Monster

by Yolanda Olson

  “Maybe that’ll teach you to play with your food,” Drake said in mock seriousness shaking a finger at me.

  “Tell me about! I’m starving now and I just watched dinner walk away. Ugh.” I felt the fatigue of hunger starting to set in. This was the longest I had gone without eating and I felt myself getting tired fast.

  Kaeden looked at me with a thoughtful expression, “Your food; does it have to be alive?”

  “Nope. If it’s dead I prefer it recently deceased so it’s still fresh. Why?”

  “I’ll be right back.”

  In the blink of an eye Kaeden was gone. I stood there with Drake staring at him wondering where it was exactly that Kae had disappeared to. Drake shrugged and I sat myself on the ground, back pressed against a tree. I ran my hands over my face slightly surprised that the fatigue swept over me so quickly.

  A few moments later, he reemerged with a limp human in his hands. It was a female, pretty with long brown hair and peach colored skin. Coming over to me he set her down explaining that she was still alive, but just barely because he had stunned her with his venom. The way that works is that it starts to slow the heart down but doesn’t inflict a slow painful death. It’s almost like paralyzing the human body, organs included.

  I grabbed a hold of her and brought her close. Kaeden and Drake stood in the field watching me, making me uncomfortable.

  “Um, do you guys mind?” I asked sheepishly.

  “Oh yeah, sorry,” Drake said laughing. As he walked away, I noticed that Kaeden was still standing there watching me. I raised an eyebrow at him and his face flushed. Finally he turned to leave and I was able to bite into the soft flesh between the neck and the shoulder. Closing my eyes I forced myself to control my feeding this time so that I would be sure to get all that I needed from this human.

  I was savoring the first tastes of her marrow when I got hit in the back of the head.

  Hard.

  The blow made me see stars in front of my eyes but before I blacked out I saw my second meal slipping away from me. I lay there in the snow trying to keep my eyes open when Ava crouched down and gave me a wicked smile. As she ran off with my human, my eyes closed.

  I didn’t pass out though. I lay there in the freezing cold snow breathing unevenly hoping that Drake and Kae would be back soon. The hunger that was ravaging me was worse now that I had gotten a little taste of what I needed.

  Then another thought crossed my mind. If Ava comes back right now, I’m screwed.

  That’s when I heard the footsteps approaching me again. Slowly and from the direction she had left in. I had to smile because it was amazing that the snow could give away so much by just covering the ground. I felt someone crouch next to me and I let out a shuddering sigh, if I had the energy I would’ve told her to just kill me and get it over with.

  A hand brushed over the back of my head gently. Then it grabbed my wrist and pulled my arm up, letting it fall back down limp. Gently, whoever it as rolled me onto my back and ran a hand over my forehead. I still had my eyes closed so I didn’t see who it was. Not yet.

  “I saw what she did Princess. I would’ve helped but I didn’t know if I would be able too,” came Chase’s voice.

  Slowly I let my eyes open and looked up into his worried face. I opened my mouth and then closed it. Once. Twice. Three times.

  In the distance I heard my two friends joking and laughing as they made their way back into the clearing. Chase leaned down quickly and scooped me up into his arms. This was not going to go over well when they cleared the trees. It was going to look like he attacked me, but that blow left me hungrier than ever and talking would take so much out of me.

  The voices cleared the trees and the joking and laughing immediately stopped. I rolled my head slowly to lock eyes with Kae to try to tell him that Chase hadn’t done this. My eyes were dull but my mind was screaming at him that he was actually trying to help me.

  Low growls escaped their throats and a low moan escaped mine. How am I going to not get them to do this? I thought frantically to myself. In response Chase pulled me closer against him and growled back.

  Kaeden and Drake, rushed at us so quickly it almost looked like they floated over to us. Kaeden snatched me out of Chase’s arms and handed me over to Drake. Then I watched helplessly as he grabbed Chase by the neck and rammed him into a tree, shattering it in half.

  Kaeden! Stop it! It was Ava! Chase came back to help me! IT WAS AVA!

