Fate's Path

Five years ago

I let out a sigh and yanked the suitcase out of the trunk of the small red car I had been in for the past eight hours. Why did the one school I could go to have to be so far away from “home”? You’re probably wondering why I said “home” in quotations instead of just home. The reason is that I have moved around so much, since my parents died two years ago, so I no longer have a place to call home. I turned around to see Analiese blocking my view of the School for the Extraordinary. I know, a cheesy name. This school had been on my mind for three weeks. I even dreamed about it, but not in a good way. I imagined the school would be a big and terrifying building that would sit on the top of a hill, overshadowing a village of people.

Okay, so I admit I had been reading a lot of fairy tales.

“Piper! You should rejoice! We finally made it! Why aren’t you smiling?” My caretaker exclaimed. She may have looked twenty-five, but her true age was way higher. They set me up with the most hyperactive caretaker of the clan. Okay, so the only caretaker of the clan, but still! I guess it is hard trying to pretend not to like her because she is amazing!

I couldn’t stand the thought of ruining her mood, so I instinctively forced a cheery smile. “Oh, Analiese, I don’t know; I mean, I’m going to a school full of strangers, leaving my one and only friend, because she can’t even stay with me!” I said it in a joyful tone but she frowned anyway, making me feel bad, “I’m sorry, Ana. I just never thought it would be this hard to leave you!”

Her face lit up. “Aww, thanks! I think? I don’t want you to leave either, but I know it’s for your own good! Okay, enough of that, let’s get you inside.”

I felt my body stiffen and hoped it wasn’t as obvious to her as it felt to me. “We already had a meeting with the principal, can’t I just find my dorm alone? It’s just, well, I don’t do that whole—well I’ve never… you know.” I let my voice kind of trail off at the end of my fragmented run on attempt at a complete thought. Dammit, why did I always seem to fail stringing my words together properly when I knew I was to be saying goodbye?

Analiese nodded in understanding. “Okay okay. I get it, you don’t want to show up with a parent.” I flinched at the word ‘parent,’, “That’s not what I-”

“Ana, it’s okay. I know what you mean,” I mumbled, it’s not like I had to speak up. She would hear me even if I whispered it as quietly as possible.

We stayed silent for a moment as I set the suitcase on the ground and grabbed my other two bags. I must tell you something else about myself: Sometimes I love silence, and sometimes I hate it because the sound of it is deafening. One of those times is now because all I wanted to do was listen to her voice for as long as I could. All I wanted was to remember the tones and depths, commit it to memory because there is one thing I have learned in these last few years, and that is that memories are the only things we keep with us always.

I turned and faced her again. We stood silent for a bit kind of in a stalemate before we both broke down closing the gap between us, wrapped each other in a silent yet warm embrace. Analiese had to kneel, a subtle reminder of just how much growing up I have left to do. In the last 2 years I hadn’t ever let my guard down long enough to care about someone, but Analiese had brought that out in me. Her positive peppy attitude had made it impossible not to care about her, and this was the most affection I had shown anyone. It was a sweet moment that seemed to last forever. I only pulled away when I felt tears prickle at the back of my eyes.

“No crying on the first day.” Analiese looked at me, her own cheeks streaked with tears. “You will be fine. Everyone will love you. I mean, how could they not love you, Piper?” I wiped my eyes before a tear could fall and nodded.

“I am pretty amazing,” I chuckled, and she grinned. There was some sadness behind her grin, but she was doing everything in her power to hide it.

“Damn straight. You are Piper freaking Gale. You got this!” She punched my arm playfully, and I laughed. “Okay, now, make sure you have all of your luggage.”

I nodded and checked each bag.

Pills? Check.

Books? Check.

Notebooks? Check.

Everything else I actually need? Check.

I checked my food bag and drooped. “Ana?” She looked at me. “How much blood did you pack?”

