Part Seven.

Storming out of the cafeteria lunch in hand she slammed the tray down in front of the blonde figure who was slowly filing her blood red nails. Placing herself down in front of the tray she hung her head in her hands and tried to shake out all of the anger and frustration out of her. Why did they have to come here? Why did they have to be so beautiful and why in the hell were they trying to be so nice to her? When they were mean she could deal with that, she was prepared, but when they were being nice but mean through the niceness she just didn’t know how to respond. Although the sun was shining brightly in the sky she wished it would rain, rain always seemed to make her feel better. Nothing could compare to walking through woods in the heaviest rain and just feeling you body and soul cleansed by the freshness of it all. Unfortunately she was stuck with the humid heat which made her even more annoyed as her skin felt grimy.

“Problem?” Darla said quickly, Kirsten knew she didn’t care but she had to talk to someone about her cousins. If she didn’t the she knew she would snap.

“Yes. My cousins are direct descendants of Maya!” Kirsten cried out.

“Isn’t Maya like the evil all powerful sister of Hecate?” Darla asked looking confused.

“That’s the one. I swear they are demons wrapped in pretty packages who are just out to destroy me!” Kirsten moaned as she played with the mixed salad in front of her. Why she had bothered to buy anything from the school kitchen she had no idea but at the time she was just dying to get away from Onyx that she would do anything!

“Why what are they doing?”

“They want me to show them this boy that they think I might be soul mates with.” Kirsten mumbled the last few words, not wanting Darla to really know about the soul mate principal which Astrid had spoken about last night.

“Soul mate principal?” Darla repeated in shock, her nail file dropping to the floor in what seemed like slow motion.

“Yeah my cousin Astrid thinks that I have found my soul mate.” Kirsten said as she munched on a carrot stick. For some reason she was starting to feel like telling Darla her problems wasn’t the best idea that she had ever had.

“Why? What’s happened?”

“There’s this boy, and whenever we touch even if it’s just for a second my whole world just totally shakes. Bolts go up my arms making me feel all tingly inside and a magenta haze just seems to take up residence in my head.” Kirsten started to smile as she remembered the last time she had touched Christian, every time something new happened but it wasn’t as shocking as it was the first time… now she looked forward to his touch just so she could experience the thrill again.

“Oh someone put a stake in me!” Darla cried out in annoyance.

“What?”

“Your sentimental heart just wants to skip a beat when you think of this boy doesn’t it? He isn’t your soul mate that’s just human love! That’s what all their soppy songs and poems are about! Anyway you can’t have a soul mate that’s a very old power that hasn’t been risen in a very long time.”

“Well according to Astrid all of the old powers are rising because now is the time the wild powers are coming out.”

“Astrid… why do I know that name?” Darla asked as she drummed her finger nails on the bench.

“Astrid is the head maiden of the witches council.”

“She’s here?”

“Yeah all of my cousins are here.”

“Who’s that then?”

“Onyx, Jet, Amethyst, Astrid and then me.” Kirsten said in a mocking tone. All of her cousins being here was really starting to wind her up. They watched every single thing she did and scrutinised it, she could see it in their eyes. It was as if she was some sort of freak to them, a specimen in a test tube which needed to be studied because it broke away from the grind. So she didn’t want to be the conventional witch, what was so wrong with that?

“That’s the quad… the new leaders of the witches family isn’t it?” Darla questioned anxiously.

“I love how you said quad… am I not important?”

“Of course you are! But you’re not going to turn me in… your cousins are known for turning people in. Especially female vampires.”

“They wont do that… they’re too focused on breaking my spirit.” As if by talking about them she had called them forth all four appeared in front of her staring daggers at Darla. When they had said they were going to school with her they hadn’t known that they wouldn’t be able to wear their robes, so now to substitute they were wearing an array of skirts as trousers or jeans were things that only men wore among witches. Once older you were free to wear whatever you liked but whilst a maiden dresses and skirts were near enough mandatory.

