CHAPTER 6
I thought this over; it was an unusual thing to process. For some reason I didn't doubt him. I had never believed in such things before, but now I did. My first thoughts were of our previous conversation.
"So what are you?" I asked searching my brain for all the creatures from any horror movie I had ever seen. "A were wolf, ghost, warlock, vampire?" I said again joking.
"Yes definitely one of those." He said sarcastically, but there was an edge to his voice.
He had told me the truth right there. I had told him that I wouldn't care. And I didn't, it would be stupid if I left him for that. All that would do would be making me miserable. I wanted to show him that I didn't care. I leaned in and kissed him hard on the lips, but never parted them.
An earsplitting snap brought me back to the real world. I noticed that I was standing on my feet. I saw the swing dangling limply from one chain, the other broken in two. I could hear Rory curse under his breath.
"Why would you do that!?"
"I wanted to show you that I didn't care what you are." I answered meekly.
"By what? Having me kill you?" he paused. I could feel hot tears building in my eyes. I turned my head up to the sky hoping gravity would push them back into my head. The twinkling stars were beginning to blur from the water. I brought my head down and felt the tears drop. "Are you crying?" I didn't answer. I saw his arm reach out to me, then waver. "Let's get back to my house, to talk about this." he said while leading me inside. He held my hand as to keep me from getting separated from him. My heart fluttered.
"What? No 'I'm so sorry, I'd never do anything to hurt you'." Sneered a disgustingly familiar voice. I stopped, or tried to. Rory was still dragging me towards the door. I tried to pry my hand from his grip but he didn't let go. Did he not realize?
"Rory stop." I whispered ever so silently. He did. He let go of my hand, and I turned to face the girl.
I had never known anyone as manipulative as her. She could make someone do anything she wanted; make someone sneak out of their room, get the attention of everyone, even get someone to buy a bar of chocolate.
"No groveling for forgiveness? No, 'I'm sorry, I'm so sorry'." Kirsten mocked, her voice dripping with venom.
As the saying goes, the gloves were off now, I didn't care if I hurt her feelings.
"No, because I'm not sorry. I'm not sorry it happened or that you saw. The only thing I am sorry for is that you are such a lying, hypocritical, fake bitch." With that I turned on my heel grabbed Rory's hand and walked as fast as I could out of there. I squeezed Rory's hand to move faster. I was afraid that she might come running after me.
I could see the door, and soon enough we were coming through it. The cold night air calmed my nerves.
Rory picked me up in his arms. "What are you doing?" I asked.
"I'm taking you to my house." He replied.
"I believe that is what the car is for. And I can walk to the car myself."
He laughed. "The car is only for keeping away suspicion, I'm going to show you how much more fun traveling is for me."
That worried me. The only other thing I could think of was he was going to turn into a bat.
"No, I'm not going to turn into a bat." He said answering my unasked question.
"Are you sure?" I asked stupidly.
"Yes, are you ready?"
"I'd be able to give you a proper answer if I knew what we were about to do. What am I supposed to be ready for?"
"This." He replied simply. Then he took off sprinting. We were moving about as fast as a rocket ship. We were moving too fast for me to even see blurs of color. I would never think his driving was fast again. He slowed when we neared his street. But he didn't put me down. He carried me to his house up the stairs (thankfully) and to his room where he set me on the bed. "I'll be back in a moment." He told me before he disappeared. Had he run again? But he was back before I could think it over. He had been serious when he said a moment.
"What was that?" I asked perplexed.
"I had to tell Damien that I told you and that you were here."
"Does he know what you are?" I asked. Rory laughed fully, as if it were common knowledge. How was I supposed to know that he did?
"Yes, my whole family knows, in fact they are all vampires." My expression didn't change.
"Oh." That was oddly believable. I could see them being vampires.
"I DON'T WANT YOU TO FEEL SAFE, I DON'T EVEN UNDERSTAND WHY YOU DO!!!!" he yelled. I shuddered at his tone. Yes I felt safe, but that was no reason for him to yell at me. Wait, I didn't tell him that I felt safe, how did he know?
"I never said I felt safe." I stated. Rory froze like a statue. "So how did you know?"
He was still frozen.
