Melabeth the Vampire (28 page)

They dropped me off in front of David’s house. Lea had to jump out to let me out of the truck; it was a two door.

Then Michael said. “Take your time; we’ll be a few hours.”

Then Lea added. “We will honk twice when we come back. If you don’t come out in fifteen, we’ll figure you know your own way back. So don’t feel rushed.” She said this with a wink; she jumped back into the Jimmy, and they drove away.

I turned around and looked at David’s house. It was only about eight, and the sky was still full of light as the sun had just fallen behind the horizon. That meant everyone was still awake. I had no idea how I was going to get David’s attention. I had tried to call earlier, but all I got was a busy signal. His oldest sister lived on the phone.

I had been staring at David’s house for at least ten minutes without moving.

“Can I help you?” I was so deep in thought about the plan I didn’t even notice a girl walk up behind me.

I turned around, and there stood a girl about my age. She was shorter than me and looked to be thin. It was hard to tell with her clothes two sizes too big. She wore all black, and nuns showed more skin. Her hoodie was so big that the sleeves came over her hands. Her fingers were the only thing sticking out; her nails were painted black, and her hair was dyed jet black; it hung around her face at shoulder length. Her hair looked like she had never combed it. Her face was painted white with black lipstick and eyeliner to match. She wore silver necklaces with all kinds of different pennants. One of them was a giant pentagram.

She looked at me with wide eyes and froze. If I hadn’t known why she was acting this way, I would have thought there was a bear behind me. I think that this is the Goth look that Michael had told me about. So, this might be David’s sister. She knows what I am, and she is afraid.

The only thing I could think to do was to give her a reassuring smile. I did my best to look friendly. This just caused her to take a step back. Great, now she looks scared and about to run.

I came to a realization; living at the Whites, I had become relaxed. Holding my fangs up and putting my claws away, is like standing with a straight posture; it was easy to do if I put a little thought into it. Around the Whites, we all walked around with our fangs out.

Smiling, with your fangs out, looks like a threat, or I am hungry.

I pulled my teeth up and put my claws away. I held up my hands like I was at gunpoint. “Sorry… I didn’t mean to scare you. I…” wasn’t sure I should tell her I was looking for her brother. “My name’s Melabeth.”

I could see her trying to keep calm. She crossed her arms over her chest. “David’s mentioned you. What do you want?”

It sounded rude, but I knew she was afraid. So I said as softly and nicely as I could. “To talk, to talk to David, or Carrie.”

“Who’s Carrie?”

Carrie still had not shown herself. Who would have thought she could keep to herself so long. It wasn’t dark yet, so Carrie wasn’t going to be around for a little while. I decided not to answer her question.

“So, is David at home?”

“Maybe… so who’s Carrie?”

This girl had a one track mind. “A mutual friend, but I came to see David. Is he around?”

“What if I don’t tell you?”

What I was thinking was. “Then I will eat you.” But what I said was. “I guess I will be stuck out here waiting for him.”

“I’ve never met one of your kind… vampire before. He told me about you; you killed those men in the alley.”

I wasn’t sure
what to say, I simply said. “Yes.”

I noticed her eyes flickering to the right, toward her house. I realized that she had to pass by me. Then she needed to travel about thirty yards to get to her front door. She would never make it, not if I wanted to stop her.

“Well, it has been nice talking to you. I better get inside… I will check if David’s there.”

I couldn’t blame her for wanting to get to safety, but I needed to talk to David without her warning the family I was here. If David’s mom and stepdad knew I was out here, it would all turn to drama. “Wait, you haven’t told me your name.”

“Tabatha Doyle, but everyone calls me Lizzie… so I will go check up on David.”

She started to walk around me; I sidestepped into her path, blocking her. “What’s the hurry?”

She looked as if she was about to cry. With a shaky voice, Lizzie said, “Please let me go.”

I felt like a bully. “Look I don’t want to hurt you. I really need to see David for all kinds of reasons. If I let you back into that house, you’ll tell your parents. Then they will want to chase me off; kind of hard to have a moment with David then. I am not going to hurt you.”

