lightening my irises to an aquamarine. That should do it. I opened my eyes, drinking in the sight of him staring at me, shell shocked and mouth agape.

“Wow,” He finally managed to stutter. ‘That’s… Amazing.”

I just shrugged. “The novelty wears off after a few years.”

“You’re beautiful.”

“In this form, of course,” I said. “But not in my… Natural one.”

“Why not?”

Why not? I almost laughed. Because though I was born with genetic advantages, my outward appearance was not like the other miracle drug babies. I wasn’t perfect and flawless and knockout gorgeous. My features weren’t quite as even, my skin not as clear, overall just not pretty enough to live up to the standards of advantaged kids. But I was more gifted, more able to do the things even my kind have difficulty with. The trade off? I can alter my appearance at will, which is a really good thing, when you have standards to live up to.

And scars to cover up.

Chapter One

Dear God, my head hurts.

Why does my head detest and utterly loathe me this much? Thousands of tiny, razor sharp knives, coated in salt and lemon juice and nail polish remover, stabbing into my temples and stinging badly enough to rouse me out of my coma like sleep. Yes, that’s what it is. Oh, my entire body aches, and the stone floor I’m currently residing on isn’t helping at all. What in the ever loving hell did I do to deserve this?

Actually, as the memories come back, I did a lot to deserve this. In fact, I took a lot of punishing hits last night, though I did give as good as I got. Maybe even better. Years of living on the run had turned me into a practiced fighter. And no, I’m not an amazing kung fu expert, but you know what? I’m still alive, albeit a little banged up. That counts for something.

It counts for a lot, when you’ve been hunted down by the United States for about five years for doing nothing more than existing. I can’t help my current condition. Not at all, since I was born this way.

A noise coming from somewhere above my head startles me, pulling me from my thoughts and reminding me that I’m not alone, something I’ve been for all my life, both figuratively and literally. It sounds like an annoyed sort of sigh.

“Will you please wake up already? You’ve been out for thirteen hours and dawn’s coming soon.”

Every single sense I possess shoots adrenaline alarm bells through my system, causing me to scramble up in terror, eyes snapping open, looking around wildly for the source of the sound. I can’t see anything yet, but my eyes will adjust in a bit to the complete darkness. The sound echoes off the walls in the way only enclosed spaces can create. Fabulous, I’m trapped in a stone sort of room with an unidentified threat, not to mention dizzy beyond belief and not in any shape for another struggle for my life.

Still, they don’t have to know that. I steel myself for another fight, willing away the waves of fatigue. I have to do this, have to survive, I can’t let them win. An instinctual hiss escapes my mouth at the thought, and I find a wall to put my back against. Protect my life at all costs.

“Calm down, kitten! I’m not here to hurt you.” The voice is a little bemused, and distinctly male, originating from a ledge up and to my left. My head whips around, and I can finally see the threat. A teenager was sitting on the ledge, about my age actually- maybe a bit older, with shaggy ink black hair, pale skin and a stupid little smirk I’d have smacked right off his face if not for one little detail about those sapphire eyes.

He was holding a small flashlight pointed at him, and his eyes reflected the light dimly, much like a mirror would. My own eyes widened at the sight, before narrowing with suspicion. Yes, he might be one of my own, but I still had no idea where I was, how I’d gotten here, who he was, never mind his intentions or if he was alone.

Protect my life at all costs.

“My name is Gabriel Adaire. I’m not here to hurt you,” He repeats slowly, as if I’m too stupid to understand. I continue to glare at him, not relaxing one bit, though my bruised and beaten muscles are screaming at me for release. I’m really in no condition for a battle.. And if this Gabriel finds out, then I’m screwed.

“I can actually help you, if you’ll allow me,” He continues smirking at me. It’s really starting to irritate me.

“Will you stop sneering at me like I’m such an imbecile?” I snarl- or try to snarl. My voice comes out pathetically weak sounding, cracking in all the wrong places from lack of use. Discreetly, I try to clear my throat. If anything, it makes him simper even more.

“Well then, if you don’t want the assistance of a Healer, then I guess you’re just a masochist who wants to suffer for the next couple of days recovering from your severe beating.” I hiss again, though my ears perk up when I hear the term Healer. That particular gift is rare and much coveted. ”By the way, this place isn’t extraordinarily safe at the moment. It’s crawling with Crusaders and it’s almost dawn, so if you want me to leave you here to be found, it’s fine by me.” Gabriel stood up to leave, leaping down from the ledge- which was a good twelve feet in the air- with grace only present in our kind. I made my decision.

“Wait, just a minute…” Ugh, my voice is still embarrassingly raw. He paused mid step, looking at me expectantly. “Could you just, please Heal me?” I ask timidly, deciding I can trust him for now. I can’t hear or smell anyone else in the enclosed space- just him. So I can relax for now, despite my lack of information about my situation. The thing I really need is to be Healed, so I can actually do something about my unknowns.

Unfortunately, this is the moment my body chooses to fail me, and my muscles give in to exhaustion and damage as I lean against the stone wall behind me for support. Great, now I look like a weak little girl who can’t take a beating. The spinning in my head I’ve held off until now returns with a vengeance, and I let out a sigh of frustration, which hurts a hell of a lot. I should be stronger than this.

