Before anyone reads this, I would like to mention that Katrina swears...a lot. I considered trying to change that for a while but her swearing is just the way she speaks and expresses herself. Eventually, I just left it the way it is. Without it, she's just not Katrina.
Chapter 1
The world went black as my eyes closed. I slipped into the dark place where I slept in the midst of the bright morning sun. I tumbled off the edge and plummeted into sleep.
The shapes swirled in front of my eyes, so real I longed to touch them. Colours I had never seen before danced and sparkled, teasing me. I finally gave into temptation and lifted a hand to brush the outline of one of the constantly morphing shapes, only to discover my hand was transparent.
“So this is what it must feel like to be a ghost,” I muttered.
[i]I stared long and hard at my hand, flexed it experimentally and found that it still appeared to work as normal. A small flicker of uncertainty reached my eyes before I snuffed it out. It was only a dream after all. There was nothing here that followed the rules of reality.
I decided to continue my small goal of touching one of the shapes. I reached for one that looked like the bastard child of a pyramid and a sphere. As soon as my hand made contact, it burst into thousands of tiny beads of light and one of my first memories was projected into the air in front of me.
I saw my mother and a younger version of myself watching my father’s casket being slowly lowered into the ground. I was only six then but my hair was the black of night with my skin the same colour as a drowning victim, I think it surprises people that I even breathe. I saw the tracks the tears had left behind, constantly handling more traffic.
My pale blue dress was wrinkled from where I had been clutching it trying to stop the tears. A little to my younger self’s right stood my mother looking as young as she always had in her black satin gown. Her hair was the same deep red but past the mane, I noticed a slight tightening of her jaw, signaling in my more mature brain that she was trying not to cry in front of me, well, younger me.
Their voices drifted towards me, so I moved forward to hear more. I heard myself ask, “Mommy, why did Daddy have to die?”
Oh, I remember this conversation.
My mother looked at Younger Me and softly replied, “The angels took him Hun.”
“But,” Younger Me spluttered, “Why?”
My mother began to get the faraway look she always did when she was fighting extreme distress. “It was his turn to die sweetie.”
Younger Me thought for a moment and asked, “Will I ever die and join him in heaven?”
“Now that, Hun is up for debate.”
That was the day I learned what I was, what my mother was. I probably would have figured it out eventually, when I started to notice that my mother never aged, when I stopped aging.
I moved to inch forward just a little more to comfort my mother, to tell her it wouldn’t hurt me to see her cry; but just as I began to move, the shapes holding the memory in physical form burst into those tiny beads again. Moments later, they reformed but it wasn’t another memory, I didn’t recognize this place. And this time, I was in the image.
Where am I…?
I saw myself, viewed as from where I stood next to the door, at the other me sitting on a bed. I could hear music quietly pulsing and I looked about the room for the source. The small stereo was hooked to a monstrous iPod that I was fairly sure was mine. Other Me appeared to be listening to the music and reading a book whose name I couldn’t pronounce. It was in a language I didn’t recognize.
I expanded my senses into the rest of the strange room and the rooms surrounding it, reaching out with them while taking in a visual inspection of the room Other Me and I currently occupied. When they detected a similar arrangement of furniture in the surrounding rooms and across the hall, I decided that I must be in a hotel room, but why?
I detected someone moving down the hallway, walking towards the room. I didn’t recognize his signature. I panicked slightly before I remembered I was in a dream and calmed down. Other Me continued reading, apparently unaware of the strange man’s movements through the building. Both of us were startled when he opened the door and asked softly, “Katrina?”
I was in shock momentarily. My eyes sped back to Other Me, realized then what she was wearing and breathed a heavy sigh of relief. She was wearing my PJ’s- well, what qualified as my PJ’s- an over sized t-shirt and baggy sweat pants. That definitively ruled out one explanation as to why there was now a man- no, a boy- in my room.
He couldn’t have been any older than twenty by the looks of him. Everything from the longish shaggy cut of his brown hair to his dancing green eyes spelled Fresh-Out-Of-College to me. He wasn’t bad looking either, though his appearance was hauntingly familiar. From where, I couldn’t place but looking at him made my heart ache with an old pain.
I was shocked again when Other Me replied slightly bewildered and mad, “Duskin, what the fuck are doing in my room?” At least now I knew that she wasn’t expecting him.
My eyes shifted back and forth between the one called Duskin and Other Me. How did I know him, and yet not? I had only ever seen him here. I tuned into my surroundings and noticed the song playing change to Away. It was a small comfort to have something familiar around, but holy shit. Could this be any weirder?
