Creative Trickery

The next morning I carefully get ready without waking Vancha up. Considering how he seems on top of everything and into being insanely careful it actually surprises me that he is such a deep sleeper. Harkat on the other hand only needs sleep a few hours a sleep if any and is awake. Apparently the past version of me, err if I believe that it is me, was not very sociable in the mornings and he knows to give me some space.

He does have a cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich waiting for me however and I nod my thanks to him, too out of it to talk. Mornings suck in general and are just much worse when you add strange nightmares and an evil destiny that mess with your sleep. I take a sip of my coffee and almost instantly feel better. Not only am I less tired, but my aches and pains seem to go away with every sip.

The wonderful power of caffeine.

I am still not positive I can walk all the way to school though and I decide I might as well try to use this lord of the shadows thing to my advantage. As much as I want to stay out of this war, it seems as if Steve is not going to let me stay out of it. Maybe I am fine with him attacking me, but he is now gone after my friends and family and I am not having them die because of me.

After my one worded goodbye to the Little Person, and grab the extra giant thermos he got me, I head outside. I hurt worse today than I did yesterday, but the more I wake up the better it feels. Still, it hurts like hell walking. Apparently, vampire healing is not as great as Vancha made it out to be. Nonetheless my plan will still work. The shadows are going to get me to school.

The only problem is that I have no clue how it works or if there are any rules with this whole shadow manipulation thing I got going on; but I will never learn if I do not try. So, like the loser I am, I take a deep breath and start talking to the emptiness around me. "Hey shadows or whatever you want to be called. It would be really nice to have help getting to school so get me there."

Nothing happens and I try again, this time with more conviction in my voice, "I cannot get to school and I command you to get me there." As if by magic, my shadow walks over to the tree closest to me and as it touches it, a door of shadows appears. I shrug and walk up to the makeshift door, the shadow me opens it and I step into the void.

Traveling by shadow is the strangest thing in the world. The only way to describe it is bitter cold. I felt as if my insides were turning to ice and I was being sucked through an endless wormhole. And even though I knew that it was happening instantaneously, it felt a lot longer. I literally felt time stop, but it was also going on forever. It was completely dark, as in cave dark where it was impossible to see. There was no noise; it was still. Yet it did not feel hopeless and terrible, as I would have predicted given how it sounds. Instead, I got a sense of peace as I was drowning in oblivion. The shadows were guarding me from any dangers that may come from this teleporting-like travel. Deep down I knew that they would never harm me. For the first time outside of my dreamland, I felt like the Lord of the Shadows.

Suddenly, my body jerks forward and it is as if I am being spit out of a straw and back into the real world. I am surprised that even though I just appeared out of what would seem to be thin air, nobody even notices me and I walk into a giant crowd. I end up next to Anna and kiss her on the top of the head. She screams for a second before laughing, "Matt, I didn't see you there."

Of course, she did not; I think I was invisible for a few seconds until it was safe to appear. "That's your loss, you know missing out on all this sexiness for a few precious minutes."

She laughs in amusement at me and I wrap my arm around her, wincing in the process at the pain of moving. Seriously, the shadows couldn't have healed me as well? "You okay?"

I nod, not wanting to worry her and take another long sip of the second thermos of coffee I brought. It is a little weird though, I mean I always have loved coffee, but I have never been this addicted to it before. But maybe liking coffee and needing it to wake up is part of the whole I am half nocturnal creature thing.

Anna and I meet up with the rest of our friends in our usual spot and a very bandaged and tired looking Dylan notices my bruises and smirks. I glare at him, "What happened to you Dyl?"

"You owe us the same answer, don't you start on my boyfriend too," Lindsay retorts. "You're pretty much as bruised as him and are limping."

"Not to mention grimacing since I saw you this morning," Anna says and puts her hand on her hip, her telltale sign that she means business.

I look at Dylan, begging for help and he clears his throat to get everyone's attention, "I told you guys that Matt and I were mugged last night when we were snuck out of my place last night for a food run."

"And I told you that was BS," Sam rolls his eyes. "Matt's parents never let him out on school nights and you would never not invite me over too."

"It was last minute and we were doing a history thing." It was weak, but it was all I had.

A part of me wanted to just compel them to forget about it, but I did not want to do that anymore. It made me feel really bad. It could have been my imagination, but I am sure I heard Dylan tell me to control them, but I did not see his mouth move so I must be going crazy. Right?

The bell rings and I take another swig of coffee before walking to class. Dylan starts following me even though he is supposed to be heading to his math class on the opposite side of the school. He yawns, "Ugh I'm beat, and I got no sleep last night since it hurt so much to move."

"At least you didn't have Mr. Tiny knocking on your head."

"He got into your head?"

"No I stopped him before he could, but he tried all night." I do not mention my dream, it was too personal, but he believes the half-truth.

He yawns again, "Would Ms. Tall excuse us from class to nap?"

"I doubt it," I tell him, "it would be too conspicuous."

"Then at least give me some of your caffeine," he says and without asking just grabs my thermos and takes a giant sip. Without warning, he spits it out and into my eyes. My eyes change and I growl at him. Quickly, I regain control and shift back to normal.

"That is not coffee."

"What do you mean? Of course, it is coffee."

