Nadia nodded, neither explaining nor denying the fact.
“What were you doing with her? What are you doing with me? Why are you always in bed with me?” I pulled up the covers to see her thin legs wrapped around me, “Why are you always taking your clothes off in my bed? Are you having sex with me while I sleep?”
She looked hurt. “No! You’d definitely know if we had sex, trust me. But it’s not for lack of trying.” She smiled again, taunting me by running her fingers over my bare chest and rubbing her thighs on my leg.
“No dammit! I’m with Anita. And you’re like … too young.”
“I know that’s how I look, but I can assure you I haven’t been a child for a very long time.” She flicked her tongue, a blatant reminder of what she could do with that tongue.
“Well if it’s not sex then what is it? Are you biting me like Taylor? And what were you doing with my mother?”
“Your mother had the same aura you do. It’s like an energy field. I think it’s because you inherited her clairvoyance.” The girl was a master at evasion, and her answers always left me with more questions.
“Hunh?”
“You both have this aura. You’re different from other people. It’s intoxicating to be near you, like a drug. I need to be close, skin on skin. The only way I can explain, it’s like sunbathing for me. I can bask in your aura when I’m here with you. To be honest, it would be better if we were both naked. More skin.”
Her hands were reaching for the fly of my pants. I pulled her hands up and set her palms on my chest. “That’s all the skin you get. And no, we are not getting naked.”
“I know that’s not gonna happen. Relax. I’ll take what I can get.” She traced her fingers across my chest and flicked her tongue. I had a vague memory of her taking quite a bit, the night she licked my wounds. She took it all.
I shivered with the hazy memory. This girl was straight up wicked.
“It manifests solidly in your teenage years. I first found your mother when she was seventeen. Her aura was the strongest I have ever encountered. It was addictive. I began spending every night with her. We were inseparable until Richard!” She used my father’s name like a dirty word. “I could hardly get near her once they started dating. She already knew he was the one. She’d seen it in one of her damn visions, before they ever met. She wouldn’t let me meet him. I guess she knew even then that I’d be back for you. I don’t know, but it drove me nuts. I was like a junky needing a fix!”
“So, you’re like a psychic vampire? But you drink my blood too?”
“Have I ever bitten you? Have I ever taken anything from you? Did you ever wakeup feeling tired or anemic? NO! NO! And NO!”
“Okay, I guess not. So, it doesn’t hurt?”
“Duh! It drives me crazy when I can’t be close to you, but it doesn’t seem to affect you at all.”
“You swear you’ve never had sex with me or bitten me in my sleep?”
“Never!” She snapped, but then her lips curled into that naughty little smile. “What’s the matter, disappointed?”
“Nope,” I declared vehemently.
She looked thoughtful. “Well, there was that time after you were in that fight. I was cleaning you up, and things … got a little carried away.” She flicked her tongue at me again.
Oh god, it was real. It really happened.
She distracted me from my freakout moment. “But did you notice how quickly you healed?”
“What?”
“It helps you know. My venom helps heal cuts and bruises in hours instead of days. Your nose was broken, what was I supposed to do? I couldn’t stand to see you in pain. It was just a few licks. So what if we had a little fun. I didn’t hear you complaining when I was down there.”
“I thought I was dreaming!”
“That’s so sweet, you dream about me?”
“If that’s what you want to call it. I don’t think they are dreams. It’s you, all over me, all damn night long. It’s a wonder I get any sleep.”
“Oh whatever! You men can always find a convenient excuse to justify it.”
“Oh my god, you’re gonna get me put in prison!”
“Stop being so melodramatic. I told you before, what goes on between us is no one else’s business. You’re mine, and I am yours. We are promised to each other, and you came back to me. After all these years, you came back to me. So if I feel like getting frisky, deal with it!”
“Fine, whatever happened is in the past, and it’s not happening again. We are not going to talk about this anymore.”
She snaked her pink tongue out and licked my chin. Girl needed a license for that tongue, thing was dangerous.
“Misha, you know I love you?”
