Innocently Evil (A Kitty Bloom Novel)

by Beadsmoore, Felicity

  Sam glanced around at my prison once more and then grinned at me. “Besides keeping you in a cage, I guess,” he smiled, “but how would I ever get to be with the true Kitty Bloom then, hmm?”

  At his cute, baby-boy grin, I couldn’t stop myself from smiling, too. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was, how much Sam seemed to care for and understand me. A part of me, the evil part, just didn’t believe that it could be real.

  “But, you were so mad,” I said, feeling the need to clarify our last moment together. “When I left you I told you I couldn’t promise not to go to the ball, because I had to be there for Mum. Of course, I had no idea that all this would happen in-between, but you were mad at me. I know you were.”

  Sam smiled at me and touched his nose lovingly to mine. “I never said I was perfect,” he said softly. “I might understand you and want you just the way you are. But when it comes to your safety, I can’t help but want to be there to protect you from everything before you have to deal with it. I couldn’t live if something happened to you. You are my world, what I live for. I never want to see you in danger. But now I fear that my desperation for control, the need I had to make sure you didn’t go to the Tiennan’s Welcome Ball, actually ended up putting you in danger.”

  “No,” I said, incredulously. “I did this. It’s my fault. I should have listened to you.”

  Sam shook his head and smiled sweetly at me. “No,” he said firmly. “As the elder in this relationship and the one who knows you enough to be able to predict your stubborn responses, it is definitely my fault. I shouldn’t have asked that of you.”

  As I went to shake my head and deny Sam the claim to error a second time, he stopped me with a finger to my lips and then looked curiously around my barred cage.

  “Is there no way out,” he said as his violet eyes came back to mine.

  His finger left my lips as I turned my head behind me and glanced around at the strong, firm bars of my prison cell. Then I brought my eyes back to him and frowned desperately. “No,” I said, in a frustrated sigh.

  “Then you must still be at the Tiennan’s castle,” said Sam. “There is magic surrounding the walls, so the only way in is physically. In fact, I’m surprised that I was actually able to find you at all. Usually spells as strong as those surrounding the walls of the castle prevent any mental or magical intrusion.”

  He raised an uncertain eyebrow at me and seemed to ponder his own thoughts silently for a moment. “If what you told me about you and her, your other half, is as incredible as you imply,” he began again slowly. “Then maybe, just maybe you are stronger together than apart. If that’s so, then there’s no knowing what you’d be capable of doing. You would be the very first daughter of Lilith to join forces with your evil half. It’s unwritten territory, anything could be within your reach.”

  At his words a feeling of hope seemed to wash over me and I was grateful to no longer feel as though I would forever be at the mercy of others. If Sam was right, then there could be a chance for me to save myself, and to get revenge for what Louis and Max had done to my mum.

  I smiled lightly at the thought and then returned my attention back to Sam. “So, what do we do now,” I asked him, hoping for instruction.

  He frowned at me and caressed the side of my cheek with his fingertips. “You wake up,” he said sadly, “and I’ll find you. Besides, I have a feeling that things will all work out okay.”

  “Wake up,” I said, feeling a little shocked, “but this couldn’t be a dream.”

  Unfortunately, deep down, I knew for a fact that it was, even though I didn’t want it to be. I may have been able to reach out and touch Sam’s mind with my own and he, in turn, had reached out to mine. But all in all, I was still asleep in the guest room in the Tiennan’s mansion and no amount of wishing was going to free me from being under lock and key.

  Sam’s mouth covered mine for a final time and his lips tickled mine as he whispered a sweet goodbye. Darkness filled the room once more and I knew that it was time.

  “Alright,” I said, conceding. “It’s time I woke up.”

  Twenty-One: The Mother-Daughter Vampire Talk

  A soft crooning of words brought me gently back to the land of the living. Through a sleep filled haze, I struggled to open my eyes and find the origin of the noise. In a flicker of eyelashes, a face appeared. A grin of perfect white teeth glittered at me as the glowing turquoise eyes observed me curiously and attentively, like a predator watching prey.

