God, that felt good. Seriously. To have somebody, anybody support me unconditionally, no questions asked. What a concept. And what a change from earlier at his office.
I looked up at Rick and smiled. “Thanks.”
Rick’s dark brown eyes smiled back at me. “No problem, kiddo.”
Mom pulled me into a huge hug. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I should’ve listened to you.”
It felt really good to have my momma back. “I’m sorry, too.”
“When y’all are finished with your little Brady Bunch reunion show, I’d like to ask AJ a few questions. Ryan, you can go home; we’re finished with you,” Sheriff Christopher said.
“They’re not going to arrest you?” I asked Ryan.
“No. The autopsy report showed that a snakebite killed him. I only punched him twice. I was just afraid you had come back after him with a baseball bat. Or a car. You were pretty pissed,” Ryan said.
“So you thought you were protecting me,” I said.
Ryan nodded.
“Can we wrap this up?” the sheriff asked impatiently. “I’d like to get this over with.”
“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” Mom said.
“It’s okay. I want to.”
Ryan wrapped me up in a giant hug and I could feel the tension leave him. “Are you all right?” I asked.
“Yeah. I’m good now.”
He pulled back, and we stared into each other’s eyes for a moment. My heart hitched, and the knot in my belly moved to my throat.
Rick turned to my mom. “Liz, if you’re okay with it, I’ll stay here with AJ.”
Ryan grabbed my hand and squeezed it. For what seemed like the hundredth time today, tears stung my eyes. I felt the words I wanted to say but couldn’t, so I closed my eyes and whispered them in my head.
“Ouch!” Ryan said, grabbing his head right above his ear.
“What?” Rick asked.
“Nothing. Just the weirdest head pain. Intense,” he said.
“Probably just stress. Let’s go home and get you an aspirin,” Mom said, leading him out the door.
As I watched them leave, I could’ve sworn I heard Ryan’s voice in my head, telling me he loved me, too.
The sheriff led us down the hallway, past a couple of offices, and into a room that looked like it came right out of Law & Order.
The smell of burnt coffee filled the space. The sheriff waved his hand toward the table in the center of the room. Rick pulled out a chair for me, then sat next to me. We waited while Sheriff Christopher fixed himself a cup of that vile black liquid.
“Coffee?” he asked us.
“No, thank you,” Rick answered. His accent was light, almost undetectable, unlike Aunt Doreen’s thick, almost indecipherable burr.
“First things first,” the sheriff said. “You’re lucky I don’t press charges for interfering with an investigation.”
“Al, she’s aware what she did was wrong. Cut the girl a break and move on. For Christ’s sake, she’s seventeen and wanted to protect her brother,” Rick said.
My brother. Ugh, how I hated those words. Ryan was no more my brother than the man in the moon.
“Darlin’,” the sheriff said. “This stuff between you and your teacher is very serious. And I know it’s gonna be a little embarrassing, and I apologize for that. But I need to know: Were you sleeping with your teacher?”
“Ew. No,” I answered. “I mean, I thought he was hot until he went loco, but still no. He hugged me once. That’s it. And there was nothing to the hug. It was a fatherly hug, not a creep-me-out hug.” I wish it had creeped me out, though. If I had gotten the psycho vibe, we wouldn’t be here right now.
“We collected some evidence from his classroom today that indicates he was obsessed with you—and that he thought you were some kind of ‘chosen’ vampire. Were you aware of that?” he asked.
“Not until I went over there this afternoon. He had this journal of his plans to gain my trust and how he even planned to get me suspended for cheating. If I had known all that, I never would have gone to his house. I thought he was a victim, too. I thought we should come to the police together. I trusted him. I thought he was my friend.” I sobbed.
Rick draped his arm across the back of my chair and pulled me closer to him. “It’s okay, honey. You’re safe, and that’s what matters.”
“I need you to tell me what happened from start to finish,” the sheriff said. “Don’t leave any detail out. We need to figure out where Mr. Charles disappeared to.”
