The Turning (36 page)

“Thanks, sis. I don’t want anyone to know. I feel like such a loser,” he muttered as he blushed.

“I know, but this is not you! This is something that happened to you, not something you did or caused, okay?” I told him. He nodded and wiped his eyes. It killed me to see him this upset, and I wanted to strangle Liz. “Want to take my new car for a spin? We could go get your stuff back from Liz. That way you’d have support and keep your cool.”

He nodded again and gave me another hug.

“Okay, wash your face, change, and make sure you look hot and calm. I’ll go tell Mom we’re going out.” I closed the door behind me and walked down the stairs, trying to stay calm. When I got downstairs my mom and Nicole stopped talking and turned to me.

“What’s going on, Kel?” my mom demanded and I could see the worry in her eyes.

“Liz broke up with Matt. She’s been cheating on him. He’s broken up about it in the worst way. I’m going to take him to Liz’s place and get his stuff. I’ll try not to kill her.”

I grabbed my car keys from my dad since he just got back taking Nicole’s for a test drive. Nicole grabbed hers as well, since she was blocking me in. We met Matt at the stairs and I threw him the keys to my new car, and he gave me a half smile.

“You told them,” he accused. “I asked you not to.”

“Matt, you have nothing to be ashamed of. It’s happened to all of us.” I could tell he wasn’t mad, just sad. Sadder than I had ever seen him besides when someone had died in our family. We left after moving the cars and I waved to my parents, just to let them know it was all okay and that I would handle everything. We didn’t talk until we got close to Liz’s parents’ house, then he pulled over.

“I’m not sure I can do this, Kel,” he admitted, his voice shaking.

“Then let me do it. We’re only a few blocks away. I can walk there,” I offered, waiting for his response. When he nodded to me, I gave him a kiss on the cheek and got out of the car. I ran at human speed so it took me a few extra minutes to get there, but when I got to the house I listened for heartbeats. I only heard one—younger heart. Figuring it was Liz, I rang the bell.

“What are you doing here?” she sneered almost snarling at me when she opened the door.

“I’m here to get Matt’s things,” I snarled right back… Except mine was actually scary. “He didn’t have time to see your whore face, so I came.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, bitch!” Liz shouted. I had the screen door open and my hand around her throat, lifting her off the ground, the second she finished.

“You’re going to give me all of Matt’s stuff unharmed, and everything he ever gave you. Then you’re never, ever going to contact him again! I can snap your neck before you can even blink so listening to me would be your best bet. You understand what I mean, or do I have to rip your throat out?” I lowered her to the ground again.

“I get it. I knew you wouldn’t have the guts to do anything. I always hated you and thought your relationship with Matt was creepy. I mean who idolized their siblings?” she threw back at me.

“I have more than the guts,” I assured her, throwing her back into the living room and instantly leaping on top of her. “Don’t take my lack of ripping you apart that I don’t have the guts to do it. Every inch of me is wanting to tear your throat out. I just don’t think that a slut like you is worth it. I could dump your body and remove any evidence I was ever here. But I feel that would take too much time on my part and I want you to live to regret your decision.

“You will never find anyone as good as my brother willing to give you a second glance. The reason you hated our relationship is because you knew eventually I would get him to see rationally. You knew in your piss ant little head that you weren’t anywhere near his league. Now get his shit before I change my mind.”

She was gone a few minutes, walking funny back towards me, and I realized I’d hurt her a bit. I also smelled that she wet herself. I guess I got her scared after all. I laughed as I took the box from her.

“Now get out of my house, bitch, and don’t come back!” she yelled.

“I will leave when I am good and ready. Don’t ever tell me what to do,” I seethed and my fangs popped out. “Do you understand how quickly I could kill you? If I was a bitch, you’d already be dead. I hope I made myself perfectly clear that you are not to ever talk to or see my brother again.” I put extra emphasis on my last words.

“What are you?” she whimpered on the verge of tears.

“The perfect killer, and you’re nothing but prey. You ever tell anyone, they won’t believe you and they’ll lock you up for good. While I like the idea of that, I will be back to take care of you if you tell. Trust me, I will know if you tell. I can read your mind.” I knew that last part wasn’t true, but I enjoyed torturing her too much.

