Scorpion (2 page)

CASSIUS RATHORTH CROSS, i.e. Vampire Leader and part of my illustrious Fab Five, i.e. The Marked Ones.

He has many names when I think about it.  He was my RESCUER, my BOYFRIEND, and above all my HEART.   He
’s also a VAMPIRE.   And that...is what has circled around the edge of my mind for days now.

I collected a list of what I do know he is capable of:

1.
 
(Most pertinent to mention) drinks blood for nourishment

2.
eats human food for enjoyment

3.
has sharper than average canine teeth, but not razor sharp or anything (just perfectly straight and chiseled)

4.
can fly (soooo love that skill)

5.
can read my mind( but no one else...hmmm)

6.
can read all of my emotions (born Valkyrie-not sure if this is because of me or not)

7.
Very, VERY strong Vampire strong  (I’m stronger)

8.
can enter my dreams

9.
buys me clothes (Oh, this is skillful, trust me)

Cas asked me weeks ago if I counted him as more than just a friend.  A boyfriend.   It seemed almost like I was too old for that, but even older people called it that too.  Yet, this six foot three dark angel was not the hardcore heartless lord of the Vampires I
’d made him out to be all these years but I at least thought he was older.  I’m still wrapping my brain around the idea of him being in charge of this court since he’s so young.  I’d wanted to ask then if his father died and that’s why he was in charge at such a young age?  And if he will age.

One day I will get some more answers when I have the courage to ask or he feels comfortable to tell.  For now, we
’ve eased into getting to know each other.  With pending doom always on the doorstep, I think sometimes we are both reluctant to let completely go with ourselves.  Or at least on my end.  I’ve learned a lot about myself along the way, but getting to know Cas has been a thrill all to itself.

Cas took me to the edge of the nearly summer covered woods near the jagged moss covered rock formation that reminded me of a giant lemon.  Even the birds were preparing for the heat.  Feathers seemed to be shedding everywhere like it was raining sheets of them.  I enjoyed the simplicity of it until I looked over my shoulder at my escort.  He had such
reluctance in his eyes.  His normal dark prince swagger was quick footed and clipped with something anxious.  His hands normally on my arms, hips, neck or back were in his pockets like when I’d met him.  Cas seemed to ooze fear and sadness for what I was about to do.  But I had to be here.  I needed more information and this was the way to do it.  He could have me at night, but by day, I would find answers.  Be the person I was bred for.

The Hunter school was dark with shadows it couldn
’t contain.  Cas’ fiery gaze landed on my face, eyes full of the same feeling I held, only much stronger and way more controlled.  At least, he appeared so.  I, on the other hand, was a total goner.  I was still staring when he reached behind my back and grabbed my waist.  Excitement moved through me.  I inched over to give him a small amount of what he needed to get closer to me, but it wasn’t the kind of pull it usually was when he wanted me closer.  It was the kind that meant something wicked comes this way and we were specials of the day on the soon to be dead menu.

“
Get behind me,” he lifted his nose to the air, the deep cadence of his voice lost in fear. 

His eyes went into a frenzied search, his Vampiric sense in overdrive. 

Suddenly Cas, the Vampire, pulled me back into the trees, stilled the air with our lack of movement, and made us one with a huge towering oak.  Now when I say hid, I mean he covered me with the front of his body flush against the front of mine, hiding me from danger.  I couldn’t see outside my Cas barred cage and knew this was his predator-possessive ape man control issues, but I could defend and handle myself if he would just trust me.

Cas, what is it?

Something pounded the tree beside me.  Cas’ fist.

Elves
.

Where?
  I tried to look around him.

Twenty yards to your left.

And you intend to stand here and cover me with your hot rod Vamp body until what...they pass on by?  They are here for a reason.  Let’s find out.

“NO!” he chanced a whisper.

I spewed hot air to his neck.  I even tried growling low enough he could hear.  No go!

Cas, this is admitting defeat.  I won
’t be afraid.

