Sierra’s not showing visible signs of separation anxiety. She hasn’t touched the PlayStation at all. A day passing without random explosions in the living room is a rarity. It’s sad to think an actual random explosion in the house wouldn’t freak me out too much these days. She’s got a new obsession lately: swords. Rather, learning and practicing how to fight with a blade. It hasn’t consumed her to the same extent as video games, but it gives her something to think about when she’s unable to have a controller in her hand.
It’s nice to have some quiet time with the family—as much as my sleep schedule allows.
Peace makes me nervous. It shouldn’t, but it does. Can’t help but expect the universe to sense me having somewhat of a normal life again and rushing to action to fix the problem. All things considered, my family is doing well. Mom got a little promotion at work and her job is totally secure… unless the VP she reports to quits or is fired. Then I’ll have to mentally influence her new boss. No, Mom’s not doing anything shady. She’s where I got the rule-following gene. Just a small tweak for job security in a world of random corporate layoffs and VPs cutting half their team to save their own butts.
Dad’s excited about a new work project he’s doing programming for. Nothing exciting like a video game, only some boring business software, but it’s a big paycheck. Sierra’s doing great at her sword class. The weird presence in Sam’s room hasn’t caused any problems… and oh yeah, we have a hellhound in the yard.
It’s huge for a dog—as well as invisible—good thing.
Mom would totally freak. She nearly lost her mind when she found Sophia had a kitten. In Sam’s defense, he didn’t make the hellhound or summon it. The critter simply showed up. When most little boys say ‘he followed me home, can we keep him?’ they’re talking about a puppy, not a 300-pound infernal canine.
When Zootopia is over, Sierra decides to test the waters by putting on Troll. It’s one of those movies some people think is scary, others laugh at. It’s meant to frighten small kids, which means it’s going to scare Sophia. The girls take a quick break before the second movie starts to run to the bathroom and make more popcorn. I’d slip out for a snack, but it’s not worth changing out of my Buffy the Vampire Slayer pajamas. Yes, Dad got them for me. Yes, Dad has a weird sense of humor.
Yes, my father is a dork.
Unlike the first movie—which all five girls have seen before—this one’s from Dad’s Eighties collection. Only Sierra and I have seen it, and it enthralls the other girls. Even Sophia, but in the sort of way someone can’t help but stare at what they’re afraid of. She’s handling it better than expected. However, the movie has definitely shifted the mood in the room darker. None of the girls are talking anymore, all staring at the screen, mesmerized.
Priya, who’d already been on edge, looks so frightened now I’m tempted to suggest they put on the Care Bears movie or something similar. It’s probably going to take Sophia telling her the truth about a harmless ghost and/or imp in the house to convince the poor girl to set foot inside this place ever again. She has to be spiritually sensitive, similar to how Sophia was before the mystics whammied her from afar. Hmm. Telling her the truth might not be the best idea. I promised not to use my powers on my family, but my oath doesn’t include school friends. Protecting secrecy is vitally important to the entire concept of my parents and siblings being able to continue existing in peace. Vampires like Stefano Bianchi and Paolo Cabrini would exploit any potential ‘risk’ to make trouble for me.
An instant before I reach out to nudge her so she makes eye contact with me, Priya screams and leaps to her feet, flailing her arms and staring at the spot she’d been sitting. Her sudden scream sets off Sophia, Megan, and Nicole who also scream.
Sierra cringes, and pauses the movie. “Dude… this isn’t even a scary part.”
“S-something pulled my hair!” Priya points at her sleeping bag.
Sophia’s eyes go wide in a ‘whoa, really?’ expression. She stares, both hands clamped over her heart.
Megan fans herself.
“Stop lying,” grumbles Nicole. “You’re just trying to freak us out.”
I glance around. Blix is probably being naughty. Easily frightened kids watching a scary movie is too much temptation for any imp, even one as (relatively) nice as him. He is still an imp, after all. Pranks are in his nature. Thankfully, he doesn’t try to cause actual harm. Blix wouldn’t draw blood or break bones from kids, though he’d find it funny to make them soil their pants. Oddly, I don’t see him anywhere. Video game noises from upstairs tell me he’s probably in Sam’s room. Even though my boyfriend’s kid brother Ronan has been using the mirror to go back and forth from home, it’s unlikely he’s here at this hour, especially on a school night.
