Bloodlines: Everything That Glitters (16 page)

Phlinx only shook her head. “The longer you wait here the girls grows stronger, soon we will be no match for her. By now I am sure the cocoon has begun to enwrap her.”

Masaya finds herself unable to move, the Queen has bound her in place and is tearing into her flesh. “I’m truly sorry,” she forces through clenched teeth. There is no reason this should be happening to Masaya, especially since her powers are among those unequally matched. The Queen should be bowing to her, not the other way around.

“For every world you go into without finding the girl, this wound will grow. Soon, you, just like I, will be no more.”

She stares down at her chest; a deep scratch is etched into her skin, the number nineteen. She falls to the floors, a shiver running up her spine when she realized how cold and unforgiving they were. “I will continue to do my best.”

“Take as many of the Leijona’s as you need.”

Masaya hated working with those savages. Leijona’s were beasts brought forth by anger and rage and very unhappy to be around. They could only hunt at night, which would leave Masaya to do the searching during the morning hours. “What do I need them for? My army is sufficient.”

“Your army is frail and utterly incompetent. Take them instead.”

Her face trembled in fury, for in no way were her army of soldiers so inconceivably incompetent. Masaya’s lips quivered, shaping into a snarl. “My army,” she paused, having to remember it was the Queen she was addressing. “My army consists of Diator’s, Hagavah’s and Ovioly’s. Of these, none have found a parallel. They are the best of their species.” Her body shook uncontrollably, she’d personally saw to it that these one’s were unrivaled by any other.

Diator’s were champions, trained to fight the toughest of opponents while Hagavah’s were a savage group of men who lived in the Mungarian Wasteland, due to their development of spikes and horns that covered their entire bodies, their defense was impregnable. The Ovioly’s were the rarest of the warriors, for they were all women, descendants of Ogre’s, vicious and precise.

“That may be so, Masaya, yet for years now you still have not found her. Bring her to me within a month’s time and I will not be forced to retire you.”

“Very well.”

She left from the chamber and stormed down the hallway.   

***

The day is still young and Masaya can no longer hold her frustration with the Queen kept inside any longer. Dedrion of Hartnem walks into the room unannounced, slamming the door behind him.

“I have good news for you, my Lord.”

“Spill it out.”

Dedrion paces the floor back and forth for a moment before growing courage to speak to Masaya; he realizes that he may not leave this room alive. “Leijona’s have entered the castle with news that they have found the girl.”

“Where is she?”

“She lives in the land of the humans. Where I was sent to survey last year,” he answers honestly, yet stupidly.

Masaya is not pleased; her anger lashes out at Dedrion in an instant, not even caring to ask him any more questions. Her force leaves her and wraps around his throat, immediately causing him to have a bowel movement in his loosely fit pants. “You mean to tell me I could have had her a year ago?”

Dedrion doesn’t hear her for he is already dead, her force had grabbed him so tight that even his eyes popped out and fell from his dead. Seeing no other option, Masaya walks over to the young man with a pink crystal bowl in her hands and slowly takes one of her sharp long nails and punctures his neck, causing his blood to spill into the bowl. The silver glitter of his blood indicated his powers weren’t worth taking so she spills the crimson liquid on the stone floors.

Her body responds shakily as she feels the ground beneath her shake and she lifts her body up to levitate in the air, hovering over Dedrion before she calls for a servant to come and take him away.

When a large Leijona warrior walks into the room behind the young female servant, Masaya is speechless.

It is completely covered in spiked silver fur, a single long horn protrudes from its head and its deep red eyes stare into Masaya’s soul.

“Can I help you?” She asks, making her authority known.

“I look for the one they call, Masaya.” Its voice booms through the room, causing small trinkets on her nightstand to tremble.

“It is I whom you seek.” She straightens her overcoat and slowly sets her feet on the ground. “They tell me you have found the girl.”

The Leijona nods its head in confirmation and moves slowly through the dark room, staring more at its surroundings than at Masaya. “Alizarin is among the humans, a dimension of mortals.”

Masaya is overjoyed yet she cannot believe that it has taken her this long to find a location for her. “Are you sure of this? How did you find her?”

“We sent a spy there two months ago, she has confirmed that Alizarin resides there. But there is something else you should know.” The Leijona takes a long pause before continuing. “Hero is alive.”

Her heart stops suddenly, how could it be when she’d killed him herself?

Alizarin

Saturday
September 4, 2010

The shopping spree was uneventful, Corey rarely liked anything we pulled out for her to try on but in the end I convinced her to go with our taste over her own. I actually ended up not getting too much for myself, only a few inexpensive pairs of shoes and three outfits to go along with them. Since the seasons would be changing soon I treated myself to a new pair of boots as well.

Lee spent most of his time following the cute associate around; even managing to get his number in the end, and May, well May wasn’t into it as much as I thought she would be.

During the time we’d been away from my house, they’d both managed to convince me to go out for a night on the town, just for old time’s sake.

I slowly crept up the stairs; Ash had yet to make it home. I sent him a message when I got to my room inquiring of his well-being.

“So what are you wearing?” May asked stepping into the room after me, Lee following closely behind her.

I walked over to the closet and opened the door; it was still raining off and on outside so I didn’t want to get too dressy. I pulled out a pair of decent black jeans and a red ruffled shirt.

“Is that what you wear when you go out?” Lee exclaimed drastically.

“What’s wrong with this?” I looked down at the clothes I held in my hand then back up at Lee.

“Everything,” He snatched them from my hands and threw them on the floor.

“What would you have me wear then?”

