Selfless : Emotionless book two Read online

  “Where are we going? I’m cold,” I murmured.

  “He’s going to drop us off a few blocks away from here at the shopping centre. Shit, I wish we could use mage magic to manipulate looks.”

  “And runes.”

  “You’re no help when you’re overtired. Sleep, Eileen. I will fix this somehow.” The doors to the motel opened, and a chilled, gusty wet wind slapped me in my face and woke me up. I shuffled in his arms, but when I wanted to step down, I was sliding on leather seats and was inside heated warmth that flushed cheeks. “Closest shopping district, please.”

  “Isn’t it too late for shopping?” The taxi driver complained as he pulled out and into the traffic.

  “My girlfriend suddenly caught a cold, and she needs medicine,” Lawliet grouchily replied. He then shrugged his jumped over my head and let me slip into the cotton warmth. “She goes downhill when she gets sick.”

  “Don’t your kind have special powers for healing?” He asked. Lawliet’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Sorry man, I thought mages have special healing powers or something. I didn’t believe that you were that human.”

  “Did you think that we were monsters or something?” Lawliet replied acidly.

  My heart pounded in my chest with that term Lawliet used, and I shrunk lower into his jumper. He must have assumed that something was wrong because he touched the back of my hand but even knowing I wanted to be a part of his warmth, I retracted my hand and murmured, “I'm all right.”

  I looked out the window blankly as he drove. Lawliet stayed silent beside me and didn’t touch me once until we pulled up to the doors of the shopping centre. The light from inside the mall illuminated and shined brightly. It reminded me of runes that I desperately wanted to draw but knew that I could not.

  He handed him money, and we left quickly with our suitcases. The driver gave me a sympathetic look before he sped off back on the main road.

  It was empty inside of the mall, and the food outlet part was darkened and closed. The electronic shops we walked past had long metal bars covering the entrances and the inside had no lights on. Walking along, we went to the only sound soft music was coming from. There was a supermarket that was still open. It was located close to the stairs that led up to all of the clothes stores. While I followed, Lawliet was searching for an escape or a place to hide when I realised, no matter how far we run, we will still be noticed because of how we look.

  “Where’s the back exit to this place?”

  “Lawliet, here.” I grabbed his wet shirt and tugged him into the supermarket.

  There were a few night shoppers in aisles we walked past. Up at the signs, there was one in particular that I was after and that was Haircare. Looking at all the rows of them, I grimaced at all the colours. I wanted one that would suit when Lawliet suddenly grabbed my arm impatiently before I could and forced me to follow him to the only open lane that there was. Number seven was lit up, and the lady at the counter smiled wearily as she scanned both items slowly, but unfortunately one didn’t have a barcode. She ended up having to go back to grab another packet because Lawliet wasn’t budging to go. He didn’t want to leave me here without him. His golden eyes scanned the area, and it made me realise that I hadn’t asked what we were running from. Maybe I was used to his remote wake-up calls whenever he thought someone was following us. They would happen often. Lawliet would pick me up, and we were out to someplace where there would be a lot of people.

  “Shit.” Lawliet slammed close to one hundred dollars on the counter, grabbed the hair-dyes and started to run. “Quick. Quick.”

  As I ran, I looked behind and saw nothing but a janitor who was picking up pieces of papers that scattered along the ground. Confused, I ran with Lawliet up the stairs when I felt these stabbing pains in my chest. My throat was closing up, and my legs were aching. Slowing down, I tried to regain my breath. Lawliet didn’t notice until my breaths shortened and went up in volume. Suddenly, he whirled around to me. Doubled over, I had my hand to the fabric of Lawliet’s jumper and was clutching my chest. I hadn't felt this much pain since when I acted out as a child and thought that I could do things that my brothers were doing. It felt much worse now. Heat climbed up on my face, as the burning pain grasped at my heart. I couldn’t hold onto Lawliet. As I let go to heal, I felt myself slip backwards and down the stairs.

  It seemed like that time in our particular class when I tried to create my stick rune and fell back unsuccessfully. Burning heat slammed into me, and I was in Lawliet’s arms.

