Blood Isn't Always Thicker Than Water

I let us walk in silence until Monsieur Skunk opened the door with the number 312 on it. He barged in and yelled, “Stefan, you here?”

“Yeah,” a much gentler voice called back. “Just putting up my soccer posters. What’s up?”

“We got another addition to the eighteen class.”

“Male or female?”

“Male.”

“Is he with you?”

“Yeah. And he can’t read a map for his life.”

“Yes I can!” I protested. “I was just looking at the wrong one!”

But Sakar wasn’t listening to me. He was watching as some dude—I’m guessing Stefan—emerged from behind one of the four doors lining the walls that had the same paisley-like pattern as the red and gold in the lobby downstairs except it was dark royal blue and silver. Also, no gigantic chandeliers were dangling dangerously from the ceiling. The ceiling in this room was maybe nine feet tall. And I was guessing that this room served the same purpose as those common rooms in Harry Potter. I mean, there were couches and chairs and tables scattered everywhere. And there was also an okay-sized white fireplace nuzzled into the wall. It was unlit and completely empty, not a single charred log in sight.

“Hey, tonto,” Sakar said, poking me. “This is Law’s twin, Stefan.”

“Hey. I’m Caspian,” I said nicely, smiling and bowing my head a little toward the dude in front of me. Everything about him was the same as Law, except that Stefan didn’t have glasses and his hair was dark brown, not gray. It was the same length and in the same do as Law’s. But Stefan just looked a lot less…bookish.

Stefan smiled to me. “Don’t let Sakar get under your skin. He’s like this to everyone.”

“I’ll try,” I said, then asked, “Which room is mine?”

“The one with nothing on the door,” Stefan said, gesturing to the room with the unblemished white door. If you counted from left to right, it was third. Stefan had come from the first, and that door had sports posters and pictures plastered all over it. The next door over had some sort of mathematical system on it that made a triangle shape. I guessed that that was Law’s room. The fourth door simply had a black and white sign on it that said “GO AWAY”.

Well isn’t Skunky just territorial.

“Um, I guess I’ll go unpack,” I said and moved to enter my room.

“Lunch is in forty-five minutes. I’ll get you when it’s time to head downstairs,” Stefan called after me. He’s so friendly. Such a nice guy.

I smiled to him to show my thanks, then walked into my room. It seemed kinda weird that there were just the right amount of rooms, but I let it slide. My room wasn’t anything special. The walls were basically tinted blue. The furniture was all either a blue color or of a light hued kind of wood. The carpet was a darker blue. It seemed just a tad strange to have wall-to-wall carpeting in a college dorm room, but I wasn’t complaining.

There was a bed, a nightstand, a desk with an uncomfortable looking chair, a dresser with a mirror on the wall above it and a door leading to what I presumed to be the bathroom.

I wished it was all black and white.

I placed my laptop on the desk, set the iPod next to it, and shoved my meager amount of clothes into the drawers of the dresser. I put my toiletries in the bathroom and made the bed with my white sheets and black comforter. The black stood out like a sore thumb, but I figured that I’d get used to it.

But…what next? I didn’t exactly have…personal trinkets or posters or anything. My iPod and laptop were it.

I leaned down and pulled my cape out of the suitcase before shoving the luggage carrier under the bed. I was seriously kind of surprised when the huge thing fit down there. And why was it so big in the first place? Oh yeah. It was Logan’s old one. He had always brought around about a hundred pounds of junk wherever he went.

When I stood up and turned to exit through the door—dur—what I saw was my reflection staring at me from the mirror. I hadn’t taken a good look at myself in a while. My flat, flinty black eyes were the biggest difference since last time, of course. They totally changed who I was. My eyes used to be a soft honey brown color, almost exactly the same as Pete’s. Now they showed no warmth. Not to mention they changed color.

My hair was longer, perpetually dangling in my face. But, seriously, I didn’t really care. By now I was too used to it to actually do anything about it. And school scissors don’t sound like a good thing to cut my hair with.

My tan from that time at the beach was finally gone. Now I was suspended between that tan and my “blue pale” zone. However, I was still paler than Sakar.

And now, the Wardrobe Critique. Today wasn’t anything special. I had on the usual: black jeans, form-fitting white V-neck T-shirt, and a black leather jacket. Nothing new. Okay, fine, I did like a bit emo, absolutely no offense to those who are. I just so happened to enjoy the absence of color. So I clashed epically with the background my room created. I mean, seriously, even my shampoo and conditioner had white bottles with black writing.

I began searching the room for a place to lock away my cape, which I had almost walked into the “common room” with. That would make for an interesting conversation.

“Hey, what’s that?”

“Oh, nothing. Just a magical cape. ’Scuse me, I gotta go lock it away so you can’t find out it exists.”

“Oh, okay. Sounds good.”

