Chapter 3 MYSTERY GIRL

Light filtered through my lashes, 'I'm I dead?' A buzz filled my ears, a low buzz that was changing and was slowly becoming the sound of Tia's voice. My head felt like the right side of it had caved in. Good thing the back of my head was rested on something softer than the bed I lay on.

The buzz was clearing up now, and I could make out Leya's childish whining and Jereum's harsh tone as he scolded her.

"What's happe...?" My voice trailed off and I could her Tia shushing everyone else. I forced my eyes open, and a bright light entered my eyes. I winced and I heard Leya apologize quickly.

"Are you alright? Do you remember anything?" Tia asked, and if not for the fact that I couldn't move more than half of my face I would have glared at her.

The light dimmed and I saw four faces above me, the closest being Tia's. They all wore worried looks except for Jereum; his face was blistered like he had been harshly exposed to sunlight, and the red blistered didn't seem to be healing. I tried raising my hands but felt the weight that was upon them. 'What?'

I felt a bone snap back into place, and then I could feel muscles pull and stitch themselves back together. The right side of my face was beginning to feel more alive.

Then I remembered, 'That tyrant!'

The anger from before was returned to me.

"Stop!" Said Jhan, and somehow I knew he was talking to me. He had been in my mind or had just sensed my shifting emotion.

"What do you me-ean?" I asked.

"Your insolence and stubborn behaviour is what put you in this state."

I could now feel my teeth beginning to grow back.

"I'm sho-shory." It was really hard to talk with more than half of your teeth smacked out of your mouth. Jhan didn't answer, I could see him from my peripheral vision, he pulled Leya, and Jereum followed, out of wherever we were and I heard a door shut behind them.

I felt Tia's warm touch on my face. I had forgotten she was still here and it had just occurred to me that my head was rested on her thighs. I looked up, at her. She looked worried. I jammed my jaws together-all my teeth had grown back.

My face felt good as new, except for my right eye ridge. I could put my head up now, but I liked resting on her thighs. As much as I hated to admit it, I enjoyed her company too.

She gently stroked a line down the side of my face. I felt a rush of warmth fill me up and my heartbeat started to pick up. 'No, I can't be enjoying this.'

I tried lifting my head, but a sharp pain at my neck cancelled out the thought.

"You were stabbed with a six inches long stake." She gently touched the sore area.

"It takes longer for wood inflicted injuries to heal," she said and I grunted in reply. The last thing I remember were the words 'insolent child.'

Could have that not been a tyrant and instead a member of the higher court?

There was silence around me, and for a brief moment I felt just pure anger at myself. But I still needed to get answers.

Glancing at Tia, who was looking down at me, I asked, "What happened after I... Who was that person?"

She didn't answer; instead she drew her brows to a frown and looked intensely at me.

"That was an adjudicator for the higher court. A person who represents them and settles conflicts between rival clans-" she glanced away"-she was also a supreme."

"She?" I spat immediately. A haughty looked covered her face.

"Of course she or you think girls aren't strong enough?" she asked firmly.

"No, no. That's not what I meant...er...it's just that I didn't see her clearlier."

I watched her from the corner of my eyes, she returned to her normal calm expression.

"Where are we?" I asked her.

"Well... You are to be detained here, in this cell, until your penalty has been evaluated."

I looked around the room, a cabinet, well painted red walls, a wall clock, a study desk and lamp with a chair. Looked more like a bedroom to me

"Penalty? For what?" I asked, contorting my renewed face with disgust.

"For attacking an adjudicator," she said simply.

She continued stroking the side of my face slowly and it didn't bother me, in fact, I liked it. I felt her other hand fiddling with my hair and put together with her soothing voice, it was rather calming.

I was nervous to ask the next question, "Will they err... Kill me or-"

"No, never!" She said grimly and I saw the flash of a red glint in her eyes. Silence fell between us again. She was warmer than usual, her temperature was higher.

"Your temperature is up," I said.

"It happens when we drink blood," she said, "first you feel the warmth in your mid, and then it spreads all over your body."

"Oh..." I said, "So if we drink blood we get warmer?"

"Yes but it also depends on the quantity and type of blood you drink; you see human blood is the best, and it rises our temperatures the fastest, unlike animal blood that does the job a lot slower."

She held the side of my face in her palm so I was looking straight up at her, she was breathtakingly beautiful. I stared into her eyes and for a moment I felt completely safer with her.