Then Duskin spoke again, not softly this time, but somewhat relaxed, “I didn’t really feel like drinking with the others, so I drove around for a while. Then I remembered you stayed back here and I figured you’d prove more coherent conversation.”
There was a momentary silence as he walked in a little further and closed the door behind him. Other Me looked a little amused at his statement. She wore she rolled her eyes and said, “Nick got drunk again, didn’t he?”
“Enough that he was close to passing out when I left.”
Ah Nick, always getting drunk after a successful mission. I really am going to have to leave a few bruises to get him to stop that. “I’ll call Kailee to make sure she drives.”
I heard the chorus approaching; the bridge was playing. All I could really hear in my head was my own questions of where I knew Duskin from and the music. He drove me out of my own thoughts by saying seriously, “We need to talk.”
What the hell? “Can’t it wait?”
The chorus began.
-I see you, ‘cause you won’t get out of my way
He gave Other Me a look that said You are so not getting out of this, “You can call her in a few minutes. Nick’s a loud drunk, she’ll know better than to let him drive home. I don’t think this’ll take long.”
-I hear you, ‘cause you won’t quit screamin’ my name
What the hell is going on? If he just wanted to talk couldn’t it wait the two minutes necessary to call Kailee? “I really need to warn Kailee about Nick. You know what he’s like when he’s drunk. And I don’t really feel like talking.” Don’t I just sound the part of a concerned friend?
-I feel you, ‘cause you won’t stop touchin’ my skin
He just stared at her. Slightly creepy. I sensed a slight crackle in the air. Fuck, I have thunderstorms in my dreams? No… it’s something else; look at him. “Fine then, we don’t have to talk.”
-I need you; they’re coming to take you away
She closed the book with a sharp clapping sound and set it gently on the bed next to her. “Good. Now give me a minute to call-”
Other Me never finished what she was going to say. I finally realized that the whole time they had been talking, he had moved closer to her until he was right beside the bed. In a brief moment of confusion, he pulled Other Me up to stand in front of him. I watched, perplexed. I could feel his hands touching my own and his body heat though I wasn’t anywhere near him. I thought he should back up before I kicked him but obviously my other self didn’t think so. As he lowered his head she didn’t stop him. I felt him getting closer and-
“KAT! Wake up damn it!” someone shouted in my ear.
I was startled awake and almost fell out of my bed. “Zainah, leave me alone to sleep you fucking retard!”
She sighed deeply and folded her arms across her chest. “No need for name calling. Everyone else is up already; dusk fell over an hour ago. I thought you might enjoy actually eating something?” Did I hear a slight hurt tone in her voice?
I rolled over to face her and still felt the dragging pull of sleep weighing me down, trying to bring me back. I shook it off. There was no time for dreaming now.
Zainah’s short and shaggy-cut black hair accented the Egyptian features of her face, complimenting it perfectly. I wished I could pull her look off so well. I almost laughed though, when I saw her wearing her favourite Slipknot band shirt.
I pulled myself together and realized she was right, my insult had been a little harsh. “Do I. I’m sorry though,” I lifted my eyebrows, “just no more waking me up when I’m having a good dream for once?”
Her eyes brightened to the point I thought I’d need sunglasses just to look at them. “Ooh, tell me what happened! I want to know what vamps dream of but Kailee will never tell me.” Zainah put on such a perfect bitchy face that I had to laugh.
Sigh. “You wouldn’t want to know what vamps usually dream about. And I’m only half vamp.” I took a breath; I didn’t want to sound hurt, she hadn’t meant it as an insult. “My father was human, remember you damn cat?” I said jokingly, giving her a little shove.
As she tossed her hair back, her brown eyes swirled and changed into the yellow green of a cat’s, with the narrow pupils to match. I began to wonder if she would morph just to mess with me until she said, “Yeah, yeah. I know, you’ve told us that entire story at least once when you’ve undergone mood swings from pissed to depressed. Moreover, I’m only half a damn cat. It comes with the advantage of smelling like a human rather than a Were. People underestimate me this way.” A smirk appeared on her face. “But I suit the halfling title.” She flexed, so I knew she was being sarcastic.
“Kat, you’re avoiding my question,” Zainah said after a few moments of silence.
