by Morgan Rice
The Breeding is considered a great celebration amongst vampires, though younger vampires are increasingly rebelling against the practice, citing a disruption to their more modern lifestyles and Western concepts of “love.” The Breeding is designed to coincide with the end of the 1,000-year life cycle of the vampire. If the vampire wishes to continue his existence, he must breed. Without it, he will die.
Many cases have come about of younger generation vampires shunning the practice and choosing human mates, an activity still punishable by a form of torture known as “eternal pain.” With older generation vampires this involved locking them in greenhouse-style cells so their skin burns on a daily basis. For the younger generations, the process is more likely to involve submersion tanks of holy water or crucifix lined cells.
Kate sat back, her heart racing, her hands trembling. She slammed the book shut as though trying to trap what she’d read between its pages. She ached at the thought of Elijah tortured for eternity if he didn’t marry the girl he’d been instructed to. It seemed so cruel and barbaric.
She turned cold all over. Elijah had said he was on the run from his family. If he was trying to evade the mating practice, surely he knew that doing so would result in his death?
Kate continued reading, learning more and more about the North American vampires, becoming more and more convinced that Elijah was, indeed, a vampire. Not the garlic-hating, sun-shunning, stake-able kind, but a vampire nonetheless.
She touched the scar on her neck, wondering what it made her. From everything she’d read, Elijah was born a vampire. He wasn’t immortal, he just aged at a tenth of the speed as a human, making his life span somewhere between eight hundred and a thousand years long. She could hardly find anything in the book about turning humans into vampires, or about drinking human blood, an act that was increasingly discouraged, though not illegal.
But Elijah had bitten her and his bite had saved her life. And in doing so he’d given her powers—the ability to heal herself, sensitive hearing, strength, the need to feed on animal blood (something she was relieved to see only needed to happen once a week)—but had he made her a full-fledged vampire? She just couldn’t seem to find the information she needed. All she knew was that she couldn’t disappear into thin air like he could, and she didn’t have fangs. She touched her mouth, checking and double checking, but she was certain there were none there. Maybe he’d just transferred some of his powers to her in order to save her life? It was all so confusing.
She realized then that the lights had been dimmed, indicating that the library was closing. She took the book to the counter to check out.
The woman at the counter frowned.
“I don’t think this is one of ours,” she said, looking for a barcode that did not exist.
“Oh,” Kate said, fake laughing. “Silly me, I brought this one with me today.”
She didn’t want the woman to stop her from taking it out of the library. The lie seemed to wash and she left, walking out with the book under her arm, into the dark California evening.
Not feeling even remotely tired (another trait Elijah seemed to have given her), Kate went down to the beach to continue reading. The gentle sound of the waves soothed her and she breathed in the ocean smell deeply.
The more she read about the vampire rituals and laws, the more terrible she felt. If Elijah’s parents had really taken him to New York for breeding, then there was no way she should get involved. The last thing she wanted was Elijah being eternally tortured, or worse, dying, just because he’d refused to go along with it.
She realized then that Elijah was out of her life, wholly, completely, and forever. There was simply nothing she could do about it. He’d been assigned a life partner, a vampire life partner, and she would just have to get over it.
Though she still had a million and one questions about what exactly she was—vampire, human-vampire-hybrid, mainly-human-but-with-vampiric-tastes-in-food—she didn’t know. She’d have to spend some more time researching it, getting used to her new transformed body. All she knew was that no one from a vampire coven had turned up on her doorstep to register her, something that, according to the book, was very important. Keeping records of all vampires and their whereabouts and whether they’d turned anyone was paramount to the species. She tried to imagine the amount of paperwork that would involve.
Starting to feel fatigued, she shut the book. As she did so, she noticed someone had slipped a scribbled note into the front page. She took it out.
K, I hope this answers the questions I could not, E.
She smiled. So Elijah had put the book in the library for her to find. But if anything felt more final to her, it was that note. It seemed to be Elijah saying goodbye.
