Playing With Fire (10 page)

Seth
tried to attack from behind again, but I was ready. I whipped around and my
elbow made contact with his face. He fell to the ground unconscious like the
rest. Little beads of golden light seeped through the black cloth that covered
the stained-glass windows of the throne room. The queen hadn’t noticed, but I
couldn’t give it more than a second’s glance. I was still fixated on fighting.
Three down, one to go, but Al was nowhere in sight. I heard clapping from
across the room.

“Very
good,” The queen complimented sarcastically. “You managed to defeat them without
killing anyone. If I were you I’d burn them to a crisp and be done with it, but
I guess you and I have different views. That is why you will die tonight.” Al
walked out from the shadows behind her with a blank stare on his face. The
queen beckoned to him, and he came.

“I
noticed that out of all of them, you refused to hurt this one the most,” she
said while taking him under her arm.

“If
you touch him, I swear I’ll kill you!” I said with my rage building once again.

“Whether
or not he dies is all up to you my dear,” she said while drawing another of her
needle-like daggers and putting it too close for comfort near his neck. “I’ll
make you a deal.”

I
didn’t respond.

“You
try to kill me and he dies, followed by you and the rest of your brothers,” she
said. “But, he can live along with the rest of your brothers on one small
condition.”

“And
what would that be?” I hissed.

“You
kill yourself,” she said joyfully. My heart skipped a beat. No matter how much
I wanted it to be a cruel joke I knew she was dead serious. And no matter how
much my common sense was screaming for me to be smart for once, I knew I wasn’t
going to be.

I
picked my dagger up from the ground and looked at my unconscious brothers,
convincing myself it wasn’t for nothing. I angled the point to my heart, and no
matter how much I tried to look fearless, a small tear trickled down my face.

“Scarlet
no!” Gabriel shouted while struggling to free himself from the guard that
refused to let go. The queen smiled in triumph and her black eyes twinkled in
delight.

 I
tried my best to ignore his pleas. My brothers were the only thing I had in
life. If I chose to live and let them die I would be alone. If I chose to save
them, I’d die. It was a no win situation. At least saving them would have given
me some peace of mind. I pulled back the dagger, to make the blow swifter. I at
least wanted it to be quick. I held my breath, as if it would lessen the pain.
As fast as I could, I plunged the dagger towards my heart.

“Don’t
do that Scarlet,” a voice echoed from above, causing me to stop a hairs width
from my chest. All heads turned towards the covered stained glass windows that
loomed over the golden throne to find Vaze lounging on the very top of the
curtains. The smile on the queen’s face faded.

“You
shouldn’t even be conscious!” she wined in disbelief. “I ordered my guard to
kill you after I knocked you into the wall.”

“Yeah,
I know,” Vaze answered. “He wasn’t a very impressive fighter. And honestly,
you’re not very impressive either when it comes to brains. I’ve fought children
with more intelligence than you. The only thing you’ve got is amazing power and
speed, but you’re also cocky. When you were fighting Scarlet I had enough time
to slip into the shadows. By the time the guard you sent arrived to kill me I
was already hiding, so it was simple to subdue him. The rest of the time I
spent flying silently up here, and honestly, curtains weren’t the best idea to
block out the sun from the castle.”

With
one swipe of his leg, Vaze kicked out the rungs that held the curtain to the
ceiling. One by one, the curtains fell to the ground, letting the golden light
of the sun flood into the room. The queen let out an inhuman screech that
nearly my ears bleed. As the light touched her skin, it went from pure white to
stony grey. She released my brother and clawed at her face. Her long black hair
faded to silver and her flawless baby-like skin aged a million years before our
eyes.

“Curse
you!” She shrieked. “You devil! I will not accept this! I swear I’ll make you pay!
I will have my revenge!”

“You’re
going to have to get in line,” he replied.

The
queen thrashed around as she aged before our eyes. Deep wrinkles appeared in
seconds, and smoke began drifting off her skin. Her skin hung so loosely, her
bone structure was plain to see. With one last pained cry, the vampire fell to
the ground and turned to dust. The guard restraining Gabriel rose to his feet
with a look of amazement on his face.

“She’s
dead... She’s dead!” he pronounced in a wave of joy. Then something happened
that I hadn’t expected; the vampire began to change. His hollow black eyes
changed to bright blue delighted ones. His paper white skin began to regain
color. He laughed in relief and turned back to Gabriel.

“I
shall bring the news to every one your lordship,” he said respectfully, while
giving a deep bow.

