Hey all, and welcome to Chapter 1 of the last instalment if the Storm series! I know you're aching to find out what's happened.
OK, so before you read, y'all need to know that this is set 3 months from where we left the story and set in London. If anything confuses you, give it some time, more than likely it will be explained in a later chapter. Cool?
ENJOY!!!
Chapter 1: Alaizabel/Katherine: The other side of the pond.
ALAIZABEL:
I walked around the large penthouse, overlooking the Thames. It was a gift from beyond the grave, courtesy of my mother's will, which had been intended for accommodation when I went to university but was now serving as my temporary accommodation in London as I hid from my demons. Tonight was schnitzel night – again. It was about the only thing I could cook – I burnt salad. But the kitchen, the literal hub of the home, seemed like a ghost town. With no one to tell me what to do, it felt somewhat empty, like a showroom after lights out and all the visitors had gone home. I'd developed the habit of keeping all the lights switched on at all times. Never was there a room where there wasn't some source of comfort. If ever I needed a light off, I'd run as quickly as possible out of the darkened room. Night times were the worst – I'd wake up with my pillow clamped between my teeth, self-medicating to stop the nightmares from becoming too real, bubbles and darkness blurring the edges of my vision so that I couldn't even shut my eyes properly in the shower anymore. It wasn't even the typical blood-gore-teeth vampire fantasy, just the overwhelming need to get away from a force I couldn't see.
Dad hadn't called in a good fortnight. That was one thing I could thank the fang-qui for – that wonderful ability to get people to do what you wanted had somehow been passed onto me, after his frantic panicked texts and messages I simply told him "drop it". And he had. I hadn't heard from him since. I doubted he'd even registered that I wasn't living in the house anymore. I've no idea what had happened with school, what he'd told them, but then again I doubted that a small school in the middle of up-state Washington with a population of less than 200 was really going to make that much of an effort to find a troubled, rogue foreigner. A teenager at that.
Pressing my forehead against the glass of the large living room window, the blood red sunset cast shadows round the room. In my reflection, my hair was the same shade as the burning skyline, possibly even more vivid. But I knew it wasn't just a trick of the light. My hair had changed, deepening to become a violent copper, and had grown with a speed I'd never thought it possessed. Already tendrils were beginning to tickle my elbows, and the dark waves framed my pale face in an inferno. I almost didn't recognise myself and the murderous intention in my obsidian-black eyes, once reserved solely for my fang qui, was now a permanent feature upon my feral face. Crumpled in my fist was a post-it carrying the number I would need to call. It was the number of an old family friend, the man who would help me track my mother's death place. Solemnly, I reached for the phone.
*******
KATHERINE:
The club music blared loudly and garishly; Scotland really wasn't my scene, I decided with a sigh. Despite leaving the good old U S of A, intent following Emmett's advice and heading home, I'd somehow found myself diverted away from London. It had begun innocently enough – I'd never been so far north before and decided on a whim that as I had so much free time on my hands I may as well take a trip…. But then days had turned into weeks, and all the while it seemed to get just that little bit harder to go back. If I wanted to be perfectly frank with myself it was because I was scared, scared of going back and finding that in fact I had nothing, but all the same pure "chicken" I chided myself. The word "scared" sounded so weak coming from a vampire though…
The sudden wave of self-hate I felt caused me to scowl in displeasure, and at my arm the guy who'd been attempting to flirt with me took a step back. I ignored him. He was right to be afraid – my kind were the stuff of nightmares after all – and I really was not in the mood for what he had in mind tonight. Maybe the darkness of the club disguised it, or he thought I was just into weird contacts, but my burgundy eyes were at the point of slipping into black. I would need to hunt soon. As soon as I remembered my thirst, the burning in my throat seemed to up a notch and "ouch" didn't quite cover it really. I wasn't in the mood for murder games tonight, and so with a huff I turned on my heel and began to head for the door, dodging the dance floor to avoid catching someone with my icy-cool skin in the press of sweaty bodies. That was one explanation I did not want to have to make.
On the street outside, in the dingily lit alley, a small crowd had gathered around my car. Well, I say my car. Ownership is such a loose turn of phrase. The man I had alleviated it from wasn't going to be missing it any time soon - death was a pretty permanent state of mind, in most cases. Forcing myself to be polite, I pushed my way through the crowd, trying very hard to remind myself how fragile the humans around me were. Most parted with a slight sense of awe before me. I didn't know whether they were amazed at my looks, or whether they couldn't believe a girl drove that kind of wheels but multiple heartbeats flew like birds' wings. I gripped the handle tightly and slipped into the driver's seat, starting the engine and flooring the accelerator in the same movement. The engine of my car snarled, and though I knew I was going too fast, I didn't care enough to stop. The time for playing chicken was over, I decided. I was headed home.
ALAIZABEL:
Walking down the street, the warm spring breeze ruffled my hair. Around me, the trees in the park were just coming into bloom and the sunlight sent warm rays blossoming over my skin. A couple of people on bikes cast me appreciative glances, and I blushed abruptly, forgetting for a moment that I wasn't the bumbling teenager I had been but something more, something better. At least now, my waves of hair could hide my burning cheeks.
In contrast to the absolute beauty of the day, I still couldn't get over being out in the open. Since my strength had grown, I'd begun to sense with deadly accurate the desires of those around me, and the flat had seemed almost a welcome hideout to escape the world. I'd only emerged because my contact had requested a meeting in the open, and I was too polite to say no, but part of me wondered if this was just a test to see if I was who I claimed to be – he worked for the police after all. Maybe he thought I was some sinister gang hit man on the loose, about to make him disappear once I had his details, not the innocent child he had known me as I thought wryly. The police had theorised about drug dealing being connected to my mother's murder after all…
I was brought sharply out of my reverie by the mind-frame of the bored-looking teenage girl who'd just passed me on the path. Although her blank face betrayed nothing of her personality, I knew her desire. She wanted to break the nose of her best friend, oddly enough. I could only speculate why – maybe an argument? Boy trouble? Maybe even daddy had refused to get her a nose job and her friend's father allowed one? I didn't care, but the pure malice rolling off her made me frown. A couple seated snogging on a bench to my left made me want to laugh out loud, whereas the needs of a man playing fetch with his dog on the grass made me want to cry tears of sorrow. The constant emotional climate I was subjected to was draining, to say the least.
I thought the emotional storm I was weathering had come to a rest for a while, as the park path took me through a thicket of trees. Then I spotted the guy. He was good-looking I guess, no older than 27, and had the sort of smile that would have turned my knees to jelly in normal circumstances. But his desire disturbed any lust I had for him. He was after his neighbour – or to be more precise, his neighbour's fourteen year old daughter. My lip curled in contempt but as his eyes wandered over my frame and I felt his wish change, the contempt quickly turned to hate. I could feel my fang qui brewing for action, clanging the prison bars with it's metal cup demanding release to tear this guy apart, and clearly my feelings must have shown on my face for he looked away and quickened his pace to leave me far behind.
As my fang qui settled, I noted for a faint moment how I never got scared anymore, except in the dark. And then I knew I'd spoken too soon – ahead of me stood a pale creature with burning mahogany eyes I guess were just the result of brown contacts over crimson red.
Ahead of me, stood a vampire.
Alrighty, so the next chapter will be coming ASAP, but I can't tell you who it's from yet, because I haven't even written it yet! Keep an eye out people, and review! I'll never know if you approve if I get no feedback!
-FB