“He mentioned something about clan elders and that they were waiting for him to bring me to them,” I said.
“According to some of the emails we accessed from his computer at work, he was going to take you to some kind of vampire cult. Unfortunately for us, he didn’t leave any detailed information about where this cult is located. And I’m sure the emails were sent from a dummy address. We’re hopeful he left some information on his hard drive at the house. You’re a lucky girl,” the sheriff said. “Being the target of any cult is bad, but those folks who think they’re vampires are especially dangerous because they’re just not right in the head.” He shook his head and laughed. “Vampires? Of all the things to believe in.”
“We’re all lucky,” Rick said. “Come on, sweetheart. Let’s get you home.”
We got in the car and drove in silence for a few minutes. I was trying to be strong, but with everything that had happened this week, I felt more than a little overwhelmed. Mr. Charles had known my secret because my own father led him to me.
And then there was the whole Ryan thing. He’d watched me bite Mr. Charles but it hadn’t seemed to freak him out. Of course, why should he freak when he had the magic ninja stork move?
“I’m in the mood for a milk shake, how about you?” Rick asked as he pulled into Bumpers. “You know, I fell in love with your mother right here. She ordered a vanilla malt and won my heart.”
I smiled. “I’m more of an orange cream slush girl, myself.”
“Funny, so is Ryan.”
He rolled down the window, punched the button, and placed our order.
“Are you okay?” he asked me, after the Bumpers girl wheeled our food to us on her roller skates.
“Yeah. I’m a little weak, and a little freaked. But I’m good.” I took a long pull off my straw. The orange cream was cold and soothing and just what I needed.
“How are you and Ryan doing with this stepsibling thing? I know it’s really hard, what your mom and I have done to the two of you. And I know you can’t just turn off your feelings like a light switch.”
This was so weird, talking about my not-so-sisterly feelings for my stepbrother with my stepfather. Seriously, I expected a call from Jerry Springer any minute now.
“We’re coping. I mean, we’ve only been brother and sister for a week.”
“And what a week! If your mom and I had realized our wedding would launch such a shit storm…”
“You would’ve just eloped,” I said, laughing.
“Yeah. Probably. Your mom is the best thing to ever happen to me.”
Funny. That’s exactly how I felt about his son.
“I need a nap,” I said as Rick pulled into the driveway. “I need to recover from all that drama.”
Rick sighed. “Yeah, well, drama kind of comes with being a”—he paused, seeming to choose his words carefully—“Fraser. And you’re officially a member of the family, so you might want to get used to it.”
“We Ashes bring our share of drama to the table. It’s in our nature.”
Rick smiled as if he understood completely, which made a lot of sense considering that his son could shoot fireworks from his fingertips. I wonder if that was a genetic thing.
I liked Rick—a lot. I couldn’t have asked for a better stepfather. So it was gonna suck big fat pickles when he discovered our little secret. Even though they obviously had secrets of their own, when Rick finds out he’s married to a vampire, he’ll le
ave and take his kids with him. And then I won’t even have Ryan as a brother.
The smell of pumpkin bread and coffee made my mouth water as we entered the kitchen. Mom was on the phone and Aunt Doreen was slicing the fresh baked bread.
“Hello, sweetheart,” Rick whispered, kissing Mom on the cheek as she listened into the receiver intently, only voicing the occasional “mmhmm,” “yes,” and “I understand” until finally, “Thank you, Ms. Blanchard. I appreciate your call and I’ll be sure to let her know. Good-bye.”
“Hey, honey,” Momma said to Rick as she hung up the phone. Then she walked over to me and wrapped me up. “So I’ve got some good news,” she said, finally letting me go.
“I could use some of that.”
Rick draped his arm around Mom’s shoulders. They fit together like a puzzle. “That was Ms. Blanchard. She’s been in touch with the police and knows everything. You’ve been cleared of the cheating and your suspension has been lifted.”
Relief flooded me. “Really?”