Kate took a deep breath. It was time to move on with her life. She had answers, not all of them, but enough. Enough to explain her cravings for blood and her super-sensitive hearing. Another to explain to her how she could tackle a grown man to his knees.
Even with all that stuff, she was still just Kate Roswell. Still just that girl from that dysfunctional family. Elijah had given her a gift and then he had gone and she was just going to have to live with that.
As the sky darkened and the waves continued to gently break on the shoreline, she picked up her phone and texted Tony.
Amusement park sounds fun. Pick me up tomorrow at 8. Kate x
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The sounds of the carousel grated on Kate. It had been a long time since she’d given in to her craving for bloody meat and she was starting to get lightheaded again. Her senses were becoming heightened, confusing and painful. The lights at the amusement park seemed far too bright.
“Are you okay?” Tony asked, sensing that something was up.
Ever since he’d picked her up she’d been acting distracted. Now that they’d arrived at the amusement park she was worse than ever, constantly glancing over her shoulder, flinching, and looking overwhelmed.
“Hey look,” he said, pointing to the candy stand. “There’s the others.”
Kate’s head darted up. She’d thought this was a date, just the two of them. But Tony had invited a load of other senior boys, some she recognized as the boys who’d beaten up Elijah. And worse than that, Frances, Holly, Isla, and Jodi were amongst the group. They glared at her as she walked over to the group alongside Tony.
“You guys know Kate, right?” Tony said, gesturing to her.
The girls’ eyes narrowed even more.
“What’s Madison up to tonight?” Holly asked, coldly.
Kate shrugged. “I don’t know. She doesn’t really tell me what she’s up to.”
“Well, I for one know she’d just love to see all of us hanging out. You… Tony … she’d be thrilled.” She glared darkly. “Shall I Snapchat it?”
“Please don’t,” Kate mumbled.
But she didn’t get a choice. Holly threw her arms around Tony and Kate and took a video, pouting and posing.
“I’m going to make it look like you’re vomiting a rainbow,” she said to Kate with fake enthusiasm.
Kate said nothing.
As they walked over to the Ferris wheel, Tony nudged her. “Holly’s nice, isn’t she?”
“She’s the best,” Kate mumbled sarcastically.
“Hey, I hope you don’t mind that the others are here,” he added. “It was one of those awkward situations where I mentioned I was coming and they were all like, ‘cool, I’ve been wanting to go,’ and then I couldn’t back out of it.”
“It’s fine,” she lied, knowing all too well why Madison’s friends had been so interested in coming along.
She and Tony got into one of the carts on the Ferris wheel. Once upon a time she’d fantasized about moments like this—her and Tony on a date, kissing at the top of the Ferris wheel. But now, she felt flat, empty, and hopeless. So much for getting Elijah out of her mind and going back to normal Kate Roswell. He was all she could think of as the cart started to ascend.
She glanced ou
t over the side of the cart, looking at the view of Santa Barbara on one side and the ocean on the other.
“It’s beautiful, don’t you think?” Tony said.
His words reminded her of Elijah when they’d been on the roof of Ackerman House, telling her she was beautiful. She ached for him.
“I guess,” she said.
She heard Tony sigh and looked over at him. He looked dejected.
“Kate,” he said, “why did you even bother coming on this date? You’re clearly not into me.”
“I’m sorry,” Kate said. “It’s just that you’ve invited loads of Madison’s friends who hate me. And those senior boys beat up a friend of mine the other day. I guess I’m just bummed they’re all here.”
Tony looked mortified. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know. Jeez, my friends sound like jerks. Look, we can go somewhere else if you want.”
The only place Kate wanted to go to was back in time to Ackerman House last Thursday, but that was never going to happen so she may as well just stay here.
“That’s okay,” she said.
Tony stared back out across the view. Kate felt awful for making him feel bad. It wasn’t his fault—he just wasn’t Elijah.
