Nirvana

Chapter eighteen

    “Since the air’s been clean, tell me what else can you do with your powers?” Vanessa asked. 

    “Um, I can teleport, kinda.” Dylan answered. 

    “Right, I’ve seen you do that before. You kinda blow away in flames.”

    “It’s kinda complicated. I have to completely focus on where I’m headed and how I reappear. Fire is...tricky. It’s chaotic and unpredictable. When I shift, it’s like I’m wind itself and I kinda get pushed every which way. I can’t see anything so it all depends on how hard I concentrate on where I wanna be. It’s not my preferred means of transportation.” 

    “How does it feel, to use your power I mean?” She asked, eyeing the markings on his arms. 

    “Sometimes my skin feels like it’s burning even though I’m fire resistant… and I’m overcome with so much rage. I get frustrated and it makes me irrational and impulsive. I have to focus really hard to keep my cool sometimes.”

    “Ever tried anger management?” she teased.

    “My parents enrolled me in a few classes when I was younger. Some of the exercises help, but it’s still hard. The only thing that really helps me stay calm is…” he blushed. “When I’m around you.” 

    “Oh? Is my presence relaxing?”

    “Yes,” he smiled. “It puts me at ease knowing you’re safe. Plus, I enjoy talking to you...your voice is soothing.” 

    Unconsciously, Vanessa tucked her lips to fight back a smile. For some reason she was feeling shy. He chuckled. 

    “I tell you that I like your voice and you choose now to be silent?” he teased.

    “Well what do you expect? You can’t just blurt out things like that and expect me not to react.” he laughed, leaning back and facing her. 

    “I know. Your expression was really cute though.” Vanessa elbowed him in the ribs. “Easy, I’m still a sick man.” 

    “Then shut up and rest like one.”  she sneered. There was a knock at the door.

    “Oh, you’re awake.” Renei cheered. “We came to see how you’re doing.”

    “And to bring lunch.” Raid added. “I know hospital food ain’t much to write home about.” 

    “By the look of it, I see you two made up.” Sarina noted at the sight of them nearly cuddling on the bed. They smiled at each other and Dylan placed an arm around her shoulder.

    “Thank Adonai.” Katskai sighed. “You know how awkward it is trying to tiptoe around you two?” 

    “I’m really sorry, to all of you.” Dylan apologized. “I haven’t been honest and took your trust for granted. Can you guys ever forgive me?” Katskai threw an arm around him.

    “Can’t speak for the girls, but for me, water under the bridge.” Katskai said with a smile. Raid came up and dabbed him up. 

    “Same here man, I think it’s cool we have a demon on our side. Kinda puts us at an advantage, don’t ya think?” Raid added. “That caped woman won’t know what hit her.” The room grew silent. 

    “s**t,” Vanessa cursed. “That day….”

    “I didn’t mean to.” Dylan interrupted. “I tried to keep calm, but after seeing you get impaled...I became so fueled with fury.” 

    “Am I missing something?” Raid asked. 

    “That’s right, I meant to ask what happened after we were all left unconscious.” Sarina added. 

Vanessa and Dylan shared a look. “I-I tried to kill her...and I almost did.” he admitted. 

    “Isn’t that a good thing?” Renei asked. 

    “You don’t understand. I let Him take control. This other part of me...it can be cruel and spiteful. I wanted to torture her, feel her life slip away through my fingers and the thought filled me with such horrifying pleasure. I don’t like feeling powerless, especially against myself.” 

    “It’s not like the b***h wouldn’t have had it coming.” Sarina sneered. “She shot Katskai and gave him a concussion. She’s almost killed Vanessa twice. Sorry if I don’t cry at her funeral.”

    “Still, her execution isn’t up to us.” Katskai stated. “Sure, if she were a demon, we have the right to exercise her, but seeing as she’s likely one of the fallen, we can’t kill her. It goes against our nature and jurisdiction.”

    “Well Dylan isn’t part of our jurisdiction is he?” she argued, but suddenly felt guilty for saying. “I-I’m sorry Dyl, I didn’t mean it like that.” 

