by Megan Hawke
"Sable!" my mother cried.
My mother, Beverly Marie Hart. Momma was wearing a dark brown pants suit, brown flats and a white blouse. She looked like the proper minister’s wife, and she was very proper in all aspects of her life. Sabrina used words like rigid, unyielding, anal.
Everyone jumped, eyes wide. I could smell their fear. It was so thick it was suffocating. I grimaced; the pain might've been emotional, but it was still real. My own family was terrified of me. The people I loved more than life itself thought I would kill them.
I blinked away the tears and swallowed the lump in my throat. They were staring at me. Everyone was there. Daddy. Momma. Little sister Sabrina, and the baby of the family, Brad. He was in high school, a senior, so not much of a baby anymore. Even my middle sister, Yvette, was there with her husband and their baby, David.
Their auras actually kinda surprised me. My mother, not surprisingly, had the biggest aura. She was definitely dominant in our little family. I had expected my father's aura to be as big, but his was normal sized. In fact, everyone else had a normal sized aura, except for Sabrina. Sabrina's aura was as big as Momma's.
"What are you doing here?" my father said.
My father was a handsome man, standing six four, with blue eyes and short black hair. He worked out, so there was no obvious fat.
"I was going to ask you the same thing." I walked forward a few more steps, mostly so I could close the door. We didn’t need the world listening to our business. My family all took a step back for every step I took. Talk about making me feel special. I frowned at them, mostly to hide the pain. "This is, after all, my apartment."
"W-we came to collect your personal effects," Yvette said. Her eyes were huge with fear. I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. "We didn't think you… um…"
Yvette had cut her long black hair to just above her jaw line since I'd seen her last. I found it disconcerting, since I'd never seen her with short hair. In fact, it kind of reminded me of Dominique. My sister was two inches shorter, and a bit stockier than me. She still carried some of the extra weight from pregnancy, too. She was wearing little makeup, and her blue flowery dress was long-skirted and very conservative.
Her husband, Fernando, stood at her back offering her support. He was six foot tall, black hair, and athletic. He was an impressive sight in his red sweat suit. An investment banker by profession, he provided my sister with a good home and an upper middleclass lifestyle. They had an impressive Spanish colonial mini-mansion near my father's church is Plano.
"No one thought you'd be back," Brad said. He took a step forward, looking me over carefully. I never noticed before how much he looked and moved like Daddy, but with Momma’s olive eyes and brown hair. "You don't look any different. Are you really a vampire?"
At six three, he was still an inch shorter than our father. He was the athlete of the family. Football. He played linebacker, but not good enough to get a scholarship. I think he was too easygoing to be a great athlete. He was wearing a Plano East Panthers t-shirt, faded jeans, and running shoes.
I managed a sad smile. "Yeah. Undead to the world."
My mother shook her head. "Even dead and accursed, you can't stop making jokes."
You want to know how hard it was to not make a joke right then? I caught it just before it left my lips. Momma was already giving me her best disapproving look, knowing the joke was coming, but I managed to choke it down.
"Laughing beats crying, Momma." I had to say something. They'd think I was sick or something if I didn't. "If I could change it, I would. But I'm dead. Undead. I have to live with that fact." Everyone looked taken aback, and I realized what I just said. "No pun intended."
“I knew this would happen to you,” Momma said.
“Sorry,” I said, but I was distracted. A new presence, outside and below on the ground, made itself known to me. It was a presence I felt off and on the past couple of nights, but it was close now. He was coming up. I didn’t think he knew I would be up there. Have to admit, I was a little surprised. Why hadn't I noticed him getting closer before he arrived? It made me reach out for Gabe, and thankfully he was far, far away. “But I’m no threat to any of you. I would never hurt my own family.”
“Like you would never hurt Dane,” Yvette said. Little Sis wasn’t scared of me anymore. I never did get along with her. She resented me since the day she was born, and dedicated her life to outdoing me at every turn. It was a one-sided competition. I didn’t care, which I think ticked her off even more. “You tried to kill him. Twice.”
“You are ill-informed.”
“You didn’t try to kill Dane?” Daddy asked.
