Vampire Queen

Chapter 7: Ava

            It has been a month since the party, and no sign of Kyle since, at least not in person. He keeps appearing in my dreams and always has a sinister look in his eyes. Each dream would be from one of the times he found me during the summer, either at the mall, a movie, or a restaurant. Anywhere Jade and I ended up going, Kyle was there lurking in the shadows watching for me. Last night I was dreaming about our time at lake near the castle. James and Chase joined us for that outing, while other teenagers from school were cooling off in the water. Since the adults would die outside in the sun, everywhere you look, there were teenagers.

            Jade and I were sitting on the dock with our legs hanging over in the water, James and Chase were racing each other around the lake. We were making sure neither one of them were cheating, they both tended to do that while going against each other. Kyle and his group suddenly came running and jumped off the dock with a huge splash. There was something different this time, both Jade and I were supposed to get soaked, but only Jade got wet this time round. I was perfectly dry. I looked over towards Kyle who was floating in the water and giving me that same sinister smile. This wasn’t right. I stood up to walk away, but Kyle was right in front of me.

            “Going somewhere?”

            “Kyle, this needs to end. I know I’m not your mate. You already have one, so please leave alone.” I tried to run past him, but he caught up to me in a millisecond.

            “You are mine Ava, and soon you and everyone else will know it.” His eyes shined green. I haven’t seen a vampire with green eyes before. Everyone I’ve seen always had blue when they get angry.

            “I’ll never be yours.” I tried to wiggle my way out of his grip again. His brought his hand up and slapped me across the face.

            I woke up breathing heavily, the place Kyle hit me was stinging. How was that possible? Getting up and walking to my bathroom, I turned the light on to inspect my face. The right side of my face was red, and you could see a slight outline of a hand, and some bruising starting to form. What the hell? This shouldn’t be possible. I thought back to my other dreams I’ve had over the last month, and none of them ended this way. He didn’t even touch me in the other dreams, why was this one different? It seemed real, that might be why. I turned the light off and crawled back into bed. It was barely after midnight, and my thoughts were all over the place. The main thing I was worried about, was his eyes. Vampire’s eyes turned a bright blue after they reach full adulthood. My mind was all over the place, maybe Jade will know something about vampires with green eyes. I rolled over to grab my phone off my desk to send her a text.

            Have you heard of any vampires with having green eyes?

            Not green, but I have heard of the rare red eyes. Why do you ask?

            I had a dream about Kyle again, it was when we were at the lake, but it was different, the events of that day changed. He had green eyes as well.

            Different in what way?

            When they splashed us, you got wet, but I didn’t. I got up to leave and he was right there in front of me. He spoke to me like it was happening for real. When I tried to leave and tell him no again, his glowed green and he slapped me.

            I don’t like the sound of this dream Ava; they keep getting worse. What happened after he slapped you?

            I woke up.

            You’re keeping something from me.

            I don’t know what you mean. I should go back to sleep now. Enjoy your training! Night.

            Keeping information from Jade was hard, but if she knew the slap was real, she would search for Kyle, and until we knew more about him, it was smart to keep some distance for now.

            “What the hell happened to your face?” Chase walked in and jolted me awake. It was a rough night and I kept falling in and out of sleep since I got to class. He sat down at his desk next to me and asked again. “Ava, what happened to you?”

            “I had a restless sleep, and I must’ve hit myself.” I shrugged it off not wanting to bring more attention to the truth.

            “Is that where Kyle slapped you in your dream?”

            “How do you know about that?”

            “Jade told James while you were texting her, and he was talking to me on the phone.”

            I sighed and tried to lower myself in my chair so he couldn’t see me, but that was kind of a silly thought since it wouldn’t block me from view at all.

            “These dreams have gotten to much Ava. There is no way he should have been able to slap you in both a dream and real life. Did you tell Jade about this and she kept it from James?”

            I shook my head. “No, I didn’t mention it to her, because I knew she would try and find Kyle. I need to keep her safe.”

            “Once James finds out, he is going to find Kyle and possibly kill him.”

            “Why would James care that much?”

            The look on Chase’s face was one of shock and guilt. He probably thought he was talking to himself and not out loud. I staired at him waiting for an explanation. It was a few minutes until he finally opened his mouth to talk, but our teacher walked in, followed by Jade and James.

            “Oh, my goodness Ava!” Jade came running to me and grabbed my face to inspect it. “Is this where he slapped you?” She demanded.

            “How did you get here?” I questioned trying to take some of the spotlight off me.

            “We have our ways being the next in line for the throne, now don’t change the subject. Is that what happened after he slapped you?”

            I nodded and sighed. “It started forming as soon as I woke up.”

            “How is this possible?” James turned to Mr. Jones while trying to control his anger.

            “I’m not sure, in order for something like this to happen, there would have to be magic involved.” Mr. Jones looked concerned. He rushed over to his bookshelf to try and find something; he came back empty handed.

            “Sir, we’re taking them back to the castle with us. There might be something in our library that can help us.” James walked to the door with Chase closely behind him. Mr. Jones stood there bowing as we all left. I turned back to look at him; as he was straightening out, his eyes looked like they had a green tinge in them.

