Wake of Darkness (19 page)

“How did you find out…you know:
that you’re…?”

“Different?” he added, to which
they both snickered; the word didn’t do them justice.

“Yeah.”

“I shall tell you that story some
other day, when I have more time,” he replied and glanced toward the door. “In
short, I learned it from an enemy, but I suppose that goes without saying.”

*

Everything is in black and
white. I walk down a gray path that is overhung with arching trees, their black
limbs creating a canopy over me and blocking out the moon, though light from
its fullness is evident on the path. I wear a luxurious red ball gown with
heavy taffeta skirts. I look down at my left hand and recognize that something
is missing there, but I don’t know what.

The path winds around in a
switchback so I can look to my left and see, through the trees, the part I have
already walked upon. I know my goal is through the archway created by the trees
up ahead, but I don’t know what I’m looking for.

A white wolf watches me from the
misty forest which surrounds me. He is not threatening and I’m not scared. He
stares at me for a moment and then turning, he walks away from me back into the
trees. His movements draw my eye back to the path to my left, before it winds
around the corner.

Walking up the path towards me
is a teenage boy, with black spiky hair and bangs that cover one eye. He wears
a red and black striped hoodie and I’m more nervous about his presence than the
lone wolf’s. He turns the corner and passes me though, in his own world,
without even looking at me before he suddenly disappears before my eyes.

I gather up my large skirts and
notice just now that my hair is incredibly long—and golden—and it dawns on me
that my hair is very strange. I look back up the path and continue in the same
direction, along the soft soil. I stop suddenly as another wolf crosses in
front of me. He is already through the archway and he stops to look at me. He
is beckoning me to follow him. Grasping my dress, I fearlessly start up the
path toward him, walking quickly.

As I step through the archway,
I’m suddenly in a different place. I look down and my pretty dress is gone. In
its place, I wear jeans and a tight black t-shirt. My hair is my own and pulled
back into a ponytail. I look around and I remember this. I am in the nursing
home where I’d first—and last—met my grandmother.

There she is, lying in her bed.

‘She was a little hussy, your
mama!’ she says. ‘Runnin’ off with that boy and gettin’ herself in trouble with
you!’

Right. My mom had left home when
she’d gotten pregnant with me, or at least that was the story. Who knows what
stories are true anymore?

‘Little ungrateful hussy!’

Does anyone actually say hussy
anymore? I look down at my grandmother, who is more than half crazy by this
point anyway.

‘Grandma, what was she like?’ I
ask.

‘A little spoiled thing!’ she
exclaims. ‘Always wantin’ the world on a silver platter. Thought she deserved
it all too!’

Okay, this is going nowhere,
fast. Just like when the visit had happened in real life. I know I’m dreaming.

‘Did you ever see her after I
was born?’ I ask.

‘Yeah, once,’ she answers and is
silent.

‘What was she like?’

‘Darlin’ I can’t remember what
she was like, but I do remember she looked sick. She was all pale in the face
and her eyes just didn’t look right.’

Her description hadn’t made any
sense when I’d heard it the first time, but now it did. Of course my mother
looked pale and her eyes were all wrong. She probably smelled different and
spoke differently, too.

Of course her mother would not
have known why the change had occurred, but reliving the conversation, I knew
this time around that my mother had become a vampire.

‘Grandma,’ I say, deviating from
the memory. I am dreaming, I reminded myself. ‘Grandma, she’s lost.’

‘Of course she’s lost, darlin’. Your
mama was a lost soul all her life.’

‘No, Grandma, I mean she’s not
your daughter anymore. She’s a monster.’ Why am I telling this frail old woman
all of this?

I hear a sound and I freeze in
my place. A woman walks in. She doesn’t acknowledge me; she must not be able to
see me.

‘Hello, Mother,’ she says and I
recognize instinctually that the voice is my mother’s.

‘Leslie! What the hell are you
doin’ here?’ my grandmother demands; she is panicking and I can’t do anything
to help her. I reach out to my grandmother, but I’m as effective as thin air.

My mother creeps to the bedside
and I can smell the sickening scent of her vampire self as she stirs the air
around her body. Why is this happening? This is so different than what had been
a relatively benign visit in reality.

I try to move; I try to yell,
but I can do neither. I can simply watch as my mother deliberately hovers over
my grandmother. She watches her daughter with fear in her eyes.

‘I’ve owed you a visit for a
while, Mother,’ she says.

‘You been busy. I understand,’
my grandmother says softly with fear in her voice.

I turn away. I can’t watch, because
I know what’s next. I can hear my grandmother gasp as my mother sinks her teeth
into her papery thin elderly skin. I feel the change in the room when my
grandmother’s life is ended and I look up to see my mother stand at the
bedside.

‘Better than you deserve,’ she
says bitterly, crudely wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

I am horrified and begin to cry…

And the tears were real when Sophie
woke up, even if her grandmother’s death hadn’t happened that way. She
had
passed away soon after Sophie had met her; from a stroke, not a vampire. But,
it didn’t make the dream any easier to bear.

She blinked at the sunlight that
streamed into the window. She must have fallen asleep while studying and slept
through the night. She sighed. Her breath was shaky.

