Chapter 17.
"What do you mean killed?!" I whisper harshly. His eyes widen and he throws his arms up.
"What the hell do you think I mean Vienna! Killed, she was killed! There is a secret part of the Moroi council that take care of things like this. They can have someone killed for their own reasons and then make it appear as a strigoi attack." His jaw tightens when he finishes. I feel like I should remember something about a strigoi attack but I can't remember what.
Danahi explains the situation to me but I can barely take it all in. All I can think of now is the fact that Moroi are still hunting Nesahlas. And I'm one of them.
He carefully explains why I shouldn't tell anyone, what the consequences would be, then he goes on about what's happening with the book which hasn't progressed any since the last time we spoke about it.
Once he is all said and done, I cant do anything but trudge back to my room. I forget that Im not alone in my room and don't take any care to shut the door, Max shifts and wakes up.
"Hey you alright?" he looks at me questioningly.
"Yeah, um, I had a nightmare and needed a little air." His expression changed to concerned.
"Come back to bed and we can talk about it?" he hold his arms out. I shake my head and walk over to lay next to him. We lay like that for a while and eventually I find the blackness of sleep again.
I hear something scavenging through my room. I quickly open my eyes and I see Max's shadow lurking around the bed. I glance up at him. He is leaning over the side and looking underneath it. Then he comes round to the other side and does the same thing. I smile at him.
"Looking for something?" Max glances up at me.
"Yeah, actually, I can't find my shirt, care to get out of bed and help me?" he says playfully. I turn to my side so I can see him fully. He stands up with his hands on his hips and smirks at me causing me to laugh just a little.
"Nope, just enjoying the show. Please, continue"
he laughs and rolls his eyes then continues his search.
How scouts the room for another 5 minutes before he decides to check under the pillows and finds his shirt which he shrugs on. I decide that its probably time to get up and ready as well.
I get up to walk to my dresser and then turn back to max who is leaning back on his arms on the bed, he tilts his head to the side just watching me.
"Excuse me, you gunna go outside while I get dressed or what?" I laugh at him. He leans forward and puts his elbows on his knees.
"Nope, just enjoying the show" he smiles as he repeats my line. His eyes darken slightly and I feel a fluttering in my stomach.
"Oh no, not this morning" I stare at him.
"But you look hot Ve, can't I just stare at you forever?" he stands up and walks in front of me. He slides his arms around my waist and pulls me close to him. I honestly don't know how I look hot, I'm wearing one of my oversized t-shirts and underwear. If anything I probably look like I haven't had money in 4 years. I smirk up at him.
"No, you can't," I lightly push his chest and bite my lip. "Away with you peasant" I push him a little more, to which he gives a sigh, kisses me deeply and then retreats to the hallway.
I quickly dress and do my hair and head out to get breakfast. Max is standing in the hall leaning against the wall but stands up when I shut the door. He smiles at me and takes my hand as we walk to the cafeteria.
Throughout the day I slink in and out of class like I robot. I just can't stop thinking what Danahi told me. What if someone finds out I'm a Nesahla. What about my family? The questions float around it my head and I feel like I'm going to go insane. I can't even talk to anyone about it. I would love to tell Max but would the potential consequences be worth it?
Max has decided to head to the feeders, though I leave him and go to the cafeteria for dinner. Food makes everything better.
It's only when I'm halfway through stuffing my mouth do I feel a slight tickle in my head.
As if someone changed the channel on a TV, the scene before me suddenly changes.
The tables and chairs, the people all talking around me disappear as I'm propelled into a dark room. At first it seems blurry but my focus clears and Im in a room lit with a candles around the side though my eyes are drawn to a large amount of candles in the middle of the room. The room is decked out with a tables along every wall, with shelves scattered here and there. The room is scattered with little objects placed carelessly and in every available space. The tables are covered with jars of herbs and liquids with labels I can't read. Little amulets are placed here and there. More herbs cover the shelves, a few medieval looking knives are also placed on the shelves.
Once again I'm drawn back to the centre of the room, where two people I didn't see before, now sit facing each other. Candles surround them and between them, sits a chalice, a knife, a metal plate of some sort and a book. One person, a man, sits on his heels with his hands in his lap, and the other woman sits the same though has her hands spread out wide and her eyes closed. She seems to be murmuring something but I can't hear what. The man opposite her is staring intently and purposefully. I have no idea what is happening.
The murmuring continues for a few more moments before the woman leans forward and takes the man's wrist. Lifting the knife she brings it down, and creates a wide gash along the man's wrist. She continues the murmuring and the man screams, clearly indicating she hit an artery.
I watch in complete astonishment, this is horrific. Why would I be seeing this?
She holds his wrist steadily over a bowl between them, and pours his blood into it, all the while, still murmuring the words I can't hear clearly.
