Dark Secrets Box Set

by Angela M Hudson

David laughed again. “Well, he did leave one alive—a small boy. Does that make him more likeable?”

  “Depends,” I said. “Why did he leave him alive?”

  “The boy had always reminded him of his own dead son. So when he attacked the vampire with the jagged edge of a broken branch, he was amused by the fearless bravery and took pity on him. He ended his vengeful rampage there, faking his death to satisfy the boy’s hunger for revenge.”

  “How noble of him.”

  “Anyway, from then on,” he continued with a smirk, “the human race decided, since the wood the child used originated from a tree on consecrated ground, that these Creatures of the Night could be taken down by all things holy. Word spread and, like a disease, the rumors grew into the myths you still hear today.”

  “Hm.” I considered his tale.

  “And can you guess that small boy’s name?”

  “I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”

  He nodded, smiling. “Van Helsing.”

  “And that’s a true story?” I asked.

  “True story, which soon became legend.”

  I thought about how my dad talked about facts in myths during a lecture one day. “Well… if that’s true, why wouldn’t you just correct them—the humans, I mean—tell them the truth about the whole demon rumor thing?”

  “Because the lies assist with our cover.” He shrugged. “Those who can walk in the day, go to church or wear a cross, can’t possibly be one of these demonic creatures, and so we can remain secret—live in peace.”

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah. You’ll find most of the myths about my kind were started in much the same manner.”

  “Hm.” I folded my arms. “So why didn’t he wake up?”

  “Who?”

  “The vampire. When they buried him, why didn’t he wake up?”

  “He was drunk.”

  “You can get drunk?” My words burst out in a gust.

  “Of course we can.” He laughed. “We can use drugs, too.”

  “Really? Do you get addicted, like humans do?”

  He shrugged dismissively. “Don’t know. Never met a vampire who used drugs. But I’ll be sure to ask if ever I do.”

  “Thanks. Appreciate it.”

  “Any time.” His playful smile spread the corners of his lips widely.

  “Okay, so… vamp myth one-oh-one: a crucifix won’t burn you?”

  “I hope not.” David reached into the collar of his shirt and pulled out a heavy gold chain with a cross on the end of it. “I wear it whenever I go to church.”

  I was taken aback. “So you are religious?”

  “A little.” He smiled and dropped the cross to his chest.

  “But you’re also… deadly?” I concluded.

  “Very.” He smiled malevolently.

  A shudder crept up my spine. I didn’t want to think of those who’d come to learn that as their last lesson. “How can you believe in God and then go out and murder?”

  “It’s not murder.”

  “Yes, it is.”

  “No, it’s not. It’s nourishment—necessary for survival. Does a farmer murder a cow?”

  “That’s different.”

  “Why?”

  “Because a cow…” I bit my lip. “Because they… well…” I threw my hands up. “I don’t know. What do I look like, a philosophy student?”

  David laughed. “I love it when you know I’m right.”

  “You’re not right!” The rise of anger made my cheeks burn. “You believe in the Ten Commandments, pray at church, read the Bible, but you can kill the man sitting next to you without so much as—”

  “Uh-uh, hold it right there, missy.” He held up a finger. I snapped my gob closed. “I said I believe in God, not the Bible, not the ways of the church. They are not the same thing.”

  “How are they not the same thing?”

  “Live as long as I, and you will see. Now”—he folded his arms—“we’re not having a religious debate. There are more important things to discuss at this moment.”

  “Fine.” But I had nothing left to say. I knew enough to know I would never sleep with my window open again, and that I might actually be happy to say goodbye to David after all. I would miss the human I fell in love with—miss him for the rest of my life—but I wasn’t sure how I felt about the vampire sitting before me. He’d said, at the very beginning of this entire conversation, that he wanted me to go with him. That I could never see my family again. Yet there was no way I’d give up life for the dark hell he had to offer.

  “You don’t need to sleep with your window closed,” he said, his eyes heavy with worry. By looking at him, I could tell he’d heard everything I just thought. “There aren’t many of us, you know. If that makes you feel better.”

  “Why aren’t there many of you?”

  “As it stands, fewer and fewer humans over the years have been known to have this gene. It seems to be breeding out. We’ve not had a successful turning in decades. Consequently, my kind has been forbidden to create vampires without approval.”

  “Forbidden? By who?”

  “We have a normal societal structure. Just like you,” he said. “We live in peace, mostly, but there are laws we must follow, and consequences. We can’t just walk around doing whatever we please, or killing whomever we please.”

  “Really? So the killing’s controlled?”

  “To a degree.”

  “Oh…” I unfolded my arms. “What other laws do you have?”

  “Well—” He looked over at the window for a second then took a short breath. “We’re not allowed to occupy positions of power or fame, in order to maintain cover. And if we’re in a situation or accident which would be fatal to a human, we absolutely must be reborn.”

  “Reborn?”

  “Yes. Start a new human life with a new name, etcetera.”

  “Oh, is that why you can’t be famous or anything, ’cause it would be hard to hide after you ‘die’?”

  “Precisely. Especially these days, with things like television and photographs. It makes disappearing really problematic.”

