Chapter 7
“Vicky?” Drake’s voice quivered a bit. I could hear it echo against the brick wall of the strip mall next to us. “Are you okay?”
I opened one eye, watching him cautiously approach me. The vampire’s dust-filled clothing lay at my feet.
“I don’t really understand what I just saw there. There was a creepy guy, you made me move so fast everything went blurry, he attacked you, I think you ripped his head off, and now he’s lying in a pile, no, make that two piles of dust behind the pizza place I work at.”
Tears welled up in my eyes and a lump rose in my throat, forcing the flood gates open.
“I’m so sorry,” I sobbed, burying my face in my hands. I realized they were covered in blood, and cried harder.
“It’s okay, Vicky. Come on, let’s get away from this mess.” He gingerly grabbed my arm and led me towards the parking lot, away from the dusty carnage I’d created. “I have to ask you just one question.” He paused uncomfortably. The hand that held my arm shook slightly.
I glanced up into his crystal blue eyes, my sobs subsiding.
“You, um, you aren’t going to hurt me, are you?” He looked nervously into my eyes. “Because for some really strange reason, I trust you.”
I shook my head, shuddering from some remaining sobs.
His body seemed to relax.
“Your eyes are really something. It’s like they sparkle. I know that sounds stupid. I thought that the first day I met you, but it seemed like a super corny way to start a conversation.”
I laughed through the tears at the ridiculousness of the entire situation. I just got into a fight with and obliterated another vampire, I’m covered in blood, and the boy I think is cute just complimented my eyes.
“I think I need to clean up a little,” I said, glancing at my hands.
“Yeah, you’re kind of a mess. You’re okay, right? He didn’t hurt you?” He took my hands, inspecting them, and then touched my chin, looking over my face. “It looks okay, relatively speaking.”
He took my arm and led me over to his car and opened the door.
“Why don’t you sit down? I’ll be right back.” He shut the door and headed back into Lou’s.
This was so not how I’d seen this going. I was supposed to move into town, undetected, and live a normal life. How was Drake being so calm? If I were him, I’d be freaking out just a little bit. The kid was as cool as a freaking cucumber. I watched him exit Lou’s carrying a plastic bag. Maybe he’d just lose it here shortly, he could be in shock or something.
“Here you go,” he said, handing me the bag and then sliding into his seat.
I opened it and glanced inside. A pile of napkins and an equally large pile of wet wipes. I pulled out one of the tiny square packets in disbelief.
“What am I supposed to do with this tiny thing?” I asked, glancing at the blood, now dry, on my hands.
“I figured they might ask a few questions if I brought you inside to use the sink in the bathroom. That’s our only option at this point. Unless you want me to take you home.”
“No.”
I tore open the packet and pulled the tiny wet square out and unfolded it. I started scrubbing at my hands. “I have a feeling this is going to take awhile.”
He turned the radio on to a local rock station and drove through the streets of Bartlett. I didn’t want to say anything to break his deep thinking. He wasn’t screaming or trying to get rid of me. He also wasn’t running away from me.
I flipped down the visor in front of me and slid open the lighted mirror. My face was something from a horror flick, blood was splattered across it, spots of it even in my hair. I scrubbed with the wet wipes, opening packet after packet, and wiped myself down with the napkins. Aside from the stiff spots of blood in my hair and on my shirt, I cleaned up pretty well.
The car bounced violently as we went over the train tracks in the middle of town. I had no idea where we were going, but I was happy to let him lead the way. A few streets down, he pulled into a gravel strip on the edge of a park. A large white gazebo stood to the right of us, a park with swings and slides for kids right behind it. An old log cabin sat off in the corner. The park was dotted here and there with large maples and evergreens. The lights of the nearby houses framed the park. A few of the houses had Christmas lights outlining roofs and illuminating the trees.
He got out of the car, and I threw my door open and joined him. I walked next to him on the path as he led me to the playground.
“I used to love this place when I was a kid.” He plopped onto a swing and I slid into the one next to him.
“It’s nice.”
A sliver of the moon peeked out from behind a thick cloud. Despite the cool temperature, the air wasn’t as chilly as it had been during the day. Not that the cold affected me much, but Drake seemed pretty comfortable. I’d just follow his lead on that.
“So, who was that guy?” He pumped his legs a few times on the swing, rising higher and higher into the air.
“I honestly don’t know.”
“There’s something different about you. Normal people can’t…well, they can’t do what you did tonight,” he said, cautiously avoiding describing what I’d actually done. I was unsure if it was for my sake or his. “Can you tell me about it?”
I hung limp in my swing at his side as he soared higher.
“I could, but I doubt you’d ever believe me.” I smiled sourly at the ground.
“After what I saw tonight, I think I might believe whatever you tell me. What’s the worst that could happen?”
“Um, let me see, you decide that you hate me, or I disgust you, or something along those lines and then I’m all alone again.” I wasn’t sure if he could handle this, but deep down, I wanted to tell someone. I had to tell someone. The truth of what I’d become was making me feel like I wanted to explode.