She was used to having weird
dreams, it was true, but the merging of her grandmother’s memory and the image
of her mother as a vampire together didn’t make any sense.

What do they have in common?
She thought. She wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes and sat up on the
edge of the bed, still shaking a little, but quickly coming back to reality.
Probably
nothing.

There was a soft knock at the door
and she knew it was Alexander. She looked up as he opened it and peeked inside.

“Are you alright?” he asked, very
concerned. He’d probably seen the dream.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied with
a weak smile before adding, “thanks.” She wiped a tear that lingered on her
cheek.

He nodded and quietly, albeit
reluctantly, closed the door.

She sighed and ran her hands
through her hair, before diving into her closet to get dressed so that she
could join him as quickly as possible.

Chapter 17

Alexander sorted through some
papers for work and let his mind drift to Sophie, listening to the conversation
she was having – not because he wanted to necessarily, but because he was so
connected to her that he couldn't help it.

“Laney?” He overheard Sophie ask.

“Yeah?” Laney asked.

“I’ve been thinking about
something. Alexander told me that vampires are twice as strong as we are…so,
how was he able to get that one off of me so fast a few weeks ago?”

Alexander stopped what he was doing
and listened.

“Daylight,” replied Laney
matter-of-factly.

“Oh, right.”

“That, and he’s in love with you. He’d
die before he’d let anything bad happen to you.”

There was a long pause and
Alexander held his breath as he listened.

“I know.”

“Pizza dude!” Jim called out, so
that the whole house heard.

Alexander stepped into the hallway
and looked over the railing into the foyer below. Jim reached the door before
the delivery boy could manage to get up to the patio with the twelve pizzas he
had ordered.

“Come on, y’all!” Jim called. “Time
to eat.”

 “Holy crap!” Sophie exclaimed at
the sight and fell into gales of laughter.

Alexander walked into the room to
see her perched on one of the barstools, watching Jim stack a whole pizza on
his plate in a mountain of mozzarella and pepperoni, as Laney danced around the
room. Sophie looked up when she realized Alexander was there and held her hand
out to him for him to take. He walked to her. Wrapping his arm around her
waist, he kissed her on the top of the head.

“Hi Alex,” she whispered
contentedly.

“Yeah,
Alex
,” mocked Jim.

Alexander picked an apple up off of
the counter and hurled it at his head. Jim caught it and he hurled it back at
Alexander who snatched it out of the air before it reached him; he hadn’t even
looked up.

“That was
really
fast,” Sophie
said, frozen over a slice of pizza, her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open.

Jim looked at her and smiled. “You
have no clue what this guy can do. Trust me sis, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”

“Is
that
right?” She asked,
looking at Alexander with an interested but flirty look, a delicate eyebrow
rising in response to a sudden thought that ran through her mind.

Zoey smirked at the pair.

“Oh,
yuck!
” exclaimed Laney
from the other room. “Ew! Blech! Would you two keep your thoughts to yourself?”

“Stop listening!” Sophie called
back before Alexander kissed her lightly on the lips. “So…,” she prompted after
a moment.

“Yes?” Alexander asked, suspecting
something.

She looked like she was preparing
for a fight. “I need some hands-on experience. I don’t want to have to rely on
you or Jim to come save the day all the time, and it’s going to get worse.”

Alexander groaned.

“And,” she continued before he
could argue, “I want to go out with you and Jim tonight.”

He grimaced and she held a hand up
to keep him from saying no.

She looked at him almost
reproachfully. “I need you to teach me how to find them.”

Alexander shook his head in
response. “Sophie, you are not ready for…”

“I
am
, actually, Alex,” she
interrupted firmly, becoming more committed to her goal. “You’re not ready for
this, but I am.”

He opened his mouth to argue as his
grip around her waist tightened.

She shook her head. “I know I’m a
lot newer at this than you are, but I’ve relied on myself my whole life. If I
decide I can handle it, please let me try. I’m not as fragile as you think I
am—I think we’ve proven I can get an advantage over
you
if I try hard
enough. Besides, I need to be prepared. Isn’t it better that I see what this is
all about when it’s on
our
terms and when we’re fully prepared for what
could happen instead of waiting for them to hit me first? I mean, it doesn’t
look like they’re going to cut me slack anytime soon.”

He studied her face for a minute. Her
logic was solid and he really couldn’t argue. “Alright,” he finally consented,
“but under one condition.”

“What’s that?” Sophie asked.

“You do
exactly
what I say
when we are out there. I will not have you getting hurt.”

She nodded in agreement. “That’s what
I’m trying to prevent.” She strutted out of the room.

She grinned at Jim as he walked
into the room for his second helping. He turned in a circle, watching her walk
away and then settling his eyes on Alexander. “What’d I miss?”

“She’s going with you tonight,”
Zoey replied.

“Awesome!” Jim exclaimed, clapping
his hands together and ignoring Alexander’s grimace. He looked at Zoey. “You
going too?”

The redhead shrugged. “Might as
well. It’s been a while and it looks like we'll have a lot to deal with soon.”

“Nice.”

Zoey's eyes settled on Alexander's.
“She’ll be okay.”

“She needs to learn this stuff
sooner or later, you know,” Jim added. “She may be really good at it, who
knows?”