“You know, it’s okay to ask for help sometimes,” Gabriel says softly as he approaches me cautiously. “You have bruises everywhere and some fractured ribs, which I need to reset or they’ll heal wrong. Which they’ve already started to. You had some internal bleeding earlier as well, but that’s been taken care of already.” By now he’s right next to me, and I can’t help but stiffen a bit. I haven’t had a civil conversation in years. It’s…nice. “You’re one hell of a fighter. May I?” He asks, gesturing to my arm, which has more bruises than skin and is openly bleeding. I nod, and he carefully runs his fingers across my shoulder, down my arm to my wrist. His touch leaves tingles of warmth that only come from a Healer, and they spiderweb from the point of contact, seeking out the damaged tissue and bone. I can actually feel myself stitching back together.

Gabriel moves on to my head and ribs, spreading warmth all over until it overlaps every inch of my skin.

“Now, this is going to hurt a bit,” He says suddenly, and then I feel three sharp, acute spots of pain in my chest as he rebreaks my ribs. I grimace, but I can take it- I’ve been through worse. Repositioning the broken bones earns a brief whimper of pain, but then I feel that bright warmth surround the hurt, and it slowly fades away.

I take a small, experimental breath, and it’s a little painful but still manageable. My whole body, though healed, is still very weak from my blood loss. I need to refuel soon.

Oh, and by the way, by refuel, I mean I need to replace the blood. Because if you haven’t figured it out yet, and I doubt it, because I’m not really fitting the stereotype of coffins and Transylvanian accents, I’m a vampire. Also known by the Crusaders as the Fallen, I am hunted down mercilessly, and though I’ve never actually killed anyone, they don’t care. The Fallen are an abomination of God and in His holy name must be exterminated.

The kicker is, it’s all perfectly legal. When the United States hit the debt ceiling of ninety trillion dollars in 2056, the economy fell apart. So the second most potent superpower, Italy, basically bought America and threw out the Constitution, replacing it with their Bible. Everyone who wasn’t Christian went nuts because it contradicted what the country was built for, and the Christians basically were in heaven. But they won, and now medicine is cut way back to basic antibiotics and prayer, everything is monitored and censored; not going to Church without a valid reason is cause to be fined upwards of five thousand dollars. Everything is in the name of God.

It’s sickening.

So when women starting giving birth to babies that weren’t human, it wasn’t caught at first because the symptoms don’t kick in until your thirteenth birthday. It’s like clockwork, really. You suddenly have heightened senses, fangs, are very allergic to sunlight, and develop a craving for red meat. Not to mention you more than likely have powers or gifts like those people in X-Men. You could be a Healer like Gabriel, or be a Kinny like me (telekinesis). It varies on your genetic disorder. And it all came from huge levels of pollution and nuclear leftovers from the third world war in 2045, not to mention the fun drugs moms use constantly to give their kids a genetic boost- make them smarter, faster, stronger. It worked too well.

But of course, our new government is completely blind to science, and intolerant to anything that contradicts their faith. So when your genetic defects turned you into a Fallen One, you are classified as a Demon and exterminated as soon as possible.

Unless you escape.

Prelude

Sometimes, I dream about you.

I dream that you’re there again, that I can see your smile, your face. That you exist and I didn’t just make you up. How could I have made you up? I doubt even my creative mind could come up with something so perfect, in the most imperfect sense of the word. But it doesn’t matter anymore. You’re gone, even if you were never here in the first place. And that’s something I can’t bear to think about. Actually, I can’t really handle either- you being gone, or you never existing. The latter doesn’t really make sense, at least to me. A light, shining so effortlessly, so brightly, so.. Ethereal in your intensity, having never existed? Impossible.

You became an essential part of my survival, and now, they tell me you never existed. These people dressed in white, looking like death, so desensitized from the organized chaos around them it’s hard to believe they’re really human. But of course they’re human, the most terrible, inhuman definition.

And the thing is, I’m not.

Being careless, I was caught, though I nearly escaped. This is where I reside now- white walls and bare, cramped spaces, devoid of the light you once gave me. Actually, I should say resided, because I’m escaping this place the hard way, since there’s too many of my kind here.

In a body bag. Right now, I’m being escorted down this long, endless white hallway, to the Happy Chamber, as the humans in white call it. Where the white lights envelope us, and take us away. My kind, we know better- we know exactly what awaits us when the collar around our necks light up. They’ve made another selection at random, to thin out our numbers, make sure this hell hole doesn’t go over capacity.

In a way, I’m kind of glad to be chosen. Living isn’t even worth it anymore, because the moment I was captured, they won. My survival was dependent on a roll of the dice. They controlled me, and honestly, I think I prefer death. I should have gone down fighting them, like you did, so my death stood for something.

We make a right turn, and the five guards shove me roughly into the chamber. I hit the ground, hard, the smooth white tile scraping at my pale skin, as the door behind me slams shut. I don’t even bother getting up, because I can hear the faint sound of poison gas trickling into the chamber, a sickly sweet smell that immediately seduces my mind. Waves and waves of fog, white fog, sticking to my consciousness until I can’t hold on anymore, even though I’m clinging desperately to the memory of you, your brightness, hoping that it can cut through this awful fog.

But, hard as I try, you slip away. And as soon as I let go, I follow after you, into the white unknown where somehow, I know you’re waiting for me.