“It’s complicated.”
“Complicated? I, for one, would like to hear your side,” Dane said from the door. I slanted a pleased smile over my shoulder at him. He stepped inside and closed the door. He did not look happy to see me, but neither did he look afraid. “I don’t see how trying to murder me can be complicated.”
“Hello, Dane.” I fought the urge to go to him, to throw myself into his arms. He'd probably shoot me. “What took you so long?”
That confused him. He was looking rather ragged, hair dirty and stringy around his unshaven face. Even his blue polo shirt and faded black jeans looked rumpled. I don’t think I’d ever seen him look so bad. Hell, he woke up looking better than that.
That said, he was in better shape than I expected. He moved with feline grace again. No limp. No stiff back, and the best I could tell behind his shades, no black eyes. The man healed fast. Remarkably fast. It was good to be a dhampir.
“I’ve been in hiding from you and your vampire friends.”
I took a step towards him, and he took one back. I frowned. That didn't bode well for any future "us."
“Did you move in with Gabe or something?”
I sensed him go cold. Fear blossomed within him. I was surprised by the intensity of his emotions, and my ability to "feel" what he felt. Okay, I was also pleasantly surprised.
“How did you know?”
He was so tense. The clarity in which I “connected” to his feelings was enthralling. I wanted nothing more than to dwell in them, to wallow around and bask in them, but everyone else was also tense.
I laughed. “Lucky guess. A joke. I was joking, based upon your rumpled appearance.”
I knew. I could feel them both any time I wanted. Mostly I ignored them, knowing they didn't want to see me socially. It was kinda like that sense of direction I felt with Anastasia, only with emotions thrown in.
“Oh.” He grimaced as he looked himself over. “I was living on his couch up until today.”
Dane had a new place? I wondered where. I hated not knowing everything about him.
"He doesn't have a spare bedroom?"
"Not with a bed in it."
He unconsciously took a step closer. I tilted my head, a tiny smile curling my lips. His head tilted as well. I fought my body's need to fill the air with pheromones. Oh, that wouldn't go well with my family. No sirree.
“Don’t change the subject,” Yvette said. “Why did you try to kill Dane twice? Just because you are a vampire?”
Everyone looked at me expectantly. I felt Dane's sense of expectation, his fear and dread at what I might say.
“Hmm, I like the vampire excuse. Can I use that in the future?” No one laughed. Didn’t anyone have a sense of humor anymore? “Okay, I’ll be serious.”
“Good,” Brad said. “Because becoming a vampire hasn’t improved your jokes one bit. They’re still bad.”
He grinned at me. My heart soared. I came close to breaking down and crying right there. I’ve always had a give and take, bantering relationship with him and Sabrina. We understood each other. None of us understood Yvette. One in every family, I guess.
“Noted. As for trying to kill Dane twice… well, technically I only tried to kill him once, in his apartment. The second time, when I bit him, that was his fault.”
“My fault?”
�
�Yes. It was self-defense on my part. Y’all were trying to stake me,” I said. I turned to my family, pointing at him accusingly. “That stupid idiot and his equally stupid friends had three vampires staked, with me and Yuri Romanov remaining. I took off running, and they had four slayers against Yuri. What did they do? They let Yuri go. Yes! Left a six hundred year old vampire alone and alive, just so they could chase after me. They left him upstairs with the three vamps they’d staked, allowing Yuri to remove the stakes and bring the dead vamps back to life. Idiots!”
Dane had the decency to cringe guiltily. I was glad to see he understood their mistake. The emotions within matched what he was showing without, too. Heavy on the shame.
“Self-defense is no excuse to try and kill someone,” Yvette said.
“Yes it is. What planet are you living on?” She acted all insulted, looking to Momma and Daddy for support as if I attacked her unprovoked. You know, her usual tactic. I walked over to the kitchen table. Someone had moved my candy bowl over there from the coffee table. I frowned, not liking to see people taking liberties with my stuff. I grabbed a handful of M&Ms. “Besides, I didn’t try to kill him. If I wanted Dane dead, he would be dead. No question about it. I bit him out of vampiric instinct, but I didn’t kill him. I let him go. Gabe, too.”