I wanted someone to tell me that everything would be all right, even though I knew it wouldn’t, because this could never be all right. I would never be normal or be able to live a normal life again. Not to mention, I had stupid vampires trying to find me and take me somewhere. I wanted to know what they knew about me, but I was terrified at the same time.
The first one must have been trying to collect me as well, which made me feel much better about spiking him on that tree branch. At least I knew I could kill them two ways now: staking and ripping their heads off. Either they’d give up and leave me alone once they realized their messengers weren’t returning, or I’d be seeing more of them soon.
Drake skidded to a stop on his swing, gravel flying everywhere. He twisted towards me.
“I want you to tell me. I won’t leave you alone. I promise.”
I supposed if he couldn’t handle it, I could just look him in the eye and convince him none of it had ever happened.
“You want to hear the whole story?” I raised an eyebrow.
“From start to finish, and don’t leave anything out.”
I sighed.
“Okay, here goes the short version. Five days ago I woke up in a coffin. Judging by the cross on the grave, I had died five days before that. I was chased through the woods by someone, who then ended up getting impaled on a tree branch and turning into a pile of dust. And then I did something horrible.”
His eyes were glued to me, his face even more pale in the faint light of the moon. This was it. He was going to hate me in about three seconds. My stomach churned.
“It couldn’t possibly be any worse than what happened tonight, could it?” He seemed to be clinging to hope that I couldn’t give him.
Tears sprang to my eyes. It was awful enough before when I was the only one who knew about it. But now, now someone else would know the truth. I looked at the ground, kicked at the gravel, and nodded my head.
“What did you do?” he whispered.
“I killed two people.”
<
br /> He was silent. I couldn’t even make out the sound of his breath. The swings creaked from the weight of our bodies, but aside from that, the night was silent, as if the life was sucked out of every corner of this park. I listened, trying to pick up the sound of creatures in the trees and got nothing.
“I planned to kill myself afterwards, after I realized that I was…” it was completely ridiculous saying the words aloud to another person, “that I was a vampire.”
I looked up at him and saw that he was staring off into the distance, away from me. I’d lost him. I might as well unburden myself of the rest and then make him forget this ever happened. Make him forget I ever happened. Maybe it was best if I left Bartlett and kept going.
“For some reason, I didn’t burn when the sun rose, and I was too chicken to run myself through with a tree branch. But I was sure I didn’t want to hurt anyone else if I could help it. I stole a car, helped myself to the blood supply at a clinic and drove towards Chicago. I stopped at the hotel and then was checking out the clinic for a refill when I saw Lou’s. And then I met you, and, well, you were so nice.” My eyes wandered across the thousands of tiny pebbles at my feet, noticing a few glittered in the moonlight.
“You were the first person I’d really talked to, and I realized that if I couldn’t be with my parents, I wanted to find a new home. Somewhere I could feel normal and have friends. So I decided to stay here. I met Sue at the library while I was searching for how I died on the Internet. She was so helpful, and I just thought she’d make a great aunt, since I had to come up with one.”
“Your parents are still alive?”
“Yep.”
“And they don’t know that you’re still, um, alive?”
“No. How do you have that conversation? Hey Mom and Dad, I know you just buried me and all, but here I am! Except I’m not quite human and, as a double bonus, I like to drink people’s blood.” I snorted. “Yeah, I could see that working out really well.”
He was at least looking at me now.
“Drake, why aren’t you freaking out? Shouldn’t you be running from me as fast as you can?”
“Honestly? I don’t know.” His eyes roamed across my face. “When I first met you, I was just drawn to you. You were so pretty, I figured there was no way you’d even give me the time of day. And all of this, it just sounds so insane. I can’t for a minute think that you’re a killer, even though I saw you rip that dude’s head off.” He paused and rubbed his face with his hands. “Do you think you’ll kill anyone else? Do you want to kill me right now?”
“That’s the thing, I didn’t want to kill Harold and Mrs. Harold. They were just nice old people trying to help me. They didn’t deserve to die. But it was like I couldn’t help it. I was ravenously hungry and they smelled like all the best food in the world. I was suddenly starving and couldn’t control myself. I didn’t realize what I’d done until it was over. After I started drinking the blood bags, it’s tolerable. I can totally control it. I have a little fridge in my room at Sue’s. I just have to keep it stocked. I’m trying to figure out how much I need to keep me full.”
“What do I smell like?”
“Like the richest, most wonderful chocolate you’ve ever tasted.” I tried not to think about it too much. I didn’t want any more drama tonight.
“That does sound a little difficult to resist,” he said with a sly smile.
I met his eyes for a moment and shifted my gaze to the moon.
“You do have a choice, you know,” I said.
“And what choice might that be?”