"I…I guess that is where I'll start explaining." He sat down next to me on the bed.
"I knew because I could hear your subconscious, or rather maybe it would be easier to explain if I said I could see it or feel it. I'm not sure. You see along with other traits, as a vampire everything gets stronger. Sometimes one of your traits that are intensified is like power or a 'gift'."
"So what exactly is your gift?" I asked impatiently.
"I'm getting there. My gift is seeing peoples subconscious. I can see what they are thinking, but it's the thoughts that are in the very back of your head that you don't realize you have nor can you really control them. Your subconscious is also people's dreams, so I can see those."
"Does everyone in your family have a 'gift'?"
"No, Melanie and Elyse don't, not one that is like a power."
"And what are Damien, Jill, and Triston's power?"
"Damien's power is to read minds. To see what you are thinking, like a psychic."
"I bet that's helpful as a lawyer."
"Yes, he chose that job because he can rightfully put those who choose to make themselves monsters where only monsters belong. Jill's power is strange. It isn't the average power; most of our traits that are intensified are to help us hunt but Jill's power is to heal, why she would ever want to heal her prey I don't understand." He paused. "Triston's power is persuasion. It's more of a mental thing though. For example, the day in the cafeteria that you slapped Lena , he used his power to persuade everyone in the room that the fight never happened. He tried to persuade you also while you slept then again when you woke, but it didn't work. Which left us to have to convince you ourselves that that never happened. In fact apparently, I'm the only one whose powers work on you."
"Um, about that, can you see my entire subconscious, like all of my dreams?" I asked nervously.
"Yes." He said then looked at me. I blushed deep burgundy. "Oh" he said understanding why I had blushed. "You're a fifteen year-old girl, you're supposed to think thoughts like that." If he meant that to make me feel better it didn't my face didn't lighten in color even a shade. Once I had regained composure I asked the question that was gnawing at my insides.
"What did you mean you're… prey?"
He inhaled deeply before answering. "Well, it is in our nature to feed off of human blood. I guess that you could compare it to you being a vegetarian, we drink animal blood instead. Does that disgust you?"
"No, because I don't eat meat because I don't need to I have other options, while the animal is your other option." He gave me a small half smile. "So do you not eat normal food?"
"Depends what you call normal, but in your definition of 'normal' no."
"Hmm, well were you born a …a vampire?"
"No, that is impossible. It is impossible because once you are changed your body shuts down, your hair stops growing, your blood stops flowing, your organs shut down. It would be impossible for two vampires to make a baby."
"Then how did you get like this?"
"I was changed."
"Yes, but how, and when?"
"I was changed in early august. As for how, I was bitten. When a vampire bites a human it is usually to kill, but just in case venom is injected into the human so if they do get away they will be changed."
"In early august? I thought your family left you here in late august."
"Well, I lied. I had to leave them so I convinced them that I hated them and never wanted to see them again. They let me comeback and they stayed."
"Why were you telling me that I shouldn't feel safe?"
"Are you joking?" he asked seriously.
"No."
"Because there is always the chance that I will slip up and bite you, you're trusting me too much, it could happen very easily."
"But I thought that you drink animal blood."
"Yes, but it isn't in your nature to eat meat like it is to for me to drink blood, so you can resist. I not drinking human blood am like you… like you not breathing, it's hard nearly impossible. Sometimes you will slip up and take a breath."
"I still don't get it, why do you want blood?"
"Well, blood has a certain scent, everyone's is different. Maybe it is because since we have no blood to sustain us we need it from others."
"What did you mean by a scent?"
"Well our ability to smell has intensified when we became vampires, and we can pick up smells in things like blood."
"What does it smell like," I paused "iron?"
"No, it's more like flowers or fruit or spices."
"Spices?"
"Like cloves or cinnamon."
"Right, well what do I smell like?"
"Honeysuckle." He answered simply.
"Okay." I didn't remember what honeysuckle smelled like. "Do I smell good?"
"Yes, too good."
"How can I smell too good?"
"Your smell puts you in danger with me and my whole family, we all might slip up."
"Have you ever… ever almost bitten me?" I was staring into his eyes, bright and glowing.
"Yes." He answered pained.
"When?"