With that I left, smiling all the way back to my car. Matt popped the trunk and I took out what I knew he gave her and hid it in the back of the trunk. I knew he wouldn’t want it back, but I couldn’t deal with that bitch having anything he gave her.

“Everything go okay?” Matt asked me as I got back into the car and he drove away.

“Yep, she cried, said she was sorry and that she didn’t deserve you. She also said she wouldn’t ever contact you again and wished you the best.” I was lying through my teeth, but I couldn’t bear to see him in so much pain. He nodded and we drove back to my parents’ house in silence.

When we pulled into the driveway, everyone was sitting on the front porch. My mom went and gave Matt a big hug while I got the box out of the trunk and walked over to them.

“Everything okay?” my dad whispered in my ear.

“It will be, and I promise she won’t ever bother him again,” I said with a big smile.

“Really? And how do you know that?”

“I seem to be very scary when I want to be, so much so she wet herself. You mess with the bull, you get the horns, and no, I didn’t beat her. I only used my words and face to scare her that bad.” I couldn’t even hide my big grin at remembering how she wet herself.

“Good, I’m glad.” My dad smiled, which almost made my jaw hit the ground.

“You’re glad? I was waiting for a lecture!”

“Yes, I’m glad! She hurt my boy. I want her to suffer but I’m a man and a policeman. I can’t touch her or do anything to her without risking my job, but I’m glad you did it. I’m proud of you, kiddo, sticking up for your brother like that,” he finished as he put an arm around me.

“Nobody messes with my little bro. She’s lucky that’s all I did.”

“What are you two whispering about over there?” my mom asked, eyeing us up and down.

“Nothing!” we fibbed together, sounding very guilty. I continued, “We were just talking about my new kick-ass car.” She knew we were lying but didn’t want to out us in front of everyone. I went to Nicole’s car and grabbed one of the baskets of chocolates and gave it to Matt. “Chocolate doesn’t just help us girls. It helps everyone get out of a funk.”

“Always taking care of me, aren’t you, sis?”

“It’s my job, little brother, and I love doing it. Call me if you need me. You have my new pager number from the hospital. Emergencies only though, okay?”

“Yeah, I got it, Kel. I’ll be okay.”

We said our goodbyes, then Nicole and I got into our cars. I waved as I pulled out. It was reassuring to see my brother standing between my parents. I knew he was in good hands. Every ounce of self-control I had went into not steering my car back to Liz’s house and killing her. I kept cool and headed back to our apartment. I had decided what I was going to do with all the extra flowers.

“You okay?” Nicole asked me when I got out of my car.

“Yeah, I’m good. Just doing some thinking. Mainly how much I want to kill Liz. I made a mistake. I might have not been able to control my fangs,” I admitted slowly.

“You showed them to Liz? Oh god, that’s not good,” Nicole groaned.

“It’s fine. I scared her so bad she wet herself. I lied and told her I could read her mind. That if she told anyone, they wouldn’t believe her and lock her up, but I would kill her. She’s going to calm down, think they were fake, and forget about it. She’ll probably think I’m insane and be too scared to ever contact Matt.”

“Okay, good point but just be careful, Kelly. I couldn’t deal if anything ever happened to you, you know?” Nicole said.

“I know, nothing’s going to happen, I swear. Now what do you want to do with all the flowers and candy? I was thinking that we should bring a bunch of them to the hospital, and the stuffed animals to the children’s ward,” I suggested, smiling.

“I think that’s a great idea, sweetie” Nicole put her arm around me. We went into the apartment and loaded up with as many flowers as we could grab and walked over to the hospital. We started at the surgical ward and left one vase at each of the nurse’s stations. There were lots of thanks as we told them we were just buttering them up for all the help we would need. One of the nurses laughed and told us that no intern had brought them flowers before they even started.

We went back to the apartment, gathered up some stuffed animals and went back to the hospital. This time we hit the children’s ward and started with the kids with cancer. One of the nurses took us around and filled us in on their conditions. We gave the life size bears to a couple of terminal kids. It was hard not to cry, but we put on a brave faces for them.

