Connections by Blood   von AnniPeace
                              (Fire Winged Human)
================================================================================
                               Prolog: Encounter
                               -----------------


“Mom…what did you just say?”, Lia asked again, her voice full of
disbelieve. The expression on her face changed every three seconds – from
total astonishment to fear and blank horror. She couldn’t understand her
mother’s words – well Lia did understand what her mother had told her, but
she couldn’t understand the meaning behind these words. She had never even
considered talking about themes like that. Her mother took a sharp breath and
then sighed deeply.
“I just told you that I’m going to marry Ian next month. I finally said
‘yes’ to his proposal from last winter.”, she said and her lips formed a
little smile.
“Are you not looking forward to it? I thought you liked Ian…”
“Well, it’s not that I don’t like him…it’s just that you always said
‘the man who would persuade me to marry again still has to be born, because by
now, he does not exist.’”, Lia said softly. “It’s really surprising,
that’s all. When did you decide that?”
Carolyn drove her twelve year old daughter encouragingly over the left cheek.
Then she went still and the two of them avoided looking at each other for nearly
six minutes. Lia didn’t know what to think in a moment like this so she just
remained silent.
„Sometimes you do things without a reason and just because of a sudden
feeling.”, Carolyn finally said. Lia raised an eyebrow. That wasn’t her mom
at all. Carolyn Marchwind would never do things because of sudden feelings, she
would always have a good reason.
“Mom, come on and tell me. I won’t kill you if it’s that you’re worried
about.”, Lia said and saw a shimmer of relief in her mother’s eyes. She took
her daughter’s hands and tried to calm down for a second. She didn’t know
how to start. Lia didn’t feel good. She was seriously surprised, nearly
shocked by her mother’s words. It was really unexpected. And she wanted to
know a reason.
“Ok, you’re right, there is a reason. And a damn good one for you, too I
bet. You know, Ian and I were often alone at home when you were at school or met
with your friends. And somehow…well we didn’t know what to do then, we were
just bored and then…” Lia blushed.
“Mom, please don’t tell me things like that! It’s disgusting!”, she said
and her mom nodded.
“All right, all right. The reason Ian and I will marry next month is, because
I’m pregnant again. And I hope that you will be looking forward to the little
child, together with us. We’ll finally be a real family by then, isn’t that
good news?”, her mom asked and looked quite happy to be finally able to tell
Lia the truth. She didn’t expect her daughter to react like that.
Lia’s face went still, her body stiff and she didn’t know what to say.

I always thought that we already are a real family… 

That was the last thing she expected her mother to tell. She had always said
that she sure loved Lia, but didn’t want to have another child.
A few years ago, when Lia was about seven years old, she had asked her mom if
she could have a little brother or sister to play with. She was a very lonely
little girl with her mother always staying at work till seven o’clock. But
Carolyn had never wanted Lia to have a sibling. There had been three good
reasons for this decision:
First, because she hadn’t got a man to become a child with, anyway. 
Second, because she had been stressed to death with Lia as a newborn baby.
And third, because Lia should learn to stand on her own feet and a sibling would
just distract her from the real life. She had to be prepared. Pretty cruel, but
Lia had learned to put up with it over the years.
And now, several years later, her unfulfilled wish should finally come true?
That didn’t make any sense. Carolyn could see the shock and the fear in her
daughter’s eyes. That wasn’t exactly how she had imagined it. In her
imagination, Lia would have laughed with her and would have been very excited.
But now she just seemed upset and anxiously. What would she say to her? Would
she scream, would she laugh? But it happened differently.
Without another word and without any hesitation, Lia turned herself away from
her mother, opened the door and stalked out of the apartment.
“Hilary!”, was all she heard her mother screaming, then she wasn’t able to
hear anything more. Lia ran as fast as she could, through the evening heat in
her hometown Phoenix and right to her favorite place: To the platform from where
she could look down to the Salt River. She had always gone to this place when
she felt upset or lonely. This beautiful place with its fantastically view would
always cheer her up.
Lia walked to the front part of the platform which was demarcated by an iron
fence, so that no one could fall down into the river. Some benches stood near
the fence and some plants in pots beautified the place in addition. She came
nearer and leaned against the fence.
Why did you react like that? What’s the big deal about your pregnant mother?
Come on, don’t be so selfish!, she said to herself and took a deep breath. The
warm air here in Arizona was really reassuring and common to her. She grew up in
this town, she had never left it and she certainly wouldn’t do so in the
future.
Lia looked down into the water. It was about ten meters below her, but it was as
clear as you would see it if you would see it from a height of fifty
centimeters. Once she nearly climbed over the fence, but her mother had stopped
her. Why, actually? You wouldn’t be hurt from ten meters. Maybe she should try
it out after all…
Lia shook her head quickly. Why would she think about something like this right
now? The answer was easy, because a fall from this height would just be very
dangerous. So she shouldn’t try it.
Lia wanted to turn away and to go home, but suddenly, she felt as if something
packed her by her shoulders and pushed her hardly against the fence. She
screamed in fear, too afraid to do something. Her vision went black, she felt
cold, felt water around her and then she fell into deep darkness.

That had happened nearly four years ago.

