"Welcome," Kira said with a grin. "I don't know if you've had a chance to meet my parents."
She gestured to the pair behind her. Seeing her alongside them, it was clear she was a miniature version of her mother. But her eyes? They held the same wild look her father did.
I ran my eyes over them both. Her mother looked calm, but her hands were curled into tight fists that displayed her tension. Her father trembled with barely contained nerves. His eyes darting desperately around as though looking for escape.
When his eyes caught mine and then shot back to Kira, I saw it. Suddenly, the pieces were slipping into place and things were making sense.
Their mother had never been the one people should fear. Even their father, for all his mad scientist appearance, wasn't truly out to cause harm. But the thing they had created? Whatever was in their daughter, Blake's sister, sent shivers down my spine.
I took a step back, and she pursed her lips. "Stop."
When I next attempted to take a step back, my foot refused to obey, and I looked down at my feet in horror.
"What's going on?" I asked, as loudly as I could.
Hoping, praying, someone passing might hear and come to see what was going on. "We are having a discussion." She said laughed, "No need to be so dramatic."
"Let me go." I demanded, desperately trying to move my uncooperative body.
"Stop." she snapped, standing and marching over to me. "You will not fight me, will not harm me, will not resist."
My body went limp, the fight draining out of me as she stalked closer. The lack of resistance from the dead students made sense now. They didn't fight back because they couldn't. Because she ordered them to not to. It was her.
"You killed the students?" I asked when she stopped in front of me.
She used a hand to tilt my chin up and expose my neck. I could feel my heart thudding in my chest and knew she watched my pulse at my throat.
"I did what I needed to do. They were nothing, pathetically low level. They can hardly be considered a loss." She said slowly, tilting her head as she stared at my neck.
Over her shoulder, her parents refused to meet my eye, but the guilt was written across their faces.
"Why?" I choked out, "Why did you kill them?"
Kira ignored the question. "Do you know what it's like to feel a hunger so intense that you know you will die without it?" She asked, almost conversationally, "Because I have two hungers like that."
I swallowed hard as her eye colour shifted to a red so dark it was almost black.
"What do you get if you mix a banshee and a vampire?" Her tone was light and full of laughter, much like someone might begin a joke, before she pointed at herself with a giggle. "Me. My dear father combined them both inside of me and, in turn, created something incredible. Isn't that right, father?"
Behind her, he cringed and nodded, "Yes, my sweet. You are a wonder, and I hope my theory is correct to sate your cravings."
"What does that even mean?" I whispered.
"It means," she leaned forward close enough I could feel her breath on my throat, "that as well as the blood I need to sustain my vampire side, I crave something else. Something it took time for us to understand. But now I have learnt how to activate that part of me, I can easily consume the souls I need to and calm the hunger."
"Eating souls?" I asked, my body screaming at me to run as it recognised the predator before it.
"Indeed. If my father is correct, then this will be interesting." She whispered.
Before I could ask what she meant, she struck. Latching onto my neck like a snake biting me. My eyes widened in horror and as she broke the skin and sucked hard.
The groan she let out repulsed me and I hated the way my body remained limply compliant against her.
Time moved differently as she fed on me. Passing slowly, as though I were in a drugged fuelled haze. My tongue was too big for my mouth and my mind refused to remember why we needed to get away. I was so very sleepy.
"Careful my love, if you drain her, you won't be able to enjoy her again." Kira's father offered nervously as my head lolled against her.
His expression was no longer guilty, but fascinated. Watching us like his latest experiment. I suppose, in a way, we were. Finally breaking contact, Kira huffed in annoyance. "But her blood is so...exhilarating. It more than slakes the thirst. I am more alive than I have ever been. This is what I needed." Kira protested.
That snapped me out of the haze and I focused on pushing my body to come back to me and obey me. My fingers twitched, and I fought to rotate my wrist so the hidden dagger slipped out into my palm.
As Kira argued with her father, I moved it round in my hand, angling it towards her.
