Chapter 06
Tina sat on a coffee-brown sofa, leaning on the fluffy pillows, in a comfortable, spacious room with light-yellow walls. The same UV-protection on the window as was at Damon’s house allowed sun to light the room and caress the oak shelves that were lined across the wall. There was even a plasma TV hanging on the wall to her right.
She watched Muriel, who sat at the edge of a light-yellow couch close to the sofa. He hugged his knees and bowed his head, the black bangs hiding his face like he was too ashamed or embarrassed to show it. She wanted to reach out, to touch him, but she remained seated, deeply inhaling the smell of oranges studded with cloves that were in the glass bowl on a side-table to the left of the sofa.
Haniel sat beside Muriel, his hand slid over the curve of Muriel’s back, then around Muriel’s waist as he leaned his head on Muriel’s shoulder. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not.” Muriel’s voice was a low murmur. He hadn’t even looked up.
“Yes, it is.” Uriel, dressed in tight, washed-out jeans and an olive polo shirt, leaned on the couch’s arm. “It doesn’t matter if you can’t contact Mom, as long as you can feel her, it’s okay.”
Tina rested her hands in her lap. She could still feel the echo of the tickles from Muriel's gentle exploration of her mind, when he had used small tugs to call Trinity, who hadn't answered. That had upset Muriel, made him curl on couch like it was his fault, which of course it wasn't. If it had been only Muriel and Haniel, she would probably have tried to find consoling words, but every time she opened her mouth, Uriel looked in her direction, his cold green eyes scrutinising her. How could she even think that those eyes were similar to Damon's warm ones or that they had the same calming effect?
She hung her head, rubbed her temples and asked herself what she was doing here. Now, without Trinity’s voice to calm her fears, she felt alone and uncertain of her future. Had she been like that before Trinity? So insecure and lonely?
Probably, especially after her grandmother’s death. She just hadn’t been aware of it.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” Tina looked up, not really knowing who had asked her that. Haniel, probably.
“You look troubled,” Haniel said.
“Well.” Tina shifted on the sofa, tempted to tuck her legs underneath her, but since she was guest -- a guest who would become a servant -- a gesture like that would look rude. “You brought me here because of Trinity, and now that she’s not present... I just don’t know...”
“Haven’t I made myself clear?” Uriel lifted his eyebrows. “You are to be our domestic helper.”
Tina furrowed her brows. Yes, she had heard Uriel say something like that to that angel-thing at the lab, but she couldn't wrap her mind around the image of herself dressed in one of those maid outfits and running around with a vacuum cleaner or feather duster. Not that she minded cleaning; in the past whenever she was upset she calmed herself with scrubbing floors or cabinets. “What does that mean?”
“That you will be our servant; we are the only household, beside Numuns, here without an Aradma to take care of our home.” Haniel smiled. “But it will only be for show, since there’s no way Uriel is going to allow you near the laundry room or the cleaning supplies. He’s pretty anal about how things should be cleaned. He’s not satisfied until they are just so, and only he is able to do it perfectly.”
“So what will I do then?”
“I don’t know.” Haniel combed though Muriel’s black bangs before he straightened himself, his arm withdrawing from Muriel’s waist. “What do you want to do?”
“Go home.”
“That will be the first place Damon will check.” Uriel crossed his arms. “That’s out of the question.”
“I know that... It’s just...” What was she supposed to do among a bunch of guys she didn’t know? Even if they did seem nice -- well, at least Haniel and Muriel did -- with threat of Damon and of that Fallen hanging over her… Tina bit into her lip. She just wanted to go home. “I would hate to burden you.”
“You will never be a burden to us,” Muriel finally spoke up. “With Mom or without her.”
“Yeah. Mom brought you here, so you are ours now,” Haniel added. “You can stay with us forever.”
“If you want to, that is.” Muriel gave her a shy smile.
