Melabeth the Vampire (21 page)

“No.” Ezra answered shaking his head back and forth. “Changing a memory would be like trying to change a painting. The only thing you would have is a mess when you were done. The trick to changing a memory is changing it at the moment it is happening. Alice made you see spiders in that field, along with some other crazy things. If you didn’t know the truth, if you didn’t know that Alice made you see those things, you would believe that you fought spiders or you had the craziest dream ever. Don’t worry; you will get a chance to figure all this out. Alice will work with you on all the mind stuff. I will teach you how to fight. Charlotte will work with you on flying, so you will have lots of instruction.”

“So you’re saying we can fly! Do we turn into bats?” I said almost jumping out of my seat in excitement.

A strange look came over Ezra's face. It took me a moment to place it; then I knew that look, confused. Ezra said. “Yes… normally it takes vampires fifty to hundred years to have enough power to fly. I only said that because Alice said you already knew how to fly, because, when she first spotted you, you where flying.”

“What?” I said a little caught off guard. “I don’t know how to fly, and if I did, I think I would remember that.”

Ezra looked thoughtful, and then said, “Yes, of course you would. We shall talk with Alice soon enough. We will figure this out; I am sure I just misunderstood her.”

What he said didn’t match his body language. Maybe it was my reading power, but I was sure he believed Alice and not me. Then I said. “At least I don’t have to worry about being shot.”

Ezra was starting to stand when I said that. He sat back down, and then said. “I said silver doesn’t hurt us. I never said we had nothing to fear from guns. I used to believe back in the day that guns would never be a problem to our kind. I was a fool; during World War One or as we used to call it, The Rise of Man, they developed lots of new weapons. Some of these weapons work well against vampires: flamethrowers, explosives and tracer bullets. Tra
cer bullets are built with a small pyrotechnic charge in their base. Ignited by the burning powder, the pyrotechnic composition burns very brightly, making the projectile visible to the naked eye. This enables the shooter to follow the bullet trajectory in order to make aiming corrections. These bullets, if shot into vampires, can also cause our blood to ignite; if you see strikes of light flying by as someone shoots at you, they are vampire hunters.”

“And don’t get shot. They burn like hell.” Michael said, as he stood next to the arch of vines.

Ezra said, “Good afternoon Michael,” Then he turned to me. “Michael speaks from experience; he took a couple of those rounds to the chest a few years back. Luckily I was able to pull him to safety and pull out the bullets. Then I had to put him out; scared the hell out of me.”

Michael said with kind of a sad smile. “And then Ezra went nuts; as soon as he realized I wasn’t going to die, he spirit walked, right out to those hunters, and ripped them limb to limb; we haven’t had a problem with their kind since.”

Ezra let out a small laugh, and then said with a voice of passion. “What can I say?  No one messes with my boy.”

He stood up and threw an arm around Michael and pulled him into the little area. There Michael and Ezra took a seat together. I had no doubt of their love; they were family. It made my heart ache. I wanted that, but it felt out of reach, out of reach until I have had my revenge.

Michael looked at me, not a mean look this time, but a hollow one. “Lea would like to meet you.” He said flatly.

“Ok”.

Ezra stood up. “I will let you three get to know each other. I have some work to attend to; Melabeth, come to the basement after your shopping trip with the ladies. And, Melabeth, we do not turn into animals, but we can control them and see what they see.  Michael is really good at that; maybe someday he will show you how.” He turned to Michael and with a head bob said, “Michael.”

And Michael responded.  “Father,” and, with that, Ezra left, then Michael said to me at the same time t
hrowing me a pair of sunglasses, “Charlotte said you would need those; so come, on, follow me. Lea can’t take much of the sun.”  With that, he headed toward the house.

I can’t say I was excited to meet anymore vampires. I have had my fill of new persons. We went into the house the same way I came out, and, when
we passed by the pool, I asked, “Maybe we could go swimming tonight?”

“Maybe,” Michael answered indifferently.

He didn’t turn around or even change the speed he was traveling; I was getting real tired of his attitude, and I had just met the guy.  The only thing he had going for him was the view.

We entered
the room with the oversized TV. There sat a girl with strawberry blonde hair; it was pulled up into a ponytail with a few strands hanging loose in the front. Her hair was wavy and ran almost halfway down her back. She was very beautiful, and, when I entered into the room, she looked me up and down and then stood up to greet me.

She held out her hand and said with a sweet voice. “Hi, I am Lea. You must be Melabeth.”

I took her hand and we shook; she squeezed hard, but not hard enough to hurt me. In fact, from the surprised look on her face, I think she meant to.

Michael said in his usual grumpy manner. “Well, she is four days old, so I think YOU can handle her, Lea,
until Charlotte gets back. I have some stuff to do, so you ladies have fun.”

Lea had a look of what I could only describe as troubled, she blurted out. “I have to watch her… I can do it. Don’t worry, Michael.”

Mike nodded, turned and started to leave; on his way out, he said. “Don’t worry, Lea, I will stay within yelling distance.” With that remark, Lea visibly calmed down.

I was starting to get the idea that Alice, Ezra and Charlotte had told these two very little about me. Both of them acted as if I was a newborn that needed a babysitter at all times. I couldn't tell if they were playing a practical joke on these two or if they were hiding my power from them.

Nicks warned me about Alice. The fact that Alice thinks I can fly, even though Ezra said that takes fifty to one hundred years to have that much power, I need to really pay attention to what’s going on.

“So, little sister what do you think of Michael?” Lea asked, but there were threats behind that smile.

“I am trying not to; he is so rude and grumpy.” I answered honestly. I will leave out the part where I think he is so sexy.

“Good.” Lea responded, and I could see her calm down now that she didn’t think I had a thing for her man.