“Good,
and can you bring me my little sister?” Gabriel asked, but not in a demanding
way. It was more like asking a favor. The guard nodded and ran off, and Gabriel
walked to me, and I saw a completely different person. He was still taller than
me and strong looking, but his eyes had changed entirely. They were a dazzling
deep green. As a vampire, he looked intimidating, but now he appeared to be
soft and kind. But there was sadness in those emerald green eyes as he observed
his dead parents on the ground. They had not changed, and they did not wake up
from their eternal sleep.

“Scarlet?”
a frightened voice called from across the room. My relieved eyes whipped around
to find Al looking around in confusion. I sprinted towards my brother and
tackled him in a hug.

“What
happened?” he asked dazed. “Where are we?”

“Shut
up, you idiot! Can’t you tell I was just traumatized?”

“Sorry,”
he apologized awkwardly while patting me on the back. “Better now?”

“Stop
ruining the moment!” I scolded while hugging tighter.

“Sorry,
but I’m kind of choking now,” he croaked.

A
tap on my shoulder made me let go. I turned to find Vaze waiting patiently.

“They
won’t wake up.” He pointed to my unconscious brothers. “You might have hit them
too hard.”

“I’ll
fix it,” I said while striding over to my older brothers with Al following, but
no longer asking questions. I bent down to the ground next to Darren and waited
for a second.

“Wake
up, you lazy bum!” I yelled in his ear while slapping him across the face.
“There are guards outside looking for you!”

“Hide
me!” he screamed, immediately jumping out of unconsciousness and ran to the
opposite side of the room. I laughed and walked over to Seth.

“Seth!
I burned one of your books again.” I didn’t have to yell it, he heard it just
fine. His eyes flashed open with a tad hint of anger.

“I’m
going to kill you!” he roared while lunging for my throat. I sidestepped and
left him looking around confused as I walked over to Jake.

“Jake
the house is on fire again!” I cried as loud in his ear as possible.

“Five
more minutes,” he mumbled.

“I
can’t count, you idiot!” I yelled again as I shook him. “The house is on fire!”
his response was rolling over away from me.

“Darren
is in jail again!” I yelled, still trying to get him up. He ignored me. I
decided to try a different approach. With one swift kick to the gut, Jake was
awake and gasping for air. I turned back to Vaze, satisfied with my work.

“Problem
solved,” I said while smiling. Vaze laughed. Seeing my big brothers scrambling
around not knowing that they almost died was pretty funny. Then I remembered
something important. I turned and searched around for the former vampire.
Gabriel was standing next to his dead parents with tears streaming down his
face.

“I’m
sorry that we didn’t make it in time,” I said to him.

“It’s
alright; it wasn’t your fault,” He said in a soft voice. “They’re free from her
evil now anyway. This is the way they would have wanted it. They always
complained about how they had lived too long.”

“Gabriel!”
A little girl’s voice said from across the room. I turned my eyes to see a
child with metallic blonde hair and warm brown eyes. She looked like she was
around seven or eight, but her eyes were much older. She ran across the room
and jumped into Gabriel’s arms. Her tattered white gown was stained with old
dried blood, but it was no longer something that would freak me out. This
little girl wasn’t going to kill people anymore, criminal or not.

“Oh,
Jezebel,” Gabriel said while cradling his little sister in his arms. “I was so
worried about you!”

“I
told you Gabriel, I would be fine,” she said joyously. Her eyes lit up when
they reached Vaze.

“Look
Gabriel!” She said like an excited child, which I guess she was now despite the
fact that she was likely over a thousand years old. “That’s the boy I told you
about, that’s the weird boy with wings.”

Vaze
smiled.

“Told
you I wouldn’t die while my friends were in danger,” Vaze said. Jezebel got
down from her brother’s arms and walked over to Vaze, but her curious eyes were
trained on me.

“Is
that her?” she whispered into Vaze’s ear, though I didn’t let on I could hear
her just fine.

“Yeah,”
he whispered back while his expression softened slightly. “That’s the one.”

Jezebel
gasped and ran over to me. I thought she was going to come and ask a million
questions, like little girls tend to do, but instead she did something I didn’t
expect. She tackled me. I was so surprised that I didn’t react, and ended up
falling to the floor with Jezebel on top of me.

“Um,”
I said while looking at the little girl awkwardly. “Hi.” Jezebel laughed.

“You
lied bat boy, she doesn’t get mad fast,” Jezebel said with a sweet smile. I
laughed.

“Bat
boy?” I teased while giving Vaze a mocking smile. Vaze rolled his eyes and
Jezebel allowed me to get up. I wish she hadn’t, because she then saw what I think
no child should ever see. Jezebel’s happy little eyes scanned over the room,
and stopped short.

The
curiosity and glee drained from them as she saw her dead parents. I expected
her to cry, but she never did. Her eyes grew hollow and her face grew stone
still.

