Unafraid by Michael Griffo

rise in his cheeks. Professor Chow and David were talking about him? Relaxing, he loosened his grip on his notebook, but kept his arm draped over the page. He was excited, but he still understood the need to keep his notes concealed from David’s prying eyes. However, he hadn’t yet learned to keep his thoughts from David’s prying mind. “So what’s this Atlantium?”
    Shocked, Ciaran involuntarily glanced at his notebook. The word he had written down was being blocked by his arm, there was no way David could see it, unless he had some crazy X-ray vision. Maybe he did; Ciaran had no idea the extent of their powers. The only other alternative was that David was reading his mind. If that was true, David must have also discovered that Ciaran didn’t think anyone other than a water vampire would ever be able to locate The Well.
    â€œOh that, it’s just the ... um, name I gave to the gene I found,” Ciaran explained.
    Folding his arms in front of his massive chest, David nodded. “I like the sound of it.” He knew that was all the recognition Ciaran needed to make him offer a more detailed explanation. And he was right.
    â€œIt’s really an anomaly, not even natural as far as I can tell,” Ciaran said, fully aware that he was rambling, but fully unable to stop himself. “Like I said I’m doing some tests on it, but it’s not like I can create a gene on my own. I’m good, but I’m not that good.”
    â€œOh I wouldn’t say that at all,” David interrupted. “I wish I had a brain like yours. Genes, elements ... Atlantium, it’s all Greek to me.”
    Laughing along with David, Ciaran just couldn’t keep quiet. “Plus I don’t really have the resources for an experiment that advanced and unless I can do that I don’t think I’ll be able to find The Well.”
    The second the words tumbled out of his mouth, he knew they were not the words David wanted to hear. Perhaps he had said them deliberately. Ciaran knew after the incidents that had taken place during The Carnival for the Black Sun that David’s main desire was to locate The Well in order to destroy it, and if he succeeded, what would that mean for his family? Could Ciaran really help David in this endeavor that had the potential to destroy an entire race? For the longest time he had tried not to think about it, he had tried to convince himself that there could be other outcomes, but the more he thought about it the more he knew there could be only one devastating consequence. Regardless of how abandoned he sometimes felt, he couldn’t betray Ronan, his mother, and everyone else. Could he? Staring into David’s powerful face, feeling the hypnotic pull of his eyes, he wasn’t sure. The only thing he was sure of was that being in David’s company felt right and he didn’t want to be tossed aside and ignored yet again. “There’s always Saoirse.”
    â€œYour sister?” David asked. “What exactly do you mean?”
    Like Pandora after she lifted the lid, Ciaran realized there was no turning back. “Saoirse is an untapped resource,” Ciaran began. “You know she’s the child of two water vamps and still human.”
    â€œYes, of course, doesn’t everyone?”
    Swallowing hard, Ciaran continued. “Then you must also know that she possesses incredible strength and unrealized abilities.” Ciaran paused to keep his voice from shaking, but David nodded for him to carry on. “She might be human, but her blood isn’t, it’s scientifically impossible. Something must be preventing her from evolving into the creature she was born to be.”
    Resting his chin on his clenched hands, David absorbed Ciaran’s information. “Yes, Chow was right, you’re a regular Einstein,” David commented. “Even if I could think like you can, I wouldn’t know what to do with all that