Blood+ Fan Fiction ❯ Hopeless ❯ A Glimmer ( Chapter 1 )

It all started with an over-eager twelve year old on an everlasting quest to prove herself. It started with her search for her place in the world. It started with a girl looking, always looking, for acceptance and a feeling that she had lost and desperately wanted back. It started with the prick of a needle.

 

My sixteenth birthday came and went without celebration. That's okay. I didn't want to celebrate anyway. It just reminded me that time was still passing. I was still getting older. It had been another year since the tragedy at Italy, another year since the event that had sealed my fate. I didn't care for my birthday much. I didn't care for anything much.

 

My name is Kaelin Taralynn Lizzio, Kay for short, and I am sixteen years old. I was born in Italy, in a small town nestled between mountains and the sea. Not that you care. I exist in a world that you will never see, the victim of a secret history that you will never know.

 

At least I hope you will never know it.

 

I stood at the rail of the ship, watching the sunset. The Red Shield's headquarters is on this ship, or should I say is the ship. The Red Shield is the organization that I joined after leaving Italy. We have one goal. To eradicate chiropterans and protect the innocent citizens of the world. Chiropterans are disgusting, vile creatures. They drink the blood of the living. They are mindless, without concepts of mercy or self-control. The Red Shield wants to rid the Earth of chiropterans and in order to do that, we must exterminate Diva.

 

The sun sank slowly into the horizon, a beautiful sight. I had watched the sun set as often as possible since I was a little girl. Mama used to scold me and say that I would ruin my eyesight. There was just something so calming about the sun going down at the end of the day.

 

When I couldn't see the sun anymore, I glanced at my watch and sighed. It looked like another day would go by without a visit from him. How much longer could I last?

 

“Kay?”

 

The sound startled me, though it was my expected visitor that said my name. Still, my heart skipped a beat. I did a quick one-eighty, keeping my face impassive, like I didn't really care that he had shown. The worst part is that I did care. A lot.

 

Even with my loathing of his kind, he was the most gorgeous man I had ever laid eyes on. I knew my eyes were steely grey as I looked him over, like I was seeing him for the first time.

 

“Solomon, I was starting to wonder if you had forgotten me,” I said dryly. My hands clenched to stop them from shaking. “Six weeks?”

 

He laughed and reached up to brush my short raven hair out of my eyes. Inexplicable joy shined out of his sea green eyes. I saw that joy often, but I never understood it. Solomon looked spotless as always in a white suit with blue striped tie. We must have looked comical, every inch of him the young successful businessman, me, the tomboy who didn't care in my tank top and jeans. My hand twitched, wanting to reach up and run my fingers through his blond curls. I shoved the traitorous hand in my pocket.

 

“I could never forget you and what you do for me, dear. I'm just busy, as are you. Or am I mistaken and Saya has not come aboard the ship after what happened at the Zoo?” Solomon said softly, the same hand that had been playing with my hair moving to brush the side of my neck and untie the wide ribbon choker I wore there. The heavy silver pendant fell into my hand.

 

At this particular point in my life, that silver heart represented all that I was. It was a gift from my foster father, Joel, for my fourteenth birthday. The silver heart locket was very old-fashioned, like something straight out of the eighteenth century. Joel know of my love for history when he picked it out. The front was adorned with red crystals, the remains of defeated chiropterans. These crystals are what marked me as a member of the Red Shield, my proof to all doubters that I belonged to the organization. Inside were pictures of the two people I missed most, my mother and my older brother, Darin. Their smiles shined at me through the glass, but failed to warm my stubborn heart.

 

A light touch brought me back to my senses, taking my mind off the past. My family wasn't important anymore. His fingers skimmed my sensitive, pale skin, sending pleasant tingles down my spine. My heart rate sped up in anticipation. His breath was hot against my neck.

 

“Are you ready?” he asked, hands gently gripping my shoulders. I felt all of my muscles tighten. Solomon sighed behind me. His strong arms wrapped around my shoulders in a hug, shocking me with sudden affection. “Kay, we go through this every time. How often must I tell you not to tense up?”

 

He spoke soothingly in my ear, filling me with conflicting emotions. My first instinct was to pull away. My hands went up to try and break his contact with my body, but moments later they dropped.

 

“Just relax. Please, Kay, it will go much easier on you.”

