Blood and Beasts (18 page)

“No, Silo!” Abernathy shrieked just
as a stream of fire spiraled towards her friends.

Seph threw up her hands, and the
flames hit some type of invisible curve in front of the dragon, slipping off it
to twist back onto it, and the dragon seemed to enjoy the sensation of flames
on its back. He kept up his steady river of fire directed at Seph, slowly
coming towards her and intensifying the flames. She stepped towards it as well.

Meanwhile, Rodney and Francesca
slipped past her and immediately began putting out the fires, beating them with
blankets and towels. Francesca moved to take Abernathy out of the room, but the
girl just shook her off. She was going to help fix her problem no matter what,
no matter how injured she may become.

Seph continued moving towards the
little dragon, Silo, as Abernathy had called it. Finally, they were standing
directly in front of each other. She checked behind her, noting that the door
was closed. It looked fire resistant enough. With one little burst of energy,
she propelled herself over the dragon, and his fire shot out at the door. Her
curve of telekinesis disappeared, disappointing the little creature. He turned
to face her again, and she clamped her hand firmly over its snout, shutting its
mouth powerfully with her strong hands.

It growled deep within its throat,
but the vampire was stronger than the miniature dragon. It lashed at her with
its spiked tail, and she bit back a cry as it drew blood. She pulled the dragon
tight to her chest to keep it from pulling away from her, but it proceeded to
slice her up. She bit back several cries as its tail prodded her, drawing blood
with its barbs. Its claws tore at her as well, snagging in her skin and tearing
at the flesh of her neck and chest. Tears stinging the corners of her eyes, she
turned to the others just as they finished putting out the last of the flames.

“We need to bring him to the Room,
alright?” She said through gritted teeth, barely containing the pain in her
voice.

They all nodded silently as her
blood flowed. No one dared argue with her, watching as her eyes darkened before
their very eyes with each passing moment. They exited the room, and Linda was
waiting for them expectantly. She took one look at Seph and nearly burst into
tears, nearly. She immediately enveloped Abernathy in a huge hug. There was a
little gasp as Silo
’
s tail snagged in Seph
’
s back before dragging forward,
feeling for all the world like a flog.

“Let
’
s hurry,
” she murmured, bloody tears
coursing down her face.

Silently, they all hurried down the
hallway to the girls
’
stairwell. At the top,
Seph looked down it exhaustibly. She shook her head, sniffing a little.

“You all run down the stairs and get
to the Room as fast as you can. Don
’
t
be seen. I can
’
t take the sunlight, especially now.
He
’
s hurting me a lot. I
’
m going to teleport down the stairs
and then to the Room,” she started, and Linda jumped in.

“There
’
s an anti-teleportative spell on the Room. You can
’
t get in by just teleporting, but
you should be able to get in with the code. Remember, tap a stone of each color
in the order black, gold, red, and then the code is 1618033988,” Seph managed
to raise a skeptical brow to her, and Linda grinned. “The golden ratio. Best
code to use because only smart people know it,” she winked, trying to be
chipper for Seph as her blood stained her black shirt maroon.

 “I
’
m gone,” Seph said and blinked.

She appeared all the way at the base
of the stairs. Apparently, extreme pain and agony enhanced her powers. Next,
she imagined the front of the hideout, even though she knew it was going to be
drenched in sunlight. Wincing, she blinked again. The sun prickled her skin
unpleasantly. Lucky for her, the little dragon
’
s constant poking of her was a great distraction. She
hurried to the stones, tapped black, gold, red, and watched as the blue door
materialized in front of her.

Hurrying to the keypad, she put in
the golden ratio and rushed through the door. She threw the dragon away from
her. Immediately, it let out a roar of flame directed towards her, but she had
thought of a way to contain it moments beforehand. Concentrating, she released
her telekinesis into a bubble around the dragon. She mixed some witch magic
that she did know with her own magic, something that she generally
involuntarily did during Basic anyways.

Seph collapsed near the door,
bleeding deeply from several painful wounds as Silo marched around the hideout,
wrapped in a telekinetic ball of energy that kept his flames contained. The
others suddenly burst through the door. Abernathy ran to Silo, holding him
tightly, permitted inside the bubble by the spell but not breaking it. She
could get burned now if the little dragon generated fire within the bubble,
filling it with warm flames, which it seemed to enjoy, but it would not hurt Abernathy,
his owner and maker. They all just stared at the panting Seph a moment as she
took heaving breaths. Her blood was pungent in the air as it oozed slowly from
her many wounds.

Abernathy, carefully, grabbed a
towel from the floor and moved towards Seph. She intended to pat her dry, clean
the blood from her or staunch the wounds, something to that effect. Seph hissed
at the girl and tossed her to the side with one powerful hand. Her eyes were
huge and black, her fangs fully protruded. Silo stood in front of Abernathy,
hissing at Seph, protective of its maker. She glowered at them all. Everything
was red. All she could see was red. She could barely make the words that she
needed to say come out of her mouth clearly.

“I neeth… I neeth to lick up my own
blooth. It
’
sss like eating my own throw up to
me, but I neeth blooth. I can
’
th lose thisss much,” she said,
lisping over her elongated fangs and beginning to lick her red-painted arms
with a grimace.

