Out for Blood

by J. L. O'Rourke

  “I’ll talk to Mum,” I said. I gulped down my coffee and reached forwards to put the empty cup on the floor at my feet. “She said Grant will want to go to the funeral, so I bet she’s been phoning people madly this morning. If anyone can get the gossip, it’ll be Mum. But I don’t want to interrupt her yet. She’ll need time to do the rounds of her urban spies.” I turned to Severn, “You want to get out of here for a while?”

  “Absolutely.” He stopped rocking and unfolded his arms. “Give me a minute. There’s no show tonight and you’re dressed like a punter so I may as well play the same game. We can camouflage ourselves by not wearing black.”

  “A punter? What’s wrong with my clothes?”

  “Nothing. There’s nothing with your clothes at all. You’re clothes look wonderful. But they’re blue. Blue jeans, white top. Not black. You look like an ordinary person, not crew. Just give me a minute to change and we can hide at the mall blending in with all the real ordinary people - the punters.”

  I sat and stared at the other two in stony silence while I waited for Severn to return. I had nothing left to say to them although I wondered if they had things they wanted to say to each other as the Rev’s eyes flicked to me, to Aiden, back to me, to the door of Sev’s room and back to Aiden. Even I could read that code.

  “We’ll leave you to it,” I said with a smile as Severn came back, looking very tasty in bum-caressing blue jeans and a long-sleeved but lightweight hoodie in a delicate dove grey that highlighted his blue eyes. Expensive grey high-top sneakers in a brand I can’t afford finished off the outfit but as we closed the door behind us, he added one more item – a well-worn black, baker-boy cap.

  “Protection against the sun,” he explained as he pulled the brim down his forehead. “Now I know how hot it gets, I’ve learned my lesson. Where are we going?”

  “I don’t know,” I laughed. “Just anywhere that isn’t here. Let’s walk.”

  Severn wrapped his arm around me, pulling me close, and we walked, my head resting sideways on his shoulder. Ahead of us three people waited at a bus stop, giving me an idea.

  “Hey, I know where we can go.” I pulled my metro card out of my pocket and held it up. “Let’s go to a mall – just not the local one.” I grabbed Severn’s hand and pulled him towards the bus stop. While we waited, I sent a text message to Anita.

  Wanna meet 7? We bussing to Northlands

  Nobody looked at us as we boarded the bus, not even the driver who barely glanced as I swiped my metro card for both of us. We found seats half way back, surrounded by old ladies with shopping trolleys and young ones with folding prams and fractious babies.

  “That’ll be Anita soon,” I said to Severn, as the woman in front of us juggled a squirming baby and a large bag.

  “Rather her than me,” Severn replied.

  “Does it bother you? That you’ll never...”

  “Father a baby? Honestly? No. But that’s just me. I’ve never clicked with children. But I know it bothers some of the others. Meredith, for one. She gets really weird around babies. I think she misses not being able to have one of her own.”

  “She’s got Aiden as a twin brother – isn’t that enough?”

  “More than! What about you? I mean, would it be a problem that I can’t ... that we couldn’t? Well, at least not together. I mean, you could always ... um...”

  “Oh shut up! No, okay, no, it’s not a problem. It might even be a blessing. I’m not a baby person either. I know at some stage I have to go and meet my new half-sister in Australia but I’m trying to put it off until she can walk and talk. Secretly, and don’t you ever tell her I said this, but between you and me, I hope I am always too busy to have to babysit for Anita.” I clapped my hand to my mouth. “Oh, that sounds so mean.”

  I stared out the bus window while a question stirred inside my brain until I had to ask it.

  “Hey, what happens if someone is pregnant when they get turned ... into, you know...,” I made small flappy wing motions with my hands.

  Severn sat back in his seat and moved his left hand across his chest and his right to his chin in a classic thinking pose. I watched with amusement as he tried to process an answer. His mouth opened and closed, his eyebrows raised, one at a time, then furrowed down, then rose again together. Finally he spluttered out an answer.

  “I have no idea. Good question though.”

  “I wonder if it would depend on how far along the mother was,” I pondered. “I mean, if a baby’s born early, there’s a cut-off point before which it can’t survive. I wonder if there’s something similar?”

