Duncan bowed down in front of me.
"Not till you’ve danced with me."
I was about to accept, when Caleb rushed in front of him, grabbed my arm, and pulled me forcefully.
"You can dance with him any day. Tonight, you dance with me."
Chapter Thirty-Two
He was twirling me around so much I felt dizzy. Everyone around us was dancing like crazy to the music. Meanwhile, I was trying to keep up with Caleb. I looked back at Duncan, who was standing by the side of the dance floor, staring at us, his shining eyes ablaze. I had no idea what was going on between those two, but I didn't feel comfortable being a part of it. Meanwhile, Caleb didn't give me a chance to get away. He kept spinning me around and then pulling me into a firm grip. His arms were very strong, and I couldn't pull away from him. I gasped when I saw the way he looked at me.
Then he laughed and let go of me before grabbing me again and spinning me around and around again. I felt so dizzy I could have thrown up. He pulled me close again and held my head between his hands. He looked deep into my eyes, grinning from ear to ear.
"You sure are special," he said. "I see why Duncan likes you so much. You're the first girl since Lilith that he has been this into. Usually, he's more of a date and throw away guy."
"Lilith?" I asked, surprised.
Caleb smiled. "Ah, I see. He hasn't told you about Lilith. Of course, he wouldn't."
I tried to shrug it off. "He's entitled to have had other girlfriends," I said "I’ve had other boyfriends before too. It's pretty normal when you're growing up."
"Have you now?" Caleb laughed. "Ah, I get it. You think he’s new, don't you? You know what we are, don't you? You must; otherwise, he wouldn't have brought you here. You think he just turned into what he is, don't you? Of course, you do, ha-ha. Never mind. Forget what I told you."
How could I?
Caleb held me tightly and was hurting my arm. I tried to catch Duncan's eye and let him know Caleb was hurting me, but he didn't move. Caleb leaned over and whispered in my ear while caressing my hair with the hand he wasn't using to hold me.
"You're wondering why Duncan isn't saving you from me, aren't you? The thing is, where we come from, Duncan is ranked below me, and so, if I want something, I get it. Do you understand what I’m telling you?"
The music stopped, and he let go of me. I pulled away with a grunt, then rushed to Duncan. He looked at me, concerned.
"I would like to go home," I said, holding back my tears. "Now."
Duncan held the door for me, and we left the restaurant. Once inside the limo, I looked out the window and spotted Caleb standing outside the car, glaring in at me.
"I am so sorry," Duncan said as we drove off. "Caleb is normally a nice guy, but when he has too much to drink, he can get quite vicious. I am sorry. I shouldn't have brought you here."
"W-what were they drinking?" I asked. "It wasn't wine, was it?"
Duncan sighed. He shook his head. "No."
"You still drink human blood too?" I asked.
"I haven't hunted any humans since you told me not to," he said.
"But you still drink it, don't you?" I asked.
"I have to," Duncan said. "Animal blood isn't enough."
I sighed deeply. "You disgust me. All of you."
Duncan gave me a look, then snarled. His eyes were like they were on fire and he grabbed me by the shoulders and pushed me down in my seat.
"Don't you talk like that, you hear me?"
I shook my head, gasping. I had never seen Duncan like this before. His fangs were poking out.
"I told you. You are mine. You hear me? Don't you ever forget who you belong to."
Duncan's nostrils were flaring, his eyes ablaze, and his fangs completely out. His fingers were growing claws. I gasped when I saw him change, fearing what he might do next. I closed my eyes and whimpered while he fought with the monster inside of himself. Realizing what he was doing and seeing the fear on my face, he calmed himself and sat back down.
No one spoke the rest of the way back.
Chapter Thirty-Three
They brought her mother in and sat her down behind the glass. Jazmine held back her tears by biting her lip. Her mother tried to smile, but the deep despair shone through anyway. She put a hand on the glass. They each grabbed the phone on the wall.
"Hi, honey," her mother said, voice shaking.
"Hi, Mom."
Jazmine stared at her tormented face behind the glass, not knowing what to say to her. At first, when she was arrested, Jazmine had stayed away. She didn't want to visit her. She had decided she never wanted even to see her mother again. But as the days passed, she started to have a guilty nagging feeling. The woman was, after all, her mother. Besides, she wanted to look her in the eyes. She wanted to confront her.
"How are you holding up, honey? You getting anything to eat?" her mother asked.
"Aunt Tina is here," she said, her voice trembling in the fight to not break down and cry. "She’s taking care of me."
"That's good. I’m glad," she said with a sigh. "Even though my sister is a terrible cook."
Jazmine chuckled lightly. "Tell me about it."
There was a silence between them, and Jazmine wondered if coming was a mistake. She really didn't have anything to say to her mother. There was no way she would ever be able to forgive her for what she had done.
"I didn't do it," she said, finally breaking the silence.
Jazmine stared at her.
"All those awful things they say I’ve done. I didn't do them, Jazmine. You believe me, don't you?"
Is she for real?
"Please, tell me you don't believe any of it, Jazmine."
"I…I…"
The light went out in her mother's eyes. Tears piled up. "You do, don't you? How can you believe it? How can you believe that your…own mother…could have…? I am your mother, Jazmine. You know me."