Rodney, out of the corner of her
eye, beckoned Linda and Francesca to him. She could hear their hearts… They
were filling the room. She had no idea what they were saying. They could be
shouting, for all she knew. All she heard were their pounding hearts, beating
like drums. All she saw were their jumping veins, leaping rhythmically in their
throats. Then suddenly, they were gone, leaving the room and stepping just
outside it. Abernathy was left alone with Seph, and she stared at her with
wide-eyed fear, Silo clutched desperately to her chest.

“I
’
m noth going to attack you, Abernathy,” Seph groaned,
shaking her head and only causing new waves of pain. “
Just don’
th bleeth,
” she warned her, and Abernathy
fully believed her on that point.

Suddenly, the door opened, and she
smelled it. Her head swiveled around as the three entered the Room again,
Rodney holding a goblet of some kind. He carefully walked over to her, not
slopping any over the rim. She grabbed it weakly from him, staring into the
depths of their mixed bloods. They were each holding a cloth over their left
wrists, trying to stop the blood flow.

She took a deep breath, inhaling
the aromas. She drank deeply, rolling through the different flavors of AB
negative and B positive, heavy on the B positive. Francesca and Rodney were
cousins. It made sense that their blood was the same. Francesca
’
s father was Rodney
’
s mother
’
s brother, something like that, or vice versa… Who
knew? All she knew was that their blood was absolutely delicious. She finished
the goblet, licking her lips happily. They all watched her warily. Her eyes
were no longer pitch-black, but they were still relatively dark, a stormy-gray,
charcoal almost.

She rose swiftly to her feet.
Advancing towards them slowly, Linda backed up. She took Francesca
’
s wrist first. Pushing away the
cloth, she stared at the still bleeding wound, although it was starting to
close up. Werewolves did not heal as quickly as vampires, but they did heal at
amazing rates. She decided to be kind to her friends and help the healing
process along a little.

Bending down, she licked the wound,
tasting Francesca
’
s blood just for a second, tempted
to bite but withstanding the impulse. Francesca gasped as soon as she moved
away, lips bloody. She was gaping at her wrist, new skin formed over the wound,
smooth and pink.

“How does that work?” She breathed,
and Seph just shrugged.

She moved to Rodney next, locking
eyes with him. He was tense, ready to fight if need be. His instincts
recognized her as a predator worthy of his immediate attention should she
decide to attack him. Her eyes never wavered and neither did his as she bent
down, licking his wound as well, tasting his delicious B positive blood a
moment. It had a hint of wildness to it, the werewolf taste. It healed as well,
just like Francesca
’
s.

Next was Linda. She held out her
wrist willingly but could not look at her, at the wound, at anybody. Seph put
her lips to it and then moved away, turning her head so she could lick the
blood off her mouth. She faced them finally.

“Well, that was interesting,” she
breathed, and all their faces broke out into broad grins.

“
Master at understatement, our Seph,
” Linda commented, still a little
shaken.

“You
’
re so bloody,” Francesca remarked, snatching a towel
from the ground and moving towards her.

She wiped at all the blood on Seph
’
s person, noting with astonishment
that most of her wounds were already healed. She did see how deep they had to
have been to have not fully healed yet though. Seph was a vampire. The Hispanic
werewolf turned to glare at Silo, who glared right back, along with Abernathy.

“He couldn
’
t help it,” she said, defending her creation, and
Francesca just rolled her eyes.

Abernathy and her insatiable love
for dangerous creatures…

“We
’
ll keep him here. He can
’
t burn up the place anymore with Seph
’
s little bubble thing, but just to
be sure, Linda and Abernathy, you should cast some spells,” Francesca
commented, and Linda hopped right to it.

Abernathy was still hugging the
dragon, protectively so. She was staring at Seph. There was little trust in
those eyes, usually crinkled in a smile, but not now. She was defending her
baby, baby, terrorizing creation.

“I
’
m not gonna eat him, Abernathy. We need to fireproof
this place and get back before somebody notices we
’
re missing though,” she stated, but Abernathy still did
not move.

“Why would they notice we were
missing? No one checks in on us as we sleep,” she replied, although her
expression suggested she doubted that.

“I know, but we need sleep, and if
we fall asleep here, how are we supposed to get all the way back to our rooms
and change for class without anybody noticing once everybody is awake, walking
around?” Seph pointed out, and reluctantly, Abernathy agreed with her.

“I know what you need,” Rodney
said, and she shot him a curious glance as the girls busily threw spells around
the room. “
Traquego
,” he whispered, and there was a
whooshing sound all around them.

He moved forward, opening the door
to admit in a long, shrouded cloak. Seph had immediately taken cover by the
couch, away from the streaming rays of sunlight, when he opened the door. He
passed it over to her, grinning wryly.

“
I don’
t know if you got the strength to teleport back to your
room, and you shouldn
’
t waste the energy in your hungry
state. You need to travel this way,” he gestured at the cloak as she threw it
around her shoulders.

“I didn
’
t know you could do spells,” Seph commented, giving him
a curious look, as though she were just starting to really see him.

“
Well, I
’
m actually pretty good at spells, learning them at
first. I practiced that one for a long time. I got it down perfectly now, and
it helps a lot. That
’
s how us non-witches gotta deal with
spells. Only learn the ones you really need and learn them well. All other ones
will be hard to learn and pointless anyway, at least for you guys,” he said,
shrugging just as Francesca cleared her throat.

“We need to head back. It
’
s late… or early… nearly two in the
afternoon. Seph looks suspicious enough, obviously a vampire. We need to move,”
Francesca stated, and they all agreed with her, heading for the doorway.