"Almost every time I'm with you, but the time I came the closest was the Saturday after you slapped Lena , when I ended up kissing you."
"Was it hard when you kissed me?"
"Yes, I didn't want to but I had to." I felt my heart drop and the tears start to come. "No, it wasn't that I didn't want to kiss you it was that I didn't want to because I was afraid I would hurt you."
"What did you mean you had to kiss me?"
"Maybe it happened too quickly for you to notice, but I stopped at your neck, I was so close to biting you, but then I knew that I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I lost you and it was my fault. I had to kiss you so you wouldn't freak out that I pinned you to the headboard the almost ripped your neck in half."
"Well that's a cheerful topic." I said sarcastically. "I don't want to make me being with you any harder, but how will I know if I'm doing anything wrong?"
"I guess you won't really. Usually when a vampire is hungry upset or is around open blood there eyes glow. But I'm so attracted to your blood that mine glow continuously when I'm around you."
"Your eyes, they used to be blue."
"I know. You've heard the saying you are what you eat. Well, it's like that. A vampire's eyes are blue if they have in them or drink human blood. They are blue, because blue eyes suggest innocence. If you drink animal blood you don't need to look innocent of anything so they are green. When I was first changed my eyes stayed blue because I had human blood in me but once I drank animal blood they turned green."
"This may sound stupid, but do you sleep in a coffin?"
"You realize that you are sitting on a bed don't you?"
"I was just asking."
"Well, I shouldn't have been so rude; I guess your reasoning makes sense. This bed is really just a prop."
"Prop?"
"I don't sleep."
"You have insomnia?"
"No, it is impossible for vampires to sleep."
"That makes sense, I guess since your body has pretty much shut down you don't need it. What else do you not need to do?"
"Well, I don't need to breath, or blink, and I can't really be hurt unless it's by another vampire."
"You don't have to breathe?"
"No, breathing just keeps your heart pumping, but mine doesn't beat anyway."
"What did you mean by you can't get hurt?"
"One minute" he said and ran out at un-human speed. When he returned he was carrying a butcher knife. My eyes widened. He put the handle in my hand." now, I want you to stab my arm as hard as you can."
"No!"
"Just does it, I promise it won't hurt me." I closed my eyes and raised the knife then stabbed it into his arm. I heard a sickening crack and my eyes shot open. The knife had split in two and Rory was unscathed.
"Interesting" I replied slightly shaken. "next question, how do you go in the sun, aren't you supposed to melt?" he looked at me as though questioning my sanity." that's what the myths say."
"No, I obviously don't melt. It goes back to the 'you are what you eat' saying. If a vampire drinks human blood they will glitter and sparkle in the sun. Damien thinks it is because if they drink human blood they don't deserve to be able to stand with humans without being discovered. He says that it's like there sins are shining for the world to see."
He was silent. I didn't know what my next question would be.
"They're back." He said which forcibly reminded me off the poltergeist.
"Who's back?" I asked confused.
"My family."
"How do you know?"
"I heard them pull up."
"Okay…"
"They want us to come down."
"How do you know?"
"They just asked us to."
"I didn't hear."
"Well of course you didn't, they were talking about as loud as we are now."
"And you heard?" I asked disbelievingly.
"Naturally." Then he scooped me up in his arms. "Just because it would annoy everyone if we had to wait for you to walk down the stairs" he said, I scowled but obliged. With how fast they move I must look like I'm moving about as fast as the tectonic plates.
In milliseconds we were down stairs. Rory set me on a cream colored chair and sat on the armrest while we both faced the rest of the family on the couches. None of them looked upset or annoyed that I knew, just nervous. Damien spoke first.
"We are… glad that you know are secret, it will make things a lot easier for us around you. But you have to promise us something."
"Sure." I said not knowing what I just agreed to and wishing that I had said something more like 'I'll promise unless it is something that could be used to help people'. But no, I was me and I just said 'sure'.
"Good, so what we need you to promise is that you will never tell anyone our secret." He said seriously looking at me intently.
"Understood." I told him. But who did they think I was going to tell anyways? Even if I did people would just think I was crazy.