Dylan thinks for a second and rips the top open, sniffing the coffee and wrinkling his nose before looking mortified. "No, hell no! That is frickin sick! Matt would you say this is the best cup of coffee you've ever tasted."
"Yes," I answer without hesitation.

"Did you feel less pain after drinking it?" I nod and he shudders. "This is spiked coffee dude."

"There's no alcohol in that trust me."

"I mean spiked with a red drink that you seem to be craving lately."

I must have been hit in the head harder than I thought yesterday. How did I miss that? When I see Harkat later, I am going to kill him. I do not know how to kill someone who is already dead, but I will figure it out! He frickin laced my coffee with blood! No wonder I felt stronger and the pain lessened after drinking it. I sniff it and almost gag when I realize it is not just blood, but I am sure it is human blood.

My friend seems to sense my mood and takes a step back before I accidently murder him. He also seems terrified and I just hope it is because of my angry demeanor and nor because of the fact that I was drinking blood. Wait, that means that he just drank human blood. And I thought I was a cannibal? At least half if not more of me is not human.

"You want to skip today?"

I consider the idea for a moment, "As appealing as that sounds, I don't want to leave and have Steve come and attack the school while I'm not here."

He nods, "Makes sense, but can you at least get me a toothbrush and some mouth wash? Blood has an insanely nasty aftertaste that reminds me of crap."

"And you know what that tastes like because," I raise my eyebrow. "And you call me weird for drinking blood."

Dyl gives me a death glare, "You know that story and I am never repeating it again."

I laugh and wink at his shadow that enters Dylan's mouth and washes it out. I silently thank the thing and apologize for using it for such a trivial task. The thing does not seem to mind though, so my guilt disappears.

We go our separate ways and I walk into biology ten minutes late, I had to go and find some gum first so my breath did not smell like blood. Ms. Tall looks at me as I walk in and shakes her head at me. I shrug and walk over to my seat. I pretty much sit there not paying attention to the entire lesson though. Really, with everything that is going on, our lesson on DNA does not hold my interest.

Class ends and after second period, I reluctantly head to gym class. I am still in way too much pain to deal with the class today. If I feigned being hurt or sick though, I know coach would kill me. He has this issue with people not doing what they are supposed to do and makes us do everything even with a broken leg.

Sometimes he can be more of a drill sergeant than any of the thousand and one vampires who trained me. I have the feeling that Vanez would get along well with coach.

Halfway through the class, Sam kicks a soccer ball at my head and I fight the urge to rip him into pieces. Damn my strange blood that compels me to violence. Actually now that I think about it, I should probably ask someone about that. If vampires are supposed to be peaceful then why do I get the urge to go on a destructive rampage all the time?

Nonetheless, I do not let it look as if Sam has fazed me at all and from the corner of my eye, I see him getting pissed at my lack of interest in anything today. He runs up to me and slaps me on the back of my head. It should not have hurt, but in the state I am in, well let me just say it was extremely painful.

"What was that for?"

"The fact that you have been a real bastard lately Matt. You almost never talk to me anymore and you and Dylan are obviously keeping secrets. So grow a pair and tell me what the hell is going on or I swear to god I will…"

"Will what?" I snicker when he can't come up with anything to say.
"Well you know," he says lamely and I laugh for a second before sighing. I didn't realize I was being so terrible to him. Before I can come up with yet another dumb excuse to tell him, I feel someone looking at me and twist around to see Ms. Tall with a worried look in her eyes.

"Yeah and what's going on with you and the weird sub."

"I'd tell you Sam, I really would, but I can't."

On that note, I jog away from him and to Ms. Tall, ignoring Coach who is yelling at me to come back. From what I can remember though, the only time I have ever seen Evanna freaked out is when her brother was killed. Instead of jogging towards the building, I am running at full speed towards Evanna who is on the ground next to a very tall man who looks like a ringmaster. She's holding his bloody body in her hands and wishing he had stepped in sooner.

The next thing I know I am standing next to her. She looks at me strangely and for a brief second a look of utter despair shins through her eyes, but it is quickly replaced by worry. "Something has come up."

"What?"

"Word is that my Father has become quite impatient. And trust me when I say he is not fun when he is impatient."

"How can I hide from destiny?"

"You can't," she whispers. "But he's not impatient towards you at the moment. Actually he finds you quite amusing."

I raise an eyebrow and she sighs, "He's become very upset at Steve for not having anything to show. From the sound of it he may now be going after your family."

This does not surprise me. "I'm going home. Can you cover for me?"

She nods and a sad smile crosses her lips as her hand drifts towards her stomach. That foreign part of me takes over again and I am pushed away, losing control of my body. "Evanna, what happened to your babies?"

"My Father," she cries. "He interfered in affairs that he had no business touching. His experiments on my children unleashed the hidden monsters and they killed them."

"You would have made a great mother," I tell her and she wipes a tear away. "But Vancha and Gannen as Dads, not really."

As she laughs a tear rolls down her cheek, "They were dreadful to begin with, especially with children that were both vampire, vampaneze, and witch. But they were learning. That's how Gannen died. He was protecting his children."

Out of the blue she hugs me and the second her arms touch me, the real me is able to regain control. "Wish me luck," I sigh and step into the shadows.