The Legend of the Blue Eyes (25 page)

“I guess so,” he replied. Arianna sat and
stretched, cracking several spots in her back. “I guess I was more
tired than I knew.” Turner quickly buttoned his shirt as Arianna
continued to ignore the third person in the room.

“It’s not polite to stare,” she finally said
to the boy. “If you keep following people around, staring at them,
they might get the wrong impression.” His quiet steps were the same
as she had heard in the auditorium. Arianna turned to the dark,
curly-haired boy whose name she didn’t know. He smiled as he
knelt.

“It’s so great to finally meet you,” he
said, as he continued his bow.

Arianna turned to Turner for an explanation,
and he shrugged.

“Um, thanks,” she replied, following Turner
as he led her out of the room. Arianna stopped in the doorway as
she turned back to the boy. Smiling, she instantly changed into her
dearg-dul form. “This is what you wanted to confirm, right?” she
asked, as he smiled back at her and nodded. “And the answer is
yes.”

“What?” Turner asked, as they walked down
the hallway into the choir room.

“He wanted to know if I really was a
dearg-dul. He can tell I’m a baku, but he couldn’t believe I was a
dearg-dul,” Arianna explained as she led the way out of the
practice rooms.

“How did you,” Turner began. They could
barely get her to understand that night humans were all different
in strength, yet she could easily read the boy’s mind.

“I dunno. I just knew,” Arianna replied.
Arianna followed Turner and Devin across the empty hallway to the
auditorium. The bell had already rung for the beginning of class,
thus Arianna didn’t have the chance to see her friends before her
next lesson.

“Why is Gabriel hiding?” Arianna asked
Turner. Turner glanced around the room. He couldn’t find anyone
else besides Arianna’s guards.

“Where?” Turner asked.

“Next to you,” Gabriel replied, appearing
next to Arianna and Turner, just inside the doorway.

“How,” Turner began to ask, but quickly
stopped. Gabriel was the enemy in the eyes of everyone Turner had
ever known. He had never seen Gabriel until he had shown up this
morning to escort Arianna to school.

“Who is my tutor for these lessons?” Arianna
asked, leading the way into the room.

“No one for today. We can’t have baku
lessons until you are a baku,” Gabriel ushered Arianna to the front
row of seats so that he could sit on the stage and face her as they
talked. “You seemed to have trouble with your lesson earlier this
morning, yet you had no trouble finding me, or even Andrew, as he
watched your lesson.”

“Andrew? The rude, curly-hair guy in the
choir room?” Arianna asked. Gabriel nodded. “The whole power thing
is so confusing,” Arianna complained. “They all said it’s best to
compare other night humans to your own strength. But my strength is
never constant. Sometimes it seems like Turner is almost equal to
me and sometimes it feels like I’m ten times stronger. Besides, how
am I supposed to compare when I haven’t found anyone stronger than
me?”

“I understand,” Gabriel said. “Then how
about comparing everyone to Turner? If we were to put Turner on a
scale one through ten, he would fall just about a nine. Where would
Molina fall?”

Arianna glanced across the room and then
looked back to Turner. “A six?” she guessed.

“That would be about right. Strength wise,
Molina is only a little stronger than average, but her speed and
quick thinking are well above all of us,” Gabriel explained. Molina
nodded at the compliment. She was growing more used to the old
baku.

“So, power isn’t the only thing to judge
someone by,” Arianna observed.

“No, this lesson was more or less to get you
to see how your power is fluctuating. Since you are a purebred, you
are able to regulate the power coming out of you. Turner and Molina
are always at the power you see now, but you, like me, can change
it if you choose.” Gabriel sat and waited for Arianna to
understand. “That’s how I can get by Turner without him noticing.
Some of us can actually turn our power down to zero.”

Arianna nodded. “You’re saying it’s better
to be lower?”

