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Title: Bite Me: Chapter 1
Author: Mika Kitsune (Me)
Time: Days on and off
Rating: PG-13 for language
Point Of View: Collin's- 1st person
Summary: "I watched my face’s reflection take deep, even, unnecessary breaths, his eyes closed, his face set in a gentle peacefulness as he curled around his favorite teddy bear."
Bite Me
Chapter 1
I watched my face’s reflection take deep, even, unnecessary breaths, his eyes closed, his face set in a gentle peacefulness as he curled around his favorite teddy bear. It was very cute I had to admit in spite of my irritable state. Cute, but completely idiotic. “Cayden,” I hissed in annoyance, finally fed up with his antics. “Cayden, get up. It doesn’t matter how hard or long you try. You won’t get to sleep.”
Cayden’s eyes fluttered open to reveal dark, nearly black irises. He sighed and curled tighter around his bear, clinging stubbornly to his hope for sleep. “But Collin,” he whined, dark eyes looking up into mine, “I want to go to sleep. It’s stupid that we can’t.”
I nodded slightly. He didn’t even sound tired. This was simply his small attempt at being something similar to normal and we both knew it. He did this every once in a while, whenever he felt particularly abnormal. It was a stupid thing to do, childish, but I couldn’t seem to shake him of it no matter what I said or did. My eyes flitted over to the horizon created by Chicago’s tall buildings. The first brilliant rays of morning flickered over the edges, briefly making the city appear to be on fire. My face set into a vaguely aggravated expression, the same one that it did every time dawn somehow managed to maneuver past the darkness and into the awaiting sky.
I felt something release me, like a string tied around the center of my chest and was suddenly unraveling. A sigh that I couldn’t suppress slipped passed my lips. Behind me, I heard three breaths simultaneously echo mine. The string stopped unraveling and fastened itself firmly in place. I closed my eyes, regrouping for a moment, before I stood from my resting spot against the windowsill. “Go get ready for school.”
Cayden smiled brightly, his fangs flickering in the morning light as he jumped out from the nest of blankets he’d made on our couch and scurried to do as I’d told him to.
“Sara, get ready for school,” I said it firmly, but as quietly as I would have if she’d been right next to me. Her response was immediate, crystal clear and expected.
“Make me.”
Every time we made her go to school she did this. I could understand some of it. Going through kindergarten, first, second, and third grade over and over would drive me insane. Bit it couldn’t be helped. She looked too old to stay at home but too young to start fourth grade. Because we’d moved into this particular district over the summer she would have to begin the process over again. Still, year after year of forcing her to fulfill her responsibilities to our coven was perplexing to say the least.
“You don’t want me to make you, Sara.” I went for my dresser and pulled out the white and dark red uniform required for our new school, dressing quickly. I would have to begin soon if I wanted to make it to school on time. Drawing more attention than we already would the first day would be highly undesirable.
“You can’t make her do anything.”
I didn’t bother to look up from pulling on my shoes to acknowledge Peter’s presence lingering in the doorway. In my head I cursed loudly though, wishing that he would’ve stayed out to hunt for that one extra day he always complained about not getting. That would have made everything go so much more smoothly. After fiddling with the laces of my shoes for a moment, delaying the inevitable, I stood and moved quickly past Peter, over to Sara’s room.
I always hate her room no matter how she decorates it. Her newest theme was Dolls Around the World. The walls were a sponged pink and silver, but you could barely see them behind the rows upon rows of shelves that lined the walls. Each row held dolls of all kinds, none of which a child would consider playing with. All of them were from a different time and place and for every one you looked at there was one that was more bizarre, its face set in some more grotesque manner or its features a bit more monstrous. I ignored their unmoving eyes as I walked in followed closely by Peter.
