Blood Land, J.R. Lawson [electric book reader .txt] 📗

Nora then rebutted, “Sometimes people have to change…to get stronger.  Sometimes people want to change…”

“I know,” Kale nodded as he glanced at Nora with the most sincere apologetic look she’d ever seen on his face. “And I shouldn’t force you to stay the same…if you want to change.  I’m sorry…for that.  If…if you want to be a hybrid…I’m not going to stop you.  Not anymore.  You deserve the chance to be what you want to be.”

Nora smiled at Kale as a sense of warmness fell over her. She was sure it wasn’t just from the fire in front of her but from Kale’s sincere words. “Thank you,” she softly spoke.

It was then quiet for several beats as the two of them sat, just watching the dancing fires in front of them. Nora shifted a bit as she pulled her knees up to her chest underneath the blanket and hugged them, debating in her head whether or not to say what she was about to say, “By the way,”  She suddenly found herself softly blurting, “It wasn’t healing…”

“What?” Kale asked for her to repeat herself as he suddenly looked back over at her.

“My ability,” Nora restated, “It isn’t healing.”

Kale continued gaping at her silently for a few beats not knowing what to say until he finally gained the strength to make his mouth move and he stuttered, “W-what is it then?”

Nora sighed and, lifting her head from the comfort of her knees, began telling him, “It was after I left Caroline’s house.  I had just gotten here, and found a bag of Will’s mom’s blood.  At least, some of her blood from when she was a vampire.  I knew drinking it would make me stronger and I had hoped it would make me strong enough to finally get my ability.  I was right, of course.  As soon as I drank it all I could feel it.  It was a surge of energy.  An ecstasy that was something I’d never felt before.  And I just knew…I knew that I had it.  I had my ability.  I just had to go test it out.  Find out if I really had the gift to heal.”

Nora paused to temporarily glance over at Kale who was staring back at her intently, absorbing everything she was saying to him.  She then continued, “Well, it was the next day actually when I had finally found a chance to test my ability.  I found a bird, lying in the snow, a cardinal I think.  It was badly hurt.  It had a deep gash running across its eye and it was bleeding badly.  I knew this was my chance.  I kneeled beside the hurt animal and put my hands on it and thought…healing thoughts.  I didn’t really know what I was doing or how to initiate the power but regardless, it didn’t work.  I even tried putting some of my blood into its cut but nothing worked.  I tried everything I could; I just couldn’t heal the poor thing.  I felt so defeated and disappointed, but most of all I felt so bad for this little bird.  I wanted so badly to help it.  I really did; even more than I had wanted the ability to heal.  And I found myself at that moment saying out loud that I was sorry to the bird.” Nora then paused for a moment as she looked back over at Kale who had seemed to lean in closer to her as he listened to her story.

“And that’s the moment when I heard the bird say back to me that it was o.k.  I remember being startled and wondering if I had really heard what I’d heard but I had!  The bird said again that it was thankful that I’d tried to help it and that was all that mattered.  Then it died.  I remember being so confused for a moment as I stared at its little body lying in the snow, that is, until I realized that I guess that this was my real ability.”

“So…you can talk to animals?” Kale then finally spoke after being silent during Nora’s whole story.

Nora shrugged slightly.  “I guess.  Or at least, I can understand them.  Communicate with them.”

It was then that Kale turned back toward the fire and leaned back a bit. “Huh.” Was all he got out.

“You think…this is a common ability?” Nora then asked.

“I don’t know.  I guess Caroline would be the only one who knows.” Kale responded.

“And Dagon.  And maybe…maybe because I can’t heal…he wouldn’t want me anymore?” Nora then questioned with a slight bit of hope in her voice.

Kale looked back at her sympathetically. “I don’t know.  We can hope though.  We can always hope.  Odds are we won’t be able to get out of a fight, but maybe at least we can convince him to let you go.  That’s something.”

Nora nodded.  There was a pause between the two of them again as Nora then put her chin back on her knees and turned her head away from the fire in front of her.  However, this time, she looked away from Kale and toward her front door and the long window that was next to it.  She noticed a house across the way from hers that had a few lights on in the inside.  She also then noticed a new set of lights being lit.  They weren’t lanterns, which would have been odd anyway for a bright moon night like this one, but they were instead, Christmas lights; all different colored bulbs that covered the edges of the roof and the frame of the front doorway.  Nora couldn’t help but smile as she looked over at them. “Kale,” she then found herself blurting.

