Indigo Vamporium (13 page)

I can't wait for Seithe to get back from the men's room. That last drink didn't agree with me at all. That'll teach me for drinking punch. God alone knows what they put in it.

The music seems to warp around me, becoming distorted. Getting up, nausea hits me so hard I'm afraid to breathe and urgency guides my unsteady lurch to the bathroom.

Bumping off the passage wall, shoving between people, my vision is gnarled with indecipherable swirls.

Afraid I'm about to pass out or throw up, the signals unclear, I slide back down the passage suctioned to the cool wall, away from the queue to use the bathroom, heading precariously down stairs to the lower level using my shoulder on the lacquered paint to keep me upright. I know he has a den down here with an en-suite. I doubt many know about it and I'm praying heart and soul it's not occupied.

Leaving behind the plush carpet, staggering down echoing stone steps I head for the cellar and basement, gripping feverishly to the wall for support, sucking air in shaky waves of furnaced illness.

Bursting into the hidden den which is blessedly free of people, I teeter to the bathroom, collapsing weakly over the basin, running cold water and shoving my face under it.

It runs into my eye, sticking the hair to my face, and I cling to the porcelain, breathing, so weak and shaky I'm afraid I'm in the grips of some kind of seizure.

Crying into the cold blast, I can't seem to calm the quaking, the heaves rising up my body in seismic squeezes.

Slumping, sagging heavily against the cupboard under the basin when my legs give, dark spots plague my sight, an awful loud buzzing hornetting my eardrums.

Water trickles down my face as spirals of hot fever wash over me, the swells getting larger, blotting out all sound, and then my vision.

Shivering violently, a hollow bang blasts another shock wave into me, wiping my consciousness in a brutal moment of convulsive reflex. Hard boots thud a long echo into the concrete cavern, stopping next to me, someone's breath gusting hotly into my face.

Lava spreads fire up and down my spine, constricting my throat, and when a hand slips under my neck to raise my head, a smiling voice, “Never accept drinks you didn't pour,” sucks the last of the blood from my head, blacking me into oblivion.

*

Seithe:

Tasmin's managed to do a vanishing act. I assume I did something to offend her because she left without saying goodbye, and I checked outside and her scooter's gone.

Which blows my mind because I thought everything was better than fantastic. I don't get how chicks think at all.

Now I need to locate Ellindt to both get her advice on the situation and to get us home.

Seeing Jowendrhan, I round him up, stealing him from Kevin, “Spot you guys tomorrow,” I say with a smile to the crowd of surfers, hauling Jo into a corner. “Have you seen Ellie?”

He looks around, “Nope. Last time I saw her she was with a bunch of folks heading upstairs.”

Tension tightens my veins, “What?” Upstairs is never good at a party. Restraining myself from slapping him up the side of the head for not alerting me immediately, I am reminded he's so much younger he still doesn't think like we do.

Damn it!

“C'mon,” I snap under my breath, yanking him with me up the steps, taking them two at a time, stressing. “Ellindt?!” I yell, shoving the first closed door we come to.

“Oi!” yells at us, and I slam the door closed.

Slowing down, focusing my chi, honing in on the energy I can usually sense in her because it's so much like my own, I panther past doors, halting at the wooden door second from the end, making sure the heartbeat behind the door mirrors my own.

Swallowing, powering up my fight response, ready to be the brother who beats the shit out of an asshole, I burst the door open loudly, flicking the light switch on bright, pouncing into the middle of the large bedroom, blinking thrice to check my facts before reacting.

“Seithe, get out!” she screeches.

The guy on top of her nearly wets himself at my sudden appearance. I don't think, slamming my fist into his jaw, swiping him in a violent plummet to the left, pitching him right off the bed.

“Get your clothes on!” I order, grabbing Jo and pushing him forwards, “Help her.” Shove! “Move it!”

Sweeping around the side of the bed, I grip the jerk, lifting him up off the floor and head butting him harder than I've ever inflicted pain on anyone in my life. “Touch my sister again and I'll keep your manhood as a trophy. Got it?”