Fuck. I can’t lie to Zainah, she’d know. “Okay, I was in a hotel room reading and a guy named Duskin walked in and we talked. We were talking in fact until you woke me up. You have to ruin my dreams in my dreams. Ugh.”
She took it with her signature smile. God that pisses me off sometimes. “Quit the bitching, get dressed and get your ass in the kitchen. By the way, Nick’s still hung-over, so avoid him like I avoid his goddamn socks.”
She turned to leave and said in an almost-whisper over her shoulder, “And if Nick hears you’re entertaining strange men in hotel rooms, even in your dreams, he’ll have a fucking field day.” Satisfied, she left.
Double fuck.
I wandered into the kitchen twenty minutes later showered, dressed in all black and a little more awake than usual. Kailee was in her usual jeans and white t-shirt, leaning over the stove frying bacon. And I mean frying, the poor little pig bits were black. I leaned casually against the south wall and drawled, “So this is how the damned cook their breakfast, eh?”
She took the pan off the stove and looked at me through hazel eyes and red hair that reminded me of my mother’s and replied flatly “Not much I can do about that, you want food or not? And where the hell did you put the blood store? I’m starting to feel ill from the lack.” She narrowed her eyes. “Not that you feel the need,” she teased.
Actually, I did. I felt the ache from every part of my body. I didn’t need blood to survive, but it eased the pain I felt. Maybe it was time to satisfy the craving.
“Kailee, there’s nothing left of it, you drank the rest a week ago.”
“Shit. I guess it’s time to hunt now, isn’t it?”
“I’ll call Dan, he might have some in storage for us, and I’d rather not go back to Death Row and pick on the murderers. Their blood sickens me.”
“What the hell are you guys plotting about now?”
Nick had wandered into the kitchen, hung-over as always with his shoulder length brown hair a mess, his brown eyes glazed over and his breath reeking of beer.
I put a dagger edge in my voice as I said, “Nick, I’m not fucking around, you really should cut the binge drinking, you’re killing your poor brain cells. We all know that their days are numbered already.”
He shook his head as though to clear it. I think he was still a little drunk from the night before, so finding out our new mission would have to wait until he was completely sober. That damn Spanish idiot. Sometimes I think we only keep him around because in the rare moments he’s sober, he’s decent company. “We kinda need your strength you idiot brute. If you’re drunk and we’re losing, what the hell kinda comeback are we supposed to produce?”
For a moment, I thought he was having a seizure, then… “Are you laughing?”
I was staring at him, pissed as can be, and then I remembered the first time I had met him. Fresh out of high school, he could have done anything, anything, but he decided to join up with the government and become part of a team of Shade Shifters.
Dan had called all the teams to find a place for him. Rick didn’t want a rookie, no one used to going solo ever wants a rookie, too much chance of him being slaughtered. Besides, Rick probably would have turned on him, vamps and Weres don’t usually get along well. None of the other teams wanted him either. Kailee and I were the only ones who would even consider adding him to the team’s arsenal.
A Were bear with two vamps, even if I was only half, it was almost unheard of. His gender did come in handy in several missions, along with the fact that no one messes with a man who looks like he could snap your backbone like a twig. The drinking was a big problem, but over the course of five years, Kailee and I still hadn't been able to get him to kick the habit. At least Nick wasn’t a rookie anymore.
Zainah on the other hand, I don’t think she ever really was a rookie. She behaved as though killing was a first instinct, I guess that’s just because of her Were heritage.
“Kat…”
My mind started to wander again. Why did I see him in my dream? I’ve never seen the guy before. My own head is fucking with me.
“Kat.”
It’s so weird seeing yourself doing something so intimate with another person, while you watch from the side. I think I’m going insane. It wouldn’t be the first time.
“Katrina!”
“Huh?”
Oh, I got caught mind wandering again. Damn it.
“Don’t you ever pay fucking attention? I said Dan called, apparently he had something important to ask you, something that couldn’t wait for long.”
“Sorry Nick, I’ll excuse your drinking this time if you can put the tendency for my mind to wander at peace.”
He made a sound that sounded like a snort and I noticed Zainah out of the corner of my eye. She put a finger to her lips and I gave the slightest nod to signal that I’d stay quiet. I told Kailee with my eyes that she should stay quiet too. I watched as Zainah slowly and silently sneaked up on Nick. Maybe if he hadn’t gotten so hammered last night he might have had a chance, but today, Zainah got her revenge. I guess a box on the ears hard enough to deafen a normal human is what you get for dumping a kitty into the pool. As it was, Nick was out in an instant.
