Disclaimer: I'm still not Stephenie meyer because I actually update... hey-O
Disclaimer Deuce: Don't think I've forgotten about Jack Elzam and company... they went dark though...
Mike's POV
"You can barely walk! You can't go out to train." Zuri pleaded with me walking in front of me. I shook my head. I continued doing martial arts.
"I'm fine I heal fast."
"No one heals that fast." she told me leaning up against the door frame disapproving. I threw a hard round house and pain immediately sparked in my stomach where the sword went in. my body faltered and I started to fall Zuri ran to me and caught me.
"Please Mike... please for me? Just... stop?" I bit my lip.
"I can't stop training..."
"Then at least do something easier on you?" I looked in to her eyes she wasn't pouting... she wasn't begging she was doing something far more effective... she was worrying... and scared. I couldn't scare her. I nodded.
"Alright... alright... I'll do some energy work." I finally compromised. I made my way out of the complex, it was windy, tornado warning thirty miles out of Volterra. I limped to the front gate. Leaning against the door was Felix.
"You ready?"
"For what?"
"To fly." he said grinning.
"I can barely walk, besides I promised Zuri I'd take it easy."
"Oh... Okay since you're whipped you're going to miss your chance to learn how to fly." Felix said shrugging as if it meant nothing to him. I knew I was taking bait but I couldn't help myself.
"Seriously? Reverse psychology? That the best you can do." Felix shrugged again.
"I don't know it could be a couple months before an opportunity like this happens again... but I respect that you're whipped..." Felix said trailing of.. I can't believe this is working. But I really want to learn how to fly.
"Fine you got me but not a word of this to Zuri."
"What you think I'm going to tell on you?" he asked amused.
"No... what... just shut up before I change my mind." I followed him out the door in to the pouring rain but not before taking off hooded sweatshirt and grabbing a rain coat.
We climbed in Felix's Viper, red of course. I snickered as I climbed in.
"What?" Felix asked.
"Of course your car is Red... I'm surprised there isn't a giant V on the hood." I snickered. He tried to act angry but laughed with me.
"In my defense have you ever seen a dodge Viper that WASN'T red?" I had to think long and hard about it but I couldn't think of once.
"Good you're not wearing your white pants."
"Well of course I'm not it's down pouring." I almost yelled at Felix.
"I've seen it..." Felix claimed. I had put on my black work out pants under a long rain coat that went down to my ankles.
"So... why isn't today going to happen for another month or year?" I asked.
"Simple there is a Tornado not to far away."
"Right... how does that have to do with anything?" He didn't say anything but kept driving.
"Wait... you think a torando will teach me how to fly?" Felix shrugged.
"I figured we throw you at it enough time's you might be able to stay in it."
"That's your scientific theory right?" He nodded.
"Yeah unless you have a better idea." I didn't have an idea... and since I wasn't starting to fly just sitting around I figured it was worth a try. Felix flew through the country chasing a tornado in a car far to nice to be doing this. I finally saw the Tornado in the distance, probably a full mile away and Felix killed the car.
"Well... go get em tiger." he said as he put his arms behind his head.
"This is all the close you're getting?"
"In this car? Yep... go have fun with your tornado." he said shooing me. I climbed out of the car and took a couple steps until I was standing in front of it. I took a deep breath and pulled off my long coat off letting go of it and the wind pulled it back in to the hood of the car. I rolled both shoulders back loosening up. I removed my shirt as it was already drenched from the downpour. I looked down at my bandages as they got soaked but stuck to my body. It looked like I was still wearing a shirt how many bandages wrapped completely around my body. I took off my shoes then socks and threw them back in the viper before walking back to the front of the car. I sighed taking in the comfort of the torrent of water. I loved water... always have... and while some ran from water like this I never did.
I took in the rain, the wet, the cold. I took in the rain and the pain... and washed both away in a moment. As I opened my eyes I didn't feel pain and weakness... only the strength needed to complete this task.
I sprinted towards the tornado an energy ball in each hand. I leap in to the air at the tornado and as an after thought I shot my energy at the ground behind me. I flew further in to the air at the tornado and I was in the center spinning uncontrollably. I focused as well as I could but I couldn't help the queasy feeling that took over. So being a vampire doesn't change the fact that I'm afraid of heights... oh great.
I forced myself to open my eyes watching. My hands were shaking... I was laughing... Why am I laughing? Is this insanity? Is this fearless? Make it stop! I silently screamed. Jed! Alex! Mom! Dad! Help me! There is no one here for you... No one can save you... no one you've ever known or ever will can save you from this moment.
The dread was almost clarifying. I couldn't ask anyone to save me. Save me from what? This wouldn't kill me... it wouldn't even do permanent damage... I don't want to fall!
