Mom nods. “I can’t believe I’m condoning lying like this, but yes. That’s ideal. Nothing for the police to care about.”
Wow. The world really is broken. My parents are not only giving me permission to lie, they’re telling me to.
28
The Velocity of Kittens in Space-Time
I dive into the brains of the three catatonic boys, replacing the entire abduction event with a relatively boring memory of being stuck home feeling sick with a mild cold-like disease. No need to make it overly miserable. Again, I let Sam keep the truth without gore.
Mom walks back in with a small, grey kitten sitting in her hand. “Sophia. What is this?”
“Umm. That’s Klepto. She’s mine.”
“Mew,” says Klepto.
“When did I say you could have a pet?” asks Mom in a stern tone.
Panicked, Sophia whines, “But Mom! Sam has a demon! You can let me have a cat.”
“What!?” shrieks Mom.
“Eep. Oops.” Sophia shrinks in on herself. “I mean frogs.”
“No way, young lady. Back up. What did you mean about demons?”
Sophia faces me. “Sarah! Help!”
“Blix isn’t a demon. He’s a daemon,” says Sam. “And he’s not a pet. He’s a friend.”
“What the heck is a Blix!” shouts Mom.
“Mew,” says Klepto, licking her paw.
The imp pokes his head out from under the bed and flashes a toothy smile at the ’rents. His droopy ears do kind of make him look cute in a gargoyle sort of way.
Dad edges back toward the door. “Don’t make any sudden moves. I’ll be right back with the weed eater.”
“No, he’s cool.” Sam waves Blix over to sit beside him. “Don’t hurt him. Please?”
Mom blows up yelling at Sophia for sneaking a cat into the house without asking permission and Sam for keeping an imp. Sierra screams that if Sophia and Sam can have pets, it’s not fair she can’t get a dog. Sam—not screaming—grumbles at Sophia for telling the ’rents about Blix.
Dad holds his hands up like a traffic cop saying, “Guys! Guys! Guys!” but no one gets quieter or stops arguing. Sierra moves on to screaming about stupid frogs in the stupid bathtub and how much cuter dogs are than frogs. Sophia merely stands there crying and begging to keep the kitten while Mom yells at her.
Finally, the guilt and noise build up too much for her and Sophia lets out this glass-shattering high-pitched shrieking scream. An eruption of brilliant white-purple light blobs sprays out of her and hangs in midair like a hologram of a radial tie-dye shirt centered on her. By the time her lungs run out of air and she opens her eyes again, the room has gone quiet. Everyone except for me, Blix, and Klepto appear to be frozen in time.
“Whoa… what the heck?” I gaze around at the odd glowing blobs everywhere.
“Mew?” Klepto licks her paw.
“Wow,” whispers Sophia. “It worked.”
“What did you do?”
Sophia runs to me and grabs my hand. “Please make Mom okay with me keeping Klepto!”
“You know I won’t use my abilities on you guys like that. This includes the parents. Especially the parents.”
“But you’re an immortal.” She bites her lip. “Just this once. Please?” She sniffles. “I can’t lose Klepto! I love her!”
The tiny kitten purrs and weaves around Sophia’s ankles, rubbing.
“I might be an immortal, but I’m still their daughter. Having the ability to make people do what I want them to do doesn’t change that as long as I’m still under their roof, I need to follow their rules.”
“Aww.” She looks down. “Please?”
“Wait… why did you name the kitten Klepto?”
“Because she steals stuff. All the things that keep going missing in the house? I found out it was her. She’s stashed them all under my bed where she nests.”
I exhale in relief. At least one thing going wrong here had an innocent explanation. “Okay. No problem. Look, you’re going to have to talk it out with her, but I’ll help.”
“Okay,” says Sophia to the floor.
“Oh, one more thing.” I poke a finger into her forehead. “You shouldn’t disrupt the space-time continuum over a kitten. That’s probably going to end up pissing something off.”
She almost smiles. “I didn’t. I interrupted it to stop a huge argument. I hate it when we fight. We used to argue all the time before Scott stabbed you. We’re not supposed to yell at each other. I hate it. Families shouldn’t scream at each other like that.”
Sophia starts crying, so I hug her until she calms down a minute or two later. “It’s okay. Just… undo whatever this is before one of those big powerful guardians of the time flow or whatever come knocking.”
“Okay.”
“Did you freeze the entire universe or just this room?”
“Umm. Just this room probably. I don’t have that much power.” She closes her eyes in concentration. The past few minutes rewind rapidly right before my eyes, slowing as Mom walks backward out of the room with her empty hand positioned as if holding Klepto.
The kitten, sensing obligation, teleports from the floor by Sophia’s feet to Mom’s hand.
Oh, crap. She’s rewinding time. “Umm. One more thing. Don’t say anything about Blix being here, okay? He’s friendly, Mom and Dad do not trust imps, and Sam would be heartbroken if he had to go away.”
