Redshift by Ashlynn Chantrea (free ebook reader for ipad .txt) 📕

at the sisters, still huddled together. Rain was in the middle with one arm around each sister’s waist. Meadow and Zephyr each had an arm around her waist as well, apparently holding her up.

“I don’t think she has the strength to teleport us again.” I answered.

“Not yet.” Rain qualified.

“We can’t wait for you to get your strength back. We have to keep moving.” I told her.

“I know.”

“Maybe if you fed.” Laney suggested softly.

The three sisters hissed in unison. The whole group looked uncomfortable for a moment before they went back to searching for clothes. I noticed the sting at the back of my throat become more pronounced. It didn’t hurt but it annoyed me. It was a constant reminder of something I didn’t want to think about yet. I pushed the thought from my mind and went back to searching.

Laney sighed again as she went through the rack of women’s shirt.

“You all right?” I asked her.

“I was never one to blend into the crowd.” Laney explained, “I was all about anti-conformity. Before.”

She didn’t have to expound on what she meant by before. We all knew what she was talking about.

We all changed into new, non-descript clothes. I put on jeans and a plain gray long sleeved shirt. I went to the mirror outside the dressing room and looked at myself.

I couldn’t stop the disgusted sound that ripped from my throat.

Laney was next to me in an instant.

“What’s wrong?” She asked.

I motioned to myself in the mirror, “That!”

She looked at my reflection, confusion coloring her features, “You look fine.” She said reassuringly.

“I’m too…handsome. I can’t blend in with a face like that!”

The store filled with muffled laughter. They all found my outburst very amusing. I scowled at the mirror.

Laney rushed away and was back a second later. She handed me a black ball cap and large bug-eye sunglasses. I put them on and sighed. It was no use. Even in a hat and sunglasses that covered half my face, the beauty was still noticeable.

“You worry too much. Anyone ever tell you that?” Laney said, nudging my shoulder with hers.

“This was never something I had to worry about before.”

“I’ll bet you were cute.”

“If by cute you mean nerdy, then yes, I was cute.” I replied, smiling. I studied her features for a moment, “You must have been gorgeous.”

She laughed, “Not even a little bit. This,” She gestured to the mirror, “is a marked improvement.”

I noticed that everything had gone silent. The group was standing together on the far side of the store, watching us. I wondered what we had done to make them stare at us. It must have been my outburst earlier. I shrugged it off.

We moved quickly off to London. We located a sports bar that had wi-fi. To avoid trouble, we climbed up on the roof to use their signal. Once settled, I got to work on the laptop. I located the passport office and booked the earliest flight to the U. S. available. We broke in to the passport office and doctored our documents. It surprised me how easy I found it to bypass the security and work the equipment in the office. In no time, I had printed our new passports. I gave us all brown eyes on the paperwork, trying to make it easier for Bianca.

We found a store open that sold luggage. We could have broken in to some place that was closed but I didn’t want to get used to stealing if I didn’t have to. I had Bianca test her theory out. No one noticed our unusual eyes. To avoid suspicion at the airport we all bought carry-on bags. Mine was a backpack that I stored the laptop, sunglasses and hat in. Laney picked out a brown suede leather messenger bag. She bought a book, a brush and a wallet to put in it. I suggested to the others that they buy things for their carry-ons as well. Bringing an empty carry-on was more suspicious than no luggage at all.

We went back to the bar, hanging out on the roof to wait for it to be closer to our flight time. Hector paced uneasily back and forth.

“What is it?” I asked.

“There’re too many people. I can’t think straight.” He said in a panicked tone.

I breathed in deep through my nose. I could smell them too. Suddenly my body became aware of the warmth below us. The sound of heartbeats moved to the front of my focus. I quickly pushed it to the back of my mind.

“How long has it been since you last fed?” I asked, directing my question at all of them.

“Couple weeks.” Pim said.

“Same for me.” Laney said.

“Little more than a month.” Bianca offered.

“A couple months.” Hector said.

“Never.” The sisters said together.

I stared at them, confounded, impressed and fascinated.

“Never?” I asked.

“We refuse to hurt people,” Rain said defiantly. “Even if it means our own demise.” Zephyr continued. “We value life too much to take it needlessly.” Meadow finished.

“None of us like killing people.” Laney said defensively.

“If there was another way to survive, we’d do something else.” Bianca added.

“How long have you been vampires?” I asked the triplets.

“Three months.” They said as one.

“Three months with nothing? Is it possible to starve?” I asked, consumed in my curiosity.

They shrugged.

A part of me really wanted to see how this experiment would go. Could they go indefinitely without blood? Or would they eventually die of starvation? How long would it take for a vampire to starve? Could they hold out forever or would the instinct that took over when blood was near eventually take command of the body? And was that something to be concerned about now?

“We’re going to be on a plane full of people. Is this going to become a problem?” I asked, looking around at all of them. I knew I could control myself but they might not be able to control themselves like I can. I really didn’t want a plane full of people massacred if I could avoid it.

