Chapter 4.
I'm in the kitchen getting a drink when there's a knock at the door. Max stands up and immediately goes to investigate. It been two days since we killed the badicas and there's still no news.
"Its Isaiah and Elena" Max tells me. I nod to him and he opens the door. Isaiah struts in and Elena follows closely behind him.
"Nice place you have here, you should really take my offer of staying with me though, such a waste of money here." Isaiah says as he surveys my room. Once the Badicas attack was over, Isaiah's henchmen delivered us to our hotel and then Isaiah offered us a room in his 'very large' home, as he calls it. I politely declined, I don't need his influence over Max. Or me for that matter.
"Get to the point Isaiah, you're not here for idle chit chat." I cross my arms over my chest. He has a tendency do talk rubbish before he gets to his point. It really gets on my nerves. As does his consistency with wearing red shirts.
"We have some news." He says, knowledge dancing in his eyes. I wait for the rest of it. But Isaiah just stands there.
"Well get to the point." I say with gritted teeth. My moods have been quiet bad lately. I have had hallucinations anymore either, which I think was completely stupid anyway, it was probably a vision.
Isaiah pauses for a moment before he continues. "A guardian and a novice supposedly found them. A squad of guardians turned up soon after. Apparently everyone is pretty shaken." He tell me with a smirk.
"That doesn't mean it worked. I need the message to get to the royal guards. Anyone who is involved with my family. They need to know this is my doing and I want that damn book back." Without even realising it, I've started pacing. I come to a stand near Maxs chair and sit down.
"We need to do something bigger. Something with a little more, kick, if you will." I wave at Isaiah, he comes up with the actual plans.
"Give me a day, ill figure out something." Isaiah declares. With that statement, he turns on his heel and walks out with Elena in tow.
The sun is about an hour away which means the nocturnal day is drawing to an end. I really need sleep. Max is sitting back in his chair, looking occupied with his own mind. He really hasn't said much lately.
Warmth spreads around my ankles and up my legs. My legs hurt from running, I can't find my way out of this house. I feel the heat spread around the house, flames stretching up the walls, through doorways. I can't get out. A sudden burning sensation envelopes me feet and I tumble over in pain. I can feel my feet burning, my skin melting. Its excruciating and I can't make it stop. I scream and scream and I can't move. The heat gets thicker, I'm struggling to breath and I can't scream anymore. Smoke surrounding me and my visions dims.
And then I wake up. Coughing and spluttering in my blanket and I try to recover from my nightmare. Max sits opposite me, looking concerned.
"Hey, you're okay, it was only a nightmare." He says with complete certainty but he look tired. He always look tired.
I try to regain my composure and settle my breathing. It was just a nightmare. It wasn't real.
"What time is it?" I ask Max.
"2pm. Still have a while before it gets dark. You can go back to sleep." He says, looking at me sincerely.
I lean back against the bed head. No, I think I'll stay awake. I don't need to relive that nightmare. I'm still reeling from my nightmare but I notice max staring intently at me.
"What? It's not like you haven't had a nightmare before."
Max still stares but he doesn't say anything, he looks down at his feet.
I get up out of my bed and go to get a drink. Now I have to pass time until Isaiah's update later tonight. I stare at myself in the bathroom mirror. My eyes look worn and weary, like I'm much, much older than I am. Well having a weird sort of witchy magic and new last name and having your family killed does that to you. I sigh and walk back out to my room.
Before I can take anything else in, I notice a bowl of water sitting on the floor, max stands next to it and gazes at me.
"What's this?" I ask. Why in the world, would he have a bowl of water on the floor?
"Well it's been a while since you tried any of your Moroi magic, or any other magic that isn't for this mission, thing, or whatever, so I thought you could do something that isn't about this trip. Something fun." He shrugs. In a moment like this he reminds me of the old Max, the Max before I turned him. I didn't realise I missed it until now. I give him a small smile.
"Well I guess that's a good idea." I walk over to the bowl and sit in front of it. I look back up to max, who sits down opposite me and gives me a small nod of encouragement. It's been a while since I've done any magic like this.
I reach out the bowl of water, my hands on both sides and my fingertips touch. I hesitate, if I really was hallucinating yesterday, doing magic again will just make it worse. I don't need to be losing my mind. I go to take my hands off the bowl but a steely resolve settles over me for some reason. I can do it. Its Moroi magic, it shouldn't do anything bad. My hands rest on the bowl again and I close my eyes and take deep breaths.