“Sometimes,” Gabriel replied. “Other times
it’s better to show your strength and scare off an opponent.”
Arianna jumped as Gabriel increased his power to full strength.

“You are as strong as Grandfather,” she
replied in awe.

“That old man doesn’t feel it’s necessary to
lower his power.” Gabriel stopped and returned to normal. Smiling,
he replied, “And you are stronger. Try it once. Just let go of
everything. Don’t get distracted by the slight noises you
constantly hear. Close your eyes,” he directed. “Relax. Take a few
deep breaths and forget you’re sitting here.”

Arianna followed her
uncle’s directions. Ignoring the sounds that seemed louder with her
eyes shut, Arianna focused on listening to her own breath. Calming
down, she felt a warm sensation growing inside her. Arianna waited
as it grew larger and larger.
Is this
really my power
, she wondered, as it
continued to grow.
It’s not
stopping
, she worried, opening her eyes to
find Turner and Gabriel intently watching her, while Molina,
Nelson, and Mica stood in shock nearby.

“I see the problem,” Gabriel replied. “You
are already repressing your power greatly.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Well if Turner is a nine on the scale and
your grandfather and I are a ten, you would be a twenty-five,”
Gabriel explained.

“What?” Arianna asked in shock.

“I’d put her more at a thirty,” Turner
added. “She didn’t get up to full strength before she stopped.”
Arianna looked from Turner to Gabriel. He nodded in agreement.

“Well, the best we can hope, then, is for
you to try to keep matched to Turner,” Gabriel replied. “It would
be nice if you could stay below Molina to keep people away from
hunting you before you can defend yourself, but if you can match
Turner it will help more than it does now when you fluctuate and
get stronger than him. Night humans will sense your power and want
to catch you, even if they do not know who you are.”

“I’ll try,” Arianna replied, knowing that
everyone in the room was concerned about her safety.

“Good,” Gabriel responded as he stood and
walked to her. “I need to get going for now. Tonight, I need you to
come over to my house at around nine o’clock. There will be a
formal dinner to meet the rest of our family and the leaders of the
baku community.”

“Is this a dinner like the one grandfather
threw for me, or Lord Winter?” Arianna asked.

Gabriel smiled. “I prefer the one your
grandfather threw, if you are up to it.” Arianna nodded. It wasn’t
like she was given a choice the first time around. “Since you
deserve some sense of normalcy, Devin arranged for you to still
have your foods class at the end of the day with Mary Ellen.”
Arianna nodded, and Gabriel vanished just as the bell rang to end
class.

Turner and Devin escorted Arianna through
the crowded hallways to her classroom. Passing person after person,
Arianna was surprised when she noticed that every other person she
passed was a night human. Arianna stopped when Turner and Devin
didn’t enter the room behind her.

“We need to go take care of something,”
Devin explained, grabbing Turner’s arm. “Stay here with Jackson and
Molina, and don’t go outside until after two.”

Arianna nodded as the bell rang again and
people began hurrying down the hallways to their classes. Arianna
casually moved to her cooking station where Mary Ellen was waiting,
all while listening to Turner and Devin as they walked down the
hallway. They stopped not too far away and turned into the math
quad.

“Wait here,” Devin told Turner as he entered
a room.

“I need to borrow Susan,” Devin said to the
teacher, who seemed to easily agree. “Here,” Devin added, as he
returned to Turner. “They don’t keep blood in school because it
would make it a target, but there are several students here that
offer to feed dearg-dul and lycan who are in need of blood. Turner,
this is Susan. Susan, Turner,” Devin introduced them.

Arianna was beginning to get angry. She took
a lot of blood from Turner, but she didn’t think it would lead to
him feeding on another girl. Though they were not dating, she still
was angry that he would be doing such a thing with another
girl.

“Earth to Ari,” Mary Ellen repeated. “Your
nap must have been good. You’re still in a daze.”