"I…I thought I did," Jazmine said.
Her mother clasped her mouth, and a look of terror grew in her eyes. "I can't believe you would…think…"
A tear escaped Jazmine's eye and rolled across her cheek. So many times, she had wanted it not to be true; so many times, she had tried her best to give her mother the benefit of the doubt, but she knew what she had seen with her very own eyes. She had no doubt in her mind.
"You…you almost killed Jayden," she said, half choked. "And those teenagers…? You ripped them to pieces, Mom."
Her mother shook her head. "What is all this nonsense? Where is it coming from?"
"I…I saw you…"
"Has everyone completely lost their minds?" her mother asked. "I’ve been stricken with grief ever since your dad died. And now everyone tells me they think I have…killed someone? How is that even possible? I don't understand, Jazmine. I don't get it."
Jazmine's mother was getting worked up, and she couldn't hold back her tears anymore. Jazmine shook her head, leaned into the phone and said, "Neither do I, Mom. Neither do I. I don't understand how you, of all people, could do all those things."
Then she hung up, turned her back on the window, and walked away, her mother banging on the glass. When she closed the door behind her, she could still hear her subdued cries calling her name.
Chapter Thirty-Four
I slept terribly all night, and when I opened my eyes, I was staring at a huge spider sitting underneath the ceiling. I sat up in bed and screamed. Veronika was still asleep but opened her eyes when she heard me scream and started to scream herself when she spotted the tarantula.
Within less than a second, my mom burst into my room.
"What's going on in here?"
I pointed up at the spider. It was crawling across the ceiling, its hairy legs moving fast.
"Now...I've never," my mom said. She left the room and returned with a broom and started to slam it at the ceiling, trying to hit the spider. But the spider was fast, and it rushed across the ceiling while Veronika and I kept screaming. My mom slammed the br
oom into the ceiling again but missed, and the spider ran down the wall. Grunting and moving fast, she approached it again, swung the broom, and this time she hit it. I crumpled up in the bed, as the spider landed on my bed and now was darting across my sheet toward me.
"Mom, get it off my bed; get it off!"
My mom swung the broom again but missed, and the spider crawled up on my covers, then up on my shoulder where it sat still like it was staring at me. I wasn't breathing. Sweating and my heart pounding in my chest, I stared directly at the spider, whose eyes seemed to be scrutinizing me. For a few seconds, I was certain that it was watching me.
Then my mom swung the broom again with a loud grunt and this time hit the spider—and me—so hard that it was slung through the air and landed on the windowsill by the open window.
"Get…out…of…here," my mom yelled, then swung the broom again, but the spider had found its way out and was sitting on the outside of the window, looking in. My mom pulled the window shut with a growl, then closed the curtains and looked at me, her hair messy and unruly. She pulled a strand of runaway hair away from her forehead.
"I’m getting sick of that spider and his little friends. Spying on us, now I have never…and in our own homes. I'll have to have a word with that little…little insect."
She snorted angrily, then left my room, the broom still in her hand. I looked at Veronika to make sure she was all right. Her eyes were still big from the scare.
"That was a big spider."
"Tell me about it," I said, wondering what it was doing in my room and how long it had been there. Was it sent here by Mr. Aran to spy on us? I didn't like the way it looked at me.
I shook the feeling, then checked my phone, but no one had called. I didn't really know who I had hoped would have since I had decided I didn't want to talk to Duncan again. I hadn't said a word to him when I left the car. He hadn't tried to either. I believed he was too embarrassed about his own behavior. He had lost control, and he knew it.
I put the phone down and glanced toward Jayden's house with a sigh. Jayden had a temper too, but he had never scared me like Duncan had yesterday. Was it just because of what Veronika had told me that I was suddenly afraid of Duncan? She was just a little girl. What did she know anyway?
I looked at her and smiled. She smiled back, and that was when I saw it. Two very visible bite marks on the side of her neck.
Chapter Thirty-Five
I didn't waste any time. I grabbed Veronika's hand in mine and pulled her with me. I walked down the stairs to where my family was eating breakfast. My mother was by the blender, cutting carrots and kale.
"Mom?" I asked and pushed Veronika in front of me. I pointed at the bite marks.
"Yes, dear? Oh, my, what happened to her?"
"That's what I want to know. I wasn't here last night, remember? I wake up this morning, and this is what I find."
My mother walked closer and studied Veronika's neck. Then she looked at me and smiled.
"It looks like an animal bite of some sort. I bet it was that spider. Good thing we got rid of it. Put some disinfecting ointment on it to make sure she doesn’t get infected."
Really? You're using the spider as an excuse?
My mom looked into Veronika's eyes. "Nah, you're fine. Sit down, you two, and I'll serve you some breakfast."
We did as she told us and then walked upstairs and sat in my room watching TV. Not much later, I heard my mom yelling downstairs and snuck out to listen at the top of the stairs.
"You have got to control yourself, Adrian. Biting that child?"
"Come on, Mom. It was just while she was sleeping. She never noticed anything."
"Say something, Doyle," my mom said.
