The Legend of the Blue Eyes (28 page)

Turner walked to the front of the room. “She
won’t fall asleep that way,” he explained, as several people in the
room hissed at him for talking. Gabriel nodded. “You just need her
asleep, right?” Gabriel nodded again. Turner stretched out his hand
to Arianna, who ignored the sleepy sensation and stood to take it.
Outside the mist, her senses completely returned, and she was no
longer sleepy.

“I kind of have a problem sleeping,” she
explained to her uncle. Turner pulled the chair out from beneath
the mist and sat down, still holding her hand. Arianna sat down on
his lap and carefully unbuttoned the top buttons of his shirt. His
skin was warm as she laid her face against his chest. It was warm
and safe in his arms. Arianna unconsciously smiled as she pressed
her face against his chest. In a room full of hateful and curious
stares, there was nothing but love radiating from Turner. In what
seemed like an instant to her, the beating of Turner’s heart had
lulled Arianna to sleep.

Turner stared at the crowd, challenging
anyone to speak further, but everyone just watched in shock as the
realization spread from row to row. As she slept, everyone felt the
strong sense of baku coming from the sleeping dearg-dul. Gabriel
walked over and held the bowl in front of Turner. He gently picked
up her other hand and pierced her fingertip. One drop of blood fell
into the bowl. A flash of light instantly lit up the whole tent. No
one in the room could contain their amazement. The crowd began to
feverishly talk to each other. Everyone in the room was happy, with
the exception of one person, Andrew’s uncle. As Gabriel waited for
the crowd to quiet, Turner could feel the hateful stares return to
him as he held their precious baku. Gabriel moved in front of
Turner to block the glares.

“Arianna is a purebred dearg-dul. She has
full dearg-dul powers and is learning how to use them. Circling the
tent is her PPU. She won’t be assigned baku guards as her
grandfather and I handpicked her PPU together. She has taken on one
keeper, Brenton Winter. They are not to be touched in any way or
form.” Disagreement vented through the crowd. “Anyone who lays a
hand on any of the humans, dearg-duls or lycan associated with
Arianna will have to deal with me.” There was no more dissent
through the crowd. “Now I ask that the three purebred baku here be
the witness for this. You can wake her,” Gabriel added to
Turner.

Turner lifted Arianna’s head and gently
stroked her face. Arianna groggily blinked her eyes.

“Time to get up, sleepy,” Turner said
softly, before leaning in and kissing Arianna’s forehead in front
of the crowd.

Arianna was instantly awake to the hateful
glares of the people around her at Turner. She blushed as he pulled
back and smiled victoriously. He lightly set her on her feet.
Arianna felt her cheeks still burning.

“Stupid wolf,” Devin muttered, also
grinning. Arianna finally noticed the glares were meant for Turner
and not her. “Join them,” Devin urged Arianna who was looking
around the room for Gabriel.

Three men were standing in the front of the
crowd next to Gabriel. Andrew, his uncle, and an unknown man were
standing side by side, all talking to Gabriel. Arianna walked up
next to her uncle at Devin’s suggestion.

“Sign here and here,” Gabriel held out
forms. “This way,” he added, after all three had signed.

Gabriel led the way back into the house.
“Pick a room to wait in,” Gabriel directed the three men. “We’ll be
here, in the kitchen.” The men all nodded and left. Arianna stood,
watching her uncle as he opened the refrigerator. Pulling out three
vials from the bottom shelf, Arianna was surprised to see the
fridge was full of food, not blood. Gabriel laughed. “Baku require
less blood than dearg-duls,” he explained, “since we can only
transform at night.” Arianna nodded.

“So, what comes next?” she asked. Turner and
Devin sat at the kitchen table as Molina continued to pace.

“One of these should do,” Gabriel explained,
putting the vials on the cupboard in front of Arianna. Arianna
wrinkled her nose at the blood. “Baku blood.”

“Your blood?” Arianna asked.

“Not my day human blood, as you have tasted
before. My baku blood.”

Arianna looked at the three
vials. Each radiated the same sour smell of power that her
grandfather’s blood did. Arianna stopped at looked at the second
vial. It looked identical to the other two, but it was somehow
different. Arianna uncapped it and took a sniff. It
was
different. Gabriel
took her hand, and with quick, painless jabs, immediately made
blood to blood contact.

‘What’s wrong?’
he thought.

‘This just seems
strange,’
Arianna replied.
‘I don’t think it’s your blood.’

Gabriel picked up the vial and took a sniff
of it also. He couldn’t tell the difference.

‘I don’t know why, but it
just doesn’t seem like it’s yours,’
Arianna explained.

‘Do you know whose it is?’

Arianna closed her eyes and tried to watch
the people outside the house. Gabriel smiled, fascinated with
watching how she saw the world as it flickered by. The scent wasn’t
outside. Arianna moved her search into the house. The white
flickering of Devin’s heartbeat made her pause. She slowly looked
to Turner and sensed it again.

‘It’s like them. The blood
is from someone that loves me the way those two do,’
Arianna explained. Gabriel smelled the vial
again. Now he could slightly sense what Arianna had felt
immediately
. ‘And he’s in the
house.’

Arianna used her incredible senses to find
Andrew in the front room. He was sitting on the couch, in his baku
form, intently listening to the kitchen. A smile crossed his face
as Arianna found him.

‘It’s Andrew’s baku
blood,’
Arianna paused.
‘You know how we were rating everyone
before?’

‘Yes.’

‘You and grandpa were at an eleven or
twelve. Andrew is at a sixteen.’

Arianna now watched as
Gabriel searched the house and found Andrew’s uncle upstairs. The
irate man was pacing around an upstairs bedroom.
‘
The old man has no clue. What a cunning
boy,’
Gabriel commented.

