Bitten. V1. C6 X

-CHAPTER FOUR-

Fiona Ferrell IT HAD BEEN ABOUT TWO MONTHIS SINCE CANDY and her family begun at Swansea Secondary school. A month since Candice got back from being “suspended” things had begun to become that slight bit normal. Well as normal as things ever were with the Scarlett family. Owen was in every single lesson with her, so they ended up spending loads of time with one and other. At break and lunch all of them were in the basketball court (with Owen) and shock horror - even once or twice Stephanie began to stop being a stroppy cow and began to join into the short conversation. Jasper couldn’t help to notice how different Candice was around Owen, it was as if around him she was Human, but Jasper didn’t like it. I mean he was glad that she was happy, but he couldn’t shake the sense of doom and gloom that seemed to hang over the pair of them like a black cloud. Candice and Owen walked into the maths room D21, as they discussed what their excuses should be for not doing their maths homework, tenth week running, though it was Owen who needed the excuse, not Candice, all she had to do was flutter her eyelashes and say she was sorry in a low voice, because as much as the teachers hated to admit it, everyone was enchanted by her. And they all knew that her knowledge was superior to their own. When she reached the grey doorway, she froze. Her eyes widened out of pure fear and her knees began to buckle under the strain of suppressing her emotions. Owen swore on

his life, that he saw her turquoise eyes change colour to a dark brown then into a pitch black colour. Owen was about to ask her what was wrong, when she turned and fled. Just like that without warning, without saying anything. When Owen overcame to the shock of her bolting so fast, he went to turn to run after her, but he was knocked to the ground by the blind class weirdo (well the weirdest person before Candice started) Fiona pushed past him with unnecessary force and she ran down the corridor that Candice had rundown a few seconds before. Candice didn’t know why she ran. It was her overpowering Vampyre instincts. She hadn’t felt so afraid since… ‘Well it just couldn’t be them; it couldn’t,’ she told the voice inside her head which was yelling all sorts of things. She had run into the woods that surrounded the school. She pulled herself onto a high tree like she had so many times before, however this time she was actually listening hard, she calmed down slightly when she heard that there was no one in the woods. There were nobody’s thoughts inside of her head, apart from her own, but that was because she wasn’t listening hard enough to hear the thoughts from the Humans in her school. She relished the peace and quiet, momentarily forgetting her fear. ‘What are you doing here leech?’ Candice jumped and fell out of the tree, even though the tree was about ten ft. high, she had still managed to land gracefully, feeling the same irrational feeling to flee. She ignored it, however she couldn’t quite bring herself to stand normally. Instead she froze and stood still, to still and tense to pass as a Human. ‘Leech? What are you on about?’ Candice asked forging innocence even though jumping out of a tall tree and still

landing on her feet without a scratch might of been a bit of a give way. ‘Shut-up. You’re a Vampyre.’ The girl standing opposite to her spat out at her. ‘How do you know?’ Candice asked, the defensive part of her instinct kicked in and she snarled. ‘Daemon,’ she said, palpably smug with herself. Candice pointed out the obvious, ‘You’re not living with the Trinity?’ She looked almost insulted, ‘No, I am not. But I still protect Humans and this. Is. My. Territory.’ she said. Candice realised two things at once, Fiona was no threat, not to her anyway, but the other thing was her head was still quiet. She couldn’t hear Fiona’s thoughts. Maybe it’s because she’s a Daemon, ‘You protect Humans? How? By keeping them in your stomachs?’ she snarled. ‘Oh, we don’t, um, eat Humans,’ she half smiled, ‘We are the good guys and… girls -’ Candy snorted, clearly she didn’t believe her. She didn’t need to be physic to know that. ‘I’m being serious.’ she insisted. ‘I know, it’s not normal for us. But we don’t kill them either.’ Candy added. Fiona seemed to believe her too. ‘We don’t kill Humans for fun. Or sport. We have to - but we don’t.’ The tension eased between them, Candice grinned, ‘God this is one sick fairytale isn’t it.’ Candy laughed, the gentle, wind chime like sound echoed around. She made the forest silence more eerie and pronounced. Fiona smiled and said; ‘Yeah the tales of the good Vampire and Demon sounds like a cool book,’ Fiona laughed too. ‘I would buy that book.’ she smiled, ‘I’m Candice, by the way,’ she said. ‘Candy…’ ‘Leeches have names too?’ her voice was more surprised,