  “Can’t breathe,” I whispered. “Need fresh air.”

  Outside, Lawliet moved around the side of the shopping outlet and down an alleyway. It was wet and cold. When he settled me down onto the ground, I felt my gown soak, but it felt better. My skin felt better when the fresh droplets ran down my face. However, my hand was still clutching at my chest, and the burning there was not subsiding.

  “Let me see.” Lawliet’s hands removed mine, and he tore my gown and his jumper. Then he hissed a breath. I wanted to look down at what he was looking at, but I felt weak. I felt completely and utterly useless. Just like that time that the memory potion slipped down my throat, and I woke ill. But instead of lying in bed, what my family thought was best, Lawliet had more of a daring idea that worried me. “You need to go to the hospital.”

  “Lawliet. . .”

  “Don’t talk. Focus on breathing.” He picked me up in his arms, and I dangled there.

  I looked up at the sky and noticed the moon. It was tantalising and significant. As the pure white gleamed down, I was reminded of grandad, and I couldn’t help but want to smile.

  I wish that I could.

  ***

  “Very big,” I agreed as I looked up at grandad who was leaning beside me and had his eyes closed. He raised his hand and done a hand sign that confused me. “No.” I disagreed when he smiled and nodded.

  Irritated, I didn’t bother to try and voice my complaints. Instead, I opened up Gospel’s notebook and touched the pages with admiration. Unfortunately, grandad poked at my cheek to grab my attention once more. Glancing to the side, he raised his hand once more.

  ‘Look at it again and focus, Eileen.’

  “Nauseating,” I murmured but still complied because he’s grandad and looked. There was just a big white moon. I didn’t find anything that would resemble what he thought it was. “No.”

  ‘Squint,’ he laughed, but no sound came out. I closed one eye, but the moon only looked blurry. There was nothing sufficiently different about it, and grandad’s words bothered me.

  Frustrated that I wasn’t able to see what he was seeing, I looked at the book once and flicked through pages when I came to a particular rune that interested me. I touched the veins that wire the rune all together, and it lit up a bright blue. They were always majestic, and when I went to activate the rune, grandad shut the book and took it away from me.

  ‘I have to go. Hanan will be home soon.’

  “Mum says you coming here is ‘problematic’.”

  ‘Nothing for you to worry about, Doll,’ he spoke and then raised his hand in the air and drew.

  I admired my grandfather, and how he could create runes in the air with complete accuracy. However, everything happy dissipated, as he vanished and I was left on my balcony alone. But then suddenly, when I looked up, the rune my grandad had drawn covered the moon, and I wanted to be surprised. It may be a different rune but looking at the rune and the moon made me realise that he was right. I could draw it. When I reached up, a hand suddenly grabbed my arm, and I looked to my right at silver eyes that hardened at the sight of me.

  I wondered if I have done something wrong, like I always do, in the eyes of my parents.

  Chapter Four.

  Lawliet – Heart Attack.

  Shit.

  A repeated word that was coming out of my mouth as I picked up Eileen from the alleyway and walked out onto the main road. Cars didn’t care. They drove around us. I stood in the rain with a b
itingly cold Eileen in my arms. She looks as pasty as I, and I know I don’t look too healthy.

  Waving a hand in the air, I did what Eileen had done to call a car over to hitch a ride. Unfortunately, when Eileen did that, I figured out that they only stopped because of how beautiful she looked. Me doing it made cars drive past faster and ignore that I was here. All I wanted was a simple fucking ride to the hospital.

  “Are you . . . Are you okay?” A car pulled up beside me, and a young man leant out of his window. He looked worried, and his expression bothered me.

  “Let me in,” I demanded. The back door opened automatically. I shuffled in with Eileen on my lap. We were both sopping wet, and there was a repeated ‘tap’ sound as water dripped onto the light brown leather seats. “Hospital. Fast.”

  “Sure – Sure!” He exclaimed.

