Distract my hunger (16 page)

“They are called
The
Order
of
the
Black
Iris
” she added and then simply turned and left me.

My hand instinctively fell to my necklace and I felt calm. So many coincidences, my name, my necklace, the notebook . . . or were they just my destiny?

I smiled and decided to rest, some sleep would surely be beneficial for the hard quest I had ahead. I had to live up to too many expectations, and if I could, I would do my best not to let anybody down.

CHAPTER 13

The Order of the Black Iris

W
e arrived at Edinburgh airport almost on schedule, mere ten minutes late left us slightly behind in our plans. I felt nervous and excited because even though I knew more about what was going on, I had no clue of what to expect.

My thoughts lingered on my newly acquired and already abandoned bedroom. I had felt so happy and safe there, yet I only got to spend in it one night. One amazing night. The Nightblooming Cereus out my window was so magical: its fragrance still remained in my mind’s eye, and the memory of the skilfully carved flowers gave me a pang of longing.

How could so much have happened in so few days? I had changed; my relationships with people around me had changed (I now could properly say I had a gorgeous boyfriend!) and I wouldn’t even see some people any more. My life had gone a complete 180° turn and if you truly asked me, I had absolutely no certainty on where I stood. No certainty that is, in most matters, I knew how deeply I loved Jonathan and that I had a huge burden on my back now. The whole vampire world depended on me.

Edinburgh airport was small and cosy. I must admit all the fear and anxiety I felt while we were being chased completely disappeared as soon as I stepped on Scottish ground.

We tried to keep a low profile and act as inconspicuous as possible. It was the only way to have a shot on getting to “The Order of the Black Iris” before somebody got to us. I had no idea of how or where we were going to meet them. They were a complete and intriguing mystery for me . . . I didn’t know even who they really were.

Sometime before we landed James gave me the smallest introduction to the baffling order of vampire knights.

Their origins were uncertain to him, for he knew of their almost spectral existence since he was a small child. They were supposed to lay as underground as possible and held the ancient prophecy almost as a religion. One of their main purposes was to seek and protect the “holy” vampire that would change all things. They believed in certain equal interactions with humans and felt no restraints between the different kinds of vampires. When he started saying all this I thought they were fantastic at first, but he then explained there was a darker side to all things.

They could be quite ruthless at times he heard, and they had started wars in the past. Wars where nobody won and nobody lost; wars with just too many casualties. The Order seemed to get a bit on the fanatical side whenever things got too near their beliefs. Luckily, I
was
the core of their beliefs and that made me feel much calmer about them.

He had no idea of where they lived or where we would actually meet them. The only thing we knew about them was that they hid somewhere in the UK. They were very secretive about all things and that, I believed, was probably their biggest strength. Very specific directions were given to James through his contact, and we were lucky that they were expecting me, else, they might have not even accepted meeting with us.
They
were our only hope and
I
was theirs.

Simple yet intriguing directions were supposed to be followed. We had to get out of the airport and with our own ride head towards our planned hiding place. A place we were told we would never actually get to, for
they
would contact us somewhere before our planned destination.

As soon as we retrieved our little luggage (which was all packed by Lucrecia of course), we went out of the airport. It was freezing cold outside. January in South America was hot and heavy, yet here it was winter, and winter in Scotland was definitely not winter in South America! Snow covered the sidewalks and frozen flakes fell silently on us. It was beautiful scenery though cold as it was.

Luckily they had some heavy winter jackets in the airplane! It was very smart of somebody to have a stock of those waiting to be needed in the plane. Perfect for a getaway! Maybe a little bit too perfect even . . .

Our car was waiting for us as soon as we crossed the airport’s doors. It was a dark red SUV with dark windows. It seemed comfortable enough, and it would blend with traffic. It was nothing to attract too much attention to us.

Corbin walked assertively to the parked SUV and opened the side door. He held it open for us while we got in and then jumped in the front seat.

“Corbin my man!” Squealed the driver and gave Corbin a high five. He was a dark-skinned, almond-eyed boy. He was probably in his early twenties and had a very friendly face. His broad smile reflected his friendship with Corbin and how happy he was to see him.

Dark brown eyes crowned his affable gaze. His bone structure was broad and framed almost perfect features: faultless jaw-line, a straight strong nose and high cheekbones. He was definitely a very handsome man. His beauty was not straightforward but more of the guy-next-door kind. Not exuberant but completely approachable, and adorable!

His scent though was somewhat disturbing. He smelt sweet and tasty, like warm bread on a Sunday afternoon. It was very subtle at first, but it slowly grew to be intense, compelling, and almost too enticing to restrain myself. He was deliciously human.

I could feel my nostrils quivering involuntary. It was becoming hard for me to stay still, I wanted to capture more of this sweet scent, I wanted to bury my fangs in his perfect flesh. To be completely honest, I wanted to make him my breakfast.

Jonathan noticed quickly enough. He very quickly wrapped his arm around me and held me tightly against his chest. With one hand he stroked my hair and held his firm grip and with the other he started rushing through his rucksack.

I could hear him fumbling about, looking for something with his free hand. Jonathan’s fragrant shirt against my face helped me forget the tasty smell that was driving me crazy before. Jonathan always smelt like home.

He finally found what he was looking for, a small silver hipflask with a glass top. He handed it to me immediately. I let my eyes fall on its glass cork and saw it looked dyed with a crimson tint. I fumbled with it lazily, yet it didn’t quite convince me. It still appealed me more to sink my fangs on our driver’s neck, but, what I wanted was apparently not an option.

