NEWBORN: Book One of the Newborn Trilogy Read online

  Making a cup of my favored Twining’s Earl Gray, I sit at my desk and think, allowing my eyes a respite from the iPad screen. I sip my tea and ponder. My brain spins from Gatsby scenes to wondering where Gabriel is.

  We haven’t made plans to meet again, besides deciding we’d go vampire hunting. I assumed he’d show up again. I assumed he’d find me again in that magical way of his. Assumed we’d hang out.

  But it’s been several days since the beach – several days too long. Despite his arrogance and reoccurring disdain for Immags and perpetual hatred of vampires, I find his charm infinitely fetching. I picture him so easily swiping his blond hair to the side or grasping his wand in his carefree way.

  Closing my eyes, I set my tea on my desk, thinking. What if none of it is real? What if I’m insane or hallucinating? What am I doing spending my first Saturday away from home dreaming of the next time I’ll be hanging out with my wizard friend? I should be institutionalized.

  Standing quickly, I dash to my bed. Grabbing my backpack, I breathe a sigh of relief. It’s still weightless. Gazing inside, I see it’s empty. A stab of horror guts me. No wonder! Rushing to my desk I hug an armful of books and lift them from the shelf. Carrying them over, I drop as many as will fit into the backpack. Ready for the dream to end, I lift the backpack. It lifts with my merest touch.

  I flush with happiness.

  I’m not insane.

  Gabriel is real.

  * * *

  It’s evening and I’m walking around campus. The light is slowly dying, enveloped in the distance by the darkness over the trees abounding to the west. Evergreen has such a beautiful campus – tranquil, lush, and green. Making my way to Red Square, I walk slowly, enjoying the sights and sounds of late summer.

  The buildings here lend themselves to modernity, their curvaceous structures inspiring new pathways of thought and unforeseen revelations. Passing the college activities building, I glimpse the Daniel J. Evans library clock tower not far away, hanging over the campus like another moon.

  Food had been the original plan. Forcing myself to eat. But now that I’m out of my room, my thoughts consume me and I’m distracted.

  I reach Red Square – the center of campus. This is the first time I’ve seen the campus at night. It’s beautiful. The surrounding lights seem to echo off each other like the laughs and guffaws of inebriated students in the distance. But here – at the center of this world – I am alone. Happy to be so.

  I’m glad I came to Evergreen State College. The choice between Evergreen and University of Washington had not been easy. Dad pushed for UW – his alma mater. Mom pushed for Evergreen to slight Dad. I chose this because I wanted to live in a town not a city. I made the right choice.

  “I’m not leaving!” I say loudly to the empty square. Stretching my arms out wide, I twirl around, feeling my freedom. “I’m not leaving you, Evergreen! The next four years of my life belong to you! Please treat me well!” Dizziness assaulting me, I swing to a stop, panting lightly. Geez, I’m out of shape.

  “Shouldn’t you be making friends instead of talking to yourself?”

  I gasp the night air. Somebody is here!

  “Lord knows this place won’t have me for the next four years. Not for another year if I can help it. But I admire the commitment you just made… I’m behind you, Nora. Won’t you turn around and face me?”

  Frozen blood filling my veins, I turn around.

  Gabriel White is sitting on a wrought iron bench with his legs crossed and his arm resting across the bench. He smiles at me, his wand twirling in the fingers of his outstretched hand. “Surprised to see me?”

  I shake my head. “No – well – maybe a little.”

  “Thought you’d never see me again?” Gabriel asks, cocking his to one side. “Or – perhaps – wished it?”

  “It’s not like that,” I tell him, “I just wondered when.”

  “Couldn’t be soon enough, I imagine.”

  Geez, he’s so fucking full of himself. So fucking arrogant. “I’ll have you know,” I begin hotly, trying to sound convincing, “I wasn’t worried about when I’d see you next in the slightest. School and homework and friends – yes, friends, Gabriel – have kept me busy lately. I’ve been preoccupied.”

  “I see,” Gabriel says, his brow furrowing. “Well, that’s good.”

