Bloodlines: Everything That Glitters (34 page)

“The past isn’t going anywhere, it what the future holds that should be of top concern right now,” Skylark answered.

I agreed- holes could always be filled later. However, gradually as this day dragged on I was becoming less interested in the past. There were things that I’d never be able to change no matter how hard I’d try. “You’re right. So what are we going to do?”

“Once I finish up here we can go back to your place and talk more about it,” Centure replied calmly.

“Why my house? Wouldn’t the enemy be expecting me to return there?”

“Maybe so, my place is unacceptable. Thorne, are we welcomed into your home?”

He nodded his head in agreement then pointed to one of the square portals. “After you.”
             

I looked at the contraption then shook my head. “I’ll take my chances with going back home,” I said stepping away from the thing.

“Don’t be such a baby,” Ash responded, stepping closer to the opening. “So, how do we do this?” He asked eagerly.

Skylark stepped closer to him and held his hand. “I’ll lead the way,” she smiled.

When it was my turn to step into the portal, I stalled for a second, holding on to Centure’s cold hand before stepping slowly into it. What I saw on the inside completely stunned me,

I held my breath in as stars encircled us, then a loud voice from nowhere boomed through the space. “To where do you wish to go?”

“Polythias,” Centure replied.

The warmth of a nearby sun gleamed lightly on my face as I stared at my surroundings, “Is this literal space?” I whispered.

Centure laughed mildly then held me closer to her. “The portal shows you your comfort zone. For you it may be space, for another it may be walking through a banana-split wonderland.”

“Why would my comfort zone be in space?” I asked confusedly.

“It’s a symbol of power, get used to it.”

A light fog began to surround us and the next few seconds were a blur, I didn’t actually see what happened but when I opened my eyes I was standing in the middle of Thorne’s living room. “So nice of you to join us,” a woman stepped from the shadows and embraced me tenderly. “Skylark has told us so much about you. I’m her sister and your aunt, Nivene.”

A little taken back by the hug, I looked around at everyone else first as they smiled at my bewilderment. “
It’s nice to meet you too, ma’am.”

Ash looked up from a plate of food as Skylark ran her fingers through his hair. “The food is delicious,” he mumbled while stuffing more into his mouth.

“You’d think he hadn’t eaten in days,” Skylark laughed.

Cutting to the chase, I stood in the middle of the living room awkwardly. “So where do we go from here?” I asked calmly.
             

“There are a few things you should know, firstly, if Masaya wants your power there is nothing that will stand in the way of her harvesting them from you. Secondly, know that she will use anyone she can to try and get to you, so be careful.” Thorne answered.

I thought about his words for a moment, “I’ve heard that from someone else before. Do either of you know if I’d be able to pull someone through dimensions? Cause there are a few questions I’d like to ask her.”

“This is a safe-house, no one can enter here unless they are aware of its place in the portal.” Nivene responded.

“So this is like some kind of secret clubhouse, you have to know the password to come in, right?” Ash said in reply.

“Something like that,” Thorne answered.

Shadows danced across the dimly lit room before three more people appeared inside of it. “You’ve grown so much,” another woman beamed with excitement as she stepped from a corner in the room and wrapped me in a loving embrace. “You look just like your mother, such raw beauty.”

I pulled away from her, she may have
known me, but, I didn’t know her. “Thank you,” I replied awkwardly. “Back to the issue at hand here, what else should I know, and why have you guys been deciding to hide them from me until now?”

“Because until now, we have no choice. Masaya has found you,” Skylark moved away from Ash and closer to me. “Please, have a seat.” she offered the comfort of a loveseat in the middle of the room. I refused it and continued standing.

“I could have protected myself out there, protected Nikko. She tossed me around like I was some sort of rag doll.” My tempered escaped my control and before long I’d begun to see red as fire dance across my vision.

“Please, calm down, Alizarin. Each one of us made a promise to your mother not to let you know these things. It was not our idea to hide them from you. We were bound by our word.”

The room had begun to fill with an array of different people, all gathered and watching me intently, trying to figure out what I was going to do with this new insight. My mind raced as I looked from face to face, some of them slightly drowned in fear. “You set me up then continuously lied to my face and now you want me to calm down?”

“You have to understand our reasons,” Skylark continued while still offering me a seat.

“I suppose I better sit before I completely lose it,” I responded, taking the seat she offered. They were all still looking at me, treating me like a statue on display. “Could you all just stop looking at me that way? It’s making me uncomfortable.” I turned my eyes to Skylark, the red had vanished and I could think clearer than before, the urge to tear something up left and I was left in unintentional embarrassment. “Who are these people anyway?” I whispered, not wanting to sound rude.

“Most of us are family, the rest are fellow Resisters, as Masaya likes to call us.”

“Family, huh?”

Skylark nodded, then started pointed out people and giving names that at the moment I didn’t care to remember. “Nice to meet you all, now, where do I go from here? She knows where I live.”

“You can stay here in Polythias for as long as you’d like, we have homes here.” Nivene offered.

“What about my parents? And school? What do I do about that?” Ash questioned, finally making himself useful.

“What he said,” I agreed.

“We are not for sure she knows where you live. You see she’d chose to meet you out one the road, rather than knock on your front door.”

I thought it over for a moment, Masaya certainly didn’t seem like the person to beat around the bush. “Ok, so what do I do to at least keep my parents safe?”

“The only thing we can suggest is that you and your brother return to your home, gather some of your things and come back here. First, Ash must learn to be an effective Lookout,” Centure answered.

“How long will that take?”