No, thank you.

And, while I was searching, I began to wonder: would a lock and key actually work on this thing?

Then, I got a brilliant idea. I took all of my underwear and socks out of the top drawer of the dresser and folded the cape before placing it into the drawer. Then I put all of the stuff that had previously been in there back. And then I walked out of the room, tucking a scrap of torn, silky, black cloth into my pocket.

Skillage.

Stefan looked up from an edition of Sports Illustrated, feet propped up on the ar of a couch. “Wow. You were quick.”

I shrugged. “I didn’t have much to do.”

He frowned. “Are you gonna put anything on your door?” He pulled his legs off the couch and gave me room to sit next to him.

I shook my head, sinking into the inviting cushions. “Naw. I’m not one for decorations.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Oh. So. Tell me about yourself, Caspian. You don’t look like anything much, but those eyes say differently…”

So he’s not a brainless sports addict. He has some mental capacity. Interesting. “Um, I’m Caspian Royce. I don’t like colors.”

Stefan laughed lightly. “I can see that.” He folded his hands on the magazine that rested on his lap and looked attentively at me. He had forgettable blue eyes. No offense to them or anything, they just weren’t of a very remarkable color.

“I’m eighteen. I came here with my friend Sandy, who is twenty-three.”

“Oo, he’s almost at his prime?”

I nodded. “Now, what exactly is a vampire’s ‘prime’?”

Stefan looked surprised. “You don’t know?”

I shook my head, biting my tongue.

“Hmm. Well, it’s basically when a vampire is at his or her strongest. For some reason, it’s activated for everyone at age twenty-five, but occasionally vampires can retain it for a longer time than others. Usually females last longer than males…”

“Hey, Stefan?”

“Hmm?”

“Do vampires…are they able to use magic?” I hadn’t been able to get Dyrren’s little wolf-figurine-appearance thing out of my head for a long time. I wanted to be able to do that, even if I didn’t know what it really was.

Stefan frowned. “Some. Select few.”

“Really? Why? Why them?”

Stefan sighed. “You know what a Guardians are, right?”

I nodded. What did they have to do with this?

“Well, they get their powers from fairies.”

I nodded. “Yep. I know.”

“You do? How?”

I shrugged. “I’ve met some Guardians.”

Stefan winced. “Eugh. That must’ve stunk.”

“What do you mean?”

Now Stefan looked surprised. “Didn’t they try to kill you?”

I shook my head and bit my lip. “No. No they didn’t.”

His eyes widened. “Seriously? What happened?”

I shrugged. “Tell me about this magic-using thing and in return I’ll tell you my Guardian Saga.”

“A who what?” Law plopped down on a chair that faced the couch.

“Law, this guy’s met two Guardians and survived,” Stefan said, putting lots of emphasis on the last part.

“Whoa,” Law said in response and stared at me as if I was a new person. “You must be a lot more than you appear to be.”

I frowned. “I’ve also met two fairies.”

Both of them stared at me as if I was an alien. “Talk,” Stefan demanded, and Law finished off by adding, “Now.”

I bit my lip and though of where to begin. “Well…it all started when the King gave me a quest to carry out.”

“Hey, Sakar!” Law yelled. “Get out here! It’s story time!”

The “GO AWAY” door opened and Sakar’s head emerged. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You gotta listen to this,” Law said, pointing to a nearby chair, indicating for him to take a seat. “Caspian’s run into two Guardians, two fairies and he also got a quest from the King.”

Sakar feigned continued disinterest, but he sat down on the proffered chair and looked at me before gesturing for me to continue.

“Okay. So…I got a quest. From the King. It was to retrieve this human girl who is born every fifty years and is called the Guarded, meaning Guardians protect her from vampires. She is always an only child and has a gold stripe through one eye. She’s the one that is destined to continue the line of the purebred vampires and the perfect soul mate for one of them. This generation’s Guarded had the name Samantha.” Yeah, I’m telling it past tense. If you got a problem with that, sue me. I don’t care. “She was quite the beauty—raven hair that went halfway down her back, and blue eyes that put the Caribbean ocean to shame.” Well, aren’t I just getting into it? I loved being the storyteller, I guess. This was, surprisingly, a lot of fun. “I found her, and tricked her into coming to my house. She was a model, and I told her that I ran a photo shoot place. She came with her cousin. When I finally got her by herself, I locked her in a bathroom.”

Law guffawed. “No you didn’t! Dude, I hope you don’t mind me saying so, but that’s badass.”

I smirked. “You know it. Anyway, it turned out that her cousin was a vampire. He then joined me and my friend, Jeremy, who was another vampire. Jeremy was still a kid at heart, so he convinced me into taking the four of us to the beach. And, therefore, I did what I thought would be smart. I handcuffed Samantha to me.” I shrugged as Law laughed and Stefan chuckled. “Then we made our treacherous journey to the beach. It was my first time in a taxi.” Eyebrows raised at that, but no one interrupted. “We spent the day at the beach. Samantha and I didn’t swim at all. We actually got to get to know each other a bit. And I don’t know about her, but I was falling head over heels.”