I don't wait for an answer, I just elbow strike his sternum and use the momentum to heel thrust his nose, getting enormous satisfaction from the loud groan and fetal position he pulls himself into. Blood is spurting, and he's the ass who can clean it up.

Let that be a lesson to you.

“Next time you won't be so lucky,” I hiss, standing and leaping over the bed, gripping her by the hair and rushing all three of us into the bathroom.

I want to kill him, but know I can't show my true strength. He'll at least have a bitching headache for the next three days and word will spread fast, touch my sister and I will come for you.

Moving us in a space hop from the privacy of the bathroom while he's still flirting with a concussion, to the house under Chapman's Peak, I push her into the wall of the passage, “What were you thinking?”

She shoves back, her eyes glowing at me through bitter anger, “Stop messing up my life!”

“Ellindt! What the hell man? That's not how we get redemption, that's how you get plenty of other things - starting with a black reputation, but it sure as heck isn't the arduous road to redemption!”

Yanking her blouse straight, she leers closer to me, “And how would you know? Oh right, you wouldn't!”

Holding her up against the wall again, pinning her with my arm pressed on her chest, I am almost choking with rage, “You are so blind.
Think
!” To emphasize the point, with my free hand I hammer the point of my finger into the middle of her forehead, “Guys don't respect girls they screw at a party, Ellindt! You're just an out for the night. Get with the program!”

“Seithe,” Jo says, pulling me off her. Wrestling against him, I'm so irate I'm sorely tempted to head butt the innocent face behind mine, but know he's just trying to protect our stupendously stupid sister.

“They'll call you a whore, a slut, an easy lay! Is that what you want?” I shout at her, struggling in Jowendrhan's surprisingly strong arm hold.

Tears fill her eyes, “I want love! Just like you do!”

“Well that's not how you get it! Love holds your hand, it hugs you when you're hurting, it gives! Love is also patient! All you did was throw your class into the gutter. I'm so ashamed to call you my blood!”

She bursts into tears, sprinting down the passage and slamming her door closed.

My chest is heaving, I'm shaking I'm so angry, and I can't abide Jo's straitjacket a second longer, flipping him over me with an old karate trick, the momentum forcing him to lose his hold, sliding off my back into the carpet.

“Don't interfere next time,” I grunt, bolting for the stairs, knowing this needs severe discipline and intervention for her to get the damn message.

Skidding into the lounge, he's already standing in the 'I rule the universe' pose, hands linked behind his back while he gazes sagely out the tiny portal into the night. “What happened?”

“I turned my back for thirty minutes and she was violated by a pompous jock without a condom!” I explain.

Pivoting gracefully for such a big man, he faces me, “What did you do?”

“I punched the sucker's lights out and hauled all of us back here immediately.”

The hint of a smile tugs the corner of his mouth, “And why do you take such offense to your sister's behavior?”

“It's despicable! She's better than that! Damn it... I love her! Whoever gets to that base with my sister has to love her more than I do, or he's not worthy!”

This time he smiles, “Righteous anger is a dangerous concept, Seithe. It comes from the ego, and the ego is not anyone's friend. Maybe it's her body, so it's her choice. Maybe tonight
you
were the one out of line. Did you ever stop to consider that?”

“I'm not! Venix, come on! Cut me some slack already. She's...” I falter, my chest feeling like someone's grinding gravel in my lungs. My anguish is physically hurting me. “She's precious,” I mumble, the fight deflating out of me as muscular pain takes its place. I feel like someone just took a scimitar to my soul and started slicing pieces off it.

“What makes her precious?” he probes, strolling toward me in lazy steps. “And don't say
because she's your sister.
”

Clenching my hands into fists, tensing my jaw, I am angry that he doesn't see this as I do. It's vital, it's life changing, it's degrading.

“She's a lady, she should be treated like one. She deserves a guy who'll open car doors for her, who knows what a good thing he has and can wait, getting to know her first. If it was me, I'd test her boundaries, I'd look inside her mind, I'd weigh her words against her actions, tread carefully around her heart, and make sure she's the kind of girl who can handle the truth about me. She needs to love me, need me,
crave
me before I'll show her who I am. I wouldn't simply plunder the treasure chest because I can! And that's what happened tonight. Some dirtbag saw how desperately Ellie wants love. He saw her vulnerability and fed on it like a thief! He took something he didn't earn!”

