"Yeah, I'll take something, too, please," Ana added, the pain in her hand intensifying. She took a seat beside her father on the couch, but Jodi quickly shook her head.
"No, come with me," Jodi said to Ana, motioning for the teenager to follow her into the kitchen. "I've got questions for you."
Ana sighed and stood from the couch. She glanced down at her father. "Don't go anywhere," she told him.
Michael rolled his eyes and snickered. "You don't need to worry about that," he told her. "An armless Vampire isn't much use when it comes to most things."
Ana followed Jodi into the kitchen, while Michael relaxed as best as he could against the couch. He closed his eyes and tried his best to take his mind off the pain. Some Christmas. He hoped that Savannah had somehow managed to escape the house, but he feared that it was already too late for her after watching her choke on the black-eyed vomit.
Salim suddenly strode into the house, locking the door quickly behind him. He sighed and slipped off his coat, hanging it onto the coat rack beside the door before turning to face his younger brother. "They vanished," he said.
Michael couldn't help but notice that Salim didn't appear to have a scratch on him. "Did you do any damage?"
"No." He crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at Michael with annoyance etched onto his face. "What on earth did you manage to get yourself into?"
Michael scowled. "Why does everyone think that this is my fault?" he snapped. "I don't know where those things came from. They knocked on the door, we told them to leave, and then they slipped in through my window and attacked me."
Salim pointed to Michael's right arm. "Holy water?" he asked.
Michael nodded his head.
Salim shifted his attention to Michael's left arm. "And what happened to that one?"
"Ana crashed the car."
"I don't care if she's perpetually in the state of a fifteen-year-old; you need to teach that girl to drive." Salim walked over and popped a squat onto the living room floor directly in front of Michael. He crossed his legs and studied Michael like CM Punk preparing to deliver a pipebomb. "You weren't supposed to let them in."
"I didn't let them in."
"Well, someone did."
"Ana didn't let them in either."
"What about your mistress?" Seeing the look of shock on Michael's face, Salim shook his head. "You know that you can't hide anything from me, you ass," he reminded him with a chuckle. "I made you."
Only born one year apart, the brothers were often mistaken for twins during their youth. They had the same wavy, chestnut hair, the same olive complexion, the same lean frame and long legs. Salim's conversion to a Vampire and subsequent body count for other turns and victories had bulked him considerably, rendering him extremely strong and extremely pale.
Unwilling to think of one day losing his brother and wife, he'd turned both Michael and Jodi and their respective children, further cementing his status as a powerful, high-ranked Grand Vampire in their area.
This status gave him certain abilities over his fledglings. He could sense whenever one of them was in mortal danger, and he was also capable of sensing the reason behind their panic and fears. Michael's scandalous sexcapades had been knowledge to Salim for weeks, although he hadn’t anticipated it turning out this poorly for his brother.
Michael ground his teeth for a moment before replying simply, "She didn't let them in either." He continued to scowl at Salim, his features morphing back to a human-like state as his adrenaline continued to fade. "Please don't say anything..." he added quietly.
"Oh, I'm not going to say anything," Salim assured him, "but I think you're being a giant idiot and playing with fire. Even if you no longer care about Keelia, what about Ana?"
"Like I already said to Ana, can we discuss this some other time?"
Salim glanced up as Jodi and Ana returned from the kitchen with a tray full of goodies. "Michael, those 'things' were black-eyed children," he said, returning to the current situation. "Someone had to have agreed to let them inside the house."
Michael kicked out his leg to gesture to Ana. "She was terrified," he insisted. "She stayed in her room. She didn't do it. I didn't do it. And my co-worker didn't do it. They just barged in like the freak shows that they are and tried to kill me."
"Black-eyed children cannot enter a residence without being granted permission to enter," Michael continued. "They can roam the perimeter of your home or even hide in your yard in wait, but they cannot come inside. It's why a lot of humans compare them to Vampires...although they are clearly nothing like us." He peered onto the tray as Jodi sat it on the coffee table nearby. "Is anyone else at your home?"