"Tia, when you said that we couldn't feel love or care; what did you really mean?" I asked her. She seemed taken aback by my question.

"Well... What I actually meant is that, we don't readily show those emotions Kaldar. In fact, we rarely fall in love-"

"So we can fall in love?" I asked her.

"Yes," She said simply, and I was more than satisfied with the answer.

I felt the touch of her fingers on my chest, and that's when I realized that I wasn't wearing my jacket or shirt. They must have removed it to tend to the stab wound. She slowly drew circles with her fingers on my chest. I tried as hard as I could not to look at her.

She trailed up her hand and used her thumb to gently brush my jaw line. She was still looking down at my face though.

"Are you with Jereum?" I heard the question like it was someone else who had asked it not me.

"No, no he's my distant cousin."

"What!?" I asked, clearly shocked on knowing this.

"Why would you even think that?" She asked perplexed and a rush of shame and embarrassment washed over me.

'Well maybe because of the way he looks at you or the way he hate-glares at me whenever you are being nice to me.'

But now that I thought about it, I had no solid proof that they were together in anyway.

I was glad when the door suddenly opened. Tia didn't stop caressing my face with her fingers as Jhan walked in.

He stopped just right in front of us, seeming not to notice what she was doing as he looked straight at me totally ignoring Tia.

"I handled the issue with the higher court, and given the fact that you are still very young and was acting on impulse, they have agreed to press no penalties on you." He walked closer to me and, with one hand, squeezed a side of my shackles till the cast iron broke right off.

He did the same for the other and I lifted my hands, rubbing my right wrist with my left hand.

"Put on your jacket, we still have to introduce you to the higher court and the other clans." He walked out if the room, closing the door behind him.

I looked up at Tia who was looking down at me. We locked eyes and for a moment just stared at each other till she averted her eyes. I slowly brought my head up and sat on the bed.

Tia stood up and walked to the cabinet where my jacket was hung, something I hadn't noticed before.

She picked up the black long sleeve shirt I wore and tossed it to me. I caught it and wore it quickly. I stood up and walked to her. She had the jacket in her hands, turning around she looked up at me. It was funny how she was the one looking up at me now.

"Wear it, no one will notice the hole on the left shoulder pad," she said as she pushed it to me. I collected it and slipped it on.

Jhan opened the door and peeked in. "Let's go."

I walked behind Tia and the three of us walked through a tight corridor before we got to a staircase that led higher up.

I climbed the stairs one at a time, 'This would all be over soon...' but no matter how much I told that to myself I knew that this wasn't going to be a brief meet.

"Stay close to me, Kaldar, and avoid eye contact with anyone." He pushed open the door in front of him and I we followed behind into a large dimly lit room.

Several groups of vampires, about five or even reaching eight in number, stood at small clusters at every corner of the room all wearing either black or brown jackets. I locked eyes with a few but then quickly turned away. I sped up and caught up with Jhan. We walked towards a large, high podium which atop sat seven vampires, cladded in silver and crimson embroidered robes, behind a long table.

Many chandeliers hung way high up; the chandeliers gave enough light for me to see the faces of everyone in the room clearly, which only made me feel more uncomfortable.

The vast hall was quiet except for the sound of our shoes against the white porcelain floors. We stopped just in front of two red robed adjudicators; they hung their heads low so I couldn't see their faces. The room was filled with mild indistinct chatter. I looked up at the vampires I assumed to be the higher court, and not much to my surprise they were all young, looking as in their twenties. One of them that sat a seat away from the extreme left looked even no younger than Leya. An adjudicator appeared at the edge of the podium. A woman.

She looked down at us for a brief moment before she looked at the crowd of clans and raised a hand, shushing the chatter and silence fell upon the room.

She cleared her throat and put both her hands at her back, "The clan of Jhan has brought a new member onto their ranks, Kaldar."

"Kaldar?"

I looked up at her and the beautiful woman's silver gaze.

"Do you consent and devote your life to serving the higher court?" She asked.

I didn't know what to say, was I even supposed to answer the question? She was still looking at me with a bored expression.

"Yes, yes I do," I said nervously and she continued immediately, speaking as if reciting a statement she has said over and over again, "Very well, come up here and place your loyalty."

I looked to either side of the podium, no stairs. 'How was I supposed to get up there?' Without any warning, Jhan grabbed my arm and leaped with me. I was pulled into the air, about a twenty meter jump and then we descended and I landed upon the podium. On landing I felt no shock or force on my knees. It felt like landing from a foot of height and I knew that was not going to be the first bizarre things I would find out about my new form.

