Melabeth the Vampire (23 page)

That sad face washed over her again. Then she went on. “Yes… yes he was happy once. He was also in love once. He met a beautiful girl named Robin in 1976; the only problem with her was the fact that she was human. We all loved her, and she even got along with Alice. It wasn’t long before she was ready to join our family. She was head over heels in love with Michael, so, naturally, she wished to join him forever.  Alice enjoyed playing with her so much; she decided to change her herself. See you may or may not know this, but the older you are, the better the chance that the person will make the transition from human to vampire. Robin was a Ren for about a year. In 1977 when her time came for her to die, she was ready. We prepared her body and buried her; she never awoke… and it devastated Michael."

"I had no idea." Still he was being a jerk. It's been over ten years ago.

"There’s more to it than just the death of his lover." It was annoying that she could read me like that.

Charlotte went on. "After ten years passed by, we were all really worried about Michael; he never really recovered, and he spent all his time with his animals, so Alice did something foolish. Without consulting anyone; she went out and found a girl that looked a lot like Robin, and, within a month, she turned her. I am sure that you know that girl was Lea; this happened in 1987. Lea has only been a vampire for four years. Alice brought her home, and, of course, Michael saw right through her little hook up. To make matters worse, there are some issues with Lea. Ezra’s not interested in vampires unless they want to train to fight. He doesn’t deal with young vampire issues. Alice has a habit of torturing someone for punishment. Of course, all the things Alice does to people are in their head; Lea did not deal well with Alice’s mental punishments. She had terrible nightmares, so we had to keep Lea separated from Alice, and I don’t get along with the girl; I can't stand it when someone lies to me, and that’s all the girl knows how to do, not large lies, but little ones."

"What kind of lies?" I wondered.

"Lies about anything
and everything. Does my dress look good? The girl will tell you it does, even though it doesn’t. That’s not a good way of describing it; she wishes to be accepted and will say what she believes you want to hear. She has been better but only a little. I can always tell when someone is lying, and she knows this. So it drives me batty that she is not straight with me. Do you know what I mean?"

“Yes I do. I can’t understand why you let it bother you. You know she was just looking for your approval.”

Charlotte answered me with a grin. “Are you looking for my approval?”

I thought about that for a second; then I answered honestly, “
Can’t say that I am.”

“And that is why you and I are going to get along.” Charlotte stated while pointing at both of us. Then she went back to her story. “I don’t hate Lea; I just don’t get along with her, so it is hard for me to help her through being a young vampire. Michael, on the other hand, ended up feeling sorry for her. It was probably because how the rest of the family was treating Lea, the fact that she did not want to become a vampire, and Michael had no choice either. He ended up being a true brother to her, and soon they were as close as any siblings. Of course there is one thing still out of place; Michael had been looking forward to going to school, and then Lea is dropped in his lap. He now feels he can’t leave until she is strong enough to take care of herself. He doesn’t believe we will help her; he is wrong… we would. Still it keeps him in the house, and I am in no hurry to see him leave.”

“What school does he want to go to?” I asked.

“A school for vampires… there are requirements to go; one of them is that you have to be
strong enough to pass the entrance test. Most of our kind who decide to go there wait no less than fifteen to twenty years. That way they know they are strong enough to attend.”

A school of vampires, or maybe a house of horrors, it really made me think of how much of this world I didn’t even understand. “Where is this school?”

“In the City of the Dead, I will give you the real quick version; my husband is the storyteller. There is one city we own completely, no wizards, or hunters. It is our city, and no one would dare face our kind there. Every place outside of our cities is referred to as the wild. It is wild because there are no laws; it's kill or be killed.”

“No laws?”

Charlotte smiled. “Man laws maybe, but no laws we follow. As I was saying, Michael wanted to go to this school. When he found out about you, he thought he was going to have to take care of you too. He is being cruel so he doesn’t get attached to you. He will feel free to leave when Lea is strong enough. Once he figures out you don’t need him, I am sure he will come around. I also noticed when he was looking at you that he was a little turned on. Now that he has witnessed your strength, I believe he will be nicer. The next step is to get you guys some alone time.”

I was speechless; the whole reason she wanted to tell me her stupid son’s life story, is so she could hook us up. “What the hell are you talking about? I don’t want to date him.”

Charlotte’s face had a look of shock, like I just told her I was a man. “Well you would be the first. I feel your desire when you look at him.”

“I… have… things, things I have to do.” I stood up. “Look, just take me home.”

Charlotte stood up next to me. “I got it, a great idea. Let’s say you wanted to go swimming, and we didn’t get you a bathing suit. We bought you one, but he doesn’t need to know everything; anyway you could go skinny dipping in the pool. I will arrange it with Michael…”

“Stop, no more. I just want to go back and train with Ezra. I don’t want to play matchmaker with you.” She was starting to affect my calm. She wanted Michael to walk in on me while I was nude.

Charlotte gave me a strange face, and then said, “You’d rather get punched by my husband, than banged by my son. What… some kind of virgin?”

I couldn’t tell if I was mad, or what. Was I a virgin? It was taking effort on my part to stop the tears. “One more word, just one more, and I will…”

I never finished that sentence; damn she was fast. She had tossed me off the cliff faster than I saw it coming.

I fell; when I hit the rocks below, the world went black. I woke up in pain; I could feel my body healing itself. I had broken more than a few bones on that landing.

As I laid there looking up, I could see Charlotte standing at the top of the cliff. Then she did something that made me forget how pissed off I was. She stepped off the cliff and floated down. The wind whipped around her dress as she softly moved towards the earth; she was FLYING. She landed next to me without a sound.