“Sorry,” Arianna replied. “What’s on the
menu today?” Arianna wanted to keep listening to Devin and Turner,
but she found that baking was a good distraction.

“Lemon cake,” Mary Ellen replied.

“Mmm,” Arianna added, looking at the recipe.
“Do we need anything from the store room?” Arianna asked.

“We’re low on sugar,” Mary Ellen held out
the jar to Arianna.

Arianna hurried to the small hallway between
the two rooms. She easily found the sugar and her mind drifted to
find Turner and Devin. Finding Turner in the neighboring room,
Arianna peeked into the office to look through the glass windows.
Turner was in the far corner with his head down on the desk
sleeping. Looking around, she noticed Devin was not in the room.
She found him sitting outside the room with Molina, both immersed
in their own work.

Though she still was mad at Turner and
Devin, Arianna relaxed a little; after all, she was home and at
school with her friends. Baking the cake with Mary Ellen reminded
her of how much she had missed everything back at home. Arianna
joked with her friend as they finished cleaning their station. Even
though so much had changed, it still felt completely normal to be
with her best friend.

“Don’t you want to give some to your
friends?” Mary Ellen asked, as they cut the cake they had just
made.

“Not really,” Arianna replied. “I’m mad at
them right now.”

“Well, fine,” Mary Ellen took several
pieces. “I’m not, and they’re cute.” Mary Ellen hurried away before
Arianna could stop her. When Mary Ellen returned, she was
triumphant. “The cute blond said to stay here with spiky hair girl,
and she will take you home.”

Arianna checked the room
next door. Turner was gone and so was Devin.
What are they doing now?
she
wondered.

“Are you helping with the diner tonight?”
Mary Ellen asked.

“I don’t think so,” Arianna replied, as they
stepped into the crowded hallway, filled with students leaving for
the day. “I think I have to go to a formal dinner at nine. You and
Tish should come over now before they take me away. Who knows when
they’ll let me back again?”

“We do need to catch up, especially about
the two cute boys that follow you around like puppy dogs,” Mary
Ellen replied, winking at her friend and giving a little play bark.
Arianna blushed. There was really no easy way to explain Devin and
Turner without telling her everything about her time at her
grandfather’s house.

“Arianna,” a male voice yelled from behind
as Arianna and Mary Ellen walked to their lockers. Both stopped in
surprise to find Chris Sherwood pushing his way through the crowd
of students while yelling Arianna’s name. Arianna had never talked
to the captain of the basketball team before.

Mary Ellen giggled at the shock in Arianna
face.

“Are you guys coming to our game tonight?”
he asked, finally making it close enough to them to talk in a
normal voice without shouting.

“I don’t know. I just got back from a trip.
I don’t know what my aunt and uncle will say,” Arianna replied.

“Well, we would love to have you there,” he
said, as more team members joined him. “What about the dark haired
guy that was with you today? Does he play?” Chris looked around for
Turner.

“He had to leave a little early,” Arianna
explained.

“Talk to your aunt and uncle,” Chris added,
turning to the person who was yelling his name down the hall. “We
definitely would win if you were there.” Chris grinned and weaved
his way back through the students.

“Uh huh,” Mary Ellen replied, watching him
walk away with a dreamy expression on her face.

Arianna sat in silence as Molina drove the
three girls back to her aunt and uncle’s diner. She listened to her
friends talk about boys, mainly, and being invited to the
basketball game by the captain of the team. Everything seemed so
normal; it was like the last week had never happened. As her
friends ran upstairs, Arianna went to the kitchen to get
snacks.

“Lou?” Arianna asked cautiously, smelling
the distinct smell of night humans all over the kitchen.

“Little one,” Arianna heard Lou’s hearty
voice deep within the kitchen. Arianna weaved between everyone set
on their tasks, preparing for the evening rush. The middle-aged man
with the long, dark ponytail and mustache was at his normal
position in the middle of the chaos. “You couldn’t survive without
me, could ya’ now?”