than insulting, however she recovered herself quickly, ‘I am Fiona, Fiona Ferrell.’ she paused as if silently deliberating about how to word it, ‘Are there loads of you? Vampyres I mean?’ Candice became a little nervous; not being able to hear what Fiona was thinking was making her very edgy. ‘Um yeah there’s seven of us.’ Candice noticed her flinch slightly, a shocked expression rushed onto her face, and she hurried to say, ‘But it’s cool, I’ve said - all seven eat Human food. We’re veggies. What about you? How many?’ Candy asked changing the subject abruptly. ‘There’s four of us - but it’s just me at the moment. They’ll be back soon though,’ despite her happy-go-lucky voice she couldn’t help but notice the desperate expression sitting on her face. Candice didn’t even question what she was asking, her good nature, like Jada, was shining through her, and she remembered what Owen had said about her, “The class weirdo, no one likes her, she has no friends,” So she said, “Mates?” ‘Hunter and the hunted? Our two species at war and we should be mates?’ Fiona creased her eyebrows slightly, ‘Yeah, why not? Should be a laugh.’ ‘Bit of a sick version of Romeo and Juliet.’ ‘Sick…’ she didn’t say anything for a while… ‘You’d gamble with your life like that, so quickly. Right now, I could kill you and your entire family, without even getting a scratch.’ ‘You could. I could also go on a killing spree right now and wipe out the whole town. But I won’t and you won’t,’ a question bubbled to the top of her head; ‘Do you Daemons have gifts? Like special abilities?’ ‘Well, yeah, some of us. Why? Do Vampyres?’ Fiona asked. She heard Candice move and took a hesitant step backwards, hitting a tree. ‘You’re blind!’ came Candice shocked voice, as soon as she

noticed how uncertain Fiona was with her movements and the long, thin, white stick Fiona clutched to tightly, her knuckles standing out white on her slightly olive toned skin. ‘Yeah I am. So what?’ Fiona said, Candice realised that she must have offended her. ‘Sorry it’s just I didn’t think that Daemons could be… you know? I thought it was like how we can’t be blind.’ Candice said shamefully at the end. ‘Yeah just, rub it in,’ Fiona mumbled. Candy decided she should stop talking. They stood in silence for a few seconds. Candice remembered something that Carlyle told her, it had intrigued her so much at the time and it only took her about two seconds of standing in silence before it clicked into place. ‘Are you a seer?’ Fiona looked shocked, ‘How do you know that?’ ‘Carlyle told us, he’s our father figure -’ Candice began, but she was cut short by Oliver bounding out of nowhere - he was standing in front of her now - bracing himself for a fight, then Jasper and Evelyn ran out of the forest blackness with blinding speed, right next to Candice in less than just a second. Fiona didn’t seem to understand what she was hearing until Oliver growled, that’s when she got startled. ‘No, Oliver, don’t! She’s Fiona. She’s nice, she’s really nice - Fiona’s not with the crown, come on, I’d know. She’s good, against her nature like us. Come on.’ Candice garbled. She knew that they would think she was in danger and because she was the youngest out of the seven Vampyres, they were a tad prone for overprotection. But they would do anything to keep her completely safe. If they had their way, she would be wrapped up in cotton wool then shoved in a small sponged room away from civilisation so she couldn’t be harmed. Oliver only glanced at her but relaxed in his pose almost