Just then a body slammed into the back of Cas. My body lurched forward a touch leaning into his as he thrust back and with illegal grace made into a lithe movement that equaled a gymnast for such a rugged shady prince of darkness.  That
’s where it ended though.  His next move was lethal in another way.  His fist connected with the long-eared, far from elegant (like the books say) enemy hidden by the shadows with his own dark clothes to hide him in darkness.  I sensed no fear and that unnerved me.  I’d never fought an Elf. 

Cas was magnificent. 
Deadly, but awe inspiring in the defense department.  I was brought out of my oddly inappropriate gawking of fighting abilities and felt the wind knock out of me as I was slammed breathless against the same tree.  Mr. Pointy Ears bared his maliciously sharp smile while he breathed his vile repulsive  breath on my face.  His quick hit to the side of my head would leave a bruise, but I was angrier that he tore the cuff off my shirt. 

I kneed him where it counts and stepped out of his clutches to assist Cas, for my extra amount of strength makes the family jewels evaporate (not really, but close).  Cas was still twisting around on the ground with Pointy
’s friend.  I could only be sure of one thing at this stage of the fight—Cas had his Vampire face on.  I was terrified on several different levels but I’d never let it show.  I tried not to think about it.

Cas eyed me from the side and pounded the last needed hit to put him out.  The look on his face was that of the long, forgotten Lord Cross of my pre-met the
man days.  He looked...evil.

With his Vampiric eyes trained on me, he slipped open his cell, texted a word that he never looked at, and held out the other hand to the neck of Mr. Pointy who was doubled over and starting to recover.  With a snap, his neck broke. 

Horrified, I watched in silence. 

Two seconds passed.

Footprints.

The two of us moved in a fluid motion as if we were one person to the shadows.

Calum found us just like that.  He texted
Calum
?

A whole new world of questions just popped up.

“What are you waiting for?   Go in and kill him!”

The weary Elf held his blunt sword by his side drawing in his shoulders even more.  He stammered, “Si...sir.  The others are dead.  He killed them.  And now he has the Hunter with him.  I can’t take the Vamp, much less them both.”

“Then what the hell are you here for?” 

“Sir.  Everyone else in my group is dead.”

“LEAVE!”

The Elf slunk away while his commander breathed fire over the scene.  He probably had no remorse for the two brothers he just lost.

Cas heard all of this, relayed it to Szar
on the phone, and had no idea I overheard.    I am guessing he doesn't know my hearing has improved some.  I may not have sensed the elf attack, but his voice, I was heavily in tune with.

ℓℓℓℓℓ

“What the holy
crap are they attacking for?” I asked trying to stall so I could reason inside why he called Calum.    I
know
now I’m not the only one talking to each other behind the other’s back.  Who wins the most rebellious contest?  Not me!  By the things I keep learning about each of these boys, they won out long ago.

Both boys looked incredulously at me like I
’d grown a third head.  I ignored their glares and moved to stand feet apart like I was in control and folded my arms across my chest. Cas picked at his ragged clothes lost in the scuffle.  His pants were shredded from the tree romp. He looked like a transitioning caveman in wardrobe limbo.

Calum snorted indifferent at a Vampire faced Cas and acted as if I w
as nothing but a fellow fighter. “You’ve any idea why they are here?”

Didn
’t I just ask this?

Cas answered him taking the first attackers arms and pulling deeper into the woods, “No idea man.  Didn
’t see ‘em till they were right up on us.  Only two.”

I could tell in his voice that he was holding something back.  And they were ignoring me. 

“You taking care of it?” Calum asked still seemingly carrying on a conversation like I wasn’t there. 

Cas nodded dropping the first guy and as if in sync
together, the both of them moving wordlessly like it was some kind of guy logic that needed no words.  I huffed and continued my folded arm lack of assistance that neither seemed to want.  I was the helpless
girl
.  Yet I was the one who kneed the dude in the family jewels and left him for Cas to take seconds on.  Did I get credit for it?  Nope!  Nada! 

“Can you take her to her room safely?” Cas asked Calum with the jerk of his chin.