  “Good evening, my darling,” said the vampire replacement of my mum. “How did you sleep?”

  I sat up swiftly and pushed myself up higher on the bed, further away from where she was sitting near my legs on the opposite side. “What do you want,” I asked sternly, feeling somewhat agitated by her unannounced visit.

  She frowned at me playfully and looked as though she were trying to feign injury. “Is that any way to talk to your mother,” she said glumly. Then a slight smile covered her large, cherry collared lips and she reached out a delicate hand towards my left leg.

  Realizing her intent to touch me, I shot up and off the bed in a flash and stood warily behind the protection of the mattress. An amused chuckle rang out in the silence of the room, bringing my eyes back to the unnatural glow of hers.

  “You can’t be serious,” she laughed at me in disbelief. “You’re afraid of me, your own mother. After what you did last night, I think I have more reason to be afraid of you.”

  The ferocious glare that filled her eyes at her final words seemed to promise violence, making my skin crawl and my heart beat quicken. My hands curled into fists, as I clenched my jaw tightly and stared at her, trying to prepare myself for the payback that I was sure she’d eventually give me.

  “What,” she asked, the aggression in her expression turning innocent. “You going to hit me again?”

  I didn’t know what to say. As I stared at her face, my mum’s beautiful, youthful, familiar-looking face, I found it hard to keep my expression stern and my mind focused. A part of me felt guilty and ashamed for physically hurting her, even though her immaculately healed wounds had proved that she was not the woman I remembered.

  My tense muscles loosened and I unclenched my fists. “No,” I said, softly. “I’m not going to hit you. What do you want?”

  A sly smile returned to her lips and in one graceful movement, she turned, grabbed a hold of the bedpost beside her with her right hand and swung herself up and around to face me. “I’m here to help you get ready, of course,” she said sweetly and as if I should have known.

  My mum the vampire stalked around the edge of the bed towards me, then turned and twirled giving me a full view of her outfit. She was dressed in a snug, cerulean blue silk Chinese patterned dress with gold edgings, a large split up her left thigh and one, triangular shaped strap over her right shoulder. Her dark, auburn hair was piled high on her head in fragile curls and wrapped securely in place with luminous gold ribbon.

  Her girlish twirl ended and she faced me once again. “How do I look, Kitty-cat,” she asked me kindly, as she smoothed down the soft fabric of her dress.

  I smiled half-heartedly, trying to be considerate, even though my evil half yelled at me not to be. “Beautiful,” I said quietly, as my evil half retorted wryly in my mind, ‘like a vampire in a blue dress’.

  The vampire in front of me smiled contentedly, unaware of the verbal abuse she was receiving from my other half in the safety of my head. In a second, her cheerful expression changed and she became inquisitive. She took a step towards me, staring at me, then stopped and crossed her arms over her chest. “Now,” she said, thoughtfully, “what are we going to do about you?”

  Instantly remembering the filthy state I was in, I glanced down at my blood-stained shirt and pants and began feeling desperate for a shower. When I looked up again, my undead mother was standing less than a meter in front of me and was staring at the thick blood-stain on the top of my pants. I jumped back a step, surprised and annoyed at m
yself for dropping my guard. I had to remind myself that even though the face staring back at me was my mum’s, she was now a vampire and still had plans to make me just as much of a bloodsucker as her.

  Ignoring my retreat, she took a step forward and reached a hand out towards the waist band of my track pants. “I see Max marked you after all,” she said, plainly, without clear emotion.

  As her hand brushed the clothing around my hips, I recoiled back another step and then moved around her. “You don’t sound surprised,” I said, as irritation made my voice deeper.

  She frowned at my movement and then seemed to follow me, keeping a safe meter between us, while she did so. “I expected as much,” she replied, flatly. “The way he talks about you is so possessively fatal. He seems to act as though you are already his, like you belong together.”

