Veins of Ice Page 20

  She had known all of them since elementary school. Violet was a Water. Her bright, purple hair and dark lipstick emphasized her punkish attitude. Leo was an Earth, and a shapeshifter. Sean was also an Earth elemental, and was powerful, but not enough to be considered a Chaos elemental. His manipulation of the soil and nature was enviable by others. Though they were friends and had been for awhile, she felt as though something was missing, or rather, someone. She wondered what it would be like to play cards with Blade, Jinx, and Asher. Their personalities and innate traits would add spice and fresh air to a stale, social interaction.

  “Looks like Hadrian found someone he really likes,” Violet muttered. She scowled, appearing more menacing than usual.

  Karena’s eyes strayed past Leo to Hadrian, who was sitting on the bench seat by the window. He seemed to be in an intimate conversation with Claira. One of her legs was draped over his. She was thoroughly captivated by him, and frequently touched the buttons of his shirt. His shirt had already been unbuttoned halfway. Due to the look on Hadrian’s face, Karena could tell that Hadrian wasn’t interested in her. He was just trying to talk to her, or mess with her, as he sometimes did to women to entertain himself.

  Unable to take it any longer, Violet tossed her cards onto the table and went over to butt in on Hadrian’s conversation with Claira. He welcomed her, even though Claira protested and looked ready to kill her. Because Violet placed a hand on his right thigh, Claira grabbed his left arm. Territory lines had been drawn, and a verbal tug-of-war was about to ensue.

  Sean scooted away from the table, and rested his back against the wall of the treehouse. “So why did you want to join their team?” Sean asked Karena.

  “Charissa wouldn’t initiate such a thing. She looked pissed off every time she came to work,” Leo said. He found a leaf and twirled it by its stem.

  Karena said, “It was an act of goodwill. I felt it necessary after the dual in case there were hurt feelings.”

  “Who cares if they have hurt feelings? When did you suddenly get all mushy inside for them?” Sean said and crossed his arms as he stared at her.

  Karena shrugged. “It was my choice, and now it’s over with,” she said.

  Nervousness prickled inside of her, jabbing her with all of its needles, trying to get her to fidget and lose control over her ice powers. If the temperature dropped, they would know she was experiencing distress, and therefore, had something to hide.

  “And what did you learn about those heartless smokes?” Leo asked, and tore up the leaf with a taloned nail.

  “That they’re just like us.”

  They both snorted, exchanging looks, and regarded her with disbelief.

  “Really, Karena?” Leo said. “You’re a badass. This isn’t like you.”

  With a smirk, Sean said, “What if your dad found out that you felt this way?”

  “I don’t care because it’s the truth.”

  “It sounds as though you have more feelings for them than for any one of us, including Hadrian,” Sean said, squinting his eyes at her, daring her to react.

  “Have you two ever been on an opposing team?” she asked. She felt her hands sweat, but fought to ignore it and the ice that was climbing up the short table legs. She steadied her breathing, and the creeping advance of ice stopped before it spread out over the tabletop.

  “Nope, and not about to,” Leo said and laughed.

  “Just the thought makes me want to vomit and kill myself,” Sean said, “and here it is, you survived two weeks with them.”

  “I’m not that fragile. I don’t crumble when things don’t go my way or when they’re not ideal.”

  Sean’s face contorted as anger built up inside of him. “If I had encountered that wyvern and been in that team, I would’ve left my teammates for dead,” he said.

  “Why did you have to play the heroine?” Leo asked. His eyes had turned glossy, as though he was staring at prey.

  “Their lives aren’t worth anything. You would’ve done everyone a favor if you had abandoned them. You disgraced us,” Sean said.

  Karena said, “You may not understand this, but I have to live with myself and the consequences of my actions. I’m not a kid anymore that can try to brush off personal responsibility or harbor irrational grudges. These are human beings we’re talking about. I feel good knowing I did a courageous act, rather than a cowardly and unenlightened one as you are suggesting I should’ve committed.”

  “You’ve lost touch with reality,” Leo said, and Sean nodded in agreement with him.

  “What if the roles were switched? Would you really want to die when one of them could’ve saved you?” Karena asked. She fumed on the inside.

  “I would rather die than have one of them save me. I wouldn’t be able to live with the fact that they had rescued me and that I had been incapable of doing that myself,” Sean said.

  “If that’s the case, then I’m not the one who has lost touch with reality. You’re the ones who have,” she said, standing up.

  “Sorry, babe, but you’re in the minority with your opinions. You can ask anyone,” Leo said. He still had that cold predatory look on his face.

  “None of those Fires and Airs care about you, even if it might look that way,” Sean said, and his chest heaved from a deep sigh, as though he was losing patience with a toddler. “They’re great actors, which means they’re great at lying. It’s what they do.”

  Frustrated with them, she looked down at them and their self-righteous expressions. She said, “I guess you know it all then, even though you’ve never talked to one of them.”

  Karena strode out of the treehouse dwelling and onto the deck. She couldn’t bear another second in their company or else she was going to lose all control over herself. Her powers were dangerous, and only an idiot would try to provoke her as they were trying to do. Her hands clenched the railing. The wood popped and cracked under her frozen might. She gazed at the pond below. Little fins sliced the water. In the tree branches, song birds trilled.