Before I could really speak, Charlotte said. “I am so sorry. The virgin remark; damn I didn’t know. I didn’t see the truth until I threw you off the cliff. If it makes you feel
any better, in my mind you are still a virgin; what those men did, well, it didn’t take that away from you.”

I was now healed enough to sit up. “Well to tell you the truth; no, that doesn’t make me feel better. In fact I don’t give a rat’s ass what you think. You know
what would make me feel better? Let me tell you; first, stay out of my head, and, if you can’t, pretend that you don’t know shit about me. Second, teach me how to fly.”

“Maybe to the first request, and a big yes to the flying. Do you forgive me?” Charlotte said with kindness in her voice.

“For throwing me off a cliff?”

Charlotte laughed out loud. “No, for hurting your feelings. Throwing you off the cliff; that was your first flying lesson little bird.”

*                   *                    *

I was getting back into the truck; my mood had been soured. For at least two hours I had been practicing how to fly. More like, falling down, flying not so much. My outfit was ripped beyond repair.

Charlotte had explained that flying was like spirit walking, and she said, "Our spirit cannot be measured by science. No one can explain the bond between mother and child. That spirit is the power you will use to pull your body skyward."

I managed pulling my body, but it was not skyward. Instead, I flashed, only I was looking upwards. I flew right into a bush full of stickers. I was still pulling them out of me; all the little cuts healed fast. Now I had dried blood all over me, and, of course, I fell onto the ground at least a thousand times. I looked homeless again.

"Wait." Charlotte yelled at me as I was getting into the truck. "Let me throw a towel down; you're filthy."

Soon we were bouncing back down the road when Charlotte said. "Don’t worry little bird; we'll try again and soon. Maybe we can find a taller cliff."

"What, afraid I didn’t hit terminal velocity before I hit the ground?" I snapped back at her.

Charlotte laughed. "Motivation dear, motivation."

When we hit the paved road and started heading home, I asked. "Can you swing me by my friend's house? I would like to check up on David."

I wish I would have been smart enough to have asked for his phone number.

Charlotte huffed, "David, is he that Necromancer kid?"

"Yes
," I nodded.

Charlotte made a face, as if something smelled bad, and then said. "I don’t really care for Necromancers."

I said with a huff. "You don’t have to talk to him; you don’t even need to meet him. Just wait in the car."

"Don’t you think you’ve kept Ezra waiting long enough?" Charlotte said nicely, but there was more to it. She really didn’t want me to go, and, to tell the truth, I didn’t give a shit why.

"So are you going to take me, or what?" I demanded.

Charlotte sat still, staring straight ahead at the road. After a little bit, she finally said. "You have twenty minutes, and I am waiting in the car, and, if anything happens, it's on you little bird."

"Thank you," and I meant it.

"Whatever
," Charlotte grumbled.

Twenty minutes later we pulled up to David's street. Charlotte parked four houses away and then announced this was close enough for her. It was close to 2am; I hoped that David was still awake. If not, Carrie would be; I had so much I wanted to share with her, and I only had twenty minutes.

I will have to get David's number so I can call him. It didn’t take me long to walk up to his house; everything was quiet. I could hear the wind rustling through the trees; dogs were barking in the distance. I looked around using both my eyes and my second sight. Then I snuck up to the side of David's house and to his window. I tapped on his glass quietly.

"You’re back,
" I jumped and spun around baring my teeth; a hissing sound slipped out of my mouth. Carrie stood behind me with the biggest smile that would fit on her face. She jumped over and gave me a huge hug. "Scared ya. Where have you been; I have been worried sick. Did you find vampires? Are they nice? What took you so long?"

I couldn’t help but smile. “I missed you too and have a lot to tell you and David. I don’t have much time. One of the vampires, Charlotte, is waiting for me.”

Carrie looked concerned. “They aren’t holdin ya hostage?”

“No, they have been nice, but a little on the crazy side. Still there is more going on than I can explain in a short time, and I know where one of the guys who did this to me is.”

Carrie looked at me shocked, “Let’s go kill him.”

Carrie was eager for me to have my revenge, but something came to me at this very moment. I had never understood why Nicks made me promise to wait six months to kill this man, and he told me I had to hunt him first, find out information. Then, as Carrie got excited about just kill
ing him, it came to me why we couldn’t.

I said to Carrie,
“We can’t just kill him.”

Carri
e looked at me like I was crazy, “Why?”

“Well, because we need info. For example, what does he know about the others that I am hunting? Does he know where they are? And where is the film of my death? Who paid to have such a terrible film made? How many copies of this film are there? I want my revenge; I want it so bad I can taste it, but I must be careful or I will miss some of it.”

Carrie’s eyes softened, and then she said, “Tell me how I can help?”

I was glad I had friends, for I was going to need their help. “I have an idea. I will need you and David’s help; I don’t have time work out all the details; I would just like to talk to David real quick, and we will work this out later.”

Carrie nodded her head. “Sounds good; let me go in and wake him.”

Then I noticed something. “Hold up girl. You have a different outfit on. How did you do that?”

Carrie laughed. “I wondered if you were going to notice. I have learned some new powers with David. I can change clothes; well, it’s not changing. I just look at an outfit, and… bam, I am wearing it. I also found out I can be naked; that’s nice for baths.”

“You take baths?” I was amazed.

Carrie giggled. “Girls gotta wash; well, not really, but I like to none the same. We got so much catchin up to do girl. You better talk with David; he would hang me high if I didn’t wake him. He has been pining after you, all worried. If I didn’t know better, I think he’s sweet on you.” She said this with a wink.