Melabeth the Vampire (35 page)

“Okay, ready when you are,” I said, but I didn’t really mean it.

“Ezra is better at the technical stuff than me; I will try my best. When we spirit walk, or flash as you like to call it, we are not running; in fact, we are not moving at all. If you film a vampire doing this, study the frames; you would see us standing still, but we look out of focus. Ezra believes that we break our molecules apart, and that’s how we move so fast. You see, spirit walking is a better description of what we are doing.”

“I have never really thought about it, but when I do flash it’s just a blur, and then I am somewhere else, but now that I think about it, you’re right. I don’t run; it’s not like my legs suddenly move at the speed of light.”

Charlotte nodded in agreement. She went on by saying. “Ok, now to understand flying; maybe we should stop calling it flying. I can’t really fly, I float. I can control how much gravity is pulling on me. I can make my body as light as a feather and then jump up into the sky. I guess if you happen to see a vampire do this, it would look as if he flew away, but the vampire could only control how fast he is falling. If I make myself heavy, I fall faster; making myself weightless, I float, but, unless I bring a fan or wings, I cannot change my direction. The only way to make a direction change is when you kick off of the ground, but, once you are already heading in that direction, you can't change it. It has always felt like a giant jump to me.”

“That sounds like it could be opposite of what we do when we flash, almost like we slow our molecules or something like that, and somehow earth can no longer pull us down.”

“Ezra says stuff like that; I don’t really understand it. I just know I can do it.”

Charlotte gave a small push with her hands. Still sitting Indian style, she floated just a few feet above the rocks. Then she continued speaking, “I don’t even know how I do it; I know I can fly, so I do. All you can do is try.”

The whole try to float, fly, hover, worked well, if my goal had been getting my mind off of all my worries. If my goal would have been flying, then it didn’t work at all.

I tried my hardest to think back to the night when I had kissed David; I thought back to that night often anyway. I couldn’t remember what I had been thinking when I had made myself weightless and floated into the truck. I do remember feeling as if I weighed nothing, not that some force had shoved me into the air.

The walk back with Charlotte was good; we had some laughs, and, by the time we got back to the house, my heart was lighter. I think that’s what Charlotte was trying to do; I don’t believe that she was worried about my flying lessons. Charlotte brought up strange emotions in me; she made me feel better like I had a mother. She made me miss my mother.

*                     *                       *

Sunday, Monday, and now it was Tuesday, on my way to Mr. Wright’s class.

Happy Birthday to me; I still hadn’t told anyone it was my birthday. I don’t really know if it is anymore; I don’t know if Melanie is dead, and all there is now is Melabeth.

Yesterday should have been my birthday, for that’s when I got a birthday gift. After school me and David met at the truck as we do every day after school, but yesterday had been different.

Lizzie had something she had to do in the library, and Michael had to stay after class. It was funny because he had to write, ‘I will not pass notes in class’, one hundred times on the chalkboard. I didn’t even know they actually did that; I had thought that was something from the TV. That’s the problem with getting all your information from a box.

David and I had some alone time inside Michael's truck. It was the first time I had ever made out with a boy. I have to say, it has made this whole day fly by. I have been so busy reliving the memory that I haven’t had time to dread my time with the Devil, I mean Devon; no I mean the Devil.

So, here I was
walking to his class; the whole day passed away, while I day dreamed. Not even the memory of me and David was strong enough to stop the dread now, now that I stood outside of my math classroom door. The hour in the class will be easy. Deep breath, I can do this, and, with that, I went to class.

The hour passed faster than it ever had before; even his speaking didn’t bother me as much, not when I knew that I was about to ride in a car with him, alone. All the other students leaped out of the chairs when the bell rang…last classes of the day…the kids were fast to get out. It only took a minute before it was just me and Devon; he was still sitting at his desk with his head in some papers.

He finished writing and then looked up at me. “You ready to go?”

NO
, I thought, but I said,  “Yes, sir.”

I grabbed my book bag and followed Devon to the door. He opened the door for me; after I passed through; he shut off the lights and locked the door. As we headed
toward the teacher parking lot, Devon said. “I think this will be good for you; you have to pass my class. If you don’t, you will have to repeat the same grade next year; with a little bit of my tutoring, you will be passing my class in no time.”

I understood what he was trying to plant in my head. For a little bit of something gross, he would pass me. He didn’t think I could make up my grade, and he was probably right. I had no idea how to do any of this math, and I had a strong F to prove it. Yep, this is going to be my worst nightmare, all over again. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves;
I don’t think that really helped.

It was only about a three minute ride to Devon’s house. We didn’t really talk, but I noticed he checked me out a lot as he drove. He had looked me over before we had gotten into the car; at first it made me nervous. I thought that maybe he was remembering me, but then I realized he was just checking me out, and then it just made me sick. He obviously had plans for tonight, and I already knew what they were.

His house was nothing special; it was a ranch style home, but, then again, that's the only kind of house I saw in this town. He opened the door and went into his house; I started to follow when I felt something push me back.

Oh, crap, he has protection. Of course he does; how on earth could we have not thought about that. I would put money that every member of The Order has spells protecting their homes. I had to think fast; I had to get him to invite me in, but he wouldn’t want to do that.

I took two steps away from the door, then I half turned as if I were thinking about leaving, I had to play this right. “I don’t know; I don’t know if I should go in.” I said this very quietly but still loud enough for Devon to hear me. I tried to sound nervous.

Devon had stopped walking and was looking at me. “Don’t stand at the door; it’s rude, and we have work to do.”