‘Please explain,’
Arianna begged, not understanding.

‘It seems Andrew hid his
own baku blood in mine for you,’
Gabriel
replied.
‘The higher the power of the
blood you drink, the less painful the change is. That’s why all
baku changes are done with my blood. I’m currently the strongest
baku. At least that’s what I thought. Because I’m still in charge,
I can assume that even his uncle doesn’t know his true strength.
The strongest baku is always the leader.’

‘Why would he hide that then, if he could be
the leader?’

‘I don’t know. You’ll have
to ask him that yourself. I can only speculate that there are
secrets in that family that we don’t know.’
Arianna nodded, as she finally noticed Devin and Turner
tensely watching their silent conversation.

“Drink one vial now, and then, after you
change, drink the other two vials. It should be enough to last you
through the evaluation by the present purebreds,” Gabriel
explained, and the tension eased in the room.

“Which one should I drink?” Arianna asked,
knowing that Andrew was intently listening to the conversation.

“Are you sure about what you told me?”
Gabriel asked. Arianna nodded. “I don’t smell any poisons, so it
should be safe.”

“I can go ask him,” Devin replied,
understanding the situation. Turner stared from Devin to
Gabriel.

“That’s not needed,” Arianna replied, taking
the vial with Andrew’s blood and drinking it. Arianna fell to her
knees and the pain rushed over her, forcing her eyes shut.

Arianna slowly opened her eyes to find
herself in Devin’s arms. An overwhelming sense of concern came over
her as she watched his face. Arianna turned slightly and looked up
at her uncle, who, unlike Devin and Turner, actually appeared to be
happy. Arianna sat up slowly and took Turner’s outstretched hand.
In a fluid movement she was standing eye-to-eye with Turner, her
arms wrapped around his neck. The sensation she felt as their hands
touched made her not want to let go. As she grazed over the skin at
the back of his neck, she paused. The warmth that was radiating
from him caught her attention. Arianna paused and smiled. She felt
nothing but an overwhelming warm sensation of love from Turner. He
smiled back and put his hands at her waist. Arianna shivered.
Everything seemed to be amplified a hundred times from what she
felt in her human form. Arianna was completely blind to the world
around her as she gazed at Turner. His emotions read loud and
clear. It felt like direct energy to her, more powerful than any
blood she had drank.

“I’d love to let you explore the changes you
experience when you are a baku, but I need to get you evaluated
before the blood is used up,” Gabriel explained. Arianna pulled
back, momentarily embarrassed by her blunt actions, which had been
almost instinctual.

“I think I might like the baku Arianna,”
Turner replied, as Gabriel ushered Arianna upstairs. Arianna paused
on the stairs to look back at Turner and Devin. While normally
Devin was too reserved for Arianna to sense, she could now tell
that he felt the same way as Turner. Devin stared back at Arianna.
His face was as stoic as usual, and focused on his task, but his
heart was not. Gabriel stepped in between Arianna and the two
boys.

“Drink these,” Gabriel handed Arianna the
two vials. Arianna tried to look past her uncle, but he forced the
blood in front of her face. Arianna took the vials and obediently
drank the sour red liquid. “That should last you until later.”
Gabriel pushed Arianna down the hallway, toward a closed door.
Arianna cautiously opened the door. Even from the doorway, Arianna
could see perfectly into the unlit room.

“Since I sponsored you, I cannot enter the
room with you, or the test will be forfeit,” Gabriel explained.
Arianna hesitated at the doorway. A rather large baku was sitting
in a chair, reading a paper in the dark. His long, scraggly white
hair hung free to his waist. He paused as the door opened, and
Gabriel pushed Arianna forward.

“We’re right behind you,” Devin said
quietly.

“We won’t let you out of our sight,” Turner
added.

The baku offered Arianna his hand as she
walked slowly into the room. She had only had a glimpse of the baku
on the night she changed into a dearg-dul. The refined man sitting
in the chair reading was a stark contrast to the growling monsters
she had seen. He folded his glasses and set them down on top of the
paper.

“Even in this form my eyes are bad,” the man
explained. “Welcome, prized baku Arianna.” The man motioned to the
seat beside his. “I am Rafael. I am the current head of the
Haggerty family. My job tonight is to assess your strength. We all
know from the tests conducted earlier that you are a purebred baku,
but we need to figure out what your rank will be within the
community.”

“How can you do that? I still don’t even
have my dearg-dul strength under control. I doubt I’m any good at
this baku stuff,” Arianna replied, catching her reflection in the
mirror across the room as she walked over and sat next to the
inviting man. She hadn’t noticed that she was now standing almost
eye to eye with Turner, who was slightly shorter than Devin. Her
normally shoulder-length blond hair fell down to her butt, and was
now a slightly blond-tinted white color. Her complexion was snow
white, which made her lips and blue eyes stand out even more than
normal. Arianna stopped and stared at her blue eyes, and then
glanced back to the man waiting for her.

He studied her with his purple tinted eyes.
“Correct. We baku do not keep our eye color when we change. Those
are peculiar blue eyes.” He drifted off into silent thought.
“Everything about you says you are a purebred baku, except for
those eyes.”

“They seem to get me in trouble everywhere I
go,” Arianna replied.

Rafael held open his hand. “Would you permit
me to look inside your mind?” Arianna sliced her thumb against her
palm and reached over for his hand. “What do you see in this room?”
he asked aloud.

Arianna looked around the room. Everything
was clear: the furniture, the books, the slight light coming from
the party below in the corner of the window. And then she stopped
looking. Turner was standing against the doorway, eagerly watching
her. Arianna held herself still as she wanted to run back over to
him. Gabriel reached forward, and pulled Turner from her view.