Clan of Blood

The sky was painted with gold and pink rays, like God was stretching out his hand across the world and aloud a little bit of heaven to peek through the morning light.

I sat in an old rust colored leather chair. The leather was rough from years of use but it was comforting compared to the fire that blazed in Gabriel's angry eyes.

"What did they tell you" he asked, trying to conceal his deep rage.

I said nothing. If there is one thing I knew it's when to keep my mouth shut. They had said it was him that killed the people that were like me. So if I told him that's what they said what would keep him from doing the same to me?

"Answer me!" he screamed, and his voice echoed in my head. I was bulled a lot in my life by everyone, especially those who are the closest to me. I remember 6th grade when none of my friends would sit with me at lunch and they all hated me and I didn't even do anything. I remember crying.

That's something I will never allow myself to do again. I am stronger than that.

I sat there and fiddled with my hair in silence as he watched me prudently. "The wolves made no attempt on your life, which only means that they want you to help them. But as soon as they are done using you they will rip your throat out with no hesitation." He said intimidatingly.

"Just like you killed the 10th clan? The Seraphim?" I sat up and said. He raised his eyebrows, as if he seemed shocked I would know such things. But soon a smile replaced that. "That's what they told you isn't it? That and more."

"You must understand. I killed the rouges. The ones who abandon their clan and went out killing other clans and there, members." He eased into the word members knowing that we were all here not by our own choice.

"You see, I know who you are. I know what you are. You are so very special. The girl who knows everything…and yet nothing at the same time" he laughed knowing that he was victorious. "This is not the human world. Understand that. We play differently here. The 9 clans all have a leader, for instance I'm the leader of our clan. There is a court for all 9 leaders and we decide on squabbles between our kind, and other issues such as hunters." He explained.

"There were an overwhelming number of clan leaders who voted to wipe them out because we didn't know if they were all going to attack us one day so our clan executed them for the safety of the rest of us."

"Oh please. Don't try to convince me of your lies, I'm smarter than that." I said in retaliation.

If he even was telling the truth I wouldn't believe it. I can't believe that he would kill innocent people like that.

Unexpectedly I felt something being torn away from me. I put my hand on my chest at the sudden emptiness. I tried desperately to regain my state of calmness but I couldn't. Only the nothingness remained.

"What did you do?" I growled at him. His emerald eyes shined from across the room. "This is your first lesson. Suppressing another's emotions, a very effective weapon, in my opinion."

My eyes brightened and I perked up. "What do you mean? I can do these things to?" I questioned. "Of course, you will need practice but you can. The wolves have their physical energy and we have our mystical energy." He said.

I felt my emotions rush back into my body in a rapid overwhelming floor and I had to sit for a moment to recover from this state of dismay.

"Push me with one of your emotions, and it will flare mine up." He instructed.

The first thing that flooded into my head was anger that boiled into hatred. I balled it up and pushed it at him as hard as I could. He stumbled backwards slightly and his face turned pale as the monster came to life within him.

"Not bad for a beginner. Let's try something else. Pull on my emotions now to have the opposite effect." I saw the anger boiling in him and I pulled on calmness to suppress it. As I caressed the emotion he became more relaxed. His shoulders slightly slumping and the monster faded away from sight.

"see? Its not so bad to be one of us now is it?" he asked.

I pondered this for a long moment. If I could do these things what else were these people capable of? Are these things greater than what the wolves wanted to teach me, and if so then why should I even attempt to seek them out? So many questions, but what were the right ones?

"I can tell by that look on your face your trying to peace all of this together. It's very simple actually, so don't strain yourself." he paused and took a breath.

"I will teach you how to embrace what you have become. The things you were afraid of when you were human will now fear you. Nothing will be in your way to stop you from achieving this gift. They cannot hide from your sight. You will become a hunter or you will be the hunted. The door is open for you to decide."

"What do you mean the hunted?" I questioned thoughtfully.

"If you do not fallow the way of your clan, the laws, the arts, the rulings and so on you will be the prey. By the decree set up by the court of 9 clans we are to hunt down and kill traitors that threaten any of the clans. Your name will be plastered in everyone's mind, and all eyes will be searching for you pretty little face" he growled as if saying these things brought back dark memories that he pushed down years ago.

I nodded slightly, showing that I understood what he was saying. "You will officially star your training tomorrow morning with Lucian. He will teach you how to wield your emotions into a sharp deadly weapon."

I open my mouth to protest agents him but we were interrupted by Elyssia bursting through the door violently. We both looked up at her sweaty face and could tell she had been running for miles just to get here as quickly as she could. But what could be that important?

"A court meeting has been called, they are discussing the war between the clans." she gaped out, breathing heavily from exhaustion.

"They are debating whether to keep you as commander or have sadiya of the wolves to take over because there methods are more peaceful." She added her breathing retuning to a normal level. He sighed deeply and put his hands on his head in frustration.

"There is nothing we can do. If I try to order an attack or even bust through the doors and try to say something they will of course chose that women over me." He said plainly.

"Send the girl" she suggested nodding at me. "I can't risk the chance of her being hurt or killed. She is too precious to m- our clan to louse" he replied. I stood up from the chair I was sitting in and looked at both of them. "I'll go but I don't know what I'm supposed to do" I said bravely, which was odd become if not the kind of girl to go out of my safe zone.

Elyssia grabbed my wrist and waited for Gabriel to approve us leaving. "Remember what I taught you, you're good at acting civil so you will be just fine as long as Elyssia stays with you if any trouble should come up." He gave his orders and we were off.

Something was different. I couldn't run nearly as fast as I did last night and I was exhausted from sleepless nights. "Don't even try to change over. Your dark side won't come out in the sunlight. They would be killed by it, along with you." She explained. "So basically we are defenseless?" I asked. "Not necessarily. We have our powers, there like a safe guard in a way. What did Gabriel teach you?" she inquired.

"How to push and pull on emotions. It's weird, like I can control how they feel and even some of their actions" I said looking ahead at the trees that soured above our heads.

"That may prove of use if we run into a bad situation but you must be careful. Most people in the clans can tell when their emotions are being manipulated by someone else." she answered. We walked for a long time, or at least it seemed like a long time.

We arrived in front of massive wooden doors that had been carved with designs I have never seen but knew something of. There were pictures of creatures dancing across the forest floor and fires blazing high up into the air. The moon and all her stars were there too, along with the sun and strange looking clouds.

"This is the door of methedus. The past and the present. A new carving is added for every major event. It's quite beautiful don't you agree?" she said. I nodded as she pushed open the doors. An array of color filled my eyes and it slowly dimmed down and I started to make out shapes, faces and eventually people…if you could even call them that.

Thorns sprouted out the backs out of some of them, others had massive bat like wings. Some had teeth that were all jagged and some had no teeth at all. One had a glowing complexion of a light, another had dark black skin that was covered with scales and had snakes for hair.

All eyes were on me, measuring who I was with every judging ounce. "I figured you would find us sooner or later, you were always the different one in the family." A familiar voice came. My head shot up and i saw my dad siting directly across from me…just the way I always remembered him.