Queen of Hearts
I walked down a narrow stairway into a little underground club. This club is not very well known. It's one of those you-know-a-friend-who-knows-a-friend-who-can-get-you-on-the-list kind of place. Luckily the bouncer at the front door was not as strong willed as he looked. One cold-blooded killer stare from me and he folded like a card table. I walked up to the bar and ordered a drink. I had to look as human as possible for this to work. The bartender tried to make small talk as he poured my drink. I nodded and tried to act as polite as possible. As he was talking it reminded me why I lived in the woods away from everyone, I hated people. I grabbed my drink off the bar-top and walked over to a table in the corner of the room. I sat down in a chair that was covered in shadows and had a perfect view of the door. Now all I could do was wait. I swirled the little plastic drink stirrer around and around the glass as I scanned the room. There were only a few people in the club, it was still early. There was a couple across the room laughing and whispering to each other, thinking they were keeping their little inside jokes to themselves, not with me in the room. They were giggling on about something petty, as humans always do. The bartender was wiping the bar and humming to himself. I could tell that I had awhile to go before she got here because the music had not started to play in the other room.
I looked at my watch, it was ten o'clock. I looked up towards the door, and there she was walking down the stairs. She had jet black hair that had grown down to the middle of her back. Her pale white skin was as perfect as a porcelain doll, not a bump or blemish anywhere. She was wearing high heels, fish net stockings, black shorts, and a glittery halter top. Following her in was a medium height young man with the same perfect pale skin and striking beauty. He was in stone-washed jeans and a black button up shirt. The warm-yellow light caused the blonde highlights in his dirty blonde hair to shimmer. They made their way towards the door that led to the dance floor. She was in front walking like she didn't care whether he was still following her and he was following her like an obedient servant. They both walked though the doorway and I waited a few moments before walking into the next room.
I walked to the side of the dance floor to scan the room for her. I could feel the music's strong beat though my shoes. Tons of bodies were moving in all different directions but all guided by the same beat. I spotted her across the room. She was scanning the room just as I was, but she was looking for her prey. She hadn't found a human to latch onto yet, so this was the perfect time to approach her. I weaved my way through the crowd of dancing bodies towards her. Once I was standing in front of her I introduced myself.
"Hi, I'm Caleb," I said.
"Hello," she said slowly, she hasn't noticed that I wasn't human, that I was like her. I tried as hard as I could to cover my strong scent and smell human. I showered and washed my hair and put cologne on. Apparently it was working.
"Could I have this dance?" I asked her just as the song changed.
She looked me up and down for a moment then said, "Yes you can." She grabbed my hand and pulled me through the people into the middle of the dance floor. Instead of turning around to face me, she took my other hand and started to move the back-side of her body around in a circular motion on my front. If I wasn't trying to act low key I would have made a fuss about this, but instead I copied what all the other young men were on the dance floor were doing and moved along with her.
When the song ended, she turned around and whispered in my ear, "Do you want to take this someplace more…quiet?" I nodded my head once and she guided me through the crowd to a storage room in the back of the club. She pulled me into the room and pushed me up against a set of shelves. She started to kiss me. First on the lips and then on the cheek and jaw.
Once my lips were free to speak I said, "Are you sure we should be in here?" Like I was afraid of getting caught, like I couldn't kill anyone who tried to stop me with one motion.
"Yeah, it's fine," she said, "I know the guy who owns the place." I didn't know whether that was true or if she was just telling me that to shut me up. She went back to kissing me. Once again the kisses started on my lips, then moved to my cheek, then my jaw, then my neck. At first the kisses were soft. Then the strong burn of venom filled my neck. A second later she spat loudly on the front of my shirt.
"How could you have fooled me? You're not human, you're a vampire!" she yelled. I still haven't figured out how they knew to come, but in that instant two short vampires that look like twins and the men she came in with appeared in the room. "Snap his legs off!" she ordered, "I'm feeling nice tonight, I won't leave you in a pile of ashes on the floor, I'll just have my guards teach you a little lesson, so you don't try to take over my turf again." The next thing I knew the dirty blond man was holding me down while the other two men broke my legs off mid- thigh, one man to each leg.
* * *
I watched the trees fly past my car windows as I pushed my Accord 20 miles over the speed limit. I slowed to pull into a driveway that looked like a side street. I hope this is the right place? I thought to myself. I started down the curves of the driveway towards the house. As I came around the last corner I saw a large, modern style house with large windows and wood panels on parts of the outside. I parked my car in front of the house and headed towards the door. I skipped up the steps with my hands in my coat pockets. I paused at the door and took an unnecessary breath in but before I could knock on the door a petite young lady with short brown hair answered the door.