“I
knew this would happen,” she whispered. Her words were drowned in sadness and
regret. The childish joy that had sparkled in her eyes just a moment before
seemed as if it would never come back. It was not the reaction I had expected.
I expected her to cry for weeks and for her to be sad for a long time, but
eventually pull through. Instead, she hid her sadness behind a stone fortress
she built a long time ago, a fortress where she could cry on the inside, hiding
her pain from others. Even though she did not tell me or even give the
slightest hint, I knew. I felt as though I could feel her pain, as though it
was emanating from her body. By the look on her face, I knew her stone fortress
had just collapsed, trapping her inside. This little girl was not going to get
over this.

“I’m
sorry I couldn’t save them Jezebel,” Gabriel said while cradling his little
sister.

“It
wouldn’t matter anyway,” She said in an emotionless tone. “You would have died
too. We should bury them soon. The scent of death might bring Blood Wolves, and
we are no longer immortal.”

Gabriel
didn’t argue. He called for two servants to do the job, and a short funeral was
held later on. Everyone who lived in the castle attended, and everyone was in
tears. We couldn’t stay long though, because the only safe place in the forest
was the castle.

Gabriel
had made us feel right at home, or at least as at home as rich people could be.
We were each given baths and new clothes that made the nicest clothes in Laetus
look like rags. I had been given a beautiful red flowing gown with gold flakes
embedded into it near the collar. I chose to completely ignore it.

 I
asked a maid to bring me back clothes a bit more movable, and if she couldn’t
find any, to bring back my old clothes. After waiting in a bathrobe for at
least an hour, the small blonde maid came back with a silky flowing under
shirt, tough movable trousers, and an over coat with a crude leather tie. I
stuck with my own shoes, because I was proud of them in a way. They were boots
made for an adventurer that I had spied in a shoemakers shop. They were the
hardest thing to steal, because the shoemaker hardly took his gaze away from them.
I was young then and stealing the shoes was a huge accomplishment, at least for
me. They were loose back then, but now, at the age of fourteen they were snug
and mildly comfortable. Soon after I finished dressing a small knock on my door
came to my ears.

“Is
it alright if I come in?” Vaze’s muffled voice said from the other side of the
door.

“The
door is unlocked isn’t it?” I said in response. The door creaked open and
Vaze’s head poked in. His skin seemed to glow because it was so clean, and it highlighted
his blue eyes even more. His hair was a bit messy, as if he just gotten out of
bed, but it looked like black silk. Seeing that I was decent, he walked into my
temporary castle room. His clothes looked brand new and they fit him perfectly.
His tunic was black satin with matching pants and hooded cloak. His eyes
spotted the red gown that was thrown lazily onto a chair in the corner of the
room and smiled.

“Do
you have something against dresses?” he asked jokingly. His eyes lit up in a
way II hadn’t seen before, and I soon realized it was from a little sense of
humor.

“It’s
too flashy,” I replied.

"Really?"
he said. "I think you would look dazzling in it."

I
laughed and rolled my eyes. There was no way I was going to wear a dress,
especially since the bigger danger was still out there. Enzio may have been trapped
in who knows where, but according to Vaze, it wasn't going to be for long. It
was only a matter of time until Enzio would come after us again, and to make
matters worse, something was wrong with me. I wasn't sure if I would be able to
use my fire. I didn't tell anyone about it and didn’t plan to. There was no use
scaring anyone, especially when I didn't know why using my fire caused me pain.

"So
I noticed something strange when you were fighting," Vaze started while he
scanned my room. My heart jumped, thinking he must have found out about my
secret.

"You
hardly used your gift at all,” he said. “Trying to hide it from Velkire's
minions is useless, you know.”

"Huh?"
I said clueless, but quickly decided to use it to my advantage. "Oh yeah,
I just thought it might help to stay hidden or keep him off our trail."

"It
was a good idea, but it never works," Vaze replied. "Somehow, he just
knows where anyone he hunts is at all times. I don't know how, I just know that
he does. I've been running from him for at least five years now, and no matter
where I hid, he always found me. The only chance we could have is to stay out
of his grasp until we make it to my father's camp. That's the safest place we
could ever be, besides the Healer's kingdom, but only the dead can witness that.
I'd prefer to stay alive as long as I can. Anyway, all Velkire's minions must
know who you are by now. Only the Shadows will chase after us, but the stronger
ones under his command will wait for you to come to them. I would suggest to
only hide your powers from regular people who would be frightened by it. Otherwise,
it's useless to hide it."

"Oh
well," I said with a hidden relief that my secret was still safe. "It
was worth a shot, but no harm done I guess."