I try to bring back my knowledge of Moroi magic, what I know about it, how to do it. I try to bring my old magic to me, summoning every bit I can, trying to bring forward the little bliss it sends through every time I used to try it. But nothing happens. I concentrate for what seems like forever but nothing comes. I don't feel anything. I don't feel any sort of magic flow through me. And I start to get frustrated. I'm Moroi I should be able to do this with ease. My temper flares, anger rushes through me before I have a chance to actually realise I'm very, very angry. I feel like I've lost that part of myself. Like I've lost my old life. Well, so be it then. I have no right to Moroi magic. I have my own. Something better, something stronger. I have something they are afraid of.
I feel heat rushing to my hands, my eyes fly open, thinking I'm in the nightmare again but I'm not. It's just the bowl. I've boiled the water. So instead of using Moroi magic, I've managed to make myself angrier and heat up the bowl. I let the bowl go and the water settles.
I look to Max and he just shrugs. Before I can say anything there's a knock on the door.
I glance to Max and he shakes his head. It can't be Isaiah yet, it's not even dark. Max stands and quietly walks to the door. He stands still for a moment before he looks into the peep hole. When he does, he freezes. Max stands rigid and when he looks back to me, his face is laced with seems like surprise and confusion.
"Its…um…its…ahh" He stutters out. I walk over to the door and look to see who it is. I'm completely stunned when I see my parent's faces.
"Oh my god." I whisper and then I open the door. My parents stand before me, looking me up and down, seeing if I'm ok, I'm still trying to process the fact that they are actually alive.
"Vienna, oh my god, thank god we found you." My parents enter and hug me tightly. Well this is unexpected.
"How did you get out? How did you find me?" I whisper to them. I don't think they realise how grateful I am to see them. I have some of my family. It makes me think of Danahi. My Mum goes to answer but stops when she sees who else is beside the door. Both my mother and father freeze in fear. "No, no its okay, he won't hurt you, he can't do anything." My Mum looks at me confused, my dad kind of just looks at me and doesn't say anything.
"Didn't think it would be long before you done something like that." He says evenly and enters the rest of my room.
"Wait, what, excuse me? What do you mean?" I tell him. Why would he think that? How does he know I did it? What's going on? Confusion runs through my head.
"Well when I heard what happened, I thought you'd do something like that. Kind of a tradition in this family." He says deadpan, staring at the paintings in my room. Mum looks like she has gained some of her composure and surveys the room with Dad. It takes me a few moments to realise he knows.
"You know." I tell him. He turns to me again.
"What do you mean?" He asks, but acknowledgment dances in his eyes.
"You know who we are, you know about the magic." I say, narrowing my eyes at him.
Without saying anything, he reaches up to the top his shirt near his shoulder and pulls it back, revealing a scar in the shape of an E.
"Of course I know. So does your mother." He nods to my mum.
"Why didn't you tell me? You left me to think I was alone in this! I had no help! I had no one!" I decide not to mention Danahi. "How did you even get out of court?"
"I have contacts in court that heard about a 'situation' a St Vladimir's. I looked into a bit and found something about a book, a girl, and some weird magic. As well as files from previous years with the name Nesahla on it. Being part of that family, I assumed this was you, I told you mother and we left as soon as we could."
"You didn't answer my other questions." I state. My teeth are gritted in frustration.
My father doesn't say anything, instead the turns to Max.
"Not bad, it's been a while since I've seen this happen. So how's the connection between you two?" he asks evenly. Maxs eyes widen slightly.
"What do you mean 'connection'?"
"Well when someone like us makes a strigoi, a part of us remains connected to them. Sort of like a bond with Spirit Users and the Shadow kissed. He can feel what you feel, see what you do sometimes, some of your humanity flows to him." Dad says as we walks around max, looking him up and down like a science project. I read about the Shadow kissed. Someone brought back from the dead by a spirit user, which aren't common anymore, and they have a bond, it allows them in their mind, in simple terms. I don't know how that applies to me and Max.
"What does that have to do with me and Max?"
"You potentially killed him, and brought him back, so you two have a bond really, not exactly the same, different qualities I guess. Didn't you know?"
I look to Max, who stands still. Past moments come rushing back to me, when he knew my magic was taking a toll, when I felt like I was going to pass out, the hallucinations and has been tired when I have, hungry when I have, and he seems to have abit more emotion then strigoi do. Max averts his eyes, like he's ashamed.
"Max and I have a bond?"