Chapter 4: Where to Keep Your Vampire!
"I am your Vampire."
There was complete silence for a beat. And then—
"Aha!" I coughed out a giggle and the, "Hahahahahaha," I was off like a hyena!
Caleb raised an eyebrow and I snatched my back.
Shut up! Shut up! My brain screamed, but I couldn't stop. I had this mass of butterflies in my stomach and they wouldn't stop fluttering around, and so, of course, all I was doing was laughing like a loon!
I mean, how was I to know what the appropriate response to meeting your own vampire was?
"Dawn?" Reika said sternly, grabbing my arm and pulling me away from my vampire.
Ahh! I had a Vampire! He even said so himself!
"Ow!" Reika had pinched me in order to get me to shut up. I didn't know if I should pinch her back or kiss her for finally getting me to stop looking like an idiot.
So I did both.
"EEEEKKK!" was Reika's outraged response to me kissing her cheek and then pinching it.
Hahaha, vampire gifting best friends are so awesome!
"Stop that!" Well, until they start slapping you away for giving them a kiss. Really!
Caleb was just looking at us with a mildly amused look on his face.
Sigh. That beautiful face.
Kelly on the other hand had come up behind him out of nowhere and was circling him like some sort of vulture, looking his up and down. Kells didn't seem impressed.
"Soooo, you're the Vampire?" she questioned, pocking him in the shoulder with the tip of her finger.
Next to me Reika hissed, pulling in her breath between her teeth.
Caleb took it much worse. He snarled deep in his throat and pulled his lips back in a sneer, fully exposing his fangs in a purely threating way. No charming Vampire there. Nope.
He glared murder at Kells. "Who is this 'Fly-girl'?"
I saw Reika wince out of the corner of my eye. Well color me confused! All of this was happening so fast I was getting whip-lash.
Kelly gave a dainty little snort, and returned his look with a smugly amused smile. "My name is Kelly Clearwater."
"A Clearwater?" Caleb said, looking her up and down, before shrugging away her presence.
Oh—kay...
The charming smile returned to my Vampire's face when he turned to look at Reika and me, completely ignoring Kells. She didn't seem to care.
"Then you must be Mistress Reika Souh." Caleb bowed to Reika.
"Wait," I said, frowning down at the top of his head. "How do you know Reika?"
It was Reika's turn to give a nervous laugh. She wasn't very good at it, poor girl; I was going to have to teach her the art, because she really just sounded like she was coughing. It probably didn't help that the three of us were looking at her expectantly.
"Oh, don't be silly, Dawn!" Reika said a bit too loudly, then gave a pained giggle. Really, she could use some help from me in the giggling department too. "I was the one who entered you in the contest, remember? That totally explains this..." she let the sentence trail off.
It did totally explain it, actually. But that didn't explain the slight guilt on Reika's face.
Hmmmmmmm.
"So, are we going to go inside or stand here all night?" This from Kells, who seemed too amused for someone who had just pissed off a Vampire not five minutes ago.
"Yes, Dawn, let us retire into the house," Caleb said, turning the full power of those stunning eyes to mine.
"Nooo!" I cried.
All three of them jumped at the sound. Three pair of eyes stared at me wide eyed.
Cue the nervous coughing...now!
"Ahaha cough cough!"
Well, how was I to explain bringing a completely strange boy home, especially one that happened to be a Vampire? On my Birthday?
Not to mention my mom hates anything not completely and absolutely 'Normal' with a capitol 'N'. Yep, even Vampires. Specially Vampires, now that I think about it...
Still, that kinda left us without a place to go to.
Oh! Idea! Ding-ding!
"I think we might be better off at the shed-slash-pool-house around back," I said brightly, hopping this would confuse them enough that they wouldn't argue.
Oh, but calling the shed-slash-pool-house that was a total understatement. It was more like a second living room... with a giant entertainment system. It was my dad's heaven for when when mom was mad at him, so he had totally gone crazy and made it a complete playroom. Haha, and it was perfect for hiding my new Vampire! Yay!
"Sure," Reika said. Looking between me and Caleb, who was looking bit disappointed.
"I'm just going to go inside to get some snacks and let mom know we're here, Okay?"
