Blue Flames

Chapter 2

"So why did they hand it out to headhunters in the first place?" I asked again. It was a useless circle. We weren't getting anywhere. Kenji sighed.

"The vamp said it was a mistake, maybe it really was a mistake. No one is perfect, not even vampires."

"Yeah..." I trailed off, not really convinced.

"Hey, who knows, maybe you'll get some answers to your lifelong quest if you go there," Kenji said, "You know Portland is the nerve center of the immortals in the U.S."

A few minutes later, we ended the call. I could no longer hear Kenji's voice clearly over the background noise coming from his end. His family was raiding his sister's house where he was now located. She had just given birth. That was the reason I had taken the mission instead of him.

A twinge of envy pierced my chest. Family. Something I never truly experienced the way everyone else did. In the first fourteen years of my life, uncle Robert had been my only family. After that, there was no one. Kenji was the closest thing to a friend I would ever have. But I knew I would never let him in completely. I had too many secrets.

I closed the blinds, drenching the room in darkness, and curled up in bed, thinking of Kenji's words. 

Portland was considered the city of immortals. The populace of immortals was bigger than in any other city in North America. One of the reasons, if not the main reason, was because the vampire was a permanent resident of the city.

After humans, vampires had the largest population across the world. In each region of the world, vampires fell under the authority of one of The Five: Five very old, very powerful vampires who ruled their brethren with a hand of steel.

The vampires in the American continent were ruled by Arthur. He was rumored to be an extremely strong telekinetic. As vampires grow in age, some of them gain powers. No one knows how old the Five were. Some say they are the original vampires, the first ones who'd walked the Earth. Like many things immortal related, however, humans weren't privy to that information. But I knew it was the truth.

Arthur was based in Portland, Maine. Where the O.R.H.A. had their headquarters. It was no coincidence. Most headhunters believed that the O.R.H.A. was under his authority, notwithstanding the fact that the Order wasn't exclusively composed of vampires.

Which was why I had no intention of sticking around longer than necessary. The fact that Kit had witnessed my slight display of magic was already bad enough. I didn't want to attract unwanted attention. 

On the other hand, Kenji was right. Maybe it was my chance to figure out what had happened when I was fourteen.

Kenji didn't know the details. I had asked for his assistance to find information about a certain person called Martin Malone. Kenji hadn't been able to help me, though. We hit a brick wall just as I had been doing after years and years of search. 

"Keep your head down, no tangling with the immortals, Ellie. Never."

Robert's warnings rang in my head as my lids lowered. Maybe it was the exhaustion after using my magic, maybe it was the thought of heading to a city filled with threats that uncle Robert had always warned me of, whatever the reason, the dream that invaded my sleep was a memory, one that had steered my life into the place it was at right now.

The once green clearing where I had played and trained with uncle Robert for years was a deep rust color. The setting sun threw shades and lights on the sticky grass, the air tainted with the metallic tinge of blood and gore. The forest was as silent as the death coating everything around me. No small animals scurried around, no birds flew overhead, even predators didn't dare get close, even with the scent of blood thick in the air. It was as if they were sensing the dangerous, angry grief that gripped my heart with vise claws.