My doubtful manner seemed to be clear to Jonathan and he decided to “convince” me further apparently. He took once more the hipflask from my hands and opened it. The slight smell from its luscious contents instantly called my attention. He had convinced me easily. Teasingly he moved the flask in front of my face and I wanted to speedily take it from his hands, but he was faster. I had completely forgotten about the poor driver, and wanted only the flask’s contents now.

After playing with me for a few seconds he finally handed me my prize. I swallowed it whole in a gulp. It was not warm and fresh like the driver would have been but it was satiating and delicious anyway. And most important of all, I had not killed our way out of the airport.

By the time I had decided not to eat the driver and grew nice and calm again we were already on our way. I started looking out of the window for there was not much more to do and while I delighted on the snowy countryside, I wondered when The Order would contact us.

Everyone except Corbin, the driver, Jonathan and I were asleep. Lucrecia looked like a porcelain doll with her dark lashes caressing like butterflies her silky cheeks. The twins were as eerie asleep as they were awake. Their eye movement was identical, and if one turned, the other moved too in a mirror-like manner.

I was also wondering who this human was, and why he was helping us. He surely knew enough about us to be our driver, but where did he come from? I decided to take advantage of my mental abilities and ask Corbin. It seemed like a useful way to practice and to keep myself from complete boredom.

I had to improve my skills, I knew I was not specific enough and I had not yet developed a way to veil my thoughts. Therefore I decided to practice.

First I imagined a big tunnel; big enough to crawl through it, going from me to Corbin. I pictured everything outside it blurry and unclear. The tunnel was strong and nothing could get out of it. It was smooth and like a vortex, if I left something inside it I would be sucked towards Corbin. Once I convinced myself it was strong and ready I let my question fall into the tunnel.

“Who is this guy?” I asked.

Corbin startled a bit at my mental question and quickly answered in the same way.

“He is a friend of mine, though he is human. Remember we said at some point that some humans were starting to realize things and even very mild inheritors were finding their way through the net to other vampires? Well, he is one of those. His wife discovered some years ago that something about her was not quite right.” he said and made a small pause. Corbin surely loved adding suspense to everything. As soon as he paused, my eyes unexpectedly started looking at the driver’s hands. They looked strong and young, and a simple gold band decorated his finger proudly.

“She was studied for many things because she started telling the doctors that she was not quite right.” Corbin had resumed his tale as if he had never made any pause, “The thing is they found her to be perfectly right, though some doctor decided to check her for porphyry. Porphyry is a disease that apparently tends to be mistaken for vampirism, and she knew that so when they said they were checking for porphyry, she started looking for other things.

My friend here, always supported her, and when she started looking for vampires in the net and believing she might have something to do with them, he was there. He never thought she was bonkers or anything like that. The thing is, after a few months of research and findings, she finally found
real
vampires.

To make things short, they got in touch with them and now belong to a very wide web of human friendly vampires and human donors. His wife happens to be a very mild vampire, and was lucky to find others because if not, she would have had no clue.

I’ve always had a really good relationship with these people, and when I needed them, they’ve always been there. They ask no questions and help as much as they can.” He finished saying this with the slightest nod of his head, and I was completely sure that nobody had the slightest clue of our conversation.

Corbin’s words made me really reflect on our driver. He must surely be a good guy; he seemed kind-hearted, understanding and reliable. He was reliable enough to risk his life for us that were not even human like he was.

My mind started wandering off to how many people actually knew about vampires. It was like a whole secret world within the world I had always known. How could some people not know about it? How did I live so many years knowing nothing? It was like needing glasses but never knowing it, until someday I started wearing the right kind of lenses and the world looked nothing like it used to.

I was drifting away in my mind until I suddenly realized the car had stopped. A big green pick-up truck was blocking our road and a very tall guy stood beside it with dark sunglasses.

He was pointing at an almost hidden, tiny road that appeared at our left. Its entrance was partly covered by some bushes, and getting in there would probably cost the SUV some serious scratches.

“Turn left” Corbin said aloud to the driver and woke James up. He sat straight and straightened his clothes. He looked at our surroundings and seemed calm though I was sure he had no idea of where the road would take us.

Without flinching the driver turned left and started the bumpy road that would take us God-knows-where.

The winding road was so narrow that if we had wanted to turn it would have been impossible. Bushes and marshes packed its sides so tightly that at times we had to go even slower because a branch was deeply scraping some paint off. We never went faster then 20 miles an hour in the easiest parts of the road . . . that alone can give you an idea of how complex this hidden path was.

After what seemed to be unending hours, we got to a clearing in front of us. The road suddenly grew very wide and got to a perfectly circular area that had a dark-blue SUV parked to the left. To the far end of the clearing the road narrowed again and disappeared between the tightly packed bushes.

When we got to the clearing a dark haired woman opened the door of the blue SUV and motioned for us to stop. She walked very calmly to our car and stopped beside Corbin’s window.

“It’s time to change cars” she said and turned back to her car, when she was halfway there she stopped and added: “and tell your driver to go back home”.

Corbin simply patted our driver’s leg and then hugged him. He hugged him like most guys do when they hug a friend. He patted his back and held him tightly for a single second, just as if too much affection would make them feel uncomfortable.

“Wake up people!” James said, “We are here.”

Ginny was the last to come out of the SUV, we had all gotten out of it and waited reluctantly in the clearing. Corbin was the first to move towards the open door of the blue SUV and James walked right behind him.

Behind us, I could here the engine of our own ride starting once again and its wheels turning on the lose gravel. We had no turning back now. I hoped the odds were on our side.

We got in, not really knowing what to expect and found it to be bigger than it looked from the outside. I sat with Jonathan to my left and Lucrecia to my right. She seemed to want to keep me close, and I really did not mind.