"Mom's still on her business trip," Ana explained, her face still a bit puffy from her earlier tears. "I FaceTimed with her earlier tonight; she's in a hotel."
"I'd be able to sense if anyone else was in the house," insisted Michael, as Jodi lifted a glass to his lips and helped him to drink the contents inside. The taste of egg nog coated his throat, mixed with the sweet taste of blood.
Jodi was a connoisseur of baked blood goods and always kept a stash in her home. Not only was the blood necessary for keeping their strength up on days they didn’t feed, but an infusion also helped to give their powers a temporary boost. Such as the regeneration powers that Michael and Ana currently needed for their injuries.
Blood had a similar protein composition to eggs, making it a viable, scientific egg substitute. "I just need 65 grams of blood for each egg," Jodi always said as she baked, and the stack of crimson macaroons on the tray was a testament to that.
"You didn't sense the black-eyed children," Salim reminded Michael.
"Yeah..." Michael took another sip before continuing. "It's like they were able to mask their appearance. I couldn't sense them in the house or at the car. It was weird..."
Ana reached onto the tray and grabbed one of the macaroons, popping it quickly into her mouth. A mason jar of aloe vera also sat on the tray, and Ana dipped a finger into it to scoop out a glob onto her finger. She gently dabbed it onto her burned hand, grimacing as she gently massaged the wound. She looked at Salim. "How else can they get inside?"
Michael shook his head. "I know of no other way."
"Okay," she said. She tipped her head toward Michael's direction. "So, the weird naked chick hiding in Dad's room must've done it."
Jodi looked at Michael in surprise. "What weird naked chick?!" she exclaimed. "Are you—"
Michael swallowed the blood nog and groaned. "For the last time, there is a time and a place for everything," he said. "I'll explain later."
Ana tipped up her nose slightly and angled herself away from Michael as she grabbed another cookie. Jodi reached forward silently and grabbed the jar of aloe vera, scooping out some and slathering it onto Michael's burned and tattered arm. "Am I going to like this explanation?" she asked quietly, looking at her brother-in-law accusingly.
"Let's hope," he replied, knowing that he had a very limited amount of time to find a way out of this. And a lifetime of not pissing off Salim in exchange for keeping his fanged lips sealed.
"Mommy?"
Jodi snapped her head toward the stairs. A young boy stood at the top, his face grumpy as he stared down into the living room.
"Don't worry, honey," she said sweetly, smiling up at him. "Ana and Uncle Michael just had a bit of an accident. They'll be all better in a day or so."
Little Onix Castrogiovanni continued to look cross. "Well, the other kids won't let me go to sleep," he snapped.
Jodi's smile quickly faltered as dread ran through her body. Her pupils enlarged. "What?"
Salim quickly stood. He could only sense the energies of Jodi, Michael, Ana, and Onix in the house. He looked up at Onix. "What other kids?" he asked evenly.
"A little girl and her brother," Onix said. "The ones you invited over here."
Salim's form quickly began to shift into its true Vampirein state again. "Where are they?" he hissed.
"They said you and mom invited them over, and they were cold!" Onix whined. "So, I let them come in through my window."
Chapter 5
It was almost unheard of for any physical presence to remain undetected by Salim Castrogiovanni. He ascended his stairs cautiously after sending Onix down to the living room to wait with the others. His footsteps remained light on each stair, nearly undetectable to even the most trained ear. The top floor of the house was pitch-black. He made his way down the hall and stepped foot into Onix's bedroom.
Nothing in the room seemed disturbed, barring the opened window. The cold wind blew inside fresh snow, allowing a layer of the white crystals to collect onto Onix's bedroom floor. "I am Onix's father and master," Salim announced evenly into the room, his voice mixing with the light howl of the wind outside. "His command is now revoked. You are not allowed inside this house. Get out."