She was quiet for a second then said. “You keep saying that you’re not going to hurt me. Then how do you plan on stopping me from going into my house?”

I laughed, and then said. “My plan was to bully you with my size until David showed up. Now, before you rag on my plan, I haven’t had much time to think one up.”

Lizzie smiled. “Well you’re not that big. I will tell you what. David and I have become pretty close this last month. He’s told me a lot about you; can’t say I believe him about everything, but I know he wants to see you too. If you will trust me to go into my house, just to get David and not warn the rest of the house, then I will trust you not to hurt him.”

“Deal.” Then I stuck my hand out for her to shake on it.

Lizzie stared down at my hand like I was holding out a cup of water that could be poison. “You offer your hand to a witch?”

I wasn’t even sure what that meant. “Yes… I do.” Then she laughed. It took me a moment, but she was laughing at me. I said with a little hurt in my voice. “Hey, what’s so funny?”

“You don’t even know why you shouldn’t shake hands with a Witch.” She said this through fits of laughter.

“Yes I… what does it mean?”

She stopped laughing, and then said. “I am sure David can tell you. I’ll go get him.”

And, with that, she stepped around me and headed toward the house. I didn’t try to stop her. What choice did I have? I couldn’t stand out here holding her hostage in the middle of the street, hoping that David would come out of the house first. I had no idea what this Lizzie would do.

Well, I guess I’ll find out soon enough.

Teleporting

I
t was fifteen or twenty minutes later before David came out of the house.

I was starting to get worried that Lizzie wasn’t going to tell David I was out here. Then I started worrying that she had told David’s parents, and I could be attacked at any minute. Soon as I saw David come out, all that stress melted away. Then I got a better look at David.

I hadn’t seen David in a month and boy had he changed. He was wearing all black like his sister, and, like his sister, it looked as if he received all his clothes from a giant. Unlike his sister, he didn’t have on a hoodie so I could see his bare arms. He had black fingernail polish on, with silver bracelets piled on each wrist. The only visible jewelry around his neck was the necklace I had given him. His hair had been dyed jet black, and the closer he got to me, the more I could see his face.

He was wearing makeup, black eye liner and some powder that made his face whiter than it already was. At least he wasn’t wearing any lipstick. He stopped in front of me, and held his hands out to his side.

Then he said. “So what do you think?”

I put my hand to my chin; I needed to check that my mouth hadn't fallen wide open. “Well… hold on give me a minute.”

David laughed nervously, “That bad?”

“No… I didn’t say that, but it is a lot to take in. A lot of change… yeah, that’s it, change. You know the more I look at you… I think I like it.”

David shook his head back and forth. “I told Lizzie you wouldn’t like it. All her friends dress like this and what can I say her friends are kind of my friends now.”

I smiled, and then gave him a big hug. “I think you’re cute no matter what. And, to tell you the truth, this look is just more shocking than anything. I better get used to it.”

We were face to face, and David looked really happy. “If you don’t like it…”

I put my finger to his lips. “Shhhh… don’t change for me.”

“So I should change for other people?”

He was right, so I said. “Didn’t think about it like that. So are you willing to change your look for me?”

“Yes. I’ll change right now if you like.”

I pushed a strand of loose hair from his face. “You didn’t ask me what I wanted you to change into.”

David laughed, and then said. “You’re right; what would you like my new look to be?”

“I command you to become… a Goth.”

David laughed again. “Done… no really what would you like?”

“No really, Goth. I will be dressing like a Goth queen myself. Long story, maybe we should take a walk,
before your parents come out, and I will explain on the way.”

David gave me a funny look. Then he said real serious. “Sorry but Warlocks such as myself… never walk.”

“What?”

David pulled me closer; he was squeezing me hard. Of course it felt great and
, if it wouldn’t have been such a mystery as to why he didn’t want to walk, my mind would be in other places right about now if we weren’t standing out in the middle of the street.

Then David said. “Hold on, and no matter what… don’t let go.”

With that, David closed his eyes and started to chant. “We are standing outside in the daylight, on the sidewalk, David.”