Sara was in her huge pink bean bag chair, her quick fingers braiding and unbraiding the hair of her current favorite doll, a particularly fierce looking 1400’s rag doll that had been made in London during the reign of the Bubonic Plague. Its skin was white in the places that the great black spots that represented the boils of the plague didn’t cover. Its eyes were wide and showed too much white; its mouth was twisted in a scream never to be heard. The brown locks of hair that Sara toyed with were real, supposedly a plague victim’s. Sara had a sick obsession with the utterly morbid. It was a stark contrast to her wavy blonde hair, the large, usually cornflower blue eyes, the sickly looking translucent skin of our kind, and the syrupy sweet elegance of the way she spoke, a contrast that most would never see. All they knew was the five year old innocent she pretended to be.
I could already feel the headache making its dull presence known just behind my eyes. “One.”
“Don’t you dare touch her,” Peter growled, his protective voice overwhelmingly humorous in my opinion. Sara was old enough to be someone’s grandmother. She didn’t need anyone’s misplaced concern.
Regardless, I nodded. “I won’t touch her.” I crouched, muscles tense and ready to spring. “Two. Last warning.” Though she tried to look completely at ease I noticed the minute changes in her posture and in the tenseness of her face. Her eyes, currently a deep navy color, flitted up to me and down again, rebellion and determination glittering in their near black depths. She’d been looking forward to this, I realized as I muttered a curse. She’d baited me. Ah well.
“Three.”
Several things happened in less than a second, things that a human wouldn’t be able to see. First, I lurched at Sara. She jumped up from her spot, dropping her doll, and flitted across the room. She was faster because she was smaller, and I couldn’t catch her. That was fine. I hadn’t been aiming for her. My hand crunched over the bean bag and swiveled on my heel, launching it at the spot that I’d predetermined she would be. Sara’s eyes widened but she’d been caught off her guard and didn’t have time to correct herself before the pink mass crashed into her with a dull thud. She hit the wall, one of the only spots unoccupied by the shelves, In the second that she was stunned I was already gathering her up in the bean bag.
She screeched, a sound too high pitched for lucky human ears, and attempted to flail. I held her securely in the bundle I’d made. She was fast but I was stronger. “Put me down this instant, Collin Blaise!” she demanded, her voice muffled by the plastic nylon around her.
In my peripheral vision I could see Cayden in the doorway behind Peter, laughing silently. Peter started into one of his my-baby-Sara speeches, a hushed yell for our neighbors’ benefit. I ignored it blatantly and waited for him to pause briefly before I spoke. “If you don’t get dressed and get in the car by the time I’m ready, I’ll drag you to school in your pajamas, decency be damned.”
She went silent and her struggling stopped. That was enough of an answer for me and I walked to Peter, depositing her, bean bag and all, into his arms. I’d dragged her to school in the pajamas she wore out of habit before. She wouldn’t take my threat idly. By the time I was ready she and Cayden were both waiting at the door and Peter was still fuming. As I walked by Cayden I heard him snicker and whisper so quietly that I barely caught what he said.
“Collin sixty four, Sara nothing.”
I tried not to be amused, but the smile that twitched at my lips came anyway. Cayden smiled brightly, his intentions clearly met.
Sara glared daggers at us both and pushed past us, stepping hard on Cayden’s foot as she did so. He yelped and grabbed his foot, wobbling on one leg. “Ow! That hurt!” Sara laughed lightly. The headache grew stronger.
I ran my fingers through my hair, tugging a little on the ends. I could see the future, and I didn’t even need a crystal ball. It was going to be a bitching day. The ride to school did nothing to alter my prediction. Cayden and Sara griped at each other the entire way. I ignored them for the most part, but what little that did get through made me want to jump out the window. I practically flew out of the car as soon as I parked, barely caring if a human noticed that I looked like I was walking but was somehow at a running pace. Sara could find her own way to the elementary branch of the school and Cayden… could ask someone else to take him to our first class, Advanced English.
“Collin! Collin, wait!”