I couldn’t believe this. 

Calum nodded a knowing look of manly side talk.  I was disgusted with this.

“No one is in charge of me much less the two of you.  If you come anywhere near me,” I paused and looked at Calum first and then landed them on Cas. “Either of you, I will do the same to you what I did to Pointy Ears.  And I’ll make sure you both lose the ability to have children regardless.”  Their faces paled giving me an achieved smugness.  “I suggest you both solve this little mess,” now I was being dramatic, “and I will see you both in the morning.”

I walked away fast before I lost my nerve, but noting the insignificant curiosity of the two of them working together side by side.  Stupid men were working together against me.  That mother of
mine made them insecure by making me in charge, not at all working together.  I could see their aim. 
Keep Stace safe. 
So what if they had side plans they were leaving me out of.  Not looking back I closed off my mental processes and zipped into the dorm before Cas could do anything.  I fell against the back of the door as soon as it closed.  Returning here would be good, right?

I bounced over in the darkness looking for the lamp beside my bed.  I turned the switch.  I screamed.  “What the—

“I could ask you the same.  You only had to say it.  First it was to see your brother and that was a lie.  Now, leave with one guy.  Return with another.  Then you ask me to take you again.  If you are trying to make me jealous, it is achieved.  Lying isn't the way to keep our...friendship.”

“Calum, I….”  I let my words drift off.

“That
’s what I thought.”  He closed himself off, just like that.  He stood.  How did he beat me here?

“Wait.  Let me explain.”

“Why?  So I can hear the details as well as know they are true?”

“I went to see my brother
again.”  Why did I lie?

“Who with?”

I looked down at my bed to the depression of where he sat was left before he stood.  “Cas!”  He would know soon enough.  He’d just seen me and knew the only reason we could have been in the woods is to return me.  I’d originally asked him to take me to Szar, but forgot to cancel when Cas just showed up.  I didn’t mean to forget.

“I only came to see if you would tell me the truth.    I was entitled to that.  Is this what you truly want?”

I nodded, begging.  “Calum, please.”

“No, I just needed to know.”

“Calum,” I called again. I kind of wanted to just snap his neck. We'd already done this dance.  When he looked down at my hand on his arm squeezing tight, he tightened his own arm in response.

“Stace, I can
’t.  I will be there anytime you are in danger.    I didn’t want you to know but you should.  It’s the right thing to do.”

I waited not having a clue where this was going. 

“Stace, I friggin’ fell in love with you.  And I always will whether you return it or not.”

This...was not what I expected.

I tried to say something, but he left.  And I didn’t follow.

I learned something when I was young about my heritage that recently popped back into my head.  I was raised Valkyrie.  Coming from the god Odin, whom was long dead centuries before me, I still carried the same enigmatic gene that all my ancestral female generations had. 
The ability to appeal to the males.  Except in a recent dream I learned that placed in me are the qualities and abilities of the gods and pieces of our factions.  What I lack is slowly building by contact with my four counterparts. But is it the inner call of what our royal female ancestors use to control men that guide them? Is that why she made me the leader of men?

I couldn
’t help but wonder if this was why Calum, Szar, and even Cas were constantly there. Yes, I’d known in my beginning teenage years that supposedly when I came of age, I would be able to use the small amount of controlling power handed down through the ages on men to do my bidding.  Strangely enough, there hasn’t been a queen to run our faction in over two hundred years other than a few instances.  A man was appointed before my faster and he died.  A woman, she died.  Then my mother,  She “died”.  Something has always happened to them.  I secretly prayed I’d been skipped over in the appeal department.  I didn’t want Cas to only like me because he felt compelled.  And I sure didn’t want someone to love me because they had to no matter what, but rather to be in love with me. 

But even now, I can sometimes feel an unearthly feeling rising up inside me when the guys challenge me.  Is it the female Valkyrie power talking when they act upon my requests and commands...or their own accord?

