My Guardian Angels (Chapter Eight)

I didn't have any money, so I felt bad for spending the gas. I drove out to town and stopped by several places to get interviews set, then actually had them right away. I got a job after school from 3:30-8:30. I would have to do chores on the weekends, go to school from 8:00-2:00, take care of my job, all while keeping from the cops. I flicked on a Flyleaf CD Joeseph had in the car, stopping short when the fast part of All Around Me came on.

A dark figure loomed in front of me. Seriously? Is this seriously the first thing I see in town. Some supernatural being. Ugh. Whatever.

I creeped my car forward, slowly, when the thing blurred around the car, opening the door and yanking me out. It ghosted Its way over to me... her hair hanging over her face, long, but in choppy layers. Colorful. I could see some piercings glittering on her face and exposed stomach (tear drop, belly ring, spider bites), and her eyes were crystal blue, standing out against her chalky white skin.
　
With those eyes, she was a vampire. They started to glow red as she became hungry. As Allen Rae would say "Sheyyt". Great. I held my palms up to her, and said in a strong voice "I WILL burn you into oblivion, bitch." She laughed and I chanted "Brucia come il fuoco dell'inferno, brucia come l'anima non si può avere, brucia tanto quanto il sangue che avete preso da esseri umani, godendo della loro ultimi respiri."

"Italian? Didn't anyone tell you, only Galic works on Ancient Vampires." She laughed harder. Ahhh, hell, a freakin' Ancient? But obviously not a royal one, a simple one. Not that they could really be simple.

After a deep breath I recited in Galician (an old language for us Cattiverias and Vampires-Ancient ones especially), "Queiman coma o lume do inferno, queima como a alma que non pode ter, queime tanto como o sangue que tomou dos seres humanos, aproveitando o seu último suspiro!" And she lit into flames, screaming at the top of her lungs. What my chant was: "Burns like hellfire, burning like the soul that can not burn as much as he took the blood of humans, taking his last breath"

She hissed out an extremely loud "Extinguir!" Which means "Extinguish". It disappeared, but I was sprinting to the car, grabbed by the neck and thrown into the ground. She whispered "I'm Agana. You, my vitima (Victim), are Madeline, or, most preferred, Maddie. Listen, bruxa (witch), I may not be clearly well-known, but I am Agana, Raíña de Sangue (Queen of Blood). You cannot kill me. Many have tried." She walked to the car and clicked on the radio... Lips Like Morphine was playing. I couldn't breathe. I admit I was scared.

"Screw this fighting! I give up!" I yelled at her. I held my wrist out to her "Taste me." I said. I looked at her, a devious slight smile on my face. She reluctantly came, and sank her fangs into my wrist, right before she broke skin, I released my Sight, my Soul, leaving a technically dead body lying there, leaving Agana, the Queen of Blood to drink the crap out of a dead body, killing her, and probably me, she released, vomiting. I was sucked back into my body.

"Cadela!" She spit at me. I raised my hand, it glowed, meaning I had a new power. YES! I mastered that crap! Woohoo! I would say finally, but I have more powers than usual right now anyway, so I'm not going to get cocky.

"OH, HELL YES!" I yelled.

"You agree that you're a bitch?" She said. I nodded happily, then shook my head no.

"I got a new power, stupid."

"Good for you."

"Yeah." I breathed.

"I need your help. I need shelter. There are evil things lurking out tonight, so many, I can't keep up with them. I lost count at ten demons and twelve Buanoas. And the top three Male."

"Male? Did you just try to eat me, and then tell me there are Male here? Seriously!? AND Ask for help!?" I yell.

"Yes." She nods reluctantly. It's not what you think at all; It's not that they're male dudes, their Male as in "Evil" in Italian. The name kinda stuck with what they did. The top person was actually equally tied right now, a couple tied together: Damian and Elmira. Dangerous, way to good-looking, and pain in the asses to my kind, and basically everyone on the side of Good. I was so stressed already, I really didn't have time for this. But I had to go home and tell everyone.

*Later at home*

"What!?" Joseph yelled, grabbing my hand and pulling me closer to him. I couldn't breathe from the shock coursing through my arm, and when he let go of my hand, I could tell he felt it too. "No way. Why here? We would have known." He continued.

"Maybe their hiding in a forest of a town that nobody, anywhere, would expect them to go too." Gran said.

"I say we kill the bitches." Abelia said.

"I wish." Retorted Agana.

"What are we gonna do....?" I mumbled.