"Hello," I said with surprise.
"You want to talk to Carlisle?" she asked.
"Yes I would," I said. Either Carlisle had many unannounced guests or this girl could read my mind.
I was seated on a spotless white couch and told to wait for Carlisle to come downstairs. A moment later he came down the stairs followed by a tall, lean woman that I assumed to be his mate from what I've been told about this coven. He was dressed in tones of white and beige like he was trying to match his house. They both walked into the living room and sat on a love seat across from me. He sat squarely in the middle of one of the cushions while his mate perched herself on the arm of the chair as if to separate herself from the conversation but still be able to listen.
"My daughter has told me that you've come to speak to me about something," he spoke formally as if this was a job interview.
"Yes," I said, "My name is Caleb and I live on the outskirts of Forks. I've chosen a lifestyle similar to that of you and your coven, meaning that I like you am constantly worried about my cover being blown and people finding out what I really am. One day I noticed that there seemed to be the same kinds of stories showing up in the paper. Men being found in hotel rooms or the back rooms of clubs, killed by some type of bite. This has puzzled the police because when people are bitten they assume an animal and how could an animal be killing people indoors. So I did some digging and asked around in the small group of other vampires I know. This nomad I know told me that when he was in Seattle he was part of a coven led by a woman who calls herself The Queen of Hearts. He told me they are like a vampire gang, but instead of being out to make money they are out for blood. He also told me that this Queen of Hearts likes to kill her victims by seducing them and then killing them. Sometimes she gets sloppy and doesn't cover her tracks. That's how they end up in the paper. I want to try to stop her and her gang so their activities don't expose us."
"Ok," he said thoughtfully, "what do you suggest we do."
"I don't know, that's why I came here to talk to you. I don't have a plan or the resources to take her on." I said. Then the young woman who opened the door came into the room with a tall young man who had curly blonde hair and a body covered with scars from vampire bites. Carlisle stood up to introduce them.
"Caleb, this is my daughter Alice and my son Jasper, Alice, Jasper, this is Caleb."
"Hello," Alice said with a little wave.
"Hello, it's very nice to meet you," Jasper said and then shook my hand.
Right after those introductions where done two more young adults walked into the room. The tall, brown haired young man looked less than average in appearance next to the long, lean beautiful blonde young lady that walked in holding his hand. Carlisle introduced me to these two people as his other son and daughter. The young man, whose name was Emmett sat on a chair on the side of the couch and the young women, Rosalie sat on his lap.
After those introductions, I said, "Carlisle, you don't need to use the titles that you use with the humans. It's okay, I'm one of you and we both know these aren't really your sons and daughters."
"Yes, they aren't," he said sounded a little insulted, "but I think of them as my family, not just clan members, maybe you don't understand that because you live alone."
"Maybe," was all I could think of to say. I heard the doorknob turn and whipped around to see who was coming though the door. A tall young man with brown hair walked in with his arm around a strikingly beautiful young woman with long brown hair and bright red eyes. As they made their way into the living room a small child came out from behind the young man's leg. She spotted me from across the room and ran into the living room to see who I was. From far away she look like a human child but when I saw her up close I knew that wasn't true, there was something too perfect about her. I stared at her blankly for a few moments before the other too entered the living room.
"It's not what you think," the young man said. Then they all proceeded to explain to me the story of these two teens and their child.
"Wow," was all I could think of to say after hearing their story.
"So," the young woman whose name was Bella said, "We all have a story of how we were turned and as you just heard mine is a little unusual. So if you don't mind me asking, what's your story Caleb?"
"Well, I guess if I expect you to help me you deserve to know more about me," I took a long pause taking a deep breath in. I felt like this was necessary, like I had to gather strength to bring up these bad memories again. "It was 1966 and I was 20. I had just finished my second year of college and was out for the summer. Almost everyday during the summer I went to this diner and there was this girl who worked there. She was beautiful, petite, tan with long brown hair. One day when she was on break she came and sat in the booth I was sitting in and we talked. We made a habit of this for a few weeks. One Saturday she told me that there was going to be this awesome party and that I should go with her. That night we walked about a half a mile into the woods that were behind someone's house and there was the party. A bunch kids sitting around a fire drinking and chatting. My date and I snuck away from the party deeper into the woods. Let's just say I was … distracted when two people came out of the darkness and attacked us. One pushed her to the ground while the other pinned me up against a tree. He bit me and the burning shot though my whole body. I just started to lose consciousness when he let go and run off. The next three days I was lying there in those woods in the worst pain I had ever experience in my life. For weeks I didn't know what happened to me, but something was telling me it was something a doctor couldn't fix. Then I got into a fight with my best friend. He wanted to know why I had been acting so weird lately. He got mad because I wouldn't tell him; he didn't know that it was because I didn't know. I got so mad that my instincts took over. His blood smelt so sweet I couldn't stop myself. I killed him, left him right there in his apartment too. I just ran after I realized what I had done, what I was." They were all silent for a moment.