“Really. She’s in shock about Mr. Charles. She can’t believe he was so deluded that he thought you were some vampire queen.” Mom winked at me, and I stifled a giggle. “She said you might want to be prepared for some merciless teasing from the kids at school.”
“I can handle the teasing. Maybe I’ll even play along, with some vampire teeth and a tiara. I’m always looking for an excuse to wear a tiara, anyway.”
And the good news was, I already had the fangs.
Chapter 26
I would say that I fell asleep fast, but honestly, I don’t think my “nap” could be counted as sleep.
The dreams came immediately and they felt so real, so alive, that when I finally woke, I was more exhausted than before.
In the dreams, I saw Mr. Charles. He was with a man in a dark robe. His face was hidden but it was definitely a man. He was too broad-shouldered to be a woman. And he just had a very…male presence.
Anyway, Mr. Charles was handing the Serpentine Scrolls over to the man in the robe. There were other people standing in the shadows, but I couldn’t see their faces, either.
I was there, too, only not physically. More like a fly on the wall. I could see everything happening, but nobody knew I was there.
Except for the man in the robe. I knew he could see me because he turned and looked right at me. Shadows covered his face, but I saw his eyes. Electric blue. Sharp. All-knowing.
He held up his hand with his palm facing out. He was showing me his mark, the backward S on his palm that matched mine.
I jolted awake when my palm began to burn. I removed the bandage that I had so carefully kept in place and looked at my mark.
They had branded me. And now they were tracking me.
I couldn’t explain the sense of violation I felt. The invasion was personal, like a hidden video camera in your bedroom. Or worse, in your bathroom.
It was past time to talk to Mom. Obviously I was in over my head and needed some major guidance—guidance I had thought I was getting from Mr. Charles.
He had said my father was responsible for him tracking me down. Did that mean Mr. Charles was his human servant? I’d read about those before, but I thought that most vampire clans nowadays didn’t condone using humans like that. Of course, if half of what I’d read about the Serpentines was true…
Yeah, they probably wouldn’t have any problem with controlling humans on a whim. Especially a human like Mr. Charles, who seemed to be obsessed with everything vampire. He wanted immortality, and he more or less sold his soul to get it. The other side of this issue was that in order for a vampire to have a human servant, he had to have a massive amount of power. The kind of power that could only be developed over centuries of practice and control. And that was a very scary thought. Even scarier was the thought that that vampire could be my father.
I walked downstairs to find Mom, Rick, and Aunt Doreen rounding up the kids. Ryan was sitting on the couch, the twins were in the oversized leather chair whispering (which meant they were totally conspiring against Rayden again), Rayden was walking in with a wary look on his face, and Oz trailed behind him, wearing a chocolate milk mustache and pumpkin bread crumbs.
“Am I missing a family meeting?” I asked Mom as I hit the last step.
“There you are. I was just about to come and get you. I think this is the first time we’ve all been under the same roof at the same time since the wedding,” she said. “Come on in and sit.”
I had a bad feeling about this gathering. We were either gonna get a lecture, get some bad news, or they were gonna offer to take us on their honeymoon, just like Mike and Carol Brady did. I’d take bad news over their honeymoon anytime, thank-you-very-much.
I sat on the other end of the couch, careful not to come in contact with Ryan, even though I felt pulled to him like a magnet. When was I gonna get over this stupid attraction?
Aunt Doreen took a seat on the ottoman with the pretty pink square she was knitting while Mom and Rick continued to stand.
“This has been a very traumatic week,” Mom said. “First with the wedding, then with Noah’s death, then Ryan and AJ being accused of cheating, and the whole Mr. Charles drama…and I’m not even counting the adjustment to living together, which is its own kind of trauma.”
“Liz and I hate to add to the commotion, but we have something we need to discuss with you guys. It’s very important and it’s going to change our family dynamic in a big way,” Rick said.
“This isn’t going to be easy for y’all to hear. It’s important that you understand there’s a bigger picture and what we’re about to tell you is a key component to that picture. It’s going to seem unbelievable at first, but I know you’ll all be open and receptive to it,” Mom said.