I tossed a couple M&Ms into my mouth and crunched them loudly, smiling with my love of chocolate. I raised a couple brows with that, including Dane’s. I liked it. Let them see me doing something normal. Of course Yvette wouldn’t stand for that.
“Bullshit.”
“No, she’s telling the truth,” Dane said, cutting off Yvette's tirade. That startled everyone. “I thought she tried to kill me. Gabe thought she tried to kill him, too. She did bite us and drank our blood, but she released us. In fact, if not for her we would’ve all been killed that night. She warned us about Yuri and the other vampires in just the nick of time.”
“But you said —” Yvette said.
“I know what I said before.” Dane glared at Yvette, then at me. I felt his confusion and chagrin, and those were just the emotions on top. “I was wrong. I’ve had time to think about it, and Wendy also pointed out how Sable could’ve killed us and didn’t. All she did was defend herself against our attacks, and then she warned us so we could escape.” He looked me in the eyes. “Why?”
“Why did I warn you? Because I love you, you idiot.” I chomped a couple more M&Ms for emphasis. Though his face didn’t betray it, I felt his emotions spike. “I don’t want you or any of the others to be hurt, even if you were all really hot to kill me.” I graced him with my most disapproving look as I shook my head woefully. “Y’all were idiots. Big, stupid idiots. Whatever possessed you to attack at sunset? And to leave Yuri, of all vampires, alive!”
“Your fault. We weren’t thinking straight; running in panic mode after you tried to kill me.”
“Now that wasn’t my fault either. Not exactly. Yuri Changed me, so he has power over me. He ordered me to kill you.”
“What kind of power over you?” Daddy said, looking even more worried.
Oh, that could go in a very bad direction real quick. I did not want to discuss that aspect with them, but Daddy wasn't one to relent easily.
“I’ve learned the hard way that when a vampire Changes you, that vampire has the same power over you as a vampire has over a mortal.” Everyone but Dane gawked at me. So Dane knew, but never warned me. Interesting. “He can mesmerize me with his eyes, and make me do anything he wants.”
“Then none of us are safe,” Yvette said, clutching her baby desperately. “He can order you to kill any or all of us any time he wants, and you’ll do it.”
“Yes and no. I’ve escaped Yuri. Thanks to the vampire slayer attack.” I nodded toward Dane. “When the others chased after y’all, I made my escape. I ran away. Yuri cannot command me if he can't look into my eyes when he does it.”
“Really?” Sabrina said, brushing overlong bangs out of her eyes. Her big blue eyes were intent on me as she gnawed on her lip. “What if he catches you again?”
Of all my family, Sabrina looked the most like me. We were both five ten, but I was a bit heavier, shapelier. Sabrina was a more athletic version of me. While I had Daddy's black hair, Sabrina got Momma's brown, though it was silkier and more lustrous like Daddy's and mine. We had the same sapphire blue eyes. Being the family wild child, she dressed in a way that separated her from the others.
Sabrina wore tight jeans, with rips and holes that revealed she wore fishnets underneath, and her usual "butt-kicking" boots. Her t-shirt was oversized, sleeves and collar cut off revealing flashes of a lacy black bra. I bet Momma choked when she first got there. If that wasn't bad enough, she was wearing heavy makeup, leather cuffs on both wrists, and a studded collar. All in all, pretty standard for Sabrina.
“Oh, then he’ll kill me. Probably torture me to death.”
“Why?” Momma cried. For the first time she looked worried for me.
I shrugged and grinned sheepishly. “Well, so far I’ve killed about half of his thralls. And worse, I killed four of his vampire followers, counting Anastasia.”
“What?” Dane, Daddy, Brad, and Sabrina all said at once.
“Yep. I killed them. Dead. All the way dead. And I killed one of Clive Honeywell’s vampire’s last night.” I chomped another handful of M&Ms, grinning roguishly at them. “I may be a vampire, but that doesn’t mean I love them. I’m still hunting and slaying.”
Dane took a step towards me. “Who did you stake?”
