I parked next to the car and made my way past the cats to the front door. I knocked rather loudly and was shocked when a large middle-aged man opened the door rather angrily.
“What do you want?” The man asked as he looked down at me.
He seemed like he was battling a migraine. I watched as he rubbed between his eyes and leaned his tall frame against the wall clumsily.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I was looking for someone. Have you been here long?”
“What?” The man asked.
“I’m looking for someone,” I said. “Maybe I have the wrong house.”
The man stopped rubbing between his eyes and looked down at me.
“You do have the wrong house,” the man said in a menacing tone. “Don’t ever come back here again.”
The door slammed in my face, and I found myself rushing back to my car. The cats in the yard were all looking at me as I drove away.
I was afraid, and I didn’t know why. Sure the man was rude, but something about him also terrified me. Well, I was certain that Derry would come for me once the sun set. I’d find out all about this strange man when that happened.
Derry
Ciaran and Lorcan were both excited over Bob’s presence. That’s the only reason they didn’t complain too much about Selma’s second visit. We normally didn’t keep humans in thrall for an extended period of time, but other vampires kept multiple enslaved humans around them at all times.
I watched as my brothers poked and prodded at Bret’s father. Ciaran was a bit too rough at one point and ended up breaking a few of Bob’s ribs. I separated the two of them and sent Bob to his room.
“If you break him, I won’t bother with another one,” I scolded.
“I didn’t mean to injure him,” Ciaran said.
“You struck him,” I said. “What did you think would happen?”
“I barely tapped him,” Ciaran said.
“Well if you keep it up, you’ll kill him,” I said. “And if that happens, nobody will protect our home during the daytime."
“Behave Ciaran,” Lorcan added. “Just keep away from him if you can’t play nice.”
“Can we feed on him?” Ciaran asked.
“Are you kidding me?” I asked in return. “Keep away from him. We need a daytime guardian for this place. It’ll make things safer for us, and that will let us stay a while longer.”
“I can smell his blood,” Ciaran moaned. “I’d sure like a taste.”
“No,” I said.
Both my brothers were looking a bit on the hungry side, but that wasn’t my fault. They were spending too much time playing video games and not enough time hunting. Lazy vampires, both of my brothers were becoming lazy vampires.
I spent another hour with them playing games, but left when I was finally confident enough that Ciaran wouldn’t gobble down Bob the moment I exited the house.
The air outside was beginning to cool down, and I was hungry. I quickly flew over to Hollywood and began prowling the darkest streets and alleys looking for suitable prey. All I could find were older male vagrants, nothing I was truly interested in.
I wanted Selma.
I wanted to be with her. I wanted to smell her scent, and I was becoming impatient with the hunt. Finally, in an act of frustration, I scooped up the youngest male I could find and fed on him as rapidly as possible. On my way out of the alley, an older female just happened to enter, and even though she still wasn’t my usual type of prey, I took her as well.
In my haste to feed, I tore too deeply into the woman’s neck and splashed the front of my new clothes with blood. I threw her body away from me in a bit of a temper tantrum and then took to the air once more.
I flew back to our house.
Once there, I had Bob turn on the shower and stepped into the hot water as he laid out some clean clothes for me. Of course, all of this brought the attention of my younger brothers.
“Is this for the human girl?” Lorcan asked.
“Yes,” I answered.
“Do you have a girlfriend?” Ciaran teased. “I guess it makes sense; you already met her father.”
Lorcan started laughing.
Bob started crying, and Ciaran shoved him out of the bathroom. When I was all cleaned and dressed, my brothers looked me over and giggled at my efforts to appear sort of human.
“I’d like to meet her,” Ciaran said.
“So would I,” Lorcan added.
“You’ll both scare the hell out of her,” I said. “You two look like monsters. When’s the last time either of you have fed?”
“We’ve been busy,” Lorcan said.
“What are you spraying?” Ciaran asked.
“It’s cologne,” Bob answered from the hallway. “My son loves that stuff.”
“Don’t speak to them unless they speak to you directly,” I advised Bob.
I looked good. The clothes were clean, and I smelled of soap and shampoo just like a human. Since I had very little dexterity in my fingers, I had Bob tie my shoes. I stared at his neck the entire time, and that made him extremely nervous. He was more than happy to step away from me when he finished.
“Go to your room,” I said. “You can come out after sunrise when it’s safe.”
I lingered a moment in the backyard until Lorcan and Ciaran were once again playing their games. Confident that Bob would survive the evening, I took off into the air.
Selma was waiting for me.
I made the journey in record time. The directions burned into my memory by something, not unlike…passion? I laughed at myself. What a romantic I could be to think that a frail human girl would be so interesting.
Something was off.
I sensed that immediately, but I couldn’t pinpoint just what was making me so uneasy with my head in the clouds. I touched down next to a tree in the large front yard.
A heartbeat.
I could hear a heartbeat, and I could smell a human scent coming from not so far away. I unsheathed my claws for an attack, but I quickly realized that the heartbeat was far too relaxed to be a threat.