    “Don’t.” he stopped her. “There’s no point in pretending. I’m not like all of you...it’s clear and it’s something I have to accept. I’ve been denying this part of me for so long, it’s about time I own up to it.” The room was silent yet again. It was a heavy thought to consider that Dylan was rightfully an enemy to their kind. Fallen Angels were one thing, but the fact that he had a demonic entity within him would put them all at risk. Harboring a demon was considered an act of treason toward Nirvana. “I’m grateful for your forgiveness, really. But having me around puts all of you in danger, especially now that you are aware of what I am. I can ask that you not turn me in, but I will understand if you choose to keep your distance. I don’t want to drag all of you down with me.”

    “I’ve lost you once,” Vanessa started. “Ion care what you are, you’re still the only family I’ve known. I don’t wanna lose you again.” 

    “What type of friends would we be if we just abandoned you?” Raid asked. “s**t, I’m surprised my soul hasn’t been tainted a long time ago. A little treason ain’t gone hurt nobody.”

    “I don’t deserve you guys.” Dylan gushed. 

    “s**t, we only have 10 more minutes of lunch.” Sarina noted. “We shouldn’t stay out too long. We’re still on probation and we shouldn’t push our luck too much. When did they say you can go home?” 

    “My mom will probably want to run a few tests on me, but I should be able to go home tonight.” 

    “Let us know when you get out.” Renei suggested. “We can all go shopping.”

    “For?” Dylan asked. 

    “Lock in’s tomorrow night.” Raid reminded him. “Renei’s been pretty excited.”

    “Does no one except me seem to care about our probation?” Sarina nagged. 

    “This will be the last time.” Renei begged. “Then we’ll be good and stay on campus.” 

    “I already have plenty of clothes, you guys can go by yourselves.” 

    “Sarina’s right.” Katskai agreed. “We don’t wanna get expelled. Headmaster Cane isn’t the type to go back on his word. Maybe we should lay low for a bit, catch up on some school work.” 

    “You guys are no fun.” Renei pouted. Dylan’s mom entered the room and the gang took that as their cew to head out. Vanessa gave Dylan one last hug before following behind her friends. 

    Back at school, Vanessa and her friends made their way toward their secret entrance. Behind the school track field was a stone wall. Part of the wall was broken which allowed them to sneak in and out. Renei admitted to breaking the wall in freshman year practicing a new magic trick. No one knew about the wall, but strangely enough there were two guards examining the whole. 

    “s**t, how’d they find this?” Renei swore. 

    “Not like it was all that hidden except for a few shrubs and trees.” Raid noted. 

    “Still, no one usually goes back here. I know for a fact. Someone must have seen us leave.” 

    “What do we do now?” Sarina asked. “We can’t walk through the front and if they find out we’re not here...Goddess, I knew we shouldn’t have kept doing this.”

    “Relax, there’s gotta be some way to get past them.” Renei said. 

    “How? If we go through here it’ll look suspicious. They’ll want to check our IDs. If we weren’t supposed to be outside,” Sarina collapsed to the ground, her face scrunched up and her hands over her eyes. “I can’t...I can’t go back home.” Vanessa kneeled down beside her, placing a hand on her shoulder. 

    “It’ll be alright Rina.” Vanessa said. She was ignored. 

    “Don’t worry Ness, I got this.” Katskai said as he pulled Sarina into a hug. Suddenly they heard a bark. Everyone, including the guards, looked over at a dog sitting in the middle of the track.

    Pryor? Vanessa thought. Fear crept over her. Oh no, if they catch him...No, that’s not my biggest concern right now. The guards called after him and he took off running. The guards spoke into their radio and took off after him. “Come on, let’s go.” Vanessa gestured for them to follow her and together they slipped in, using the back paths toward the main building. 

    “Nessa, you coming?” Renei asked as they reached the door.

    “I’ll catch up.” she said before taking off in the direction the guards were going. They seemed to have chased the dog all the way toward the east building. Vanessa peeked from behind a wall as she saw the guards trying to surround him. She readied herself to conjure up a distraction, but before she could, she was astounded by what was happening. As they lunged for the dog, it shifted and transformed into a bird and flew high above their heads. “What the…” Vanessa watched the bird sour by, back toward the dorms. The guards got on their radios informing the staff that they possibly had a cryptid loose on campus. Vanessa was speechless, but it’d be weird if they caught her creeping around. She took off running toward the main building.

    Vanessa tapped away at her desk. The only thing playing through her head were the events of what happened at lunch. She couldn’t seem to wrap her head around it. Pryor was some form of shapeshifter? Why hadn’t he told her this sooner? A hand waved in front of her face. “Huh?”  