“You two are too nice.” Tina gave them a small curve of lips. “But what about the angel-thing; I still have to come to her whenever she demands.” She frowned and looked at her wrist where a small puncture wound still marked her skin, though it shouldn’t have, not with how quickly her body seemed to regenerate itself lately. “And she took my blood -- wouldn’t she be able to see that I’m related to Trinity?”
All eyes glanced toward Uriel.
“Of course not. You are not Trinity’s direct descendant, and even if you were, certain markers on the Y-chromosome pass unchanged only from male to male, not male to female or female to female,” Uriel explained. “And if there was slight chance that she could see that connection in your blood, I would manipulate it.”
“Like you did so that she couldn’t see that Damon is the one who made me into that waiting-thing?” Tina leaned forward, her eyes on Uriel.
“It's Aarsa Tiyaat, not a waiting-thing.” Uriel readjusted the simple jersey headband that held his black hair away from his face. “Yes, the concoction that I gave you hid Damon’s mark, but not for long. I’ll have to contrive something that will erase Damon’s signature for the long-term and replace it with Haniel’s.” He tilted his head. “Unless you agree to let Haniel change you into Aradma.”
Tina’s eyes widened. To become a servant, psychically and physically tied to her Master, addicted to him like a junkie addicted to drugs -- at least that was how Trinity described the Aradma's tie with his Master. “No, thank you.”
“Too bad, it would save me a lot of time.”
“Uriel, stop teasing her.” Muriel stood up. “She doesn’t know you like we do, she might think you are serious.”
Uriel lifted his brows. “But I am serious.”
“Don’t mind him.” Haniel stood up, too. He crossed the small distance that separated them and offered her his hand. “C’mon. I’ll show you your room.”
Tina took it and allowed him to pull her up and across the room. A set of doors led to an anteroom and the kitchen with dining area, but he led her past the door to the stairs.
Haniel guided her across a dark hallway, toward the far door at the end of the hallway. He opened it, revealing a small room with a single bed, a nightstand and a wardrobe, everything in shades of baby blue. “Muriel and I went and bought some clothes for you. I hope they will fit you. And also some accessories that you girls need.” He scratched his nose. “But if there's something missing, just tell us and we'll get it for you.”
“Thank you.” Tina nodded and went to the window, where she adjusted the blinds to hush the light that poured into the room.
“Well, I guess that's that. Ah, there's a small bathroom behind that door.” He pointed at the panel door beside the wardrobe. “If you want to take a shower or something.”
“Great, thank you.” Tina turned toward Haniel; her socked foot rubbed her calf.
“Well.” He flashed his teeth. “You should rest now, and maybe in the evening, if you are up to it, we could play some games or spar. How good are you with a sword?”
#
“You don’t think, do you? Sometimes I wonder if your brains are just for decoration.” Uriel's voice was even and his face blank as he stared down at Haniel. His katana, the blunt side, pushed against Haniel’s throat, before he removed the blade with an elegant arch.
“Why are you being such a bitch to me? You are never like that to Muriel.” Haniel pouted, the tip of his kodachi digging into the dirt of the training ground hidden behind the house and divided from the small garden by a row of cypresses.
“Because you don’t listen otherwise.” Uriel hung the katana on the loop attached to his belt. “You are not bad -- how could you be when I’m the one training you? -- you are just too reckless. It’s time for you start thinking your actions through and stop relying only on your instinct.”
“You are still behaving like I’m a child.” Haniel went to the low fence that framed the sandy ground and where his black leather jacket lay over the steel bar. He picked up the jacket and put it on over the red T-shirt with black images on its left side. “It’s because I’m the youngest one, isn’t it?”
Tina, leaning on the fence, wrinkled her forehead, her brows almost touching the plastic of her sunglasses. Haniel was the youngest one? Wasn’t he older than Muriel? She looked at the boy, who leaned on his elbows on the fence beside her. “Aren’t you the youngest one?”
Muriel tilted his head and gave her a small smile.
Tina closed her eyes and listened, but when she couldn’t hear anything beyond the ambient noise outside her eyelids fluttered open. “I can’t hear you, I’m sorry.”