Hilary Marchwind often thought about what had happened that summer evening. But
she didn’t remember it clearly. All that had remained in her memory was the
sudden feeling of cold, water and darkness. Because of that incident, she had
started to fear a few things. And the fears had become phobias over the years. A
phobia of water, claustrophobia and a phobia of darkness. But Lia had learned to
live her life with them. Now she felt better than before. And her life had
turned out very well. After her little Sister Charlotte had been born, her
mother had been gentler than ever before. She had been right. They had become a
better family, everything seemed to work out between them.
When Ian went to work in the mornings, he took Lia to school by car. Carolyn
went to kindergarten with Charley and started to work at home. After school, Lia
went to kindergarten to pick up her sister and they walked home together. She
loved her little sister, she seemed to be the cutest child on earth and was
always a little angel. Maybe it had been better for her after all, to become a
big sister by then, and not any earlier. She could show her mother her
responsibility. She seemed like an adult.

“Well, I gotta go home now, or we’ll be late for dinner. See you
tomorrow!”, Lia said and took Charley by her tiny hand. The door closed shut
behind the two of them.
“How was kindergarten today?”, she asked gently and smiled down to her
sister. Charley returned the smile.
“It was great! I played with Kim in the dressing up-room till midday. Then I
drew a picture of a dinosaur and then we played on the outside-playground!”,
Charley said with her bright voice.
“That sounds great.”, Lia said and ruffled through Charley’s blonde hair.
She laughed loudly.
“Do we really have to go straight home?”, she asked and looked a little
disappointed. Lia made a toneless sound and looked to her watch.
“Well, we still have an hour left, so we could go to my favorite place in the
whole city.”, she said and saw with a big grin, that Charley seemed to cheer
up immediately.
“Ready? Three…two…one…start!!”, she shouted and both of them started
running. They ran straight to the platform where Lia had had her accident at the
age of twelve. But now, with her sixteen years, she was confident enough to
believe, that something like that wouldn’t happen again.

Lia lifted her little sister up. She had loved the beautiful view from up here
since she had been a little child. A big smile appeared on Charley’s face.
“It looks great sis.”, she said and laughed loud. For her it was her first
time seeing down to the Salt River. Lia just had to smile, too. Charley was like
a tiny sun to everyone, there was nothing she didn’t laugh at, she gave her
smiles even to spiders and snakes, she wasn’t afraid of them. 
“The River’s called the Salt River. But please don’t ask me why, I
haven’t got any clue. I always sleep in geography classes.” she said to her
little sister and a really confused expression appeared on Charley’s face. 
“What does geography mean?” she asked. Lia looked quite amused. Charley was
only three years old. When Lia herself had been a little child like Charley, she
had been really lazy and hadn’t wanted to talk till she turned four. But then
she had learned extremely fast to use all the expressions and words, her parents
had been quite impressed. 
It wasn’t unusual for Charley to don’t know what things like geography, love
and other complicated stuff like that meant. But in return she knew how to
behave in front of other people or how she wanted her toilet seat cover to look
like. This month it looked like a pink cloud and was as fluffy as a real cloud
might have felt like. 
“I’ll explain it to you in a few years. You wouldn’t understand it by
now.” Lia told her and looked at her uninterestedly. Charley turned her face
to Lia’s. She pressed her little hand on her sister’s cheek and their gazes
met. 
“Why do you always tell me that I don’t understand such a thing?” 
“Because you’re too young. Ask me in a few years, it won’t be more
interesting then.” She said and wanted to kiss Charley nicely on her right
cheek, but she pinched Lia in her nose. This was the last thing she expected her
little sister to do now. Surprised by her sudden move she let go of her and
Charley fell to the ground. When Lia wanted to hold her back she already started
to run to a near bench. Maybe she was planning to hide behind it. 
A dark haired boy not older than seventeen sat on the bench, reading today’s
newspaper. Lia ran after her little sister but she was too fast. She already
played with Charley the entire day so she didn’t have the strength to run much
faster than this. Her gaze wandered to the boy again, it was her only chance. 
“Hey you, could you please catch her? I’m tired of running after her for
today.” she called in the boy’s direction. The boy looked up, he seemed
seriously surprised, maybe he hadn’t expected other people here. Just for how
long had he been sitting there? Since this morning? Or maybe even longer? 
Lia shook her head, that didn’t matter right now. The boy stood up quickly and
made a step forward. Charley froze where she stood, the boy was really tall. He
ducked and reached for the little girl to lift her up. Charley did nothing, she
just looked into his face with these huge dark blue eyes of hers. 
“Where were you planning to run to? Europe?”, he asked her gently und
smiled. Immediately her blank expression turned into a little smile. 
“Wanted her to catch me. She is really mean.”, Charley said with her bright
voice and pointed her finger to Lia. The boy’s gaze met her. Lia shrugged
imperceptibly. His eyes were beautiful. A warm gold, maybe like soft caramel.
Really uncommonly but still beautiful in contrast to her own boring light blue
eyes. That wasn’t enough. She had to see more. 
When she looked at his entire body, she nearly started to drool on the floor.
Not just his eyes but his whole appearance was incredibly beautiful. He was
really tall and slender but still kind of muscular. His golden eyes stood out
from his face because of their unusual color, but they didn’t seem to fit his
hair. It was a little curly and so dark that it had to be black. Lia breathed
quicker than before. 
That wasn’t good. She had to stop looking at boys like him, most of them had a
horrible character and were those types of men many women would fall for but
never get a second call from after one night with them. And of course there was
still Chris, Lia’s boyfriend. 
She shook her head again. This wasn’t really the time to think about creepy
boys or what they did to women. The boy had stopped looking at her and now ran
his hand over Charley’s cheek and she started to laugh again. Lia cleared her
throat loudly. Both of them looked at her. 
“Thank you for catching her. She always does what she wants.” She said and
came closer to them. Suddenly the boy‘s nice smile turned into an amused one.
She didn’t know why, but Lia didn’t like that. 
„Well, I think, back then, you were a little too young to give birth to a
child, don’t you think?“ The friendly expression on Lia’s face was
captured by total astonishment, she didn't know what to say.
“W-what?”
“I think, that is against the law. You could be arrested, you know?”, he
told her and grinned bride. “Kids like you shouldn’t have sex so early, or
something like that will happen.” He pointed out his finger at Charley. Lia
went stiff, she gritted her teeth together and finally found her ability to
speak again:
“What do you think you are talking about, you brain-dead moron!? This is
obviously my little sister!”, she said with flowing rage. The boy raised an
eyebrow.
“Brain-dead? Do I really look like that?”, he asked with an amused tone and
looked at himself.
“I, actually, think I look damn good today.”, he said and looked pleased
with himself. Lia made a face. She looked at her sister.
“Oh boy…I think I’m going to throw up any second…!”, she said, but the
boy rarely seemed to notice. Actually, he looked a little bit disappointed.
“So you’re not her mother?”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” He grinned again.
“That’s good to hear. Then you should think about my words and don’t have
sex till you’re married!”
“It’s not in your business to decide that, anyway.” Lia started to get
really pissed off because of that boy. But he just started to laugh.
“You’re a naughty little girl, but it was fun talking to you and your
charming little sister. Maybe we’ll meet again someday…”, he said and put
Charley to the ground. Then he turned and slowly walked away, still laughing.
“Well I don’t think so…”, Lia murmured to herself. Charley smiled at
her.
“That was a nice man. I like him!”, she said and laughed brightly. Lia shook
her head.
“Bad taste, Charley...but now let’s just go home. Mom will freak out if
we’re late.”
While going home, Lia thought about what had happened right now.
What the hell was that about?



