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Kaila slid across the tiled floor hastily, then threw her bag against the concrete 墙 before seating herself 下一个 to her luggage, closing her eyes. She steadied her breathing, focusing on the darkness that was shadowed behind her eyelids, then felt a prickling rip peel across her head, creating a free-floating sensation. 秒 later, she was able to see the atmosphere that would have been shown if her eyes were opened---only now, everything was black except for the outline of all the objects and the auras.
Auras. Kaila felt her body breathe a sigh of relief.
She knew the auras she should have been seeing, like the ones all of her relatives could see, were to look like the 7 layers of the chakra; simple, crystal clear 颜色 wrapping over each other in a cascading rainbow, each layer becoming thinner the closer it got to the organs of the body. Her relatives, especially Aunt Tilda, would describe them with exact definition and say how the father 你 could see into one’s aura, the 更多 ‘emotion’ 你 could feel.
Kaila couldn’t see the auras that her family described. Her mother often complained that it was Kaila’s father’s fault, Daniel. Kaila’s mother whinned about her unfortunate mind at the time, that she was consumed with 爱情 and didn’t have the strength to control herself. Either way, Kaila had no hatred for her father, so she didn’t care what kind of auras she could see, as long as they were visible to her.
Kaila focused her mind again, moving her sight through walls to catch the auras from the passing people. The regular humans were downed in a single-filled aura of yellow, ordinary and dull. That color was blinding around the scenery of black, but Kaila was glad everything was lined with a red so that the color differences helped her out a little. She ignored the humans, daftly moving onward to a group of shape shifters that bustled around the corner in their formed groups, each flowing with a combinative glow. A thin strand of all their auras branched out among the members, defining how spiritually connected they were. Their blazing green flames of auras were streaking past their bodies and fluctuating along the human auras, warning them not to get close. Kaila watched for another moment before turning again to another group of blue auras, but they were widely dispersed along the human ones, trying to stay away from the one aura that clamped in the center of all the groups, slithering over the nearest auras and withdrawing energy.
That was the vampire Kaila saw.
His aura blended in perfectly with the black atmosphere, only purple and red ribbons licked along the surface of the red barrier, almost making the aura look smoky with the threesome of colors. Slowly, Kaila withdrew from her sight, her blank mind slightly shivering. He was close by.
Kaila grabbed her bag again, standing herself up with a shocking dizziness. She remembered her mother always telling her, “whenever 你 plan on using your sight, 你 need to be in an area that 你 are comfortable with”. As much as Kaila wanted to obey this rule, she had only this one chance to see his aura today, and even now, with the single brick 墙 separating the two of them, she felt as if that was the thin layer of skin compared to the 刀 that wanted to penetrate. She was kaving trouble all 日 just trying to keep her mind guarded from the vampire; even now, her head was throbbing with pain trying to imagine veils of shields around her thoughts. Kaila rubbed her temples slowly before staggering over to the mirrors across from the stalls, taking a look at herself. Her face was a clammy white again; she could practically see the blue veins around her cheeks and forehead. Her brown hair tumbled around her neck and shoulders as a wave of silk, and her eyes were the simple fusion of silver and hazel. She looked as a normal teen when she wasn’t focused on the danger a few feet to her right.
Kaila let loose a long sigh, running a hand through her hand again before moving smoothly across the floor to retrieve her bag. She scooped it around her shoulder and headed out of the bathroom, and even without her sight in immediate check, she could feel a 云, 云计算 of darkness leaning against the wall, lazy eyes of shinning obsidian watching her as she rushed to class.
Kaila frowned as she came into her Art class, taking a 座位 下一个 to her brother automatically while gazing at the conjunction of objects littered along the long 表 in the middle of the room: a fake banana; a box; a few 啤酒 bottles joined together on the right; a pile of smocks on the left; bubble 包, 换行 over the top, and finally sprinkled with 随意 confetti all over the wrap.
“We have to draw that.” Jordan replied boringly, opening his sketch pad and pulling out a pencil from his Nike bag.
Kaila nodded, not disagreeing. Jordan was Kaila’s adoptive brother, but even so, he had powers much like her aura seeing; he could read minds. But of course, not Kaila’s family, and 由 the looks of his actions earlier, apparently not the vampire’s. Kaila grimaced at the memory a few hours before, when she saw Jordan across the hall leering at the vamp, attempting a read. Kaila shook the 图片 from her head, dragging her own sketch pad out and a pencil and opening to a blank page.
The teacher, Mrs. Neilson, came in and started to take attendance. All of the students were used to knowing what name they came up after, so some of the kids relaxed and got prepared before having their name called on. Mrs. Neilson muttered Kaila and Jordan’s name, knowing that both of their attendance was perfect and that they were right in front of the long table, which was right in front of the podium where the teacher was standing. If they weren’t there, it would take a small head motion to recognize their absence.
Mrs. Neilson slammed her book, then gestured to the long table. “Can any of 你 guess what we are doing today?” Jordan knew the answer, as so did Kaila, but they remained quiet and still. The teacher looked around, then stopped for a moment, a look of confusion on her face as she looked from her attendance back to the back of the classroom. Jordan took a small peek back, then hissed.
“I did not see 你 there, sir.” Mrs. Neilson managed in shock, slowly making her way back to where the student was sitting. Kaila moved her head slightly to the side, then slid her eyes over to where the teacher was heading, but only needed the fixated feeling to wash over her to know who it was. The vampire.
“I tried to sneak in before in hopes that 你 wouldn’t see me late on my first day.” He admitted openly, making his face look bashful. Kaila tensed when she saw his midnight eyes target her, and she curled her lip for extra emphasis before turning back to look at the front. She heard him make a low chuckle from his seat, and she quaked with anger before the teacher reported back to the front of the room, 写作 down his name into her book.