“Yeah, enough to kill for me?”
She nodded. “You know I’ll do anything for you, anything at all.” She flicked her tongue out again in invitation.
“Can’t you just be a friend? Without the tongue?”
“Sure thing, whatever you say.” With that she kissed my nose. “Get some sleep, its late. We’ll talk more tomorrow.”
Before I could finish with all the things I needed to say, she did it to me again, used her Jedi mind trick. Exhaustion dragged me down into unconsciousness, and her lithe limbs entwined around me.
* * * *
Chapter 20
Friday, October 29th
I met Anita in the library as usual, and told her my tale of the previous night’s weird events with the MLPD, which was nothing more than the latest in a long list of weird shit that had taken over my life. I made it through the school day without any major incidents. No one died, no one was taken into police custody, and no one had acid oozing out of their lotion bottles.
Well, almost no incidents. There was the run-in with Justin, which went about as well as could be expected. Justin caught me by my locker between classes. “You might have fooled the cops, but I know the truth. I’m gonna find a way to prove you did this to Rachelle!”
“Whatever. I tried to talk to you about this once. You wanted to be an asshole. You’d rather call the police and tell them lies. I’m done talking.” I didn’t care to speak with Justin ever again.
Justin snapped back, “You think you’re getting’ off that easily? This ain’t over, dude!”
As he moved into my face, I pushed him back. “Get off me. You can make up whatever crap you want; write fiction novels about it, but you’ll never prove anything because I didn’t do anything!”
“Oh I’ll prove it, and I’m gonna make sure everybody knows you had something to do with it. I’ll tell as many people as I can!”
Seeing Justin’s resolve, I decided I needed to give it one more shot. “I tried to warn you before, and you didn’t listen. I’ll say this one last time. Stop spreading lies and creating problems. Keep it up, and Nadia will get your ass! You have no idea what you’re messing with. Nadia is extremely dangerous. Don’t be a fool Justin. You saw what happened to Tommy and Rachelle. This girl is like nothing you’ve ever seen, and she will fuck you up. There’s no guarantee I can stop her.”
“Fuck you, Mikey.”
That didn’t work out so well.
I left Justin standing in the hallway seething mad. I really needed to get to Nadia. We had some unfinished business. There had to be a way to put a damper on her vindictive homicidal tendencies. I had no illusions that my little speech would change Justin’s attitude.
After school I dropped Anita at home with the promise we’d get together tomorrow night for a Halloween party. She seemed to understand my need to resolve things with the Fourteen-Year-Old-From-Hell, Nadia. She let me go with a kiss and a hug goodbye. I headed straight for the skatepark, which had become the standard place for Nadia to find me after sunset.
I skated the new board for a couple hours, counting the seconds till the sun went down over the horizon. I practiced my moves on the halfpipe, grinds, nose slides, and boardslides. I had a few more spills than usual, my focus and concentration just w
asn’t there. I knew I wasn’t pro material, but on a good day I was better than this.
I finally called it quits and sat on the picnic bench waiting for her highness to make an appearance. She arrived like clockwork, fifteen minutes after sunset, and slid in beside me at the picnic table. I never saw her coming – the girl was creepy silent.
She asked with a great big smile, “So how’s my favorite skater?”
“I’m good. Can’t seem to pull off any clean moves today, but I’ll survive. Unlike Tommy. He’s fuckin’ toasted.” Her brow furrowed as I stared at her pointedly. “And how’s my favorite kleptomaniac, murdering, psycho vampire?”
She scooted in hip to hip with me. “Much better now that I’ve finally found you. I have waited for so very long, Misha. I hope you can appreciate how protective I feel. I can’t stand to see you hurt.”
Excuses, excuses. The road to hell was paved with good intentions.
“We need to talk. We have serious unfinished business. Let’s go.” I had somehow gained a measure of confidence in dealing with her. She was no longer in control, and she couldn’t manipulate me into forgetting these issues.