"The girl I was with wasn't so lucky. She died the night we were attacked. Now that I think about it, maybe she was the lucky one." There was another moment of silent while the bitter taste of bad memories rose in my throat. Then there was a knock at the door.
"I'll get it," Bella said, "It's probably Jacob, I'll tell him to come back later." She walked over to the door and opened it.
She said," Hi Jake…Maybe you should come back later, this isn't such a good time."
The voice on the other side of the door said, "What do you mean this isn't a good time, is Renesmee ok? " Before Bella could answer the boy charged threw the door. The boy's wet dog smell hit my nose the moment he walked in. that smell was the sign of a fight. I got down into a crouch and bared my teeth. I began to hiss at him to see if I could scare him off.
"No! It's ok, Jacob is a friend of ours, he's not here to fight," said Carlisle.
"What?" I said, "Your friends with this mutt?"
"Hey, watch it bloodsucker," he shouted at me. I snarled at him again.
"Everyone! Please sit down and I will explain everything," Carlisle said. I sat back down and the boy sat Indian-style on the floor next to the little girl. Carlisle proceeded to explain why the boy was welcome there which added to this family's colorful history.
"So let me get this straight, a werewolf is in love with your toddler," I said to Edward and Bella. Then I turned to Jacob, "You sicko!"
"No, it's not like that!" Jacob yelled, "Imprinting is different then just being attracted to someone. I want what's best for her. So I'll be whatever she needs me to be, big brother, best friend, Ken when we play Barbies." I tried to suppress my laughter, but a small snort escaped. The thought of this large, muscular Indian boy sitting on the floor playing dolls was just a little too much for me.
"Trust me," Edward said, "If I couldn't read Jacob's thoughts to know his intentions are pure, his four paws would be scattered across Forks."
"Wait, you can read his thoughts?" I asked.
"Oh, I forgot to mention that during our introductions," Carlisle said," Some of my family has special abilities."
"Yes," said Edward, "I can hear people's thoughts, Alice can see the future, and Jasper can control people's emotions, and Renesmee can show people her thoughts. And last but not least, Bella is a shield." Before I could say a word Renesmee ran up to me and put her little hand on my cheek. Then suddenly images of her and the Indian boy playing flashed through my head. As quickly as they came the images were gone and the little girl was sitting back down on the floor.
"Wow!" I said," That is impressive. Now what is a shield? I've only met a few vampires with any special abilities and I've never heard of that one."
"I have a mental shield, It blocks out special abilities that involve the mind, like Edward's."
"So you can't read her mind?" I asked Edward.
"Yes. I can't read her mind. Sometimes she can spread her shield around other people and then because I'm inside the shield, I can read her thoughts. But it's very hard for her to do and takes a lot of her strength."
"Oh," was all I could think to say. I was trying to take all this information in.
"And how can you control other people's emotion?" I said to Jasper, "How does that work?" He said nothing. Then I felt a sudden change. I felt overwhelmingly sad. I regretted living alone and never trying to meet someone or even make a close friend. Suddenly my life seemed so depressing. If I had to ability to cry, I would of, in front of all these people. Then I could feel the sadness' clutch release me. I felt totally fine, maybe a little better then when I came in.
"Wow, that's some serious power you have there. Don't fool around with that," I said still in shock from how deeply the sadness had taken over me. They all softy chuckled at my reaction.
"Caleb, I know the Cullens have a lot of friends, alive and undead, but I never heard them mention you," Jacob said.
"Yes, I know, I have never met the Cullens in person until today, but I'd hear their story many times before and I thought that they would help me?" I said.
"Help you with what?" he said.
"There is a coven in Seattle that are sloppy with their killings," I said, "I'm afraid that they will cause suspicion."
"So what's the plan?" Jacob asked.
"Well I'm not quite sure, I came here for the Cullens' advice," I said.
