Darkest Blood

Chapter One

The sun woke me that Wednesday. The other side of the bed was empty. It was weird how quickly I had gotten used to waking up with Noah next to me, but he had promised his brother a good 4th of July breakfast, and even though, he had invited me to join them, I had rather wanted to be at home. My aunt, Mrs. Thelonien, had fallen into a deep state of depression and shock after she watched her son come back from the dead. My cousin, Liam Thelonien, didn't only come back from the dead. In order to do so, he had been guilty in several ritual killings along with his girlfriend Julia Smittens, whom I had thought to be a friend. Julia was a necromancer. A cheater of Death. She had done the rituals, she had murdered the people, homeless people, children even, to bring him back, all the meanwhile, Liam, who was a hybrid between a necromancer and a banshee – a messenger of Death – had talked to her from beyond death. The mix of necromancer and banshee was dreadful. Liam was, perhaps, the most powerful Dark Being in the world, and he was hungry for power. I was a banshee, like my aunt. A messenger of Death. Whenever someone was dying, we would feel it. We could bring back the unrightfully dead without killing people, however the last person revived by a banshee had been a nurse during the last world war. Noah Parkinson, my boyfriend, was telepathic. He could read people's thoughts, but not without them knowing, he was doing it. His skills as a telepath came more in the unconscious parts of the brain. But he couldn't read Servants of Death. For some reason, we were protected from a lot of the Dark World.

I turned in the bed and grabbed my phone. There was a message from Noah along with some other stuff. The date screamed into my eyes. It was Wednesday the Fourth of July. Normally Ad, Nicola and I would spend the day together always ending up in the part of the park, where most of the town came to watch the fireworks. But Nicola had died last March. She had been the third victim in the rituals. It would be the first ever Fourth of July without her. The first Fourth of July, where I knew of my powers.

I sighed and got out of bed. I slipped on some clothes quickly before heading downstairs, I knew better than to check on Mrs. Thelonien. She would be sitting in the chair, like she always did. Besides, I needed to bring her breakfast. The fridge was running low on food. I made a mental note to remember to go grocery shopping soon. Thanks to the Theloniens being one of the most powerful families in the Dark World, money wasn't a problem. It had taken Hannah Withfellows – my witch friend – a day to crack the pin code on Mrs. Theloniens credit card, before I could use it. That way I didn't need to bother with the signature; My art skills were not exactly anything to be amazed at. Nicola could of course have hacked the bank and given me Mrs. Thelonien's fortune, but since she was dead, we had had to go with the next best: Hannah's magic. Besides, I felt bad enough for using Mrs. Thelonien's card, I would hate myself if I'd actually taken her fortune. As it was now, I only ever used it for groceries and other necessities.

I volunteered at Blackwell's Orphanage, and they paid me, but it wasn't much, and I suspected it was mostly because they felt bad for me, after everything that had happened. The Blackwells' were another big family in the Dark World, they had run the Orphanage almost since immigrating to the states back in the 18th century. They found parentless Dark Beings and took them in. The children got to live an almost normal life, when you overlooked the fact, that every Thursday afternoon, they would go to the secret training center hideout in the woods and train their dark abilities.

Noah had shown me the place about a month ago. Since the children first started training their dark abilities, when they turned 12, there were only two of them there every Thursday. Riley, who turned 14 soon, and Luke, who would turn 13 this November. Luke was a pyromancer; he could light stuff on fire with his hands and were immune to it all the same... Or he would be. Riley was a seer; her powers were trickier. Normally, Samantha Jones, or Sam as we called her, would come and give guidance, however, Sam had been missing since May, and though we had searched for her, none in the Gang had been able to find the smallest clue on her whereabouts. Her adoptive parents had gone to both the police and even the bounty hunters of the Dark World.