Hmm. Maybe Blix pulled Priya’s hair, maybe Klepto. Hard to say. Probably Blix being naughty.
One cheap laugh for an imp is a therapist buying a new car.
I make a show of looking around and finding nothing responsible for a hair pull.
“Did she really feel it?” asks Sophia.
“Why are you asking her?” Nicole gives me side eye. “Like she’d know.”
Sierra makes a ‘she really would’ face, but keeps quiet.
To save the girl from therapy—and prevent her from becoming permanently scarred by our house—I dive into Priya’s thoughts. She really did feel something tug on her hair. Could have been the gap between sofa cushions as easily as an imp. Whatever. It’s playful and not making me concerned. I do a little tinkering in her mind to take away the fear. She is still aware our home has an ‘unusual energy’ to it, but after my adjustments, her opinion of the mood is reframed to be reassuring. It’s kind of like setting the tare weight on a scale. She’s experiencing our baseline of messed up. If something new and dark shows up, she will notice.
Sierra and Sophia both stare at me, wondering what I’m doing to their friend.
Relax guys, I say telepathically. Priya might be slightly sensitive, psychic wise. She’s aware everything isn’t exactly normal here. Just helping her calm down so she’s actually willing to come over a second time.
Sophia fake-wipes sweat from her forehead.
Sierra tugs at her hair, raising an eyebrow.
Yeah. She felt something. Probably Blix, maybe the sofa cushions. Dunno.
“Girls, time for bed,” calls Mom above and behind us.
All of them—except Sierra—scream.
“Can we finish watching it?” asks Sophia. “Only like a half hour left.”
Mom’s voice floats down the stairs. “All right, but I don’t want to hear any complaining in the morning.”
“Thanks!” chimes Sophia before leaning against me and whispering, “If this movie freaks me out, please help me fall asleep.”
I grin. “No problem. Got’cha covered.”
2
Birthday déjà vu
The thing no university brochure or recruiting department ever tells you is: college is a lot of damn work.
Some students rely on coffee. Others drink an unhealthy amount of those little energy shots. I went extreme and resorted to becoming a vampire so I could stay up all night studying. Not really… the vampire situation fell on my head unexpectedly. In the interest of full disclosure, becoming a vampire isn’t something I would have voluntarily done. This isn’t me complaining, merely being realistic. Based on how I used to think—trust me, I’m an expert on this since I was there—pre-vamp Sarah would have been too frightened to take the plunge.
Vampirism is like Clamato. Looks horrifying on the outside, but once you’ve tried it, you realize it’s awesome. Okay, no, I’m kidding. My Dad likes Clamato. He’s the one who said the thing about liking it only after trying something apparently horrifying. If you’re not sure what Clamato is, it’s tomato juice with clam juice added. Yes, someone out there has way too much free time on their hands to think this stuff up. Who looks at tomato juice and thinks it needs a hit of clams? Probably the same wei
rdo who first got the idea to try eating a lobster. Ooh, giant sea cockroach, let’s cook it!
So, yeah. Even with the ability to stay up all night every night and not feel the slightest bit off the next day, school’s gone into high gear and is kicking my ass. It’s not taxing or frustrating me, merely sucking up a lot of time. School in general is imposing its demands on my entire family. Between the Littles’ after-school activities and homework, it’s amazing we still manage to be home at the same time for dinner. It’s the one thing Dad really puts his foot down about. If it’s any clue how serious he is about family dinner time, he’s given me permission to use mind control to make the Littles stop using their phones at the table.
I haven’t needed to do it, and to be honest, the four of us aren’t completely sure he meant it seriously. According to my father, most of the country’s problems are due to American families being fragmented and not having dinner together as a matter of routine. If you ask me, the problem is more the way money has shifted to a small concentration of people and families are forced to have both parents working full time jobs in order to survive. Not like I’m in any position to complain, though. My family’s doing okay money wise. Far more so now, since a leprechaun gave me some gold.