"Good." He said and sighed in what I assumed to be relief. "Along with that you can't admit to knowing what we are, even if they are other vampires. You cannot let people know that you know our secret. If you do you will be putting yourself in danger."
"Okay, I won't let anyone know that I know. This might sound sill but why?"
"Because it is against our laws for humans to know." Jill said.
"You have laws?"
"Of course we do." Jill said again.
"Who enforces the, vampire police officers?"
"Somewhat, they are called the volt-." But Damien's words were interrupted by the ripping of fabric under Rory's hand on the chair. "Rory, we have to tell her to keep her safe."
"No, we don't need to tell her that, they won't find out. So there is no point in scaring her." Rory said defiantly.
"Rory we need to tell her so she understands the situation." Damien continued.
"It won't scare me. " I chimed in.
Rory let out a growl. It was as terrifying as the one in my first dream since I had seen him (see chapter 2 part 1). "NO!" he shouted.
"Rory, we need to tell her. Do I need to bring you to another room?" Triston said. Rory breathed deeply to calm himself and show he didn't need to be taken to another room. I thought it quite silly that he was breathing since he didn't have to.
"So," Damien continued. "The people who enforce the law are called the Volturi." He finished.
"What would happen if they caught me?"
"They would kill you by means of torture or food." at this most of the family's eyes started to glow, ranging from barely to like Rory's, which were like a new light bulb. The brightest were Triston's, I thought that that made sense seeing as he was like my big brother already. This made me feel good because it meant that they were upset that Damien was talking about me being killed. Or it was that they were hungry, I hoped it was the first though.
"Food?" I questioned.
"Yes, as I am guessing Rory has already explained to you, we feed off of animals, well very few do. I have never even actually met any who do aside from us. As for the Volturi, they certainly don't.
"Oh." I said. My stomach churned at the idea of me being sucked dry. Even though I had said that I wouldn't be scared I was. I quickly tried to clear my mind though remembering that Rory was probably inside of it.
Rory touched my hand with his icy one and my heart jumped erratically. The room exploded with laughter for some reason that I didn't understand.
"What?!" I said thoroughly frustrated that I didn't ever understand what everyone was laughing about.
"Just something Rory will explain to you on the ride home sweetie." Melanie told me.
"Which will be right now." Damien told us. "Cassie, you need your sleep. Rory, you drive her home and everyone can talk more tomorrow."
"All right." I obliged. The feeling of lethargy washing over me. Rory gave me his hand to help me out of the chair, I took it gratefully.
He led me pout into the crisp night air, to the front of the garage. I thought this strange because the car was usually on the curb. I closed my eyes and yawned. When I opened them the garage door was up and in sat four gorgeous cars.
I stood and stared in awe. First there was the dark navy car that I had grown accustomed to. The next was a silver convertible that looked very stylish. There was also a black prius. But the one that stood out the most was the one that Rory was getting into. It was the color red that parents never got their children because it was like a cop magnet. It was some type of fancy two seated cars that no doubt cost more than all the money I had ever spent in my life.
"Are you coming?" he asked. I quickly scrambled to the door. Once inside he turned the car on but I could barely tell. It made next to no noise. "Do you like it, it was a birthday present?"
"Wow that was a very nice birthday present. How did they afford it?"
"We're not exactly poor."
"So what. This car could put a dent in Paris Hilton's bank statement."
"Well, when you have forever you accumulate a lot of money."
"What?" did he just say forever?
"Never mind, I'll explain it later."
"Fine. Why was everyone laughing earlier?"
"Remember how I said our senses are intensified?" he chuckled when I nodded. "When I touched your hand we heard your heart skip a beat."
"Your hearing is that good?" I said completely mortified.
"Yes, just wonderful, isn't it?"
"For you maybe." I muttered. We had pulled up in front of my house. My mom came out on the porch to see who was in the car. When I opened the door she looked utterly surprised. Before completely getting out of the car I looked to Rory.
"I'll see you soon, I love you." Just loud enough for me to hear.
"I love you too." I said before closing the door and walking up to meet my mom.
"Wow, who was that?" she asked.
"Rory." Shock and awe colored her face at my answer. "Um mom, can we sit down for a minute? I need to talk to you."
"Yes of course honey."