    “Sorry, you looked a little spaced out.” Darren said. “I was calling your name for a second now.” 

    “Oh, sorry, what did you need?” She asked.

    “Nothing really. The bell just rang. I wanted to see if you were about to head to the dorms. I was gonna offer to walk with you.” 

    “Don’t you usually get picked up after school?” she asked. 

    “Not today.” he lied. “I decided to take the train home so I could...you know, spend a little more time with you.” he grinned. “Not to mention, this is a pretty big campus. Surely a lovely lady like yourself shouldn’t be walking home alone.” 

    “Oh really?” She mocked. “Because I’m not trained to kill demons on a daily basis. How ever would I have survived without you.” she smirked. “Nice offer, but I kinda have something important to do.”

    “With Dylan?” he guessed. Her gaze settled on him, her brows forming a scowl.

    “No, why’d you think that?” she asked. Realizing he’d probably offended her, he backtracked. 

    “Sorry, I didn’t mean anything offensive by it. I just always see you two together, well maybe not this past week, but I just assumed if you had plans it’d likely be with him or…”

    “My world doesn’t revolve around him. Don’t go making assumptions Darren.” she stated. He stayed quiet. “Anyway, I have to go. See you around.”  

    Vanessa rushed through the courtyard scanning the skies. Where did he fly off to. All this time, Pryor was some form of shapeshifter. How hadn’t she realized it before. The way he could get in and out of her room with no problem. She needed to figure out what he was and why he was here. Her head was so jumbled, she didn’t realize it until she crashed into something hard, yet soft.

    “Yo, someone’s in a hurry.”

Vanessa looked up to see Dylan, he smiled at her. “W-What are you...Aren’t you supposed to be….Hold on, how can you pass through the school barrier?” 

    “The school has a barrier?” he asked.

    “Yeah, it was shortly after we were grounded. There’s a holy barrier around the campus to keep demons out, how do you get in here everyday?” 

    “I-I don’t know. I just passed through.” he shrugged. “I thought I’d surprise you. Mom let me out early.”

    Vanessa glanced over to see a blue jay staring right at her. “That’s great Dyl, but I kinda have to be somewhere.” s1he rushed past him, but he grabbed her arm.

    “Hold on, be where? Is it...Is it with Darren?”

    “God, no, what’s with you two? I’ve got a bigger problem right now.”

    Like what?” Before they could say anything else, the blue jay flew low to the ground and shifted into a dog. He sat before them, his ears lowered. “What the f**k?” 

    “Yeah.” Vanessa agreed. She approached him. “Don’t know why you choose to do that now while people are still looking for you, come on. Let’s go somewhere with fewer eyes.”  Pryor shifted into a small ladybug and crawled onto Vanessa’s hand. She took another look around before hurrying off toward the dormitories. 

    “So you are a shapeshifter.” Vanessa confirmed. 

    “A Mimic to be exact.” Pryor corrected. “My people come from the sea. We used to only shift into sea creatures, however, pollution these days has evolved us to live as land animals as well.” 

    “Great, as if this world needed more cryptids.” Vanessa said as she slumped on a chair. “Why haven’t you told me this before?” 

    “I was afraid you’d have me deported again,” he admitted. 

    “Again? We’ve met before?” 

    “Once...except I was trying to kill you then.”

    “Holy, shit...you were that octopus thing that wrecked our school. That’s why your voice sounded so familiar. How didn’t I notice?”

    “Please, believe me when I say I mean you no harm.” he pleaded.

    “How are you any different from before?” Dylan asked. 

    “I was being controlled...by the woman in black. She forced me to. I was captured and tortured months ago. She promised that if I did as I was told, she would set me free.” 

    “Whether or not you're harmful, what do we do now?” Vanessa paced. “It was one thing harvesting a stray, might have led me to get a write up and suspicion, but if they find out I’ve been harvesting a wanted cryptid...Goddess, this is too much.”

    Pryor lowered his head. “I apologize if I’ve caused you distress with my company. You were so kind to me...I wanted to thank you. I will leave if that is what you wish.” he stood on the window seal and flapped his wings. 

    “Wait.” Vanessa called. She took a step toward him. “It’ll only put you in danger if you leave right now. There are guards patrolling the area. Why don’t you rest here for the night. We’ll figure out what do do in the morning.”