Oh, yeah. That’s another thing: I am half-vampire. Notice I said “half”. The other half of me is magic-user. When I turned the magic side stayed, only it was dulled (meaning my magic isn’t very strong). I have yet to find out why. Because of this, I am the first vampire to ever age. Crazy, right? Definitely. It has taken me forever to understand being a vampire, and I am still not used to the diet.

Analiese froze.

“I thought you were supposed to pack extra.” Well, crap. Neither of us had packed extra. I examined the amount I had stored away and sighed. I had enough to get me through the first week.

“Shit. Okay, I will drive home and bring more for the school to hold on to.”

“Thank you, Ana,” I let out a sigh of relief. “Okay, so other than the blood, I have everything.”

I lifted the three bags, one on my right shoulder and the other two on my left shoulder, and side-stepped around her to look at the school. My jaw dropped: it was beautiful. I saw faeries and pixies flying about, and wolves prancing around. Students conversing with each other, birds and panthers alike. Flowers of all sorts in a garden with trees scattered about. I walked up the stone driveway and to the cobblestone stairs. I turned to wave at Analiese, but she was gone. She had always hated goodbyes. Besides, she had to go get more blood for me.

I sighed, bounding up the stairs and into the school. The halls had only a couple students passing by, but I paid no attention to them. See, the thing about the school, is that for the next almost seven years I will share a dorm with three other kids. Two boys and another girl. I guess they don’t give a shit about the coed boy-girl thing.

“Dorm two, where are you?” I muttered to myself. Aha! I stopped in front of an oak door with a large ‘DORM 2’ sign on it. Obvious much? I set my suitcase down and listened for a moment, hearing a few kids inside shuffling around. I finally knocked lightly.

A male voice yelled, “She’s here!”

A female. “Open the door then, dumb-!”

The first male cut her off with, “I’m not the dumb ass, Pixie!”

A different male shouted, “Shut up, both of you! I’ll open the door.”

The door swung open and my heart lurched into my throat. The boy standing in front of me had messy black hair and striking green eyes. His skin was pale, but he was obviously not a vampire. My heart raced (Yes, I have a beating heart, and I breathe. Despite being a vampire, get over it) as he smiled at me. He stuck out his hand, and I shook it. “My name is Piper Gale,” I introduced myself.

Still smiling he stepped to the side so I could see two other kids. “That is Chris and Kiera.” Chris had pale skin to match the first boy, but his crazy hair and eyes were nearly white. There was something about him that was oddly familiar and I felt the need to be near him. I tore my gaze from him and looked at the girl. She had black and white pixie-cut hair, and her skin was at least slightly tanner than the rest of us. I waved at them and they elbowed each other before waving back. The boy that had opened the door turned back, and his beautiful green eyes locked on my chocolate brown ones. “And I’m Connor.”

Present Time

Connor ducked away from me as I aimed a punch at his jaw. He was grinning, and I was trying hard not to laugh. School classes had been canceled for, like, two weeks and it had already been three days. Connor and I had taken that time to train and mess around. Since the day we first met, we have been best friends. Chris and Kiera are our friends as well, but Connor is my best friend. I hoped it would always stay that way. That very first day, when he opened the door, I had thought he was the hottest guy ever. Of course, now I was sixteen, and I didn’t want to ruin our amazing friendship, so I had pushed any thoughts, of Connor as anything more than a friend, away. I jumped back as he swiped at me.

Most girls are jealous of my friendship with him, despite that they sometimes act afraid of what Connor is. I never truly understood people’s fear of him. He’s a really nice person. Always thinking about me and our friends before himself, they just never took the chance to get to know the “real” Connor.

I dropped to the floor and kicked his feet out from under him. Connor fell with a strangled cry, and I laughed. He shot a glare at me but was soon laughing too.

“Cheater,” He grumbled.

“Hey, you didn’t say I couldn’t do that!” I countered, and he smiled mischievously.

“I know.” I didn’t even have a moment to prepare myself when he grabbed my ankle, and before I knew it, I was on the ground beside him. I cried out and glared.