Sophia, concentrating too much to speak, nods once.
As soon as Mom’s out in the hall, the weird lights disappear.
Time resumes.
Mom walks in with the kitten in her hand. “Sophia. What is this?”
“Umm, you know how I’m getting magic training?” asks Sophia in a timid voice. “That’s Klepto. She’s part of my magic training. I’m still not sure if she’s a real cat since I kinda made her out of powdered mushrooms.”
Mom’s facial expression would be perfect if a random stranger walked up and slapped her across the face with a slab of raw salmon then ran off skipping and singing to himself while farting rainbows.
“Mew,” says Klepto.
Dad glances sideways at a lingering fragment of pink-purple light. It fizzles away almost as soon as he looks directly at it.
“So this isn’t a kitten despite looking and acting like a kitten?” asks Mom.
Sophia grinds her toes into the rug, trying to look adorable. “I’m still trying to figure that out. Most people who can do magic have special pets. She’s important. I promise I’ll keep her out of your way.”
Klepto disappears from Mom’s hand, reappearing on her shoulder, then rubs her head against Mom’s cheek. “Mew.”
“That cat just teleported,” says Dad.
“Only two feet. Not that impressive as teleportation goes,” says Sam.
I bury my face in one hand. Stay calm. Don’t get upset. Don’t freak out. This is what I wanted. Staying home. My family might be growing weirder by the month, but they’re awesome. And holy crap! My kid sister just rewound effing time.
Wow… I really feel sorry for her future boyfriend. He is never going to win any arguments.
29
Playing Catch-up
Monday evening after my English lit class is over, I head across the building and downstairs to Professor Heath’s office. Calculus problems are still dancing around in my head from the night before when I marathonned that massive amount of homework. He doesn’t have class on Mondays, but he’s available to talk to students. The guy literally lives on campus since he’s another vampire.
Problem there is that I can’t simply make him believe I didn’t miss his class last Thursday.
Of course, the upside is that I can explain the actual truth.
I knock on the doorjamb.
“Enter,” says Professor Heath in an overacted grand tone.
When I poke my head in, he waves me closer. I step in, shut the door behind me, and flop in the chair near the desk. “So, about last Thursday.”
“No. A gang of anarchist vampires from Los Angeles kidnapped my little brother.” I explain what happened, though leave out the magic and mirror stuff, crossing my fingers that he won’t ask about that. “So, I was hoping you’d be okay with excusing the absence and giving me whatever catch-up work I need.”
“That’s not a problem.” He smiles in a grandfatherly way. “Making accommodations for students with unique needs is nothing new. Your needs are merely a little more unique than most. But I understand.”
“Whew.”
“How did you fare with your instructors for the Friday classes you missed?”
I fidget, a little uneasy admitting to another teacher that I mind-controlled his peers. Then again, he’s a vampire so he’ll understand. I hope. Can he report me to the administration for that? Is mental domination of a professor against the student code? “Umm. Already spoke to Professor Garcia and Dr. Mercer. They gave me the make-up assignments and think I had a family emergency.”
“Technically, you did have a family emergency.” Professor Heath smiles.
“Yeah, well… they believe my father put himself in the emergency room over a mishap with a power tool.”
He laughs. “I take it that’s not beyond the realm of possibility?”
“Mom doesn’t let him play with anything too dangerous.” I grin.
“Anyway…” He shakes his finger at me. “Naughty. You shouldn’t mind control your professors like that. We wouldn’t, err, want to threaten the sanctity of higher education or anything.” His serious expression lasts for a few seconds before he starts laughing.
Relieved, I crack up, too. “Ugh… I hate vampire politics.”
“So do I. Why do you think I’m here?” He winks and leans back again in his chair. “Someday, you’ll come to realize there are two types of vampires. The type who adore the politicking, and the ones who spend the rest of their immortality wishing they’d remained mortal.” He ponders for a moment, then smiles. “I suppose there’s also a third kind. People like you and I who don’t mind what we are so much and keep mostly to ourselves.”
“Yeah. What about the Lost Ones? They keep to themselves, right?”
He chuckles. “Oh, they still have politics. Merely their own set of rules. They call themselves free spirits and anarchists, but they’re not. They only object to the Old Guard’s idea of how to run a vampire society.”
“I think Dalton’s pretty independent.”
“Sure, not everyone within a given group is a perfect example of that group. After all, some college students are capable of independent thought.”
I laugh.
“Speaking of immortality, how are you holding up?”
“Fine.” I draw in a big, useless breath, and grin. “Better than fine, actually. Maybe even happy. Can’t say I’d have made the choice to become a vampire if I had been given the option in the absence of being murdered, but turns out, this is pretty damn cool.”