Ash stepped into the living room and sat down on the floor amongst a few other people as the room still filled with people. “What is a Lookout?”

“At first, we were unsure why you’d developed power Ash, but now, you’ve shown us that you are her protector.”

“
Let’s focus. How long will it take for Ash to become a better, whatever he is,” I said, raising my voice over the crowd, that’d broke out in three separate conversations over why Ash and I didn’t know these things already.

“You’re right, focus is key.”

Behind me, Nikko massaged my shoulders and calmed me down. I let my neck roll as he eased some of the built-up tension. “Thanks,” I said, slightly soothed.

“It’ll take at least a year for either of you to be any good,” Nivene said, stepping in front of the crowd. “We all have Psenora to thank for that.”

“What if we don’t have a year?” Some from the back of the room spoke up. “She can’t possibly be Ikuista. The prophesy says she’ll be coated with platinum and ride on a beast born of fire.”

I stood up from the couch and partially lifted my shirt, exposing the spreading blotch on my back. “Is this platinum enough for you?” I replied, unsure why I’d needed to prove anything to these people.

Whispers erupted from the crowd and I sat back now. “When can he begin this training?”

“It’s not just him. N
one of you have completed training. Not even Nikko. If we are to take on Masaya and her powerful forces, we’re going to need to be as prepared as we can,” Centure responded as she moved swiftly through the crowd. “Go now, retrieve whatever you need from the human world and come back here, I will do the same.”

***

It was night when we crossed back over into our world. The portal building was completely empty as we looked around. Since Azlyn wasn’t around my wrist, I’d remembered that I’d left without retreating her.

Hey Azlyn, are you alright
? I thought as I walked outside.

I’m fine; did you find your answers
? She replied tiredly.

Behind me, Nikko wrapped his arms around my waist as we both stared up at the night sky. “Are you ready for this?”

“If by ready you mean completely terrified, then yeah, I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” I replied, turning around to kiss him softly on the cheek.

“Who knows, it might turn out not to be that bad,” he said, looking into my eyes.

“We’ll see then, won’t we?”

Ash and Skylark came out of the building just after I’d retreated Azlyn so that I could teleport faster with Nikko. “So are we all going together?”

“Skylark and I are going to take Aspen, we’ll meet you there. We have some things we need to talk about,” Ash replied quietly.

I shrugged then fell into Nikko’s arms and closed my eyes. When the surrounding of my bedroom came into view and the gut dropping ceased, I ran around the room and grabbed my large suitcase then opening it before throwing things into it.

“You should have just asked me to transport your whole closet,” Nikko joked.

“Could you?” I replied, seriously.

“It was a joke. But seriously, do you really need any of this stuff?”

“You never know, I might.” I zipped the case then pulled the handle, it made a light thump as it hit the ground. “Okay, I’m ready.”

Nikko grinned at the suitcase, “Are you sure?”

I paused and thought a moment, “You’re right, I need to get Triton’s things.”

“We can buy him new things, you’ve seen the way they’re living in Polythias, you’re going to stand out like a sore thumb.”

“The way they live is not my problem,” I said.

“It kind of is,” Nikko replied before taking the suitcase from my hands.

“I should go down there and talk to them, they probably won’t even notice I’m gone anyways.”

“You’ve been gone all day, you don’t think they’ll notice you walking down the stairs?”

I shrugged my shoulders then grabbed my phone charger from the wall, couldn’t believe I’d almost forgotten that. “I’d be surprised if they noticed anything about me,” I countered.

He dropped the things to the floor and lifted me into his arms then transported us to the front porch. “This way just feels right,” he said.

I pulled the keys from my pocket and reached out to unlock the door, only to realize that the door was already open. I pushed it open and stepped into the house. “You guys left the door open!” I called through the house.

Nikko followed behind me closely, pinching the bottom of my shirt. “This doesn’t seem weird to you, at all?” he asked quietly.

Thinking that they’d most likely be in their room, I crossed through the living room, only slightly noticing small red droplets on the tile in the kitchen. Immediately I was frantic, my thoughts unsure what to do with themselves.

My eyes followed the crimson droplets to the pantry, whatever it was, was seeping from under it.

“Don’t open it, Aliza.” Nikko said from behind me, pulling me away.

It was too late; my hand reached out and twisted the silver handle of the pantry door. Grief, horror and anger engulfed me as both of my parents fell from the closet, more of their blood spilling out onto the floor.

I hadn’t had time to process the mental, physical and most important, emotional blow, when Skylark came running through the front door.

“Aliza, they’ve taken him!” her voice was shaky as she tried to catch her breath. At the first sight of what my eyes were still focused on, she broke down to her knees. “No, no. Not Psenora.”

While I stood frozen, Nikko leaned over and checked both of their pulses. “
They’re not breathing,” he whispered before pulling his phone from his pocket and dialing 9-1-1.

I turned slowly to Skylark, “Is there any chance to save them?” My tears felt like knives as they cut down my cheek. I tried to wipe them from my cheek, only to realize that they were no regular tears, meaning, they were not water but instead a golden paste that was sticky and smooth.

Skylark looked up at me, her tears the same as mine and shook her head. “Not unless you want to take their place,” she answered, as if it were not even an option. “And Xyonthis needs you,” she continued.

“Where is Ash?” I said, looking around the room. I had to get away from the scene, I wanted to run and hide. My feet carried me all the way to my parent’s room and my body gave out in their bed. I could smell my dad’s aftershave and the perfume my mom loved so much mixed together on the sheets and pillowcases of the bed.