“No, it won’t.” Bianca said with confidence, “Give it a second and you’ll see how that burning sensation fades away into a minor itching. No worse than allergies.”

Everyone relaxed. They could control it if it was just a little irritation at the back of their throats. I wondered why she didn’t get rid of the feeling all together for them. But I would save that question for another time.

The flight was, thankfully, uneventful. We made it through security and customs without any hassle. Bianca’s talent worked, camouflaging our unusual eyes. People did stare at us frequently, though. No one seemed scared or anxious about us. They seemed admiring and awestruck.

We boarded the plane and sat in first class. I had thought the red eye flight to New York would be pretty much empty and we would have some privacy. We weren’t completely alone, there were a few beating hearts seated around us. And I hadn’t thought about the flight attendants. They came by frequently and offered us drinks and food. Out of curiosity I accepted the meal. Everyone else declined. I tried the roasted turkey, remembering that I liked it when I was human. It was awful. It was something like what I imagine clay would taste like and about that consistency. My friends watched me with a mixture of fascination and horror.

“It was worth a shot.” I said after I finished the one bite. I didn’t take another. When the flight attendant asked after me, I informed her I wasn’t hungry after all.

Once in New York, inside the airport I pondered how next to act. It was daylight outside. We were safe inside, I didn’t worry about the indirect sunlight. But what would happen when we went out into the sun? Should we wait for the sun to set before leaving? I wasn’t sure but I didn’t like the idea of staying in one place for so long.

“Is anyone else worried about being directly in the sunlight?” I asked them quietly.

“We won’t burn up or anything like that. But if the sun is shining, we will attract attention.” Pim informed us.

I looked out the windows. We couldn’t rely on the clouds. They were light and sparse. They might provide shade for a few minutes when they passed in front of the sun but most of the day was going to be sunny.

“Any suggestions?” I asked Pim.

“Hats, sunglasses, scarves, hoodies, long sleeves, gloves, leave nothing uncovered. We’re lucky it’s cold outside. We’d look really weird all covered up in the middle of summer.”

We went to a gift shop in the airport to buy hooded jackets, scarves and gloves. Once we were bundled up, we set out into the city.

We walked at an annoyingly slow, human pace. It felt unnatural to move this slowly. It was like we were trying to mimic the slow motion you see in movies. It had to be hilarious to watch. But no one seemed to notice our pace. Although people still gazed at us as we walked by. I heard them as we passed by, talking about us like we couldn’t hear them. They whispered about how beautiful we all were, how hot we looked, how sexy…and then I couldn’t listen anymore. It was inane babble and too distracting. Hector, Bianca, even Pim seemed to like the attention, smiling to themselves.

“I always wanted to come here.” Hector said, his tone full of regret.

“I don’t see the appeal.” Bianca confessed.

“It was my dream. I was going to move to the big city, become an actor, make a name for myself. I was going to be somebody.”

Bianca bumped him lightly with her shoulder, “You are somebody.”

He smiled but shook his head, “I would have liked to see my name in lights, though. Take the stage and hear the applause.” He said dreamily, “I suppose that’s what I’ll miss most. What could have been.”

Such things had never appealed to me but I had my own regrets. Things I wished I had had the chance to do. I felt bad for him. At least I had lived a part of my dream. I had made it through school, started my career. It was short lived but I had done it. They all had been cut short, never given the chance to actually become who they were supposed to be.

“What do you think you’ll miss the most, Bianca?” Laney asked.

“I suppose I miss knowing what to expect. Everything was so clear before. The path was laid out in front of me. I’d go to college, figure out what I wanted to do, start a career…have a life.” She sounded nostalgic.

“What about you, Pim?” Laney said softly.

“I miss sleeping…dreaming. I used to have the wildest dreams. I don’t really remember any of them but I remember how they made me feel. It felt like I could do anything, be anything, like the world was full of endless possibilities.” He answered.

“Girls?” Laney said without looking back at the triplets.

“Grandma Lou.” They said together in one voice. Rain said, “She took care of us,” Zephyr added, “taught us about magic.” Meadow continued, “She loved us.” Then they spoke in unison, “Hope she’s okay.”

“I miss my parents too.” Laney said sympathetically. “I know they’re going crazy right now, trying to find me. I’ll always wish I had spent a little more time with them while I had the chance.”

I wish I felt that kind of connection to my family. It wasn’t that I didn’t care, I did. I thought about them and the friends I had before. But I wasn’t so despondent at the thought of being without them. I guess that makes me kind of unfeeling but I never meant to be. At some point I realized that my life was no longer dependent on my parents, my life was my own. I had work to keep me occupied, to keep me fulfilled, happy. Even though I knew I’d never see them again, I couldn’t find it in me to feel deeply depressed by the idea. I felt bad that they would never know what happened to me. I felt bad that they would cry