CHAPTER 28
The next morning when I woke, Jett had his packed bag by the kitchen door, some turkey sandwiches and coffee made. He was reading the paper. I went back to get dressed and pack and I started to try and recall everything Cale told me. I should really find my pad of paper. It felt like it was all a dream. But it wasn’t.
I had to leave my hair down to cover both sides of my neck, although the marks from Jett were barely visible. I threw my stuff in my bag and put it next to Jett's. Took a turkey sandwich and sat on the chair next to him and hugged my legs. “Good combination.” I told him.
“Beggars can't be choosers” he responded turning the paper.
“True.”
I blurted out “So what happened to your teeth? I thought you had to glue them in…didn’t feel that way last night.” He knew what I was talking about because he pushed the paper down and looked at me. He put the paper back up and mumbled something. I said “What?” He put the paper down and walked back to his room, and then I realized that he said “they grew back.”
I followed him but he closed the door behind him. “What do you mean they grew back? You have new teeth?” I questioned him through the door. I knocked on the door and opened it haltingly as he was going through one of the drawers.
He turned to me “you get privacy but I don't?”
“I didn’t get it so you don’t either, besides you don't want privacy. Let me see your teeth.”
“Ah, No.”
“Why not?” He shrugged. So I pushed him onto the bed and sat next to him. “Open up!”
“No, it’s none of your business.”
“Sure it is, you already bit me no secrets there. Besides if you didn't want me to see you would have walked away by now. Are you embarrassed, you read my journal that was just as…”
“Good point.” he said. “It's just weird.”
“Open up.”
He did and I looked really close, “Which ones are they? Your eye teeth?”
“Yeah, they feel weird in the back,” he replied softly.
“Let's go in the bathroom, there's more light.” I grabbed a pocket mirror out of my bag and headed toward the bathroom. I turned on the lights and sat on the counter – Jett came in slowly.
“Come here.” He came closer.
“Open up...” I said as gently as I could. I knew he was feeling a little uncomfortable, yet he was still trying to act cool. He opened up slowly and I put the mirror under his teeth.
“Have you looked at them?” I asked and pulled the mirror out.
“Yeah, it looks like there are holes in the back of them.”
“It sure does.”
“I get food stuck in them sometimes too, it feels weird.”
“Do they hurt?”
“When they came in they did.”
“How come I didn't notice them coming in?”
“It only took a couple days and I was in so much pain I stayed home. I'm not sure if you noticed but I seem to disappear from everyone around me and get really anti-social when I'm sick, I do that because I have never been so – so – worried about anything before in my life. It’s scaring the crap out of me.”
I let out a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness, because I have never been more afraid of anything in my life either. I'm not afraid of you though, but what's happening to you and me.” He put his head on my shoulder like he was relieved he could finally talk to someone. I thought I was going to cry and didn't want to, so I changed the subject. “Did you go to the dentist? Do your parents know? Is this why you haven't been smiling much lately?”
“No on the first two counts and yes, probably on the last one. You're the only one that knows.”
“Do you know that this probably means you're a vampire?” I said with a smile and laughed. “Are you going to suck my blood some more?” I giggled a little more. He tried not to laugh but with such a weird situation you have to keep it light, otherwise, I think you could freak out easily.
“You really think so?” He asked with a half-smile.
“No.” I replied. “If there was such a thing we would have known about it by now, besides look at you, your tan.” He looked at his arms. “Do you crave blood?”
He looked at my neck, and then turned my head the other way. “What the hell happened to you?” He asked panicked. “Did I do that?”
I quickly responded to him, “No you didn't, you didn't do it!” I turned his face to look at me. “You didn't do it.”
“Then how?”
“Ugh” came out of my mouth. “I'll tell you on the way back home.” I walked into the kitchen.
“I want to know now.”
“I am not quite ready. Can I please tell you in the car?” I changed the subject. “Thank goodness you came up – I have no money left.”
“You wouldn't have spent all your money if I didn't come. Don’t change the subject.”
“Still, irresponsible on my part.” I dug through my bag and grabbed my mom's gas card and held it up with a smile. “I can fill your tank though. That's if you're giving me a ride.”
“Of course drama queen, I'll give you a ride...” he paused tilted his head to the side. “What happened to your neck?” I shook my head and said “I’ll tell you in the car, I want to get going.” What I really wanted to do was get away from Cale, away from here.
We got in the car after Jett checked all the windows and doors in the cabin and had cleaned out the fireplace. He pulled out and immediately put his hand out for me to put mine in his. I did and wrapped my fingers in his. I turned to him and said “I love you.” He didn't say anything back he just gave my hand a squeeze. We didn’t speak for a while.
“Did you dream last night?” Jett asked.
“Sort of” I replied and the word misvaad rang in my head and it gave me an unearthly feeling. I shook it off… I have got to write everything down before I forget. “After this trip I think I need to learn a little more about self-defense and fighting.”
“You have me, you don’t need to learn to fight….you defended yourself against Cale before…..” Jett said.