             
                                          ℓ ℓ ℓ ℓ ℓ

The next morning, Calum wasn’t in classes.  Nor the rest of the day.  Or the next.  Or the next.  The rumor was he’d been sent away with the flu.  That was hard for anyone to believe because Hunters just didn’t get sick and no one else had it.  But all were convinced to believe it so because where else would he be?

Lee was in classes.  After my run in with him just nights ago, he
’d continued his usual demeanor of ignoring me.  It was working fine except I didn’t have Calum there to balance the awkwardness between us.  Calum didn’t even know the answers I’d found in my most recent research yesterday.  Following the stories of the gods seems to lead me in right directions so reading up on them is essential.  I’d read that Orion had four times the strength of any regular man being that his father was Neptune the God of the Sea and made him walk on water.  So he was so awesome at everything he did for that reason.  He was the descendant of Neptune.  And Zeus supposedly placed Orion in the sky to honor him as well as the great Scorpion who killed him. 
That last thought may not be smart in sharing with him.

One source said Orion was responsible for the shape of the straits of Italy. 
Fact and fiction are hard to tell apart, but that leaned on the latter in my eyes. Since it all seems fanatically crazy in the first place, who knew?  The human world was already going to be in an uproar if they ever found out about us, but to find out the majority of their myths and legends might be true too!  It would boggle the minds of scholars for years and confirm some of the considered off-kilter philosophies of the not-quite-so-normal.

The morning did prove enlightening after a long fruitful discussion with Barry, my red headed knowledgable Hunter friend, in my first class.  The teacher let us talk the whole time supposedly sharing our essays on the comparisons of the novels we
’d read in the year so far.  I had a few to make up still.

I
’d learned that the Vampire faction leader was not offensive during the last leader’s rule, but he wasn’t a people person leaving most of the factions unwilling to negotiate terms of any kind with him.  In Barry’s opinion, “Lord Thorn Cross” was picked for that reason.  He was better suited for the job.  When I curiously asked if he knew when Lord Cross was picked, he said he’d understood that he’d been trained to become the new lord, conditioned for it. 

Barry had heard I was kidnapped by him and tortured.  Not only did I clarify that he didn
’t do either, but that he was a gentlemen.  Barry laughed making his red, bouncy hair fly around.  I also made it clear that Lord Cross was a great man. I wanted his undivided mind to fear the truth and know that he was judging someone off others hearsay.  I instantly thought back to what I used to think about the very same person just months ago. 
Based
on rumors.

That may have been laying it on thick for the boy to hear how great Cas was
in my eyes
.  His misbelieving stare tried to analyze my face for lying.  It wasn’t there and I never knew what he made up in his mind.

Maze and Liz were as chatty as ever.  With the news of my kidnapping, Calum
’s sickness, and Dr. Green’s resignation, the school was in an uproar.  Still, no one knew my true identity.  The sheltered Hunter students believed the totally bizarre story about being dragged away by Weres and rescued by Calum and taken by Lord Cross.  A cacophony of voices surrounded me each morning to start my day.  Oh, how the stories get distorted.  Will anyone ever know the real truth?

Dr. Mar Quinn was the appointed dean to the school until a headmaster could be found.  He was expected to be the next headmaster but hoops had to be jumped and Dr. Green was making sure of it.  It was only a matter of time.  The bad news...Quinn was not to be trusted even with his upscale suits and Clark Kent glasses, but very few knew of this.  I was still unsure about him.  Lee confirmed it at the school one night not long after my birthday.  He
’d said not to go near him for which insinuates he means me harm or at the least up to no good.  I’d keep an eye on him nevertheless.

I
’d spent several nights with Cas at the weapons room at his court.  Now that Calum and I were officially just allies I felt freedom, but felt empty and hollow inside also.  He’d not talked to me since that night he confronted me and had just vanished.  I never got to ask about the Elves and why they attacked us.  Cas didn’t mention anything to me either when I texted him.  I would have to find out myself.  When I asked Calum’s father in passing one day where he was, Dr. Green just told me he’d be back soon.  He knew though.  He sighed a little too much and looked away a little more than normal.  But tonight he said something different.  “They’d been right.  He was meant to rule our faction alone.  I’m up to par on that development.”

