by David Lubar
He was ahead of me, less than a block away now. At first, he didn’t even notice what was hurtling toward him. He was just leaving the park.
“Hey, doggie,” Lud said when he finally looked in my direction.
I growled.
“Nice doggie?” Lud’s voice grew cautious as I rushed closer.
I leaped, hitting him in the chest, knocking him down. He rolled to his knees. I stood, growling, waiting for him to flee. He would run and I would let him run. But I’d circle him and be waiting. Wherever he ran, I would be there ahead of him. I would be his nightmare.
Run, I thought, quivering in eagerness, holding back until he made his move.
He started to cry.
I growled again and moved a step closer. He dropped to the ground, curled into a ball, and wrapped his arms around his head. His body shook as he sobbed.
Another instant, and I knew I would tear into him. Every instinct was pushing me to attack him. But one tiny human spark inside me held me back. I turned and ran through the night. I raced the streets as a wolf. My path brought me to where I’d been headed before I heard Lud’s footsteps. When I saw my home, I returned to human shape.
It would be so easy to melt into the night.
The thoughts were strong. I stood outside my house, seeing a place that was all I knew and yet so different, so strange.
Finally, I went inside. It was still home for now.
“Mom and Dad are out. I’m in charge,” Angelina said instead of hello.
Home sweet home.
Rory came running up to me. “Tell me a story,” he demanded.
“Not now.”
“Please.” He tugged at me.
“Go away.”
“I hate you!” he screamed as he rushed from the room. I heard him race upstairs and slam his door. He must have been really angry to shut himself in. Deep inside, faintly, a part of me felt bad. But mostly, it was just something that didn’t really matter.
“Nice going,” Angelina said.
I ignored her and left the room. I stopped in the bathroom and checked the mirror. If I could become a bat or a wolf, could I become a human? There was just the faintest hint of my reflection. I willed myself to become human.
Nothing changed.
For half an hour, I stood there, trying to become what I once had been. It would have been such a simple and wonderful solution, if it had worked. If anything, my ghost of a reflection grew even fainter.
I went to my room, pulled the poster from the window, and gazed out into the beautiful night.
I was less human.
And I was hungry—almost unbearably hungry. I was like that thirsty little kid, sitting in bed, needing a drink but afraid to leave the safety of the blankets for the terrors that lurked in the dark hallway.
And I knew that once I started, I could never stop. I was sure that the first drink would pull me forever from the human world.
That’s how it would have to be. It was my fate.
I put my hand against the window. This would be easy. I could fly until I found what I craved. Perhaps Lud was still curled up by the park. If not him, there would be others. Someone would be out there for me. I thought of what Miss Clevis had said about blood. You can get used to anything. Yes. She was right. Anything. I raised the window, wondering whether to hunt as a bat or a wolf or a boy.
Rory’s call broke my thoughts. “Sebastian! Help! I can’t get out.”
Even now, though I was more a monster than ever, his voice had some effect on me. I went down the hall to his room. I tried his door. It was locked. “Just unlock it,” I said.
“I can’t. I tried. It’s stuck. Get me out.” He was starting to sound scared.
I could easily break the door with my vampire strength, but that would be hard to explain. “Look, I can get you out,” I said, “but you have to promise to close your eyes. Okay?”
“Why?”
“Just promise,” I said.
There was a pause. Then he said, “I promise.”
“Are they closed now?”
“Yes.”
“For real?”
“Yes!”
I became fog and moved beneath his door. Then I became me. He was standing there with his hands over his eyes. “Okay, you can look.”
He dropped his hands. Then his mouth fell open. “How’d you do that?”
“Magic,” I said. He’d slammed his door so hard that the latch got jammed. I fiddled with the knob until I got it working. Then I opened the door.
Angelina was waiting on the other side for me. Her face was pale and her eyes were wide, as if she’d witnessed an unimaginable sight. She must have seen me pass beneath the door. Finally, she spoke. She only said three words. But those words struck me like a stake in the heart.
“What are you?”
Twenty
KITCHEN CHEMISTRY
So I told them. It didn’t much matter. I was pretty sure I would be gone soon. I told them everything. Rory thought it was a story. He just kept grinning and asking me to tell him more. I expected Angelina to run screaming from the house. I expected her to faint or start crying. I expected her to do almost anything but what she did.
“Maybe I can help,” Angelina said.
It was my turn to be stunned into silence. “How?” I asked, after I had recovered from the shock of her offer.
“Those things Norman made. They were all made from meat. He was trying to duplicate blood. Maybe it would work better to replace it. The right balance of proteins, certain amino acids—maybe that’s what you need. Come on.” She raced to the kitchen.
I followed her.
“We could probably use him,” she said. “He’s a weird little nerd, but he does know a lot. Why don’t you call him.”
“Good idea.” I called Norman and asked him to hurry over. While we waited, Angelina started pulling everything from the refrigerator and from under the counters. She soon had a pile of vegetables spilling off the table.
