[Anthology] Ancient Blood of the Vampire & Wolf

by W. J. May

  “I’ll be here, Dad.” She tried to smile but her facial muscles preferred to pull the corners of her mouth down.

  “Ten minutes. Start your watch… Now.” Moving faster than humanly possible, he slipped out the door and disappeared into a dark alley where no street lights reached.

  Kallie started her digital watch and crawled over to the driver’s side of the car. She double-checked her dad had locked the doors and sure enough, they were. She slouched down low in the seat and tried to quell the butterflies – or mammoth moths – banging around in her stomach. They seemed to be working their way up her esophagus and constricting her ability to breathe properly. These ten minutes were probably taking years off her life. She feared for her dad, but she was also petrified who, or what, might be lurking around the car as she waited.

  The digital clock on the radio flipped to the next number. She checked her watch. Barely two minutes. Tempted to grab her phone out of her purse and check messages or play a game, she held back. The iridescent light would brighten the inside of the car like setting off fireworks.

  The thought sent the bugs in her stomach flurrying faster. Who did her dad have to meet? Could it be one person or more? She shook her head. There had to be more. One person couldn’t beat her dad up that bad. It took him over a week to recover each time. The bruises were always gone by the morning so her mom never knew, but Kallie did. The image of him each month was etched in her brain.

  Why would someone want to do this?

  That night of the accident had changed her dad, but he was still the same good, super-nice guy. He wouldn’t hurt a fly. She knew what he was now and so did her mom, but he never harmed either of them. Even when he’d just woken up the night after the accident, he was starving from a different kind of thirst and yet he didn’t feed on them. He could have. He probably should have, but refused to give in. How he survived two days before mom snuck a couple of bags of blood from the hospital showed the strength of his willpower. Thank goodness mom’s a nurse.

  Two years and her now-vampire father had never killed a human or fed off of one. At least not directly. He drank from the blood bags mom brought home and when they needed to, they gave blood to him. mom kept a small stockpile in the fridge in the basement. Kallie tried getting mom to take more of hers, but she always refused. It seemed crazy at times, and completely in their control at other times.

  How they had managed to keep the secret between the three of them and no one knew, was beyond her. She believed the people her dad saw once a month knew, or maybe they didn’t and kept beating the crap out of him just to see how he could take it.

  Ha. Wishful thinking. Her dad would have torn them into bits. Something terrible went on in those ten minutes. She hit the indiglo on her watch. Seven and a half minutes.

  Still two and a half minutes to go. She swore the seconds slowed their tick till they were barely even moving. The next two minutes would take longer than the past eight had. Her thoughts turned to Liam and she wondered what he was doing this evening. He got paid to stop the bad guys so why wasn’t he and his men here stopping what was happening to her father? Because he doesn’t know.

  She wondered when he would call her to go out. She couldn’t believe she had actually considered him the same as her father, there was no way he was a vampire like her dad. Her dad had told her that only vampires had the same colored eyes as him. Liam had joked around that he was a recluse, but an image of her father probably showed up beside the definition of the word in the dictionary.

  After the accident he had sold his trucking company. He had started the business right out of high school and then made enough for him and mom to retire on. He couldn’t leave the house during the day because the sunlight burned his skin and he spent most of his evenings at home with mom, or if she was working he stayed locked up downstairs in the room he now called his office. Kallie had no idea what he did when she wasn’t around, nor did she ever ask him. He never offered any information either.

  A tap on the passenger window made her jump. Blood smeared the glass leaving a perfect bloody handprint on it. She automatically hammered her foot to the gas pedal completely forgetting that the car was still in park.

  “Kallie,” her dad said meekly. “It’s okay, it’s just me.”

  Kallie hit the automatic unlock on her side of the door and reached around for the plastic tarp her father always put in the back seat before they left. She opened the door for him from the inside and handed him the tarp. Her heart thumped at an incredible pace as she waited for him to put the blue plastic around his shoulders like a towel. It prevented his blood from staining the seat.

  He dropped against the passenger seat, a slew of obscenities coming out of his mouth as beaten parts of his body tortured him.

  Kallie tore out of the driveway before he’d even closed his door. She hated this part. There was nothing she could do to help him. Unless…

  She held her arm out to him. “Dad, drink from me. What if it heals you before we get home? Then you don’t have to suffer.”

  He inhaled sharply as her wrist hovered close to his mouth. He weakly pushed her arm away. “Don’t tempt me. I can barely hold back with you sitting beside me.”

  She held her wrist out to him again, refusing to give up. “Then drink. Stop this madness.”

  “I can’t.”

  She shook her arm at him. “Yes, you can. I’m offering it. You’re not forcing me to.”

  He sniffed her skin, his eyes burned brighter than she had ever seen before. He hesitated before finally pushing her arm away again. “If I do, they’ll come after you.”

  “What the hell do you mean?”

  Her father sat quiet beside her until he let out a long and painful sigh. “I’m pure. I haven’t fed directly from a human. It makes my blood different. They say if I do, they’ll kill you and your mom.”

  “Why do they beat you, then?”

  “I fight back. It’s a natural instinct to protect oneself.”