  “So what else? I mean… can you fly, do you still grow hair, do you sleep upside-down in a cave?”

  David scoffed lightly, pressing the back of his wrist to his upper lip. “You really love your myths, don’t you?”

  I shrugged.

  “Uh, well, we do still grow hair, so… sorry, if you became a vampire you’d still have to shave your legs. As for sleeping in a cave… upside-down?” He merely raised a brow to answer.

  “What about fly?”

  He hesitated. “Like I said earlier, we can manipulate the elements. Some of us have mastered the ability to become completely weightless and move through the atmosphere suspended above the earth. But not all can, and it’s only for short distances. It takes decades of practice.”

  “But can you?” I prompted.

  Hesitation controlled his smile. “Yes.”

  “That is so cool.” It was the only cool thing. Everything else was disgusting and infuriating, but flying was cool. “So what else can you do?”

  “Well, at this point, I can officially inform you that we are a secret society. So, much of the information about our laws and abilities, I cannot divulge.” He smiled, his eyes shrinking. “Even though I already have.”

  “But you can reveal yourself? People can know what you are?”

  “Only on one condition.” He paused and leaned forward to take my hand. I let him, even though my mind raced over all the times these hands may have hurt people. “And I suppose, even though I wasn’t conscious of it at the time, when I told you that my uncle wanted me to leave with him, I was hoping you’d fight me—that it might lead to you finding out what I am.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. Otherwise, I would’ve just left that day before you arrived at school.”

  “Like you did to all the others?”

  “I never said that.”

  “You’re
over a hundred years old, David. You must’ve made friends. Am I the only one you ever told?”

  “Yes.”

  And for some stupid reason that made me feel special, closer to him. But I didn’t want to feel like that anymore. It felt wrong. I drew my hand from his. “So, now that you’ve told me what you are… do you have to kill me if I don’t come with you?”

  “No.” He reached for my hand but I refused to give it to him. “Silly girl. No. I can tell whomever I please—”

  “But you said you needed approval—”

  “I only needed approval to offer you a place at my side—as a vampire—something they will only allow if I’m sure that you’re…”

  “I’m what?”

  “I guess… my significant other.” David read over his own words in the air. Then, seeming happy with the terminology, looked at me and smiled, pressing his finger under my chin until my teeth fit back together.

  Significant other? “But… you’re a vampire. I can’t be your significant other, David. We can’t even be together.”

  He swallowed hard. “We can, if you loved me enough.”

  “David, you kill people in order to live.” A hint of hysteria touched my tone. “I don’t know if I can be a part of that. Not as your friend, not as your girlfriend, and certainly not as a vampire.”

  David froze in place like a stone carving, as if he’d given up breathing, the hurt eternally placed within his eyes. “Believe it or not, Ara, it’s a kindness to kill a human after biting them.”

  “Ew!” My lip twisted up in disgust. “I don’t want to hear anymore, David. Kindness? I… I just...”

  “Perhaps you have heard enough then.” A slight nod moved his head, the smile I loved completely blanketed by pain. “I shall leave you now.”

  “When will you be back?”

  My bedroom door swung open and he stood between here and gone. “Do you want me to come back?”

  “I don’t know. I think maybe I just need some time to—”

  “Ara, you just told me you can’t love me because I’m a vampire, I—”

  “I know, but… I…” But what? Was that a lie? Did I still love him? Or was I just afraid to lose the happiness I’d found knowing the human version of him these past few weeks? “I don’t know what to say, what to think. I…”

  “I understand.”

  “Do you? Because I don’t think you do.”

  “I repulse you. What more do I need to understand?”

  “It’s not you that needs to understand a damn thing; it’s me! I need time to process all of this.”

  “Take all the time you need, Ara,” he said coldly, and disappeared into thin air, leaving my door swinging in the breeze he left behind.

  I sat there in the middle of my room hugging my knees to my chest until the afternoon turned to evening. When Vicki flicked the hall light on and came up the stairs, I ducked in the darkness, waiting until she passed. And I noticed then, crumpled at the foot of my bed, the damaged remains of the blue rose David stole, like a representation of the moment that changed everything.

  With my butt numb and legs stiff, I jumped up and grabbed the flower, pressing it to my nose. Despite all the damage done, despite the petals weeping or falling away, it still smelled just as sweet as before. Which was comforting to me because, for all the things that seemed irredeemable, some things were still okay.

  I grabbed my diary and pressed the flower between the last pages, then snapped the book shut and sat on my bed in the dull light shining in from the world outside my room.

  16

  After an agonizing dinner with my parents, fighting with myself not to tell Dad about the vampire, I sat at my desk and agonized a little more over everything. How had it gone from me wishing David would stay here to wishing he were an ordinary human, with ordinary problems taking him away from me?

  It was impossible to comprehend what he was. That he was a killer. And that he wanted me to be a killer, too. My whole head was clouded with the options, but I knew only two things for sure: I didn’t want to be a vampire. And it felt like a sin against mankind to be in love with one, as if it tainted me by association.