  “What about you?” I ask him forcefully. “Have you been making friends? If you’re so good at being social then –”

  “Of course not,” Gabriel answers, cutting me off. “Of course I’m not making friends here, Nora. I have no intention of making friends. My only intention is to murder those who are already dead.”

  The cold in his voice chills my heart. “Oh, I get it,” I tell him. “Vampires!”

  “Yes,” he answers, his face darkening. “Those monsters who define the abyss of creation. I will be their doom.”

  Tossing my hair over my shoulder, I sit down beside him on the wrought iron bench. Gabriel doesn’t withdraw his arm from behind me but leaves it there – claiming me – his wand still twirling amidst his fingers. Staring into the depths of an illuminated turquoise eye, I’m enraptured.

  “What?” Gabriel asks.

  “Don’t you think you’re taking this too far? This vampire vendetta of yours?”

  Throwing back his head, Gabriel laughs a high, dark laugh. “Never too far,” he says. “Never too much. There can be no quarter offered to those mutants of hell, those walking incarnations of evil. They must die. All of them. Every single one of them. The men. The women. The children. I will not rest until the job is done. I will not breathe until the job is finished. I will exterminate them, Nora.”

  There’s a manic quality in Gabriel I have never seen before tonight. His breath comes sharply, his words crisply, and his single, illuminated turquoise eye burns with strange fires. Looking off into the distance across Red Square, Gabriel swipes his blond hair to the side of his forehead.

  I’m struck by the majesty of his conviction. By the force of his hate. Gabriel is seventeen, blond, healthy, and beautiful. It strikes me as unthinkable this stunningly gorgeous boy can wish such destruction on others. Even if they are vampires. I don’t understand it. Can’t understand it.

  I change the subject. “What do you know about werewolves?”

  Gabriel looks at me in surprise. “Why?”

  I shrug, trying to look innocent. “No reason. Just curious, I guess.”

  “Not very much,” Gabriel answers, seemingly convinced. “We wizards and witches in the magical world view werewolves as primal and uneducated. They have no knowledge of magic. They are merely raggedy shape shifters, nothing more. No wizard worth his wand should have trouble killing a werewolf. Vampires and werewolves, on the other hand, are an even match.”

  “But then you’re saying,” I interject, “you should have no trouble killing vampires, either.”

  Gabriel nods. “In theory that’s true, but it becomes much harder when they’re in their own territory and outnumber you. Outnumbered and ignorant of his surroundings, a wizard can find himself in dire straits. That’s the scenario I’m in now. But I’m not giving up. I have a job to do!”

  “Do you like werewolves?” I ask.

  “They’re fine – reasonably harmless. I should like them.”

  “Why?” I push.

  Gabriel glances at me curiously but answers nonetheless. “Because,” he begins slowly, “werewolves are the sworn enemy of vampires. Long ago they decided it was their duty to defend the weaker race – humans – from the stronger race, vampires. It was a noble deed but a little silly – to declare it out in the open. Anyway, I share that with them – the desire to make ruin of all vampires.”

  I’m trying to process this all at once. “So wizards aren’t sworn to protect humans?”

  “No!” Gabriel exclaims, suppressing a laugh. “Why should we care about Immags? One of your kind put it very well. ‘Survival of the fittest’ he said. Immags are not the fittest. Neither are
the vampires or werewolves. Wizards are the fittest. I may inadvertently be saving Immags through my odyssey to release the soul of every vampire, but that’s not why I’m doing it.”

  “Why are you doing it then?”

  “I really, really hate vampires!” Gabriel says passionately.

  Daring myself, I follow up. “Why do you hate them so much?”

  I feel it – Gabriel’s whole body tensing beside me, from his torso to the outstretched arm behind my neck. Seconds pass in which I don’t allow my gaze to fall from his half illuminated face. Gabriel says, “I – I can’t tell you that.”

  Silence is the only speaker.

  He looks as though he’s blushing in the half light. I feel embarrassed too, though I’m not sure why. Gabriel has a way of making me feel self-conscious no matter what’s happening. It’s his gift.

  “Let’s go to the beach,” Gabriel says.

