ReVamped

by Ada Adams

  As twelve o’clock neared, Brooke and Sophie got ready to leave.

  “I have to work at the library until later this afternoon,” Sophie explained.

  “And I have to go to cheer practice!” Brooke added. “It’s almost time for senior year again. We’re totally going to win nationals this year!”

  Almost immediately after the two girls had left, Seth appeared at the front door.

  Had they planned this? I wondered, slightly amused.

  Sweaty and frazzled, he was juggling a heavy video game console, four oddly-shaped controllers and an array of colorful video games in his arms. He raised one of his hands in greeting, forgetting about the disks. I caught the falling games in mid-air, chuckling at the gory shooting-game titles.

  “I thought you may be interested in playing some of my games,” Seth said, looking so awkward that I couldn’t help but invite him in.

  I poured him a glass of Blood Cola as he hooked up the game system to the television in the living room. Before I had a chance to take a seat beside him, another knock sounded against the heavy wooden door.

  This time, it was Hunter, holding up a case of Blood Beer. Seeing my disapproving look, he quickly explained, “Don’t worry Dawn, it’s not for me. I’ve been completely clean for over a month now. Seth and the girls have been very strict about keeping me on the straight and narrow.” He shoved the bottles into my arms. “I brought this for you.”

  I rolled my eyes. Did everyone assume alcohol was the solution to my problems?

  Hunter looked great; sobriety really suited him. His once long, ratty hair was cut short and brushed tidily behind his ears. His clothes were clean and neatly pressed, though he continued to display his personality through vibrant band tees. He noticed me looking at the logo across his chest.

  “Blood Vultures,” he said, pointing proudly at the shirt. “That was my band back in the day. We actually sounded pretty good.”

  “Interesting name,” I smiled, moving aside to let him in.

  Seth looked over at us from the couch. “Get your butts over here. I have this cool new game I’ve been dying to test out. You get to play musical instruments while killing zombies. I need back-up stat!"

  “Awesome!” Hunter exclaimed, rushing into the living room. Within seconds he had a guitar in his hand and was moving rhythmically to the beat of the music.

  I joined them on the couch taking on the role of the drummer. I wasn’t very musically inclined, but after a few rounds I loosened up and began to enjoy myself. The afternoon flew by and somehow, amidst chopping off zombie heads and creating new tunes, I started to feel better.

  “Don’t worry Dawn, things will work out,” Seth said cheerfully during a breather between levels.

  “I know. Zombies definitely don’t stand a chance against vampires armed with musical instruments,” I replied, laughing at the gory scene on the television.

  “No, I’m not talking about that,” he corrected. “I mean things with you and your dad will work out. I’m sure of it.”

  I pressed my lips together and looked away. I suddenly recalled why I had not wanted to see any of the team members in the first place. “Things are complicated,” I answered curtly.

  “Yes, but aren’t they always?” Seth asked, not allowing me to worm my way out of the conversation. “I just became a vampire less than two months ago. Do you know how complicated my life is? My parents are extremely strict and very religious. They’re the only people on earth not happy about the whole vampire fad.”

  “Have you come out of the coffin to them yet?” Hunter asked.

  Seth shook his head. “No, not yet. I’m trying to put it off for as long as possible. I have no idea what they’ll do when they find out,” he said, then brightened. “At least they aren’t complaining about the fact that I’m not eating much lately. My mom has been after me to lose weight since forever and she thinks I’m currently on a special garlic diet. She’s been very supportive in that regard.”

  “Well, we’re here for you buddy.” Hunter patted Seth across his back. The maneuver sent the large boy stumbling off the couch.

  Watching the two vampires interact, I felt a strange sense of pride. Less than a month ago, the vampire recruits couldn’t follow simple directions, let alone function successfully as a team. Now, they were counseling and supporting each other—and even me—in important matters of the heart. It was surprisingly moving.