I felt my body being thrown out of the top but I instinctively shot two energy blasts away from me pushing me back in to the cyclone. I shot three more bursts until I was back in the center. I blasted repeatedly in every direction keeping me in the center until I realized I could feel power. I forced myself to relax feeling the power of the twister surrounding me... absorbing the power... controlling the power... It was unlike anything I ever felt... I felt like I could move mountains. I started to absorb all the power... drinking it in... I wanted to go higher but the twister couldn't... I took in all the power I could... like taking a deep breath and feeling full all at the same time. I knew what I had to do.
I brought the tornado in to a tight cyclone closing up my body bringing my knees up to my chest and my arms around my knees until the cyclone itself was no more than fifteen feet wide.
I threw my body out until I couldn't reach and with one powerful blast I righted the tornado... and in the dead silence the wind stopped... and I heard nothing... not even the thunderstorm and the rain had long since become a part of me... it was only then that I realized I wasn't forcing myself in to the air... I was floating by will.
It didn't seem difficult it didn't seem impossible and at an instant my fear of heights dissipated... it was like swimming, or floating on water... and just as natural to me. And then in struck me.
I can fly.
My immediate reaction was my need to tell my brother James. But that hope and joy faded as quickly as it came. James can never know... He's dead to you... as you should be to him. It felt like an invisible hand gave his heart a hard squeeze and killed it. I knew it wasn't but it didn't make the pain any less real.
I gently flew higher and higher before letting go and falling to the earth and then gliding across the ground only inches away from the grass.
This... I'll never be able to share this with mom or dad, Kari or Jed, Alex or Rena. I let go and dropped the last inch in to the flooded grass face down my face under water. I heard Felix's car screech to a halt but I didn't move. What's the point of having power if you can't use it to help those you care about? What's the use of being everything you ever dreamed of if you can't share it with those you love?
My body was yanked out of the water and I was being held up by my armpits. I wore my same disheartened expression.
"Ahh shucks Felix I didn't know you cared." I said humorlessly as I hung in the air, I didn't even attempt to move... it was so odd to feel euphoria and melancholy at the same time. He pulled his hand his hand back to punch me.
"And you call me Temper..." I teased showing no emotion
? POV
The first memory I had was being pulled away and rushed away from the woman who birthed me. They didn't pay me any attention. I heard begging and pleading... then uneasy breath. I heard a heart stop beating... the only heart I heard besides my own. I know now that he was heartbroken. That was the word he called it.
What an odd phrase... like an organ of the body was actually broken from some trivial emotional event. I didn't understand it but I did understand that it was my fault. I knew my coming into this world caused my mother to die... And I knew this man 'Bors' was in 'love' with my mother.
It was something I couldn't understand. Why would a vampire ever care for a human? Surely Bors thirsted for blood just as I do. Why put yourself through that torture? I once had the bad idea to ask why do we keep humans alive and hide from them... he wasn't too happy that I had asked that question.
It didn't make sense... why do the strong always help the weak? Why hadn't Bors killed me? I understood anger, and if my mother truly meant so much to him and I had killed her why didn't he kill me? He never said it but he wasn't my father... So why protect me? He told me he swore to Gwen, my mother that he would protect me... why? My mother is dead. Why keep a promise to a dead woman? Regardless I'm thankful he did. If he let me alone the Volturi would have surely hunted me down and killed me. I wouldn't have known anything about the Volturi... I wouldn't know about what was deemed "appropriate" and not... I'd spent nearly a week learning to read people. Then another week trying to learn everything I could about fighting. And that's when I learned it...
I was sparring with Bors and he swung at me... But I could see it coming before he actually swung and stepped clear out of the way. I evaded him before he'd moved his leg. He looked at me oddly then took a couple more swings, each one I dodged before his arm even moved... He attacked with a flurry of strikes each one I dodged well before they landed and I felt it... but it wasn't that I could sense his movements or even predict them. His fighting style in any book I'd read. I tried to figure out what this could mean or how I did it... but everything seemed normal as it always had. I closed my eyes for a moment then realized it felt different. I opened my left eye and Bors threw a kick I saw it just as it was about to land but I wasn't fast enough I took it and rolled away... I opened my right eye and everything became clear. Bors charged again and I easily dodged away.
"I can... I can see your moves... if my right eye is open." I opened just my right eye and walked around with it open...
"That... it... feels better without my right eye open." It felt like a thousand things were flying through my head at once... It felt liberating. I felt free... It was so odd... I never understood how much I could think about and understand and see... but with both my eyes open my sight was focused in so tightly that I could only focus on what was right in front of me... Which was just fine for fighting one person. For studying it was counterproductive.