  I’m startled by the authority in his voice, by the lack of a question in his tone. He isn’t asking but telling. “What – now?” I ask incredulously, waving around at the lamp lit Red Square. “It’s nighttime and dark. Who knows who’ll be there at this hour? Anyway, I don’t have a flashlight.”

  Half of his grin is illuminated. “Duh!” He holds up his wand. “This instrument and the power to use it come with advantages. Light whenever needed is among them. Let’s go to the beach.”

  “But!” I splutter, “what if there are thieves or bandits!”

  Gabriel roars with laughter, freeing himself to mirth. “Thieves!” he guffaws. “Bandits! What is this, the Wild Wild West?” Gabriel twirls his wand in his fingers before laying it on my palm. “The ultimate weapon,” he says quietly, nodding to the wand. “The ultimate destroyer. Nothing is so harmless and so deadly simultaneously, nothing so awe-striking and mundane. Behold the ultimate tool.”

  “If you say so,” I reply, smirking.

  He gives me a sidelong look and then smiles, revealing his wondrously white teeth. “I see,” he says to me. “But being wrong is something I’m not accustomed to. So we’ll say no more about it.”

  “Fine,” I agree.

  Jumping to his feet, Gabriel pulls me up with him. In the light of a nearby lamppost I see he’s wearing robes of aquamarine. Turquoise eyes shift down to where his wand is clutched in my hand.

  He asks, “Do you want to learn magic?”

  Awestruck, I stare at him. “I can’t possibly!”

  “You can,” he interjects. “Just follow my instructions. Hold it straight… that’s it,” he says, cupping his hand beneath mine and adjusting my hold on his wand. “Now, slowly repeat after me – Lumio.”

  “Lumio,” I say, feeling silly but reveling in the electric sensation seeming to grasp me from the wand up.

  Don’t fuck this up, my alter ego chimes.

  Shut it, I tell her.

  “Well done,” Gabriel says. “Do it again, but this time close your eyes and imagine you’re in a dark place. Then imagine you are blinded by light of your own creation. When you imagine the arrival of the light, say the word. Got it?”

  “I think so,” I tell him.

  Gabriel backs away. “Go ahead then.”

  Screwing up my face, I close my eyes and concentrate on being lost in darkness. Then I’m blinded by light. “Lumio!” I shout. I wrench my eyes open to be blinded by the light emanating from his wand.

  “Excellent!” Gabriel says, taking the wand back. “Excellent work, Nora. That was impressive – for an Immag.”

  “Why do you say that all the time?” I ask him, surprising myself with how furious I feel all at once.

  He looks confused. “Say what?”

  “Putting Immags down all the time,” I answer. “Putting me down all the time. You’re always acting surprised to find I can do anything at all. To find out Immags can do anything. We’re not useless lumps.”

  Gabriel looks as though he’s suppressing laughter. I wait for it to pass. “My apologies,” he says seriously. “I’m genuinely impressed is all. I wasn’t expecting you to be able to do it. Or let me rephrase that,” he says in response to my furious expression, “I wanted to see if you could do it.”

  “Why?” I ask harshly.

  Gabriel is grinning, a sight making it hard to stop my face from splitting too. He’s so cute! “Few Immags can do magic,” he explains. “Most couldn’t even do that simple spell. No Immag can do the harder spells, but some of the simpler ones – like Lumio – you can achieve. You did just now. I find that fascinating. That’s a big deal, Nora. That means that you could possibly – well…”

  “What?” Excitement is pumping through me. “Means I could what?”

  “Nothing,” he says. “Forget I said it.”

  “I can’t!” I exclaim. “I can’t forget everything you say! Or even anything!”

  Gabriel shakes his head. “It’s useless.”

  “Why is it useless?”

  Gabriel looks in the direction of the clock tower. “Let’s go to the beach. If you come without complaint I may tell you.”

  My impatience aside, I feel this is a fair bargain. I shouldn’t have to worry about thieves or bandits, being with a wizard. He should be able to keep the worst of foes at bay. We begin making our way to the library and the tree fringe behind it, beyond which lie the many paths to the beach.

  “Will you tell me now?”

  Blinking at me in the light of his wand, Gabriel looks resigned. “You’ll only wish I hadn’t told you,” he says.