  Just as we began another round of Music Zombie Mania, Ethan appeared at the door. I hadn’t seen him since the day of the big fight at Dixie Pharmaceuticals; the day I discovered the scientist responsible for manufacturing Vampiricol was his mother, Amelia. He looked exhausted, like he hadn’t slept in days. His face looked thinner, sunken in, and his left arm hung in a sling. I felt a sudden urge to run.

  “Hi,” he said quietly.

  “Hi,” I replied, equally softly.

  We stood in the doorway, staring at one another for what seemed like an eternity. Seth, sensing the awkwardness in the air, quickly packed up his game system and slid past me, muttering something about having to go to an appointment.

  “Come on, let’s go!” he called out to Hunter. “We’ll be late to that thing.”

  “What thing?” Hunter asked, still firmly planted on the couch.

  “That thing we have to go to!”

  Hunter stared back blankly. “I didn’t hear about any thing!”

  “Ugh! Just come. If you’re good, I may let you have a Blood Beer,” Seth promised.

  “Alright, alright I’m coming!” Hunter rushed past me, nodding at Ethan as he left.

  “Just kidding!” I could hear Seth say as they disappeared out of sight, leaving me alone with Ethan. My body tensed, my mind filling with questions that needed answers. Questions I didn’t dare ask. From my recent experience, answers only brought on more pain.

  Ethan broke the uncomfortable silence first. “I understand if you don’t want to see me, but I’d really like to talk to you. I need to explain a few things,” he said.

  His hazel eyes filled with anguish when I hesitated. “Please, Dawn,” he begged.

  There was too much that I had to know; too much that I needed to hear. I nodded silently, leading him into the living room. I cleared off some of the mess left behind by my previous visitors, shifting make-up, hairbrushes and video games off of the leather couches and placing them on the coffee table. When it was all clear, I motioned for Ethan to sit down. I sank into the couch opposite of him, wrapping my arms tightly around myself.

  “You look very nice,” he said.

  I suddenly remembered that I was still wearing Brooke’s lavender dress. “Thank you,” I replied. “But I don’t believe you came here to talk about that. Just like I don’t think you took us to Dixie Pharmaceuticals to rescue Hannah.”

  Ethan exhaled sharply, startled by the roughness of my words. “Please believe me when I tell you that rescuing Hannah was my genuine intention when I brought you to Dixie Pharmaceuticals.”

  “So, introducing me to your mother and the crazy vampire who tried to kill me was just a bonus? Were you working against us this whole time?” I asked, fighting tears. “Against me?” I added, trying to ignore the sea of betrayal I was drowning in.

  “No, of course not!” Ethan put his head in his hands and sighed again. “I can explain.”

  “You have one minute to do so,” I warned. “And don’t leave out any details. I’m tired of people lying to me.”

  Ethan looked up at me, a small flicker of hope flashing across his face. “Yes, of course. I’ll tell you everything,” he said, launching into his story. “Ever since I could remember, my mother had been a brilliant doctor. She was always working on the next new thing in the medical and pharmaceutical developments. She was even involved in cloning research back in the nineties, believe it or not! Of course, that never went anywhere, but she was one of the smartest women I knew,” Ethan said pensively.

  I scanned his face, searching for any signs
of dishonesty. His eyes were warm, earnest, and sincere. He had no idea that his mother had, in fact, succeed in cloning someone. Me.

  “Anyway, my mother often left me and my father behind to travel around for work. My father, being an old-fashioned bigot, resented her for that, and when I was six years old, he had an affair with a young woman from Louisiana.” Ethan looked off into the distance, subconsciously clenching his fists at the mention of his father.

  “The affair came as a shock to my mother, but she forgave him, blaming herself and her work for his indiscretion. She forced him to break up with his girlfriend, packed all of our stuff and moved us across the country to the most remote, mundane town she could find—Ashton. In a desperate attempt to appease my father and prevent him from cheating again, she quit her job, leaving her career behind to be a homemaker. My father, of course, had only ever used her career as an excuse for his behavior. Before long, he reverted to his old ways. He took up with yet another woman, then three or four more after that. After a couple of years, my mother finally came to her senses and kicked him out. She went back to work, and founded Dixie Pharmaceuticals. Her focus was on researching cures for rare diseases. She was once again full of life, filled with purpose.”

