*
I pulled into Sue’s driveway a few minutes later, thrilled it was clear of snow. The high walls of snow on either side would also help the Hyundai from being seen from Drake’s house down the street. I couldn’t remember if Sue was supposed to be home today or not. The library was open every day of the week and I hadn’t lived with her long enough to even know if she had a regular schedule. She usually kept her car in the garage, so it was a bit of a gamble. The Mustang sat parked right where I left it, still buried under a foot of snow.
I turned the key in the lock and pushed the door open slowly. A sniffed the air and caught Sue’s familiar scent mixed with coffee and bacon. With a sigh, I walked in the door.
“Good morning Vicky,” tinkled a cheery voice from the kitchen. “How was Lauryn’s?”
“Oh, it was great,” I said. “I’m super tired, but I have a ton of homework today.” I walked in to find her sitting at the table in her bathrobe, the Sunday paper spread out across the table.
“That’s a shame, I was going to see if you still wanted to go to the movies with me.” Her face fell slightly, but her smile remained. “No bother, I can still go.”
“Wait, you’re going to go the movies alone?” I had never done anything alone my whole life until a few weeks ago.
“Yes, Vicky, I do things alone all the time. I go to the movies, go out to eat, whatever. When you’re single and older, your friends don’t always have time to do things. But with no children, I can do whatever I like. It’s nice.” She got up and patted my coat as she walked by, heading to the coffee maker with her cup. “Take off your coat and stay awhile.”
“Oh, yeah,” I said as the hunger hit me again, my nostrils assaulted with her scent. “I’ll be right back.” I darted up the steps and flew into my room, shutting and locking the door behind me. Pulling the refrigerator key out of my purse, I quickly unlocked it and within seconds had downed three bags of O positive. Yum. I dropped onto my bed, suddenly tired, but knowing I had to get back to Drake and Monty. The two bags of blood might be enough to satisfy Drake for a few minutes, but I drank two whole people the first day. I grabbed the other cooler I had and loaded it up, leaving myself a few bags to last until tomorrow. If I was eating for two, I’d really have to start ramping up my collection. There was no way I could get all I needed from Bartlett’s Urgent Care Center without people starting to ask questions. I’d have to find a few more places to go blood shopping.
I stripped off my stiff and stained clothes. Another outfit ruined. I needed to keep a tab to give to this Steve the vampire master guy for all the clothes I kept ruining thanks to his stupid vampire henchmen. I balled them up and shoved them into a plastic bag at the back of my closet.
After a quick shower and a fresh outfit of jeans and a fitted tee shirt, I returned to the kitchen to play niece for a few minutes before running out the door again. I grabbed a bowl out of the cabinet and filled it halfway with Cheerios and headed to the fridge where I pulled out the half gallon of milk and splashed some on top. I slid into a kitchen chair and grabbed the entertainment section from the paper.
“What are you going to see?” I asked, absently flipping through the pages.
“Oh, this new vampire movie that’s out.” She pointed to the review at the top of the page. “It got great reviews.”
I choked on my Cheerios and nearly dropped my spoon. I glanced at her nervously as she took a sip of her coffee.
“That sounds nice,” I said, folding the paper to the comics with my free hand.
“Aw, crap, is it already noon? I’m supposed to go to this kid Monty’s with Drake so we can work on our English project.” I jumped up and dumped the leftover milk in my bowl down the drain before stowing the bowl in the dishwasher.
“Have fun, I’ll see you later,” she said and grabbed the front page.
After returning to my room to grab my purse and cooler, I threw my copy of Dracula into my purse, hoping it would make me feel somewhat better about always lying to Sue. I hadn’t really been the best fake niece since I’d arrived. But what had I really expected? The more I thought about it, I couldn’t really stay here forever. Someday I’d have to move on, and with Drake possibly joining me in a new state of being (well, it sounded nicer than death, anyway). I wondered if it was going to be sooner than later.
I backed the car out of the drive and wove carefully through the still slippery streets. I took one corner a little hard and almost put the Hyundai into a snow bank. My phone buzzed in my purse and I fumbled to grab it. The screen flashed with ‘New Message’ and I clicked a button to open it.
Hurry. We got problems.
It was from Monty. I hit the gas, not caring if I slid around corners, just wanting to get to Monty’s as fast as I could. Images sped through my mind. Was Drake awake? Was he having Monty as his first snack? I slid onto Monty’s street and pulled up along the curb, or rather, along the giant snow bank that topped the curb.
My hands shook as I rang the doorbell. I tried to compose myself before the door opened and Monty’s mom appeared.
“Well hello hon, you must be Vicky. The kids said you’d be coming soon. That must be some English project you’re working on. Monty said you kids might be in the basement all day,” she said, holding the storm door open for me to enter. She was a smaller, more feminine version of Monty. Shorter, but still stocky like her son, she sported a short, spiky blond hairdo and wore plenty of eye makeup over her obviously fake-tan. Her skin glowed an unnatural orange-brown, disappearing underneath a leopard-print sweater paired with black leggings. Monty clearly didn’t get his hippy ways from her. I wrinkled my nose at her scent— liver, cabbage, yuck.
