Chapter 7
"What do you think you were doing?" Maia hissed in my ear. "Do you even remember what I told you? In case you don't, here's a little reminder: I told you to get away from here; not to go and cozy up to a vampire, and climb willingly into his bed!"
When we were in the privacy of her room, she turned to face me. "Kala, I want to know the truth. Are you.have you two had, uh, intimate relations?"
"What? No, of course not," I said, and then explained the situation.
"That's still not an excuse. Listen to me. There's something about Kieran that you don't know. About his past; about his and Adham's, and how they were, and still are connected." Her intensely bright eyes stood out against her milky white skin.
I cut her off, worried for her. "Maia, you have to stop this. You're sick. You can tell me later."
"Don't you want to know?" Her voice had gone high and shrilly. "You must listen to those who can help you, Kala. Or is the all-knowing Kala too high and mighty to accept the knowledge of those of us who choose to face reality head-on and not hide with shame and fear? Is this true?"
The comment struck me like a barb under my skin, but I tried to pay no attention to it. Maia was obviously delirious from fever, and I told her so.
Before she could respond, however, I reached into her mind and pulled sleep forward. Maia's eyelids drooped as she swooned, fast asleep. I caught her and carried her light frame over to the bed without difficulty. I lay her down gently on the bed and pulled up a chair beside her. Nervously wiping my shaking, sweating hands on my shorts, I thought of how I hadn't done any healing in nearly two and a half months. The logical side of my mind scoffed. This was simply a fever. I had done this a million times; I could probably do it in my sleep. After wiping my hands once more, I placed my fingertips on Maia's temple.
Instantly I was inside her head, floundering through feverish snatches of thoughts.
Adham has/ almost all/ caused pain/ Kieran/ Book of Silverlight/ three brothers/ vampire/ path/ one killed by hunter/Kala/ maybe broken/ in danger/ must save/ don't/ Kala will die
Emotions washed over me in waves with each thought, there one second, gone the next. Pain, disgust, apprehension, fear, and a deep, penetrating enmity. Maia was one intense human. I pulled myself above the mainstream of her thoughts and grimaced. Two broken ribs, the area around both infected and inflamed. That explained the pain factor and the fever.
A piece of bone had been chipped off of one rib and the other was poking in at an odd angle, pressing against her lung. I winced. How could she not have told anyone? This could have been seriously life threatening. What if the lung had been punctured? Leaving my own thoughts, I concentrated fully on wrapping threads of my magic around Maia's cracked ribs, first restoring them to their original shape and position, and burning out the infection and reinforcing Maia's chafed lung.
After the initial damage was fixed, I realized that Maia had various bruising all over her body, and on the back of her head was a large bump that I suspected was causing a concussion. Maia had been the victim of a beating recently, and I would bet anything that I knew who had doled it out.
It was over an hour later by the time I was finished with Maia. My body was cramped from sitting in the same position for so long. A year ago, it would have barely taken me 30 minutes, if that, to do what had just taken up nearly an hour and a half of my time. I had been one of the fastest and most effective healers, though my training was not yet complete.
I left Maia's room after making sure she was alright. Walking back to my room, I was slightly unnerved. First of all, Maia's implication that I hid from reality irked me. Though merely the ravings of an irrational person, she must've seen some truth to it. It must have been in her thoughts, or it would not have popped out of her mouth so easily. Second of all, Maia's façade was calm and mild, which seemed to betray her train of thought. Were her thoughts always that chaotic? Normally I let the thoughts and feelings just roll on by, not paying attention to them, as they were only bits of thoughts, and were mostly guarded at that. But Maia's thoughts came in loud and clear.
"Almost eerily so," I murmured to myself. It seemed as if she.well, as if she wanted me to read her thoughts, like she was trying to project them to me. I sighed, shaking my head. It must have been something important, if it followed her even into her sleep.
The last part of her thoughts crossed my mind over and over. It was like a premonition, a prophecy.
/Kala will die/ Kala will die/ Kala will die/
It played over and over in my mind, like a broken record. What did this mean? Why did Maia think that? She had lived at the mansion before I had even been born; she obviously had a better grip on how things were run and what was happening throughout the spacious residence. Did someone want me dead? Maia's telling me to leave would make sense, if I was to be the intended victim of...something. Why would someone want me dead? The question vexed me. I hadn't done anything to anyone...or at least I didn't think I had.
And, somewhere in there, she had mentioned Adham, and later Kieran; those must have been left over from what she was trying to tell me about their past. I was curious, but it wasn't exactly my top priority. If I hadn't heard of them, then they couldn't had been that horrible, right?
Not at all like the trio of Arawn, Baldur, and Conall. I shivered despite the warm air in the mansion. They were the most infamous vampires in nearly the entire world, still feared although nothing had been heard of them for a little over 25 years. Their names were still spoken in fearful whispers, the legend renown. Anybody unlucky enough to get within their reach was lucky if they remained alive. And as for those who did remain alive were sickeningly loyal to the trio, choosing death over revealing anything incriminating against their Masters. The few who remained alive were marked with their Masters' names twirling around their right arm from shoulder to elbow, beginning and ending with a swirling train of dripping, blood red ivy.
Hunters everywhere attempted to track them, but just when they dared to believe that they were close on the triad's heels, the insolent three would disappear, and next be seen long distances away, seeming to be in more than one place simultaneously. More than one hunter had set out to track and kill the triad; more than one hunter never returned home.