“Yeah?” Kale answered as he looked over to where she was also looking.

“I think it’s Christmas Eve.” Nora’s smile grew as she then felt Kale scoot closer to her and wrap his arms around her shoulders.  She couldn’t break her gaze at the beautiful lights outside and how unaware she had been about what day it was.  All this running, and worrying about Dagon and everything had made her even forget that it was almost Christmas, but right now she didn’t have to think about that.  Right now, in this moment, she could forget all that and just look at the colored lights and listen to the crackling fire and feel the warmth of her friend around her.

It was then that the sound of Kale softly humming broke her from her thoughts for only a moment.  She smiled as she recognized his tune to be “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” and it didn’t take long before she started to join in.  The two of them then hummed as they sat, thinking about anything else but their troubles and Nora had really realized how much she had missed Kale.  She had known for sure that she had, when they hugged earlier, even though she had tried her hardest to repress it while she was away from him.  But right now, in this moment, she knew deep down just how much she had.  It was like a piece had been missing from her and she didn’t know it until it was back in place.  She remembered when she had once felt that way about Will.  However, she only wished that Kale felt the same way about her.  To him, she was just his friend.  Best friend, one that he admittedly missed, but still.  This fact slightly saddened her, but she soon decided to shake that from her mind. What did it matter really?  They were together right now, keeping each other warm by the fire, and she was glad to be near him, even if it was just as his friend. It wasn’t too much longer that Nora stopped humming and just listened to Kale as she felt her eyes beginning to get heavy and she found herself drifting off into sleep.

CHAPTER 46

“NORA, WAKE UP.”

Nora twitched a bit at the sound.

“Nora, wake up!”

Nora finally fluttered her eyes as the image of Kale’s face came into view.  She had completely forgotten that she had fallen asleep only a moment ago. “W-wha…what?” she stuttered, wondering why it was that she was even being awoken at this moment.

“I hear something outside.  I think someone’s here.  Come on, we need to get up,” Kale quietly but urgently instructed.  It took a second or two for the brain fog occupying Nora’s head to finally dissipate and she could finally understand what Kale was saying to her.  She quickly nodded. “Y-yeah, o.k.” she answered as she then attempted to get to her feet.  She looked around her and noticed the room seemed exceptionally dark, which she then soon realized was because Kale seemed to have just put out the fire that was next to them.  She looked at the last embers that were dying as a small amount of smoke rose from the burned and black logs.  Suddenly, however, she was pulled from her trance as she, as well, heard the sounds that Kale had just told her about.  She could hear voices talking nearby.  They were muddled slightly but she could make out two male voices and one female voice.

“What do we do?” Nora then found herself blurting to Kale.

“Come on, let’s sneak out the front.  It sounds like they’re near the back of the house,” Kale directed again as he then grabbed a hold of Nora’s hand and led her to the front door.  Nora felt herself blushing slightly at his grasp but, of course, tried her best to hide it.  They soon made it out to the front lawn and it was then that Kale let go of her in order to sneak around to the corner of the house and possibly spy on who could be there.

Nora watched him as he peered carefully around the side of the house.  Suddenly, however, he immediately withdrew and hastened back to where Nora was standing.

“Shit,” he cursed as he briefly looked over his shoulder in a state of nervousness. “It’s Aaron, Jay, and Kari.”

“What?!” Nora softly exclaimed, “How did they find us?”

“I don’t know, but we gotta go.” Kale wasted no time and grabbed Nora’s hand again and began to lead her further away from the house.  He only paused for a second to begin to remove his jacket and shirt as he then added, “Come on, climb on and we’ll get out of here.”

“Wait…what?” Nora then asked him as she watched him remove his clothing.

Kale suddenly stopped to look at her in a somewhat confused manner as he dropped both his shirt and jacket to the snow covered ground. “What are you confused about?” he then asked, “We need to leave.”

“You want to fly me though…” Nora commented.

“So…?” Kale responded somewhat confusedly.

“So…” Nora then scoffed slightly, “What about me?  Maybe I want to fly.  And…” she paused a moment before saying the rest, “I never said I was coming back home with you.”

“What?!” Kale argued, “But…I thought…”

“I said I missed you, that’s true,” Nora interrupted, “But I never agreed to come back with you.”

“But I told you things would be different.  I’m not going to hold you back now.  I promised.   You don’t believe me?”

“How can I?” Nora argued, “We’re right back where