"I say you take them out," said Jacob.
"Kill them?" said Carlisle, "Jacob, we can't kill them just for making different lifestyle choices then us." There was a moment of silence as everyone paused to think of a suggestion.
Then Bella jumped up and yelled, "I've got it! Jake, do you remember how the Volturi acted when they saw you and the pack that day in the clearing. Cauis was practically shaking in his 18th century boots. The vampires that aren't from Forks don't know your pack's story and think you're Children of the Moon, real werewolves, like the ones they have in Europe. So maybe we can use the pack to shake them up. Do you think the rest of the pack would be willing to do that?"
"Yeah I think they would," said Jacob.
So here's the plan we came up with. Alice is going to give me a make-over so that the Queen of Hearts wouldn't recognize me. This time I will not pretend to be human. Then I'm going to go back to the club and meet the Queen of Hearts and make a "hunting date." I'm going to tell her that I know this clearing where there are usually helpless campers to feed on. Then when it's time for our "date" I will take her to the clearing where the wolf pack and the Cullens will be waiting to give her a good talking to.
"Do you have to cut my hair?" I whined.
"Yes, I do," said Alice.
"Well ok, just don't anything too crazy, I'm a 63 year old man you know, "I said
"Yes but you're a 63 year old man with the face of a 20 year old, so you need a 20 year old's haircut."
Jasper poked his head though the bathroom door and said,"You won't win Caleb, Alice will do whatever she wants whether you like it or not, so you should quit while your ahead." Alice just gave him a look as he walked away.
"Ok," I signed,"Go ahead, cut it." I watched little pieces of my brown hair float to the floor as I listened to the sound of the scissors and Alice humming a little tune. Several minutes later she pulled out some gel from one of the cabinets and started to fingering it through my hair.
After every hair was how she wanted it she said, "Ok, I'm finished. Take a look."
I stood up from the kitchen chair I was sitting in and looked in the mirror, "I look like a porcupine."
"No you don't! You look great," Alice said and then she dashed out of the room. She came back with a navy blue dress shirt, a gray t-shirt to go under it, and a pair of black jeans with gray stonewashing on the legs.
"Put these on," she said as she handed me the clothes. She turned around, left the room, and closed the door behind her. I put on the clothes. I stepped out of the bathroom and walked down the hall to find Alice, she was in one of the bedrooms.
"Do you have a belt for these pants, Alice?" I asked.
She quickly glanced at me and then answered, "Why? They look fine."
"No, they don't, "I said, "They are too big in the waist they hang down past my boxer shorts!"
She chuckled and then said, "They're supposed to be like that."
Later I thought that I would be better received by the Queen of Hearts if I was introduced by someone she knew. So I called a nomad friend of mine who was part of her coven when he lived in Seattle and told him about what we were going to do and that I needed his help. He agreed to come into town and introduce me to the Queen of Hearts.
I waited outside with my back against the brick wall of the club. I watched the people file into the club in little groups of 3 or 4. The bouncer would check their I.D.'s and then open the velvet rope for them to walk in. Three in from the front of the line was a beautiful woman with long black hair in club clothes. There she was. She got to the front of the line where the bouncer opened the velvet rope without a second thought. I heard familiar foot steps coming from the other direction and turned.
"You're late," I said.
"Hey, the cool kids are never early," my old friend Justin said, he hadn't changed, he was always late.
"The Queen of Hearts just went in and her skin is as cool as the rest of us," I said. We got in line and after a long wait we went into the club. We walked in to find the Queen of Hearts at the bar flirting with the bartender. She was clearly attracted to him but I figured that she didn't pick him to be one of her victims because a new bartender would raise questions.
"Well there she is," Justin said, "Let's go talk to her." He started towards her and I followed him.
"Hey, long time no see," he said when he was standing next to the bar stool she was sitting on.
"Hello," she said as she stood up to give Justin a hug and a kiss on both cheeks like she was in Europe. "What brings you back to this neck of the woods."
"I'm visiting a friend, this is Caleb," he said making a gesture towards me.
"Well Hello there," she said eyeing from my shoes to my forehead.
"Hello, it's very nice to meet you," I said.
"No, the pleasure is all mine," she said still eyeing me.
"Hey, they're playing my song," said Justin. "I'll leave you two to talk." He walked away dancing to the song that was steaming in from the other room.
