Blood Heavy (Blood Heavy Series)

by S. L. J. Shortt

  “You owe me a bottle of scotch,” he said, before leaving as well.

  Jerry’s jeans, shirt and belt looked like they’d been chewed on by a lion. Luckily, his boxers were intact and he reached over to grab them. Just underneath them was Cass’s black lace bra. He bashfully picked it up and handed it to her. She snatched it out of his hand with a hiss.

  She was not happy.

  After finding some intact clothes, Jerry exited his room to find Claire and Joe sitting in the kitchen waiting for him. His head had started to ache. His blood may have been able to fight off any disease, but it didn’t seem to help much with a hangover. Cass came out a few seconds later.

  “Okay,” Jerry sighed. “Gimmi your best shot...”

  “What the hell were you thinking?!”

  “Why didn’t you stop her?!”

  “What if she’d bitten you?!”

  “Are you insane?!”

  Joe and Claire’s angry questions came at the same time and the yelling felt like a sledgehammer to his skull.

  “Okay, okay, alright! My brain hurts,” he shouted, while rubbing his temples. “Can we be real about this? I’m pretty sure I’m not the first guy to get drunk and sleep with someone they shouldn’t have.”

  “No, but you’re one of the rare few that has screwed a vampire that is just itching to bite you!” Claire yelled.

  “Suck it bitch, I didn’t bite him!” Cass roared. “And don’t you dare pretend that you don’t wanna bury your fangs into him too!”

  “No, you’re right; I do!” Jerry’s eyebrows shot up at hearing that. “But I don’t, I hold back!”

  “So did I!”

  “Hey, enough!” Jerry shouted. “Alright...I’m sorry I inadvertently drugged you, but you weren’t exactly complaining last night. And I know you guys don’t like what happened but you know what, it did me some good.”

  “What?” Joe blurted out, looking at him like he was crazy.

  “I’m - I’m better now,” Jerry said, trying to find the right way to say it.

  “Better? Because you boned my sister?” Claire yelled indignantly. Cass took a step towards her, looking vicious.

  “Not because of the sex!” he shot back instantly. He turned to Cass. “Because of what you said to me last night...because you made me understand.”

  He wasn’t lying. Her words had got through to him, but he’d been too drunk to appreciate them at the time. He was thinking of them now, though, and they were ringing true. He felt more alive and ready for the fight than ever before. He was willing to take on all of the nasty, blood soaked monsters that he had to, in order to protect the people he loved.

  “I’m pretty sure that you all knew I was lying about my ‘being okay’. Well, now I am okay.”

  “Well, I know I’m good, but -” Cass chuckled in vanity, but she was cut off.

  “It wasn’t the sex! Although that was pretty damn good,” he had to admit with a smirk. “But what you said, about dealing with it, or getting killed...it was just the bitch slap of reality that I needed. So I’m gonna go school, I’m gonna have two, maybe three lunches, cos’ I’m freakin’ starving and then, when I get back, we’re gonna hunt down and kill these evil sons-a-bitches, cos’ I’m tired of being the bull’s eye. I’m tired of being afraid for my family. We kill them all!”

  “Whoa, wait a second. You wanna go gunning for them?” Joe huffed.

  “You’re damn skippy! I’m not waiting for them to find us; I’m gonna hit them before they can hit us.”

  “Jerry, they’ve got a pureblood leading them. She’d rip you limb from limb before you could even get a shot off.” Clair warned.

  “I’d like to see her try,” Jerry said in all seriousness. He was acting way too gung-ho to be lying. Even Joe believed him.

  “Whoa, you even think about going Schwarzenegger on these bastards and I’ll cuff you to a radiator!” Claire threatened.

  “I can pick handcuffs,” Jerry smirked.

  Claire turned to Joe to see if that were true and his expression said it all. He’d clearly let something slip to his nephew that he now regretted.

  “Fine, I’ll just break your legs instead!”

  “Okay, can’t pick those...” Jerry said, looking worried.

  “No, you can’t!” Claire hissed. “Cass, what the hell did you do to him?!”

  “Me? I’m the victim here!”

  “Yes, the superhuman vampire that almost raped me is the victim,” Jerry snorted.

  Cass looked ready to punch him.

  “I think she means that ‘feedback’ thingy...can that happen during sex?” Joe asked, cringing slightly. This was his nephew they were talking about.

  “I’ve never heard of it happening through sex. The vampire doesn’t consume living blood during sex, so I don’t think the feedback loop can happen,” Claire said straight away.

  “Exactly, this is all me,” Jerry pronounced.

  “Then I’m defiantly breaking your legs!”

  “Save it for the enemy, we got work to do,” Jerry shot back.

  “Don’t even think about it!” Joe shouted.

  “I’m sorry; I thought you were all up in arms about Sophinia’s first strike plan.”

