Chapter 14 – Katsu's Scent
Downstairs someone opened the door. A member of the Maaka family had returned from feeding. Boogie-kun groaned.
"That's it girlie, you're dead…" Boogie-kun sighed.
Both listened intently to the sound of the footsteps. Whoever just came home, he or she is coming upstairs.
"Must be either mother or father" Anju muttered under her breath.
Elda sleeps most of the time, so only Henry and Calera are close enough to Anju to come upstairs to check on her. Elda always preferred Karin from the very beginning anyway. Anju couldn't care less about how close she was to Elda, but now that Katsu's scent is all over the house…
Someone knocked on the door. "Anju, can I come in?" It was Calera.
Before Anju could answer, Calera stepped into the room. Anju has been acting agitated and more silent than her usual self in the past few days. She was worried about her daughter. Teenagers were known to have abrupt mood swings.
"Hi Anju, just came up to che-" Elda abruptly stopped. Her nose twitched slightly. Something smelled different. A second scent was mixed with Anju's scent in the room. A male scent. A human male.
"What is it mother?" Anju asked innocently and with no emotion. She knew very well why Calera stopped. She could smell Katsu's scent too, it was quite strong.
Calera looked at her daughter while still sniffling the second scent. She had smelled this somewhere before quite recently. She couldn't remember when and where.
"Stop acting innocent Anju." Calera said, annoyed by Anju's act. "Both you and I know that there is a male's scent in your room."
Calera let out a sigh. She couldn't remember where she smelled this scent before. It was quite strong.
"I know you're at that age Anju, but don't bring any male vampires into your room without at least letting me know in advance. Not to mention how your father would react to that." Calera shuddered at the thought of Henry crying all night long like wuss.
"He really should grow up." Calera added.
Anju could feel Boogie-kun grinning. "You're at that age Anju." Boogie thought to Anju. "Even your mother knows that."
Calera, who was still transfixed by the strong male scent in the room, walked over to Anju's bed; where Katsu's scent was the strongest. Anju was starting to feel nervous. Calera might be able to recognize Katsu's scent if she sits down the stop where Katsu was sleeping. Once a vampire smells one scent, it stays in their memories for at least fifty years. And Katsu's scent was especially strong, and especially transfixing to Anju.
Calera sat down on the bed.
Here goes nothing, Boogie-kun thought.
Calera's eyes widened. Boogie-kun would have screamed out loud, but knew that he shouldn't. Anju was starting to becoming more nervous.
Calera recognized the scent. Wide eyed, she looked at her daughter in shock.
"Anju…this the scent of the person called Katsu? The one who gave you a piggyback ride home and then fled?" Calera asked, both surprised and shocked by how daring her daughter is.
Anju, trying to avert her mother's look, nodded.
Calera was just about to open her mouth to say something when someone slammed open the door downstairs.
"I'M HOOOME!" Elda called out cheerfully. She feels slightly hyper every time she came back from feeding.
Anju was now cool and collected. What's done is done. Mother knows anyway.
"WHO'S SCENT IS THAT?!" Elda cried out.
Boogie-kun have Anju the most worried look his doll eyes could do and drew a sharp breath to calm himself down. "For someone who is over 200 years old, her nose sure is good" he thought to Anju.
"Quiet, I need to handle this situation" Anju thought back.
The three of them heard Elda rush up the stairs, who was following the source of the unfamiliar scent.
She stormed into Anju's room and demanded: "Whose scent is that!"
Calera flashed Anju an urging glance and managed to smile weakly. Anju could feel her palms sweating. Elda was the most powerful vampire alive. And having her pissed was extremely dangerous. The Brownwick family got the living crap out of themselves. Some members were still in the hospital. No one died though...
"The truth, the whole truth, and a little bit lies" Anju thought to herself and drew a deep breath. This is it.
"Well?" Elda demanded impatiently. She hated humans and considered every vampire outside her family as an enemy, a unfamiliar scent inside the house is outrageous to her.
"Grandma…" Anju began, she drew a sharp breath. "Did father and mother tell you about the incident where Onee-chan nearly got kidnapped by molesters?"
Elda nodded.
"Do you know who saved Onee-chan?" Anju asked. Boogie-kun flashed her a nervous glance. Whoa, whoa girlie, are you gonna tell him out?
"They told me that you were the one who saved Karin." Elda answered, still waiting for Anju to tell her who's scent is in the air.
"Yes, that's what I told them, and it was a lie." Anju said emotionlessly.
Calera looked at Anju in both shock and surprise. It was the first time her daughter ever lied to her when she asked her something. Why did Anju try to hide the identity of the person who saved Karin?
"Anju…" Calera said, slightly worried about the situation. "You told me that it was you who saved Karin."
"I lied." Anju said plainly and with no guilt. She saw no reason to feel guilt. She was protecting Katsu after all.
"I couldn't risk letting Onee-chan see me, because even just a glimpse could lead her to remember everything. That is why I waited in the shadows until the very last moment, hoping for someone else to show up and call the police." Anju explained. "Then this human boy showed up and drove off the molesters."
Anju looked at Elda. Her only response was a nod, telling her to continue.
"Earlier this night," Anju continued. "I met this human boy again. He was beaten half dead by a high school delinquents gang. Since he was the one who saved Onee-chan from possible rape, the only way to repay him was to save his life."
"And you brought him here to let him recover?" Elda asked.
Anju nodded.
You're getting pretty good at lying, Boogie-kun thought to Anju.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, Anju thought back.