  I tried screaming my thoughts at him again in case he could hear me. I saw him look to the ground and saw his back inhale then exhale. He released his grip on Chase and looked back at me.

  “Don’t move,” he said to Chase in a low tone.

  Coming over he grabbed me from Drake’s arms and told him to keep an eye on Chase. Then we shot through the trees and into the park. He laid me on one of the stone benches that was at the edge of the park.

  “Lay here. I smell thieves. One will come to rob you. When he does, you’re still strong enough to break bones, after all humans are so fragile. I’m going to watch from the darkness.”

  I nodded weakly and closed my eyes. Within minutes I felt someone rifling through my pockets. Reaching out in the blink of an eye, I clamped my wrist around their wrist and squeezed until I heard the bones snap. My thief let out a scream of agony and fell to the ground. I opened my eyes and smiled at him. With all the strength I had left, I threw myself off of the park bench and landed right on top of him. I tightened my thighs around his legs to stop him from kicking, I pushed his right shoulder down with one hand, and I leaned down to feed.

  My strength was returning. I knew I was eating rather sloppily but I was starving. That’s when I heard the sound of running footsteps coming ferociously from behind me. They were approaching swiftly and I knew it had to be Ava. Apparently her plan was to make me starve to death.

  Remembering that Kaeden was nearby I kept feeding.

  And then I heard it, the anguished cry of Ava as she leapt at me and the sound of her body crashing into the ground as Kaeden met her in midair. He held her down with one arm as she thrashed angrily underneath him. I continued feeding since I knew that this meal was almost done anyway. Sitting up and feeling much stronger, I pulled my thief up with me and I watched with curious eyes, as Kaeden seemed to be scolding Ava like she was a misbehaving child.

  Then I saw a flash coming out of one of the trees right behind him. I immediately tossed my ‘empty plate’ aside and used the park bench as a leverage to get more air time as I jumped up and tackled his attacker right before she landed on him.

  “Nice try,” I said holding her down by her throat. She bucked and kicked under me wildly, clawing at my hand trying to get me to let her go.

  Turning slightly Kae raised an eyebrow at us and then turned his attention back to Ava.

  “I don’t understand why you keep making these humans into immortals. I’m only going to keep destroying them and you’re only going to stay on my bad side,” he told her quietly.

  She screamed and tried to wriggle out of his grip.

  “You’re being a child Ava. My patience only lasts for so long. If you do this again, I will kill you.”

  The screaming stopped and she started laughing. A loud maniacal laugh that clearly told him that she didn’t care.

  “Oh Kaeden,” she began, “You’ve already taken my most important friend from me. You’ve left me in the sun to die. You’ve disfigured me for the rest of eternity. Do you honestly think that killing a couple of young vampires is going to make it worse for me?”

  “I don’t want to have to kill you. Let this be your last creation,” he said softly.

  Letting her go he walked over to me and took the fledgling vampire from my grip. Ava stood up panting, mad with rage. Kaeden turned the fledgling to look at her and then he ripped her head off. Ava tried to look like it didn’t bother her, but I saw the tears stinging her eyes.

  Her gaze whipped into my direction and I saw the tears spill as the hatred
blazed in her eyes. She held my gaze for a moment then ran off toward the

  downtown district. I put a hand on Kaeden’s back and he turned down smiling at me. In a way he looked sad which made me feel terrible for him.

  “Let’s go home,” I said to him.

  “Just a moment,” he said. He grabbed the fledgling’s head and body and ran off into the woods. A few seconds later, I heard the sound of a large boulder crashing into the ground. The earth shook a little too. I couldn’t wait for him to come out and tell me what he had just done.

  I sat there patiently and waited for him, when he finally walked out dusting his hands of all the dirt that had accumulated onto them.

  “What the heck did you just do?” I asked him curiously.

  “Buried her,” he said smiling.

  “With an earthquake?” I asked laughing.