Okay, so it's not really eventful, but it's still important...questions or comments? My e-mail is MidnightsFlame@hotmail.com
"What do you think you were doing?" Maia hissed in my ear. "Do you even remember what I told you? In case you don't, here's a little reminder: I told you to get away from here; not to go and cozy up to a vampire, and climb willingly into his bed!"
When we were in the privacy of her room, she turned to face me. "Kala, I want to know the truth. Are you.have you two had, uh, intimate relations?"
"What? No, of course not," I said, and then explained the situation.
"That's still not an excuse. Listen to me. There's something about Kieran that you don't know. About his past; about his and Adham's, and how they were, and still are connected." Her intensely bright eyes stood out against her milky white skin.
I cut her off, worried for her. "Maia, you have to stop this. You're sick. You can tell me later."
"Don't you want to know?" Her voice had gone high and shrilly. "You must listen to those who can help you, Kala. Or is the all-knowing Kala too high and mighty to accept the knowledge of those of us who choose to face reality head-on and not hide with shame and fear? Is this true?"
The comment struck me like a barb under my skin, but I tried to pay no attention to it. Maia was obviously delirious from fever, and I told her so.
Before she could respond, however, I reached into her mind and pulled sleep forward. Maia's eyelids drooped as she swooned, fast asleep. I caught her and carried her light frame over to the bed without difficulty. I lay her down gently on the bed and pulled up a chair beside her. Nervously wiping my shaking, sweating hands on my shorts, I thought of how I hadn't done any healing in nearly two and a half months. The logical side of my mind scoffed. This was simply a fever. I had done this a million times; I could probably do it in my sleep. After wiping my hands once more, I placed my fingertips on Maia's temple.
Instantly I was inside her head, floundering through feverish snatches of thoughts.
Adham has/ almost all/ caused pain/ Kieran/ Book of Silverlight/ three brothers/ vampire/ path/ one killed by hunter/Kala/ maybe broken/ in danger/ must save/ don't/ Kala will die
Emotions washed over me in waves with each thought, there one second, gone the next. Pain, disgust, apprehension, fear, and a deep, penetrating enmity. Maia was one intense human. I pulled myself above the mainstream of her thoughts and grimaced. Two broken ribs, the area around both infected and inflamed. That explained the pain factor and the fever.
A piece of bone had been chipped off of one rib and the other was poking in at an odd angle, pressing against her lung. I winced. How could she not have told anyone? This could have been seriously life threatening. What if the lung had been punctured? Leaving my own thoughts, I concentrated fully on wrapping threads of my magic around Maia's cracked ribs, first restoring them to their original shape and position, and burning out the infection and reinforcing Maia's chafed lung.
After the initial damage was fixed, I realized that Maia had various bruising all over her body, and on the back of her head was a large bump that I suspected was causing a concussion. Maia had been the victim of a beating recently, and I would bet anything that I knew who had doled it out.
It was over an hour later by the time I was finished with Maia. My body was cramped from sitting in the same position for so long. A year ago, it would have barely taken me 30 minutes, if that, to do what had just taken up nearly an hour and a half of my time. I had been one of the fastest and most effective healers, though my training was not yet complete.
I left Maia's room after making sure she was alright. Walking back to my room, I was slightly unnerved. First of all, Maia's implication that I hid from reality irked me. Though merely the ravings of an irrational person, she must've seen some truth to it. It must have been in her thoughts, or it would not have popped out of her mouth so easily. Second of all, Maia's façade was calm and mild, which seemed to betray her train of thought. Were her thoughts always that chaotic? Normally I let the thoughts and feelings just roll on by, not paying attention to them, as they were only bits of thoughts, and were mostly guarded at that. But Maia's thoughts came in loud and clear.
"Almost eerily so," I murmured to myself. It seemed as if she.well, as if she wanted me to read her thoughts, like she was trying to project them to me. I sighed, shaking my head. It must have been something important, if it followed her even into her sleep.
The last part of her thoughts crossed my mind over and over. It was like a premonition, a prophecy.
/Kala will die/ Kala will die/ Kala will die/
It played over and over in my mind, like a broken record. What did this mean? Why did Maia think that? She had lived at the mansion before I had even been born; she obviously had a better grip on how things were run and what was happening throughout the spacious residence. Did someone want me dead? Maia's telling me to leave would make sense, if I was to be the intended victim of...something. Why would someone want me dead? The question vexed me. I hadn't done anything to anyone...or at least I didn't think I had.
And, somewhere in there, she had mentioned Adham, and later Kieran; those must have been left over from what she was trying to tell me about their past. I was curious, but it wasn't exactly my top priority. If I hadn't heard of them, then they couldn't had been that horrible, right?
Not at all like the trio of Arawn, Baldur, and Conall. I shivered despite the warm air in the mansion. They were the most infamous vampires in nearly the entire world, still feared although nothing had been heard of them for a little over 25 years. Their names were still spoken in fearful whispers, the legend renown. Anybody unlucky enough to get within their reach was lucky if they remained alive. And as for those who did remain alive were sickeningly loyal to the trio, choosing death over revealing anything incriminating against their Masters. The few who remained alive were marked with their Masters' names twirling around their right arm from shoulder to elbow, beginning and ending with a swirling train of dripping, blood red ivy.
Hunters everywhere attempted to track them, but just when they dared to believe that they were close on the triad's heels, the insolent three would disappear, and next be seen long distances away, seeming to be in more than one place simultaneously. More than one hunter had set out to track and kill the triad; more than one hunter never returned home.
Okay, so it's not really eventful, but it's still important...questions or comments? My e-mail is MidnightsFlame@hotmail.com