I didn’t look back, but I knew Cayden was waving me down, trying to jog and failing miserably with feet that stumbled over one another. It seemed at times that he only had two speeds: greased lightening and snail. Trace amounts of guilt filtered through my emotion blockers. Cayden could barely find his shoes in the morning by himself; how could I expect him to find a class? I pulled out a school map that I’d already memorized and pretended to be engrossed with that as I slowed a bit to give him time to catch up. Once he had he looked over my shoulder and down at the map, useless to anyone who didn’t know the rooms’ numbers. It was the only separating factor between all the boxes aside from slight variations in size and what hall they were labeled under, of which there were four: ‘W’ hall, ‘O’ hall, ‘L’ hall, and ‘F’ hall. Whoever named the branches of the school either wasn’t creative, was lazy, or thought they were funny. Probably all of the above. How unoriginal could someone get, having the halls spell out the name of the school mascot?
Cayden pointed to one of the boxes with a red ‘X’ in the corner. “Is that our first class?”
I shook my head. A light breeze ruffled the scents around us and I scented familiar blood. “That’s your third period. Did you fall?” Honestly, I hadn’t noticed him falling. Too many teenagers, all with different smells, were bustling about for me to pick one from the others without concentrating.
I felt Cayden nod. “Mmhm. My hands got scraped.” He swiped his palms against his pants to clean out any dirt before new skin healed over it.
“Make sure no one sees your hands until the scrapes are gone.” I flipped the map over, revealing a color coded key. Each box had a different color and a number beside it that stood for the period that the color would represent. Hopefully, this would keep him from getting too lost. “There are colored ‘X’s in the corners of all your classes. All the classes with black ‘X’s in the corners are mine if you have to come get me. If a class has a black and a colored ‘X’ we have it together, but we only have one of those this year.” I didn’t tell him not to lose the sheet as I folded it into quarters and placed it in his open palm. Doing so would’ve sealed the map’s fate a lot faster than simply trusting that Cayden wouldn’t lose it. Of course, it was inevitable that he’d lose it before the day was out anyway. I had three extra maps in my messenger bag for just such an occasion.
“We only have one? But we’ve never had so few before! Not since… our last school,” he ended carefully. I knew he meant our first high school when I’d taken all advanced classes while he was stuck in average ones. We only had lunch together then. Time had caught him up to the advanced kids for the most part so now it wasn’t hard to get almost every period with each other. Apparently, fate was against us this time. I considered talking to someone in the office about it later.
"Let's get to class. Our first period is English. Did you bring your copies of the summer reading?" Cayden blanched and shook his head.
I let out a slow breath of air, trying to let such a small thing slide. I was already ticked about the morning. Yelling would've been such an easy thing to do. But I held my tongue and told myself to behave. "Of course you didn't. They're on the coffee table and I forgot to remind you." I patted my messenger bag, inwardly scolding myself for not bringing Cayden's books myself instead of just my own. "I brought mine. We'll share."
Cayden smiled gratefully and nearly grabbed my arm, but I shot him a warning look that clearly said 'hands off'. I didn't want another twin love scandal on my hands. Those just took too much out of me anymore. Cayden got the message and kept his hands to himself, though I think he had a bit of a time with that; he crossed his arms tightly soon after my glare.
Suddenly a slow smile spread over his face, one of those cat-ate-the-canary smiles. "Can you hear them?" He was quiet, but the ecstasy was very plain in his voice.
I nodded. "Yes, it's hard not to. They're not even whispering." The entire school was talking about Cayden, the 'adorable little girl' we came with, and me. And here I thought private schools would at least have more extraordinary people for them to gawk at. Then again, maybe we were just the most recent shiny thing that had been waved in front of their faces. This was an expensive school, one that only exclusively rich families attended one generation after another. They'd know each other very well as business competitors if not friends. A few new 'rich kids' were bound to attract some interest. But was it really necessary to cause such an uproar?
