Chapter 15-Mom
Well that was a disaster, I thought collapsing back onto the bed. I waited on pins and needles for my door to burst open and my mom to storm in grounding me for life, but she never showed. I was a terrible daughter for assuming that was the first place dad would go after our conversation, but I couldn’t help it. Draven came out and kept me company while I jotted down my portion of the eulogy for Jett. Nothing I had written so far summed up the wonderful person Jett was. His bubbly personality, willingness to help and the loyalty that he showed us on a daily basis was something I felt could not be put into words. I kept wading up my chicken scratch and tossing them into the trash bin until things began to blur together making it difficult to write even one word. It was nearly midnight when I finally finished.
I got ready for bed and hunkered down underneath the covers waiting for sleep to overtake me. I had just drifted off when a loud ding shocked me back awake, my phone. I picked it up, checked my newest messages and my stomach turned. It was Cole. I had managed to shove him out of my thoughts and now, here he was again, making me think about him. “Do you have time to talk?” he asked. “No,” I replied. “Not for you.” His response came quick. He must have been using his high-speed vampire fingers, if that was even true. “Come on Callie, we need to talk about this. I can’t lose you.” I took a few minutes to respond, the longer I made him wait and suffer the better. “You already did and there is nothing you can do about. Please just lose my number. Haven’t you caused me enough pain?” I got no response, but I hadn’t expected to and it wouldn’t have mattered anyway, I had made up my mind.
“Who was that?” Draven asked sensing my mood change.
“You don’t even want to know,” I groaned. He didn’t push the issue, probably because he already knew who it was.
“Are you okay?” he asked putting an arm around me.
“Yeah, I think so. It still just sort of stings ya know?”
He laughed. “No, I don’t know, but I will sympathize with you anyway.”
“Sorry,” I said hanging my head low, “I didn’t mean to imply anything.”
“No, its okay,” he said lifting my chin. “I dated a few people in my world, but I never found anyone that I was very interested in. It just never felt right.”
“So you haven’t found anyone you have strong feelings for?” I asked hesitantly, hoping and praying that maybe he might just say yes, for me. He opened his mouth to speak when a rustling noise from the closet drew our attention. “Viale must be hungry again,” he said grimacing.
“Guess I better feed the beast,” I said with a forced laugh. My stomach knotted up at the sight of him as he slipped out from behind the door and slithered my direction. I held out my wrist before he was even halfway across the room and shut my eyes. Draven squeezed my shoulder reassuringly and I was enormously grateful to have someone here with me during this awful situation. I whimpered as Viale bit deeply into the veins, the sucking noise making bile rise up in the back of my throat. When he released my arm I sighed in relief and Draven helped adjust me on the bed, wrapping me securely in a blanket.
“You should get some sleep,” he whispered, “tomorrow is going to be a long day.” Whatever he had said after that was fuzzy as I drifted off.
When I woke up I immediately became aware of two things. First, I had slept through the night without having my usual reoccurring nightmare and second, there was someone in my room. I looked around cautiously. Mom. Sitting next to the bed, the spell book Draven brought me propped open in her lap as she silently flipped through the pages. I scooted up to a sitting position and our eyes met. She looked angry and closed off so I knew this conversation wasn’t going to go very well. “Where did you get this?” she asked slamming the book shut. I couldn’t tell her the truth otherwise she’d know about Draven, but I also didn’t want to get myself in even more trouble by telling her I had gone into the basement. Considering dad already knew I’d gone in there because of the diary, I figured I might as well just get it over with.
“The basement,” I said pulling at a frayed strand of comforter.
Her eyes narrowed as she said, “There are a million ways I could punish you right now. Do you know that? Why, after we specifically told you not to go down there and even put a lock on the door would you disobey us like that?”
I couldn’t take it anymore. How could she be mad at me when they were the ones lying? “Because you guys are hiding things from me,” I said defending myself. “I might be just some lowly teenager to you, but stuff is happening to me and now I can’t even turn to my parents for support because you’re never here.”
“Don’t you dare take that tone with me young lady,” she said standing up and tossing the book onto the bed. “You’re grounded for a month and if I ever, and I mean ever, catch you in the basement again, I will make sure the punishment is ten times worse than anything you’ve ever dreamed of.”