                              Kapitel 1: Jealousy
                              -------------------


There is a lonely young girl standing at a tiny window. She is watching the snow
falling to the ground. She feels the cold wind, smells the breeze and tastes the
ocean which she can see far behind. The dark water is frozen, people are
laughing and running over the ice. The girl smiles and lays a hand on the half
open window glass. It feels colder than the wind, she desperately wants to leave
this room, but she can’t do anything… 

Claire sighed deeply and drove some lost red strands out of her forehead. This
was the 16th picture of this week’s work. She didn’t know where all her
ideas came from, but lately her mind was full of them and she felt like she
would go crazy if she wouldn’t let her fantasies out. When she drew she lived
in her very own world. No one could be angry or sad. And she herself had the
power over all creatures in this picture. She decided if it would look happy or
crazy or lonely…just one brush with her pencils and everything could look
different. And this new picture looked really sad and lonely.
Claire smiled a little smile. Her free time was very valuable to her. She could
do anything and no one would be able to judge or hurt her. She decided to take
the new picture with her to school and to show it in her exhibition which would
start tomorrow.
Her drawing skills were excellent her mother once said. Her father had made
clear that he would be very proud of her, if she would be able to get much money
with her paintings and to make her hobby to her job. But they had said that many
years ago, she didn’t remember it clearly so she didn’t care more about it.
The present was more important than the past would ever be.
Claire took the picture and placed it next to her schoolbag. There already stood
four other pictures which she had drawn yesterday. Her favorite picture was the
one with a blond boy on it. He lay on the ground, his eyes closed and his face a
mask of pain and despair. The background didn’t look much better: It was the
inside of a cold building like a castle or a prison. 
She drove one hand over the paper and her smile went bigger. When she had drawn
it yesterday, she had had a deep feeling of sorrow and unhappiness. Then she had
suddenly seen the blond boy in her mind. He had screamed hardly, trying to make
someone hear him but no one came to help him, no one seemed to care about him,
so he slowly began to die on the hard stone floor.
Claire thought about her own feelings. Her pictures always turned out
differently from her imagination, but sometimes there were a few pictures where
she had had a feeling like to be controlled by someone, to draw exactly what
this someone wanted her to draw. And somehow that, what the pictures showed,
came true and everything happened exactly like on the picture.
Her gaze went through her little room and stopped at the wall right in front of
her. There was a picture she had drawn half a year ago. She had had the special
feeling while drawing it. And in one edge she had written a date and a little
sentence. The sentence said ‘big explosion, dead’ and the date was the date
of this evening. Claire knew what this had to mean: There would be a big
explosion tonight. Many people would die from it and it would all be their 
fault. The picture showed three letters, painted with dark red color: W.P.O.
“Claire! Please come down, dinner’s ready.” her mother called and the girl
shrugged. She had completely forgotten about it. There was another deep sigh
when she went to her heavy wooden door and closed it behind her.
She walked down the stairs and then through the corridor. Next to her appeared a
girl who looked exactly like herself, just a little bit taller and thinner: It
was her older twin sister, Savannah. Like always the two of them ignored each
other and sat down at the table. Their parents followed. Claire’s mom served
the food. Her eyes met with Savannah and immediately she began to smile.
“There you go. How was work today? Did you accomplish your mission?” she
asked and sat down, her husband also looked at the older sister. Savannah smiled
brightly.
“It was cool. I did a great job and caught that stupid earth-demon all by
myself. Paige rarely did anything, just like always. And when we went back to
the Association, she sweared the whole time about tiny things. That was
disgusting…” she explained and began to eat. Claire looked away. She hated
it when Savannah told them about her missions. 
She always  did great jobs and she always  did everything alone. And Paige
always  messed things up. She would like to meet Paige one time, she would
praise her for swearing at Savannah. She liked that about the mysterious girl.
But her parents didn’t thought about that like Claire did. They smiled back at
her, shook their head about Paige’s behavior and showed Savannah, how deeply
they loved her. They had never ever said anything like that to Claire, she was
the normal child, the human  child, different from their perfect child.
Claire’s family, the Ryan’s, were descendants of the phoenix-human race.
Their job was it to free the world of all kinds of demons and bad people. Some
of the phoenix-humans even had some supernatural abilities like Savannah. She
had the power to control the four elements. Her parents didn’t have such an
ability but some special other weapons. Her mother used a gun with unusual
monition. The monition was made up out enzyme-plasma. Her father used an old
sword with demonic powers. The three of them worked for the Association of
Phoenix-Human Race and were very proud of their unusual workplace.
But Claire herself didn’t have the phoenix-blood inside her. She was just an
ordinary human in any kind of way. This way of thinking made Claire sick. She
stood up. 
“I’m not hungry.” she said and turned around to leave the room. Her
parents didn’t seem to notice that she was about to leave the room, but her
sister did. She sighed and looked to her mum, who was smiling widely.
“I’ll be right back, just a second…” she told them and they nodded in
her direction.
“Come back anytime you like, honey.”