  The fact that my love for him didn’t outweigh that spoke volumes to me about what I should do.

  Outside, twinkles of silver dotted the night sky. Once, they were glimmers of hope for me—wishes waiting to be made—but tonight they stared back down into my insignificant little life, offering no solace or resolution at all. Matters of the heart were never solved rationally though. Love is irrational. Love is unfair.

  There would be no going back. No lazy afternoons by the lake, warm and safe in David’s arms. We’d never get married or have babies, never grow old together and get arthritis, or if he ever talked me into becoming a vampire, I’d never die. I’d never get to see my mom and Harry again at the Pearly Gates. And what if I became a vampire and, after a few thousand years he got bored with me?

  “That”—a voice broke through the silence—“could never happen.”

  “David?” I shot up out of my chair and pinned my back to the wall beside my dresser. “How long have you been there?”

  He sat comfortably in the nook of my window like Peter Pan; his back against the frame on one side, his foot propped up on the other. “Long enough.”

  “Long enough for what?”

  “To know that your battle of heart is not winning against your conscience.”

  “One will have to win eventually.”

  He jumped off the ledge, weightless, landing silently in my room. “I know.”

  “Just, please.” I put my hand out. He stopped advancing. “Just stay back, okay?”

  “I won’t hurt you.”

  “I know.”

  He looked up from his feet, smiling mischievously. “Do you?”

  “Yes. I’m not afraid of that right now. I… I’m just at odds with how I feel about you because I…”

  “You loathe me?”

  “Yes,” I said, my whisper breaking. “I can’t see you the way I did before, and yet it hasn’t made me hate you. So until it does, even a little bit, I won’t trust myself to be near you.”

  “So you want to accept me, but you won’t allow yourself to?”

  “I don’t know. I mean… Maybe. Which means I’m not thinking clearly.”

  “Or maybe our love is just stronger than your principles.”

  I shook my head, reinforcing my warding hand when he took another step closer.

  He sighed, letting his arms fall loosely to his sides. “If I could perform a memory charm on you—make you forget—would you want me to?”

  “You could do that?”

  “Just answer the question.”

  “I…” I wasn’t sure. The human version of David made me happy, safe. All of this reality was just too unusual. I felt insecure, like I was walking on a glass cliff top, certain I might fall through at any minute.

  But would I want to love him if I didn’t know he was a killer? Could I go back?

  “Yes,” I said very quietly, looking down.

  “Then why can’t you accept me knowing what you know?”

  “It’s complicated.”

  “Ara, look at me,” he said, his squared green eyes searching mine. “You would refuse my love, watch me walk away, for what? To make a stand against a natural predator? That’s all I am, sweetheart.” He slowly came closer, laughing softly. “Would you give up your firstborn to protest against lions killing a zebra?”

  “That’s the problem, David. I will be giving up my firstborn. I’ll be giving up everything.” I pushed away from him and darted across to my desk. “How can you say you love me if you would want me to do that?”

  “I don’t want you to give anything up, Ara. I simply want to be with you, and you once wanted to be with me. That’s why we’re here right now—that’s what all of this is about, remember? You didn’t want me to leave. You wanted me to tell you why I had to.”

  “I know.” I folded my a
rms and rolled my chin to my chest. “But I just don’t know if I can love you now. And, even if I decide that I can, what then? I have to choose between love or life, and… David? I want a family one day; I want a little Harry. I want to be a soccer mom and do carpooling and argue with my daughter over the boys I think aren’t good enough for her. And then, one day, when I’ve had a good life with the man I love, I want to know what it’s like to be old, and die.” I looked up, my eyes narrowed. “Can you understand any of this?”

  “More than you know,” he said sadly, then evaporated. A breathless second passed before he appeared on the edge of my bed, his face buried in his hands.

  For the first time since his confession this afternoon, I really let myself look at him—to see him for what he was. I pictured the vampire, the monster, but beneath it, with his shoulders stiff, his gray shirt hugging the knuckles of his curved spine, all I saw was the boy—the one with a heart, which was probably very broken right now. It surprised me that I still cared.

  “Why did your uncle want you to leave with him the other day?” I asked, sitting down beside him.

  He straightened up, brushing his hands over his jeans nervously. “I told him I was in love—that I couldn’t leave you when the time came. And he told me that was exactly why I had to leave immediately.”

  “Because you were in love?”

  “No. Because I love you enough to ask if I could give up everything.”

  Wow. That made me feel heavy and a little numb. “Maybe your uncle was right. If you’d just gone, I would be so broken right now, but it would be normal. I like normal. I don’t want to feel like this—like my whole world has been pulled out from under me again.”

  “Oh, Ara, please don’t say things like that.” The anguish in his eyes forced me to close mine. “Have you truly considered how good life could be if you come with me—as a vampire?”

  I couldn’t answer him, because I couldn’t give him the answer he wanted. I’d thought about it, done the pros and cons, but the cons were outweighing the pros. There was nothing appealing about living my life, my eternity, as an amoral killer.

  “Amoral?” He floated slowly up to stand, casting a dark shadow across my face that reeked of rage and insult. “You think me amoral?”