Blood Against Ivory

Fishes, Wolves, Lions, Bats, oh my!

On any other day, I would have taken my car. But through my early morning haze, I checked the forecast. The heavens would be emptying upon us in blissful rain. Nice.

Without the fear of the blinding sun, I decided to take the bus home.

I cracked my aching joints and stretched my tight muscles. I pulled on my coat and waved goodbye to the nurses. Tapping my umbrella on the tiled floors, I made my way to Dr. Chernshevsky's office.

Even though the program hired a new wave of monsters on staff, Katya had been with Lawrence since the beginning. The officials thought it was clever to have a siren as a psychiatrist. A lot more clever than having a vampire being a hematologist. So my mouth stays shut.

"Katya?" I peaked past her mahogany door, calling out for her.

The siren was perched at her desk, leaning back in her chair. Her absent irises were scrolling through her laptop, lost in thought. When she saw me in her doorway she snapped to attention. Her loose blonde bangs hung down her forehead limply, and she brushed them aside to look up at me.

"Malakai," she stated. She only referred to me as Dr. Killian (or simply Killian) when around co-workers, but didn't mind stating my first name when alone. There is only one living person who has ever called me Kai and gotten away with it, and I'll be damned if I don't go down with that count. 

She's reading me, and it's obvious. The way her gaze trickles underneath my skin, it makes its way through my organs and settles on my desires. Being a siren, she can read my ambitions like it's an aura around my body. She always described my ambiance as "a halo dripping with red thorns". She has her way with poetry, but her eyes say everything.

"You look chipper," She proclaimed, going back to her work. She could read my desires, huh? Well, I have a strong desire to go out with Joanna, and it's practically plastered on my face. I didn't need to explain anything to her, she already knew.

"How's Phoebe?" I asked, taking a seat on the gray-cushioned chair in front of her. She let slip a small smile.

"She's interesting. She wants to go into psychology like me, but she mentioned some things about internal medicine, too. You make it seem fun."

I smirked at that. "A sphinx in internal medicine?"

Katya raised an eyebrow and grinned. "A vampire in hematology?"

I leaned back in my chair. "Touché."

Katya was one of the few people in this world that knew about my true identity. Being a siren, she could see right through my facade. I never had much of a chance of hiding from her. She respected my masquerade, but I never knew whether it was beyond surface level. While the rest of the world is transparent to Katya, to me, she couldn't be more opaque.

"Do you think she's..." I trailed off. "Well, do you think she's doing well?"

Dr. K stopped typing on her computer. "Phoebe's smart for a 17-year-old. She's smart concerning her species, too."

I relaxed my limbs hearing that sentence. "So she's taking her meds?"

"To my knowledge." Katya grumbled. "You're so obsessed with medicating monsters. You should have gone into chiro-medicine or something."

Of course I need to be obsessed. There will always be a reason for my obsession, even if the views are obscured. There needs to be order and control to the instincts that lie inside.

I blew her off with a flick of my hand. "I'm serious."

"Malakai, if she wasn't on leo-suppressants she wouldn't be taking this course. She'd be along with the rest of the rogue monsters tearing up this town."

My stomach twisted tightly, and my leg started to bounce. But I knew I had to control my thoughts around Katya, or else my aura would reflect that.

But the fire... And the blood. And the screaming newscasters and the blaring television.

And his ruby red eyes.

"Dinner," I blurted. Katya gave me an odd look. "Let's get dinner sometime."

She smiled at that. "Sounds good. Chihiro's?"

"Yeah. You paid last time, so it's on me," I replied, standing up. I grabbed my umbrella from the floor. Her eyes flickered over me one last time.

Contrary to popular belief, sirens cannot read minds. While my thoughts can be translated into desires, she cannot sense the brewing in my mind. But the stares she gives me makes me have second thoughts.

"Have a good evening," she tears her gaze away and goes back to her work. She does it without skipping a beat, but it's just enough to make my heart skip a beat. I sigh, and trod to the exit.

"G'night, Katya."

An enigma, that's what she is. But she is my balance on the tightrope of society.

Every car that passes sprays muddy water onto the soaked sidewalk. I keep my umbrella centered as the rain bullets down. There are everyday faces at the bus stop with me. A woman underneath the shelter looking down at her phone, a bulky man leaning against the dripping metal, and another vampire to the side of me. I like to travel in the evening or in the troubling weather. 

When the sun is high in the sky, my skin itches. Although my chiro-suppressants subside most of the pain, my pale flesh still tingles annoyingly. But I do take the role of a human with dignity, so I do travel through the streets when I please. I must keep up the act that I am normal. That I am an everyday citizen. That I belong. That I am not rogue. That I do not lust for blood. That I do not have ruby red eyes like-

The bus arrived, and it's squealing wheels showered my shoes with dirty water. All three strangers hopped aboard, with me trailing behind. We all swiped our cards and took our seats.

I sat near the front while the man and the woman took the middle. The young vampire sat across from me.

He was listening to music through his headphones, yet he kept his hood up, hiding his ears. I knew he didn't just wear it to protect himself from the elements, he was deliberately masking away his ears. I could see by the way certain parts of the fabric judded out. But the eyes gave it all away. The way they sagged and were stained with black rings. His skin was deathly white like mine, and his fingernails were already stretching past his tips. He was a teen and unsure of his maturing. I was the same way. But at least I knew how to control the key giveaways.

I don't know if the other man and woman were not human. They could be werewolves and I wouldn't care. All I care about is identifying the vampires.

Was he taking his medicine? Was he sleeping enough? He's not doing enough to hide his true nature. He needs to try harder.

I need to try harder.

"Oh, mom, did you see," Down the aisle, a twenty-something daughter nudged her aging mother. "They burned down Ech Pierre. It was on 5 o'clock news. Didn't Dad grow up there?"

The older woman nodded her head. "Those damn monsters again. The streets aren't as safe as they used to be."

"They were never safe," The bulky man chimed in. The daughter hummed in agreement.

I shrivel and I crumple and I wilt and I feel the eyes trailing all over me. Am I like that vampire across from me? Not even trying to hide his species? Do I look like him? I need to sleep more I need to eat more greens I need to tan more I need to not look like him. I am not a vampire.

I am normal.

But I need to check the news as soon as I get home. 

Because he is not.