“Oh shit… we need t
o go somewhere else.” David let go of me and grabbed my hand, and, in a hurry, he half dragged me down the sidewalk. “Thank you. It’s bad to do magic where humans can see you.”

That’s what I was thinking. The other thing I was thinking was what in
the hell was he trying to do? It didn’t take long for David to find the entrance to an alley. We went down a little ways. We stepped in between two dumpsters. No one could see us unless they came right up to the side of the dumpster.

“How romantic
, David.”

“Alright smart ass… hold on.”

He embraced me again, and then started to say strange words; I didn’t know the meaning of them; they must be in a different language.

David chanted away, and, at first, I thought all he was doing was making me sleepy. Then it felt as if he were vibrating next to me. The vibrating wasn't a good feeling, and it was a little uncomfortable. Then the world started to spin; the sky and everything around me looked like some kind of oil painting that was being washed away. All the colors melted together and spun around and around.

“David, what are you doing? You're making me sick.”

I was really thinking about pushing Davi
d away. I don’t think I am up for his half ass spell, but, before I had made my move, the world fell away; it was like someone or something vacuumed up all the swirling colors. The vacuum left nothing but blackness.

Then the ground disappeared, and we were falling through nothing. We weren’t even falling fast. The air was wrong; everything was wrong. It felt like we may be falling sideways.

I squeezed David in fear.

The next few seconds were disorientating. First there was a cracking sound quickly followed by a loud popping sound. Then the world came back together much quicker than it had fallen apart.

It took me another second to realize I was standing on grass. Then I came to realize I was in a cemetery that I had never been to. The last thing I came to realize was David was struggling in my arms.

I let him go. He fell to the ground and was gasping for air, holding on to his side.

“Something go wrong with the spell? Are you all right?” I asked.

Of course he wasn’t going to answer; he could hardly breathe. He put one finger up telling me to give him a minute. I sat him gently next to a cemetery stone. Then I waited.

It took him a minute to gather himself. “That was so dumb… of me.” David took a few more deep breaths. “I should have warned you… I thought it would be kind of fun to surprise you. That was the first time you teleported, and I knew you would be surprised.”

“Yes, I was surprised. What went wrong with the spell? Why are you
having a hard time breathing?” I noticed how he was holding his side. “Did you hurt your ribs?”

“Broke one… I think.” David gave me a weak smile. “My fault… didn’t think that through. Must have surprised you a little bit more then I should have.”

Then it hit me. I broke his rib or ribs; I was the reason he was suffocating. When I got scared, I squeezed him harder. “Oh my God; I am so sorry.”

“Once again, my fault.”

“How bad do you think you’re hurt? Should we take you to the hospital or something?” I felt so terrible.

I felt like I just killed a litter of kittens. “I am a terrible friend… and a monster. How could I do this to you?”

David started to laugh but then grabbed his side in pain. “Stop it, really. I was saving this for an emergency. My sister Lizzie is really good at potions. She gave me a healing potion.” With that he pulled out a small vial made of some kind of wood.

He pulled the cork top off; then he drank it back really quickly. “That should do it. In about an hour I should be all healed up.”

“An hour, why so long?”

David started laugh again, then stopped because of all the pain. “How long do you think it would take me to heal from broken ribs without magic?”

I knew that kind of thing took months to heal. “Okay, I know… I just can’t stop feeling bad until you’re better.”

David gave me a dirty look. “Stop it… you’re making me laugh. That hurts… so stop feeling bad now. Not all of us can blow off some broken ribs and then heal in ten minutes.”

I didn’t want to make him laugh, and, since everything I said he was finding funny for some damn reason, I decided not to say anything. Instead, I sat next to him on his good side; I put my arm around him and slid him close to me.

There we half sat and lay in silence, and it was so nice to feel him next to me. It brought me great peace, but it couldn’t last forever. Alice’s words were still in my head, David and Michael deserve better. I have to let him go if I care about this boy. How can I drag him into my hell? Then say I love him.

After about twenty minutes passed, the potion showed signs of working. David stretched a few times and said that he was feeling better. Then, before I knew what happened... I was staring into his eyes.