“That was cheating!” I complained with a smile and nudged him with my elbow. He nudged me back with his shoulder after we had sat up. I tried to catch my breath. “So... wanna go again?” I asked him, but he shook his head.

“Dude, we have to eat. Do you know it’s, like, lunchtime?” I looked at the far wall of the gym and my jaw dropped. He was right, it was almost noon. I would need to feed soon. I was glad he was still in this form though, at least then he ate normal food. Speaking of which, you are probably wondering, ‘Well? Why is Connor at this school?’ You see, Connor is half-demon, half-angel. There is, of course, a human side to him (That’s just Connor) and aside for each of the other versions of him. They each have their own unique personality, too. Demon Connor and Angel Connor, Or as we typically call them Demon and Angel (Very creative, I know.) Demon is more of a flirt and jokester but he has a sweet and nice side that few have ever gotten to witness. Angel is a rare thing to see but I met him once and he is a good listener and gives great advice. It doesn’t matter how “different” his personalities are, I love him all the same, and nothing could ever change that.

“Oh, god,” I groaned as he pulled me to my feet. “One of these days I am going to have a heart attack and die with all this exertion!” I cracked my back and looked at him. “Don’t even think about saying-.”

“You aren’t even supposed to have a heart and you’re already half-dead.” He grinned, oh-so pleased with himself. I rolled my eyes and punched his arm. “I can’t help it. You seem to forget that I am also a halfling. So, technically,” (I hate that word) “I am bad, good, and normal. At least you are special.”

I scoffed. I never thought of myself as special. Ever. The only thing unique about me was that I was one out of only three other vampires at our school. Of course, that combined with my friend choice results in weird stares and not having many friends. It’s not like I need more, I mean I already have, like, four friends. Connor, Chris (who is kinda like Connor, but he can control demons), Kiera (half-pixie and half-human), and Lucinda (Wolf.)

“What? I’m serious! Think about it, there is no other vampire in the world that is quite like you. If you looked up the definition of ‘special’, it would have your picture beside it,” Connor said as we grabbed our bags and pushed through the double doors of the gym.

“Yeah, but I still don’t see how I’m special. I’m still just a vampire,” I responded, pretending to be ignorant of what was being said behind our backs. Ugh, I hate gossipers. It’s as if they don’t know I can hear every damned word they say.

“Piper, you just proved my point. You’re a vampire.” He grabbed my arm, forcing me to stop as he turned to face me, I looked up at him. He was so much taller than me and muscular. My mind started to go blank before he spoke again. “Do normal vampires have a beating heart or breath circulating in their lungs?” I got quiet. “Exactly.” Everyone else in the halls seemed to fall away from us until we were the only ones left in the world.

Finally, after several minutes, I sighed and we turned to continue walking. “Okay, I see what you mean. But this doesn’t mean I am going to admit to being special! I really don’t think I’m special!” I waggled my finger at him.

Connor laughed. “You think I would expect you of all people to admit I won this argument? Never!”

We both got quiet again, then I thought of other stuff to change the subject. “Oh, I almost forgot. You know Chris’ birthday is tomorrow and my birthday is that day after his, so we have to get a gift for him ‘cause honestly just being your guys’ friend is enough for me. Also, the school dance is next week, and on Saturday, Kiera and I are going shopping for dresses.” Damn. It was really tough, the perks of being a vampire, but I was kind of a huge planner. In fact, I was in charge of most of the school-sanctioned events; such as school dances, school meetings, class parties, and other things that most would find useless.

“Pipes, you know Chris hates celebrating his birthday.” I opened my mouth to interject, but Connor held up a finger to silence me. “You have yet to find something that he will be okay with doing or receiving on his birthday.”

I squared my shoulders. “I have a plan-”

“Of course you do.”

“Let me finish. I was thinking: he likes hanging out with us, right?” Connor nodded, “Then let’s give him what he likes. Tomorrow, we don’t have classes, so we are going to chill and hang out with him all day. Maybe go to a movie?”

