Attacked

Later that night, Allison sighed and flopped onto her bed. She'd been rubbing her arms all afternoon, and it never amazed her to find the skin whole, healthy. The flames had been so real...

She was rubbing again. She pushed against her eyes with the heels of her hands, trying to erase the images. But the flashes of light only reminded her of the fires and the grass. The fear when she forced it to grow. The pain when it started to burn.

The peace when it died and knew that such a thing was meant to be.

She shivered and got up. Her parents kept melatonin pills in the medicine cabinet, and even though they weren't home, Allison knew they wouldn't mind if she took a few. She wasn't getting anywhere awake; she needed to sleep the whole thing off. The last thing she wanted to remember was the chill serenity of death.

__________

Allison was woken from the terrifying tranquility of her nightmare by her plants.

She could feel them in their pots around her room, where they'd been resting until only moments before. Now they were uneasy, almost agitated. Something was wrong.

...strangers in the garden...
...many quiet strangers...
...tender must run, must flee the strangers...

Allison frowned, still sleepy. Tender? Did they mean her? What did they mean by strangers? And why could she hear them without trying, let alone in her sleep?

She got at least one answer when white-robed men opened her door and ran to her bed. Allison tried to get away, but the melatonin slowed her down and let them catch her easily. The plants in her room started to go beserk, bursting out of their pots and grabbing attackers with stalk and root alike. The men paid the plants no mind, stifling Allison's yells with a strip of cloth. They tried to tie her up, but the rope was made of some sort of natural fiber and writhed out of their hands. The cotton cloth untied itself and Allison yelled, "Who are you people?"

Something dark jumped into her room and slashed at the closest assailant. It moved in a blur, attacking the attackers and forcing them to flee. The last one it simply held, then let fall to the floor. It turned and looked at Allison. "Are you okay?"

Allison frowned. She knew that voice. "I'm fine."

Screams erupted across the street, making the rescuer swear and jump out the window. The moment she left Allison lunged for her cellphone. Tristan needed to know.

Training

Allison sat and frowned at the patch of Tristan's lawn in front of her. She wanted it to grow; she'd already tried orders and visualization. What else was there?

Maybe... She closed her eyes and reached out to the grass. A thousand tiny voices resounded in her ears, a thousand but one.

...grow to the sky, grow in the earth, connect with our neighbors, twist and stretch and grow...

GROW. 

...resist the new voice, resist the voice's order, unnatural unthinking unconnected... 

GROW. 

...resist resist resist resistresistresist...

...succumb...

The blades rose, stretching towards the sun. Allison smiled and kept them growing. "Look, Tristan, I--"

Light and heat burst in her mind, joined by thousands of screaming voices.

...PAIN BURNING FLAMES!...
...GROWTH MUST STOP, WE ARE DYING!...
...FIRE! BURNING! DEATH!...

Allison's scream joined theirs and she fell over, writhing. Tristan ran and tried to calm her down. "You're not on fire, Allison!"

"It burns!"

"I'm sorry!" Megan wailed.

...WE ARE GROWING WE ARE BURNING WE ARE DYING!... "Make it stop!"

Tristan tried to stop her flailing and got kicked in the ear for his trouble. "Allison, it was just the grass! Megan only set the grass on fire!"

"The grass is still on fire!" Kyle yelled. "Someone put it out!"

Jared ran off. "I think a saw a bucket in the garage!"

Training didn't last much longer.

Sorry...

I haven't been able to get on the Internet all weekend. Some guys are coming to my house today to fix it, but until then...*sigh*

Final Report

After school ended, Tristan and the rest of his group met up by the flagpole. Jared immediately handed Tristan a folder, which the junior flipped through. He smiled. "Perfect. Thanks, Jared."

The sophomore shrugged. "Don't mention it."

"Um, Tristan?"

Allison pointed over his shoulder and he turned. Destiny stood just out of earshot, talking to five other students. A little concentration confirmed the students' identities, and Tristan sighed. "I see them."

"What are we going to do?"

"We're going to go to my house and practice." She started to protest, but he cut her off before she could say a word. "We're not going to make any more headway today, and I think second period shows that we have to learn to control our powers."

The red-haired freshman wailed. "I'm sorry!"

More Information

Jared met up with Greg a few minutes before study hall. Greg immediately handed over a folder. Jared gave the contents a glance and sighed with relief. They even had the back-up email addresses. "You guys are lifesavers."

Greg smiled. "I'll pass it on, Your Majesty."

Jared gave him a look that was half-annoyance and half-smirk. It was something of a joke between Jared and the people who knew about his "kingdom", and it had yet to get old. Middle-aged, maybe, but not old. "Did you get the other information I asked for?"

"Yeah, right here." Greg took out yet another folder and gave it to Jared. The reason Greg was the head informant--the "lord chamberlain"--was his love of organization. He didn't know everything Jared did, but he knew where to find it all. Jared was perfectly happy to let him keep track of the physical information, while keeping perfect mental copies in his head. He had nothing to hide from his half-brother.