As the light danced off his skin, Kate couldn’t help but find her gaze drawn to his neck. She’d read that modern vampires didn’t drink human blood, but she had an overwhelming urge to bite Tony.
She shook her head. She didn’t even know if she was a vampire. She hadn’t yet researched the process, or whether it was even possible to turn humans. Just because it happened in books didn’t mean it happened in real life.
But despite all that, the main thing was that she was craving blood and that, indisputably, was a vampire trait.
“Why don’t we ditch them,” Tony said, suddenly breaking into her thoughts.
“I’m sorry?” Kate asked.
“Those guys,” he replied, bringing their conversation back to the previous one. “When we get to the bottom, we can ditch them.”
Kate smiled, touched he’d do that for her. “Okay.”
They reached the bottom of the Ferris wheel. Holly and her date were already finished but Isla, Jodi, Frances, and the other senior boys were still on the ride.
“We’re going to the funhouse,” Tony said, grabbing Kate’s hand.
He started pulling her away.
“What about the others?” Holly cried, indignantly.
“We’ll see you all in there!” Tony called back over his shoulder.
Kate couldn’t help but laugh as they ran away. But Holly wasn’t about to let Tony disappear into the funhouse with Kate and slack on her spying duty for Madison. So she raced along and followed them inside.
The funhouse had been made up like an old family home. The first room they walked into was made to look like a living room, but with all the furniture upside down, stuck to the ceiling. They went into the next room, a dining room with uneven floors and walls. It felt like the room was caving in. Suddenly, the floors began to move, undulating so it was difficult to stay upright. Laughing, Kate and Tony staggered into the next. Holly was right on their tail.
This room was a mock kitchen and it had pretend bowls of rotten food all over the place, with fake maggots writhing around. The fridge door opened on its own accord suddenly and a blast of wind, a flash of light, and the sound of someone screaming came out. Kate jumped and grabbed hold of Tony’s arm. Holly glared and took a photo of them. Kate had no doubt she was sending it to Madison.
“Let’s see what’s upstairs,” Kate said.
They found the staircase, which was made to look like it was wooden but in actuality was spongy and soft underfoot like a memory foam mattress. It was hard to climb the stairs, especially since the banister pulled all the way from the wall like elastic. Kate laughed again as she took stride after stride, trying to climb up. She was shocked that she was actually enjoying herself. She’d almost forgotten what it felt like.
“This is crazy!” Tony said behind her, wobbling all over the place.
Finally they made it upstairs. The first room was a child’s bedroom filled with creepy dolls and toys. Holly screamed when she looked in.
“I hate dolls,” she shuddered, backing out of the room.
Along the corridor was the master bedroom. A piano was playing itself and the disembodied sound of a woman humming came from different speakers positioned round the room, making them jump.
“This is so lame,” Holly said, probably in an attempt to hide how freaked out she was.
The last room was the bathroom. Tony went first, then Holly. Kate set one foot inside the room before freezing. It was full of mirrors, the type that changed your body by stretching it or fattening it. Her strange gray reflection was mirrored hundreds of times, bouncing across the room and back again, repeating in all the different mirrors.
Kate gasped and backed out. Tony hadn’t noticed but Holly had seen it all. She turned her head over her shoulder and narrowed her eyes. It was as if she suspected that Kate wasn’t quite human.
“Hey,” Tony said, appearing in the doorway. “Are you okay, Kate?”
Kate nodded. “I just feel a bit lightheaded.”
She turned and started going down the stairs. Their spongy quality hampered her attempts to flee. Tony followed, trying to catch up with her.
Once out of the funhouse, Kate bent forward and took a deep breath. Not only had Holly freaked her out, but her stomachache was getting worse. She recognized the sensation now as the need to eat raw meat, and knew that if she didn’t, her pounding head and oversensitive hearing would only get worse.
“I think the house freaked her out,” Holly said.
Tony turned on her and glared. “Why don’t you go find the others, Holly? I’ll take Kate to get some water.”
