Simmer (19 page)

Kira smiled with success. She barely ever
beat him at his own game.

"Are we done with that...forever?" Tristan
asked from behind his hands.

Still chuckling, Kira said yes and got up to
get dressed. Within twenty minutes, she had said goodbye to both of
the boys and was alone in the hotel room deciding between reading
those pages or some healthy procrastination. She opted for the
latter and picked up her cell phone.

Her mom answered on the second ring. She
sounded happy and, Kira thought, blissfully ignorant of what was
going on in her daughter's life. She didn't want to talk about
conduits or vampires or Kira's powers — that was all part of the
life she had given up a long time ago. And though she told Kira she
would always be there to talk, it was hardly true. If Kira needed
to discuss boys or school or college or cooking her mother was
there in a heartbeat. But about anything Kira actually needed to
talk to someone about? No, she looked the other way.

They had found a happy peace since Kira had
woken up from her coma. But it wasn't real, not the way it used to
be before Kira had found out she was adopted. And maybe that was
why she wanted to find her real mom so badly. She wanted a family
who could accept her unconditionally. Her current mom refused to
accept her powers, her father was ignorant of it all, and Kira knew
if she mentioned Tristan to her grandparents, they would never
understand.

Her real mother was someone who had given so
much up for love. She just might understand what Kira needed to
hear.

And that was why Kira finally picked up the
papers after hanging up the phone. At first, she was going to call
Emma, her boy guru, to talk about Luke. But she needed to face what
she was. In the end, Kira hoped it would help her gain control.

Sighing, Kira walked over to her duffle and
pulled out the wrinkled folder. She made a cup of chamomile tea
from the hotel coffee pot and nestled into the armchair by the
window to read. With one wistful glance at the harbor and sunny
afternoon, Kira pulled the pages free and started reading, thankful
that, like the book she had stolen from Luke, the text was written
in modern English. Well, at least as modern as eighteenth century
English, which for an ancient and secret civilization, was pretty
well updated.

Months ago, Luke had explained to her that
merely a year or two after printing in the early 1700s, the same
conduit scholars, both Protector and Punisher, who had gathered
under the anonymous title to write the histories down decided the
knowledge was too dangerous for every conduit to have. Definitely a
pre-freedom of speech move, Kira thought, but they had removed the
final chapters and all the copies printed since — made as textbooks
for young conduits to learn from — had simply never even mentioned
the two missing chapters. Most people had forgotten about them, but
Luke's copy, which she did eventually return, was one of the
original texts: a family heirloom passed down through countless
generations.

In Kira's hands were photocopies of the
original missing pages. Something that, up until now, had remained
only in the hands of the Council members.

"
Chapter Four
," she started reading,
"
A Mixed Breed
."

"
The story of how we began is perhaps the
most controversial topic in our society's long and prolific
history: the mixed breed. How did they act? What did they look
like? Were they dangerous? What powers did they posses? What
weaknesses? And most importantly, what would happen should they
return?

"Answers, however, are the one thing we do
not have. They are what we seek and what we need to find to secure
the future of our people, but they are also the hardest things to
come by. How do you search for information about a species that
died out more than ten millennia ago — a time that predates written
language itself?"

Kira could not help but gulp. She knew she
was the first mixed blood conduit to come by in a long time, but
10,000 years? It was almost an impossibly long time to imagine.

"We can only look to myths, legends and, of
course, history. What we've told you thus far are our theories
about the evolution of our separate species. Almost ten thousand
years ago, a time when pastoral civilization was only just
beginning to arise, the species began to evolve apart. We of course
believe that as families began to settle and discard the
hunter-gatherer lifestyle, colonies of like-minded conduits formed.
Because of this, the species stopped intermixing and new powers
evolved, ones that reflected their like-minded souls. In our modern
words, Protectors to protect what they believed were the lost souls
inside of vampires, and Punishers to destroy what they believed was
an inherent evil. Was our God involved? Perhaps. But in this text,
we will discuss only science.

"Like vampires, conduits evolved beside
humans, to look like humans, but we are not humans. We are
genetically different: from mystical sources or from natural ones,
we will probably never be certain, but what we can do is hard to
describe without introducing divine magic into the equation. And
that is more relative to ancient conduits than any of us could ever
believe, for their powers, according to legend, were limitless.
Myths of many ancient civilizations discuss fire bringers — modern
tales have turned us into ludicrous creations like fire-breathing
dragons — but ancient texts do mention myths of human-like beings
capable of spinning fire. For a long time, we believed these words
were about our current species, but now we must fearfully turn to
these myths for answers. Fearfully because in the times these
ancient legends look back on both conduits and vampires were the
evils in the stories. In a word, they were mad."

Maybe this wasn't such a great idea, Kira
thought while looking away from the pages and down at the active
harbor outside of her window. If the species spent 10,000 years
evolving apart, how did her parents manage to have a child anyway?
And what was to say she wasn't just a new breed entirely, something
completely different than the ancients were? The whole idea that a
book written two hundred and fifty years ago held all of her
secrets was ridiculous. No one had answers. The only thing she saw
here that called out to her was the word magic, because that was
the only way to explain her life.

Even knowing it could all be false, Kira's
eyes fell back onto the text. Ever curious, she needed to know
more. She needed to be prepared to face whatever she really
was.

"Unlike us, the ancient ones were ruled by
their powers. Though hard to believe, it is said that they lacked
control, that sometimes a conduit would go blind in rage, spouting
flames for days on end with no stop until death finally took them.
In these legends, they did not burn vampires alone. Myth says when
an ancient one lost control, entire villages would be burnt to ash.
Entire families killed. Animals charred beyond recognition. It is
because of these legends that we now strive for control.