Claire tried to calm down but that was quite difficult with her eyes stinging
and burning because of holding back her tears. It happened like that every
evening. She was used to it but there were some times when she couldn’t stand
these situations. Of course her sister didn’t do what she did on purpose,
their parents acted like that on their own, but Savannah could at least try to
reduce her speeches about herself to not make Claire feel worse than before.
Once she had tried to speak to Savannah, but that hadn’t help at all. It had
made Claire hate her sister more than ever before.
“Hey, wait a second! Please!” Claire turned around, looking really confused.
In front of her stood Savannah, her dark red hair silky and glossy in a ponytail
and her weird red violet eyes staring at her expectant. 
“What is it? Do you want to continue telling me all these things in which you
are so much better at than me?” she asked in a dry tone and expected her
sister to hiss at her, but her tone was mild and calm.
“No. I just wanted to ask you, if you would like to come along to the
Association with me tomorrow to meet my partners there. Come on, it’ll be fun
and you seem like you need something funny now.”
“Humans are not allowed there.”
“I’m sure they’ll make an exception if it’s you. Partly because you are
my twin-sister.” Claire sensed the superior tone in Savannah’s art to talk.
She was probably making fun of her, to see how she would react, when she would
say ‘Well, sorry to tell you this, but this is never going to happen. You’re
a human, a nothing to us phoenix-humans’, and she was really tired of this
funny  game.
“Go to hell, bitch.” she hissed and turned around to run upstairs. Savannah
looked after her sadly. She just couldn’t understand why Claire would act like
that again. She sighed and went back.
“If it’s that what you want…”