I studied the scents in the air and learned everything I needed to know. Selma now had a bodyguard, and it was a good bet that she was none the wiser.
I didn’t like that.
I didn’t like that one bit.
Moving quickly, I tore into the vehicle with the near-sleeping, secret bodyguard. The man barely had time to gasp before I practically eviscerated him all over the front seat. Still, I didn’t kill him. Instead, I started the vehicle and drove to a more desolate area known to have mountain lions.
I was covered in blood once again as I dragged the secret bodyguard halfway out of the car. That wasn’t a problem for me this time, however. I had on a backpack full of clean clothes that I planned on hiding somewhere near Selma’s house.
I took to the air the moment I was clean. I was beyond impatient by the time I reached Selma’s house, but I still circled a few times before touching down quietly in the back yard.
Selma
I was half asleep when I felt his presence at my windowsill.
My beautiful dead boy.
I couldn’t have been more securely stuck in his spider’s web. His reflective eyes scanned the room before he moved silently inside. I watched him for a moment before losing him completely in the slight shadows of the corner and the dresser.
“How do you do that?” I asked as I searched for his luminous skin.
“What?” Derry asked in return.
“How do you vanish in darkness and shadows?” I asked.
“That’s just a side-effect of being what I am,” Derry said.
I watched him as he reappeared and started looking around my room. He wasn’t tall, probably only around five feet eight inches if I was being generous. He had a slight build like a swimmer, somebody that would be fast on their feet.
“I’m probably just some silly girl to you,” I said as he looked over various school trophies and other signs of my youth.<
br />
I moved a bit on the bed, and Derry’s head snapped in my direction. Despite the shadows, the moonlight managed to illuminate the claws at the ends of each finger that flexed menacingly beforehe withdrew them.
I gasped out loud.
“I won’t hurt you,” Derry assured.
“I believe you,” I said.
“Then why are you so suddenly afraid?” Derry asked.
“I saw your claws,” I answered honestly.
“My claws,” Derry repeated in a whisper that made the room cold and damp.
“I didn’t know you had claws,” I tried to explain. “They caught me off guard, but they make total sense. You’re a vampire. You’d need things like that so that you…can…kill.”
Derry only looked at me from across the room. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but I definitely held his attention.
“Say something,” I said.
“Can I come closer?” Derry asked.
A part of me was terrified. A part of me wanted to run and hide, but another part of me was drawn to the danger. Another part of me wanted to feel his icy touch.
“Yes,” I answered.
In a flash of movement, Derry was next to me, and I was suddenly without a care in the world. I threw my arms around him as he nuzzled at my neck and throat. I could feel him breathing in the smell of my skin and hair.
“Lay down beside me,” I said. “I want to kiss you.”
Derry did as I asked him, and I did my very best to bruise his lips with kisses. Once again, I could taste the sweet blood in his mouth, and I again wondered if it could somehow affect me.
“You kill,” I said. “I understand that. You’re a vampire. Of course you kill. That’s what vampires do.”
Derry said nothing.
“Do you kill?” I asked.
Derry sat up in the bed, and I came with him. His eyes were reflecting the moonlight in a most inhuman way, but I stroked his face regardless.
“I don’t kill people,” Derry said. “I hate the thought of harming people.”
“What about my kidnappers?” I asked.
“I only hurt them because they wanted to hurt you,” Derry said. “They were going to kill you.”
“What about my father?” I asked.
“That was my brother,” Derry answered. “Your father offended him, and my brothers are a bit wilder than I am. They can be dangerous.”
“I understand,” I said.
Derry wasn’t looking at me. He did that a lot. He had entire conversations with me, and seldom looked in my eyes. I guess when all your senses are as keen as a vampire’s, vision may not be so important.
“Where’s your mother?” Derry asked.
“She left a long time ago,” I answered. “It’s just me, my dad, and my little brother. Maybe someday you could meet him.”
“I’d terrify your little brother,” Derry said.
“I’d speak to him first,” I said. “I’d explain to him that you’re special.”
Derry turned his head to look at me, but that didn’t matter. His face, as usual, was without expression. Only his eyes showed that he was interested in speaking with me.
“Let’s go somewhere,” Derry said.
“It’s a bit late to be leaving the house,” I said.
“Not for me,” Derry said.
I noticed that he was pulling away from me. In just a short amount of time, he’d even moved away from my bed towards the other side of the room.
“I can’t leave,” I said. “Tyler would be all alone, and I have no idea when my dad will return.”
“Then tomorrow,” Derry said. “Perhaps we can go somewhere tomorrow?”
“I can’t,” I said. “I have plans tomorrow.”
“Plans?” Derry asked.
“Yes,” I answered. “I have plans to go to the movies with my friends, Jake and Betty. I’d invite you, but I imagine you’d be a bit uncomfortable.”
Derry vanished in the shadows of my room.
“Jake and Betty,” Derry said from the darkness.
“They’re friends,” I said. “I care about them. They’ve been very good to me. I wish you could come. I’d like to introduce you to everyone. I bet I could disguise you well enough that nobody would ever know you’re different.”