  “Fight back?” Kallie didn’t understand what he meant.

  “They feed off of me, Kalls. They want my blood.” He leaned forward, his face buried inside his hands. “There are dozens of them. I can’t fight them all. I don’t know how.”

  Tears slid down her cheeks. It felt like the night of the accident, without the rain or the storm. She was helpless to save her father, again.

  Chapter 6

  It took a week before her father emerged from the basement room he kept himself locked in. Worried, Kallie concentrated on her paper and stayed home while her mother went to work. Kallie finished her interview and published it with the school paper. The next day the local paper contacted her, asking if they could publish it as well.

  Wednesday evening she emailed Liam to let him know the interview was in the school paper and that the newspaper was interested. She didn’t want the paper to run the article without his permission. She was sure he wouldn’t mind, but it gave her the needed excuse to contact him since he hadn’t made an effort since walking her home. She tried not to be disappointed when he didn’t reply back by the next evening. The paper wanted to run it in the Saturday edition and needed confirmation before noon the next day.

  So it was no surprise Friday afternoon they called her. Kallie told them to run it. Screw Liam for not bothering to get in touch with her. She planned on telling him the same thing when, or if, he finally did. She knew she wouldn’t, but it made her feel better to vow it inside her head.

  The long week had taken its toll. She’d barely slept, worrying about her dad. Something had to be done. It hurt something fierce that she felt so helpless. Her dad didn’t complain, never said a word to her mom. It sat on her shoulders even though he didn’t mean it to. He seemed to be growing more and more reclusive. He couldn’t leave the house during the day, but in the past year, he seldom left it at night. Except for the one time during the full moon.

  Just after dusk she decided to go for a walk. Her parents were snuggled on the couch i
n a weird way she had no intention of sticking around to watch. Her father was obviously feeling back to his old self.

  She stuffed her ear buds in from her iPod and began winding through streets in the neighborhood.

  An hour later Kallie found herself in front of Liam’s house. It hadn’t been planned, but somehow here she was. She hesitated only a moment before heading to his front door. Chances are he wouldn’t even be home, but it didn’t stop her imagination from running. She knocked lightly on the wooden door, testing to see if he would hear it. She imagined him lying on his bed, his eyes opening to the quiet sound. She would just ask one question and then she could leave him alone. She would prefer two, maybe three questions, but one would have to suffice. How he would react is what made her want to run and hide.

  The door silently swung open and he stood at the threshold with just a pair of blue shorts on. Bare chest with strong lines running up, down and across his stomach and chest, he couldn’t have seemed more perfect.

  All the air slipped from her lungs and she had to mentally remind herself to inhale the oxygen her body needed. She had pictured him lying down, not really thinking about what he might, or might not, be wearing. She sucked in a gasping breath. The anger she’d felt for him not replying to her messages seemed so wrong now. She greeted his surprised face with a voice that didn’t sound like her own. It seemed too strong. “Can you help my dad?”

  He stared at her, his blue eyes intense as they searched her face. “I don’t know if I can.”

  She blinked, the stress of the week coming to a boiling point. Not wanting to cry in front of him, she turned slightly and stared down at her shoes. She needed to be that strong person she just had been a second ago. Her dad needed her to be. The image of her dad after he came out of the abandoned building gave her the strength she needed. She met his gaze. “I don’t know who else to ask.” She punched his shoulder. “You’re an ass, by the way, for not replying to my messages.”

  “Sorry about that.” He fumbled with his hands, not sure what to do with them. “I figured it might be better if I left you alone.”

  “Why?” She waved her hand. “It doesn’t matter right now. I need you to help my dad.” She took a deep breath. “And I think you’re the only one who can.”

  “There are a lot of cops here.”

  “I don’t need the police.”

  He hesitated before glancing around behind her. “It’s probably better we have this conversation inside.”

  She stepped in before he had even finished his sentence. The entrance from the front door brought her into a large open concept kitchen-living room. It looked like a man-cave, a bit like what her basement now looked like; dark, lifeless. She moved to a black leather chair that matched a couch on the far side of the room. She sat on the edge of the chair’s arm. “What do you know about my dad?”

  Liam sat down on the coffee table and faced her. He rested his elbows on his knees, completely unaware he sat half naked in front of her. “I don’t know much. What do you know?”

  He was baiting her, trying to find out how much she knew. Her mother always said it was better to rip the band aid off fast instead of pulling it slowly. She decided to try and shock him. He’s a vampire. Okay, maybe I shouldn’t just blurt it out. She wasn’t sure telling a near stranger that her dad was a vampire would go off very well. “How do I know I can trust you?”

  “You’re going to have to risk it.” He touched her knee. “Go with your gut.”

  “I don’t think I have a choice.” She straightened her shoulders, trying to force courage inside of her. “You wanted to know what happened during the storm. When I crashed my car.” She swallowed. “The night of the accident… someone helped my father.”

  “Helped him?” He looked genuinely confused.

  “I don’t know. They did something. They changed him.”

  “Did you see who did it?”

  She shook her head, trying to remember the moments before the accident and at the same time, trying to forget.

  “It happened while you were driving.”