Now he looked at the papers and frowned. "No one owned the house before she did?"

"Yeah, it was an empty lot. I think we used it to play soccer when we were kids."

"I remember that. So the city owned it first?"

"Yeah. We found the sale records, but they just say 'unspecified buyer' and leave it at that." Greg gave a disdainful sniff. "Not very efficient."

"You'd be the expert on that." Jared closed the folder, thinking. Then he shook his head. "None of this makes sense. It's like Destiny just appeared out of thin air and started messing with our lives."

Greg nodded seriously. He too saw the monsters, and his ability was a secret known only to himself and his half-brother. His "aura" had yet to be noticed by the all-seeing Tristan, and Jared preferred it that way. A small and secret weapon, if they ever needed it.

Jared put the first folder in his backpack and gave the second back. "Get to study hall, Greg. I'll meet up with you around seven. Your mom's making spaghetti, right?"

"Yeah. See you then."

Neither Ferrell saw the black-skinned teen watching them. Of course, they would have had to be Seers to see her at that point.

a Different Kind of Vampire

No one ever looked down an adjoining hallway when they had a place to go. Destiny leaned against her locker and watched her rival walk down the halls, heading for whatever class he had after lunch. She caught a metaphysical whiff and couldn't help but feel guilty. Each person's life energy had a distinctive scent, and like a person's physical scent, it changed with their emotions. Young was worried. Afraid, but not for himself. He truly feared her and what she could do to his peers.

She pushed off the wall and walked slowly to her next class. How could he understand that she didn't hurt people when she fed? Just a taste of a person's essence in passing and she was done. A few minutes in a crowded hallway were more than enough to satisfy her, and she had ways of storing what she didn't eat. She had killed before, but Young really had very little to fear. When she was young and learning to control her ability, she'd killed. When she or someone else was in danger, she killed again. But she wouldn't dream of hurting him or his followers. They were far too valuable, and she still respected life. Why couldn't he--

She shook her head, angry at herself. Why did she care what he thought? He thought she was a monster, and in a way she was, but others had thought that before. Even she thought it occasionally, when everything was just too much. Why did she care?

Perhaps it was the simple fact that a Seer like him was just as rare as a Vampire like her.

Once every third century, if not rarer, one was born. A prophet who saw all that could be seen; a soldier who had no true needs. They were usually found and trained as soon as physically possible. It still amazed her that Young had lived a normal life at all, let alone for seventeen years.

Only twice had a Seer and a Vampire been born within even a century of each other, and this was the first time they'd been born in the same generation. It worried her. Vampires were bad: their coming told of war. Seers were equally bad: their coming created war. Everyone wanted the Seer, and if they couldn't have the Seer, no one could. Better a catastrophic war than their enemies knowing every move they will make.

But the same generation? If she'd been the elder, her birth could have been a foretelling of the war caused by his, but she wasn't. Unless the foretelling had been made necessary when he wasn't found.

She shook her head. It didn't matter. She'd bring him to her superiors, like she was supposed to, and they'd figure it out. Thinking was their job. Hunting was hers. It was what she did. It was her purpose.

It was all she was good for.

Pepperoni Pizza and Progress Reports

Wednesday was pizza day. Tristan wasted no time getting his lunch and heading outside. Chira sat up and chirred as he approached, and he rubbed her muzzle. "Good girl, Chira. Good stay."

Within ten minutes, the rest of the study group had come outside and sat under a tree. Chira nosed at the tree limbs, but a soft command from Tristan made her flop to the ground behind him. He rubbed her head and said, "Jared, I don't think these things are stupid. I started training Chira last night and she's made more progress than my dog did in a month."

Jared shrugged and gave his salad to the creature in question. "Maybe she's one of the smarter ones."

"Tristan, I talked to Thomas," Allison said. "He told me he's busy after school, but he wouldn't tell me why."

Around the circle, same story. Everyone was busy, and they wouldn't say why. Tristan sighed. "We have to keep trying. Destiny's not suspicious, she's dangerous."

"What do you mean?" Megan asked.

"I mean that she's some sort of vampire."

Kyle frowned. "Is that why she doesn't have a lunch?"

"Most likely." Tristan stood to throw away his tray. "Everyone, stay away from her. She doesn't eat blood, she eats life energy. I don't know if she needs to touch you or if she just needs to be close by, but I know she doesn't need fangs to kill you.

"Do I make myself clear?"

After a moment of hesitation, they all nodded. "Good. After school, go straight to the parking lot. We'll head to my house and figure out what to do next."

He left the others to their lunch, already turning the pieces over in his mind. He hadn't told them everything. Maybe he should have, but he'd made his decision. He'd seen each of the others in the hallways, and knew what each could do. Only two were directly dangerous, but only one was truly harmless. The real threat was Destiny; she could kill any of them if she wanted to, and not in a way that could be discovered or even understood.

With her in the school, was anyone safe?