Avenging Amethyst (Immortal Eyes) (6 page)

The last woman
was Nia. Her frizzy red hair spilled all over the place and her distinct jaw
line gave her a very stern look. She was the least friendly out of all of them
and constantly eyed me with suspicion.

Once all of the
introductions were complete Felix and I sat down while Rema and Carson returned
to their seats.

"You’re
all over the age of twenty-five," I said as I sat down. Once the words
were out I regretted them. I didn’t want to imply that they looked old
and I should have thought up a more tactful way to bring up my curiosity.

"How nice
of you to notice," Nia said bitterly.

"I
didn’t mean to be offensive," I said. "Felix just mentioned
that most Lovac don’t survive past twenty-five because of the
darkness."

Rema smiled
sweetly and said, "Did Felix also tell you about Dimidiums?"

The word sounded
familiar but I only faintly remember Felix talking about it. "Yes,
but…" I started to say but Felix interrupted.

"I did,
but she was too concerned about demons and fairies existing than the Dimidiums.
She could probably use a refresher."

Felix’s
tone was part joking and part irritation and I felt bad for not listening to
him completely. If he’d been in my position, he’d probably have a
hard time believing demons and fairies existed, too.

"Dimidiums
are like soul mates," Rema said. "It’s the one person in the
world who can balance out the darkness in us and help us control it instead of
letting it control us. The only reason the five of us are still sitting here
today is because we’ve found our Dimidiums. There’s only a handful
of other Lovac in this region who have found their Dimidiums."

"How does
a Lovac find a Dimidium?" I asked, more out of curiosity for my own Dimidium
than anything else.

"A
Dimidium will find you. Since they can be any species other than another Lovac,
it’s impossible to go looking for one."

I quickly
glanced at Felix and then blushed. I was disappointed that a Dimidium
couldn’t be another Lovac. Even though I barely knew Felix, I was
definitely attracted to him and even though is cocky attitude irritated me
slightly, he seemed like a great guy. It would’ve been nice to find my
Dimidium and not have to worry about the darkness at all.

"Why
can’t a Lovac be a Dimidium?" I asked.

Carson answered
this one. "Darkness can’t balance out darkness. In theory, two
Lovac being together would cause them to go crazy faster. There’s a
special light in a Dimidium that helps ease the darkness away."

I sighed quietly
and tried not to make my disappointment too obvious. Any feelings that I might
have for Felix would just have to be stuffed down. I’d never really had
feelings for another guy before, so it couldn’t be that hard to forget
about Felix.

"Besides
the Dimidium, did Felix fill you in about the rest of our world?" Rema
asked, interrupting my thoughts.

"He told
me quite a bit," I said. "I doubt it was everything but it was
definitely a lot of information."

"You seem
to be handling it pretty well." Rema was starting to sound like a
psychiatrist.

I shrugged.
"I don’t think I can really deny any of it. It sounds crazy but
here you all are, with the same purple eyes as mine. You’ve all got weird
powers and super strength, too?"

I saw amusement
in Rema’s eyes as she nodded. "I wouldn’t call all of our
powers weird, but yes, that’s right. Did Felix mention anything about why
he wanted you to come here?"

"Just to
meet you," I said, starting to feel nervous. Rema sounded so sweet and
kind that I couldn’t believe she was some crazed murderer but I started
to wonder if I walked right into a trap.

"Well,
yes," Carson said, taking over the conversation. "But we could also
use your help."

"My help?
What can I do?"

"Felix
told you about Zhulik right?"

I nodded.

"Well,
Lovac are trained to fight Zhulik but we always have a limited number of Lovac.
We do a pretty good job of keeping them away from most Nesmyr but we could
always use more help. We’d like it if you would be willing to train and
join our ranks."

Rema continued,
"Lovac are always being hired by Nesmyr to hunt down Zhulik that are
invading on their territory, or ones that have kidnapped Nesmyr family members.
It seems to be getting worse and we could always use more Lovac to help."

I opened my
mouth to respond but nothing came out. I wasn’t expecting this at all. I
figured they’d teach me a little bit more about what I am and then send
me on my way.

The weird thing
was I kind of wanted to learn to fight. It sounded exciting. Even though my
life had never been dull with my mom and me moving around all the time, it was
never exciting. I was home-schooled and cooped up inside most of the time.

"Someone
killed my mother yesterday," I said, my eyes watering up but I blinked
the tears away. "And if everything you’ve said is true, then she
wasn’t human. She snapped my mom’s neck without any effort and then
evaporated into a cloud of smoke the moment she saw me. If I’m going to
train to help you out, I want help locating this woman and taking her down. My
mom was an amazing person, and I want her murderer to pay."

Rema and Carson
both gave each other a look and Felix tensed next to me. I didn’t know if
I had offended them or what, but I wasn’t going to help out these
strangers without getting something in return.

"We know
what happened to your mom," Rema finally said. "We sent a few
Nesmyr to clean up at the hospital and try to find you, but you were already
gone."

"What do
you mean clean up?"

"They
erased the memories of some of the staff to forget completely about you and
your mom and found any video footage that had you on it and brought it to us.
They also brought her body back in case we could find you. If you’d like,
we can give her a proper burial in our graveyard."

I couldn’t
stop the tears from flowing this time. These people that I barely knew did all
of this for me?

"Why would
you do all of that?" I asked and wiped the tears from my eyes.

"We’ve
been looking out for you since you were born. When your mom refused to accept
what you are and let you live with us, we could only help from a distance. It
was hard with your mom blocking us out but we managed to keep you safe."