“Mom, Ian, we’re home!” Lia called when she shut the door behind her.
There were sounds coming out of the living-room.
“Welcome back my princesses~” Ian called and smiled at them. Charley ran
straight to her father and jumped onto his lap. He hugged her and let her see
the news with him. Lia smiled and took off her skinny jacket. Then she walked
into the kitchen and saw her mother leaning over some plates.
“Hey Sweetheart. Dinner’s ready, please bring these plates over to the
table. I’ll get us some glasses.” she told her daughter and Lia nodded.
After she was done with the plates, she sat down at the table and helped her
sister to climb onto her chair. Ian still sat on the couch and watched the
news.
“Come on Ian, your meal will get cold, if you don’t stop watching.” Lia
told him and waited, but Ian didn’t turn around to answer. He looked at the TV
just when a new report came in. The reporter looked taken aback. 
“We’re sorry to disturb right now but something unforeseen has happened.
Today there was a big disaster in Germany. There had been a big explosion in a
factory and more than 350 people had to give their lives. It seems like this had
been planned by the secret organization called W.P.O. which name will continue
to be unknown. The organizations president, Nave Ratsdam, or ‘Predator’ how
he calls himself, couldn’t be found yet. If you have any information about
him, please let us know. Here’s a photo of him.” Lia looked up and saw the
picture of a handsome young man with fair hair and light blue eyes. Suddenly a
crashing sound appeared next to her. Her mother breathed startled and Lia turned
around, obviously scared.
“Mom! What’s wrong?” she asked and looked down where the glasses had
crashed onto the floor. There where glass shards everywhere.
“N-nothing…I just had a cramp…don’t worry about it. And don’t touch
the shards, you’ll hurt yourself.” Carolyn said and Lia shrugged. Her mother
went into the kitchen to search for a broom. Lia got to her feet and knelt in
the floor.
“No, mama said to not touch them!” Charley said with her bright voice and
Lia smiled.
“Don’t worry, nothing is going to happen to me.” she said but just one
second later, she cut herself badly. There was a thick cut on her right palm.
Blood dripped down and made her sleeve red and wet.
“Oh…well, that’s not so bad how it looks.” she said calmly and Ian went
to her.
“Show it to me, maybe there are shards in the wound.” he told her and she
opened the hand. The deep cut was gone, just a few red drops remained. Lia
widened her eyes.
“What-…what happened?” she asked loudly and looked to Ian. He was as
astonished as she was.
“Are you sure you cut yourself?”
“Well yes, I’m pretty sure I did. Or am I now imagining things?” Carolyn
came in the room, a broom in the right hand and a plastic bag in the left.
“I told you to stay away from the shards Lia!” she said, still with this
strange tone in her voice. Lia moved and eyebrow.
“Nothing happened mom…well, you’re right. I’m sorry, I won’t do this
again, okay?” Carolyn nodded in her direction and started to clean the floor.
After she and Ian were done, they all sat down at the table and finally ate
their dinner.
“It’s really bad. These people from W.P.O. are seriously trying to kill
innocent human beings, but what for? They should be arrested in an instant!”
Ian said angry and cut his meat harder than necessarily. Lia ate quietly and
looked to her mom, who hadn’t said anything these past few minutes.
“What does killing mean?” Charley asked and smiled.
“It means ‘Making someone unable to draw pictures with wax crayons’.”
Ian said and calmed down. He didn’t want to be angry in front of this little
girl.
“I…I’m really tired. I’m going to take a cold shower and then go to
sleep. Good night.” Carolyn said and stood up. She took her plate and glass
into the kitchen, went back to give everyone a kiss on the cheek and then she
disappeared into the bathroom.
“Your mother’s right, today was an exhausting day. I’ll also go to bed
early. Could you please help Charlotte to go to bed Hilary?” Ian said and Lia
nodded in his direction.
“Sure thing Ian. Sleep well.” she said and took the remained plates and
glasses into the kitchen.
“Why are mommy and daddy so tired?” Lia knelt down to lift her sister up.
“I don’t know. They either are tired or they just want to be alone to have a
little fun.”
“What fun? It’s too late to go to kindergarten!” Charley said and Lia
thought about an easy explanation for what adults do when they’re alone in the
bed-room.
“They don’t go to kindergarten. They just do boring adult-things, you know,
like parking cars in a garage, or cutting bushes with a hedge trimmer or
something like that…” Charley looked a little confused.
“Adults do something like that?” Lia bit her tong, she nearly started to
laugh because of her stupid explanation. She cleared her throat and tried to
calm down.
“Yes they do. I, of course, never did anything like that. But if Mom and Ian
didn’t have done it, we wouldn’t talk to each other right now.” She said
and her speech was finished. Charley smiled.
“Now I understand it! Thank you!” Lia started laughing out loud. Now her mom
wouldn’t need to have the ‘Special-Talk’ when Charley would be grown up.
But it was a little early to talk about how the children came up, Charley was
only three and a half years old. She was glad the she wouldn’t understand it
clearly right now. She kissed her little sister on the cheek.
“But now we’re going to bed!”

The next day started with Lia oversleeping and being too late to have
breakfast.
“Shall I drive you to school?” Carolyn asked, because Ian already went to
work so he couldn’t take her to school as he usually did.
“No, it’s okay, I’m going to go by bus. The bus will arrive any second so
I cannot eat something. See you later!” she called as she opened the door.
“Don’t forget to take Charley with you after school!” she called but Lia
had already shut the door behind her.
She hurried to the bus stop, drove to school and arrived at the school building
just in time. Her best friend Tamyra-Lynne and her boyfriend Christopher were
standing next to a sign which said ‘East-Green State high school’ and looked
kind of bored. Mia saw Lia the second she arrived. She smiled.
“There you are! I already began to think about the words on your
gravestone…” she said and gave her best friend a big hug. Christopher
chuckled and kissed his girlfriend softly.
“No, seriously, why are you this late Lia? This is the first time in my life
that you were almost too late for school. I mean, what’s going on?” Lia
punched him at his arm.
“Don’t be ridiculous. It’s not a big deal. Please don’t act like I am
the holiest person on earth and that it’s a shame if I am too late for stupid,
boring school.” She said and rolled with her eyes. Mia looked to her watch.
“Oh, well, I don’t want to be the bad guy in this moving situation, but if
we continue talking about how holy Lia is, we’ll be late.” The other two
nodded and they went inside the building.

The first thing they noticed inside was another huge sign which said ‘Art
exhibition of Claire Ryan’. It was painted with red paint on a black
background so you just had to notice its presence.
“Look at this. Nerdy-Claire has an exhibition of art. What kind of art does
she produce?” Christopher asked sarcastically and Mia started laughing, but
Lia thought about his words and started to remember something.
“Claire is a pretty talented artist. She paints awesome paintings…” she
told them and looked to the sign more closely. Mia and Chris stopped chuckling.
“Why do you know that?” Mia seemed confused. Claire Ryan was known at this
high school for being shy, obliging and quiet. No one ever talked to her because
she seemed not interested in any kind of talking. She never smiled, never
laughed and never talked to anyone except the schools psychologist, Miss
Maybelle Nightcalm.
One year ago she moved from Ireland to America. For a new teenager in America,
it was obvious that she would be shy, but even after a few weeks, she still
hadn’t talked to anyone. Her class teacher sent Miss Nightcalm to talk to her
and as the rumors went on, it seemed as if she had some really hard problems
with her family, but nobody did know anything more.
One day after her art lesson, Lia had noticed that she and Claire had been in
the same art class. She felt sorry for her situation, so she decided to befriend
with her. Anytime Lia had asked her anything, her answer would be pretty short
and dry. After ten minutes, she had been tired of this, so she had sighed,
turned away and never talked to her ever since.
“I was in the same art class with her. I saw her paintings and they were
really good. Better than mine would ever be.” Mia smiled.
“Well, good for her that she has painting skills, but she still is an awkward,
weird and quiet person. She doesn’t deserve pity if she acts like that. It’s
no surprise if you ask me…”
“Come on, you’re being too hard on her. If she really has problems with her
family, you shouldn’t be that mean. I’m sure that she is a really nice
person. Probably just deep inside.” Christopher made a despising noise.
“It’s too deep inside. Her own fault for not being able to make friends, if
you ask me. Let’s go, I don’t want to be late.” That gave Lia more stuff
to think about. Was it really right to judge a person by his or her behavior or
appearance, if you didn’t know anything about her family or past? She sighed
and went silent as the three of them walked ahead to their classrooms.