“I thought something was wrong with you,” she said.
“Why?”
“You weren’t constantly tormenting me,” she said. “When you stopped teasing me, I knew it wasn’t the real you.”
“I’ll just have to tease you twice as much later,” I said, though I suspected there would be no later.
Angelina smiled and started sorting through the food.
When Norman arrived, he and Angelina immediately got into a combination argument and discussion.
“How could you concentrate on meat and totally ignore other forms of protein?” Angelina asked him. “That’s such typical male thinking. Meat, meat, meat. The great hunter. Hah!”
Norman shook his head. “Look, I focus on one thing at a time. I investigate, I experiment, then I move to the next step. Who made you the expert on research methods?”
“This isn’t research, it’s my brother.”
“Still, we have to be systematic,” Norman said.
Angelina threw her hands in the air. “But you overlooked the whole role of bioflavonoids.”
“Oh, my gosh!” Norman exclaimed, looking at me. “She’s right!”
I didn’t have the slightest clue what they were talking about. I wandered into the living room for the dictionary while they kept ranting about bio this and bio that. Behind me, I heard the blender firing into action. According to the dictionary, a bioflavonoid is something found in plants that helps build small blood vessels in the human body. I wandered back to the kitchen just in time to have a glass thrust at me.
“Drink,” Angelina ordered.
“What’s in it?” I asked.
“All kinds of good things,” she said.
It was thick and green. But after drinking kidneys, livers, chicken lungs, and who knew what else, a bit of green glop didn’t worry me. I took a sip.
“Well?” Norman asked.
I smiled. “Tastes like chicken.”
“What?”
“Just kidding.” I slugged it down.
As the initial chill wore off, my tongue started to burn. “Yow! What did you put in here?”
Norman and Angelina looked at each other, puzzled. From behind them, Rory giggled. He held up a bottle of Louisiana Flaming Pepper Sauce that one of Dad’s friends had given him as a joke. “I helped when they weren’t looking,” he said.
“Other than that, how do you feel?” Norman asked.
I put the glass down and concentrated on my feelings. This was amazing. The hunger seemed to have gone away. I was free of the terrible craving. I waited cautiously, wondering if the hunger would return like it had all the other times. It seemed to stay away. “It worked,” I told them.
Suddenly, everyone was jumping up and down and hugging. Everyone but me. “What’s wrong?” Angelina asked when she noticed.
“It’s great about the blood substitute,” I told her, “but I’m still a vampire. I still need to find a way to become human again.”
Twenty-one
A LITTLE GIFT
I asked them to whip up another batch of the blood substitute, without any special ingredients from Rory, and I had Angelina write down an extra copy of the formula.
“What for?” Norman asked.
“I’d like to give it to someone.” I remembered what Vladivost had said about wanting to return to the old country. With the blood substitute, he could go back without attracting attention. He could go where he wished and be what he wanted. At least someone would be happy.
With the hunger under control, I was able to give my full attention to enjoying the night. The darkness was like a warm and comforting jacket.
As I reached the warehouse, I knew that something was wrong. Someone had hung garlic from the door. A window next to the door was smashed. I moved around to the back of the building, eager to put some distance between myself and that awful stench. Even the brief exposure to the garlic had made me feel weak. In the rear of the warehouse, I found a window with a large crack in it. That would do. I set down the bottle on a ledge by the window. As I became fog, I listened to voices from inside.
“At last. You will not escape me this time.”
I knew the voice. It was Teridakian. I drifted through the crack, then took human form again and moved closer.
Vladivost was in his chair. His glass lay shattered on the floor by his side. The book lay next to it, slowly absorbing the spilled liquid. The vampire cringed and tried to move deeper into the chair and farther away from Teridakian.
“I have you now,” Teridakian said. He held up a large cross. Even from where I stood, I could feel my strength drain. In his chair, Vladivost must have been as powerless as a baby.
Teridakian reached into the suitcase at his feet. He pulled out a wooden stake. “I’ve waited half a lifetime for this,” he said. “My moment is here.”
I thought of leaving before I was noticed. It would be easy to slip back out. But I couldn’t leave Vladivost like that. Even if he was a monster, I couldn’t let this happen to him.
There had to be a way to save him. But I couldn’t get near Teridakian while he held the cross.
There were rows of shelves between us. I pushed against the nearest one. It creaked.
Teridakian looked up.
I froze and held my breath. Teridakian turned his attention back to Vladivost. I pushed again. The shelf didn’t give. My strength was still limited by the garlic and the cross.
“This is for all those you have harmed,” Teridakian said.
I remembered what Vladivost had said about a swarm of flies—flies and other insects. The thought was enough to make me shiver.
Teridakian raised the stake.
I had to do the unthinkable. Wishing there were any other way, I left myself a thousand times. And a thousand more. And a thousand more.
I swarmed across the floor.
