Wonder: A Soul Savers Collection of Holiday Short Stories & Recipes (5 page)

Chapter 2

“What the hell are you doing?” Jewels demanded when she came out of her bedroom the next morning wearing nothing more than an extra large t-shirt and maybe panties underneath, but the shirt was too long to know for sure. She didn’t really need to sleep—neither of them did—but sometimes a vampire needed some alone time in the privacy of her own room. Jewels’ dinner-date still slept soundly in her bed. “And what the hell are you wearing?”

Mindy sat on the couch with her knees pulled to her chest, wearing her old pajamas left over from a life she no longer had—pink fuzzy ones with yellow elephants on them. Her eyes didn’t leave the television screen where a four-story-tall Elmo floated by. “Watching the Macy’s parade in my jammies. Thanksgiving Day tradition.”

Jewels glanced at the TV, then glared at her roommate. “Are you daft? We have a feast to get ready for!”

“I told you. I’m making my own feast, and the turkey’s already in the oven. But even if I was going with you, it doesn’t start for twelve hours.”

Jewels huffed. “Yes, well, it’s the event of the year. At least, since I’ve been here, which has almost been a year. It’s going to be glorious, and I want to look my best.”

Mindy looked at her roommate and pretended to gag. “Are you actually going to wear a
dress
? Gads!”

“Hmph. I might.” She spun on her heel and returned to her bedroom.

Daylight was only a nuisance to them, although direct sun could be a little more problematic, but less so for Jewels, who was a couple of years older, in vampire age, than Mindy. Jewels showed no repercussions as she had another go with her dinner before kicking him out of her bed so she could get ready for the night’s gala. After the parade w
as over, Mindy moved a little slower than she did at night—but still faster than any Norman. By noon, she was dressed in dark blue jeans and a festive brown and red sweater, her turkey was sitting on the counter resting, and she’d finished whipping the potatoes, buttering the green beans, and now stirred the lumps out of the gravy. Her stuffing hadn’t turned out nearly as good as her mother’s, and she wasn’t sure she even wanted to eat it.

“I have to admit, it smells nice,” Jewels said. She still wore only a silk robe and walked on her heels, cotton woven between her freshly painted toes. She took a spoon out of the drawer and scooped out a bite of potatoes. She wrinkled her nose as she swallowed it. “Ugh. How can you eat this?”

Mindy took her own bite with petulance, sure Jewels was just being difficult. Teasing her again for wanting human food. But she frowned as she moved the creamy potatoes around her mouth with her tongue.

“Something’s not right,” she admitted. “It’s missing something.”

“Norman,” Jewels called to the guy who had left her bed and found his way to the couch to watch football. Why he was still there, Mindy didn’t know, especially when Jewels wouldn’t need him tonight—not with the feast the girl was so excited for.

“I’m sure he has a name,” Mindy hissed at her roommate.

“That
is
his name,” Jewels said, and she giggled. “He’s a Norman named Norman. And he’s
delicious
, isn’t he? I think I want to keep him.”

The guy—a rough and rugged type with tousled brown hair and a scar on his cheek—looked up at Jewels with complete adoration in his eyes. Mindy shook her head with amusement. How did Jewels do it? Her roommate always managed to get what—and whom—she wanted.

“Come here, baby,” Jewels crooned. “We need your help.”

Norman the Norman crossed the living room in three long strides and joined the vampires in the kitchen. Jewels fed him a spoonful of potatoes.

“What does it need?” Mindy asked.

“Salt?” Norman asked, unsure of his answer.

“Oh! Of course.” And Jewels lifted Norman’s arm to her mouth and with what looked like an intimate kiss, slashed her fangs across his wrist.

“Jewels!” Mindy screeched as the other vampire held Norman’s wrist over the bowl of potatoes and stained the white spuds red. “Salt. Not blood. You’ve ruined—”

“Oh, Minz, you
have
to taste these now.” Jewels’ eyes sparkled with delight as she licked the spoon while taking another from the drawer, filling it with potatoes and shoving it into Mindy’s mouth.