The bell rang. School was finished, everyone walked outside to see off their
friends. One girl stopped walking and turned to the art room. Her heart was
beating as she opened the door. She looked inside: On each wall hung three or
more of her paintings. She smiled. It felt great to see these pictures in the
art room. Painting was her passion, she loved it and she lived for it.
Claire went inside and placed her bag on a near chair. She sat down at the floor
and closed her eyes for a moment. She could see her treasures even in the
darkness. Maybe the pupils would understand her better if they had seen her
paintings. Maybe they would feel  it like she did. Maybe she would finally be
able to make some friends.
But as she sat there on the cold floor, waiting for curious people who wanted to
see her exhibition, the minutes passed away.
After two hours of waiting, she stood up, her mouth a dead, straight line in her
pale face. Of course no one had come.
It was obvious. Why would anyone want to see my paintings? I’m the weird,
crazy girl with no friends and a season ticket to the school psychologist. I’m
nothing. Life would be better without me, it’s as my parents always told me.
I’m not worth it. 
“Pretty awesome, your paintings…” someone said. Claire turned around and
saw a girl with hazelnut brown hair and light blue eyes looking at her
paintings. She remembered the girl, she had talked to her one year ago when she
had moved to Arizona.
“You’re Hilary, right? Hilary Marchwind?” she asked nervously and the girl
smiled.
“Yes. Great that you remember me, I always wanted to be friends with someone
who could show me how to draw. It’s not that I cannot draw or paint, I just
don’t have the time to study it. Would you mind?” she asked nicely and
Claire started to smile, too.
“I would love to.” she said and grabbed her sketch book.
“By the way, call me Lia. All my friends call me that.” Lia said and Claire
smiled again. Would she finally be able to make a friend? She clearly wouldn’t
deserve it after acting rude to Lia one year ago. But she was relieved that Lia
decided to visit er exhibition today.

“And now you have to drive the pencil over the paper like that…finished!”
Claire clapped her hands.
“Well done! It really looks like a fruit bowl now.” Lia smiled.
“Thank you Claire.” She looked at her pencil-drawing.
“I think this will happen to be pinned at my fridge today! My first
progression in direction ‘Painter’” she said and chuckled. Then she looked
at her watch and made a surprised noise.
“Oh crap. I have to go now, my sister’s kindergarten is over like one hour
ago. My mom will be angry with me. I hope Charley is still there…See you
soon!” she called and took her bag. Then she ran out of the room, out of the
school and into the next bus. Claire took her own bag and put the pencils
inside.
Nice girl. I hope I won’t deter her…She could be my very first friend in
years… For the first time, she went home and smiled at her parents, even
though they were not smiling at her but at Savannah who just had come into the
living room. Savannah turned around when she saw her little sister running up
the stairs. She heard a door falling shut and then she sighed deeply.
“Why does it have to be like that Claire?” she whispered.
“Did you say anything honey?” her mother asked. Savannah turned around,
obviously surprised.
“No, never mind. Paige and I just finished this mission, and…”