"We have to do something', they're in our territory." Said Allen Rae.

"Not for long, most likely." Agana said.

"Maddie," Allen Rae said to me, everyone turning to me, Agana turning a couple of seconds after, realizing everyone was supposed to look at me "You bring the freaking' Queen of Blood into our home, deliver this news, and ask what WE are going to do? How about you give us a lil' info." He says, clearly trying to pry out how this crap happened.

"I don't know. I know less than you guys know. All I have is a headache. All I have is my powers and what I've been taught. All I have is cops chasing after me. All I have is you guys." I say sadly, getting up and leaving. Abelia mumbling things like "good riddance" Agana saying "we need her" Allen Rae saying "dammit" Gran saying "aww" and Joseph following me. I ran away from him, full speed, losing my ballet flats on the porch steps.

"Maddie!" He kept calling after me as I cried, I fell down in the middle of the corn fields. I closed my eyes, sobbing, seeing my dead family behind my lids. My new family hated me, I was the messenger, and I had been shot. "Maddie," He breathed, falling to his knees next to me "What? What's wrong? He didn't mean anything, he just-"

"My family is gone," I said, cutting him off "They were killed by the Cattiverias, but... also the Males. I know that now. I do. I have all these powers flooding in, all these memories I cling to for them, and honestly, all I have left is you guys and my old combat boots. I made them grow with my feet. Joseph... without you guys, I have nothing...." I shake my head, crying harder than ever, sobbing, but then ending in a steady flow of silent tears.

Joseph pulls me into his lap whispering "Your hair..." I look at my hair, then my skin. My hair turning black, my skin slightly paling, my contacts cried into my hands. Joseph stroked my face, wiping away tears, "I'm so sorry..." He mumbles.

"Everyone is. I just want one person who can say 'I understand'. One person." I explain back, tears still falling. I never cried. Never. And I felt like a big baby, but I was too screwed up to really care right now.
"I do." I heard him mumble.

"What?" I ask, the tears slowing down, but still slipping out every few seconds.

"I... I kind of understand. I mean, I have my sister and... and my grandparents, but everyone else was killed." I saw him crying, his beautiful eyes, darkening with sadness, not the natural color he usually has. I touch his cheek with my fingertips.

"It's ok." I say through tears. I know it's not, so I cut the BS. "It's not ok," I push myself off him, up onto my knees, sitting on my heels "It's never going to be. We have to stop them, we can't let other kids feel how we felt, we can't let other teens feel how we feel, we can't let anybody feel out hurt." I know I hurt worse than him, but he was the first person who had at least THAT close of similar situation. He'd been through what I had been through, just with other people, three, and only three. And he was left with them. He looked at me, eyes shining and nodded. I had the sudden urge to kiss him, but quickly suppressed it. I didn't have time to think about that right now, with the Male here.

"They burned them all. But Bel and I had the flu. We were at home, and they burned down the family reunion. Gran and gramps were trying to be nice, staying to watch us while our parents when to the reunion. It killed them. They all burned." He explained to me, obviously having to tell me why.

"They have a thing for burning, huh?" I laughed, a sore, dry, aching laugh, but he slipped out a sad smile, which a second later, we were sharing. "They..." I continued, swallowing, never getting to tell the real story before, now letting it out seemed to hurt worse than lying "They burned down the house, they all used their powers to put a shield around me, I just had some smoke damage, and little first or second degree burns. Every foster house I went to, the whole family was killed, with fire most of the time. If not, stabbing, poisoning only once." I didn't dare looking at him, I would break down, I knew it.

"They destroyed your family over and over again? And you never had anyone? Ever?" He asked. I just shook my head, not sure my voice would work if I even tried to use it. He cupped his hand under my chin, pulling it up to look at me "You have us now. You won't lose, the only were going down is as a family, and we don't plan on going down any time soon." I smiled at him. He hugged me, and we just stayed there, talking about the few things we knew about our families, describing what they looked like, talking about what we wish we knew about them, how they treated us... how empty all that made us feel.

After a while, he looked over at me "Maddie?"

"Yes?"

"You won't leave us, will you?"

"Never."

"Do you promise?" He held out his pinky like a little kid, a slight smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

"I promise." I swear, crossing my pinky over his, giving it a slight squeeze. It was a nice turn of events, surrounded by corn, staring up that stairs.

"I promise." I breathed the repeat, Joe probably not even hearing it. I smiled, and lay on the ground next to him, watching the stars twinkle and the corn blow in the breeze.