  The way Ethan described his mother made me think that the woman who had threatened me with a gun just a week earlier was not one and the same.

  Something must have gone horribly wrong for her to change so drastically, I realized.

  “As time went on, things got harder,” Ethan continued. “My mother’s career was not the same as it had once been. Research was expensive and we had very little money. Regardless, we both worked hard. I put off going to college so I could work odd jobs around town and make money to fund her work. She relied on me and we became closer than ever. I was the man of the house, and there was nothing I wouldn’t do for her.”

  “However, three years ago, when vampires came out into the public eye, my mom changed. Suddenly, she was moodier, busier, and more secretive. She made it very clear that she had a strong hatred for vampires. It was then that I learned that all of the women my father had cheated with were, in fact, vampires. Apparently, he had a fascination with ladies of the night.”

  I shot him a stern glare, causing his face to flood with humiliation. “Oh, Dawn. I’m so sorry. My mom used to call them that. It just came out. I didn’t mean—”

  “It’s fine. Go on,” I urged, more concerned with hearing the rest of his story than with discussing his mother’s distasteful sense of humor.

  “She drilled into my head that vampires were evil. Selfish. Wrong. And I began to believe it.” He said, shifting around on the couch uncomfortably. “Her career goals moved away from helping sick humans and began to center around destroying vampires. She wanted to create a drug that would allow humans to possess the same powers as vampires—a drug that could make any regular human strong, fast, powerful, without the negative consequence of actually being dead.”

  Again, I glared at him. “Negative consequence of being dead?”

  “I’m sorry. I swear, I don’t actually think that way,” he apologized. “I’m just trying to keep the story as close to my mother’s delusional rationalizations as possible.”

  I nodded for him to go on.

  “My mother spent an entire year working on developing a prototype for this miracle potion.” Ethan said, placing air quotations around the word miracle. “She called it Vampiricol. Just as she was trying to figure out how to create a product out of the prototype, a vampire who had been following her previous work on cloning sought her out with a proposal. This guy, Viktor, offered to supply her with his following of vampire lab rats, if she agreed to cut him in on a percentage of all future Vampiricol sales. Despite her hatred for vampires, she was desperate for the blood and the money Viktor had promised, so decided to team up with the man. Hence, BloodCorp was born.”

  “My mother and Viktor worked on their secret project under the cover of Dixie Pharmaceuticals. For a while, the new company was doing well and their partnership was strong. After a few experimental trials, Vampiricol was a success. However, since the drug was not yet approved by the FDA, they were not making any income. Viktor became impatient and took over control of all the product created by the company. He arranged for illegal sales of the drug, but since he needed my mother to keep making the substance, he allowed her to continue her endeavor to bring Vampiricol into the mass market. She was running into many obstacles, and Viktor’s goons were proving rather unreliable.”

  The whole story sounded like a bad plot of a sci-fi film, I thought glumly. Unfortunately, it had a lot more to do with reality than I liked to admit.

  “Just as her latest proposal was turned down by the government, Viktor told my mom that he had learned about a Born vampire that was coming to a nearby town on a mission. He convinced my mother that the powerful blood of a Born would be a perfect catalyst for the mainstream success of Vampiricol. She asked me to go to Angel Creek to investigate this mysterious vampire. I used my previous experience as a bartender in Ashton to get a job at the Angel Creek Diner and waited for this special girl to show up. That vampire was, of course, you.”

  The questions that I had posed while sitting at the diner on my first day in Angel Creek was finally answered. Ethan had know that I was a vampire.