"You're leaving us?" Caleb started towards me, his hand half extended as if to keep me from leaving.
"Only for a minute." I danced around him and towards the door, past Kells who just raised an eyebrow at me. "I'll see you there!" I smiled and vanished before they could protest.
-:-
I closed the door behind me slowly so that it didn't squeak.
Squeeeeeeeak... Went the door. I turned around to glare at it. It should really watch out, turns out I could set things on fire.
I tried to mentally communicate this to the door.
It seemed unimpressed.
I rolled my eyes and sighed.
Then I slumped back against the door. Today was turning out to be one of the longest days ever!
I tip-toed across the living room for no other reason than because I was knowingly harboring a Vampire. A secret Vampire! Yeah, that was guilt settling in my gut, all nice and comfy, like it knew it was in for a long term. Ugh!
I noticed our cat snoozing on the couch and went over to pet her.
"Hi, Captain Mittens," I whispered, leaning down to scratch her head.
Hiss! Went Captain Mittens, her hair standing up before trying to scratch me with her sharp claws.
I jumped about three feet into the air, snatching my hand back and clutching it to me, but somehow I managed not scream in terror. For some reason I didn't think that would be a good idea with a Vampire just outside the door!
Wait! My Vampire!
I took a sniff of my hand. Did I smell like Vampire? Somehow I don't think my cat would appreciate that very much. As a rule, I think, cats didn't like undead, er, people.
I frowned down at Captain Mittens, but she was cleaning herself and paying me no mind. Like she hadn't just tried to murder me with her claws just now!
"Bad Kitten," I scowled.
She didn't notice.
"No! I don't want her involved with any of that! You know how I feel about this. I have made my feelings very clear all along." My mom's raised voice was coming from the kitchen. It was unusual both because she hardly ever raised her voice and because she was eight months pregnant and shouldn't be getting upset enough to raise her voice.
"I don't care what they say, or what their stupid rules are, I just want them away from—" whoever she was talking to must have cut her off because she stopped mid sentence.
Whoever they were they were seriously dead meat! How dare they upset my mom like that!
I tip-toed towards the kitchen, trying to overhear the conversation to know who I was going to hunt down.
"Yes, well I still think it's all bull-sh—"
Crash!
"Urg!" I half cried, half gasped. I was flat on my back, groaning while my two terrible little brothers happily bounced up and down on my poor battered body.
"Hey, Dawn!" one of them said in a sing-song voice while I winced under their attack. "Guess who hasn't gotten her birthday punches today?"
"Yeah, Dawn," the other little monster piped in. "You really think you can get away just 'cause you left before we were up?"
"Get off me you little beasts!" I growled through my teeth, squirming to get loose.
"Nah-uh! Not till you hold still!"
"How many is it, Mark?"
"Sixteen," Mark, the little toad, grinned.
"And one for good luck!" Jake cackled madly.
"Better make it two for good luck, Jake, she's got horrible luck!"
Well, they had a point there. Hmm.
Then they started punching me, each one on one arm while I lay there wincing and promising to get them back.
Yeah, I don't really think that's going to help my luck. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!
"Mark! Jake! Get off your sister this instant!"
All three of us look up to see mom standing at the kitchen doorway, scowling down at us.
Well, them.
"It's for good luck, mom!" Jake cried.
Mom, thank goodness, was not buying it.
"I said get off her, Jake."
They groaned and got off me reluctantly.
I hissed and got to my feet painfully. There were slight bruises forming on my arms.
Great.
"Go clean your room, both of you," mom said sternly. She waived away their protests and sent them off to their room. I stuck my tongue out at them but they didn't even see.
Booooo!
Mom let out a huge sigh and motioned for me to join her in the kitchen. "Are you Okay, honey?"
"Yeah, I'll just be a bit purple for a couple of days."
"They were just upset that they didn't get to say 'Happy Birth-day' this morning," mom explained. "And so was I." She kissed the top of my head. "Happy Birthday, Dawn."
She tried to hug me. Only, ya' know, there was like a watermelon between us. I mean, my soon to be littlest brother or sister. Mom and Dad hadn't wanted to know which it was. I was hoping for a sister, myself, someone not bent on killing me.
"Uh, Mom?" I said, sucking in my belly to try an accommodate her rather large one.