 

It seemed like he had discovered my weakness. For some reason my iron will always crumbled under one utterance of `please', but only when it came from Solomon's lips. The tension in my muscles melted.

 

“That's better,” he muttered, touching his lips to my skin. I closed my eyes. My pulse pounded in my ears.

 

Sharp pain. Being held tenderly. A warm body pressed against mine. Dull pounding. Dizzy. The sensation of blood being drank from my body, rushing out of my skin.

 

A wave of blackness starts rolling towards my mind, followed by a wave of relief. The world went dark.

 

The other feelings had faded by the time I woke, except I was still being held gently in someone's arms. My fingers explored the skin on my neck until I located the two small puncture wounds. The bleeding had stopped, but it still hurt.

 

“So, you're awake?”

 

The query was soft, in case I was still sleeping. My head started to clear the clouds of sleep. We were sitting against the ships rail. Well, Solomon leaned against it, supporting me in his arms. My eyes opened to soft moonlight and twinkling stars. Night had fallen while I slept. His embrace was so warm that I didn't move, his arms around me protecting me from the chill of the night.

 

“Kay?” His tone was slightly worried. I could tell that he knew I was awake. “Are you feeling all right? I panicked when you passed out. I'm so rough on you.”

 

I felt fingers in my hair.

 

“I remember a time when if I fainted you would just leave me laying on the deck in an unconscious heap,” I said quietly, shifting to looked up at his serene face. “That happened, what? Once? Twice?”

 

“I would appreciate it if you wouldn't mention things like that, Kaelin,” Solomon scolded gently. “We have moved past those times. Why don't we change the subject?”

 

“To what?”

 

“Why do you let me do this to you? Let me hurt you and take your blood when it doesn't seem to benefit you any?”

 

I jumped up like I was sitting on fire. My hands twisted nervously behind my back. This was the question that I had been avoiding for months.

 

“That's not relevant,” I said, and then cursed my stupidity. I could never win a logic battle with Solomon. He could convince me that the world was flat if he wanted to.

 

“Kay, you always get so jumpy when I bring it up. I've thought and thought about it, brewed up and then discarded dozens of theories,” he said, getting to his feet. I took a step back automatically, trying to look innocent. Solomon wasn't going for the act. “You know that doesn't work on me. Kay, I have to know.”

 

“You don't have to know anything. Can't you just accept it, no strings attached?”

 

“No.” Solomon brushed my hair out of my face again. I shook my head just so it would fall back in place. He stubbornly fixed it again. “This is important. You are important.”

 

“Trust me, I'm not nearly as important as you think,” I said as the alarm bells started to ring all around us. My face twisted into a grimace. We both knew what that meant.

 

“Important enough to put the whole ship on alert, it would seem. You underestimate yourself all the time, dear.” He grinned and got ready to depart, putting one pale hand on the rail.

 

I glanced over my shoulder to watch for soldiers.

 

“No, Joel is just para—” I turned back to look at him. Solomon had gone. “—

noid.”

 

“Soon,” a phantom voice whispered. Although it might have been my imagination. I tied the ribbon around my neck, slipped my mp3 out of my pocket, put in my headphones, and trotted away to assure everyone that I was alive and well.

 

Sighs of relief echoed around me when I arrived in Joel's office. I rolled my eyes. My guardian had put everyone into a panic for nothing.

 

“Kay, where have you been?” Joel asked anxiously, blue eyes scanning me for injuries or signs of distress.

 

“On the port deck, watching the sun set,” I lied easily. “It's not my fault that your soldiers don't look everywhere when you tell them to.

 

“Why didn't you answer your phone?”

 

“I left it in my room so you wouldn't bother me while I was relaxing. We go through this every time, Joel, and it's getting a little old. I'm not a child anymore. Doesn't this mean that I'm considered an adult in my duty to the Red Shield?” I touched the locket at my throat.

 

 

Joel sighed and said, “Your duty and your station in life as a child or an adult are two separate subjects that are to be discussed later.”

 

I knew a dismissal when I heard one. Instead of arguing, I returned to my room for the night. The walls were bare of decoration. A few framed photos stood on my desk. My closet held very little color, except for a few articles that I never wore. Those were presents from before people got to know me. I plugged my mp3 into my speakers and let my music fill my ears. Now I only had to wait for him to come back. Until then, I was empty.