"Of course I erased his memory right after he left earlier." Anju added.
Calera looked at her daughter; she knew that she was still hiding something. She wanted to ask who this human boy was, but she already knew the answer more or less.
Elda nodded. She seemed to accept Anju explanation.
"I'm going out to look for Henry." She declared and jumped out of the window. She had a sly smile on her face. You have a lot more to learn about lying, she thought. A youngster like you can't trick me with a lie like that. She was determined to get to the bottom of whatever Anju was desperately hiding.
Anju watched Elda jump out of the window and then onto a tree. She let out a sigh of relief and started to walk out of the room.
"Wait, Anju" Calera said with a solemn tone.
If Boogie-kun's body could, he would a gulped. Whoa, never seen your mother that serious since your sis got mind wiped.
"Who is this 'human boy' who saved Karin?" Calera asked, her eyes narrowing. She knew that her daughter was hiding the full truth from Elda. "I'm your mother, don't expect me not to notice when you are trying to hide something.
"It was the same human boy who saved me from the vampire hunters." Anju said. "His name is Katsu."
"Ah right, the one who gave you a piggyback ride home." Calera said, and then let out a profound sigh. "Anju, isn't it obvious that he is trying to gain your trust?"
Anju thought about it for a moment. And then said: "Mother, if he wanted me, he wouldn't have saved me from the vampire hunters. At that time, he hadn't saved me, I would have been captures a long time ago."
Boogie smirked. "Oh he wants you alright. Just in a different way" he thought to Anju.
"Then how do you explain the fact that he ran away using the bathroom window when he first came to this our home?" Calera continued to ask.
Anju decided to sit down and then explained the same thing to Calera that Katsu has told her previously. Katsu's lie was perfect. Anju told her about the jammed bathroom window, the pressure to go home because of his mother (Calera nodded approvingly to that) and how he saved Karin because he wanted to come to apologize for his fleeing act.
"He couldn't come during the day because his mother grounded for coming back late" Anju added. Calera nodded approvingly again.
Calera decided to ask the deciding question. "Did you erase his memory?" she asked, looking Anju directly into the eyes.
Anju's only response was a slight nod.
"Oh for the love of God Anju, stop lying." Calera said dramatically. "I'm your mother, I can tell when you are lying or not."
"Why didn't you erase his memory?" Calera asked, somewhat already knowing the answer.
"I didn't feel that there was any need to" Anju replied. "He risked his life to save Onee-chan, it seemed only fair to let him keep his memories". She decided not lie that Katsu didn't know that she was a vampire. Anju remained silent about that, afraid that Calera will notice that she lied if she said that.
"Are you going to tell father about this?" Anju asked, calm and collected.
Calera nodded. "If I don't tell Henry, then your grandmother will. And God knows what things she might add between the lines."
Calera started to walk out of Anju's room. "Oh yea Anju" she said before she walked out. "Don't make a mistake."
And with that she left.
Boogie-kun let out a sigh of relief. Anju was just glad that everything went fine. Anju walked over to the door and closed it so that nobody could hear what they are saying.
"You told them so much, you might as well have leaked that Katsu knows that you are a vampire." Boogie-kun said.
Anju was silent.
--
It was 11 am. Katsu was lying on his bed. It has been two days since he got bitten by Anju. He decided to follow Jun's advice and keep all windows open for a couple of days. Luckily it was late spring, the air wasn't cold.
Katsu looked over to his desk. On it were three things: the 50 page booklet, a certificate send by Jun to confirms that he is first person in history to have 'survived' a vampire biting, and a leather badge that registered him as a Honor Member Rank B of the Vampire Hunter guild, which was also send over by Jun yesterday.
Katsu wanted to invite Anju over. After some thought, he decided that Jun's 'painting the walls' excuse that pretty good. Now all he needed was a good reason for Anju to come over. He took some tortilla chips out of his bag and opened a can of Coke. He simply sat there on the bed, watching TV and crunching tortilla chips for a while. Then it hit him.
"Anju can only taste blood…" he said to himself. Why can she only taste blood?
Katsu decided to look at it from a more scientific angle.
"Something with taste buds…" he muttered to himself.
Her taste buds only react to blood and make normal food taste like sand. That must be vampire instinct. To only taste blood. There must be a way to make her taste food…What if blood was mixed with food? Her taste buds would be forced to react to the blood, but food comes right along with it. There would be the possibility that she can taste both of the blood and the food.
Katsu smiled. Eureka!
He turned on his laptop, paid for the hostels expensive wireless internet and searched for 'Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes'. He decided to mix in some of his own blood with the eggs. The vanilla extract would work too I guess.
He wrote down the ingredients list and went down to the reception. They told him that he could use the small hotel kitchen tonight if he wanted to. The cooks are on spring holiday. He thanked them and went down to the store and hunted down the ingredients. The vanilla extract was especially hard to find.
Katsu brought back the ingredients, took out his cell phone, went to his contact list and selected 'Anju'. He pressed dial.
Somewhere on the other side of the city, a sleepy vampire girl's heart started to beat faster.
Yeah and thats Chapter 14. In 2 weeks I will have final Grade 10 exams and I can't afford to fail anything this late into the cycle! Oh the pressure....I can't stand Trig and coastal development...Depending on how stressed I am with Trig, there might only be 1 chapter in the next 2 weeks. If you have any studying tips or think something could be improved in the chapters to come, please drop by a review or send me a message. I'd really appreciate it!
Thanks for reading! And good luck on the finals to any student reading this!