“I can make you forget all this, forget everything you’ve seen, everything I’ve told you.” I reached out and my fingers grazed his jacket. “I can even make you forget me, if you like. It will be like none of this ever happened and you can go back to normal, where vampires don’t hang out in Bartlett. You just have to say so.”
He reached across the void between us and grabbed my hand. My skin tingled where we touched. His hand was soft and warm.
“I would never want to forget you. And besides, this is the coolest thing that has ever happened in this boring little town. Why would I ever want to forget it?”
I laughed and slapped him on the arm with my free hand.
“But I don’t think the regular citizens of Bartlett will want to know about this, so it’s up to us to keep your little secret.”
“You seriously think it’s cool?” I stared at him in disbelief.
“So I’m a little twisted. I blame video games and horror movies. As long as you’re not a zombie, I’m good. I don’t think I’d want to hang out if you ate brains. But vampires are hot.”
He pulled out his cell phone, the light bright in the darkness. “It’s getting late, I better get home or my parents will be pissed.” He let go of my hand and got up from the swing.
I wanted to grab his hand as we walked back to the car, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I didn’t want to seem too clingy.
“So, school tomorrow?” he asked as we buckled our seat belts.
“Yeah, Sue said she’d take me over there.”
“Are you going to be able to handle all those people?” He glanced over at me.
“I sure hope so. I’ll have to fill up tomorrow before I leave the house. And if I have to leave school, I’ll just go. Getting out of the building will not be a problem,” I said with a wink.
“So you said you could make me forget. How do you do that?” He turned the car around and headed back through town.
“It’s my eyes, they were never like this before. All I have to do is look into your eyes and tell you whatever I want you to know or think.” I observed the small downtown as we bumped over the railroad tracks again.
“You haven’t done it to me, have you?”
“Nope, you’re the only human that I’ve met that I haven’t done it to. Unless you count the hostess at Lou’s.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I don’t know. For some reason I didn’t want to. Maybe deep down I knew you’d somehow understand me. Oh god!” I gasped as Drake’s chocolaty scent rushed into my nostrils. No. This was not supposed to happen.
“What’s wrong?” His eyes darted sideways.
“Get me home as fast as you can, and don’t get too close,” I whimpered and threw my hands over my mouth. It was watering like Niagara Falls in there, and my fangs slid into place. I kept my eyes focused out the window. I would not feed on him, I don’t care how much he smelled like a fine box of chocolates, the ones with all the yummy fillings…no. I stopped my thoughts, trying to count the trees.
“No worries, Vicky. I take it you need a drink?”
I nodded.
“Hold on.”
I slammed back in the seat as he mashed the gas pedal, urging the jelly bean forward as fast as it would go. We sped through the neighborhoods and I was focused only on getting to Sue’s and getting to that fridge. I hoped I didn’t run into her on the way in the house.
I tried to focus my brain on anything other than what it was screaming for—delightful tastes of chocolate. My whole body ached. He pulled into Sue’s driveway and like a rocket I was out of the car and standing at Sue’s front door. I bent over, taking deep breaths of the cool night air, letting it fill my lungs. My fangs retreated back into my gums.
That was close. Too close. I did not want to hurt Drake or anybody else. Maybe I needed to make sure I had a cooler in the car for a lunch break tomorrow. A meltdown like this in a crowd of hundreds would be disastrous. He backed out of the driveway, waving from the safety of the car. I hoped he could handle the reality. I guessed I’d find out tomorrow, if he actually talked to me again.
I opened the front door and noticed the television was on in the family room. I raced upstairs to my room and shut my door. My hand shook as I unlocked the fridge and grabbed a bag of blood. I slurped the first and then a
second. It splashed down my throat with a cacophony of exotic flavors: chicken enchiladas, spicy salsa, a pungent curry. They weren’t my favorites, but my body seemed satisfied. My fangs, which had arrived again at the smell of blood, retreated.
I slumped against the wall and buried my face in my hands. I wondered what Drake was thinking. I wished I had gotten a cell phone tonight so I could text him. I’d have to go tomorrow and get one.
I stripped off the blood stained shirt and jacket I had on and shoved them in a plastic bag in the back of the closet. I’d have to make another trip to American Eagle to replace those. After throwing on some sweats and a tee shirt, I headed downstairs to say goodnight to Sue. To Aunt Sue.
“Hey Aunt Sue, I wanted to say goodnight and thanks for letting me stay with you.”
“Oh, there you are, I didn’t hear you come in. Did you have a nice time with Drake?” She looked up from the TV where a pop-star hopeful screeched on stage.
“Yeah, he’s really nice.” And more understanding than anyone I’d ever met. Not that I could share that information.
“School tomorrow, right? I’ll drive separately so I can go to work after we get you set up. Are you nervous?”
“Yeah.” For so many reasons. Would Drake be upset about the ride home? Would I want to eat my classmates because they smelled excruciatingly delicious? Would my vampire stalkers try to kidnap me again?
“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. I’m sure everyone will love you,” Sue said.
If only she knew.
Bloody Little Secrets Page 11