"I get it, son. I know it is hard to control, especially around little ones, but you have to try," I heard my dad say.
"We promised to protect her," my mom said.
"It's not like anyone is ever going to notice," Adrian said. "She was asleep. Plus, the girl doesn’t say a word. No one will know."
"What if they come today and tell us they’ve found a new place for her, huh?" my mom asked. "How do I explain those bruises to them?"
"Why do you care?" Adrian asked. "It's not like you owe them anything."
"True, but still," my mom said. "What if that spider thing saw you? Who knows how long that thing has been in Robyn's room? It could have been sitting up there under the ceiling all night spying on you."
"What spider thing?" my dad asked.
"There was a spider. One of Mr. Aran's disgusting creatures was sitting on the ceiling inside Robyn's room," she said. "I think he uses it to spy on us. It might have seen Adrian."
"That's worse," my dad said.
My mom sighed. "I know."
"Do you think it was spying on the girl?" my dad asked.
"I don't know. I mean, it would make sense, right? It's not like it will get anything out of spying on Robyn."
"The girl is dangerous," my dad said. "We can't have her here in this house. She’s attracting attention to us. If Mr. Aran knows she’s here, then he might take us down too for harboring a fugitive."
"But she has done nothing wrong. Only her parents did. As long as we keep her inside the house, he can't harm her," my mom said. "It's only if she uses any of her powers outside where humans can see it."
"You forget we have a human in our house," Adrian said.
“He's right,” my dad said. "Using powers in front of Robyn will be counted as breaking the law."
"Well, we already know that. That's why she’s never allowed to see anything and, so far, we’ve managed to keep it a secret for sixteen—almost seventeen years."
"But Veronika doesn’t know that," my dad said. "She doesn’t even know what she is or how to control it."
"We’ve tried to find out what her parents were, but had no luck so far," my mom said. "They had recently moved here from Russia, so they had no friends or relatives around here that we can ask."
"So, we don't know if she has any powers or if she has used them in front of Robyn yet," my dad said.
"There are only two things we can do, the way I see it," Adrian said. "Either we get rid of the girl, or we turn Robyn into a vampire."
"No. She's not ready for that," my mom said. "It's way too early."
"What's the difference between now and a year from now?" my brother asked.
My mom sighed. "It can be done, but it is risky. Her body isn't mature enough yet. She might not be able to sustain the acidic vampire blood. It could burn through her veins. She might not survive it."
"Then I say we get rid of the girl," Adrian said.
"Our boy is onto something," my dad said. "I mean. Let's face it. They're not going to be able to find another place for her to go. They've already forgotten about her and moved on with their lives. We should too."
Chapter Thirty-Six
I went back to my room and locked the door. Veronika was still watching TV and eating the cookies from my secret hiding spot in the closet. She smiled; crumbs were falling from her lips onto the carpet.
I smiled back, trying hard to hide my fear. I couldn't believe my own family. How could they talk like that about this poor girl? She was nothing but a child? But that was my family for you. If you weren't a vampire, then well…you simply weren't worth anything. Like being a vampire was so cool. They apparently thought so themselves, like they were superior to everyone else. Personally, I thought being a witch or a dragon like Amy was way cooler. Heck, I'd even choose to be a werewolf over being a vampire any day. It was the drinking of human blood part that freaked me out. And then because…well, they were my parents, and I'd do anything to not end up like them.
Can't I just stay human? What's so wrong with that? Yes, we are weak and inferior physically to them, but at least we're compassionate. Doesn't that count for anything anymore?
I touched Veronika's neck where the bite marks were. The girl looked up at me. I smiled compassionately, when the girl flickered a few
times, then disappeared.
I stopped breathing.
What just happened?
"V-Veronika?
My heart rate grew alarmingly. I blinked my eyes, but the girl didn't return. "Veronika?" I called out again. "Veronika?"
What the heck?
I stood like a statue and stared at the spot where I had last seen her, then wondered if I was losing it. Was I simply going mad?
Barely had I finished the thought before she returned. Just as suddenly as she had vanished, she was now standing right in front of me again, flickering slightly like she was still deciding whether to stay here or not.
"Veronika?"
She smiled and nodded, then finished the cookie in her hand.
"W-where…w-what…where were you?"
Veronika stared at me, then tilted her head while chewing. I sat down on the bed, not sure if I was just going completely mad or what to think.
"Sweetie? Where were you just now?"
Veronika answered with a shrug.
"Y-you disappeared. Just like the other day. Where do you go?" I asked, still flabbergasted.
"Duncan," she said.
"What?"
She looked concerned.
"What about Duncan?" I asked.
"Is here."
I stared at her, thinking that maybe she was the one who was just a tad crazy, when I heard the car drive up in the street outside. I rushed to look down and saw Duncan's long black limo.
"How did you know?" I asked her.
She answered with a shrug just as our doorbell rang and my mom called.
"ROBYN!"
Chapter Thirty-Seven
I reluctantly walked down the stairs. Duncan was waiting by the door, head bowed. He barely looked at me, and I could tell he was upset.
My mom scoffed. "Couldn't you at least have put on a little make-up?" she said and left.
I approached him, feeling a little scared.