  Once she felt she had herself under control, Karena went back inside the treehouse dwelling.

  “Hadrian, I’m going to walk home,” she told him.

  He looked up, and tossed his truck keys to her. “I can get a ride,” he said.

  She wondered if he meant that sexually, or if he truly was intending to get a lift home by car. Violet and Claira flashed her catty eyes, jealous that she lived under the same roof as Hadrian.

  Just as she turned to leave, she heard shouting. Everyone bolted to their feet, and ran onto the deck. They listened, but couldn’t tell what was happening.

  “What’s going on?” Claira asked. It was a stupid question by all means because everyone was equally as clueless as she was.

  Hadrian headed to the stairs. “Let’s find out. It probably has to do with the feud,” Hadrian said.

  “I hope no one has been killed,” Violet said.

  “We’re overdo for it,” Sean said. It was as though he wanted the feud to escalate.

  Feeling her breath tremble inside of her, Karena followed them down to the ground. They skirted past the main house and onto the sidewalk. A mob of people were walking down the street and shouting. Others were flooding out of their homes.

  “No to the Wildland trade agreement!” the people were shouting. “We won’t deal with vampire supporters!”

  The crowds blocked traffic, but it didn’t matter because those that were in their vehicles got out to hear what they had to say and ended up joining them. All of them became riled up.

  “No trading with Wildlanders!” they chanted.

  They held swords and staffs up in the air. Some waved the flag of the Sundarin Nation. Karena couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Everyone was mobilizing. She hadn’t witnessed anything like this before in her life.

  One of Sean’s neighbors came up to them. “Listen to the radio,” she said, and shook Sean by the shoulders. With her cloak flapping behind her, she ran off and disappeared into the crow
ds walking down the street.

  “Ok, so I guess we should listen to the crazy neighbor?” Leo suggested.

  Thunder and lightning spells boomed overhead. A serpent made from smoke lunged through the air. Everyone was unhappy and making it a point to show it.

  They hurried inside, and Violet twisted the dials of the radio. She tuned into the main radio station.

  The radio host was saying, “In an unprecedented move, the Council has decided to open up the Wildlands for trade. They voted three against two for it. They claim this is for humanitarian purposes. Specific details are being worked out right now in City Hall, but it’s official, they have decided to open one of the gates. Times are changing. Let’s hope this is for the better, and not for the worst.”

  Even the announcer didn’t sound thrilled. Goosebumps textured Karena’s arms. None of them knew what to say. The gates that had been sealed shut after the Vampire Regime had ended hadn’t been opened since, but now one of them would be.

  Finally, Karena said, “What are they thinking? Those are descendants of vampire supporters. We have no idea what we would be dealing with or if they have changed their ways.”

  The Council hadn’t consulted the public. They had launched right into a decision to initiate trade, and puncture the wall that separated their two lands without any concern about the past. Five hundred years was a long time according to a human, but to those that lived longer, it might not be, and their minds might still remember the day when the Vampire Regime had been overthrown and their prison sentence in the Wildlands began, that is if they had survived the purges to rid the Sundarin Nation of vampires, whether dormant or awake, and vampire supporters alike.

  “What would they be trading? Coffins?” Hadrian asked with an obnoxious grin on his face.

  Leo punched him. “Not funny,” he snapped.

  “If I were any more of a man, I would say ouch.”

  Sean rolled his eyes, and said, “This isn’t the time for humor, and I think you mean ‘less’ rather than ‘more’.”

  “I’m going outside,” Violet said, and stomped out of the room to join the protesting crowds.

  They followed her, and marched towards City Hall too. It seemed like everyone had abandoned their work, household chores, leisure activities, and whatever else they had been in the middle of to partake in this. There were even people in bathrobes who had joined the protest. Noise shattered the sky above, and people zoomed around on flying carpets, broomsticks, and chairs.

  As she walked next to Hadrian, Karena studied the people around her. Everyone was fearful, and above all, they were pissed about the decision that the Council had made. Even though it was only a trade agreement, it could have a domino-like effect where it led to more agreements, until just maybe, Wildlanders were allowed to set foot on their lands, and later on, become citizens.

  She wondered if the Wildlanders were like them, just as the Fires and Airs were, and if they were making an imaginary enemy out of them all. She didn’t know what to think, and kept walking through Archelm City. Supposedly, the Council were wise above all others, but the decision, made without the public’s approval, seemed to indicate otherwise.

  Chapter 19

  Mark twisted the lapis lazuli ring around his finger, a nervous habit he had acquired over the centuries. He kept his back to the others so that they couldn’t see this. He peered through the gap between the heavy curtains. Because of the ring, the sunlight hitting his face didn’t burn him. It was still unpleasant to say the least.

  The masses of people outside were chanting, brandishing weapons, and attempting to get into the building. The sky was smoky and thick with spells they had fired and were still firing into the air to show their displeasure. The first floor of City Hall had been breached. None of them had expected such a display of disobedience from their soon-to-be-slaves. But they had locked the second level just in time. Now they were trapped and would have to wait until the crowds dissipated, which could take all day. They had kicked out the other two Council members, and left them to convince the protesting crowds that they had voted against the decision to open up the Wildlands for trade.