I sat down on the bar stool next to her and tried to make small talk. When the bartender came over I ordered us both a drink. Even if we weren't going to drink them, I didn't want to take up two of his bar stools and not order anything. This place has to make money somehow. We actually found thing to talk about which I was afraid wasn't going to happen. We talked about our favorite movies and T.V. shows. We even talked about books which surprised me since she didn't seem like the reading type. If I was human and started talking to her, I wouldn't even have known that she shamelessly killed innocent men at night to feed. There was a pause in the conversation so I took this opportunity to ask her what I came here to ask her.
"You know what," I said, "I know this place, it's this clearing where couples go camping or kids party and now that the weather is good there are people there every weekend. It's in the middle of nowhere so when it gets dark you can just…"
"Ooh," I was glad she cut me off. I hated the way I sounded, like a heartless monster. "That sounded like fun," she said.
"So I thought that sometime we could…" I paused not knowing how to phase it," Go."
"Sure. How about this weekend," she said, she must have really liked me to want to go out that soon, or she was really thirsty.
"Great," I said, then I gave her my address and we decided on a time to meet.
* * *
As I was sitting on my couch waiting for the Queen of Hearts I heard a knock on my door. At first I thought it was her, but then I opened the door and saw it was Edward.
"Oh hello," I said, "Come in." Edward took a few steps into my small cabin.
"Jacob and the rest of the pack are in the clearing, so are the rest of my family. I just wanted to come and tell that everything is all set."
"Ok, great."
"Jacob wanted to come and tell you himself, but since I can run at superhuman speed without having to take my clothes off, I thought it best that I come instead."
"Well thank you for saving me from that," I said.
"I better get back," he said, "she's coming." Oh right. The mind reader can hear people coming even if they move silently. He was out the door in a blink of an eye. I walked out my door and onto my front steps and saw the Queen of Hearts skidding to a stop a few feet from my front door.
"Hello," I called to her as I walked towards her.
"Are you ready to go?" she said.
"Yes," I said, "Let's go. " I stated off jogging and turn to look back at her. I motioned for her to follow me. When she was close behind when I went of into a full run.
We got to the clearing where the Cullens were standing in a semi-circle. She spotted them and came to a halt.
"Hey! They're not campers," she said.
"No we're not," said Carlisle.
"They're friends of mine," I said, "They came here because they want to talk to you about something, I do too. Your hunting habits seem to be newsworthy. Your victims are making it into the a paper little more than we would like. See we don't feed on humans, and we try to live a human lifestyle. So if you keep slipping up and that raises suspicions, we don't want eyes to turn to us."
"So…What am I suppose to do? A girl's got to eat," she said.
"Well, we would just like your…eating to stop making it into the paper," I said.
"Oh yeah," she said, "Who's going to stop me? You and what army?"
I paused for a moment then said, "Guys, you can come out now." Then four huge wolves came out of the woods and were now standing 25 yards away in the back of the clearing. I had never seen the pack before, so even I was surprised by their size. The Cullens had told me that they were big, but being told and seeing it for myself were two different things. I turned around to see that I was not the only person taken back by the wolves. The Queen of Hearts was staring at them, her eyes as large as saucers. Then the pack started to move closer. As they moved closer she started to back up. By the time they were stand behind the Cullens she was babbling incomprehensively.
Then she yelled, "Ok…ok…ok," and turned around and ran out of sight.
"Do you think she got the point?" Emmett asked with laughter in his voice.
"Yeah," I said, "I think she got it."
There was a moment of silence and then Carlisle said, "Come back to the house with us Caleb, we would love to have you."
"Yeah, the game is coming on soon," said Emmett, "Come on."
"Ok," I said meekly. Anything was better than watching this endless life pass by slowly alone in my house.
* * *
I was tracing the lines of the knots in the Cullens' dinning room table with my eyes. I was pulled out of the trance by Carlisle.
"Caleb, you seem distracted," he said.
"I was just thinking," I said, "…about the Queen of Hearts, she's like a bully on the playground. She has her followers, the brawn to her brains, the people who do all the dirty work so her hands stay clean. But without them, without her back-up, she's a coward. You all saw, without her pawns to fight for her against the wolves, she ran scared. I guess I find it funny that even in the vampire world we have playground bullies causing trouble."
"I agree," Carlisle said with a small, half-hearted chuckle.
"Well," said Edward, "Every bully meets their match one day, and I think the Queen of Hearts has realized that she has met hers."
"I think so too," I said.
The End
So that's it. Leave me some reviews to tell me what you think. I feel like I'm not finished with Caleb, but I don't know exactly what I want to do. So keep your eyes out for more.