“Don’t you even care about me?” I practically screamed at her, my body getting warm and fired up. “You haven’t yet asked me what’s wrong. Instead, you just scold me for going into the basement.”
“I don’t need to ask you anything,” she said, her tone low and warning. “Your father already told me everything.”
“Did he? While I’m sure you got all the extraordinary details, there’s nothing like seeing it up close and personal. Let me show you,” I said jumping off the bed and bursting into flames. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped opened. She took a step backward like she was going to make a break for it, but instead straightened up and stood her ground. “Enough,” she said putting her hands on her hip.
The flames flickered about my skin and then disappeared like someone had just doused me with water. I threw myself on the bed and starting sobbing uncontrollably, burying my face deeper into the bedspread when I felt her sit down beside me. “I’m a freak,” I said through raspy breaths.
She reached out tentatively and started lightly running her fingers through my hair. I rolled sideways my back towards her as she said sincerely, “I’m sorry sweetie. I know I’m not the best mother in the world, but I really do try.”
“I know,” I said sniffling. We sat there like that quiet for some time before I said, “Did you know this was going to happen to me?”
“No,” she said clasping her hands together in her lap. “I mean, yes and no. I knew there was a possibility, but I didn’t know for sure.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked hysterically.
“Why would I tell you? What would be the point if nothing was ever going to happen? If I had a choice in the matter I’d rather you not have to be a part of everything having these powers entails.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that for now I can’t tell you everything, but I will tell you as much as I can. First, you should know that your father and I love you so much that just trying to put it into terms wouldn’t do it justice. You’re our miracle and we would do anything to protect you.” I nodded, encouraging her to continue.
“The diary entry that you found was in fact written by me,” she said confirming my suspicions. I gasped and spun around to face her. She looked solemn and sincere. For the first time since I was a baby I could feel the warmth and love she felt for me radiating through and around me. I instinctively remembered the description of the tattoo from the diary entry and pointed to her saying, “Show me.”
“Show you what?” she asked cautiously.
“The tattoo,” I said nervously. “I need to see it.” She looked reluctant at first, but then tilted slightly, draping her hair over one shoulder and tugging her shirt down. On the delicate curve of her back where the neck connects to the spine lay three intricate spirals. They started small in the middle and got larger going outwards making a circle. It reminded me of tiny tornadoes ready to take off and rip apart anything in its path. I brushed it lightly with the tips
of my fingers. “Wow. So it’s true then?”
“Yes, everything you read is true.”
“So you’re a vampire?” This is so out of this world unbelievable. She doesn’t look anything like Viale. I mean, I know from Draven’s brief report that there are several different types of vampire, but this was just weird. I briefly thought of Cole and a small pang hit me in my chest.
“Sort of, in the sense that I’m immortal and I have to drink blood to survive, yes.”
“You drink blood?” I asked crinkling my nose. “How come you can walk around in the daylight, reproduce and even eat normal food?”
“Drinking blood is the only way I can survive, the rest is all a myth to distract people from finding out just how close to being human we really are. Can you imagine if it was out in the open? How much pandemonium and chaos it would start?”
“That makes sense I suppose. How come I’ve never seen your fangs?” I asked pointedly.
She laughed and smiled “That’s because I haven’t wanted you to see them and you probably never will. That’s not something we show off. It’s more of a very intimately private thing.”
“So you just take someone down there and have your way with them?” I asked slightly repulsed.
“No, it’s nothing like that at all. But that’s not a subject I’m willing to broach with you just yet.”
“Okay, well is that what the chair in the basement is used for?”
“Also something I can’t talk to you about.”
“Fine,” I said huffing. “What about my powers? Are yours similar?
She stood up and started pacing the room. “No, they’re not similar. In fact, I haven’t heard of anyone having powers like yours for hundreds of years.”
“Hundreds of years?” I asked in shock. I must have misheard her.
“Yes Callie, hundreds of years. I’m a lot older than you’d think.”
“So it’s true that you can live forever?”
“Yes and no. I can live for a very long time, but that doesn’t mean forever. There are plenty of obstacles I would need to overcome to become untouchably immortal.”