“Try harder.”
Her shoulders slumped and she sighed. Did she really have to? She closed her eyes again and focused on the darkness behind her eyelids, on the small grey and white dots that danced on the blackness. In the two weeks that she had spent in the Dumes’ company Muriel had tried to strengthen her bond with Trinity and to instate the telepathic link between Tina and them. He had succeeded, but only twice.
She could hear a distant whisper, but without Trinity’s presence she couldn’t make out the words. It was so easy to connect with Muriel when Trinity was awake, which to the Dumes’ disappointment had only happened five times. She opened her eyes. “I can’t. I mean, I do hear you, but it’s too quiet and incomprehensible. Just tell me.”
“Yes, I’m the youngest.” Haniel with his hands around the steel post jumped over the fence. “He just looks like he is, because he refuses to grow up and become a full-fledged Bloodeater.”
“You can do that?”
“Yeah, we can do that.” Haniel pushed his sunglasses higher on his nose. “By not eating. If you don’t eat, you don’t grow up. Something to do with digestion.”
“Only you or all the Bloodeaters?” Tina never saw them eat, even when Uriel cooked or baked one of his culinary masterpieces she was the only one who ate, so she assumed that they were the same as Damon. And also... she never really occupied herself with that thought, but Damon was a purebred, that meant that at some point in life he had been a child, hadn’t he? She gazed at Haniel. They had been children, too? Well, Muriel still was, and Haniel looked like he was coming out of puberty.
“I don't know. Numuns can do that, too, but for the others....” Haniel shrugged his shoulders.
“The Damned can't, while the Lost's purebreds can.” Uriel came closer, he gestured to Tina to get into the ring. “It's your turn now.”
Tina's shoulders slumped even lower and she suppressed the urge to whine. Sparring was slightly more entertaining than Damon's daily exercises, but at least there, whenever she wasn't in the mood, Damon just took control of her body. Here she was subjected to Uriel's cold eyes and lectures. She knew that it was important that she learn how to defend herself in this 'society' -- actually until she did and until the foul tasting potion, which Uriel mixed for her every morning, conjured up the false trail of Haniel's blood in her system, they had asked her not to leave the house. Something about her safety. But activities involving sweating had never held any interest for her, and she doubted that would change any time soon. She always regarded herself as a spectator, not as a player. “I don’t have the equipment.”
“Muriel, could you?” Uriel turned toward the boy, who nodded and rushed toward the house.
Tina climbed between the steel posts into the arena and under Uriel’s supervision stretched her body and warmed herself until Muriel brought her bokken. At the first lesson she had also wanted some protective gear, armour or something, but Uriel had refused, saying that she was already slow as it was, and that he was too skilled to accidentally hurt her. She took the bokken from Muriel.
“Hurry up. I don’t have all day.” Uriel already stood in the middle of the training area, with his legs apart and katana in his hand.
“I’m coming.” She strode toward him.
“On your guard.”
Tina put her feet together, her elbows slightly bent, the tip of her bokken at eye level, aiming at Uriel.
“Do a Twirl with Half-Cut, continue it into Thrust, and end with Diagonal High Cut. I’ll block you.”
Tina nodded and with both hands on the hilt twirled the sword over her right shoulder, behind her back, then struck forward. The wood hit the blunt side of Uriel’s katana. She pulled back into the start position then brought the hilt against her left hip. With her right leg she lunged forward, aiming the bokken at Uriel’s neck.
Uriel’s katana again blocked her sword.
She returned to the start position.
The sound of a telephone.
Uriel frowned and put his free hand into the pocket of his black jeans, gesturing for Tina to continue.
Tina took a step forward and lifted the sword over her right shoulder so that it was parallel to the ground, the tip pointing away from her.
Uriel frowned, his focus seemed to be more on what the person on the other end was saying, than on his and Tina’s training.
She brandished her sword down and left.
Uriel parried her blow, then after she returned to the start position, he leaned his katana on his hip for a second, so he could raise his hand and with his stretched forefinger make a circle.