“Maybe someday,” Derry said.
I stood up from my bed, hoping to embrace him in the darkness, but I couldn’t find him anywhere.
“Where’d you go?” I asked.
“I’m here,” Derry whispered.
My room was growing colder and colder, and it was also getting darker. I smiled, and then I laughed as the chill cooled the summer heat from my room.
Glowing eyes opened right in front of me. I startled, and Derry’s arms wrapped around my waist. I stood still as he inhaled deeply about my neck and hair once again. I even imagined that I felt his dangerous teeth scrap gently against my skin.
Derry was foreign and new. He was unchangeable. He was a companion that would never die. If we fell in love, it would be for eternity.
I already cared about him. There was a tragedy in his story that broke my heart even though I had no knowledge of what the tragedy was. How could a vampire not be sad? How could he not need me to bring him back to the light?
“My summer girl,” Derry whispered.
“That’s right,” I said as I ran my fingers through his soft dark hair. “I’m your summer girl.”
I breathed deeply and happily. My vampire love wasn’t a killer. He was only a cursed boy with abilities far different from my own. It made sense. Everyone’s heard of fictional vampires that don’t like to kill. Surely all those ideas had to come from somewhere.
A relationship was possible.
It wouldn’t be easy. In all honesty, it might even be rather difficult, but when two people care about each other…
“I love the way you smell,” Derry said. “You’re so alive. Your heart beats so strongly. The entire world is at your feet, and I’d like to give it to you.”
“I don’t understand?"
“I want to shower you with gifts,” Derry said. “Diamonds, pearls, rubies and emeralds, these will all be yours, and so much more. I’ll take care of you. I’ll keep you safe.”
“I’d like that,” I said. “I only feel safe when you’re near me.”
“Tomorrow, I’ll take you away from here,” Derry said.
“Not tomorrow, remember?” I said. “I’ll be all yours the next evening, or perhaps the evening afterwards.”
“I understand,” Derry said as he moved to the window.
“I wish you wouldn’t leave,” I said.
Derry only embraced me once more and vanished into the nighttime sky. I sat at the window, smoking a joint for the next hour or so. Finally, sleep began calling for me, and I drifted off into a peaceful slumber.
Derry
I flew high into the sky.
I wanted to touch the clouds, and when I had enough of that, I flew out over the ocean until I grew bored enough to make my way to the beach.
I wasn’t all that hungry, but I still hunted along the shoreline. There were a few teenagers, but for the most part, the beach was empty. In the distance, headlights bobbed up and down as a truck slowly made its way in my direction.
Part of me wanted to fly away before they bothered me. I was happy, and I didn’t want to be disturbed, but I didn’t fly away. I only stood there in the headlights as the vehicle got closer and closer.
The truck stopped moving.
No doubt, the two occupants were uncomfortable with my appearance in such bright lights. I was also uncomfortable. A vampire detests the loss of their camouflage.
“The beach is closed,” a voice informed me over a loudspeaker.
I started walking again. I wanted away from the headlights. I wanted the lifeguards to leave me alone.
“Young man,” the voice continued. “The beach is closed right now. We’re going to escort you over to the pier, and then you can c
all for a ride home.”
I was about to leave the shine of their lights, but the driver repositioned the truck to keep me illuminated. I was becoming annoyed.
The bright yellow passenger door of the truck opened up, and one of the lifeguards hesitantly made his way over to me.
“Look, kid,” the lifeguard said. “You either come with us, or we call the police. You know better than to be here this late at night.”
I took another slow step, and then another. I acted like I couldn’t hear the man. In reality, I was only daring him to reach out and touch me.
The lifeguard grabbed my shoulder, and I turned and bit through his wrist.
To my surprise, the lifeguard didn’t scream. He only stood there in mute silence as he watched the waves wash over his severed hand. When he finally looked away from the hand and back to my face, he started making odd noises in the back of his throat as if he were a mute.
His weakness was an aphrodisiac to me, and I pounced on him immediately. I was guzzling his blood as the waves wet my clothes. I could hear his partner shouting from inside the cab of the truck as I greedily drank all the blood I could drink.
I heard the second truck door open behind me, but I didn’t bother turning around. The partner hesitated for just a brief moment and then ran for his life.
I let him get all the way to the boardwalk before I started chasing him. The few teenagers still remaining on the beach were too drunk and stoned to realize what was happening just a little ways away.
The partner was young and in excellent shape. I took to the air and watched as he ran across the nearest parking lot. After the almost empty parking lot was an almost empty street, beyond that were groupings of bars and shops. Why he exited the vehicle and chose to run instead of drive baffled me, but fear makes humans do strange things.
I took him before he could cross the street. I dropped down from the sky and smashed a bit of his body against the pavement. After that, I ripped the door from an SUV and threw him inside.
I took my time feeding on him. I had nowhere to go, and nothing important to do. By the time I finished, I could barely move, I was so full of blood.
The Forgotten: A Vampire Story Page 9