Seriously. Yeah, I know how it sounds. Long story.
It’s weird and nice to exist in a state of relative normalcy. Except for going out to bite people a few times a week and random flashes or weird sounds from Sophia’s bedroom, things are almost like they’d have been if I never died. Enough time has passed to where my friend Ashley’s prediction I’d have gotten too homesick being in California and come home might’ve come true. The main difference being night school. Only reason late classes are happening is because the sun’s a fiery little bitch who hates me.
Another thing my father says is ‘don’t pick a fight with celestial fireballs thousands of times bigger than Earth unless you know you can win.’ Kidding, he didn’t say it, but he probably would if he heard me referring to the sun as an adversary. Really, though. I don’t think of it as an enemy as much as an annoying, obnoxious roommate who does whatever they want and has no regard for anyone else’s comfort or feelings. Sure, the sun could kill me, but it’s kinda like a lazy assassin standing still while holding a poison dagger waiting for me to walk into it. I’d have to seriously mess up to get in its way. Big perk of being an Innocent.
Unlife’s been sweet—if mundane.
Enter Thursday, April 12th.
No, it’s not the apocalypse… or even Arthur Wolent having a moment. Being allied with one of Seattle’s more prominent elders is both good and nerve wracking. While I am technically still Aurélie’s protégé—and she’s older than him—she’s also a non-political figure. It’s pretty rare for a vampire her age not to care about having any sort of political power or influence over the goings on, but she is content to simply be. She also happens to be friends with Wolent, making them allies I suppose. It’s not a conflict for me to be involved with him. No, not like that. I’m ‘involved’ with him the way an employee is involved with their boss.
Grr, still sounds perverted.
Whatever. I work for him. If vampires are royalty, I’m the young kid fresh off the farm in the silly outfit who gets sent to deliver messages to other nobles. So far, I’ve done a handful of ‘jobs’ for him. All but one required me to deliver messages to other vampires in the area. Not all the meetings went off cordially, though other than being thrown in a dumpster once, I can’t call them violent. It kinda scares me how Wolent’s reaction to the Mercer Island crew’s tossing me in the trash involved several pounds of plastic explosives. The blast itself didn’t scare me… it’s how I felt vindicated. Like, Wolent got pissed at them for being nasty to me.
So, the one job where I didn’t have to deliver a message ended up being attending a social event as his representative. He even gave me a red evening gown and shoes to wear for it since they held it at this super formal banquet hall. Unofficially, of course… after hours. Talk about weird. Despite me being the youngest person in the room—both visibly and as a vampire—everyone else there treated me like an adult. Any vampire past a certain age can ‘smell’ newbies, so there’s no way they mistook me for being older. Guess I wore Wolent’s name as a badge of respect. I’d say it’s awesome he trusted me for something like that, but if I’m not sugar-coating things, the meeting was boring as hell and largely pointless. Pretty sure he asked me to go because his more senior people would have been wasted on it.
Not complaining. Gotta start somewhere, right?
Yeah, doing vampire jobs does cut into study time, but it’s not like I’m running errands every day. Seriously considering changing to an English major or something less mathy. Maybe I could write a series of ‘how to’ books for new vampires. Undeath really should come with an instruction manual. Could even get super meta… like publish them under the guise of fiction novels, but it’s all real information. Best way to hide is in plain sight, after all. Nah. If the vampires don’t kick my ass, the Persons in Black will. Stefano and Paolo would not appreciate me attracting attention.
Anyway, back to it being April 12th. It’s Sierra’s birthday. The brief period of time between March 22nd and April 12th when both my sisters are the same chronological age, is over. March-to-April is like birthday Armageddon. Sophia not long ago, Nicole Pierce—their friend from a few houses over—on April 6th. She’s twelve now, too. Mom’s got an aunt or something with a birthday like on April 27th or something, and Michelle—my friend—turned nineteen on April 3rd.