"Vampires are evil because they give in to
carnal instincts. When the hunger strikes, they go on a killing
rampage, brought completely out of humanity's grip in blood
lust.

"What are conduits if not controlled? If we
killed everything we touched, we would be just as evil as the very
things we were born to fight. We believe that at first this
unconscious need for control helped split the two species. Now, we
consciously strive to keep it that way. Because we are always
asking, what if a half-breed returned? Would humans be more at risk
from it or from the vampires?

"And, even though Protectors will kill a
vampire when they must, if the time came could any of us, Protector
or Punisher, murder one of our own?"

Kira let her head fall against the back of
the seat. She stared up at the rippled white ceiling seeing only
flames and screaming people, running not from vampires but from
her.

But, she had never lost control like that —
never so badly that anything but vampires were affected.

Suddenly, Kira thought of Luke. Had he been
right? Was he the only reason she had never fallen so deep and had
never lost so much control? If he hadn't been there in Sonnyville
to bring her out of her delirium, would she have turned the entire
village and every conduit to dust, just like the vampires?

For the past few months, Kira had only ever
thought that conduits had her capture to fear: that if vampires
caught her they would be immune and they could go on a killing
spree. But, that wasn't really why conduits weren't allowed to
interbreed. Every Council for the past three hundred years had been
keeping their entire society's biggest fear a secret: the fear that
one of their own might be the greatest danger in the world, that
one of their own might be a monster.

The only thing Kira didn't understand was why
would they hide this? If every conduit knew this, they would never
risk mixing blood. Her parents would have probably stayed away from
each other.

The healing, Kira thought. The scholars must
have written about her powers of healing. It was the one thing that
made her existence good, the one thing conduits might risk madness
for. After all, Kira had risked it to save Luke not so long
ago.

Kira skimmed through the following pages,
skipping past the countless myths all describing the same thing:
the ancient ones' insatiable power and fall into madness.

She was almost about to stop reading, haunted
enough by what she had learned, when she came across a change in
tone.

"While we would love to remain with these
ancient myths of horror, we feel honor bound as men of academics to
produce the other side of the story. Fearful as they were through
the stories we have just now told, all conduits throughout history
have been things of light. Our powers are that of God and goodness,
and while madness might be our undoing, our powers give us
strength.

"With this in mind, we must admit that all
of our findings have not been full of blood and horror. We believe
with every ounce of our combined beings that bringing a new mixed
breed into the world would mean the end of life as we know it, but
stories do tell of ancient fire bringers capable of restoring life.
They could, we believe, heal humans and conduits alike as long as
they kept the madness at bay.

"And while we were not sure if we would
write these words, we almost believe that a mixed blood conduit
today might be able to hone this power. When we think back to the
lives of the ancient ones, we must remember that the world was a
different place. There were no rules, no governments and no notion
of civility. There was food, killing for food and staying alive no
matter the cost.

"If a mixed breed were born today, in a
society governed by control and regulation, there is no telling
what may occur — no telling if the conduit would be a mad man or a
savior. But knowing what we do, we wholeheartedly agree that
finding out is not worth the risk."

Kira looked at the name of the next and final
chapter —
The Prophecies
— and realized she didn't really
want to hear anymore about how her life meant the end of the world.
A prophecy was a rigid proclamation, an unchangeable destiny, and
she didn't want to feel like her life story had already been
written for her.

Instead, Kira slipped into a jean skirt and
flip-flops to wander around in the busy harbor below. She tied her
hair in a ponytail, put on her oversized sunglasses and donned
baseball cap — if that wasn't camouflage, she didn't know what was.
Her hair and eyes were covered and no vampire would have any idea
who or what she was, or at least Kira hoped not because she had to
get out of that hotel room.

Of course, sitting on a bench and basking in
the sun still didn't do very much to appease her thoughts. Without
Tristan or Luke around to distract her, Kira was pulled right back
into dark territory the minute she sat down. The beautiful weather
helped a little, but the sun didn't have its usual effect of
calming her. Rather, as Kira let it soak into her skin, she
couldn't help but feel dangerous with the power.

The mind reading or whatever crazy psychic
connection she shared with Luke was still a mystery, however. It
was the one thing Kira held onto because it was the one concrete
thing she had that made her different than the ancient ones with
their uncontrollable powers.

She had felt dangerous at times, almost
insane. She had also felt unstoppable at times, especially when she
healed someone or something. But, according to myth so had all the
other conduits thousands of years ago. But the connection she and
Luke shared was an unknown, the one thing that might just help her
hold on to her humanity.

Kira shifted on the otherwise empty bench and
stretched out. As she turned to the side to lift her feet onto the
wooden planks, a mass of long, straight, glistening black hair
caught her attention.

Kira sat taller in the seat, stretching to
see the woman who looked almost familiar. Her skin gleamed white in
the sunlight. Her frame was long and lean, almost absent of fat,
and she wore a loosely flowing dress in a deep plum color. Tendrils
of fabric blew in the breeze, creating a fluid train down the back
of the dress. It was low-cut to show the pale curve of a skinny
back.

Slowly, as if searching for someone, the
woman turned around. The pointed curve of her nose and taut lips
came into view, but all Kira could see were her icy blue, piercing
eyes: Diana.

Chapter
Twelve

Immediately, a rush of hatred coiled in her
stomach, winding its way through her senses, but Kira suppressed it
and tried to push those feelings all the way down to the tips of
her toes. She needed to stay focused on finding out what Diana was
doing here. Eventually, Kira would be able to interrogate her.
Eventually, she would find out everything she needed to know, but
that time was not in the middle of a huge and bustling tourist
spot.