  All of their faces outside sickened him. Humans were pathetically weak. They thought they had a say in their government and the choices that were made, but they were wrong. Centuries of bliss had disillusioned them into thinking their opinions were important. His jaw tensed until it hurt. He could almost see red from how angry he was. He twisted the ring around his finger so hard it broke the bone. He cursed, but didn’t stop. His natural healing ability kicked in, and repaired his finger, paining him, but he didn’t care. The pain distracted him, and prevented him from smashing the window.

  Memories raced inside of his mind. He remembered when power had slipped from his race before. At that time, he had been merely a business owner that had overseen the cultivation, importation, and distribution of herbal medicines. He recalled the fights in the streets, rushing the Elders down into secret catacombs, and fleeing to the south with Daray and Corentine, instead of to the north like everyone else. Almost all who had fled north had perished. All three of them had found a cave to sleep in for a century. He still shuddered from remembering when he had woken up, and had discovered that he had been covered in a ten-foot layer of bat droppings.

  When he had come back to Archelm City, one hundred years after the Vampire Regime had ended, he had been devastated to find out that the humans had poked into every nook and cranny, dug up every grave, and demolished almost all of the vampire estate houses. Hence, all of the catacombs that he knew of and dormant vampire corpses that had been left had been destroyed. It was like this in every city he had visited.

  Newly awakened, Mark observed the humans at twilight and before the sun rose at dawn. He discovered their strength came from a sense of unity. Like the elves before them, thousands of years ago, Mark wasted no time in creating mass chaos that first started with the death of a Fire he had drowned. Fire elementals were the most hot-tempered out of all of the elementals, and easiest to rile up. And shortly after the Fire’s death, when no witnesses or suspects were announced, the finger-pointing and escalation of hostility began, which became a feud, and eventually the entire division of the city.

  After a century of hunting for a daylight ring with Corentine and Daray, avoiding the Nightguards that roamed the city at night, and keeping a low profile by draining and drinking the blood of rodents in the sewers, they had found one. Daylight rings allowed them to walk around in sunlight, and fully participate in human society, but they only had one amongst them. Despite this though, they quickly embedded themselves into society.

  When he had come into the position of Council member, he had elected Corentine and Daray through a tedious and arduous process to become Council members too. As a team, they could outvote the two other Council members each and every time a decision, law, or issue came up.

  In twenty years’ time, they had locked up the Ancient Library so that only those with a permission slip signed by them could enter. With Corentine’s and Daray’s help, they had burned warehouses of food and goods to drive up the prices, increased taxes on everything, created more laws, given more power to corporations than people, and in general, had started the downwards spiral of human society into a slave state. First, it would begin with Archelm City, the shining capital of the Sundarin Nation, and then spread outwards. Little by little, he was taking away people’s freedoms. The feud kept them distracted well enough, so that they didn’t get wise to the fact that something might be amiss in their government.

  As Mark stared through the window at them protesting their decision to open up trade with the Wildlands, he licked his lips. They were so healthy, and their blood was rich. The goblet of basilisk blood on the table that awaited to be swallowed down by him didn’t appeal to him, especially when compared to what was outside. The Elders that were left were going to have a feast like never before when he woke them. Their livestock had been anemic before, but their absence
had fixed that.

  “We shouldn’t have been so bold, Markandreo,” Corentine said, using his real name. “We’re going to be trapped in here forever.”

  “We’ve been too nice,” Mark said. “It’s about time we step things up. We’ve raised prices on everything, increased taxes, and started to dismantle pubic services, like housing for the disabled, mentally ill, and elderly. We’ve even lowered wages. We’ve barred them from their ancient texts, and from getting their hands on certain herbs and stones. We’ve been tightening the noose, but it’s not enough. They need to learn who’s in charge.”

  Daray spoke in his nasally voice, “You’re not an Elder, therefore you don’t know these creatures like they did. They knew how to get under their skins, how to control them, and never did they elicit a protest like this. You don’t know what you’re doing.”

  “I DO TOO, DARAY!” Mark shouted. His head jerked to the side, and he fumed at Daray.

  Daray leaned up against one of the decorative columns in there. He said, “They knew how to silence them and leave them quivering inside of their homes. We have to consider waking the Elders.”

  “I will once I kill every last Chaos elemental in the city. We’re five shy of our goal,” Mark said.

  From the chair she sat in, Corentine said, “They haven’t noticed that most of the killings have been Chaos elementals. They’re stupid as cows. All they see is the feud you created and nothing else.” Due to being displeased at their situation, her face had scrunched up and her eyes had become silts.

  “It was a clever ploy, now wasn’t it?” Mark said.

  Daray interrupted by saying, “Which you didn’t think of.” He rolled his head around in boredom.

  Mark hissed at him, and continued, “They’re so consumed by hatred that they don’t see a way to reconcile their differences with each other. They would rather see each other fall, than to unite as one collective force. We’re almost at the point where we could destroy a district, and the other side would allow it to happen without interference.”