"A Glass of frozen blood." The gentleman sitting in front of her said. He could have been twenty years or a hundred, and yet she could not tell.
Akana plastered a smile on her face before she turned around to get the red vile drink from the freezer. Six years ago, this could have just been a human bar, and the gentleman could have asked for a cognac or a vodka, but six years ago, the situation had changed.
Before that, the humans, the werewolves, and the vampires lived in separate places in the town and had their own clubs and restaurants. Even longer before that, the vermin used to live in secret, hiding their identity because of the abomination that they were. Even longer before, they used to hide to avoid being hunted and killed. Only humans lived in the tasin realm. Tasin had always belonged to humans, and only humans, but then that collision of tasin with some other planet had turned things around. Mutated species had entered the earth, and they had been keeping their presence hidden for over a century.
In that period, the mutation had affected even the humans, and so Tasin had changed. If that planet had not collided with Tasin, then Akana could have just been a dainty girl in high school who could not lift a crate. But now, due to the mutation, she was among the few humans whose genes had been mutated long before she was even born. Now, at fifteen, she could lift a man twice her size and throw him into a wall. Added to that, Akana also had a love for violence. It was the only language she understood, and she was always in the underground fights. Not to earn money just to let her hate out.
The mutation brought by the vermin who were now allowed to walk free had made him different ever since he was a child, and for being different, she had killed her own mother at birth because she was never meant to give birth to a mutation.
By the time Akana had been born, the regime had just passed equal rights for all species. The vermin had been lighting low for decades, and they had finally given birth to many vermin enough to start a motion. Of course, the human had pushed back, and the vermin pushed back, and there had been a war. A war that lasted for eight years, and at the end of the eight years, of course, the leaders of the species had to make a deal, and the rule was that any adult of all races who killed another species would be executed.
So then there was peace. How laughable? Peace at the cost of standing on equal ground with the vermin who did not belong to Tasin.
"A large wine glass or a small one?" Akana faked a smile, but all he wanted was to pull her blades from under the table and stab him in the throat and bleed him dry. The war that had lasted three years had taken his father away, and even though his uncle had taken over the role of a guardian to protect her, he was too busy running the club, and when she was not selling the fangs some red juice and the wolves some cognac, she was busy raising herself.
Uncle Leka never cared much about raising a girl when he never married and treated her as if she were already grown. As long as she was not dead, she was fine. She did not hate his way of parenting because she had grown to love being left to run wild and wreak havoc.
She had just turned fifteen and was in the second year of high school, yet she had been suspended twice. It's not that she got into fights easily, nor did she look for them, but the dainty females and normal boys had a habit of standing in her way and sometimes making comments and calling her a freak. Humans with mutations were only one in a million, and in Loka City, she had not met anyone apart from an older guy who had lost his mind and just lifted heavy loads for people without complaining.
Well, when they called her a freak, they should not have expected her to be so kind. The only thing that had not changed in Tasin was the fact that teenagers and kids of every species went to a high school of their species. They did not have a school for the mutated humans because they were so few in every city that they were basically a sore eye. She, although being human, had ended up being discriminated against and never being able to fit in.
"Hey freak, why don't you join a wolf school? Maybe you can fit in." The popular boy had tried to make a joke out of her, and it was only necessary to carve out his face to teach him a lesson. It was only natural that if your parents didn't teach you manners, then Antena could. He needed to be brought down a notch, and well, you shouldn't mess with a girl stronger than you.
The principal did not even say anything when he called her to the office, and he only called Leka in advance, who did not even care to know more. He just shook his head and muttered a 'not this again' as if he wondered if the principal had run out of means to tame the girl. It did not seem that she would be allowed back into the school again, and she did not care. What could studying even get her? She was not convinced that the false unity between the species could last for long. The vampires hated the wolves, and the wolves loathed them. The humans who were smart like her despised both species, and they knew that the peace could not last.
Someone had to give the fragile alliance the little nudge it needed so that the war could finally break out. She strongly believed she was the one to give the nudge to break it. The three species could not survive together. She could either make the vampires and wolves fight each other till they were extinct or just start a war that could decide which race could survive. If it was not the humans, so be it. A clear winner, however, was needed.
That is why, as she handed the glass of animal blood to the man sitting in front of her, she added a few drops of her recipe she had been devising. It was not enough to kill the vermin, but it was enough for her to cut him into small pieces and lay them out for the sun to kiss when morning came. The sun, of course, could not kill a healthy vampire, but if one was cut into minced meat, then that was a different story.
Perhaps the only reason she had been born was to start a war, and she was not going to fail. It is not like she could be executed since she was a minor. The rule only applied to adults, and she had just turned fifteen. She had three years ahead of her with no consequences, and she could use those three years to do what everyone had failed to do.
"Enjoy yourself, sir," she smiled, handing the glass over to the unsuspecting vermin. She watched him take the first sip, and her lips lifted in a cruel smile.
Time to die, vermin.
As not to get deeper, and so she upped the dose. The dose was strong enough to make a normal human being, but the vampires and werewolves were stronger, and the only reason the humans even still stood a chance was just because of their numbers, which was double that of both species combined. Even so, the numbers were higher than they should be. Another decade and they would be the ones ruling and sucking people dry.
She was only helping as usual, so when the man exited the pub, she just followed him stealthily without his knowledge, or that was what she thought until he turned around when he entered a certain dark corner. She had been following him, jumping from roof to roof, using her unusual strength to hang onto roofs before she finally descended and started walking behind him.
"I could smell your blood because you were too excited. Do you fancy me and want me to taste from your veins?" The gentleman he was was now gone, and in his place was a hungry monster.
"You wish!" Akana snapped. "You should say goodbye before I kill you." Akana snapped, drawing her two curved, small blades out.
"You should have brought bigger blades if you wanted to kill me," the man said, not even turning around and completely unfazed by her outburst.
"You will be dead soon, no need to worry about the size of my blades," Antena said, and she did not even see the man move before he was in front of her, and with one shove, he was sent into the opposite wall. Her back hit hard, but she did not flinch. She had been thrown around before in the underground pits, yet the man was still too strong.
"How are you able to move?" Akana spat her voice filled with venom.
"Because I did not drink any of your childish concoctions. I drink blood, remember, and blood has a distinct taste," the man said, and Akana noticed her hands shaking.
"What did you do to me?" Akana panicked. "You wouldn't have…"
"I did not think I would find such entertainment in such a small town, yet here we are," the man said as if he were in control, and Akana hated it and hated him. "If you want to pick a vampire to kill, why don't you go and wait outside the vampire pubs and wait for the weak one. Or are you too weak?" the man said, squatting in front of Akana, who had lost her ability to stand and fell to her knees.
His hand shot out, and he held her by the neck before pulling her close. He must have been one of the oldest to be able to hypnotise her so much so she took a little of what was meant for him without noticing.
"You blood smells good," the man said, and Akana could feel fangs on her artery scraping softly. This was the worst possible thing that could happen, and she would kill herself if the fangs punctured her. She felt fear amid her hate, and she loathed one other person in that moment. Herself. For being weaker than most of the two species, even though she was mutated. "I'll let this slide only because you entertain me." The man pulled back, finally, and said those words as if he were amused.
"Don't fail me then," he chuckled before disappearing in a blur.
That was so humiliating. Was all the antenna could think of.
I hate it. I hate it. I hate it!!!
Someone was going to have to pay for that.