She mentioned kids. Was Lauryn back? I hadn’t paid any attention to if there were extra cars outside. But then again, I wouldn’t have recognized Lauryn’s car anyway.
She led me down the hall through the kitchen and to the basement door. Clearly Monty hadn’t mentioned I’d been here last night and knew how to get down there.
“Oh, here are some snacks Monty had asked for.” She grabbed a tray off the table with chips and salsa and freshly popped popcorn, along with some cans of pop. “I’ll just carry it down.”
My eyes widened at the thought of her discovering what lay on the couch in her basement.
“No, that’s okay, I’ll get that.” I grabbed the tray and headed towards the door. “I’m going down anyway. Thanks for the snacks.” I started down the steps and heard the door shut behind me. I let out a sigh of relief and tried not to fall down the stairs while balancing the food on the tray. It wasn’t heavy; it just required some concentration to keep everything on top. I didn’t notice until I’d turned the corner into the basement that it wasn’t just Monty and Lauryn waiting for me. I nearly dropped the tray as I realized Ernie and Callie were sitting there as well.
“Uh, oh, hi guys.” I stammered. They all stared at me. The room was silent for a moment. I set the tray down on the wooden coffee table with a hollow clunk. Ernie and Callie looked at me in awe. Lauryn and Monty, on the other hand, looked sheepish. “I see they told you what’s up?”
A collective sigh went up over the group.
“We were going to wait for you, but they showed up and, well, we just had to tell them.” Lauryn twisted her hands in her lap.
“And?” I asked, looking at Callie and Ernie. I noticed Callie’s eyes were ringed with pink, as if she’d been crying. Her normally warm skin tone was blanched white. Ernie looked the same as always, just a little more concerned.
“He hasn’t moved yet.” Ernie gestured to the couch where Drake lay.
“I just can’t believe this,” murmured Callie, twisting a piece of her blond hair around her finger.
“I couldn’t either, but here I am,” I said. I threw my purse and coat over a wooden bar stool that stood at the basement bar and then walked over to Drake. I lifted up the b
lanket and dropped it with a gasp.
“What?” They all said collectively, with Monty and Ernie jumping to their feet.
“Look.” I pulled the blanket back, hoping it was true and I wasn’t just seeing things. Drake’s stomach, once a gaping wound of blood, muscle, and possibly some organ meat was slowly healing. The rough edges of torn skin where the branch had entered were smooth and the hole was half the size it had been after Bianca’s attack the night before. A light purple bruise had risen up along the edges but faded as I watched. The skin continued to stretch and heal, first turning pink and then fading to his normal skin tone. The hole grew smaller and smaller, the bruise traveling along the outside and disappearing until the hole began to knit itself together. The skin moved slowly, creating a seam that again turned pink, then white, the color of an old scar, and then faded back to normal.
“I think it’s safe to say I was right about him coming back. Who’s the big winner? Yeah, that’s right.” Monty sank back into his chair, grabbing a handful of popcorn and tossed a few kernels high in to the air, catching them in his mouth.
“Seriously?” Callie threw a balled up napkin at him. “This is not the time to be right, idiot.”
“Oh no? Because I think the alternative was that Drake dies. I’d much rather be right and he’s alive, no matter how it happens.” He grabbed another handful of popcorn and a can of Pepsi.
“Do you have a pair of scissors down here? I’d like to get this gross shirt off him. If he wakes up and sees this giant bloody hole, he might freak out.” The shirt was stiff to the touch from all the dried blood.
“Oh, like he’s not going to freak out that he’s now a vampire? How much longer do you think it’ll take?” Ernie asked as he headed behind the bar, fishing a pair of scissors out of a drawer and handing them to me.
“Thanks. I don’t really know. It could be today, it could be a couple days. The fact that he just healed makes me think it might be sooner.” I carefully snipped up the front of the shirt and through the hole, continuing up his chest. The skin underneath was taut over his well-defined abs, devoid of all scars from the attack. I had never seen his unclothed body before, so I wasn’t sure if this was how he always was or if the perfection of vampirism was affecting him. I pulled away the shirt to reveal a chiseled chest, muscular, but not gross and bulky. It fit him perfectly and made him that much hotter.
“Oh my god, has he been working out?” Lauryn asked, trying to see around me. “I don’t remember him looking so, um, fit over the summer when we were at the pool.”
Monty and Ernie got up to inspect.
“What the…no, that’s not right. Dude didn’t look like that in gym class last week. Just his usual skinny self.” Monty looked down over his body. “Is that some kinda vampire thing?” He looked me over. “Were you this hot, um, before?”
“Monty!” Lauryn jumped up from her seat and punched him in the arm. “Who asks that?” She added a slap to the back of his head.