Even in this tiny form, I could feel the power of the cross. But there were thousands of me, and the task for each was small. I attacked the front supports of the shelf. As I worked, thousands of me watched the vampire and the vampire hunter with countless eyes. Teridakian was about to thrust the stake. “Are you suffering?” he asked. “Do you like being a victim?”
I hurried all my selves. Thousands of termites chewed at the shelf.
It tilted.
It leaned farther forward.
It fell.
It hit the next shelf, which fell and hit the next, which fell and hit the next. Giant dominoes, they toppled toward the vampire and the vampire killer.
Teridakian looked up just as the closest shelf was falling. He dropped the stake and cross and put his hands out. The cross swung from the cord around his neck. The shelf fell onto the two enemies.
I became me again as objects crashed down and spilled across the floor. I couldn’t move or think. The horror of what I had been was almost more than I could bear. Even though I was back in human form, I wanted to escape from my own flesh. I lay on the floor, feeling my muscles twitch and jerk. After a while, I managed to look up.
There was motion beneath all the shelves. Vladivost came crawling out. “Well,” he said, brushing himself off and walking over, “that was certainly exciting.”
“You find a close encounter with a sharp stake exciting?”
“After nine hundred years, it does take something major to hold my interest.”
There was a moan from beneath the shelves. “It appears my old enemy has survived to hunt me anew,” Vladivost said.
“This is a game for you, isn’t it?” I asked.
“Isn’t everything?”
I had no answer. I went to the back window, opened it, and got the bottle I had left outside. There was no reason to give it to him. He had done nothing for me. He was responsible for my condition. Still, I held up the bottle. “This takes away the hunger. You can go back to the old country if you want. You won’t have to drink any blood. It contains—”
“Bioflavonoids, and various other vegetable ingredients,” he said.
The bottle almost slipped from my fingers. “You know the formula?”
He nodded. “It works longer than anything else. Unfortunately, it doesn’t last. The universe is not that generous—there is no substitute for blood. The hunger grows worse each time. This mixture can hold off the craving for a while, but it is not a substitute.” He shrugged. “On the other hand, it makes a nice treat. I especially recommend it with a dash of Flaming Pepper Sauce.” He smacked his lips. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think it is time I searched for a more peaceful location.”
He climbed out the window, leaving me holding a bottle that did not hold any answers.
I didn’t know what to say. Vladivost’s words had crushed the life from my last chance for a normal existence. I threw the bottle against the wall, and watched my false hope drip onto the floor.
Teridakian was starting to crawl from beneath the rubble. I could see he still wore the cross around his neck. Even if I wanted to help, I couldn’t get close to him. I felt weak from the cross and from the garlic at the door. Everything felt a bit shaky. I was dizzy. The world was throbbing in and out of focus. It was time for me to go.
“Curse you!” Teridakian pulled himself free and stumbled toward me, the cross in one hand. He fell to his knees. Then he tried to rise. The shelves must have stunned him pretty badly. He fell again. He reached into a pocket with his other hand. “Feel the power of holy water!” he shouted as he threw something.
I turned and crawled through the window. Something splashed against my back. I felt weaker by the moment. I staggered into the night.
Twenty-two
A DECISION
I hurried away from the warehouse, still weak and dizzy. Everything had turned hazy and flat. The water Teridakian threw seemed to have drained even more of my powers. I was confused, not really sure where I was going. Eventually, I looked up and saw my house. Norman, Rory, and Angelina were waiting for me.
“It doesn’t work,” I told them.
“What?” Norman asked.
“Sure.” He scooted off to my room.
“I didn’t want him to hear this,” I told them. “I have to leave. I can’t go on like this. I have almost no reflection. I can’t survive exposure to the sun. Worst of all, I know that sooner or later, I’ll harm those I care for. I have to leave.”
“Sebastian…,” Angelina began.
I nodded. I understood what she was trying to tell me. “It’s best this way. I think I can hold on for one more day. I’ll go to school and say my good-byes.”
She was starting to cry. Norman looked a little wet around the eyes, too. “I have to rest,” I told them. It was odd. Usually, I didn’t get tired very easily.
I met Rory on the stairs and took the book from him. “Thanks.”
“Read it to me?” he asked.
“Maybe tomorrow.” I went to bed and slept a black, unbroken sleep until morning. This was the first night I had slept since the full force of the change took over my body.
Breakfast with my family was difficult. I think I acted normal enough to keep them from getting suspicious. I just had juice and toast. I didn’t want to have to stare at my missing reflection in the silverware. Angelina, who I was seeing in a new light, also tried to act as if nothing were wrong, though she did look troubled.
After breakfast, I gathered my books, put on my jacket, scarf, and sunglasses, and left for school. If this was to be my last day among regular people, I was determined to make it a day I would remember. I would see my friends, my school, my teachers, and then come home for one last meal with my family.
After that, I would slip away in the night and find a new place to live. I imagined myself traveling the world like Vladivost. Though, of course, I wouldn’t have his European charm. But I would develop charm of my own.