  It bothered me that he let us in quickly, but all his features made me curl my lip and look away at the human and back to Eileen. Her breaths have shortened, and my heated skin that touched her seemed to have made it worse. Frustrated with myself, I went to reach for her again when I noticed that everything that I was doing wasn’t helping. All I could do was sit beside her and watch her crumble further in this comatose state that frightened me.

  “How long?” I demanded.

  “Ten – ten, if traffic is kind,” he replied. Eyes, dull and boring looked back for a moment, only to widen further. “Is that girl having a heart attack?”

  “What?” Confused and angered, I looked back down at Eileen who was clutching her chest. “I don’t know the human terminology. Tell me how I can heal it?”

  “You can’t, only doctors –”

  “Look at me, human,” I snapped, and he went a pasty white. “I am not ordinary. Tell me where to heal so that I can make my Eileen better!”

  “Heart!” He shouted back, but I believe it was more to do with fear rather than frustration and anger.

  With a heated face of my own, I looked down at the gown that loosely covered her and swallowed, hard. Hands hovered over her breast, and before my hands could touch, I could feel and hear the slow disengaged beat of her heart that was about to give out. If I don’t suck up the fact that I will touch bare skin now, she will not make it to a hospital.

  Gritting teeth, I pressed hands down, and cursed at myself, as I let mage magic seep out and sink into her skin to heal.

  They will know where we are now. The Organisation will come, but it was a risk to keep Eileen alive. That’s all I needed to remind myself.

  Her breaths deepened but were softer, and the rise and fall of her eradicated chest almost paced frequently when the car abruptly stopped outside of the hospital. Without caring to look back, I grabbed Eileen, shuffled out of the car and ran inside of the hospital.

  We don’t look Ordinary, and I knew that. Many pairs of eyes that were dull and faces that didn’t stand out looked at us. Cradled in my arms, I walked to the first human that wasn’t wearing anything casual and grabbed his arm. He flinched, but without a word, he looked down and knew the problem.

  Maybe it was the fear, or to help a mage, I did not know. But he called many names unrecognisable to me, and a moment later, Eileen was being wheeled off. When I tried to follow, a nurse pushed me back, and I was left with watching her go.

  A sigh escaped lips, but not my own. The human who drove us had two white foam cups that had steam lingering out of them.

  He smiled awkwardly and asked, “Coffee?”

  There was nothing else to do, and with slumped shoulders, I let this pathetic human show me to the o-d-h cafeteria. It may be because we were surrounded by so many people, or for the fact that this person, in particular, was different, but words slipped out of his mouth, and I regretted following him before we could sit down.

  Chapter Five.

  Nixon – Red Eyes.

  The water burned brightly, and ink black swirled like thick sludge inside. The stench wasn’t that unbearable. However, from the insufferable complaints of Isilies, maybe they were worse than we thought.

  Awesome!

  I handed Donte jars, and the sludge that was gluggy and dark, slopped over, around, and some inside of the pot. We didn’t care, the ground was always messy, and most of our clothes were covering the stains that we already made. No one comes in. I don’t think Mum and Dad have entered our room, and if they did, they probably wouldn’t care.

  “It looks alive,” Donte mused. He was proud of our creation. “What’s it supposed to do again?”

  “I don’t know,” I shrugged. “You were the one who threw more slime and hair from the drain in the pot. Maybe this thing is alive.”

  “Isilies will tell us tomorrow morning when he has a bath,” Donte chuckled darkly.

  I laughed, but ever since that night at the dance, it was as if they could never reach lips with Donte. What was he hiding? He never spoke once about anything that was happening, nor about Eileen. It was a surprise. Usually, I was the one who had to knock him out of his depressed, ‘where is Eileen’ state, but not a word escaped his lips, nor Isilies’s. I get that Head Mage didn’t want us to speak too freely of what happened, in case there were more mages undercover and was working for ‘The Organisation’, but there has been no word of them. And I have been sick and tired of pretending nothing was going on. Charlie was the reason. She was spouting words I didn’t know, and things that were occurring right under my feet. I have been walking blindly with Donte while everyone around us knew what was happening.