“I’d rather stick around with you guys,” Holly said, menacingly. “Oh look, there’s the others now.”
The group who’d been on the Ferris wheel noticed Holly waving and came toward them. Tony shot Kate an apologetic expression.
“We’re going to get some food,” he said to the rest of his friends. “Kate’s feeling a bit faint.”
“Great,” Frances said. “Let’s all go together. Kate, what do you like to eat?”
Kate’s anxiety and nausea swirled even more intensely inside of her. The one thing worse than not being able to eat raw, bloody meat was having to eat something that wasn’t. The thought of eating anything else made her want to throw up.
“Kate likes beef,” Tony said, knowledgeably. “We can get burgers.”
Kate didn’t know how to say no, so the group went together to the burger hut and ordered. When it was Kate’s turn she asked, in a hushed voice, for just the patty, rare.
“You mean, like, no bun?” the server said, munching nonchalantly on her gum.
“I mean like no anything,” Kate said, “just the meat. As rare as it can be.”
The girl gave her a weird look.
“Is everything okay?” Tony asked.
“Uh-huh,” Kate said, trying to sound bright.
But she felt anything but. This whole thing was a disaster. How could she just pretend to be normal when she so clearly wasn’t? For the first time she felt angry with Elijah. He’d changed her into this freak and then left her to work everything out on her own. What chance did she have of a normal life now? Maybe it would have been better if he’d just left her to die that day.
When the food arrived, everyone looked in horror at Kate’s pink, bloody patty.
“You want me to send that back?” Tony said. “They’ve, like, forgotten the bun and everything.”
“I don’t eat bread,” Kate replied.
“Are you one of those gluten-free people?” Holly said, rolling her eyes.
“Yeah,” Kate lied. “Celiac.”
“Oh,” Holly said, looking embarrassed.
Tony interjected. “But the meat hasn’t been cooked properly.”
“I asked for it rare,” s
he insisted, just wishing everyone would leave her alone and let her eat in peace.
Tony didn’t even bother hiding his disgust. If there was any way to ruin a date, Kate thought, eating a barely cooked slab of meat was the way to do it.
During the meal, Tony became more and more distant. Then the worst thing that could have happened did; Madison turned up.
“Saw your Snapchat, babe,” she said to Holly, air kissing her. “It looked like so much fun, I just had to come down.” She turned to Kate and waved. “Hey, sis.” Then straight away she turned her back on Kate, blocking her out from the group, and looked over at Tony. She instantly turned on her flirty persona. “Hey.”
In Madison’s presence, Tony seemed to perk up. He raised his eyebrows and came over to her side. They chatted in hushed voices and Madison swished her dark hair over her shoulder in that way that seemed to excite guys.
He was so engaged by her charm that he didn’t even notice the way she muscled Kate out of the group, or the way she created a barrier between them with her body. Within a matter of minutes it seemed as though Tony had completely forgotten about Kate’s existence.
Holly caught Kate looking at Madison and Tony, arm in arm, chatting and laughing like the best of friends.
“Maybe you should run along now?” she said with a fake smile plastered to her lips.
Kate glared at her. “Don’t worry, I get the message. Madison won. Like she always does.” Kate took a step closer to Holly. “But listen. I know what you saw in the funhouse mirror so it’s not going to come as a surprise to you when I tell you I’m different.”
Holly folded her arms. “Different how?”
“Not quite human,” Kate said. “And really, what happened in the cafeteria yesterday was just one percent of what I can do. If I wanted to, I could snap your neck right now and drink your blood.”
Holly swallowed. She looked absolutely terrified. “Why… why are you telling me this?”
“Because I want you to stop being a bully. I know you want to run along and tell your friends how I just threatened you, but if I hear that you have, I will kill you. And if I hear you bad-mouthing anyone, anyone, at school, I’ll kill you. So…” She leaned back and smiled. “I wouldn’t test me, if I were you.”