  “Then I met you, and everything changed,” Ethan said, taking in a long breath. “Right away, I could tell that you were special. Not in the same way my mother considered you to be special, of course. She was only interested in your blood. I, on the other hand, wanted to get to know Dawn—the fascinating, funny, strong girl. Despite the fact that my mother had brainwashed me to dislike the vampire race, I couldn’t help but like you.”

  “I wanted to get to know you, to learn all about you. My mother, unfortunately, had a similar goal. She was relentless. She called me every day, asking for news about you. I didn’t give her anything, of course. Not that I had much to go on. It drove me crazy when you disappeared for almost an entire week to train. I kept driving around, trying to find where you were staying.” He gazed down at the floor, his cheeks turning bright red.

  “About a week after your arrival, my mother came to the diner at Angel Creek to try to look for you herself. Again, I kept quiet. Even if I had known where you were staying, I would never have betrayed the location. I felt the need to protect you from BloodCorp. I got it in my head that I would do so by always sticking by your side. But I knew that I wasn’t strong enough to save you from Viktor and his rogue vamps…” He trailed off, looking at me sheepishly.

  “So you took that Vampiricol pill,” I guessed.

  “Yes. I could never have predicted the extreme effect that the drug would have on my body. I felt so guilty for taking it; I couldn’t tell you why I had all that power and strength. Nevertheless, I’m glad that I did what I did that day, because I was able to save you from getting hurt,” he said, the corners of his lips forming into a small smile.

  “Dawn, you have to believe when I tell you that, from the moment I met you, it was never about my mom’s mission,” Ethan’s insisted. “I was sincere when I asked to spend time with you and train with the team. My only motive was to get close to you and make sure that you were safe. I now know that I should’ve been more honest and upfront about everything. I thought that if I refused to cooperate with my mom, she would eventually forget about you and focus on other ways to improve Vampiricol. Unfortunately, I was wrong. She went back to the diner one day while I was here training with the team and got to Hannah. You know how chatty Hannah could be. She innocently told my mother all about you, the other vampires, the mission—even about her own sick mother and baby sister.”

  My thoughts flashed back to the day Hannah had stabbed me with the poison. They said they would hurt my mom and sister, she had cried.

  “I imagine that’s when Viktor got the idea to involve the werewolves and ambush us in the forest near the BloodCorp base,” Ethan explained. “He wanted
you, of course, but when Sebastian interfered, the rogue vamps only managed to kidnap Hannah. That evening, I told you the story about getting Vampiricol from a friend and rushed over to Dixie Pharmaceuticals to beg my mom to stop the nonsense. By kidnapping Hannah, she had gone too far. But instead of listening to me, she snapped. She yelled me about betraying her for a vampire just like my father had—told me she wanted nothing to do with me. Despite it all, I tried to singlehandedly save Hannah, but was nearly beaten to death and kicked out of the building by Viktor and the rogues.”

  Yes,” I said, remembering, “When I saw you the next day, you weren’t really acting like your usual self.”

  “I was so conflicted, Dawn. I knew that telling you about BloodCorp would not only be dangerous, but would most likely cause you to hate me,” Ethan groaned. “At the same time, since I knew where Hannah was being kept, it was my duty as a friend to do everything in my power to save her. Once again, this is where things went awry. I had hoped that we would be able to go in and out, undetected by my mother. I dreamed that you would never have to learn the whole truth. I now know that was stupid, but I honestly thought I was doing the right thing.”

  The burden of retelling the story had caused Ethan to regress into a child-like state, mechanically rocking back-and-forth in his seat. Just as suddenly as the condition had overcome him, he snapped out of it and straightened up.

  “When my mom confronted us and said all those awful things to you, for the first time in all these years, I saw just how misguided her mission was. She had completely lost all sense of morality, allowing her hatred for my father and his vampire mistresses—to corrupt her. There was no doubt in my mind that she was going to try to hurt you. Instead, when I told you to run, she shot at me. Hence this.” He raised his bandaged arm, wincing slightly at the pain the movement had caused.