Mindy’s eyes sprang open. “Oh, my god. Those are the best potatoes ever!”

Mindy glanced over all of the bowls and platters spread out on the counter, and she knew exactly what all of her dishes lacked. Blood. Human blood was the missing ingredient that would make this the best Thanksgiving feast ever.

“Mind if I grab a plate before you do that?” Norman asked as Mindy grasped his arm in a tight grip and began making him bleed all over her Thanksgiving feast.

“Ugh. Hurry,” Mindy barked, her mouth watering even more at the spread of food before them. She couldn’t wait to dive into it, hoping she’d have the self-control to be able to savor all the goodness. The way her heart sped at the thought of such gluttony, she wasn’t sure. At least there was a lot of food here, enough to keep her happy for a while. Just grabbing a serving spoon took Norman too long, so Mindy moved in a blur as she dumped spoonfuls of this and that until food heaped in a mountain on his plate. She had it filled in less than three seconds. Then she grabbed his arm once again, slashed it open, and made him rain blood over her feast.

After several minutes, before she’d even made it to the platter of carved turkey, Norman’s body began to slump. Mindy’s brain suddenly clicked back on. Or maybe it was her humanity. She jumped away from the guy and gasped.

“What have I done?” she cried aloud. She shoved Norman’s plate at him and pushed him out of the kitchen. He stumbled for the couch, while she stared at her so-called traditional Thanksgiving feast. Tears filled her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Jewels said, confusion lacing her voice. “Isn’t this what you wanted?”

“No!” Mindy nearly shouted while her eyes never left the crimson-stained food. “I wanted a real Thanksgiving. Not one soaked in blood!”

Jewels laughed. “Ah, Minz. You’re a vampire now, remember? Maybe this needs to be your compromise.”

Mindy shook her head, then stomped to her bedroom. She threw herself on the bed. What was wrong with her? Jewels was right. A perfect compromise of a feast waited for her out in the kitchen. But that’s not what she really wanted. Not what she craved—not her heart or her soul. And she could no longer deny it.

What she really wanted—what her soul desired more than anything—was to be with her family on this favorite of all holidays. This little apartment shared with another vampire and a guy she didn’t know but had nearly drained to death was not where she wanted to be. Where she
needed
to be. She wanted to be at her Nana’s with everyone else, enjoying the company just as much as the food.

“I miss my family,” she cried to herself. “If only ...”

She didn’t even finish her sentence as a new thought occurred to her.

I still have a little bit of my humanity. Surely it will be okay.

Chapter 3

Mindy took her time as she chose a new outfit and dressed for the second time that day. Nana always served Thanksgiving dinner later than most people, much closer to a normal dinner time. And she expected everyone to look nice when they came to the table. She didn’t require dresses or suits or even sweater vests, thank God. But sweatpants, jeans, and t-shirts were not allowed. Mindy used to grumble at Nana’s dress code, but not now. Although she rarely wore skirts or dresses, she was happy to be pulling on an ankle-length, dark brown pencil skirt, the only skirt she owned besides her “vampy” ones that barely covered her ass. And those would be a definite no-no at Nana’s table—or anywhere in or near her house.

“That’s what you’re wearing?” Jewels asked when Mindy came out of her bedroom in her skirt, a cream-colored sweater, a scarf wound around her neck, and peasant boots. Jewels sounded appalled, although she still only wore a robe even as the church down the sheet chimed three o’clock in the afternoon.

Mindy looked down at herself and grinned. “It’s perfect.”

“Don’t you know by now the appropriate dress code for these kinds of things?”

Mindy cocked her head, confused for a moment, but realization dawned on her. Jewels thought she’d been dressing for the vampire feast.

“I’m still not going to the feast with you,” Mindy clarified.

Jewels’ brows pushed together as her eyes skimmed over Mindy’s form. “Then where are you going?”

