Tainted Crimson (6 page)

It isn’t long before Jacob grabs my arm, helps me up, pulls me up the stairs, shoves me into the house, and shuts the front door, ushering me to the couch. I reluctantly take a seat. I spot Nathan laying still and unconscious across the room on the floor and wonder if he’s alright. Is he dead?

No one says anything for what seems like hours but I’m sure it’s only minutes. Then finally Jacob stands up from his own seat beside D on the couch opposite of mine.

“D is right, Ariella, your father is alive. Before you go about telling us that you saw his body again, you have to let us explain. Your father should have explained all of this years ago,
our
father. Why don’t we start with that?” Jacob rambles as if he’s not sure where to start.

I look at him wondering if he’s lost it.

“You’re my half-sister,” he tries again as if he thinks I didn’t comprehend his words.

“That’s impossible. My dad is barely old enough to be my own father,” I mutter.

“Actually, he’s old enough to be your great great great something grandfather. He is nearly 300 years old. He’s an
Immortal
. The first immortal, actually,” he continues.

Before I have the chance to tell him he’s nuts, D stands up. “She’s going to think you’re nuts.
Telling
her isn’t going to work, you’ll have to
show
her.” D walks into the kitchen and starts rummaging through cupboards until he pulls out a glass.

“I know but what do you suggest
I
do? Stab myself?” Jacob answers.

I watch as D fills his cup with water and takes a swig.

“No idea,” D says and returns to his seat. “Continue.”

“Maybe I should start from the beginning. Uh...witches. There are witches. Years ago, there was a set of twins born with strange powers. Call it a birth defect or god or aliens or whatever. Centuries ago not years, sorry. One got her power from the earth, she created it. The other, for some reason, couldn’t create it, he had to take it. Like take it from other witches or humans. Suck it right out of them, kill them. He was locked up as a child by his sister because he was obviously not er...
safe
. Then just under a century ago, he escaped, caused a ruckus, killed millions of humans, you’d know it as the holocaust. He created these beings, a little army that, like him, had to take magic from others to live, but these little minions could not wield power because their bodies were not created to do so. Marco, the twin who had to take power, couldn’t muster enough power even after killing all of those people, to create such an ability in his creation. He made these things out of humans, tainted their blood with magic somehow. We call them vampires, though they’re a lot different from what society would call a vampire. They are trash. Selfish beings who only lust for blood. They are incapable of love. His sister, Arianna, then in return, created the immortals from witches and humans to kill off these other beings-”

“Stop, stop, are you insane?” I demand furiously. “My father is dead and you’re feeding me this crap? What’s wrong with you?”

Both of them sigh simultaneously.              

“Show her,” Jacob mumbles and nods to D. "I don't have the patience to ease her into this."

D smirks and suddenly a lamp is flying from beside me towards the wall. I jump up, eyes wide. It then stops in midair and slowly sets itself down on the floor right before smashing into the wall.

“D is a witch,” Jacob says.

“I prefer warlock,” D amends.

I’m sure my eyes are about to fall from their sockets. Holy hell. Did I just see that? Surely there’s some sort of logical explanation… Only thing is, I know that there’s not. There is no explanation, for any of the nonsense that I’ve seen. Not a logical one at least. Not one that will explain anything I’ve seen: my mother’s death, the boy flying up to the roof at school, Nathan becoming unconscious by D’s mere touch, or the lamp flying across the room. I realize that I’ve seen too much to say that it’s coincidence or there’s another explanation.
Something weird
is happening, has been happening for a while. I can admit that much. Witches and vampires and immortals though? I don't know.

I don’t know what it is inside me but something is begging me to listen to what Jacob has to say no matter how crazy it sounds because have I not seen enough crazy crap lately that I have no explanation for? After all, do I not have reason to believe that D could be a witch? That or he has some mad magician skills.

“Your father, our father, is an immortal, as am I. D’s grandmother is the witch who created the immortals, her name is Arianna,” Jacob explains slowly as if I have a mental disability.

“Immortals cannot have children with witches of either of the two lines, nor with other immortals, or humans. Therefore your mother has to have been a vampire,” D continues with his own words. "I don't know why they can mate with with vampires they just can."

“Our father fell in love with your mother although it is the most important rule of our existence not to be involved with the vampires. We were designed to hate the vampires, it’s why we were made. We were made to kill them. It goes against our entire nature to feel anything except hate towards those creatures,” Jacob explains while scratching his head. “D’s parents were killed by Marco, Arianna’s twin brother, he has been trying to rid the world of Arianna’s entire line since he got out of his prison. Likely as some sort of revenge against his sister locking him up all those years ago. He’s managed to kill nearly all the witches in her line accept for maybe two hundred including D who are all in hiding...except D because he’s a moron and wants to get killed,” he glares at D for a moment and then continues. “D you don’t know this but you’ve met Ariella before in a park the day your parents were killed.”

D smirks. “I thought I recognized those blue eyes. I remember now. That explains why Theenis was there that day. I can’t believe you idiots didn’t tell me about her sooner. You knew I’d find out eventually didn’t you?” D scoffs while staring at me with interest.

I put two and two together and recall the boy in the park.
Daymon
.

“Your grandmother would kill my father for associating with a vampire, she would kill Ariella for being part vampire,” Jacob says through gritted teeth and bit of worry in his voice.

I suck in a quick breath. Could I be part vampire? Part Immortal? Wouldn’t I feel different? I mean, I feel normal. But then again, do I really know what
normal
feels like? My thoughts are interrupted by D.

“Theenis is my best friend. He’s saved my life more than once. I wouldn’t ever
tattle
on him,” D says as if shocked. “That’s insane.”