  “I guess there are only three possibilities,” Severn said. “Either it’s like a cancer or other growth that is ‘cured’ at the change,” he made inverted commas with his fingers as he said the word cured, “and she would lose the baby and not be pregnant any more, or she would have a normal baby or,” he made flappy wing motions like I had, “she would have a ... special baby. But I don’t know what the answer is because I don’t know of it ever happening. Although, if there are more of us out there somewhere, then it could have.”

  “Here’s a scary thought.” My brain was racing. “If you stay the same age when you change, would a changed baby ever grow? Wouldn’t it be a newborn for ever?”

  “Now that would suck!”

  Chapter 7

  Anita met us by the computer store. Or rather she met me outside but Severn was inside, shopping like my mother.

  “Where is he?” she asked as she ran towards me. “Come on! You can’t call me to meet him then hide him away. I want to see this guy.”

  “He’s in there shopping,” I pointed to the computer store. “I couldn’t stand it any more. If I hear one more question about migs, gigs and killer bites I’ll scream. Yes, before you ask, he’s a geek. I’ve told you that. Probably more of a geek than Caleb.”

  “But a cute one, I presume? If you’re not into him for his computer skills, he must have some other attractions.”

  “Oh hell yes.” I pointed to two men standing by a shelf of cables. “That’s Severn over there. The one in the grey hoodie.”

  “Oookaaay,” Anita said, twisting her head to look him up and down from a variety of angles. “Yes, I can see why he appeals. He’s not Tasha’s type though, so she must have been just stirring you up.”

  “That failed.”

  Anita gave me the same sweeping inspection she had just given Severn.

  “You look different. Yesterday you weren’t too happy but now ....oh slap me! You left my place to meet him in some dark, secluded place. Did you two ...? You did, didn’t you?”

  “You just shut up. All I will say is that the Edmonds Gardens are nicer than the school garden. Now shut up! This is not a matter for discussion.”

  “It’ll keep. Now introduce me to your man before he buys the entire shop.”

  I knew Severn had heard every word of our conversation as he looked up as she spoke and walked towards us, smiling and holding up a small bag.

  “See, just two cables and a couple of connectors. No laptops, no monitors, no new computers at all, even though Grant really needs to upgrade his. Okay, I might have been tempted but not at those prices. I can get everything way cheaper in France. Hi, you must be Anita. I’m Severn.” Severn held out his free hand which Anita grabbed with both of hers.

  “Wow!” She looked him up and down unashamedly, turned to me and nodded. “Yeah. I’d buy that.”

  Severn gave us both one of his patented looks where he lowers his head then looks over the top of his glasses. That expression usually means he is about to say something sarcastic, so I leapt in before he could, grabbing their still connected hands and making a show of pulling them apart and returning Anita’s hands to beside her body.

  “Sorry, girl, but you can’t buy him, he’s not for sale. How about I buy us an ice cream instead?”

  I was relieved to see Severn’s next reaction was to laugh. Still sniggering, he put his arm around me and kissed me on t
he top of my head as I steered us in the direction of the specialty ice cream shop. Funny how it was the only shop in the place I could find blindfolded. Anita went for a double chocolate, I couldn’t make up my mind so had two scoops of different flavours, and Severn settled for a single scoop of vanilla.

  “Where are you from?” Anita asked as we ambled around the mall, licking our ice creams as we walked. “I mean, I know you’ve been in France ‘cos Riley told me but you’re not French to start with, are you? You’ve got some sort of accent but it’s hardly there and I can’t figure out what it is.”

  “I was born in Scotland,” Severn answered. “But if I ever had a Scottish accent, I lost it years ago. I’ve been away from there for a long time.”

  “You must have left when you were a baby,” Anita said. “Mum has a friend who’s from Glasgow and, even though she‘s lived here for most of her life, her accent’s still so thick you could cut it with a knife.”

  I could tell Severn was thinking hard about his answer. He could hardly say he was 19 when he left after he had just said he’d been away for years, and he definitely couldn’t say those years added up to a hundred and ten.