Salim was greeted with silence. He stepped further into the room, looking around cautiously. He knelt down momentarily to peer underneath Onix's bed, and then he went and checked in the closet.
Still nothing.
They were loose in his house.
Salim turned and walked back into the upper-floor hallway. His eyes locked onto the lavatory across the hall, and he headed over to check it out next. A burning sensation erupted on the back of his neck, trickling down his back to the top of his buttocks. He growled and immediately twisted and pounced.
The black-eyed girl wiggled beneath his claws, surprised at the speed of the Grand Vampire. Salim's pain tolerance was exponentially higher than any other Vampire in the home, leaving the only true way to stop him being to bring him near permanent death.
The black-eyed boy teleported his way in front of Salim and unleashed another spray of dark matter vomit down Salim's throat, just as the girl had done earlier that evening. Salim gagged at the sensation. He sunk his claws into the black-eyed girl's neck before chasing after the boy, breathing not a requirement for him as it was for Savannah earlier in the evening. He could feel his melted flesh sticking awkwardly to the fibers of his shirt; another fun scar to discuss with others one day.
The black-eyed boy paused momentarily as he noticed Jodi glaring at him through the darkness. She was perched ominously on the décor table at the end of the hallway, her head cocked oddly—almost supernaturally—to the side, while she gripped the front of the table with her claws like a cat. She lunged forward at the boy, who rolled out of the way.
Jodi skidded to a stop and pivoted around while the much-faster Salim continued his chase. She noticed that where the black-eyed girl had lay, nothing more remained than a mysterious pile of goo and moist clothes.
The boy disappeared into the master bedroom with Salim hot on his trail. Salim growled as he noticed that the boy had vanished once more, and—yet again—there was no trace of his presence to be detected by Salim’s master senses. Jodi appeared behind him, noticing that there was no sign of the boy in the master bedroom, and peering back into the hallway.
A large chain suddenly wrapped around her legs, causing her to cry out and fall to the ground. She reached down and tried to remove the chain, but it was bound tight and seemingly stuck.
Silver.
Salim whipped around to assist his wife when he felt something slice into his upper chest. He looked down and saw a large piece of wood protruding from his chest, causing a dark liquid to spill from within him. He looked up and saw the black-eyed boy staring at him from near the staircase as he tumbled to the ground, causing the wooden stake to shift around in his chest some more.
“No!” Jodi screamed, still attempting to desperately remove the silver chain from around her legs. She tried peeling it off, slipping it off, and kicking it off, but nothing worked.
The black-eyed boy teleported over to her, another wooden stake in his hands. He lifted his arms to gain some momentum, when suddenly he crashed to the ground.
Michael sank his fangs into the cold neck of the black-eyed boy, some of the loosened skin still flapping off of his damaged right arm as he did so. The burned cross symbol on his back pulsed as he wrestled with the boy on the ground.
The boy’s appearance shifted into something much longer. The darkness was kind to his features, yet a brooding sense of evil finally perpetrated throughout the hallway. The stench of sulfur flowed through the air. A popping sound echoed from underneath the boy, and dark, leathery wings began to unfurl from his back. His black, beady eyes shifted over to glance at Michael, and he smiled at him, his own set of long fangs and jagged teeth gleaming through the darkness.
Michael reached up through the pain and wrapped his hands around the wooden stake in the boy’s…the demon’s…the monstrosity’s hand. He could feel the unhealed bones in his left arm shifting against one another as the monstrosity kept a tight grip on the stake and tried to wrestle it away from Michael’s grasp.
Jodi reached out and grabbed the monstrosity by the foot, pulling herself closer to it. She sank her claws into its flesh and was surprised that instead of the sensation of tearing flesh or fresh blood, she felt the sensation of flowing matter pulsing from within.
Michael dug his knee into the thing’s groin and propelled himself upward, trying to position the wooden stake directly over the monstrosity’s chest in hopes of plunging it deep. The monstrosity laughed—a deep, booming laugh that rattled the house, causing a photograph to tumble from the wall onto the ground—and outstretched its tongue. Its tongue snapped several feet forward and whipped Michael in the left eye, puncturing it. Michael screamed and rolled backward, clutching his face with his damaged arms.