What had he meant?  He denied meaning anything by it and I was forced to leave malcontent with any news.  While I maintained my trust in Calum
’s abilities, I couldn’t help but feel like I was in the dark once again on something. 

And Lee was another subject altogether with his dare me eyes and forced silence.  He
’d betrayed me.  He left out the sordid detail that he’d ratted me out just years ago when he was yanked from his spy mission at my court.  I wanted to scream to forget
the “I fell in love with you” mess and deal with it big boy.  He snitched me out and left me for the wolves.  He can’t back track now.  I don’t know that I can forgive him.

Classes were the same old, same old.  I enjoyed the literature class a little more than usual only because the subject now intrigued me instead of disgusting me.  Oh, the irony.

Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire was only halfway finished in the class.  The whole good and evil theories rocked the conversation back and forth between who considered them bad news and/or bad to the bone.  I was on the fence with that one but not for the same reasons as the Hunter students.  They had the wrong perception as I once had.  I felt compelled to speak my mind and could have stabbed myself afterward for doing it.

“You
’re wrong guys.”

All eyes went to me.  Gulp.

“The Vampires suffer the ill reputation for the sole reason that they are killers.  Aren’t we all?  If something attacks you are saying you would hesitate to save yourself?  No.  They eat.  Most of them do not kill for blood.  Yes, some are killers.  But I can name some surly Hunters too.  And Weres.  And Valkyries.”

Some narrowed their seething frothy glares at me while a few smiled and nodded in agreement.  Some.  I went on to make my point before they attacked, “I know we have fought for years, but why can
’t we get it together and survive this human world we work around to come out on top, together?  Why not give way to reason and hear them out for once on what they say?”

The pin dropped with the teacher clearing
her throat, “Nice speech, I think you make very valid points and perhaps one day your light in the darkness will come to pass.  For now, we remain rooted to the position of neutral ground and make only the moves our faction deems important.”

Yeah, says the Hunter teacher who stands among a Valkyrie princess with the power to crush her skull and
/or make her pee in her pants.  I almost worried she knew what I’d just thought when the fear started to wave out of her and fill the room.  Maybe she was only scared because my theory wasn’t impossible.

A week or so after the initial confrontation with Calum landed me front and center in biology second semester class with him as my lab partner dissecting an earthworm.   That is, after he showed back up to school. While that
’s about how I thought I’d end up finding out how he was doing with all this, I didn’t think he’d treat everyone with malcontent as well.  And he refused to speak to me unless needed.  Brilliant days ahead.

“Pass the alcohol.”  I said as normal voiced as I could.  This night lab was the
pits.  Why did we have to be here twice in a day?

“Fine!” 
he clipped. I took a chance and looked at him.   His face was always a give-away.   His eyebrows went into a V letting me know he’d love to tell me off if he didn’t have an audience that would raise rumors.  Too late for that.

“What?”  I didn
’t understand him.  The unencumbered Calum was a sledgehammer waiting to fall at the moment.

“Are you fine?  What is the opposite of fine, that
’s me!”

A little bit of bitterness showing.
   Sarcasm anyone?

I decided to not fight fire with fire.  The burn would only give the students something more to gossip about and his inner diva was surely to make their news.  While everyone had their stories all out of whack, I didn
’t want to give them something concrete. 

He snorted at me.

I sat in silence until thanking him when he passed me the alcohol.  We wrote our journal findings and cleaned up.  Lee and Derrick were still working when we finished and I noticed thankfully that we were left to sit quietly together with the hush of unsaid words.

“Can
’t keep up with you guys.  I’m way behind back here.”  Lee was saving my sorry butt.  Who would have guessed it?

We both turned too fast wanting the distraction.  Derrick was feeling way too much tension in the air and had to give an ounce of humor.  “Give your plea for mercy
, worm man!” He was poking at the tray in front of him repeatedly.

I ventured a laugh.