“You fell in love with the King’s Guarded?” Sakar specified.

I nodded. “We almost kissed that day, actually. But then, at one point when I wasn’t handcuffed to her and I had my back turned, she just disappeared. Like, seriously, poof. She was gone. Pete Wentz, her personal Guardian, had actually done something to spirit her away. Jeremy, her cousin—named Fallen—and I went back to my house. Fallen escaped after a few days and Jeremy sensed that he was heading southeast. Jeremy had lots of sensory powers. So I left Jeremy behind and followed Fallen’s trail, figuring that the only reason he’s just go off like that would be because he knew where Samantha was—or at least had a guess.

“But, as it turns out, I ran into Samantha in a train station. She and I went to a nearby McDonald’s and it turns out that Fallen died at Pete Wentz’s place in Los Angeles. We both suspected suicide. After a long talk and a glance at a newspaper, I decided that I needed a break from the world. I needed some alone time. So I left Samantha on her own at the top of a parking garage, quest totally forgotten, but not before we kissed.”

They all gaped at me. Well, not Sakar. But he did show some emotion.

“Turns out that she and I had both fallen for each other. But I had to leave. I had to get away. So I made my trek to the abandoned manor I had grown up in. And it turns out that two dogs had made that place their home. I took to the hyper one, the Border Collie that I named Monty. The other dog was half wolf, and when Jeremy showed up, that dog was the one he got.”

“And Jeremy is the guy with tons of sensory powers, right?” Law asked.

I nodded. “Tell me if anything is unclear or if you’re confused. So, where’d I end up? Oh yeah. So Jeremy got the half-wolf, Balto. Then Jeremy and I decided that we were going to try the impossible. We wanted to devise a plan that would let me carry out my quest for the King, but also keep Samantha away from him.”

“That’s impossible,” Stefan interjected softly, then Sakar shushed him.

“Let him finish. I wanna get to the end of this as soon as possible,” he said as an excuse. I knew he was hooked.

I smirked and continued. “Jeremy used his abilities to find out where Samantha was, and it turned out that she was staying with my older brother George. We sent them a letter telling them the city where the King’s place was. Newcomers who are vampires get directed straight to the King by his helpers, so if George went with Samantha, they’d get to the King easily. Jeremy, the dogs and I ran over there on foot. And—surprise, surprise— Fallen was in the city. He had used his own powers that are similar to Jeremy’s to find us. Turns out it seemed like he died because he overdosed on coffee. Then while the three of us were talking and catching up, Monty fell through an alley floor. He actually had uncovered a network of tunnels crafted for the King. They led us right to him. While down there, we met up with George, Samantha, his friend Jon and Pete Wentz, the Guardian.

“You guys know what a PFS…um, a PSFS… Dang it, do you know what I’m talking about?”

“A PFSIS?” Law asked smartly. “Perpetually Following Spit-Induced Servant?”

I nodded. “Those.” All three nodded. “Okay. Well, Jon’s one of those.”

“Whose?” Stefan asked.

“It’s obvious,” Sakar interjected. “He’s George’s.”

I nodded to the Skunk. “Yes. I just wanted to see if you guys knew about them. Anyway. Um…” I stared at the ceiling and worried my lower lip for a little while. I had to say all this without revealing that Fallen, George and I were purebreds… “We were all let in to see the King. Now, he had three main servants. One was his wife, a vampire named Ivy. The second was a human who was in a red dress. The third was a Guardian named Hannah. The King used the Guardian for her powers. She could make amazing lifelike magic illusions.

“But back to the King. He said that I would get a reward for bringing the Guarded one to him. So I showed him Samantha and asked, as a reward, for her freedom.”

“Yeah, screwed,” Sakar muttered.

I nodded. “King Liam wouldn’t come to any sort of agreement that let Samantha live her normal life. He wanted the girl, and that was final. So I meant to conduct a miracle and kill the guy myself—I simply couldn’t let Samantha fall into his hands—but someone else beat me to it. The King’s own servant’s weapon was his downfall. The human’s sword was used to kill him, and the one to do the deed was none other than Jeremy.

“Now, the King had some sort of Guardian charm on him or something, and because of it, whoever caused him harm got the same damage down to them. So Jeremy basically ran himself through with a sword. He died maybe…two minutes after, and the King passed on with him. The human in the red dress also died, but Ivy and Hannah still live to this day.” In my house, but you don’t need to know that. I looked down at my intertwined fingers. “Now we just need to wait for the Prince—I mean New King—to take his rightful place on the throne.” Wow, that was close.