Lia pushed the door to the kindergarten open and looked for her sister
anxiously.
“Charley, are you here?” she called and opened the door to the recreation
room. Charley sat on a small chair next to a strict looking woman.
“There you are Hilary! Where have you been? Charlotte nearly started to cry
when you didn’t arrive!” Charley ran to her sister and hugged her.
“I’m so sorry! I visited an art exhibition at my school and the artist
showed me how to draw beautiful pictures with pencils and…I’m really sorry,
this won’t happen again, I swear!” she said and hugged her sister back. 
“Well I hope so. See you tomorrow then.”
“Yes, of course.” Lia said and helped Charley to dress into her skinny
jacket.
“I almost thought that you would leave me here!” Charley said and sobbed
quietly.
“Oh, I would never do that sweety! Look, to cheer you up, why don’t we go to
the platform again? You loved the nice view, didn’t you?” she asked and her
little sister smiled.
“You would really do that?” she asked and Lia nodded while smiling.
“Of course. Now let’s get going!”
The two of them arrived at the platform above the river ten minutes later, when
the sun started to set. She lifted Charley up. The sun shone down to the water
and made golden spots onto it.
“Golden water! Awesome!” Charley called and laughed with her bright voice.
The sunlight went through her light blond hair curls and made them shine, too.
“I know. The most beautiful view in the whole town!” Lia said and laughed,
too.
“Oh I don’t know. You should look into a mirror. That view is very nice,
too, you know.” Lia turned around. This sarcastic voice sounded scaring
familiar. And when she looked around to see the person with this sarcastic kind
of voice, she didn’t want to believe her eyes. There he was: black, curly
hair. Muscular body, sarcastic smile and beautiful eyes. She snorted
doubtfully.
“It can’t be! You! We met yesterday, didn’t we?” she asked and lifted
her eyebrows. The boy smiled his usual smile.
“Well yes, we certainly did. Nice to meet you and your daughter again.” He
said and started laughing.
“For the last time! She isn’t my daughter you jackass, she’s my little
sister! And what was this stupid line about? That was disgusting!” she said
angrily. The boy drove one hand through his awesome hair.
“Well I didn’t say that to you. It was meant to be a charming little
sentence to your charming little sister.” He whispered and winked at her. Lia
crossed her arms and went nearer to look at his stupid face. The boy raised an
eyebrow.
“Hey, are you actually stalking me right now?” he asked with his sarcastic
grin and came nearer. Lia made a face.
“What are you talking about? Charley wanted to come here again and this is a
public park. Also, we only met once. So that’s not what you would call
stalking. Well, at least not what I would call it. I don’t know how you
interpret stalking, so…” she said and stared at him furiously. The boy
started laughing.
“It’s ok. You don’t have to freak out like that.” he said casually. “I
wasn’t-“ Lia started but she was interrupted because of her sister. Charley
ran to the boy, laughing, and flung herself into his arms. The boy seemed
surprised but also to not to mind that.
“Hey Jayden!” she said with her bright voice and embraced him tightly.
“Hello, little princess.” he said charmingly and patted her on her head.
Lia’s mouth went open.
“You told her your name?” she asked astonished and thought about the time,
when she had been three herself and her mom had always told her to not trust
someone you’ve only just met. The boy, Jayden, looked pleased with himself and
nodded.
“Why not? I like her, she’s cute.” he said and chuckled.
“But you could be some kind of child abuser or-“
“Oh, now you’ve hurt my feelings!”For the first time, she noticed an
unusual accent in his voice.
“You’re not from here, are you?” she asked and he looked kind of
surprised.
“You’re right. Actually I’m an alien of the ‘Strangers Race’ from a
distant world to kidnap every pubescent girl I met to reproduce myself.” Lia
sensed his kind of humor and rolled her eyes.
“I meant that you’re clearly not from America, are you?”
“Yeah, I’m from Australia. How did you know?”
“It’s your accent. It tells me that you’re not from America, that’s
all.” Jayden looked pleased with himself.
“Wow, you like my voice so much that you heard my accent out of it? You’re
either really ill or just a sweet little girl. Are you sure everything’s all
right with you?” he said and chuckled under his breath. And when Lia just
thought that he maybe didn’t was that bad of an ass, now she got her first
impression back and she rolled with her eyes.
“I’m sorry, but you don’t have to exert yourself just to hear if someone
isn’t from America.” she hissed and took Charley by her tiny hand. Jayden
said nothing, he just grinned. This grin was the worst smile she had ever seen,
so it didn’t make a big difference from his usual raunchy comments. Lia tried
to avert herself so she moved her gaze from his perfect mouth to his green eyes
and-
No she was much more confused. She was pretty sure that his eyes had been golden
yesterday, but today they were jade green. She came nearer and looked straight
to his face. His grin widened.
“Why don’t you just take a photo of it? Like that you’ll be able to stare
all night long at my face if it satisfies you.” he said and she blushed.
“I’m sorry but…your eyes were golden yesterday and now they’re green. Do
you wear some kind of colored contacts?” He laughed out loud.
“Are you kidding me?” he asked while laughing as hardly as possible. Her
eyes widened as he laughed louder and the people around them stared at them in
confusion.
“That’s not funny!”
“Yes it is.”
“NO!”
“Oh come on…” he said and grinned again. Lia didn’t know how much longer
she could stand his behavior.
“Hey, you already know my name. So why don’t you tell me yours?” he
suddenly asked and her gazed wandered straight into his face.
“No freaking way!”
“Why not?”
“Because I hardly know you. And besides, I don’t trust suspicious people
like you as fast as you obviously do.”
“You did it again!”
“What?”
“You hurt my feelings again! I think I have to run to the men’s toilet and
cry a few hours because I can’t stand your sight.”
“Then why don’t you just do us all a favor and do so?” she asked, more
currishly than she wanted to.
“Because you’re fun. Hey, Charley, why don’t you tell me her name?” he
asked and winked at the little girl.
“Her name is Lia.” Jayden chuckled.
“What a strange name.”
“It’s a nickname.” She really would lose her patience any second. But it
also seemed to amuse her a little bit.
“And what for?” She sighed. What big difference would it be, if one more
jerk in this earth would know her name?
“It’s Hilary.” His sarcastic grin turned into a friendly smile.
“Pretty name. Well, if you have a nickname, you should call me by mine, too.
From now on call me Jade!” Lia nodded silently. What could she have done
instead? Somehow her look had to be very amusing, Jayden started laughing again.
She had to smile, too. If he wouldn’t be that kind of an asshole, she would
like him a bit.
Jayden suddenly stopped laughing. His eyes widened. He seemed like someone who
had forgotten to take some very important medicine.
“Are you sure that my eyes are green?” he asked softly and looked really
serious. Lia didn’t know what to say.
“…yes?” Jayden seemed unexpectedly nervous now, he wiped away his tears
from laughing and cleared his throat.
“I have to go now…” was all he said as he turned away and ran as fast as
he could. This was clearly the craziest man she had ever met in her life. He
seemed like a jerk through and through but she kind of felt a little bit of
sympathy for him. 
After a few minutes, Lia woke up of her dreamlike state as Charley bit into her
hand.
“OUCH! Why did you do this Charley?” she asked angrily and looked down to
her sister. She had tears in her eyes. Lia felt panic rising in her veins. She
knelt down and drove her right hand across one of Charley’s cheeks.
“What is going on? Why are you crying?” she asked gently and hugged her
sister. She sobbed quietly.
“Do you think he hates me?” she asked with her bright voice and Lia sighed
nervously.
“No, I don’t think so. Don’t worry about it, let’s just go home, I have
to make me ready for practice. I’m sure we’ll meet this jerk another time
again.”