  “Yeah, for them; not for you! This ain’t your job, boy!”

  “No, it’s not, it’s ours! Your job is to survive!” Claire agreed.

  “Best defense is a good offense,” he shrugged.

  “Don’t be ridiculous! Black Forest has fifty, maybe sixty or more vampires under their belt. You gonna take them all on?”

  “Bring it!”

  “What the hell is wrong with you? You get laid and suddenly you think you’re Robo-Jerry?”

  “No, I think I’m fish in a barrel unless I take the fight to them first!” he spoke like a general. “What am I gonna do, spend the rest of my life going to school in the day then staying locked up in this house during the night? These bastards are never going to stop coming for me, so I say we make our stand. I can either get caught with my pants down, or go at them with everything I got!”

  “You’ve already been caught with your pants down,” Claire huffed.

  “Oh, real mature, sis,” Cass scathed.

  “He’s just a kid!”

  “And what age qualifies you for this shit?” Jerry asked mockingly, “Oh, I forgot, there isn’t one! It jumps into your life and you either deal with it, or you don’t, that’s how it is! Well, I’m dealing with it. You think I’m stupid enough to think that everything is gonna turn out all good? Let’s not be freakin’ morons about this. Worst case scenario, I get ripped apart; boohoo! At least they don’t get their super weapon. Flip side, we kill every last one of those sons-a-bitches and buy ourselves a little longer on this Earth,” Jerry yelled. There was a strange new strength coursing through him and it wasn’t because of his blood. It was because he’d finally accepted what was happening to him and he was ready to go the distance.

  “The ripped apart bit is right! Just because Joe has shown you a few tricks, doesn’t mean that you are ready to take on an army of vampires,” Claire said.

  “I’m never going to be ready. But that don’t mean it ain’t gonna happen,” he shot back. “I get it; you guys are strong and fast and all that crap, but you got humans out there hunting down and killing monsters right now, so that means we aren’t defenseless. If they can do it, I can do it!”

  “Eddie and the others have at least ten years’ experience with this stuff. You’ve known about it for three weeks!”

  “Yeah, and we’ve got a freakin’ arsenal in this house. Look, I’m not saying I wanna drive the bus on this thing, but I’m not taking a siesta when it all goes down either.”

  “That’s exactly what you’re going to do. This isn’t your job, it’s ours!” Claire barked.

  “No, it’s not my job, but it is my problem!”

  “Wrong again, it’s our problem! I’m not going to let you -”

  “Let me? Who the hell do you think you are?
!” he said, squaring up to her, “you’re not my mother! You don’t get to tell me jack!”

  “I’m trying to protect you!”

  “Really, because all you’ve done so far is stay at my place bitchin’ and moaning!”

  A low growl slipped out from Claire’s mouth and she sent a violent, burning look towards him.

  “Mind your tone with me, boy!”

  “No, you mind your damn tone with me, bitch!”

  Even Cass was surprised by Jerry’s attitude. He was really serious about this, and Claire was getting more and more pissed by the second.

  “Whoa, easy guys,” Joe said, getting between the two. “Aren’t we supposed to be lecturing my nephew about having sex with your sister?” he had to bring that up again. “You did use protection, right?”

  “Yeah, I had my gun,” Jerry snorted.

  “No, you didn’t,” Cass sniggered.

  “I could have gotten one, if you weren’t power humping me at the time. Seriously, my pelvis feels like it’s been through a freakin’ car crusher,” he said rubbing his hip.

  “Whoa! Too much information!” Joe yelped and put his hands over his ears. Cass actually looked proud of herself.

  “My bad. We’ll talk about this later - I’m starving and I’m late for school. When I get back, you guys better be ready to go to war, because that’s where I’m going!” he declared before grabbing his bag and storming out the door.

  His words had left them all a little stunned.

  But they weren’t the only ones. Goose, Sarah and Steve sat in silence with confused looks on their faces while Jerry shoved his second sandwich down his throat and took a drink straight after. He was eating like a pig, which was strange considering he had barely touched food in the last week or so.

  “Dude, slow down, I’m getting angina just looking at you,” Goose said.

  “I’m starving. Feels like I haven’t eaten in days,” he said, still chewing.

  “You haven’t,” Sarah reminded him.

  “Well, there you go.”

  “What’s with the sudden food binge?” Steve asked.

  “Recharging the batteries. An army marches on its stomach,” he chimed.

  “Since when are you signing up?”

  “Since I realized that I’m already at war,” Jerry shrugged.

  “You’re a target, you’re not at war,” Steve chuckled, thinking that Jerry was joking.

  “Yeah, I am and I’m hitting Defcon One. I’m goin’ after Selena,” he said without a flinch.

  “What?!” all three of them yelled.

  “I ain’t waiting around for her to find me. I’m gonna hunt the bitch down and give her a caesarean with her own wings.”