immediately, she looked desperate and scared. Not a usual expression for Candy, she never looked like that when she was worried about herself, so he gathered she must have been afraid for the blind Daemon girl. Jasper was quick on the uptake, he looked at Candy for a few seconds after she spoke, than he went right to her side like normal and kept a close eye on her, however he was still tense about having to be so close to such a enemy. Evelyn was finding it harder to control herself. Fiona did not even look the slightest bit abashed of offended, actually on the contrary, she looked quite calm, and was smiling. Evelyn shifted and Fiona took another hesitant step back. ‘You’re blind!’ Jasper said, he was as shocked as Candice was, when she found out. However he realised his mistake quicker than Candy did, and he said, ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you but I’ve never heard of anyone of our worlds who was blind before…’ ‘Yes we have,’ Candice murmured only loud enough for Jasper to hear, but Candice misjudged the daemonic way of hearing, because Fiona said, ‘Yeah you were just telling me about how you knew so much. You said your head leech - oops… sorry… Carlyle, knew so much about the Daemonic race,’ she paused and continued, ‘and I want to hear about your very unique way of life, however I have to get back, I have missed too much already.’ With that she slowly turned and began making her way back to the school. Jasper, Evelyn and Oliver were still in shock. Daemons and Vampyres were neutral enemies… it was a few thousand years ago; Daemons began a mass genocide of their opposing species. And over fifty thousand Vampyres were massacred. That left the rest of the other Vampires in the world, petrified of Daemons. Before Jasper found Candice one day, he was out hunting

(they didn’t tell Carlyle about it) he found her starveling, in rags and covered in scars, cuts and bruises… where some Daemons had found her and dragged her to their high-tech experimentation “lab” where they injected her, with a entire assortment of drugs that caused her pain that felt like she was burning. So afterward she managed to escape, she was walking around dazed for a few days until he found her. However Carlyle reckoned that Candice had another “gift” It was of being able to suppress unwanted thoughts or memories because she claims she can’t remember a thing apart until she met the Scarletts. Jasper, Evelyn and Oliver stood still and watched Fiona try to walk into the direction of the school. Her white stick permanently in front of her and slowly moving, however she stumbled a lot and once or twice she nearly stacked it. Candice ran over to Fiona the third time she nearly fell over and grabbed her by the elbow and caught her before she hit the ground, ‘Thanks,’ she mumbled as she tried to straighten herself up. ‘We’re both in the same class aren’t we?’ Candice said as she linked arms with Fiona and helped her walk ‘So how long have you been going here? Careful, there’s a root sticking up there.’ The other three of them stood still and anxiously looked at one and other, than Jasper began walking in the general direction that the two girls had walked off into about five minutes before hand. Oliver turned around and flew in the complete opposite direction, while Evelyn stood there, not noticing anything going on around her, a nuclear bomb could of dropped on top of her, she was so deep in thought that she wouldn’t of been aware of it. ‘Won’t they be worried about you?’ asked Fiona, walking beside Candice.

‘More than likely, but then again they have nothing to worry about.’ ‘You seem so sure. What if I slip? It might not even be me intentionally, just instinct.’ ‘Well… I shall have my own wits about me or something like that won’t I? Come on Fiona, you’re starting to sound like Jasper.’ She carried on walking at a slightly brisker pace. After walking in silence for a few minutes, until Candice said, ‘Stop. We are near the edge.’ Fiona stood still listening to the noises around her. She heard a few little animal sounds and then the sea. She guessed that they were lapping around the bottom of the cliff. ‘We are meant to be going to school.’ Fiona said halfheartedly. ‘School-shmool. You’ve been off for over two months, what’s another day going to hurt?’ Candice giggled then sat down. Fiona couldn’t see her however it still made her jump when Candice sat down on the floor. She moved to quickly and too smoothly. When she sat down there was no sound of crunching twigs or anything like that, just silence. Fiona guessed that the surprise showed on her face and she heard Candice stand up, which was a lot noisier. ‘Sorry, it’s just I don’t have to think so much around you. Think Human, that is. Sorry,’ she said again. ‘Don’t worry. It’s just…’ Fiona thought for a moment ’Just unnerving I suppose.’ ‘Don’t worry. My fault. You going to sit down? It’s okay - the ground’s dry. Not muddy. That muddy.’ Fiona tried to sit down with as much grace as Candy, but failed to do so. After a few uncomfortable seconds of silence Fiona said, ‘Can I ask you some stuff. Like about what you are?’ Candice didn’t sound a bit embarrassed or self-conscious when she answered, ‘What do you want to know.’ Then she suddenly burst out, ‘God - this is so annoying.