His soft lips somehow found their way over to mine. I was going to have to stop this.

Next, I knew we were making out. I found my brain and pulled away. “Whoa cowboy; let’s take a break.” With that, I pulled away and stood up. I helped David get to his feet. “Let’s go for a walk. We have a lot to talk about.”

“And if you’re done kissing, I like to talk too.” Carrie said.

She was standing on the other side of the gravestone we had been sitting against. She had on yet another outfit that I had never seen before, and on her face was a super large cheesy smile.

I was embarrassed. “How long have you been there?”

“Sun went down like twenty minutes ago. Always a treat to repair to some place there is no TV, but wait… look at what’s on. It looks like one of those emergency shows; look how that boy is trying his hardest to give that girl mouth to mouth.” With that, she came over and gave me a big hug. “I was really hopin’ you two weren’t going to do that all night. I was tryin’ to give ya’ll some space, but now that you’re up for air. What’s been happenin’ girl?”

“I missed you two. First thing first; I would like to know a little bit more about this teleporting.” I asked because, let’s face it, it is the coolest damn thing.  Carrie laughed. “Now sweetie you know I do the askin’.  So, David, go on boy and answer the lady.”

David let out a small laugh. “Well you want to learn about teleporting do you? The first thing is you never take a scared vampire with you.”

After quickly explaining to Carrie, and boy did Carrie get a kick out of me breaking David’s ribs, David explained teleporting to us. Carrie asked more questions
than I did, but, in the end, I think I understood it. It was pretty obvious that Carrie still didn’t get it. It was a great spell, but it didn’t allow you to just go anywhere.

I thought about what David said, and tried to put the information together in my head. Magic users can create what they call a master stone; David wore his around one of the bracelets he was wearing. Then they could enchant other stones that they called key stones. Magic users magically attached the different key stones to the master stone. David showed me where his sister Kelly had buried one a long time ago. He explained that he dug that stone up and attached his master stone to this key stone.

He and Lizzie plus some of her friends like to hang out here. The cemetery itself is set far out of town; it was easier to teleport than to drive or walk.

It took a week to make one master stone, and attaching the key stone to the master stone was a long affair as well. David said it took him ten hours on his first try. Making a key stone was hard work as well, and it could take days to make one key stone. That is why magic users hid their key stones. Someone could steal a key stone and deactivate it or they could use it for themselves.

David had been working on teleporting for most of the month. His master stone was attached to three key stones, one at the cemetery, one in his bedroom, and one that he handed to me; he had set a little stone into a silver bracelet, and I loved it.

He could only teleport four times in one day. He told me this part with pride, because it showed he had strong magic. Of course, if he used his magic up on other spells, he couldn’t teleport as much, or at all. The more
powerful the magic user, the more powerful the magic item. David told me that his master stone couldn’t handle more than three locations.

Once he got stronger, he could try to make a more powerful master stone, and you can't carry more than one master stone on a single magic user. This magic stuff was confusing. Also the further you traveled the more power it took to teleport. I think I understood it, but then again I can’t teleport anyway.

I realized a small problem with this teleporting. "So, if I understand this right, when you go to teleport us back, we will not reappear in the alley. Instead, we will be in your bedroom."

"Yes…" David paused as he caught on to what I was saying. "My mom's home along with my sisters; I will have to sneak you past them."

"Don’t worry about it. I love running. I will make it back on my own."

I really did love running and I wanted to try my hand at flying again. I would like to try when Charlotte w
asn't around trying to throw me off cliffs.

We hung out for a few more hours catching up on all kinds of things. Well, a little bit more than catching up; there was a lot I hadn't known about David, like the fact that he loved baseball; he loved everything about it. He
loved to watch it, play it and collect baseball cards. He admitted that he wasn’t very good at baseball, but I quickly pointed out that now he could just scare the shit out of the other team.

I also explained Michael's plan for us going undercover at the school. David was quick to offer his help; I knew he would.

"I need to get home; I have to be in by eleven." David said this as he looked at his watch.