An hour later, I was drying my hair after taking a shower. Arden and John were waiting downstairs with my sister for us to explain what Shades were and I'm sure they wanted more information than that. I threw on a pair of yoga pants, tank top that showed off my stomach and an over-sized sweater that opened down the front. I continued to dry my hair as I walked down the stairs, I listened to their conversation as I quieted my steps so that even a vampire wouldn't hear me.
"So the Shade are a magical community that work for the council in secret and can rip off your flesh without touching you...but only after they touch you. Okay, but that doesn't explain why they're here, or what's wrong with your sister." John said.
"I don't know why they're here. And as for Alys, well...our entire lives she has only been afraid of one thing...the Shade. Send her against the most powerful creature in all the universe and she would barely bat an eyelash. She's never cared if she lived or died as long as it was the right thing to do, but the Shade...they burned a scar in her so deep that even death couldn't erase that pain." She explained sadly.
"What did they do?" Arden asked quietly.
"They murdered our parents. Alys kept me from that pain, but she couldn't keep herself from it." Cadence said and I could hear the pain in her voice. We had talked about it only a handful of times in all our years together and every time she swears that it should have been her instead of me to see and hear what happened to them, but I am glad I saved her from its horror. If nothing else, I know I have done that good for her.
"Will you tell me?" Arden asked quietly again, but he wasn't looking at Cadence anymore, he was looking at me as I stood on the steps just far down enough that I could look into the room. I walked down the rest of the steps and stood behind the chair closest to the staircase.
I started quiet and a bit solemn, "It was three days before our fifteenth birthday, we had done the things we did every day; pick fruits and vegetables from the garden, do laundry, help make dinner, we went to bed like we always did. We slept in a room no bigger than my powder room, it only fit a bed really. Mother used to say that it would be easier to hide us the less room we took up- and how much room did we need to sleep really, we even slept in the same bed...There was this crack in the wood, just big enough that I could watch them through. The man that raised us was not our real father but he loved us and our mother so much that it didn't matter to him. Every night I would watch them dance or laugh, or just sit quietly and be together. I remember thinking that one day I would find a love like theirs and I would never let it go." I smiled remembering the look on my mothers face as she laughed at another one of my fathers jokes, she had the most beautiful smile. I was lucky to still be able to remember it after all this time, but then I frowned. "It seemed like every other night but as darkness fell a sense of dread washed over me. We went to bed and several hours later I awoke to a loud crashing noise. I looked through the crack to see several dark creatures closing in on my mother. My fathers body lay near her feet; he was still breathing and she was trying to protect him, using her body as a shield."
"I watched as one of them just...laid its hand down on her wrist, another on our fathers ankle. I don't think my mother knew what they did or who they were because she seemed confused, almost a little relieved even. That's when I covered Cadence's ears and made sure she could see nothing. Our mother screamed and collapsed next to our father and they both writhed in pain and they weren't even being touched. Their worst fears coming true and I could do nothing to stop it. Blood started to pool around their bodies from cuts I could not see, horror etched into their every feature. Father died first. It was then that she looked at me, through my little crack in the wood, her eyes bore into mine, pleading with me to keep quiet, to not let them find us. Her lips silently said 'I love you' and then I watched as her soul left her body. It was then I saw the cuts; they covered nearly every inch of her."
"...They have been hunting us ever since." I finished and wiped away a tear from the side of my face, I hadn't even known I shed it. I had never told anyone the full story before and I hadn't realized how emotionally taxing it would be. I took a couple of cleansing breaths but it wasn't working so I decide I needed a drink.
I walked into the kitchen, no one had followed me yet so I took the advantage and wrapped a couple of bags of blood in a dish towel and put them in the dumb waiter along with a bottle of bourbon, after I poured myself a glass that is, on ice. Sending the small elevator up to my room, it would come up in my closet so at least if I was followed up to my room no one else would see it first. I turned and found the three of them walking over to the kitchen as I moved to stand at the counter and took a sip from my glass.
Cadence moved around me to pull three more small glasses out of the cabinet and a new bottle of bourbon out of another and put them on the island and started making drinks.
"Do you know why they killed them?" John asked in a tone that said he was trying to tread lightly.
"Us. They killed them because they had us." I said sadly. My phone started ringing. I could have sworn I left it up stairs in my room, but now the sound seemed like it was coming from Marta's basement apartment. I looked up at Arden who seemed confused.
"Do you hear that?" I asked as I moved towards the basement door under the stairs.