Still slightly fuzzy from the high jump, I looked to either side nervously. The adjudicator walked to the back of the podium, returning with a small green bottle in her now gloved hands. She produced a small silver knife from nowhere and that's when I started to feel a little uneasy.

"Now I shall inscribe the mark of the higher court into his flesh by the silver knife, tip dipped in sacred waters."

"Take off your jacket," Jhan said.

'What!?' I thought.

Reluctantly, I took of my jacket and the long sleeve shirt I wore and the adjudicator stepped forward. She put the tip of the silver knife into the mysterious bottle and, when she brought it out, the tip of the knife glistened with the dim light from the chandeliers above.

She stepped closer to me. "This would hurt," she whispered to me with a smirk as she touched the knife on the skin of the area just above my left chest. I groaned slightly in pain, it felt like something was eating deeper and deeper away at my skin.

She was drawing a pattern and she dipped the tip of the knife into the bottle again and continued with whatever she was drawing on my skin.

The pain was becoming unbearable; I almost stepped away at a point but kept still under Jhan's glare. She stopped and I could feel my skin mending itself. She produced a mirror in front of me and I saw what looked like five converging lines tattooed onto my skin.

"Kaldar, of the clan of Jhan, is now officially the newest member of our society and shall now be treated like one of us." There was uproar of cheers and clapping from the crowd below.

A person, adjudicator, landed on the podium. She walked to a member of the higher court, a man seated at the right edge of the table. A low bow and whispered into his ears. His eyes widened and then glowed up slightly.

The eyes of all the other members glowed up as well and then, as if on command, they all turned and looked at me. I looked at Jhan, whose eyes also gave the same whitish hue.

A member of the higher court, a woman who was seated in the middle raised her hand. Silence fell in the vast room.

"Jhan?" The woman said.

Jhan bowed lowly.

"There is something you omitted when you cleared out your youngest blood's actions."

My heart skipped a beat and I felt that sinking, void feeling in my chest.

She didn't wait for Jhan to say anything, "Your clan's newest member, Kaldar single handedly attacked and defeated four members of the Dallas clan, yes?"

A low hubbub filled the room but disappeared as quickly as it came.

"On the bases of self-defence great one," Jhan said, but I knew, we knew that that wasn't where she was driving at.

"And when attacked by one of the tyrants he was stabbed with a wooden stake but still went on in defeating two more of them showing little to no sign of weakness towards the stake that was embedded beside his neck, yes?"

"Yes." Answered Jhan again.

"You," She turned to me, "Are you a supreme?"

The question hit me like a stab to the heart.

"I-I..." I didn't know what to say.

"Are you a Supreme?!" She bellowed.

I looked at Jhan, unsure of what to say. If he omitted that fact it had to be for a good reason, but looking at the situation now, there was nothing else I could say apart from the truth.

"Yes, yes I am a Supreme."

The crowd in front of us immediately erupted in murmurs. Vampires whispered amongst themselves. Most looking at me through different eyes.

The woman raised a hand again and the hubbub seized immediately.

"We shall discuss this is a more private environment, for now. Kaldar, of the clan of Jhan, welcome to our ranks."

I nodded before looking at Jhan who looked equally surprised at the resolve. We got out of the building. It must have been located at the edge of town. Forest trees stood tall around the top manor-like part of the building was above ground.

The car's engine roared to life and in no time we were rolling down the familiar road.

"That went well." Tia said and Jhan nodded while keeping his focus on the road. Jereum had been awfully quiet ever since and Leya looked at the back of his head with pity, probably feeling pained for the torture he had to go through with the holy water.

I resented to staring out the tinted glass, the continuous flashes from the street lamps gently putting me in a trance. It wasn't long before I spotted the red car again. This time for longer. I pressed my face against the glass, eager for a better look at her. Mouth agape. We locked gazes through the glass and time seemed to slow to a pause. It wasn't until the splitting sound of cracked glass shot through the air that I realized how hard I had my face against the window.

I jut away, looking at the crooked white line that started from the base of glass.

"Still nervous?" Tia asked.

I looked at Tia, before realizing that every other person in the van (except for Jhan) were also looking at the new crack in the glass.

"I..." I allowed myself to trail off, surprised at the fact I lost control at my own strength just at her sight.

"You just need to rest." Tia suggested and I nodded in agreement. But I wasn't nervous. The only thing that was on my mind was the face of that girl.