  “Well I had to take out her heart and burn it, so I had to make sure that she was completely buried. No one will ever find her unless they can pull that boulder out of the ground. Even earth moving equipment won’t be able to move that rock,” he said grinning.

  “You’re such a guy,” I said laughing, “Let’s go get Drake and Chase and go home.”

  He started to laugh, “What’s so funny?” I asked him.

  “Drake and Chase sounds like a war strategy.”

  “Weirdo,” I muttered looping my arm through his. We walked back into the woods where we found Drake talking animatedly to Chase about something.

  “...then you just bite a vein and you’re fed,” he was saying.

  “Oh, it all makes sense now. I kept biting all over the place and I couldn’t get any blood out of that dumb chick. I’ll have to try it again.”

  “Try with an animal first. Hey if you want to hunt I can show you how do it,” Drake said with a grin.

  Kaeden and I stood there watching them. About ten minutes ago Drake was standing guard and now he seemed to be best friends with the fledgling. Kae just sighed and shook his head as we walked right past them back to his house.

  As we neared the property I looked up at him. “Hey did I tell you that I had a dream last night? It’s my first one since being non-human.”

  “Really?” he asked with genuine surprise.

  “That’s exactly what I thought when I woke up tonight,” I said rolling my eyes. “Want to know what it was about? I remember it kind of clearly.”

  “Yeah, if you don’t mind sharing, I’d really like to know what it was about,” he said enthusiastically.

  “Alright so it actually started in a green field, it was so pretty. The sun was shining and I was outside, but my skin wasn't being burned or anything. I remember walking through the field trailing my hands along the overgrown weeds when I came to a barbwire fence. Almost like at Ryker’s camp, you know? Anyway in the middle of the fenced off area was a tree that shone like bronze and the leaves looked like they were carved out of emerald. So I hopped the fence and went over to the tree and plucked one of the leaves off. I held it in my hand and saw that it really was an emerald. It actually reminded me of a few people’s eyes.” I glanced up at him and he grunted, so I kept going.

  “In the dream I wondered if they were still alive you know, so the second thought crossed my mind, the emerald started to shine. It got so bright that at first I had to shield my eyes from it. But then the light calmed down and I was able to look back at it.” I paused while we climbed the steps to his home. I sat down on the top step and he sat next to me with his back against the banister so he could look at me while I spoke.

  “I saw the most amazing thing in the emerald, Kaeden. I saw them how they were when they were human. Before she had turned them into bloodthirsty monsters. They really all were best friends before that and he had a successful tattoo shop, which is probably why he continued to do it in his second life. But what stood out to me the most when I looked back at the tree was this one lonely violet leaf hanging off of a lower branch by itself. That one I saw was made of amethyst and when I went over to pluck it, it actually fell down into my hand. But this one didn’t blaze with color; it just turned lighter and lighter until I was able to make out Maxwell’s face. He was so sad and forlorn and I saw the others sitting with him trying to make him laugh and be happy, but the look on his face clearly indicated that he would never be happy again. In my dream, I felt a tear slide down my face and saw it land on the amethyst leaf. When that happened all four of them turned to look up at me through the leaf. I was so startled that I dropped it, but instead of hitting the ground and shattering, a wind blew by and caught it before the leaf crashed. I watched as it went back up into its spot on the branch and then it brought four emerald leaves over to surround it. I stood there kind of shocked for a second, then reached up to try to grab the amethyst leaf again, but the emerald leaves had become so sharp that I cut my hand on one of them. And ...and that’s when I woke up.”

  Kaeden just sat there in silence looking at me for a moment. Then he brought his right knee up and clasped his hands around it. It was obvious he was trying to think of a tactful way to say something but he wasn’t sure.

  “So, that’s it?”

  “Well there is one more thing. Don’t freak out okay?”

  Nodding he looked curious now. I took a deep breath and held out my left hand to him. It was the scar that I had gotten when I saved Kendall back in the Marble Quarry only now it looked like it was just starting to heal.

  “You still bleed?” he asked examining my hand.

  “I don’t think so. I mean I never really have after I was remade. But I smelled it when I woke up, it was so overpowering. I didn’t think ...” My voice trailed off.