Was I really about to stab someone? She was a killer, yes, but I had never killed anyone in my life and I wasn't sure how I felt about it. Was it self-defence if she had no intention of killing me?
The handle of the dagger brushed the binding cuff, and the thrum of magic made me pause. Blake's words echoed in my mind. Blood conquers all.
There was no way blood could break these binds and free my magic so I could defend myself. But with this strange dagger? It was worth a try before I got stabby with it.
Focusing on schooling my face into a neutral expression, I dragged the sharp edge of the dagger across my palm. God, I hoped this was clean because even though it was difficult to imagine surviving the day; I didn't want an infection.
The dagger vibrated as my blood coated it and I swivelled it up to the thick bracelet binding my magic.
Metal sliced through metal as though it were nothing, and the broken pieces caught in my sleeve. Even the partial release sent a rush of power through me as I shifted it to my other hand, where it slid just as easily through the second.
The magic rose up quickly, joyfully, wrapping itself around me and pushing out the remains of Kira's command.
Kira realised too late that something was happening, and as the broken bits of the bindings dropped to the floor. Clattering loudly against the stone in the small room.
They could feel it too, I realised. My magic pushed out of me in a burst of gold, and Kira was thrown back a few steps.
Her parents cowered and I wonder distantly if they had ever tried to stop her or stand up to her.
The release of my power brought with it an awareness. Another sense, almost like hearing. I could sense the souls in the room. So many more than the bodies. The souls Kira had consumed were not at rest, they were trapped inside her. So many souls. More than the students.
Their fear, their distress. It clawed at my throat and begged for release.
A keening noise slipped from between my lips as my body and magic fought the command she had given not to harm her. I knew instinctively that whatever my body was trying to do, as natural as it was for me, it was going to hurt her.
"No!" Kira's furious scream fought to crush my own.
My mouth fell open, and the scream let loose, calling and beckoning the souls to rest.
Behind me, the door burst open, and I was dimly aware of someone coming in. But there was nothing they could do. Like Kira and her parents, the people all dropped to their knees all at once. Covering their ears as my scream rose in pitch, and they tried to block it out.
Her parents' mouths were open like they were screaming too, but all I could hear was my wail.
Slowly, bit by bit, the wispy strands of souls slid out from Kira's open mouth and through her fingers as she tried to hold them in.
They danced through the air towards me, gliding into my open mouth and down my throat.
It should have been disgusting, but there was something so oddly beautiful about it. I was transfixed. It was cool, like swallowing a breeze that soothed the pain in my throat and faded out.
I felt their relief as they passed through me and faded out into the afterlife, wherever that might be.
My mouth shut, and I sighed as my body relaxed. No burning, no pain, just peace. Finally, my magic had done what it needed to, and I felt calm.
"No, no no. Give them back." Kira screamed, diving for me.
Before she could get too close, a body dived between us and Blake caught her shoulders.
"Get off me, brother."
He tensed and then looked surprised as a smile grew on his face. "No. I can say no."
Their parents straightened and took a few steps towards them, clearly testing the binds of their own orders. Without the souls at her command, powering the fae magic she should never have owned, it was clear she had lost the banshee gift to make people follow her orders.
"You didn't choose to become this way Kira," my eyes slipped to her huddled parents, "But you need to make a choice now. You can let this need for souls and the fae magic be bound, or I can promise you it will kill you."
"It's mine! My magic! Mine." she screamed, fighting her brother's hold.
"I think you'll find that Miss Winters is correct." Mrs Kennedy agreed, marching into the room and immediately commanding attention.
With the realisation that I was finally safe and people were here to help, the adrenaline began leaving my body.
My body crumpled on itself as I dropped to my knees. Blake was still struggling with his sister, but Nancy and Enzo appeared at my sides.
I frowned and opened my mouth to ask what they were doing here. But, before the words could form, my body gave into the need to recover, and darkness claimed me.