            I waited until we were back at the castle before I let them know what I saw. As it turns out, there was a secret passageway underground between the school and the castle. It took a while since Chase and I didn’t have our full speed yet, but Jade and James didn’t complain. Once we arrived and got into the library, I told them what I saw. I’m glad we didn’t give all the details to Mr. Jones, he just knew that someone was haunting my dreams I guess, and he ended up hurting me in physical form while being in my dream. Nothing more was said, and from what my gut was telling me, that was Kyle pretending to be Mr. Jones.

            “Maybe we should’ve mentioned the green eyes to him if he has them as well.” Jade suggested.

            “No,” James shut that idea down right away. He was looking at me like I was going to disappear at any moment. “That was Kyle, not Mr. Jones.”

            Jade and Chase looked between us while processing this information. “Alright, lets go find out some information on green eyed vampires so we know how to stop him. Ava will be 18 at the end of the month, we need to figure everything out that we can.” Jade got up and led Chase over to a corner of the library that had books about vampire history.

            I went over to the magical section. Something Mr. Jones said was nagging at me. If this was indeed Kyle though, he was probably sending me a message. He was working with a witch or warlock. James followed me into the section and started to tap his finger along the shelf trying to decide which one to read over first. He started at one end while I started at another. None of them were popping out to me yet. We met in the middle and both shook our heads.

            “Does it hurt?” He reached up and lightly touched the bruising. I flinched for a moment, nit because it hurt, but it was the shock that always occurred when James touched my skin. He noticed and brought his hand down. “Sorry.” He looked down and walked off to another part of the library.

            I kept walking around not really sure what I was looking for. I decided to go back to the section I started in and looked over the side James walked through. Right as I was about to give up, something caught my eye. It was a thin black book tucked away in the corner. I reached for it and pulled it out. When I took a closer look at it, the book would change between black and burgundy, there was a silver star in the middle with five eyes at each point. A red, blue, green, yellow, and brown. The title was simple and plain, ‘The Guide to Supernatural Life’. I took it over to a table and called everyone over.

            “This looks like a good place to start.” I opened it up and started reading over the first few pages. There was a legend of sorts on the third page explain which eye color represents it’s supernatural being. Blue eyes were vampires, green were witches and warlocks, yellow were werewolves, brown for human, and red were for rare and powerful supernatural beings.

            “Kyle is a vampire, not a warlock.” Chase pointed out.

            “It says here that if there was a mix breed, their eyes would take that of the side which is more dominant.” Jade pointed out. “It’s possible that Kyle could be half vampire and half warlock.”

            “If this is true, that would explain how he could harm Ava in her dreams and take the form of Mr. Jones.” James was pacing back and forth now trying to talk through everything. “It’s good to know that he isn’t working with an outsider, he’s working alone. He’s even more dangerous now.” He stops in front of me and kneels down and gently takes my face in his hands. I close my eyes and lean into the palm of his hand, letting he touch sooth me. I hear Chase mumble something to Jade who was probably just as confused as I was, and they disappeared somewhere.

            “James, what is happening?” I asked him while opening my eyes. His eyes were shining bright blue and slowly started to fade out to his regular blue eye color.

            “I can’t tell you yet, just know that I will do everything I can to keep you safe.” He placed his forehead to mine briefly before replacing his forehead with his lips. After giving me soft kiss on the head, he gets up and goes towards Jade and Chase who ended up in the same section of books I found the guide in.

            Jade came back with a few books and started flipping through the first one. Chase and James came back with books as well, and everyone started reading. I was still clutching the guide, and I thought it would be a good idea to keeping looking through it. I guess there were a lot of mixed breeds out there, they even mention vampires and humans being mated to each other. One thing I was certain for now, Kyle had a parent who is a witch or warlock. Now that I think about it, I never saw Kyle with his parents when there was a nighttime gathering. I knew Kyle since we were children, and I never heard him talk about them. Were they still alive?

            The day passed by while we were all reading in the library. Eventually Lilith came in and told us we missed lunch, and it was nearing supper time. I groaned knowing Karter and Jessica would be frantic if I didn’t get home soon.

            “Lilith, may I take this book home please?” I asked her, knowing there was more information I could learn from it.

            “Of course dear,” she pulled me into a tight hug. “The kids told us what happened, since they needed our permission to go get you from the school today. Whatever you need, it is yours.” She kissed my bruised cheek and walked off. I held the book close to me like it was my new lifeline.

The sun had gone down, so James drove Chase and I home. First he dropped Chase off and then he drove towards my house. We sat in silence because Jade stayed home to keep reading. She was taking the situation very seriously. We pulled up in front of my house; it wasn’t too long of a drive.

            “Thanks for the ride.”

            “No problem.” He looked like he had more to save so I waited a little long before opening the car door. “Wait…take this with you please.” He handed me something that looked like a garage door opener. “If at any reason you are in danger or need me for something, press the button and I will come straight away. I have one that will vibrate when you press your button, and yours will vibrate if I press mine.” After explaining the purpose of the device, I felt my heart swell with love.

            “Thank you James, I’ll see you soon."

               I got into my house and explained to Karter where I was and what I was doing. He then demanded to know what happened to my face. After explaining everything that happened with Kyle from the summer up until today, Karter was pissed that I hadn’t told him sooner, he told me to eat supper than go up to my room for the rest of the night. Jessica was already at her first class of the night, so Karter would fill her in later. That night I sat on my bed reading over more of the guide we found. I was interested in learning more about my world.