  “Yeah, left young, moved around a lot. My accent, if I’ve got one now, is probably a lot of different ones. I don’t know, I can’t hear myself. What about you? I’m guessing your accent’s genuine Kiwi - your vowels are flatter than Riley’s Australian ones.”

  “Yeah, born and bred local, me,” Anita replied. “The furthest we’ve moved is from one side of Christchurch to another, and that was only a year and a half ago. Ask Riley where she’s from.”

  “I know where she’s from. We’ve had that conversation. She’s from Brisbane.”

  “Yeah but make her say it. Go on.”

  “Why?”

  “Oh, just because. Okay, it cracks me up the way she says it. We say Bris-bin. She says Breeze-bane. Cracks me up every time.”

  “Bitch!” I cursed her but with a smile to show I didn’t mean it.

  “See – beech, like the tree. Or the seaside. Love it.”

  Great. Gee thanks, Anita, remind me about the beach.

  “Speaking of Australia,” I said, “I’ve decided what I’m doing this year.”

  “You’re going to go and live with your dad?” The way she screwed her nose up as she spoke showed what Anita thought of that idea.

  “No, exactly the opposite. I have decided definitely not to go to Oz. I’m going to go to MAINZ for the year.”

  “Maine? You’re going to America?” Severn sounded horrified.

  “No, silly, not Maine, MAINZ – the place that teaches sound engineering. If I’m going to end up behind a sound desk, I need to know what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. I’ll come off it with a certificate and, with the practical experience I’ve been getting, I should be able to get theatre work anywhere.”

  “And come touring with us,” Severn said, his smile widening. “Is that in the plans?”

  “I’m hoping that’s in the plan,” I said, looking up at Severn so my face was masked from Anita. “I can see myself touring.” I added a whispered “forever” and caught Severn’s quick intake of breath as he heard it. For a brief second his eyes brightened, flickered, and I saw his muscles tense, vampire senses triggering, but he was quick to recover, scratching his head and resetting his baker-boy cap to pull himself back. In control again, he winked at me then made a show of looking at his watch. Anita thought she was being given a hint.

  “Do you guys have to be somewhere?”

  “No, sorry, force of habit.”

  “Hey, I’ve got an idea,” Anita said, oblivious to Severn’s fight for self-control. “If you guys don’t have a show tonight, why don’t we all go to the movies? Caleb and I were going anyway – why don’t you two come with us?”

  I looked at Severn who shrugged his shoulders and looked sweetly geeky, his eyes back to their normal shade of blue.

  “Yeah, okay,” I said. “What are we going to see?”

  “You guys get to vote. We haven’t decided. I want to see the sad one set in World War Two but Caleb wants to see the horror movie with vampires and werewolves. He’s got a thing about werewolves. They’re his pet research subject.”

  “I vote for werewolves,” Severn said with an evil grin. “Not into them myself but vampires make good theatre.” He gave me that over-the-glasses look again.

  “I vote for werewolves too,” I said. “I’m into vampires although a werewolf could be more use, especially if I could teach it to retrieve.”

  Anita sighed in resignation. “Okay, werewolves it is. I’m going to meet Caleb now, so we’ll meet you guys upstairs at the cinema. Movie starts at 8.30.”

  She was already texting madly on her phone as she walked away so I wasn’t surprised to hear my phone ping in my pocket. The message made me laugh. I held up my phone to show Severn the string of smiley faces, some with hearts in their eyes, one wearing glasses like Severn’s, lots of hearts, thumbs-up and even a unicorn.

  “I think she likes you,” I said.

  “I like her too. She’s slightly nuts. Anyway, we’ve got a few hours to kill – what can I tempt you into doing?”

  “Your place or mine?”

  “Both. Your place, junk food, movie, my place.”

  “Let’s go.”

  Chapter 8

  Mum wasn’t home. She had left me a note saying she was meeting Grant when he finished work and they were going to a restaurant for dinner, and she left me a twenty-dollar note to buy myself a take-away. Perfect. I drew my bedroom curtains and for the next hour, Severn and I discovered each other’s bodies, stroking, caressing, kissing, loving. I asked him to bite me but he refused, teasing me instead with licks and nibbles.