She followed me to the Geo, and I drove a wandering path through downtown, eventually making my way to Michael’s On The Lake. I parked and hopped out, leading Nadia past the restaurant and around the back, to a sidewalk leading down to the waterfront.
Nadia held my hand and plodded along in silence. You’d have thought she was on a date with the man of her dreams, the way she cuddled up on my arm. The creature was doing her best to be the sweet little thing that had charmed her way into my heart. I couldn’t be sure if it was an act or if she really was this girl wrapped around my arm like I was the last human being on the planet. Maybe she had a dual personality, her issues were definitely much more complicated than I first imagined.
“You know why they call this Neppel Landing?”
She shook her head.
“Back in the early 1900’s this place was called Neppel by early settlers. They later called it Moses Lake after Chief Moses, leader of the Sinkiuse tribe.
This was their land, and we ran ‘em out, hunted them, pushed them off onto reservations. We took over the Northwest, and made it our own. There were no great epic battles, no big uprisings like the Cheyenne and Apaches of the Wild West. These people just went away. And now it’s all ours. They have a casino on a reservation up north at Grand Coulee Dam, that’s about it.”
She held my hand looking at me. I could see her curiosity, wondering where the hell I was going with my history lesson.
“We name our high schools and streets and football teams after them, but America is ours. Using their names is like adding injury to insult. The word Neppel still lives on right here in this little lakefront gazebo.” I directed her to sit down at the concrete bench under the gazebo.
“But this is not the Wild West from back when you and Mikhail planned your escape. You don’t just kill people to get rid of your problems.” She held my eyes, perhaps waiting for my judgment?
“What am I gonna do with you, Natasha?” What the hell was I supposed to do with a murderous vampire who loves me enough to kill for me?
“What did you have in mind?” She tried to play her cutesy game, a sly grin and a wicked twinkle in her cat-like hazel eyes.
Game time was over. “I don’t think my mother intended things to be like this when she sent you to help me. I don’t think she ever wanted you to kill people for me. Do you think that’s what she wanted?”
“You know what she said to me? ‘Promise you’ll be there when Michael needs you most. Promise you’ll lookout for my son. I can’t be there for him, but you can.’ And I made that promise. I was there the night you were born, and I made an oath to your mother on her deathbed. But that was before I realized who you were, Misha. I never imagined I’d have a second chance like this. It’s a dream come true, like winning the lottery. I can do it right this time, I know I can.”
“So there’s no getting rid of you?”
“You don’t want me?” She looked like she was about to cry.
“I’m not cool with murder. I’m not cool with you attacking people with acid or whatever nasty retaliation you dream up in that sick little mind. It’s not okay to hurt people, definitely not if you’re doing it for me.”
“You’ll never be rid of me! Get that idea out of your head right now!” She was spitting angry, with a pronounced hiss. She actually had some fang showing. The little girl façade had started to slip. She growled, “First by vow to your mother, and then by virtue of who you are, Mikhail Ivelitsch, we are joined by fate and necessity. The sooner you accept that the better off we will both be!”
I sensed the caged aggression lurking under the surface. She was in control, but I knew well what she was capable of. Not wise to push my luck.
“So I’m supposed to sit back and watch you hurt everyone around me? What about Taylor? What did you do to him?”
“I didn’t hurt him! If you were paying attention when you interrupted me so rudely, I was having a little sip. Taylor loved it, I guarantee you he enjoyed every second of it. They all do. I only need a few ounces, and I can skip feeding for two nights at a time. Taylor is perfectly fine. He doesn’t even remember what happened, and he wasn’t the least bit hurt.”
“Is that what you’ve been doing to me every night?”
“NO! I told you, I have never bitten you! Besides, it doesn’t work that way. I can’t bite people over and over. It’s messy, complicated. I never bit your mother either, so don’t even go there!”
I kept the pressure on, walking the line between winning an argument and imminent violence. “And what of Anita? Am I supposed to let you hurt her or anyone else you think is a problem?”