“Who’s this?” Onyx asked motioning towards Darla with a turn of her head. Knowing that there was a chance they could turn Darla in Kirsten had to think fast.

“This is Darla she’s also a witch.”

“Merry meet!” Astrid said happily and went to embrace Darla, at first she resisted as a typical vampire reaction but then loosened up and allowed herself to be taken into Astrid’s arm. Pinching Darla’s back to try and remind her what to say Kirsten smiled as Darla replied with the appropriate response.

“So which family are you from?” Jet asked smiling, seeing as she was from the second best family in the witches colony she seemed to enjoy watching people shrink in front of her as they realised they weren’t as good as her. Not wanting Onyx to get the better of Darla for once Kirsten tried her hardest to send a mental note into Darla’s head on which name to say.

“I’m a Peacful. What about you?”

“Oh… I’m a lovone… I have never heard of you…” Jet said sounding upset. She obviously didn’t like the fact that this stranger had a better name than her.

“I like to keep a low profile.” Darla replied grinning, her true self was anything but a low profiler. She was always the topic of the hushed whispers in the night world underground club. Onyx was about to say something when he burst into their little congregation, looking flushed and mussed. His cheeks were slightly pink and he seemed out of breath. It was only when he saw the six girls staring at him did he realise that he had burst into something.

“I’m sorry… am I interrupting?” Christian asked smiling slightly.

“Yes actually-” Amethyst started.

“No of course you’re not!” Kirsten cut in. “What’s wrong? You look… flustered.” Christian looked at each of the girls and when he saw one of them staring at him even more intently than the rest he felt a chill run down his spine, he knew her. He remembered her and he couldn’t think why.

“I’m - I’m fine. I just… I came to ask you if you would help me with something.” Christian nervously ran his hand through his hair as the familiar girl still stared at him. He was finding it hard to keep his head straight whilst she was staring at him and Darla was trying to probe his brain. Did that girl never give up?

“What’s that then?” Kirsten replied smiling, trying to keep his attention focused on her, he kept looking at Astrid…

“Do you want to do your joint performance together? I want to do that song we played the other day together but of course I need your hands.”

“Yeah sure I’d love to do that song. We’ll practise in music later on yes?”

“Yes… but I have to go now…” Not being able to hack the pressure of five empaths trying to read him and a mind probe Christian hurried away. Usually he was quite good at blocking his thoughts but all of them seemed to want to know what was going on inside his head and that was something he liked to keep private… Especially with the thoughts he’d been having lately…

“Who was that?” Astrid asked as soon as Christian was out of ear shot.

“That’s just Christian, he’s in my music class.” Kirsten said trying to sound casual. From the way she had been looking at him she didn’t think it would be a good time to tell Astrid that Christian was the boy she sometimes had mind numbingly pleasurable feelings towards.

“Is he a night person?”

“No… I don’t think so…”

“I don’t want you to see or speak to him anymore…ever.” Astrid ordered.

“You can’t tell me what to do!” Kirsten shouted. There was no way she was going to keep her and Christian apart without a good reason, it wasn’t as if he was some evil guy who was bent on mayhem. Well… so far he didn’t seem to be!

“Yes I can! I’m the head of this operation and you will listen to what I say!”

“Operation?” Darla and Kirsten said together.

“I mean… I’m looking after you and you have to listen to me. That boy… there’s something about him… something I’m supposed to remember but I can’t think of what it is… just don’t go near him!”

“You don’t know him! You don’t control me so go back to where you came from because I don’t need you!” Kirsten shouted and stalked off away from the bench were all of her cousins sat.

When Kirsten had gone Astrid sat down on the bench and waited until she was far enough away so she wasn’t able to hear them or feel their emotions. There was no way Kirsten could know this just yet, it would destroy her…

“Is he who I thought he was?” Jet asked excitedly.

“Yes. He’s the one…”