Jordan leaned over near Kaila’s side, making fake gestures at her sketch pad while clumsily turning the pages and tracing over a picture that was taken over months again. Then, he muttered too low for anyone to hear, “is that the vampire?”
Kaila managed a smile as the teacher started her lecture about the objects on the long table, her lip twitching a little. “It’s plainly obvious.” Kaila didn’t go into details, having a good idea that the vampire was listening to their conversation, no matter what play they put on. She snapped the book closed sharply, focusing her attention towards the items on the 表 and getting ready to draw when she saw Mrs. Neilson stop talking and lounge in her 台, 办公桌 chair. She started to sketch the 表 and the items, then stopped, looking at her work. There was some sort of deflated pride in her body, and she angrily turned the page, then growled when her finger slipped along the edge of the paper, creating a slice of blood to dot on her forefinger.
Kaila froze when she heard a pencil snap in the back of the room.
Mrs. Neilson looked up expressionless. “Do 你 need another pencil, Mr. Carson?”
The last name seemed familiar to Kaila, her mind spinning gears as she focused on that one cut on her finger. She shoved her hand to her side, her lips pursed as she felt the tension crackling in the room. She could feel the black eyes rapidly moving from her finger to her throat, then at one point stop leisurely at her throat for a while. Eyes turned to the vampire in the back, which still didn’t reply to the teacher.
“Mr. Carson?” Mrs. Neilson was growing worried .
“I…” The voice came out a little coarse and scratchy, and he tried again. “I just need to get some fresh air.” He stood up and rushed out the door, streaking quickly past Kaila and Jordan to the door and beyond. The class vibrated with hushed voices, then died down miraculously while they tuned back in to their work. Kaila felt a pressured power on her mind barriers, and she frighteningly fought back. For 分钟 she sat there, staring at the blur of objects on the long 表 while trickles of sweat formed at her brow, her mind coiling with fused glass barriers. She winced as she saw a silver 刀 penetrate her glass, then formed a brick barrier in her mind’s eye. She knew it was the vampire fighting back with her. But why?
Suddenly it all stopped, and Kaila took a deep breath while Jordan looked over at her curiously and uneasily. “I’m fine.” She whispered, picking up her pencil and starting again. She still felt the vampire’s aura beyond the brick 墙 outside of the room, those eyes piercing her through the thick shield and sensing her bleeding finger, keeping him captive and immobile there.
“He can’t move.” Kaila muttered to Jordan.
“Who?” He asked, looking up from his picture at her.
“The vampire. He’s outside of the brick 墙 and he can’t 移动 because of the blood.”
Jordan frowned. “Then lick your paper cut clean.”
Kaila shook her head. “If I 移动 my hand now, he’ll come in here and kill me. 你 need to go and talk to him, ease him out of his danger.”
Jordan clenched his jaw. “You want me to go and comfort a vampire?”
“Yes, I do. Otherwise have me as one of them.” Kaila snarled, her voice a little louder than a whisper. Some of the students looked at her for a moment, then ignored it and went back to their work.
Jordan stood up in irritation, his chair skidding across the floor loudly. Mrs. Neilson looked up from her laptop and stared at him blankly, and he mumbled, “I’m going to the bathroom.” The teacher shrugged, used to the confrontations about the same subject from other students. Jordan gave a light glare at Kaila before stalking out of the room, and Kaila quickly switched her book with Jordan’s, then grabbed a book from her bag and flipped open to an anonymous page, pretending to read while leaning under her desk. She closed her eyes and focused on the auras in the room, then quickly moved her sight outside of the room, channeling her hearing on the conversation.
“…you can’t control yourself, then why did 你 enroll here if 你 know this is the most human-filled high school within the state?” Jordan’s voice echoed with his aura, blazing to latch out at the black ink that consumed the vampire. It had no affect, and when the vampire spoke again, his words were strained, as if his own life was sucked out of himself.
“I’m trying to learn. My blood line was never the ones to be vampires; to be honest, we were all supposed to be humans throughout the generation. But one of the ancestors from out past cursed us. Now we are like this.” The vampire turned away from the wall, leering at Jordan. Kaila couldn’t see his eyes, but she had a feeling they were shinning as they were before when he saw the cut on her finger.
“What does that have to do with 你 being here? Why don’t 你 have some other members of your line with you, if 你 know this is a bad idea?”
“Because I’m a lot stronger than that.”
“Strong enough to lose control to a paper cut?” Jordan stated the 问题 with a little 更多 attitude than he should have, and Kaila watched the black aura squirm with red swirls. This wasn’t turning out as smoothly as either of them planned.
Kaila blinked in her reality, focusing back on to her normal vision. She snapped the book closed and stood up in the same fashion that Jordan had, only she didn’t address the teacher but simply walked out. When she got out of the classroom, she came just in time to see the vampire’s hand closed around Jordan’s throat, and the two leering each other down. Kaila breathed for about a 秒 before the vampire turned his head to look at her, slowly releasing his victim. “Are 你 a bloody mind-reader too?”
Kaila froze, wondering when he found out. “No. I’m not.”
The vampire laughed, menacing and cold. “Very amusing. 你 find me to be the threat here, considering that 你 both have different powers and you’re allying each other? As if blood ties?”
Kaila looked over at Jordan, both stunned and confused. “What do 你 mean 由 that?”
Again, the vampire laughed. “Apparently 你 don’t know.” The 钟, 贝尔 rung, and kids rushed out from their classes. The boy leaned in, whispering into Kaila’s ear. “We’ll chat tomorrow and hopefully the pieces will set in.” It took Kaila’s pulse beat for the vampire to disappear out of thin air, his aura setting into the air like gray smoke before it vanished completely.