Salim leapt forward from the darkness, a gaping wound in his chest, and plunged his own wooden stake into the heart of the monstrosity. It cackled and began to screech at Salim, causing his eardrums to ring violently. Dark liquid started to flow from Salim’s ears as the monstrosity began to fizzle and decay into goo, just as its sister had done earlier.
Salim, Jodi, and Michael sat quietly for a moment in the hallway, their eyes searching in the darkness for any sign of a lingering presence. The stench of the sulfur began to fade, bringing an ounce of relief to their bodies.
“Christmas is cancelled,” Salim declared bitterly, placing a hand over the wound on his chest that luckily had missed his heart by two centimeters. “I’m done.”
Chapter 6
Jodi, Michael, and Salim made their way back downstairs, where Ana had placed herself as a shield in front of the trembling Onix. She sighed in relief when she saw her father, aunt, and uncle. "Is it over?" she asked quietly.
Salim nodded his head. "They're nothing more than goo now," he assured them.
Ana sank to her knees in relief. "Oh, thank goodness."
Jodi limped over to Onix and knelt down before him. "Baby," she said, "no matter what, never let anyone inside the house without asking me or Dad first, okay? Please, promise me that."
Onix's face was wet with tears. "I'm sorry, Mommy," he sniffled, burying his little face into her shoulder. "They just seemed so cold."
"They were cold," Salim agreed, reaching down for a macaroon and popping it into his mouth without a care. "Demons in the flesh."
Michael staggered his way over to Ana and gave her a hug as well, and she tried to avoid looking directly at his punctured eye as he then collapsed back onto the couch.
It was nearly dawn, the time that most human children would be soon awakening to check under their trees for gifts from Santa Claus. And time for the Castrogiovannis to retreat to their coffins until dusk. "We've got some extra coffins in the guest room upstairs," Jodi said to Ana and Michael. "Stay here for the day. We'll figure out something about your car tonight."
"Sounds good," Michael agreed. He was too much of a mess to try arguing otherwise. A good day's rest to continue regenerating would do him well. Hopefully, Salim would be up for a hunt later that evening to get some warm, fresh blood into his system.
Ana stood to head upstairs when the text tone on her cell phon
e sounded in her pocket. She pulled it out while Michael, Jodi, and Salim also received texts. "What on earth..." Jodi wondered aloud as she fished out her own phone, assuming an Emergency Alert must have become active for the area.
Her eyes widened as she looked at the text.
Ana gasped and pressed her hand to her lips.
Salim grimaced and cracked his neck to the side.
Michael, still unable to fully use his arms, looked at his family members curiously. "What?" he asked. "What's going on?"
"You didn't let them in after all," Salim said simply. "But you're why they showed up..." He shifted the phone so that Michael could see it.
It was a group text thread between Michael, Salim, Jodi, Ana, and Michael's wife Keelia. Keelia had sent several explicit photos of Michael and Savannah fornicating in bed to the group thread. Below the images read:
Merry Christmas! I sincerely hope that no one else became collateral damage in the night. I hope that my minions enjoyed their stay in OUR home, Michael. If you're still alive to read this, more fun will be coming your way. Ho, ho, ho.
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The End
Enjoyed this story? Be sure to leave a review! You can also check out the other books and short stories by Angela Nicole Chu on Amazon.
About the Author
Angela Nicole Chu is a 30-year-old ENFP-A type from Louisville, KY. A writer since the age of four, Chu is an accomplished journalist, novelist, and vlogger, and she has been featured in numerous publications over the years.
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While her writing originated in comedy, it somehow drifted into suspense and horror as she advanced through her 20s. She blames her mother for raising her on Dateline Mysteries.
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Holidays Bite: A Limited Edition Collection of Holiday Vampire Tales Page 94