  We showered together, Severn’s extended fangs driving me crazy as he ran them over my wet shoulders. I wanted to stroke his wings, to feel the soft leather, but he moved my hands away, keeping his wings tightly furled and only unfurling them slightly afterwards so he could carefully pat them dry. His wings were still a no-touch area.

  I scribbled “Thanks, gone to the movies” over Mum’s note as we left, the money tucked in my jacket pocket and Severn’s cap now on my head, keeping my loose, flowing hair in place against the developing nor’west wind. We walked, arms entwined around each other, to the bus stop but as we passed the neighbour’s house, Severn stopped. His head swivelled as if he was listening for something, then he shook his head and started walking again.

  “What was that?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. I thought I saw someone, behind that house, and I was sure I heard footsteps, but they disappeared and it was so fast I must have been mistaken. Might have been a cat.”

  “Oh okay,” Why didn’t I tell him about the figure I had seen flashes of? That I thought was Aiden? Maybe it still was. Maybe he was watching us again. Then we saw the bus coming so we had to run and I forgot all about it.

  Once we reached the mall, my first stop was the food court – I was ravenous. Anita and Caleb found us there, tucking into burgers and chips, upsized to large, an ice cream sundae (okay, that was just for me) and black coffee to wash it all down. Severn showed his age (his real age) by leaping up as they approached and pulling out a chair for Anita, then offering his hand to Caleb.

  “Hi, you must be Caleb. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Severn, spelt with an R, like the river.”

  Caleb shook hands then sat while Anita have me a wide-mouthed, silent “oh” behind her hand. Guys our age don’t normally have manners like that, and if they did, they wouldn’t use them with us in a mall food court.

  “Can I get you anything?” Severn asked them.

  “No, no thanks,” Caleb stuttered. “We’ve eaten. Healthy salads at my place, although burgers and chips seems more appropriate for vampires.”

  Severn’s head jolted up. “What?”

  “We’re not vampires,” I said quickly.

  “Speak for yourself,” Severn replied, “I might be
.”

  “Bite me.”

  “I meant,” Caleb regained control of the conversation, “burgers, red meat, seem more appropriate than lettuce before we watch a movie about vampires and werewolves.”

  “Or pizza.” Severn was grinning. “As a vampire, I have to say I prefer pizza. Or chocolate.”

  “Vampires don’t eat pizza,” Anita argued. “They don’t eat anything, except blood.”

  “Says who?” Severn was enjoying this too much. “Blood through chocolate. Yum.”

  Anita turned to me. “No wonder you two got together. You’re as weird as each other.”

  The movie was dark, gritty and violent. The one thing it wasn’t was scary. At least, not to me. Beside me Anita jumped, squealed and hid her face in Caleb’s chest at all the right times, but I struggled not to laugh. Severn was having a harder job and had to resort to faking a coughing fit as a cover when the vampire revealed himself to the heroine, flashing his CGI’d canine teeth to protect her from the approaching pack of werewolves.

  Severn’s mood changed as the movie reached the dramatic ‘bite’ scene. As the on-screen vampire stroked the heroine’s hair back from her lily-white neck, Severn matched him, gently sweeping my hair to the side. Both vampires lowered their heads at the same time. The movie vampire bit, the heroine screamed, Anita squealed and I felt the point of a tooth on my skin. I wriggled away.

  “Stop it! Later,” I whispered.

  There was no answer except a ragged breath. A quick glance sideways told me Severn was, for the second time today, fighting to restrain his natural urges. If we hadn’t been sitting beside my friends, in a crowded movie theatre, I might have offered him my neck and said “go for it” – it’s not like I didn’t want him to bite me – but I had no idea what my reaction might be, what the bite might lead to. I needed to be somewhere private before I found out.

  By the end of the movie, Severn was back in innocent teenager mode but I could tell that wasn’t going to last long. On the bus journey home he kept touching my hair and running his finger along my neck. I assumed, I hoped, we would go to his motel but, as we neared my stop, he pushed the button to halt the bus. We walked silently down the dark street and as we rounded the corner into our side street, he stopped and pulled me close, his breath warm on my neck. I flicked my hair sideways to offer my neck but he drew back.