“That's a joke – I have no clue what I'm doing. Plus, you slept like the dead last night. I couldn’t wake you up. I need to learn self-defense, besides it won’t hurt anything if I did. You could show me.”
“You couldn’t wake me? Oh my god tell me what happened to you neck!” I found a good radio station and turned it up. Jett turned it back down. “What happened to your neck, the side I supposedly didn't touch?”
I squeezed his hand tightly, I told him about Cale's visit. As soon as I said the name Cale he started to speed. I hadn't realized it but I had a death grip on his hand, my nails left marks in it. He pulled into a gas station to hear the rest of my story. “You should have woken me up last night! I can't believe you didn't tell me.”
“I tried waking you and I even screamed twice but you were like a dead man!” He looked mortified that he wasn’t able to help. “I mean I thought you were, it scared me.” A tear escaped from me I wiped it away. “You know the syringe that Cale stuck in you, I was thinking that was what knocked you out.” He added nonchalantly “Well not all of it got injected into me, I pulled it out before he could push the plunger. However, whenever I feed I always pass out cold.” As soon as the words passed his lips he looked angry that he let that slip.
He got out of the car and walked away from me and over to the pay phone. I assumed he was calling his uncle with the news. I didn’t mention how bad Cale’s change was at the end last night, and Jett obviously didn’t see Cale’s clothing in the garbage either… I’ll tell him when he calms down a bit. My big question is will Jett change fully now that he fed from me?
I dug out my pad of paper and pen and started writing everything I could remember from the night before including the words “multifarious inbreeds” and “sanguinary” because they sounded like technical terms. It took me a few minutes to remember his cousins name Bryce but glad I thought to write it down. I wro
te down the terrible ending Cale had as well, this way when it came time to tell Jett I could just let him read my journal.
Next I started to recall my dream that not only could Cale turn into a Wolf but he turned into a panther in my dream as well and I just felt it in my bones that it was going to come true. Thinking all this through made in my mind made him a shape shifter that needs blood, bringing the term back to me, Misvaad. Cale and Jett are Misvaad’s now I need to find out exactly what the means.
When Jett came back to the car, I was leaning on it waiting for him. He was calmer and wrapped his arms around me tightly “Are you sure you're okay? If anything would have happened to you….” He put his face in the crook of my neck.
“Mmhmm.” I muffled into his shirt.
Jett shook his head and gave me another squeeze.
On the way home I kept thinking, does Cale need me to change, did my blood change him forever and will Jett change now. I inhaled sharply as I realized that Cale is trying to change people to be like him and experiment on them to cure them. Logan for one and Jett for another.
We stopped at Jett's house before getting me home. His parents weren't home. I stood in the kitchen, Jett pulled his shirt off as he walked into his room. I couldn't help but smile from the view. I knew he'd be awhile; he wanted to shower and to call his uncle again.
I flipped back through my notes and then called Nic, asked her if she remembered the technical term that Sheila told us the other day, “vehements acting as demons” she told me. I put those terms behind the others because they looked like they belonged at the end of sentence. It read “multifarious inbreeds sanguinary vehement acting as demons, MISVAADS”. Cale and Bryce were misvaads, ‘mis’ as in misfit and ‘V’ could stand for vampire, ‘D’ for demon or dancer and moon dancer is another term used for werewolves. Misvaad is very fitting. I turned around and Storm appeared. He stood right in front of me with his arms crossed, “What are you doing here?” he asked.“Jett needed to shower and call your uncle.” I replied. '”What are you up to today?” I asked trying to make small talk.
“Can we talk?” he asked. I swallowed, I wondered if this was more bad news. He turned and walked into their formal living room, I sat in the wing back chair next to the couch. He planted himself on the coffee table across from me but then got up quickly, I let my eyes follow him cautiously. “Is everything alright?” I asked. There was a long pause.
“No Addie, I don't think it actually is.” Looking into his green eyes was like getting lost in a sea of water. They were solid and trusting, yet serious right now. “Addie, I think you have feelings for me.” Gulp! My eyes got big, I didn't know what to say. He came and knelt in front of me and put his hand on my knee. “I love you Addie and I think you know that I do. And I know you feel what I do every time we're in the same room.” He looked into my eyes; he was expecting me to say something.
I put my hand on his and after a moment I said softly “You're not wrong, but I love your brother and I'm with him.” He got up and sat on the edge of the coffee table and ran his hands through his silky sand colored hair and rested his face in his hands.
“What if what we feel isn’t real….. I break up with Jett and you find out you just wanted me because you couldn’t have me?” He stood up, “No, it’s not like that, I have never felt this way about anyone else before. Break up with him Addie, be with me, I love you.” He held his hand out for me to take, but I was glued to my chair.
“I can't Storm. I'm sorry, but I can't. Your brother and I are together and I'll stay with him until he doesn't want me anymore.”
“But Addie,” he said and turned around, started pacing a bit, his arms were crossed over his chest again. “I don't think he loves you like I do.”
I was trembling, I believed him, he turned his back to me. “So you don't think Jett loves me?” I asked. He turned his head just a bit “No he does, but...”