I saw Sira and Sulphur join Zainah around Nick. Sira looked like a small lioness even with her pure white fur and her golden legs. Sashiras don’t usually run as large as her; I think Dan might have used her as a breeding female if I hadn’t selected her for part of my team. Sulphur, on the other hand was dwarfed by Sira. The tiny evarius was the typical gray, though I had never seen one with green markings that glowed red in the midst of battle. God, even for her species she was small, small as a runt kitten. What a match. I could smell her from where I stood across the room, the smell of sulfur permeating the air.
“Okay you two, shoo. Let the unconscious guy revive in peace without your smells on him.” I waved them away from Nick’s limp form. A little too late though, Sulphur had already marked him with the stink of sulfur before I managed to bring her attention to me.
“Kat, maybe you should call Dan back? He said there was something important to be discussed.”
I looked up at her. “Fine Kai, but really, if it’s something really stupid like the last time, I am going to make sure he leaves work with a broken arm.”
Zainah piped in, “He’s not going to ask you to cover for him while he goes on vacation again, at least, not unless he’s suicidal.”
Ah Zainah, go mark someone else. She occasionally tried to get on my better side by agreeing with everything I said. It got annoying after a while. “I don’t think he is, but I’ll call him back anyway.” I motioned toward Nick, “And clean him up, we’re not getting anything done tonight so he might as well sleep it off.”
I walked back into my room, leaving Kailee and Zainah to clean Nick up off the floor. I would eat later. The moonlight cast an eerie silver light across my floor so solid one would have thought that you could mold its shape. I began muttering to myself “This had better be good you bastard.” Before I knew it, his number was dialed into my cell and I could hear the ringing of his receiver.
“Kenyon?” He answered in his usual baritone. “Finally, I really needed to talk to you.”
No freaking duh Dan. “I heard, so fill me in.”
He made a sound I took for a laugh. “We’ve got two new rookies, thought I might give you guys first choice.”
Was that all he wanted me for? “If you can get me a decent supply of blood for Kailee and I, Essance’ll take the two of them. What can they do and what’re their names?
I thought I heard a huff from his end of the line. Who the hell makes a huff noise unless they’ve been running a marathon? “One’s a twenty one year old mage. For her age her powers are extremely mature, she’s an expert in fencing and control over the elements. Your evarius could do well with her. Her amulet of power increases her endurance and she has a custom gun she calls an M3 for other fights.”
“Name?”
“Oh, Lia Valé.”
Okay then…decent pick. I quickly evaluated the options and decided that she would be a good addition to the team. I might even set Nick up with her to get him off my back; it might help him stop drinking.
“Okay, we’ll take her. Who’s the other rookie?”
He hesitated in responding. That’s always a bad sign. “This one’s a Tracer.”
Oh, that was why Dan was on edge. He knew how most Tracers reacted around vamps; a lot of them had almost allergic reactions to them. Those were the ones who could never be of use in the field unless the vamps you happened to be fighting were extremely well camouflaged. Even then they were of next to no use. You can’t fight while you’re bringing up your most recent meal. I wondered how bad this one could be.
“Okay, a Tracer, how bad is their ability and fill me on their stats.”
I heard Dan’s sigh of relief, I guess he had thought I’d instantly reject the rookie, which would have made him much harder to place amongst the other groups. “He doesn’t get sick like most of them; he’s got a decent handle on his ability. He gained his power after he was in a car crash with a drunk driver at age eight. His whole family was killed and he was the only one who was revived in hospital. He’s the best shot I’ve ever seen, with one of Pread’s Vipers and with a bow.”
Hm. I was sure I had worked on his case eleven years ago, I never learned the boy’s name, but I had hunted down and killed the man responsible for arranging the crash. Actually, that was the same case I had gotten caught while watching from the tree. “Physical description?”
“I thought you were past that Keni,”
I hate it when he calls me that. I listened harder; sure he was a little pissed at me for asking.
“He’s 19.”
Wow, Zainah’s age, young thing.
“That’s all I’m telling you. You want him or not?”
Shit, I hoped he would tell me more. Never hurts to be sure about things. “Fine, we’ll take him. What’s the new guy’s name?”
“Good, they’ll be over to the base tomorrow night. And his name is Duskin Harlem. I’ll be talking to you later Keni.” Dan hung up, but I had stopped listening the moment he said the rookie’s name. I hung up my cell and collapsed onto the bed. The two weren’t the same person, right?
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