  “You mean after we hit the tree.”

  “It happened during.” He shook his head. “I was there.”

  Her head popped up so fast her neck cracked. She rubbed it even though it didn’t hurt. She couldn’t believe what he had just said. A million more questions blew through her mind. The most important came first. “Why didn’t you try to save him?”

  “I couldn’t.” His face filled with regret. “I thought I was too late.” He looked like he wanted to say more, but he held back.

  “Too late?”

  “Your dad had already died when I found him outside of the car. After you hit the tree, he flew out the front window and broke his neck. He died instantly.”

  “Dead?” She sounded like a broken record. Of course her father had died. He wouldn’t be what he was now if he hadn’t. “How did he become… become…” She stumbled and huffed a quick breath out. “A vampire. Who turned him?” There. She had said the words out loud. To someone who wasn’t her mother or father. Now there was no turning back. How did he get back inside the car before the paramedics arrived? She remembered coming to and seeing him lying beside her, his seatbelt on.

  “I have no idea.”

  “How did he turn into one then?”

  He looked as uncomfortable as she felt. He was answering her questions though and not putting cuffs on her or calling her crazy. That had to be a good sign. “Someone had to have given him their blood. Then when he died, he turned.”

  “You can’t become one if you’ve been bitten?” She covered her wrist, the two small jagged pin prick scars suddenly itchy.

  Liam shook his head. “You have to have vampire blood in you.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I can’t believe I’m having this conversation with you.”

  “Neither can I.” She sighed with relief, glad to know even if she had been bitten, she wasn’t going to turn into a vampire. “Why do you think some vamp fed my dad their blood?”

  He stared directly into her eyes. “I saw him on the street. You swerved to avoid hitting the bastard.”

  What? She hadn’t veered. Or had she? An image pulled at her memory but she couldn’t quite place it. She closed her eyes trying to picture the night she had spent so many other nights trying to block out. “I don’t remember.” A flicker of a flame, maybe two flames dancing side by side flashed in her memory.

  “I’m sorry, Kallie. I honestly tried. There was nothing I could do.”

  She appreciated his apology even though there was no need for it. It wasn’t his fault her father had died. It was hers. Because of her, everything changed that night. “It doesn’t matter. We can’t change the past.”

  Liam inhaled and released a long, slow breath. “I really wish we could.”

  She watched him, wondering what secrets he held that made him long for things to be different. If she wasn’t so worried about her father, she would ask him about his own past. “Do you know who changed my dad?”

  He hesitated just a moment longer than normal. “I don’t.”

  Liar. Whatever the reason he didn’t want to tell her, she planned to find out why. “Then why are you so interested in him?” She stood, feeling the need to pace. “You only agreed to the interview with me so you could ask me about my father, didn’t you?”

  “I wanted to see if he was all right.”

  She stopped pacing. Her heart rate accelerated. “Do you know what they are doing to him?”

  He stood, moving faster than normal, so he was inches from her. “Who are? What’s going on?”

  She hesitated, now not sure if he knew. She had assumed he did. “I don’t know who they are, but they’re hurting him. Every month they force him to come and… and they force him to let them feed off of him.” She was on the verge of tears. “He fights them but it doesn’t stop them. Last time he told me there are dozens of them! What’s he supposed to do?” She inhaled a shaky breath. It took a mom
ent before she could continue. “They threatened him that if he didn’t do as they said, they would come after me and my mom!” She began to shake, nearly delirious with anxiety. Even her lips were trembling. “You’re a police detective and a werewolf. Can’t you stop them?” She hadn’t meant to tell him she knew what he was, it had just slipped out.

  He laughed and quickly covered his mouth. “Sorry. It’s not funny.”

  She stared at him, wondering if he was the crazy one.

  “I’m not a werewolf.”

  “You’re not?” She blinked and pointed to his eyes. “I just figured… your eyes are so blue.”

  He shook his head.

  “Then what are you?”

  Liam tilted his head slightly, his lips slightly open. His eyes darted from hers down to her neck, pausing a moment before meeting her gaze again. He scoffed, not in a mean way but something along the lines of disbelief. “I don’t understand why you thought...” He crossed his arms over his muscular chest. “Your father…”

  Kallie waited for him to finish, knowing he wouldn’t. She didn’t understand his confusion. “My father has red eyes. Yours are blue.” She stared, fascinated as his eyes turned a shade brighter. She grew warm. Calm your horny-tail down, Kalls, this is not the time! She couldn’t believe her body was thinking about his near-naked, sexy one while they were having this conversation. She mentally told her libido to get lost for a bit.

  One step and Liam was less than an inch from her. He wrapped his arms around her. The hug came quick and tight. She barely had time to get her hands up and out of the way. They ended up on his shoulders. “Shit!” he murmured into her hair. “I didn’t know your dad was… I assumed.” His head moved side to side as he shook it in dismay. “That changes everything.”

  “What are you talking about?” Kallie didn’t try to move away from him. She enjoyed the cool comfort his steely arms gave. She felt oddly safe, like he would protect her from anything. Her insides apparently seemed to be melting from his touch, regardless of the cool skin. “What are you?”