His jaw dropped and I looked at him, like: “what?” He just stared at me. “Piper Gale just said ‘maybe’. Holy Crap, I’m telling the others. We will probably frame it, and-”

I pushed him playfully. “Okay, I get it. Tomorrow is a day about Chris, not me and my plans.” That was surprisingly hard to say. For as long as I could remember I had never said ‘maybe’ out loud. I had said it in my head many times, but Connor had never heard me say it. I was always so sure of what to do, so confident. At least around my friends, I had never said it, and never planned to. It was a sign of weakness in my eyes.

“So, um, Piper?”

Something in his tone startled me and I looked at him. We had stopped in front of our dorm and now my whole body faced him. He looked almost…...squeamish, or shy, or terrified. It made my nerves go crazy, and my heart fell into my stomach. Was he going to ask me-? I shot the idea down before it could materialize.

That was just wishful thinking.

“I was, um, going to-”

“OMG, Piper!” The girlish squeal came from inside our room, belonging to Kiera. She threw open the door and yanked me and Connor into the dorm. The door shut and I was left staring at the red-faced girl. She waited for me to say something, and when I didn’t, she squealed again. “Guess who just asked me to the school dance!”

“Who?” I had on my best “girlie grin”, ignoring how Connor was trying and failing to not laugh at me.

“Julian White!!” Her smile faded the moment she saw Connor and I were gaping at her. Our school may be different, and when I first arrived it was, like, straight out of a fairy tale, but every school has a ‘Julian White’. That one kid that manages to be popular, hot, and a huge jackass. He ignores most people but Julian and I have been fighting and competing. We have an ongoing war and literally, everyone knows it. I know I hate him, but before we fought I have no idea what I did to make him hate me. The worst part is that Kiera has had a massive crush on him for two years, and his dorm is right next door to ours. It’s like the world hates me or something.

I was about to say something when Kiera’s expression turned worried and she reached towards me. I flinched, expecting her to do something like pinch me, but instead, her thumb swiped under my nose. I jerked away but she stared down at her finger. “Piper, you’re bleeding,” She said and for once she wasn’t jumping or smiling like always, I furrowed my eyebrows. Sure, I got injuries all the time, but her expression showed this wasn’t a normal nosebleed. I lifted my hand to wipe under my nose. That’s when the ringing started in my ears and I saw my blood was black.

“The hell?” The ringing grew as I stumbled to the bathroom, in our room, knocking over several framed photos. I didn’t even bother to shut the door as thick black droplets of blood fell onto the sleek marble counter. Before you say ‘Holy shit, your blood is black?’ the truth is, my blood isn’t normally black. My blood is the normal red color. I’m a fucking vampire, not an alien.

I heard my name but didn’t look up. I coughed and more blood splattered into the sink. I finally looked over in time to see Connor and Chris running to me. I had a moment to wonder when Chris had got there before my eyes rolled back into my head and I collapsed. The back of my head hit the heater in the bathroom and my vision blacked out. I could hardly remember what had happened. I vaguely remembered my friends screaming my name. I drifted into unconsciousness that prepared for me a dream.

I saw Chris in my dream, he was across from me in a field of flowers. He stared at me, only this was not Chris. At least, he looked like Chris, but I can tell my friends apart from other people. No, this Chris wore a black shirt that was actually well-groomed and matched his dress pants and sleek shoes.

“Chris?” I called, but it echoed, like the inside of a metal box. I ignored the echo as my eyes locked with the strange Chris across from me.

“Finally, you will join me…” There was a long pause before he added a last comment that left me speechless, “Sister.” About then was when I wanted to wake up and have everything go back to normal; me and Connor walking down the hall together, Kiera and I going shopping even when we aren’t allowed out, Chris and I talking about our feelings to each other for no apparent reason, Lucinda telling me about every new guy she has met that day (if you ask her she will deny this but she has been trying to find someone of the opposite sex to set me up with for years.) Normal was anything but one of your friends calling you their sister. Especially Chris. I felt nauseous, like I was going to puke at the idea of him calling me his sister. I guess I care for him as I do my other friends but sister? We look nothing alike!