  “I thought I smelled blood when I got up earlier. And I traced it to your room, because I wasn’t sure what it was coming from. I’ve never smelled blood like yours,” he said letting go of my hand.

  “That’s already been established,” I said sharply.

  “Sorry.” Kaeden cleared his throat. “So not only did you dream, your dream was real in a way?”

  “I don’t know,” I groaned putting my face in my hands. “Maybe I just cut myself in my sleep? Maybe the leaf reopened my scar? I have no idea and it’s driving me crazy.”

  “Intriguing,” was all he said. He stood up and stretched his arms over his head. I still couldn’t get over how tall he was. His parka vest lifted a little and I was able to see the lower part of his tummy.

  I grinned and he looked down and stuck his tongue out. Then he fixed his sweater and unzipped his vest, “God I was dying in that thing. Just dying,” he said dramatically.

  “Is that possible?” I asked tossing my vest at him.

  “Nope. Bulletproof baby,” he said pounding his chest.

  That was the first time I’d seen Kaeden act like this and it was funny. Maybe he was just trying to get my mind off of the dream or maybe he was trying to get my mind off of Ava, but whatever he was doing was working. I mean I never knew he had such a funny side to him. It was nice to finally see it as opposed to the serious, studious person he always was.

  “Oh man,” I said yawning, “I’m beat.”

  “Go to sleep then,” he replied walking toward the room with the piano.

  “I’d rather not. I want to see the snow in the daylight in the morning.”

  “That’s right, I forgot about that already. Well you can come with me and I’ll play some music for you,” he said with a smile.

  Nodding I followed him down the hall and laid myself out on a couch closest to one of the huge windows. The curtains were already pulled open so when dawn came I’d get an amazing view. I watched Kaeden as he sat himself down on the bench and lifted the fall. Then he smiled at me and his long fingers started to caress the keys.

  Closing my eyes, I sighed happily as he began to play Für Elise. Ludwig van Beethoven had always been another of my classical favorites. As the notes played and filled the room I opened my eyes again and looked out the window. In the distance I heard the front door op
en and close. Drake and Chase walked into the room quietly. Drake sat in the Maison chair and Chase came over to share my couch with me. I lifted my head so he could sit and the laid my head on his lap. He smiled and rested a hand on my stomach while we listened to Kaeden play. As the song swelled I watched him playing with his eyes closed, oblivious to the fact that anyone else was in the room with him.

  Across from him the first signs of dawn were pushing night out of the way. Apparently we had been out longer than I had thought. I watched in wonder as the sky began to light up behind him as he continued his song. In a weird way it made him look like an angel.

  Drake was the first of us to react to the daylight. He walked over to the window nearest Kaeden and looked outside. I saw a smile cross his face but it was a smile I’d never seen come from him before. One of longing and sadness.

  Standing up I walked over to him, leaning my head on his arm and pushing side the other curtain.

  I gasped.

  Kaeden was right. The snow was even more beautiful in the daylight. Even though the sun was hidden behind the clouds, the sky was still bright and illuminated. I watched as snowflakes began to gently fall again like they had last night and sighed. It had to be the most beautiful sight I had ever beheld. Behind me, Chase rested his chin on the top of my head as the three of us stared out the window like children. The song ended and I heard Kae bring the fall over the piano keys and chuckle. I ducked down under Chase’s arm to look at him and he was smiling at us like he was our father and we were his children that had made him proud by ‘discovering’ snow and sun.

  Waving me over, he patted a space on the bench for me to sit next to him. After I lowered myself, he leaned down and whispered a conspiratorial plan to me.

  I looked up at him and saw the mischievous grin he was giving me. Yeah, I could definitely get used to this Kaeden.

  Nodding I grinned at back and ran out of the room. I made my way up the stairs and grabbed a blue and black checkered flannel shirt and black denim shorts.

  I ran back downstairs barefoot, because I really wasn’t going to need flip-flops for what Kaeden and I had planned.