“Addie?” Jett called for me. Seeing the look of anguish on Storms face made me feel sick, he stormed out the front door.
“I'm in here!” My voice trembling, I cleared my throat.
“What are you doing in here? I thought I heard ‘tow head’.”
“Tow head?” I asked.
“Storm was born with very blonde hair, I mean it was white.”
“Storm used to be blonde? He and I were just...talking about school starting next week.” Jett's hair was wet and disheveled, I smiled at him.
“What did your uncle say?” “The Michigan police actually found Cale and followed him to the Indiana border. So they called the Indiana State police but they never found him.”
We had a long awkward pause, I walked over to him and helped him pull his shirt on, he pulled me in for a hug. “What else?” I asked.
“He had a passenger in the car.”
I fell asleep hard that night. When I woke startled at 3:17a.m. sitting straight up in my bed feeling a scream stuck in my throat, I had to look around and see where I was. My wolf had turned into a panther. “Shape shifters,” I said aloud. I finally got it; Cale and Jett needed blood to replenish their bodies. Since they needed blood they thought they were vampires, but they fought themselves from changing into one because they didn’t want to be monsters.
As soon as Cale gave up on the notion he was a vampire, which was after he stole my journals from Nic’s room and read about my wolf he started to believe he was a werewolf. So somewhere between him convincing himself he was a werewolf and my blood he can now change. But they’re not werewolves, they are part vampire and part shape shifters – Misvaads…
# # #
EPILOGUE Jett
I sat there and pondered for a while, but then reached for my flashlight in the nightstand to read Jett’s note which was under my pillow…. I know I have to read it even without his permission.
“I could feel every drop of water coming out of the spigot as though it were trying to pierce my skin, pelting me deliberately. Although the heat burrowed deep into me it felt great in the end. The bathroom filled with steam throughout and I couldn’t even see myself in the mirror which was fine; to hide my monstrous face from me was perfectly fine. I’m not sure how much longer I could take these episodes filled with horrible excruciating pain.”
“Every occurrence worsens leaving me battered and feeling defeated that there is no end. Knowing that every time, feeling like my body is burning from the inside out and every bone in my body starts to morph and crack. I don’t think I can keep this up. I especially don’t think I can take it if my body starts to change physically into a more monstrous form. If I were to ever scare away Addie or my family that would be it for me. I know then that I’d rather be dead than alive.”
“This world is more mysterious than I ever imagined. When Addie tells me about her dreams, even the ones she calls “silly,” I see them come true and I know there are things out there that can never be explained. I wonder if I’m the wolf that chases her thru the ravines. If I change into one will I change back, will I hurt Addie or my family? I’ve got to find out what parts of this folklore are true and not. I was scratched, not bitten and not killed, which tells me I’m NOT a vampire. I feel like I sound ridiculous thinking any of this could be true, but blood does revive me, it makes me feel like I have a new lease on life.”
“I went into my room and peered out the window at the silvery almost full moon and had to look away; its brightness burned my eyes. I looked back when the clouds covered it and admired the golden glow that encircled them. The clouds whipped past and then I got mad. I felt the pull from it as though the moon could have something to do with the change. The sky looked so ominous, the way the clouds shifted over the moon effortlessly taking away its shimmer for moments at a time. Is it a full moon tonight? I felt a pang in my chest and fell to my knees, but then it was gone. I have one more night to go.”
“Not that the moon is my only trigger. When I get upset it seems to initiate an onset and when I’m with Addie and I get… or we get involved… it
seems to trigger my illness; anything that heightens my emotions. If I cannot be with Addie in every sense of the word, I’m not sure she’ll want to be with me. I can’t seem to bring myself to tell her all these things and I always engage with her despite knowing the possible consequences. But after this last incident I hope I have the courage to not let it get that far next time. I need to confess everything to her, but I can never bring myself to do it.”
“Assuming Cale is still alive and he is looking for a cure, I will try and stay alive and find him to get the help I need. However, I cannot help but want to die every time the change starts. I wonder if he goes through the same thing I do. Does he sleep like the dead for a couple of hours after a transfusion or feeding? Does he have the insatiable hunger I feel and it worsens with each change? I have a lot of questions that need to be answered.”
“I’m afraid to tell Addie too many details. If she finds out I have actually been feeding off animals when blood transfusions are not available to keep this torture of mine manageable, will she understand? I’m afraid she’d never want to see me again, ever. I’m tortured everyday about what I should do, who I should tell or confide in, and I’m tormented by the fact that I could possibly hurt someone eventually and …. It’s exhausting. I have thought about ending my life but Addie seems to make me want to live and keeps me going, at least for now.”
“If I am a vampire like Addie thinks, I was infected by being scratched, I wasn’t killed or bitten or even fed vampires blood and I walk in the sun, eat food and garlic; maybe I’m not fully changed….or maybe those are all stories, myths….maybe I really do have some kind of illness. All I know is that Cale holds the answers for me so I need to find him soon to stop this insanity… my insanity.”
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