  He was serious and that was bad.

  “Okay, Jerry, your whole ‘I’m okay’ dance was worrying, but this is scaring me!” Goose said seriously.

  “You’re not the only one; we’re your friends, Jerry,” Sarah said with fear in her voice. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “Nothing’s wrong. I mean, it was, but I’m fine now. In fact, I’m better than fine...I’m ready.”

  “Ready for what?”

  “Ready to take the fight to them. If we aren’t hunting them, they’re hunting us, and I ain’t Bambi’s mom. I’m gonna kill her.”

  “You can’t be serious!” Sarah shrieked, getting the attention of several of the other kids in the lunch hall.

  “Deadly serious. This is Hotel Supernatural, baby; you check in but you don’t check out. If I’m staying, I want the biggest goddamn ‘do not disturb’ sign on my door as I can get, and I can get that by icing me a pureblood. I mean, those guys are practically top of the food chain, right? Ain’t much out there that can mess with a winged vamp. I kill one of them; everything else will know I mean business.”

  They couldn’t believe what he was saying. He had well and truly lost his mind.

  “You can’t kill one! They’re top of the chain for a reason!” Sarah screeched.

  “I got a twelve gauge and a give em hell attitude that says different.”

  “Dude, I know you ain’t the type to shy away from a fight, but you sure as shit ain’t suicidal!” Goose said, managing to keep his voice down. “What the hell has happened to you?”

  Jerry sighed but did so with a small grin on his face.

  “Well, you’re probably gonna hear this from someone else, so what the hell...I got turbo screwed by the truth last night.”

  “Huh?”

  “Please tell me that is a metaphor,” Sarah said, shaking her head.

  “Err...half and half. Cass gave me some hard truths and it sobered me up...then we had sex.”

  They all looked at him like his eyeballs had just fallen out.

  “Say that again please...” Steve finally managed to choke out.

  “Me and Cass...had sex,” he couldn’t keep the smirk off his face.

  “You what?!” Sarah screamed at the top of her lungs causing everyone in the lunch hall to stop and look at her. “You slept with Cassandra?!”

  Several of the boys and girls in the lunch hall giggled and another few started clapping. Jerry gave them a little thumbs up and a wink. Straight after, most of the others started whispering to each other about who this ‘Cassandra’ was. None of them had a clue that she was a vampire, which Jerry found hilarious. That vanished when he saw Sarah’s face.

  “How are you still in one piece?” Steve had to ask.

  “She was surprisingly tame,” Jerry shrugged.

  “Really?”

  “No, she practically screwed me through the floorboards,” he admitted, still sore.

  “So much for your ‘no necrophilia’ thing,” Goose tutted.

  “Diet-necrophilia,” he corrected, “and I was drunk, and besides, it was a one off. It’s never gonna happen again.”

  “I’m sorry, but how the hell did it happen in the first place?” Sarah demanded.

  “Oh, my saliva.”

  “Gross, and what?”

  “My smell gets vamps aroused; my saliva does the same but at about fifty times the strength. She drank out of my glass and then quite literally decided to rip my clothes off.”

  “Okay...am I the only one that thinks this can’t just be okay?” Sarah hissed.

  “What? I didn’t wanna die a virgin,” Jerry said innocently.

  “Wait, so this ‘go juice’ isn’t just in your blood?” Goose asked.

  “Apparently not. It’s in everything, sweat, tears, bone marrow and so on.”

  “Holy crap!” Goose went wide eyed. “Dude, what if you knocked her up?!”

  “What? That’s impossible, her equipment’s in sleep mode remember?”

  “Yeah, and what if your supercharged blood affects your...swimmers?”

  Jerry’s face suddenly dropped. He looked down at his own crotch and then back at Goose. What if he was right? He could have sworn that her body had been as warm as a humans and that her heart actually started beating at one point. What if he’d brought her reproductive organs back to life? Human blood could do it, so his definitely could.

  “Oh shit!” he blurted. “That would explain why she almost broke my spine when I -”

  “Do not finish that sentence!” Sarah yelled, before he could.

  “Oh, my God! I’ve created a mutant baby!”

  “Calm down dude. You don’t know for sure.”

  “But, my blood, it makes them super powered! It’s bound to recharge her junk too!”

  “Just take it easy. Did her eyes start glowing red when you two were...you know,” Steve asked.

  “Err, she had them closed most of the time, but I don’t think so. She didn’t get any stronger either, otherwise she would have snapped me like a twig,” he said trying not to hyperventilate.

  “Saliva is very different from blood, so are tears and sweat. Obviously, you have different effects on vamps, depending on the source. Your blood boosts them, but too much of it would kill them, right?” Steve said thinking l
ogically.

  “Right.”

  “Well, unless she bit you, her body wouldn’t have been all uber-vamp and so there’s no way she could get pregnant,” he said, trying to calm him.