Nadia looked slightly embarrassed, like she had done something she shouldn’t have. “I may have been a little worked up when I mentioned Anita the other night. I like her, honestly. Anita loves you, I know that now. She’s nothing like Rachelle. Anita can be trusted with your heart. She is worthy of your affections. I won’t touch her. I promise.” I recalled how Nadia had caught an eyeful of me and Anita together. And she was always paying for me to take Anita out.
Maybe this could work.
“And Justin? Or anyone else who argues with me or takes a swing at me? Are you gonna kill everyone who looks at me funny?”
“I’m sworn to protect you. I won’t stand for anyone threatening you! Justin has become a serious problem. He knows too much – your fault, not mine. Now I have to clean up the mess.” She was dead serious, and Justin was in for a very rude awakening, if he survived the confrontation.
“No, I can’t accept that. I won’t have you in my life if you insist on killing and hurting people. I am drawing the line here.” I jerked my arm out of her grasp and stood up to face her. “There must be another way to deal with Justin. You don’t have to hurt him.”
“Don’t play with me Mikhail Ivelitsch!”
“I’m telling you, if you hurt Justin, it’s off. Whatever this is between us, it will be over.”
“Fine! I won’t hurt him! Are you happy now?”
“Or anyone else?” I pressed her harder than ever before.
“No! I won’t hurt anyone else unless you tell me to or they threaten your life! How’s that? Can your pristine conscience live with that?” That did it. She was crying. Tears of blood streaked down her face. Either she was a grade ‘A’ stage actor, or she was truly upset by the idea of losing me.
I couldn’t sit there and watch her cry. She had already dug her place deep in my heart, in my bed all night long, under my skin. She was a part of me. I don’t know if I could ever send her away, it would be like trying to cut off my own arm. But my mother was right, Nadia was vulnerable. She needed me, too.
Feeling like I had no real choice, I hugged her close. “I’m not trying to get rid of you, but we need to come to an understanding. We’ve got to rein in your homicidal tendencies a little bit, okay?” br />
She nodded yes with her face buried in my chest, her hands creeping up under my shirt for what she craved most, skin-on-skin contact. I rested my chin atop her head. “So, what are you planning to do with Justin?”
Nadia mumbled into my chest, “I’m gonna have a talk with him.”
“I tried that, he’s not listening. He’s too stupid and he’s convinced he’s got it all figured out. How are you gonna make him listen?”
She looked up, still holding me tightly, her hands splayed across my back underneath my shirt. I wiped the blood from her cheeks. Just too creepy and unnerving to watch her bleed from her eyes.
She gave me a wry little half smile. “No offense, but my skills of persuasion are a little better than yours.”
“You’re gonna hypnotize him?”
“No, but I’ll take care of it. Don’t worry.”
“I am worried. I need to know you’re not gonna hurt him.”
“I promised I wouldn’t hurt him. My promise isn’t good enough? You don’t trust me?”
“Okay, relax. I trust you, but you gotta admit this protect Mike obsession got way out of control. You killed someone, and that is not okay, never will be okay. I am trying to make sure we have a clear understanding.”
She nodded her head and calmed down a bit, her hands exploring all over my backside. It was a rare occasion that she could be so intimate outside my bedroom, and she took full advantage of it.
“So, have you really been stalking me all my life? Since I was born?”
“Yeah, more or less. I didn’t hang around when you were an infant. I couldn’t really do much for you, and I’m no good with babies.” She paused considering something.
“No more secrets, out with it.”
She sighed in resignation.
“I didn’t want your mother to have the baby, you. I tried to talk her out of it. I even tried my Jedi mind tricks on her, but she was too emotionally attached to you, the hypnosis couldn’t break her resolve to have the baby. She tricked us both you know, me and Richard. She didn’t tell us about her vision of her death in childbirth until she was nine months pregnant. Far too late to have an abortion. No doctor in his right mind would abort a nine month old fetus. I tried to talk her into having a C-section, to do something different to change the outcome. She said that it was fate and she wasn’t willing to do anything that might jeopardize your life. She never gave us a chance to stop her. She had it all planned out.