Oh, shit. Mindy couldn’t exactly tell her. Jewels would do everything in her power to stop her, and if that didn’t work, she might even go to the head of the local nest. The Daemoni could not know Mindy’s new plans for the day.

“Um, well,” Mindy stammered as her mind raced. “I’m, uh, I’m just going to go for a walk around the city, take in the holiday a different way, and, I guess, find some poor Norman who needs some company tonight so he doesn’t kill himself.”

Jewels’ gaze flitted over to the couch, where her Norman lay snoring, his hand tucked into the waistband of his jeans. At least he’d been able to enjoy Mindy’s Thanksgiving dinner before she’d ruined it all.

“Just stay away from
my
Norman,” Jewels said, and she turned back for her bedroom. She looked back over her shoulder as Mindy made her way to the front door. “You still have the invitation, though, right? You can always change your mind.”

Mindy nodded, although she didn’t have the invitation with her. She wouldn’t be going to the feast. She still hung onto the need to make this day as normal and as traditional as possible.

Except how she traveled.

Nana—and the rest of her family—lived outside of the city, and Mindy no longer had a car. She could take the train and the bus, but she figured they ran on a holiday schedule, which meant she’d never make it to Nana’s in time. She didn’t have a choice. Once she reached the edge of the city, she slipped into the woods, hiked her skirt above her knees, and ran at vampire speed. She laughed to herself as she jumped the twenty-five feet to cross a stream.
This gives new meaning to over the river and through the woods
.

As she came closer to Nana’s, however, anxiety began to replace the hope she’d been feeling since making her decision. She hadn’t seen her family in nearly a year, since last New Year’s Eve. She’d left on a bad note, fighting with them about wanting to go into the city for the New Year’s celebration. They didn’t think it safe ... and they were right. However, they warned her about being mugged or drugged and raped. Not about being attacked by a vampire and turned. Of course, they wouldn’t know anything about such fantastical things that shouldn’t exist. But here she was. That was exactly what had happened to her, and she hadn’t been able to come home since. She couldn’t even call them. Her sire had said they needed to believe she was dead. She hoped they simply believed she’d run away—and that they’d accept her again, at least for one night. But what if they didn’t?

Still keeping to the woods, she passed the small town where she’d grown up, and slowed as she approached Nana’s farm a few miles outside of town. A line of cars filled the long driveway. Although still several hundred yards away, Mindy could already hear the laughter and chatter coming from inside the house. Everyone was there—Mindy’s mom and uncles and their families, her sisters and their boyfriends, a couple of babies. Her two older sisters, already married before Mindy left, had been talking about babies. Had they already had them?

Sorrow filled Mindy at this thought. She could be an aunt and hadn’t even known. And after tonight, she’d never see any of her nieces or nephews again. She’d never watch them grow up, go to their sports games and birthday parties, be a bad influence on them when they reached their teenage years. She’d be the aunt nobody ever talked about. The black sheep every family had. The one they’d pretend didn’t even exist. Because she really shouldn’t exist.

They needed to believe she was gone for their own safety, Mindy knew.
Just this last time and never again.
Although Mindy was glad she still held on to a tiny bit of her humanity, she’d never bring herself to go to the Amadis. She didn’t believe for one minute what they promised and couldn’t imagine the horrors they’d put her through, if they even allowed her to live. No, she’d always be Daemoni, even if it meant losing all of her humanity. So she only had this last chance to say a real good-bye to her family.

She snuck over to the house, still full of trepidation and near cowardice. The desire to leave almost overcame the need to see them. She peaked into the dining room window. Dusk had darkened the sky outside, but the interior of the house glowed a bright yellow. As expected, the long table was piled with china full of delectable food and beautiful centerpieces handmade by Nana herself using evergreen branches, pinecones, and berries gathered in the very woods from which Mindy had just emerged. Flames danced on top of candles, their glittering light reflecting in the gold trim of the plates and silverware already set out. Mindy’s eyes scanned the settings and filled with tears when she saw her own name.