“Well, last Sunday I killed Olaf and Petra, and several of his thralls, before Yuri captured me. Then after I escaped Tuesday night I went back Wednesday and killed Darby LaFere, one of the twins. And finally, I killed Hector Lopez last night over in Deep Ellum.”
"You killed them?" Sabrina looked impressed. "Just like that?"
I laughed. "Oh, there was no 'just like that' about it. Olaf and Petra were standard textbook perfect stakings. I then used holy water to dissolve their hearts and heads. Think about that next time, Dane." He looked suitably chastised. "Killing Darby was more difficult. I was stealing the moving truck full of their possessions, and fighting them all off at the same time. That was one of those knockdown, drag out kinda fights that I'm lucky to have survived. In the process, I managed to bite off Darby's head."
"What?" Dane cried. He stepped up close. "That's impossible."
"Umm, not exactly, loverboy." I laughed at the looks on their faces. I reached up and caressed Dane's stubbed cheek, pleased when he didn’t flinch away. In fact, my touch seemed to set off a deep desire within him, which he quickly suppressed. "Maybe if you start being nice to me, I'll tell you that story. It's a real humdinger."
"My God, you've turned into some kind of super vampire killer," Brad said. I swear he was looking at me with awe. My mother noticed and almost had a stroke.
"Yeah, I'm thinking about buying some bright, primary-colored spandex and a cape, and calling myself Vampire Girl," I said. "Instead of a caped crusader, I'll be a fanged crusader."
Brad grinned. "Cool. I'd read your comic book."
"There's nothing cool about being a vampire."
"Yes there is." That startled everyone. This was not a vampire loving family. "I saw on the news the other day where a vampire girl literally picked up and threw a bunch of Harley-Davidson motorcycles atop a strip joint."
"That made the news?"
It was not a pleasant memory. My first night as a vampire.
"You did that?" clearly Dane was impressed.
"Yep. They were the bikers that attacked me, that got this whole series of events rolling, and ended with me becoming a vampire. I should've killed them."
“Again with the killing,” Yvette muttered.
"You can really throw a motorcycle a hundred feet and up atop a two story building?" Sabrina said. She was awestruck. "Wow."
Was it a hundred feet? Couldn't have been more than fifty, but it was dark and I'm lousy at judging distances.
That whole night was a blur anyway, so I didn't trust anything I recalled.
"You don't look that strong," Brad said. "I guess you could probably beat me at arm wrestling now."
"Probably, but we all know you cheat." We grinned at each other.
"Don't encourage them, Sable," Momma said. She was one unhappy puppy. "You'll have them out looking for vampires, so they can be turned."
"Changed," I corrected her.
Momma shot me a withering look. "Call it what you want. Changed into a vampire or Turned into a vampire, it doesn't matter. Either way, you are an undead fiend and an abomination in the eyes of the Lord."
Well that killed the mood. Everyone clammed up.
"It's getting late. I'm sure Daddy needs to get his beauty rest. Tomorrow's Sunday. The big day. So I'll collect my stuff and go."
"Where are you living now?" Brad said.
Everyone looked at me expectantly. Even Dane was all ears. That couldn't be good.
"Well, little brother, that's a big dark secret." Then I quickly changed the subject, "Could one of you help me? I can't get my jewelry box. There are lots of blessed crosses inside. Could someone please take them out?"
"Can I have them?" Sabrina said, perking up. She gave me a mercenary grin. "You have some of the sweetest silver crosses, especially the earrings."
"Sure. You can have all my crosses. Knock yourself out." Before I graduated high school Sabrina was always "borrowing" my jewelry. There was quite a bit of drama about that in our house. The good ole days. "But keep your greedy paws off the rest of it."
Sabrina flashed me a big bright smile and hurried back to my bedroom. I hadn't seen her that happy since Christmas. Greedy bitch. I smiled and shook my head, then turned to the couch.
"I paid a lot of money for this furniture," I said. "I'm keeping it."
I pulled the cushions off and lifted it up easily. Glancing around, the couch held up effortlessly, I noticed the looks of astonishment on all of their faces. Well, except for Dane's face. He looked terribly sad and gloomy.
"Vampire," I said. "Supernaturally strong."