It totally sucked all we got to do was go out to dinner. She had to work, what with it being a Tuesday. Apparently, law firms aren’t big on ‘it’s my birthday’ as a reason to get a day off. Yay for being grown-ups. Sigh. You know what? Ashley’s turning nineteen on October 7th. Still a ways off, but dammit, I’m going to throw her and Michelle in a car and surprise them by going to Chuck-E-Cheese, like a pack of kids.
Or maybe not. Sounded better in the instant. Less cool the more I think about it. Whatever. I’m going to do something fun and somewhat childish for her birthday. She’d adore it. Anyway, Dad is going overboard with ‘dad-ness’ today because Sierra’s age is the same as the day of the month. She’s turning twelve on the twelfth. Weird number things make him happy. He always points out if he looks at a digital clock at 12:34. Or weird date stuff like September 9th 2009 at 9:09:09. The man has a framed picture of the Sentra’s dashboard showing the odometer at 123,456 miles. Sounds like a lot, but the car is ten years old. My friend Michelle’s uncle works as a driver for a car service. His Lincoln is past 300,000 miles already and it’s only five years old.
Okay, the number deal is kinda cute of him, but repeating digits in dates don’t thrill me. I mean, I literally had my ex-boyfriend’s severed head in my hands. Worse, I’m the one who ripped it off him. Takes a little more than numerical synchronicities to get my blood flowing. Perhaps it’s a sign computer programming isn’t what I should be studying.
Sierra’s birthday always feels like déjà vu since Sophia’s is so close. I’m kinda glad my sisters aren’t twins, mostly because it prevents Dad from making jokes about Mom clicking the ‘print’ button twice instead of being patient. Okay, he still makes printer jokes about them, but calls it ‘serious network latency.’ As in the second ‘copy’ of a girl child didn’t print out for almost a year.
Sigh. Nerds, right?
Myself included. I have to admit to laughing the first time I heard it.
And really, why do people click the button like 500 times if their document doesn’t print?
In another moment of déjà vu, Sierra’s birthday also falls on a Thursday this year. Unlike Sophia, Sierra doesn’t go out of her way to make friends. She’s content playing with herself. Whoa. Ack. I mean PlayStation. Gah! That totally didn’t sound right. Good grief. I mean, she is perfectly content with her own company. The girl isn’t antisocial as much as she doesn’t feel like she needs to surround herse
lf with a crowd of friends to feel validated as a person… or something. I remember her having school friends over like once or twice. Mostly, she hangs out with Nicole and Sophia, and now Megan and Priya.
Sam and the boys are at Darryl’s house. It’s like boys have this deep primal instinct to flee the scene whenever too many females gather, like they sense the estrogen and don’t want to be caught up in whatever powerful supernatural forces we unleash. Maybe seventy-five percent of the time, Sam and his friends hang out here. They did the same thing on Sophia’s birthday, too. No sign of a little boy for miles around the house until bedtime—unless Dad counts.
Speaking of Dad, he’s scrambling to finish a section of his work project by the deadline. Today is pretty similar to Sophia’s birthday. Right after school, Mom took the girls out. Since it’s Sierra’s day, they’re going to the VR gaming place instead of the Chuck-E-Cheese. Sierra’s not a clothes horse or a mall rat, so it’s anyone’s guess if they’ll wind up at the mall after. With the Littles being a bit older now, rather than get a birthday present ahead of time and wrap it, the ’rents take them out somewhere to buy a reasonable gift. The ‘big stuff’ waits for Christmas. They figure doing it this way prevents disappointment. It also ruins any joyful surprise, but no one gets something they aren’t interested in. Besides, getting the gift you’ve been dropping none-too-subtle hints about for weeks isn’t exactly a surprise either. The Littles haven’t figured it out yet (though maybe Sam has) but I believe the ’rents budget a certain amount for each kid’s ‘gifts’ per year, and whatever we get for our birthday comes out of our Christmas haul.
Vampire Innocent | Book 11 | How To Stop A Vampire War In Six Easy Steps Page 2