Hotbloods, Coldbloods, and the Creatures In Between

#24. Victoria

"One ticket to Milan." I say to the woman on the other side of the glass, reinforced by netted thin strings of wire. She tells me the price, but it's in Italian and I guess at the amount due. I give her a fifty euro bill, but she looks back at me and begins talking again. I hand her another fifty euro bill and she puts it in the till. A small printing machine spits out my ticket and she passes it underneath the glass. She's pointing to the doors and giving me directions in Italian to where I assume are to the train platforms. I look at the ticket. Platform E-2.

I fold the ticket and slide it into my pocket. I've never been on my own before. Never truly alone. They've never blocked me out like this. "Listen." They had said. "Stay." Another voice hissed. "Stay."

"No." I said. "Not this time." I've always been on the run. That's how I stay away from Bradley. "I can't stay anywhere."

"Please." They begged. "No more death. No more death. We're tired of death."

"That's the business we're in. Sorry folks." I say, tipping my baseball hat forward at Michelangelo's David, when I feel the prickly vacancy of life behind me. I turn in the piazza and see a black Fiat roll up. The city's golden lights reflecting off the pitch black exterior. Then, two Range Rovers follow. A whole family of vampires shuffle inside, all dressed in black. A warmblood is with them, and one lycan. "I don't want any part in this."

"Please...stay."

"And who is to say they aren't like Bradley?" The warmblood looks in my direction like he can sense I'm here, that I'm talking about them, then turns back to another vampire that he leans into and then disappear through the narrow door in an alcove carved out in the stucco. I've run into vampires and lycans on the road. One lycan mistook me as a human. Magic is like an invisible gas and hangs in the air like dust, glittering in a beam of sunlight, but only witches can sense it.

He met me in an alley. "You don't want to do this." I begged as he approached. "Please!" He pushed me against the brick wall, his stomach and chest pinning me down. I felt his life pulse through his body, tugging at me.

"Release me," it whispered, and I could feel his heart beat in the palm of my hand.

My hands reached for each side of his face. The darkness spread from my fingertips like oil; slapping his skin like lapping waves. He screamed as it dug into body, burned him like acid. He tried to shift, but when he did, all but one arm remained human. His body twitched as the nerves were lit on fire by the flame inside each lycan, fighting the black that reached down over his chest and arms. Within minutes, only a puddle of what looked like melted plastic remained.

"Lycans and vampires are the worst of the creatures." I whisper to the voices. "You're either trying to get me killed or have some seriously misplaced trust." I hike up my backpack, nothing but a change of clothes and a few randomly lifted snacks. "The warmblood should leave while all his blood and organs are still intact." I turn for the train station.

"No!" The voices hiss and I can feel them pull at me feet, like invisible hands spring from the city's cobblestone. I closed my eyes and imagine a door closing. On one side, I stand alone, and on the other, the voices, the faces of the dead who speak to me. When the latch clicks, I hear only the white noise of the city, of the living that surround me.

"Excuse me?" I ask a stranger for directions. She doesn't speak English, but after I hand her my ticket, she points me in the right direction. I look at my phone, a pay-as-you-go with a black and white screen and small, real buttons. I have three hours before my train.

I sigh, lean back on a bench and pull out a travel map of Italy, Switzerland, and Southern Germany. I run my finger along the paper trails, a yellow line marks the rail north through Milan, then around the Alps. "Stay on the move." John had said. "Even if Bradley can find where you've been, it's hard to know where you are or where you're going."

I feel the vacancy of life approach and before I can stand to run, the warmblood I had seen a few hours before is standing by me, just far enough to be awkward. He's looking down my shoes then back up at me. He's blonde, with sharp blue eyes that tug at something familiar. He opens his mouth, asymmetrically with one dimple pressed into his face, "Are you Victoria?" His English is perfect. American English and for a moment I'm in a daze after hearing my native language in someone else's mouth for the first time in almost two weeks.

I can hear my own voice call out in my head. "Run." It says. I don't answer him, but instead stand. My baseball cap is drawn closely over my eyes. "You must have me confused with someone else." I say, and flash a smile. A bright, white, straight, and very ordinary smile.

He looks confused. Like I've just told him he wasn't in Florence, that he was somewhere else, even though the proof was overwhelmingly in favor of Florence. "Sonny." I hear a voice in the distance. A figure appears from behind a tall and tiled column. He stops quickly on his toes, frozen with fear and recognition. He knows who I am. The void of life coldblood feels like the tips of needles brushing over my skin as he stares at me, then looks to the human.

I climb over the bench like I'm running hurdles and break into a sprint. I can hear the human's footsteps close behind mine and his vampire friend gaining distance. I stop as the lycan appears from behind the ticket kiosk. He's in human form, but I can see the animal inside him scratching from underneath. I stop on my toes and turn only to face another vampire, this time a girl. Her fangs have dropped, and I can tell as they push out her upper lip even though she tries to hide it.

The human is panting from running after me. "We're only trying to help."

"No, get away." I say, laced with a dark warning.

My heart begins to pound. I don't like to feel trapped. I think about the first time Bradley had caught me. He put me in a cell, drugged me. He said he could help me, too, but he wanted to know what made me tick; what made me special. He wanted it for himself. "Stay strong." The ghost in the room had said to me. A past occupant. A girl with white hair and porcelain skin. She gave me a reassuring smile, a smile with a single dimple, a matching dimple missing on the other side. "I will help you." Tess said.

"Not again." I felt my heartbeat fade into my numbing body, my witch's magic violently boiling over. The air around me bent and whined.

"She's trying something." The girl vampire said, "She's using her magic." The girl stepped forward and reached for my shoulder.

"Stop," my command resonates through the station even though my voice is calm and soft. The girl freezes, her hand hovers in the air above my shoulder. I take a step back. Another vampire appears, and once he sees the girl frozen, he reaches for her. I lift my hand, an extension of the girl, and she swats the boy's hand away from her. Another vampire approaches, winds up for a punch, then stops as I raise another hand. Their bodies are screaming for life and they obey with any hope that I might give it to them.

The lycan's anger snaps and he leans in to hit me. One vampire blocks the punch while the other tackles him to the ground, they slide against the stone floor until they hit a wall. "Keep him away from me." I whisper to the vampire, and she obeys. Her face contorting with confusion and rage as she fights my hold, turning to guard me against the lycan. The human takes a step back.

"He said you were witch." He says, fear quivering through his voice. "He said there were different kinds. And that you were special."

"And why did Bradley send you? This isn't his style." I growl and can feel the girl vampire pull at my magical hold like a leash. I pull it back, choking her and she moans in pain.

"Bradley?" The humansays. "No...Gryle. Gryle sent us." I feel the magical leash fall through myfingers at the mention of my brother's name. That he has come this close tofinding me, to bringing me home. And then I feel the bludgeoning impact againstmy head, and my world goes dark.4989;8_