  “I’m fine with that.” Actually, I’m unsure whether I’m fine with it.

  Closing his eyes, Gabriel pauses before opening them. “Then I’m fine with telling you, but you’ll wish I hadn’t. I – I was about to say the minimal aptitude for magic you displayed means you may have the ability to become a low level witch.”

  I nearly have an aneurism of happiness. “No way! I’m so –!”

  “You’re right,” Gabriel responds.

  Surprised, I look over. “What?”

  “You’re right,” he repeats. “There is no way. It can’t happen. Once upon a time it could have. Now it’s illegal.”

  “What?” My heart is falling through my chest. “Why?”

  “The Puridites,” he answers. “The Puridite Party has held sway over the Bureau of Magic for two decades. They’ve changed everything. No witch or wizard may enter into marital or sexual relations with an Immag – it’s against the law. No Immag may attempt to learn magic – that’s also against the law. If you were to walk into the enrollment office at Magasant they’d arrest you on the spot. They’ve done it before.”

  “But why?” I ask desperately. How quickly that dream died. “Why won’t they let me learn magic?”

  Exasperated, Gabriel swipes his blond hair to the side of his forehead. “The Puridites – at the core of their beliefs – think magical people and Immags should be kept separate at all costs. They’re afraid if we mix with Immags our blood will become diluted and impure. That we’d become weaker at magic because of it. Remember I said the number of magical people in America is declining more than other places? This is why – because we’re not interracially marrying Immags.”

  I shake my head at the thought as we pass the library and head into the forest. “That’s so depressing,” I say.

  “Further still,” Gabriel says, continuing to rant, “Europe and Asia will have our academia beat soon! Magasant School of Magic is considered the second best school of magic in the world. It has an enormous endowment and is well respected. But with respect for the BOM – that’s the Bureau of Magic – at an all-time low and our numbers declining drastically, we’ll soon be outmatched.”

  I ask with interest, “what’s the best school for magic in the world?”

  “The best, most widely respected school of magic in the world,” Gabriel begins, “is in Scotland. I did a year study abroad there. Frankly,” he says, grinning over at me, “I think having that study abroad on my resume did more than anything to get me my j
ob at the Bureau of Beast Control.”

  “What’s it like? This school in Scotland?”

  “Wonderful,” Gabriel says dreamily, gazing off down the path to where his wand light illuminates our steps. “It’s enormous – twice the size of Magasant. I was stunned by the history and majesty of the place. I’m fond of Magasant, but I’m sorry to say it doesn’t compare. Their school is a castle. Magasant is a fortress. Probably to keep the Immags out,” he adds disapprovingly.

  It’s strange to think the warm, fondly reminiscing boy beside me is the same who promised death to all vampires only half an hour ago. Now he seems innocent, his boyish charm filling me with glee and making me feel the wonders of a faraway land.

  “Can I go there?” I ask him. “To Scotland to learn magic? Would they have me?” I can hardly keep the nervous excitement out of my voice.

  Turquoise eyes gaze in my direction. “They might. There’s no telling. They don’t have the same rules barring Immags, but you have to show a certain amount of ability to get in. I wish you didn’t have to consider the idea. I wish you could go to Magasant and do whatever you want in your own damn country!”

  His force surprises me. “It wasn’t long ago,” I begin, “you were asking me why magical people should care about Immags. Yet you seem to care about us. You seem angry about the way your Bureau of Magic is handling things.”

  “Well, I am,” Gabriel says, sounding angrier still. “This isn’t just about Immags. The Puridites have it wrong about everything. If we don’t start interracially marrying, the magical community in America will die out. It’s in my self-interest to see magical people and Immags co-inhabit the world better, I swear!”

  I stifle my giggle.

  “Okay,” I say.

  And I take his hand.

  His body tenses around my hand. “What are you doing?”

  “Holding your hand,” I tell him, smiling innocently at him. Nerves are eating me from inside out. “What does it look like I’m doing?”

  Stopping short, Gabriel pulls his hand free – not sharply, but determinedly. The turquoise of his eyes – usually so revealing – are telling me nothing. His expression is impermeable. “You astound me,” he says.