“What? Why did you - Chris!” I started to run to him as he walked away and disappeared into the shadows. I followed, but soon found it hard to move. A black liquid hugged my legs up to my thighs so I could barely move one step. It was like being stuck in quicksand but thicker and it didn’t sink. “Chris!” I screamed but there was only darkness.

I screamed again, only this time I was in bed with my friends surrounding me. Lucinda was passed out half on, half off my bed, Chris was curled awkwardly into a ball on a chair by Lucinda, Kiera was sprawled out on Connor’s bed closest to mine. Finally, my eyes landed on Connor, laying beside me. His hand rested on my wrist, making me feel calmer. Connor’s whole body was touching and and the moment a sound left my lips Connor was awake, “Piper?” I blinked then his arms were around me, “You scared the hell out of us. Don’t do that again.”

“Do what?” My brain was trying to recount what had happened, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember. How had I gotten into bed? Then I realized I was in different clothes. You can imagine how pissed I was to figure that part out. Connor was giving me this look, like, ‘Is she high?’ I shook my head.

“You really don’t remember?” Lucinda had asked the moment we had settled down in a circle. Connor and I were the only ones standing. She had flipped her blue hair over her shoulder as her bright green eyes met my duller ones. They seemed just as confused as I was. I had left out the part of seeing Chris in my dream, I didn’t want them to worry anymore than they already were. Besides, Chris had barely said a word since I had woken up, and I wanted to figure out that part of everything on my own. His head was down, so he looked like a beaten puppy. Connor had stayed by my side, he didn’t even let me go get a drink by myself, he barely let me change out of the nightgown by myself. The only reason he let me be alone for five minutes was because Kiera and Lucinda said they would keep an eye on me and make sure nothing happened. Let me tell them something! I don’t need a babysitter! I ended up picking my favorite outfit. A red crop with skinny jeans, tall black leather boots and my leather jacket. It was the outfit I always wore when something strange happened. It was like another skin.

I shook my head. “No, I don’t. Well, all I remember was blood the color of ink, then everything went black,” I growled, and rubbed my temples. “I wish I knew what had happened.” Alas, I didn’t, and that was almost worse than Connor sticking to my side - not that that was bad. I mean, he has a nice muscular body and it felt good with him so close. In fact, his fingers were entwined with mine forcing me to be closer to him than I already was. “Can you explain it to me again?”

Connor looked away. Lucinda twiddled her thumbs. Kiera looked at the floor and pretended to be interested in the detail of the plain wood floor. My eyes drifted to Chris, he looked up right as they reached him. “Fine. I’ll tell her. Piper, you started bleeding a lot. Your eyes were red, and I think I heard you mumbling some weird words.”

“What words?” I asked, my full attention on him. I blocked out everyone else in the room.

Chris thought for a long time before his eyes swirled icy blue and he spoke again. His voice was mimicking mine: “Frater et soror. Tenetur fato. Tenetur in sanguinem.” His eyes returned to normal and I stared at him, horrified. I hated it when he did that. His demon side had the power to remember anything that was said and the voice of who had spoken. I shivered.

“Oh.” Of course, I know Latin and you can translate what I had apparently said. You know what, don’t. I will just tell you, none of them knew, either. I spoke quietly. “That translates to ‘Brother and Sister. Bound by Fate. Bound in Blood.’” I could feel myself about to cry again but I forced myself to look away. To look at anything or anyone but Chris. Every time I would look at him my mind traveled back to the dream. Back to him calling me “sister”. Back to me getting stuck in the darkness.

That was somewhere I definitely didn’t want to go.

When it was clear no one was going to say anything else, I pulled my hand away from Connor, grabbed my book off my bedside table, then I was out the door. No one stopped me, no one followed. I was going to have to figure this out by myself, in the dark corner of the library.