Static Reflections: Book 1 of The Mortal Guard Series

Chapter 62 - Pierce and Leah: I Will Haunt Me

Chapter 62 - Pierce and Leah: "I Will Haunt Me"

"Look in the mirror," Leah told Pierce, stepping to the side in the middle of her room and gesturing to the vanity.

The vampire looked down. "I'm stupid sorry about how I acted out there. I really just tried to suck your blood! I dunno what's wrong with me!"

"I mean, you're a vampire. It's in your nature now," Leah explained. "In time, I'm sure you'll learn to control this hunger. But uh, it was pretty freaky, yeah."

"Sorry," The lemur sighed, approached the mirror at a snail's pace, and leaned down to look at it, gasping. "My eyes! They're completely red!"

The female otter nodded. "Yeah. I think Self-Renfielding does that to you. I mean, like, vampires. If mortals drank their own blood, I don't think anything would happen."

Pierce continued to stare at their reflection and blinked. "It's super freaky! Is it gonna go away?! I can't go out in public with eyes like this!"

"It's already dangerous for you to go out in public anyway," the witch responded. "We saw what happened in the hallway with me . . . ."

"I know, I know. But there's gotta be some way . . . Like some contacts or something. I don't wanna be in isolation forever!" they complained.

Leah thought for a moment, furrowing her brows. "Plus, there's the added thing of you needing to hone your vampire skills but me not wanting to give you over to any vampires to do it."

"Is it really that dangerous?" Pierce asked, stepping away from the vanity.

Leah went over to her desk and pulled the dark brown wooden chair out, sitting and looking through a book that had been open. "Yeah. Vampire broods are like little cults. Once you're in one, you can't get out unless you kill the leader and leave or die. You have to act like them and do things for them and I bet you turn into a real asshole."

Pierce groaned. "But how did that happen?"

"I dunno. It's just the way they are, I guess. Obviously, I've never been in one but the ones I've heard about and met are like that."
    The other animal sighed. "Yeah."

Leah kept focused on the book, not saying anything else.

"Well, uh, I guess I'll get out of your fur now," Pierce muttered, returning to the entrance of the room before stopping and looking back. "Why don't you ever hang out with us? You're always trapped in here. I know you're working on the ritual, but you can't spare some time?"

Leah stopped, turning in her chair, resting her arm on the back of it, and crossing one leg over the other. "I want to but it would be stupid to be messing around when I should be preparing this detailed ritual. You know, I have expectations on me."

"Yeah, but--"

"I'm a witch, Pierce. I have power. I know you don't know what being a witch is, so I'll explain a little. We can't just use our magic infinitely. I told Boris that, too. Using magic makes you really tired after you use it and if you use it too much, you could risk putting yourself into Forever Sleep. So, we have to be careful how we use our magic and rituals."

"But what do you use it for? To fight monsters or something?" Pierce asked, innocently.

"It's complicated. You know the Mortal Guard, right? They protect the mortals from the Other Side. Well, we do something similar. Creatures and supernatural things have been around for an extremely long time. There are always things going on at any given moment. Over time, there have been cursed artifacts, magical traps, and in the rare case, Darkness Doors that open so that creatures from the Other Side can leak through. We witches take care of all this stuff. It's um, like, when there's a crack in the wall and you fill it with caulk."