Blood Against Ivory

Prologue

"Amon, play me a song," I requested, my feet submerged in the crystal tide of the beach. Shadows of light danced underneath the surface as the afternoon sun warmed my back. My brother stood up from the golden sand and trodded to the nearest piano. It had an ebony frame which its legs sunk into the dunes at an angle. Amon sat on the bench, his weight making it lower a little further. His auburn eyes swiveled over to me and he patted his gloved hand on the seat next to him. A smile lit up across my face as I pulled away from the icy water and splashed up to the shore. My exposed legs burned in the sun, and my feet singed in the hot sand. But I couldn't stop grinning.

"What do you want me to play?" He asked, displaying the empty music rack. An answer was already perched on my lips.

"Obviously, my favorite one!" I commanded. Sitting on the chair, I couldn't touch the ground. My limbs swung back and forth and dived underneath the shade of the stool. Amon's lips twitched into a slight smirk. He brushed away a bit of loose hair from his vision, and cracked his knuckles. He carefully removed his silk gloves. My jaw slackened viewing his fingers sizzle in the light.

The tips of his burning skin rested against the ivory keys. Pressing down, a rich sound filled the salty air. The vibrations rattled my ears with the mellow tone singing through the melody. My brother exhaled, and opened his mouth, exposing his sharp canines.

"Firey pianos where you reaped your last song," he sang in a low tenor, gliding along with the current of the sea lapping up against the shore. "Red waves to rewrite all the wrongs."

His pale digits became chaffed from the exposed sunlight, but he kept marching with the tune, his voice swimming in the wind. "Golden sand and silver air, Ruby eyes staring everywhere."

Soft yet damaging. Something that could tear apart titanium with it's bare jaws, yet hum a lullaby to lull anyone into a deep sleep. Something that balanced on the blurry border between powerful and fragile. His sinuous tactiles embraced the sunburn, and he rolled his wrists as if he was playing the music in cursive.

"Bloody flames drown your woes, Too many dreams to dispose," he sang, his voice melting in with the rushing water to our sides. "Porcelain skin in crystal tides, Crying through blinding marble eyes..."

He lifted his hands from the instrument, a dripping crimson onto the white keys. He smiled through the pain as blood cascaded to the beach below us.

"Amon," I didn't know whether to compliment his abilities or criticize his recklessness. "Y-You should've kept on your gloves. Mom will kill you now!"

My brother kept his eyelids closed as he wiped his damaged fingers onto his black trousers. "It sounds better this way. Even though the sun is our enemy, I love the sonance of my raw music. Not the muffled nonsense that comes from these stupid things," he picked up the silky fabric and dropped them to the floor, burying them under the million grains of sand. I hated to admit it was true. His music was breathtaking when he let his skin touch the piano. I watched warily, as my brother opened his gleaming red eyes. Red like rubies.

That night was the night we discovered our cat dead in the yard. Drained of all her blood, all that was left was a sack of broken bones. A part of me wished a small animal could have sustained his lust for awhile, but the half knew that I was only diluting the truth. Holding the slaughtered feline in my arms, that began my journey of lying to myself.

Claudia found decapitated deer in the forest leading up to the driveway. That was all she told us, her mouth quivering with empty words. Amon's eyes trailed her for the rest of the day.

I pleaded for him to sing me a song and let his fingers dance to soothe my worries. My brother only shook his head, his black vine of a braid swishing back and forth. His hands were still bandaged from that hot day. I tried to deceive myself of my growing fears.