Nana had set a place for her.

She would be welcomed. They may be angry and hurt that she’d disappeared without a trace, but tonight they would welcome her in. That’s how her family was. The questions, the demands, and all of the drama would be saved for tomorrow. And for her, that would never come.
I can really have this night with them
.

Mindy drew in a deep breath, taking in the late November air that was laced with the smells of a lifetime of memories—the scents of pine, fallen leaves, not-quite-winter-but-almost air, colognes and perfumes, Nana’s favorite cleaning detergent, and so many different foods. Memories of leaf fights with her sisters and cousins, drinking hot cocoa by a bonfire, playing hide-and-seek in the woods and dress-up in Nana’s attic, hugs from various relatives she saw only once or twice a year, laughter and good cheer, and, of course, those mouth-watering dishes. Her soul warmed. This was exactly what she needed.

She slowly climbed the three steps to Nana’s front porch as though they were five stories high and at the top was a temple of doom rather than the family she so longed to see. Her hand felt as though it pushed through molasses as she raised it to the doorknocker. The air in her lungs thickened and became trapped when the door flew open before she could even knock. This was her chance. She could do this. She would not kill them. She wouldn’t even smell them. She’d just enjoy the time she had and disappear once again.
I can do this
.

“Mindy!” Regina, her youngest sister, screeched. “Is it really you?”

And the next thing Mindy knew, she was yanked inside and surrounded by family. Arms enveloped her in hugs. Hands ran over her short, blond hair. An uncle—or maybe that was her cousin who’d grown up so much already—took her coat from her. The crowd moved as a blob into the dining room. Mindy could barely see over their heads to where Nana stood in the doorway to the kitchen. The crowd parted.

She and Nana stared at each other. Mother came up behind Nana, her jaw dropping. People whispered and giggled and someone finally gave Mindy a gentle push.

“Nana,” she whispered. “Mother?”

Both women stepped into the room and held their arms wide open. Mindy rushed into them. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she once again embraced—and was embraced by—the people she loved most in the world.

“Carl, get the turkey,” Nana ordered one of her sons without letting go of her long-lost granddaughter. “Where’s George? He should carve it.”

“Probably shooting up in the bathroom,” someone muttered under their breath. Mindy didn’t know who, and nobody else in the room heard it. She looked around for George, her eldest aunt’s latest husband, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Nana finally let go of Mindy, and everyone moved to their set places marked by place cards. Finally, George staggered into the room, his eyes bloodshot, and he certainly wasn’t dressed to Nana’s code. Rather, his button-down shirt was completely unbuttoned and untucked, a stained undershirt strained tightly against his chest, and his belt buckle hung open.

“George,” Nana quietly admonished.

Ignoring her, George grabbed the carving knife and eyed the beautiful turkey with its perfectly brown and crispy skin, juices dripping down its sides.

“Shut up, you old hag,” George drawled, and everyone gasped. Mindy’s spine went ramrod straight as anger filled her. George waved the knife in the air, vaguely pointing it at Nana. Then he palmed the turkey with his other bare hand and slammed the knife down. The tip of a finger rolled over the turkey’s breast and onto the plate. Blood spurted out of the end of George’s finger. “Now look what you made me do, stupid bitch.”

And without further thought—her brain completely clicked off again—Mindy soared across the table and landed on George. Rather than taking his hand in her mouth, though, she tore through his throat. She barely registered the screams in the distance, the hands on her shoulders trying to pull her off. Her focus remained on teaching this disrespectful asshole a lesson.

“Mindy, stop!” Nana bellowed, and she definitely heard that.

Mindy’s head snapped up, blood staining her lips and dripping from the corners of her mouth and the tips of her fangs that had fully let out. Her eyes glowed a bright red. And as her gaze skimmed along the shocked faces of her family, all she could see was the pulses in their throats.

“Oh, my god,” she choked, and she blurred away.