“That’s good to hear. You know I’m available if you ever need an ear to listen or want advice.” He glances at his wristwatch. “At least I will be here for another decade or so before migrating to a new school.”
Thoughts roll around in my head for a moment before aligning to one concrete truth: I am genuinely happy despite everything that’s going on. “Cool. I’ll keep that in mind. Really, I’m pretty content, even with the bumpy parts. Though…”
He raises an eyebrow. “Hmm?”
I smile. “Things are surely getting strange lately.”
Professor Heath laughs. “Indeed. Most people in the world live on the very outer surface of existence. They have a limited view of reality and are satisfied to cling to that reality, disregarding everything that conflicts with it.”
“Are you talking about politics or religion?” I ask.
He chuckles. “Oh, no. We’d be here for years. I’m referring to the reality that you’re coming to know. Vampires, caves that lead to other dimensions, trolls even. Our reality is but one of an uncountable number of possible realities. And even within the boundaries of our dimension, there are vast amounts of truths that few among the living are capable of accepting.”
“Next you’re going to tell me that faeries are real.”
He wags his eyebrows.
“Seriously?” I stare. “Ugh. Please don’t let Sophia find that out.”
“What about unicorns?”
Professor Heath whistles innocently. “Depending on where you look, perhaps.”
“Dragons?”
He nods once. “But they’re no longer in this physical reality. You’d have to go through a doorway to find one.”
“Wow… What about a second season of Firefly?”
He raises his hands. “Hey, now. Don’t get crazy. The universe does have limitations.”
I sigh. “Darn. Oh well. I should get going, got some stuff to do.”
“School work?”
“That, too… but I need to hunt down some parents and change their perception of reality.”
“All right. Don’t do anything a twenty-year-old version of me wouldn’t do.”
I pause halfway to the door and glance back at the Grateful Dead and Led Zeppelin posters on his office wall. “That will require making certain assumptions.”
“So does life. Or unlife, as the case may be.”
“Heh. True. Good night, professor.”
He waves.
I head out down the hall toward the stairs. Yeah, my life has truly taken a turn for the weird. But, honestly, except for dialing down the danger to my family, I really wouldn’t change anything about it.
Sunlight is totally overrated.
fin
Acknowledgments
Thank you for reading the seventh book in the Vampire Innocent series. Sarah’s story will continue soon.
Additional thanks to Lee Sheridan for editing and Alexandria Thompson for the cover and interior artwork.
About the Author
Originally from South Amboy NJ, Matthew has been creating science fiction and fantasy worlds for most of his reasoning life. Since 1996, he has developed the “Divergent Fates” world, in which Division Zero, Virtual Immortality, The Awakened Series, The Harmony Paradox, and the Daughter of Mars series take place. Along with being an editor at Curiosity Quills press, he has worked in IT and technical support.
Matthew is an avid gamer, a recovered WoW addict, Gamemaster for two custom RPG systems, and a fan of anime, British humour, and intellectual science fiction that questions the nature of reality, life, and what happens after it.
He is also fond of cats.
Visit me online at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MatthewSCoxAuthor
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/mscox
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/matthewcox10420/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7712730.Matthew_S_Cox
Email: [email protected]
Other books by Matthew S. Cox
Divergent Fates Universe Novels
Division Zero series
Division Zero
Lex De Mortuis
Thrall
Guardian
Harbinger
The Awakened series
Prophet of the Badlands
Archon’s Queen
Grey Ronin
Daughter of Ash
Zero Rogue
Angel Descended
Daughter of Mars series
The Hand of Raziel
Araphel
Ghost Black
Virtual Immortality series
Virtual Immortality
The Harmony Paradox
Prophet of the Badlands Series
Prophet’s Journey
Divergent Fates Anthology
(Fiction Novels - Adult)
The Roadhouse Chronicles Series
One More Run
The Redeemed
Dead Man’s Number
Faded Skies series
Heir Ascendant
Ascendant Unrest
Ascendant Revolution
Temporal Armistice Series
Nascent Shadow
The Shadow Collector
The Gate to Oblivion
Vampire Innocent series
A Nighttime of Forever
A Beginner’s Guide to Fangs
The Artist of Ruin
The Last Family Road Trip
The Phantom Oracle
How Not to Summon Demons
Ordinary Problems of a College Vampire
Standalones
Wayfarer: AV494
Axillon99
Chiaroscuro: The Mouse and the Candle
The Spirits of Six Minstrel Run
Sophie’s Light
The Far Side of Promise anthology
Operation: Chimera (with Tony Healey)
The Dysfunctional Conspiracy (with Christopher Veltmann)
Winter Solstice series (with J.R. Rain)
Convergence
Containment
Catalyst
Alexis Silver series (with J.R. Rain)
Silver Light
Deep Silver
Silver Quarrel
Ordinary Problems of a College Vampire (Vampire Innocent Book 7) Page 30