The man's screams grow faint and he is leaning to the side, about ready to either pass out or die from blood loss. A few moments later, he topples over and his blood stops running. The woman hold the cup in both hands and starts whispering different words. She rocks back and forth on her heels, whispering to the cup she is holding.
All of a sudden she stops. The woman leans over, turns the man on his side and opens his mouth then begins to pour his blood from the bowl, into his mouth.
What the hell? I can't take my eyes away though, I feel like I have to watch this.
She pours back a reasonable amount of blood, then sets the bowl back in the middle and doesn't do anything else. She stares at the man, her breathing is heavy. What is she waiting for?
A few seconds later, the man stirs. All the bones in my body are telling me to run right now, to find a way out of something, but I can't. I remind myself, more for my own sanity that it's a vision and I'm not really here.
The man shifts on the ground, he moves awkwardly and then comes to a stand. The woman still sits, pure wonder on her face. I decide to circle around them to get a better look. The man's profile comes into view, he has reddish brown hair that looks redder with the candles, his body is still and rigid though he searches his hands in awe.
What is this? Once I'm fully in front of the man but behind the woman, I notice other features. He's pale. His skin has a pasty look to it, and his eyes. His eyes look like they can create flames. Even still with a slight twinkle of humanity, his eyes are red. This is the birth of strigoi. This is what destroyed this family. The woman stands up and stares at the newly made strigoi.
"I did it." She whispers. I gape at them both amazed. It seemed so simple, how can this happen so simply?
Her eyes bore into the man, who has a slightly feverent look in his eyes. He's hungry. He goes to launch at the woman but with a blink, he backs off and takes a step back. What?
I don't know what's going on but I need to find out. Circling around the couple again I kneel down beside the book to get a better look, but as I go to move, I see a flash beside me and then I'm back in my own body, with a mouth half full of a ham and cheese sandwich.
I try to down what's in my mouth and shove my way out the door. I need to see Danahi, now. If I don't tell someone about this I'm going to go nuts.
I rush my way around campus and back to my room but I can't find him. On my second round through the dorm I see him striding his way to my room. I run up and quickly usher him into my room and shut the door.
"Whoa hey, calm down there, I'm used to being shoved into girls rooms and all but I'm not into the 'keeping it in the family' stuff" He smirks at me. That damn smirk.
I hit him on the chest.
"I saw it." He looks unfazed.
"You saw what?" he sits back on my computer chair.
"Strigoi. I saw it. I saw how they were created."
Suddenly Danahi comes to stand in front of me with his hands on my shoulders.
"You saw it? How? What happened? When?" I sit on my bed and think back to the vision.
"Well there was a man and a woman, she was doing some kind of magic and then she drained him of blood I think and fed it back to him. That's it. That's all I saw" I look up to him and his eyes are narrowed in thought.
"Why didn't I ever get to see it? What makes you so special." He whispers and starts pacing. "What was the woman saying? What spell was she doing?" he starts biting on his fingernails. This must be a nervous habit of his, or a show of pure frustration.
"I don't know, she was too quiet I couldn't hear any of it." all at once Danahi stands in front of me and grabs my shoulders again and shakes.
"You didn't hear?! How can you not hear?! It's called listening Vienna! Dammit!" his voice rises and my anger starts to kindle out of nowhere.
"There showing you these visions to learn something! Not to sit around and watch what they do! You should have listened!" Immediately my anger reaches breaking point and without realising what I'm doing, I slap him across his right cheek.
He falls backward and leans against the wall for support. All I can see is red. I stare back at him and breath heavily, already exhausted.
"You're not my damn teacher. I didn't hear the damn woman because I was too concerned about the guy bleeding to death in front of me." My voice is quiet and it scares even me. Danahi looks unfazed, though his face his slightly red. "I'll learn when I'm damn well ready. I'm not an expert like you"
I continue to stare him down, not ready to give up but a few moments later my anger vanishes. It doesn't slowly dissipate, it just gone, like a light switch. I blink a few times and process what just happened. I look at Danahi and see what I did.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean…I don't know…I don't know what came over me. I'm sorry." I put a hand to my forehead and lay back on my bed. What the hell was that?
"Hey, its fine, this happens. The magic, the visions, they take a toll, they control you. You got angry because the magic felt that way. Its ok." He sits beside me. I look back at him, and see his cheek. God, how could I do that! For some reason I glance at his shoulder and at the edge of his shirt, I see a small mark on his shoulder. I sit up to get a better look.
"What's that?" I ask and point to the mark on his shoulder. It sort of looks like a birthmark, it's slightly darker than his skin but I can't see the whole thing. He looks down at his shoulder. He gives me a small smile when he looks back up he gives me a knowing look and pulls down the collar of his shirt a little. When he does I notice the shape of it and the familiarity. It's shaped like an E. I remember my dad said he had one, so did his brother.
Just like the little kid in my visions.
"I guess you could call it a family heirloom." He says.