  I screwed up my face at her words as the good half of me filled with disgust and my evil side cried internally that we belonged to no one. I took a side step and the vampire mirrored my movement.

  All of a sudden, a smile crept over her face as though a thought had just occurred to her. “I guess the apple didn’t fall far from the tree,” she said grinning. “Although I must admit that Max seems to lack the seductive charm of his father. When I’m around Louis, I never want to leave him. There hasn’t been a day since we’ve been here that I haven’t gone to see him. When I’m with him I know deep inside that we are meant to be, like our souls were destined for each other. I doubt that Max has the same effect on you.”

  She raised an eyebrow at me questioningly, almost as though she was challenging me. A strange feeling filled me and while my good side wallowed in denial, my evil half had to concede to a similar sense of destiny. At times, when the true Max shone through, an emptiness deep inside me seemed to disappear and I began to feel content.

  As soon as the thought entered my head, my eyes betrayed me and seemed to shine the harmful truth out to the searching eyes of the motherly vampire. “Ha,” she exclaimed, gleefully. “I knew it. We are destined forever to be part of the one family. Max is your soul mate and Louis is mine. Oh, Kitty, I’m so happy.” Biting her lip in joyful ecstasy, she stretched out her arms and took a step towards me, as though she was looking for a hug.

  “Whoa,” I said jumping back. “Um—remember the blood.” I pointed down at my ruined clothes after the admission of the quick-thinking excuse and hoped that it would persuade her not to touch me.

  Luckily for me it appeared to work, because she stopped mid-movement, looking down at my clothes and seemed to think better of her desire. Her arms dropped to her sides, but her fiercely happy grin remained. “Oh, baby,” she said sweetly. “We are going to spend eternity together.”

  I tried for a reassuring smile, but all I could manage was a half-hearted twist of lips that soon collapsed into a frown. Then, a memory washed over me, of darkness, of prison bars and of Sam. The dream I’d been drowning in only moments before seemed to fill my head more clearly and I remembered how much I missed Sam. I yearned for him and his help and then thought better of the silent answer my eyes had given my undead mother.

  Although I could feel how much the evil part of me cared for Max, so much that at times it felt certain that we were meant to be together, when I was with Sam I always felt like that. Even though my evil half often questioned the constancy of his love for me, due to her own insecurities, Sam and I felt like truly destined souls, like ying and yang, a matching pair, and I couldn’t just ignore that.

  Tilting my head to the side with uncertainty, I stared at my mum with her bright vampire eyes and remembered what she’d told me about my father, Marcus Gray. If Louis was so rightfully her soul mate, then what was Marcus, an unprotected fling?

  Feeling defensive for both my father and myself, I decided, a little impulsively, to put the question to the source and find out her answer. “But, Mother,” I said, finding it hard to call her that. “What about Marcus, my father? I thought you loved him.”

  Swiftly, her smile disintegrated and her head shot back as though she’d been hit. Her red lips pursed together in anger and her eyes narrowed at me. “He was nothing,” she said quickly. “Just a fleeting affair, of which the only benefit was you. And I should have known back then, I think I did, that Louis Tiennan was the one. He’s always been the one for me.”

  Her head shot up high and she looked down her nose at me, as her hands clasped nervously in front of her. “Marcus was a human, an innocent,” she spat severely. “He had nothing to offer me. Just like Sam has nothing to offer you.”

  My mouth dropped open and I couldn’t help but feel shocked and offended on Sam’s, my father’s and also my account. Sam was much more than just an innocent human. In fact he wasn’t even a human anymore anyway. He was my guardian angel and he had a lifetime to offer me, much more than what her precious new stepson Max could offer me in an eternity of death. Although, I felt my evil side complaining aggressively against some of my mental accusations, she could understand my point and didn’t fight to intervene.

  “Did you think I didn’t know,” asked my mum, the evil vampire. “I’m your mother. I know you and I know all about Sam. It’s a shame he’ll have to die, isn’t it? Louis has already made the plans.” She smirked devilishly at me as her hands rose to her hips and she waited eagerly for a reply.