He walked over to the closet and looked around, “Aha,” he pulled out a short blue jean skirt with the black tight dangling underneath. “Can you still fit this? Cause I didn’t want to say anything but you’ve been letting yourself go.”

I walked over and snatched the hanger from him, “Yes I can, thank you very much.” I stripped off my pants and put on the tights then slid the skirt up my legs and fastened them on my waist. Although it was a lot snugger than I remembered, they still fit. “See I told you.” I said proudly. I reached back into the drawer and took out a long sleeve v-cut shirt.

“That’s so much better.”

I knew I’d eventually sweat to death with the extra warmth so I slid my tube of deodorant in my purse while their backs were turned. The slight temperature change that the rain had brought didn’t bother me at all but I’d look out of place if I’d worn what I would really like to wear; a thin shirt with no sleeves and short shorts.

I found a clean pair of ankle high socks then put them, along with my black and white sneakers on. “Okay, I’m ready.” I said getting up from the bed.

“What about your hair?”

I looked into the mirror at my now messy ponytail; I should have known he’d never let me leave the house like this, no matter how comfortable I was with wearing it. I glanced at May for a second who was now sitting on the edge of the bed staring out the window quietly, “Hey are you feeling okay?”

“Can I talk to you alone, Aliza?”

I didn’t know why she’d not want to include Lee since the three of us practically shared everything with each other. “Yeah sure, Lee go get your curlers, you can play in my hair.” He dashed out the room, shutting the door behind him.              

“Some people have all the luck.” She mumbled to herself.

“Okay, just tell me what’s going on, and be honest about it. Are you alright?”

“Honestly no I’m not alright. Look at you Aliza; you have everything going for you, your own car, and a job, parents that can afford to just give you a card and tell you to go nuts. Look at what I have, foster parents who can’t even afford a clue, I can’t find a job for shit and now,” she looked at the floor as she spoke her next words, “A baby.”

I blinked in shock; I had never seen this version of her. I fought back tears as I slowly moved closer to the bed. “You’re pregnant? Who’s the father?”

She looked up me, meeting my gaze for the first time today, “Whoa are those contacts? That’s creepily cool.”

“Don’t change the subject, tell me.”

“Joseph,” she replied, almost pleading. “Please, don’t get upset.”

“I’m not mad. How far along are you?” I still stared her in disbelief; she had always said she would never be interested in someone like him.

“Six weeks.”

I calculated the time in my head; it was exactly around the time I’d been gone away from Hot Springs. “So you slept with him after I left town, May?”

“It wasn’t like that,” she planted her face in her hand and cried softly. “I ran into him at the store the day after you left, he asked about you and I told him you were gone, then I invited him back to my parents’ house and one thing led to another.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, “I have his number here if you want it.”

“He’s in my past,” I replied softly, “Besides you guys need to be together for the little one. Does he know?”

“I haven’t grown the balls to tell him yet, so no.”

I reached over and grabbed the phone from her hand, “That ends today.” I quickly searched through her contacts then hit send.

“Are you crazy? I can’t tell him.”

“Fine, I will. He needs to know May, calm down.”

Joseph answered the phone on the third ring, “Hey, May.”

I clutched the phone in my hand as his deep voice filled my ears; it was definitely my Joseph. “No this is Aliza. How are you, Joe?”

There was a long pause on his end then he answered, “Aliza? Oh my god how have you been! I’m fine, even better now though.”

Even though I couldn’t see him, I could feel his smile through the phone. “Well that’s good. There’s something we need to talk about right now though.”

“If it’s about what happened between us that night let me explain…”

As much as I would have loved to hear his explanation of what happened, I cut him off, “It’s not about that, it’s about May.” I paused for effect, “She’s pregnant, Joe.”

A loud rustling erupted from the background, like he had dropped the phone. I waited with the phone glued to my ear.

“Is she there with you?” he replied coldly, almost like he was mad; although this kind of news was never readily accepted in this kind of situation.

“Yeah she’s here, hold on.” I extended the phone out to May; she only shook her head and pushed it away. “Take this phone,” I mouthed while stuffing it into her hand.

“Hiya, Joe,” she said getting up from the bed.

“I’ll give you guys some privacy, I’ll be in the restroom when you’re done.” I whispered before walking out of the room and closing the door behind me. Lee was standing in the hall with a glass cup pressed against the wall.

“Are you gonna do my hair, nosy rosy?”

He rolled his eyes then looked back and forth between the cup and me. “Details and go.”

“So you didn’t know? I don’t believe that.” I said, leading the way to the bathroom.

“Girl, I know everything, but she doesn’t know I know.”
             

“How did you find out?” I turned on the bathroom light and took the curlers from the plugged them into the wall.

“I saw the test in the trash. She didn’t even try to hide it really.”

I sat down on the counter as we waited for the irons to heat up, “Yeah right, you were probably digging all through that trash can.”

“Something like that,” he replied laughing.

“Do you think that I have everything?” I asked sadly and confused, it was the one thing that truly bothered me.

“Some people have and other people have not, that’s life. But no one truly has everything. I’m not gonna lie though; you do get a lot of stuff handed to you and that makes people jealous, but that’s not your fault, your parents work so hard to give you a better life.” He reached over and brushed my hair behind my ear with his finger.

“Yeah, but I would kill for more involved parents. All mine do is work, I appreciate everything but when have you ever came over and they were there? It hasn’t happened. Even on their off days they’re getting called in. I would trade it all for a mom I could go to whenever I wanted or a dad that at least acted like he gave a damn.”