“Would you risk your own life and daughter’s on that if the situation were reversed?” he asks D who doesn’t answer and only shrugs.

“So he is okay, Ariella. He will wake up at any moment and be at the front door. Immortals can’t die,” Jacob reassures me. This is the only hope I have for my father being alright so I grasp on to it, willing myself to believe. Then, I see Nathan stir out of the corner of my eye and realize that I’ve nearly forgotten about him. I sigh, thanking god that he is okay, he’s at least breathing anyway.

The two men stare at me while I digest what they’ve told me. Only I can’t digest it because my mind won’t let me. Of course I want to believe that my father is alive but it all seems so surreal. I look at Jacob but avoid eye contact. Does he look like me? My father? Is it possible that we are in fact related? I realize that his eyes are the same deep dark brown as my father’s and his hair the same shade as his as well. I could share the same nose as him and maybe even eyebrows. Maybe, it isn’t so impossible.

“If you were four that day at the park can you really remember the color of my eyes fourteen years later or are you joking?” Out of the millions of questions I need to ask, this is what comes out. I almost laugh at myself.

He chuckles. “Witches have excellent memories and I wasn’t
really
four. I got caught by Marco a few weeks prior to that day. I needed to escape, only there was no way out and the only people that knew I was missing were Theenis and Jacob and they didn’t know how to save me or even where I was. I didn’t want them getting mixed up in my mess anyways. I remembered an old spell I read in one of my mother’s books. It was one that allowed you to be reborn. I never thought I’d find a use for it and so I could hardly remember how to do it when I needed it that day. I cast it and then I killed myself. Boy was my mother ever surprised when she had me. Again. Witches mature far faster than humans. It was a few weeks later that I was able to tell them what happened. Then somehow Marco tracked me to them and well you know the rest. He killed them and then followed me to the park. He recaptured me, killed your mom when she got in the way, and nearly killed you. I ’m nearly 300 years old, Ariella, not eighteen.”

Suddenly I’m gawking at him as if he’s grown a third ear.

“I was running trying to find Theenis’ house only my four year old brain couldn’t remember where it was. I’m not gonna lie, I got distracted by a playground. When you showed up at the park I could tell you weren’t human, you had a spark like our kind do, a light. Even without my mind fully developed I could sense you were a light supernatural through Denver’s haze. The mountains here have these crystals that confuse even the strongest supernaturals and make them unable to sense each other unless they are super duper strong like me. But when I saw your mother, I saw nothing, that’s how I knew your father must be at least partly like me, like my kind. I assumed a warlock. My brain wasn’t fully developed and I couldn't defend myself or my parents, or your mother, or you. I regretted my decision to be ‘reborn’ at that minute. I hurt more people by escaping than I could’ve imagined. I never once thought that Theenis was your father. I assumed you were a witch, I was too young to sense your mother’s darkness. Darkness is harder to sense than light, even now with my power it's hard for me to sense. I really have to focus. I guess I must’ve almost had Theenis’ address right because somehow we ended up in the same park.” It’s the most I’ve heard Daymon or D speak. The most emotion I’ve seen from him and the least sarcasm or cockiness.

“It was a block from my house. I didn’t know it at the time but it is a block from here,” I tell him without even meaning to, the words just slip from my mouth. “I don’t think my mom wanted you to be left alone at the park so she stayed late to wait for someone to come for you. Then my father got worried and came looking for us.”

“I’m sorry,” Daymon says truthfully.

“For what?” I ask.

“If it weren’t for me, your mother would probably still be alive,” he explains as if it’s obvious.

I’d never even thought of that.

“Let’s not forget that her mother was a vampire, D,” Jacob scorns.

D seems to snap out of his memories. “Yes, yes she was.
It
was a vampire.”

And back I go to being disgusted by him. I remember my mother, vaguely, but I do. She was a nice lady. She loved me, I know she did. Nothing they can say will change that.

Suddenly I’m wanting my father more than ever.

There’s groan in the corner of the room and I look over to see Nathan stirring again.

“What did you do to him?” I ask, relieved to see him moving again.

“I just knocked him out. He shouldn’t be waking up already. He should be out for hours longer. I’m not sure what’s going on,” he says not sounding concerned but more surprised.

Jacob’s phone begins ringing in his pocket and he jumps up and leaves the house without saying a word. D looks surprised again.

“Maybe that’s your father,” he says, awakening more hope inside me.

Then Nathan is on his feet looking around as if he’s in the middle of a war zone. How did he get up so fast?

“Are you okay, Nathan?” I ask him, worried.

He looks at me and it seems to take him a moment to recognize me. He blinks and then looks to D.

“
You
. You’re a fucking witch,” Nathan says vehemently. “Care to explain?”

D looks surprised for a third time. The surprise doesn’t stay on his face however. He pulls on his mask of cockiness and sarcasm.

“And you must be an ogre. I wondered why you were so ugly,” he says and I roll my eyes. Here we go again.

Nathan scoffs. “Vampire actually, but you knew that. You’re a pure blood witch you can sense these things. So why am I still alive?”

I gasp and D struggles to hide his surprise again but I see it.

“Get out of here. Now,” D demands. “Before the other guy gets back and does kill you.”

Nathan winces a little. “He’s an immortal, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, he is. So I’d run,” D threatens.

“And what about her?” he looks to me.

“Leave her alone, don’t speak to her again,” he says and then nods towards the door.

“You didn’t tell him I was a vampire, did you?” he asks as he moves towards the door.

“No.”

And then Nathan is out my front door and I’m sitting on the couch wondering if I seriously went to prom with a vampire.
Seriously, what the hell is happening?