"Interesting... so you have hyper focus to the point of future sight." Bors concluded.
"Okay... what should I do with it?" I asked honestly. I didn't like asking someone for help but since Bors was already giving it I didn't see how a little more would hurt me. No matter how smart I am I own nothing, and have no connections to anyone in the world besides Bors, I don't know where anything is... it is impossible for me to survive on my own and learn without Bors help. It's something I'm remiss about but I can hardly avoid. I can't walk in to libraries and start reading. I don't have money, I can't work at my age... I need him. The admission that at least for now I needed someone left a sour taste in my mouth.
"We need to train you to fight without it." It is completely possible that some time my power might betray me and so I should learn how to function without it. I looked over Bors. Why are you helping me? Is it truly just because my mother asked you to? No that's impossible. It's illogical... What do I have that he wants? My power? But he didn't know about it? Did he? Had he known all along? Is it possible that he learned about it before I was born? Perhaps that's why he let my mother die? Was he truly faking that emotion to make me drop my guard? That makes sense. Yes... that's what he did. There is one way to find out. Using his other emotions as a standing point and his emotional stability as the base currently if I should make such a insinuation he would strike at me, if he was truly offended.
"You let her have me because you knew I had a power... You didn't love her you wanted me... not her." I saw the temper in his eyes flare up but died immediately. And shook his head. He's angry... he's emotional why doesn't he strike me?
"You may not understand love yet... but you're far too smart to say something that will get you hurt... you want me to attack you to prove that I'm not trying to use you? Well I'm not, you're free to leave... believe me you not being with me would make my life a lot easier. I still need to explain you to Arthur... I'm a man of my word and I will not break my word to Gwenevere. I will raise you and protect you from the world..." he said. What a oddity. He doesn't make sense, surely he is an anomaly of nature. Perhaps I've just been so unlucky to find the one person in this world afflicted by this 'love' that makes them illogical.
"But you need a name." A name isn't needed. You can simply call me you. And I shall know it is me. A name is simply a term of endearment. I need none. Though a name might be useful... it can't hurt.
"Okay... but I want to choose it." I argued stubbornly.
"Very well, what name do you choose?" Truthfully I hadn't given it any thought. It wasn't necessary to have a name but if it would appease Bors I could have a name.
"Galahad"
Mike's POV
I opened the double doors to the Volturi complex and took two steps in and immediately saw Zuri pacing in front of me.
"What the hell happened to you?" she asked obviously worried. I shrugged.
"You're sopping wet!" I tried to keep a smirk from my face but failed. Yes mommy I played in the rain.
"And what the hell do you think is so funny?" She said crossing her arms. I shrugged again. When did I start needing to check in with Zuri again?
"It's no big deal." I said.
"No big deal? You could have been hurt! Wait... why aren't you limping?" I shrugged again.
"Stop shrugging damn it!" She yelled. I smiled.
"Zuri just calm down... I can focus on my pain and it goes away. And I happen to enjoy the rain." I said simply.
"I was worried." She said looking down at her feet.
"I'm fine... I want to show you something... follow me." my clothing was still dripping but I didn't care. I made my way up the building to the roof access. I stepped outside back in to the rain. I held Zuri's hand but it felt pull back. I stopped.
"It's wet!" she said defending herself.
"I promise it's only water."
"But it's wet! Don't you know anything about cats? We don't like getting wet." I laughed.
"Come on... It'll be worth it I promise." She looked skeptical.
"Do you trust me?"
"What?" she asked.
"Do you trust me?" She smiled slightly pulling herself in to the rain.
"Yes." I took her further out she seemed to be fighting it a little but laughing as well. I gathered her up in my arms quickly and she giggled.
"What are you doing?"
"You'll see... close your eyes."
"No!" she said with a big smile.
"It'll be worth it..." I said.
"Oh fine!" she said closing her eyes... then she opened on eye slightly.
"No peeking aloud!" she laughed and closed her eyes. I breathed in deep and breathed out relaxing.
"So what's going on?" She said.
"Just wait."
"You're not even taking me anywhere!" she said.
"Wow... learn a bit of patience!" I scolded. She giggled again. Slowly, carefully I felt my heels leave the ground, then the balls of my feet and I ascended. I stopped when I was floating five feet off the roof. Once I was certain I had complete control I leaned down until I was inches away from her face. I breathed cool air on her face then kissed her softly. She responded by grabbing my head and kissing me back. Once she leaned back I smiled.
"You can open your eyes... now be careful." she opened her eyes and blinked. At first it seemed like she didn't know what had changed, then she looked over her shoulder and nearly jumped out of my arms but I held her tightly.