I was almost used to people staring at us all the time now, though it still was somehow... abnormal. Cayden reveled in being the constant center of attention. He loved the fact that, with one glance, he could melt anyone he wanted in their shoes. He would later be reminded of what he didn't like about his instant popularity.
The minute bell rang and everyone who had been too busy talking about us to realize how close to the final bell it was now ran for their classes, scattering like roaches. I quickened my pace a bit with Cayden fumbling gracelessly behind me.
We made it to our first period unharmed, aside from Cayden's hands, and on time, though the teacher- Mr. Freeman, from the weighted name tag on his desk- seemed perplexed that we weren't already in our seats and waiting for class to begin. Quick apologies muttered, we took our seats. I was surprised that there was still a wall seat available and took that one with Cayden on my left. He was between me and some girl with short auburn hair that was staring at us just like everyone else in the room. I hate being a shiny toy.
"Looks like we'll be sitting together. I'm Cayden," he quietly introduced himself as Mr. Freeman began today's lesson by writing his name on the board and listing rules. "What's your name?"
She seemed to have to think about the question for a moment and I wondered if she'd forgotten her name like so many of the others that we introduced ourselves to. Finally she smiled and spoke, apparently having remembered what she was called. "Ying Fa at your service. Nice to meet you, Cayden."
This surprised me. She didn't seem uncomfortable at all when addressing him. She didn't even stutter. That was really uncommon. Sometimes people we talked to couldn't even bring themselves to speak. It sounds like I'm bragging or something, but I'm not. People just stand there looking like idiots sometimes. Cayden seemed particularly delighted by this change in the normal routine, which mainly included us being left out of any and all normal social cliques. Maybe this Ying Fa was that way as well? A quick glance over her told me differently. She seemed normal enough. Petite though, and at least partially Asian from the cat-like shape of her eyes and, of course, her name. There can't be too many full blood Americans with the name Ying Fa.
"Nice to meet you too, Ying Fa." He smiled and I almost stomped on his foot, but found that he was being rather good today. He'd remembered not to smile so big that his fangs showed. Good boy. I'd have to remember to praise him for it later. Sometimes he was like a puppy. If you praised him for little things he would try that much harder to do what it was that would generate the same response. He gestured to me. "That's Collin. We're twins."
Ying Fa laughed quietly behind her hand, glancing towards the teacher. She laid the sarcasm on thickly. "Really? Mind-blowing!" She sent a nod to me and I nodded back to acknowledge her. Her complete lack of uneasiness disconcerted me a bit. It was just so opposite to what we were used to. It wasn’t normal for someone to be easy going around us. Just like it’s not normal to play with cobras. Even young children realize that it’s dangerous. The most basic of survival instincts tell them this. Why didn’t this human harbor that same instinct?
Everyone- excluding me, of course- jumped as a ruler came down hard on Ying Fa’s desk. I didn’t have to look to know that our teacher was angry and blood was rushing to his face, turning it an odd ruddy color.
“Rule number five: No speaking unless addressed by me.” Apparently our teacher’s supposed control over his students had gotten to him a little over the years. He thought he was some kind of dictator. “That sweatshirt is against the school’s dress code.” He pointed to Ying Fa’s over-sized jacket. “Off.”
She seemed like she was about to protest but then thought better of it and obeyed, carefully removing the article of clothing. It swung heavily on the side and I wondered absently whether she had a cell phone or a headset in the pocket that she didn’t want taken up. This teacher didn’t seem the forgiving type, after all.
The air conditioner kicked on and I tensed as a breeze softly wafted against my face. The hunger pulled at my stomach as I scented the oh-so-close-to-the-surface blood of Mr. Freeman. In all honestly, he didn’t smell that wonderful, but moving recently and, of course, preparing everyone in my coven for school (there’s a lot in that, such as forging papers and creating an entirely new past, you know), had prevented me from hunting. I wasn’t picky about where my next meal would come from at this point. I stopped breathing and glanced at Cayden. He was tightly gripping the bar beneath his desk and, though I couldn’t see, I was willing to bet that the steel was bent beyond repair. He swallowed hard, his back straight as a board. He felt the hunger too.