Maybe oncology won’t work for me. I’d drown in grief if this was what I was around day in and day out.

We finished handing them out and decided that was enough for the day. It was around dinner time and I was hungry as could be. When we got back into the apartment I went to my closet and grabbed some blood.

Drinking it, I walked back towards the kitchen and stopped to grab some of the cards off the flowers. I met Nicole in the kitchen where she was eating some cereal and opening some of the other cards. “Sorry, Kel, I was just going to flip through some of these and get them out of your way.”

“It’s all good. I appreciate your help. Anything in there besides sorry?” I asked, not sure if I wanted the answer.

“There are sorry and I love you messages mostly. I’ll pull out the ones that are different from that, and you can read just those, okay?” Nicole suggested, patting me on the arm. “So what are you going to do? Forgive him?”

“I’m not sure yet. I want to talk to Jules first,” I sighed, pulling out my cell phone and dialing. “Hey, Jules, it’s Kelly. I wanted to see how everything is going.”

“Hello, my dear. I am here at Brian’s as we speak. He seems to have employed most of the florists and gift shops in the area,” Julie drawled.

“Oh not just that, a
car dealership
as well. I brought some of the flowers and baskets to my family and flowers and stuffed animals to the hospital. My apartment is still full of gifts.”

“Well I hope you are enjoying it. I am glad you were able to share them. I would never have thought to give them to the hospital, but I am not surprised you did. I will call you as soon as I am through with Brian. I’m not finished with his lecture. Ta ta, my dear.” I laughed, reminding myself how old she was because really who says
ta ta
anymore?

“How’s Jules doing?” Nicole inquired and I could tell from the soft smile on her face it was because she really liked Jules.

“Seems she’s still giving Brian the lecture, and he confessed to sending half the flowers and presents in the city. She said she’d call me back when she was done with Brian and fill me in. That’s a good dinner there.”

“Yeah, probably not, but I was craving some Lucky Charms. Do you miss real food?”

“Sometimes, like chocolate and all the bad stuff for me. Though I have to say there have been a few times I was craving a nice, big, fresh salad,” I admitted, flipping through some of the cards. None of them were in Brian’s handwriting until Nicole handed me an envelope.

“This one was given to me from one of the delivery guys,” Nicole told me. I opened it up and this one was in Brian’s handwriting. I walked back into the living room with my second pint of blood to read it alone.

My Dearest Kelly,

I miss you. I wanted to say that first before anything else and I am sure that I went overboard with the apology gifts. I did not know what to do. As I am sure you noticed that I am not very good with personal situations. My trying to help you was way out of line and I did not realize it would affect you in such a way as it did. I would
never
intentionally try to make your life harder, risk your job, or embarrass you. I apologize from the bottom of my heart. I just wanted you to know that. I would understand you if you never want to see me again, or I understand if you need time. Please let me know what I can do to make this better, if anything.

Love Always,

Mo mhúirnín bán,

Brian

I knew in my heart that he was telling the truth and I thought I could forgive him. If I could, it would take time. Not that I was sure how much time. I went back into the kitchen, handed Nicole the note, and went to get more blood. I knew I would have a rough day tomorrow, and I wanted to be prepared as much as possible.

When I got back in my closet, I pulled out some blood and loaded it into the little cooler Brian got me. In the tinted bottles, it should be fine, as long as I didn’t get caught. I would have to be sneaky. Once those were ready to go, I grabbed two extra pints to drink now.

Just then my cell rang and I answered it. “Hello?”

“Kelly, my dear, it is Jules,” Julie announced in the phone.

“Hey, Jules, you just finish with him
now
?”

“Yes, do you mind if I stop by again before I get back on the jet tonight?”

“Not at all. You are
always
welcome in my home. I’ll see you in a bit.” I went to the kitchen to tell Nicole that Jules was swinging by and grabbed some of the flowers on the way back to my room.

I thought it would be a nice thing to wake up to as I put some on my dresser and the bookcase by the window. Then I lay down on my bed, studying some more before Jules got there. That’s what I was doing, drinking my pint of blood when I heard the knock at the door. Smelling to see who it was before I reached the door, I opened it with a smile. “Jules!”