Blood Wars

Chapter 8

As soon as I reach our estate I walk right in, passing the guards without a word and head straight into my room. I toss my backpack- a little too hard and it skims right over the bed and hits the wall with a soft thud. I pull out my phone. No calls, no messages. Are you kidding me? I'm still in charge here. I compose a text to Taryn.

Fill me in I'm dying here.

Metaphorically of course.

A second later she responds.

Kara! I missed you so much.

I wasn't sure if it was okay to call, I know your parents are being especially anal right now.

I open my contacts and facetime her. When her face fills the screen, I feel a calmness blanket my nerves, almost as powerful as taking a sip of human blood. Her blue wavy locks are as shiny as ever and she's wearing tiny black shorts and a cross strapped sports bra. Her typical training gear. From the background I can tell she's in the warehouse. I see several vampires behind her, but the room seems emptier than usual.

"Hey babe!" She greets me.

"Where is everyone?" I ask. Taryn looks around the room.

"Oh, a bunch of us are training out back." She responds and I raise one brow. "Don't worry," she says, picking up on my concern. "We're completely concealed and always on the lookout." I spot Dorian behind her talking to Charlotte. They both look angry.

"What's going on there?" I ask. She follows my gaze.

"Oh. You know Dorian. He's giving her hell, not exactly jazzed that she's in charge."

"Well he needs to get over it." I say.

"Enough about them," Taryn say. "What's been going on? Your silence was beginning to worry me."

"Meet me tonight." I say.

"Usual place?" She asks.

"See you then." I end the call.

At dinner I put on a grand show. I pretend to be spaced out and nauseous until they excuse me from the table where they sip their glasses full of animal blood. I then told them I was "going to bed early." Which really meant laying on my bed still as a human corpse until I couldn't detect any trace of activity in the house. And then an extra hour on top of that to be extra cautious. Now I'm dressed in my own style with my hair tousled to perfection in place of the plain ponytail I don during school hours. As soon as the wall sized window in my room is cracked open, the chilling air seems to greet me with excitement, the night breeze trying to pull me through, begging me to join the endless possibilities the blanket of darkness has in store for those brave enough to seize it. I let the glass slide shut behind me before I take off running. It feels so good to move at my own pace- my natural pace, instead of forcing myself to take slow strides in order to fit in with the human race. I love the feeling of the wind slicing against my stony skin as my limbs burn with speed.

Taryn is waiting for me in our alleyway, sitting on top of the concrete wall. I am so relieved to see her I almost want to pull her down and kiss her, but I refrain. Happy just to feel something other than deep indifference to everyone and everything around me. One look at my best friend and I know she is just as relieved to see me. I leap up to the top of the wall adjacent to where she is sitting. For a moment we just stare at each other. Where do you start when there is so much to say and everything feels like it changed?