Using the quickest, easiest solution I could think of, I stomped his foot hard and kept mine over his to pin him down if it wasn’t enough to snap him out of his hungered haze. He muffled a sound of pain, and then looked at me with wide, knowing, and afraid eyes. But somewhere deep beneath those black irises I could see the haze that flickered with the dull golden flecks that were the only color left. I wondered briefly if my eyes looked like his.
He smiled weakly before pressing his forehead to the cool wooden top of his desk, carefully not breathing. He’d forget eventually, but I hoped it would give this teacher’s blood enough time to cool down.
I looked up and realized for the first time that Mr. Freeman was directing his attention to me and the fact that I’d just crushed Cayden’s foot. I smiled slightly and didn’t listen, only nodding or shaking my head whenever I thought he wanted me to. “I won’t do it again, sir, I assure you.” I saw several people shiver in my peripheral vision and wondered absently if they were cold.
The teacher seemed to visibly relax before he spoke again. “See that it doesn’t. Sound like a plan?” He smiled slightly, but it seemed more like a bearing of teeth to me, a show of dominance.
I tried not to sneer as I thought, ‘Next time he wants to drain you and probably the rest of the class too, I’ll just let him. Sound like a plan?’ Instead I just nodded and returned his smile, trying to make myself appear friendly. It’s harder than it sounds sometimes.
“Name?”
“Collin Blaise,” I told him, watching as he jotted something, probably a little note about me, on a clipboard I hadn’t noticed he was holding before. I folded my hands under my chin, leaning my elbows against the desk as if I was paying him my full attention.
“You’re on my list, Blaise.” He turned and proceeded with his set of rules. I returned my attention to Cayden. He still wasn’t breathing; I knew he was too afraid of what he’d do if he smelled blood again.
Suddenly I realized that someone was staring at me, feeling the tiny hairs on the back of my neck prickle under the weight of the owner’s gaze. I looked over my brother’s head into the greenest pair of eyes I’d ever seen. It was somewhat startling but not unpleasant. “Yes?” The green eyes looked away, but Ying Fa spoke.
“Why did you step on his foot?”
I shrugged, and then realized she couldn’t see me. “So he’d shut his mouth.” It was the truth, but I doubted she understood what I really meant. She nodded and no one spoke for the rest of the class period. When the bell rang Cayden snatched his books up, darted from his seat and was out the door faster than he should have. I was at his heels, knowing that he was going for the nearest restroom and that he’d get lost without my guidance. I successfully steered him there before he started crying.
Pink tinted tears trailed down his face as he hopped onto the long counter of sinks. “I almost killed him, Collin. In front of all those people…” He looked down and I wondered if he was really sorry or if he was sorry that he wasn’t sorry.
“You’re just hungry.” I leaned against the dirty wall of the boy’s bathroom and crossed my arms. How long this would take, I didn’t know, but there was no point in being uncomfortable while I waited. I tried not to breathe again, this time because of the smell that permeated the very tiling of the bathroom.
“I know!” Cayden’s fingers tugged at his red-brown tresses in frustration. “But it shouldn’t be so hard. If you hadn’t brought me back when you did…” he let the silence speak for itself before he started crying again. His control had always been weaker than mine when it came to eating. Or anything else, for that matter.
“Don’t blame yourself, idiot,” I snapped. “I’m the one who hasn’t taken you hunting. I should’ve taken you before we started school.”
Cayden flinched at my tone. “You’ve been busy. None of us are as good at making the papers as you… I could’ve taken myself.”
I raised an eyebrow. Cayden has hated driving ever since the thought crossed his mind. He could drive, but he’s always a nervous wreck, not someone you want on the busy streets of Chicago or anywhere else for that matter.