Trust the bloody Daemonic race to piss me right off!’ ‘What?’ Fiona frowned. ‘I can’t hear you. I hate this. Please tell me what questions are burning in your head, what questions you really need to know the answer too.’ Fiona heard the desperation and urgency in Candice’s voice and opted for the easiest and most obvious questions. ‘What the hell are you going on about?’ ‘I can hear what people think. Humans and Vampyres - so far those are the only species, but I now know that I can’t hear Daemons.’ ‘You can read minds?’ ‘Yep, that’s me.’ ‘Okay I can accept that. Kinda. But you can’t hear me? Is it because I’m a Daemon?’ Fiona asked. Not horrified or as if she thought Candice was crazy, but with actual interest. ‘I think so. It’s quite nice, because it’s relatively silent in my head apart from my thoughts, but annoying because I never realised how much I rely on it.’ ‘Can all Vampyres read minds? Aden never really talked about Vampyres. We never really talked about any of that. I suppose he tried to shield me somehow. That didn’t work. I didn’t even see you coming!’ she paused and said, ‘So? Tell me about your kind, the Vampyres.’ Fiona shuddered when she said the word ‘Vampyre’ but Candice didn’t care, it was probably just out of habit. ‘Again, what do ya want to know?’ Candice asked again. ‘Why can you read minds? No Humans can how can you when you become a Vampire?’ ‘I dunno. Carlyle thinks for some of us it’s like our - umHuman talents intensified by the change. Like Evelyn must have been able to tell if someone was lying before and then that increased when she changed. But then that theory falls through with other Vampires. Like Jasper, Stephanie and Oliver. I think I must’ve been really good at knowing what people were thinking, when I was Human, that was why I

have this gift.’ ‘But why does that theory fall? What do they do?’ ‘Well Oliver can fly, Jasper can control electricity and Stephanie can control the weather.’ Candice said hurriedly, still worried about Fiona’s reaction. ‘Oh, cool. What about Carlyle - he’s your leader isn’t he?’ Fiona asked eagerly. ‘Well Carlyle’s more of a father than a leader. But yeah he is. He is the main reason that we don’t eat Humans. And his wife Jada. Our mum.’ ‘Hell, how many of you are there?’ she interjected. ‘Seven in total. Oliver, Evelyn, Jasper, Jada, Carlyle and me.’ ‘And you all only eat Human food?’ Fiona pressed. ‘Yes, we only eat Human food and the occasional animal. What about you. I thought it was compulsory for Daemons to be with the Trinity? Especially seers like you.’ ‘Yeah well. I was with them, but seers aren’t treated like you’d think… we’re treated like animals and it’s not living if your name isn’t known by the Princes. Jasmine, Mitchell and Aden didn’t like, what they used to do, so they rescued me and we have a semi-normal life now.’ Fiona’s voice was heavy when she spoke about them, ‘Jasmine, Mitchell and Aden are my family. Two brother figures and a sister figure - she’s really easy to wind up…’ ‘Where’re they?’ Candice asked in a hushed voice aware that they subject might be hard for Fiona. With great strain as if she might cry she said, ‘They’re infiltrating the castle, and the Princes. I wanted to come too, but Aden wouldn’t let me. But then I suppose that Lucifer would recognise me quicker. I saw them. That’s where I was for two months. I miss them though, wouldn’t tell Aden or he wouldn’t go back to the crown then Lucifer would send men to look for him - because of his gift.’ ‘What’s his gift?’ Candice asked eagerly. ‘Astro-projection. Jasmine has like a supersonic voice and can ‘jump’ or at least that’s what they call it, it’s basically teleporting’

‘Now that. Is. Cool. I’d love to jump off in the middle of a geometry class…’ ‘and um, Mitchell can detect a person’s weakness.’ ‘Do all daemons -’ began Candice than she yelled out into the darkness, to something Fiona couldn’t see in the woods, ‘Yes Jasper I am coming,’ then she said in a quieter voice to Fiona. Jasper moved towards them. ‘Would you like a lift?’ he asked her generously. ‘Sorry?’ she asked. ‘Can I please give you a lift? Like carry you? Because it’s about to start raining and I, er - Candice doesn’t do water unless it’s scented, or comes with bath bombs…’ Before Fiona could say yes or no Jasper picked her up into his big muscular arms, before Fiona could protest by saying that Jasper shouldn’t carry her, because she could manage on her own, she felt the wind rushing through her hair and than before she could listen out to anything else Jasper was setting her down on her feet. ‘Sorry,’ he murmured, he opened the car door, and after Candice got in, he guided her in.