"Safe from
what, though? If my mom wasn’t running from you all these years, what was
she running from?"

"Zhulik.
For some reason, a certain Zhulik has been chasing after you since you were
born."

That’s
when I remembered the picture in my pocket of the man I assumed was my father.
He had the glowing red eyes to indicate he was a Zhulik but I didn’t
understand why he was coming after me. I pulled the picture from my pocket and
handed it to Rema.

"Is this
the Zhulik?"

Her eyes widened
at the picture and looked up at me to nod. "Where did you get
this?"

"My mom
had it. She left it with a letter for me. She said this man attacked her and
left her pregnant with me. He’s the reason I’m a Lovac, isn’t
he?"

"Yes. His
name is Lucas. He’s one of the most powerful Zhulik in the world.
He’s been alive for centuries."

"Centuries?
How long do Zhulik live?"

"As long
as they want," Rema said simply. "The more people Zhulik kill, the
longer they live. They steal a person’s life force with every kill.
Nesmyr only live to be a couple hundred years old and Lovac with Dimidiums live
as long as their Dimidium does."

"Why is
this Lucas coming after me though?"

"We have
no idea. He was old enough to know what happens if he let a woman he raped
live. Maybe he wasn’t thinking clearly the night you were conceived, let
your mother live and realized his mistake later. Zhulik know that Lovac are the
only ones strong enough to kill them so they try not to make any. Young Zhulik
can’t seem to help themselves though."

"Does he
have anything to do with the woman who killed my mom?"

"It’s
possible. From the security tapes we got from the hospital, it looks like
she’s a demon. Zhulik usually don’t work with any other species,
but when they do, it’s always demons."

"A demon?
Don’t they have horns and red skin?" The woman from the hospital
looked too normal to be a demon.

Rema laughed.
"Horns, yes. Since she’s female, they’re so small you can
barely see them through her hair. Demons don’t have red skin though. And
fairies don’t have wings and aren’t a few inches tall. There are
lots of misconceptions about mythical creatures."

"How am I
supposed to find this demon?"

"We’re
trying to get in contact with a demon that we are allied with to see if he has
any information on who she is. Until then, there’s no way of finding her.
If you really want to take her down, then I suggest accepting our offer to
train you to fight. If we find her, you won’t stand a chance against her
unless you train."

I shrugged.
"Fine. I'll train." Now that my mom was gone and there was still the
possibility that a Zhulik was after me, I didn't have anything better to do. I
didn't know how to live on my own and I wanted to go to college but if I was
always on the run I wouldn't be able to. My mom's money would last me a while
but not forever. I needed to take care of Lucas and the demon and hopefully be
able to have a normal life.

"Excellent,"
Carson said. "Felix will show you to your room and he'll start training
you tomorrow."

"What?"
Felix and I asked at the same time. I wasn’t expecting to stay here and I
definitely wasn’t expecting to start so soon. I opened my mouth to argue,
but Felix beat me to it.

"Why do I
have to train her?" he asked. The irritation in his voice surprised me and
I wondered what I did to make him not want to train me. "What about the
regular trainers?"

Rema sighed.
"Our trainer numbers are dwindling. Daryn took a turn for the worse yesterday
and we don't know if he'll recover. Ashli isn't doing very well either. The
rest of the trainers are booked full of classes right now. We have nowhere to
put her. She's your responsibility from now on. Riley and Axel can help when
they have time."

Felix didn't
argue back. He just nodded his head and looked irritated. I made a mental note
to ask him why it was such a big deal that he had to train me and then brought
up my argument.

"I didn't
know I would have to stay here. I thought I would just stay at a nearby motel
and only come when I was needed." Even though I didn't think these people
were murderers or kidnappers, they still made me nervous and I didn't know if I
would be comfortable sleeping so close to them.

All of the
council members looked shocked, except for Nia, who still had a sour look on
her face.

"Well, you
can stay at a motel if you feel more comfortable," Rema said. "But
the closest motel is an hour away. There's plenty of space here. You'll have
your own room, with a lock and personal bathroom. We just thought it would be
more convenient. Besides, if Lucas or the demon decide to come after you,
you'll be protected here."

I hadn't thought
about that. I assumed I would have some way of knowing if they were coming for
me like my mom had but I wasn't psychic like she was. I wouldn't have time to
run if I was alone. These strangers were definitely the lesser of two evils.

"I can
leave at any time if I decide to stay?"

"Absolutely.
You're our guest, not our prisoner."

Ten minutes
later Felix was leading me to my room on the floor assigned to Lovac, which was
one level beneath the council member’s floor. Riley met us halfway down
the stairs.

"Hey, I was
just coming to find you. How did everything go?" she asked.

"Not bad,"
Felix asked. "She's going to start training to help us out."

"As long as
I get help finding that demon," I added. I wanted to make it clear that I
wasn't going to do this for free.

"Demon?"
Riley asked, looking from me to Felix and back again.     

"A demon
apparently killed my mother."

When Riley still
looked confused, Felix added, "They got the security tapes from the
hospital where it happened. The woman turned to smoke."      

Riley’s
eyes widened in understanding. "I’m so sorry about your mom."

All I could do
was nod. The lump in my throat prevented me from talking.

"When does
your next job start?" Felix asked Riley. "Rema left me in charge of
training her and I could use some help."

"Tomorrow,"
she said. "It's a quick one and I should be back in a few days. I can
help you then. I think Axel is taking the next week off though. You could ask
him to help but I think he just wants to rest for once. Why are they assigning
us to help train?"