I can’t take you tonight though. I still have to finish with a few more papers. Tomorrow, if we can get away for a few hours.” Somehow I was pretty sure that we’d be gone for at least a full day instead of hours. I grabbed his wrist and pulled him up. “Come on. We have to get to our classes or we’ll be late. I’ll walk you.”
He pawed furiously at the tears still falling and smiled as best he could. “What do I have next, Collin?”
I thought for a moment, untangling his and my schedules. “You have Pre-Cal. I have PE so I’ll be in the really big room on the map, obviously. If you need me don’t worry about your teacher being mad. Just run out of the class. When you get back just say you had to throw up. Got me?”
Cayden nodded. “Got you.”
I walked him to class and had to assure him several times that I wouldn’t be far before he let me go. He didn’t need me enough to come find me for the rest of the day though every time we passed each other in the hall he hugged me tightly. The girl from before, Ying Fa, seemed to walk with him a lot. I had one other class with her, History, and we didn’t speak to each other; still, she sat beside me. It was odd to watch her from the corner of my eye because she always seemed to want to say something that wouldn’t come out. Maybe it’s just my imagination.
At the end of the day as I waited for Cayden and Sara to regroup at my car, Cayden walked up, chatting happily with her. Ying Fa was all smiled, poking him gently in the ribs where he’s most ticklish. He laughed and rustled her hair, an act that she obviously didn’t appreciate. She jabbed him in the stomach with her finger. Then she spotted me sitting cross legged on the hood of my car, I suppose, and her eyes went big. Damn, those eyes were green.
“Is that your car?” I heard her whisper excitedly. I looked around at the Porsches and Lamborghinis that screamed private prep school. My car, though it was the only one of its kind in the parking lot, wasn’t the most expensive by a couple thousand dollars at least.
Cayden nodded and laughed when she ran ahead of him and started inspecting my car.
“Cherry red Aston Martin DB9! My God she’s gorgeous.” She cupped her hands to the darkly tinted windows to peer inside. “Tan leather interior too.” She made a content sound, her fingers sliding against the smooth, shiny door. “How fast is she?” She looked at Cayden expectantly. He raised his eyebrows and shrugged.
“I’ve pushed up to 170 pretty easily.” I slid off the hood and opted instead to lean against it, watching as Ying Fa continued to poke and prod. She glanced for a moment at the hood and I could almost read her thoughts; she wanted to know what was under it. “You know about cars?” I heard the faint skepticism in my voice.
Ying Fa looked up as if she was seeing me for the first time. “Yeah. My best friend loves them and he sort of dragged me into the whole scene.” She smiled brightly. “Beautiful car. Hope you’re taking care of her. Don’t stress out the engine too much more than you are. I'm pretty sure she's not supposed to go too much faster than you've got her going.” She patted the top affectionately then smoothed her hand over the same place, almost like she was afraid she’d damaged it somehow.
I stared at her, unblinking. I’d never met a girl that was so completely enthusiastic and knowledgeable about cars other than them being ‘pretty’, ‘shiny’, or expensive. My car was all of the above, but Ying Fa had been able to name the model at first sight. It was... an odd thing for me to witness.
“Wow, you know a lot about this stuff!” Cayden stated what I’d been thinking. Cayden was like most girls. Pretty, shiny, and expensive was his basic language when involving cars. The word ‘fast’ was also stuck in there in his case though. He liked fast cars regardless of his hate for driving them.
Ying Fa laughed. “Like I said, I got dragged into the whole thing.” She turned and waved over her should as she jogged away. “See you tomorrow, Cayden, Collin!” The sweatshirt’s pocket bounced against her thigh (she’d tied the sleeves around her waist) and I wondered again whether it was a cell phone or a CD player that she carefully hid there.
 Salire · Sun Mar 11, 2007 @ 07:26am · 0 Comments |
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