She repeated the routine, trying to be faster, make her movement smoother, advancing on Uriel, who still talked on the phone. With her raised bokken over her shoulder she swung the sword down.
“What?” Uriel froze; his hand lost its grip on his katana. The blade fell on the ground.
Tina eyes widened, she was going to hit him. Something that even Haniel couldn’t do. Yes!
Uriel caught the wood with his hand with such apparent ease. “Now?” He didn’t look pleased. “Yes, will be ready in fifteen.” He closed the phone and pocketed it. “Prva wants to see us.” His gaze slid over Haniel and Muriel and ended on Tina. “Tina, too.”
Prva was the Damned’s leader, Tina knew that much. She had also learned that Prva was Abbas’s daughter and Angelica’s sister, even though how Abbas and Angelica could be related was beyond her. “Why does she need me?”
“I would like to know that, too.” Uriel released the bokken and picked up his sword, which he attached to his belt.
They all went back through the house to the house’s drive where the slick, silver Mercedes Executive already waited. Uriel, Muriel and Tina climbed into the car, while Haniel got on his bike and joined the two motorcyclists that were behind the car.
“I’ve heard quite a lot about you.” The small woman with short, white hair sitting on the beige leather moved to the window and patted the spot beside her.
Tina sat beside her, noticing woman’s greyish, thin skin and the claws. That was Prva. Tina’s heart should have started to race in her chest, the uneasiness showing through the pumping adrenaline, but no, she felt as calm as if she sat in the living room, watching TV.
“Angelica told me Haniel has claimed an Aarsa Tiyaat.” Prva wrapped her hand around Tina’s wrist, her talon slicing the skin.
Tina flinched. Her eyes found Muriel’s, who turned back in the passenger seat to give her a smile that told her, ‘it’s going to be all right’. She shifted away from Prva, her side touching Uriel’s.
Prva’s hand released Tina. She licked her claw, then tasted drops of crimson red, looking like she was trying to feel the blood with all her taste buds. “She tastes familiar, but I just can't pinpoint whose she is. From whom did Haniel steal her?”
“I'm not exactly sure,” Uriel said.
“Liar.” Prva clicked her tongue before she focused back on Tina. “Aarsa Tiyaat. So precious.” Her thumb caressed Tina's cheek. “I can make you very powerful, would you like that?”
Goosebumps appeared on Tina’s skin. She looked sideways at Uriel whose face tensed. “I... Aren't I Haniel's Aradma?”
“Yes. But since he hasn't turned you completely yet, if you tie yourself to me, you can become my Beliya. Father knows that I have too few of them as it is.”
“Erm...well...” Tina slid with her finger over the cut that had already started to close.
“She’s Haniel’s. He already claimed her,” Uriel said.
“I’m not going to steal her from Haniel.” Prva leaned back on the seat. “Not without the girl’s consent.”
“I’m sorry, I...”
“You heard her.” Uriel leaned his elbows on his knees, his gaze on Prva. “Now, tell me why you are meeting Damon and why you need us with you.”
“He’s offered me an hour with Father, in exchange for an hour with you, Uriel.” Prva flashed her fangs at Uriel. “I was expecting his retribution for your unauthorised attack, thinking how I’ll have to punish you, but I didn’t expect that. It seems that I’ll have to thank you for braking into his Italian house and making a mess out of it.”
Damon, she was going to see Damon. Tina bit her lip, not really knowing how she felt about that.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“For you, perhaps not. I heard that he’s missing something, and he’s not pleased.” Prva turned sideways, her eyes zoomed to Tina. “I assumed that you are the missing something, but your blood doesn’t taste like him. Too bad. I might be able to exchange you for Father if that were the case.” Her gaze slid to Uriel. “So, what did you take from him?”
“Nothing,” Uriel said.
“Then why would he offer me an hour with Father to talk to you? He has never expressed any interest in you, let alone offered me as good an exchange as this.”
“He probably just wants to have a father-to-son talk.”