  I glared at her, wishing harmful tortures at her that no one should ever wish upon their mother. Biting the insides of my cheeks and pursing my lips, I tried to calm myself and think of a way to avoid escalating the situation. Bringing up Marcus had been a bad idea, but at least now I knew that I had to keep Sam securely out of the conversation as much as possible. If I was to protect Sam, I had to pretend my feelings for him were obsolete and I had to bring the focus back to the other reasons why I didn’t want to be a vampire and spend an eternity with Max. I couldn’t live with myself if I was the reason for Sam’s death.

  So, a conversation diverter became a necessity, and while my mum’s dead turquoise eyes watched me waiting for an answer, I searched my brain for something to throw her off the scent of Sam. An idea hit me and my attention refocused on the reason for her troublesome visit, she had been sent to help me prepare for the evening’s events.

  With a silent sigh and ignoring the niggling flight or fight response in the back of my brain, I took a step towards her. “I need a shower,” I said, feigning defeat and tiredness. “What time are the festivities to begin tonight anyway?”

  A sudden wash of surprise filled her firm expression and then a peaceful and pleasant smile returned to her lips. She stepped towards me, dropping her arms to her sides and then reached a hand out to my arm. With a great force of will and a total shot of numbness to the creepy feeling she exuded, I didn’t flinch away and stood still as her cold fingers wrapped gently around my arm.

  “We have a couple of hours,” she said sweetly with a giggle. “After all, you are the guest of honor.” With her hand wrapped securely around my arm she began leading me towards the bathroom. “You know, you’re very lucky,” she said, as though we were best friends chatting. “All the most important citizens of Saint Jean will be here tonight to watch you turn. All I got was a private party with Louis and Max. You should be very grateful for what they are doing for you. They all consider you quite special.”

  “Yay,” I said under my breath, then remembered how her super vampire hearing would have picked up on the clear sarcasm. I looked up at her quizzical frown and I frowned back. “You know I’m not good with crowds, Mum,” I said, hoping she’d buy it. “I’m going to be so embarrassed. I think you would have got more out of a big special occasion than I will. Is it much too late to just have a private party for me, too? Just a family gathering?” I gave her my best anxious puppy-dog eyes and prayed that I hadn’t laid it on too thickly.

  She raised an eyebrow at me curiously and then seemed to think better of it. Smiling reassuringly, she patted me on the arm, while I tried hard not to shudder at her touch. “I’m sorry d
arling,” she said, sounding genuinely apologetic, “but everything’s already been arranged. I promise you’ll love it. I’m sure you will. You deserve to be special once in a while. Just think of it as the eighteenth birthday you should’ve had.”

  Her grinned widened and she snuggled into my side. “Come on,” she said, as we reached the bathroom doorway. “Let’s go make you the belle of the ball.”

  Twenty-Two: The Memory of Meeting

  I stared glumly into the antique mirror hanging on the wall in the elegantly furnished hallway, while my mum’s undead fingers fidgeted with my hair. She’d not left me alone for more than a second since she’d come to my room earlier to prepare me for the evening. She’d even insisted on sitting inside the bathroom while I hid behind the shower curtain and let the warm water of the shower wash all the congealed blood from my body. It seemed as though she was just a tad paranoid that I might try and do something crazy, like escape from three insane vampires before they could turn me into one of them.

  A deep, peaceful sigh escaped the motherly vampire’s lips and her turquoise eyes connected with mine in the mirror. “Don’t you look lovely,” she said, more to herself and the emptiness of the room than to me.

  She reached forward, brushing her cold fingertips across my left temple as she stroked a mischievous curl behind my ear and I fought back a creepy shiver. Stealing my eyes from the cold deadness of hers, I looked over my appearance and had to agree with her. Although I was mightily unhappy, I had to admit I looked decent. Beautiful enough to spend my last couple of hours, or less, appreciating the life left in my body anyway, before those fanged vultures chose to strip it away.