Pausing next to me, he pats my shoulder with a heavy thump, “Well said. You are becoming a good man, Seithe. And in case you doubted me, I agree with you. Ellindt will be dealt with accordingly.”

Instantly fear whips my soul and I wonder if telling him was the right thing for me to do.

He hasn't got a compassionate bone in his body. He may be unduly cruel to her and I don't think she can handle that on top of the humiliation she just suffered because her twin went berserk when he saw a player with his hands on the lady in the family.

*

Ellindt:

“Ellindt, get into the lounge immediately!” booms through the house.

I'm pulled forcefully by his indomitable will, out of my sanctuary and down the steps, into the lounge.

There stands wrath, filling the room in all his vengeful glory with rage pouring blinding light out his eyes.

“Ellindt,” he says, stepping menacingly closer.

“What?” I snap, dread chasing my courage into hiding.

“I've been informed of your indiscretion this evening, and I am bitterly disappointed you do not respect the sanctity of your own soul, that you're so eager to defile it with human scum.”

Glaring at my uncle, I'm flummoxed.

“What are you freaking out at me for? I'm not the only girl in the world to do it you know! Everyone's doing it!”

“Just because 'everyone's' doing it, doesn't mean you should be! I don't know what to do with you! How do you manage to get into trouble while out with three chaperones? You're like an eel!” uncle Venix bellows at me, brilliance pouring out of his silvered irises, doing his best to intimidate me.

“Three? Two!”

“Your older brother was there, I sent him.”

“You're archaic! I shouldn't even be raised by you, a girl needs a female influence in her life! You will never
ever
understand what it's like to be in my shoes, in this world, in my skin!” I scream.

“There, you are absolutely right. Go and pack your things. You're banished to your aunt until you learn some sense!”

“Aaaaaaargh!” I yell, stomping from the lounge, up the stairs, and into my bedroom, slamming the door as loud as I can.

Four seconds later it opens and I'm staring at two faces, Jo and Seithe. “Just go away.”

“Ellie...” soothes Seithe, and I round on him.

“Don't Ellie me! You told him! You got me into all this trouble! I'm seventeen, not twelve! Everyone my age is doing it so why can't I?”

Anger sparks in his eyes and he shoves me hard up against the closet, growling at me, “I'll tell you why. We are here for love. The first step of love is respect. Putting out is just going to make you a jack off vessel. I love you too much to watch some little human asshole treat my sister that way. He must respect you Ellindt, or he will never love you. You aren't some cheap piece of ass, so don't behave like one!”

Jo pounces onto my bed, jumping up and down on it, thumping the ceiling with each bounce, “It's true. If he is into you there's no hurry. Only jerks just want a lay and you are too good for that, Ellie.”

Seithe slowly releases me, his build three times stronger than mine. “Ellindt, first you cast the foundation, and you build on that. You need to be someone's sun that their whole world revolves around, the person they can't stop thinking about, only then will you know you have the right type of human to offer redemption. When they find out the truth it's going to flip them out. Only love can keep them tied to you even when the secret's out. You are not human so stop trying to fit in. You are better than that and you need a man who is committed for the long haul, not for a quick romp up your skirt.”

“Just get out,” I point at my door, hearing Venix coming up the steps to send me away.

“I told him because I'm protecting you Ellie. And the next time I catch a human up your skirt he'd better be ready for death. The man who lies with you best be prepared to die for the pleasure!” He yanks my door open and marches out, my twin angrier than I've ever seen him.

Jo nods at me with an 'I told you so' sneer, and follows his idol out of my room.

The threshold is immediately refilled by my enormous uncle, “Let's go. Selene's waiting for you.”

“I haven't packed!” I snap, flustered, panicked, in utter disbelief at the unfolding events.

He waves his hand and passes me a carryall and a suitcase, “There, now you are packed.”

Speechless, I am marched out of my bedroom, past the snitching witnesses who betrayed me, down the steps in the walk of disgrace. Our aunt Selene waits at the bottom, smiling up at me.