Then again I don’t know if he was her man; I didn’t get that vibe when he left. So I asked. “So you and Mike, are you, like… you know, a thing.”

Her
face became sad, when she said, “No, he sees himself as my older brother, but he is not related by blood or anything. Then again, no one in this madhouse is. You’ll get used to it, the game of house, that is. And he is not Mike; it's Michael.”

I ignored the name correction, and then asked her a question.  “The game of house?”

“We live like most vampires in the wild. We aren’t mommy, and daddy, sons and daughters. The oldest and the strongest rules the coven, and the weakest, that’s you, is last to have a say in anything.” Lea said the part about me being the weakest very proudly.

She was probably sick of being in last place, but, if it works how she said it does, she’s going to be sick all over again, but I had no reason to show her that I was stronger than her.

I had to ask her, “What did you mean by, in the wild?”

Lea let out a dry laugh,
“Wow, you are a dumb bitch.”

I was stunned
and speechless. She walked over, picked up her glass and drank; I could smell the blood in it. Then she looked over at me and sneered, “What? You thought I would be like, hey, sister, let’s go shopping and be best friends or whatever. I know your slutty kind; you need to know how shit works around here.”

It took a second for me to pick my jaw off of t
he floor, as she went on saying, “Another thing; let’s get some rules about Michael, right now.”

I didn’t let her finish that statement.

I didn’t even really think about it; I was standing there listening to her verbally assault me. Then I had flashed the distance between us.

I punched her across the side of the head. She fell down like a sack of potatoes, but I caught the cup of blood before one drop hit the floor.

I stepped back as she was now trying to get back up, but she was having trouble. I washed back all the blood in the cup and set it down on a table. Lea was just managing to get back on her feet and find her balance.

Then she said in a shaky voice, “You’re about to learn a hard lesson.”

The fight was short; it was like fighting a child. I was so much stronger, so much faster.

Breaking her arms and ribs was easy. In a matter of seconds, she was laying on the floor weeping. That’s when Michael came, flashing into the room.

He looked down at his sister, then up at me. I was wondering what he would say, I guess nothing because he just attacked me. I barely dodged to one side; he was bigger and, with those large muscular arms, I was guessing a lot stronger too.

My early dodge didn’t last. We were in close quarters, and there was nowhere to run. The only thing I could do to slow him down was run behind a couch; then he just threw the couch to the wall.

He was not like fighting Alice with all her speed and skill; he reminded me of the men in the cabin, trying to throw all his weight and power in straight line attacks; it didn’t take me long to figure out that I was a lot faster.

I punched and clawed him without a problem. At one point he grabbed my arm and twisted it around. Instead of fighting it, I threw my body into a flip; as I landed on my feet, I pulled him towards me. Then I punched him in the nose has hard as I could; that made him lose his grip on me.

He swung at me, but I had blinded him when I hit his nose. So I simpl
y ducked under his swing; then landed a hard kick to his knee. He buckled and fell to the ground; before he could recover I was on his back.

I grabbed his o
ne arm and locked it into mine, I took my free hand and dug my claws into his neck.

With all the authority I could manage, I said. “I will rip your throat out if you don’t stop. I don’t want to hurt you.”

I was amazed now that I was holding his arm that he didn’t feel a lot stronger than me. Larger, yes, and, like the men in the cabin, the extra weight was tricky to deal with in a tight fighting area.

Of course this had me wondering just how old and strong Alice was; she looked like a little girl, but she was so much stronger than Michael.

Before Michael could say anything, a laugh broke the silence in the room. It was the laugh of a child. “Oh good; you have all met. Mom didn’t think you would get along, but here you are playing in the living room together.”

I looked up to see Alice smiling away at me.

Michael said in a very angry voice. “You could stop touching me now… Melabeth.”

Did he take me for a fool? “How do I know you will stop?”

Michael’s voice changed; he said in an almost confused tone, “Alice is here. Don’t you think, this over now?”

Alice let out a small giggle. She passed by me and helped Lea off of the floor. Lea was still crying and I could see
she was badly hurt.

Alice pouted, “
Good job, Melabeth. I wanted all the girls to go shopping and now Lea is too broken to go.”

This family is so weird, I thought, as I let go of Michael. Michael had cuts all over his body; he looked bruised up. I was just now realizing he never even got a hit in, and, for the first time ever, my dress was fine.

I looked over at Alice and said, “She will heal in a few hours; we will still have time.”

Michael looked at me as if he had never seen me before,
and then said, “It will take her days to heal from all those broken bones. Do you think if I broke your arm like that you would be ok in an hour?”

I held out my arm. “Twenty minutes, tops.”

Michael shook his head back and forth and looked over at Alice and said in an angry voice. “What is this game? Why did you tell us she was newborn?”

Alice’s voice changed; she suddenly sounded as if she had finally grown up. “Enough, Michael.”

Michael’s whole body stiffened. “Sorry… I didn’t mean to yell at you. The thing is, that Lea wouldn’t have picked a fight, if she would have understood… that’s all.”

Alice, in that same voice said. “Take Lea and care for her. I will explain later, but know this Michael; I didn’t lie.” Then, like a switch, her child voice came back on.  “Isn’t
Melabeth fun?  I will take care of Melabeth. Come along sister.”

And without waiting for me to answer, she headed out of the room. Something told me that Lea’s remark about this not being a family, was really talking about Alice. I had thought she was a child, because she acted like one, but she was no child.

In fact, as I followed her, through the house. I was getting a bad feeling that maybe Ezra was not in charge, that this really was Alice’s coven. I remember Ezra telling me the first time we met that his real name was Ezra Bovine, and not White. When he introduced Alice, he said she had always been a White, and this is the house of Whites; great, I now have a crazy child as my new master.