That wasn’t an invite; I bet he never invites out of habit. I hope that the thought of getting lucky outweighed his good habits. “Well, Mr. Wright… I just don’t know if I should. I mean, do you think it will be ok if I come inside?”

I could see the impatience in his eyes; he then said. “It’s fine.”

Oh, come on, what do I have to do, to get an invite? “You’re right; I shouldn’t come in…thank you for your honesty. I will see you tomorrow then?” I hoped I could confuse him enough to invite me.

A look of confusion came over his face, so far so good. “No, that’s not what I said… I said you can come in.”

I hoped that worked. “Oh, I misunderstood you.” I slowly headed toward the door, I hoped he thought it was because I was nervous, but I didn’t want to be thrown back by the wall.

His invite had worked; I walked right in. Wow, that was a close call. Let’s just hope nothing else goes wrong with Plan A, now part 3. The best part is that, when I walked by Devon, he didn’t even realize that he had invited me in. Devon closed the door behind me; with my hearing, I could hear the lock click.

We sat on the coach.  He had a math book, paper and a pen sitting on a coffee table. “Let us talk about how we can get that grade from an F, to a B, or maybe even an A; it’s all up to you.”

“Whatever it takes,” I said, but I was thinking, over my dead body. He wasn’t going to was
te any time, neither would I, “Can you excuse me for just one second? I need to use the restroom.”

Devon smiled, and said, “Of course you can;
it’s right down the hall. I should have asked before we sat down.”

I got up and walked down the hall he had pointed at. I went into the restroom, shut and locked the door. Plan A is stupid; there was a little window toward the top of the wall, above the bathtub. It was one of those windows that you couldn’t open, or see out of.

So now for Plan A, part 4, I hope we have thought out Plan B better than this. I hid the stone between the floor and the wood trim. I wedged it in there pretty good; there was no way you could see it, and you would have to pry it out. There was no way the vacuum cleaner could suck it out; boy, I hope that’s good enough. Now I needed to get out of here.

I started to gag myself, making the sound of throwing up. After about two or three minutes of this, Devon came to the door. He knocked lightly then said, “Is everything ok in there?”

I didn’t answer him; instead I made a loud throwing up noise. After heaving a few more times, I said. “Sorry, I guess I am sick.”

I flushed the toilet, and then went back to heaving; after a minute or more of doing this, I flushed the toilet again.  I came out of the bathroom with my hand over my mouth.

“I think I need to go home.”

Devon looked disappointed, but it’s not like he wanted t
o fool around with a girl that was puking.

Devon said with disappointment, “We should do this another time. Let me grab a trash can and some trash bags for the car, and we will go. We can do this when you feel better.”

He said this as he headed into the kitchen; he came back carrying a small white trash can, and some trash bags. We had just pulled out of Devon’s driveway, when the next problem arose.

“Where do you live?” asked Devon.

I couldn’t take him to the White’s house without time to think about it; I just pointed, and Devon started to drive. We were now headed toward the residential area of Beaumont. I had no choice; I would have to pick out a random house and then hope no one was home.

“That’s my house; just drop me off here.”

“Ok, will you be alright?”

“Yes…” then I put my hand over my mouth as if I was about to puke all over his car. I jumped out and then yelled back. “Thanks for the ride.”

I headed toward this house using my second sight; I was watching for Devon’s car to pull away, but it didn’t. If I hadn’t of known what a creep he was, this would have been nice of him. He was waiting to make sure I made it inside the house ok. I decided on change of plan.. Plan A, part… I can’t even remember.

Crossing the lawn toward the side of the house, there was a wooden gate. Like a lot of houses in this area, the backyard was surrounded by a wooden fence. I reached up and grabbed the latch; finally, a bit of luck; it wasn’t
locked. I went in, half turned around and waved bye at Devon’s car, then shut the gate. Devon would just think that I used the back door.

As I looked through the crack of the slats in the gate, Devon finally pulled away. Then I heard the sound of growling. Oh great, I turned around only to see three giant Rottweiler’s growling at me.

I was standing in front of the gate, but the gate swung inward, and, when I tried to move forward, the dogs’ growls intensified. One of the dogs snapped at me; I guess I was about to be in my first dogfight.

As I got ready to fight, the dogs suddenly stopped growling. Then the dogs started barking; they started to bark what sounded like a song. They were barking Beethoven’s Fifth; they were barking and howling Beethoven.

I opened the gate to find Michael with the biggest grin. “Hurry up, before these dogs attract any more attention.”

As Michael and I hurried down these people’s front yard, I could see Ezra sitting in the passenger seat of Michael’s Jimmy. “I knew that you could control animals, but that was amazing.”

We both jumped into the truck; Michael tossed the truck in gear, and we were off. “I can show you how to do it if you like. Some vampires are better than others.”

Ezra said, “Animal control is difficult for most to learn, and few ever get as good as Michael. Don’t let him tell you how easy it is, or how in one lesson he will have you making dogs sing. Did you accomplish your mission?”

“Yes, I put the stone in a safe place, but this Plan A was not planned very well.”

Michael laughed, and so did Ezra; then Ezra said. “You handled it well. You will learn that there is no such thing as a perfect plan. You did well; you made it work, and you figured out what you needed to do and made it happen. I was extremely proud about how you tricked him to invite you in.”

“I just hope that our plan for David isn’t so… haphazard.”

Michael said in a very reassuring voice. “David’s part is the easiest part; he doesn’t have to deal with anyone. The only thing that could cause irreversible damage is if Devon found out about David’s involvement, and that is why we cannot let Devon go home until David is safely away.”

Ezra added. “Things still could go bad, Melabeth. If things go bad, Alice and I have set up for departure. We can’t have The Order coming after us in force. We will be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.”