Mom chuckled a bit when I pointed down between us at her questioning look. "Alright, alright."
It was almost out of my mouth to ask her about the phone call she was on when I overheard her but I managed to keep my mouth shut. Huh, miracle of miracles.
"I didn't think you'd be home yet. I had thought the girls would want to take you out for the night. Reika mentioned it not too long ago."
At the mention of Reika I gave mom a guilty look. 'Cause Reika thoughts lead to Caleb thoughts, and Caleb thought lead to Vamp—No! My brain said.
Luckily mom had walked away from me and had missed the look.
Phew!
"Grandma Mimi called, she wanted to make sure you got her gift. She said to open it right away and call her if you had any questions." Mom picked up a heavy looking mail parcel and handed it over to me.
"Ooooh," I said trying not to sound too ungrateful. "Great." Yeah, that's forced enthusiasm right there.
It's not that Grandma Mimi's presents weren't nice. They weren't, really. They were totally weird actually. I had a collection of them in the truck at the foot of my bed. A trunk I only ever opened to deposit her latest gift and then tried to forget it existed until the next birthday.
Yeah...
I'm a horrible granddaughter.
But what was I to do with a broken silver mirror, anyway? That's what I got for my birthday last year, I didn't really want to remember what else I got in years before.
I took the package from mom and smiled up at her.
"Actually, Kelly and Reika are out back at Dad's secret base, we're going to watch a movie back there."
"Well, why don't you see it here?"
"'Cause it's a horror movie." I said brightly.
Mom huffed out a breath and scrunched up her nose, her green eyes narrowing in distaste. "Really Dawn, I will never understand your fascination with that type of thing."
"You don't have to understand, mom," I said, giving her a peck on the cheek. "You just have to tolerate it!"
-:-
I balanced some bags of chips and sodas on top of Grandma Mimi's still unopened gift while I tried to get a hold of the shed-slash-pool-house's door handle. I don't know why I bothered, dad had the place stocked piled with junk-food!
Sigh. I guess I just like to make things hard for myself.
Yep!
I finally got a hold of the door and stumbled in, closing the door behind me.
Wow, it was like a funeral house in there.
Haha, get it? 'Cause there was a Vampire?
Sigh.
But really, it was.
Kelly and my Vampire where on opposite ends of the room, pointedly ignoring each other and poor Reika was in the middle looking like a harassed referee. Pity for her swelled in me.
Then it all got worse.
Caleb gave a horrible half snarl, half growl of rage and I thought that Kelly had just done something to piss him off again.
But no. His furious gaze was on me and he was off his seat and coming towards me before I could so much as give a squeak of alarm!
-:-
A/N: Yeah, that's totally a cliff-hanger! But in my defense this is the longest chapter yet... so, yeah. Sorry if this is a bit late, I hadn't really written much of this chapter yet so I have been writing furiously for the last few hours. I've had a crazy week sense I last updated! Went to see the Hunger Games and had two close family birthdays!
Thank you to my reviewers from last chapter!KlaraBell, luvsvamps, and sunshine4evr! Thank you, thank you! KlaraBell and luvsvamps both took a guess at what Dawn's ringtone was, but only KlaraBell got it right. It's Rockstar by Prima J! It's just a fun and cheeky song that I think fits Dawn at the moment (and that I was kinda in love with when I wrote the chapter).
So, KlaraBell has five (5) points! I didn't know what they were for when I issued the challenge but now I decided that whoever had the most points by chapter ten, I think this story will make it till then, will get to request an Omake which is an "extra" from the point of view of their chosen character. Trust me, there are more characters to come and maybe some of you will want to see what goes on in their brains. :)
Finally(!), I don't want to sound like a whiny brat but I would really like some more reviews! ::blushes:: Yeah, I feel like a jerk now, but come on guys I don't bite! I'll help you out with a question in case you don't know what to say.
Whose you're favorite character so far? No need to tell me why if you don't want. Two points to everyone who answers the question!
Oh! And do any of you play Draw Something or Words with Friends? I am sorely lacking playing partners, so add me if you do! My name is Arilline, the same as my pen name.
Okay, guys, that's it! (Wow, huge author's note! SORRY!)
Remember, Review!