“I don’t know. No one that knew me has seen me since I changed. I think I looked pretty much the same, but my skin is better and my eyes are prettier. And I don’t think my hair always looked this good before.” I absently touched my hair with one hand while I stuffed the bloody shirt to the bottom of a garbage can behind the bar.
“Your hair is really nice,” Lauryn said. “But at least now I know why, so I don’t have to be jealous.”
I covered Drake with the blanket, drawing it up to his neck and plopped down on an ottoman across from the couch.
“Can I just ask how you guys are okay with all of this?” I looked around and shook my head, bewildered at the group that sat in front of me. Four people who knew what I really was and hadn’t shunned me. They hadn’t lit the torches and chased me out of town. But why? How could they believe any of this when I could barely believe the story myself?
“Because as hard as this is for me to wrap my brain around, it’s so much better than the alternative.” Callie’s eyes filled with sadness. “I’m willing to believe anything as long as it’s not that one of my best friends is gone. Dead. So is that what happened to you? Do all your friends think you’re dead?” She sniffed.
“Yeah, my family too.” I looked away, not wanting to cry in front of them. “At least Drake can continue to live with his parents, go to school, be normal except for this.”
My thoughts were broken by a loud gasp, like someone who had been drowning drawing their first breath of fresh air. Drake’s body convulsed on the couch and then stopped just as suddenly. His chest continued to move, rising and falling once again.
The room exploded in activity as everyone jumped to their feet and moved back from the couch.
Except for me.
Drake’s eyes fluttered and struggled to focus on anything and everything. I sat on the couch next to him, clutching his hand, partly to comfort him and partly to be the first line of defense if he was blinded by hunger and tried to go after someone.
“Drake, Drake, everything is going to be fine. Can you focus? Can you see me?” I kept my voice low and soothing.
His eyes fluttered once more and stayed open, drinking me in.
“You…what happened?” He muttered, his voice scratchy. He looked around in confusion.
“Hey Monty, can you bring me what I left here this morning?” I spun my head and looked at him with wide eyes, hoping to ward off a very bad situation. He ran behind the bar.
“Coming right up.”
I could see Drake’s face as he struggled to take it all in. It pained me so much to have to share with him what was now going to be his life, but secretly my heart soared, knowing that he was alive, well, alive-ish and I wasn’t going to be burying him in a grave somewhere, left alone and cold under the ground as I had been. And now I’d never be alone again.
“Oh my god, what is that smell?” Drake murmured, his eyes looking dreamy as he glanced around the room. “Who’s barbecuing?”
“Monty!” I shouted.
“Coming right up!”
I turned to find him next to me, a tall red plastic cup in his hand. “I thought it might be easier in a cup.”
He handed it to me and I pushed him gently back, trying to keep him out of Drake’s reach.
“Drake, I need you to sit up and drink thi…” I didn’t even get a chance to finish my sentence before he shot up into a seated position, clapped his hands over his mouth and cried out. It then faded to a whimper and his eyes met mine, full of fear.
“Lauryn, Cal, take Drake’s keys and go out and grab the other cooler I left on the front seat.” I motioned to my purse in the corner. I figured I’d spare them and Drake the drama.
“I’ll help you,” Ernie added, following them up the steps as fast as he could.
“Not me, man. I’m staying here with you.” Monty folded his arms over his chest and looked worriedly at Drake. “I’ll get another cup ready.”
“What’s happening to me?” Drake shouted through his hands. I set the cup down and turned to him.
“I was attacked. Do you remember?”
He shook his head and stared at me with wild eyes, the blue now eight shades more brilliant than it had been before. They were a glittering Caribbean sea, cool and crisp, yet inviting. I slid one arm behind his back and one across his tight stomach, making sure my grip was secure. I couldn’t have him bolting. “You tried to save me and took a tree branch to the stomach. I almost lost you.” My eyes welled up as the realization hit him.
“So I’m, I’m…” His words failed, trapped behind his hands.
“You’re like me now,” I whispered.
His hands fell away from his face and one traveled to mine, his fingers tracing my cheek and resting on my neck. His eyes softened, taking me in as if seeing me for the first time.
“Like you? Forever?”
“Forever.”
I reached back and gr
abbed the cup, knowing I had to get the blood in him before he couldn’t focus on anything but the hunger.
“Your mouth is going to hurt the first few times your teeth come out. After awhile, you won’t even notice it.” I kept my voice low and soothing. I reached over to the cup and handed it to him. “What does it smell like?”
He wrinkled his nose and looked at the cup, but closed his eyes and took a deep sniff. “Enchiladas, chicken enchiladas to be exact. Rice, steak, oh my god it smells better than anything I’ve ever smelled.
“Hurry up and drink it.” I pushed it towards him. He sipped it lightly first, and then gulped it down greedily.
Monty returned, a filled cup in his hand. My hand shot out to grab it before he could get too close. “Hey man.” He paused as Drake paused and took him in, glancing around at the surroundings in confusion.
“Dude, he knows?”
“They all know.”