"Great." I said leading her to our old kitchen table. When we were sitting I took a big breath. I had to get this over with and out of the way. "Well…" I faltered. "Mom," I started again. "Rory is my boyfriend."
"Oh." She said. I knew that this must have struck her odd because I told her when I dated people, but to call them my boyfriend, she knew that this was serious. "All right." She said as if giving approval.
"And just so you know we are hanging out tomorrow." I told her. "So yea, that's pretty much it. I'm going to go to bed now." As I was walking down the hall I heard her chair scrape the floor as she stood up.
"Well that was brave." Whispered the most angelic voice I had ever heard, as I walked into my room. Rory was sitting on my bed. I closed the door and flung my arms around his neck.
"What are you doing here?" I asked him
"Sitting." He whispered back, answering my question in the literal sense. I swatted his arm at the snide remark. "Was that supposed to hurt?" he challenged. He let out a small growl. It was nothing like the one from earlier. It was light and playful, and so my mother wouldn't hear us quiet.
He 'tackled' me onto my back where he towered over me.
I saw his arm twitch then he moved back to his first position of sitting on the edge of my bed.
"I'm sorry." He said.
"For what? I asked sitting up.
"I could have hurt you so easily just now."
"But you didn't." I said.
He opened his mouth to talk but I clamped my hand over it. Then immediately retracted it.
"Good thinking, probably not the best place for your hand to be."
I stood up and shifted awkwardly. He stared at me.
"I have to change." I told him.
"Okay…" he said clearly not understanding what I was saying.
"I'm not going to change with you sitting there." I said exasperated.
"Well, what do you want me to do? Stand outside your door and wait for your mother to see me and think that I am some type of stalker?"
"Well I don't know. Don't you think that she will think it odd if I go to the bathroom to change?"
"Yes, so just change, I promise I won't look."
"You better not." I warned him.
"What are you going to do swat my arm again?"
I twirled my finger as to motion him to turn around. I then took off my heels and slipped some of my pajama pants on under my dress. After making sure he wasn't looking I took the whole dress off and threw on a shirt.
"You can turn around now." I said and he did. "I have to go brush my teeth and wash my face; I'll be back in a sec." I told him.
I did my task as fast as I could but it seemed to take forever. When I came back I closed the door and slipped under the covers he had pushed back for me. He walked to the light and spoke before turning it off.
"You and I have different ideas of what a second are."
When he turned off the light he came and lay next to me on top of the covers.
"How do you fit in this bed?" he asked.
"Cramped."
"Well then I am sorry that I am taking up your extra room."
"That's alright, I'll just think of you as one big body pillow."
He chuckled softly. After a few minutes of silence I spoke.
"This is different, but I like it. I said snuggling up to Rory. "So what did you mean you live forever?" my conscious mind was ebbing towards sleep.
"I meant that we live all eternity, I mean we already died."
"So you never die…again?" I was struggling for consciousness.
"No."
"Well doesn't that sound nice." I say.
"That's one way of putting it." He says, making the last thing I hear before I fall asleep being his melting honey voice.
The brisk air outside was causing me to huddle against Rory, not that he was giving off any heat. We were on a ferries wheel. We were descending from the top. Our cart was facing the forest. I knew where we were, it was the annual Halloween carnival.
I saw some type of vulture circling over the trees. It was nearly dusk and the last glimmers of orange sunlight were reflecting off the clouds. The changing horizon was horridly moving us into darkness.
Rory went stiff next to me. I shifted to look at him. He was staring at the guy ruining the ride then his eyes flicked to the woods.
"Hurry up, hurry." Rory was whispering to himself. I could feel his urgency to this unknown situation. "Hurry."
We were nearing where we got off of the ride but the guy stopped it so that the people near the top could enjoy where they were. Our cart was swinging from the stop. I grabbed it to steady myself.
Then silence cut through everyone at the carnival. Everyone was listening to the screams that were echoing from the forest next to us. They sounded like they were struggling, writhing in pain. It reminded me of when Rory had broken up with Kirsten, she had been so angry that she screamed like that. But her scream was of fury this scream was from pain, I could tell. Then I realized why it reminded me of Kirsten.
I was 99 sure it was her.