“Huh,” I said contemplating. “Will these powers make me immortal too? Would it have something to do with my family crest tattoo?”
“I don’t think so,” she said pacing again, “but I don’t know for sure. That tattoo was given to all of us by a dear friend after we assimilated into society with you. He would probably be the best one to speak to about that, but I haven’t heard from him in years. I guess I’ll have to get back to you on that.”
“What about others like me? Powers in general I mean. Are there any?”
She looked at me questioningly, but I couldn’t tell her about Zilla. That wasn’t my secret to spill. “I have heard of a few others, but nothing like yours. Do you know of someone else?”
I feigned disinterest “No, I was just curious. I figured that if you knew of someone that I might be able to get some good information from them.” She seemed to accept that answer and waited for me to continue with the questioning. I had so many things I wanted to ask her and for that matter tell her. If she knew about Thanatos and that he wanted revenge then it was obviously the reason he was coming after me. I wondered if she knew that he had found me and had sent people after me. I wanted to curl up in her arms and tell her everything that had been going on, but I couldn’t. If the look on her face was any indication, she’d taken just about as much of this conversation as she could already. I was pushing the limits and I knew I would be on my own from here. Something had to be done and after all my parents sacrificed for our family there was no way I would get them involved in all of this craziness. This was just something I would have to deal with on my own.
I got up and walked carefully towards her, then embraced her in the biggest hug I’d ever given her before. She clung back to me and whispered, “It’s going to be alright, I promise.”
“Thank you,” I said tears threatening to leak out the corner of my eyes.
She glanced at the clock and said, “Jett’s funeral is in a few hours so you should get ready. When you come back we can sit down and talk some more. Does that sound good?”
“Yes,” I said hugging her tighter, “it sounds perfect.” I let go and watched as she left the room. I hoped things would stay like this forever.
I jumped into the shower and started washing up. The warmth and heat of the water felt refreshing on my skin, like it was cleansing my soul. I got out and wrapped the towel tightly around myself while a million questions were zooming around in my head. There were so many things left that I still needed to know and some of them I wasn’t even sure would be beneficial to our trip. They were just things I was desperate to find out about myself. I was so lost in my thoughts that I had completely forgotten about Viale when I stepped into the closet to grab an outfit. I jumped a little, almost tripping over him. He was curled up in a tight little ball his eyes shut breathing deep and heavy. I tiptoed in farther, pulled the black cotton stretch dress from its hanger and snatched a pair of matching black sandals. I had almost made it back out when I heard his low raspy voice say, “You smell delicious.”
My stomach lurched and I shivered involuntarily. I tried to stay calm and pretend he didn’t frighten me. “Thanks, I think.” He chuckled, which sounded more like a hoarse cough.
“Nervous are we?” he asked licking his lips.
Come to think of it, I was nervous. Just picturing him biting into my wrist again made my skin crawl, but how did he know? “How did you know that?”
He smiled wickedly and clicked his tongue. “Oh you poor thing. You really have no idea, do you?”
“No idea about what? What aren’t you telling me?”
Draven appeared by my side out of thin air and stood next to me our arms practically touching. Viale snorted with disgust and closed his eyes again, pretending not to hear me. I prodded him with my foot, “Tell me what I need to know.” He tried not to respond, but I pushed him a little harder. His eyes flew open looking at me intensely, but then focused on Draven and stayed there. I was about to kick him and force him to tell me when Draven stepped in front of me placing his hand on my shoulders and pushing me backwards, shutting the closet door behind him. “Hey,” I said trying to wiggle free. “What do you think you’re doing?”
He looked solemn when he said, “That conversation can wait. The funeral is in forty-five minutes and you don’t want to be late.” I hated when he was right. I needed to hustle if I was going to make it on time.
“You’ll tell me tonight, right? I mean, it’s obvious that you know too and aren’t telling me.”
He nodded and just before vanishing looked at me sadly as he said, “I told you there would be consequences and that you didn’t know what you were getting yourself into.” I called out to him, but he didn’t come back. I got ready in silence, pondering just what he could have meant, but I came up empty. There was some piece of another puzzle that I hadn’t locked into place yet.
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