He just looked at me like he was confused, as if he didn't really hear what I had said. I opened the door and a strong stench hit me, but I couldn't place what it was, almost as if my senses were dulled. I didn't feel light headed or like anything was physically wrong and yet, I felt as if I was fading, like I wasn't really here. I walked down the stairs and into the apartment; my phone had stopped ringing but soon started again and I followed the noise to the bedroom. I looked down and a dark red liquid was seeping from under the door. I opened the door and stepped inside. looking over at the bed, I spotted my phone, and when I looked down at it and saw that the number was that of the officer who had called me about Marcus Hadden's death. I walked further into the room following the trail of blood towards the bathroom. The door was closed and again blood was seeping from under it. I gently pushed open the door.
Laying on the floor, white as snow, with horror etched into her eyes was Marta. Three brutally long slashes dragged across the front of her body. I wanted to scream, I wanted to drop to my knees and cradle her body in my arms and beg for her death not to be real but I could not will myself to do so. I could feel the tears flowing down my face as I turned back to look at her small bedroom window; a Shade was climbing out of it. It looked back at me and smiled a black smile and then it was gone.
Suddenly I was falling into an endless pit of blackness and I could hear my phone ringing once again.
--------------------------
I shot upright in my bed, covered in sweat and tears streaming down my face.
Hey, don't move so quickly. We don't need you passing out again." I hear Arden's strong voice roll over me so smoothly. He sat down on the bed next to me, "I only left the room for five minutes." He said with a worried smile.
My phone rang again and I looked over to see that the same officer was calling me again. Wiping my face, I picked up my phone and checked the time; it was four o'clock in the afternoon. I rubbed my eyes. It was a vision, I had been here the whole time. But when had I gone into it?
"Its been going off all day, but your sister warned me that answering your phone was not a good idea." Arden said with a humorous tone.
I gave him a weak smile as I answered the phone, "You've got a body for me?" I asked knowing the answer.
"Yes, how did you..." he started to ask, but thought better of it and stopped, " Marcus Hadden found at that..." He started but I interrupted.
"Thank you, I know. Please send over a file with all the pertinent information in it, I won't be able to come in for it today." I said, gave him the address and he confirmed as I hung up.
I looked over at Arden, who seemed a bit perplexed. It was a much more him look than the one of confusion in my vision. "What happened?" I asked.
"Well I'm not exactly sure, we were going over paperwork. I hadn't even opened the wine yet, you seemed lost in thought and then the next thing I knew you passed out." He said sounding worried again.
"Had you bitten your lip?" I asked looking down at his lips. Of course there wouldn't be a mark; being a vampire, it heals almost instantly.
"Yeah, I was thinking about something and bit my lip. Why?" He asked sounding a little guilty.
"I smelt your blood, that's when I passed out." I sighed and ran my hands through my hair as I scratched my head. "Okay, I have to send my house keeper on vacation and take a shower. And then the four of us need to talk." I swung my legs over the side of the bed, I was still wearing my sweat shorts and off the shoulder sweater that showed off my belly. I got up and moved around my bed to walk over to the stairs but Arden grabbed my hand turning me back to him.
"You can..not go down stairs in those, John's down there and he's..." He started but I put my fingers onto his lips.
"If I remember correctly, last night they were humping each other on the couch." I asked knowingly.
"Well yeah but they stopped when I told your sister what happened." He said a little confused.
"Trust me, John wont be looking at me like that again unless hes making some kind of joke. My sister owns him now." I said smiling, "Now if you tell me why you really don't want me to go down stairs in these, I might consider changing." I said stepping towards him, I could almost swear I saw him blush.
He frowned as he seemed to be trying to come up with an answer that didn't completely ruin him, I smiled knowingly and kissed the palm of his hand and went back into my closet. I took off my shorts and threw on a wrap skirt. I headed down the stairs first, Arden close behind, When we hit the bottom floor, Cadence was instantly at my side.
"Are you okay? What happened?" She asked, sounding way to worried for my liking.
"I'm not sure but I do know it's a good thing, now let me send Marta on vacation and shower, then we can talk about it. Okay?" I said as I opened the door into the basement apartment, I didn't smell anything like death this time and that was incredibly reassuring. I felt really good actually, after all the pain my vision had brought, waking up meant I knew how to stop it from happening. The fact that I didn't step into blood when I came down here and that I could hear Marta humming, meant that just by not going to Marcus's crime seen meant that they hadn't followed us home and killed her. They hadn't found us, not yet and it meant we still had options.