"Holy shit you're flying!" I bit my lip to stifle a laugh.
"Yes Zuri... we're flying." I smiled as I flew away from the Volturi. There was no moon the night was black and I took her over over Volterra.
"This is amazing Mike." she said gushing. I spun flew, flipped and turned through the air before stopping outside her window. She climbed in her window.
"Thank you for tonight Mike... really thanks." I smiled. And kissed her gently.
"Thanks Zuri... for caring."
Arthur's POV
"So this kid is my bastard?" I asked. Looking at the little boy standing next to Bors. Bors didn't seem to appreciate the insult.
"So why do you have him?"
"I promised his mother I would take care of him."
"This is a special operation not a daycare."
"He will be useful to us."
"How is that?" I growled at him.
"Hit him." Bors nodded to the boy. Then I noticed he had one of his two eyes closed. The boy was barely as tall as Bors knee, he had brown hair and light skin he left eye was green but his right eye he just opened was black and red.
"Fine." I took a couple steps forward and threw a round kick at him but he wasn't there. Two more kicks and he wasn't there I grabbed at him to get a hold of him each time he dodged away before my hand was anywhere near him.
"Damn it stop running you little bastard." I reached down to grab him but felt a sting on my face only after he was behind me did I realize he punched me in the face.
"How the hell is this little bastard doing this."
"His name isn't Bastard... it's Galahad. And he can see the future." No... that's impossible. I thought then laughed.
"Yes... I guess Galahad is a good name for a bastard." I looked at Galahad he didn't seem offended at all.
"You don't know what bastard means? It means I didn't want you." I told him. He still stared at me with a semi bored expression.
"What the hell is wrong with him?"
"He doesn't show anger." I was angry. I didn't really want a constant reminder of my fling to follow us around.
"Fine... but he's your responsibility Bors, He's not my problem." Bors let the corner of lips smile just a bit.
"Okay."
"Get out of my sight I need to get to work." I said dismissing them.
Embry's POV
"Yeah Since you and Mike always pick the songs I'd like to pick one." Yuki said. I nodded.
"I suppose it's only fair." I said agreeing.
"Any song I want?" he asked. I nodded.
"As long as it's not like screamo or something." He laughed.
"No... it's not screamo... it's jazz." Mike cheered. Mike enjoyed playing Jazz. Something was off though, he seemed like he was plotting something.
"I'll sing it... it's called "Real Folk Blues." Yuki said plugging in his guitar. He beckoned Kale in the room.
"What's he doing here?"
"The song needs a saxaphonist." Yuki explained. Mike put head phones on to listen to it as he drummed and I looked over the music. Yuki started before I could protest, before I realized it was in Japanese.
"Aishiteta to nageku niwa
Amarinimo toki wa sugitte shimatta
Mada kokoro no hokorobi wo
Iyasenu mama kaze ga fuiteru
Hitotsu no me de asuomite
Hitotsu no me de kinou mitsumeteru
Kimi no ai no yurikagode
Mo ichido yasuraka ni nemuretala
Kawaita hitomi de dare ka naite kure
The Real Folk Blues!
Honto no kanashimi ga shiritai dake
Doro no kawa ni tsukatta
Jinsei mo waruku wa nai
Ichido kiri de owaru nara
Kibou ni michita zetsuboto
Wanagashikakerareteru kono chansu
Nani ga yoku te warui no ka
Koin no omoi to kuramitaita
Dore dake ikire wa iyasereru no darou
The Real Folk Blues!
Honto no yorokobi ga shiritai dake
Hikaru mono no subete ga ougen to wa
kagiranai
The Real Folk Blues!
Honto no yorokobi ga shiritai dake
Hikaru mono no subete ga ougen to wa
kagiranai" Mike was going crazy on the drums I on the other hand didn't approve as much.
"That song was freaking awesome." Mike said as he took his head phones.
"And in Japanese." I said snorting.
"Japanese is my first language... I don't expect you to sing in German do I?" I guess he had me right there.
"Okay okay." I admitted. Mike shrugged.
"I don't really care what language it is if the music is awesome." I smiled. But deep down something still felt wrong. It wasn't the music. It was something much more ominous. Like a black storm coming over us. Or maybe it's nothing.
I was going to split this in to two chapters but I kept it as one... don't say I never did anything for you. I spoil you too much! I don't know when the next chapter is coming. Here it is the chapter. Real Folk Blues is kinda an awesome song... even if you don't understand Japanese (I don't) but I do know what it's about. It's not the last time this song/ reference to it will come up in my story... but it will be a couple books. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. As always please remember to comment, review, give rolls of twenty dollar bils, knucks and high fives. Catch you on the flip side.