“It’s high past time for complete honesty,” Rick said.
“That’s the truth of it,” Aunt Doreen mumbled.
“So we’re going to start with our big secret,” Mom said.
Here it was. The moment of truth. Mom was going to jump out of the vampire closet. And even though Ryan saw me fang Mr. Charles, I still wasn’t 100 percent sure that he was ready for the word “vampire.”
And what would Rick say?
“I’m pregnant.”
I’m sorry? Pregnant? Really?
“Ewwwww,” Rayden said. “That means that—”
“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” Ryan said, interrupting Ray before he could finish his sentence. “I think we all know what that means.”
“It means that as a family, we have a lot to work out,” Mom said. “And it’s more than just bringing a new baby into the world.”
“So, Rick knows about our family, um, genetics?” I asked.
“I do,” Rick said.
All three Fraser boys looked at their father. “Huh?” Rayden and Oz asked.
Interesting. Sure, he was okay with being married to a vampire, but would he really be okay with having a vampire kid?
“Okay, I’m not sure of the best way to do this,” Mom said, looking at Rick. “We’re not the only ones in the family who have some special genetics that could be passed onto the baby.”
Ana and Ainsley giggled a little, and all the brothers shot each other the same, worried glance.
A loud sigh escaped from Aunt Doreen. I glanced over to see her knitting furiously fast with a look of frustration on her face. “By the goddess, what yer mum is trying to say is that we’re Frieceadan. I’m a witch. The lads are warlocks,” she said. “I’ve been smellin’ evil since Monday morning but couldn’t place it. So I’ve been trying to protect you with herbs and amulets. You’re really not that stinky.” She winked.
“That explains a lot,” I said. “And Ryan’s fingertip fireworks?”
“Ryan saved you today because that’s our destiny. Don’t think for a second it was coincidence that brought our families together,” Aunt Doreen said. “You should know that by now, after all that research ye’ve been doin’.”
“I may have the Fr
ieceadan powers,” Ryan mumbled, “but I still can’t find my Frieceadan mark.”
“It’ll come, lad. Dinna fash yerself,” Aunt D assured him.
Maybe I should be more surprised by the revelation, but I guess it was more of a confirmation for me, since I actually witnessed Ryan’s ability firsthand today.
The girls just rolled their eyes at the announcement. “Like, duh,” the twins said. “We’ve known since forever. You guys are slow.”
Aunt Doreen laughed. “The weans always know. They’re so much more open to special abilities.”
I noticed that her hands were still on her temples and the knitting needles were still knitting.
And then, suddenly, it all made sense.
“No way. You know what this means?” I asked Mom. “I may be a key holder, but you are the chosen one.”
Chapter 27
“Wait a minute,” Ryan said. “Chosen what? You don’t even seemed surprised that we’re, um, not normal.”
I laughed so hard that my belly hurt. Not normal? That was rich. I’d give anything to be a witch. People were much more accepting of witches. But vampires? Who wanted a bloodsucking fiend as their BFF? Or girlfriend? Or stepsister?
“Of course I’m not surprised, after your little fireworks display earlier. The fact that you’re Frieceadan explains everything—hang on a second,” I said. “Didn’t you see me bite Mr. Charles?”
“You bit Mr. Charles?” My mom gasped.
“Yeah. I did. I was totally freaked and he was trying to drug me. I didn’t do anything else,” I said, trying to reassure her that I had not sucked his body dry and therefore was sure I hadn’t turned him. Well, mostly sure.
“I saw you bite him,” Ryan said. “I probably would’ve bitten him to get away, too.”
“But you didn’t see my—” My what? Fang-bearing levitation? My knife-throwing midair fight against the undead Noah?
Suddenly I had restless leg syndrome as adrenaline and anxiety shot through me. I stood and paced while everyone watched me with cautious interest. I thought he had seen me as Vampira and accepted that about me. But I had been wrong. Telling him was going to be harder than I thought.
Bite Me! Page 17