  “Hey.” A tap came from the wood, but before Isilies could open the door, I flew out and then suddenly slammed the door shut so that he couldn’t see what we were making.

  He eyed me suspiciously like he always had done. There was no use pretending to be good when in the eyes of my older brother, we were evil beings sent to torture him – probably. It wasn’t as if we tried to be good in the first place. He was an easy target, and we exploited that fact.

  “I made three lunches for tomorrow, again,” he grimaced. “Do you mind –” The doorbell rang. “Mika may have news.”

  The door flew open from behind me, and even knowing Isilies spoke softly, Donte was like the rest of us. We were desperate for news about Eileen and if she was alright. Or for Hopper to come back, because I miss tormenting him.

  I reached for the door first, and when I flew it open, an intoxicating perfume smacked me in the face. It smelt worse than what we were creating.

  Disgusting.

  There was a girl at the door, but a girl I have never seen before. She was sexy looking, with black long straight hair and there was a tint of red in her dark eyes.

  Vampire!

  I nudged Donte, and we both stepped back to make sure that we were safely inside our home. That was disappointing. She was hot, however, probably old. I didn’t even know Vampires still roamed around these parts of the world. I assumed they all left for darker places. At least, that was what Grandfather always told us whenever we wandered out at night with him.

  “Good evening.” She smiled sweetly, and I felt the tug of lust.

  Donte, my faithful brother, was the one who forced me to break the connection and look down at my feet again. Isilies, who was behind us, cut a crystal between fingertips, and the light-headedness cleared. It would only last a few minutes, it was a weak one, but I could then look up at the Vampire lady without the fear of her controlling powers.

  “Hello,” I spoke smoothly and waddled brows. Isilies sighed, grabbed my shoulder and pushed me behind him.

  “Were you sent by Mika?” Isilies demanded. He was cutting straight to the case. “Does the Head Mage know that you’re at his Academy?”

  “No,” she answered with a smile. Her red lips curled up mysteriously. “There are many walls, but no doors. I do not need an invitation to go into a tower with no window.”

  She’s creepy. Vampires are creepy.

  She looked around as if she was expecting to see someone, but Isilies shuffled into her view, and her black eyes darke
ned and went even redder. She looked pissed, and I was afraid of my brother or if any windows were open that she could slip through with ease.

  “Were you looking for someone?” I asked – well, blurted because it was sort of obvious that she didn’t care for us. This Vampire was looking for Eileen, but why would a Vampire want her? What is the heck up with creatures and Eileen?

  “It has seemed that there is only you three in this home. Unfortunate. Did you hear that, Nysa?”

  A shadow that suddenly appeared at Lawliet’s door came into focus, and a mage lady, influential, definitely powerful, walked past with a little-annoyed sigh. I couldn’t see her properly. She was cloaking herself in a sort of camouflage that was illegal to use. I should know, Hopper scolded Donte and me when we created one to sneak out of class. Being invisible was different because we weren’t distorting our appearance to go by unnoticed.

  “Can you track her?” The lady I could barely make out asked.

  “Of course. What use would I be to you if I couldn’t,” she snapped. Oddly enough, as they walked away, I noticed how distant they were with each other.

  Isilies slammed the door immediately when he couldn’t see them and had his phone in his hands, but it was not needed. When we turned away from the door, Mika was standing behind us and was placing runes on our walls.

  Huh. Maybe we should be more concerned about the fact that Mika can appear anywhere unannounced, rather than a vampire chick and her sidekick.

  “Who were they?” Donte and I asked Head Mage.

  “A creature and mage that won’t be able to set foot in my Academy again,” he smiled cheerfully. “They were after Eileen, but they won’t be able to track her if she’s with Lawliet.”

  “Is she safe? Where is she?” The words we all wanted to know slipped out of my mouth.

  “Here.” He handed us a crystal, and Isilies snatched it to marvel. Must be good if Isilies won’t let us touch the crystal! “It’s Lawliet’s. I made one for you to see. Those are his emotions. If he is with her, they will show his moods for you to know about Eileen.”