Meanwhile Jayden finally stopped running and looked up to a big building with an
iron-bar fence around it. It had been quite a long time since he’d been at the
Association. Lately he just didn’t feel to come here. He drew something like a
plastic card out of his shirt and drove the card through a silver card slot and
the door made of high iron bars went open.
He went to the building and silently opened the heavy wooden door. Jayden looked
around to see if someone was in the entre hall, but he didn’t notice anyone.
He sighed with relief and went to the first door on the right.
“What are you doing here?” Jayden shrugged and turned around. There was a
dark-haired boy leaning at a near wall. He looked quite interested.
“Evan,” Jayden said, “Do you have something left? I didn’t drink some
since last week…” The boy crossed his arms over his chest.
“No, I don’t have some. Did you go to Paige’s room to ask her, if she has
some left? Or did you have a different reason to come here since you don’t
like the Association?” Jayden snorted contemptuous.
“No, I didn’t have a different reason to come here. It’s just for the
blood. But why are you asking? You don’t come here often yourself, do you?”
He wanted to go to the door but Evan blocked his way. In these situations,
Jayden really hated god for making Evan taller than him.
“I don’t come here often because of my missions. They’re always abroad.
You, instead, are always in Phoenix. Come on, they’re your only family so why
do you act like that?” Jayden glared at Evan furiously.
“That is really not in your business. Move it and get out of my way!” he
hissed and pushed the taller boy aside. Evan shook his head and went to an iron
door to meet with his partner.

Jayden knocked twice and opened the door without waiting for an answer. There
was a girl with long blond hair curls sitting on a huge bed while reading a
fashion magazine.
“Hey, I’m back Peach! Do you have some blood left?” The girl shrieked from
the noise he produced.
“What the hell is going on?” she hissed and looked at him furiously.
“Don’t freak out. I’m just asking if you have something left, that’s
all.”
“You can’t just go inside people’s rooms, asking if they have some blood
left! Remember your mom teaching you manners?” The girl stood up and looked
taken aback.
“But first of all, were have you been? I fucking searched for you!” Jayden
looked pleased instead of frightened. He was used to her behavior if he had been
away for over two days so he didn’t really mind that.
“I didn’t want to come here. Some rooms are really disgusting. Have you seen
this young married couple which comes here often lately? Once I took the wrong
door and saw them while…never mind. Why are you always so angry when I return?
I thought you would be pleased to see me once in a while…”
“Jayden!”
“For you it’s Jade, but what?”
“Move on and get the hell out of my room! Don’t come back till you
understand where you belong!” the blond girl hissed and threw sharp things at
the boy. He ducked to get out of the way of a flying shear and ran out of the
room, laughing out loud. The door closed behind him.
“Come on, why are you always that unfriendly? You really should be happy about
my visit, Peach!” Jayden said and waited for a reaction. After ten seconds he
heard a damp loud noise, she had thrown her desk chair. Jayden just had to start
laughing again as he turned and made his way out of the living-part of the
Association.

When he arrived in the science-part, he saw someone with light blond hair
standing over a strange looking flower with six pink petals, on each petal a
small mouth. Jayden smiled.
“Hey Lewis!” The boy turned around, saw Jayden and then smiled, too.
“Hey Jade. What’s going on? Why are you here?” he asked and Jayden
smiled.
“I’m searching for someone who has some blood left. I really need to have
some. Do you…?” Lewis chuckled and nodded.
“There’s something left from the breakfast. While Evan was here today, his
partner wasn’t. You can have her share if you like.” Lewis was as friendly
as always. Jayden nodded.
“Thanks a lot! Where is it?” he asked as his friend pointed his head in the
kitchen’s direction. The boys went into the kitchen. Jayden opened a huge
silver refrigerator. Inside were nearly 500 little glass bottles full of reddish
liquid. There was a shelf with this day’s date. Two bottles were inside it.
Jayden opened it and took the one with an “H”. The other one, marked with a
“P”, looked untouched. His green eyes fixed the bottle.
“Why didn’t Paige drink her share? There is only one for each week, and
after so much time, the blood loses its effect on us…” Lewis sighed deeply.
“She didn’t want to. It’s hard for her when you’re not here. She enjoys
the time she spends with you, you may not notice it, but I think she could be
friendlier, if you’d just move in here.” Jayden seemed to think about that a
second. He shook his head.
“No, I like my privacy. Because of that I moved into my own apartment in the
first place, remember?” Lewis went silent. He thought about another thing to
say and even picked the right words but then he looked at his face more
closely.
“Look at your eyes! You really have to drink some blood now. They’re
completely green.” Jayden laughed softly. 
“I’m sorry. It seems I don’t have a green thumb but green eyes.” he said
and took the glass with the reddish liquid. Lewis made a face.
“That was so not funny Jayden!”
“Call me Jade!” was everything he said before he drank his glass full of
blood. He closed his eyes while drinking and when he finished, he made a
satisfied sound and put the glass down to the kitchen table. When he opened his
eyes, they were golden again.




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